Cell selection method

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a cell selection method, which comprises the following steps of: when performing cell selection operation on a plurality of reference base stations, obtaining signal indexes and network congestion indexes corresponding to the reference base stations; and selecting a service base station from the plurality of reference base stations based on the signal index and the network congestion index corresponding to each reference base station. According to the invention, the terminal device can select the service cell with high signal intensity and good signal quality, and the terminal device can experience good service quality.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a wireless communication technology, and in particular to a cell selection method. Background Art

[0002] After turning on, a terminal device (such as a mobile phone) will try to connect to the network. During the connection process, it will first measure the signal information of nearby detectable cells (or base stations) and select the more suitable cell for connection. This process is called cell selection.

[0003] After connecting to the network, the terminal device will continue to observe the network status to perform the cell selection operation again in a timely manner. This process is called cell reselection.

[0004] According to the contents of relevant communication standards (e.g., 3GPP TS 38.304), it can be known that during the process of cell selection or cell reselection, the terminal device selects a suitable cell based on signal strength (e.g., the SrxLev parameter defined in 3GPP TS 38.304) and signal quality (e.g., the Squal parameter defined in 3GPP TS 38.304), as well as frequency priorities or radio access technology priorities (RAT_priorities), and then connects.

[0005] However, although this selection method allows the terminal device to select a serving cell with high signal strength and good signal quality, the terminal device may not necessarily experience good service quality.

[0006] For example, when a cell is congested due to some reasons (such as serving too many terminal devices), the terminal devices served by the cell may experience lower data transmission speed under the condition of high signal strength and good signal quality. Summary of the invention

[0007] In view of this, the present invention provides a cell selection method, which can be used to solve the above technical problems.

[0008] An embodiment of the present invention provides a cell selection method suitable for a terminal device, including: when performing a cell selection operation on multiple reference base stations, obtaining a signal indicator and a network congestion indicator corresponding to each reference base station; and selecting a service base station from the multiple reference base stations based on the signal indicator and network congestion indicator corresponding to each reference base station.

[0009] An embodiment of the present invention provides a cell selection method suitable for a base station, comprising: providing a signal indicator and a network congestion indicator corresponding to the base station to a terminal device, wherein the signal indicator and the network congestion indicator corresponding to the base station allow the terminal device to perform a cell selection operation. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0011] Figure 2 is a flow chart of a cell selection method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0012]

Description of the accompanying drawings

[0013] 10: Communication system;

[0014] 11: terminal device;

[0015] 112,122: communication circuit;

[0016] 114,124:processor;

[0017] 12: Base station;

[0018] S212~S214, S222: steps. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] Please refer to Figure 1 , which is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 1 In the embodiment, the communication system 10 includes a terminal device 11 and a base station 12 .

[0020] In different embodiments, the terminal device 11 may represent a user equipment (UE), a mobile station, an advanced mobile station (AMS), or a wireless terminal communication device. In addition, the terminal device 11 may be a mobile phone, a smart phone, a personal computer (PC), a notebook PC, a netbook PC, a tablet PC, a television, a set-top-box, a wireless data modem, a game console, a portable device, or a portable multimedia player.

[0021] In different embodiments, the base station 12 is, for example, a wireless network access point, an enhanced node B (eNodeB), an advanced base station (ABS), a macro-cell base station, a pico-cell base station or a remote radio head (RRH), a gNodeB (gNB), etc., but is not limited thereto.

[0022] like Figure 1 As shown, the terminal device 11 includes a communication circuit 112 and a processor 114. In one embodiment, the communication circuit 12 can provide a wireless access function for the terminal device 11 by at least including a transmitter circuit, a receiver circuit, an analog-to-digital (A / D) converter, a digital-to-analog (D / A) converter, a low noise amplifier (LNA), a mixer, a filter, a matching circuit, a transmission line, a power amplifier (PA), one or more antenna units and a local storage medium.

[0023] In some embodiments, the communication circuit 112 may be a component such as a protocol unit, which may support various wireless network communication protocols, such as WiFi HaLow, etc. In other embodiments, the communication circuit 112 may also support signal transmission of a global system for mobile communication (GSM), a personal handy-phone system (PHS), a code division multiple access (CDMA) system, a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) system, or a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), but is not limited thereto.

[0024] In addition, the processor 114 is coupled to the communication circuit 112 and can be a general-purpose processor, a special-purpose processor, a traditional processor, a digital signal processor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors combined with a digital signal processor core, a controller, a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), any other type of integrated circuit, a state machine, an advanced reduced instruction set machine (ARM)-based processor, and the like.

[0025] like Figure 1 As shown, the base station 12 includes a communication circuit 122 and a processor 124 , and possible implementations thereof may refer to the communication circuit 112 and the processor 114 , which will not be described in detail herein.

[0026] In the embodiment of the present invention, the terminal device 11 and the base station 12 can work together to implement the cell selection method proposed by the present invention, the details of which are described as follows.

[0027] Please refer to Figure 2 , which is a flow chart of a cell selection method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The method of this embodiment can be Figure 1 The terminal device 11 and the base station 12 are executed as follows: Figure 1 Description of components shown Figure 2 Details of each step.

[0028] In step S222 , the base station 12 provides a signal indicator and a network congestion indicator corresponding to the base station 12 to the terminal device 11 .

[0029] In one embodiment, the signal indicator corresponding to the base station 12 includes signal strength (e.g., SrxLev parameter) and signal quality (e.g., Squal parameter). In addition, the network congestion indicator corresponding to the base station 12 may include a user network throughput determined by the base station 12. In one embodiment, the user network throughput of the base station 12 is, for example, a user-perceived IP throughput determined by the base station 12, but is not limited thereto.

[0030] In different embodiments, the base station 12 may use the statistical value (eg, average value) of the user perceived network throughput of all terminal devices served by the base station 12 as the corresponding user network throughput, but is not limited thereto.

[0031] In the first embodiment, the user network throughput of the base station 12 is, for example, the current user network throughput determined by the base station 12. For example, assuming that the user network throughput determined by the base station 12 at the tth time point (t is a time index) is a certain value, the base station 12 may use this value as the current user network throughput (in T t denoted), and T t Provided to the terminal device 11.

[0032] In the second embodiment, the user network throughput of the base station 12 is, for example, the future user network throughput predicted by the base station 12. For example, assuming that the current time point is the t-th time point, the future user network throughput is, for example, the user network throughput corresponding to a later time point. For ease of explanation, it is assumed below that the future user network throughput corresponds to the t+1-th time point, but this is only used as an example and is not intended to limit possible implementations of the present invention.

[0033] In the second embodiment, the base station 12 may feed at least one historical user network throughput into a prediction model (denoted by M), wherein the prediction model M may predict the future user network throughput (denoted by T) according to the historical user network throughput. t ' +1 express).

[0034] In a first variation of the second embodiment, the prediction model M may include a long short-term memory model. In this case, the future user network throughput T t ' +1 Can be characterized as:

[0035] T t ' +1 =f λ (T t-L ,…,T t ) (1)

[0036] Where T t-L ,…,T t is the historical user network throughput, L is the time window, and f λ (·) is the long short-term memory model.

[0037] From formula (1), it can be seen that the prediction model M can be used to calculate the network throughput of L+1 historical users (i.e., T t-L ,…,T t ) and predict the corresponding network throughput as the future user network throughput T t ' +1 , but is not limited to this.

[0038] In a second variation of the second embodiment, the prediction model M may include a regression model. In this case, the future user network throughput Can be characterized as:

[0039]

[0040] where c t is the random error value, ε t is a constant, is the regression coefficient. In one embodiment, c t For example, it is a Gaussian random variable with a mean value of 0 and a standard deviation of σ, but it is not limited to this.

[0041] Accordingly, in step S212 , when performing a cell selection operation on a plurality of reference base stations (including the base station 12 , for example), the terminal device 11 obtains a signal indicator and a network congestion indicator corresponding to each reference base station.

[0042] In an embodiment of the present invention, the reference base stations are, for example, base stations for managing the cell to which the terminal device 11 currently belongs (for example, the current serving base station of the terminal device 11), or base stations for managing neighboring cells of the terminal device 11, but are not limited thereto.

[0043] In this case, the signal indicators corresponding to each reference base station include signal strength (e.g., SrxLev parameter) and signal quality (e.g., Squal parameter), and the network congestion indicators corresponding to each reference base station include the user network throughput determined by each reference base station (e.g., the current user network throughput T in the first embodiment). t and / or the future user network throughput T in the second embodiment t ' +1 ).

[0044] In one embodiment, the terminal device 11 in an idle state (e.g., RRC_IDLE state) or an inactive state (e.g., RRC_INACTIVE state) can obtain information such as intra-frequency cells, inter-frequency cells, and inter-RAT cells from the current serving base station and perform a cell selection operation accordingly.

[0045] In the embodiments of the present invention, the so-called cell selection operation may be broadly understood to also include a cell reselection operation, but is not limited thereto.

[0046] Next, in step S214 , the terminal device 11 selects a serving base station from the reference base stations based on the signal indicators and network congestion indicators corresponding to the reference base stations.

[0047] In one embodiment, the terminal device 11 may find at least one candidate base station from the reference base stations based on the signal indicators corresponding to each reference base station, wherein the signal indicators corresponding to each candidate base station satisfy a preset condition.

[0048] In one embodiment, for one of the reference base stations (hereinafter referred to as the first reference base station), the terminal device 11 can determine whether the signal strength corresponding to the first reference base station is not lower than the signal strength threshold value (for example, 0dB) and whether the signal quality corresponding to the first reference base station is not lower than the signal quality threshold value (for example, 0dB) to determine whether the first reference base station belongs to the above-mentioned candidate base station.

[0049] In response to determining that the signal strength corresponding to the first reference base station is not lower than a signal strength threshold and the signal quality corresponding to the first reference base station is not lower than a signal quality threshold, the terminal device 11 may determine that the signal indicator corresponding to the first reference base station meets the preset condition. On the other hand, in response to determining that the signal strength corresponding to the first reference base station is lower than the signal strength threshold or the signal quality corresponding to the first reference base station is lower than the signal quality threshold, the terminal device 11 may determine that the signal indicator corresponding to the first reference base station does not meet the preset condition, but is not limited thereto.

[0050] In short, the terminal device 11 can find one or more reference devices whose signal strength is not less than the signal strength threshold and whose signal quality is not less than the signal quality threshold as the candidate base stations, but is not limited thereto.

[0051] Afterwards, the terminal device 11 may select a serving base station from the candidate base stations based on the network congestion indicators corresponding to the candidate base stations.

[0052] In one embodiment, the terminal device 11 may select one or more of the candidate base stations with the highest user network throughput as the serving base station, but is not limited thereto. For example, assuming that the base station 12 not only meets the above-mentioned preset conditions but is also the candidate base station with the highest user network throughput, the terminal device 11 may select the base station 12 as the serving base station, but is not limited thereto.

[0053] Afterwards, the terminal device 11 may accordingly perform a subsequent connection procedure (eg, a random access procedure) on the selected service base station (eg, the base station 12) to connect to the selected service base station, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

[0054] In summary, the method proposed by the present invention allows the terminal device to select a base station with better signal strength, signal quality and network congestion index (such as the highest user network throughput) as a service base station, thereby avoiding selecting a base station with more congestion as a service base station. In this way, the terminal device can experience a better data transmission speed after performing the cell selection operation, thereby improving the user experience.

[0055] Although the present invention has been disclosed as above by way of embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Any person having ordinary knowledge in the technical field may make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present invention shall be determined by the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A cell selection method, characterized in that: Suitable for a terminal device, comprising: When performing a cell selection operation on a plurality of reference base stations, obtaining a signal indicator and a network congestion indicator corresponding to each of the reference base stations; and A serving base station is selected from the plurality of reference base stations based on the signal indicator and the network congestion indicator corresponding to each of the reference base stations.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The signal indicator corresponding to each reference base station includes a signal strength and a signal quality, and the network congestion indicator corresponding to each reference base station includes a user network throughput determined by each reference base station.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The user network throughput is a current user network throughput determined by the first reference base station.

4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The user network throughput is a future user network throughput predicted by the first reference base station.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The step of selecting the serving base station from the plurality of reference base stations based on the signal indicator and the network congestion indicator corresponding to each reference base station comprises: Find at least one candidate base station from the plurality of reference base stations based on the signal indicator corresponding to each reference base station, wherein the signal indicator corresponding to each candidate base station satisfies a preset condition; The serving base station is selected from at least one candidate base station based on the network congestion indicator corresponding to each candidate base station.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that The network congestion indicator corresponding to each of the reference base stations includes a user network throughput determined by each of the reference base stations, and the serving base station has a highest user network throughput among the at least one candidate base station.

7. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that The plurality of reference base stations include a first reference base station, the signal indicator corresponding to the first reference base station includes a signal strength and a signal quality, and the method further includes: In response to determining that the signal strength corresponding to the first reference base station is not lower than a signal strength threshold and the signal quality corresponding to the first reference base station is not lower than a signal quality threshold, determining that the signal indicator corresponding to the first reference base station satisfies the preset condition; and In response to determining that the signal strength corresponding to the first reference base station is lower than the signal strength threshold or the signal quality corresponding to the first reference base station is lower than the signal quality threshold, it is determined that the signal indicator corresponding to the first reference base station does not meet the preset condition.

8. A cell selection method, characterized in that: Suitable for a base station, comprising: A signal indicator and a network congestion indicator corresponding to the base station are provided to a terminal device, wherein the signal indicator and the network congestion indicator corresponding to the base station allow the terminal device to perform a cell selection operation.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The signal indicator corresponding to the base station includes a signal strength and a signal quality, and the network congestion indicator corresponding to the base station includes a user network throughput determined by the base station.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that The user network throughput is a current user network throughput determined by the base station.

11. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that The user network throughput is a future user network throughput predicted by the base station.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that Also includes: At least one historical user network throughput is fed into a prediction model, wherein the prediction model predicts the future user network throughput in response to the at least one historical user network throughput.

13. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that The prediction model includes a long short-term memory model, and the future user network throughput is characterized as: T t ′ +1 =f λ (T t-L ,…,T t ), Where T t-L ,…,T t is the at least one historical user network throughput, L is a time window, t is a time index, and f λ (·) is the long short-term memory model.

14. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that The prediction model includes a regression model, and the future user network throughput is characterized as: where c t is the random error value, ε t is a constant, is the regression coefficient, T t-L ,…,T t is the at least one historical user network throughput, L is a time window, and t is a time index.

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