Communication control device and communication control method

Abstract

This invention provides a communication control device and a communication control method that improve the resource utilization efficiency of the entire network. [Solution] In the communication control system, the communication control device 1 includes a calculation unit 11 that calculates entropy, which is the expected value of the amount of information obtained when communication occurs by each of the multiple communication terminals, from the communication occurrence probability of each of the multiple communication terminals calculated based on the communication history of the multiple communication terminals 2, and a determination unit 12 that determines a code and code length according to the communication occurrence probability of each of the multiple communication terminals. The average code length according to the communication occurrence probability of the multiple communication terminals is set to the entropy as the lower limit. The communication control device further includes a first notification unit 14 that notifies each of the corresponding multiple communication terminals 2 of the determined code and code length, and a setting unit 13 that associates the code and code length determined for each of the multiple communication terminals with a wireless resource and generates allocation information.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a communication control device and a communication control method. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, with the increasing number of communication terminals, including IoT terminals, there has been a growing demand for technologies that efficiently encode communication data transmitted from each terminal and improve the overall resource utilization efficiency of the network. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a device that stores an initial state calculated from the bit sequence of an input data packet, performs arithmetic coding by applying the concept of self-information amount to the frequency of occurrence of each symbol, generates a code sequence and termination state with an optimal code length assigned, and transmits them.

[0003] The technology described in Patent Document 1 deals with the entropy of a single communication terminal and does not take into account the actual communication patterns of multiple communication terminals as a whole. Figure 7 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a conventional communication control system. As shown in Figure 7, in the conventional example, instead of individually and in detail evaluating the probability of occurrence of each communication event at multiple communication terminals 200, it was assumed that the probability of occurrence of communication events at all communication terminals 200 was the same, and the network design was performed based on the entropy of a single communication terminal 200. The actual communication entropy for each communication terminal 200, that is, the entropy which is the expected value of the amount of information of the communication event that occurs at that communication terminal 200, cannot be accurately reflected under the uniform assumption, and as a result the network design is redundant compared to the actual communication pattern.

[0004] In particular, when allocating wireless resources, the assumption that the probability of communication events occurring for multiple communication terminals is uniform was made, and wireless resources were allocated equally to each of the multiple communication terminals. This limited the overall improvement in the network's resource utilization efficiency. [Prior art documents] [Patent Documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Publication No. 2023-107751 [Overview of the project] [Problems that the invention aims to solve]

[0006] Conventional technologies allocated wireless resources without considering the probability of each communication event occurring at multiple communication terminals, thus limiting improvements in the overall resource utilization efficiency of the network.

[0007] This invention was made to solve the above-mentioned problems and aims to improve the resource utilization efficiency of the entire network. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] To solve the above-mentioned problems, the communication control device according to the present invention comprises: a calculation unit configured to calculate entropy, which is the expected value of the amount of information obtained when communication occurs by each of the plurality of communication terminals, from the communication occurrence probability of each of the plurality of communication terminals calculated based on the communication history of the plurality of communication terminals; a determination unit configured to determine a code and code length according to the communication occurrence probability of each of the plurality of communication terminals, wherein the average code length according to the communication occurrence probability of the plurality of communication terminals is set to the lower limit of the entropy; a first notification unit configured to notify each of the corresponding plurality of communication terminals of the determined code and code length; and a setting unit configured to associate the code and code length determined for each of the plurality of communication terminals with a wireless resource and generate allocation information.

[0009] Furthermore, the communication control device according to the present invention may also include a second notification unit configured to notify each of the plurality of communication terminals of the generated assignment information.

[0010] Furthermore, in the communication control device according to the present invention, the determination unit may determine the code length using Huffman coding.

[0011] Furthermore, the communication control device according to the present invention may also include an acquisition unit configured to acquire the communication history collected by the core network that controls the communication of the plurality of communication terminals.

[0012] To solve the above-mentioned problems, the communication control method according to the present invention comprises: a calculation step of determining entropy, which is the expected value of the amount of information obtained when communication occurs by each of the plurality of communication terminals, from the communication occurrence probability of each of the plurality of communication terminals calculated based on the communication history of the plurality of communication terminals; a determination step of determining a code and code length according to the communication occurrence probability of each of the plurality of communication terminals, wherein the average code length according to the communication occurrence probability of the plurality of communication terminals is set as the lower limit of the entropy; a first notification step of notifying each of the corresponding plurality of communication terminals of the determined code and code length; and a setting step of associating the code and code length determined for each of the plurality of communication terminals with a wireless resource and generating allocation information.

[0013] Furthermore, the communication control method according to the present invention may further include a second notification step of notifying each of the plurality of communication terminals of the generated assignment information.

[0014] Furthermore, in the communication control method according to the present invention, the determination step may determine the code length using Huffman coding.

[0015] Furthermore, the communication control method according to the present invention may further include an acquisition step of acquiring the communication history collected by the core network that controls the communication of the plurality of communication terminals. [Effects of the Invention]

[0016] According to the present invention, a code and a code length are determined according to the communication occurrence probability of each of a plurality of communication terminals, and allocation information is generated by associating the determined code and code length with radio resources. Therefore, the resource utilization efficiency of the entire network can be improved. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a communication control system including a communication control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an outline of a communication control system including the communication control apparatus according to the present embodiment. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an outline of a communication control system including the communication control apparatus according to the present embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an outline of a communication control system including the communication control apparatus according to the present embodiment. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the communication control apparatus according to the present embodiment. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram showing an outline of operations of the communication control system according to the present embodiment. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a communication control system according to a conventional example. MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0018] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7.

[0019] [Configuration of Communication Control System] First, an outline of a communication control system including the communication control apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

[0020] The communication control system according to this embodiment comprises a communication control device 1, a communication terminal 2, a base station 3, and a core network 4. The communication control system is, for example, installed in a 5G mobile communication network, but may also be installed in a network utilizing fixed lines. As shown in Figure 1, the communication control device 1 is connected to the core network 4 via a network NW such as a LAN, WAN, or the Internet.

[0021] Communication terminal 2 can be implemented as a mobile communication terminal such as a smartphone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a wearable device, or an industrial robot. Communication terminal 2 is equipped with a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module), and the SIM's contract profile contains identifier information such as the subscriber identification number (IMSI: International Mobile Subscriber Identity). Communication terminal 2 is uniquely identified by its IMSI.

[0022] The communication terminal 2 is also configured as an IoT device to which a terminal IP address is assigned that uniquely identifies the terminal. In this embodiment, there are N communication terminals 2 (where N is a positive integer of 2 or more). Each communication terminal 2 connects from the core network 4 to an external data network (not shown) via the base station 3 in which it is located.

[0023] Base station 3 is a wireless base station compatible with the 5G system and relays communication between communication terminals 2 located in the communication area and the core network 4. Base station 3 is connected to the core network 4 via a network such as a backhaul link. Base station 3 relays data from communication terminal 2 when the communication terminal 2 communicates using the time zone × frequency band resource block of the wireless resources allocated to the terminal, in accordance with the wireless resource allocation information notified by the communication control device 1.

[0024] Core network 4 centrally provides control, routing, management, and security for communications relayed by base station 3. Core network 4 includes a UPF (User Plane Function) 40 within the U-plane. Core network 4 also includes nodes within the C-plane, such as an AMF (Access and Mobility Management Function) and a UDM (Unified Data Management), which are not shown in the diagram. Functional nodes within the U-plane and C-plane of core network 4, other than UPF 40, are not shown in the diagram.

[0025] The UPF40 is a user plane function that processes packets between the base station 3 and a data network such as the internet. The UPF40 has a communication interface 40a for communicating with the communication control device 1. The UPF40 collects the communication history of the communication terminal 2 that performs traffic processing.

[0026] [Functional blocks of the communication control device] As shown in Figure 1, the communication control device 1 includes an acquisition unit 10, a calculation unit 11, a determination unit 12, a setting unit 13, a first notification unit 14, a second notification unit 15, and a storage unit 16.

[0027] The acquisition unit 10 acquires communication history collected by the core network 4 that controls the communication of multiple communication terminals 2. The acquisition unit 10 acquires the communication history of all communication terminals 2 whose traffic processing is performed on the UPF 40. The acquisition unit 10 can acquire communication history for an arbitrarily set period, such as one month. The communication history is a communication log that records communication events such as the sending and receiving of packets for each IMSI, and in particular, it is a communication log that records whether or not packets were sent or received.

[0028] The calculation unit 11 calculates the entropy, which is the expected value of the amount of information obtained when communication occurs by each of the multiple communication terminals 2, based on the communication history of each of the multiple communication terminals 2 calculated from the communication occurrence probability of each of the multiple communication terminals 2. The calculation unit 11 calculates the probability that communication occurred for each IMSI from the communication history for each IMSI for one month obtained by the acquisition unit 10. For example, if a communication history showing the number of communications performed in one month for N=100 communication terminals 2 has been collected, then it is assumed that communication terminal 2 of IMSI_1 performed 10 communications per month. In this case, the communication occurrence probability for IMSI_1 is calculated to be 10 / 100 = 0.1. The calculation unit 11 similarly calculates the communication occurrence probability for the other communication terminals 2.

[0029] The calculation unit 11 calculates the sum of the communication occurrence probabilities for each of the 100 devices and normalizes the sum so that it equals 1. For example, if the sum of the communication occurrence probabilities for the 100 communication terminals 2 is 2.5, the value of the communication occurrence probability for each communication terminal 2 is divided by 2.5. In this case, the communication occurrence probability for IMSI_1 is 0.1 / 2.5 = 0.04.

[0030] Based on Shannon's source coding theorem, the calculation unit 11 calculates the entropy H(S), which is the average information amount of the expected value of the information amount for all events, from the probability of each event occurring, using the following equation (1).

number

[0031] In equation (1) above, ρ i ρ represents the probability of communication occurring at each communication terminal 2, and M represents the total number of communication terminals 2. Furthermore, an event (communication event) is whether or not communication occurs at each communication terminal 2, and the calculation unit 11 calculates the communication occurrence probability ρ. i Based on this, the self-information of each event is lnρ i We calculate the self-information lnρ of these values. i The entropy H(S) is calculated by taking the probability-weighted average of the values.

[0032] The determination unit 12 is configured to determine the code and code length according to the communication occurrence probability of each of the multiple communication terminals 2. The determination unit 12 determines the code length such that the average code length according to the communication occurrence probability of the multiple communication terminals 2 is the lower limit of the entropy. Here, the average code length L bar, which is the probability-weighted average of the code lengths assigned to each event, is expressed by the following equation (2).

number

[0033] In equation (2) above, lρ i This represents the code length for each communication terminal 2 with respect to the communication occurrence probability. Furthermore, the average code length L bar in equation (2) above has the relationship with the entropy H(S) in equation (1) above, expressed by equation (3), according to Shannon's source coding theorem.

number

[0034] In equation (3) above, e is any e > 0. Equation (3) above shows that an event, which is a symbol of the information source, can be encoded with an average code length L bars that is very close to the entropy H(S). The decision unit 12 is obtained by constructing a decision tree using instantaneous codes such as Huffman codes based on equations (2) and (3) above, and assigns an integer code length corresponding to the probability of its communication occurrence to each communication terminal 2 that represents each event. An instantaneous code is a code that allows the delimiter of symbols from the information source to be instantly determined when the encoded sequence of symbols from the information source is transmitted in a time series.

[0035] Figure 2 shows the process by which the determination unit 12 determines the code and code length of an event according to the communication occurrence probability of each communication terminal 2. In Figure 2, the communication occurrence probability ρ of the four communication terminals 2, IMSI_1 to IMSI_4. i This shows the case. First, the determination unit 12 determines i) the probability of communication occurrence ρ iSort the values in descending order. Next, ii) associate 0 and 1 with a pair of events having a small communication occurrence probability. In FIG. 2, 0 and 1 are associated with IMSI_3 and IMSI_4. Thereafter, the determining unit 12 obtains iii) the sum of probabilities for the pair of events of IMSI_3 and IMSI_4 (0.1+0.2=0.3), and again obtains the communication occurrence probability ρ i sorts IMSI_1 to IMSI_4 in descending order of the values. The determining unit 12 repeats i) to iii), traces back the order of the associated 0s and 1s in reverse to obtain the sequence of 0s and 1s, and determines the sequence as the code for each event.

[0036] As shown in FIG. 2, for the event of whether communication occurs by each of IMSI_1 to IMSI_4, a code c of 101 for IMSI_1, 11 for IMSI_2, 100 for IMSI_3, and 0 for IMSI_4 is determined. Further, after the code c for each event is determined, the code length lρ i is determined to be 3 bits, 2 bits, 3 bits, and 1 bit, respectively. In this way, an event located deeper in the decision tree has a longer code length.

[0037] FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an instantaneous code that satisfies the relationship of the above formulas (2) and (3), which is an event code determined by the determining unit 12 according to the communication occurrence probability of each communication terminal 2. As shown in FIG. 3, when the time-series signal "011110100101" is transmitted, the boundary of each codeword of each communication terminal 2 (IMSI_1 to IMSI_4) can be immediately identified during reception. For example, when the codeword "0" of IMSI_4 is received, the delimiter of the codeword of IMSI_4 can be determined. In the present embodiment, the instantaneous code determined for each communication terminal 2 is used as identification information for uniquely identifying each communication terminal 2.

[0038] The configuration unit 13 generates allocation information by associating the determined code and code length for each of the multiple communication terminals 2 with the radio resources. Specifically, the configuration unit 13 assigns the code and code length of each communication terminal 2 to the resource blocks that constitute the radio resources. Figure 4 is a diagram illustrating the allocation information generated by the configuration unit 13. Figure 4 shows a two-dimensional plane in which the radio resources are defined on the time axis and the frequency axis. As shown in Figure 4, the radio resources are further defined by time zone t k and frequency band f k It is divided into resource blocks consisting of and . The sum of the code lengths L determined for multiple communication terminals 2 tot Set to =k, the wireless resource is a variable resource that allows for dynamic allocation.

[0039] The setting unit 13 sequentially assigns the code lengths determined for IMSI_1 to IMSI_n to resource blocks of the radio resource, generating allocation information that associates the time zone t and frequency band f with the IMSI code and code length of each communication terminal 2, i.e., the instantaneous code. In this way, the setting unit 13 specifies which resource blocks each communication terminal 2 can use in the radio resource shared by multiple communication terminals 2. The allocation information generated by the setting unit 13 is stored in the storage unit 16.

[0040] The first notification unit 14 notifies each of the corresponding communication terminals 2 of the code and code length determined by the determination unit 12. The first notification unit 14 also notifies each communication terminal 2 of the code with the determined code length from the base station 3 via the core network 4. The notification includes the IMSI of each communication terminal 2 and information on the code and code length. For example, a notification addressed to IMSI_1 includes "101" and 3 bits of information.

[0041] The second notification unit 15 notifies each of the multiple communication terminals 2 of the allocation information generated by the setting unit 13. The second notification unit 15 broadcasts the allocation information to all communication terminals 2 via the core network 4 and base station 3. The allocation information is information to which codes with code lengths determined by the determination unit 12 are associated with resource blocks of the radio resources shown in Figure 4, which are allocated to each communication terminal 2.

[0042] The memory unit 16 stores the assignment information generated by the setting unit 13. The memory unit 16 also stores the code length determined by the determination unit 12 in association with the IMSI of each communication terminal 2.

[0043] [Hardware configuration of the communication control unit] Next, an example of a hardware configuration for realizing the communication control device 1 having the functions described above will be explained using Figure 5.

[0044] As shown in Figure 5, the communication control device 1 can be implemented, for example, by a computer equipped with a processor 102, main memory 103, communication interface 104, auxiliary storage 105, and input / output I / O 106 connected via a bus 101, and a program to control these hardware resources. The communication control device 1 can also include a display device 107 connected via the bus 101.

[0045] Processor 102 is implemented using CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs, etc.

[0046] The main memory 103 contains pre-stored programs for the processor 102 to perform various controls and calculations. The processor 102 and the main memory 103 work together to realize the various functions of the communication control device 1, such as the acquisition unit 10, calculation unit 11, determination unit 12, setting unit 13, first notification unit 14, and second notification unit 15 shown in Figure 1.

[0047] The communication interface 104 is an interface circuit for networking the communication control device 1 with various external electronic devices.

[0048] The auxiliary storage device 105 consists of a read / write storage medium and a drive device for reading and writing various information such as programs and data to the storage medium. The auxiliary storage device 105 can use semiconductor memory such as a hard disk or flash memory as the storage medium.

[0049] The auxiliary storage device 105 has a program storage area for storing the communication control program executed by the communication control device 1. The auxiliary storage device 105 enables the storage unit 16 described in Figure 1. The auxiliary storage device 105 also has an area for storing the IMSI of the communication terminal 2 to be controlled. Furthermore, it may have, for example, a backup area for backing up the aforementioned data and programs.

[0050] The I / O106 is an input / output device that accepts signals from external devices and outputs signals to external devices.

[0051] The display device 107 is composed of an organic EL display, a liquid crystal display, and the like.

[0052] [Operation of the g control device] Next, the operation of the communication control device 1 having the above-described configuration will be explained with reference to the sequence diagram in Figure 6.

[0053] Figure 6 shows an overview of the operation sequence of a communication control system equipped with a communication control device 1. First, the UPF 40 collects the communication history of multiple communication terminals 2 to be controlled (step S1). Subsequently, the acquisition unit 10 of the communication control device 1 acquires the communication history from the UPF via the network NW (step S2). The acquisition unit 10 can acquire the communication history of each communication terminal 2 from the UPF 40 for a predetermined period, for example, one month.

[0054] Next, the calculation unit 11 uses equation (1) above to determine the entropy H(S), which is the average information amount of the expected value of the information amount for all events of the multiple communication terminals 2, from the communication occurrence probability, which is the probability of an event occurring related to whether or not communication occurs by each communication terminal 2 (step S3).

[0055] Next, the decision unit 12 determines the code and code length according to the communication occurrence probability of each of the multiple communication terminals 2 (step S4). Based on equations (2) and (3) above, the decision unit 12 constructs a decision tree using instantaneous codes such as Huffman codes to determine the code and code length for each event. Subsequently, the first notification unit 14 notifies the corresponding communication terminals 2 of the code and code length for each event determined in step S4 (step S5). Each communication terminal 2 stores the notified code and code length in its own memory.

[0056] Next, the setting unit 13 generates allocation information that associates the code and code length for each event determined in step S4 with the radio resources (step S6). The generated allocation information is stored in the storage unit 16. Subsequently, the second notification unit 15 notifies the multiple communication terminals 2 to be controlled of the allocation information generated in step S5 (step S7). The second notification unit 15 notifies all of the multiple communication terminals 2 of the allocation information by broadcast. When each communication terminal 2 receives the allocation information, it stores it in its own memory.

[0057] Subsequently, each communication terminal 2 identifies the resource block assigned to it by comparing the allocation information notified in step S7 with the code and code length of its own terminal notified in step S5 (step S8). Next, each communication terminal 2 communicates based on the allocation information of the resource block identified in step S8 (step S9). Each communication terminal 2 encodes the data within the assigned resource block, modulates it appropriately, and maps it. The mapped data is transmitted through the designated resource block. Each of the multiple communication terminals 2 under control performs steps S8 and S9.

[0058] As described above, the communication control device 1 according to this embodiment determines the code and code length according to the communication occurrence probability of each of the multiple communication terminals 2, and generates allocation information by associating the determined code and code length with wireless resources. Therefore, the resource utilization efficiency of the entire network can be improved. In particular, compared to conventional technology that treats the entropy based on the communication occurrence probability as uniform and allocates wireless resources equally to each communication terminal 2, the communication control device 1 according to this embodiment takes into account the different communication occurrence probabilities for each communication terminal 2, so the effect of compressing the number of frequency bands in the allocation of wireless resources is high.

[0059] In the embodiment described, the communication control system was described as a system compliant with the 5G standard, but the communication standard may be 3G, 4G / LTE, 6G, etc. Furthermore, the communication control system is not limited to a mobile communication network, but may also be a network using a fixed line as mentioned above. In this case, the system can be configured to collect communication history via a wireless router or wireless access point.

[0060] Furthermore, in the embodiment described, the case in which the determination unit 12 determines the code length using Huffman coding was explained. However, other coding methods such as Shannon-Fano coding or arithmetic coding can be used as methods for determining the code length.

[0061] Although embodiments of the communication control device and communication control method of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various modifications that a person skilled in the art can envision are possible within the scope of the invention described in the claims. [Explanation of symbols]

[0062] 1...Communication control device, 10...Acquisition unit, 11...Calculation unit, 12...Decision unit, 13...Setting unit, 14...First notification unit, 15...Second notification unit, 16...Storage unit, 2...Communication terminal, 3...Base station, 4...Core network, 40...UPF, 101...Bus, 102...Processor, 103...Main memory, 40a, 104...Communication interface, 105...Auxiliary storage device, 106...Input / output I / O, 107...Display device, NW...Network.

Claims

1. A calculation unit configured to determine the entropy, which is the expected value of the amount of information obtained when communication occurs by each of the multiple communication terminals, from the communication occurrence probability of each of the multiple communication terminals calculated based on the communication history of the multiple communication terminals, A determination unit configured to determine a code and code length according to the communication occurrence probability of each of the plurality of communication terminals, wherein the average code length of the code lengths according to the communication occurrence probability of the plurality of communication terminals is set to the lower limit of the entropy, A first notification unit configured to notify each of the corresponding plurality of communication terminals of the determined code and code length, A setting unit configured to associate the code and code length determined for each of the plurality of communication terminals with a wireless resource and generate allocation information. A communication control device equipped with the following features.

2. In the communication control device described in claim 1, Furthermore, the system includes a second notification unit configured to notify each of the multiple communication terminals of the generated assignment information. A communication control device characterized by the following:

3. In the communication control device described in claim 1, The determination unit determines the code length using Huffman coding. A communication control device characterized by the following:

4. In the communication control device described in claim 1, Furthermore, the system includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire the communication history collected by the core network that controls the communication of the plurality of communication terminals. A communication control device characterized by the following features.

5. A calculation step to determine the entropy, which is the expected value of the amount of information obtained when communication occurs by each of the multiple communication terminals, from the communication occurrence probability of each of the multiple communication terminals calculated based on the communication history of the multiple communication terminals, A determination step for determining the code and code length according to the communication occurrence probability of each of the plurality of communication terminals, wherein the average code length according to the communication occurrence probability of the plurality of communication terminals is set as the lower limit of the entropy, A first notification step of notifying each of the corresponding plurality of communication terminals of the determined code and code length, A setting step to associate the code and code length determined for each of the plurality of communication terminals with a wireless resource and generate allocation information. A communication control method comprising the following:

6. In the communication control method described in claim 5, Furthermore, the system includes a second notification step of notifying each of the multiple communication terminals of the generated assignment information. A communication control method characterized by the following:

7. In the communication control method described in claim 5, The aforementioned decision step determines the code length using Huffman coding. A communication control method characterized by the following:

8. In the communication control method described in claim 5, Furthermore, the system includes an acquisition step to acquire the communication history collected by the core network that controls the communication of the plurality of communication terminals. A communication control method characterized by the following:

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