Base station device and communication resource management method

Abstract

In order for this base station device to efficiently allocate communication resources while stabilizing terminal device communication quality, the base station device provides communication resources to a plurality of terminal devices, and includes: a calculation unit configured to calculate a throughput ratio, which is the ratio of the current throughput to past throughput of one terminal device, when there is a change in the communication resources requested by the one terminal device; and a resource management unit configured to discard the communication resource request by the one terminal device if the throughput ratio of the one terminal device is a prescribed value or greater.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a base station device and a communication resource management method. [Background technology]

[0002] BACKGROUND ART In a wireless communication system, a technique is known for maximizing a user's communication throughput by optimizing both user scheduling and communication resource allocation (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Non-Patent Document 1] Xihan Chen, Yunlong Cai, An Liu, Lajos Hanzo, Life Fellow, "Joint User Scheduling and Resource Allocation for Millimeter Wave Systems Relying on Adaptive-Resolution ADCs2", IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 70, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2021 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] In the conventional technology, there is a problem that the communication resources allocated by the base station apparatus to the terminal apparatus vary over time, resulting in unstable communication quality for the terminal apparatus.

[0005] The embodiments of the present invention have been made in consideration of the above problems, and allow a base station apparatus to efficiently allocate communication resources while stabilizing the communication quality of a terminal apparatus. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to solve the above problem, a base station device according to an embodiment of the present invention is a base station device that provides communication resources to a plurality of terminal devices, and has: a calculation unit configured to calculate a throughput ratio, which is the ratio of the current throughput of a terminal device to the past throughput of the terminal device, when the communication resources requested by the terminal device change; and a resource management unit configured to discard a request for communication resources from the terminal device if the throughput ratio of the terminal device is equal to or greater than a predetermined value. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to the embodiment of the present invention, a base station device can efficiently allocate communication resources while stabilizing the communication quality of a terminal device. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system configuration of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining an overview of processing performed by a base station device according to the present embodiment. [Figure 3] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of a base station device according to the present embodiment. [Figure 4] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing performed by a base station device according to the present embodiment. [Figure 5] FIG. 1 is a diagram (1) for explaining an example of processing according to the present embodiment. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a diagram (2) for explaining an example of processing according to the present embodiment. [Figure 7] FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an example of processing according to the present embodiment. [Figure 8] FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an example of processing according to the present embodiment. [Figure 9] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a base station device according to the present embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0009] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The embodiment described below is merely an example, and the embodiment to which the present invention is applied is not limited to the following embodiment.

[0010] <System configuration> FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system configuration of a wireless communication system according to this embodiment. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the wireless communication system 1 includes a plurality of terminal devices (wireless stations) 20-1, 20-2, 20-3, and so on, and a base station device 10 that provides communication resources to the plurality of terminal devices 20-1, 20-2, 20-3, and so on. The plurality of terminal devices 20-1, 20-2, 20-3, and so on are capable of communicating with the base station device 10 via predetermined wireless communication 12, such as 5G (5th Generation) or LTE (Long Term Evolution), within a communication area 11 of the base station device 10. In the following description, the term "terminal device 20" will be used to refer to any of the plurality of terminal devices 20-1, 20-2, 20-3, and so on. The number of terminal devices 20 illustrated in FIG. 1 is merely an example, and the number of terminal devices 20 may be two or more.

[0011] (Overview of base station device processing) 2 is a diagram for explaining an overview of the processing of the base station device according to this embodiment. In FIG. 2, the average value of the throughput of past communications of the terminal device 20 is set to average throughput a. Also, it is assumed that the terminal device 20 requests a required throughput higher than the average throughput a from the base station device 10, and that the base station device 10 has spare communication resources.

[0012] In such a case, the conventional base station device receives a requested throughput from the terminal device 20 and allocates communication resources to the terminal device 20 according to the status of the communication resources. For example, when there are sufficient communication resources available, the conventional base station device allocates communication resources to the terminal device 20 so that the throughput of the terminal device 20 becomes the requested throughput.

[0013] However, this method has a problem in that the communication resources that the base station device 10 allocates to the terminal device 20 vary over time, and the communication quality of the terminal device 20 is not stable.

[0014] Therefore, for example, when the communication resources requested by the terminal device 20 change, the base station device 10 according to this embodiment calculates a throughput ratio S, which is the ratio of the current throughput to an average throughput a, which is the average value of the past communication throughputs of the terminal device 20. Furthermore, if the calculated throughput ratio S is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the base station device 10 discards the communication resource request from the terminal device 20.

[0015] Here, the average throughput a is the average value of the throughput per predetermined period T during the past communication time of the terminal device 20. Note that the base station device 10 may use other representative values ​​such as the median or the mode instead of the average value of the throughput.

[0016] The base station device 10 calculates the average throughput a by excluding time periods during which the throughput is equal to or less than the threshold b from the past communication time of the terminal device 20. Here, the threshold b is, for example, a preset value for determining whether the terminal device 20 is in communication. Also, the predetermined period T is set to an appropriate value in advance by the administrator who manages the wireless communication system 1 or the designer who designed the base station.

[0017] Preferably, when the terminal device 20 communicates with a destination server or the like, the base station device 10 identifies an application program (hereinafter referred to as an app) that performs the communication, and calculates an average throughput a when the app is being used. Furthermore, the base station device 10 calculates a throughput ratio S using the average throughput a corresponding to the app being executed by the terminal device 20.

[0018] As another example, when the terminal device 20 communicates with a destination server or the like, the base station device 10 may identify a communication type such as image distribution, music distribution, SNS (Social Networking Service), or webpage browsing, and calculate the average throughput a for each communication type. In this case, the base station device 10 calculates the throughput ratio S using the average throughput a corresponding to the communication type of the terminal device 20. Note that the base station device 10 may calculate the average throughput a and the throughput ratio S of past communications without identifying the application, communication type, or the like.

[0019] 2, the base station device 10 can stabilize the communication quality of the multiple terminal devices 20 based on the average throughput a and the throughput ratio S of past communications.

[0020] <Functional configuration> 3 is a diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of a base station device according to this embodiment. The base station device 10 has, for example, a computer configuration, and by executing a predetermined program on the computer, realizes a terminal request management unit 301, a calculation unit 302, a resource management unit 303, a storage unit 304, etc. Note that at least a part of the above functional configurations may be realized by hardware.

[0021] The terminal request management unit 301 receives terminal requests, such as requests for communication resources, from a plurality of terminal devices 20-1, 20-2, 20-3, .... The terminal request management unit 301 also notifies the calculation unit 302 of the terminal requests received from each terminal device 20. Furthermore, the terminal request management unit 301 tallies the received terminal requests and notifies the resource management unit 303 of the terminal request talliation result.

[0022] When the communication resources required by the terminal device 20 change, the calculation unit 302 executes a calculation process to calculate a throughput ratio, which is a ratio of the current throughput to the past throughput of the terminal device 20. For example, the calculation unit 302 calculates the average throughput of the past communication of the terminal device 20 as a mThe current throughput of the terminal device 20 is a n In this case, the throughput ratio S is calculated using the following formula (1). S= a n / a m …(Formula 1)

[0023] The calculation unit 302 stores the current throughput of each terminal device 20 in the storage unit 304, etc., and averages the past throughputs stored in the storage unit 304, etc. to calculate an average throughput a of past communications of each terminal device 20. m may be calculated.

[0024] The resource management unit 303 executes resource management processing to allocate communication resources to a plurality of terminal devices 20 based on the throughput ratio S calculated by the calculation unit 302. Furthermore, the resource management unit 303 according to this embodiment discards a request for communication resources from a terminal device 20 when the throughput ratio of the terminal device 20 is equal to or greater than a predetermined value. As a specific example, the resource management unit 303 discards a request for communication resources from a terminal device 20 when the throughput ratio of the terminal device 20 is equal to or greater than 1 (100%).

[0025] Preferably, if the throughput ratio of the terminal device 20 requesting the communication resources is not the smallest among the throughput ratios S of the multiple terminal devices 20, the resource management unit 303 discards (or ignores) the request for communication resources from that terminal device 20.

[0026] For example, the resource management unit 303 accepts a request for communication resources from a terminal device 20 if the throughput ratio S of the terminal device 20 is less than a predetermined value and the throughput ratio S of the terminal device 20 is the smallest among the throughput ratios S of multiple terminal devices 20.

[0027] When the resource management unit 303 receives a communication resource request from a terminal device 20, it allocates communication resources to the terminal device 20 in accordance with the overall communication resource status of the base station device 10. For example, if allocating communication resources to the terminal device 20 will improve the overall throughput ratio of the multiple terminal devices 20, the resource management unit 303 allocates the requested communication resources to the terminal device 20. On the other hand, if allocating communication resources to the terminal device 20 does not improve the overall throughput ratio of the multiple terminal devices 20, the resource management unit 303 may cancel (or reject) the allocation of communication resources to the terminal device 20.

[0028] The storage unit 304 is realized by, for example, a program executed by a processor included in the base station device 10, a memory, a storage device, etc., and is a storage means that can be commonly accessed by the terminal request management unit 301, the calculation unit 302, and the resource management unit 303. <Processing flow> 4 is a flowchart showing an example of processing by the base station device according to this embodiment. This processing shows an example of communication resource allocation processing that the base station device 10 executes when the communication resources requested by the terminal device 20 change. For example, the base station device 10 executes the communication resource allocation processing when the number of terminal devices connected to the base station device 10 changes, or when a request for more communication resources is received from a terminal device 20 currently communicating. Here, as an example, the following description will be given assuming that the base station device 10 has received a communication resource allocation request from a terminal device 20 currently communicating, requesting allocation of communication resources.

[0029] The calculation unit 302 of the base station device 10 calculates the average throughput a m is successively updated and stored in the storage unit 304 or the like.

[0030] In step S401, the calculation unit 302 of the base station device 10 calculates the current throughput an Calculate.

[0031] In step S402, the calculation unit 302 calculates the throughput ratio S of each terminal device 20 connected to the base station device 10 as follows: n / a m Calculate.

[0032] In step S403, the resource management unit 303 of the base station device 10 determines whether there are surplus communication resources in the entire base station device 10. For example, the resource management unit 303 may determine that there are surplus communication resources in the entire base station device 10 if there are communication resources remaining even after allocating the communication resources requested by each terminal device 20 to all terminal devices 20 connected to the base station device 10.

[0033] If there is no surplus in the overall communication resources of the base station device 10, the resource management unit 303 shifts the process to step S407. On the other hand, if there is surplus in the overall communication resources of the base station device 10, the resource management unit 303 shifts the process to step S404.

[0034] In step S404, the resource management unit 303 determines whether the throughput ratio S of the requesting terminal device 20 that transmitted the resource allocation request is 1 (100%) or greater. If the throughput ratio S of the requesting terminal device 20 is 1 or greater, the resource management unit 303 shifts the process to step S407. On the other hand, if the throughput ratio S of the requesting terminal device 20 is not 1 or greater, the resource management unit 303 shifts the process to step S405.

[0035] In step S405, the resource management unit 303 determines whether the throughput ratio S of the requesting terminal device 20 is the lowest among the throughput ratios S of the terminal devices 20 and whether the allocation of communication resources will improve the throughput ratio S of all the terminal devices 20. If the throughput ratio S of the requesting terminal device 20 is the lowest and the throughput ratio S of all the terminal devices 20 will improve, the resource management unit 303 moves the process to step S406. On the other hand, if the S of the requesting terminal device 20 is not the lowest or if the throughput ratio S of all the terminal devices 20 will not improve, the resource management unit 303 moves the process to step S407.

[0036] The process shown in step S405 is an example. For example, in step S405, the resource management unit 405 may determine only whether the throughput ratio S of the requesting terminal device 20 is the lowest among the throughput ratios S of the terminal devices 20.

[0037] In step S406, the resource management unit 303 accepts the communication resource allocation request from the requesting terminal device 20, and allocates the requested communication resource to the terminal device 20.

[0038] On the other hand, when proceeding to S407, the resource management unit 405 discards the communication resource allocation request of the requesting terminal device 20. Preferably, when the resource management unit 405 discards the communication resource allocation request of the requesting terminal device 20, it executes the process of step S408.

[0039] In step S408, the resource management unit 405 divides the communication resources of the base station device 10 into N parts (N is an integer greater than or equal to 2) and allocates 1 / N of the communication resources to the terminal device 20 having the lowest throughput ratio S among all the terminal devices 20, thereby improving the satisfaction level of all the terminal devices 20 on average.

[0040] For example, the resource management unit 405 divides the communication resources 500 of the base station device 10 into N portions as shown in FIG.

[0041] Furthermore, the resource management unit 405 obtains a throughput ratio S of a plurality of terminal devices 20 (for example, terminal devices 20-1 to 20-5) connected to the base station device 10, as shown in FIG.

[0042] Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 7, the resource management unit 405 allocates 1 / N of the communication resources to the terminal device 20 in order starting from the terminal device 20 with the lowest throughput ratio of the allocated communication resources.

[0043] For example, the resource management unit 405 first allocates 1 / N of the communication resources to all of the terminal devices 20-1 to 20-5. Furthermore, the resource management unit 405 calculates the ratio of the allocated communication resources to the throughput ratio S of each terminal device 20, for example, as shown in Fig. 7. Furthermore, the resource management unit 405 allocates 1 / N of the communication resources to the terminal device 20-3, which has the lowest calculated ratio, until the ratio of the communication resources to the throughput ratio S reaches 2%. In the same way, the resource management unit 405 sequentially allocates 1 / N of the communication resources to the terminal device 20, which has the lowest ratio of the communication resources to the throughput ratio S.

[0044] 8, when the resource management unit 405 has finished allocating communication resources, it can reduce the difference in the proportion of communication resources to the throughput ratio S of each terminal device 20. Therefore, the resource management unit 405 can improve the satisfaction level of all terminal devices 20 on average.

[0045] 5 to 9 are examples of the processing executed by the resource management unit 303 in step S408 of Fig. 4. For example, the resource management unit 303 may allocate a predetermined proportion of allocatable communication resources to the terminal device 20 having the lowest throughput ratio among the multiple terminal devices 20.

[0046] <Hardware configuration example> Fig. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a base station device according to this embodiment. The base station device 10 has, for example, the hardware configuration of a computer 900 as shown in Fig. 9. In the example of Fig. 9, the computer 900 has a processor 901, a memory 902, a storage device 903, a communication device 904, an input device 905, an output device 906, a bus B, etc.

[0047] The processor 901 is, for example, an arithmetic unit such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that executes predetermined programs to realize various functions. The memory 902 is a storage medium readable by the computer 900, and includes, for example, a RAM (Random Access Memory) and a ROM (Read Only Memory). The storage device 903 is a computer-readable storage medium, and may include, for example, a HDD (Hard Disk Drive), an SSD (Solid State Drive), various optical disks, and magneto-optical disks.

[0048] The communication device 904 includes one or more pieces of hardware (transmitting / receiving devices) for communicating with other devices via a wireless or wired network, and may include, for example, an antenna, a radio circuit, and a communication processor that executes baseband processing and communication control processing.

[0049] The input device 905 is an input device (for example, a keyboard, mouse, microphone, switch, button, sensor, etc.) that receives input from the outside. The output device 906 is an output device (for example, a display, speaker, LED lamp, etc.) that performs output to the outside. Note that the input device 905 and the output device 906 may be integrated into one device (for example, an input / output device such as a touch panel display).

[0050] The bus B is commonly connected to the above components and transmits, for example, address signals, data signals, and various control signals. The processor 901 is not limited to a CPU, and may be, for example, a DSP (Digital Signal Processor), a PLD (Programmable Logic Device), or an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array).

[0051] (supplement) In this embodiment, the base station device 10 and the terminal device 20 are not limited to being realized by dedicated devices, but may be realized by a general-purpose computer. In this case, a program for realizing this function may be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, and the program recorded on this recording medium may be read into a computer system and executed. Note that the term "computer system" here includes hardware such as an OS and peripheral devices.

[0052] Additionally, "computer-readable recording media" includes various storage devices such as portable media such as flexible disks, optical magnetic disks, ROMs, and CD-ROMs, as well as hard disks built into computer systems. Furthermore, "computer-readable recording media" may also include devices that dynamically store programs for a short period of time, such as communication lines when transmitting programs via networks such as the Internet or communication lines such as telephone lines, and devices that store programs for a certain period of time, such as volatile memory within computer systems that serve as servers or clients in such cases.

[0053] Furthermore, the above program may be one that realizes part of the above-mentioned functions, or may be one that can realize the above-mentioned functions in combination with a program already recorded in a computer system, or may be one that is realized using hardware such as a PLD (Programmable Logic Device) or FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array).

[0054] <Effects of the embodiment> According to the base station device 10 of this embodiment, communication resources can be efficiently allocated while stabilizing the communication quality of the terminal device 20.

[0055] For example, the base station device 10 can control each terminal device 20 to maintain the past communication state by calculating the ratio of the current communication state to the past communication state (throughput, etc.) of the terminal device 20.

[0056] <Summary of the embodiment> This specification discloses at least the base station apparatus and communication resource management method described in the following items. (Section 1) A base station device that provides communication resources to a plurality of terminal devices, a calculation unit configured to calculate a throughput ratio, which is a ratio of a current throughput to a past throughput of a terminal device, when a communication resource required by the terminal device changes; a resource management unit configured to discard a request for communication resources from the one terminal device when the throughput ratio of the one terminal device is equal to or greater than a predetermined value; A base station device having: (Section 2) 2. The base station device according to claim 1, wherein the resource management unit discards a request for communication resources from the one terminal device when the throughput ratio of the one terminal device is equal to or greater than 1. (Section 3) The base station device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the past throughput of the one terminal device is an average value of the throughput when the one terminal device previously executed the application currently being executed by the one terminal device. (Section 4) the calculation unit calculates the throughput ratios of the plurality of terminal devices; the resource management unit, when the throughput ratio of the one terminal device is not the smallest among the throughput ratios of the plurality of terminal devices, discards a request for communication resources from the one terminal device. 2. The base station device according to claim 1. (Section 5) The base station device described in claim 4, wherein the resource management unit accepts a request for the communication resources from the one terminal device when the throughput ratio of the one terminal device is less than the predetermined value and the throughput ratio of the one terminal device is the smallest among the throughput ratios of the multiple terminal devices. (Section 6) The base station device according to claim 4 or 5, wherein, when the resource management unit discards a request for communication resources from one of the terminal devices, it allocates a predetermined proportion of the communication resources provided by the base station device to a terminal device among the plurality of terminal devices having the smallest throughput ratio. (Section 7) A base station device that provides communication resources to a plurality of terminal devices, a calculation process for calculating a throughput ratio, which is a ratio of a current throughput to a past throughput of a terminal device, when a communication resource required by the terminal device changes; a resource management process for discarding a request for communication resources from the one terminal device when the throughput ratio of the one terminal device is equal to or greater than a predetermined value; A method for managing communication resources.

[0057] Although the present embodiment has been described above, the present invention is not limited to such a specific embodiment, and various modifications and changes are possible within the scope of the gist of the present invention described in the claims. [Explanation of symbols]

[0058] 1. Wireless communication systems 10 Base station equipment 20, 20-1 to 20-5 Terminal equipment 301 Terminal Request Management Unit 302 Calculation Unit 303 Resource Management Department 900 Computers

Claims

1. A base station device that provides communication resources to a plurality of terminal devices, a calculation unit configured to calculate a throughput ratio, which is a ratio of a current throughput to a past throughput of a terminal device, when a communication resource required by the terminal device changes; a resource management unit configured to discard a request for communication resources from the one terminal device when the throughput ratio of the one terminal device is equal to or greater than a predetermined value; A base station device having:

2. The base station apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the resource management unit discards a request for communication resources from the one terminal apparatus when the throughput ratio of the one terminal apparatus is equal to or greater than 1.

3. 3. The base station device according to claim 1, wherein the past throughput of the one terminal device is an average value of throughputs when the one terminal device previously executed an application currently being executed by the one terminal device.

4. the calculation unit calculates the throughput ratios of the plurality of terminal devices; the resource management unit, when the throughput ratio of the one terminal device is not the smallest among the throughput ratios of the plurality of terminal devices, discards a request for communication resources from the one terminal device. The base station device according to claim 1 .

5. 5. The base station device according to claim 4, wherein the resource management unit accepts a request for the communication resources from the one terminal device when the throughput ratio of the one terminal device is less than the predetermined value and the throughput ratio of the one terminal device is the smallest among the throughput ratios of the multiple terminal devices.

6. 6. The base station device according to claim 4, wherein the resource management unit, when discarding a request for communication resources from one of the terminal devices, allocates a predetermined proportion of the communication resources provided by the base station device to a terminal device among the plurality of terminal devices having the smallest throughput ratio.

7. A base station device that provides communication resources to a plurality of terminal devices, a calculation process for calculating a throughput ratio, which is a ratio of a current throughput to a past throughput of a terminal device, when a communication resource required by the terminal device changes; a resource management process for discarding a request for communication resources from the one terminal device when the throughput ratio of the one terminal device is equal to or greater than a predetermined value; A method for managing communication resources.

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