Site location design support device, site location design support method, and program

Abstract

This station installation design assistance device has: a calculating unit that is configured to calculate, for one or more locations, the reception power from each of a plurality of candidates pertaining to the installation position of a base station; and a determining unit that is configured to determine the installation position of a base station from among the candidates for which the reception power at each of the locations is no more than a threshold. As a result, it is possible to provide efficient station installation design while suppressing radio wave interference.

Description

Technical Field

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[0001] The present invention relates to a base station layout design support device, a base station layout design support method, and a program.

Background Art

[0002] For constructing a coverage area of a wireless communication system, a base station layout design for determining a base station location (installation location and antenna direction) is performed. In the base station layout design, after selecting a base station location, a simulation of the service area may be performed, and methods such as experimental estimation (Non-Patent Document 1) and the ray tracing method (Non-Patent Document 2) are used.

Prior Art Documents

Non-Patent Documents

[0004] Some private wireless systems, such as local 5G, are only permitted for use if they meet certain conditions to keep radio interference outside the usage area below a certain standard (for example, Non-Patent Document 3). Therefore, when designing the placement of such wireless systems in relation to a usage area, it is necessary to build a service area for the usage area while keeping radio interference outside the usage area below a certain standard. However, conventional techniques that select base station placements and then evaluate whether the service area meets the required quality make it difficult to design placements that take these conditions into account.

[0005] Therefore, in order to keep radio interference outside the service area below a certain standard, securing a certain distance from the base station severely restricts its placement, which can result in inefficient base station design or make it impossible to secure a sufficient service area.

[0006] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and aims to enable efficient station placement design while suppressing radio wave interference. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] To address the above issues, the base station design support device includes a calculation unit configured to calculate the received power from each of a plurality of candidate locations for the placement of a base station for one or more points, and a determination unit configured to determine the placement of a base station from among the candidates whose received power at all points is below a threshold. [Effects of the Invention]

[0008] This enables efficient station placement design while suppressing radio interference. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0009] [Figure 1] This figure shows an example of the hardware configuration of the site location design support device 10 in an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] This figure shows an example of the functional configuration of the site location design support device 10 in an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3] This is a flowchart illustrating an example of the processing procedure performed by the site location design support device 10. [Figure 4] This is a diagram to explain the information about the target area. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0010] Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Figure 1 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a site location design support device 10 in an embodiment of the present invention. The site location design support device 10 in Figure 1 includes a drive device 100, an auxiliary storage device 102, a memory device 103, a processor 104, and an interface device 105, etc., which are all interconnected by bus B.

[0011] The program that enables processing in the site design support device 10 is provided on a recording medium 101 such as a CD-ROM. When the recording medium 101 containing the program is set in the drive device 100, the program is installed from the recording medium 101 to the auxiliary storage device 102 via the drive device 100. However, the program does not necessarily have to be installed from the recording medium 101; it may also be downloaded from another computer via a network. The auxiliary storage device 102 stores the installed program as well as necessary files and data.

[0012] The memory device 103 reads and stores a program from the auxiliary storage device 102 when a program startup command is received. The processor 104 is either a CPU or a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), or both a CPU and a GPU, and executes functions related to the site design support device 10 according to the program stored in the memory device 103. The interface device 105 is used as an interface for connecting to a network.

[0013] Figure 2 shows an example of the functional configuration of the site location design support device 10 in an embodiment of the present invention. In Figure 2, the site location design support device 10 includes a received power calculation unit 11, a candidate exclusion unit 12, and a site location design unit 13. Each of these units is realized by processing that one or more programs installed in the site location design support device 10 cause the processor 104 to execute.

[0014] The following describes the processing procedures performed by the site location design support device 10. Figure 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the processing procedures performed by the site location design support device 10.

[0015] In step S101, the received power calculation unit 11 calculates the received power from multiple candidate radio stations for one or more points (hereinafter referred to as "interference evaluation points") located outside the site of the geographical area (hereinafter referred to as "target area") where the use of a radio system such as a private radio system is planned.

[0016] A candidate radio station refers to a candidate for the placement location of one or more base stations that constitute the target radio system. An interference evaluation point is a point included in an area where it is required to suppress radio wave interference by the target radio system to below a certain standard, and is set in advance. Information indicating multiple candidate radio stations and one or more interference evaluation points is included in the information regarding the target area (hereinafter referred to as "target area information") and is stored in advance in the auxiliary storage device 102, etc. The target area environmental information also includes information indicating the environment of the target area, such as the size and shape of the target area, the extent (location) and materials of structures, etc.

[0017] FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining target area information. In FIG. 4, for the sake of convenience, the target area A1 has a rectangular shape, and an example is shown in which 10 radio station candidates bc are set within the space of the target area A1. In FIG. 4, since a situation where a certain event venue is the target area is assumed, the shape of the venue is represented three-dimensionally. FIG. 4 also shows an example in which 6 interference evaluation points ip are set outside the site of the target area. Also, the arrangement positions and shapes of 6 structures st are revealed. Furthermore, 15 evaluation points are set. Note that the position information of the radio station candidates bc, the interference evaluation points ip, the structures st, and the evaluation points ep may be three-dimensional coordinate information or two-dimensional coordinate information.

[0018] In FIG. 4, one radio station candidate bc and 6 interference evaluation points ip are connected by a dashed arrow. This indicates that the received power at the 6 interference evaluation points ip is calculated for the radio waves from the radio station candidate bc. Such calculation of the received power is performed for all 10 radio station candidates bc. Therefore, 10 received powers are calculated for each interference evaluation point ip. The calculation of the received power can be performed using known techniques. For example, the received power may be calculated taking into account whether there is a structure st between the interference evaluation point ip and the radio station candidate bc.

[0019] The position of the interference evaluation point ip may be selected from a range where radio wave interference may occur or a range where it is required to suppress radio wave interference within a certain standard, etc.

[0020] Note that the evaluation point ep refers to a point preset as a place where wireless communication is required to be possible in the target area. For example, a place where the use of a terminal is assumed is set as an evaluation point.

[0021] Subsequently, the candidate exclusion unit 12 determines whether any of the calculated received powers exceeds the upper limit received power target (S102). The upper limit received power target is a threshold value preset from the perspective of suppressing radio wave interference below a certain standard. The upper limit received power target may be the same value for all interference evaluation points, or may be different values for some or all of the interference evaluation points.

[0022] If all the received powers are below the upper limit received power target (No in S102), the process proceeds to step S104. If any of the received powers exceeds the upper limit received power target (Yes in S102), step S103 is executed and the process proceeds to step S104.

[0023] In step S103, the candidate exclusion unit 12 excludes (invalidates) the radio station candidate related to the received power that exceeds the upper limit received power target. That is, the radio station candidate is excluded from the candidates for the placement position of the base station. The radio station candidates not excluded in step S103 are referred to as "valid radio station candidates".

[0024] In step S104, the station placement design unit 13 executes a station placement design process. The station placement design process is a process of determining the number of base stations to be placed and the placement positions of the base stations. At this time, the placement positions of the base stations are selected from the valid radio station candidates (that is, the radio station candidates where all the received powers are below the upper limit received power target). Therefore, it is possible to perform a station placement design that can suppress radio wave interference at the interference evaluation point ip. Station placement design refers to determining the placement (installation location and antenna direction) of base stations for constructing the coverage area of a radio system.

[0025] The station placement design process can be performed using known techniques. For example, the station placement design unit 13 calculates the received powers from all the valid radio station candidates for all the evaluation points. The evaluation points may be selected by a predetermined method from the range where wireless communication is desired to be covered within the target area.

[0026] Next, the station design unit 13 selects a predetermined number of radio station candidates from among the valid radio station candidates. The specific selection methods are, for example, the following two methods (A) and (B).

[0027] (A) Using a greedy approach, select radio station candidates that satisfy the required communication quality for as many evaluation points as possible until a predetermined number is reached. The required communication quality for an evaluation point is the required received power set for each evaluation point. Therefore, a radio station candidate that satisfies the required communication quality for a given evaluation point is a radio station candidate whose received power at that evaluation point is equal to or greater than the required communication quality.

[0028] (B) The evaluation score is divided into a predetermined number of clusters, and for each cluster, candidates for radio stations that meet the required communication quality for the most evaluation scores are selected. Non-hierarchical or hierarchical algorithms can be used for cluster division.

[0029] Next, the station placement design unit 13 determines whether there is a possibility of unaccommodated terminals occurring when a base station is placed at the candidate radio station selected by method (A) or (B). The determination of whether there is a possibility of unaccommodated terminals can be made by determining whether there is an evaluation point ep where the received power falls below a threshold. Furthermore, the determination of whether there is a possibility of unaccommodated terminals occurring at the selected candidate radio station may also be made by considering the constraints on the number of base stations that can accommodate.

[0030] If it is determined that there is no possibility of unaccommodating terminals, the site design unit 13 decides on the selected radio station candidate as the base station location. If it is determined that there is a possibility of unaccommodating terminals, the site design unit 13 changes the site design conditions (for example, the number of base stations to be deployed) and restarts the process from selecting a radio station candidate from among the valid radio station candidates.

[0031] Next, the site placement design unit 13 outputs information indicating the candidate radio stations determined as the placement locations for the base stations as the site placement design result (S105).

[0032] In the above example, the interference evaluation point ip is a different location from the evaluation point ep (a location outside the range of area A), but either evaluation point ep may be designated as the interference evaluation point ip. In this case, both the "required communication quality" and the "upper limit received power target" can be set for the evaluation point ep, and either one or both may be set for each evaluation point ep. An evaluation point ep for which the "upper limit received power target" is set should be treated as the interference evaluation point ip.

[0033] Furthermore, while the above explanation considered only the location of the radio station candidate and did not consider the status of the base station, multiple radio station candidates may be set for the same location, taking into account the differences in the status of the base station. For example, multiple radio station candidates with different base station installation directions may be set for the same location, taking into account the directivity of the base station. It is also conceivable that a single base station may be able to select the antenna to use from multiple antennas. In this case, multiple radio station candidates with different antenna types may be set for the same location.

[0034] Furthermore, although the above explanation assumed a single wireless communication method, multiple different wireless communication methods may be used in combination between base stations or between base stations and relay stations. In that case, since a fair evaluation across wireless communication methods cannot be performed using received power, the communication quality evaluation may be performed after converting it to a comparable indicator such as the expected wireless transmission rate.

[0035] As described above, according to this embodiment, it is possible to efficiently design a base station that meets the required quality for the target area while keeping radio interference outside the target area below a certain standard. In other words, it is possible to efficiently design a base station while suppressing radio interference.

[0036] In this embodiment, the received power calculation unit 11 is an example of a calculation unit. The station location design unit 13 is an example of a determination unit.

[0037] Although embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to these specific embodiments, and various modifications and changes are possible within the scope of the gist of the present invention as described in the claims. [Explanation of symbols]

[0038] 10 Station location design support device 11 Received Power Calculation Unit 12 Candidate exclusion section 13 Station location design department 100 drive unit 101 Recording media 102 Auxiliary storage 103 Memory device 104 Processors 105 Interface device B Bus

Claims

1. A calculation unit configured to calculate the received power from each of several candidate locations for the placement of a base station for one or more points, A determination unit configured to determine the placement location of a base station from among the candidates whose received power at all of the aforementioned locations is below a threshold, A site location design support device characterized by having the following features.

2. The aforementioned location is a location included in an area where suppression of radio interference from wireless communication using the aforementioned base station is required. The station location design support device according to feature 1.

3. The aforementioned multiple candidates include, as other candidates, base stations that are located in the same place but in different states. The location design support device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by the above.

4. A calculation procedure for calculating the received power from each of several candidate locations for the placement of a base station for one or more points, A determination procedure for determining the placement location of a base station from among the candidates whose received power at all of the aforementioned locations is below a threshold, A method for supporting site location design, characterized in that a computer performs the following steps.

5. A calculation procedure for calculating the received power from each of several candidate locations for the placement of a base station for one or more points, A determination procedure for determining the placement location of a base station from among the candidates whose received power at all of the aforementioned locations is below a threshold, A program characterized by causing a computer to execute something.

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