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

Abstract

This station layout assistance device includes: a first calculation unit that, for each of a plurality of first patterns related to a change of an arrangement state of one or more existing wireless stations, is configured to calculate a value of a first index related to a cost required for the change; and an output unit configured to output, on the basis of the value of the first index for each of the first patterns, information for assisting the change. The foregoing assists with improvement of the efficiency of changes to the arrangement state of existing wireless stations.

Description

Technical Field

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

Background Art

[0002] For constructing the coverage area of a wireless system such as 5G or Wi-Fi (registered trademark), a base station layout design (installation location and antenna direction) is performed to determine the base station placement. In the base station layout design, after selecting the base station placement, simulation of the service area may be performed, and estimation by an experimental method (Non-Patent Document 1) or the like is used.

Prior Art Documents

Non-Patent Documents

[0003]

Non-Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] When there are changes in the environment, communication requirements, and demands, the requirements may not be met in the initial design. In such a case, it is conceivable to re-execute the base station layout design and change the arrangement state of existing radio base stations or relay stations (hereinafter referred to as "radio stations").

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to support the efficiency improvement of changing the arrangement state of existing radio stations.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] Therefore, in order to solve the above problem, the station placement design support device provides information on the placement status of one or more existing radio stations. while maintaining the number of the aforementioned radio stations change In the case of The system includes a first calculation unit configured to calculate a value for a first indicator relating to the cost required for the change for each of the multiple first patterns, and an output unit configured to output information supporting the change based on the value of the first indicator for each of the first patterns. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] This can help streamline the process of changing the layout of existing radio stations. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0008] [Figure 1] This figure shows an example of a system configuration in an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] 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 3] 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 4] This diagram illustrates an example of the processing procedure performed by the site location design support device 10. [Figure 5] This is a diagram illustrating environmental information and candidate placement location information. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0009] Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Figure 1 is a diagram showing an example of a system configuration in an embodiment of the present invention. In Figure 1, the site design support device 10 connects to one or more base stations or wireless APs (Access Points) or one or more relay stations, etc., that are candidates for mobile operation in this embodiment, via a network (wired or wireless (IAB, WiGig, etc.)). Hereinafter, when base stations, wireless APs and relay stations are not distinguished, they will be referred to as "wireless stations".

[0010] Each radio station is an example of a communication device that provides wireless communication to terminals using a mobile communication network (such as 5G) or wireless LAN (such as Wi-Fi®).

[0011] The station placement design support device 10 is one or more computers that calculate the modified placement state for one or more existing radio stations in response to environmental changes, etc. In this embodiment, the movement of radio stations may be achieved by control by the station placement design support device 10, etc., if the radio station is equipped with a means of movement such as a drone or AGV (Automatic Guided Vehicle), or it may be achieved manually if the radio station is fixed. Hereinafter, the former movement will be referred to as "automatic movement," and the latter movement as "manual movement." For example, automatic movement may be performed in real time in response to changes in the distribution of terminal locations, etc. Alternatively, automatic or manual movement may be performed in response to long-term environmental changes that have occurred over a certain period in the past.

[0012] In Figure 1, the station location design support device 10 is connected to the radio station via a network because it is assumed to be automatically moved. However, if manual movement is used, the station location design support device 10 does not need to be connected to the radio station via a network.

[0013] Figure 2 shows an example of the hardware configuration of the site location design support device 10 in an embodiment of the present invention. The site location design support device 10 in Figure 2 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.

[0014] A program for realizing the processing in the placement design support device 10 is provided by a recording medium 101 such as a CD-ROM. When the recording medium 101 storing 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 installation of the program does not necessarily have to be performed from the recording medium 101, and it may be downloaded from another computer via a network. The auxiliary storage device 102 stores the installed program and also stores necessary files, data, etc.

[0015] When there is an instruction to start the program, the memory device 103 reads out and stores the program from the auxiliary storage device 102. The processor 104 is a CPU, a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), or both a CPU and a GPU, and executes the functions related to the placement 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.

[0016] FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a functional configuration example of the placement design support device 10 in an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 3, the placement design support device 10 includes an environment grasping unit 11, a quality evaluation unit 12, a comprehensive evaluation unit 13, and an output unit 14. Each of these units is realized by one or more programs installed in the placement design support device 10 through processing executed by the processor 104. The placement design support device 10 also uses an environment information storage unit 121, a placement position candidate storage unit 122, an existing state storage unit 123, etc. Each of these storage units can be realized, for example, using the auxiliary storage device 102 or a storage device that can be connected to the placement design support device 10 via a network.

[0017] Hereinafter, the processing procedure executed by the placement design support device 10 will be described. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an example of the processing procedure executed by the placement design support device 10.

[0018] In step S101, the quality evaluation unit 12 performs radio wave propagation estimation for each of all possible (multiple) arrangement patterns after changing the arrangement state of I existing radio stations (hereinafter simply referred to as "radio stations") that are candidates for changing the arrangement state (I ≧ 1). The radio wave propagation estimation is performed based on the environment information stored in the environment information storage unit 121 and the arrangement position candidate information stored in the arrangement position candidate storage unit 122, etc.

[0019] FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the environment information and the arrangement position candidate information. In FIG. 5, a predetermined area (hereinafter referred to as "target area A1") where the radio stations are to be arranged has, for the sake of convenience, a rectangular parallelepiped shape, and an example in which 10 arrangement position candidates pc are set within the space of the target area A1 is shown. In FIG. 5, the arrangement positions and shapes of 6 structures st that can shield radio waves are also revealed, and 15 evaluation points ep are set.

[0020] Here, the range and shape of the target area A1, and the positions and shapes of the structures st, etc. are included in the environment information. The environment information may be, for example, data obtained in advance from a camera, a sensor, etc. by the environment grasping unit 11, or may be generated in advance by the environment grasping unit 11 based on a design drawing of the target area A1, etc., or may be input by the user.

[0021] On the other hand, the positions of the arrangement position candidates pc and the evaluation points ep are included in the arrangement position candidate information. The arrangement position candidate pc is a candidate for the arrangement position of each radio station after the station layout design (after the arrangement change). That is, all radio stations are assigned to one of the arrangement position candidates pc after the arrangement change.

[0022] The location information for the candidate placement location pc, structure st, and evaluation point ep may be 3D coordinate information or 2D coordinate information. Furthermore, there is no limit to the geographical size of the target area A1. Target area A1 may be a specific indoor area such as an event venue, or it may be a wide outdoor area. In the former case, structure st may be, for example, an object placed indoors. In the latter case, structure st may be, for example, a building.

[0023] Furthermore, a configuration pattern refers to a combination of the position and direction of I radio stations. However, the position of each of the I radio stations is limited to one of the candidate configuration locations (pc). In other words, a configuration pattern refers to the configuration of each radio station determined by the combination of one candidate configuration location (pc) selected from all candidate configuration locations (pc) and the direction of each radio station at each of those one candidate configuration locations (pc). In this case, the maximum number of radio stations that can be placed at one candidate configuration location (pc) is one. Also, differences in the order in which each radio station is arranged are not distinguished in the configuration patterns. Therefore, if the number of candidate configuration locations (pc) is J and the direction of each radio station is K, the total number of configuration patterns is: I C J ×K I That's correct. Note that the direction of the radio station refers to the orientation of the radio station (the direction of the antenna).

[0024] Estimating radio wave propagation to each evaluation point ep for each placement pattern can be achieved, for example, by performing a radio wave propagation simulation between candidate placement locations pc and evaluation points ep using ray tracing with 3D map information, based on the position and direction of each radio station in each placement pattern. By estimating radio wave propagation for a given placement pattern, the amount of radio wave attenuation (path loss) from each radio station to each evaluation point ep can be calculated if each radio station is placed according to that placement pattern.

[0025] Next, the quality evaluation unit 12 calculates a quality value for wireless communication for each evaluation point ep based on the results of the radio wave propagation estimation to each evaluation point ep for each arrangement pattern (S102). This quality value may be the maximum value of received power or the maximum value of throughput. The received power from a certain radio station at a certain evaluation point ep can be calculated by subtracting the attenuation of the radio waves from the radio station to the evaluation point ep from the transmitted power from the radio station. The throughput value may be obtained by applying the received power to a table showing the correspondence between received power and throughput value, or by another method that takes received power as input. Alternatively, measured values ​​may be used as the received power and throughput.

[0026] Next, the quality evaluation unit 12 calculates the value of the quality evaluation index X for each arrangement pattern using a predetermined method (S103). Examples of the quality evaluation index X include the achievement rate of a predetermined target value (target received power or target throughput value) for the quality value of each evaluation point ep (the percentage of quality values ​​that were equal to or greater than the target value), and the minimum quality value (minimum received power or minimum throughput). The minimum quality value refers to the lowest value among the maximum quality values ​​for each evaluation point ep.

[0027] Alternatively, the quality evaluation unit 12 may calculate the line-of-sight area ratio for each arrangement pattern as the value of the quality evaluation index X for each arrangement pattern. The line-of-sight area ratio for a given arrangement pattern refers to the ratio of the area of ​​the target area A1 (for example, the area of ​​the base in Figure 5) to the area of ​​any radio station that is in line of sight when each radio station is arranged according to that arrangement pattern. An area that is in line of sight from any radio station refers to the set of points where there are no structures st on a straight line with at least one radio station. Alternatively, the line-of-sight area ratio may be the ratio of the number of evaluation points ep that are in line of sight from any radio station to the total number of evaluation points ep. If the line-of-sight area ratio is adopted as the quality evaluation index X, steps S101 and S102 do not need to be executed.

[0028] Next, the quality evaluation unit 12 selects an arrangement pattern in which the value of the quality evaluation index X is equal to or greater than the threshold (S104). The selected arrangement pattern is hereinafter referred to as the "selected pattern".

[0029] Next, the comprehensive evaluation unit 13 determines whether there is one or more selection patterns (S105). If there are no selection patterns (No in S105), the process in Figure 4 ends. In this case, the relocation of the existing radio station fails. If there is one or more selection patterns (Yes in S105), the comprehensive evaluation unit 13 determines whether there are two or more (multiple) selection patterns (S106). If there is only one selection pattern (No in S106), the process proceeds to step S109.

[0030] If there are two or more selection patterns (Yes in S106), the comprehensive evaluation unit 13 calculates a value for an index (hereinafter referred to as "change cost index Y") for each selection pattern that indicates the cost (time, expense, power, etc.) related to the amount or difficulty of changing from the current arrangement state (location and direction) of each radio station to the arrangement state indicated by the selection pattern (S107). The change cost index Y for a given selection pattern is calculated, for example, based on the following formula. Y = k × A + l × B + m × C + n × D However, A is the total number of radio stations whose placement location is changed. B is the sum of the changes in placement location [m] for the radio stations whose placement location is changed (A radio stations). C is the total number of radio stations whose direction is changed only. D is the sum of the changes in direction (angle of change) [°] for the radio stations whose direction is changed only (C radio stations). k, l, m, and n are weighting coefficients. Note that the changes in placement location [m] and direction may be estimated values ​​based on simulations, etc., or measured values.

[0031] Alternatively, the comprehensive evaluation unit 13 may calculate a change cost index y for each radio station, from the current arrangement to the arrangement indicated by the selected pattern, and the sum of y may be used as the change cost index Y. In this case, the formula for calculating y is, for example, as follows. y = k × a + l × b + m × c + n × d However, a is 1 for radio stations whose placement is changed and 0 for radio stations whose placement is not changed. b is the amount of change in placement [m] for radio stations where a is 1. c is 1 for radio stations whose direction is changed only and 0 for other radio stations. d is the amount of change in direction (angle of change) [°] for radio stations where c is 1. k, l, m, n are weighting coefficients, but when calculating y, the values ​​of k, l, m, n may differ for each radio station. By making the values ​​of k, l, m, n different for each radio station, it becomes possible to calculate the change cost more precisely by considering the different weights of position and direction changes for each radio station.

[0032] In any of the above calculation methods, the overall cost of the change can be taken into account even if the means of moving or relocating the radio station differ, or if the required operation time, time, and cost differ.

[0033] Note that there may be multiple ways to change from the current arrangement to the selected pattern, but the minimum value of Y among these multiple values ​​should be adopted as the final Y.

[0034] Furthermore, the above distinguishes the cost of changing only the direction. This is based on the idea that the cost of changing both the location and direction is the same as (or not significantly different from) the cost of changing only the location (moving the radio station). However, it is also possible to distinguish between the cost of changing both the location and direction and the cost of changing only the location.

[0035] The current configuration (position and orientation) of each radio station is stored in the existing configuration storage unit 123. The current configuration of some or all of the radio stations may be any of the candidate configuration pcs, or the current configuration of some or all of the radio stations may not be any of the candidate configuration pcs.

[0036] Next, the overall evaluation unit 13 calculates the value of the overall evaluation index Z for each selected pattern based on the value of the quality evaluation index X and the change cost index Y for that selected pattern (S108). The overall evaluation index Z may be calculated, for example, as the sum (i.e., weighted sum) of the values ​​obtained by multiplying the quality evaluation index X and the change cost index Y by a weighting coefficient, as follows. Z = α × X + β × Y Here, α and β are the weighting coefficients.

[0037] If the answer in step S106 is No, or following step S108, the output unit 14 outputs information to support changes in the placement status of radio stations (hereinafter referred to as "placement change support information") (S109). If step S109 is executed following step S106, the output unit 14 outputs the placement change support information for the selection pattern selected in step S104. If step S109 is executed following step S108, the output unit 14 outputs the placement change support information for some of the selection patterns (the top N selection patterns or the selection pattern with the highest value of the overall evaluation index Z) in descending order of the value of the overall evaluation index Z. Hereinafter, the selection patterns that have been narrowed down to one or N as targets for outputting the placement change support information will be referred to as "output patterns".

[0038] The relocation support information may, for example, be a control signal indicating a change in the relocation status to a radio station to be moved or a radio station to be changed direction, when automatic movement is employed. In this case, if there are N output patterns, the relocation support information may select one selected pattern as the output pattern that has the maximum value of the overall evaluation index Z.

[0039] Alternatively, the relocation support information may be the value of the quality index X of the output pattern (if it follows step S104), or the value of the overall index Z of each output pattern. In this case, the output unit 14 may output the relocation support information to a display device or auxiliary storage device 102, etc., so that the user can see it. In this case, the user may select one of the output patterns and change the relocation status of the radio station by automatic or manual movement based on the selected output pattern.

[0040] In the above description, an example was given in which the station location design support device 10 performs the processing procedure shown in Figure 4, but any of the radio stations may also perform the processing procedure shown in Figure 4.

[0041] As described above, conventional technology has not provided a method for selecting a new placement pattern for existing radio stations after changing their layout, taking into account the costs associated with moving the radio stations. However, according to this embodiment, it is possible to select a new placement pattern while taking these costs into consideration. Therefore, it becomes possible to select a new placement pattern for radio stations while reducing the costs (time, expenses, power, etc.) required to change the layout of the radio stations. As a result, it is possible to support the efficient modification of the layout of existing radio stations.

[0042] In this embodiment, the overall evaluation unit 13 is an example of the first calculation unit. The quality evaluation unit 12 is an example of the second calculation unit. The change cost index is an example of the first index. The quality evaluation index is an example of the second index.

[0043] 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]

[0044] 10 Station location design support device 11 Environmental Understanding Department 12 Quality Evaluation Department 13. Overall Evaluation Department 14 Output section 100 drive unit 101 Recording media 102 Auxiliary storage device 103 Memory device 104 Processors 105 Interface device 121 Environmental information storage unit 122 Location candidate storage unit 123 Existing state storage unit B Bus

Claims

1. A first calculation unit is configured to calculate a value for a first indicator related to the cost required for each of several first patterns in which the arrangement of one or more existing radio stations is changed while maintaining the number of radio stations, An output unit configured to output information to support the change based on the value of the first indicator for each of the first patterns, A site location design support device characterized by having the following features.

2. The first index is an index based on the amount of change in the position or direction of the radio station. The station location design support device according to feature 1.

3. The system has a second calculation unit configured to calculate a value for a second indicator relating to the quality of communication when the radio station is used in a predetermined area, for each of several second patterns relating to the changes in the arrangement of the radio station. The first pattern is selected from the second patterns based on the value of the second indicator. The location design support device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by the above.

4. The output unit is configured to output information to support the change based on the value of the first indicator and the value of the second indicator for each of the first patterns. The station location design support device according to feature 3.

5. The output unit is configured to output a portion of the first pattern. The station location design support device according to feature 1.

6. A first calculation procedure for calculating a value of a first indicator related to the cost required for each of several first patterns in which the arrangement of one or more existing radio stations is changed while maintaining the number of radio stations, An output procedure that outputs information supporting the change based on the value of the first indicator for each of the first patterns, A method for supporting site location design, characterized in that a computer performs the following steps.

7. A first calculation procedure for calculating a value of a first indicator related to the cost required for each of several first patterns in which the arrangement of one or more existing radio stations is changed while maintaining the number of radio stations, An output procedure that outputs information supporting the change based on the value of the first indicator for each of the first patterns, A program characterized by causing a computer to execute something.

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