Mobile communication system and base station control apparatus

• US 10,149,176 B2
• Filed: 01/18/2014
• Issued: 12/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SOFTBANK Corporation (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: SOFTBANK Corporation (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Miyakawa, Junichi, Fujii, Teruya
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsegaye, Saba
• Application Number:
  US15/114,470
• Publication Number:
  US 20160345189A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,781 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18517 Transmission equipment in earth stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18519 Operations control, administration or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/06 Airborne or Satellite Networks space-based or airborne stations H04B7/185

Abstract

Mobile communication systems and base station control apparatuses are provided, by which a spectral efficiency can be improved while preventing interference between a terrestrial cellular mobile communication system and a satellite mobile communication system, and mobile communication services using mobile station apparatuses can be provided more surely in an emergent condition in which a failure occurs in a part of terrestrial cellular base stations. A same frequency band is used for radio communications between a mobile station apparatus 10 and each of terrestrial cellular base stations 20 and a communication relay apparatus 41 of artificial satellite 40. A radio resource used in the terrestrial cellular base stations 20 and a radio resource used in a satellite base station 30 in a common area where the terrestrial cellular mobile communication system and the satellite mobile communication system are available are allocated so as not to overlap with each other, and the radio resource allocated for the satellite base station is increased in the emergent condition in which a failure occurs in a part of the terrestrial cellular base stations so as to be more than that in a normal condition.

Claims

1. A mobile communication system that uses a terrestrial cellular mobile communication system and a satellite mobile communication system, the mobile communication system comprising:

terrestrial cellular base stations that perform a radio communication with a mobile station apparatus;

a satellite base station that performs a radio communication with a mobile station apparatus via a communication relay apparatus of an artificial satellite; and

a base station control apparatus of controlling the terrestrial cellular base stations and the satellite base station,

wherein a same frequency band is used for radio communications between the mobile station apparatus and each of the terrestrial cellular base stations and the communication relay apparatus of the artificial satellite in a common area where the terrestrial cellular mobile communication system and the satellite mobile communication system are available, and

wherein the base station control apparatus controls to allocate a first set of time slots used in the terrestrial cellular base stations and a second set of time slots used in the satellite base station in the common area so that none of the first set of time slots overlap with any of the second set of time slots and to increase an allocation rate of the second set of time slots allocated for the satellite base station in a predetermined radio communication frame of the same frequency band in an emergent condition in which a failure occurs in a part of the terrestrial cellular base stations so as to be more than that in a normal condition, in a state that the terrestrial cellular base stations and the satellite base station in the common area are synchronized in time with each other.

2. The mobile communication system according to claim 1, wherein the base station control apparatus controls to divide in time each of two or more divided frequency bands into which the same frequency band is divided, to allocate the first set of time slots in the divided frequency band used in the terrestrial cellular base stations and the second set of time slots in the divided frequency band used in the satellite base station in the common area so as not to overlap with each other, and to increase an allocation rate of the second set of time slots in the divided frequency band allocated for the satellite base station in the emergent condition so as to be more than that in the normal condition, in a state that the terrestrial cellular base stations and the satellite base station are in the common area synchronized in time and in frequency with each other.

3. The mobile communication system according to claim 1, wherein the base station control apparatus controls the allocation rate of the second set of time slots for the satellite base station and an allocation rate of the first set of time slots allocated for the terrestrial cellular base stations according to a ratio between a communication traffic in the terrestrial cellular base stations and a communication traffic in the satellite base station, in the emergent condition or in the normal condition.

4. The mobile communication system according to claim 1,

wherein an area in which the communication relay apparatus and the mobile station apparatus communicate with each other is a single beam area corresponding to a beam directing along orientation of an antenna of the communication relay apparatus, and

wherein the single beam area includes two or more areas of the terrestrial cellular base stations.

5. The mobile communication system according to claim 1,

wherein areas in which the communication relay apparatus and the mobile station apparatus communicate with each other are two or more beam areas corresponding to two or more beams directing along different orientations of antennas of the communication relay apparatus, the two or more beams being spatially shifted,

wherein each of the two or more beam areas includes two or more areas of the terrestrial cellular base stations, and

wherein the base station control apparatus performs the control of the allocation rate of the second set of time slots independently in each of the two or more beam areas in the emergent condition or in the normal condition.

6. The mobile communication system according to claim 1, further comprising the communication relay apparatus of the artificial satellite,

wherein the satellite base station comprises a base station apparatus connected with a core network, and frequency converting means of performing a conversion between a frequency used in the base station apparatus and a frequency for satellite communications used in a communication with the communication relay apparatus of artificial satellite when relaying a communication between the base station apparatus and the communication relay apparatus of the artificial satellite, and

wherein the communication relay apparatus of the artificial satellite comprises frequency converting means of performing a conversion between a frequency used in a communication with the mobile station apparatus and a frequency for satellite communications used in a communication with the satellite base station when relaying a communication between the mobile station apparatus and the satellite base station.

7. The mobile communication system according to claim 1, wherein a radio transmission system used for radio communications between the mobile station apparatus and each of the terrestrial cellular base stations is the same as a radio transmission system used for radio communications between the mobile station apparatus and the communication relay apparatus of the artificial satellite.

8. The mobile communication system according to claim 1, wherein a radio transmission system used for radio communications between the mobile station apparatus and each of the terrestrial cellular base stations is different than a radio transmission system used for radio communications between the mobile station apparatus and the communication relay apparatus of the artificial satellite.

9. A base station control apparatus that controls terrestrial cellular base stations that perform a radio communication with a mobile station apparatus and a satellite base station that performs a radio communication with a mobile station apparatus via a communication relay apparatus of an artificial satellite in a mobile communication system that uses a terrestrial cellular mobile communication system and a satellite mobile communication system,

wherein a same frequency band is used for radio communications between the mobile station apparatus and each of the terrestrial cellular base stations and the communication relay apparatus of the artificial satellite in a common area where the terrestrial cellular mobile communication system and the satellite mobile communication system are available, and

wherein the base station control apparatus controls to allocate a first set of time slots used in the terrestrial cellular base stations and a second set of time slots used in the satellite base station in the common area so that none of the first set of time slots overlap with any of the second set of time slots and to increase an allocation rate of the second set of time slots allocated for the satellite base station in a predetermined radio communication frame of the same frequency band in an emergent condition in which a failure occurs in a part of the terrestrial cellular base stations so as to be more than that in a normal condition, in a state that the terrestrial cellular base stations and the satellite base station in the common area are synchronized in time with each other.

10. The base station control apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the base station control apparatus controls to divide in time each of two or more divided frequency bands into which the same frequency band is divided, to allocate the first set of time slots in the divided frequency band used in the terrestrial cellular base stations and the second set of time slots in the divided frequency band used in the satellite base station in the common area so as not to overlap with each other, and to increase an allocation rate of the second set of time slots in the divided frequency band allocated for the satellite base station in the emergent condition so as to be more than that in the normal condition, in state that the terrestrial cellular base stations and the satellite base station are in the common area synchronized in time and in frequency with each other.

11. The base station control apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the base station control apparatus controls the allocation rate of the second set of time slots for the satellite base station and an allocation rate of the first set of time slots allocated for the terrestrial cellular base stations according to a ratio between a communication traffic in the terrestrial cellular base stations and a communication traffic in the satellite base station, in the emergent condition or in the normal condition.

12. The base station control apparatus according to claim 9,

wherein the area in which the communication relay apparatus and the mobile station apparatus communicate with each other is a single beam area corresponding to a beam directing along orientation of an antenna of the communication relay apparatus, and

wherein the single beam area includes two or more areas of the terrestrial cellular base stations.

13. The base station control apparatus according to claim 9,

wherein the areas in which the communication relay apparatus and the mobile station apparatus communicate with each other are two or more beam areas corresponding to two or more beams directing along different orientations of antennas of the communication relay apparatus, the two or more beams being spatially shifted,

wherein each of the two or more beam areas includes two or more areas of the terrestrial cellular base stations, and

wherein the base station control apparatus performs the control of the allocation rate of the second set of time slots independently in each of the two or more beam areas in the emergent condition or in the normal condition.

14. For a mobile communication system including a mobile base station apparatus, terrestrial cellular base stations that perform a radio communication with the mobile station apparatus, and a satellite base station that performs a radio communication with the mobile base station apparatus via a communication relay apparatus of an artificial satellite, a method comprising:

communicating between the mobile station apparatus and each of the terrestrial cellular base stations using a first frequency band;

communicating between the mobile station apparatus and the communication relay apparatus of the artificial satellite using the first frequency band;

for a common area where the terrestrial cellular mobile communication system and the satellite mobile communication system are available, allocating a first set of time slots used in the terrestrial cellular base stations and a second set of time slots used in the satellite base station so that none of the first set of time slots overlap with the second set of time slots; and

in a state that the terrestrial cellular base stations and the satellite base station in the common area are synchronized in time with each other, increasing an allocation rate of the second set of time slots in a predetermined radio communication frame of the same frequency band in an emergent condition in which a failure occurs in a part of the terrestrial cellular base stations so as to be more than that in a normal condition.

15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising:

controlling an allocation rate of the first set of time slots and the allocation rate of the second set of time slots according to a ratio between a communication traffic in the terrestrial cellular base stations and a communication traffic in the satellite base station, in the emergent condition or in the normal condition.

16. The method according to claim 14,

wherein an area in which the communication relay apparatus and the mobile station apparatus communicate with each other is a single beam area corresponding to a beam directing along orientation of an antenna of the communication relay apparatus, and

wherein the single beam area includes two or more areas of the terrestrial cellular base stations.

17. The method according to claim 14, wherein areas in which the communication relay apparatus and the mobile station apparatus communicate with each other are two or more beam areas corresponding to two or more beams directing along different orientations of antennas of the communication relay apparatus, the two or more beams being spatially shifted, and each of the two or more beam areas includes two or more areas of the terrestrial cellular base stations, and wherein the method further comprises:

controlling the allocation rate of the second set of time slots independently in each of the two or more beam areas in the emergent condition or in the normal condition.

18. The method according to claim 14, wherein the satellite base station comprises a base station apparatus connected with a core network, and the method further comprises:

converting between a frequency used in the base station apparatus and a frequency for satellite communications used in a communication with the communication relay apparatus of the artificial satellite when relaying a communication between the base station apparatus and the communication relay apparatus of the artificial satellite, and

converting between a frequency used in a communication with the mobile station apparatus and a frequency for satellite communications used in a communication with the satellite base station when relaying a communication between the mobile station apparatus and the satellite base station.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

using a same radio transmission system for;

radio communications between the mobile station apparatus and each of the terrestrial cellular base stations, and for radio communications between the mobile station apparatus and the communication relay apparatus of the artificial satellite.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

using different radio transmission systems for;

radio communications between the mobile station apparatus and each of the terrestrial cellular base stations, and for radio communications between the mobile station apparatus and the communication relay apparatus of the artificial satellite.