DVB-H RECEIVING TERMINAL AND METHOD FOR FREQUENCY SCANNING IN DVB-H RECEIVING TERMINAL

• US 20080134280A1
• Filed: 11/19/2007
• Published: 06/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: KIM, Hyung-Hoon
• Granted Patent: US 8,055,261 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/151
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64315 DVB-H
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/50 Tuning indicators; Automatic tuning control

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for efficiently scanning a frequency of a new broadcasting area when a DVB-H receiving terminal moves. To this end, the DVB-H terminal stores in advance in a table DVB-H frequency changes according to the broadcasting area based on each cell whenever it moves. Then, the DVB-H receiving terminal preliminarily scans the DVB-H frequency previously stored in response to the current cell when the DVB-H receiving terminal moves in the future. If there exist one or more DVB-H frequencies stored in response to each cell, the DVB-H receiving terminal scans the stored DVB-H frequencies one by one in order to find a DVB-H frequency having an intensity higher than a predetermined intensity. The DVB-H receiving terminal quickly and efficiently scans the DVB-H frequencies according to the priority without scanning within all the DVB-H frequency ranges so that it can effectively minimize power consumption.

Claims

1. A method for frequency scanning in a DVB-H receiving terminal, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining in advance cell information of each cell and a DVB-H frequency for the cell, the DVB-H frequency having an intensity higher than a predetermined intensity;

mapping the obtained DVB-H frequency to the cell information and storing the information in the form of a table;

detecting a cell where the DVB-H receiving terminal is currently located when there is a request for DVB-H frequency scanning;

determining if the table includes the detected current cell information; and

scanning preliminarily a DVB-H frequency corresponding to the current cell information when the table includes the detected current cell information as a result of the determination above.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a situation in which there is a request for DVB-H frequency scanning corresponding to one of a case where DVB-H applications are started in response to a request for broadcasting start by a user and another case where the DVB-H receiving terminal moves from a DVB-H frequency-unreceivable shadow area to a receivable area.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising obtaining system information from the digital broadcasting signal input by using a DVB-H frequency having an intensity higher than a predetermined intensity, when the DVB-H frequency having an intensity higher than a predetermined intensity is detected as a result of preliminarily scanning the DVB-H frequency corresponding to the current cell information.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, when a DVB-H frequency having an intensity higher than a predetermined intensity is not detected as a result of preliminarily scanning the DVB-H frequency corresponding to the current cell information, further comprising:

determining a cell adjacent to a cell where the DVB-H receiving terminal is currently located;

detecting whether the determined adjacent cell information exists in the table; and

scanning preliminarily a DVB-H frequency corresponding to the adjacent cell information when the table includes the adjacent cell information.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, when the DVB-H receiving terminal is located in an area where at least two or more cells overlap each other as a result of detecting the cell where the DVB-H receiving terminal is currently located, further comprising:

determining if the table includes at least two pieces of cell information;

scanning in regular sequence a DVB-H frequency corresponding to the determined cell information; and

selecting a DVB-H frequency having the highest intensity as a result of scanning above.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, the step of storing in the form of a table further comprises counting the number of scans of each of the cells and the number of scans is mapped to the cell information.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, further comprising:

detecting whether DVB-H frequencies having an equal intensity are detected as a result of preliminarily scanning a DVB-H frequency corresponding to the current cell information; and

selecting a DVB-H frequency corresponding to a cell in which the number of scanning is larger than the number of scanning in other cells with reference to the number of scanning when the DVB-H frequencies having an equal intensity are detected.

8. A DVB-H receiving terminal for frequency scanning, the DVB-H receiving terminal comprising:

a memory for mapping a DVB-H frequency having an intensity higher than a predetermined intensity to the cell information obtained from moving between cells, and storing the information in the form of a table;

a digital broadcasting receiving unit for receiving a corresponding DVB-H frequency information according to the frequency scanning in moving between the cells in an area where a DVB-H signal exists;

a Radio Frequency (RF) unit for receiving RF signals from a base station located in each of the cells; and

a controller for determining whether the DVB-H receiving terminal moves between the cells by measuring the received signal intensity through the RF unit, obtaining in advance the cell information and a DVB-H frequency having an intensity higher than a predetermined intensity in moving between cells and storing the cell information and the DVB-H frequency in the memory, detecting a cell where the DVB-H receiving terminal is currently located when there is a request for DVB-H frequency scanning, determining if the table includes the detected current cell information, and controlling to preliminarily scan a DVB-H frequency corresponding to the current cell information.

9. The DVB-H receiving terminal as claimed in claim 8, wherein a request for DVB-H frequency scanning corresponds to one of either a case where DVB-H applications are started in response to a request for broadcasting start by a user or another case where the DVB-H receiving terminal moves from a DVB-H frequency-unreceivable shadow area to a receivable area.

10. The DVB-H receiving terminal as claimed in claim 8, wherein the controller determines whether the table includes the adjacent cell information and controls to scan a DVB-H frequency corresponding to the adjacent cell information in the case where the table includes the corresponding adjacent cell information, when a DVB-H frequency having an intensity higher than a predetermined intensity is not detected as a result of preliminarily scanning the DVB-H frequency corresponding to the current cell information.

11. The DVB-H receiving terminal as claimed in claim 8, wherein the controller determines if the table includes at least two or more pieces of cell information, controls to scan in regular sequence a DVB-H frequency corresponding to the determined cell information, and selects a DVB-H frequency having the highest intensity when the DVB-H receiving terminal is located in an area where at least two or more cells overlap each other as a result of detecting the cell where the DVB-H receiving terminal itself belongs.