MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20110216732A1
• Filed: 10/26/2009
• Published: 09/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Nakazawa, Masayuki, Maeda, Miho, Iwane, Yasushi, Mochizuki, Mitsuru, Kakehi, Yuji, Saegusa, Taiga, Suemitsu, Taisei
• Granted Patent: US 9,713,068 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/02 Processing of mobility data, e.g. registration information at HLR [Home Location Register] or VLR [Visitor Location Register]; Transfer of mobility data, e.g. between HLR, VLR or external networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/30 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A closed subscriber group (CSG) cell is a cell that allows use of subscribers. In order to receive the service by the CSG cell, a CSG-ID is required to be notified to a user equipment, which cannot be obtained in a situation outside the reach of radio waves from a non-CSG cell. In a mobile communication system including base stations respectively provided to a CSG cell and a non-CSG cell in which access is made to the CSG cell with the use of a CSG-ID issued in a case where use of the CSG cell is allowed, the base station provided in the CSG cell refers to the notified identification information of a user equipment and then transmits a tracking area update request from the user equipment to a core network, and the core network determines whether the user equipment is allowed to use the CSG cell and, in the case where the use is allowed, transmits a signal for allowing assignment of radio resources to the user equipment and the CSG-ID. The user equipment accesses the CSG cell with the use of the CSG-ID.

Claims

1. A mobile communication system comprising user equipments, base stations and a radio network controller, the user equipments performing data transmission/reception using an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system as a downlink access system and a single career frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) system as an uplink access system, the base stations provided respectively to cells for specific subscribers that are open only to specific ones of said user equipments or subscribers and cells for non-specific users that are allowed to be used by non-specific ones of said user equipments or users and executing scheduling of assignment of radio resources to said user equipments, the radio network controller managing a desired tracking area in which said user equipments are located through a plurality of said base stations and performing paging on said user equipments, in which said user equipments access said cells for specific subscribers using access allowance information issued upon use of said cells for specific subscribers being allowed, wherein:

said base stations provided to said cells for specific subscribers refer to identification information of said user equipments notified by said radio network controller and transmit a tracking area update request for said radio network controller from said user equipments to said radio network controller;

said radio network controller determines whether said user equipments that have transmitted said tracking area update request are allowed to use said cells for specific subscribers, and in a case where the use is allowed, transmits a signal for allowing the assignment of radio resources to said user equipments and said access allowance information to the base stations provided to said cells for specific subscribers; and

said user equipments access the base stations provided to said cells for specific subscribers using said access allowance information received from the base stations provided to said cells for specific subscribers.

2. The mobile communication system according to claim 1, wherein in a situation in which signals from said base stations provided to a plurality of cells for specific subscribers are allowed to be received:

said radio network controller determines, in accordance with the tracking area update request transmitted via a desired base station selected by said user equipment from said plurality of base stations, whether said user equipment is allowed to use the cells for specific subscribers including said base station, and in a case where the use is not allowed, transmits a signal for rejecting the assignment of radio resources to said user equipment; and

said user equipment performs cell selection for selecting the base station other than said base station where the assignment of radio resources has been rejected, and transmits the tracking area update request to the selected base station.

3. The mobile communication system according to claim 2, wherein said radio network controller determines whether the cells for specific subscribers including the base station to which the tracking area update request has been transmitted are allowed to be used, and in a case where the use is not allowed, transmits the access allowance information for the cells for specific subscribers allowed to be used by the user equipments to the base station to which said tracking area update request has been transmitted.

4. The mobile communication system according to claim 2, wherein in a case where predetermined cells for specific subscribers include a plurality of base stations, the user equipment performs cell selection of selecting the base station other than said base station where the assignment of radio resources has been rejected and the other base stations included in the cell for specific subscribers to which said base station belongs, and transmits the tracking area update request to the selected base station.

5. The mobile communication system according to claim 3, wherein said radio network controller counts the number of times said radio network controller rejects the assignment of radio resources to the user equipments, and in a case where the number of times reaches a predetermined number of times, transmits the access allowance information of the cells for specific subscribers that are allowed to be used by the user equipments.

6. The mobile communication system according to claim 3, wherein said radio network controller notifies the base stations provided to a plurality of cells for specific subscribers of the identification information of the user equipments and the access allowance information of the cells for specific subscribers that are allowed to be used by the user equipments, and said base station determines whether said cells for specific subscribers are allowed to be used by said user equipment that has transmitted a radio resource assignment request, and in a case where the use is allowed, transmits a signal for allowing the assignment of radio resources to said user equipment and said access allowance information to said user equipment that has transmitted a radio resource assignment request.