GATEWAY APPARATUS, COMMUNICATION CONTROL METHOD, AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM STORING COMMUNICATION CONTROL PROGRAM

• US 20120002659A1
• Filed: 03/16/2010
• Published: 01/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Kawaguchi, Kenji
• Granted Patent: US 9,860,793 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0011 for data sessions of end-to-end connection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/10 Reselecting an access point controller
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B

Abstract

To provide a gateway apparatus, a communication control method, and a communication control program, capable of implementing a hard handover between base stations that are controlled by the same base station control apparatus. A gateway apparatus 10 according to the present invention is disposed between a plurality of base stations and a core network, and includes receiving means 11 for receiving, in response to the start of a location change of a mobile station from a cell managed by a base station 1 included in the plurality of base stations to another cell, a location change message including a transfer destination identifier indicating a base station control apparatus associated with a base station 2 managing the another cell from the base station 1, and transmitting means 12 for determining whether the massage is to be transmitted to one of the plurality of base stations managed by the gateway apparatus itself or to the core network based on whether the transfer destination identifier matches an identifier of a base station control apparatus collectively associated with the plurality of base stations, and transmitting the massage to the determined transmission destination.

Claims

1. A gateway apparatus disposed between a plurality of base stations and a core network, comprising:

a receiving unit that receives, in response to a start of a location change of a mobile station from a cell managed by a first base station included in the plurality of base stations to another cell, a location change message including a transfer destination identifier indicating a base station control apparatus associated with a second base station managing the another cell from the first base station; and

a transmitting unit that determines whether the massage is to be transmitted to one of the plurality of base stations managed by the gateway apparatus itself or to the core network based on whether the transfer destination identifier matches an identifier of a base station control apparatus collectively associated with the plurality of base stations, and transmits the massage to the determined transmission destination.

2. The gateway apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

when the transfer destination identifier matches the identifier of the base station control apparatus collectively associated with the plurality of base stations, the transmitting unit identifies the second base station from among the plurality of base stations managed by the gateway apparatus itself and transmits the location change massage to the identified second base station, and

when the transfer destination identifier does not match the identifier of the base station control apparatus collectively associated with the plurality of base stations, the transmitting unit transmits the location change massage to the core network.

3. The gateway apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the receiving unit receives the location change massage from the first base station included in the plurality of base stations each of which has a radio resource management function including inter-cell transfer control of the mobile station.

4. The gateway apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the transfer destination identifier matches the identifier of the base station control apparatus collectively associated with the plurality of base stations and when location change permission is obtained from the second base station, the transmitting unit transmits the location change massage of the mobile station to the first base station.

5. The gateway apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a connection cancel unit that cancels a connection with the first base station when the mobile station has completed a transfer to a cell managed by the second base station.

6. The gateway apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a path setting unit that establishes a path through which data addressed to the mobile station is transmitted to the second base station when the connection cancel unit cancels a connection with the first base station.

7. A communication control method for performing communication control between a plurality of base stations and a core network, the communication control method comprising:

a step of receiving, in response to a start of a location change of a mobile station from a cell managed by a first base station included in the plurality of base stations to another cell, a location change message including transfer destination identifier indicating a base station control apparatus associated with a second base station managing the another cell from the first base station; and

a step of determining whether the massage is to be transmitted to the second base station or to the core network based on whether the transfer destination identifier matches an identifier of a base station control apparatus collectively associated with the plurality of base stations.

8. The communication control method according to claim 7, wherein in the step of determining a transmission destination of the location change massage,

when the transfer destination identifier matches the identifier of the base station control apparatus collectively associated with the plurality of base stations, the location change massage is transmitted to the second base station, and

when the transfer destination identifier does not match the identifier of the base station control apparatus collectively associated with the plurality of base stations, the location change massage is transmitted to the core network.

9. The communication control method according to claim 7, wherein in the step of receiving the location change massage from the first base station, the location change massage is received from the first base station having a radio resource management function including inter-cell transfer control of the mobile station.

10. The communication control method according to claim 7, further comprising a step of transmitting the location change massage of the mobile station to the first base station when the transfer destination identifier matches the identifier of the base station control apparatus collectively associated with the plurality of base stations and when location change permission is obtained from the second base station.

11. The communication control method according to claim 7, further comprising a step of cancelling a connection with the first base station when the mobile station has completed a transfer to a cell managed by the second base station.

12. The communication control method according to claim 7, further comprising a step of establishing a path through which data addressed to the mobile station is transmitted to the second base station when a connection with the first base station is cancelled.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a communication control program in a gateway apparatus disposed between a plurality of base stations and a core network, the communication control program causing a computer to execute:

a step of determining, based on whether a transfer destination identifier that is transmitted in response to a start of a location change of a mobile station from a cell managed by a first base station included in the plurality of base stations to another cell and indicates a base station control apparatus associated with a second base station managing the another cell matches an identifier of a base station control apparatus collectively associated with the plurality of base stations, whether the massage is to be transmitted to one of the plurality of base stations or to the core network.