RADIO BASE STATION AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME

• US 20130122914A1
• Filed: 07/19/2011
• Published: 05/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Coranci, LLC
• Original Assignee: Kyocera Corporation
• Inventors: Fukuta, Noriyoshi
• Granted Patent: US 9,295,025 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/440
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/26 Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/32 by location or mobility data, e.g. speed data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/322 by location data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

A radio base station (100) transmits a Capability Request message to a radio terminal (200), which is connected to the radio base station, to transmit terminal capability information that indicates positioning capability of the radio terminal, and receives a Capability Indication message transmitted from the radio terminal (200). The radio base station (100) determines, corresponding to the received Capability Indication message, whether positional information that indicates the geographical position of the radio terminal (200) can be acquired from the radio terminal (200).

Claims

1. A radio base station comprising:

a transmitter that transmits, to a radio terminal being connected to the radio base station, a capability information transmission request for requesting a transmission of terminal capability information indicating a positioning capability of the radio terminal;

a receiver that receives the terminal capability information transmitted from the radio terminal; and

a determination unit that determines whether or not location information indicating a geographical location of the radio terminal is acquirable from the radio terminal, based on the terminal capability information received by the receiver.

2. The radio base station according to claim 1, wherein

the transmitter transmits the capability information transmission request if a radio relay station is a handover candidate for the radio terminal.

3. The radio base station according to claim 2, wherein

the transmitter further transmits, to radio relay station, a capability information transmission request for requesting a transmission of relay station capability information indicating a positioning capability of the radio relay station,

the receiver further receives the relay station capability information transmitted from the radio relay station, and

the determination unit further determines whether or not location information indicating a geographical location of the radio relay station is acquirable from the radio relay station, based on the relay station capability information received by the receiver.

4. The radio base station according to claim 3, further comprising:

an acquisition unit that acquires location information from each of the radio terminal and the radio relay station if it is determined that the location information is acquirable from each of the radio terminal and the radio relay station; and

a handover controller that controls handover of the radio terminal based on the location information acquired by the acquisition unit, wherein

the handover controller restricts handover to the radio base station if a change in a relative distance between the radio terminal and the radio relay station is larger than a predetermined amount.

5. The radio base station according to claim 1, wherein

the transmitter transmits the capability information transmission request when a measurement process for acquiring radio quality information and location information is carried out by using the radio terminal.

6. The radio base station according to claim 5, further comprising

a selection unit that selects a radio terminal to be used for the measurement process among a plurality of radio terminals being connected to the radio base station, wherein

the transmitter transmits the capability information transmission request to each of the plurality of radio terminals,

the determination unit determines a positioning capability of each of the plurality of radio terminals based on the terminal capability information that the receiver receives from the radio terminal, and

the selection unit selects the radio terminal to be used for the measurement process, based on determined positioning capabilities.

7. A method of controlling a radio base station comprising the steps of:

transmitting, to a radio terminal being connected to the radio base station, a capability information transmission request for requesting a transmission of terminal capability information indicating a positioning capability of the radio terminal;

receiving the terminal capability information transmitted from the radio terminal; and

determining whether or not location information indicating a geographical location of the radio terminal is acquirable from the radio terminal, based on the terminal capability information received in the receiving step.