TERMINAL AND CODING MODE SELECTION METHOD

• US 20130230057A1
• Filed: 10/26/2011
• Published: 09/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Hori, Takako, Ehara, Hiroyuki
• Granted Patent: US 9,401,975 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0083 Determination of parameters used for hand-off, e.g. generation or modification of neighbour cell lists
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/00837 Determination of triggering parameters for hand-off
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/181 Transcoding devices; Rate adaptation devices

Abstract

Provided is a terminal capable of determining the status of a communications and selecting an appropriate codec mode without applying a load to either a network or terminals, by using information held by the terminal as negotiation information. A UE (100) sends to a partner the codec mode selected from a plurality of candidate codec modes notified by the partner, when communications commence. The UE (100) comprises: a wireless receiver (600) that receives a first information relating to the characteristics of a network to which the partner is currently connected; an information comparison unit (606) that compares the first information and a second information relating to the characteristics of the network that the UE is currently connected to, and decides the communications format; and a mode determination unit (608) that selects the codec mode to be used, from among the candidates and based on the decided communications format.

Claims

1. A terminal that transmits to a partner terminal which is a communicating partner of the terminal, a codec mode selected from among a plurality of codec mode candidates notified of from the partner terminal when communication starts between the terminal and the partner terminal, comprising:

a receiving section that receives first information relating to characteristics of an access network to which the partner terminal is currently connected;

a determining section that compares the first information with second information relating to characteristics of an access network to which the terminal is currently connected and determines a communication format between the terminal and the partner terminal; and

a selection section that selects a codec mode to be used to communicate with the partner terminal from among the plurality of codec mode candidates based on the communication format determined by the determining section.

2. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein:

the determining section determines whether the communication format is a first communication format in which the terminals are connected via a communication network constructed of an identical base station, a plurality of base stations or a plurality of base stations and a VPN (Virtual Private Network) backbone, a second communication format in which the terminals are connected to different base stations via an IP core network, or a third communication format which is different from the first communication format and the second communication format, and

the selection section selects a codec mode of the highest quality when the communication format is the first communication format and selects a codec mode of higher quality than that of the third communication format when the communication format is the second communication format.

3. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein:

the first information is transmitted from the partner terminal to the terminal via a network node having a processing function for call control, and

the network node confirms appropriateness of the first information.

4. The terminal according to claim 3, wherein:

the receiving section further receives the appropriateness confirmation result in the network node, and

the determining section determines based on the confirmation result whether or not to determine the communication format.

5. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein:

the receiving section further receives third information indicating the presence or absence of a possibility of handover of the partner terminal, and

the determining section determines the communication format based on the first information, the second information, the third information, and fourth information indicating the presence or absence of a possibility of handover of the terminal.

6. The terminal according to claim 5, wherein the third information and the fourth information indicate whether or not the partner terminal and the terminal are stationary apparatuses, whether or not the partner terminal and the terminal are connected to a stationary node or whether or not a communication mode is set to a telephone conference mode.

7. The terminal according to claim 5, further comprising a changing section that changes a codec mode currently in use when the possibility of handover changes in the terminal or the partner terminal in communication.

8. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the first information and the second information are a CSG ID (Closed Subscriber Group Identifier) or a base station ID.

9. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein characteristics of the access network are the amount of wireless resource allocatable per terminal.

10. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the codec mode includes a bit rate and a algorithmic delay.

11. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein a codec mode to be used to communicate with the partner terminal selected by the selection section is notified of using an RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) payload.

12. The terminal according to claim 11, wherein:

the RTP payload comprises a header portion and a data portion, and

the length of the header portion is changed according to a codec mode to be used to communicate with the partner terminal.

13. The terminal according to claim 11, wherein:

the RTP payload comprises a header portion and a data portion, and

the header portion comprises a first header always provided in all RTP payloads and a second header not always provided in all RTP payloads.

14. The terminal according to claim 13, wherein the first header comprises a field indicating whether or not the second header is provided.

15. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the selection section further selects a codec mode to be used to communicate with the partner terminal from codec mode candidates corresponding to at least part of policy of an operator that provides a communication or call service to the terminal among the plurality of codec mode candidates.

16. The terminal according to claim 15, wherein the plurality of codec mode candidates notified of from the partner terminal comprise codec mode candidates corresponding to at least part of the policy of the operator that provides a communication or call service to the partner terminal.

17. The terminal according to claim 15, wherein the policy contains a codec scheme preferentially used by the operator, codec bit rate, sampling rate, audio band, algorithmic delay, the number of channels, whether or not to permit switching of the bit rate and the number of channels during a session, whether or not to permit a variable bit rate (VBR) operation or whether or not to permit a redundant frame.

18. The terminal according to claim 11, wherein:

the RTP payload comprises a data portion, a subsequent signaling portion that is not always provided in all RTP payloads and a field indicating the presence or absence of the subsequent signaling portion that is always provided in all RTP payloads, and

the codec mode is notified of using the subsequent signaling portion.

19. The terminal according to claim 11, wherein:

the RTP payload comprises a data portion, a header portion that is not always provided in all RTP payloads, and a field indicating the presence or absence of the header portion that is always provided in all RTP payloads, and

the codec mode is notified of using the header portion.

20. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein:

third information generated by the partner terminal and containing the plurality of codec mode candidates is transmitted to the terminal via a network node having a processing function for call control,

the network node changes, when an access network to which the terminal is currently connected is under the control of the network node, the plurality of codec mode candidates indicated in the third information, and

the selection section selects a codec mode to be used to communicate with the partner terminal from among the plurality of codec mode candidates included in the changed third information.

21. The terminal according to claim 20, wherein:

the network node further transmits to the terminal, confirmation information indicating whether or not the third information is confirmed, and

the selection section selects, when the confirmation information indicates that the third information has been confirmed, a codec mode to be used to communicate with the partner terminal from among the plurality of codec mode candidates included in the changed third information.

22. A codec mode selection method for a communication system in which when communication starts between a first terminal and a second terminal which is a communicating partner of the first terminal, the first terminal transmits to the second terminal, a codec mode selected from among a plurality of codec mode candidates notified of from the second terminal, the method comprising:

a step of notifying the first terminal of first information relating to characteristics of an access network to which the second terminal is currently connected, by the second terminal;

a step of receiving the first information by the first terminal;

a step of comparing the first information with second information relating to characteristics of an access network to which the first terminal is currently connected and determining a communication format between the first terminal and the second terminal by the first terminal; and

a step of selecting a codec mode to be used to communicate with the second terminal from among the plurality of codec mode candidates based on the determined communication format by the first terminal.