BASE STATION, TERMINAL, AND CELL ASSIGNMENT METHOD

• US 20140113642A1
• Filed: 07/25/2013
• Published: 04/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: YAMANA, Takeshi, OOSUGI, Masahiro, HARADA, Masakazu
• Granted Patent: US 9,553,711 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/452.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0069 Allocation based on distance or geographical location allocation based on terminal or device properties in general, H04W72/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B

Abstract

A counting unit of a base station counts the number of terminals located in an area covered by the base station for each of communication carriers corresponding to the terminals. An assigning unit assigns each of cells in a first group to any of the communication carriers, where each of the cells is a frequency band of the base station 10 and occupied by one terminal communicating with the cell.

Claims

1. A base station comprising:

a counting unit that counts number of terminals located in an area covered by the base station, for each of communication carriers corresponding to the terminals; and

an assigning unit that assigns each of cells in a first group to any of the communication carriers, wherein each of the cells is a frequency band of the base station and occupied by one terminal communicating with the cell.

2. The base station according to claim 1, wherein the assigning unit adjusts the number of cells assigned to each of the communication carriers based on an installation location of the base station or based on a time or season.

3. The base station according to claim 1, further comprising a cell in a second group that is available to all of the communication carriers, in addition to the cells in the first group.

4. The base station according to claim 1, a lower limit of the number of cells assigned to each of the communication carriers is set.

5. The base station according to claim 1, wherein

the counting unit performs counting with a certain period,

the assigning unit performs assignment with the certain period,

the assigning unit assigns a second number of cells to a certain communication carrier when the second number of cells assigned at current assignment is greater than a first number of cells assigned at previous assignment and when a throughput of the certain communication carrier or a cumulative number of packets of the certain communication carrier in a certain period is smaller than a certain value, and

the assigning unit assigns the first number of cells to the certain communication carrier when the throughput or the cumulative number of packets is equal to or greater than the certain value.

6. The base station according to claim 2, wherein

an order of priority is assigned to each of the communication carriers, and

when the assigning unit performs adjustment to increase the number of cells assigned to a first communication carrier among the communication carriers, the assigning unit preferentially assigns a cell that has been assigned to a communication carrier with lower priority than that of the first communication carrier to the first communication carrier.

7. The base station according to claim 1, wherein the counting unit counts the number based on a tracking area registration request transmitted by each of the terminals or based on a response transmitted by each of the terminals in response to a paging signal transmitted by the base station.

8. A terminal comprising:

a wireless unit that receives an assignment signal from a base station; and

a communication control unit that performs communication by using a cell indicated by the received assignment signal, wherein

the cell indicated by the assignment signal is a cell that the base station has assigned to a communication carrier corresponding to a terminal based on the number of terminals of each of communication carriers corresponding to a plurality of terminals located in an area covered by the base station.

9. A cell assignment method comprising:

counting number of terminals located in an area covered by a base station, for each of communication carriers corresponding to the terminals; and

assigning each of cells in a first group to any of the communication carriers, wherein each of the cells is a frequency band of the base station and occupied by one terminal communicating with the cell.