Radio base station, radio communication control system, and radio communication control method

• US 8,271,041 B2
• Filed: 01/07/2009
• Issued: 09/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Hanaki, Akihito, Tanigawa, Daisuke, Oyane, Hidehiko, Yajima, Tatsuro
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Junpeng
• Application Number:
  US12/349,866
• Publication Number:
  US 20090181677A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,350 Days
• Field of Search: 455436-444, 455/550.1, 455/552.1, 455/561, 455/560, 370/331
• US Class Current: 455/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/02 Buffering or recovering information during reselection ; Modification of the traffic flow during hand-off
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

The radio base station includes a monitoring controller for determining whether to switch between BB cards; and a baseband signal processor for transmitting a suspension request to suspend the transmission of the user data when it is determined that the BB cards are switched, and performing the handover of a processing between the BB cards based on the transmission of the suspension request. The baseband signal processor transmits a capacity allocation or a zero grant requesting to set the transmission rate of the user data to zero.

Claims

1. A radio base station comprising:

a first baseband processor configured to perform a processing of a baseband signal including user data transmitted and received by a mobile station;

a second baseband processor used as a standby system of the first baseband processor;

a switching determiner configured to determine whether or not to switch from the first baseband processor to the second baseband processor;

an information transmitter configured to transmit a suspension request to suspend the transmission of the user data prior to the switching from the first baseband processor to the second baseband processor, when the switching determiner determines the switching from the first baseband processor to the second baseband processor; and

an handover execution unit configured to perform the handover of a processing from the first baseband processor to the second baseband processor, based on the transmission of the suspension request by the information transmitter, or on the determination of the transmission of the suspension request, wherein

the information transmitter transmits the suspension request to set the transmission rate of the user data to zero,

the radio base station operates in accordance with HSDPA defined by the 3rd generation partnership project and in accordance with EUL defined by the 3rd generation partnership project,

the information transmitter transmits a notification indicating that a capacity allocation rate is 0 kbps to radio network controller as the suspension request, when the radio base station operates in accordance with the HSDPA, or transmits a zero grant to the mobile station as the suspension request, when the radio base station operates in accordance with the EUL.

2. The radio base station according to claim 1, wherein when the handover execution unit completes the handover of the processing from the first baseband processor to the second baseband processor, the information transmitter transmits a communication resuming request to increase the transmission rate.

3. The radio base station according to claim 2, wherein the information transmitter transmits the communication resuming request to increase the transmission rate to a settable lowest transmission rate.

4. The radio base station according to claim 1, wherein the handover execution unit:

performs an handover processing in which a parameter of the user data set in the first baseband processor is handed over to the second baseband processor;

retains the user data in the first baseband processor when receiving the user data before completion of the handover processing; and

retains the user data in the second baseband processor when receiving the user data after completion of the handover processing.

5. The radio base station according to claim 1, wherein the first baseband processor relays the user data corresponding to each one of a plurality of mobile stations,

the handover execution unit performs an handover processing in which a parameter of the user data set in the first baseband processor is handed over to the second baseband processor, and

based on an amount of the user data received by the first baseband processor within a predetermined period of time, the handover execution unit starts performing the handover processing for the mobile stations in descending order of the amount of the user data.

6. A radio communication control method which uses a radio base station having a first baseband processor performing a processing of a baseband signal including user data transmitted and received by a mobile station, and a second baseband processor used as a standby system of the first baseband processor, the radio communication control method comprising the steps of:

determining whether or not to switch from the first baseband processor to the second baseband processor;

transmitting a suspension request to suspend the transmission of the user data prior to the switching from the first baseband processor to the second baseband processor when the switching determiner determines the switching from the first baseband processor to the second baseband processor; and

performing the handover of a processing from the first baseband processor to the second baseband processor, based on the transmission of the suspension request by the information transmitter, or on the determination of the transmission of the suspension request, wherein

the suspension request to set the transmission rate of the user data to zero is transmitted in the transmitting step,

the radio base station operates in accordance with HSDPA defined by the 3rd generation partnership project and in accordance with EUL defined by the 3rd generation partnership project,

in the transmitting step, transmitting a notification indicating that a capacity allocation rate is 0 kbps to a radio network controller as the suspension request, when the radio base station operates in accordance with the HSDPA, or transmitting a zero grant to the mobile station as the suspension request, when the radio base station operates in accordance with the EUL.