Wireless terminal call method and wireless access system capable of greatly reducing standby power consumption of wireless terminals in a call standby state without increasing call delay time

• US 8,774,089 B2
• Filed: 03/24/2009
• Issued: 07/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
• Inventors: Nuno, Fusao, Shimizu, Yoshitaka
• Primary Examiner(s): Renner, Brandon
• Assistant Examiner(s): MUSA, ABDELNABI O
• Application Number:
  US12/933,595
• Publication Number:
  US 20110038317A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,932 Days
• Field of Search: 370/338, 370/337, 370/339, 370/328, 370/329, 370/330, 455/517, 455/219, 455/225, 455/551, 455/560
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0225 using monitoring of external events, e.g. the presence of a signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/025 Indirect paging
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A wireless terminal receives a first broadcast signal transmitted from a wireless base station; detects whether a part of a wireless terminal ID of the own wireless terminal is included in the first broadcast signal received in the broadcast signal reception or not and determines that the second broadcast signal is to be continuously received when the part of the wireless terminal ID is included; and receives the second broadcast signal when it is determined in the broadcast signal determination that the second broadcast signal is to be received, stops receiving data transmitted from the wireless base station when assignment information to be transmitted to the own wireless terminal is not present in the received second broadcast signal, and receives data transmitted from the wireless base station to the own wireless terminal based on the information on the assignment position of the wireless slot included in the second broadcast signal when the assignment information to be transmitted to the own wireless terminal is present in the received second broadcast signal.

Claims

1. A wireless terminal call method in which a plurality of wireless terminals each having a unique ID share a wireless frame including a plurality of wireless slots and a wireless base station calls at least one of the plurality of the wireless terminals using a broadcast slot of the wireless frame, the wireless terminal call method comprising:

generating, by the wireless base station, a first broadcast signal and a second broadcast signal, the first broadcast signal including not all but a part of a wireless terminal ID of a wireless terminal to be called, the wireless terminal being included in the plurality of the wireless terminals, the second broadcast signal including assignment information which is information on assignment position of at least one of the plurality of the wireless slots for the wireless terminal, the at least one of the plurality of the wireless slots being included in the second broadcast signal;

generating, by the wireless base station, a wireless frame including the first broadcast signal and the second broadcast signal such that the second broadcast signal is subsequent to the first broadcast signal in the broadcast slot;

transmitting, by the wireless base station, the wireless frame to the plurality of the wireless terminals;

receiving, by the plurality of the wireless terminals, the first broadcast signal transmitted from the wireless base station;

detecting, by the plurality of the wireless terminals, whether the not all but the part of the wireless terminal ID of own wireless terminal is included in the first broadcast signal received in the broadcast signal reception or not and determining that the second broadcast signal is to be continuously received when the not all but the part of the wireless terminal ID is included; and

receiving, by the plurality of the wireless terminals, the second broadcast signal when it is determined in the broadcast signal determination that the second broadcast signal is to be received, stopping receiving data transmitted from the wireless base station when the assignment information is not included in the received second broadcast signal, and receiving the data based on the assignment information when the assignment information is included in the received second broadcast signal.

2. The wireless terminal call method according to claim 1, the wireless terminal call method further comprising:

dividing, by the wireless base station, the plurality of the wireless terminals into a plurality of groups and setting a super frame including a plurality of wireless frames;

presetting, by the wireless base station, the corresponding wireless frame from the plurality of the wireless frames in the super frame for each of the plurality of the groups, and

receiving, by the wireless terminal, the first broadcast signal or the first and second broadcast signals in the preset wireless frame.

3. The wireless terminal call method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first broadcast signal includes call information having a fixed length and including classification information and wireless terminal ID information,

the classification information is at least one of the number of a plurality of partial ID patterns included in the wireless terminal ID information, lengths of the plurality of the partial ID patterns, and information associated with the number and lengths of the plurality of the partial ID patterns,

the wireless terminal ID information indicates the plurality of the partial ID patterns, and

at least one of the plurality of the partial ID patterns indicates a part of the wireless terminal ID of the wireless terminal.

4. The wireless terminal call method according to claim 3, wherein the number of the at least one of the plurality of the wireless terminals is used as the classification information.

5. The wireless terminal call method according to claim 3, wherein a first length of the classification information and a second length of the wireless terminal ID information are variable.

6. The wireless terminal call method according to claim 4, wherein a bit length of one of the plurality of the partial ID patterns in the wireless terminal ID information varies with the number of the plurality of the partial ID patterns included in the wireless terminal ID information.

7. The wireless terminal call method according to claim 6, wherein ID information of the wireless terminal designated in the wireless terminal ID information is represented in a bit pattern for each of the at least one of the plurality of the wireless terminals, and the bit pattern is a bit pattern of a plurality of bits which are part of the ID of the at least one of the plurality of the wireless terminals, the bit pattern being a bit pattern corresponding to a bit length of one of the plurality of the partial ID patterns designated in the wireless terminal ID information.

8. The wireless terminal call method according to claim 6, wherein the bit length of the one of the plurality of the partial ID patterns is shortened as the number of the plurality of the partial ID patterns is increased.

9. The wireless terminal call method according to claim 7, wherein when the bit patterns of the plurality of the bits of the IDs of the at least one of the plurality of wireless terminals are common in a range of the bit length of one of the plurality of the partial ID patterns designated in the wireless terminal ID information, the wireless base station regards the at least one of the plurality of the wireless terminals having the common bit pattern as one wireless terminal to generate the wireless terminal ID information.

10. The wireless terminal call method according to claim 1, wherein the generation of the first broadcast signal is performed by extracting lower predetermined bits from the unique ID of the at least one of the plurality of the wireless terminals.

11. A wireless access system in which a plurality of wireless terminals each having a unique ID share a wireless frame including a plurality of wireless slots and a wireless base station calls at least one of the plurality of the wireless terminals using a broadcast slot of the wireless frame,

wherein the wireless base station comprises:

a first central processing unit to control the wireless base station;

a database configured to store the unique ID of the plurality of the wireless terminals;

a broadcast signal generation circuit configured to generate a first broadcast signal and a second broadcast signal, the first broadcast signal including not all but a part of a wireless terminal ID of a wireless terminal to be called, the not all but the part of the wireless terminal ID being generated based on the unique ID stored in the database, the wireless terminal being included in the plurality of the wireless terminals, the second broadcast signal including assignment information which is information on assignment position of at least one of the plurality of the wireless slots for the wireless terminal, the at least one of the plurality of the wireless slots being included in the second broadcast signal;

a wireless frame generation circuit configured to generate a wireless frame including the first broadcast signal and the second broadcast signal generated by the broadcast signal generation circuit such that the second broadcast signal is subsequent to the first broadcast signal in the broadcast slot; and

a first transceiver circuit configured to transmit the wireless frame generated by the wireless frame generation circuit to the plurality of the wireless terminals, and receive wireless signals transmitted from the plurality of the wireless terminals,

wherein the database, the broadcast signal generation circuit, the wireless frame generation circuit, and the first transceiver circuit are controlled by the first central processing unit, and

wherein each of the plurality of the wireless terminals comprises;

a second central processing unit configured to control own wireless terminal;

a second transceiver circuit configured to receive the first broadcast signal transmitted from the first transceiver circuit and transmit one of the wireless signals to the wireless base station;

a broadcast signal determination circuit configured to detect whether the not all but the part of the wireless terminal ID of the own wireless terminal is included in the first broadcast signal received by the second transceiver circuit or not and determine that the second broadcast signal included in the wireless frame transmitted by the first transceiver circuit is to be continuously received when the not all but the part of the wireless terminal ID is included;

a broadcast signal reception circuit configured to receive the second broadcast signal when the broadcast signal determination circuit determines that the second broadcast signal is to be received; and

a data reception circuit configured to stop receiving data transmitted from the wireless base station when the assignment information is not included in the second broadcast signal received by the broadcast signal reception circuit, and receive the data based on the assignment information when the assignment information is included in the second broadcast signal received by the broadcast signal reception circuit,

wherein the second transceiver circuit, the broadcast signal determination circuit, the broadcast signal reception circuit, and the data reception circuit are controlled by the second central processing unit.

12. A wireless base station comprises:

a central processing unit to control the wireless base station;

a database configured to store each unique ID of a plurality of wireless terminals;

a broadcast signal generation circuit configured to generate a first broadcast signal and a second broadcast signal, the first broadcast signal including not all but a part of a wireless terminal ID of a wireless terminal to be called, the not all but the part of the wireless terminal ID being generated based on the unique ID stored in the database, the wireless terminal being included in the plurality of the wireless terminals, the second broadcast signal including assignment information which is information on assignment position of at least one of a plurality of wireless slots for the wireless terminal, the at least one of the plurality of the wireless slots being included in the second broadcast signal;

a wireless frame generation circuit configured to generate a wireless frame including the first broadcast signal and the second broadcast signal generated by the broadcast signal generation circuit such that the second broadcast signal is subsequent to the first broadcast signal in the broadcast slot; and

a transceiver circuit configured to transmit the wireless frame generated by the wireless frame generation circuit to the plurality of the wireless terminals, and receive wireless signals transmitted from the plurality of the wireless terminals,

wherein the database, the broadcast signal generation circuit, the wireless frame generation circuit, and the transceiver circuit are controlled by the central processing unit.

13. A wireless terminal comprising:

a central processing unit configured to control own wireless terminal;

a transceiver circuit configured to receive the first broadcast signal transmitted from the transceiver circuit and transmit a wireless signal to a wireless base station;

a broadcast signal determination circuit configured to detect whether the not all but the part of the wireless terminal ID of the own wireless terminal is included in the first broadcast signal received by the transceiver circuit or not and determine that the second broadcast signal included in a wireless frame transmitted by the wireless base station is to be continuously received when the not all but the part of the wireless terminal ID is included;

a broadcast signal reception circuit configured to receive the second broadcast signal when the broadcast signal determination circuit determines that the second broadcast signal is to be received; and

a data reception circuit configured to stop receiving data transmitted from the wireless base station when assignment information is not included in the second broadcast signal received by the broadcast signal reception circuit, the assignment information being information on assignment position of at least one of a plurality of the wireless slots for the wireless terminal, the at least one of the plurality of the wireless slots being included in the second broadcast signal, and

receive the data transmitted from the wireless base station to the own wireless terminal based on the assignment information when the assignment information is included in the second broadcast signal received by the broadcast signal reception circuit,

wherein the transceiver circuit, the broadcast signal determination circuit, the broadcast signal reception circuit, and the data reception circuit are controlled by the central processing unit.