CN101938754B - Method and device for managing power supply of femtocell - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and device for power management in a femtocell base station. The information of registered client devices is configured in the femtocell base station, and the number of active registered client devices within the coverage area of the current femtocell base station is monitored. According to the Adjust the working modes of relevant network modules in the femtocell base station based on the monitoring results. For example, if the number of active registered client devices is zero, the network module enters a dormant mode to save power consumption, and it can further release network connection resources with the base station gateway or broadband access gateway on the network side.

Description

Femtocell base station power management method and device thereof

technical field

The invention relates to the field of communication technology, in particular to a method and device for power management in femtocell base stations.

Background technique

In the current 3G wireless communication technology, the communication based on the macro cell is poor in penetrating characteristics of the building due to the wireless frequency used, which will lead to the decline of indoor service quality, and the burden of the wireless channel is becoming increasingly tense. Therefore, research on fixed-mobile converged networks based on FemtoCell (femtocells) and other similar technologies has become a hot spot in the industry. Some FemtoCell base stations for home and small business units use mobile user equipment (UE) through existing A broadband access network (such as DSL or cable high-speed network) connects to the cellular telephone network.

Figure 1 is an example of a typical femtocell network access system structure. On the one hand, a mobile user equipment (UE) can access the mobile core network through the terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN). UTRAN includes wireless base stations (NodeB ) and the radio network controller (RNC), which realize the connection provided by user terminal equipment such as mobile phones and portable computers to the mobile core network; on the other hand, when the UE moves into the coverage of the FemtoCell base station in its home network, it passes The broadband network connection of the fixed network accesses the mobile core network through an IP security tunnel. It is worth noting that FemtoCell base stations are also called home base stations or 3G access points. Femtocell technology was later adopted by 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project). High Speed Link Packet Access) is called Home Base Station (HNB), and LTE (Long Term Evolution) is called Enhanced Home Base Station (HeNB).

However, as these FemtoCell base stations are deployed in large numbers, their power consumption will become a potential problem because they are always on.

Figure 2 is a typical HeNB activation/deactivation operation process, which is based on the fact that the UE leaves or enters the neighbor cell of the HeNB, and the MME (Mobility Management Network Element) on the network side controls the activation/deactivation of the HeNB, for example : Reduce the transmission power, enter the sleep mode, and no longer transmit wireless signals, so as to save some energy consumption. In the illustration, cell 2 and cell 3 are neighbor cells of HeNB, and it is assumed that UE knows the neighbor cell of HeNB: S1), UE moves to neighbor cell 2 of HeNB; S2), UE notifies MME that it has moved to neighbor cell 2 of HeNB ; S3), if the HeNB is in an inactive state at this time, the MME notifies the activation of the HeNB; S4), the UE moves to the coverage of the HeNB, it can detect the signal of the HeNB and maintain communication with the network through it; S5), the UE moves out of the coverage of the HeNB; S6) the UE notifies the MME that it has moved out of the coverage of the neighboring cells of the HeNB; S7), the MME notices that there is no active registered UE of the HeNB in the neighboring cells of the HeNB, and it notifies the deactivation of the HeNB.

In the above method, on the one hand, the network connection of the HeNB in the active/inactive state needs to be maintained all the time, even if there is no active UE within its coverage area for a certain period of time, the network resources such as the IPSec tunnel and IP address of these HeNBs still need to be Maintain, so that the MME on the network side can control the activation/deactivation of the HeNB; on the other hand, if a HeNB changes the transmission of wireless signals (such as changing the transmission power, starting or stopping signal transmission) will lead to changes in the dynamic network environment, the network side The HeNB management device will re-optimize the network and notify other relevant HeNBs, which will inevitably increase the network load; in addition, if the UE leaves the coverage of the HeNB and only stays in its neighbor cell, the HeNB is still active, and its power consumption problem still exists, and At present, more and more home gateways integrate femtocell functions, and other network modules in the gateway are always in working mode, and their power consumption will become a potential problem.

Contents of the invention

The present invention aims to solve one or more of the aforementioned technical problems, and provides a technical solution based on power management in femtocell base stations, which can save power consumption.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a power management method in a femtocell base station is provided, which monitors active registered client devices within the coverage of the current femtocell base station by configuring registered client device information in the femtocell base station quantity, and adjust the working modes of relevant network modules in the femtocell base station according to the monitoring results.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a kind of femtocell base station is provided here, and it comprises storage device, is used for saving the information of registered client equipment in femtocell base station; Control device, is used for monitoring The number of active registered client devices; the network module can adjust its working mode according to the instruction of the control device.

The present invention has the following technical advantages:

The femtocell base station can adjust its working mode according to the network usage status of the registered UE to achieve the purpose of saving power consumption and even its network resource consumption. Even when the femtocell goes into sleep mode, it will keep the transmission characteristics of the wireless signal unchanged, so it will not have any impact on the overall network optimization.

Description of drawings

The features, nature and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like elements have like reference numerals, in which:

Figure 1 is a typical structure example of FemtoCell base station network access system;

Figure 2 is a typical HeNB activation/deactivation operation process;

Fig. 3 is the FemtoCell base station network system architecture illustration provided by the present invention;

Fig. 4 is the structural illustration of FemtoCell base station provided by the present invention;

Detailed ways

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Generally speaking, the standard mobile base stations used in 2G or 3G cellular mobile communications can be called macrocell base stations, which have relatively high transmission power and are mainly used for outdoor coverage of about 5 kilometers; in order to improve coverage, microcell base stations were developed later , the transmission power is appropriate, mainly used for regional coverage, such as blind spots and shadow areas where some signals are difficult to cover, such as campuses and similar tunnels, underground shopping malls, etc. Within meters, it supports a small number of mobile user equipment, mainly used for indoor coverage, and has a large amount of network deployment. In view of this, how to control its working mode to save its power and network resource consumption is more prominent than macrocell base stations and microcell base stations.

The FemtoCell base station network system architecture of the present invention as shown in Figures 3A and 3B includes: FemtoCell base station, HNG gateway (home base station gateway), HMS (home base station management system) equipment, wherein:

The FemtoCell base station can be a separate FemtoCell device (as shown in Figure 3A), or it can be integrated with the Home GW (Home Gateway) (as shown in Figure 3B), which uses the fixed network as its backhaul network to access the mobile core network. In conjunction with the embodiments provided by the present invention, the FemtoCell base station is configured with registered user end equipment (U1, U2, U3) information, and monitors the activity of the number of these registered user end equipment, so that its working mode can be adjusted to achieve saving power consumption, and even its network resource consumption.

HNG gateway, as a convergence point and IPSec gateway, mobile operators set up corresponding HNG gateways in the mobile network to connect the aforementioned FemtoCell base stations, and provide security functions at the same time, establishing IPSec security between FemtoCell base stations and HNG gateways on the Internet tunnel. In combination with the embodiments provided by the present invention, since the FemtoCell base station can decide whether to release its IPSec secure tunnel connection with the HNG gateway according to the activity status of its registered user equipment U1, U2, U3, thereby further reducing the network resources of the HNG gateway consume.

The HMS device can complete management functions such as FemtoCell gateway discovery, FemtoCell base station location verification, and parameter configuration. After the FemtoCell base station is turned on, it completes its own automatic configuration and initializes related parameters according to the verification and parameter configuration of the HMS device, such as: carrier frequency, scrambling code, or pseudo-random code offset, cell identification code (Cell_ID), location area Code/routing area code, initial target cell range and other parameters. In combination with the embodiments provided by the present invention, the HMS device can provide users with the registration of their registered client devices, and provide it to the corresponding FemtoCell base station through its management function, because the FemtoCell base station can register according to the number of active registered client devices Switch its working mode and notify the HMS device. According to the received message, the HMS does not need to perform network management or monitoring on the FemtoCell base station, thereby greatly reducing its workload.

Below we will further describe the configuration management of registered UEs, monitoring of the number of active registered UEs, power management, and network resource management of the present invention from the following aspects:

1. Configuration management of registered UE

Since the handover process from macrocell to femtocell is more complicated than from femtocell to macrocell, we can not mandate instant mobile handover from macrocell to femtocell, so that if a communication When a UE moves from a macrocell to a femtocell, it can choose to access the femtocell again after the maintained communication is disconnected or terminated. The handover from a femtocell to a macrocell is relatively simple. Before the UE decides to move and handover, its target macrocell is known, and the handover is actually a simple binding handover process.

In order to control the controlled access of UEs under the femtocell, only registered UEs are allowed to access through the femtocell base station, thus, unauthorized UEs will be denied access to the femtocell base station and cannot communicate through it. The network side sends the signaling, it will still use the macro cell for communication.

The registered UE user list can be downloaded from the HMS device on the network side when the femtocell base station is powered on to perform automatic configuration and initialize related parameters. End users can add, update, delete and other operations to the aforementioned registered UE user list through the security measures provided by the HMS device. Registered UE users can be identified by the IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) number, which is the only number that can identify mobile users in the switched network numbering plan of the public telephone network; network operators can design some mobile strategies, through the above The method configures the mobile policy to the femtocell base station, and the femtocell base station regards the UE users conforming to the mobile policy as registered UE users and allows mobile access.

2. Monitor the number of active registered UEs within the coverage of the current femtocell base station.

Here, we exemplify the following four situations that lead to a decrease in the number of actively registered UEs served within the coverage of a femtocell:

1), a registered UE performs a shutdown operation, and it will send a detachment message to the femtocell base station that currently provides communication services for it, such as the Detach message in the WCDMA wireless protocol;

2), after a registered UE in the idle mode moves out of the coverage area of the femtocell base station, the periodic location area update (PLAU) corresponding to the UE in the femtocell base station expires;

3) When a registered UE moves out of the coverage area of the femtocell base station to the macro cell, the UE will send a handover trigger message to the current femtocell base station;

4) If a registered UE fails to log in to the femtocell (no de-registration and out-of-service messages are sent), when the periodic location area update (PLAU) expires.

Below, we further illustrate two situations that lead to an increase in the number of registered UEs served within the coverage of a femtocell:

1) When a registered UE is turned on, it will initiate a location update (LocationUpdate) operation.

2) When a registered UE moves from a macrocell to a femtocell coverage, due to the LAI difference between the macrocell and the femtocell, the UE will initiate a Location Update operation.

3. Working mode management

The working mode of the base station is controlled by the number of UEs currently actively registered in the femtocell base station obtained through the aforementioned monitoring.

If the femtocell is in active mode and the number of active UEs obtained from the aforementioned tracking is equal to zero, it will deactivate the femtocell and turn it into sleep mode.

If the femtocell is in sleep mode and the number of registered UEs obtained from the aforementioned tracking is greater than zero, it will activate the femtocell and turn it into the working mode.

Any attempt to make an emergency call through the HNB will cause the HNB to switch from sleep mode to work mode.

As mentioned above, the FemtoCell base station can be a separate FemtoCell device, or it can be integrated with Home GW. Currently, mobile phone devices have become personal communication devices. The FemtoCell base station can determine the FemtoCell device by tracking the number of active registered UEs mentioned above. , and even the working modes of other network modules integrated with it, thereby achieving the purpose of reducing power consumption. For example: when all registered user equipment leaves the coverage of the current FemtoCell base station, the purpose of saving power consumption can be achieved by changing the relevant CPU in the FemtoCell base station to work in low frequency mode and the transmit power of the WiFi wireless module.

4. Network resource management

We can adjust and control the release and establishment of network resources of the FemtoCell base station by tracking the number of currently active registered UEs in the femtocell base station as described above.

On the network side, if the number of active registered UEs obtained from the aforementioned tracking is equal to zero, the FemtoCell base station can inform the HMS device on the network side that it enters sleep mode, so that the HMS device does not need to perform regular detection on the FemtoCell base station, and the FemtoCell base station can further release Network connection resources, specifically the IPSec tunnel connection between the HNG gateways; if other network modules are integrated in the femtocell base station, the FemtoCell base station can further notify the relevant network modules to release their network resources, such as connecting with the broadband access in the fixed network PPP network connection between ingress gateways (BARS).

On the contrary, if the number of registered UEs tracked is not zero, the FemtoCell base station is activated in the working mode, which can trigger other network modules to establish a PPP network connection with the BRAS in the fixed network, and further establish IPSec with the HNG gateway on the network side After the tunnel connection, the home base station management system HMS on the network side can be notified that it enters the working mode, so that the HMS can perform network management or monitoring on the FemtoCell base station.

Fig. 4 is a kind of FemtoCell base station structural illustration provided by the present invention, and it comprises mobile network module 41 and home network module 42, wherein, mobile network module 41 provides the radio frequency interface 411 of 2G, 3G or 4G, and through its baseband part 412 Processor 413 carries out signal processing after processing; Home network module 42 provides routing module 421, wireless WiFi module 422, DSL network module 423, USB2.0 interface module 424, RJ11/POTS module 425, Ethernet switch module 426 etc., routing Module 421 connects other network modules in the home network module with the aforementioned mobile network module. After the FemtoCell base station is turned on, it establishes a network connection with the fixed network through the DSL network module 423, and then the mobile network module 41 can interact with the management equipment in its mobile core network through the aforementioned established network connection, such as identity authentication, network parameter configuration, etc.

According to the example of the present invention, the mobile network module 41 only provides controlled access to registered UEs. The registered UE user list can be downloaded from the HMS on the network side and saved to the mobile network when the FemtoCell base station is powered on to perform automatic configuration and initialize related parameters. Module storage unit 414 .

The processor 413 in the mobile network module monitors the signal of the mobile device processed by the baseband part, and determines the number of actively registered UEs within the coverage of the current mobile network module. Here, we exemplify the following four scenarios that lead to a reduction in the number of actively registered UEs served within the coverage of a femtocell:

1) A registered UE executes a shutdown operation, and it will send a detachment message to the mobile network module currently providing communication services for it, such as a Detach message in the WCDMA wireless protocol.

2) After a registered UE in idle mode moves out of the coverage of the FemtoCell base station, the periodical location area update (PLAU) corresponding to the UE in the mobile network module expires.

3) When a registered UE moves out of the coverage of the FemtoCell base station to the macro cell, the UE will send a handover trigger message to the current mobile network module.

4) If a registered UE fails to log in to the FemtoCell base station (no de-registration and out-of-service messages are sent), when the periodic location area update (PLAU) expires.

Here, we further illustrate two situations that lead to an increase in the number of registered UEs served within the coverage of the FemtoCell base station:

1) When a registered UE is powered on, it will initiate a location update (LocationUpdate).

2) When a registered UE moves from a macro cell into a FemtoCell coverage area, due to the LAI (Location Area Identifier) difference between the macro cell and the mobile network module, the UE will initiate a location update (LocationUpdate) operate.

The processor 413 in the mobile network module can control the working mode of the relevant network module in the FemtoCell base station through the number of currently active registered UEs obtained through the aforementioned monitoring. For example, all registered user equipment leaves the coverage area of the current FemtoCell, and it can achieve the purpose of saving power consumption by changing the working mode of the relevant network module in the FemtoCell base station, such as reducing the operating frequency of its processor 413, reducing the emission of the wireless WiFi module 422 Power (or stop the transmission of WiFi signals), let the DSL module, Ethernet switch module, etc. enter sleep mode (or stop working).

The processor 413 may notify the corresponding network side management device and control the release and establishment of network resources of the relevant network modules through the number of currently active registered UEs of the FemtoCell base station obtained through the aforementioned monitoring. For example: if the number of active registered UEs is equal to zero, the processor can inform the HMS device on the network side that it has entered sleep mode, so that the HMS device can no longer perform regular monitoring on the FemtoCell base station; the FemtoCell base station can further release its communication with the FemtoCell gateway The IPSec tunnel connection between them; even further notify the DSL network module 423 to release the PPP network connection between it and the BRAS in the fixed network.

On the contrary, if the number of registered UEs tracked is not zero, the processor 413 can activate the relevant network module to be the working mode, which can trigger the activation of the DSL network module 423 to establish a PPP network connection with the BRAS in the fixed network, and the FemtoCell base station can Further establish an IPSec tunnel connection with the FemtoCell gateway on the network side, and then inform the HMS device on the network side that it has entered the working mode, so that the HMS can resume network management or monitoring of the FemtoCell base station.

Although the above description provides some embodiments for the present invention, it is not intended to limit the protection scope of the present invention. Those skilled in the art can make various modifications to the embodiments without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention. Such modifications are within the scope of the present invention.

Claims (10)

1. a power management method in a femtocell base station, is characterized in that comprising the steps: a), configuring registered user terminal equipment information in the femtocell base station; b), the femtocell base station monitors the number of active registered client devices within its coverage area according to the mobile signal of the registered client devices; c), adjusting the working modes of relevant network modules in the femtocell base station according to the monitoring results; d) Adjusting and controlling the release and establishment of network resources between the femtocell base station and the gateway on the network side according to the monitoring result. 2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that in said step a), the femtocell base station can download and obtain the registered user end device information from the corresponding management device on the network side. 3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that in the step c), when the number of active registered client devices monitored is zero/non-zero, the network module enters a sleep/normal working mode. 4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that in the method step d), the femtocell base station releases/establishes a connection with the gateway on the network side when the number of active registered user end equipment is zero/non-zero. IP secure tunnel connection. 5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that said method step d) further comprises releasing/establishing the network connection with the broadband access gateway on the network side. 6. A femtocell base station, characterized in that it comprises: Storage device: used to save the information of the registered client equipment in the femtocell base station; Control device: used for the femtocell base station to monitor the number of active registered client devices within its coverage area according to the mobile signal of the registered client devices; Network module: it can adjust its working mode according to the instructions of the control device, and adjust and control the release and establishment of network resources between the femtocell base station and the gateway on the network side. 7. The femtocell base station according to claim 6, characterized in that the control device can download and obtain the information of the registered client equipment from the corresponding management device on the network side and save it in the storage device. 8. The femtocell base station according to claim 6, wherein the control means instructs the network module to enter a dormant/normal operation mode when the number of active registered UEs is zero/non-zero. 9. The femtocell base station according to claim 6, wherein the network module can release/establish the IP security tunnel connection with the gateway on the network side according to the instruction of the control device. 10. The femtocell base station according to claim 9, characterized in that the network module can further release/establish the network connection with the broadband access gateway on the network side according to the instructions of the control device.

Images