CN102413549B - Wireless communication terminal and power saving method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a wireless communication terminal and a power saving method thereof. The wireless communication terminal can be a mobile station of a wireless mobile communication network system. In an idle mode, when the wireless communication terminal enters into a starting state from a dormancy state and prepares to receive a paging message, before the paging message is received, at least one base station measurement is performed.

Description

Wireless communication terminal and its power saving method

technical field

The present invention relates to a wireless communication terminal and its power saving method, in particular to a wireless communication terminal and arranging base station measurement before paging message/burst reception in the wireless communication terminal to shorten the start-up state time and reduce power method of consumption.

Background technique

In the wireless network system, users can quickly and conveniently access various network resources through portable wireless communication terminals, such as exchanging voice, text messages, video pictures, audio-visual multimedia with another user and/or server , data files, e-mail and/or software and firmware programs, etc. Therefore, the wireless network system has become an indispensable infrastructure of the modern information society; for example, the wireless mobile communication network system is a wireless network system that has been widely used by the public.

With the development of wireless network systems, wireless communication terminals for accessing wireless networks, such as mobile phones (also known as mobile stations, mobile stations) for accessing wireless mobile communication networks, have become the most popular consumer electronics One of the products. Therefore, the modern information industry is all committed to improving the performance of wireless communication terminals.

Contents of the invention

Among various performance parameters of a wireless communication terminal, the length of standby time is one of the most important performances for users. In order to allow the user to carry it conveniently, the wireless communication terminal is powered by a battery; if the wireless communication terminal can have a longer standby time, the user does not need to frequently charge and/or replace the battery.

In order to prolong the standby time of the wireless communication terminal, it is necessary to reduce the power consumption of the wireless communication terminal as much as possible without affecting the operation of wireless network access. When the user does not access network resources through the wireless communication terminal, the wireless communication terminal operates in an idle mode. Compared with the time when the wireless communication terminal is used for accessing network resources, the wireless communication terminal operates in the idle mode most of the time. Therefore, the present invention will strive to reduce the power consumption in the idle mode, so as to effectively improve the power efficiency and standby time of the wireless communication terminal.

Under the wireless network system, many base stations (BS for short) are set up, and each base station covers a (cellular) cell (cell). The wireless communication terminal will choose to register with one of the base stations so as to access network resources through the base station; for the wireless communication terminal, the base station that provides network resource access service is the serving base station (serving BS). After the wireless communication terminal completes the registration, when the wireless communication terminal does not access network resources, it can enter an idle mode and camp in the (cellular) cell of the serving base station. However, even in the idle mode, the wireless communication terminal still needs to regularly receive messages from the serving base station, and is ready to respond to various possible network accesses. For example, the wireless communication terminal needs to regularly receive the paging message from the serving base station to know whether there is an incoming call, and whether it has become the calling object of another remote wireless communication terminal and/or server. If yes, the wireless communication terminal is paged out of the idle mode, and accesses the remote end via the serving base station; if not, the wireless communication terminal can continue to stay in the idle mode.

On the other hand, one of the characteristics of the wireless network system is that the environment of wireless signal transmission often changes: when the user moves with the wireless communication terminal, the distance between the wireless communication terminal and the serving base station will be changed jointly, affecting the wireless communication between the two. Signal transmission. Even if the distance between the wireless network terminal and the serving base station remains unchanged, the wireless signal transmission may be affected by the intervention of obstacles and climate change. In order to respond to the changing wireless signal transmission environment at any time, in addition to the serving base station where the wireless communication terminal is camping, the wireless communication terminal also needs to regularly perform base station measurements on several other candidate base stations in idle mode to measure the wireless communication terminal. The wireless signal powers received by the candidate base stations are used to evaluate whether the candidate base stations can provide better network access services. If a candidate base station can indeed provide better network access services (for example: enabling the wireless communication terminal to receive a wireless signal with higher power and lower bit error rate), the wireless communication terminal will reselect (re- selection), and use this candidate base station as the serving base station. Each candidate base station may be a neighbor base station that is neighbor to the serving base station.

In the idle mode, the wireless communication terminal can enter a dormant state, stop receiving any wireless signal, and save power by means of DRX (Discontinuous Reception). However, as can be seen from the foregoing discussion, even in the idle mode, the wireless communication terminal still needs to come out of the sleep state periodically to receive messages and perform base station measurements, and these operations will consume power. However, the present invention finds that as long as the timing of message reception and base station measurement is properly arranged, not only the regular message reception and base station measurement can be maintained normally, but also more power can be saved.

The wireless communication terminal and the serving base station can coordinate their operations according to a preset time period; the time period is divided into time slots as a unit, and every preset number of time slots (eg, 8) forms a time frame. For example, the serving base station will send a part of the paging message in a preset time slot in a time frame (such as the first time slot in the time frame) at intervals of multiple time frames; and the wireless communication terminal will correspond to start receiving paging messages at this time slot. For example, in the application of the wireless mobile communication network system, the serving base station uses a paging block as a paging message to page the wireless communication terminals that need to receive incoming calls. The paging segment is carried on the paging channel (PCH, Paging CHannel) in the logical channel, which is formed by four bursts distributed in four time frames; each burst occupies one time frame One time slot can be regarded as a paging burst.

In order to receive the paging message smoothly, the wireless communication terminal must enter from the dormant state to the normal operation active state before receiving the paging message, so as to be ready to receive the paging message. For example, if the wireless communication terminal is to receive the first burst of the paging message in the time frame FN(i), the wireless communication terminal will enter the activation state earlier in the previous time frame FN(i-1). However, the present invention is to perform the base station measurement in the time frame FN(i-1), instead of waiting for the base station measurement after the paging burst is received. Because the paging burst reception will be performed in the time frame FN(i), if the base station measurement is performed after the paging burst reception is completed, the paging burst reception and the base station measurement must be completed in the time frame FN(i) ; Under this timing arrangement, the wireless communication terminal can return to the dormant state until the base station measurement is completed. In contrast, in the embodiment of the present invention, since the base station measurement will be completed in advance of the time frame FN(i-1), the wireless communication terminal only needs to wait for the completion of the paging burst in the time frame FN(i) Receiving can return to the sleep state as soon as possible, and there is no need to maintain the active state in the time frame FN(i) for base station measurement. Therefore, the present invention can effectively shorten the time for the wireless communication terminal to operate in the start-up state, thereby reducing the power consumption of the wireless communication terminal. In an exemplary embodiment, the present invention reduces the time in the active state to 70%.

One of the objectives of the present invention is to provide a method applied to a wireless communication terminal, including: enabling the wireless communication terminal to enter an activation state; performing at least one base station measurement before receiving a preset message with the wireless communication terminal. The preset message can be a paging message; the wireless communication terminal can receive the preset message by the serving base station.

When measuring each base station, measure the wireless signal power that the wireless communication terminal can receive at a preset frequency. The preset frequency is a frequency used by a base station to broadcast wireless signals, and this base station can be one of the serving base stations. neighboring base stations. The present invention can perform base station measurements multiple times (such as six times) before receiving the preset message, so as to measure the wireless signal power respectively received by the wireless communication terminal from a plurality of neighboring base stations.

In an embodiment of the present invention, after receiving a burst of preset messages, the wireless communication terminal may enter into a dormant state without performing any base station measurement, so as to end the high power consumption activation state as soon as possible.

Since there are four bursts in a paging message, when a certain wireless communication terminal is paged in the (cellular) cell of the serving base station, each wireless communication terminal will collect all four paging bursts to identify the Which wireless communication terminal is paged. However, it is only necessary to receive the first paging burst in the paging segment to analyze whether any wireless communication terminal in the (cellular) cell is paged.

Therefore, in an embodiment of the present invention, after receiving the first paging burst, the wireless communication terminal can decide whether to continue receiving other parts of the paging message by the serving base station according to the content of the paging burst, or That is, the following three paging bursts. If the content in the first paging burst shows that no wireless communication terminal is paged, you can choose not to continue to receive subsequent bursts: the wireless communication terminal can enter the sleep state immediately, and will not receive other calls before entering the sleep state. burst, and base station measurements are no longer performed.

In contrast, if the first paging burst shows that a wireless communication terminal is paged, you can choose to continue to receive other subsequent paging bursts: the wireless communication terminal continues to receive three subsequent paging bursts from the serving base station to Identify whether itself has been paged.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method applied to a wireless communication terminal, including: in a preset time slot, the wireless communication terminal receives a part of a preset message (such as a burst of a paging message) ; and in a time frame period before the preset time slot, one or more base station measurements are performed by the wireless communication terminal. If all necessary base station measurements have been completed in the time frame period before the preset time slot, any base station measurement can be stopped in a time frame period starting from the preset time slot.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method applied to a wireless communication terminal, including: performing a preparation operation in the wireless communication terminal to prepare to receive a preset message (such as a paging message); after performing the preparation operation, performing Receive a default message after at least one base station measurement. After receiving a part of the preset message and before performing the next preparation operation, no base station measurement can be performed, and the device enters the dormant state directly.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a wireless communication terminal, which is provided with a receiving module, a timing module, a control module and a frequency synthesizer. The receiving module can selectively operate in an active state and a dormant state, and is provided with a front-end circuit and a power indicator. The frequency synthesizer is coupled to the front-end circuit and can provide a frequency for the front-end circuit. The front-end circuit receives the wireless signal of the frequency according to the frequency provided by the frequency synthesizer; the power indicator is coupled to the front-end circuit to measure the power of the wireless signal received by the front-end circuit. The sequence module can provide an operation sequence, and the control module controls the operation of the receiving module according to the operation sequence.

The operation sequence of the timing module can trigger the control module to wake up the receiving module from the dormant state to the active state, and trigger the control module to prepare for operation and receive a preset message (such as a paging message). After the timing module puts the receiving module into the starting state, the control module will make the power indicator perform one or more base station measurements according to the operating timing, and then use the front-end circuit to receive preset messages (such as receiving bursts of paging messages).

When the power indicator measures each base station, the frequency synthesizer provides a broadcast frequency of a candidate base station, so that the front-end circuit can receive the wireless signal broadcast by the candidate base station, and measure its power by the power indicator. When the front-end circuit needs to receive the preset message from the serving base station, the frequency synthesizer will provide the serving base station with a frequency for modulating the preset message, so that the front-end circuit can receive the preset message on the frequency.

In one embodiment of the present invention, after the front-end circuit receives the first part (the first burst) of the preset message, all the base station measurements have also been completed before the burst is received; therefore, the operation timing provided by the timing module can make the power The indicator stops making any base station measurements and quickly puts the receiver module to sleep.

After the receiving module receives the burst, the control module can execute a preset algorithm to determine whether to make the receiving module continue to receive the subsequent burst of the serving base station according to the content of the burst; if not, the receiving module can immediately enter into The dormant state, and no other messages need to be received by the serving base station before entering the dormant state.

In order to make the above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, preferred embodiments are specifically cited below and described in detail with accompanying drawings.

Description of drawings

The present invention obtains a deeper understanding by the following drawings and descriptions:

FIG. 1 illustrates an architecture embodiment of a wireless network system.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an embodiment of the inventive technique and its advantages in chronological order.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of the technique of the present invention responding to different paging situations in time sequence.

FIG. 4 illustrates a wireless communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Description of main component symbols

Each element included in the accompanying drawings of the present invention is listed as follows:

10 wireless network system 20a-20c timing

30 wireless communication terminal 32 antenna module

34 Transmitting Modules 36 Frequency Synthesizers

38 receiving module 40 front-end circuit

42 power indicator 46 timing module

48 control modules 50 processing modules

52 interface module FN(.) time frame

Tf time frame period TS0-TS7 time slot

t0, ta-tc time point A1-A3 operation

R, R1-R3 burst reception M base station measurement

CL1 (cellular) cell BS1-BS7 base station

MS 1-MS3 terminal BSC1-BSC3 base station controller

MSC1 Mobile Switching Center

Detailed ways

Please refer to FIG. 1 , which shows an architecture embodiment of a wireless network system 10 . The wireless network system 10 may be a wireless mobile communication network system. Users use wireless communication terminals to access the wireless network system 10; FIG. 1 represents different wireless communication terminals with terminals MS1 to MS3. Cooperating with wireless communication terminals, the wireless network system also has base stations (such as BS1 to BS7 representatives), base station controllers (Base Station Controller, BSC, such as BSC1 to BSC3) and mobile switching centers (Mobile Switching Center, MSC, such as MSC1). Wireless communication terminals and base stations exchange information and data by wireless signals; one or more base stations can be integrated into a base station subsystem (BSS, Base Station Subsystem) by a base station controller. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 1, the base station controller BSC1 is coupled to the base stations BS1, BS5 and BS6 to form a base station subsystem to control radio frequency allocation among these base stations, and control handover procedures and so on. The base station controller BSC2 and the base stations BS2 and BS7, and the base station controller BSC3 and the base stations BS3 and BS4 are the other two base station subsystems. Each base station controller BSC1 to BSC3 is further coupled to a mobile switching center MSC1, and the mobile switching center MSC1 performs basic switching functions.

Wireless communication terminals are also called mobile stations, which can be various electronic devices capable of receiving and/or transmitting wireless signals, such as mobile phones, personal assistants, car phones, portable computers equipped with wireless network modems, and so on. As previously discussed, a wireless communication terminal may reside in a (cellular) cell of a serving base station. In the example of FIG. 1, the terminals MS1 to MS3 are camped in the (cell) cell CL1 of the base station BS1. The other base stations BS2 to BS7 also have their own (cellular) cells, which are omitted in FIG. 1 . Take the terminal MS1 as an example to illustrate its residency process. When the terminal MS1 is turned on, the terminal MS1 evaluates several candidate base stations to select a base station with better reception. Assuming that the base station BS1 is the base station with the best signal reception among the candidate base stations, the terminal MS1 will register with the base station BS1, so that the base station BS1 becomes the serving base station of the terminal MS1 to access the wireless network system 10 through the access service provided by the base station BS1. Internet resources. When the terminal MS1 is not accessing network resources, it can enter the idle mode and reside in the (cell) cell CL1 of the serving base station BS1.

The base station BS1 will use the allocated frequency to implement logical channels, including traffic channels and control channels. When the terminal MS1 wants to access network resources via the base station BS1, it establishes a dedicated channel with the base station BS1 to exchange signal data. On the other hand, the base station BS1 uses some common channels under the control channel to broadcast various system information to the resident terminals (such as terminals MS1 to MS3). For example, the base station BS1 broadcasts system information related to timing synchronization on a synchronization channel (SCH, Synchronization CHannel) under a broadcast channel (BCH, Broadcast CHannel), so that the terminals MS1 to MS3 can achieve timing synchronization with the base station BS1. After synchronization is achieved, each terminal will divide the time in units of time slots, and every eight time slots (time slot) form a time frame (time frame).

The base station BS1 will also establish a common control channel (CCCH, Common ControlCHannel) in the control channel, and realize one or more paging channels under the common control channel. In each paging channel, every preset number of time frames (for example, BS_PA_MFRMS*51 time frames, where BS_PA_MFRMS is one of the system information, and its value can be 2 to 9), base station BS1 will use four time frames A paging segment is realized by using a frame; the paging segment is allocated to four bursts, each burst occupies a time slot in a time frame, and the four bursts become a paging message. That is, in each paging channel, the paging segment will periodically appear periodically. Paging messages in different channels will not appear at the same time, but will appear periodically with the same cycle. Each of these paging channels can then be assigned to multiple camped terminals. Among the terminals residing under the base station BS1, if a certain terminal becomes the target of a call, the base station BS1 can page the terminal with a corresponding paging message in the paging channel allocated to the terminal, so that the terminal can Can receive incoming calls. Since each terminal can know the paging channel allocated to it from the system information, each terminal can know in advance the time and cycle of the corresponding paging message.

In the idle mode, in addition to regularly receiving the paging burst in the corresponding paging message, the terminal also needs to perform base station measurements on several other candidate base stations to cope with the changing wireless signal transmission environment. For example, the neighboring base stations BS2 to BS7 of the base station BS1 broadcast their respective wireless signals to the terminals MS1 to MS3 residing on the base station BS1, and each of the residing terminals conducts six base station measurements on these base stations BS2 to BS7 within a certain period of time , to measure the received wireless signal power by . For example, when the terminal MS1 wants to perform base station measurement on the base station BS2, it can receive the broadcasted wireless signal at the frequency used by the base station BS2 to broadcast the wireless signal, and measure the power level of the wireless signal. In addition, each of the terminals MS1 to MS3 may also store a plurality of candidate base stations and frequencies for broadcasting wireless signals.

Please refer to FIG. 2 . FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention with an operation sequence of the terminal MS1 in the idle mode. The following takes the GSM time-division multiplexing system as an example. On the time axis, the operating timing of the terminal MS1 can be divided into multiple time frames, such as time frames FN(i-1), FN(i), FN(i+1) and FN(i+2), etc., The duration of each time frame is the time frame period Tf. Each time frame can be further divided into eight time slots, for example, there are slots TS0 to TS7 in time frame FN(i).

The sequence 20a in FIG. 2 illustrates a known operation sequence for completing message reception and base station measurement. In the idle mode, assume that the terminal MS1 is scheduled to receive regular paging messages at the time slot TS0 in the time frame FN(i). Terminal MS1 is in a dormant state (marked as off in Figure 2) before time point t0; but because it needs to receive bursts in time frame FN(i), terminal MS1 must enter into The starting state (marked as on in FIG. 2 ), that is, entering the starting state after time point t0. After entering the activation state, terminal MS1 performs operation A1 to prepare to receive a part of the paging message (the first burst) in time slot TS0 in time frame FN(i) and to perform base station measurements. After completing the operation A1, the terminal MS1 can perform the operation A2 when the time frame FN(i) will start, and prepare to receive subsequent bursts in each time frame after the time frame FN(i). At time slot TS0 of time frame FN(i), terminal MS1 performs burst reception R; this burst may be the first burst of the paging segment.

In the current technology, the terminal will start to measure the base station M after receiving the first burst R; in the example of FIG. The broadcast signal power received by the six candidate base stations. In this example, after the base station measurement M is completed, the terminal MS1 performs operation A3 to determine whether to end message reception. If there is no need to receive the remaining 3 bursts of the paging message, the terminal MS1 can return to the dormant state at the time point ta. Summarizing the sequence 20a, it can be seen that in this typical sequence, the start state needs to be maintained between the time point t0 and ta to complete one burst reception R and six base station measurements M.

Compared with the sequence 20a, the sequence 20b is an operation sequence for the terminal MS1 to complete burst reception and base station measurement according to an embodiment of the present invention. Similarly, assuming that the terminal MS1 needs to perform burst reception R in the time slot TS0 of the time frame FN(i) to receive the first burst of the paging message, the terminal MS1 can enter the active state from the dormant state at the time point t0, And carry out operation A1 (preparation for operation), and prepare for paging burst reception and base station measurement. Different from the sequence 20a, after the sequence 20b of the present invention completes the operation A1, the base station measurement M will be started before the paging burst reception R is started, that is, the base station measurement M will be performed before the start of the time frame FN(i) The base station measures M. In an embodiment of the present invention, the terminal MS1 can perform one or more base station measurements M between the operation A1 and the burst reception R, for example, six base station measurements M.

After the measurement M of each base station is completed, the terminal MS1 performs operation A2 to prepare to start receiving the paging message. When time slot TS0 of time frame FN(i) arrives, terminal MS1 performs burst reception R to receive a burst, eg, the first burst of the paging segment, from the serving base station. After receiving the first burst, the terminal MS1 performs operation A3 to determine whether it can enter the dormant state; if so, it can enter the dormant state at time tb to save power consumption by interrupting reception (DRX). For example, if the terminal MS1 judges from the first received burst after receiving the burst R that the serving base station BS1 has not paged any terminal through the paging message to which it belongs, the terminal MS1 does not need to receive the paging message. The subsequent three bursts of the paging message, so the dormant state can be entered at time point tb. It is worth mentioning that the method of using the first burst to judge whether the paging message is a paging message with substantive information does not belong to the main point of the present invention, and should be discussed in other documents, and will not be added here. Repeated description does not limit the scope of the present invention.

To sum up, using this sequence 20b, the terminal MS1 only needs to maintain the activation state from time point t0 to tb to complete one burst reception R and six base station measurements M as usual. It can be clearly seen from Fig. 2 that the time point tb at which the time sequence 20b enters the dormant state again is earlier than the time point ta in the time sequence 20a, which means that the time sequence 20b can make the terminal MS1 return to the dormant state from the start state earlier, shortening the start state duration to save power consumption.

From the comparison of the timings 20a and 20b, it can be seen that the present invention properly rearranges the timings of the burst reception R and the base station measurement M, so as to shorten the time for the terminal MS1 to operate in the active state as much as possible without affecting the normal operation. In the sequence 20b of the present invention, the base station measurement M can be performed in the time frame FN(i-1), without waiting for the burst reception R to be performed before performing the base station measurement M as in the sequence 20a. Because it needs to match the time when base station BS1 sends paging messages in the system specification, the paging burst reception R must be performed in the time frame FN(i); but the sequence 20a not only needs to perform the burst reception R in the time frame FN(i) , multiple base station measurements M must be completed before the terminal MS1 can be returned to the dormant state. In contrast, in the sequence 20b of the present invention, since the base station measurement M can be completed in advance of the time frame FN(i-1), the terminal MS1 only needs to wait for the burst reception R to be completed in the time frame FN(i) It can go back to the sleep state as soon as possible, and there is no need to keep the active state in the time frame FN(i) for the base station measurement M. Therefore, even if one burst reception R and six base station measurements M are completed, the sequence 20b of the present invention can effectively shorten the duration of the startup state, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal, prolonging its standby time, and improving the power utilization efficiency of the terminal. In a practical example, compared with the timing sequence 20a, the timing sequence 20b of the present invention can shorten the time that the terminal operates in the start-up state to 70%, and the time point tb is ahead of the time point ta by five to six time slots.

Sequence 20c illustrates another embodiment of the invention. In the sequence 20c, when the terminal MS1 enters the startup state at time t0 and completes the operation A1, it can perform one or more base station measurements M before performing the burst reception R, and perform the measurement M after completing the burst reception R One or more base station measurements M; after the base station measurement M is completed, the terminal MS1 can perform the operation A3 to confirm whether it can enter the dormant state. If so, it can enter the dormant state at time point tc. For example, the sequence 20c may perform four base station measurements before the paging burst reception R, and perform two measurements after the paging burst reception R; according to the burst received by the burst reception R, if The dormant state can be entered at time point tc without receiving subsequent bursts. Compared with the sequence 20a, since the sequence 20c has moved some base station measurements M to be performed before the burst reception R, the sequence 20c can also shorten the time for the terminal to operate in the active state and reduce power consumption.

For an example of the continuation sequence 20b, please refer to FIG. 3; FIG. 3 illustrates the operation sequence of the present invention in response to different paging messages. As discussed in Fig. 2, the sequence 20b of the present invention will complete the required multiple base station measurements M (other operations A1 to A3 etc. are omitted in Fig. After receiving R, it is judged whether other subsequent bursts need to be received. After performing the burst reception R, if the terminal MS1 finds from the received message that all the resident terminals assigned to the same paging channel have not been paged, it can immediately go back to sleep after completing the burst reception R state. In contrast, if it is determined after the first burst of burst reception R that a terminal has been paged, then the terminal MS1 must perform the following three time frames FN(i+1), FN(i+2) and FN(i+3) respectively performs subsequent burst receptions R1 to R3 to completely decode the paging message from the received subsequent three bursts, as shown in sequence 20b'. However, it is worth mentioning that in another method of another embodiment, the terminal can also decode its paging message only by using two bursts.

Please refer to FIG. 4 , which shows a wireless communication terminal 30 ; the present invention can be applied to the wireless communication terminal 30 . The wireless communication terminal 30 may be a terminal applied to a frequency division multiplexing wireless network, such as a mobile phone or a wireless modem under a wireless mobile communication network system. The wireless communication terminal 30 is provided with an antenna module 32 , a transmitting module 34 , a frequency synthesizer 36 , a receiving module 38 , a processing module 50 and an interface module 52 . The antenna module 32 is coupled to the transmitting module 34 and the receiving module 38 . The processing module 50 is coupled to the transmitting module 34 , the receiving module 38 and the interface module 52 , and is provided with a timing module 46 and a control module 48 to control the operation of the wireless communication terminal 30 . The interface module 52 is the user interface of the wireless communication terminal 30, and may include user input and output devices such as a keyboard, a screen, a speaker, a microphone and/or a touch panel (omitted in FIG. 4 ).

The receiving module 38 can selectively operate in an active state and a sleep state, and is provided with a front-end circuit 40 and a power indicator 42 . The frequency synthesizer 36 is coupled to the front-end circuit 40 and can provide a frequency for the front-end circuit 40 . The front-end circuit 40 can receive the wireless signal of the frequency (ie, the wireless signal modulated by the frequency) from the antenna module 32 according to the frequency provided by the frequency synthesizer 36 , and demodulate, convert and/or amplify it into a corresponding electronic signal. The power indicator 42 is coupled to the front-end circuit 40 to measure the power of the wireless signal received by the front-end circuit 40 . The timing module 46 can provide an operating timing, and the control module 48 can control the receiving module 38 to perform related operations according to the operating timing. Similarly, the frequency synthesizer 36 can also provide a frequency for the transmitting module, so that the transmitting module can modulate the electronic signal according to the frequency, and transmit the modulated electronic signal as a wireless signal from the antenna module 32 .

When the user utilizes the wireless communication terminal 30 to access wireless network resources, the receiving module 38 operates in an activated state. The downlink wireless signal transmitted to the wireless communication terminal 30 (such as the traffic channel wireless signal sent by the serving base station) can be received by the antenna module 32 and the receiving module 38, demodulated (according to the frequency provided by the frequency synthesizer 36), converted and/or The corresponding electronic signal is amplified and transmitted to the processing module 50; the processing module 50 will further decode and extract the information in the electronic signal, play it to the user through the interface module 52 and/or store it in the wireless communication terminal 30. The information that the user wants to transmit to the remote end of the wireless network is input to the processing module 50 by the interface module 52, encoded by the processing module 50, and then modulated by the transmitting module 34 (according to the frequency provided by the frequency synthesizer 36), converted and/or The amplified wireless signal of the uplink traffic channel is transmitted through the antenna module 32 . When the network resource access comes to an end, the wireless communication terminal 30 can enter the idle mode.

When the user does not use the wireless communication terminal 30 to access wireless network resources, the receiving module 38 can enter the idle mode. In the idle mode, the receiving module 38 can maintain a dormant state of interrupted reception with low power consumption, and only needs to enter the active state periodically to receive messages from the serving base station and perform base station measurements. The operating sequence of the receiving module 38 in the activated state is like the sequence 20b or 20c in FIG. 2 of the present invention. When preparing to perform burst reception R in the time slot TS0 of the time frame FN(i), the operation sequence provided by the timing module 46 can make the control module 48 make the receiving module 38 first when the time frame FN(i-1) starts Wake up from the dormant state to the active state, and trigger the control module 48 to perform preparation operation A1 to prepare for receiving the paging message. Then, the timing module 46 triggers the control module 48 to perform one or more base station measurements M with the power indicator 42 , and then enables the front-end circuit 40 to perform burst reception R. In this way, the receiving module 38 can be returned to the sleep state as soon as possible to save power consumption.

When each base station measurement M is performed with the power indicator 42 , the frequency synthesizer 36 provides a broadcast frequency of a candidate base station, so that the front-end circuit 40 can receive the wireless signal broadcast by the neighboring base station, and measure its power by the power indicator 42 . When the front-end circuit 40 is to perform burst reception R and receive a preset message from the serving base station, the frequency synthesizer 36 will provide the serving base station with a frequency for modulating the preset message, so that the front-end circuit 40 can receive the modulated message on this frequency. to the default message on that frequency.

As shown in the sequence 20b, in an embodiment of the present invention, after the front-end circuit 40 completes the burst reception R, all the base station measurements M are also completed before the burst reception R. Therefore, the timing module 46 can make the control module 48 perform operation A3 to determine whether to make the receiving module 38 continue to receive subsequent messages from the serving base station according to the message content obtained by the burst reception R. If there is no need to continue receiving, the timing module 46 and the control module 48 can make the receiving module 38 quickly enter the dormant state, and the serving base station will no longer receive subsequent messages, and the power indicator 42 does not need to perform any base station measurement M. Therefore, the wireless communication terminal 30 can effectively reduce the active state period and power consumption required for message reception and base station measurement in the idle mode. If the control module 48 judges that it is necessary to continue to receive subsequent bursts, its operation sequence is as shown in the sequence 20b' in FIG. Whether it has been paged; if so, the wireless communication terminal 30 will request access to network resources from the serving base station. If not, the receiving module 38 can return to the idle mode. The control module 48 can execute software program codes to perform the operations A1 to A3; in other words, the operations A1 to A3 can represent software activities of the control module 48 .

Since high-power radio frequency analog circuits are often used in the receiving module 38/front-end circuit 40, reducing the start-up time can save considerable power consumption. When the receiving module 38 enters the dormant mode, the part of the control module 48/processing module 50 used to control the receiving module 38 may also enter dormancy and release related computing resources. The control module 48 and the timing module 46 can be implemented by software/firmware combined with hardware, for example, by a processor executing related software/firmware program codes. The present invention can decide to use the sequence 20b or 20c according to the response speed and operation characteristics of the frequency synthesizer 36 , the front-end circuit 40 and the power indicator 42 . If the frequency synthesizer 36, the front-end circuit 40 and the power indicator 42 can complete enough base station measurements M between the operations A1 and A2, the wireless communication terminal 30 can use the sequence 20b as its operation sequence; otherwise, it can use Timing 20c.

To sum up, compared with the sequence of performing paging burst reception first and then base station measurement in the known technology, the operation sequence of the present invention to perform base station measurement first and then burst reception can effectively shorten the start-up time and reduce power consumption , and improve terminal performance. The present invention can be widely used in various wireless network systems that need to regularly receive messages and measure base stations, such as various wireless mobile communication network systems formulated by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).

Although the present invention has been disclosed above with preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Anyone familiar with the art can make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore The scope of protection of the present invention should be defined by the claims.

Claims (15)

1. A power saving method for a wireless communication terminal, applied to a wireless communication terminal and a plurality of base stations, the wireless communication terminal selectively operates in an active state and a sleep state, and the method comprises: making the wireless communication terminal enter the startup state; performing a base station measurement in a time frame period before the wireless communication terminal receives a paging message; receiving a portion of the paging message after completing the base station measurements; and It is judged whether to continue to receive another part of the paging message. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the power of a wireless signal is measured at a preset frequency when performing the base station measurement, and the wireless signal is a broadcast signal from one of the base stations. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein before receiving the paging message, the base station measurement is performed on the base stations respectively, so as to measure the power of multiple wireless signals on a plurality of preset frequencies respectively. 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: The base station measurements are completed for all the base stations before receiving the paging message. 5. The method of claim 1, comprising: If it is determined not to continue to receive another part of the paging message, the wireless communication terminal enters into the dormant state. 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: If not continuing to receive another part of the paging message, the wireless communication terminal enters the dormant state, and does not perform any base station measurement before entering the dormant state. 7. A power saving method applied to a wireless communication terminal. The wireless communication terminal accesses a preset base station according to a preset time phase. There are a plurality of time slots in the preset time phase. Every preset number of time slots A slot occupies a time frame period, the method includes: In a preset time slot, the wireless communication terminal receives a part of a paging message, and after receiving a part of the paging message, determines whether to continue to receive another part of the paging message; and In a time frame period before the preset time slot, the wireless communication terminal performs at least one base station measurement. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein performing at least one base station measurement is performed a plurality of base station measurements in the time frame period preceding the preset time slot. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein when performing at least one base station measurement, the power of multiple radio signals is measured on multiple preset frequencies respectively. 10. The method of claim 7, further comprising: During a time frame period starting from the preset time slot, stop any base station measurement by the wireless communication terminal. 11. A wireless communication terminal, comprising: A receiving module selectively operates in an active state and a dormant state; the receiving module includes: a front-end circuit for receiving a wireless signal; and a power indicator for measuring the power of the wireless signal; a timing module providing an operation timing; and A control module, controlling the receiving module according to the operation sequence, so that after the receiving module enters the activation state and before receiving a preset message in a time frame period, the power indicator first performs at least one base station measurement, and then causing the front-end circuit to receive a preset message, Wherein the receiving module receives the preset message from a preset base station; after the receiving module receives a part of the preset message, the control module decides whether to make the receiving module continue to receive the preset message according to the content of the part other parts. 12. The wireless communication terminal of claim 11, wherein the default message is a paging message. 13. The wireless communication terminal according to claim 11, further comprising: a frequency synthesizer; when the power indicator measures the base station, the frequency synthesizer provides a first frequency to enable the front-end circuit to receive wireless signals on the first frequency; when the front-end circuit receives the preset message, the frequency The synthesizer provides a second frequency to enable the front-end circuit to receive the default message on the second frequency. 14. The wireless communication terminal according to claim 11, wherein after the front-end circuit receives a part of the preset message, the control module stops the power indicator from performing any measurement of the base station, and makes the receiving module into the sleep state. 15. The wireless communication terminal according to claim 11, wherein when the control module decides not to continue receiving other parts by the preset base station, the timing module makes the receiving module enter the sleep state, and when entering to No other part is received by the default base station before the dormant state.