JPH10200956A - Communication method and terminal device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a crowded state of a line to be well recognized and simultaneously and effectively evade unusable state by a crowded line by obtaining information on setup state of a communication line by a prepared exclusive access processing. SOLUTION: When a terminal device is in a stand-by state by control of a control part of a terminal device, a processing to enable the terminal device to make access to a specified number which is automatically predetermined is performed at any time (S111). The specified number is prepared for judging the crowded line by every base station, when the access is requested from the terminal device to the base station from the number, the present crowded state of the line in the base station is judged and the information on the crowded state of the line is returned to the terminal device by the base station. The returned information on the crowded state of the line is judged at a control part at the terminal device side (S112), the processing to judge whether or not a space exists in the line, in case no space is judged to exist, the crowded state of the line is displayed by a character (S113).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication method and a terminal device suitable for use in a radio telephone device such as a portable radio telephone and a simplified portable radio telephone.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various wireless telephone systems using a wireless telephone device called a portable telephone have been put to practical use. In this radio telephone system, a plurality of base stations are basically arranged at predetermined intervals, and a service area centering on each base station is set. Then, the terminal device (wireless telephone device) in each service area performs wireless communication with the base station in that area, sets up a telephone line via the base station, and makes a call or data transmission with any other party. Is what you do.

A wireless telephone system using a simple portable wireless telephone called a PHS (Personal Handy Phone System) has been put to practical use. In the case of this system, the service area constituted by one base station is smaller than that of the above-mentioned general radio telephone system, and the service area is a relatively limited range.

[0004] Having a terminal device used in these wireless telephone systems and simplified wireless telephone systems allows telephone calls and data transmission at any location as long as it is within a service area.

[0005]

By the way, the number of terminal devices that can simultaneously communicate with each base station prepared in these systems is limited. Therefore, when there is a communication request exceeding the number of terminal devices that can be used at the same time in the service area constituted by one base station, the call cannot be transmitted from the terminal device exceeding the number of terminal devices, and communication to the terminal devices cannot be performed. I can't receive calls. For example, such a situation often occurs temporarily in a service area where a large number of people are concentrated, such as in front of a station or in a downtown area.

For example, as shown in FIG. 9, when a radio telephone base station 91 is connected to a communication control station 92 of the radio telephone system by a dedicated line 93 to form a radio telephone system, When the station 91 is set to the capability of simultaneously communicating with the four terminal devices, the four terminal devices a, b, and
When c and d are used, another terminal device cannot be used as a wireless telephone in the service area.

In this case, in the case of a conventional terminal device for a wireless telephone system, for example, a calling operation is performed by the terminal device to cause the base station to transmit call request data by radio, and as a result, a call is generated due to line congestion. When the call request is rejected, the terminal device first knows that the line is congested, and displays a message such as line congestion on the display panel of the terminal device.

In such a case, in general, the user often makes a call operation repeatedly until the line is no longer congested, or often gives up the call with the terminal device. Is caused.

In the case of a wireless telephone system or a simplified wireless telephone system, the position of the terminal device is changed so that a call can be made while moving or moving on a moving body such as an automobile or a train. Then, when the service area in which the terminal device is located is changed to another adjacent area, a switching process called handover for switching a base station performing wireless communication with the terminal device to a base station in an adjacent area is performed. I do it. Here, for example, when there is room in the radio line of the base station in a certain area, but the line is congested in an area adjacent to the area,
When the position of the terminal device during a call moves to an area where the line is congested, the base station cannot be switched by the handover process, and the call is interrupted when the terminal device moves to the area.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to make it possible to clearly understand the line congestion state and to effectively avoid the unusable state due to the line congestion when performing wireless communication using a radio telephone or the like. With the goal.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve this problem, the present invention obtains information on the setting status of a communication line at a base station by a dedicated access process prepared in advance and obtains the obtained information. When it detects that the line is congested,
This is to notify the congestion of the line.

According to the present invention, the line congestion state can be grasped in advance on the terminal device side, and a countermeasure can be taken based on the information.

[0013]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In this embodiment, the present invention is applied to a terminal device for a wireless telephone system. In addition, as a wireless telephone system applied here, in addition to a general wireless telephone, P
A simple wireless telephone system such as HS may be used. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the terminal device. In this terminal device, an antenna 1 for performing wireless communication with a base station is connected to a wireless communication processing unit 2, and a transmission signal processed by the wireless communication processing unit 2 is wirelessly transmitted from the antenna 1 and transmitted from the base station. A signal in a predetermined frequency band is received by the antenna 1 and received and processed by the wireless communication processing unit 2 to obtain a received signal.

The received signal demodulated by the radio communication processing unit 2 is supplied to a data processing unit 3, and predetermined data processing is performed to extract voice data and control data. The audio data extracted by the data processing unit 3 is supplied to an audio processing unit 4, where audio processing such as analog conversion and amplification is performed, and the processed audio signal is supplied to a speaker 5 to emit sound.

The audio signal picked up by the microphone 6 is supplied to the audio processing unit 4, and audio processing such as digital conversion is performed to generate audio data for transmission, and the audio data is supplied to the data processing unit 3. The data processing unit 3 forms a transmission signal by adding other data such as control data and synchronization data, and supplies the transmission signal to the wireless communication processing unit 2. The wireless communication processing unit 2 modulates the supplied transmission signal, converts the frequency to a predetermined transmission frequency, and wirelessly transmits the frequency-converted transmission signal from the antenna 1.

The above-described reception processing and transmission processing are performed under the control of the control unit 11 which is a system controller of the terminal device. In this case, operation information of each key 12 such as a dial key provided in the terminal device is transmitted to the control unit 1.
1 to perform various operation processes as a wireless telephone, such as a call process and a call process based on the operation information. Further, a display unit 13 is connected to the control unit 11,
Various characters, numbers, figures, and the like are displayed based on the control of the control unit 11. As the display unit 13, a relatively small liquid crystal display panel or the like is used. The display unit 13 directly displays a telephone number, a name, and the like in relation to an outgoing call or an incoming call, as well as a service indicating that the terminal is in a service area. Various status displays such as a level display are performed. Details of the status display will be described later.

Next, processing performed based on the control of the control unit 11 of the terminal device of the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 2 shows the display unit 1
The control unit 11 determines whether or not the terminal device is in the service area (step 101). The determination as to whether or not the mobile station is in the service area is performed based on, for example, whether the control channel assigned to each base station is received by the wireless communication processing unit 2 and the received electric field strength is equal to or higher than a predetermined level. . In this case, the service level is determined in multiple stages in proportion to the strength of the received electric field. If it is determined that the vehicle is outside the service area, the display unit 13
To indicate that you are out of range (step 1
02). As an indication of being out of service, for example, “out of service” is displayed in characters on a display panel constituting the display unit 13.

When it is determined that the vehicle is within the service area, the service level is displayed (step 10).
3). FIG. 4 shows an example of this service level display. A, B, and C in FIG. 4 show display examples of a display panel constituting the display unit 13. The service level is displayed by three bar graphs together with a graphic representing an antenna. Display 21 is performed, and the number of bar graphs displayed is changed according to the determined reception level.
The service level is changed in four stages.

In this embodiment, a line congestion state is displayed in addition to the service level display 21. That is, after the service level is displayed in step 103, it is determined whether or not there is a vacancy in a line prepared for a base station in this area by a predetermined process (step 10).
4) If it is determined that there is no vacancy, a line congestion display is performed (step 105). As this line congestion indication,
For example, as shown in FIG.

Here, the details of the line congestion judging process in which the control unit 11 of the terminal device of this embodiment judges in step 104 whether or not there is a free line will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the case of the present example, under the control of the control unit 11 of the terminal device, when the terminal device is in a standby state, a process for automatically accessing a predetermined telephone number is performed at any time (step 111). This specific number is a number prepared for line congestion determination for each base station. When a terminal device requests an access to this number from the base station, the current line congestion state in the base station is transmitted to the base station. After the judgment, the information of the line congestion status is returned to the terminal device.

That is, for example, when there is a request for access to a normal telephone number at the base station 91 shown in FIG.
The access request is transmitted to the communication control station 92 connected through the dedicated line 93, and the corresponding telephone line is set. However, when there is an access request to the above-described specific number, the process of transmitting the access request from the base station 91 to the communication control station 92 is not performed, and the control unit (not shown) in the base station 91 performs A wireless telephone line with the terminal device that has made the access request is immediately set up, and information on the current line congestion status at the base station is returned to the terminal device via the set wireless telephone line. When the information on the line congestion status is transmitted, the access at this time is terminated.

The control unit 11 of the terminal device judges the returned information of the line congestion status (step 11).
2), a process of determining whether or not there is a free line is performed, and if it is determined that there is no free line, a line congestion display 23 using characters is performed as shown in C of FIG. 4 (step 113).

[0024] When the terminal is in the standby state, the display unit of the terminal device indicates that the line is congested, so that the user having the terminal device can confirm the display. Then, it is possible to move to an area where another line is not crowded, or to attempt a call using communication means (public telephone) other than a wireless telephone by a terminal device, and take an action to avoid a problem due to the line congestion. It is convenient. Also, when there is an indication that this line is congested while waiting for an incoming call, it is known that the incoming call cannot be received, and some measures can be taken.

When the line congestion is determined by accessing a specific number, even if the wireless telephone line prepared by the base station has no free space, only the access request of the specific number can be received. Need to be dealt with. In general, line congestion in the case of a wireless telephone system tends to be determined by the communication capacity of a dedicated line (line 93 in FIG. 9) connecting the base station and the communication control station, rather than the ability of the base station to perform wireless communication. Although the base station has a sufficient capacity to perform wireless communication with the terminal device, there is often no room in the telephone line. In such a case, it is relatively easy to obtain the information on the line congestion status by accessing the specific number described above.

In addition to such access processing to a specific telephone number, a dedicated access processing for obtaining information on a line congestion state is performed by using an uplink control channel to a base station. Alternatively, the information of the line congestion state may be returned from the base station to the terminal device having the access processing by using the downlink control channel.

Further, in the above description, the line congestion display is performed only when there is no free space in the telephone line. However, a more detailed line congestion display may be performed. That is, when information indicating that the number of free lines is small is obtained as the information on the line congestion status obtained from the base station to the terminal device, a corresponding display may be performed. The face graphic displays 22a and 22 shown in A, B and C of FIG.
b and 22c are examples in which a display based on the information on the detailed line congestion state is performed. As shown in FIG. 4A, line congestion status display 2 with a face with eyes and mouth laughing
The state 2a indicates that the line is not congested. As shown in FIG. 4B, the presence of the line congestion status display 22b with the face in which the eyes and the mouth are in a straight line indicates that the line is less vacant. As shown in FIG. 4C, the presence of the line congestion status display 22c with the face whose eyes and mouth are closed indicates that there is no free line.

Instead of displaying the line congestion state in detail by using such a figure, the degree of the congestion state may be displayed by characters or numbers.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4C, when there is no vacancy in the line, in addition to the line congestion state display 22c with a face indicating that, the line congestion state display 2 with characters is used.
3 may be displayed at the same time to more reliably notify that the call cannot be made due to line congestion.

As shown in a display example in FIG. 5, a display 24 with a cross may be displayed beside the service level display 21 to notify the user that a call cannot be made due to line congestion.

In each of the above examples, line congestion and the like are displayed in various displays on the display unit 13. However, line congestion may be announced by some kind of alarm sound or voice synthesis. good. That is, the ringing circuit provided in the terminal device as a wireless telephone is used to generate an alarm sound corresponding to a line congestion, or the voice processing unit 4 performs voice synthesis processing to indicate that "the line is congested. "
For example, the sound may be output from the speaker 5 to notify the user.

Next, in the above-described line congestion notification processing, processing in the case where line congestion in an adjacent area is taken into consideration,
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the following, the processing will be described.
11) Receive information on whether there is a free line and determine the information (step 112).
Until the line congestion display is performed (step 113), the process is the same as the flowchart of FIG. Here, in this example, as information on the line congestion status returned from the base station by accessing the specific number, in addition to the information on the line congestion status of the base station, information on the line congestion status of the base station in the adjacent service area is provided. Include information.

After performing the line congestion display in step 113, it is determined whether or not there is a congested adjacent area based on information from the base station (step 11).
4). Here, when it is determined that there is no congested adjacent area, a display is displayed on the display unit 13 of the terminal device indicating that the connection is established by moving the current position under the control of the control unit 11 (step 115). For example, as shown in FIG. 7, a line congestion display 23 is displayed in the form of "Kaiseng Konzatsu" and the character "Idoushimasho" is displayed below the line congestion display 23.
Is displayed 25 prompting movement by characters.

If it is determined in step 114 that the line congestion is displayed in step 113 and there is also a congested area in the adjacent area, the display prompting movement in step 115 is not performed.

Further, after it is determined in step 112 that the line in the area at the current position has a vacancy, it is determined whether there is a congested area in an adjacent area based on information from the base station (step 116). If it is determined that there is an adjacent area having no empty space, a warning is given that there is a possibility that the line being talked to may be disconnected due to movement from the current position (step 117). That is, when the position moves to an adjacent area having no available line, the handover process for switching to communication with the base station in the area fails, and the call (or some data transmission) is interrupted halfway. Therefore,
Warns that moving could disconnect you. The warning in step 117 may be a warning by an alarm sound or voice synthesis instead of the display on the display unit 13.
The warning in step 117 may be performed only when there is an outgoing or incoming call using this terminal device and the telephone line is set.

By warning that the line may be disconnected by moving to the adjacent area in this way, the call while moving, such as when walking, is stopped, and the area is not changed, and the call is disconnected. Can be avoided. Also, if you cannot stop moving on your own, such as when you are on a train, end the call early before the area changes, to avoid inconvenience due to sudden line disconnection. Coping is possible. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, it is assumed that a user making a call request in the area A by the base station 51 using the terminal device a1 possessed by a user who is riding on a train on a certain route R. At this time, assuming that only one other terminal device b is used in the area A and the wireless telephone line has a free space, the wireless telephone line is set based on this call and the telephone conversation is started. .

Here, in the next area B in the direction in which the train carrying the user carrying the terminal device a1 travels,
It is assumed that four terminal devices c, d, e, and f have already communicated with the base station 52 and there is no free space in the wireless telephone line. At this time, when the terminal device a1 enters the area B (FIG. 8)
The terminal device a2 shown in FIG. 2 fails in handover and the wireless telephone line is not set up with the base station 52, and the call is interrupted. However, in the terminal device a1 of this example, access to a specific number is performed. Since it is known from the congestion information obtained from the base station 51 that there is an empty area in the adjacent area, it is notified by an alarm sound or the like that there is a possibility that the call may be cut off, and it is early before the area is changed. This makes it possible to take measures such as terminating the call, and even if the call is suddenly cut off, the user can understand why the call was cut off and find that it is not a failure of the terminal device or the like, which is convenient.

In the above-described embodiment, the display 25 for prompting the user to move as shown in FIG. 7 is performed when there is no available telephone line in the current area and there is no congested area in the adjacent area. However, when there is no vacant telephone line in the current area, a display urging the user to move may be displayed. That is, for example, in the flowchart of FIG. 3, as a line congestion display at step 113 after it is determined at step 112 that there is no available line, as shown in FIG. Display may be performed. In this way, it is possible to alleviate the concentration of calls in a limited area of a specific base station, such as in front of a station or in a downtown area, by simply displaying a prompt to move without having to judge the state of the adjacent area. can do.

In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to a terminal device of a wireless telephone system or a simplified wireless telephone system has been described. However, if the terminal device is used in a communication system that performs communication via a base station. , A terminal device for another communication system (for example, a terminal device for some kind of data transmission)
Needless to say, the present invention can also be applied to the processing at the time of line congestion.

[0040]

According to the present invention, the line congestion state can be grasped in advance on the terminal device side, and a countermeasure can be taken based on the notification of the line congestion state based on the information.

In this case, the congestion of the line is notified by the display means and, apart from the congestion display of the line, the display means that the communication is in the area where the base station can be communicated is performed by the display means. By doing so, the determination as to whether or not the area is within the area and the determination as to whether or not the line is congested are properly performed by the display.

Further, in the case where the display is performed in this manner, the display for prompting the user to move to the area of the adjacent base station is displayed together with the display of the line congestion, so that the user using the terminal device can be appropriately displayed. Instructions can be given.

Further, the display for prompting the user to move to the area of the adjacent base station is performed when it is determined that there is room in the line use state of the area of the adjacent base station, so that the instruction can be given more accurately. become.

In the case described above, when it is determined from the information obtained in the access processing that there is no margin in the line use state of the area of the adjacent base station, it is determined that the line may be disconnected due to movement. By receiving the notification, when this notification is received, it is possible to stop moving while driving or walking by car, thereby avoiding disconnection of the line due to failure of base station switching and train. If you are on a moving object such as and can not stop moving,
It is possible to take measures such as ending the call early before the base station is switched, and it is possible to avoid a problem caused by a sudden line disconnection.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a terminal device to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a display process according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a line congestion determination process according to an embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example according to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a modification of the display example of one embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a determination process in consideration of an adjacent area according to an embodiment;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example in which an adjacent area is taken into account in one embodiment.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an application example of a process according to an embodiment;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a line state;

[Explanation of symbols]

1 antenna, 2 wireless communication processing section, 3 data processing section, 4 voice processing section, 5 speakers, 6 microphones,
11 control unit, 12 keys, 13 display unit, 21 service level display, 22a, 22b, 22c line status display, 23, 24 line congestion display, 25 display for prompting movement

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A communication method for establishing a wireless communication line with a predetermined base station to perform communication, wherein information on a setting state of the communication line in the base station is obtained by a dedicated access process prepared in advance. And a communication method for notifying the congestion of the line when the obtained information detects that the line is congested. 2. The communication method according to claim 1, wherein the notification of the congestion of the line is performed by display, and apart from the display of the congestion of the line, it is within an area where communication with the base station is possible. Communication method to display. 3. The communication method according to claim 1, wherein information of a line congestion state of a base station in an area adjacent to the base station is obtained by the access processing, and a notification is made based on the information. Method. 4. A communication unit for setting up a wireless communication line to perform communication with a predetermined base station, a control unit for controlling communication in the communication unit, and a predetermined notification operation under the control of the control unit. The communication unit communicates with the base station in a dedicated access process prepared in advance under the control of the control unit, and the control unit determines information obtained by this communication, When detecting that the communication line prepared for the base station is congested,
A terminal device for notifying the congestion of the line by the notification unit. 5. The terminal device according to claim 4, wherein a display unit is used as the notification unit, and the notification of the line congestion is displayed by the display unit and separately from the line congestion display. A terminal device wherein the display means displays an indication that it is within an area where communication with the base station is possible. 6. The terminal device according to claim 5, wherein, together with the display of the line congestion, a display prompting movement to an area of an adjacent base station is performed. 7. The terminal device according to claim 6, wherein, when the control unit determines that there is a margin in the line use state of the area of the adjacent base station based on the information obtained in the access processing. A terminal device for performing a display prompting movement to an area of a base station. 8. The terminal device according to claim 4, wherein, when the control unit determines that there is no room in the line use state of the area of the adjacent base station based on the information obtained in the access processing, A terminal device in which the notification unit notifies that the line may be disconnected.