Broadcast and multicast service communication method, base station, and mobile station

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9775133-B2
Application number	US-53966109-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 12, 2009
Priority date	Aug 13, 2008
Publication date	Sep 26, 2017
Grant date	Sep 26, 2017

Abstract

Controlling broadcast and multicast service communication including transmitting request signaling information for requesting broadcast and multicast service from a mobile station to a base station using preamble codes of specified random access channel (RACH) signals, and discriminating the preamble codes of the specified RACH signals from among preamble codes of RACH signals which have been received. Further including transmitting reception completion responses to the mobile station which transmitted the preamble codes from the base station after discriminating the preamble codes, including transmitting a request for starting broadcast and multicast service to a multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus when the base station first receives at least one of the preamble codes of the specified RACH signals for the broadcast and multicast service, and broadcasting and multicasting, in the base station, of multimedia data supplied by the multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus to the mobile station.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for controlling broadcast and multicast service communication, comprising:
receiving preamble codes of random access channel signals initiated by a first mobile station and a second mobile station, said random access channel signals including one or more specified random access channel signals whose preamble codes are used for conveying a request for broadcast and multicast service;
discriminating the preamble codes of the specified random access channel signals from the received preamble codes of random access channel signals which are not specified random access channel signals;
when the preamble codes of the specified random access channel signals are received from said first and second mobile stations and when the preamble codes of the specified random access channel signals have been discriminated first for said first mobile station:
transmitting immediately upon discrimination of the preamble codes of the specified random access channel signals, from a base station, reception completion responses to each mobile station which transmitted the preamble codes of the specified random access channel signals;
determining whether the request for the broadcast and multicast service has already been transmitted to a multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus; and
when it is determined that no request for the broadcast and multicast service has been transmitted to said multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus, transmitting, from the base station, a single request for broadcast and multicast service, based solely on the request for broadcast and multicast service from the first mobile station, to the multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus, the single request for broadcast and multicast service used for starting the broadcast and multicast service for the first and second mobile station; and
broadcasting and multicasting, by the base station, of multimedia data supplied by the multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus to the first and second mobile station.

2. The method for controlling broadcast and multicast service communication according to claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving at a base station the preamble codes of the specified random access channel signals in a periodical manner from the mobile station after the broadcast and multicast service is started; and
transmitting a request for termination of the broadcast and multicast service from the base station to the multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus when it is determined that the base station no longer receives the preamble codes of the specified random access channel signals for the broadcast and multicast service which has been provided.

3. The method for controlling broadcast and multicast service communication according to claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting received power of the preamble codes of the specified random access channel signals which have been discriminated;
estimating a number of mobile stations which are currently requesting the broadcast and multicast service in accordance with the detected received power; and
transmitting the number of mobile stations to the multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus.

4. The method for controlling multimedia broadcast and multicast service communication according to claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving at a base station the request signaling information for requesting the broadcast and multicast service from the mobile station using preamble codes of random access channel signals having signature sequences corresponding to a certain type of the broadcast and multicast service; and
transmitting a request for starting the broadcast and multicast service having the type corresponding to the signature sequences of the preamble codes to the multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus when the base station first receives one of the preamble codes of the request signaling information.

5. A base station which performs broadcast and multicast of multimedia data supplied from a multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus to a mobile station, the base station comprising:
a random access channel signal reception unit configured to discriminate preamble codes of specified random access channel signals received from a first mobile station and a second mobile station, from received preamble codes of random access channel signals which are not specified random access channel signals, wherein the preamble codes of said specified random access channel signals are configured for conveying a request initiated by the first mobile station and the second mobile station for broadcast and multicast service;
a transmitter configured to immediately, upon discrimination of the preamble codes of the specified random access signals, transmit a reception completion response to each mobile station that transmitted the preamble codes of the specified random access channel signal; and
a transmission determination unit configured to determine whether the request for the broadcast and multicast service has already been transmitted to a multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus and, when it is determined that no request for the broadcast and multicast service has been transmitted to said multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus, to transmit, from the base station, a single request for broadcast and multicast service, based solely on the request for broadcast and multicast service from the first mobile station, to the multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus, the single request for broadcast and multicast service used for starting the broadcast and multicast service for the first and second mobile station.

6. The base station according to claim 5 , further comprising:
a service termination request transmission unit configured to notify the multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus of a request for termination of the broadcast and multicast service when the preamble codes of the specified random access channel signals which are received from the mobile station for the broadcast and multicast service which has been provided are no longer received.

7. The base station according to claim 5 , further comprising:
a received power detecting unit configured to detect received power of the preamble codes of the specified random access channel signals discriminated by the random access channel signal reception unit;
a mobile station count estimation unit configured to estimate a number of mobile stations which are requesting the broadcast and multicast service in accordance with the received power detected by the received power detecting unit; and
a mobile station count transmission unit configured to notify the multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus of the number of mobile stations estimated by the mobile station count estimation unit.

8. The base station according to claim 5 , wherein the transmission determination unit notifies a request for starting service of a type corresponding to a signature sequence of the preamble codes to the multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus, when the base station first receives one of the preamble codes of the request signaling information.

9. A communication system comprising a base station and a mobile station, wherein the base station performs broadcast and multicast of multimedia data supplied from a multimedia-broadcast-and-multicast-service transmission apparatus to the mobile station, the base station comprising:
a random access channel signa

Assignees

• Takase Ryo
• Kawabata Kazuo
• Fujitsu Ltd

Inventors

• Takase Ryo
• Kawabata Kazuo

Classifications

• H04L12/185

  with management of multicast group membership · CPC title

• H04L12/18

  for broadcast or conference {, e.g. multicast} · CPC title

• H04W72/30 Primary

  Resource management for broadcast services · CPC title

• H04W74/0833

  Random access procedures, e.g. with 4-step access · CPC title

• H04W72/005 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic