JP4725367B2 - Mobile phone, its communication method and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to mobile phones that can be used by roaming in a plurality of countries, such as the GSM system and the third generation (3G) mobile phone system, and those that can be used with the mobile phone at the time of roaming (Public Land Mobile Network : PLMN (hereinafter, also referred to as PLMN) relates to a technology for speeding up and saving power in a search (cell search) of radio waves.

  In recent years, mobile phones based on next-generation standards such as IMT-2000 (so-called third generation mobile phones) have been developed. In such a third generation mobile phone, the storage medium (IC card) in which subscriber information and the like are recorded and the mobile phone main body are separated.

  In the third generation mobile phone, each user has a UIM (User Identity Module: sometimes referred to as USIM or R-UIM) card. This UIM card is an IC card in which subscriber information (contractor information) and other information (phone book etc.) are recorded. The user can use the service on any third generation mobile phone by inserting his / her UIM card into the mobile phone body.

  In a conventional GSM mobile phone, subscriber information is stored in a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card as in the UIM card.

  By using these UIM cards and SIM cards, it is possible for a single user to use a plurality of mobile phones that match the specifications of each country, such as radio frequencies, and to include frequency bands of a plurality of countries. A mobile phone that can be used in a plurality of countries and a mobile phone that can use two or more communication methods such as the third generation and GSM methods can also be used.

  In addition, mobile phone operators partner with overseas operators, and their own subscribers do not sign up with overseas local operators, but contracts and phone numbers with their own operators in overseas affiliated businesses. "Overseas roaming" that can be used within the service area of the user.

  Accordingly, in the mobile phone that can use the usage pattern, in order to correspond to the services of a plurality of operators in a plurality of countries, the operator to which the user subscribes from all the frequency bands that the mobile phone can support It is necessary to find a partner overseas company, that is, an overseas roaming company and register the location.

  However, when searching all frequency bands, there is a disadvantage that the search time becomes longer and the power consumption increases correspondingly.

  Here, as a technique for shortening the conventional search time, there is Patent Document 1. The mobile phone has a country-specific frequency allocation list. First, a conventional cell search is performed, and the country code (MCC) included in the broadcast information of the first found cell is used to store the country-specific frequency allocation list. The cell search time for the second and subsequent times is reduced by narrowing down the search target operators and their assigned frequency bands.

  Next, as a technique for automating the country selection of a world clock of a terminal using a country code (MCC), there is Patent Document 2. The country code (MCC) included in the contractor information (Home PLMN) written in the SIM of the mobile phone is notified to a mobile terminal such as a PDA connected to the mobile phone, the world clock of the mobile terminal, the language used, etc. Is set automatically.

Also, manage multiple profiles divided into groups for each country, and access to all APs set in multiple profiles included in the profile group of that country based on country information included in the beacon from the AP If a response from the AP is obtained in the attempted access, the user communicates via the AP and receives various services. At this time, the country information or profile information is By accessing the AP using the information stored in the non-volatile memory and next time when accessing the AP, access to the wireless LAN AP by world wide roaming is easier and more A technique that can be performed at high speed has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 3).
JP 2004-023391 A JP 2003-134257 A Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-151435

  However, the conventional example described above has the following problems.

  The technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 is effective in the second and subsequent cell searches, but does not deal with the problems related to the first cell search. In addition, after the second time, we have narrowed down by country, but we can narrow down by carrier, that is, search only for overseas operators that are affiliated with the user's contracted operators. Therefore, it is not sufficient in terms of shortening the cell search time.

  The technique disclosed in Patent Document 2 is not effective for overseas roaming and is not mentioned in cell search because it is a viewpoint of setting a world clock or the like based on information of a business contracted by a user. .

  Conventionally, when a cell phone performs a cell search while roaming, especially in a place where the cell phone is visited for the first time, the cell phone searches all frequencies corresponding to the cell phone, finds broadcast information from the base station, and is included in the broadcast information It is determined whether or not the mobile phone is a business operator that can roam, and if roaming is possible, proceed to the next stage such as location registration, and if roaming is not possible, search for another frequency. For example, the first cell search (initial cell search) takes time and power consumption is large.

  The present invention has been made in view of the circumstances described above, and an object thereof is to reduce the time and power consumption of cell search with a simple operation.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention automatically narrows down a carrier and a frequency band to be subject to cell search based on information on a roamable carrier list stored in a user information memory such as a UIM card. A mobile phone capable of
A country selection operation function for selecting the country in which the user is currently located;
From among the roaming possible operators list, it has a function and to refine further the search currently in the user is in the country and neighboring countries,
Provided is a mobile phone that shortens the first cell search time .

The present invention also provides a mobile phone capable of automatically narrowing down a carrier and a frequency band to be subject to cell search based on information on a roamable carrier list stored in a user information memory such as a UIM card. Communication method,
Select the country where the user is currently located,
From among the roaming possible operators list, to narrow down the country and neighboring countries to further the current user is in the search,
Provided is a mobile phone communication method for shortening the first cell search time .

The present invention also provides a mobile phone capable of automatically narrowing down a carrier and a frequency band to be subject to cell search based on information on a roamable carrier list stored in a user information memory such as a UIM card. In addition,
A country selection operation function for selecting the country in which the user is currently located;
It said from the roaming possible operators list, to realize a function to narrow further the search to the current country and neighboring countries which the user is located,
A program for shortening the first cell search time is provided.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce cell search time and power consumption with a simple operation.

  Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  Referring to FIG. 1, a block diagram of a mobile phone according to the present embodiment is shown. In FIG. 1, a mobile phone (100) is a mobile phone that supports one or both communication methods of a third generation method based on a standard such as GSM method or IMT-2000, for example, and includes a wireless unit (including an antenna) 1) performs transmission / reception of a radio wave of a predetermined frequency band and control of a communication protocol for realizing wireless communication with a base station corresponding to all communication methods supported by the mobile phone.

  The central control unit (2) includes hardware including a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that controls the entire operation of the mobile phone (100), and various software programs executed by the CPU. In the present embodiment, the mobile phone (100) is mounted with a program for realizing a flowchart to be described later as a software program to be executed.

  The main body memory (3) includes a read only memory for storing the software program, a work area and personal data for various programs executed by the central control unit (2), and operating conditions of the mobile phone. Etc. are composed of a nonvolatile memory (or a volatile memory that is always backed up).

  The user information memory (4) is a UIM (User Identity Module) card having a configuration that can be attached to and detached from the mobile phone main body, and identification information for identifying a user who can use the mobile phone (100) is stored therein in advance. It is remembered. In the present embodiment, the corresponding identification information is subscriber information (contractor information) called IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identifier). In order to identify individual subscribers (users), the IMSI includes ID information individually assigned to each subscriber and an identifier (PLMN-Id) of a mobile phone operator (Home PLMN) with which the user subscribes. ).

  An RTC (Real Time Clock) (5) is a clock whose time can be set and read by the central control unit (2), and indicates the world standard time.

  Note that the device configuration of the mobile phone (100) (FIG. 1: in particular, the configuration provided for wireless communication, the transmitter, the receiver, the display, and the button) itself is merely an example, and is generally used at present. Since various techniques can be employed, detailed description and illustration in this embodiment will be omitted.

  FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the country information memory (30) and the selected country memory (31) in the main body memory (3).

  In FIG. 2, the country information memory (30) stores time difference information from the world standard time as time zone information for each country capable of roaming.

  The selected country memory (31) stores the time difference as the time zone information of the country selected by the user and the country read from the country information memory (30). ) Is used to correct the time difference from the world standard time read from the RTC (5) when the clock is displayed.

  FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of the provider information memory (32) in the main body memory (3).

  In FIG. 3, an operator information memory (32) is a list of PLMNs that can be roamed by the mobile phone (100). For each PLMN, country information and an MCC that is a country identification code standardized by the global standard of mobile phones. Includes the PLMN-Id consisting of a combination of (Mobile Country Code) and carrier identification code MNC (Mobile Network Code) and the frequency band (range format of the lower limit frequency and upper limit frequency) to which the PLMN is assigned .

  FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of the neighboring country information memory (33) in the main body memory (3) and a map image thereof. In FIG. 4, the information of the country that borders each country is stored.

  FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of the IMSI (40), the roamable provider list (41), and the search provider list (42) in the user information memory (4).

  In FIG. 5, the IMSI (40) includes a user ID individually assigned to each subscriber and an ID (PLMN-Id = MCC and MNC) of a mobile phone operator (Home PLMN) with which the user subscribes. Combination). The roamable business operator list (41) is a list of PLMN-Ids of business operators whose home PLMN business has a roaming contract.

  The search provider list (42) is a list in which PLMNs to be searched are arranged in order of priority when the mobile phone (100) in which the UIM including the user information memory (4) is inserted performs a cell search.

  FIG. 6 shows that the software program in the central control unit (2) is changed when the user changes the current country information of the world clock to the visited country from the user interface by the button operation of the cellular phone (100) and the display on the display. It is a flowchart of the process to perform.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a process in which the central control unit (2) performs a cell search.

  Next, using FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 4, FIG. 5, FIG. 6, and FIG. 7, the user of the mobile phone (100) shown in FIG. The operation of the software program of the central control unit (2) when the current location of the world clock built in the telephone (100) is set to country A and then cell search is performed for the first time in country A will be described.

  As a precondition, the country information memory (30), the carrier information memory (32), the neighboring country information memory (33), the IMSI (40) and the roamable carrier list (41) are shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. The contents shown in FIG. 5 are written, and in the selected country memory (31), “Country X” which is the home country and “+9 hours” which is the time difference from the standard time of the time zone are written as the selected country. It is assumed that nothing is written in the search provider list (42).

  In FIG. 6, when the user selects “country A” (step S61), the central control unit (2) searches the country information memory (30), which is the time difference of the time zone of country A, “+1 hour”. And the selected “country A” and “+1 hour” are written in the selected country memory (31) (step S62).

  Next, the local time in country A, which is obtained by adding “+1 hour”, which is the time difference information, to the clock information of the world standard time read from the RTC (5) is displayed on a display screen (not shown) (step S63).

  Next, the roamable operator list (41) is searched, PLMN-Id = A + a1 of the PLMN in country A, which is the country concerned, is extracted and written in “rank 1” of the search operator list (42) ( In step S64), the neighboring country information memory (33) is searched to obtain “B country, C country, D country” which is the neighboring country of country A (step S65), and the roamable business operator list (41) is searched again. Then, PLMN-Id = B + b2, C + c1, and D + d3 of PLMNs in neighboring countries B, C, and D are obtained, and “rank 2” in the search operator list (42) 4 "(step S66), and the process is terminated.

  When the cell search is performed for the first time after the world clock is set to the country A, the processing of FIG. 7 in the central control unit (2) is started.

  In FIG. 7, the variable n is a variable indicating the priority order of the processing target PLMN in the search provider list (42) when searching, and the variable p is also the PLMN-Id of the processing target PLMN. is there.

  First, since “rank 1” has the highest priority, 1 is written to n and initialized (step S701).

  Then, PLMN-Id = A + a1 of the PLMN of “rank n = rank 1” in the search provider list (42) is acquired and stored in the variable p (step S702). It is determined whether or not the search has been completed to the end (step S703).

  In this case, since PLMN-Id = A + a1 is not “none”, this determination is “No”, and the PLMN is assigned from the area corresponding to PLMN-Id = A + a1 in the provider information memory (32). The read frequency range Fa1s to Fa1e is read, and broadcast information including PLMN-Id = p = A + a1 is searched in the frequency band range (step S705).

  If broadcast information is found, the determination in step S706 is “Yes”, PLMN-Id = p = A + a1 is selected (step S708), and the process ends.

  If the broadcast information is not found, the determination in step S706 is “No”, the variable n is incremented by 1 to search for the next priority PLMN (step S707), and the process returns to step S702.

  The processing that has returned to step S702 is repeated until the PLMN-Id written in the search provider list (42) becomes “none” (step S703 = “Yes”) as in the case of “rank 1”. .

  If “Yes” is determined in step S703, the cell search according to the search provider list (42) is terminated, and a normal search process for all frequency bands is performed (step S709).

  According to the above-described embodiment, the PLMN to be searched for each selected country and its frequency band are narrowed down, so that the time and power consumption required for the cell search can be saved.

  Further, since the country selection process is shared with the country selection of the world clock, the operation associated with the country selection can be simplified.

  Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. The search provider list (42) is written in the user information memory (4) in this embodiment, but may be written in the main body memory (3).

  The country information memory (30), the provider information memory (32), the neighboring country information memory (33), and the roamable provider list (41) may be fixed values written in the ROM, or from a user operation or a network. It may be updatable by downloading.

  Each of the above-described embodiments is a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, the processing for realizing the function of the device may be performed by causing the device to read and execute a program for realizing the function of the mobile phone in each of the above embodiments. Further, the program is transmitted to another computer system by a transmission wave via a computer-readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM or a magneto-optical disk, or via a transmission medium such as the Internet or a telephone line. Also good.

  Each of the above-described embodiments has been described with respect to a system configuration in which each function of the mobile phone is realized as a single computer system. However, it can be applied to a configuration in which a plurality of devices are added for each function. Of course.

1 is a block diagram of a mobile phone according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the country information memory in the main body memory in the 1st Embodiment of this invention, and a selection country memory. It is a figure which shows an example of the provider information memory in the main body memory in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the neighboring country information memory in the main body memory in the 1st Embodiment of this invention, and a map image. It is a figure which shows an example of IMSI in the user information memory in the 1st Embodiment of this invention, a roamable provider list, and a search provider list. It is a flowchart of the country setting process of the timepiece in the first embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart of the provider search process in the 1st Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 Wireless unit 2 Central control unit 3 Main unit memory 4 User information memory 5 RTC

Claims (3)

A mobile phone capable of automatically narrowing down a carrier and a frequency band subject to cell search on the basis of information on a roamable carrier list stored in a user information memory such as a UIM card,
A country selection operation function for selecting the country in which the user is currently located;
From among the roaming possible operators list, it has a function and to refine further the search currently in the user is in the country and neighboring countries,
A mobile phone characterized by shortening a first cell search time . A mobile phone communication method capable of automatically narrowing down a frequency band with a carrier subject to cell search based on information of a roamable carrier list stored in a user information memory such as a UIM card. ,
Select the country where the user is currently located,
From among the roaming possible operators list, to narrow down the country and neighboring countries to further the current user is in the search,
A communication method for a mobile phone, characterized in that the first cell search time is shortened . A mobile phone capable of automatically narrowing down a carrier and a frequency band subject to cell search based on information on a roamable carrier list stored in a user information memory such as a UIM card,
A country selection operation function for selecting the country in which the user is currently located;
It said from the roaming possible operators list, to realize a function to narrow further the search to the current country and neighboring countries which the user is located,
A program characterized by shortening the first cell search time .

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