Abstract:
A base station may include an interface section, a master receive processor, and a slave receive processor. An interface section may receive data from a higher rank station in the mobile communication system, the data may be received over a leased line. The master receive processor may receive the data from the higher rank station, determine whether the data from the higher rank station includes information destined for the base station, and terminate the data at the base station when the data from the higher rank station is determined to include information destined for the base station. The slave receive processor may receive the data from the higher rank station, determine whether the data from the higher rank station includes information destined for another base station, and transmit, over the leased line, the data to the another base station when the data from the higher rank station is determined to include information destined for the another base station.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The invention relates to a base station modulator/demodulator and an ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) cell send/receive method utilizing an ATM line, and more particularly to a base station modulator/demodulator and an ATM cell send/receive method suitable for the elimination of the waste of a leased line at the time of send/receive of ATM cells. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   There is a conventional mobile communication system which performs send/receive of ATM cells utilizing an ATM line between a higher rank station and a base station. 
     FIG. 1  is a diagram showing an example of the construction of a conventional mobile communication system. In this mobile communication system, a base station A 1  and a base station B 2  are connected to a higher rank station through a network  3 . The network  3  is connected to the base station through a leased line. Trailing data from the higher rank station is sent to the base station A 1  through a leased line and to the base station B 2  through another leased line. Data received by the base station A is designated as trailing ATM cell A 4 , and data sent from the base station A to the higher rank station is designated as leading ATM cell A 6 . Likewise, for the base station B, data received by the base station B is designated as trailing ATM cell B 5 , and data sent from the base station B to the higher rank station is designated as leading ATM cell B 7 . 
     FIG. 6  shows an ATM cell format. An ATM cell  25  is constituted by data of 53 bytes. In this case, 5 bytes from the head constitute an ATM header  26 , and the remaining 48 bytes constitute a payload  27 . The ATM header  26  comprises GFC (generic flow control)  28 , VPI (virtual path identification)  29 , VCI (virtual channel identification)  30 , PT (payload type)  31 , CLP (cell loss priority)  32 , and HEC (header error control)  33 . 
   GFC  28  is provided for flow control which is performed when traffic has been increased and, consequently, overload state has taken place over the network  3 . VPI  29  is utilized in setting of a virtual path between the higher rank station and the base station, and VCI  30  is utilized for the identification of each of a plurality of data in the set VP (virtual path) in the communication of the plurality of data. PT  31  indicates the state of cell (congestion), and CLP  32  indicates the significance of cell. HEC  33  functions to detect bit error of the ATM header  26 , and indicates the results of coding of 8-bit CRC for 4 bytes in the header except for HEC  33 . A payload  27  indicates the storage region of communication data. 
     FIG. 7  is a diagram showing a leased line (a secondary group) frame format as one example of the leased line frame format. The secondary group of leased lines have a transmission capacity of 6.3 Mbps wherein 789 bits are arranged in a frame of time length 125 μs. In this format, 8 bit-length 98 TSs (time slots) can be obtained. In a portion of 96 TSs (96 bytes×8=768 bits) among them, ATM cells  25  are continuously arranged. 
     FIG. 2  shows an example of the construction of a conventional trailing ATM cell. The trailing ATM A 4  from the higher rank station is received in an HWY interface section  8  in the base station A 1 . A receive processor  35  has the function of terminating the trailing ATM cell A 4 . The base station A 1  and the base station B 2  are handled as devices which are independent of each other. Thus, these base stations have the same construction. 
     FIG. 3  shows an example of the construction of a conventional trailing processing function. This function will be explained by taking the base station A 1  as an example. For data received from the leased line, the physical layer is terminated in the HWY interface section  8 . In a leased line frame trailer  11 , the frame format shown in  FIG. 7  is synchronized. After the establishment of the synchronization of the frame, cell synchronization for establishing the position of cell boundary is carried out in an ATM cell synchronous detector  12 , for identifying an ATM cell  25  mapped within the frame format. 
   For the ATM cell  25  within the frame format which has been picked out in the ATM cell synchronous detector  12 , error detection of HEC  33  is carried out in the ATM HEC error detector  22 , and the ATM cell  25 , which has been found to have an error, is discarded in this function. The trailing ATM cell A 4 . which has been judged to be effective in the physical layer is sent to the receive processor  35 . In the receive processor  35 , VPI  29  is confirmed for the trailing ATM cell A 4  received by VPI filter  14 , and only the trailing ATM cell A 4  having VPI  29  assigned to the base station A 1  is transferred to the next processing. The ATM cell  25 , wherein VPI  29  is different from the set value, is discarded by this function. 
   The trailing ATM cell A 4 , which has been passed through the filter of VPI  14 , judges various ATM cells assigned by the VCI filter  15 , and is terminated at an ATM cell trailer  16 . 
     FIG. 4  shows an example of the construction of a conventional leading ATM cell. The leading ATM cell A 6  from the base station A is generated in an ATM cell generator  20 . Since the base station A 1  and the higher rank station are connected to each other through a leased line, the base station A 1  maps the leading ATM cell B 7  in the leased line (secondary group) frame format shown in  FIG. 7  through the use of a frame generator  23 . Further, there is also a function of mapping of an idol cell  34  in the frame format according to the transmission rate capacity of the leading ATM cell A 6 . 
   Regarding another example of the conventional mobile communication system, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3003779 proposes a mobile communication system wherein the control link between an exchange and a radio base station is established using a control signal by ATM. 
   The above-described conventional prior art techniques, however, had the following problems. 
   The first problem is such that when reduction in size/reduction in capacity of the base station has lead to a reduction in quantity of data for communication between the base station and the higher rank station and, consequently, the quantity of data has become smaller than the capacity of the leased line, in the mapping within the leased line, the proportion of the effective cell becomes larger than the proportion of the idol cell. This creates wasteful line charge. When the number of users to be supported by the base station has been changed, for example, due to a reduction in size, changing the rate including the quantity of data in the cable to an optimal rate is preferred. Since, however, there is no leased line suitable for the capacity, the system of the base station should be constructed in such a state that an unused band exists. 
   The second problem is such that, in solving the first problem, the connection of the conventional model should be possible. That is, a system should be devised which has succeeded to the conventional system design and can utilize existing models. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a base station modulator/demodulator and an ATM cell send/receive method, wherein, for a base station in which the band of ATM cell utilized between the base station and the higher rank station has been reduced due to a reduction in size/reduction in capacity, ATM cells corresponding to a plurality of base stations are logically multiplexed with the leased line between the base station and the higher rank station and the termination of the ATM cell addressed to itself in the master base station and the send of ATM cell to a slave base station and the receive of ATM cell from the slave base station can be simultaneously realized to enable the elimination of the waste of the leased line. 
   According to the first feature of the invention, a base station modulator/demodulator for constituting a mobile communication system and sending ATM cells to a higher rank station and receiving ATM cells from the higher rank station, comprises: 
   receive means for terminating, among ATM cells received from the higher rank station through a leased line, ATM cells addressed to the base station; 
   first send means for sending, among the ATM cells received from the higher rank station through the leased line, ATM cells addressed to another base station to the another base station; and 
   second send means for multiplexing ATM cells of a plurality of base stations, said base station and said another base station, and sending the multiplexed cells to the higher rank station through the leased line. 
   According to the second feature of the invention, an ATM cell send/receive method in a mobile communication system for performing send/receive of ATM cells between a higher rank station and a base station, comprises the steps of: 
   terminating, among ATM cells received from the higher rank station through a leased line, ATM cells addressed to the base station; 
   sending, among the ATM cells received from the higher rank station through the leased line, ATM cells addressed to another base station to the another base station; and 
   multiplexing ATM cells of a plurality of base stations, said base station and said another base station, and sending the multiplexed cells to the higher rank station through the leased line. 
   Referring now to  FIGS. 8 and 9 , the base station modulator/demodulator according to the invention is provided in a base station constituting a mobile communication system and sends ATM cells to a higher rank station and receives ATM cells from the higher rank station. The base station modulator/demodulator comprises: receive means ( 9 ) for terminating, among ATM cells received from the higher rank station through a leased line, ATM cells addressed to the base station; first send means ( 10 ) for sending, among the ATM cells received from the higher rank station through the leased line, ATM cells addressed to another base station to the another base station; and second send means ( 19 ) for multiplexing ATM cells of a plurality of base stations, the base station and the another base station, and sending the multiplexed cells to the higher rank station through the leased line. 
   According to the base station modulator/demodulator of the invention, for a base station wherein the usable band of the ATM cell between the base station and the higher rank station has been reduced due to a reduction in size/reduction in capacity of the base station, ATM cells of a plurality of base stations are logically multiplexed in a leased line between the base station and the higher rank station, the master base station terminates the ATM cell addressed thereto, and, at the same time, the send of ATM cell to a slave base station and the receive of ATM cell from the slave base station can be realized, whereby the waste of the leased line can be eliminated. Further, since the master base station and the slave base station have the same processing function, the thinking of “master/slave base station” is unnecessary and, thus, this facilitates system design. Furthermore, since the master base station has the same processing function as the slave base station, a further slave base station can be easily provided under the slave base station. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The invention will be explained in more detail in conjunction with the appended drawings, wherein: 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram showing an example of the construction of a conventional mobile communication system; 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram showing the construction of a trailing ATM cell in the conventional mobile communication system; 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram showing the construction of a trailing processing function of the conventional mobile communication system; 
       FIG. 4  is a block diagram showing the construction of a leading ATM cell of the conventional mobile communication system; 
       FIG. 5  is a block diagram showing the construction of a mobile communication system according to a preferred embodiment of the invention; 
       FIG. 6  is an explanatory view showing the construction of an ATM cell format according to a preferred embodiment of the invention; 
       FIG. 7  is an explanatory view showing the construction of a leased line (secondary group) frame format according to a preferred embodiment of the invention; 
       FIG. 8  is a block diagram showing the construction of a trailing ATM cell according to a preferred embodiment of the invention; 
       FIG. 9  is a block diagram showing the construction of a leading ATM cell according to a preferred embodiment of the invention; 
       FIG. 10  is a block diagram showing the construction of a trailing processing function according to a preferred embodiment of the invention; and 
       FIG. 11  is a block diagram showing the construction of a leading processing function according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. 
   

   DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
   Preferred embodiments of the invention will be explained in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
   (1) Explanation of Construction 
   In data communication between a base station and a higher rank station in a mobile communication system, a transmission method is used wherein an existing leased line is used as a PM (physical media) sublayer and an ATM cell has been mapped in a leased line frame format. 
   As shown in  FIG. 5 , the mobile communication system according to a preferred embodiment of the invention generally comprises a base station A 1 , a base station B 2 , and a network  3 . 
   The above construction will be explained in detail. The base station A 1  is connected to a higher rank station through a network  3 . The network  3  and the base station A 1  are connected to each other through a leased line. An ATM cell  25  (see  FIG. 6 ) for the base station A 1  and the base station B 2  is multiplexed in the trailing data from the higher rank station. The trailing ATM cell for the base station B 2  separated in the base station A 1  is sent from the base station A 1  to the base station B 2 . The leading ATM cell sent from the base station B 2  is received in the base station A 1 , is multiplexed in the leading ATM cell of the base station A 1 , and is then sent to the higher rank station. 
     FIG. 6  shows the ATM cell format. The ATM cell  25  is constituted by data of 53 bytes, 5 bytes from the head are accounted for by an ATM header  26 , and the remaining 48 bytes constitute a payload  27 . The ATM header  26  consists of GFC  28 , VPI  29 , VCI  30 , PT  31 , CLP  32 , and HEC  33 . 
   GFC  28  is provided for flow control which is performed when traffic has been increased and, consequently, overload state has taken place over the network  3 . VPI  29  is utilized in setting of a virtual path between the higher rank station and the base station, and VCI  30  is utilized for the identification of each of a plurality of data in the set VP (virtual path) in the communication of the plurality of data. PT  31  indicates the state of cell (congestion), and CLP  32  indicates the significance of cell. HEC  33  functions to detect bit error of the ATM header  26 , and indicates the results of coding of 8-bit CRC for 4 bytes in the header,except for HEC  33 . A payload  27  indicates the storage region of communication data. 
     FIG. 7  is a diagram showing a leased line (a secondary group) frame format as one example of the leased line frame format. The secondary group of leased lines have a transmission capacity of 6.3 Mbps wherein 789 bits are arranged in a frame of time length 125 μs. In this format, 8 bit-length 98 TSs (time slots) can be obtained. In a portion of 96 TSs (96 bytes×8=768 bits) among them, ATM cells  25  are continuously arranged. 
     FIG. 8  shows the construction of a trailing ATM cell according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. The trailing ATM cell from the higher rank station is received in an HWY interface section  8  of the base station A 1 . A master receive processor  9  terminates a trailing ATM cell A 4  addressed to the base station A 1  as the master. A slave send processor  10  identifies a trailing ATM cell B 5  addressed to the base station B 2 , and sends the trailing ATM cell B 5  to the base station B 2 . The base station B 2  has the same construction as the base station A 1 , and, in order to receive the ATM cell  25  from the base station A 1 , has the HWY interface section  8  and a master receive processor  9 . 
     FIG. 9  shows the construction of a leading ATM cell according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. A leading ATM cell A 6  from the base station A 1  to the higher rank station is generated in an ATM cell generator  20 , and a leading ATM cell B 7  in the base station B 2  is generated in the slave send processor  22 . The base station A 1  receives the leading ATM cell B 7  from the base station B 2  in a slave interface section  21 , multiplexes both the leading ATM cells  25  in a cell multiplexer  19 , followed by the send of the multiplexed cells to a leased line. 
   Specifically, according to the base station connection method utilizing an ATM line according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, in a base station modulator/demodulator (base station) in a mobile communication system for data communication between a base station and a higher rank station by a transmission method wherein an ATM cell is mapped utilizing an existing leased line as a PM (physical media) sublayer, when the quantity of data utilized in one base station is much smaller than the band of the leased line connected due to a reduction in size/reduction in capacity of the base station, data of a plurality of base stations are multiplexed through an ATM layer in the leased line and the master base station functions to send data to the slave base station, to receive data from the slave base station, and to perform multiplex sending of the received data and the self-station data, whereby the effective utilization of the leased line is realized and the extension of the slave base station can be easily realized. 
   (2) Explanation of Operation 
   The operation of the preferred embodiment of the invention will be explained in detail in conjunction with FIGS.  6  to  11 . As shown in  FIG. 8 , the construction of the trailing ATM cell according to the preferred embodiment of the invention is such that the trailing ATM cell from the higher rank station is received in the state of multiplexing of the ATM cell for the base station A 1  and the ATM cell for the base station B 2 . Since the trailing ATM cell A 4  and the trailing ATM cell B 5  are mapped in the same leased line, in the case of VP connection wherein the cells are judged by path identification, the cells should be different from each other in VPI  29  in the ATM header  26  shown in  FIG. 6 . 
   The master receive processor  9  and the slave send processor  10  recognize VPI  29  set in the base station A 1  and the base station B 2 . 
   The construction of a trailing processing function according to the invention is as shown in  FIG. 10 . A leased line (secondary group) frame format as an example of the leased line frame format is shown in  FIG. 7  described above. 
   The secondary group leased line has a transmission capacity of 6.3 Mbps wherein 789 bits are arranged in a frame of time length 125 μs. In this format, 98 TSs (time slots) of 8 bit-length can be obtained. In a portion of 96 TSs (96 bytes ×8=768 bits) among them, ATM cells  10  are continuously arranged. Since the length of the ATM cell  25  is 424 bits (53 bytes), as shown in the drawing, in some cases, the boundary of the 125 μs frame does not confirm to the cell boundary and, in this case, one ATM cell  25  extends over two frames. The specifications are in accordance with ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Standardization Sector) G. 804. 
   For the data received from the leased line, the physical layer is terminated in the HWY interface section  8 . The trailing data received from the leased line is subjected to the synchronization of the frame format shown in  FIG. 7  in the leased line frame terminal  8 . Further, after the establishment of the frame synchronization, cell synchronization for establishing cell boundary position is carried out in an ATM cell synchronous detector  12  to identify the ATM cell  25  mapped within the frame format. 
   The ATM cell  25  within the frame format, which has been picked out in the ATM cell synchronous detector  12 , is subjected to error detection of HEC  33  by an ATM HEC error detector  13 , and ATM cell  25  having an error is discarded in this function. The trailing ATM cell in the physical layer judged to be effective is simultaneously sent to the master receive processor  9  and the slave send processor  10 . 
   In the master receive processor  9 , for the received trailing ATM cell, VPI  29  is confirmed by a VPI filter  14 , and only the trailing ATM cell A 4  having VPI  29  assigned to the base station A 1  as the master is transferred to next processing. The trailing ATM cell B 5  having VPI  29  different from the set value is discarded by the present function. The trailing ATM cell A 4 , which has been passed through the filter of VPI  14 , judges various ATM cells  25  assigned by a VCI filter  15 , followed by termination in an ATM cell terminator  16 . 
   In the slave send processor  10 , as with the master receive processor  9 , the VPI filter  14  is used to judge only the trailing ATM cell B 5  assigned to the base station B. Since the trailing ATM cell B 5  has been sent from the higher rank station through the leased line in the state of multiplexing with the ATM cell A 4  of the base station A, behind the VPI filter  14 , the band of the ATM cell B 5  is smaller than the band of the leased line. For this reason, a speed regulator  17  inserts an idol cell  34  instead of the ATM cell  25  discarded in the VPI filter  14 . 
   The base station A 1  and the base station B 2  are connected to each other through a cable, and conversion to a leased line (secondary group) frame format is carried out in a frame generator  18  of a slave send processor  10 . The base station B 2  has the same trailing processing function as the base station A 1 . and the use of only the master receive processing can realize the termination of the trailing ATM cell B 5 . Further, when the base station B 2  has the same trailing processing function as the base station A 1 , the whole system can be constructed by an identical hardware. This can easily realize the provision of a base station C in the slave of the base station B 2 . 
     FIG. 9  shows the construction of a leading ATM cell according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, and  FIG. 11  shows the construction of a leading processing function according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. 
   The leading ATM cell B 7  from the base station B 2  is generated in the ATM cell generator  20 . The base station B 2  is connected to the base station A 1  through a cable, and the base station B 2  uses a frame generator  23  of a cell multiplexer  19  to map the leading ATM cell B 7  in the leased line (secondary group) frame format shown in  FIG. 7 . The base station B 2  further has the function of mapping an idol cell  34  in the frame format according to the transmission rate capacity of the leading ATM cell B 7 . 
   Regarding the leading signal from the base station B 2 , the physical layer is terminated in the slave interface section  21  of the base station A 1 . The slave interface section  21  functions in the same manner as the HWY interface section  8  which terminates the trailing physical layer. The leading ATM cell B 7  withdrawn in the slave interface section  21  is transferred to the cell multiplexer  19 . Further, in the base station A 1 , the ATM cell A 6  generated in the ATM cell generator  20  is transferred to the cell multiplexer  19 . The cell multiplexer  19  comprises an ATM cell multiplexer  24  and a frame generator  23 . 
   When the ATM cell A 6  and the ATM cell B 7  introduced respectively from the base station A 1  and the base station B 2  are sent to the leased line, the ATM cell multiplexer  24  controls the number of times of send. For each leased line used between the higher rank station and each base station, the band is previously determined. Therefore, the band is controlled by varying the number of times of send of each ATM cell according to the set value. The ATM cell  25  assigned in the ATM cell multiplexer  24  generates a frame format for a leased line in the frame generator  23 . 
   The base station B 2  has the same leading processing function as the base station A 1 , and the use of only the ATM cell generator  20  can realize the generation of the leading ATM cell B 7 . Further, when the base station B 2  has the same leading processing function as the base station A 1 , the whole system can be constructed by an identical hardware. This can easily realize the provision of a base station C in the slave of the base station B 2 . 
   As described above, according to the preferred embodiment of the invention, for a base station wherein the usable band of the ATM cell between the base station and the higher rank station has been reduced due to a reduction in size/reduction in capacity of the base station, ATM cells of a plurality of base stations are logically multiplexed in a leased line between the base station and the higher rank station, the master base station terminates the ATM cell addressed thereto, and, at the same time, the send of ATM cell to a slave base station and the receive of ATM cell from the slave base station eliminated. 
   Since the master base station and the slave base station have the same processing function, the thinking of “master/slave base station” is unnecessary and, thus, this facilitates system design. 
   Further, since the master base station has the same processing function as the slave base station, a further slave base station can be easily provided under the slave base station. 
   [Other Preferred Embodiments] 
   In the above preferred embodiment, the higher rank station and the base station A are connected to each other through a leased line, and the master base station and the slave base station are connected to each other through a cable. In another preferred embodiment, a leased line may also be used for connection between the master base station and the slave base station. In this case, although only the secondary group (6.3 M) leased line is used in the above preferred embodiment, in another preferred embodiment, a more cost-effective system may be considered wherein, for the slave base station, conversion from the secondary group to the primary group is made. 
   Further, in the above preferred embodiment, an existing leased line is utilized. The same technique can also be applied to an SDH (synchronous digital hierarchy) system, for example, utilizing 155 M, and rate down from 155 M to the secondary group is possible. 
   The provision of a plurality of slave send functions within the base station permits the connection of the plurality of slave base stations under the master base station. 
   As is apparent from the foregoing description, the base station modulator/demodulator according to the invention performs the following control. Among ATM cells received through a leased line from a higher rank station, ATM cells addressed to a base station are terminated, and ATM cells addressed to another base station among the ATM cells received through the leased line from the higher rank station are sent to the another base station. Further, ATM cells of a plurality of base stations, a base station and other base station, are multiplexed, and the multiplexed cells are sent to the higher rank station through a leased line. In addition, the base station provided with the base station modulator/demodulator has the same processing function as other base station. The above construction can offer the following effects. 
   The first effect is such that, for a base station wherein the usable band of the ATM cell between the base station and the higher rank station has been reduced due to a reduction in size/reduction in capacity of the base station, ATM cells of a plurality of base stations are logically multiplexed in a leased line between the base station and the higher rank station, the master base station terminates the ATM cell addressed thereto, and, at the same time, the send of ATM cell to a slave base station and the receive of ATM cell from the slave base station can be realized, whereby the waste of the leased line can be eliminated. 
   The second effect is such that, since the master base station and the slave base station have the same processing function, the thinking of “master/slave base station” is unnecessary and, thus, this facilitates system design. 
   The third effect is such that, since the master base station has the same processing function as the slave base station, a further slave base station can be easily provided under the slave base station. 
   The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to preferred embodiments, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.