Intersystem communication system

The present invention relates to a communication system, especially an interconnected relay communication system.

The relay communication system is a well-known technology. This communication system generally includes a resource controller (it can be centralized or distributed), which manages various communications between various communication devices (such as fixed stations, mobile stations or portable two-way radio communication devices) Resources (such as frequency pairs or TDM time-division multiplexing time slots (slots)) are communicated, and multiple corresponding relay stations support these communication resources.

There are many such communication systems, including Motorola's Smartnet and Privacy Plus systems, EFJohnson's Clearchannel LTR system, and General Electric's Sixteen Plus and Sweet Sixteen systems.

Generally speaking, these systems tend to operate independently of each other. Therefore, a certain communication device in the first communication system cannot establish communication with a second communication device in the second system.

In some existing systems, the interconnection of one or more communication systems is achieved by appropriate dedicated land communication lines. This configuration enables communication devices in different communication systems to communicate with each other. However, this method has some disadvantages, including increased costs and inflexibility. In addition, even with such connections, this solution cannot easily accommodate group calls.

There is a real need for a system and method that can economically and flexibly interconnect two or more systems.

This need can basically be met by the inter-system communication system disclosed here. This system works with at least two communication systems, each of which includes a set of communication resources and a resource controller allocated to control these resources. According to various embodiments of the present invention, one or more auxiliary receivers are provided for one or more such communication systems, and such receivers should be at least compatible with the communication resources normally used in the opposite system. With this configuration, as long as the second system has such an auxiliary receiver and is tuned to the appropriate resources of the first system, the communication request from the first system can be received by the second system and processed appropriately.

In one embodiment, each system is equipped with a receiver, which is compatible with the control resources in the opposite system, such as a dedicated control channel. In this way, communications from one system can be received by other systems and handled appropriately.

In another embodiment, a receiver capable of accommodating every communication resource supported by other communication systems is provided. This embodiment provides a high degree of flexibility in the allocation of communication resources.

In another embodiment, its control communication resources support both primary control signaling used by the member communication devices of the communication system to realize the communication resource allocation among its member communication devices. In addition, this control communication resource also supports Secondary control signaling, which is prepared and used by the second communication system to realize system-to-system communication.

In yet another embodiment, the primary control signaling and the secondary control signaling can be transmitted at different data rates, and the secondary control signaling is transmitted at a higher data rate.

In yet another embodiment, communication devices belonging to a public group or group (at least partially) share a common group ID in each system. For example, when communicating within the base system, the first ID is used. The base system can recognize that this ID represents a local group or group. When the group or group of radio stations communicate in the second system, the second ID can be used. The second ID is registered in the second system in advance as a roaming ID, and the registered information is also related to the base system corresponding to the specific ID. In a similar way, additional IDs can be used for different systems that pre-register radio stations as roaming users.

When the non-base system detects that a pre-registered roaming user has entered its system, the non-base system will use its additional receiver to monitor the communication resources of its base system for the roaming user. The communication from the base system to the roaming user can be listened to and forwarded to the roaming user through non-base system resources.

Figure 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a timing chart for controlling communication resources of the first embodiment;

Figure 3 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 4 is a block diagram of a third embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the first embodiment is indicated by reference numeral 100. The system (100) has to work with other communication systems. For ease of explanation, only two communication systems (101 and 102) are shown.

The first communication system includes a communication resource controller for controlling the allocation of the first group of communication resources. In this embodiment, it will be assumed that the communication resource is supported by multiple relay stations (104), and the communication resource itself contains the first group of three frequency pairs AC. In addition, for the convenience of description, it is also assumed that a certain repeater (104) Support system control information about resource allocation requests and responses. This system control information for the member communication devices of the system (101) is referred to herein as primary signaling information. The resource controller (103) controls these relay stations (104), and exchanges resource allocation request and response information, that is, primary control signals, through the relay station (104) via the corresponding link (107).

The second communication system also includes a resource controller (108), a relay station (109) (it supports the communication resource DF), and a corresponding link (111) between the two. In this embodiment, the communication resource AC of the first system (101) is different from the communication resource DF of the second system. Therefore, the two systems (101 and 102) cannot directly communicate with each other through relay stations.

According to the present invention, each system (101 and 102) is also equipped with a receiver (112 and 113), which can at least compatiblely receive information about a certain communication resource of other systems. In this embodiment, the received communication resource is its control communication resource. The received signaling information is sent from the receiver (112 and 113) to the corresponding resource controller (respectively 103 and 108) via the corresponding link (respectively 114 and 115).

In this way, the resource controller (103 and 108) can monitor the control communication resources of other systems.

Referring to Figure 2, we will explain the signaling supported by the control communication resources of each system (101 and 102). Outgoing primary control signaling uses slotted Aloha Channel Access Protocol (Aloha Channel Access protocal). Generally speaking, the outgoing primary control signaling word (PCS) (201) is sent by the resource controller and transmitted by the corresponding control communication resource relay station. These PCS (201) data and the corresponding synchronization word are transmitted alternately. As well known, it also sends the system ID from time to time. According to the present invention, the next available data slot (204) after the system ID is the outgoing secondary control signaling (SCS) for the neighboring communication system. With the system ID (203) as a mark, the neighboring system can correctly identify the secondary control signaling sent by the source system and respond appropriately to it.

A typical outgoing primary control signaling word (201) generally contains 76 bits of information, plus additional 8 bits of frame synchronization information. In an embodiment of the present invention, the secondary control signaling word (204) can use a higher bit rate, so the data rate can be increased by about 10 times. For example, assuming a transmission rate of 36KBPS, the outgoing secondary control signaling word can hold 760 to 840 baud data. Due to the use of this higher data rate, the ability to control communication resources is basically not weakened. At the same time, because only fixed-point to fixed-point communication needs to be maintained, the high rate will provide satisfactory performance.

In this way, a resource controller can send an appropriate secondary control signaling for another communication system to receive and process. This kind of information can be, for example, that two communication devices want to communicate between two communication systems. This will be described in detail below.

Referring to FIG. 3, the third embodiment is indicated by reference numeral 300. The system (300) also works with other communication systems. For ease of description, only two communication systems (301 and 302) are described.

The first communication system also includes a resource controller (303) for controlling the allocation of the first group of communication resources. In this embodiment, it is also assumed that the communication resource is supported by multiple relay stations (304), and the communication resource itself includes a first set of frequency pairs AC, and one of the relay stations (304) supports system control related to resource allocation requests and responses. information. The resource controller (303) controls the relay station (304), and exchanges resource allocation request information and response information through the relay station (304) via an appropriate link (306).

The second communication system (302) also includes a resource controller (307), a relay station (308) (supporting communication resource DF), and an appropriate link (309) between the two. In this embodiment, the communication resource AC of the first system (301) is different from the communication resource DF of the second system (302). Therefore, the two communication systems (301) and (302) cannot communicate directly with each other through the equipped relay station.

In this embodiment, the first communication system (301) also includes a plurality of receivers (311), and they can compatiblely receive information from the DF communication resources of the second communication system (302). Although it is not necessary to provide a receiver that adapts to each communication resource in the other party's system, this embodiment provides such a receiver (311). An appropriate link (312) is provided between the receiver (311) and the resource controller to control (at least partially control) the operation of the receiver, and also enables the resource controller (303) to receive the receiver ( 311) The received signaling information from the resource controller (307) of the second system (302). In addition, an appropriate link (313) is provided between the receiver (311) and the relay station (304) of the first system, and the link (313) has an appropriate gating (314) device to make the receiver (311) The received signal can be transmitted to the relay station (304) under the control of the resource controller (303).

In this way, the resource controller (303) can make a designated relay station (304) retransmit the communication information, for example, the voice information that has been received by a certain receiver (311).

In the second communication system (302), a set of similar receivers (316), links (317 and 318) and gating devices (319) are provided, providing the same structural configuration as described above.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

A certain first communication device (321) located within the range of the first communication system (301) initiates this operation by issuing a request to communicate with one or more other communication devices (although this request may be related to a specific identification For the sake of simplicity, we assume that the first communication device identifies a specific second communication device (323) as the desired communication target). The call request is transmitted on the appropriate control resource of the first communication system (301), and is forwarded to the resource controller (303) of the first system (301) by the corresponding control resource relay station (304).

If the resource controller (303) recognizes that the communication target is local (for example, it can be formulated by the communication target ID), then the resource controller (303) can allocate a communication resource to support the requested Communication. That's how it is done now. However, if the resource controller (303) determines that the communication target is not local (or not completely local for group calls), then the resource controller (303) can transmit an outgoing signaling word on the control resource , The signaling word contains the information required to communicate with the second communication device.

The outgoing communication information sent by the resource controller (303) and sent by the appropriate control resource repeater (304) will be detected by a certain one of the second communication system (302) that is detecting the first communication system (301) Received by the receiver (316) of the specific communication resource. The specific receiver (316) provides the signaling information to the resource controller in the second communication system (302) via an appropriate link (317). If the second resource controller (307) recognizes that the identified communication target is local, the resource controller (307) will allocate one of its communication resources to support the communication, and control the outgoing on the resource In the transmission (326), information identifying the allocated resources is provided.

The second communication device (323) will receive the transmission (326) and cause the second communication device to start monitoring the allocated communication resources of the second communication system. The appropriate receiver (311) of the first communication system (301) will also receive the outgoing transmission (326). Therefore, the resource controller (303) will be provided with the received signaling information via the corresponding link (312). The resource controller (303) can now determine: the communication target has been found, and a resource in the second communication system (302) has been designated to support the requested communication, and it can now be the first communication device ( 321) Designate a communication resource of its own to support the communication.

Thereafter, the first communication device (321) can use the communication resources of the first communication system (301) to transmit its information (such as voice information). The relay station (304) designated in the first communication system (301) to support this communication will receive the information from the first communication device (321) and forward the information on the allocated communication resources. Send a registration response message to the roaming user (423) on the appropriate control resource. The second system (402) that is still monitoring the control resources of the base system (401) will detect the response information and determine that the roaming user (423) is no longer in the second system (402). After that, the second system (402) will be separated from the roaming user, and the receiver (416) previously assigned to monitor its base system (401) will also be withdrawn.

The claimed claim is that the forwarded information will be received by the corresponding receiver (316) in the second communication system (302). The resource controller (307) in the second communication system (302) will send the received voice information (to the relay station (308)) to the repeater (308) designated to support this communication. Then, the designated relay station (308) will send the received signaling (328), and the sent information will be received by the second communication device (323).

Assuming that the second communication device (323) wants to send response information with the first communication device (321), the same process can be used to send and relay in the opposite direction, or in other words, the allocated resources can be used to transmit information in the reverse order.

In Fig. 4, numeral 400 shows the third embodiment.

In this embodiment, the first communication system (401) constitutes a base system. As before, the system includes a resource controller (403) for controlling the allocation of the first group of communication resources among multiple member communication devices. In this embodiment, it is assumed that multiple relay stations support communication resources, the communication resources themselves include the first set of frequency pairs AC, and a certain relay station (404) supports resource allocation requests and acknowledges related system control information. The resource controller (403) controls the relay station (404), and exchanges resource allocation requests and acknowledgement information through the relay station (404) via the corresponding link (406).

The second communication system (402) also includes a resource controller (407), a repeater (408) (which supports the communication resource DF), and a corresponding link (409) between them. In this embodiment, the communication resource AC of the first system (401) is different from the communication resource DF of the second system (402). Therefore, the two systems (401 and 402) cannot directly communicate with each other through the provided relay station.

The second communication system (402) also includes a plurality of receivers (416), which are compatible with receiving the communication resources AC in the base communication system (406). Although there is no certain communication device (423) necessarily belonging to a group of a base system (401), it roams out of its base system (401) and enters the range of the second system (402). Then the communication device (423) finds and is in the appropriate control resource of the system (this can be achieved in several ways, for example, the communication device (423) is provided with a table of possible neighboring control resources in advance, or the communication device (423), when the control resource of the base channel is lost, it can automatically search for and obtain a control resource), and send a "in the second system" message to the resource controller of the second system. The information includes the pre-registered ID. The resource controller of the second system compares it with its own database, and recognizes that the roaming user belongs to a pre-registered group of the first system (401).

Thereafter, the resource controller (407) of the second system determines that a roaming member from the first system (401) has entered the second system (402), and designates a receiver (416) to monitor the control of the first system Resources.

Another communication device (421) belonging to the group (it has a pre-registered ID) and within the range of the first communication system (401) can initiate a group call by sending a request signal to communicate with the group at any time. This call request is sent via an appropriate control resource of the first communication system (401) and is forwarded by an appropriate control resource relay station (404) to the resource controller (403) of the first system.

According to the request, the resource controller (403) assigns a communication resource to support the requested communication. The assignment information sent by the resource controller includes the group ID of its base system (401) (this ID has been pre-registered in the ID database (431) of the second system (402)).

The outgoing allocation information sent by the resource controller (403) and forwarded by the appropriate control resource repeater (404) will be monitored by the receiver (416) of the second system (402). The receiver of the specific communication resource needs to provide a receiver to adapt to each communication resource in the other party's system, but in this embodiment, this receiver is provided (416). An appropriate link (417) is provided between the receiver (416) and the resource controller (407) so that the resource controller (407) can control (at least partially control) the operation of the receiver and also enable the The resource controller (407) receives the signaling information from the resource controller (403) of the base system (401) received by the receiver (416). In addition, an appropriate link (418) is provided between the receiver (416) and the relay station (408) of the second system. The link (418) has an appropriate gating device (419), so that the resource controller (407) can control the transmission of the signaling received by the receiver (416) to the relay station (408).

In this way, the resource controller (407) can enable a specific relay station (408) to forward communication information, such as voice information received by one of the receivers (416).

If necessary, a similar set of receivers, links and gating devices can be configured in the base system (401) to provide the same configuration as described in the second system (402) above.

The multiple member communication devices of the base system generally include one or more groups or groups. According to the present invention, an ID is assigned to such a group of each system, and these radio stations are pre-registered with the ID. These pre-registered contents include information about whether the ID indicates a local group or a roaming group. If the ID relates to a roaming (non-base) group, then the pre-registered information should also include the relevant information of the base system of the group, including the information about the control resources of the base system and the ID of the group. To this end, the resource controller (407) of the second system (ie, the non-base system) provides an appropriate database (431), which stores the information of the pre-registered ID.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below. receive. The receiver (416) will then provide the signalling information to the resource controller (407) of the second system (402) via the appropriate link (417). The second resource controller (407) will recognize that the ID belongs to a roaming user in the system, and the resource controller (407) will designate one of the receivers (416) to monitor the first system ( 401) The allocated communication resources. The controller (407) will also designate a communication resource of its own to support the communication, and send this allocation information. This allocation information is sent through the control resources of the second communication system (402) in the usual way, and is received by the second communication device (423), which also enables the second communication device (423) to start monitoring the communication allocated by the second communication system Resources.

Thereafter, the first communication device (421) will use the communication resources of the first communication system (401) to transmit its information (for example, voice information). In the first communication system (401), the relay station (404) designated to support the communication will receive the signaling from the first communication device (421), and forward the signaling on the allocated communication resources. The forwarded voice information will be received by an appropriate receiver (416) of the second communication system (402). Under the control of the resource controller (407) of the second communication system, the received voice information is sent to the relay station (408) designated to support the communication. Then the designated relay station (408) retransmits the received signal, and the retransmitted information (428) will be received by the second communication device. In this way, the second communication device is included in the group call communication.

Of course, eventually the roaming user will leave the second system (402) and return to its own base system (401). At this time, the roaming user (423) will disconnect from the second system and connect with the first system (401). After detecting the control resources of the base system (402), the roaming user (423) will re-register with the base system (401). As part of this process, the base system (401) will

1. A communication system that supports communication between multiple member communication devices, which has: a first group of communication resources that can be allocated between members, and at least one communication resource is supported by its member communication device to realize communication resources Primary control signaling for the allocation between member communication devices; and a resource controller that controls the allocation of communication resources between member communication devices and (at least partially) generates the primary control signaling.

It is characterized by: A) at least one communication resource supports at least one secondary control signaling used by other communication systems to achieve system-to-system communication;

B) The resource controller at least partially generates secondary control signaling.

2. The communication system of claim 1, further characterized in that: A) the communication resources supporting primary signaling include a dedicated control resource;

B) This dedicated control resource also supports secondary control signaling.

3. The communication system of claim 2, further characterized in that the primary control signaling includes data transmitted at a first data rate, the secondary control signaling includes data transmitted at a second data rate, and the first data The rate is different from the second data rate.

4. A communication system, which includes: A) a set of predetermined communication resources;

B) A resource control device that allocates communication resources between communication components, and as its characteristics: C) A receiving device, which receives radio frequency communication signals supported by communication resources, which are commonly used by another independent communication system, And it does not include the resources in the aforementioned predetermined communication resource group.

D) A device that selectively connects a receiving device with a predetermined communication resource group so as to retransmit the communication signal received by the receiving device from the aforementioned independent communication system via the predetermined communication resource.

5. A communication system, which includes: a first communication system, which includes a first group of communication resources and a first resource control device that controls the first group of communication resources; and a second communication system, which includes a second group of communication resources and A second resource control device that controls the second set of communication resources;

It is characterized by: a method for establishing communication between a first communication device and a second communication device, which includes the following steps: A) Provide a first receiving device for the first communication system, which basically communicates with the second group Resource compatible, and used to receive communication information sent by the second communication system;

B) Provide a second receiving device for the second communication system, which is basically compatible with the first set of communication resources, and used to receive communication information sent by the first communication system;

C) In the first communication system, receiving request information from the first communication device to communicate with the second communication device anyway;

D) The first resource control device uses the first set of communication resources to issue at least a notification to communicate with the second communication device;

E) The second receiving device receives the notification information from the first communication system, and sends the notification information to the second resource control device;

F) The second resource control device uses the second set of communication resources to send the notification message of the communication request.

6. The method of claim 5, further characterized in that: the notification message for requesting communication issued under the step includes identification information of a communication resource of the second group of communication resources designated to support the requested communication.

7. A communication system, comprising: a first communication system, which includes a first group of communication resources, and a first resource control device for controlling at least partially controlling the first group of communication resources in the first group of members Distribution between communication equipment;

A second communication system, which includes a second group of communication resources and a second resource control device, the latter is used to control, at least partially control, the allocation of the second group of communication resources among the communication devices of the second group of members, here, the first The group communication resources are basically incompatible with the second group of communication resources;

It is characterized by: a method of establishing communication between the following two: the first communication device, which is a member of the first group of member communication devices and is in the first communication system;

The second communication device, which is a member of the first group of member communication devices and is located in the second communication system;

The method includes the following steps: A) to some radio equipment in the first group of member communication equipment, including the first communication equipment and the second communication equipment, providing a first ID;

B) Pre-register the first ID as a roaming ID in the second communication system;

C) Provide the second communication system with a receiving device that is basically compatible with at least one resource of the first communication resource of the first communication system, so that the second communication system can monitor at least some of the communications supported by the first communication system ;

D) In the second communication system, it is determined that the second communication device is located within the second communication system;

E) In the second communication system, use the receiving device to monitor at least one communication resource belonging to the first group of communication resources to detect the first system communication, which is at least partially established with a communication device with at least the first ID Communication;

F) When the communication of the first system is detected, a communication resource of the second group of communication resources is allocated to the second communication device in the second communication system to receive at least part of the communication of the first system.

8. A base communication system, which includes a group of communication resources and a resource control device that controls (at least partially controls) the allocation of the group of communication resources among a number of member communication devices, and is characterized by establishing communication between the following devices The method: the first communication device, which is one of many member communication devices and is located in the base communication system;

The second communication device, which is one of many member communication devices and is located in the second communication system, where the second communication system includes a second set of communication resources and a second resource control device, which is used to control ( At least partially control) the allocation of the second communication resources among the communication devices of the second group of members, and the second group of communication resources are basically incompatible with the communication resources of the base system;

The method includes the following steps: A) at least provide -ID for the first and second communication devices;

B) The ID is pre-registered as a roaming ID by the second communication system;

C) to provide a receiving device to the second communication system, the receiving device is basically compatible with at least one communication resource of the base communication system, so that the second communication system can monitor at least some communications from the base system;

D) using the receiving device in the second communication system to monitor at least one communication resource belonging to the base system to detect communication with at least a communication device having the ID;

E) When such a communication is detected, a communication resource is allocated in the second communication resource of the second system, so that the second communication device can at least partially receive the communication.