Mobile communication system, base station control device and radio base station forming the same, and communication timing control method thereof

A base station control device forming a mobile communication system designed such that user data from a core network is received by the base station control device, the received user data is transmitted from said base station control device to a plurality of radio base stations and the user data is sent out by radio from these plurality of radio base stations to transmit said user data to a mobile terminal from the relevant radio base station, which is structured to:

• at the time of communication start, transmit test data to each said radio base station, receive, from each radio base station, a response signal related to the transmitted test data, based on time of said transmission and time of reception of each response from each said radio base station, calculate the amount of transmission delay corresponding to a data transmission time between its own device and each radio base station in question and based on each calculated amount of transmission delay, with one radio base station whose said amount of transmission delay is the largest as a reference, calculate a transmission data buffering time to be applied to each radio base station to be substantially zero or extremely short for the one radio base station in question and to be a finite value conforming to a relative relationship with said amount of transmission delay of said one radio base station for each of the other radio base stations, at the time of transmitting down data supplied from said core network, transmit the data to each corresponding radio base station with each said calculated buffering time applied, and at the time of receiving up data from each said radio base station, based on a change of a difference in time of data reception from each radio base station, adjust a buffering time to be applied.

A radio base station forming a mobile communication system, wherein

• in said mobile communication system,
• user data from a core network is received by a base station control device, the received user data is transmitted from said base station control device to a plurality of radio base stations and the user data is sent out by radio from these plurality of radio base stations to transmit said user data to a mobile terminal from the relevant radio base station,
• said base station control device, at the time of communication start, transmits test data to each said radio base station, receives, from each radio base station, a response signal related to the transmitted test data, based on time of said transmission and time of reception of each response from each said radio base station, calculates the amount of transmission delay corresponding to a data transmission time between its own device and each radio base station in question and based on each calculated amount of transmission delay, with one radio base station whose said amount of transmission delay is the largest as a reference, calculates a transmission data buffering time to be applied to each radio base station to be substantially zero or extremely short for the one radio base station in question and to be a finite value conforming to a relative relationship with said amount of transmission delay of said one radio base station for each of the other radio base stations, at the time of transmitting down data supplied from said core network, transmits the data to each corresponding radio base station with each said calculated buffering time applied, and at the time of receiving up data from each said radio base station, based on a change of a difference in time of data reception from each radio base station, adjusts a buffering time to be applied, and
• the radio base station, at the time of communication start, upon receiving the test data from said base station control device, transmits the response signal to the base station control device in question with substantially no delay.

A communication timing control method in a mobile communication system structured such that user data from a core network is received by a base station control device, the received user data is transmitted from said base station control device to a plurality of radio base stations and the user data is sent out by radio from these plurality of radio base stations to transmit said user data to a mobile terminal from the relevant radio base station, comprising the steps of:

• in said base station control device, at the time of communication start, transmitting test data to each said radio base station,
• in each said radio base station, upon receiving said test data, transmitting a response signal to said base station control device with substantially no delay,
• in said base station control device, receiving the response signal from each said radio base station,
• in said base station control device, based on time of said transmission and time of reception of each response from each said radio base station, calculating the amount of transmission delay corresponding to a data transmission time between its own device and each radio base station in question,
• in said base station control device, based on each calculated amount of transmission delay, with one radio base station whose said amount of transmission delay is the largest as a reference, calculating a transmission data buffering time to be applied to each radio base station to be substantially zero or extremely short for the one radio base station in question and to be a finite value conforming to a relative relationship with said amount of transmission delay of said one radio base station for each of the other radio base stations,
• in said base station control device, at the time of transmitting down data supplied from said core network, transmitting the data to each corresponding radio base station with each said calculated buffering time applied, and
• in said base station control device, at the time of receiving up data from each said radio base station, based on a change of a difference in time of data reception from each radio base station, adjusting a buffering time to be applied.