Handover control apparatus

1. A handover control apparatus installed in a terminal for performing handover between communication stations from a serving station to a target station for wireless communication of the terminal, the target station selected, for next communication with the terminal, from among adjacent stations that are adjacent to the serving station, the apparatus comprising:

a memory controller that stores in a memory unit a serving station reception level by a radio unit as a serving station reception history and an adjacent station reception level by the radio unit as an adjacent station reception history, the serving station reception level and the adjacent station reception level respectively rating a reception level of an electric wave by the radio unit from the communication stations;

a necessity determination unit that determines if a handover is necessary based on the serving station reception level;

a radio wave reception determination unit that determines a transition trend and a stability of the serving station reception level and of the adjacent station reception level based on the serving station reception history and the adjacent station reception history when the handover is determined to be necessary;

a target station selection unit that selects the adjacent station as the target station when the adjacent station reception level is determined to be in an upturn trend and stable by the radio wave reception determination unit; and

a handover perform unit that performs the handover when the radio wave reception determination unit determines (a) that the serving station reception level is in a downturn trend and (b) that the serving station reception level at a determination timing for determining that the handover is necessary is lower than the target station reception level.

2. The handover control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein

the necessity determination unit determines that the handover is necessary based on a determination that the serving station reception level is lower than a handover threshold.

3. The handover control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein

the memory controller stores the serving station reception level at regular intervals as the serving station reception history, and

the radio wave reception determination unit (a) formulates a serving station reception level approximation equation based on the serving station reception history at a predetermined number of timings including the determination timing, and (b) estimates a transition trend of the serving station reception level by using the serving station reception level approximation equation.

4. The handover control apparatus of claim 3 , wherein

the radio wave reception determination unit formulates a high-degree equation as the serving station reception level approximation equation, and

the radio wave reception determination unit estimates the transition trend of the serving station reception level either as an upturn trend, a downturn trend, or a stable trend by using the approximation equation based on a calculation of two reception levels at a prior-to-determination timing and at the determination timing in the serving station reception history and based on comparison between calculated reception levels.

5. The handover control apparatus of claim 3 , wherein

the radio wave reception determination unit formulates a linear equation as the serving station reception level approximation equation, and

the radio wave reception determination unit estimates the transition trend of the serving station reception level either as an upturn trend, a downturn trend, or a stable trend based on a coefficient of the linear equation having a positive value, a negative value, or a null value.

6. The handover control apparatus of claim 3 , wherein

the radio wave reception determination unit estimates a stability of the adjacent station reception level based on (a) a reception level calculation value of an adjacent station reception level approximation equation at each of plural timings which are used to formulate the adjacent station reception level approximation equation and (b) an instantaneous adjacent station reception level at the same timings.

7. The handover control apparatus of claim 6 , wherein

the radio wave reception determination unit calculates a difference between the reception level calculation value of the adjacent station reception level approximation equation and the instantaneous reception level at each of the plural timings, and determines whether the difference is equal to or smaller than a threshold at all of the timings, and

the radio wave reception determination unit estimates (a) that the transition trend of the adjacent station reception level is stable when the difference is equal to or smaller than the threshold at all of the timings, and (b) that the transition trend of the adjacent station reception level is not stable when the difference is not equal to or smaller than the threshold at at least one of the timings.

8. The handover control apparatus of claim 6 , wherein

the target station selection unit selects, from among a plurality of adjacent stations having the reception level being in the upturn trend and stable, a target station that has a greatest instantaneous value of the reception level at the determination timing.

9. The handover control apparatus of claim 6 , wherein

the target station selection unit selects, from among a plurality of adjacent stations having the reception level being in the upturn trend and stable, a target station that has a greatest calculation value of the reception level by using the adjacent station reception level approximation equation at a timing that is set after a preset time from the determination timing.

10. The handover control apparatus of claim 3 , wherein

the memory controller stores in the memory unit as the serving station reception history the serving station reception level at an interval that decreases in proportion to an increase of a travel speed of the terminal detected by a travel speed detector.

11. The handover control apparatus of claim 3 , wherein

the memory controller stores in the memory unit as the adjacent station reception history the adjacent station reception level at an interval that decreases in proportion to an increase of a travel speed of the terminal detected by a travel speed detector.

12. The handover control apparatus of claim 3 , wherein

the memory controller stores in the memory unit as the serving station reception history the serving station reception level at an interval that defines a constant travel distance of the terminal based on a travel speed of the terminal detected by a travel speed detector.

13. The handover control apparatus of claim 3 , wherein

the memory controller stores in the memory unit as the adjacent station reception history the adjacent station reception level at an interval that defines a constant travel distance of the terminal based on a travel speed of the terminal detected by a travel speed detector.

14. The handover control apparatus of claim 3 , wherein

the memory controller stores in the memory unit as the serving station reception history the serving station reception level at an interval that decreases in proportion to an increase of handover frequency.

15. The handover control apparatus of claim 3 , wherein

the memory controller stores in the memory unit as the adjacent station reception history the adjacent station reception level at an interval that decreases in proportion to an increase of handover frequency.

16. The handover control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein

the memory controller stores at regular intervals in the memory unit the adjacent station reception level as the adjacent station reception history, and

the reception unit (a) formulates an adjacent station reception level approximation equation based on the adjacent station reception history at a predetermined number of timings including the determination timing, and (b) estimates a transition trend of the adjacent station reception level by using the adjacent station reception level approximation equation.

17. The handover control apparatus of claim 16 , wherein

the radio wave reception determination unit formulates a high-degree equation as the adjacent station reception level approximation equation, and

the radio wave reception determination unit estimates the transition trend of the adjacent station reception level either as an upturn trend, a downturn trend, or a stable trend by using the approximation equation based on a calculation of two reception levels at a prior-to-determination timing and at the determination timing in the adjacent station reception history and based on comparison between calculated reception levels.

18. The handover control apparatus of claim 16 , wherein

the radio wave reception determination unit formulates a linear equation as the adjacent station reception level approximation equation, and

the radio wave reception determination unit estimates the transition trend of the adjacent station reception level either as an upturn trend, a downturn trend, or a stable trend based on a coefficient of the linear equation having a positive value, a negative value, or a null value.

19. The handover control apparatus of claim 16 , wherein

the target station selection unit selects, from among a plurality of adjacent stations having the reception level being in the upturn trend and stable, a target station that has a greatest calculation value of the reception level by using the adjacent station reception level approximation equation at the determination timing.