JP2006319810A - Data distribution device, terminal equipment, data distribution method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform bi-directional communication between a terminal and a radio base station even when radio wave to be transmitted from the terminal does not arrive at the radio base station concerning a radio communication system. <P>SOLUTION: The system comprises terminal equipment having a first communication means corresponding to a first communication system, and a second communication means corresponding to a second communication system; the radio base station of the first communication system; and a data distribution device. The data distribution device includes a storage means for storing position information of the terminal equipment and radio base station identification information by correspondence, and storing terminal identification information and data distribution destination specifying information by correspondence; a receiving means for receiving a data distribution request which is transmitted from the second communication means of the terminal equipment, the position information, and the terminal identification information; an acquiring means for acquiring the radio base station identification information and the data distribution destination specifying information from the storage means; a data acquiring means for acquiring the requested data; and a distributing means for distributing the acquired data to the applicable radio base station together with the data distribution destination specifying information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technology that enables two-way communication between a terminal and a radio base station even when a radio wave transmitted from the terminal does not reach the radio base station in a radio communication system such as a wireless LAN.

  In recent years, wireless LAN services have become widespread. A wireless LAN can provide a high communication speed, but has a drawback that the service area is narrow and local. In general, radio waves emitted from a wireless LAN base station reach a relatively long distance, but because the range of radio waves transmitted from a terminal using a wireless LAN is narrow, bidirectional wireless communication between the wireless base station and the terminal is possible. The LAN usable area is limited to the range of radio waves transmitted from the terminal.

  For example, for a wireless LAN using the IEEE802.11a system, the radio wave arrival distance from the radio base station to the terminal is about 1600 meters, whereas the radio wave arrival distance from the terminal to the radio base station is about 400 meters. Therefore, the area in which bidirectional communication between the terminal and the base station in this method is limited to a range within 400 meters from the radio base station.

There is a technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 as a technique related to a wireless communication system.
JP 2001-231069 A

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and in a wireless communication system such as a wireless LAN, bidirectional communication between a terminal and a wireless base station is possible even within a range where radio waves transmitted from the terminal do not reach the wireless base station. It aims at providing the technology which enables communication.

  The above-described problems are a terminal device having a first communication unit corresponding to the first communication method and a second communication unit corresponding to the second communication method, and a radio base station corresponding to the first communication method. And a data distribution apparatus that distributes data in response to a data distribution request from the terminal apparatus, wherein the position information of the terminal apparatus and the radio base station identification of the radio base station Information is stored in association with each other, stored in association with the terminal identification information of the terminal device and the data distribution destination specifying information of the terminal device, and transmitted from the second communication unit of the terminal device Receiving means for receiving a data distribution request, location information of the terminal device, and terminal identification information of the terminal device; radio base station identification information corresponding to the location information received by the receiving means; and the terminal identification Acquisition means for acquiring data distribution destination specifying information corresponding to information from the storage means, data acquisition means for acquiring data corresponding to the data distribution request, and the data acquired by the data acquisition means as the wireless This can be solved by a data distribution apparatus comprising distribution means for distributing the data distribution destination specifying information together with the data distribution destination specifying information to a radio base station corresponding to base station identification information.

  In the data distribution device, a wireless LAN communication method is used as the first communication method, a mobile communication method or a fixed telephone communication method is used as the second communication method, and the terminal device is used as the data distribution destination specifying information. MAC addresses can be used. Further, the data acquisition means can assign an IP address to the data distribution request and acquire the data from an external server using the IP address.

  The present invention also provides the terminal apparatus in a system including a terminal apparatus, a radio base station, and a data distribution apparatus that receives data distribution requests from the terminal apparatus and performs data distribution. A first communication unit corresponding to the first communication method to be used; and a second communication unit corresponding to the second communication method. The second communication unit sends a data distribution request to the data distribution device. You may comprise as a terminal device characterized by transmitting and receiving the data corresponding to the said data delivery request | requirement by a 1st communication means.

  A transmitting unit configured to transmit key information to the data distribution device using a second communication unit when the terminal unit cannot perform data communication with the radio base station by the first communication unit; Receiving the key information transmitted from the data distribution apparatus to the radio base station using the first communication means from the radio base station, and receiving the key information transmitted by the transmission means; When the same key information is received by the receiving means, it is determined that the second communication means is used for upstream communication and the first communication means is used for downstream communication, and is transmitted by the transmitting means. When the reception unit does not receive the same key information as the key information, it may be configured to determine to perform communication using only the second communication unit.

  According to the present invention, even when a radio wave transmitted from a terminal does not reach a radio base station compatible with the first communication method, a data distribution request is transmitted from the terminal using the second communication method, and the data distribution device Acquires data and transmits the data to the radio base station corresponding to the position of the terminal, and the radio base station distributes the data to the terminal, so that bidirectional communication between the terminal and the radio base station is possible.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(System overview)
FIG. 1 shows an outline of the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, a wireless LAN base station 2 (also called a wireless LAN access point), a user management server 3 and a data distribution server 4 are provided on a communication network 1 such as the Internet. The user management server 3 and the data distribution server 4 are collectively referred to as a data distribution apparatus.

  In the user management server 3, the identification number of the terminal 5 and the data distribution destination specifying information (MAC address in the present embodiment) of the terminal 5 are stored in association with each other. Furthermore, the location information of the terminal 5 and the wireless LAN access point information corresponding to the location information are stored in association with each other. The terminal 5 has a wireless LAN communication function for performing wireless LAN communication, and a communication function capable of performing communication over a wide range regardless of the distance from the wireless LAN base station 2. In this embodiment, a PHS communication function is used as this communication function. In addition, as a communication function capable of performing communication over a wide range, a fixed telephone may be used in addition to the mobile communication such as the PHS and the mobile phone.

  FIG. 1 shows that the terminal 5 is within the reach of the radio wave from the wireless LAN base station 2 but is in the range where the radio wave from the terminal 5 does not reach the wireless LAN base station 2.

  In this state, the terminal 5 makes an information acquisition request to the user management server 3 using the PHS communication function (step 1). The user management server 3 acquires the wireless LAN access point information corresponding to the current position of the terminal 5 and the MAC address of the terminal 5 from the position information of the terminal 5 received together with the information acquisition request and the identification number of the terminal 5. The data distribution server 4 acquires the information corresponding to the information acquisition request from the external server 6 connected to the communication network 1 (step 3). Then, the acquired information is distributed to the corresponding wireless LAN access point 2 together with the MAC address (step 4). The wireless LAN access point 2 transmits the acquired MAC address as the distribution destination (step 5).

  Hereinafter, the configuration and operation of the system will be described in more detail.

(Device configuration)
2A and 2B are configuration diagrams of the user management server 3 and the data acquisition server 4. As shown in FIG. 2A, the user management server 3 has a stored information acquisition unit 31, a data management unit 32, a network communication unit 33, and an information storage unit 34. The storage information acquisition unit 31 has a function of acquiring the terminal identification number, the MAC address corresponding to the location information, and the wireless LAN access point information from the information storage unit 34 and passing them to the data distribution server 4. The data management unit 32 has a function for adding or deleting data stored in the information storage unit 34. The network communication unit 33 has a function for transmitting and receiving data via the network.

  As illustrated in FIG. 2B, the data distribution server 4 includes a data acquisition unit 41, an address assignment unit 42, a data distribution unit 43, a network communication unit 44, and an information storage unit 45. The data acquisition unit 41 is for acquiring data requested from an external server connected to the network. The address assignment unit 42 has a function of assigning an IP address used for data acquisition. The data distribution unit 43 has a function of distributing the acquired data to the corresponding wireless LAN access point. The information storage unit 45 stores the assigned IP address, wireless LAN access point information, and MAC address in association with each other.

  The user management server 3 and the data distribution server 4 may be configured as one device, and the configuration in that case is shown in FIG.

  FIGS. 4A and 4B show examples of information stored in the information storage unit 34 of the user management server 3. As shown in FIG. 4A, location information (PHS base station information and the like) and wireless LAN access point information (information for identifying a wireless LAN access point) are stored in association with each other. The wireless LAN access point information is, for example, VLAN, IP address, IP address + VLAN, and the like. Further, as shown in FIG. 4B, the terminal identification number (PHS telephone number or the like) and the terminal MAC address (data distribution destination specifying information) are stored in association with each other. These pieces of information are stored in the information storage unit 34 in advance. In the data shown in FIG. 4A, a plurality of pieces of wireless LAN access point information may be set for one piece of position information. In this case, data is transferred to the plurality of wireless LAN access points. Further, a user ID may be stored as the terminal identification number. In this case, the user ID is transmitted from the terminal.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of information stored in the information storage unit 45 of the data distribution server 4. As shown in FIG. 5, for each terminal that has made a data distribution request, an IP address assigned for data acquisition, wireless LAN access point information, and a MAC address are stored in association with each other. The wireless LAN access point information and the MAC address are received from the user management server 3. As shown in FIG. 5, instead of assigning one IP address to one request, one request is identified by assigning one IP address to multiple requests and assigning a TCP / UDP port number to each request. It may be.

  FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of the terminal 5. As shown in FIG. 6, the terminal 5 performs either a wireless LAN communication function unit 51 for performing wireless LAN communication, a PHS communication function unit 52 for performing communication by PHS, or wireless LAN communication or PHS communication. A control unit 53 that performs control including determination of data, and an application 54 that requests and uses data communication. When a mobile phone function is used instead of PHS, a mobile phone function unit is installed instead of PHS communication function unit 52, and when a fixed phone is used, a fixed phone function unit is installed. Moreover, it is good also as selecting the communication function part which mounts all these communication functions and can communicate in a wide range.

  Each of the user management server 3 and the data distribution server 4 or the apparatus in which the user management server 3 and the data distribution server 4 are integrated is processed in a computer having a CPU, a storage device, an input / output device, etc. This can be realized by installing a program for realizing the above. In addition, the terminal 5 is equipped with a hardware component constituting the wireless LAN communication function unit 51 and the PHS communication function unit 52 in a computer having a CPU, a storage device, an input / output device, and the like, and realizes processing of each function unit. This can be realized by installing a program for this purpose. These programs can be provided by being stored in a recording medium such as a memory, or can be provided via a network.

(System operation)
[Terminal operation]
Next, the operation of the terminal 5 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The flowchart shown in FIG. 5 shows an operation to use the wireless LAN as much as possible, assuming that the wireless LAN that enables large-capacity communication is the communication means that most wants to use. In the following description, “uplink” refers to communication from the terminal to the wireless LAN access point, and “downlink” refers to communication from the wireless LAN access point to the terminal.

  Under such a premise, the terminal 5 first checks whether or not bidirectional communication by wireless LAN is possible by accessing the wireless LAN access point 2 (step 11). If the wireless LAN can be used here, the wireless LAN is also used in the subsequent communication (step 12). This state corresponds to the case where the terminal 5 exists in the wireless LAN bidirectional communication possible area in FIG.

  In step 11, when the wireless LAN cannot be used, the terminal 5 checks whether or not the wireless LAN communication in the downlink direction can be performed using the PHS (step 13). This confirmation process will be described later.

  As a result of confirmation in step 13, if it is determined that communication using a wireless LAN in the downlink direction is possible (Yes in step 14), communication using PHS is performed in the uplink direction and communication using the wireless LAN is performed in the downlink direction. (Step 15). If it is found that communication using the wireless LAN is not possible even in the down direction (No in step 14), communication using PHS is performed (step 16).

  The process shown in FIG. 7 may be started by an operation by the user, or may be automatically performed at regular intervals. If it is automatically performed at regular intervals, it is possible to always communicate even when the terminal 5 moves.

[Downlink communication confirmation processing]
Next, the downlink communication usage status confirmation processing in step 13 of FIG. 7 will be described with reference to the sequence diagram of FIG.

  In the following description, it is assumed that the identification number of the terminal 5 is “07012345678”, the location information corresponding to the current location of the terminal 5 is “Yokohama 5”, and the data shown in FIG. It shall be.

  First, the terminal 5 transmits predetermined key information to the user management server 3 by the PHS communication function unit 52 (step 21). The key information is finally returned from the wireless LAN access point 2 to the terminal 5, and can be any information that can confirm that communication can be normally performed when the transmitted information and the received information match. For example, a numeric string having a certain length or more can be used as the key information.

  As shown in the data configuration of step 21 in FIG. 8, the location information and identification number of the terminal 5 are transmitted to the user management server 21 together with the key information. Although not shown, information indicating that this communication is communication for communication confirmation is also added. As for the location information of the terminal 5, in addition to using location information (PHS base station information, etc.) added on the PHS network, the terminal 5 acquires the location information by installing the GPS function in the terminal 5, and acquires it. May be sent.

  Subsequently, the user management server 3 acquires wireless LAN access point information (ABC) corresponding to the received position information from the table shown in FIG. 4, and acquires a MAC address (aaa) corresponding to the received identification number. (Step 22). Then, the user management server 3 passes the acquired wireless LAN access point information, MAC address, key information, and information indicating communication confirmation to the data distribution server 4 (step 23). The data distribution server 4 recognizes that the information passed from the user management server 3 is information for communication confirmation, and transmits the key information and the MAC address (aaa) to the wireless LAN access point 2 (ABC). (Step 24). Then, the wireless LAN access point 2 distributes the key information to the MAC address (aaa) (step 25).

  The terminal 5 receives the key information distributed to its own MAC address by the wireless LAN communication function unit 51, checks whether this key information matches the key information transmitted in step 21, and if they match Determines that the wireless LAN can be used in the downlink direction (step 26). If there is no communication from the wireless LAN for a certain time after sending the key information, or if the transmitted key information and the key information received by the wireless LAN do not match, use the wireless LAN communication in the down direction. It is determined that it cannot be

[Bidirectional communication processing]
Next, bidirectional communication processing after it is determined in step 14 of FIG. 7 that wireless LAN communication in the downlink direction is possible will be described with reference to the sequence diagram of FIG. Hereinafter, as an example of bidirectional communication, a case where desired data is requested using PHS and the data is received using a wireless LAN will be described.

  Also in the following description, it is assumed that the identification number of the terminal 5 is “070125345678”, the position information corresponding to the position of the terminal 5 is “Yokohama 5”, and the data shown in FIG. It shall be.

  First, the terminal 5 transmits the request data location (URL, etc.) to the user management server 3 by the PHS communication function unit 52 (step 31). As shown in the data structure of step 31, the location information and identification number of the terminal 5 are transmitted to the user management server 3 together with the location of the desired data.

  Subsequently, the user management server 3 acquires wireless LAN access point information (ABC) corresponding to the received position information from the table shown in FIG. 4, and acquires a MAC address (aaa) corresponding to the received identification number. (Step 32). Then, the user management server 3 passes the acquired wireless LAN access point information, MAC address (aaa), and desired data location to the data distribution server 4 (step 33).

  The data distribution server 4 assigns an IP address to the data request, and holds the IP address, wireless LAN access point information, and MAC address in association with each other as shown in FIG. 5 (step 34). The data distribution server 4 acquires desired data from the desired data location (external server) using the IP address (step 35), and shows the distribution destination wireless LAN access point 2 of the data acquired using the IP address. 5, the data acquired together with the MAC address (aaa) is transmitted to the wireless LAN access point 2 (step 36).

  Then, the wireless LAN access point 2 distributes the acquired data to the MAC address (step 37). The terminal 5 receives the data distributed to its own MAC address by the wireless LAN communication function 51.

(About effect)
As described above, according to the system of the present embodiment, the data acquisition request from the terminal is transmitted using a communication system (PHS in the present embodiment) that can be used in a wide range different from the wireless LAN, By performing downlink data transmission from the wireless LAN access point to the terminal using the wireless LAN, the high-speed data receivable range by the wireless LAN is increased, and the convenience for the user is improved.

  As a conventional technology, there is a technology that applies UDLR (Uni-Directional Link Routing: RFC3077) for simultaneous data distribution from satellites. However, in this technology, an IP address is not assigned to the receiving communication interface of the terminal. Cannot be used. On the other hand, in the system of this embodiment, the data distribution server performs data acquisition processing at Layer 3 using the IP address, and data transmission to the terminal is performed by processing at Layer 2 using the MAC address. Therefore, data communication is possible even when the terminal does not acquire an IP address by DHCP through a wireless LAN access point.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications and applications can be made within the scope of the claims.

It is a figure for demonstrating the outline | summary of embodiment of this invention. 2 is a configuration diagram of a user management server 3 and a data acquisition server 4. FIG. It is an apparatus block diagram at the time of making the user management server 3 and the data delivery server 4 into one apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the information stored in the information storage part 34 of the user management server 3. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of information stored in an information storage unit 45 of the data distribution server 4. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a terminal 5. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the terminal 5. It is a sequence diagram which shows a downlink communication utilization condition confirmation process. It is a sequence diagram which shows a bidirectional | two-way communication process.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Communication network 2 Wireless LAN access point 3 User management server 4 Data distribution server 5 Terminal 6 External server 31 Stored information acquisition part 32 Data management part 33 Network communication part 34 Information storage part 41 Data acquisition part 42 Address assignment part 43 Data distribution part 44 Network communication unit 45 Information storage unit

Claims (8)

A terminal device having a first communication means corresponding to the first communication method and a second communication means corresponding to the second communication method; a radio base station corresponding to the first communication method; and the terminal device A data distribution apparatus in a system having a data distribution apparatus that receives data distribution requests from and distributes data;
Stores the location information of the terminal device and the radio base station identification information of the radio base station in association with each other, and stores the terminal identification information of the terminal device and the data distribution destination specifying information of the terminal device in association with each other Means,
Receiving means for receiving a data distribution request transmitted from the second communication means of the terminal device, location information of the terminal device, and terminal identification information of the terminal device;
Acquisition means for acquiring, from the storage means, radio base station identification information corresponding to the location information received by the receiving means, and data distribution destination specifying information corresponding to the terminal identification information;
Data acquisition means for acquiring data corresponding to the data distribution request;
A data distribution apparatus comprising: distribution means for distributing the data acquired by the data acquisition means together with the data distribution destination specifying information to a radio base station corresponding to the radio base station identification information.   The first communication method is a wireless LAN communication method, the second communication method is a mobile communication method or a fixed telephone communication method, and the data distribution destination specifying information is a MAC address of the terminal device. Item 2. The data distribution device according to Item 1.   The data distribution apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data acquisition unit allocates an IP address to the data distribution request and acquires the data from an external server using the IP address. The terminal device in a system including a terminal device, a radio base station, and a data distribution device that receives a data distribution request from the terminal device and performs data distribution,
A first communication unit corresponding to a first communication method using the radio base station;
Second communication means corresponding to the second communication method,
A terminal apparatus, wherein a second communication means transmits a data distribution request to the data distribution apparatus, and the first communication means receives data corresponding to the data distribution request. The terminal device
Transmitting means for transmitting key information to the data distribution device using second communication means when data communication to the radio base station cannot be performed by the first communication means;
Receiving means for receiving the key information transmitted from the data distribution device to the radio base station using the first communication means from the radio base station;
When the reception means receives the same key information as the key information transmitted by the transmission means, the second communication means is used for uplink communication and the first communication means is used for downlink communication. 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein, when the reception unit does not receive the same key information as the key information transmitted by the transmission unit, it is determined to perform communication using only the second communication unit. Terminal device. A terminal device having a first communication means corresponding to the first communication method and a second communication means corresponding to the second communication method; a radio base station corresponding to the first communication method; and the terminal device A data distribution method in a system having a data distribution apparatus that receives data distribution requests from and distributes data,
The data distribution device includes:
The location information of the terminal device and the radio base station identification information of the radio base station are associated with each other and stored in a first storage unit, and the terminal identification information of the terminal device and the data distribution destination specifying information of the terminal device are Store it in the second storage means,
Receiving the data distribution request transmitted from the second communication means of the terminal device, the location information of the terminal device, and the terminal identification information of the terminal device;
Radio base station identification information corresponding to the received location information is obtained from the first storage means, data distribution destination specifying information corresponding to the terminal identification information is obtained from the second storage means,
Obtaining data corresponding to the data distribution request;
Deliver the acquired data together with the data distribution destination specifying information to the radio base station corresponding to the radio base station identification information,
The wireless base station receives the data and data distribution destination specifying information, and distributes the data with the data distribution destination specifying information as a destination. A terminal device having a first communication means corresponding to the first communication method and a second communication means corresponding to the second communication method; a radio base station corresponding to the first communication method; and the terminal device A program for causing a computer to realize the function of the data distribution device in a system having a data distribution device that receives a data distribution request from and distributes data,
Stores the location information of the terminal device and the radio base station identification information of the radio base station in association with each other, and stores the terminal identification information of the terminal device and the data distribution destination specifying information of the terminal device in association with each other Means to access the means,
Receiving means for receiving a data distribution request transmitted from the second communication means of the terminal device, location information of the terminal device, and terminal identification information of the computer;
Acquisition means for acquiring, from the storage means, radio base station identification information corresponding to the location information received by the receiving means and data distribution destination specifying information corresponding to the terminal identification information;
Data acquisition means for acquiring data corresponding to the data distribution request;
Distribution means for distributing the data acquired by the data acquisition means together with the data distribution destination specifying information to a radio base station corresponding to the radio base station identification information;
Program to function as. A program for causing a computer to realize the functions of the terminal device in a system including a terminal device, a radio base station, and a data distribution device that receives data distribution requests from the terminal device and performs data distribution, The first communication means corresponding to the first communication method using the radio base station, and the second communication means corresponding to the second communication method,
A program for causing the computer to execute a process of transmitting a data distribution request to the data distribution apparatus by a second communication unit and receiving data corresponding to the data distribution request by the first communication unit.

Images