JP3497849B2 - Wireless network configuration method and wireless communication device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wireless network configuration method and a wireless communication device applied to a wireless network adopting a wireless communication system composed of a master station and slave stations.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, wireless technologies such as Bluetooth ^™ and HomeRF have appeared. Adoption of these technologies as a wireless communication interface in various electronic devices such as personal computers, personal digital assistants, and mobile phones has been studied for a long time, and at present, the adoption thereof is in practice.

[0003] In particular, Bluetooth has advantages such as inexpensive and simple construction of a wireless communication network, and is considered to be a standard technology for near field wireless communication in the future. Various technologies have been proposed as application technologies using Bluetooth. For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-189974, when a new network member occurs in a certain network, the information of the member is distributed to all the members of the network, thereby eliminating the information collecting process through the connection. Techniques have been proposed to enable this.

By the way, in a network configuration using Bluetooth, each terminal device has one of two roles: a master station (master) and a slave station (slave). Further, one master station and a plurality of slave stations form a piconet, which is the minimum unit of the network.

According to the current standard, the number of slave stations that can participate in one piconet at the same time is limited to 7, but it is possible to connect a plurality of piconets via a common node. The network configuration can be realized by. Such a form in which a plurality of piconets are connected is called a scatter net.

An example of the structure of the scatter net is shown in FIGS.

According to the configuration example of FIG. 16, the piconet 11
The device B, which is a common node of the piconet 12, operates as a master station in the piconet 11 and as a slave station in the piconet 12. On the other hand, according to the configuration example of FIG.
The device B, which is a common node of the piconet 11 and the piconet 12, is a slave station in both the piconet 11 and the piconet 12. As described above, the characteristics of the common node can be roughly classified into two types: a node having a master station function and a node having no slave station function.

Further, in Bluetooth, in order to configure a network, that is, in order to newly add a member of the network, both of the following two procedures or the latter procedure are required.

Station finding procedure (Inquiry or Inquiry
Scan) ・ Device connection procedure (Paging or Paging Scan) The device that performed Paging becomes the master station from the moment Paging succeeds.

Further, in order to more efficiently form the above-mentioned piconet and scatter net, master-slave switch for switching roles of a master station and a slave station.
The procedure called is defined in the Link Manager protocol, and this command procedure is executed as needed.

Here, the network configuration procedure including the master station-slave station switching procedure will be described with reference to FIG.

It is assumed that the piconet 11 is in the form of a LAN access point (AP), for example, and that the device C which is the main station of the piconet 11 is an access point server of this network. Then, when the new terminal device D connects to the piconet 11, normally, the following processing is performed.

(1) Device C periodically enters the Inquiry Scan or Paging Scan state (2) Device D wishing to participate in this network
Performs Inquiry or Paging on the device C. (3) The device D immediately executes the master station-slave station switching procedure after establishing a connection with a new device. Since it is an AP server, it must always remain the main station in consideration of network efficiency.
Therefore, as in procedure (3) above,
The device D newly added by executing the slave switching procedure needs to be the slave of the network.

[0014]

It is assumed that the device D, which is the master station of the piconet 12 shown in FIG. 18, needs to remain the master station of the piconet 12 itself. Therefore, the device D cannot accept the master-slave station switching request.

It is assumed that the device D requests the device C, which is the master station of the piconet 11, to make a connection, and further requests the master station-slave station switching. In such a case, the device C
Also cannot accept the master station-slave station switching request, and as a result, the piconet 11 and the piconet 12 cannot establish a connection state and cannot communicate with each other.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a wireless network configuration method and a wireless communication device capable of realizing suitable connection between networks.

[0017]

A wireless network configuring method according to the present invention is a wireless network configuring method applied to a wireless network adopting a wireless communication system composed of a master station and a slave station. Configuring a third wireless network by performing a connection procedure between a main station in the wireless network of 1100 and a main station in the second wireless network; and in the third wireless network, the second wireless network. A master station-slave station switching procedure between the master station in the first wireless network and the master station in the first wireless network; and if the master station-slave station switching procedure cannot be performed, the third step is performed.
By eliminating at least one of the two master stations in the first and second wireless networks and performing at least a connection procedure between a slave station belonging to the wireless network of the other master station. 4 to configure a wireless network.

The wireless communication apparatus according to the present invention is the first
A wireless communication device that operates as a master station for a slave station in a wireless network of, and a means for configuring a third wireless network by a connection procedure with the master station in a second wireless network; and the third wireless network. If the master station-slave station switching procedure cannot be performed with the master station in the second wireless network through the above, the third wireless network is canceled and the first station
A slave station belonging to the wireless network of
And means for performing a connection procedure with the main station in the wireless network to control the fourth network.

The radio communication apparatus according to the present invention is the first
A wireless communication device that operates as a master station for a slave station in a wireless network of, and a means for configuring a third wireless network by a connection procedure with the master station in a second wireless network; and the third wireless network. If the master station-slave station switching procedure cannot be performed with the master station in the second wireless network through the above, the third wireless network is canceled and the first station
Means for controlling one slave station belonging to the second wireless network to configure a fourth network by performing a station discovery procedure and a connection procedure for the master station in the second wireless network. Characterize.

[0020]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a network configuration common to the respective embodiments of the present invention.

In the figure, the piconet 1 is composed of wireless communication devices (terminal devices) A, B, and C conforming to the Bluetooth specification, while the piconet 2 is a wireless communication device (terminal device conforming to the Bluetooth specification. ) D and E are shown.

In the piconet 1, the device C is the master station and the devices A and B are the slave stations. On the other hand, in the piconet 2, the device D is the master station and the device E is the slave station.

The device C, which is the main station of the piconet 1, periodically continues the station discovery waiting state (Inquiry Scan) or the connection waiting state (Paging Scan). These standbys require a certain amount of time or more, so the device
C needs to allocate a certain amount of time corresponding to a percentage of the network traffic in Piconet 1 to this standby. This state is shown in FIG.

On the other hand, the device D which is the main station of the piconet 2
Is trying to make a connection to piconet 1 through device C. When attempting to connect to the piconet 1, the device D executes a station finding procedure (Inquiry) or a connection procedure (Paging).

(First Embodiment) FIG. 3 shows a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a network configuration according to the embodiment of FIG. The same elements as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In the figure, the device D of the piconet 2 performs a connection procedure with the device C of the piconet 1, and as a result, a new piconet 3 is constructed by the devices C and D. There is. In this case, device C
Is a master station in Piconet 1 and a slave station in Piconet 3. On the other hand, the device D is a master station in both the piconet 2 and the piconet 3.

The device C and device D and the master-slave relationship are Bluetooth.
It is formed through a procedure called Master-Slave Switch defined in the Link Manager protocol of. In FIG. 3, the device D issues a master station-slave station switching request to the device C, and the device C accepts the request. As a result, the device C becomes the slave station in the piconet 3.

Next, the operation of the network configuration according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

Now, the piconet 1 by the devices A, B and C
And the piconet 2 is composed of the devices D and E.

The device C periodically enters a station discovery standby state or a connection standby state (step A1). The device D performs a station finding procedure or a connection procedure with the device C (step A2). As a result, the devices C and D are in the connected state, and the piconet 3 is configured (step A3).

Next, when the device D issues a master station-slave station switching request to the device C through the configured piconet 3 (step A4), the device C accepts the request (step A5). This enables data communication through the connection between the device C and the device D.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, since the device C accepts the master station-slave station switching request issued by the device D, the connection state between the device C and the device D is established. Piconet 1, which has devices C and D as common nodes
It is possible to configure a scatter net that connects 3,2.

(Second Embodiment) In the second embodiment,
A method of coping with the case where the master station-slave station switching procedure occurs between the device C and the device D and cannot be performed will be described.

For example, consider a case where the device C issues a request for master / slave switching to D in the piconet 3 as shown in FIG. 5, and the device C cannot accept the request. In this case, as shown in FIG.
The device C issues LMP_change_req () to the device D and the device D returns LMP_not_accepted () to the device C by the code defined in the Link Manager protocol.

The reason why the master station-slave station switching procedure cannot be executed in the device D is, for example, as follows.

The master station-slave station switching function is not supported by the device D. The master station-slave station switching function is supported by the device D itself, but the device D does not support it because of network traffic.
In the above-described case where the master station-slave station switching cannot be permitted because it is necessary for itself to remain the master station, the piconets 1, 3 and 2 using the devices C and D as common nodes are connected. It is not possible. Here, for the device D, it is important that the piconet 2 to which the device D belongs is connected to the piconet 1 to which the device C belongs. If this is guaranteed, a route for delivering desired data is established by using upper layers such as a transport layer and a network layer.

Therefore, in the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, a process for establishing the connection state of the piconets 1, 4, and 2 having the devices A and D as common nodes is performed. In this case, the device C controls the one subordinate station (for example, the device A) belonging to the piconet 1 and the device D to perform the connection procedure to configure the piconet 4.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure for realizing the network configuration shown in FIG.

When the master station-slave station switching procedure shown in FIG. 5 cannot be performed, the device C is the most suitable as a common node among all the slave stations (devices A and B in this case) belonging to the piconet 1. The slave station (here, the device A) is placed in a standby state. In this case, the device C notifies the device D of the terminal information (specific information) indicating the characteristics of the device A, and instructs the device D to make a connection request to the device A. Here, the terminal information (specific information) is the device's unique address, QoS (Quali
ty of Service) Request, etc. As a result, the device D makes a connection request to the device A, so that the connection state between the devices A and D is established, and the piconet 4
(FIG. 7) will be configured.

Next, the operation of the network configuration according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

Now, with the devices A, B and C, the piconet 1
And the piconet 2 is composed of the devices D and E.

The piconet 3 (FIG. 5) is constructed by the connection procedure between the devices C and D (step B1),
Device C issues a master station-slave station switching request to device D (step B2). However, this request is rejected by device D (step B3).

Therefore, the device C obtains the terminal information (including the capability information indicating their capabilities) of all slave stations (devices A and B in this case) belonging to the piconet 1 (step B).
4). Then, the device C selects the optimum device to be the common node from the devices A and B by mutually comparing the capability information and the like included in the acquired terminal information (step B5), and selects the selected device. The device D is notified of the terminal information of (step B6).

The device C eliminates the piconet 3 that was configured with the device D (step B7), and puts the device A, which should be the common node, in the connection waiting state (step B8). Thereafter, when the device D performs a connection procedure with the device A (since the device C has been notified of the device unique address of the device A, the station finding procedure is unnecessary) (step B9), the piconet 4 is configured. (Step B10).

By such processing, the device C and the device D
Both will remain the main stations, and both networks will be connected logically and physically.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, the connection state between the device A and the device D is established even if the device D does not accept the master station-slave station switching request issued by the device C. , Piconets 1, 4, whose common nodes are devices A and D
It is possible to configure a scatter net that connects the two.

(Third Embodiment) In the third embodiment,
Another countermeasure when the master station-slave station switching procedure occurs between the device C and the device D and the procedure cannot be performed will be described.

Also in this case, as in the second embodiment,
As shown in FIG. 5, consider a case where the device C issues a master station-slave station switching request to D in the piconet 3 and the device C cannot accept the request. In such a case, the piconets 1, 3, and 2 having the devices C and D as common nodes cannot be connected.

Therefore, in the third embodiment, as shown in FIG. 10, a process for establishing the connection state of the piconets 1, 4, and 2 having the devices C and E as common nodes is performed. In this case, the device D performs a connection procedure between one slave station (for example, the device E) belonging to the piconet 2 and the device C, and controls so as to configure the piconet 4.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining a processing procedure for realizing the network configuration shown in FIG.

When the device D cannot perform the master station-slave station switching procedure shown in FIG. 5, of all slave stations belonging to the piconet 1 (device E in this case), the slave station most suitable as the common node ( Here, for device E), for device C
To make a connection request to. As a result, the device E makes a connection request to the device C, so that the connection state between the devices C and E is established, and the piconet 4 (see FIG. 1) is established.
0) will be configured.

Next, the operation of the network configuration according to the third embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

Now, the piconet 1 by the devices A, B and C
And the piconet 2 is composed of the devices D and E.

The piconet 3 (FIG. 5) is constructed by the connection procedure between the device C and the device D (step C1),
Device C issues a master station-slave station switching request to device D (step C2). However, this request is rejected by device D (step C3).

Therefore, the device D eliminates the piconet 3 that was configured with the device C (step C4), and the piconet 2
The terminal information (including the capability information indicating the capability) of all slave stations (here, only the device E) belonging to is acquired (step C5). Then, the device D selects the optimum device to be the common node by comparing the capability information included in the acquired terminal information with each other (here, only the device E).
(Step C6) Then, the apparatus E is instructed to perform the station finding procedure and the connection procedure for the apparatus C (Step C7).

Thereafter, when the device E performs the station finding procedure and the connection procedure with the device C (step C8), the piconet 4 is constructed (step C9).

Then, the main station from the device C to the device E-
When the slave station switching request is issued (step C10), the device E returns that the request is accepted (step C11). As a result, the connection state between the device C and the device E is established (step C12).

By such processing, the device C and the device D
Both will remain the main stations, and both networks will be connected logically and physically.

As described above, according to the third embodiment, the connection state between the device C and the device E is established even if the device D does not accept the master station-slave station switching request issued by the device C. , Piconets 1, 4, whose common nodes are devices C and E
It is possible to configure a scatter net that connects the two.

(Fourth Embodiment) In the second embodiment (FIG. 7) and the third embodiment (FIG. 10) described above, two different network configuration examples are shown. This 4th
In the embodiment of the present invention, a method will be described in which, of the two network configurations described above, the network configuration that is considered to be preferable from the network environment at that time is selected and realized.

In the fourth embodiment, the device C collects the terminal information of each slave member of the piconet 1 and the device D collects the terminal information.
Collects terminal information of each slave station member of Piconet 2.

Here, there are many parameters as the terminal information, but there are the following, for example.

Device unique address (param1) Information indicating whether multiple slave instances can be held (param2) Information indicating whether slave instance and master instance can be held at the same time (param3) ) ・ QoS information (para.
m4) An example of the above parameters is shown in FIG. By exchanging these parameters between the devices C and D, these parameters are compared and evaluated. For example, device A,
Consider a case where the terminal information regarding B and E is in the state shown in FIG. At this time, it is possible to evaluate as follows.

Since the device E has param3 = TRUE, the third
The network configuration shown in the second embodiment (FIG. 10) is preferable. Since device A has param2 = TRUE, the network configuration shown in the second embodiment (FIG. 7) is preferable. Comparing the QoS information of device A is higher
Since the request for QoS is shown, it is preferable to use the device E as a common node. Next, the operation of the network configuration according to the fourth embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

Now, with the devices A, B and C, the piconet 1
And the piconet 2 is composed of the devices D and E.

The piconet 3 (FIG. 5) is constructed by the connection procedure between the devices C and D (step D1),
Device C issues a master station-slave station switching request to device D (step D2). However, this request is rejected by device D (step D3).

Therefore, the devices C and D cancel the piconet 3 (step D4), acquire the terminal information of all slave stations (here, the devices A and B) belonging to the piconet 1 (step D5), and the piconet 2 The terminal information (including the capability information indicating their capabilities) of all the slave stations (here, only the device E) belonging to is acquired (step D6). Then, the devices C and D perform comparative evaluation by exchanging terminal information of each other, and select a device (for example, the device E) to be a common node (step D7).

When the device E is selected, the above-mentioned third
The same processing as in the embodiment (FIG. 12) is performed. That is,
When the device D instructs the device E to perform the station finding procedure and the connection procedure for the device C (step D8),
The device E performs station finding procedure and connection procedure with the device C (step D9), and the piconet 4 is configured (step D10).

Then, the main station from the device C to the device E-
When the slave station switching request is issued (step D11), the device E returns that the request is accepted (step D12). As a result, the connection state between the device C and the device E is established (step D13).

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing transmission / reception of terminal information in step D7.

That is, the terminal information is exchanged between the device C and the device D, and the selected suitable network configuration method is notified as a result of the comparative evaluation.

As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, it is possible to realize a more preferable network configuration by exchanging the terminal information between the devices C and D and performing the comparative evaluation.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but can be modified in various ways without departing from the scope of the invention.

For example, the timing for eliminating the piconet 3 in the second to fourth embodiments can be changed as appropriate.

Further, in each of the above-described embodiments, the connection between two piconets has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to the connection of three or more piconets.

In each of the above embodiments, the case where Bluetooth is adopted as the wireless communication technology has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and any other wireless communication system including a master station and a slave station can be used. Wireless communication technology may be adopted.

[0078]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a wireless network configuration method and a wireless communication device capable of realizing suitable connection between networks.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a network configuration common to each embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a time allocated to standby for network traffic.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a network configuration according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an operation of a network configuration according to the same embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a master station-slave station switching request and its response.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a code defined by the Link Manager protocol.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a network configuration according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an exemplary diagram showing a processing procedure of the network configuration according to the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a view showing an operation of the network configuration according to the same embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a network configuration according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is an exemplary view showing a processing procedure of the network configuration according to the embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a view showing the operation of the network configuration according to the same embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of parameters indicating terminal information according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a view showing the operation of the network configuration according to the same embodiment.

15 is a diagram showing transmission / reception of terminal information in step D7 of FIG.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a first configuration example of a scatter net.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a second configuration example of a scatter net.

FIG. 18 is a diagram for explaining a network configuration procedure including a master station-slave station switching procedure.

[Explanation of symbols]

1-4 ... piconet 11, 12 ... Piconet

Front page continuation (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04L 12/28 307 H04L 12/28 300 H04L 12/46

Claims (10)

(57) [Claims] 1. A wireless network configuration method applied to a wireless network adopting a wireless communication system composed of a master station and a slave station, the master station in a first wireless network and the master station in a second wireless network. Configuring a third wireless network by performing a connection procedure with a station, and in the third wireless network, a master station in the second wireless network and a master station in the first wireless network. Between the master station and the slave station, and if the master station-slave station switching procedure cannot be performed, the third wireless network is canceled and the first and second wireless networks are canceled. At least a connection procedure is performed between one of the two master stations in and the slave station belonging to the other master station's wireless network. And a fourth wireless network to thereby configure the wireless network. 2. The step of configuring the fourth wireless network, wherein the master station in the first wireless network belongs to the first wireless network when the master station-slave station switching procedure cannot be performed. Notifying the master station of the second wireless network of characteristic information indicating the characteristics of one slave station, the master station of the first wireless network puts the slave station in a connection standby state, and the connection The master station in the second wireless network performs a connection procedure with respect to the slave station in the standby state based on the characteristic information obtained by the notification, and thereby the fourth station
2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of configuring the network. 3. When a plurality of slave stations belong to the first wireless network, information indicating their capabilities is acquired from the plurality of slave stations and compared to obtain the connection standby state. 3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the step of selecting one slave station. 4. The step of configuring the fourth wireless network, wherein the master station in the second wireless network belongs to the second wireless network when the master station-slave station switching procedure cannot be performed. For one slave station
Instructing a master station in the first wireless network to perform a station discovery procedure and a connection procedure; and a slave station belonging to the second wireless network in accordance with the instructions, a station to the master station in the first wireless network. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of configuring the fourth network by performing a discovery procedure and a connection procedure. 5. When a plurality of slave stations belong to the second wireless network, the station discovery procedure and the connection procedure are performed by acquiring information indicating their capabilities from the plurality of slave stations and comparing the acquired information. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the step of selecting one slave station to perform. 6. When the master station-slave station switching procedure cannot be performed, the master stations in the first and second wireless networks exchange information indicating capabilities of slave stations belonging to each other's network. 2. The wireless network configuration method according to claim 1, further comprising: a step of selecting one slave station to be used for configuring the fourth wireless network based on the exchanged information. 7. A wireless communication device operating as a master station for a slave station in a first wireless network, comprising means for configuring a third wireless network by a connection procedure with a master station in a second wireless network. When the master station-slave station switching procedure cannot be performed with the master station in the second wireless network through the third wireless network, the third wireless network is canceled, and the first wireless network is canceled. And a control unit for performing a connection procedure between one slave station belonging to a wireless network and a master station in the second wireless network to configure a fourth network. Communication device. 8. If a plurality of slave stations belong to the first wireless network, information indicating their capabilities is acquired from the plurality of slave stations and compared to obtain the fourth slave station.
8. The wireless communication device according to claim 7, further comprising means for selecting one slave station to be used in the network configuration of FIG. 9. A wireless communication device that operates as a master station for a slave station in a first wireless network, and means for configuring a third wireless network by a connection procedure with a master station in a second wireless network. When the master station-slave station switching procedure cannot be performed with the master station in the second wireless network through the third wireless network, the third wireless network is canceled, and the first wireless network is canceled. Means for controlling one slave station belonging to the wireless network to configure a fourth network by performing a station discovery procedure and a connection procedure for the master station in the second wireless network. Wireless communication device. 10. When a plurality of slave stations belong to the first wireless network, information indicating their capabilities is acquired from the plurality of slave stations and compared to obtain a configuration of the fourth network. 8. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising means for selecting one slave station to serve.