JP2005094472A - Terminal and system for radio communication - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a radio communication terminal and a radio communication system wherein information regarding a communication area is properly made. <P>SOLUTION: When the radio communication terminal (T)1 exists in the communication area and communicates with a radio communication station 2, if a user executes the registration operation to a registration part 15, a storage part 100 stores a current position of the radio communication terminal 1 acquired from a GPS satellite 3, a station ID as an identifier acquired from the radio communication station 2, the communication area being a prescribed range including the current position, and an RSSI outputted from an RSSI circuit 13 by making them to correspond to each other. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a wireless communication system including one or more wireless communication terminals and a wireless communication station that performs wireless communication therewith.

  Conventionally, various wireless communication terminals configured to operate in a service area of a wireless communication station have been developed. For example, the wireless terminal of Patent Literature 1 stores information (service area information) related to a service area in which a wireless communication system can be used in the wireless terminal. This wireless terminal has a position recognition unit that recognizes its own position by GPS or the like, and recognizes whether or not it exists in the service area by comparing the recognized own position with the service area information. To do. In accordance with this result, the receiving unit of the wireless communication system is turned on only within the service area.

Alternatively, the mobile phone terminal of Patent Document 2 receives a radio wave transmitted by a GPS satellite and obtains the current position of the terminal. The current position is compared with a service area map indicating a range where the mobile phone terminal can be used, and it is determined whether the mobile phone terminal can be used at the current position. When the current position is outside the service area, power control to the wireless communication unit is suspended, and when the current position is again within the service area, power to the wireless communication unit is resumed.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-186955 JP 2001-60910 A

  However, when there are many wireless communication stations such as wireless LAN communication spots that are becoming popular in recent years, the service area information of Patent Document 1 and the service area map of Patent Document 2 (hereinafter referred to as service area information, etc.) Although preparation is particularly difficult, Patent Documents 1 and 2 do not specifically mention this preparation. In addition, since necessary service area information or the like is limited to some extent according to the use status of the terminal, unnecessary service area information that is not actually used may be accumulated in the terminal of Patent Document 1 or 2. . In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a wireless communication terminal and a wireless communication system capable of appropriately creating information related to a communicable area.

The invention according to claim 1 is a wireless communication unit that communicates with a wireless communication station having a unique identifier;
A position acquisition unit that acquires a position, a detection unit that detects an RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) from a signal received by the wireless communication unit, an input unit that receives an input of an operation that instructs to store the position, When there is an input of the operation and the RSSI exceeds a predetermined value, a storage unit that stores communicable position information that is information that associates the position, the identifier, and the RSSI, and the stored position A control unit that determines whether or not the current position is within a predetermined range, and executes a predetermined operation when the current position is within the predetermined range, and the wireless communication unit includes the The communicable location information is transmitted via a wireless communication station, and the storage unit updates the stored communicable location information based on the RSSI. It is a wireless communication terminal according to symptoms.

The invention according to claim 2 is a wireless communication unit that communicates with a wireless communication station having a unique identifier;
A position acquisition unit that acquires a position, an input unit that receives an input of an operation that instructs to store the position, and communication that is information that associates the position with the identifier when the operation is input A wireless communication terminal comprising: a storage unit that stores possible position information.

  The position acquisition unit is a GPS receiver that receives radio waves from, for example, a GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite. The input unit is, for example, an operation button. According to the present invention, communicable position information in which a position is associated with an identifier of a wireless communication station when an operation is input is stored. Based on this communicable position information, for example, information regarding an area communicable with the wireless communication station can be created by determining a predetermined area determined by a circle including the stored position as information on a communicable area.

  The invention according to claim 3 determines whether or not the current position is within a predetermined range including the stored position, and executes a predetermined operation when the current position is within the predetermined range. The wireless communication terminal according to claim 2, further comprising a control unit.

  The predetermined range including the stored position is a peripheral area around the stored position, and is an area where wireless communication is assumed to be possible between the wireless communication terminal and the wireless communication station. For example, a circle whose center is this position and whose radius is a predetermined value (for example, 1 meter) may be set as the predetermined range. The predetermined operation is, for example, the start / end of power supply to various devices, the start / end of data transmission / reception, and the output of specific commands (for example, commands for starting / ending operation of security devices such as Web cameras and other various devices). is there. According to the present invention, when a wireless communication terminal exists in an area where communication is assumed to be possible, a predetermined operation is executed. Therefore, if the user of the wireless communication terminal can perform wireless communication, if the position is stored by operating the input unit, e-mail transmission / reception is automatically executed when the user passes the peripheral area next time. Thus, a wireless communication terminal can be configured.

  The invention according to claim 4 is the wireless communication terminal according to claim 2, further comprising a detection unit that detects an RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) from a signal received by the wireless communication unit.

  The invention according to claim 5 is the wireless communication terminal according to claim 4, wherein the storage unit stores the position and the identifier in association with each other when the RSSI exceeds a predetermined value. .

  According to the present invention, the communicable position information is stored when the RSSI exceeds a predetermined value (for example, 5 μV). Therefore, it is possible to prevent a position having a poor communication state from being stored.

  The invention according to claim 6 is the wireless communication terminal according to claim 5, wherein the storage unit further stores the RSSI in association with the position and the identifier.

  The invention according to claim 7 is the wireless communication terminal according to claim 6, wherein the storage unit updates the stored communicable position information based on the RSSI.

  According to the present invention, RSSIs included in a plurality of communicable position information can be compared, and communicable position information can be added or deleted according to the size. In particular, if communicable position information including a larger RSSI is stored, a position with a better communication state can be stored.

The invention according to claim 8 is the wireless communication terminal according to claim 2, wherein the wireless communication unit transmits the communicable position information.

  The invention according to claim 9 is a communicable range of the radio communication station based on the radio communication terminal according to claim 8, a receiving unit that receives the transmitted communicable position information, and the communicable position information. A wireless communication system comprising: a determination unit that determines

  According to the present invention, a communicable range of a radio communication station is determined based on communicable position information stored in one or a plurality of radio communication terminals. The determination can be made by various methods. For example, a region having the smallest area among regions surrounded by a convex simple closed curve that includes a plurality of stored positions can be determined as a communicable range.

  According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the control unit determines whether or not the current position is within the determined range, and performs a predetermined operation when the current position is within the determined range. The wireless communication system according to claim 9, wherein the wireless communication system is executed.

  According to the present invention, if a wireless communication terminal exists within a communicable range, a predetermined operation is executed.

  According to the present invention, communicable position information in which a position is associated with an identifier of a wireless communication station when an operation is input is stored. Based on this communicable position information, a predetermined area including the stored position is determined as a communicable area, so that information regarding an area communicable with the wireless communication station can be created.

<First Embodiment>
(1) Schematic Configuration FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a wireless communication system that is a preferred embodiment of the present invention. This wireless communication system includes a wireless communication terminal (which may be represented by T in the following description and drawings) 1 and a wireless communication station 2 (which may be represented by S in the following description and drawings) which are composed of PDAs and the like. including. The wireless communication terminal 1 includes a GPS receiving unit 11, a wireless communication unit 12, an RSSI circuit 13, a control unit 14, a registration unit 15, and a notification unit 16. The GPS receiver 11 receives radio waves from a GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite 3 and outputs current position information to the controller 14. The wireless communication unit 12 performs wireless bidirectional communication with the wireless communication station 2 in accordance with the IEEE 802.11b standard, the Bluetooth standard, or the like. The RSSI circuit 13 outputs an RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) of the signal received by the wireless communication unit 12 to the control unit 14. The control unit 14 is configured by a microcomputer or the like, and has a storage unit 100 configured by a memory or the like. The control unit 14 performs a wireless communication control process described later. The registration unit 15 includes, for example, operation buttons, and accepts a predetermined operation (hereinafter referred to as a registration operation) such as pressing a specific button by the user. When a registration operation is performed on the registration unit 15, a communicable position described later is stored in the storage unit 100. The notification unit 16 is configured with a liquid crystal display, a speaker, and the like, and notifies that the wireless communication terminal 1 has entered a range (communication area) that is assumed to be communicable with a certain wireless communication station 2 with a screen display or sound. . In this figure, only one wireless communication terminal 1 and one wireless communication station 2 are shown, but one wireless communication station 2 and a plurality of wireless communication terminals 1 may be communicable. The wireless communication station 2 and one or a plurality of wireless communication terminals 1 may be communicable.

(2) Communicable Position and Communicable Area FIG. 2A illustrates a range (communication area) in which the wireless communication station (S1) 2 installed at a certain position and the wireless communication terminal 1 can perform wireless communication. Yes. Actually, it is considered that the communication area can take various shapes other than the circle shown in the figure due to the influence of an obstacle or the like, but here, the communication area will be described as a circle for simplicity. When the wireless communication terminal (T) 1 exists in the communication area and can communicate with the wireless communication station 2, the wireless communication terminal acquired from the GPS satellite 3 when the user performs a registration operation on the registration unit 15. 1 is stored in the storage unit 100. Hereinafter, the current position of the wireless communication terminal 1 stored in the storage unit 100 by the operation of the registration unit 15 is referred to as a communicable position.

  FIG. 4 shows the communicable position L1 when the current position of the wireless communication terminal 1 is that shown in FIG. The communicable position L1 is represented by the north latitude X1 and the east longitude Y1 acquired from the GPS satellite 3. The communicable position is further associated with the station ID, communicable area, and RSSI and stored in the storage unit 100.

  The station ID is an identifier acquired from the wireless communication station 2 with which the wireless communication terminal 1 communicates when registering a communicable position, and is, for example, a MAC address or a Bluetooth address. The station ID is stored simultaneously with the storage of the communicable position by the registration operation, and here, “ID1” which is the station ID of S1 is stored. The communicable area is a predetermined range including a communicable position, and is a range in which communication with the wireless communication station 2 can be estimated if the wireless communication terminal 1 exists therein. Here, the communicable area is an area formed by a circle having a radius R1 with the communicable position L1 as the center, but may be another shape such as a square. The radius is a value assumed that the wireless communication terminal 1 can communicate at an arbitrary position within the communicable area (for example, R1 = 1 meter for wireless LAN communication, R1 = 0.5 meter for Bluetooth communication, etc. ). The communicable area (here, the circle consisting of the center L1 and the radius R1) may be arbitrarily fixed by the manufacturer when the wireless communication terminal 1 is manufactured, or may be arbitrarily set by the user. The RSSI is an RSSI output from the RSSI circuit 13 when a registration operation is performed, and here, V1 (μV) is stored. Hereinafter, these associated data are referred to as communicable area information. Similarly, when the registration operation is performed when the current position L1 ′ (X1 ′, Y1 ′) of the wireless communication terminal 1 is as shown in FIG. 2B, the communicable area information (RSSI = V1 ′) is stored.

  On the other hand, communicable area information corresponding to different station IDs is also stored in the storage unit 100 for each station ID. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, positions L2 (X2, Y2) and L3 (X3, Y3) in the communication area of S2 (station ID = ID2) and S3 (station ID = ID3) which are two different wireless communication stations 2 Then, when a registration operation is performed in the same wireless communication terminal 1, two pieces of communicable area information as shown in FIG. Here, it is preferable that the radius (R1, R2, R3) of the communicable area can be set for each station ID, but in order to simplify the content of the communicable area information, the same radius (R1 = R2 = R3) may be set. In addition, as shown in FIG. 3, the communicable areas corresponding to different station IDs may overlap. In addition, when the wireless communication terminal 1 cannot acquire the station ID from the wireless communication station 2, it is preferable that the communicable area information is not stored even if a registration operation is performed.

  As described above, the communicable area information is stored in the storage unit 100 by the registration operation to the registration unit 15. Based on this communicable area information and the current position acquired from the GPS, the control unit 14 of the radio communication terminal 1 determines whether or not the radio communication terminal 1 has entered the communicable area of the radio communication station 2, When entering the communicable area, a wireless communication control process for automatically starting power supply to the wireless communication unit 12 is performed.

(3) Wireless Communication Control Process Hereinafter, the flow of the wireless communication control process will be described based on the flowchart of FIG. This process may be started when a predetermined operation mode (for example, “wireless communicable area search mode” or the like) is designated by the user, or automatically when the wireless communication terminal 1 is turned on. Good. Here, it is assumed that the operation is started when a predetermined operation mode is designated. Further, this process may be stopped by a predetermined operation by the user.

  In S11, the communicable area information stored in the storage unit 100 is compared with the current position acquired from the GPS satellite 3, and it is determined whether or not the radio communication terminal 1 has entered the communicable area of the radio communication station 2. to decide. When entering a communicable area of a certain wireless communication station 2, the process proceeds to S12. If it is not within the communicable area of any wireless communication station 2, the process proceeds to S14. In S14, power supply to the wireless communication unit 12 is stopped, and the process returns to S11.

  In S12, notification is made that wireless communication is possible by screen output or voice output from the notification unit 16. In S13, power supply to the wireless communication unit 12 is started, and the process returns to S11. Note that it may be further determined whether or not communication with a certain wireless communication station 2 has been established after the start of power supply. When communication is established, data transmission / reception such as transmission / reception of e-mail is started with the wireless communication station 2, or a specific command (for example, a security device such as a Web camera connected to the wireless communication station 2) And other various device operation start / end commands) may be transmitted to the wireless communication station 2. Alternatively, the current position when it is determined that communication has been established may be stored in the storage unit 100 as communicable area information in the same manner as described above. Or you may further determine whether it exists in the area | region (henceforth an overlapping area | region) where several communicable areas from which a present position differs like FIG. 3 overlap. Then, when the current position is within the overlapping area, the wireless communication station 2 where the strongest RSSI is observed may be preferentially connected (roaming).

<Other embodiments>
(A) Only one communicable area information corresponding to the same station ID may be stored. For example, when the communicable area information is already stored in the storage unit 100 and the registration operation is further performed, the RSSI corresponding to the communicable area information already stored corresponds to the newly stored communicable area information. If the RSSI is greater than or equal to the RSSI, the already stored communicable area information is stored as it is, and the newly stored communicable area information may be deleted from the storage unit 100. On the other hand, when the RSSI corresponding to the already stored communicable area information is smaller than the RSSI corresponding to the newly stored communicable area information, the already stored communicable area information is deleted and newly stored The communicable area information may be stored as it is. For example, in FIG. 4, if V1 ≧ V1 ′, only the communicable area information corresponding to the communicable position L1 is stored in the storage unit 100, and if V1 <V1 ′, only the communicable area information corresponding to the communicable position L2 is stored in the storage unit 100. Remembered. In this way, only communicable area information indicating a communicable area that is assumed to be able to perform wireless communication in a better state by observing stronger RSSI is stored, and the use capacity of the communication storage unit 100 can be saved.

  (B) Limitation may be added to storage of communicable area information by registration operation. For example, when there is a registration operation, the control unit 14 determines whether the RSSI observed during the registration operation exceeds a predetermined threshold (for example, 5 μV). When the RSSI observed during the registration operation exceeds a predetermined threshold, the communicable area information is stored, and when it is equal to or smaller than the predetermined threshold, the communicable area information is not stored. In this way, it is possible to prevent the communicable area information based on the communicable position having a poor communication state from being stored.

(C) The communicable area information stored in each wireless communication terminal 1 may be transmitted to a predetermined position on the network via the wireless communication station 2. For example, a center configured by a computer or the like and capable of storing communicable area information is connected to one wireless communication station 2 (station ID = ID1). Then, the communicable area information including the station ID is transmitted from one or a plurality of wireless communication terminals 1 connected to the wireless communication station 2. In this way, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, the communicable area information including the station ID = ID1 is transmitted from each of the plurality of wireless communication terminals 1T1 to T8 to the center. Therefore, the center can grasp the communicable position and communicable area of the radio communication station S with the station ID = ID1 registered in each radio communication terminal 1. Further, based on the communicable area information transmitted to the center, the communicable area of the radio communication station 2 with the station ID = ID1 may be determined and mapped. The determination can be made by various methods. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, a region R covering the square neighborhoods N1 to N8 including the communicable positions L1 to L8 included in the communicable area information of FIG. 6 is determined by a mathematical method (for example, the neighborhood N1 The region having the smallest area among the regions surrounded by the convex simple closed curve including ˜N8 is determined as the region R), and this region R may be set as the communicable area of the wireless communication station 2. In this case, if there are many wireless communication terminals 1 that transmit the communicable area information to the wireless communication station 2 with the station ID = ID1, the more accurate communicable area can be determined. Since this determination can be made based on the communicable area information transmitted from each unspecified wireless communication terminal 1, a specific person measures the RSSI while traveling around the wireless communication station S one by one. For example, it is not necessary to determine a communicable area. Further, the mapped communicable area is distributed to the radio communication terminal 1, and when each radio communication terminal 1 enters the communicable area, the communication control process S13 is performed (such as start of radio communication). May be. Alternatively, the center may be connected to a plurality of wireless communication stations 2, the communicable areas may be determined and mapped for each wireless communication station 2 as described above, and these may be combined into one map. The determined communicable area may be displayed on the screen as a map.

  (D) Information indicating the position where the wireless communication station 2 is installed (hereinafter referred to as installation position information) is stored in the wireless communication station 2 or the like, and the installation position information is stored when the wireless communication terminal 1 is connected to the wireless communication station 2. You may make it transmit to the radio | wireless communication terminal 1. FIG. In addition, when radio waves cannot be received from the GPS satellite 3, the power supply to the wireless communication unit 12 may be started manually or automatically, and the wireless communication station 2 capable of wireless communication may be searched and connected. Further, when receiving the installation position information from the connected wireless communication station 2, the wireless communication terminal 1 may store the installation position information instead of the above-described communicable position. In this way, communicable area information can be created even when the current position cannot be received from the GPS satellite 3.

The block diagram of the radio | wireless communications system which is suitable embodiment of this invention. The conceptual diagram of the communication area and communicable area of a certain radio | wireless communication station. The conceptual diagram of the communication area of several radio | wireless communication stations, and a communicable area. An example of communicable area information. The flowchart which shows the flow of a radio | wireless communication control process. An example of communicable area information transmitted to a center from a plurality of wireless communication terminals. An example of mapping and displaying a communicable area determined based on the communicable area information of the center.

Explanation of symbols

1: wireless communication terminal 2: wireless communication station 15: registration unit 100: storage unit

Claims (10)

A wireless communication unit that communicates with a wireless communication station having a unique identifier;
A position acquisition unit for acquiring a position;
A detection unit for detecting a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) from a signal received by the wireless communication unit;
An input unit that receives an input of an operation that instructs to store the position;
When there is an input of the operation and the RSSI exceeds a predetermined value, a storage unit that stores communicable position information that is information that associates the position, the identifier, and the RSSI;
A controller that determines whether or not the current position is within a predetermined range including the stored position, and executes a predetermined operation when the current position is within the predetermined range;
The wireless communication unit transmits the communicable position information via the wireless communication station, and the storage unit updates the stored communicable position information based on the RSSI. . A wireless communication unit that communicates with a wireless communication station having a unique identifier;
A position acquisition unit for acquiring a position;
An input unit for receiving an input of an operation for instructing to store the position;
When there is an input of the operation, a storage unit that stores communicable position information that is information that associates the position and the identifier;
A wireless communication terminal comprising:   It further includes a control unit that determines whether or not the current position is within a predetermined range including the stored position, and executes a predetermined operation when the current position is within the predetermined range. The wireless communication terminal according to claim 2, wherein:   The wireless communication terminal according to claim 2, further comprising a detection unit that detects a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) from a signal received by the wireless communication unit.   The wireless communication terminal according to claim 4, wherein the storage unit stores the position and the identifier in association with each other when the RSSI exceeds a predetermined value.   6. The wireless communication terminal according to claim 5, wherein the storage unit further stores the RSSI in association with the position and the identifier.   The wireless communication terminal according to claim 6, wherein the storage unit updates the stored communicable position information based on the RSSI.   The wireless communication terminal according to claim 2, wherein the wireless communication unit transmits the communicable position information. A wireless communication terminal according to claim 8;
A receiver for receiving the transmitted communicable position information;
A determination unit that determines a communicable range of the wireless communication station based on the communicable position information;
A wireless communication system comprising: The control unit determines whether or not a current position is within the determined range, and executes a predetermined operation when the current position is within the determined range. Item 9
The wireless communication system described.

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