JP2006238377A - Communication method and communications apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize both signal processing acceleration and power consumption reduction, in a wireless terminal and a wired terminal. <P>SOLUTION: Information required for signal processing, corresponding to layers of an OSI reference model, is acquired from a transmission frame received via a physical layer interface, and hardware performs a prescribing the data transmission rate or the like, corresponding to a layer 1 of the OSI reference model, signal processing for control of a data transfer method between a transmission frame corresponding to a layer 2 and a terminal, signal processing for transmission control, based on an IP address corresponding to a layer 3, signal processing for quality assurance for data transfer corresponding to a layer 4, signal processing for establishment and opening of connection with a party corresponding to a layer 5, a portion except signal processing for conversion of a data representation form corresponding to a layer 6, and a portion excluding signal processing for various information services of display and communication that correspond to a layer 7. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication method and a communication apparatus that can achieve both high speed signal processing and low power consumption of a wireless terminal or a wired terminal.

  Bringing wireless LAN devices into public wireless LAN service areas installed in cafes, restaurants, hotels, airports, etc., and learning software such as newspaper articles, route guidance, English conversation, e-book software, etc. from access points within public wireless LAN service areas Services that can download content data are becoming widespread. There is also a service that can automatically download predetermined content data simply by passing through a public wireless LAN service area.

  In such a situation, in order to complete the reception of the content data while passing through the public wireless LAN service area, it is desired to speed up the signal processing of the wireless terminal corresponding to the high-speed signal. On the other hand, reduction of power consumption in a state where a wireless terminal is turned on is also a big issue. Note that such high speed signal processing and low power consumption are required not only for wireless terminals but also for wired terminals that perform wired (electrical, optical) communications.

  As a signal processing technique of a wireless terminal corresponding to a high-speed signal, there is one described in Patent Document 1, for example. This technology is a transmission method that obtains the original high-speed data signal by serial / parallel conversion of high-speed data signal and transmitting it through multiple lines, and parallel / serial conversion and synthesis on the receiving side. The amount of data transmission per hour can be increased.

On the other hand, as a technique for reducing power consumption, for example, there is one described in Patent Document 2. The present technology shifts from the transmission / reception mode to the power save mode when the standby state of the mobile station continues, and shifts from the power save mode to the transmission / reception mode when either outgoing call or incoming call is detected. Thereby, the power consumption in the standby state can be reduced.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-130324 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-252004

  The prior art described in Patent Document 1 requires that a plurality of physical layer circuits be operated simultaneously in order to process signals transmitted through a plurality of lines, and high-speed transmission is possible, but power consumption increases. There is.

  The prior art described in Cited Document 2 is effective in reducing power consumption in a standby state until the link is established, but the transmission / reception mode continues until data transmission / reception is completed after the link is established. Therefore, the reduction of power consumption during that time becomes a further problem.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a communication method and a communication apparatus that can achieve both high speed signal processing and low power consumption of a wireless terminal and a wired terminal.

  The communication method of the present invention acquires information necessary for signal processing corresponding to each layer of the OSI reference model from a transmission frame received via the physical layer interface, and stores it in layer 1 (physical layer) of the OSI reference model. Regulations on the corresponding data transmission rate, signal processing related to control of data transfer method between transmission frame corresponding to layer 2 (data link layer) and terminal, signal related to transmission control by IP address corresponding to layer 3 (network layer) Processing, signal processing related to quality assurance of data transfer corresponding to layer 4 (transport layer), signal processing related to establishment and release of a connection corresponding to layer 5 (session layer), compatible to layer 6 (presentation layer) Layer 7 (application The portion excluding the signal processing relating to various information services display and communications corresponding to ® emission layer) performed in hardware.

  Further, information necessary for signal processing corresponding to each layer of the OSI reference model is stored in an empty (reserved) space of the frame body in the MAC frame.

  The communication apparatus of the present invention includes a software processing unit that performs signal processing by software, a hardware processing unit that performs signal processing by hardware, and a processing unit having a physical layer interface. A reception MAC frame decoding unit that decodes a received MAC frame received via an interface, a transmission MAC frame generation unit that generates a transmission MAC frame, a reception MAC frame decoding unit, a transmission MAC frame generation unit, and a software processing unit And a control unit that performs signal processing in the hardware processing unit, the control unit of the hardware processing unit, the parameters read from the software processing unit, the information stored in the received MAC frame received from the received MAC frame decoding unit, the state of each unit Based on the OSI reference model layer 3 (network layer) Signal processing related to transmission control by IP addresses, signal processing related to data transfer quality assurance corresponding to layer 4 (transport layer), signal processing related to establishment and release of a connection corresponding to layer 5 (session layer), It is a configuration that performs a portion excluding signal processing related to conversion of data representation format corresponding to layer 6 (presentation layer) and a portion excluding signal processing related to various information services of display and communication corresponding to layer 7 (application layer). .

  In addition, information necessary for signal processing corresponding to each layer of the OSI reference model is stored in a vacant (spare) space of the frame body in the MAC frame, and the control unit of the hardware processing unit receives from the software processing unit. In this configuration, processing corresponding to each layer is performed based on the read parameters, the information stored in the empty (reserved) space of the frame / body of the received MAC frame, and the state of each unit.

  The communication method and communication device of the present invention are classified into layers 3 or higher of the OSI reference model by the conventional IP communication technology, and for the data division, retransmission control, and authentication of layers 3 and higher among the controls processed by software. Corresponding parts are performed by hardware, and only other parts that are difficult to process by hardware are processed by software. That is, not only layer 3 to layer 5 but also signal processing corresponding to layer 6 and layer 7 that can be processed by hardware is processed by hardware. As a result, the rate of processing by hardware increases, and it is possible to achieve both high-speed signal processing and low power consumption in a wireless communication device or a wired communication device.

  FIG. 1 shows a signal processing mode according to the communication method of the present invention. For reference, a signal processing mode using conventional IP communication technology is also shown. Here, an OSI (Open System Interconnection) reference model is assumed.

  In the figure, in the conventional IP communication technology, processing corresponding to layers 1 to 2 of the OSI reference model is performed by hardware, and signal processing corresponding to layers 3 to 7 is performed by software. That is, signal processing related to control of a data transfer method between a terminal and a transmission frame corresponding to layer 2 (data link layer) and a data transmission rate corresponding to layer 1 (physical layer) is performed by hardware.

  Signal processing related to transmission control by IP address corresponding to layer 3 (network layer) (route selection), signal processing related to quality assurance of data transfer corresponding to layer 4 (transport layer) (data division / retransmission control), layer 5 Signal processing related to establishment and release of connection with the counterpart corresponding to (session layer), signal processing related to conversion of data representation format corresponding to layer 6 (presentation layer), display / communication corresponding to layer 7 (application layer) Signal processing for various information services is performed by software. As described above, since the conventional IP communication technology has many processes performed by software, the speed is low and the power consumption is large.

  On the other hand, in the signal processing technique of the present invention, among the controls that are classified into layer 3 or higher of the OSI reference model in the conventional IP communication technique and processed by software, layer 3 to layer 5 (for example, data division, retransmission control, The part corresponding to the authentication) and part of the signal processing corresponding to the layers 6 and 7 are performed by hardware, and only the parts such as the initial setting and the data storage program that are difficult to be processed by the hardware are processed by software. Hardware has the characteristics of faster signal processing and lower power consumption than software. By increasing the percentage of hardware processing, both signal processing speed and power consumption can be reduced. become. In addition, since the processing load on the CPU used for software processing can be reduced, even a CPU with low processing capability can be handled.

  As described above, in order to enable processing corresponding to layers 3 to 5 and part of processing corresponding to layers 6 and 7 to be performed by hardware, conventional IP communication technology (wired (electricity, optical), wireless) Uses a unique MAC frame based on For example, information necessary for signal processing corresponding to each layer is stored in an empty portion of a MAC frame of the conventional IP communication technology. As a result, signal processing corresponding to layer 3 or higher can be performed in a lower layer at the data link layer level, and processing in hardware becomes possible. The information stored in the MAC frame includes, for example, data size information, information on the number of data divisions when dividing and transmitting large-capacity data, information indicating whether or not the data has been normally received, and data Information indicating whether or not to perform retransmission and information related to authentication.

  Here, an application example to a wireless LAN (IEEE802.11b) will be described. The physical layer interface refers to a wireless chip. An example of a unique MAC frame based on the IEEE802.11b standard is shown in FIG. Information necessary for signal processing corresponding to the LLC (Logical Link Control) sub-layer to the session layer is stored in an empty (reserved) space of the frame body in the MAC frame. In the example of FIG. 2, information such as the data size and the number of data divisions is stored in the empty space of the frame body of the association response of the IEEE802.11b standard. There are Capability Information, Status Code, Association ID, and Supported Rates in the frame and body defined in the IEEE802.11b standard, but these are 16 oct at most, which is a little smaller than the frame and body size of 2312 oct. There is about 2300 oct free space. The information stored in this empty space has a predetermined storage location (order) and information storage portion size (number of bits). For example, when the number of data divisions is 10 and the size of the information storage part is 16 bits, “0000000000001010” is described.

  FIG. 3 shows a configuration example of the communication apparatus of the present invention. Here, a wireless communication apparatus will be described as an example. In the figure, a wireless communication apparatus includes a wireless circuit 12 connected to an antenna 11, a baseband processor (BBP) 13, signal processing hardware 14 using a dedicated LSI or FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), and signal processing software. It is comprised by the processor (CPU) 15 which processes. The signal processing hardware 14 is a hardware-BBP interface 141 that performs connection processing with the BBP 13, hardware that performs connection processing with the reception MAC frame decoding unit 142, the transmission MAC frame creation unit 143, the control unit 144, and the CPU 15. -It is configured by an inter-CPU interface 145.

  The received MAC frame decoding unit 142 decodes the received MAC frame a input from the BBP 13 and sends the decoded received data, information stored in the other received MAC frames, and the operation state b to the control unit 144. The control unit 144 sends the reception data and the operation state c decoded by the reception MAC frame decoding unit 142 to the CPU 15 and sends control information d to the reception MAC frame decoding unit 142.

  Further, the control unit 144 processes the transmission data and parameter e read from the CPU 15, and sends the transmission data, information to be stored in other transmission MAC frames, and control information f to the transmission MAC frame creation unit 143. The transmission MAC frame creation unit 143 sends the operation state g to the control unit 144, creates a transmission MAC frame h from the transmission data read from the CPU 15 and information stored in other transmission MAC frames, and sends it to the BBP 13.

  As described above, the control unit 144 determines the entire signal processing hardware 14 based on the parameters read from the CPU 15, the information stored in the received MAC frame received from the received MAC frame decoding unit 142, and the state of each unit. Control and perform processing corresponding to the above-described layer 3 to layer 5.

  Here, an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) constituting the signal processing hardware 14 will be described. This is a programmable LSI, and is a reconfigurable logic device that can rewrite and modify a logic circuit like software while being hardware. By rewriting the memory on the FPGA, the logic circuit can be rewritten to change the operation contents, and can be rewritten any number of times. The program is described in a hardware description language such as VHDL (Very high-speed integrated circuit Hardware Description Language).

  The FPGA can be manufactured at a lower cost than a dedicated LSI newly designed and manufactured. Although the operation is slower than that of the dedicated LSI, the operation is faster than the processing by software. The usage method is that a program corresponding to a digital circuit diagram is described in a hardware description language, and bit stream data generated by compiling on a computer is downloaded to an FPGA via a cable. When the download is complete, the FPGA becomes a single chip that performs the function of the digital circuit diagram. If it actually operates and there is a problem, the digital circuit diagram (program) may be corrected, compiled and downloaded again.

The figure explaining the signal processing form by the communication method of this invention. The figure which shows the example of an original MAC frame based on IEEE802.11b specification. The figure which shows the structural example of the communication apparatus of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

11 Antenna 12 Radio Circuit 13 Baseband Processor (BBP)
14 Signal Processing Hardware 15 Signal Processing Software (CPU)
141 Hardware-BBP Interface 142 Reception MAC Frame Decoding Unit 143 Transmission MAC Frame Creation Unit 144 Control Unit 145 Hardware-CPU Interface

Claims (4)

Obtain information necessary for signal processing corresponding to each layer of the OSI reference model from the transmission frame received via the physical layer interface,
Specification of data transmission rate corresponding to layer 1 (physical layer) of OSI reference model, signal processing related to control of data transfer method between transmission frame corresponding to layer 2 (data link layer) and terminal, layer 3 (network layer) ) Signal processing related to transmission control using an IP address corresponding to), signal processing related to data transfer quality assurance corresponding to layer 4 (transport layer), and establishment and release of a connection with a partner corresponding to layer 5 (session layer) Hardware excludes signal processing, signal processing related to conversion of data representation format corresponding to layer 6 (presentation layer), and signal processing related to various information services for display and communication corresponding to layer 7 (application layer) A communication method characterized by being performed in The communication method according to claim 1,
Information necessary for signal processing corresponding to each layer of the OSI reference model is stored in an empty (reserved) space of a frame body in a MAC frame. A software processing unit that performs signal processing by software, a hardware processing unit that performs signal processing by hardware, and a processing unit having a physical layer interface,
The hardware processing unit includes: a received MAC frame decoding unit that decodes a received MAC frame received via the physical layer interface; a transmission MAC frame creation unit that creates a transmission MAC frame; the received MAC frame decoding unit; A control unit that performs signal processing between the transmission MAC frame creation unit and the software processing unit;
Based on the parameters read from the software processing unit, the information stored in the received MAC frame received from the received MAC frame decoding unit, and the status of each unit, the control unit of the hardware processing unit Signal processing related to transmission control using an IP address corresponding to layer 3 (network layer), signal processing related to quality assurance of data transfer corresponding to layer 4 (transport layer), and connection with a partner corresponding to layer 5 (session layer) Signal processing related to establishment and release of data, parts other than signal processing related to conversion of data representation format corresponding to layer 6 (presentation layer), and signal processing related to various information services for display and communication corresponding to layer 7 (application layer) It is the structure which performs the part which excludes Communication device. The communication device according to claim 3.
Information necessary for signal processing corresponding to each layer of the OSI reference model is stored in an empty (spare) space of a frame body in a MAC frame,
The control unit of the hardware processing unit, based on the parameters read from the software processing unit, the information stored in the empty (spare) space of the frame body of the received MAC frame, the state of each unit, A communication apparatus characterized in that it is configured to perform processing corresponding to a layer.

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