JPH11262049A - Communication system using mobile object and communication equipment used for the system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication system where data of a large capacity are sent in a short time, and a mobile object with enhanced confidentiality is utilized in the case of making communication among plural communication devices, respectively installed to plural mobile objects. SOLUTION: A communication device 11 installed respectively to each of plural aircrafts is provided with a laser communication section 12 and a radio communication section 13. First the radio communication section 13 interconnects one and other aircrafts through radio communication and acquires opposite information relating to a position and a velocity of a communication opposite party and a communication control section 14 discriminates the possibility of communication and a direction of the mobile object being the communication opposite party, based on the opposite party information. When communication is available, prescribed connection information including a communication capacity, a start time and scheduled air route information within the communication time is decided and then the laser communication section 12 interconnects both the aircrafts based on the prescribed connection information through laser communication, and data compressed by a data compression circuit 15 are transmitted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention utilizes a mobile unit that performs communication between a plurality of wireless communication devices installed corresponding to a plurality of mobile units such as, for example, aircraft and automobiles distributed in a physical area. Communication system and communication device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, in a communication system using a mobile unit such as an aircraft or an automobile, a communication device is installed in each of a plurality of mobile units distributed in a physical area, and satellite communication is performed between the plurality of communication devices. And VHF (Very High Frequency)
, UHF (Ultra High Frequency) and the like.

However, the above-mentioned communication system has a problem that the data transmission speed is remarkably slow compared with recent wired communication on the ground, and it takes a long time to transmit a large amount of data such as images. I have.

Further, in the above communication system, if a broadcasting device is installed in each of a plurality of mobile units, television images and the like can be transmitted. However, a wide band is required, and the broadcasting device itself is used for a broadcasting station or the like. Can only be used for specific applications.

Further, in the above-mentioned communication system, it is necessary to secure confidentiality when performing communication, and communication of a large amount of data is disadvantageous in that it is easy to grasp its own position as a radio wave transmission source. Has occurred.

[0006]

As described above, in the conventional communication system, when wireless communication is performed between a plurality of communication devices, the transmission speed of large-capacity data such as images is significantly reduced. There is a problem that it is easy to grasp the position of the user who is the radio wave transmission source.

An object of the present invention is to enable large-capacity data to be transmitted in a short time when communicating between a plurality of communication devices installed in a plurality of mobile objects, and to improve confidentiality. An object of the present invention is to provide a communication system using a mobile object which can be improved and a communication device used in the communication system.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a laser communication unit which is installed in correspondence with a plurality of moving bodies to be dispersed and performs laser communication, and a radio communication using a lower frequency than the laser communication. It is constructed as a communication system in which communication is performed between a plurality of wireless communication devices having a wireless communication unit for performing communication.

[0009] Each of the plurality of wireless communication devices connects the plurality of wireless communication devices via a carrier wave by wireless communication, and acquires partner information including the positions and velocities of a plurality of moving bodies as communication partners. And information communication means for notifying the wireless communication device of the communication partner of self-information including the position and speed information of the own device, and, based on the communication partner information obtained by the other-party information acquisition means, via a carrier wave by laser communication. A plurality of wireless communication devices, and data transmission means for transmitting data generated from one of the wireless communication devices to the other wireless communication device via a carrier wave by laser communication. I have.

[0010] According to this configuration, the plurality of wireless communication devices installed respectively corresponding to the plurality of moving objects use the laser communication unit capable of communicating a large amount of data per unit time and the laser communication unit. Providing a wireless communication unit required to determine the radiation direction of the carrier, first, connect between a plurality of wireless communication devices using a carrier by wireless communication, to obtain partner information on the position and moving speed of the communication partner, Based on the partner information, the communication possibility and the direction of the moving body of the communication partner are determined, and if there is a possibility, predetermined connection information including the communication capacity, the start time, and the scheduled route information within the communication time is determined. Thereafter, based on the predetermined connection information,
A plurality of wireless communication devices that perform communication using a carrier wave by laser communication are connected, and large-capacity data such as image data is transmitted from one wireless communication device to the other wireless communication device by laser communication. .

As a result, it is determined whether communication is possible and the position of the other party based on the other party information obtained by the wireless communication, and based on the result of the determination, it is possible to reliably connect to the wireless communication apparatus of the other party by the laser communication. , Image data and the like can be transmitted to the communication partner in a short time, thereby improving confidentiality.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, an example is shown in which communication is performed using a communication device installed in an aircraft. FIG. 2 shows a main part of a communication device installed in an aircraft. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the communication device.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes an aircraft in which a communication device (see FIG. 2) is installed. This communication device includes a laser communication unit using a laser capable of communicating large amounts of data such as images per unit time, and a wireless communication unit for performing wireless communication using a frequency lower than the laser. Provided. That is, the aircraft 100 connects to the aircraft 200 on which the communication device is also installed via a carrier wave by wireless communication such as VHS or UHF, and obtains partner information including the position and speed information of the aircraft 200 as the communication partner. At the same time, the aircraft 200 is notified of its own information including its own position and speed information. Then, based on this partner information, a connection is made with the aircraft 200 via a carrier wave by laser communication, and data generated from one side is transmitted to the other side via a carrier wave by laser communication.

Since a carrier wave generated by laser communication has a straight traveling property, if communication is performed with the other aircraft using only this carrier wave, there is a high possibility that the carrier wave deviates from the other aircraft. For this reason, after grasping the position and the moving speed of the aircraft of the other party using the carrier wave of the wireless communication, the direction is determined so as not to remove the aircraft of the other party, and the carrier wave of the laser communication is emitted.

As shown in FIG. 2, the communication device 11 installed in each of the aircrafts 100 and 200 includes a laser communication unit 12 and a radio communication unit 13 necessary for determining a radiation direction of a carrier wave by the laser communication. Have been. First, when performing communication, the communication device 11 connects to the communication device on the communication partner side by the wireless communication unit 13 via a carrier wave by wireless communication, and transmits the communication partner information including the position and speed information of the communication device on the communication partner side. It is acquired by the receiving circuit 132 and outputs this partner information to the communication control unit 14. Further, the transmission circuit 131 of the wireless communication unit 13 notifies the communication device of the other party of the self information regarding the position and the moving speed of the own device via a carrier wave by wireless communication.

The communication control unit 14 controls the data compression circuit 15 to generate data obtained by compressing image data or the like based on the partner information and the self information. Further, the data compression circuit 15 can select various compression methods according to the type of data, based on a control signal from the communication control unit 14.

The data generated by the data compression circuit 15 is supplied to a transmission circuit 121 of the laser communication unit 12. The laser communication unit 12 performs connection processing with a communication device of a communication partner via a carrier wave by laser communication, and transmits the compressed data input to the transmission circuit 121 to the communication partner side via a carrier wave by the laser communication. Also, the receiving circuit 122 receives the compressed data arriving by the laser from the communication device on the communication partner side, and outputs it to the data decoding circuit 16. The data decoding circuit 16 decodes the input compressed data.

Next, the communication operation of the communication device 11 will be described with reference to FIG. First, the communication device 11 includes the wireless communication unit 1
3 to connect with the communication device of the communication partner via a carrier wave by wireless communication (step S11), acquire the partner information including the position and speed of the aircraft that is the communication partner, and acquire the self information including the position and speed of the own device. The information is notified to the wireless communication device of the communication partner (step S12).

Next, the communication control unit 14
Fetches the partner information received by the receiving circuit 132, and determines the possibility of communication from the partner information (step S
13) If possible, calculate communication conditions such as communication capacity, start time, and scheduled route information within the communication time based on the partner information and self information, and generate a communication command based on the calculation result. (Step S14). Thereafter, the data compression circuit 15 outputs the compressed data to the laser communication unit 12 based on the communication command. When the compressed data is given from the data compression circuit 15, the laser communication unit 12 connects to the communication device on the communication partner side by the carrier wave by the laser communication, and communicates the compressed data to the communication device on the communication partner side via the carrier wave by the laser communication. The data is transmitted to the device (steps S15 and S16).

Therefore, according to the above embodiment, the communication device 11 installed corresponding to each of the aircrafts 100 and 200 can transmit a large amount of data per unit time and the laser communication unit 12 and the laser communication unit A wireless communication unit 13 required to determine the radiation direction of the carrier wave used in the communication. First, the wireless communication unit 13 connects the aircrafts 100 and 200 by wireless communication, and includes information on the position and speed of the communication partner. Acquires partner information, determines communication possibility and direction of communication partner based on this partner information, and if possible, determines predetermined connection information including communication capacity, start time and scheduled route information within communication time Thereafter, based on the predetermined connection information, the laser communication unit 12 connects the aircrafts 100 and 200 by laser communication, and outputs a large amount of data such as image data. It is transmitted to the communication partner by a laser communications.

As a result, based on the result of the determination as to whether or not communication is possible based on the other party information obtained by wireless communication and the other party's position, it is possible to reliably connect to the other aircraft with which communication is possible by laser communication. It is possible to transmit to the other party in a short time, thereby improving the confidentiality.

Further, according to the above-described embodiment, the conventional wireless communication is adopted as a preparation stage before performing the laser communication, so that the laser communication unit 12 has a simple configuration including only the transmission circuit 121 and the reception circuit 122. It is necessary only to have a function, and communication with higher reliability and lower cost can be performed.

Next, as a first modified example of the above embodiment, when partner information including the position and speed information of a moving object is registered in a host device at a predetermined position such as a satellite in advance, this registration is performed. There is a method of referring to the partner information obtained.

FIG. 4 shows an example in which partner information including information on the positions and moving speeds of the aircrafts 100 and 200 is registered in the host device 300 in advance. Here, the aircrafts 100 and 200 always register information on their positions and moving speeds in the host device 300.
That is, when communicating with the aircraft 200, the aircraft 100 first connects to the host device 300 via a carrier wave by wireless communication to acquire partner information on the aircraft 200 registered in the host device 300. ,
The host device 300 is notified of its own information including its own position and speed information. Thereafter, the aircraft 100 is
Based on the partner information related to 0, the aircraft 200 is connected to the aircraft 200 via a carrier wave by laser communication, and image data and the like are transmitted to the aircraft 200 via a carrier wave by laser communication. The same applies to the case where the aircraft 200 communicates with the aircraft 100.

Therefore, according to the first modification,
When communicating between the aircrafts 100 and 200,
Since the partner information can be acquired only by connecting to the host device 300 at the determined position by wireless communication, the aircraft 1
Compared to the method of directly asking the other party between 00 and 200,
The tracking processing is not required, and the connection processing time can be shortened accordingly.

Next, as a second modification of the above-described embodiment, FIG. 5 shows an example in which, when there are a plurality of aircrafts in addition to the aircrafts 100 and 200, communication is performed via the other plurality of aircrafts. It will be described with reference to FIG.

In the example of FIG. 5, when the distance between aircraft 100 and aircraft 200 is long, aircraft 400 and 500 capable of laser communication from aircraft 100 are detected by wireless communication and installed on aircraft 400 and 500. When the communication device (communication device 11 shown in FIG. 2 having the same configuration) can communicate, the relay connection is sequentially performed via the carrier wave by the laser communication in the order of aircraft 100, aircraft 400, aircraft 500, and aircraft 200. I do. The data generated from the communication device 11 of the aircraft 100 whose connection order is the first is transmitted to the aircraft 40 via a carrier wave by laser communication.
The connection is sequentially transmitted via 0,500 to the communication device of the aircraft 200 whose connection order is the last (the same configuration as the communication device 11 shown in FIG. 2).

Therefore, according to the second modification,
Aircraft 100, Aircraft 400, Aircraft 500, Aircraft 2
00, the aircraft 100 and the aircraft 20 are sequentially relay-connected via a carrier wave by laser communication.
The laser communication can be performed even if the distance between 0 is long.

FIG. 6 shows an example in which a failure occurs in the aircraft 500 in the second modification.
This will be described with reference to FIG. Here, aircraft 400 monitors the state of a communication device installed in aircraft 500 by communicating with aircraft 500. Then, when it is detected that a failure has occurred in the aircraft 500, it is connected to another aircraft 600 communicable by laser communication via a carrier wave by laser communication based on partner information obtained by wireless communication, and Data arriving from the aircraft 100 is transmitted to the aircraft 600 via a carrier wave by laser communication. Thereafter, the aircraft 600 is connected to the aircraft 200 via the carrier wave by the laser communication, and transmits the arriving data to the aircraft 200 by the carrier wave by the laser communication.

As described above, if the detour transmission means for transmitting data to the aircraft 600 communicable by laser communication when the aircraft 500 breaks down, data communication by relay connection between the aircraft 100 and the aircraft 200 can be performed. Can be performed reliably.

Further, in the communication system of the present invention,
As shown in the first and second modified examples, when the host device 300 is in a range where the own device can communicate by wireless communication, laser communication with the communication partner is performed based on the partner information registered in the host device 300. In addition, it is possible to construct a communication network in which communication is performed by a relay method from the own device to a communication partner outside the communication range of the laser communication. Good communication can be performed.

The reconnaissance image and the like transmitted by the laser communication according to the above-described embodiment have a higher correlation with an image taken in the past than a new image. In this case, there is a method of transmitting an identification number of a past image and a difference thereof.

It should be noted that the present invention is not necessarily limited to the scope of the above-described embodiment, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0034]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention,
When performing communication between a plurality of communication devices installed in a plurality of mobile units, a communication using a mobile unit that can transmit a large amount of data in a short time and can improve confidentiality A system and a communication device used in the system can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing an embodiment of a communication system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing details of a communication device installed in the aircraft of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the communication device according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a system diagram showing a first modification of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a system diagram showing a second modification of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a detour transmission unit in the second modified example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Communication apparatus, 12 ... Laser communication part, 13 ... Wireless communication part, 14 ... Communication control part, 15 ... Data compression circuit, 16 ... Data decoding circuit, 100, 200, 400, 500, 600 ... Aircraft, 300 ... Host apparatus.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H04B 17/00

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A laser communication unit installed corresponding to a plurality of moving objects to be dispersed and configured to perform laser communication, and a wireless communication unit configured to perform wireless communication using a frequency lower than the laser communication. A plurality of wireless communication devices having the following, each of the plurality of wireless communication devices connects the plurality of wireless communication devices via a carrier wave by the wireless communication, and the plurality of mobile objects as communication partners Acquire partner information including the position and speed information of
A partner information acquisition unit that notifies the wireless communication device of the communication partner of self information including the position and speed information of the own device, based on the partner information obtained by the partner information acquisition unit, via the carrier wave by the laser communication, A plurality of wireless communication devices connected to each other, and data transmission means for transmitting data generated from one of the wireless communication devices to the other wireless communication device via a carrier wave by the laser communication. A communication system using a mobile object characterized by the following. 2. The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising: a host device for registering said partner information including position and speed information of said plurality of mobile objects in advance. Are connected via a carrier wave by wireless communication,
A registration information acquisition unit that acquires the partner information registered in the host device and notifies the host device of self information including position and speed information of the own device, and the data transmission unit includes the registration information Based on the partner information obtained by the acquisition unit, the plurality of wireless communication devices are connected to each other via a carrier wave by the laser communication, and data generated from one of the wireless communication devices is converted into a carrier wave by the laser communication. 2. The communication device according to claim 1, further comprising means for transmitting the data to the wireless communication device on the other side.
A communication system using the mobile object described in the above. 3. The data transmission unit sequentially relay-connects the plurality of wireless communication devices via a carrier wave by the laser communication between the plurality of wireless communication devices in a predetermined order based on the partner information obtained by the partner information acquisition unit. Relay connection means, and the connection order by the relay connection means, the data generated from the first wireless communication device, the connection order is the last through the plurality of wireless communication devices via the carrier wave by the laser communication sequentially The communication system using a mobile object according to claim 1, further comprising: relay transmission means for transmitting to a wireless communication device. 4. Each of the plurality of wireless communication devices includes: a monitoring unit that monitors a state of the wireless communication device that performs communication by the laser communication; and when a failure of the wireless communication device is detected by the monitoring unit, 4. The wireless communication device according to claim 1, further comprising: a detour transmission unit configured to transmit data to another wireless communication device capable of performing laser communication based on the partner information obtained by the partner information acquisition unit. Communication system using mobile objects. 5. A laser communication unit installed corresponding to a plurality of moving objects to be distributed and performing laser communication, and a wireless communication unit performing wireless communication using a frequency lower than the laser communication. In a communication device used as the wireless communication device in a communication system for performing data communication between a plurality of wireless communication devices having a communication device, the communication device is connected to a wireless communication device of a communication partner via a carrier wave by the wireless communication, and Acquisition partner information including the position and speed information of the moving body in which the wireless communication device is installed, and partner information acquisition means for notifying the wireless communication device of the communication partner of self information including the position and speed information of the own device, Based on the other party information obtained by the other party information acquisition means, connected to the wireless communication device of the other party via a carrier wave by the laser communication, Communication apparatus characterized by comprising; and a data transmission means for transmitting via a carrier wave by said laser communication to the wireless communication device of the communication partner. 6. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the other party information acquisition unit is configured to, when the other party information including the position and speed information of the moving body on which the wireless communication apparatus of the other party is installed is registered in the host apparatus, communicate with the host apparatus by wireless communication. And via the host device to obtain the partner information registered in the host device,
Registration information acquisition means for notifying the host device of self-information including position and speed information of the self-apparatus, and the data transmission means, based on the other party information obtained by the registration information acquisition means, the communication partner And a means for connecting the data communication device to the wireless communication device of the communication partner via the carrier wave by the laser communication and the data communication device. The communication device as described. 7. A monitoring means for monitoring a state of a wireless communication device which performs communication by the laser communication; and a communication information obtaining means for detecting a failure of a wireless communication device of a communication partner by the monitoring means. 6. The communication device according to claim 5, further comprising: a detour transmission unit that transmits data to another wireless communication device capable of communicating by laser communication based on the partner information obtained by the communication device.