KR100875903B1 - Method and apparatus for dynamically configuring location of ap in the bluetooth system - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus and a method for dynamically setting up the location of an AP in a Bluetooth system are provided to generate information about the accurate location of the AP, and reflect the change of system environment information to a setup file by using objective situation information between APs such as RSSI values and link intensity when setting up the location information of the AP. An apparatus for dynamically setting up the location of an AP in a Bluetooth system comprises the followings: a transmission unit(510) which successively transmits request signals for commanding the N number of APs to collect status information between the APs within a system in an RA; an acquisition unit(520) which establishes each connection between the rest APs, which do not receive the request signals, within the system and between APs, which receive the request signals, in order to obtain the status information; a reply unit(530) which returns the status information to the RA; and a location setup part(540) which sets up a neighbor AP list based on the obtained status information from the RA or each AP.

Description

Method and Apparatus for dynamically configuring location of AP in the Bluetooth System}

1 illustrates a process in which a Bluetooth terminal first accesses an AP.

2 is a block diagram of a handover support Bluetooth system.

3 illustrates an example of a handover process performed in the Bluetooth system of FIG. 2.

4 shows a Bluetooth system as a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a block diagram of an apparatus for dynamically setting an AP location in the Bluetooth system of FIG. 4.

6 illustrates a process performed to set a dynamic position of an AP in an RA according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

7 illustrates a process performed to set a dynamic position of an AP in an AP according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a method for dynamically setting an AP location in a Bluetooth system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to a method for dynamically obtaining access point (AP) location information for effective handover in a Bluetooth-based wireless Internet.

In the present invention, by dynamically obtaining the location information of the AP in the Bluetooth system, it is possible to reduce the time required for handover and improve the connection quality by selecting the ideal AP during the handover. In addition, when the AP is newly installed and removed from the Bluetooth system, it is easy to manage, and since a change in the temporary system environment can be taken into consideration in real time, a preferred handover AP can be selected, thereby enabling flexible AP location. In addition, if necessary, the distance and direction between APs may be obtained using signal strength between APs.

Conventionally, the following two methods may be used to select an AP for performing handover. The first method uses a statically located AP location information file.

In this case, when the administrator records the AP location information in the static configuration file in advance, the roaming agent RA managing the handover reads the AP location information indicating which APs are neighbors in the configuration file.

When a handover occurs in a specific AP (eg, AP1) based on the location information of the AP, AP1 transmits a message to the RA indicating that handover is required for the terminal connected to the AP, and AP1 terminates the connection.

Upon receiving the message, the RA transmits a message to the AP1 to perform handover and terminal information to the neighboring AP, and the AP, which receives the handover command, attempts to connect with the terminal.

 The second method uses a statically set AP location information file and at the same time reads RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) value from the terminal. Like the first method, this method reads the AP location through a configuration file statically set in the RA, and when a handover occurs in a terminal connected to AP1, the RA receives the message and receives information of neighboring APs adjacent to AP1. Read.

Thereafter, when the neighbor AP information is transmitted to the UE, the UE does not immediately perform handover, but accesses APs received from the RA in order to measure RSSI values. After that, it tries to connect to the AP that received the best RSSI value.

However, the above-described conventional method has a difficulty in managing the configuration file because the administrator writes the configuration file empirically, and the accuracy is lowered, and when the AP is newly installed or the location is changed, the administrator changes the configuration file and reboots all the systems.

In addition, the handover may degrade the quality of the call, and it is difficult to reflect this when the AP stops working in the middle. For example, when AP 1 is a neighboring AP 2, when AP 2 stops operating, a handover is impossible in AP 1 even though there is an AP to perform another handover.

In addition, there is a problem that it is difficult to reflect factors influencing the RSSI value, such as the distance between APs, interference of other APs, types of walls (eg, glass walls or cement walls) to walls.

The handover technology to date focuses on the operation between the terminal and the AP, and research on the AP location setting is insufficient. In this situation, in order to solve the above problems of the prior art, the present invention usually extends the Bluetooth connection between the AP and the terminal to occur between the AP, using the situation information between the AP, such as RSSI value in the Bluetooth system, We will present a way to set the dynamic position.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a device for dynamically setting the position of an AP in a Bluetooth system including N APs and a Roaming Agent (RA) may provide status information between the APs in the system in the RA. A transmitter for sequentially transmitting a request signal to collect to each AP; An acquirer configured to establish a connection between an AP receiving the request signal from the RA and each remaining AP in the system that has not received the request signal from the RA to obtain the state information; A reply unit that returns the status information to the RA; And a location setting unit configured to set a neighbor AP list based on the RA or the obtained state information from each AP.

In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method for dynamically setting the position of an AP in a Bluetooth system including N access points (APs) and a roaming agent (RA) may include a state between the APs in the system in the RA. A transmission step of sequentially transmitting a request signal for collecting information to each AP; An acquiring step of establishing a connection between an AP receiving the request signal from the RA and each remaining AP in the system not receiving the request signal from the RA to obtain the state information; A reply step of returning the obtained state information to the RA; And an AP location setting step of setting a neighbor AP list based on the RA or the obtained state information from each AP.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the same elements among the drawings are denoted by the same reference numerals and symbols as much as possible even though they are shown in different drawings.

In the following description of the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of a related known function or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

1 illustrates a process in which a Bluetooth terminal first accesses an AP.

The Bluetooth terminal performs connection by finding an accessible AP through inquiry or by calling an AP that is known or already known through the inquiry. In this case, the page may be connected not only to the Bluetooth terminal but also to the AP by request.

2 is a block diagram of a handover support Bluetooth system.

The handover support Bluetooth system used in the present invention includes a terminal 220 supporting handover, a handover support Bluetooth AP (Access Point, 231, 232) and a Roaming Agent (Roaming Agent, 210). The terms and main functions used above are as follows.

Handover means that the connected application continues to operate without interruption when the access point (AP) is changed as the mobile terminal (eg, laptop, wireless telephone) moves freely.

An access point (AP) refers to a device connecting a wireless communication device to form a wireless network. In the present invention, in order to explain the handover process, the AP to which the terminal is currently connected is called a home AP, and the AP to which the terminal is newly connected through the handover process is divided into a neighbor AP.

In order to support roaming and handover, the RA (Roaming Agent) manages connection information of APs and terminals connected to the AP, and performs handover between the AP and the terminal based on this. In addition, it checks whether the AP is operating by using a beacon signal, and configures a tree of the AP managed during handover or roaming, and informs the AP of a handover terminal suitable for the terminal.

Hereinafter, a method of dynamically configuring an AP in a handover enabled Bluetooth system will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Each AP (AP1, AP2, ... APN) is connected to the LAN, the RA exchanges information related to the handover through communication with the AP. When the Bluetooth terminal 220 attempts to connect to the Bluetooth system, the Bluetooth terminal 220 is connected to the nearest AP, and this information is transferred to the RA 21 and managed by the RA for handover.

In this case, in the Bluetooth system, it is important to set the position according to the coverage of the AP in order to seamlessly perform the connection. When the Bluetooth terminal moves out of coverage of the Home AP, it detects whether the Bluetooth terminal is out of Home AP coverage by measuring RSSI value or link strength in real time. In this case, the Home AP or the Bluetooth terminal requests a handover to the system, and then the Bluetooth terminal is transferred to the neighboring AP under the control of the RA.

3 illustrates an example of a handover process performed in the Bluetooth system of FIG. 2.

Various methods for handover in a Bluetooth system have been proposed. 3 shows an example of such a scheme. In the initial connection with the AP, the UE requests a connection to the AP through a role switching process through an inquiry and a call process.

As soon as the terminal and the AP are connected, an RSSI value is connected to the AP between the terminal and the AP, and the AP determines a handover time based on the value. At the time of handover, the AP delivers this information to the RA, and the RA determines the AP to handover and transmits a message to the existing AP and the next AP. Since the existing terminal disconnects and the next handover AP can know the information of the terminal accurately, the inquiry process is skipped and the process goes directly to the calling step.

4 shows a Bluetooth system as a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The Bluetooth system includes N APs (AP1 431, AP2 432, ..., APN) and a RA (Roaming Agent, 410).

5 is a block diagram of an apparatus for dynamically setting an AP location in the Bluetooth system of FIG. 4.

The transmitter 510 periodically transmits a request signal to each of the APs sequentially in the RA, when an event of registering or deactivating a new AP occurs. For example, as follows.

First, the RA 410 transmits a request signal for collecting status information between APs in the Bluetooth system to the AP1 431 among the N APs through the transmitter 510.

In the acquirer 520, the AP1 431 receiving the request signal from the RA 410 establishes a Bluetooth connection with each of the AP2 432, the AP3 (not shown),... APN. In this case, since the AP can know the Bluetooth address and clock information of the neighboring AP in the system, the AP can be connected only by a page process when the AP is connected. In addition, if the Bluetooth connection is not possible, the AP is not a neighbor AP, so ignore it and try to connect to the next AP.

Through the established connection, AP1 obtains objective status information such as RSSI value or link strength from each of AP2, AP3, ... APN. The obtained state information may be a Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) value indicating the strength of a received radio signal or a connection strength value between each AP link. This state information can be used to determine the gap between the APs or obstacles, and can also determine the position of the AP by using trigonometry.

When AP1 receives all the collected state information by connecting to AP N, AP1 stops the operation and returns the state information obtained through the reply unit 530 to the RA 410. The RA 410 receiving the status information from the AP1 through the reply unit 530 transmits a request signal to the AP2 432 through the transmitter 510 and performs the same process as described above.

In this case, however, the connection setup between AP1 and AP2 is performed when AP1 has already received the request signal from the RA. In this way, the transmitting unit 510 receives a request signal from the RA 420 until the AP N-1 performs the above process. Set up a connection to obtain status information.

After completing the above process, the location setting unit 540 sets a neighbor AP list based on the state information obtained from each AP, and sends new AP location information to the APs in the system through the location notification unit (not shown). Broadcast

An example of setting the neighbor list is registering two or three APs providing the best RSSI values as neighbor APs. However, it should be noted that this is not limited thereto.

By periodically changing the AP location information dynamically in this way, it is possible to respond in real time to changes in the system environment, such as a temporary interruption between the AP, or when the AP is newly registered or stopped. Therefore, since an optimal AP is selected when a handover occurs in the Bluetooth system, the number of handover failures can be reduced and the connection quality can be improved.

6 illustrates a process performed to set a dynamic position of an AP in an RA according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The RA transmits a gather_rssi signal, which is a request signal for collecting status information between APs in a Bluetooth system (S610) or periodically (S620) when there is a newly registered AP or an AP in which the operation is stopped.

First, the gather_rssi signal is transmitted to AP1 (see FIGS. 4 and 431). AP 1 connects to each of the remaining APs in the Bluetooth system and collects RSSI values (S630).

When AP1 finishes collecting RSSI values, it sends a gather_rssi_end message to RA indicating that the process of acquiring the above state information is completed (S640).

When the RA repeats the above process to the next AP (S660) and receives a gather_rssi_end message from the last AP (APN) (S650), the RA configures new AP location information based on the information received from all APs (S670). The newly configured AP location information is broadcast to the APs.

7 illustrates a process performed to set a dynamic position of an AP in an AP according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

When the AP receives the gather_rssi message in the RA (S710), it connects to one of the other APs except the AP that has already connected (S720), and collects RSSI values (S730 and S741). This process continues until the last AP (AP N) (S740).

When the AP completes the process, it informs the RA of the AP with the highest RSSI value (the number of APs can vary depending on the configuration). Gather_rssi_end Send a message. The next AP repeats the process to APs other than the previously connected AP. In this case, the total number of connections is (N-1)! And N is the number of APs.

In this process, if the connection between the APs is too far and the connection is not made, the timeout value is shortened and this information is stored so that the AP which is not connected several times can be excluded from the next attempt.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a method for dynamically setting an AP location in a Bluetooth system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Since the technical idea related to FIG. 8 is substantially the same as or similar to the technical idea described with reference to FIG. 5, this will be referred to and will be briefly described below.

First, the RA sequentially transmits a request signal for collecting state information between the APs in the system to each of the N APs (S810).

Thereafter, through the acquiring step, a connection is established between the AP receiving the request signal from the RA and each remaining AP in the system not receiving the request signal from the RA (S820, S830).

In the replying step, the acquired status information is returned to the RA (S840). Thereafter, an AP location setting step of setting a neighboring AP list is performed based on RA or state information obtained from each AP (S850), and new AP location information is broadcasted to an AP in the system (S860).

The invention can also be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable recording medium. Computer-readable recording media include all kinds of recording devices that store data that can be read by a computer system.

Examples of computer-readable recording media include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage, and the like, which are also implemented in the form of carrier waves (for example, transmission over the Internet). It also includes. The computer readable recording medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.

The best embodiments have been disclosed in the drawings and specification above. Although specific terms have been used herein, they are used only for the purpose of describing the present invention and are not used to limit the scope of the present invention as defined in the meaning or claims.

Therefore, those skilled in the art will understand that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible from this. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention will be defined by the technical spirit of the appended claims.

In the present invention, when setting the AP location information, by using the situation information between the AP, such as the RSSI value or link strength, it is possible to generate the exact location information of the AP compared to when the administrator has been writing a configuration file in the past, the system environment The advantage is that changes in information can be reflected in the configuration file.

In addition, by dynamically obtaining the location information of the AP in the Bluetooth system, it is effective to reduce the time required for handover and improve the connection quality by selecting the ideal AP during handover.

 In addition, according to the present invention, even if the AP is newly installed, removed, or changed in the Bluetooth system, the configuration file does not need to be reset, so it is easy to manage, and the handover continues even when the AP stops in the middle. By providing the stability of the system. In other words, it is possible to select a desirable handover AP or flexibly set the AP location by considering the temporary system environment change in real time, and to obtain the distance and direction between APs using the signal strength between APs if necessary. have.

Claims (19)

A device for dynamically setting the position of an AP in a Bluetooth system including N (N = 1 natural numbers) APs (Roading Agents) and RA (Roaming Agents), A transmission unit for sequentially transmitting a request signal for collecting status information between the APs in the system to each of the N APs in the RA; An acquiring unit for establishing a connection between an AP receiving the request signal from the RA and a remaining AP in the system not receiving the request signal from the RA to obtain the state information; A reply unit that returns the status information to the RA; And And a location setting unit for setting a neighboring AP list based on the RA or the obtained state information from each AP. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmission unit When the AP receiving the request signal transmitted by the RA returns the status information to the RA through the reply unit, the RA dynamically transmits the request signal to the next AP. Device to set it up. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining unit (N-1) between the N APs! Device for dynamically setting the position of the AP in the Bluetooth system, characterized in that to obtain the status information by establishing a connection. The method of claim 1, wherein the status information Device for dynamically setting the position of the AP in the Bluetooth system, characterized in that one of the received signal strength indication (RSSI) value indicating the strength of the radio signal or the connection between each AP link. The method of claim 1, The device for dynamically setting the position of the AP in the Bluetooth system, characterized in that the connection between the AP is a Bluetooth connection. The method of claim 5, wherein Since the AP can know the Bluetooth address and the clock information of the neighboring AP in the system, the device is configured to dynamically set the position of the AP in the Bluetooth system, characterized in that the connection only by the page (page) process when connecting between the AP. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmission unit The apparatus for dynamically setting the position of the AP in the Bluetooth system, characterized in that periodically transmitting the request signal to the AP in the RA. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmission unit The apparatus for dynamically setting the position of the AP in the Bluetooth system, characterized in that for transmitting the request signal to the AP when the event of registration or suspension of the new AP occurs. The method of claim 1, wherein the positioning unit And a location notification unit for broadcasting new AP location information to the APs in the system based on the set neighbor AP list information. A method for dynamically setting the position of an AP in a Bluetooth system including N (N = 1 natural numbers) APs (Access Points) and RAs (Roaming Agents), A transmission step of sequentially transmitting, by the RA, a request signal to each of the N APs to collect status information between the APs in the system; An acquiring step of establishing a connection between an AP receiving the request signal from the RA and each remaining AP in the system not receiving the request signal from the RA to obtain the state information; A reply step of returning the obtained state information to the RA; And And an AP location setting step of setting a neighbor AP list based on the RA or the obtained state information at each AP. The method of claim 10, wherein the transmitting step When the AP receiving the request signal transmitted by the RA returns the status information to the RA through the reply step, the RA dynamically transmits the request signal to a next AP. How to set the location. The method of claim 10, wherein the obtaining step (N-1) between the N APs! Method for dynamically setting the position of the AP in the Bluetooth system, characterized in that to obtain the status information by establishing a connection. The method of claim 10, wherein the status information Method of dynamically setting the position of the AP in the Bluetooth system, characterized in that the one of the RSSI value indicating the strength of the received radio signal or the connection strength value between each AP link. The method of claim 10, The connection between the AP is a method of dynamically setting the position of the AP in the Bluetooth system, characterized in that the Bluetooth connection. The method of claim 14, Since the AP can know the Bluetooth address and the clock information of the neighboring AP in the system, when the connection between the AP is connected only by the page process, the method of dynamically setting the position of the AP in the Bluetooth system. The method of claim 10, wherein the transmitting step The method for dynamically setting the position of the AP in the Bluetooth system, characterized in that periodically transmitting the request signal to the AP in the RA. The method of claim 10, wherein the transmitting step When the registration of a new AP or the event of the AP stop occurs, the RA in the Bluetooth system, characterized in that for transmitting the request signal to the AP dynamically set the position of the AP. The method of claim 10, wherein the AP location setting step And broadcasting new AP location information to APs in the system based on the set neighbor AP list information. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the method according to any one of claims 10 to 18.

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