JP2003218885A - Radio network terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a radio network terminal wherein initial setting can be executed even if communication mode of a network is either one out of [relay communication mode] and [direct communication mode] when a radio network terminal is added to the network. <P>SOLUTION: In the radio network terminal wherein an access point or a terminal is connected with a network by using radio, a communication mode wherein communication is enabled between the access point or the terminal and the radio network terminal is set when a new radio network terminal is added, and initial setting is performed to the radio network terminal by using the communication mode. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wireless network terminal, and more specifically to initial setting of a wireless network terminal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A "radio communication system" of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-269884 discloses a radio communication system including one base station and a plurality of mobile stations, in which one mobile station communicates with another mobile station. When performing, prepare a "relay communication mode" that relays the base station and a "direct communication mode" that communicates in a situation away from the control of the base station, and shift from the relay communication mode to the direct communication mode. Or, the return from the direct communication mode to the relay communication mode is automatically processed.

Further, the "fixed type wireless system" of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-136296 automatically uses the consumption amount of consumable materials continuously supplied from an external device such as electricity, gas or water to each dwelling unit or the like. The present invention relates to an automatic meter reading wireless system for meter reading, in which a plurality of wireless meter reading slaves installed in a distributed manner can be efficiently arranged. The slave unit has two communication modes, a setting mode and an operation mode. In the setting mode, communication with the master unit is performed by radio waves of the setting frequency, and in the operation mode, communication with the master unit is performed by radio waves of the operating frequency. By. When the child machine performs the initial setting with the parent machine, the child machine is in the setting mode,
The slave unit is initialized by the radio wave of the setting frequency. When the communication for the initial setting is completed, the slave unit is automatically or arbitrarily switched to the operation mode. Subsequent communications will be performed using radio waves of the operating frequency.

[0004]

Generally, when installing a wireless network terminal connected to a server such as an access point or a printer, first, if the setting is not changed according to the network environment to be used, various kinds of data are transmitted via the network. You cannot change the settings of.

Therefore, the wireless network terminal has a communication mode (infrastructure mode or Peer mode via an access point) determined for each manufacturer.
to Peer ad-hoc mode), SSID
(Service Set ID) and a channel etc. for designating a frequency band are set in advance,
Communication is established by matching the settings.

[0006] The "wireless communication system" of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-269884 discloses a "relay communication mode" when a mobile station communicates with another mobile station, depending on whether the mobile station is under the control of a base station. "Direct communication mode" is automatically switched. However, the technology of this wireless communication system relates to communication between mobile stations after the mobile station is added to the wireless communication system, and not to initial setting when the mobile station is newly added.

Further, the "fixed type wireless system" of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-136296 is a case in which when a slave unit is added to this wireless system, the master unit and the slave unit can communicate with each other without fail. , It cannot be used when it is not known whether the communication between the master unit and the slave unit is in the “relay communication mode” or the “direct communication mode”.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and when a wireless network terminal is newly added to a network, the communication of this network is "relay communication mode" and "direct communication mode". It is an object of the present invention to provide a wireless network terminal capable of executing initial setting regardless of the above.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a wireless network terminal according to claim 1 of the present invention is a wireless network terminal which connects to an access point or a wireless network with a terminal, and a new wireless network is provided. When adding a terminal, it has a communication mode setting unit for setting a communication mode capable of communicating between the access point or the terminal and this wireless network terminal, and uses the communication mode set by the communication mode setting unit. The wireless network terminal is characterized by being initialized. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the wireless network terminal according to the first aspect, the communication mode setting unit acquires the MAC address of the access point when the access point exists in the network, It is characterized in that the communication with the access point is established. According to claim 3 of the present invention, in the wireless network terminal according to claim 2, the communication mode setting unit switches the communication mode to an ad-hoc mode when the MAC address of the access point cannot be acquired. It is characterized by Further, claim 4 of the present invention is
The wireless network terminal according to claim 3, further comprising a communication mode notification unit that notifies that the communication mode has been switched, and the communication mode setting unit sets the communication mode to ad-h.
When the communication mode is switched to the oc mode, the communication mode notification unit notifies the user that the communication mode has been switched.

With the above configuration, the communication mode is automatically switched after the initial start-up, whereby two communication modes (infrastructure mode or a
In any network environment using any communication mode (d-hoc mode), setting via the network becomes easy.

After the initial activation, the access point M
By automatically acquiring the AC address, it is possible to automatically determine whether or not the connection is possible.

When the MAC address cannot be obtained after the initial activation, the communication mode is automatically switched to the ad-hoc mode, which facilitates the setting via the network. In addition, the fact that the communication mode has been switched is notified by the LED or the speaker, so that it is possible to easily confirm that the mode has been switched to the ad-hoc mode.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, an example will be described in which a wireless network terminal is used as a printer and a new wireless network terminal is added to the network.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a wireless network terminal. In FIG. 1, the wireless network terminal 100 includes a wireless network interface unit 101 for wirelessly transmitting and receiving data, and a storage unit 10 for storing print jobs and various settings.
2. An operation unit 103 for operating various panels, a control unit 104 for forming an image, a print unit 105 for printing a print image on paper, and an LED or sound for notifying the switching of communication modes can be reproduced. The communication mode notification unit 106 includes a speaker.

The wireless network interface unit 101 also includes a communication mode setting unit for setting a communication mode when this wireless network terminal communicates with an access point or another terminal.

In FIG. 2, a wireless network terminal 100 and a wireless network terminal 110 are connected to an access point 200.
It is a schematic diagram in the case of connecting to the network of a wired LAN via via, and this communication mode is set to infrastructu.
It is called re mode. Further, FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram in the case where, for example, the wireless network terminal 100, the wireless network terminal 110 and the wireless network terminal 120 are directly connected to the network without relaying the access points between the terminals, and this communication mode Is called ad-hoc mode. Hereinafter, the processing operation of the communication mode setting unit will be described using a flowchart.

<First Embodiment> FIG. 4 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the communication mode setting unit of the first embodiment.
Start the wireless network terminal 100 and set the communication mode to i.
The nfrastructure mode is set (step S1). Normally, the client is the access point 20.
Since it is possible to participate in the wireless network by setting the same ID as that used by 0, the access point 20 in the vicinity of the wireless network terminal 100
0 wireless network ID (SSID: Service
e Set ID) is searched (step S2).

If the SSID of the access point 200 cannot be acquired (NO in step S3), the communication mode is set to the ad-hoc mode (Peer to Peer) (step S4). For example, in this case, the default value, 14ch, is selected as the wireless channel to be used. a
Communication is established in the d-hoc mode (step S5).
For example, from the wireless network terminal 120 to the ad-hoc
By communicating in the mode (see FIG. 3), the initial setting of the wireless network terminal 100 can be changed (step S6).

On the other hand, the SSID of the access point 200
Is acquired (YES in step S3), infr
Since the communication was established in the structure mode,
For example, the initial setting of the wireless network terminal 100 can be changed by communicating via the network from the wireless network terminal 110 (see FIG. 2) (step S6).

<Second Embodiment> FIG. 5 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the communication mode setting unit of the second embodiment.
Start the wireless network terminal 100 and set the communication mode to i.
The nfrastructure mode is set (step S11). Normally, the client is access point 2
Since it becomes possible to participate in the wireless network by setting the same ID as the ID used by 00, the access point 2 in the vicinity of the wireless network terminal 100
00 wireless network ID (SSID: Servi)
(ce Set ID) is searched (step S12).
If this ID is specified from the operation unit 103,
The access point 200 having the designated ID is searched. When the SSID of the access point 200 cannot be acquired (NO in step S13), the process proceeds to step S16.

On the other hand, the SSID of the access point 200
If the MAC address of the access point 200 is acquired (YES in step S13), communication with the access point 200 is established, and the MAC address of the access point 200 is acquired (step S1).
4). By inputting the MAC address of the access point to be connected in advance from the operation unit 103, it is possible to connect to the fixed access point even in an environment where there are a plurality of access points (using the same SSID). . It is checked whether the acquired MAC address is a default value or a designated MAC address, or there is no access point with the designated MAC address (step S15).

Whether the SSID cannot be obtained in step S13 (NO in step S13) or step S15
If the MAC address could not be acquired normally in step S15 (NO in step S15), the communication mode is set to the ad-hoc mode (Peer to Peer) (step S).
16). For example, the default value for the wireless channel used is 1,
Select 4ch. Communication is established in the ad-hoc mode (step S17). Here, the communication mode notification unit may notify the user that the communication mode has been switched (step S18). This is because the color of the LED is displayed as, for example, red: infrastructure mode, green: ad-hoc mode, or by notifying by voice using a speaker, the communication mode is infrastructur.
It is possible to notify that the e mode has been switched to the ad-hoc mode. After establishing communication in the ad-hoc mode, the wireless network terminal 120 (see FIG. 3) can change the initial settings of the wireless network terminal 100 (step S19).

On the other hand, if the MAC address of the access point 200 has been successfully acquired (YES in step S15)
S), the access point 20 of the acquired MAC address
Since the communication with 0 has been established in the infrastructure mode, the initial setting of the wireless network terminal 100 can be changed, for example, by communicating from the wireless network terminal 110 via the network (see FIG. 2) (step S19). .

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, two communication modes (infrastructure) can be obtained by automatically switching the communication modes after initial startup.
In a network environment in which any communication mode (mode or ad-hoc mode) is used, setting via the network becomes easy.

Also, after the initial activation, the M of the access point
By automatically acquiring the AC address, it is possible to automatically determine whether or not the connection is possible.

When the MAC address cannot be acquired after the initial activation, the communication mode is automatically switched to the ad-hoc mode, which facilitates the setting via the network. In addition, the fact that the communication mode has been switched is notified by the LED or the speaker, so that it is possible to easily confirm that the mode has been switched to the ad-hoc mode.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a wireless network terminal.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram when a wireless network terminal connects to a network via an access point.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram when wireless network terminals connect to a network without going through an access point.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a communication mode setting unit according to the first exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a communication mode setting unit according to the second exemplary embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

100, 110, 120 ... Wireless network terminal, 10
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Wireless network interface part, 102 ... Storage part, 103 ... Operation part, 104 ... Control part, 105 ... Print part, 106 ... Communication mode notification part, 200 ... Access point.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A wireless network terminal that wirelessly connects to an access point or a terminal to a network, and when a new wireless network terminal is added, a communication mode in which the access point or the terminal and the wireless network terminal can communicate with each other. A wireless network terminal, comprising: a communication mode setting unit for setting the wireless network terminal to perform initial setting using the communication mode set by the communication mode setting unit. 2. The wireless network terminal according to claim 1, wherein the communication mode setting unit communicates with the access point by acquiring the MAC address of the access point when the access point exists in the network. A wireless network terminal characterized in that it is configured to determine that has been established. 3. The wireless network terminal according to claim 2, wherein the communication mode setting unit switches the communication mode to an ad-hoc mode when the MAC address of the access point cannot be acquired. Wireless network terminal. 4. The wireless network terminal according to claim 3, further comprising a communication mode notification unit that notifies that the communication mode has been switched, and the communication mode setting unit switches the communication mode to an ad-hoc mode. At this time, the communication mode notification unit notifies the user that the communication mode has been switched, the wireless network terminal.