JP2006352586A - Communication management device and communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication management device for performing communication between a terminal outside a LAN and equipment in the LAN without generating useless communication and without making a user perform a useless operation when the equipment in the LAN is impossible to communicate in connecting to the equipment in the LAN from the terminal outside the LAN via the Internet. <P>SOLUTION: In the communication management device, a management server 104 which is connected to the Internet and manages communication between the terminal 102 connected to the Internet and the equipment 101 in the LAN 106 connected to the Internet has a server communication part 11 which receives a connection request from the terminal 102 to the equipment 101 and equipment information which is information from the equipment 101, a connection request storage part 13 which stores the connection request receive by the server communication part 11 and a server control part 14 which notifies the terminal 102 of a fact that the equipment 101 is communicable based on the connection request stored in the connection request storage part 13 when the equipment information is received by the server communication part 11. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication management device that manages communication between a terminal device and a device in a LAN via the Internet.

  When communicating between devices connected to the Internet, a global IP address uniquely assigned to each device is required. However, the number of devices connected to the Internet is increasing, which causes a problem of insufficient number of global IP addresses.

  As a method for dealing with this problem, a method using a private IP address is generally used. Specifically, a private IP address, which is a unique IP address only within the same LAN defined by RFC 1918, is assigned to a device belonging to a local area network (hereinafter referred to as “LAN”) in a home or company. . Further, when connecting to the Internet from the LAN, a router having a network address translation (hereinafter referred to as “NAT”) function or a network address port translation (hereinafter referred to as “NAPT”) function is used.

  The NAT and NAPT functions convert a private IP address and a global IP address to each other. As a result, even a device assigned a private IP address on the LAN can communicate with a terminal on the Internet (hereinafter, “NAT” and “NAPT” have the same operational properties and need to be distinguished from each other). If there is no, write “NAT” as a representative).

  When a router having a NAT function is used, it is easy to connect to a terminal on the Internet from a device in the LAN having a private IP address. On the other hand, in order to connect freely from a terminal on the Internet to a device in a LAN having a private IP address, a technique called static NAT or port forwarding is used.

  In this case, it is necessary for the user himself to set a static NAT table in the router in advance. The entry of the static NAT table that needs to be configured is composed of the private IP address and port number of the device in the LAN to be connected, and the free port number of the router.

  When this static NAT table is set, it is possible to connect from a device on the Internet to a device in the LAN. Specifically, the user transmits a packet from a device on the Internet by specifying a combination of the router's global IP address and the router's port number set in the static NAT table. In the router that has received the packet, the packet is compared with the entry in the static NAT table set in advance by the user, and the transmission destination of the packet is replaced with the private IP address and port of the device in the LAN in the entry. Transfer to LAN.

  As described above, in order to use the static NAT function, it is indispensable for the user to set the static NAT table in advance, but the setting contents are complicated for the end user who does not have knowledge of the IP address. is there. In addition, the global IP address of the router itself with the static NAT function is dynamically changed by Point-to-Point Protocol (hereinafter referred to as “PPP”) or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (hereinafter referred to as “DHCP”). If it is allocated, it is difficult for the user to grasp the address, and there is a problem that the connection destination cannot be specified when connecting from the Internet to the LAN.

  As a method for easily connecting to a LAN from a wide area network such as the Internet (hereinafter referred to as “WAN”) by easily specifying a connection destination without setting a complicated static NAT table. There is a method disclosed in Patent Document 1.

  In this method, a server device for passing NAT is prepared on the Internet, and a device in the LAN periodically transmits a user data protocol (hereinafter referred to as “UDP”) packet to the server device. When necessary, the server device transmits a reply packet as a reply to the UDP packet to a device in the LAN, so that communication over the NAT from the server device on the Internet to the device in the LAN can be performed. A terminal on the Internet requests the server device to transfer communication to a device in the LAN, thereby realizing connection to the device in the LAN.

Also, with this method, basically only the reply UDP packet from the server device to the device in the LAN is passed through the LAN, and the connection from the Internet can be automatically established when the device stops sending the periodic UDP packet. Disappear. Therefore, since it is highly secure and can be operated by a router having a simple NAT function, it is possible to start connection from a device on the Internet to a device in the LAN at any time.
Japanese Patent No. 3445986

  Here, when a terminal connected to the Internet uses the server device for passing NAT as described above and tries to communicate with a device in the LAN, the device in the LAN is turned off or the LAN is wireless. There are cases where communication between the server apparatus and the devices in the LAN is not possible because the communication path in the network is unstable because the network is constructed.

  In this case, the server device cannot notify the connection request from the terminal to the devices in the LAN. That is, the terminal cannot communicate with devices in the LAN.

  Thus, when a device in the LAN becomes unable to communicate for some reason, the user has no way of knowing when the device in the LAN becomes communicable. Therefore, the user needs to repeat transmission of a connection request to the server device until the connection is successful, and as a result, the user's operation amount and the communication amount between the terminal and the server device are unnecessarily increased.

  The same applies when a terminal connected to the Internet tries to connect to a device in the LAN in order to acquire the status of the device in the LAN and the connection fails. That is, it is necessary to transmit a connection request to the server device many times until communication with a device in the LAN becomes possible.

  In consideration of the above problems, the present invention does not cause useless communication when a device in the LAN cannot communicate when connecting from a terminal device outside the LAN to a device in the LAN via the Internet. Provided is a communication management device and a communication system for allowing a terminal device outside a LAN to communicate with a device in the LAN without causing a user to perform unnecessary operations.

  In order to achieve the above object, a communication management apparatus of the present invention is connected to the Internet, and manages communication between a terminal device connected to the Internet and a device in a LAN connected to the Internet. A management apparatus, a connection request receiving means for receiving a connection request for the device from the terminal device; a connection request storage means for storing the connection request received by the connection request receiving means; and When the device information is received by the device information receiving unit that receives the device information that is information, the device can communicate based on the connection request stored in the connection request storage unit Communication enable notification means for notifying the terminal device to that effect.

  The terminal device of the present invention is a terminal device that is connected to the Internet and starts communication with a device in a LAN connected to the Internet via a communication management device connected to the Internet, A connection request transmission unit that transmits a connection request to the communication management device, a notification reception unit that receives a notification that the device is communicable from the communication management device, and the notification received by the notification unit Output means for outputting.

  As described above, the communication management device of the present invention can receive a connection request for a device in the LAN from the terminal device, and store the received connection request in the connection request storage unit. In addition, device information can be received from a device in the LAN, whereby it is possible to know that the device in the LAN that is the transmission source of the device information is in a communicable state. Therefore, when device information is received from a device in the LAN, the terminal device can be notified that the device is communicable based on the connection request stored in the connection request storage unit.

  As described above, according to the communication management device and the communication system of the present invention, for example, when the user makes a request to the device in the LAN from the terminal device via the communication management device, the device cannot communicate. Even if the communication management device and the device cannot communicate with each other and the connection fails, the communication management device can receive device information from the device and then communicate with the device. It can be judged that it became. Furthermore, it is possible to notify the terminal device that the device can communicate. As a result, the user can quickly and automatically know that the terminal device can be connected to the device.

  In the communication management apparatus of the present invention, the device information includes attribute information of the device, the device information storage unit further stores the attribute information, and the communication management device further includes: An acquisition request receiving unit that receives an acquisition request for requesting acquisition of the attribute information of the device from the terminal device, and the terminal device requests acquisition as indicated by the acquisition request received by the acquisition request receiving unit. Attribute information transmitting means for reading out attribute information to be transmitted from the device information storage means and transmitting the attribute information to the terminal apparatus, and attribute information requested by the terminal apparatus to be acquired, indicated by the acquisition request received by the acquisition request receiving means However, when it is not stored in the device information storage unit, the device may include a transmission request unit that requests the device to transmit the attribute information.

  Thus, the communication management apparatus can store the attribute information of the device included in the device information received from the device in the LAN in the device information storage unit. An acquisition request for requesting acquisition of device attribute information can be received from the terminal device. Further, if the attribute information corresponding to the acquisition request is stored in the device information storage means, the attribute information is transmitted to the terminal, and if the attribute information corresponding to the acquisition request is not stored in the device information storage means, The device can be requested to transmit the attribute information. As a result, the user can know the attribute information corresponding to the acquisition request transmitted from the terminal device even when the connection request destination device is in a state where communication is impossible.

  Furthermore, the present invention can be realized as a method using the characteristic components of the communication management device and the terminal device of the present invention as steps, or as a program including these steps, or a CD in which the program is stored. It can also be realized as a storage medium such as a ROM or an integrated circuit. The program can also be distributed via a transmission medium such as a communication network.

  In the present invention, when a user tries to connect to a device in the LAN via a communication management device from a terminal device connected to the Internet, the connection fails because the communication management device cannot communicate with the device in the LAN. Even in such a case, it is possible to notify the user that the device is communicable at an appropriate timing. As a result, it is possible to reduce the amount of communication associated with the connection from the terminal device to the device in the LAN via the communication management device for NAT traversal and the load related to the user's operation.

  In addition, the communication management apparatus can acquire and store attribute information of devices in the LAN from the devices. Therefore, when a user connects to a device in the LAN using a terminal connected to the Internet, even if the communication management device cannot communicate with the device in the LAN at that time, the device in the LAN It is possible to quickly acquire the attribute information.

  As described above, when the terminal device outside the LAN is connected to a device in the LAN via the Internet, the present invention does not cause useless communication and prevents the user from communicating if the device in the LAN cannot communicate. It is possible to provide a communication management device and a communication system that allow communication between a terminal device outside the LAN and a device in the LAN without causing unnecessary operations.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
The communication system of Embodiment 1 of this invention is demonstrated using FIGS. 1-9.

First, the configuration of the communication system according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a communication system according to the first embodiment. In the communication system shown in FIG. 1, for example, a user who owns a device in a LAN uses a terminal device from the outside, and uses the Internet to acquire information that the device has, for example, content that the device has. It is a system for establishing a connection through the network.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the communication system according to the first embodiment uses the Internet 105 and the LAN 106 as a communication network. The LAN 106 is connected to the Internet 105 via the NAT router 103. The LAN 106 includes a device 101 as a device in the LAN 106. Connected to the Internet 105 are a terminal 102 operated by a user and a management server 104 for establishing a connection from the terminal 102 to the device 101.

  The management server 104 is an example of a communication management apparatus according to the present invention, and the terminal 102 is an example of a terminal apparatus. The term “device in the LAN” refers to a device connected to a communication network constituting the LAN regardless of whether it is wired or wireless. Devices in the LAN can communicate with devices on the Internet via a NAT router.

  The device 101 is a device that stores content such as moving images, and is, for example, a hard disk recorder. In addition, it has unique information (hereinafter referred to as “apparatus ID”) that can identify the apparatus. The device ID of the device 101 in the present embodiment is “123456789”.

  The device 101 requests the management server 104 for a maximum access confirmation cycle and receives a maximum access confirmation cycle notification from the management server 104. Furthermore, a notification UDP packet is periodically transmitted to the management server 104 according to the maximum access confirmation cycle.

  Here, the maximum access confirmation cycle indicates the maximum value of the transmission time interval of a notification UDP packet (described later) transmitted from the device 101 to the management server 104, and is, for example, a value of “10 minutes”.

  The terminal 102 is a device for communicating with the device 101 in the LAN 106, and is a mobile phone, for example. A global IP address is assigned to communicate with other devices via the Internet.

  The IP address of terminal 102 in the present embodiment is the global IP address “15.18.170.2”. In this embodiment, the IP address conforms to “IP version 4”.

  The NAT router 103 is a router having the NAT function described above. The NAT router 103 performs mutual conversion between a global IP address and a private IP address for communication between a device on the Internet 105 and a device 101 in the LAN 106.

  In general, the Internet-side global IP address of the NAT router is dynamically set by the Internet service provider by the DHCP protocol or the like. In the present embodiment, “202.224.168.6” is assigned as the global IP address of the NAT router 103 on the Internet 105 side. In the NAT router 103, the port number associated with the device 101 in the LAN 106 by the static NAT table is “80”.

  The management server 104 is a server for establishing communication from the terminal 102 to the device 101 in the LAN 106, and enables connection from the terminal 102 to the device 101 even when the NAT router 103 exists on the communication path. Yes. A method for enabling this connection is, for example, a method using a technique disclosed in Patent Document 1.

  Specifically, the device 101 in the LAN 106 periodically transmits a notification UDP packet to the management server 104. The management server 104 can transmit information to the device 101 at an arbitrary timing as a response to the notification UDP packet. In this situation, when the management server 104 receives a connection request to the device 101 from the terminal 102, the management server 104 transmits the connection request to the device 101.

  After receiving the connection request from the terminal 102, the device 101 establishes communication with the management server 104, and is set in the NAT router 103 at the time of establishment, and the port number for direct communication with the device on the Internet or the NAT router 103 Connection information including the global IP address and the like is transmitted to the management server 104.

  The management server 104 transmits the connection information to the terminal 102. The terminal 102 establishes a connection with the device 101 using the received connection information. Thereby, thereafter, the terminal 102 and the device 101 can directly communicate with each other.

  Conversely, the management server 104 may connect the device 101 to the terminal 102 by notifying the device 101 of the global IP address or the like of the terminal 102.

  The management server 104 in the present embodiment is assigned a global IP address “4.17.168.6”.

  FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating functional configurations of the management server 104 and the terminal 102 according to the first embodiment.

  For the terminal 102, description and illustration of the playback function and the like of the received content are omitted, and only characteristic components in the present invention will be described. Similarly, with regard to the management server 104, only the characteristic components in the present invention will be described.

  The management server 104 is a server for establishing communication from the terminal 102 to the device 101 in the LAN 106 as described above. For example, similarly to the server device described in Patent Document 1, the management server 104 is transferred from the terminal 102 to the device 101. Has a function for starting the communication.

  The management server 104 includes a server communication unit 11, a device information storage unit 12, a connection request storage unit 13, and a server control unit 14.

  The server communication unit 11 is a processing unit for exchanging information with other devices such as the device 101 and the terminal 102 in the LAN 106. It should be noted that the server communication unit 11 allows the connection request receiving means, the device information receiving means, the communicable notification means, the communication impossible notification means, the response receiving means, the invalidity notification means, the timing condition receiving means in the communication management apparatus of the present invention Each of the acquisition request receiving unit, the attribute information transmitting unit, and the transmission request unit has a function of transmitting and receiving information.

  The device information storage unit 12 is a storage unit for storing device information transmitted from the device 101 by a notification UDP packet. The device information will be described later with reference to FIG.

  The connection request storage unit 13 is a storage unit for storing connection request information that includes a connection request transmitted from the terminal 102. The connection request is a request for establishing a connection from the terminal 102 to the device 101 via the management server 104, and includes the device ID of the device 101 that is the connection destination and the global IP address of the terminal 102 as information. Yes. The connection request information stored in the connection request storage unit 13 will be described later with reference to FIG.

  The server control unit 14 is a processing unit that executes processing of the management server 104 by controlling the server communication unit 11, the device information storage unit 12, and the connection request storage unit 13.

  The terminal 102 is a device for communicating with the device 101 in the LAN 106 as described above, and is a mobile phone, for example. The terminal 102 includes a terminal communication unit 1, an input unit 2, a display unit 3, a terminal control unit 4, and a transmission information storage unit 5.

  The terminal communication unit 1 is a processing unit for exchanging information with other devices such as the device 101 and the management server 104 in the LAN 106. The terminal communication unit 1 realizes a function of transmitting and receiving information included in each of the connection request transmission unit and the communication reception unit in the terminal device.

  The input unit 2 is a button or the like for the user to input an instruction or selection to the terminal 102. The display unit 3 is a liquid crystal screen or the like that displays a GUI for displaying information and allowing a user to input an instruction. The display unit 3 is an example of output means in the terminal device of the present invention.

  The terminal control unit 4 is a processing unit that executes information processing in the terminal 102 by controlling the terminal communication unit 1 and other components such as the input unit 2.

  The transmission information storage unit 5 is a storage unit for storing transmission information that is information indicating the transmission time and the like of the connection request transmitted to the management server 104. The transmission information will be described later with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of device information stored in the device information storage unit 12. The device information is information required when connecting from the management server 104 to the device 101, and is information transmitted from the device 101 in the notification UDP packet as described above.

  As illustrated in FIG. 3, the device information includes a transmission source device ID, a transmission source port number, a last access time, and a communication enable / disable flag as data items. Each data is stored in the device information storage unit 12 in a table format.

  The transmission source device ID is a data item indicating the device ID of the device 101 that is the transmission source of the notification UDP packet. The transmission source IP address is a data item indicating an IP address that identifies the LAN 106 to which the device 101 is connected, that is, a global IP address on the Internet side of the NAT router 103.

  The transmission source port number is a data item indicating the port number of the NAT router 103 associated with the device 101 in the NAT router 103. The last access time is a data item indicating the time when the management server 104 last received the notification UDP packet.

  The server control unit 14 updates the last access time to the reception time of the notification UDP packet every time the server communication unit 11 receives the notification UDP packet from the device 101. The time is acquired from a system timer (not shown) managed internally by the management server 104. Hereinafter, the time acquired from the system timer is similarly used for processing based on time in the management server 104.

  The communication enable / disable flag is a data item indicating whether or not the device 101 can communicate, and “1” indicates that communication is possible, and “0” indicates that communication is not possible. .

  The communication control flag is updated by the server control unit 14 based on the last access time and the above-described maximum access confirmation cycle. That is, the server control unit 14 realizes a function of determining whether or not the period during which device information is not received exceeds a predetermined period, which is included in the period elapsed determination unit in the communication management apparatus of the present invention. Details of the update will be described in the description of the operation of the management server 104 to be described later with reference to FIG.

  When the notification UDP packet is transmitted from the device 101 to the management server 104, each data included in the notification UDP packet is registered in the device information storage unit 12 by the server control unit 14 as one entry as shown in FIG. The The entry indicates a data column for one row in the data table.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of connection request information stored in the connection request storage unit 13. The connection request information includes the connection request transmitted from the terminal 102 to the management server 104 as described above.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the connection request information includes, as data items, a request destination device ID, a request source IP address, and a request registration time. Each data is stored in a table format in the device information storage unit 12.

  The request destination device ID is a data item indicating the device ID of the device 101 which is a device requested by the terminal 102 as a connection partner. The request source IP address is a data item indicating the global IP address of the terminal 102. The request registration time is a data item indicating the time when the connection request is registered.

  When the connection request transmitted from the terminal 102 is received by the management server 104, each data included in the connection request and the request registration time are displayed as one entry as shown in FIG. Registered in the storage unit 12.

  Note that each entry of the connection request information in the present embodiment is deleted by the server control unit 14 when the processing is not performed within a predetermined period. The time for specifying the predetermined period is referred to as a connection request timeout time, and is an example of a time condition in the communication management apparatus of the present invention. The connection request timeout time is indicated by a period of “20 minutes”, for example. In this case, each entry of the connection request information means that it is valid for 20 minutes after being registered, and that it becomes invalid if it exceeds 20 minutes. A value indicating the connection request timeout time is stored in the connection request storage unit 13.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of transmission information stored in the transmission information storage unit 5 of the terminal 102. The transmission information is information indicating the transmission time of the connection request transmitted to the management server 104 as described above.

  As illustrated in FIG. 5, the transmission information includes a request destination device ID and a transmission time as data items, and is stored in the transmission information storage unit 5 in a table format.

  The request destination device ID is a data item indicating the device ID of the device 101 requested by the terminal 102 as a connection partner. The transmission time is a data item indicating the time when the connection request is transmitted to the management server 104. The time is acquired from a system timer (not shown) managed internally by the terminal 102. Hereinafter, for the processing based on the time in the terminal 102, the time acquired from the system timer is similarly used.

  When the terminal 102 transmits a connection request to the management server 104, the device ID and the transmission time of the device 101 included in the connection request are stored in the transmission information storage unit 5 by the terminal control unit 4 as one entry as shown in FIG. be registered.

  Next, operations of the management server 104 and the terminal 102 in the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 6 is a communication sequence diagram illustrating an example of a communication flow between devices in the communication system according to the first embodiment.

  The communication sequence diagram shown in FIG. 6 shows a communication flow when the terminal 102 establishes a connection with the device 101 in the LAN via the management server 104. Further, it is assumed that when the terminal 102 transmits a connection request for the device 101 to the management server 104, the device 101 cannot communicate and can communicate thereafter.

  It is assumed that the user knows the device ID of the device 101 in advance, and that the IP address of the management server 104 is stored in each predetermined storage area in the device 101 and the terminal 102. Further, the description will be made assuming that the device 101 is notified in advance of “10 minutes” as the maximum access confirmation cycle from the management server 104.

  First, the device 101 transmits a notification UDP packet including the device ID of the device 101 in the payload to the management server 104 (S201).

  Note that “send a packet to the management server 104” designates the IP address of the management server 104, that is, “4.117.168.6”, in the destination IP header of the IP packet in the TCP / IP protocol. This refers to sending a packet, and so on.

  The server communication unit 11 of the management server 104 receives the notification UDP packet, and the server control unit 14 registers an entry including the device information of the device 101 in the device information data table stored in the device information storage unit 12. (S202). At the time of registration, the time when the notification UDP packet is received is recorded as the last access time. The communication enable / disable flag is recorded as “1”. As a result, the device information data table is in the state shown in FIG. 3, for example.

  After the device 101 transmits the notification UDP packet (S201), it is assumed that communication is impossible due to a communication failure of the LAN 106 (S203).

  After the device information of the device 101 is registered (S202), when the maximum access confirmation cycle of 10 minutes elapses (S204), the server control unit 14 indicates that the notification UDP packet from the device 101 is within the time of the maximum access confirmation cycle. Since the notification UDP packet has not arrived, it is determined that the device 101 has become unable to communicate (S205). Specifically, the server control unit 14 checks whether or not the last access time has been updated 10 minutes after the last access time. If it has been updated, the communication enable / disable flag remains “1”, and if it has not been updated, the communication enable / disable flag is set to “0”.

  Further, the server control unit 14 checks whether or not the last access time is updated at intervals of 10 minutes, which is the maximum access confirmation cycle, based on the last access time at the time of checking. If the last access time has not been updated, a check is made 10 minutes after the confirmed time. The server control unit 14 updates the communication enable / disable flag by periodically checking the update of the last access time in this way.

  Here, in order to connect to the device 101, the user operates the input unit 2 and inputs the device ID of the device 101 to the terminal 102. Specifically, the terminal control unit 4 of the terminal 102 displays the GUI shown in FIG. 7 on the display unit 3 in order to accept user input.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a GUI displayed on the display unit 3 of the terminal 102 for allowing the user to select the purpose of the operation. On the menu screen 70 shown in FIG. 7, the user selects “1. Device connection” using the input unit 2. The terminal control unit 4 accepts the selection and displays the GUI shown in FIG.

  If the user selects “2. Connection requesting device list”, the terminal control unit 4 reads the transmission information shown in FIG. 5 and displays the device ID of the device that is requesting connection.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a GUI displayed on the display unit 3 of the terminal 102 for allowing the user to input a device ID. In the device ID input screen 80 shown in FIG. 8, the user uses the input unit 2 to input “123456789” that is the device ID of the device 101. Further, a button displayed as “forward” is selected by the user.

  When the button displayed as “forward” is selected, the terminal control unit 4 accepts an input of the device ID of the device 101. Furthermore, the terminal control unit 4 generates a connection request that is a UDP packet including the device ID of the device 101 and predetermined data indicating that connection is requested in the payload of the packet. The generated connection request is transmitted by the terminal communication unit 1 with the management server 104 as a transmission destination (S206). That is, the terminal control unit 4 realizes a function for requesting connection to a device, which the connection request transmitting unit in the terminal device of the present invention has.

  The management server 104 receives a connection request including the device ID of the device 101 by the server communication unit 11. The server control unit 14 confirms whether the device information of the device 101 is already registered and the device 101 can communicate (S207). That is, the server control unit 14 realizes a function of determining whether or not the connection request is for stored device information, which is included in the connection request determination unit in the communication management apparatus of the present invention.

  Specifically, the server control unit 14 refers to a device information data table stored in the device information storage unit 12, and there is an entry whose transmission source device ID matches the device ID of the device 101 in the table. Check whether or not. If a matching entry exists, it is determined that the device information of the device 101 has already been registered.

  Further, if the communication enable / disable flag included in the entry is “1”, it is determined that the device 101 is communicable, and if “0”, the device 101 is determined to be incapable of communication.

  In the present embodiment, since the device information of the device 101 has already been registered and communication is impossible, the following processing is performed. If the device information of the device 101 is not registered, the fact is notified to the terminal 102 and the process ends. When the device 101 can communicate, the management server 104 transmits information for connecting to the device 101 to the terminal 102. Thereafter, the terminal 102 communicates with the device 101.

  After confirming that the device 101 cannot communicate, the server control unit 14 sets the device ID of the device 101 and the IP address of the terminal 102 included in the connection request from the terminal 102 together with the registration time to one. The entry is registered in the data table of the connection request information stored in the connection request storage unit 13 (S208). As a result of registration, the data table of the connection request information is in the state shown in FIG. 4, for example.

  Thereafter, the device 101 becomes communicable due to the removal of the cause that the device 101 could not communicate (S209). The device 101 requests and acquires the maximum access confirmation cycle from the management server 104. After the acquisition, a notification UDP packet is transmitted to the management server 104 (S210). It is assumed that the notification UDP packet is transmitted within the connection request timeout time. That is, the notification UDP packet is transmitted while the entry of the connection request information corresponding to the connection request from the terminal 102 exists effectively.

  The server control unit 14 of the management server 104 determines that the device 101 is communicable when the server communication unit 11 receives the notification UDP packet from the device 101 (S211).

  When the server control unit 14 determines that the device 101 is communicable, the server control unit 14 refers to the connection request information data table stored in the connection request storage unit 13 and includes the device ID included in the notification UDP packet received from the device 101. An entry including “123456789” as the request destination device ID is searched. The presence of the corresponding entry confirms that a connection request to the device 101 is registered. That is, the server control unit 14 realizes a function of determining whether or not the device that is the transmission source of the device information that is included in the connection target determination unit in the communication management apparatus of the present invention is the device that is the connection request target.

  In this embodiment, it is confirmed that a corresponding entry exists and a connection request from the terminal 102 to the device 101 is registered (S212).

  The server control unit 14 of the management server 104 generates a connectable notification that is a UDP packet including the device ID of the device 101 and data indicating “connectable” in the payload of the packet. The generated connectable notification is transmitted by the server communication unit 11 with the request source IP address included in the corresponding entry, that is, the IP address of the terminal 102 as a destination (S213). That is, the server control unit 14 realizes the function of notifying the terminal device that the device is communicable, which is included in the communicable notification means in the communication management device of the present invention.

  Subsequently, the server control unit 14 deletes the corresponding entry from the connection request information data table stored in the connection request storage unit 13. That is, the registration of the connection request from the terminal 102 to the device 101 is deleted (S214).

  The terminal 102 receives the connectable notification through the terminal communication unit 1, and notifies the user by displaying the GUI shown in FIG. 9 through the display unit 3 (S215).

  FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a GUI displayed on the display unit 3 of the terminal 102 for notifying the user that the device can be connected.

  The menu screen 90 shown in FIG. 9 displays information indicating that connection to the device 101 is possible in addition to the display contents on the menu screen 70 shown in FIG. By this display, the user can easily grasp that the connection to the device 101 is possible.

  On the menu screen 90 shown in FIG. 9, the user uses the input unit 2 to select “123456789” which is the device ID of the device 101.

  When the device ID of the device 101 is selected, the terminal control unit 4 accepts the selection and responds to the management server 104 to request connection to the device 101. Thereafter, the terminal 102 establishes a connection with the device 101.

  After the connection to the device 101 is established, the entry of the transmission information corresponding to this connection is deleted from the transmission information storage unit 5 by the terminal control unit 4.

  As described above, in the communication system according to the first embodiment of the present invention, when the management server 104 stores a connection request from the terminal 102 to the device 101, the user can communicate with the device 101. It becomes possible to receive a connection possible notification without performing any operation.

  For this reason, when the user tries to connect to the device 101 from the terminal 102, even if the device 101 is in a state where communication is not possible, the user may perform an operation for reconnection after waiting for a notification that connection is possible. Therefore, for example, the user does not need to keep sending connection requests to the management server 104 many times until the device 101 becomes communicable. That is, the user does not need to send an unnecessary connection request to the management server 104. Therefore, the amount of communication necessary for the terminal 102 to connect to the device 101 is reduced, and usability is improved without unnecessary operations for the user.

  Further, when registering a connection request from the terminal 102 in the management server 104, it is confirmed that a request destination device included in the connection request is registered in advance. Thereby, when a user's device ID is incorrectly specified or a malicious user attempts to connect to another device by intentionally specifying a random device ID, the connection request is registered as connection request information. There is nothing.

  As a result, for example, when a connection request from a malicious user is received, an unregistered device is registered by chance after that, so that a malicious user can connect to the device. Can be prevented.

  In the present embodiment, the management server 104 confirms whether or not the device 101 has already been registered when receiving a connection request for the device 101 from the terminal 102 as described above. However, the management server 104 does not need to perform this confirmation. However, since the above-described effects can be obtained by performing the confirmation, the above-described registration confirmation is performed in the present embodiment.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the terminal 102 notifies the user by the display unit 3 when receiving the notification that connection is possible. However, it is also possible to automatically reconnect to the server without notifying the user. Moreover, you may notify a user that the connection was completed after the reconnection.

  In addition, when the terminal 102 receives a notification that connection is possible from the management server 104, the fact is displayed on the display unit 3. However, as long as the content notified from the management server 104 can be communicated to the user, the image display may not be displayed. For example, the notification content from the management server may be output by a method that can be perceived by the user, such as sound, light, and vibration.

  In the present embodiment, when the management server 104 acquires the reception time of the notification UDP packet, the time is acquired from a system timer managed internally by the server. However, the time acquisition method is not limited to this, such as acquisition from an NTP (Network Time Protocol) server to which the management server 104 can be connected. The acquisition of the connection request transmission time in the terminal 102 is the same.

  The device information and the connection request information are stored in the device information storage unit 12 and the connection request storage unit 13, respectively. However, the location where each piece of information is stored is not limited to this. For example, a data management server may be provided separately, and data may be managed by the server. In this case, the management server 104 may read and write data stored in the data management server as necessary.

  In the present embodiment, a fixed value is stored in the connection request storage unit 13 as the connection request timeout time, and the fixed value is applied to the received connection request. However, a different value may be held for each connection request by adding a data area in which the connection request timeout time is recorded to the entry of the connection request information. In this case, a valid period can be set for each connection request. Furthermore, although a relative period is set as the connection request timeout time in the present embodiment, an absolute expiration date composed of, for example, a date and time may be set when registering the connection request.

  Further, when the terminal 102 transmits a connection request to the management server 104, the user inputs the device ID of the device 101 to be connected on the device ID input screen 80 shown in FIG. However, the device ID of the device 101 may be stored in a predetermined storage area of the terminal 102, and the stored device ID may be used.

  Thereby, for example, when the terminal 102 transmits a connection request to the device 101, the user need not input the device ID.

  Further, after the terminal 102 is connected to the device 101, the entry of the transmission information corresponding to the connection is deleted, but it may be left without being deleted. In this case, in order to be able to determine whether or not the connection action indicated in each entry has been completed, for example, a flag indicating that the connection has been established may be recorded in the established entry.

(Embodiment 2)
A communication system according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  The communication system of the second embodiment has the following two features in addition to the features of the communication system of the first embodiment. First, if the management server 104 cannot communicate with the device 101 in response to the connection request received from the terminal 102, the terminal indicates that the management server 104 cannot communicate with the device 101. The feature is that notification is made immediately to 102.

  Another feature is that the management server 104 notifies the terminal 102 that the connection request is invalid. Specifically, when the terminal 102 receives the notification, the terminal 102 can transmit a notification request including the content for requesting transmission of the connectable notification, and the management server 104 uses the request as a connection request to store a connection request storage unit. 13 is registered. If the notification UDP packet from the device 101 is not received before the connection request timeout period elapses after registration, the terminal 102 is notified that the connection request is invalid.

  The configuration of the communication system of the second embodiment and the functional block diagram of the terminal 102 and the management server 104 are the same as those of the first embodiment. That is, they are the same as those shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively.

  However, when the management server 104 receives a connection request for the device 101 from the terminal 102, when the management server 104 confirms that the device 101 is in a communication disabled state, the management server 104 transmits a communication disabled notification to the terminal 102. Specifically, a communication impossible notification is transmitted to the global IP address of the terminal 102 included as a request source IP address in the connection request from the terminal 102. The communication impossible notification is a UDP packet including the device ID included in the connection request and data indicating “communication impossible” in the payload of the packet.

  Upon receiving the communication impossible notification, the terminal 102 generates, as a notification request, a UDP packet including data indicating that a connection request destination device ID and a notification when communication is possible are requested in the packet payload. Transmit to the management server 104.

  When the management server 104 receives the notification request, the management server 104 registers the received notification request in the connection request storage unit 13 as in the case of registering the connection request in the first embodiment.

  In addition, when the difference between the current time and the last access time recorded in the entry of the connection request information exceeds the connection request timeout time of the connection request storage unit 13, the management server 104 connects to the connection corresponding to the entry. Determine that the request has timed out. The global IP address of the terminal 102 is acquired by referring to the entry corresponding to the connection request determined to have timed out. Further, a connection failure notification that is a UDP packet including the device ID in the entry and data indicating “connection failure” in the packet payload is transmitted using the acquired global IP address as the destination IP address.

  When the terminal 102 receives the connection failure notification, the display unit 3 displays information indicating that the connection has failed to the user.

  Hereinafter, operations of the management server 104 and the terminal 102 according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 10 is a communication sequence diagram illustrating an example of a flow of communication between devices in the communication system according to the second embodiment.

  Note that the communication sequence diagram shown in FIG. 10 shows a communication flow when the terminal 102 establishes a connection with the device 101 in the LAN via the management server 104. Further, it is assumed that when the terminal 102 transmits a connection request for the device 101 to the management server 104, the device 101 cannot communicate and can communicate thereafter.

  Further, it is assumed that the user knows the device ID of the device 101 in advance, and that the device 101 and the terminal 102 store the IP address of the management server 104 in a predetermined storage area. Further, the description will be made assuming that the device 101 is notified in advance of “10 minutes” as the maximum access confirmation cycle from the management server 104.

  First, the device 101 transmits a notification UDP packet including the device ID of the device 101 in the payload to the management server 104 (S301).

  The server communication unit 11 of the management server 104 receives the notification UDP packet, and the server control unit 14 registers the device information of the device 101 in the device information storage unit 12 based on the content (S302).

  After the device 101 transmits the notification UDP packet, it is assumed that communication becomes impossible due to a communication failure of the LAN 106 (S303).

  After the device information of the device 101 is registered (S302), when the maximum access confirmation period of 10 minutes elapses (S304), the server control unit 14 indicates that the notification UDP packet from the device 101 is within the time of the maximum access confirmation cycle. Since the notification UDP packet has not arrived, it is determined that the device 101 has become unable to communicate (S305).

  Here, the user inputs the device ID of the device 101 to the terminal 102 through the input unit 2 in order to connect to the device 101. A specific input method is the same as that in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

  The terminal control unit 4 receives an input of the device ID of the device 101. Further, the terminal control unit 4 generates a connection request which is a UDP packet including the device ID of the device 101 and predetermined data indicating that a connection is requested in the payload of the packet. The generated connection request is transmitted from the terminal communication unit 1 to the management server 104 (S306).

  The management server 104 receives a connection request including the device ID of the device 101 by the server communication unit 11. The server control unit 14 checks whether the device information of the device 101 has already been registered and the device 101 can communicate (S307). The specific confirmation method is the same as that in the first embodiment, and the description thereof is omitted.

  In the present embodiment, since the device information of the device 101 has already been registered and communication is impossible, the following processing is performed. If the device information of the device 101 is not registered, the fact is notified to the terminal 102 and the process ends. When the device 101 can communicate, the management server 104 transmits information for connecting to the device 101 to the terminal 102. The terminal 102 communicates with the device 101 based on the information.

  The server control unit 14 generates a communication impossible notification that is a UDP packet for notifying that the device 101 cannot communicate. The generated communication impossible notification is transmitted by the server communication unit 11 to the IP address of the terminal 102 included as the request source IP address in the received connection request. (S308). That is, the server control unit 14 implements a function of notifying the terminal device that the device cannot communicate, which is included in the communication impossibility notifying means in the communication management apparatus of the present invention.

  The terminal 102 receives a communication impossible notification from the terminal communication unit 1. Further, based on the communication impossible notification, the user is notified that the connection to the device 101 has failed, and whether or not a notification is requested when the device 101 becomes communicable is confirmed (S309). ). This notification and confirmation is performed via the GUI shown in FIG.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a GUI displayed on the display unit 3 of the terminal 102 for confirming a connection failure notification to the user and a notification request when communication is possible.

  The device ID input screen 110 shown in FIG. 11 displays information indicating that the connection to the device 101 has failed in addition to the display contents on the device ID input screen 80 shown in FIG. With this display, the user can clearly and quickly know that the connection to the device 101 has failed.

  Further, the user selects whether or not to receive a connection enable notification from the management server 104 when the device 101 becomes communicable. The connectable notification notifies the user that connection to the device 101 is possible.

  That is, the user can easily request notification when the device 101 becomes communicable when the user wishes to connect after recognizing that the connection to the device 101 has failed. If connection is not desired, the connection process can be canceled. For this reason, the usability of the user for the entire communication system is improved. In addition, the management server 104 can be quickly released from the process for connecting the terminal 102 to the device 101, and the management server 104 does not wastefully transmit a communication enable notification to the terminal 102.

  In the present embodiment, the user selects to receive a notification when the device 101 becomes communicable. Specifically, the user uses the input unit 2 on the GUI shown in FIG. 10 to select a button displayed as “Yes”. (S309).

  When receiving a user input from the input unit 2, the terminal control unit 4 issues a notification request that is a UDP packet including the device ID of the device 101 and data indicating that a notification is requested in the payload of the packet. The generated notification request is transmitted from the terminal communication unit 1 to the management server 104 (S310).

  The management server 104 receives the notification request transmitted from the terminal 102 by the server communication unit 11. When the packet received by the server communication unit 11 is a notification request, the server control unit 14 includes the device ID of the device 101 and the global IP address of the terminal 102 included in the notification request together with the registration time as one entry. And registered in the data table of the connection request information stored in the connection request storage unit 13.

  That is, when the UDP packet received from the terminal 102 is a notification request, the management server 104 in the second embodiment registers the notification request in the connection request information data table as a connection request (S311). Similarly to the first embodiment, the connection request timeout time is applied to the registered entry. As described above, the notification request is a connection request transmitted using the terminal 102 by a user who knows that the device 101 as the connection destination device cannot communicate.

  Thereafter, the device 101 becomes communicable (S312) due to the removal of the cause of the inability of the device 101 to communicate. After the device 101 becomes communicable, the communication flow is the same as in the first embodiment.

  That is, the device 101 transmits a notification UDP packet to the management server 104 (S313). The notification UDP packet is transmitted within the connection request timeout period, and an entry of connection request information corresponding to the notification request from the terminal 102 exists effectively. A case where the notification UDP packet is not transmitted from the device 101 within the connection request timeout time will be described later.

  When the server communication unit 11 receives the notification UDP packet from the device 101, the server control unit 14 of the management server 104 determines that the device 101 can communicate (S314). Further, the data table of the connection request information stored in the connection request storage unit 13 is referred to search for an entry including the device ID “123456789” of the device 101 as the request destination device ID. As a result of the search, it is confirmed that a connection request from the terminal 102 to the device 101 is registered (S315).

  The server control unit 14 of the management server 104 generates a connectable notification for notifying the terminal 102 that the device 101 can communicate. The generated connectable notification is transmitted from the server communication unit 11 to the terminal 102 (S316).

  Subsequently, the server control unit 14 deletes the corresponding entry from the connection request information data table stored in the connection request storage unit 13. That is, the entry corresponding to the notification request from the terminal 102 registered as the connection request is deleted (S317).

  The terminal 102 receives the connectable notification by the terminal communication unit 1, and notifies the user by displaying the GUI shown in FIG. 9 on the display unit 3 (S318). The user can start communication with the device 101 via the GUI displayed on the display unit 3.

  As described above, when the management server 104 according to the second embodiment receives a connection request for the device 101 from the terminal 102, when the device 101 cannot communicate, the management server 104 transmits a communication impossibility notification to the terminal 102. When the terminal 102 receives the communication impossible notification, the terminal 102 notifies the user to that effect, and presents the user with a GUI for confirming whether or not to request a connection possible notification.

  When a user requests a connection enable notification, a notification request is transmitted from the terminal 102 to the management server 104, and the management server 104 registers the notification request as a connection request.

  That is, unlike the management server 104 in the first embodiment, the management server 104 in the second embodiment notifies the terminal 102 that the device 101 cannot communicate. As a result, the user can clearly and quickly know that the connection to the device 101 has failed.

  Further, the user can determine whether to connect to the device 101 after recognizing that the connection to the device 101 has failed. Specifically, the determination is transmitted to the management server 104 in the form of a notification request for requesting a connection possible notification. If connection is not desired, the management server 104 can be released from processing for connection from the terminal 102 to the device 101.

  Note that the management server 104 according to the present exemplary embodiment is configured so that the management server 104 receives a notification from the device 101 before the connection request timeout period elapses after the management server 104 registers the notification request transmitted from the terminal 102 as a connection request. When the notification UDP packet is not received, a notification that the connection request is invalid is performed. The operation of each device of the communication system when the management server 104 makes this notification will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 12 is a communication sequence diagram illustrating another example of a communication flow between devices in the communication system according to the second embodiment.

  Note that the communication sequence diagram shown in FIG. 12 is incapable of communication when the terminal 102 transmits a connection request for the device 101 to the management server 104, as in the communication sequence diagram shown in FIG. Suppose that communication is possible.

  As shown in FIG. 12, after the device 101 transmits a notification UDP packet to the management server 104 (S301), the management server 104 registers the notification request transmitted from the terminal 102 as a connection request (S311). This is the same as the communication sequence shown in FIG. 11, and a description of each step is omitted.

  It is assumed that the notification UDP packet from the device 101 has not been received after the management server 104 registers the notification request and before the connection request timeout period, for example, “20 minutes” elapses (S320).

  In this case, the server control unit 14 determines that the difference between the current time and the request registration time included in the entry corresponding to the notification request is 20 minutes, which is the connection request timeout time stored in the connection request storage unit 13. Since it has exceeded, it is determined that the notification request has timed out (S321). That is, it is determined that the connection request from the terminal 102 to the device 101 is invalid after a valid period. As described above, the server control unit 14 realizes a function of determining whether or not the connection request satisfies the time condition, which is included in the invalidity determination unit in the communication management apparatus of the present invention.

  Then, the server control unit 14 uses the server communication unit 11 to transmit a timeout notification to the global IP address of the terminal 102 included in the entry corresponding to the notification request (S322). The timeout notification is a UDP packet including the device ID of the device 101 and data indicating “timeout” in the payload of the packet.

  Subsequently, the server control unit 14 deletes the entry corresponding to the notification request from the connection request information data table stored in the connection request storage unit 13 (S323). As described above, the server control unit 14 realizes the function of notifying the terminal device that the connection request is invalid, which the invalidity notification means in the communication management apparatus of the present invention has. Further, the function of deleting an invalid connection request possessed by the deleting means is realized.

  The terminal 102 receives the timeout notification by the terminal communication unit 1, and notifies the user by displaying the GUI shown in FIG. 13 by the display unit 3 (S324).

  FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a GUI displayed on the display unit 3 of the terminal 102 for notifying the user that the notification request has timed out. The notification request is a connection request transmitted using the terminal 102 by the user who knows that the device 101 cannot communicate as described above. That is, the notification request timed out means that the connection request has become invalid.

  The menu screen 130 shown in FIG. 13 displays information indicating that the notification request to the device 101 has timed out in addition to the display contents on the menu screen 70 shown in FIG.

  This display allows the user to know that the connection request has been invalidated after a predetermined period even if the management server 104 and the device 101 cannot communicate with each other. For this reason, the user is not put in a state of waiting for a connectable notification indefinitely, and the usability of the user to the communication system is improved. Further, from the management server 104, it is not necessary to transmit a connectable notification that is likely to be useless for the user after a certain period of time has passed since the connection request was received. That is, useless communication is not generated.

  When the user presented with the menu screen 130 shown in FIG. 13 tries to connect to the device 101 again, the user selects the device ID “123456789” displayed on the menu screen 130. Thereby, the connection request for the device 101 is transmitted again to the management server 104 (S306). Thereafter, the above process is repeated.

  Note that the above-described function of notifying the terminal 102 of the notification request timeout may be adopted by the management server 104 in the first embodiment. Regarding the connection request timeout time, the difference between the first embodiment and the second embodiment is only whether the target to which the connection request timeout time is applied is a connection request transmitted from the terminal 102 or a notification request. is there. As described above, the notification request is substantially the same as the connection request, and is registered as one entry of the connection request information. Therefore, it is easy for the management server 104 of the first embodiment to have a function of determining a connection request timeout and performing a timeout notification.

  Further, the connection request timeout time is a predetermined time, for example, “20 minutes” is stored in the connection request storage unit 13 in advance, and that time is applied to the notification request. However, the user may determine the connection request timeout time. For example, in the device ID input screen 110 (see FIG. 11), which is a GUI for transmitting a notification request from the terminal 102 to the management server 104, an input field for the user to input time is provided. The terminal 102 receives the time input from the user and transmits a notification request including the time to the management server 104.

  The management server 104 stores the time included in the notification request as the connection request timeout time in association with the content of the transmitted notification request.

  Thereby, the user can designate the connection request timeout time for each transmission of the notification request. Further, the terminal 102 may store the time designated as the connection request timeout time by the user and transmit the stored time by including it in the notification request.

(Embodiment 3)
A communication system according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  The communication system of the third embodiment is similar to the communication system of the first embodiment. For example, a user who owns a device existing in the LAN uses a terminal from the outside, and information on the device, for example, the device This is a system for establishing a connection through the Internet in order to acquire the content of the. However, unlike the first embodiment, in the communication system according to the third embodiment, the terminal acquires the status of the device before establishing the connection between the terminal and the device in the LAN or while establishing the connection. can do.

  The “status” of the device is an example of attribute information in the communication management apparatus of the present invention, and is a value or a character string indicating the specification, status, etc. of the device. For example, the remaining capacity of the storage medium possessed by the device, the content of processing performed by the device, and the like.

First, the configuration of the communication system according to the third embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 14 and 15.
FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a communication system according to the third embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 14, the communication system according to the third embodiment uses the Internet 105 and the LAN 106 as a communication network. The LAN 106 is connected to the Internet 105 via the NAT router 103. The LAN 106 includes a device 101 as a device in the LAN 106. Connected to the Internet 105 are a terminal 402 operated by a user and a management server 404 for establishing a connection from the terminal 402 to the device 101.

  The management server 404 is an example of the communication management apparatus of the present invention, and the terminal 402 is an example of the terminal apparatus of the present invention.

  The device 101 is the same device as the device 101 of the first embodiment, and is, for example, a hard disk recorder. The device ID is “123456789”. The NAT router 103 is the same router device as the NAT router 103 in the first embodiment, and is a device that performs mutual conversion between a global IP address and a private IP address.

  The terminal 402 is a terminal device for communicating with the device 101 in the LAN 106, and is a mobile phone, for example. In addition, the global IP address of the terminal 402 in the present embodiment is “15.18.171.1”. In the present embodiment, the IP address conforms to “IP version 4” as in the first embodiment.

  The management server 404 is a server for establishing communication from the terminal 402 to the device 101 in the LAN 106, and similarly to the management server 104 in the first embodiment, the terminal 402 and the device 101 are on the communication path. Communication is possible even if the NAT router 103 exists. The global IP address of the management server 404 in this embodiment is “4.17.168.7”.

  As described above, the management server 404 and the terminal 402 according to the present embodiment have the same basic roles as the management server 104 and the terminal 102 according to the first embodiment. However, the functional configuration has parts different from the configurations of the management server 104 and the terminal 102 in the first embodiment.

  FIG. 15 is a functional block diagram showing functional configurations of the management server 404 and the terminal 402 in the third embodiment.

  Here, only the characteristic components of the management server 404 and the terminal 402 in the present embodiment will be described.

  The management server 404 is a server for establishing communication from the terminal 402 to the device 101 in the LAN 106 as described above. For example, as in the server device described in Patent Document 1, the management server 404 is transferred from the terminal 402 to the device 101. Has a function for starting the communication.

  The management server 404 includes a server communication unit 11, a device information storage unit 12, and a server control unit 14 that are the same as the configuration units of the management server 104 in the first embodiment, and further includes a device status storage unit 15. And a connection request storage unit 16.

  The device status storage unit 15 is a storage unit that stores device status information included in the notification UDP packet from the device 101. The device status information indicates at least one status of the device 101 included in the notification UDP packet from the device 101. The device status information includes the device status information included in the notification UDP packet periodically transmitted from the device 101 to the management server 404, and the device 101 from the device 101 in response to a request for status transmission from the management server 404. And device status information included in the notification UDP packet transmitted to 404. The device status information will be described later with reference to FIG.

  The connection request storage unit 16 is a storage unit for storing connection request information that includes a connection request transmitted from the terminal 402 to the device 101. The connection request is a UDP packet for establishing a connection from the terminal 402 to the device 101 via the management server 404, and includes the device ID of the device 101 in the payload. Further, in the present embodiment, when the terminal 402 desires to acquire at least one status of the device 101, the status name that is the name of the status of the device 101 is included.

  That is, unlike the connection request storage unit 13 in the first embodiment, the connection request storage unit 16 stores status names requested from the terminal 402 to the device 101. The connection request information in the third embodiment will be described later with reference to FIG.

  The terminal 402 includes the terminal communication unit 1, the input unit 2, the display unit 3, the terminal control unit 4, and the transmission information storage unit 5, which are the same as the configuration units of the terminal 102 in the first embodiment. And a status name storage unit 6.

  The status name storage unit 6 is a storage unit that stores status names. In the present embodiment, status names “remaining capacity” and “transfer rate” are stored. When a connection request for the device 101 is generated at the terminal 402, these status names are read from the status name storage unit 6 and included in the connection request.

  FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of device status information stored in the device status storage unit 15 of the management server 404.

  As shown in FIG. 16, in the present embodiment, the device ID of the device 101 that has transmitted the notification UDP packet, the remaining capacity status, and the transfer rate status are regarded as one entry, and the data table inside the device status storage unit 15 Registered in

  The payload of the notification UDP packet periodically transmitted from the device 101 based on the maximum access confirmation cycle includes only the remaining capacity status in the device status information. The transfer rate status is included in the notification UDP packet transmitted in response to the status request from the management server 404 and transmitted.

  FIG. 16 shows that the device status information of the device 101 having the device ID “123456789” is registered as one entry in the device status information data table.

  Here, the remaining capacity status is a status indicating the capacity that can be additionally stored in the storage device included in the device 101, and is, for example, “25.4”. In this case, when the notification UDP packet including the remaining capacity status is transmitted, it means that the storage device of the device 101 can store another 25.4 GB of content.

  The transfer rate status is a status indicating the transfer rate of content from the device 101 to an external device, and is, for example, “300”. “300” means that the transfer rate of content from the device 101 to an external device is 300 kbps.

  FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of connection request information stored in the connection request storage unit 16 of the management server 404.

  As shown in FIG. 17, in the connection request storage unit 16 in the present embodiment, as in the connection request storage unit 13 in the first embodiment, as one entry in the connection request information data table, the request destination device ID and The request source IP address and the request registration time are registered, and the request status name is registered.

  In the connection request information data table illustrated in FIG. 17, the request destination device ID indicates the device ID of the device 101 that is the connection request destination of the terminal 402, and the request source IP address indicates the global IP address of the terminal 402. The request registration time indicates the time when this entry is registered.

  The request status name is information specifying the status of the device 101 requested by the terminal 402. In the example shown in FIG. 17, “remaining capacity” and “transfer rate” are registered. That is, it means that the terminal 402 requests the remaining capacity status and the transfer rate status of the device 101.

  The request destination device ID, the request source IP address, and the request status name are included in the payload of the connection request transmitted from the terminal 402.

  Next, operations of the management server 404 and the terminal 402 in the third embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 18 is a communication sequence diagram illustrating an example of a communication flow between devices in the communication system according to the third embodiment.

  The communication sequence diagram shown in FIG. 18 shows a communication flow when the terminal 402 establishes a connection with the device 101 in the LAN via the management server 404. Further, it is assumed that the device 101 cannot communicate when the terminal 402 transmits a connection request for the device 101 to the management server 404.

  Further, it is assumed that the user knows the device ID of the device 101 in advance, and that the device 101 and the terminal 402 store the IP address of the management server 404 in a predetermined storage area. Further, the description will be made assuming that the device 101 is notified in advance of “10 minutes” as the maximum access confirmation cycle from the management server 404.

  First, the device 101 transmits a notification UDP packet including the device ID of the device 101 in the payload to the management server 404 (S501).

  The payload of this notification UDP packet includes a numerical value “25.4” as the remaining capacity status in addition to the device ID of the device 101.

  The server communication unit 11 of the management server 404 receives the notification UDP packet, and the server control unit 14 registers the device information of the device 101 in the device information storage unit 12 based on the content (S502).

  The server control unit 14 refers to the device status information data table stored in the device status storage unit 15 to check whether there is an entry including the device ID of the device 101. If there is a corresponding entry, the corresponding entry is overwritten. If there is no entry including the device ID of the device 101, the device status information of the device 101 including the device ID of the device 101 and the numerical value “25.4” as the remaining capacity status is registered.

  In the present embodiment, the device status information of the device 101 including the device ID of the device 101 and the communication status status of the device 101 having the numerical value “25.4” is newly registered (S503).

  After the device 101 transmits the notification UDP packet, it is assumed that communication becomes impossible due to a communication failure of the LAN 106 (S504).

  After the device information of the device 101 is registered (S502), when the maximum access confirmation cycle of 10 minutes elapses (S505), the server control unit 14 indicates that the notification UDP packet from the device 101 is within the time of the maximum access confirmation cycle. Since the notification UDP packet has not arrived at the device 101, it is determined that the device 101 has become unable to communicate (S506).

  The user inputs the device ID of the device 101 to the terminal 402 through the input unit 2 for connection to the device 101.

  Specifically, the terminal control unit 4 of the terminal 402 displays a menu screen 70 shown in FIG. 7 on the display unit 3 in order to accept user input. On the menu screen 70, the user uses the input unit 2 to select “1. Device connection”. The terminal control unit 4 accepts the selection and displays the device ID input screen 80 shown in FIG.

  On the device ID input screen 80, the user inputs “123456789”, which is the device ID of the device 101, using the input unit 2.

  The terminal control unit 4 receives an input of the device ID of the device 101. Further, the terminal control unit 4 is a UDP packet including the device ID of the device 101, predetermined data indicating that a connection is requested, a character string “remaining capacity” and “transfer rate” in the payload of the packet. Generate a connection request. The generated connection request is transmitted from the terminal communication unit 1 to the management server 404 (S507). That is, this connection request is an example of an acquisition request in the communication management apparatus of the present invention.

  The character strings “remaining capacity” and “transfer rate” are status names indicating that notification of the remaining capacity status and the transfer rate status of the device 101 is requested. These character strings are read from the status name storage unit 6 by the terminal control unit 4.

  The management server 404 receives the connection request transmitted from the terminal 402 by the server communication unit 11. As in the first embodiment, the server control unit 14 confirms whether the device information of the device 101 is already registered and the device 101 can communicate (S508).

  In the present embodiment, since the device information of the device 101 has already been registered and communication is impossible, the following processing is performed.

  The server control unit 14 specifies the device status information of the registered device 101 from the device status information data table stored in the device status storage unit 15 based on the device ID of the device 101 included in the connection request. To do. It is confirmed whether the remaining capacity status requested from the terminal 402 and the transfer rate status are registered in the identified device status information, and the registered status is acquired.

  In the present embodiment, the remaining capacity status of the device 101 is registered in the data table of the device status information stored in the device status storage unit 15, but the transfer rate status is not registered. Therefore, only the remaining capacity status is acquired from the device status storage unit 15 (S509).

  The server control unit 14 transmits to the terminal 402 a communication impossible notification including the remaining capacity status of the device 101 registered in the device status information data table and indicating that the device 101 cannot communicate. (S510). That is, the server control unit 14 realizes a function of reading attribute information corresponding to the acquisition request from the device information storage unit, which the attribute information transmission unit in the communication management apparatus of the present invention has.

  Specifically, the server control unit 14 searches the connection request information stored in the connection request storage unit 13 for an entry including the device ID of the device 101 as the request destination device ID. This is a UDP packet in which the request source IP address included in the corresponding entry is the destination IP address, the device ID of the device 101, the remaining capacity status of the device 101, and data indicating “communication impossible” are included in the packet payload. Generate a communication impossible notification. The generated communication impossible notification is transmitted from the server communication unit 11 to the terminal 402.

  The terminal 402 receives the communication disabled notification transmitted from the management server 404 by the terminal communication unit 1.

  As a result, even if the device 101 cannot communicate, the user can quickly obtain the status of the device 101 held by the management server 404 using the terminal 402. In the present embodiment, the notification UDP packet periodically transmitted from the device 101 includes the remaining capacity status. Therefore, the management server 404 is in a state of holding the remaining capacity status of the device 101 that is periodically updated. Therefore, even when the device 101 is in a state where communication is not possible, the terminal 402 can receive notification of the latest remaining capacity status of the device 101.

  When receiving the communication impossible notification including the status of the device 101, the terminal control unit 4 of the terminal 402 displays the GUI shown in FIG. 19 on the display unit 3 based on the contents included in the communication impossible notification.

  FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an example of a GUI displayed on the display unit 3 of the terminal 402 for notifying the user of connection failure and confirming status acquisition.

  The device ID input screen 190 shown in FIG. 19 displays information indicating that the connection to the device 101 has failed, and further displays the remaining capacity status of the device 101. Information indicating that the transfer rate status could not be acquired is also displayed.

  Further, a button is displayed that allows the user to decide whether or not to acquire the transfer rate status when the device 101 becomes communicable.

  When the user selects a button displayed as “Yes” on the device ID input screen 190 (S511), the terminal control unit 4 accepts the selection. By this selection, as with the terminal 102 of the second embodiment, it is possible to receive a notification that the device 101 has become communicable, and further receive a notification of the transfer rate status.

  Upon receiving the selection, the terminal control unit 4 receives a notification request that is a UDP packet including the device ID of the device 101, the status name “transfer rate”, and data indicating “notification request” in the payload of the packet. Is generated. The generated notification request is transmitted from the terminal communication unit 1 to the management server 404 (S512).

  The server communication unit 11 of the management server 404 receives the notification request, and includes the device ID of the device 101, the global IP address of the terminal 402, and the status name “transfer rate” included in the notification request together with the registration time. One entry is registered in the connection request information data table stored in the connection request storage unit 16 (S513).

  After registering the notification request, the server control unit 14 refers to the device status information data table stored in the device status storage unit 15, and includes an entry including a device ID that matches the device ID of the device 101 included in the notification request. Is identified. Furthermore, it tries to acquire the transfer rate status of the specified device 101.

  In the present embodiment, since the transfer rate status of the device 101 is not included in the notification UDP packet from the device 101 to the management server 404, the transfer rate status of the device 101 is not registered in the specified entry. Therefore, acquisition of the transfer rate status of the device 101 fails (S514).

  If acquisition of the transfer rate status of the device 101 from the device status storage unit 15 fails, the server control unit 14 requests the device 101 to transmit the transfer rate status if the device 101 is communicable. If is unable to communicate, do nothing.

  In the present embodiment, since the device 101 cannot communicate (S515), the server control unit 14 does nothing.

  FIG. 20 is a communication sequence diagram illustrating an example of a communication sequence subsequent to the communication sequence illustrated in FIG.

  In the communication sequence diagram shown in FIG. 20, as shown in FIG. 18, when the terminal 402 transmits a connection request for the device 101 to the management server 404, the device 101 cannot communicate. The case where it becomes possible is assumed. Further, it is assumed that the remaining capacity status of the device 101 remains “25.4”.

  The device 101 becomes communicable due to the removal of the cause of the inability of the device 101 to communicate (S516). After the device 101 is notified from the management server 404 of “10 minutes” which is the maximum access confirmation cycle, the device ID of the device 101 and the numerical value “25.4” are again included in the payload to the management server 404. A notification UDP packet including the remaining capacity status of the device 101 is transmitted (S517).

  When the server communication unit 11 receives the notification UDP packet, the server control unit 14 of the management server 404 determines that the device 101 can communicate (S518).

  When determining that the device 101 is communicable, the server control unit 14 refers to the connection request information data table stored in the connection request storage unit 16 and determines the device ID of the device 101 included in the notification UDP packet. An entry including the request destination device ID is searched.

  In the present embodiment, the notification request including the status name “transfer rate” transmitted from the terminal 402 is registered as one entry in the data table of the connection request information. Therefore, the server control unit 14 acquires “transfer rate” which is a request status name included in the entry (S519).

  Further, the server control unit 14 generates a status request which is a UDP packet including data indicating that the device 101 is requested to transmit the transfer rate status in the payload of the UDP packet as a response to the notification UDP packet. The generated status request is transmitted from the server communication unit 11 to the device 101 (S520). That is, the server control unit 14 realizes a function for requesting transmission of attribute information, which is included in the transmission request unit in the communication management apparatus of the present invention.

  The device 101 transmits a notification UDP packet as a response to the status request to the management server 404 (S521).

  The payload of this notification UDP packet includes the device ID of the device 101 and the remaining capacity status that is the numerical value “25.4”, and further, the numerical value is “300” based on the status request from the management server 404. Includes transfer rate status.

  The management server 404 receives the notification UDP packet by the server communication unit 11. After receiving the notification UDP packet, the server control unit 14 refers to the device status information data table stored in the device status storage unit 15 and identifies an entry including a device ID that matches the device ID of the device 101. Furthermore, “25.4” is overwritten in the data area of the remaining capacity status of the identified entry, and “300” is overwritten in the data area of the transfer rate status (S522).

  In addition, the server control unit 14 refers to the connection request information data table stored in the connection request storage unit 16 and searches for an entry including the device ID of the device 101 included in the notification UDP packet as the request destination device ID. . Further, the request status name included in the corresponding entry is confirmed (S523).

  In the present embodiment, the request status name included in the corresponding entry is “transfer rate”.

  Based on the device ID of the device 101 included in the notification UDP packet, the server control unit 14 identifies the device status information of the registered device 101 from the device status information data table stored in the device status storage unit 15. . Further, a numerical value “300” that is a transfer rate status of the device 101 included in the specified device status information is acquired (S524).

  The server control unit 14 refers to the connection request information data table stored in the connection request storage unit 16 and identifies an entry including the device ID of the device 101. Further, the global IP address of the terminal 402 is acquired from the specified entry.

  When the global IP address of the terminal 402 is acquired, the server control unit 14 uses the device ID of the device 101, the transfer rate status of the device 101 having a numerical value “300”, and data indicating “connectable” in the payload of the packet. A connectable notification that is an included UDP packet is generated (S525). The generated connectable notification is transmitted by the server communication unit 11 with the global IP address of the terminal 402 as the destination IP address (S526).

  Subsequently, the server control unit 14 deletes the corresponding entry from the data table of the connection request information stored in the connection request storage unit 16 (S527). As a result, the registration of the connection request from the terminal 402 to the device 101 is deleted.

  When the terminal control unit 4 of the terminal 402 receives the connectability notification transmitted from the management server 404, the terminal control unit 4 performs the GUI shown in FIG. 21 based on the content included in the connectability notification and the content already notified from the management server 404. Is displayed on the display unit 3 (S528).

  FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating an example of a GUI displayed on the display unit 3 of the terminal 402 for notifying the user of the connection to the device 101 and the status of the device 101.

  The device ID input screen 210 shown in FIG. 21 displays the remaining capacity status that has been acquired first, and the transfer rate status acquired by the management server 404 after the device 101 becomes communicable. In addition, when the device 101 becomes communicable, a button for allowing the user to determine whether to connect to the device 101 is displayed.

  When the user selects a button displayed as “Yes” on the device ID input screen 210, connection from the terminal 402 to the device 101 is started via the management server 404.

  When the user determines from the remaining capacity and transfer rate of the displayed device 101 and decides not to connect, that is, when the user selects a button displayed as “No”, the terminal Communication between 402 and the management server 404 ends.

  As described above, in the communication system according to the third embodiment, when the user using the terminal 402 establishes a connection via the Internet to the device 101 existing in the LAN 106, before establishing the connection, Alternatively, the status of the device 101 can be acquired while the connection is established.

  For example, like the remaining capacity status in the present embodiment, the status that is always included in the notification UDP packet is updated every time the notification UDP packet is received by the management server 404, and the terminal 402 updates the status. Can be acquired. As a result, even when the device 101 itself becomes unable to communicate, the user can quickly obtain a desired status.

  Further, when the status desired by the user is not registered in the management server 404 like the transfer rate status in the present embodiment, the management server 404 can inquire the status of the device. At this time, even if the device 101 is in a state where communication is not possible, when the communication with the device 101 is possible, the status can be inquired to the device. As a result, even when the status desired by the user is not registered in the management server 404, the user can acquire the status.

  As described above, the management server 404 according to the third embodiment of the present invention can establish a connection from the terminal 402 to the device 101 in the LAN 106 and can notify the terminal 402 of the status of the device 101.

  The user can know the status of the device 101 through the terminal 402, and decides whether to continue communication with the device 101 with reference to the status or what request is made to the device 101. it can. For example, when the user considers acquiring content from the device 101 using the terminal 402, the transfer rate which is the status of the device 101 can be confirmed before acquisition. When the user determines that the transfer rate of the device 101 is not a value that is suitable for content transmission, the communication with the device 101 can be terminated without performing an operation for content acquisition.

  Thereby, for example, since the transfer rate of the device 101 is low, it is possible to prevent a situation in which communication is interrupted in the middle of acquisition due to the time taken for content acquisition more than expected. That is, useless communication can be prevented and the user can be prevented from performing a useless operation.

  In the present embodiment, the status types included in the device status information are the remaining capacity status and the transfer rate status. However, the type of status included in the device status information is not limited to this. That is, the status types acquired by the management server 404 from the device 101 and notified to the terminal 402 may be other than the above two types.

  For example, the management server 404 may acquire an in-operation status, which is a status indicating whether or not the device 101 is accepting an operation from a remote controller or the front panel, from the device 101 and notify the terminal 402 of it. Thereby, for example, the user using the terminal 402 can know that the device 101 is in a state of performing processing according to an instruction other than his / her own.

  18 illustrates the communication sequence in the case where the device 101 cannot communicate (S504), but the management server 404 and the terminal 402 of the present embodiment are not limited even if the device 101 cannot communicate. Operations such as acquisition of the status of the device 101 can be performed.

  In this case, when a connection request accompanied by a request for the remaining capacity status and transfer rate status of the device 101 is transmitted from the terminal 402, the management server 404 first transmits only the registered remaining capacity status to the terminal 402. After transmission, the management server 404 requests and acquires the transmission rate status transmission to the device 101. Further, the acquired transfer rate status is transmitted to the terminal 402. Thereby, the terminal 402 completes the acquisition of the remaining capacity status and the transfer rate status of the device 101.

  Further, the notification UDP packet transmitted from the device 101 to the management server 404 always includes the remaining capacity status, but this may be a status other than the remaining capacity status. For example, the transfer rate status may always be included in the notification UDP packet. A plurality of statuses may be included. That is, an optimal status that is always included in the notification UDP packet may be determined by considering the size of the notification UDP packet and the user's needs.

  In addition, when a connection request to the device 101 is transmitted from the terminal 402, a request for a remaining capacity status and a transfer rate status is included. However, for example, the user may be allowed to select a desired status.

  In this case, in the terminal 402, the terminal control unit 4 calls the status name stored in the status name storage unit 6, generates a GUI that allows the user to determine the status to be included in the connection request, and causes the display unit 3 to display the GUI. The terminal control unit 4 includes data for requesting the status selected by the user in the connection request and causes the terminal communication unit 1 to transmit the data. By doing so, for example, when the status that can be acquired from the device 101 increases, it is possible to prevent the user from acquiring a status unnecessary for the user by explicitly selecting the status to be acquired. That is, it is possible to prevent an unnecessary increase in communication amount.

  In addition, when the device 101 receives a status request from the management server 404 and the request is in a status that cannot be transmitted due to security reasons, the device 101 manages that the transmission is impossible and the reason is included in the notification UDP packet. It may be transmitted to the server 404. In this case, the management server 404 only has to transmit to the terminal 402 that the status requested from the terminal 402 cannot be transmitted and the reason. As a result, the user can not only get the status, but also know the reason and not be confused.

  In addition, when the management server 404 receives a plurality of status requests from the terminal 402, the management server 404 first transmits the registered status to the terminal 402 even if all the requested statuses are not registered in the device status storage unit 15. Then (see FIG. 19). However, after all the requested statuses are registered, the requested statuses may be collectively transmitted to the terminal 402.

  When the management server 404 once transmits only the registered status to the terminal 402, the user may decide not to continue the subsequent communication only with the transmitted status, which may cause unnecessary communication. There is an advantage that it can be prevented.

  Further, when the management server 404 collectively transmits the requested statuses to the terminal 402, the status requested by the user is transmitted by one communication. This also has the advantage that the occurrence of useless communication can be prevented.

  Further, in each of the embodiments described above, the device 101 is connected to the Internet 105 via the NAT router 103, but may be directly connected to the Internet 105 without going through the NAT router 103. In this case, the device 101 is only assigned a global IP address, not a private IP address. Therefore, it is possible to obtain the effect of the present invention that the user can quickly obtain a desired status from the device using the terminal. Even when the terminal is in the same LAN as the device, the effect of the present invention can be obtained similarly.

  In each of the above-described embodiments, the device ID of the device 101 is “123456789”. However, this does not limit the format of the device ID, and any device ID may be used.

  In addition, the connection request storage unit 13 of the management server 104 and the connection request storage unit 16 of the management server 404 register the global IP address of the terminal 102 or the terminal 402. However, the information to be registered does not have to be a global IP address. Like the device 101, each terminal may have an ID and the ID may be registered. That is, any information that can identify the terminal may be used.

  Further, in each of the above-described embodiments, the data format such as the connection request and the connection possible notification is the UDP packet. However, the data format is not limited to a specific method.

  For example, when the terminal is a mobile phone, electronic mail may be used as a communication means to the management server. Specifically, when a connection request is transmitted from the terminal to the management server, the e-mail is transmitted so as to include predetermined matters. The management server may recognize the contents of the e-mail and perform the processing. Thus, when a general communication means such as e-mail is used, the present invention can be widely applied to existing terminals, and thus is particularly effective.

  The communication management device and the communication system according to the present invention include a communication amount and a user amount when a terminal device connected to the Internet connects to a device at a user's desired timing via a communication management device for NAT traversal. The terminal device can easily acquire the state of the device. This makes it possible for a user to easily connect to a hard disk recorder at home from a mobile phone while away from home, and to ascertain the operating state and the remaining capacity of the hard disk as quickly as possible to make a recording reservation. This is useful for communication systems. In addition, it can be applied to a wide variety of personal network applications.

1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a communication system according to a first embodiment. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a management server and a terminal according to Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of the apparatus information memorize | stored in the apparatus information storage part. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of the connection request information memorize | stored in the connection request memory | storage part. It is a figure which shows an example of a data structure of the transmission information memorize | stored in the transmission information storage part. 3 is a communication sequence diagram illustrating an example of a flow of communication between devices in the communication system according to Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the GUI for making a user select the objective of operation displayed on the display part of a terminal. It is a figure which shows an example of GUI for making a user input apparatus ID displayed on the display part of a terminal. It is a figure which shows an example of GUI for notifying a user that the apparatus became connectable displayed on the display part of a terminal. FIG. 10 is a communication sequence diagram illustrating an example of a flow of communication between devices in the communication system according to the second embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of GUI for confirming the request | requirement of the notification of the failure of a connection displayed to the user at the terminal's display part, and communication becoming possible. FIG. 10 is a communication sequence diagram illustrating another example of a communication flow between devices in the communication system according to the second embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of GUI for notifying that a notification request timed out to the user displayed on the display part of a terminal. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a communication system according to Embodiment 3. FIG. FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram illustrating functional configurations of a management server and a terminal according to a third embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of the apparatus status information memorize | stored in the apparatus status memory | storage part. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data configuration of connection request information stored in a connection request storage unit of a management server according to Embodiment 3. FIG. 10 is a communication sequence diagram illustrating an example of a flow of communication between devices in the communication system according to Embodiment 3. FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of GUI for performing notification of a connection failure to a user and confirmation of acquisition of a status displayed on the display part of a terminal. FIG. 19 is a communication sequence diagram illustrating an example of a communication sequence following the communication sequence illustrated in FIG. 18. It is a figure which shows an example of GUI for notifying a user of the fact that the connection to an apparatus was made possible and the status of an apparatus displayed on the display part 3 of a terminal.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Terminal communication part 2 Input part 3 Display part 4 Terminal control part 5 Transmission information storage part 6 Status name storage part 11 Server communication part 12 Equipment information storage part 13, 16 Connection request | requirement storage part 14 Server control part 15 Equipment status storage part 101 Device 102, 402 Terminal 103 NAT router 104, 404 Management server 105 Internet 106 LAN

Claims (13)

A communication management device that is connected to the Internet and manages communication between a terminal device connected to the Internet and a device in a LAN connected to the Internet,
A connection request receiving means for receiving a connection request for the device from the terminal device;
Connection request storage means for storing the connection request received by the connection request receiving means;
Device information receiving means for receiving device information which is information from the device;
When the device information is received by the device information receiving unit, a communication enable notification unit that notifies the terminal device that the device is communicable based on the connection request stored in the connection request storage unit A communication management device comprising: Further, when the device information that is information for specifying the device is received by the device information receiving means, the device that is the transmission source of the device information is the device that is the target of the connection request stored in the connection request storage means A connection target judging means for judging whether or not
When the connection target determination unit determines that the device that is the transmission source of the device information is the device that is the target of the connection request, the communication enable notification unit can communicate with the device based on the connection request. The communication management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the terminal apparatus is notified of the fact. Furthermore, device information storage means for storing device information received by the device information receiving means,
Connection for determining whether or not the connection request received by the connection request receiving means is a connection request for the device that is the device information transmission information stored in the device information storage means. A request determination means,
The communication management according to claim 1, wherein the connection request storage unit stores the connection request when the connection request determination unit determines that the connection request is a connection request to a device that is a transmission source of the device information. apparatus. The device information receiving means receives the device information from the device more than once,
The communication management device further includes:
A period elapsed judging means for judging whether or not a period in which the equipment information receiving means does not receive the equipment information exceeds a predetermined period;
The communication availability notifying means has received the device information after the period elapsed determining means has determined that the period during which the device information receiving means does not receive the device information exceeds a predetermined period. The communication management device according to claim 1, wherein the terminal device is notified that the device is communicable. Further, when the period information determining unit determines that the period during which the apparatus information receiving unit does not receive the apparatus information exceeds a predetermined period, the communication failure notifying the terminal device that the apparatus cannot communicate. Possible notification means; and
Response receiving means for receiving a response from the terminal device in response to the notification by the communication impossible notification means,
When the device information receiving unit receives the device information when the response indicates that the response requests a notification that the device is communicable, the device is communicable. The communication management apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the terminal apparatus is notified of the fact. The device information receiving means receives the device information twice or more,
The communication management device further includes:
A period elapsed judging means for judging whether or not a period in which the equipment information receiving means does not receive the equipment information exceeds a predetermined period;
When the connection request receiving unit receives the connection request, the connection request storage unit determines that the period during which the device information receiving unit does not receive the device information has exceeded a predetermined period by the period elapse determining unit. The communication management device according to claim 1, wherein the connection request is stored when the communication is in progress. The connection request stored in the connection request storage means has a time condition for specifying the time when the connection request becomes invalid,
The communication management device further includes:
Invalidity determination means for determining whether or not the connection request satisfies the timing condition;
A deletion unit that deletes the connection request from the connection request storage unit when the invalidity determination unit determines that the connection request does not satisfy the timing condition;
2. The communication management according to claim 1, further comprising: an invalidity notification unit configured to notify the terminal device that the connection request is invalid when the invalidation determination unit determines that the connection request does not satisfy the timing condition. apparatus. Furthermore, it comprises a timing condition receiving means for receiving the timing condition from the terminal device,
The communication management apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the connection request storage unit stores the connection request received by the connection request reception unit and the timing condition received by the timing condition reception unit in association with each other. The device information includes attribute information of the device,
The device information storage means further stores the attribute information,
The communication management device further includes:
An acquisition request receiving means for receiving an acquisition request for requesting acquisition of the attribute information of the device from the terminal device;
Attribute information transmitting means for reading out the attribute information requested by the terminal device from the device information storage means and transmitting it to the terminal device indicated by the acquisition request received by the acquisition request receiving means;
When the attribute information requested by the terminal device for acquisition indicated in the acquisition request received by the acquisition request receiving unit is not stored in the device information storage unit, the attribute information is transmitted to the device. The communication management device according to claim 1, further comprising: a transmission requesting unit that requests. The communication management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the device information is transmitted from the device in a User Datagram Protocol packet. A terminal device connected to the Internet;
A device existing in a LAN connected to the Internet;
A communication management device connected to the Internet,
The terminal device
Connection request transmitting means for transmitting a connection request for the device to the communication management device;
Notification receiving means for receiving a notification from the communication management device;
Output means for outputting the notification received by the notification receiving means,
The communication management device
Connection request receiving means for receiving the connection request from the terminal device;
Connection request storage means for storing the connection request received by the connection request receiving means;
Device information receiving means for receiving device information which is information from the device;
When the device information is received by the device information receiving unit, a communication enable notification unit that notifies the terminal device that the device is communicable based on the connection request stored in the connection request storage unit A communication system. A method for managing communication between a terminal device connected to the Internet and a device in a LAN connected to the Internet,
A connection request receiving step for receiving a connection request for the device from the terminal device;
A storage step of storing in the storage means the connection request received in the connection request receiving step;
A device information receiving step for receiving device information which is information from the device;
When the device information is received in the device information receiving step, based on the connection request stored in the storage unit, a communication enable notification step for notifying the terminal device that the device is communicable Communication management method including. A program for managing communication between a terminal device connected to the Internet and a device in a LAN connected to the Internet,
A connection request receiving step for receiving a connection request for the device from the terminal device;
A storage step of storing in the storage means the connection request received in the connection request receiving step;
A device information receiving step for receiving device information which is information from the device;
When the device information is received in the device information receiving step, based on the connection request stored in the storage unit, a communication enable notification step for notifying the terminal device that the device is communicable A program that causes a computer to execute.

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