JP2008263359A - Communicating system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the power saving property of an interface unit without losing the responsiveness of an interface unit upon control. <P>SOLUTION: This equipment network system 10 is provided with a controller 60; an interface unit 70 for intermittently performing a stand-by operation by performing a receiving operation with a predetermined interval; a remote terminal 40 to be connected to a controller 60 for transmitting a telegraphic message from the controller 60 to the interface unit 70. The interface unit 70 is provided with an idle mode whose time interval is long and an active mode whose time interval is short, and configured so that the idle mode and the active mode can be selected according to the telegraphic message to be transmitted from the controller 60, and when the remote terminal 40 is connected to the controller 60, the interface unit 70 is set to the active mode by the controller 60. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication system used for an equipment network system for monitoring and controlling equipment in a house, for example.

  Equipment network system is, for example, connecting equipment such as home appliances, sensors, and cameras installed in a house with equipment network, and sending information from these equipment to external terminal devices (for example, mobile phones) On the contrary, it is a system that can monitor and control these facilities from an external terminal device. Such an equipment network system includes a controller that relays a control message and an interface unit that monitors (detects) and controls the state of the equipment. In this equipment network system, no wiring is required and the degree of freedom of installation of the interface unit can be increased. Therefore, a wireless method is promising as a communication method between the interface unit and the controller.

By the way, when such an interface unit is installed at a position where it is difficult to supply commercial power (AC power), it is driven by a battery. However, in order to minimize maintenance, that is, to replace the battery as much as possible. Therefore, power saving of the interface unit is required. Since most of the power consumed by the interface unit is wireless communication, it is configured to reduce power consumption by performing intermittent reception, but in this case, information transmitted from the controller is received in real time. Control responsiveness deteriorates. Therefore, mainly for the purpose of efficiently transmitting continuous messages in a short time, before starting communication, a link establishment message or broadcast message is transmitted from the controller to the interface unit. A method has been proposed in which the interface unit switches to a continuous reception mode or a shorter reception interval using this message as a trigger (see, for example, Patent Document 1 or Patent Document 2).
JP 2005-108071 A JP 2005-115901 A

  However, the reception mode switching time required for switching the reception mode of the interface unit from the idle mode having a large reception interval before receiving a continuous message to the active mode having a continuous reception or a shorter reception interval is the idle mode. Is almost equal to the reception interval. Therefore, in the conventional method for improving the transmission efficiency or control response, since the delay in information transmission from the controller to the interface unit includes the time for switching the reception mode of the interface unit, at least the first control response is improved. There was a problem that it was not possible. Moreover, since the control responsiveness deteriorates as described above, the reception interval in the idle mode cannot be increased unnecessarily, and there is a problem that it is difficult to significantly improve the power saving performance.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and an object thereof is to provide a communication system capable of improving the power saving performance of the interface unit without impairing the responsiveness of the interface unit during control. To do.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a communication system (for example, the equipment network system 10 in the embodiment) according to the present invention is connected to a first communication device (for example, the controller 60 in the embodiment) at a predetermined time interval. A second communication device (for example, the interface unit 70 in the embodiment) that intermittently performs a standby operation by performing a reception operation on the first communication device, and the first communication device connected to the first communication device. And a terminal device (for example, the remote terminal 40 in the embodiment) that transmits a message to the second communication device. The second communication device has an idle mode in which the time interval is long and an active mode in which the time interval is shorter or continuously received than the time interval of the idle mode and is transmitted from the first communication device. The idle mode and the active mode can be selected and set by the first communication device, and when the terminal device is connected to the first communication device, the first communication device sets the second communication device to the active mode. Configured to do.

  In addition, the communication system according to the present invention is configured such that when the terminal device is disconnected from the first communication device, the first communication device sets the second communication device to the idle mode. It is preferable.

  Further, the first communication device has system mode selection means (for example, the system mode state management notification unit 63d in the embodiment) for selecting two or more different system modes, and the second communication device has the first communication device It is preferable that the time interval in the idle mode is changed in accordance with the system mode selected by the system mode selection means of the communication device.

  Furthermore, in such a communication system according to the present invention, the first communication device and the terminal device are connected to an upper network to which the center server is connected, and the terminal device is connected to the first communication device via the center server. It is preferably configured to connect and disconnect.

  In addition, it is preferable that the first communication device and the second communication device are configured to transmit and receive a message using wireless communication.

  When the communication system according to the present invention is configured as described above, when the terminal device is connected to the first communication device, the second communication device is set to the active mode with a short reception interval, and the terminal device is disconnected. Since this mode is sometimes set to idle mode with a long reception interval, the reception interval is increased to reduce power consumption when this terminal device is not connected. The response performance can be improved by reducing the size.

  Further, the first communication apparatus has a plurality of system modes, and the power consumption when a system mode with a long reception interval is selected by increasing or decreasing the reception interval in the idle mode according to the selected system mode. It can be made smaller.

  When the first and second communication devices are connected by wireless communication, the second communication device is installed at a place where commercial power cannot be used by suppressing the power consumption of the second communication device. It is possible to reduce the number of times the battery is replaced and to improve maintenance.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, the configuration of an equipment network system to which the communication system according to the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIG. The equipment network system 10 includes an in-house system 20 installed in a house of a user who uses the service, a center server 30 that provides the service to the user, and a remote that monitors and controls the equipment in the house from the outside. The terminals 40 are configured to be communicable with each other via an upper network (for example, the Internet) 50.

  The residential system 20 includes an interface unit 70 (indicated as “IFU” in FIG. 1) attached to the controller 60 and the facility 80, and these are connected via the facility network 90. FIG. 1 shows a case where an air conditioner, lighting, electric lock, and window opening / closing sensor are installed as the facility 80, and an interface unit 70 is attached to each of them. It can also be used as the facility 80. The equipment network 90 is not limited to one type, and for each interface unit 70, in communication with the controller 60, a twisted pair line, a wireless LAN, a wired LAN, a power line carrier communication, Bluetooth (registered trademark), or Although infrared communication can be selected and mixed as a whole, here, a case where a wireless system such as a wireless LAN is employed will be described.

  The controller 60 constituting the in-house system 20 transmits / receives information to / from the interface unit 70 to control the in-house system 20 and relays information (detection results and control commands) with the center server 30. Yes, an upper network interface 61 for communicating with the center server 30 via the upper network 50, an analysis unit 62 for analyzing information transmitted from the center server 30, and processing according to information from the center server 30 It comprises a control unit 63, a wireless communication unit 64 that communicates with the interface unit 70 via the equipment network 90, and a system mode switching button 65 for switching a system mode to be described later. The control unit 63 further includes an IFU control unit 63a that controls the interface unit 70, and a system mode state management notification unit 63d that manages a system mode to be described later and notifies the IFU control unit 63a of the mode. The wireless communication unit 64 includes a telegram generation unit 64a that generates a telegram and a transmission unit 64b that transmits the generated telegram.

  In addition, the interface unit 70 constituting the in-house system 20 controls the facility 80 via, for example, a facility interface 71 that communicates with the facility 80 according to a JEM-A standard protocol of the Japan Electrical Manufacturers' Association. The equipment control unit 72 that controls the equipment 80, the wireless communication unit 73 that communicates with the controller 60 via the equipment network 90, the time measurement unit 74 that measures time, and the reception mode of the wireless communication unit 73 are set. Thus, the reception interval changing unit 75 changes the interval of intermittent reception described later. The wireless communication unit 73 includes a receiving unit 73a that receives a message transmitted from the transmitting unit 64b of the controller 60, and an analysis unit 73b that analyzes the message.

  On the other hand, in the center server 30, a user (owner of the in-house system 20) who owns the host network interface 31 and the remote terminal 40 for communicating with the controller 60 via the host network 50 is connected to the facility network system 10. The service providing unit 32 that provides an interface for using the service of the user, the user authenticating unit 33 for authenticating the user of the remote terminal 40, manages the login state of the user, and notifies the controller 60 of the state. The user login state management notification unit 34, the facility control service providing unit 35 that provides a service for monitoring and controlling the facility 80 of the in-house system 20, and the system mode to be described later, and the mode to the controller 60 System mode state management notification unit 3 for notification Configured to have a. Information for user authentication and information on the controller 60, the interface unit 70, and the facility 80 in the in-house system 20 are managed in the user / in-house system information database 37.

  Then, in the equipment network system 10 configured as described above, the case where the user controls the equipment 80 of the in-house system 20 using the equipment control application 41 installed in the remote terminal 40 is shown in FIGS. 5 will be used together for explanation.

  Here, the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70 is configured to perform intermittent reception of receiving a message from the controller 60 for a predetermined time every predetermined time interval in order to reduce power consumption. Furthermore, in order to ensure the responsiveness of the control from the controller 60, it has a plurality of reception modes in which the time intervals for performing intermittent reception can be selected. In this embodiment, an idle mode with a long reception interval (reception interval 1 in FIG. 5), an active mode with a short reception interval (reception interval 2 in FIG. 5), and a continuous reception mode in which the reception state is continued. The continuous reception mode will be described as an active mode in which the reception interval is zero.

  First, the user connects to the center server 30 using the facility control application 41 of the remote terminal 40, and transmits login information (user ID, password, etc.) to the center server 30 (step S100). The login information transmitted from the remote terminal 40 is passed to the service providing unit 32 via the host network interface 31. The service providing unit 32 passes this login information to the user authenticating unit 33, and the user authenticating unit 33 performs user authentication. This is performed (step S101). At this time, the user authentication unit 33 performs authentication by comparing the login information transmitted from the remote terminal 40 with the login information stored in the user / in-house system information database 37, and the information does not match. Notifies the remote terminal 40 of access refusal and ends the process. On the other hand, when the user of the remote terminal 40 is authenticated, the service providing unit 32 stores the login state of the user by the user login state management notifying unit 34 and the user logs into the center server 30. This is notified to the controller 60 as login information via the host network interface 31 (step S102).

  The login information received via the host network interface 61 of the controller 60 is analyzed by the analysis unit 62, passed to the IFU control unit 63a, and managed (step S103). Here, the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70 has a plurality of reception modes as described above, and in a state where the user is not logged in, an idle mode with a long reception interval in order to reduce power consumption. Is set to Therefore, the IFU control unit 63a requests the radio communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70 to change the reception mode to the active mode via the radio communication unit 64, and the radio communication unit 73 The reception mode change request is received according to the procedure.

  First, the wireless communication unit 64 of the controller 60 generates and transmits a preamble signal composed of a predetermined data string, and the controller 60 is about to transmit a message to the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70. Is notified (step S104). In this step S104, the preamble signal is transmitted for substantially the same time as the idle mode reception interval. As a result, while the preamble signal is being transmitted from the controller 60, the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70 is in a receiving state, can receive this preamble signal, and reliably recognizes the transmission request from the controller 60. be able to. The wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70 analyzes the message received by the receiving unit 73a by the analyzing unit 73b, and when it is a preamble signal, passes the information to the receiving interval changing unit 75, and the receiving interval changing unit 75 The wireless communication unit 73 is set to a continuous reception mode in which the reception state is continued (step S105).

  Then, the wireless communication unit 64 of the controller 60 generates a transmission mode change request message for changing to the active mode following the preamble signal, and transmits it to the interface unit 70 (step S106). When receiving by the receiving unit 73a, the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70 returns a response signal (ACK) to the wireless communication unit 64 of the controller 60 (step S107). When this electronic message is analyzed by the analysis unit 73b and it is determined that the request is a reception mode change request to the active mode, the information is passed to the reception interval change unit 75. The reception interval change unit 75 Is set to an active mode with a short reception interval (step S108). In this embodiment, when a telegram of a reception mode change request is received, a response signal is transmitted from the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70 so that it can be confirmed that the interface unit 70 has received the telegram. Although the case where it is configured to increase the reliability is shown, it is also possible to configure so that this response signal is not returned.

  Next, the user performs a control operation of the facility 80 with respect to the facility control application 41 of the remote terminal 40 (step S110). When a control operation is performed by the facility control application 41, the center server 30 passes the contents of the operation to the facility control service providing unit 35, and the facility control service providing unit 35 controls the controller 60 via the host network interface 31. A command is transmitted (step S111). The control command received via the host network interface 61 of the controller 60 is analyzed by the analysis unit 62 and passed to the IFU control unit 63a (step S112). The IFU control unit 63a is transmitted via the wireless communication unit 64. Then, a control message corresponding to the control command is transmitted to the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70. At this time, the wireless communication unit 73 operates according to the following procedure.

  First, the wireless communication unit 64 of the controller 60 generates and transmits a preamble signal composed of a predetermined data string, and the controller 60 is about to transmit a message to the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70. Is notified (step S113). However, the preamble signal in step S113 is transmitted for substantially the same time as the reception interval in the active mode. Then, the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70 analyzes the message received by the receiving unit 73a by the analyzing unit 73b, and when it is a preamble signal, passes the information to the receiving interval changing unit 75 and receives the receiving interval changing unit 75. Sets the wireless communication unit 73 to the continuous reception mode in which the reception state is continued (step S114).

  Then, the wireless communication unit 64 of the controller 60 generates a control message following the preamble signal and transmits it to the interface unit 70 (step S115). The wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70 returns a response signal (ACK) to the wireless communication unit 64 of the controller 60 when receiving the control message by the receiving unit 73a (step S116). Then, the electronic message is analyzed by the analysis unit 73b. When the electronic message is a control message, the content is transferred to the equipment control unit 72 and the equipment is controlled via the equipment interface 71 (step S117).

  Finally, the user operates the equipment control application 41 of the remote terminal 40 and logs out from the center server 30 (step S120). When a logout operation is performed by the facility control application 41, the center server 30 manages the logout of the user by the user login state management notification unit 34, and also indicates that the user has logged out from the center server 30. The controller 60 is notified as logout information (step S121). The logout information received via the upper network interface 61 of the controller 60 is analyzed by the analysis unit 62 and passed to the IFU control unit 63a (step S122), and the IFU control unit 63a passes through the wireless communication unit 64a. Then, the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70 is requested to change the reception mode to the idle mode, and the wireless communication unit 73 receives the reception mode change request according to the following procedure.

  First, the wireless communication unit 64 of the controller 60 generates and transmits a preamble signal composed of a predetermined data string, and the controller 60 is about to transmit a message to the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70. Is notified (step S123). However, also in this step S123, the preamble signal is transmitted for substantially the same time as the reception interval in the active mode. Then, the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70 analyzes the message received by the receiving unit 73a by the analyzing unit 73b, and when it is a preamble signal, passes the information to the receiving interval changing unit 75 and receives the receiving interval changing unit 75. Sets the wireless communication unit 73 to the continuous reception mode in which the reception state is continued (step S124).

  Then, the wireless communication unit 64 of the controller 60 generates a transmission mode change request message for changing to the idle mode following the preamble signal, and transmits it to the interface unit 70 (step S125). When receiving by the receiving unit 73a, the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70 returns a response signal (ACK) to the wireless communication unit 64 of the controller 60 (step S126). Then, this electronic message is analyzed by the analysis unit 73b, and when it is a reception mode change request to the idle mode, the information is passed to the reception interval change unit 75, and the reception interval change unit 75 receives the wireless communication unit 73. The idle mode with a long interval is set (step S127).

  When the reception mode of the wireless communication unit 73 is changed to the continuous reception mode or the active mode, the reception interval changing unit 75 measures the elapsed time from the change by the time measuring unit 74 and sends a message from the controller 60 for a predetermined time. Is not transmitted, the reception mode of the wireless communication unit 73 is returned to the idle mode.

  As described above, in the equipment network system 10 according to the present embodiment, when the equipment 80 of the in-house system 20 is monitored and controlled from the remote terminal 40, authentication of a user who accesses to ensure security is performed. Is going. Therefore, processing for authenticating the user, that is, ensuring the responsiveness to subsequent user operations by changing the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70 to the active mode when the user logs in. Can do. Conversely, by changing the wireless communication unit 73 to the idle mode when the user logs out, the power consumption of the interface unit 70 can be reduced and power saving can be realized. Further, by configuring the wireless communication unit 73 to change the mode by logging in / out of the user in this way, even if the reception interval in the idle mode is increased, the user's responsiveness is not affected (however, The time required for the process of switching to the active mode at the time of login becomes longer), and the power saving effect can be increased.

  In the above embodiment, the remote terminal 40 is configured to be connected to the controller 60 via the center server 30 connected to the higher-level network 50. It is also possible to connect to the controller 60 directly from the host 40 via the host network 50. In that case, in order to manage the user authentication process and the login state of the user, the functions of the user authentication unit 33 and the user login state management notification unit 34 implemented in the center server 30 in the above description are the controller. The control unit 63 includes a user authentication unit 63b and a user login state management notification unit 63c.

  By the way, such an equipment network system 10 is configured to be able to select a plurality of system modes in order to provide a user with a service using the equipment 80 connected to the in-house system 20. As this system mode, for example, when the user is away, an absence mode that detects a state change of the facility 80 such as a window opening / closing sensor or an electric lock and notifies the intruder to crime prevention or the user, A home mode in which changes in the state of the equipment 80 such as a window opening / closing sensor and an electric lock are ignored when there is a user in the house can be selected. Selection of the system mode is selected by a system mode switching button 65 provided on the controller 60 or the remote terminal 40, and the selected system mode is managed by the system mode state management notification unit 63d.

  When the system mode is changed, the system mode state management notification unit 63d notifies the IFU control unit 63a of the changed mode. When the system mode is selected by the remote terminal 40, the IFU control unit 63a is selected when the reception interval of the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70 is set to the idle mode in step S120 described above when the user logs off. The idle mode reception interval is changed according to the system mode. When the system mode is selected by the system mode switching button 65 provided on the controller 60 in a state where the user is not logged on, the IFU control unit 63a selects the reception interval of the wireless communication unit 73 of the interface unit 70. It is configured to change the idle mode reception interval according to the system mode. The greater the idle mode reception interval, the greater the power saving effect, but the longer the time required for processing to switch to the active mode at the time of user login. Therefore, the idle mode reception interval is set according to the time that the user in each system mode can wait until switching to the active mode at the time of login. For example, when the absence mode is set, the user logs in to the center server 30 or the controller 60 from the outside and operates the facility 80, but the user has a small margin so that the user switches to the active mode at the time of login. It is better that the time is short. Therefore, the idle mode reception interval in the absence mode is set short. On the contrary, when the home mode is set, a margin is generated for the user, so that the idle mode reception interval is set to be long.

  As described above, the interface unit 70 can be further reduced in power consumption by increasing or decreasing the reception interval in the idle mode according to the system mode. When the center server 30 is provided and the remote terminal 40 is configured to connect to the controller 60 via the center server 30, the system mode managed by the system mode state management notification unit 63d is the system of the center server 30. The mode state management notification unit 36 is also notified and managed.

  Now, effects of the communication system according to the present embodiment will be described. Table 1 shown below is a conventional method, which is an improvement of the conventional method when the mode of the interface unit 70 is not switched (when intermittent reception is always performed at a constant reception interval). Of the interface unit 70 when switching from the idle mode to the active mode every time when communicating from 60, and when switching to the active mode at the time of login and returning to the idle mode at the time of logout in the method of the present embodiment. This is a comparison of the number of receptions (number of reception operations).

  In Table 1, the reception interval in the conventional method is 5 seconds, and the active mode reception interval in the conventional improved method and the method according to the present embodiment is 2 seconds. In addition, the time for entering the active mode indicates a case where the user is logged in for 10 minutes with the control once a day. Further, the idle mode reception interval in the conventional improved method is 5 seconds, and in this embodiment, the idle mode reception interval in the absence mode is 20 seconds, the reception interval in the home mode is 30 seconds, Is shown when 12 hours are set.

  As is apparent from Table 1, in the case of the conventional improved method, the first control response requires 5 seconds set in the idle mode. However, the method according to the present embodiment uses the active mode. The response time is good because it takes 2 seconds, and the power consumption in the interface unit 70 is proportional to the number of communications (number of intermittent receptions). In contrast to the operation, the system of the present embodiment only requires 3,900 times, so that the battery life of the interface unit 70 can be increased to about 4.4 times that of the conventional improved system.

  On the other hand, Table 2 shown below shows a case where the reception interval in the active mode is 5 seconds, and the reception interval in the idle mode in the conventional improved method is doubled (10 seconds) in the case of Table 1. Other conditions are the same as in Table 1.

  In the case shown in Table 2, the control response according to the present embodiment is the same as that in Table 1, but in the conventional method, the first control response is doubled requiring 10 seconds set in the idle mode. In addition, although the number of times of communication is reduced as compared with the case of Table 1, the battery life of the interface unit 70 of the system according to the present embodiment is about 2.3 times that of the conventional improved system. .

  As is clear from the above results, the facility network system 10 according to the present embodiment can greatly improve the power saving performance of the interface unit 70 without degrading the control responsiveness.

It is a block diagram of the equipment network system concerning the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows a process when a remote terminal logs in. It is a flowchart which shows a process when equipment is controlled from a remote terminal. It is a flowchart which shows a process when a remote terminal logs out. It is explanatory drawing which shows the state of transmission / reception of the message | telegram of a controller and an interface unit.

Explanation of symbols

10 Equipment network system (communication system)
30 Center server 40 Remote terminal (terminal device)
50 Host network 60 Controller (first communication device)
63d System mode state management notification unit (system mode selection means))
70 Interface unit (second communication device)

Claims (5)

A first communication device;
A second communication device that intermittently performs a standby operation by performing a reception operation on the first communication device at a predetermined time interval;
A terminal device connected to the first communication device and transmitting a message from the first communication device to the second communication device;
The second communication device has an idle mode in which the time interval is long and an active mode that is shorter than or continuously receives the time interval in the idle mode, and is transmitted from the first communication device. It is configured to be able to select and set the idle mode and the active mode by telegram,
A communication system configured such that when the terminal device is connected to the first communication device, the first communication device sets the second communication device to an active mode.   The communication system according to claim 1, wherein when the terminal device is disconnected from the first communication device, the first communication device sets the second communication device to an idle mode. The first communication device has system mode selection means for selecting two or more different system modes,
The said 2nd communication apparatus is comprised so that the said time interval in the said idle mode may be changed according to the said system mode selected by the said system mode selection means of the said 1st communication apparatus. 2. The communication system according to 2. The first communication device and the terminal device are connected to an upper network to which a center server is connected,
The communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the terminal device is configured to be connected / disconnected to the first communication device via the center server.   The communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first communication device and the second communication device are configured to transmit and receive a telegram using wireless communication.

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