JP2008301140A - Address acquisition system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an address acquisition system in which an IP address of a slave machines can be recognized without troubling a master machine. <P>SOLUTION: In the system wherein at least one master machine and a plurality of slave machines are connected through a TCP/IP network and a signal line, the master machine includes a communication part for transmitting its own IP address to the plurality if slave machines through the TCP/IP network by broadcasting transmission and a trigger signal output part for outputting a trigger signal of an action including address notification through the signal line, and each slave machine includes a communication part for receiving the broadcast packet having the IP address added thereto, adding its own IP address to a transmission source address of broadcasting, and transmitting a reply packet through the TCP/IP network and a control part for controlling the operation of the communication part and judges that the trigger signal relating to timing of address notification has been input through the signal line. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an address acquisition system in which at least one master machine and a plurality of slave machines are connected via an electric communication line, and in particular, the master machine can recognize the IP address of the slave machine without taking time and effort. It is related with the address acquisition system which can do.

  In a situation where multiple communication devices or measuring instruments are connected via TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) and communication is performed between them, the master machine may recognize the IP address of the slave machine. Needed. The master machine here means a device that controls the slave machine under its control, and the slave machine is a machine that is placed under the control of the master machine without using its own control.

The following patent documents are known as prior art documents of such a system in which an address is notified between a master machine and a slave machine.

JP 2003-0283516 A

Next, a conventional address acquisition system will be described with reference to FIG. The master machine 131 and the slave machine 141 are connected to the TCP / IP network via the signal line 12, and the master machine 131 controls the slave machine 141 under its own control. The TCP / IP network 11 is used to exchange packets between the master machine 131 and the slave machine 141. The signal line 12 is used for the slave machine 141 to perform a predetermined action in synchronization with the master machine 131. Are connected.

The master machine 131 includes a communication unit 132, a control unit 134, a function selection unit 135, a function selection switch 136, an address table 138, and a trigger output unit 139. The communication unit 132 outputs its own IP address 133 via the TCP / IP network 11.

In addition to instructing the function selection unit 135 to select the action 137, the control unit 134 refers to the IP address of the slave device stored in the slave address table 138, and determines the slave device to communicate with the communication unit 132. Instruct and control communication contents. Here, the contents of the slave address table 138 are registered in advance in the master machine by the user. The function selection switch 136 is selected by the function selection unit 135, and the switch is switched.

The trigger signal output unit 139 outputs the trigger signal of the action 137 selected by the function selection unit 135 based on the instruction of the control unit 134, and the trigger signal output unit 139 outputs the trigger signal to the slave device 141 via the signal line 12. Here, the trigger signal output from the trigger signal output unit 139 does not notify the content of the action, but transmits only the timing. That is, notification of the type of action to be performed by the slave device 141 is performed via the TCP / IP network 11.

The slave device 141 includes a communication unit 142, a control unit 144, a function selection unit 145, and a function selection switch 146. The communication unit 142 receives a packet input from the communication unit 132 of the master machine 131 via the TCP / IP network. The control unit 144 controls the communication unit 142 and instructs the function selection unit 145 to select the action 147. The action selection method is performed by the control unit 144 determining the contents of the trigger signal input to the slave device 141 via the TCP / IP network 11. The function selection switch 146 is selected by the function selection unit 145, and the switch is switched.

However, in the conventional address acquisition system, as shown in FIG. 8, the user needs to grasp the address of the slave device one by one and input it to the master device, which is troublesome. Also, as shown in FIG. 8, when used in a network in which the IP addresses of the master machine 131 and the slave machines 141 and 151 are dynamically allocated by DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), the user each time the user starts up the slave machines 141 and 151. It is necessary to check which IP address is assigned to each user, and it is necessary to burden the user.

As a solution to the above problem, a method in which the master machine 131 broadcasts a recognition packet on the TCP / IP network 11 and automatically determines the slave machine based on the response packet of the slave machine in response thereto can be considered easily. However, this method may malfunction if a combination of a plurality of master machines and slave machines exists on the same network.

The present invention has been made in view of these problems, and provides a method in which a master machine automatically knows an IP address on a network of a slave machine without taking the user's trouble, and in that case, the same is provided. The purpose is to prevent malfunction even when a combination of a plurality of master machines and slave machines exists on the network.

In order to solve such a problem, the invention of claim 1
In an address acquisition system in which at least one master machine and a plurality of slave machines are connected via a TCP / IP network and a signal line,
The master machine is
A communication unit that adds its own IP address to a packet and transmits a broadcast to the plurality of slave devices via the TCP / IP network;
A trigger signal output unit that outputs a trigger signal of an action including an address notification via the signal line;
A control unit for controlling the operation of the communication unit and the trigger signal output unit,
The slave machine is
A communication unit that receives the broadcast packet to which the IP address is added and transmits a reply packet by adding its own IP address to the broadcast source address via the TCP / IP network;
And a control unit that controls the operation of the communication unit and determines that a trigger signal related to the timing of address notification is input via the signal line.

The invention according to claim 2 is the address acquisition system according to claim 1,
The master machine includes a function selection unit that selects a desired action from a plurality of actions including address notification, and the slave machine selects a function corresponding to the action selected by the function selection unit of the master machine. The address acquisition system according to claim 1, further comprising a unit.

The invention according to claim 3 is the address acquisition system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the master unit does not receive a reply packet from the slave unit within a predetermined time after outputting the trigger signal. Timeout and end the action.

(4) In the address acquisition system according to any one of (1) to (3),
When the master device and the slave device are in non-identical subnetworks, multicast is used instead of broadcast.

As described above, the master unit includes a communication unit that adds its own IP address to a packet and transmits a broadcast to a plurality of slave units, and the slave unit sets its own IP address with respect to the broadcast source address. In addition, since the communication unit that transmits the reply packet is provided, the master machine can recognize the IP address of the slave machine.

A configuration example of the address acquisition system of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. However, the same components as those in FIG. The master device 200 includes a communication unit 132, a control unit 134, a function selection unit 135, a function selection switch 136, an address table 138, a trigger output unit 139, and an address notification execution unit 210.

Similar to the action 137, the address notification execution unit 210 is provided with an action for notifying an address, and an address notification action is performed when selected by the function selection switch 136. The address notification execution unit 210 is connected to the communication unit 132, and when the function selection unit 135 selects an address control action under the control of the control unit 134, a signal to notify the communication unit 132 of an address notification. Output. Upon receiving this signal, the communication unit 132 performs broadcasting by a method described later.

The slave device 300 includes an address notification execution unit 310 in addition to a communication unit 142, a control unit 144, a function selection unit 145, and a function selection switch 146. Similar to the address notification execution unit 210, the address notification execution unit 310 is provided with an action for performing address notification, and an address communication action is performed when selected by the function selection switch 146.

The address notification execution unit 310 is connected to the communication unit 142. When the function selection unit 145 selects the function selection switch 146 and the address control action is selected under the control of the control unit 144, the address notification execution unit 310 is connected to the communication unit 142. To output a signal indicating that address notification is performed. Upon receiving this signal, the communication unit 142 waits for broadcast reception by a method described later.

Next, the outline of the operation of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the operation of the address acquisition system according to the present invention. FIG. 3 is a processing sequence of the address acquisition system according to the present invention. When the master device 200 is turned on, the selection of the function selection switch 136 is switched to the address notification execution unit 210.

Subsequently, the master device 200 transmits a broadcast to the TCP / IP network 11. Thereafter, the trigger signal output unit 139 of the master device 200 outputs a trigger signal related to address notification via the signal line 12. Upon receiving the trigger signal, the slave devices 300 and 400 return a reply to the broadcast packet to the master device 200. As shown in FIG. 3, when the reply does not come from the slave devices 300 and 400 within a predetermined time, the master device 200 times out and ends the processing.

Hereinafter, operations of the master device 200 and the slave devices 300 and 400 will be described with reference to flowcharts. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the master machine according to the present invention. The master device 200 transmits a broadcast packet to the network when it wants to know the address of the slave devices 300 and 400 under its control (step A1). At this time, the master address information (IP address) is correctly entered in the source address of the broadcast packet.

Next, a signal is transmitted through the signal line (step A2). The network waits for a reply packet until the timeout time (step A3, step A4). The timeout time is set to a fixed time after the trigger signal is transmitted in step A2.

The master device 200 can obtain the network addresses of the slave devices 300 and 400 under control from the transmission source information (IP address) of the reply packet that has reached the timeout time in Step A3 (Step A5). This address is stored in the slave address table 138 under the control of the control unit 134.

Next, the operation of the slave will be described with reference to FIG. Until the broadcast packet is received in the TCP / IP network 11, the standby state is set (step B1). A broadcast packet is received by the TCP / IP network 11 (step B2). When the communication unit 142 receives the broadcast packet, the control unit 144 determines that the master unit 200 is searching for the address of the slave unit under its control, and enters the signal waiting state on the signal line 12 (step B3). ).

A trigger signal related to the timing of address notification is received by the signal line 12 (step B4). The communication unit 142 transmits a reply packet to the broadcast source address in the TCP / IP network 11 (step B5). At this time, the address information of the slave device (self) that sends the reply is correctly entered in the source address of the reply packet.

As described above, the master unit includes a communication unit that adds its own IP address to a packet and transmits a broadcast to a plurality of slave units, and the slave unit sets its own IP address with respect to the broadcast source address. In addition, since the communication unit for transmitting the reply packet is provided, the master device can obtain the IP address on the network of the slave device without taking the user's trouble.

Further, since these exchanges are performed using the IP address and the signal line, no malfunction occurs even if there are a plurality of combinations of master and slave devices on the same network.

Next, an application example of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Assume that the master device 200 and the slaves 500 and 600 are arranged in separate sub-networks. When the master device 200 and the slave devices 500 and 600 are not in the same subnetwork and the broadcast does not reach, multicast is used instead of the broadcast. Broadcast represents a transmission to all nodes in the same segment. Therefore, it cannot be used when the sub-networks are different. Therefore, multicast is used instead of broadcast.

In this way, since multicast is used instead of broadcast, even if the master device 200 and the slave devices 500 and 600 are not in the same subnetwork, the master device 200 can obtain the IP address of the slave device under its control.

It is a structural example of the address acquisition system by this invention. It is operation | movement outline explanatory drawing of the address acquisition system by this invention. It is a processing sequence of the address acquisition system by this invention. 3 is a flowchart of a master machine according to the present invention. 4 is a flowchart of a slave device according to the present invention. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing when slaves do not exist in the same subnetwork. It is a structural example of the conventional address acquisition system. It is a conceptual diagram in case a user grasps | ascertains the address of a slave machine and inputs it into a master machine.

Explanation of symbols

11 TCP / IP network 12 Signal line 132, 142 Communication unit 133, 143 IP address 134, 144 Control unit 135, 145 Function selection unit 136, 146 Function selection switch 137, 147 Action 138 Slave address table 139 Trigger signal output unit 200 Master Machine 210, 310 Address notification execution unit 300 Slave machine

Claims (4)

In an address acquisition system in which at least one master machine and a plurality of slave machines are connected via a TCP / IP network and a signal line,
The master machine is
A communication unit that adds its own IP address to a packet and transmits a broadcast to the plurality of slave devices via the TCP / IP network;
A trigger signal output unit that outputs a trigger signal of an action including an address notification via the signal line;
A control unit for controlling the operation of the communication unit and the trigger signal output unit,
The slave machine is
A communication unit that receives the broadcast packet to which the IP address is added and transmits a reply packet by adding its own IP address to the broadcast source address via the TCP / IP network;
An address acquisition system comprising: a control unit that controls the operation of the communication unit and determines that a trigger signal related to the timing of address notification is input via the signal line. The master machine includes a function selection unit that selects a desired action from a plurality of actions including address notification, and the slave machine selects a function corresponding to the action selected by the function selection unit of the master machine. The address acquisition system according to claim 1, further comprising a unit. 3. The address acquisition according to claim 1, wherein when the master device does not receive a reply packet from the slave device within a predetermined time after outputting the trigger signal, the master device times out and ends the action. system. 4. The address acquisition system according to claim 1, wherein when the master device and the slave device are in non-identical sub-networks, multicast is used instead of broadcast.

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