JP2009089003A - Communication system, base station device, and terminal device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem that the amount of information which can be transmitted to a user is limited when providing information for the user using an identifier, such as an ESSID, whose settable characters are limited in number. <P>SOLUTION: A base station device 10 generates a first identifier containing address information for accessing a server device 30 as the identifier for allowing a connection request from a terminal device 20. The first identifier and the second identifier for identifying itself are transmitted as a beacon. The terminal device 20 acquires address information contained in the received first identifier, reports the second identifier to the server device identified by the address information, and acquires information on the content distributed by the base station device 10. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication system, a base station apparatus, and a terminal apparatus for distributing content.

  In recent years, content distribution using a wireless local area network (LAN) has become widespread. In accordance with the speeding up of the wireless LAN, a moving image distribution service has been put into practical use. An access point in the wireless LAN periodically emits a beacon, and a terminal device such as a mobile phone receives the beacon. The beacon includes a predetermined identifier. The terminal device makes a connection request to the access point using the identifier. The access point only allows connection with a terminal device with a matching identifier.

  For example, in the IEEE 802.11 series, an SSID (Service Set Identifier) or an ESSID (Extended Service Set Identifier) can be set as the identifier. The ESSID is an extension of the SSID, and in the following description, the ESSID will be described as an example. The ESSID is a network identifier, and can identify a network and an access point to be connected even when a plurality of wireless LANs are constructed in the vicinity. Only alphanumeric characters and some symbol characters (hereinafter collectively referred to as alphanumeric characters, etc.) can be used for ESSID.

Patent Document 1 discloses an information distribution system, which includes an information type name of information that a wireless LAN terminal desires to distribute information, a network identifier notified by an access point, and a host name of an information distribution server. It has a predetermined correspondence.
JP 2007-5892 A

  However, when information is provided to the user using an identifier such as ESSID that has a limited number of characters that can be set, the amount of information that can be transmitted to the user is limited. Therefore, it is difficult for the user to fully understand the service provided from the access point by the identifier.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a communication system and a base station that can provide sufficient information to a user of a terminal device using an identifier with a limited number of characters that can be set. To provide a device and a terminal device.

  A communication system according to an aspect of the present invention includes a base station device, a terminal device, and a server device. The communication system distributes predetermined content from the base station device. As an identifier for permitting a connection request, an identifier generation unit that generates a first identifier including address information for accessing the server device, a first identifier generated by the identifier generation unit, and a base station device are specified A beacon transmitter that transmits a second identifier for the beacon as a beacon. The terminal device is acquired by the beacon receiving unit that receives the beacon transmitted from the base station device, the identifier processing unit that acquires the address information included in the first identifier received by the beacon receiving unit, and the identifier processing unit. The server device specified by the address information is notified of the second identifier received by the beacon receiving unit via a network different from the network for connecting to the base station device, and information about the content is acquired from the server device. And an information acquisition unit. The server device provides the terminal device with information related to the content corresponding to the second identifier notified from the terminal device with reference to the storage unit that stores the second identifier and information related to the content in association with each other. An information providing unit.

  It should be noted that any combination of the above-described constituent elements and a conversion of the expression of the present invention between a method, an apparatus, a system, a recording medium, a computer program, and the like are also effective as an aspect of the present invention.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, sufficient information can be provided to the user of a terminal device using the identifier with which the number of characters which can be set is restrict | limited.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a communication system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The communication system 100 includes a base station device 10, a terminal device 20, and a server device 30. The base station device 10 is an access point that constitutes a wireless LAN, and performs multicast distribution of content that can be received and played back by the terminal device 20. The content can include at least one of text, still images, moving images, audio, metadata, and the like. In the following description, it is assumed that the base station apparatus 10 is installed in a commercial store such as a convenience store and performs multicast distribution of contents in the store and in the vicinity thereof as an independent broadcasting system. For example, advertisement videos and coupons are distributed as content.

  The base station apparatus 10 includes a device information storage unit 11, a service information transmission unit 12, an identifier generation unit 13, a beacon transmission unit 14, and a connection processing unit 15. In addition, a content distribution processing unit (not shown) is provided. The content distribution processing unit performs content distribution processing on the terminal device 20. The terminal device 20 includes a beacon receiving unit 21, an identifier processing unit 22, a service ID storage unit 23, a service information acquisition unit 24, a user interface 25, and a connection processing unit 26. In addition, a content reception processing unit (not shown) is provided. The content reception processing unit receives content distributed from the base station device 10. The server device 30 includes a service information receiving unit 31, a service information storage unit 32, and a service information providing unit 33.

  Each configuration of the base station device 10, the terminal device 20, and the server device 30 can be realized in hardware by a CPU, memory, or other LSI of an arbitrary computer, and in software, a program loaded in the memory, etc. Here, functional blocks realized by their cooperation are depicted. Therefore, those skilled in the art will understand that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by hardware only, software only, or a combination thereof.

  The device information storage unit 11 identifies service information related to content distributed from the base station device 10, a service ID, address information for accessing the server device 30 that holds the service information, and the base station device 10. Holds the identifier.

  The service information is information related to the content to be distributed and is set in advance by the administrator. For example, “Sanyodenki store special sale information (digital camera edition) −Gifu Hashima station square store−September 30” is set. In this way, the service information can be described by a free character string including kanji, katakana, and hiragana. The service ID is an identifier for specifying the content distribution service, and is set in advance by the administrator. The service ID is formed by a character string described in alphanumeric characters or the like.

  The address information for accessing the server device 30 holding the service information may be a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). Hereinafter, an example using a URL will be described. Moreover, when the server apparatus 30 provides only a single service information, an IP address may be sufficient. The identifier for specifying the base station apparatus 10 may be a BSSID (Basic Service Set Identifier). Hereinafter, an example using BSSID will be described. Usually, a MAC (Media Access Control) address of the base station apparatus 10 is set in the BSSID.

  The service information transmission unit 12 transmits the service information and the BSSID to the server device 30. What is necessary is just to transmit via a general IP network. The URL of the server device 30 is held in the device information storage unit 11. In addition, when the server apparatus 30 exists in wireless LAN, you may connect via wireless LAN.

  The identifier generation unit 13 generates an identifier for permitting a connection request from the terminal device 20. The identifier may be an ESSID. The identifier generation unit 13 generates the identifier including address information for accessing the server device 30. In the present embodiment, the URL of the server device 30 is included. At that time, the URL may be compressed, and the compressed URL may be included in the ESSID. Further, the service ID is included in the ESSID. Details of these generation processes will be described later.

  The beacon transmission unit 14 transmits the identifier generated by the identifier generation unit 13 and the identifier for specifying the base station device 10 as a beacon. Specifically, a beacon including ESSID and BSSID is transmitted. The connection processing unit 15 establishes a connection in response to a connection request from the terminal device 20.

  The terminal device 20 is a terminal that can connect to the base station device 10 and receive the content. Further, the terminal is connected to the server device 30 and can receive information from the server device. A mobile phone, a smartphone, a notebook PC, a dedicated terminal, and the like may be applicable.

The beacon receiving unit 21 receives a beacon transmitted from the base station device 10. Specifically, the ESSID and BSSID are received.
The service ID storage unit 23 stores a service ID corresponding to the service ID stored in the device information storage unit 11 of the base station apparatus 10. This service ID may be set when an application for reproducing the content is downloaded, may be manually input by the user, or may be set by other methods.

  The identifier processing unit 22 acquires address information of the server device 30 included in the identifier received by the beacon receiving unit 21. More specifically, the service ID is acquired from the ESSID received by the beacon receiving unit 21 and collated with the service ID held in the service ID storage unit 23. If they match, the URL of the server device 30 is acquired from the ESSID. If the URL is compressed, it is decompressed to restore the original contents. This restoration process is an inverse conversion process of the URL generation process by the identifier generation unit 13.

  The service information acquisition unit 24 uses the address information acquired by the identifier processing unit 22 to notify the server device 30 of an identifier for identifying the base station device 10 received by the beacon reception unit 21, and stores the service information. get. More specifically, the service information acquisition unit 24 accesses the server device 30 based on the URL acquired by the identifier processing unit 22 and notifies the BSSID received by the beacon reception unit 21 so that the service ID Get service information corresponding to. At that time, the access is made through a network for connecting to the base station apparatus 10, that is, a network other than the wireless LAN. For example, access is made via a mobile phone network.

  The user interface 25 includes at least a display unit or an audio output unit (not shown) and an operation unit, provides service information acquired by the service information acquisition unit 24, and prompts the user to request a connection request to the base station apparatus 10. The user interface 25 may display the service information on the display unit or may output the audio information from the audio output unit.

  When a connection is instructed from the user interface 25 by the user, the connection processing unit 26 makes a connection request to the base station apparatus 10 using the identifier received by the beacon receiving unit 21, that is, the ESSID.

  The service information receiving unit 31 receives the service information transmitted from the service information transmitting unit 12 of the base station apparatus 10 and an identifier for identifying the base station apparatus 10, that is, BSSID, and stores them in the service information storage unit 32.

  The service information storage unit 32 stores an identifier for identifying the base station device 10, that is, a BSSID, and service information distributed from the base station device 10 in association with each other. When a plurality of base station apparatuses 10 are installed, a plurality of service information is stored.

  The service information providing unit 33 acquires an identifier for identifying the base station device 10 notified from the terminal device 20, that is, service information corresponding to the BSSID, with reference to the service information storage unit 32, and the terminal device 20 To provide.

Next, the operation of the communication system 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the base station apparatus 10 according to the embodiment.
The service information transmitting unit 12 acquires the BSSID in which the same character string as the MAC address of the base station device 10 is set, the service information set by the administrator, and the URL of the server device 30 from the device information storage unit 11 (S10). . The service information transmission unit 12 accesses the server device 30 based on the acquired URL, and notifies the BSSID and service information (S11).

  Next, the identifier generation unit 13 acquires the service ID and the URL from the device information storage unit 11 (S12). The identifier generation unit 13 generates an ESSID based on the acquired service ID and URL (S13).

Here, an example of ESSID generation processing will be described.
In this example, it is assumed that the URL is “http://www.sanyobroadcastservice.co.jp” and the service ID is “broadserv”. The identifier generation unit 13 combines the two character strings to generate a character string of 32 characters or less that can be used as an ESSID.

  First, the URL character string is compressed in the ZIP format. Thereby, binary data is generated. Next, the generated binary data is converted into a character string including alphanumeric characters using BASE64. Thereby, the character string which can be used as ESSID can be generated.

Returning to FIG. 2, the beacon transmission unit 14 periodically transmits the ESSID generated by the identifier generation unit 13 and the BSSID acquired from the device information storage unit 11 as a beacon (S14). This beacon transmission is repeatedly executed until the processing is completed (Y in S15).
The processing of the base station apparatus 10 includes a connection process with the terminal apparatus 20 and a content distribution process by multicast, but these processes are omitted.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the terminal device 20 according to the embodiment.
The beacon receiving unit 21 receives a beacon transmitted from the base station device 10 when connecting to the base station device 10 (S20). The beacon includes an ESSID and a BSSID.

  When the beacon receiving unit 21 succeeds in receiving the beacon (Y in S20), the identifier processing unit 22 determines whether or not the service ID included in the ESSID matches the service ID held in the service ID storage unit 23. (S21). If they match (Y in S21), the identifier processing unit 22 performs reverse conversion of the above-described ESSID generation processing, and acquires the URL included in the ESSID (S22).

  The service information acquisition unit 24 accesses the server device 30 based on the URL acquired by the identifier processing unit 22 (S23). When the connection with the server device 30 is established, the service information acquisition unit 24 notifies the BSSID included in the beacon received from the base station device 10 and requests service information (S24).

  When the service information acquisition unit 24 successfully acquires service information from the server device 30 (Y in S25), the service information acquisition unit 24 notifies the user interface 25 of the service information. The user interface 25 displays the service information and waits for an instruction from the user (S26). When there is a connection instruction from the user (Y in S27), the connection processing unit 26 issues a connection request to the base station apparatus 10 (S28). When the connection request is permitted by the base station device 10, the content receiving unit (not shown) of the terminal device 20 receives the content from the base station device 10 (S29). The content reception is continued while the process is not finished (N in S299).

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the server device 30 according to the embodiment.
Upon receiving the BSSID and service information notification from the base station apparatus 10 (Y in S30), the service information receiving unit 31 stores them in the service information storage unit 32 in association with each other. That is, the contents of the service information storage unit 32 are updated (S31).

  When the service information providing unit 33 receives a request for service information from the terminal device 20 (Y in S32), the service information providing unit 33 acquires service information corresponding to the BSSID included in the request from the service information storage unit 32 (S33). (S34). The series of service information providing processing described above is continued while the processing of the entire system does not end (N in S35).

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to provide sufficient information to the user of the terminal device using an identifier in which the number of characters that can be set is limited. Specifically, the information to be provided to the user is not included directly in the ESSID, but by including the URL instead, sufficient information can be provided to the user from the server device of the URL. In ESSID, not only the number of characters but also usable character types are limited to alphanumeric characters and the like. On the other hand, according to the present embodiment, service information can be described with a free character string including kanji, katakana, and hiragana, and information that is easy to read and understand for the user can be provided.

  Also, by compressing the URL, even if the URL character string is long, it can be included in the ESSID. In addition, by compressing, it is possible to prevent a terminal device that is not compatible with the independent broadcasting system from acquiring a URL. If compression cannot be included in one ESSID, it may be embedded in a plurality of ESSIDs. Also, the service ID may be compressed together.

  The present invention has been described based on some embodiments. This embodiment is an exemplification, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to combinations of the respective constituent elements and processing processes, and such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. is there.

  In the ESSID generation process described above, compression is performed in the ZIP format. However, compression may be performed in another format, for example, the LZH format. In addition, although binary data is encoded using BASE64, other conversion means may be employed. Further, even if the URL is not compressed, if it can be included in one ESSID, processing without compression is also possible. However, it becomes impossible to restrict access to the server device by a terminal device that is not compatible with the independent broadcast system.

1 is a block diagram showing a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the base station apparatus which concerns on embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the terminal device which concerns on embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the server apparatus which concerns on embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 base station apparatus, 11 apparatus information storage part, 12 service information transmission part, 13 identifier production | generation part, 14 beacon transmission part, 15 connection processing part, 20 terminal device, 21 beacon reception part, 22 identifier processing part, 23 service ID storage Unit, 24 service information acquisition unit, 25 user interface, 26 connection processing unit, 30 server device, 31 service information receiving unit, 32 service information storage unit, 33 service information providing unit, 100 communication system.

Claims (5)

A communication system that includes a base station device, a terminal device, and a server device, and distributes predetermined content from the base station device,
The base station device
An identifier generating unit that generates a first identifier including address information for accessing the server device as an identifier for permitting a connection request from the terminal device;
A beacon transmitter that transmits a first identifier generated by the identifier generator and a second identifier for identifying the base station device as a beacon;
The terminal device
A beacon receiving unit that receives a beacon transmitted from the base station device;
An identifier processing unit for acquiring address information included in the first identifier received by the beacon receiving unit;
The server device specified by the address information acquired by the identifier processing unit is notified of the second identifier received by the beacon receiving unit via a network different from the network for connecting to the base station device. An information acquisition unit that acquires information about the content from the server device,
The server device
A storage unit for storing the second identifier and information related to the content in association with each other;
An information providing unit that provides information related to the content corresponding to the second identifier notified from the terminal device to the terminal device with reference to the storage unit;
A communication system comprising: The address information is a URL (Uniform Resource Locator),
The first identifier is an ESSID (Extended Service Set Identifier),
The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the identifier generation unit compresses the URL and includes the compressed URL in the ESSID. A base station device that distributes predetermined content,
An identifier generating unit that generates a first identifier including address information for accessing a server device that holds information related to the content, as an identifier for permitting a connection request from a terminal device;
A beacon transmitter that transmits a first identifier generated by the identifier generator and a second identifier for identifying the base station device as a beacon;
A base station apparatus comprising: A beacon receiving unit that receives a beacon transmitted from a base station device that distributes predetermined content;
An identifier processing unit that obtains address information for accessing a server device that holds information about the content from the first identifier received by the beacon receiving unit;
An information acquisition unit for acquiring information related to the content from a server device specified by the address information acquired by the identifier processing unit;
A user interface that provides information acquired by the information acquisition unit and prompts a connection request instruction to the base station device;
A terminal device comprising: The beacon receiving unit receives a second identifier for identifying the base station device from the base station device,
The information acquisition unit notifies the server device specified by the address information acquired by the identifier processing unit of the second identifier received by the beacon reception unit, and acquires information about the content. The terminal device according to claim 4.

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