JP2009171193A - Communication device, communication method, and communication control program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication device that can execute communications during an optimum time-out period corresponding to request contents, a communication method, and a communication control program. <P>SOLUTION: When there are a plurality of requests by one-time communication processing, a time-out period as a reference for each type of request is previously provided. A request determination part 11B determines the type of request during actual communication by a communication part 18. A communication-time measurement part 11C measures a period of time after transmitting a one-time request for each request until receiving a response. A processing-time calculation part 11D calculates an optimum time-out period in the current communication processing for each type of request from a measured period of time obtained by the communication-time measurement part 11C and the previously-obtained time-out period as a reference. The time-out period calculated for each type of request by the processing-time calculation part 11D is stored in a time-out period storage part 14A. In the subsequent communication processing, communications are executed by the communication part 18 while using the time-out period for each type of request stored in the time-out period storage part 14A in one-time communication processing. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication apparatus, a communication method, and a communication control program used in an environment in which another communication device is operated in response to a request from the communication device such as a printer system connected via a network.

  In recent years, computer networks have become widespread, and many offices have constructed LANs connecting a plurality of information devices such as computers and printers. Peripheral devices such as computers and printers, scanners, and digital cameras are prevalent, and networks such as LANs are also prevalent. By sharing printing devices, modems, and image reading devices on the network, all devices on the network can be used. The environment has become usable.

  In such an environment where a printing device or the like is shared with others on the network, the printing device is often installed at a location away from his / her seat. When printing to such a printing device from the host PC, the printing device may already be in the printing process, or some kind of trouble, such as a paper jam or out of paper, an unexpected error, etc. may have occurred. is there. Printing delays and failures due to such factors are predicted in advance by the user based on experience and intuition, and the status of the printing apparatus is confirmed by a monitoring tool such as a Web browser or host PC application. It was necessary to print by specifying another printing device.

  Now that network printers have become widespread, there is an increasing demand for administrators to centrally manage a plurality of printers, and systems that can acquire and monitor the status of printers via the network are beginning to be supplied to the market. For large networks, the printer next to the administrator must be monitored from the printer 500km away, but if all of these are monitored in the same way, the physical distance between the administrator and the printer Because of the different levels of network congestion, the bankruptcy will occur.

  Therefore, for example, assuming that multiple printers are centrally managed at the center to enable easy-to-use printer management, the timeout time is managed for each printer and the communication time with the actual device is measured. There has been proposed a printer management system that automatically sets based on the result (see, for example, Patent Document 1). However, since the timeout period is not managed for each process, there is a problem that the actual timeout period does not match depending on the process to be executed.

  Also, in the printer device that prints the received data supplied from the host device via the network, if the end of the received data cannot be detected by the received data or the communication protocol, the output of the received data is not completed and is stopped. There was a problem of doing.

  Therefore, for example, even if the load state of the network or the host device fluctuates, received data from at least one host device can be automatically set to a suitable value without manually setting the reception timeout time. Is received at the end of the received data, a printer device that determines that the end of the received data measures the reception time for each packet, leaves it in the log, and finds the optimum timeout time for each packet. (For example, refer to Patent Document 2). However, since there is no standard time-out time, there is a problem that the time-out is not optimal when there is a case where the time is extremely long depending on the processing on the receiving side.

  Furthermore, a wireless communication system is proposed in which the timeout time is calculated based on the maximum and minimum packet round-trip time fluctuations, thereby improving the throughput and optimizing the communication utilization rate. (For example, refer to Patent Document 3).

Japanese Patent No. 3644801 JP-A-8-76944 JP 2004-253934 A

  As described above, in communication processing by network connection with an information device such as a printer system connected via a network, the sending device waits for the response of the receiving device, but the receiving device has some trouble. When a response cannot be returned due to the above, a time-out time until the response is provided so as not to wait for a long time.

  As such a timeout time, there is one that measures an actual communication time and calculates an optimum value as in the prior art.

  However, depending on the content requested by the transmission side to the reception side in the communication process, the time until the response may differ, and thus the measured time is not necessarily applicable to all.

  For this reason, when the optimization is performed with the time measured by the request that is the earliest for the receiving side, the request that takes the longest may time out.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a communication device, a communication method, and a communication control program capable of performing communication with an optimum timeout time corresponding to the requested content in view of the conventional situation as described above.

  Other objects of the present invention and specific advantages obtained by the present invention will become more apparent from the description of embodiments described below.

  In the present invention, when there are a plurality of requests in one communication process, a time-out time serving as a reference is set in advance for each type of request, and the time until response is measured for each request during actual communication. The measurement result is calculated, and communication is performed with an optimal timeout time in one communication process.

  That is, the present invention is a communication device that performs communication processing with another communication device through a network connection, and includes a communication unit that performs communication, a communication time measurement unit that measures communication time by the communication unit, and communication processing. From the measurement time obtained from the communication time measurement unit and the reference time-out time obtained in advance from the request judgment unit for judging the request, the communication processing control unit for controlling the communication processing, and the optimum in the current communication processing A processing time calculation unit that calculates a time-out time and a time-out time storage unit that stores the time-out time calculated by the processing time calculation unit, and when there are a plurality of requests in one communication process, A time-out period that is a reference for each type is set in advance, and the type of request is determined by the request determination unit during actual communication by the communication unit, and one request is transmitted for each request. The time until the response is received is measured by the communication time measurement unit, and the optimum time-out time in the current communication processing is calculated from the measurement time obtained from the communication time measurement unit and the reference time-out time obtained in advance. Is calculated for each type of request by the processing time calculation unit, the timeout time calculated for each type of request by the processing time calculation unit is stored in the timeout time storage unit, and one communication is performed in the subsequent communication processing. Within the processing, communication is performed by the communication unit using a timeout time for each type of request stored in the timeout time storage unit.

  The communication apparatus according to the present invention may calculate a time-out time for each request type by the processing time calculation unit every time communication processing is performed, and store the time-out time in the time-out time storage unit.

  In addition, the present invention is a communication method in a communication device that performs communication processing with other communication devices by network connection, and when there are a plurality of requests in one communication processing, a time-out that is a reference for each type of request Time is determined in advance, the type of request is determined during actual communication, the time from when a request is sent to when a response is received is measured for each type of request, and the measurement time obtained by the above measurement From the standard timeout time obtained in advance, the optimal timeout time in the current communication process is calculated for each request type, and the calculated timeout time is stored for each request type. Communication is performed using a time-out time for each type of stored request within one communication process.

  Furthermore, the present invention is a communication program executed by a computer provided in a communication device that performs communication processing with another communication device through a network connection, and is requested when there are a plurality of requests in one communication processing. A reference time-out time is provided in advance for each type of communication, the type of request is determined at the time of actual communication, and the time until response is measured for each request, and obtained from the above communication time measurement process Calculated for each request type by the processing time calculation process that calculates the optimal timeout time for the current communication process for each request type from the measurement time and the standard timeout time obtained in advance, and the above processing time calculation process In the time-out time storing process for storing the time-out time and the subsequent communication process, the time-out time storing process is performed within one communication process. A communication process that communicates using the timeout time for each type of 憶 the request, characterized in that to be executed by the computer.

  In the present invention, by providing a reference time-out time according to the actual processing content, it is possible to distinguish between a process that does not take a long time for a response and such a process, and the measured result is also an optimum value from the reference time. By requesting, it is possible to obtain a reasonable timeout time in the communication processing, so there is no need to wait unnecessarily due to more effective timeout, and conversely, timeout occurs because the timeout time is too early. Can be prevented.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a communication device, a communication method, and a communication control program capable of performing communication with an optimal timeout time corresponding to the requested content.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Needless to say, the present invention is not limited to the following examples, and can be arbitrarily changed without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  In the present invention, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, a host apparatus 10 and a plurality of image forming apparatuses 20 (20A, 20B, 20C...) Are connected to each other via a network 30 such as a LAN so as to be able to communicate with each other. Applied to forming system 100.

  In this image forming system 100, the host device 10 is formed of a so-called personal computer including, for example, an application program 10A, an operating system 10B, a printer driver 10C, and the like. As shown in FIG. A control unit 11 comprising a CPU for processing, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 12 for storing control programs and data, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 13 for temporarily storing programs and data as a work area, and an update An EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM) 14 for storing various setting data, a hard disk 15 as an external storage device for storing various programs and data, and a display unit 16 such as a liquid crystal display for displaying various information , Input of various instructions An input unit 17 consisting of a fit of a keyboard and a mouse, such as communication unit 18 composed of a network interface such as a LAN card for connecting to the network 30 are connected to each other via a bus 19.

  The image forming apparatus 20 is a so-called multi-function machine having, for example, copying, printing, scanning, facsimile transmission and facsimile reception functions. As shown in FIG. 3, the image forming apparatus 20 is centered on a CPU that controls operation of the entire apparatus. The control unit 21 includes a printing unit 22, a document reading unit 23, an operation display unit 24, a job storage unit 25, a job information management unit 26, and a network interface such as a LAN card for connecting to the network 30. A communication unit 27 and the like are connected.

  In the image forming system 100, the host device 10 is a communication device according to the present invention that communicates with the image forming device 20, which is another device on the network 30, or another host device, and includes a control unit including the CPU. 11, in accordance with the communication control program read from the ROM 12, when there are a plurality of requests in one communication process, a time-out time serving as a reference is provided in advance for each request type as shown in the flowchart of FIG. A communication time measurement process (step S1) for determining the type of request at the time of actual communication and measuring a time until a response for each request, a measurement time obtained from the communication time measurement process, and a reference obtained in advance Processing time calculation process that calculates the optimal timeout time for the current communication process from the timeout time of each request type (step 2), a timeout time storage process (step S3) for storing the timeout time calculated for each request type by the above processing time calculation process, and the timeout in one communication process in the subsequent communication process A communication process (step S4) for performing communication using the timeout time for each type of request stored by the time storage process is executed.

  As shown in the block diagram of FIG. 5, the control unit 11 in the host device 10 includes a communication time measurement unit 11 </ b> A that measures a communication time by the communication unit 18 that performs communication, and a request determination that determines a request in communication processing. The optimum time-out time in the current communication processing is calculated from the measurement time obtained from the unit 11B, the communication processing control unit 11C that controls the communication processing, and the measurement time obtained from the communication time measurement unit 11C and the reference time-out time obtained in advance. Functions as a processing time calculation unit 11D, and when there are a plurality of requests in one communication process, a reference time-out time is provided in advance for each type of request, and the request determination is performed at the time of actual communication by the communication unit 18. The communication time measuring unit 11C measures the time from when the type of request is determined by the unit 11B and when a request is transmitted for each request until the response is received, Based on the measurement time obtained from the transmission time measurement unit 11C and the reference timeout time obtained in advance, an optimum timeout time in the current communication processing is calculated for each type of request by the processing time calculation unit 11D, and the above processing time The time-out time calculated for each type of request by the calculation unit 11D is stored in the time-out time storage unit 14A on the EEPROM 14, and the time-out time storage unit 14A is stored in one communication process in a subsequent communication process. The communication device 50 that performs communication by the communication unit 18 is configured using the timeout time for each type of request stored in the above.

  Then, as illustrated in the flowchart of FIG. 6, the control unit 11 in the host device 10 starts one communication process by the communication unit 18, and the communication process control unit 11 </ b> C that controls the communication process causes one communication process to be performed. It is determined whether or not all requests have been completed (step S11). If the determination result is “NO”, that is, if there is an unprocessed request, the request determination unit 11B determines the type of request to be processed next. (Step S12), a time-out time serving as a reference in the request of the type or an optimized time-out time is acquired from the time-out time storage unit 14A (Step S13).

  Here, an average value of timeout times obtained in past communication processing or a value obtained by statistical processing is used as the above-mentioned reference timeout time.

  Next, the control unit 11 starts measurement by the communication time measuring unit 11A (step S14), transmits a request to be processed next from the communication unit 18 (step S15), and from the communication time measuring unit 11C. It is determined whether or not the obtained measurement time has exceeded the timeout time (step S16), and the determination result is “NO”, that is, the measurement time obtained from the communication time measuring unit 11C has not exceeded the timeout time. In this case, it is determined whether or not a response to the transmitted request has been received by the communication unit 18 (step S17).

  If the determination result in step S17 is “NO”, that is, if a response to the transmitted request has not been received, the control unit 11 returns to step S16 to determine each determination in steps S16 and S17. The processing is repeated, and when the determination result in step S16 is “YES”, that is, when the measurement time obtained from the communication time measuring unit 11C has exceeded the timeout time, the communication processing control unit 11C controls the communication processing. When the determination result in step S17 is “YES”, that is, when a response to the transmitted request is received, the measurement by the communication time measurement unit 11A is completed (step S18), and the communication time measurement is completed. From the measurement time obtained from the part 11C and the reference time-out time obtained in advance, The optimum time-out time in communication processing is calculated by the processing time calculation unit 11D (step S19), and the time-out time for the request type calculated by the processing time calculation unit 11D is stored in the time-out time storage unit 14A on the EEPROM 14. (Step S20), the process returns to the determination process of Step S11.

  Here, FIG. 7 schematically shows a state of processing for one request.

  The control unit 11 repeatedly transmits the plurality of requests in one communication process by repeatedly performing the processes in steps S11 to S20, and sets the optimum timeout period for the request type for each request type transmitted. When the request is stored in the timeout time storage unit 14A on the EEPROM 14 and the determination result in step S11 is "YES", that is, when all the requests in one communication process are completed by the communication process control unit 11C that controls the communication process, The communication process control by the communication process control unit 11C is terminated.

  In the image forming system 100, an example of communication processing when the host device 10 acquires address book information from the multifunction machine 20A will be described.

  Here, it is assumed that only e-mail addresses are acquired from the address book data, 10 can be acquired in one packet, and 55 data exist.

  This communication process is a process for acquiring all mail addresses from the address book. For example, as shown in the following Table 1, a request type is defined for each request content, and is executed according to the procedure shown in the flowchart of FIG. Is done.

  That is, in the case of this communication process, the host device 10 acquires the status from the multi-function device 20A (step S31), further acquires the number of address books (step S32), and then acquires 10 mail addresses. (Step S33), it is determined whether or not the number of email addresses in the address book acquired in Step S32 has been acquired (Step S33), and the number of email addresses in the address book acquired in Step S32 is acquired. Then, the communication process is terminated.

  In this example, obtaining a mail address requires a certain amount of time per case, and the larger the number of cases, the longer it takes to respond, so the response time for obtaining an email address is (response time / number of cases) X10.

  The timeout time to be optimized is determined by taking an average of response times for each request type and further counting the difference between the value and the default timeout. Judgment of the difference from the default timeout is based on a pre-defined value depending on the size of the difference.

  Here, as shown in Table 2 below, if the difference is within 1 second, it will be +11 seconds, if the difference is 1 to 5 seconds, it will be +3 seconds, and the difference will be 5 seconds to 10 seconds. If the difference is 11 to 20 seconds, then it is 8 seconds.

  That is, in this example, the response time in the process of acquiring the status from the MFP 20A in step S31 is 0.5 seconds, and the average value +3 seconds of 3.50 seconds is calculated as the optimum timeout time. The response time in the process of acquiring the number of address books in step S32 is 0.7 seconds, 3.60 seconds, which is an average value + 3 seconds, is calculated as the optimum timeout time, and the mail in step S33 In the process of acquiring 10 addresses at a time, the response time when the 1st to 10th addresses are acquired is 3.8 seconds, and 11.80 seconds, which is an average value + 8 seconds, is calculated as the optimum timeout time. The response time when the case is acquired is 2.5 seconds, and 11.15 seconds, which is an average value + 8 seconds, is calculated as the optimum timeout time. The response time when acquired is 2.8 seconds, and 11.03 seconds, which is an average value + 8 seconds, is calculated as the optimum timeout time. The response time when the 31st to 40th items are acquired is 3.2 seconds. The average value +8 seconds, 11.08 seconds, is calculated as the optimum timeout time, and when the 41st to 50th cases are acquired, the response time is 3.5 seconds, and the average value + 8 seconds 11.16 seconds is the optimum timeout time. The response time when the 51st to 55th records are acquired is 1.6 seconds, and 11.17 seconds of the average value + 8 seconds is calculated as the optimum timeout time.

  In this way, by providing a reference time-out time according to the actual processing content, it is possible to distinguish between a process that does not take a long time to respond and a process that takes a long time, and the measured result is also an optimum value from the reference time. By requesting, it is possible to obtain a reasonable timeout time in the communication processing, so there is no need to wait unnecessarily due to more effective timeout, and conversely, timeout occurs because the timeout time is too early. Can be prevented.

1 is a block diagram showing an image forming system to which the present invention is applied. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a host device in the image forming system. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming apparatus in the image forming system. FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the communication control by the control part which consists of CPU with which the said image forming apparatus was equipped. It is a block diagram which shows the basic composition of the communication apparatus based on this invention comprised centering around the function structure of the control part in the said host apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the communication process by the said communication apparatus. It is a figure which shows typically the mode of the process about one request | requirement. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a communication processing procedure in which a host device in the image forming system acquires a mail address from the image forming device.

Explanation of symbols

  10 host device, 10A application program, 10B operating system, 10C printer driver, 11 control unit, 11A communication time measurement unit, 11B request determination unit, 11C communication processing control unit, 11D processing time calculation unit, 12 ROM, 13 RAM, 14 EEPROM, 14A timeout time storage unit, 15 hard disk, 16 display unit, 17 input unit, 18 communication unit, 19 bus, 20 (20A, 20B, 20C...) Image forming apparatus, 21 control unit, 22 printing unit, 23 Document reading unit, 24 operation display unit, 25 job storage unit, 26 job information management unit, 27 communication unit, 30 network, 50 communication device, 100 image forming system

Claims (4)

A communication device that performs communication processing with other communication devices through a network connection,
A communication unit for communication;
A communication time measuring unit for measuring communication time by the communication unit;
A request determination unit for determining a request in communication processing;
A communication processing control unit for controlling communication processing;
A processing time calculation unit that calculates the optimal timeout time in the current communication process from the measurement time obtained from the communication time measurement unit and the reference timeout time obtained in advance,
A timeout time storage unit for storing the timeout time calculated by the processing time calculation unit,
When there are a plurality of requests in one communication process, a reference time-out time is provided for each request type in advance, and the request determination unit determines the request type during actual communication by the communication unit, and each request Measure the time from sending one request to receiving a response until the response time is received,
From the measurement time obtained from the communication time measurement unit and the reference timeout time obtained in advance, the optimal time-out time in the current communication processing is calculated for each type of request by the processing time calculation unit,
Store the timeout time calculated for each type of request in the processing time calculation unit in the timeout time storage unit,
In a subsequent communication process, the communication unit performs communication by using the time-out time for each type of request stored in the time-out time storage unit in one communication process.   The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each time a communication process is performed, the processing time calculation unit calculates a time-out time for each request type and stores the time-out time in the time-out time storage unit. A communication method in a communication device that performs communication processing with another communication device by network connection,
When there are multiple requests in one communication process, a reference timeout time is provided for each request type in advance, the type of request is judged during actual communication, and a response is sent after sending one request. Measure the time to receive for each request type,
From the measurement time obtained by the above measurement and the reference timeout time obtained in advance, the optimal timeout time in the current communication processing is calculated for each request type,
Remember the timeout time calculated for each request type,
In a later communication process, communication is performed using a time-out time for each type of request stored in one communication process. A communication program executed by a computer provided in a communication device that performs communication processing with another communication device by network connection,
When there are multiple requests in a single communication process, a reference time-out period is set in advance for each request type, the type of request is determined during actual communication, and the time until response is measured for each request. Communication time measurement processing,
A processing time calculation process for calculating the optimum timeout time for the current communication process for each type of request from the measurement time obtained from the communication time measurement process and the reference timeout time obtained in advance,
Timeout time storage processing for storing the timeout time calculated for each request type by the above processing time calculation processing;
In the subsequent communication process, the communication process for performing communication using a timeout time for each type of request stored by the timeout time storage process in one communication process is executed by the computer. Communication program.

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