JP2010011156A - Wireless telemeter system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a wireless telemeter system which can be installed even at a place where the system could not be installed conventionally because of an adverse radio status, by adding repeaters over a plurality of stages, and by which the area of wide range can be controlled by one master unit. <P>SOLUTION: Each of a wireless master unit 12 and wireless repeaters 13 (13a, 13b... 13n) constituting a wireless telemeter system includes a means for managing wireless connection information of all the wireless repeaters and wireless slave units 14 (14a, 14b, 14c) wirelessly connected under control thereof and includes a function of searching for a connection route of devices under control from the wireless connection information. The function enables an overall structure of the system to be controlled in a tree structure; and in a case where a communication fault may be incurred by an interference radiowave or the like, the area in which the communication fault may easily occur can be easily predetermined. Furthermore, a function of calculating the number of wireless stages and changing a wireless communication time-out time and a function of re-coupling in a case where coupling is canceled can also be provided. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a radio telemeter system, and more particularly to a specific low power radio telemeter system that performs radio relaying in a plurality of stages.

  Conventionally, a network control device for performing meter reading of gas, water, etc. is connected to a network control device by connecting a master unit having a wireless communication function and a slave unit and a relay device capable of only one-stage wireless relay. Wireless telemeter systems have been developed that wirelessly communicate between meters.

  FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a schematic example of the system configuration of a conventional radio telemeter system. In FIG. 8, a center side network control device 101, a terminal network control device (hereinafter referred to as “wireless master”) 102, a wireless repeater (1) 103a, a wireless slave device 104 (104a, 104b, 104c), and a meter device. 105. The center side apparatus 101 and the terminal network control apparatus 102 are connected via a telephone network and have a function of performing data communication with each other. Further, the wireless master device 102, the wireless relay device (1) 103a, and the wireless slave device 104 each have a wireless communication function, and the wireless master device 102 wirelessly communicates with the wireless relay device (1) 103a and the wireless slave device 104c. Connected to each other and have a function of performing data communication with each other. The wireless repeater (1) 103a is connected to the wireless base station 102 on the upstream side of wireless communication and the wireless handset 104a and 104b on the downstream side by wireless communication, and has a function of performing data communication with each other. . Further, each of the wireless slave devices 104a and 104b is wirelessly connected to one wireless repeater (1) 103a on the upstream side of wireless communication, and wired to the meter device 105 on the downstream side. The wireless base station 102 is wirelessly connected to the upstream side of the wireless communication, and the meter device 105 is wired to the downstream side.

As a wireless telemeter system, for example, Patent Literature 1 describes a wireless telemeter system that measures the radio field intensity between a parent device and a child device, searches for a place with a good communication environment, and determines the installation location of the parent device. ing. The method of the wireless telemeter system disclosed in Patent Document 1 attempts to install a device in a place where the radio wave condition is optimal. Therefore, there is a problem that the installation location is limited by the radio wave condition.
JP 2006-331149 A

  In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to add a repeater over a plurality of stages, so that it can be installed even in a place where a radio wave condition has not been able to be installed in the past, and a wide range area can be set to one master unit. It is to provide a radio telemeter system that can be managed by

  The invention described in claim 1 (abbreviated as “claim”, hereinafter the same) includes a terminal network control device connected to a center side network control device via a communication line, and the terminal A wireless master device wired to a network control device, a wireless relay device composed of a plurality of stages wirelessly connected to the wireless master device, and wirelessly connected to the wireless master device or the wireless relay device, and each having a microcomputer meter A wireless telemeter system including a plurality of wireless slave devices connected by wire, wherein the wireless master device and the wireless relay device are all wirelessly connected to each of the wireless relay devices and the wireless slave devices. The wireless telemeter system has a function of managing wireless connection information of a device and has a function of searching for a connection route of each subordinate device from the wireless connection information. As a result, the overall structure of the system can be managed in a tree structure, and when a communication failure occurs due to jamming radio waves or the like, it is easy to specify in which area the communication failure is likely to occur.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, each of the wireless relay device and the wireless slave device is a wireless connection route to the wireless master device obtained from the wireless connection information of the subordinate device and the searched connection route. Information is stored. As a result, since the route information of the devices passing from the wireless repeater and the wireless slave device to the wireless repeater and the upstream wireless repeater is known, a specific upstream from the downstream device A message can be transmitted to the device, and the upstream device can be operated from the downstream device.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the wireless master device, the wireless relay device, and the wireless slave device each transmit by adding information indicating a device from which a transmission request is issued when performing wireless communication. Is. As a result, the number of wireless relay stages with the communication partner can be calculated.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the wireless master device and the wireless relay device each calculate the number of wireless stages with a device that performs communication based on the wireless connection information, and a wireless communication timeout time according to the number of stages. Is to change. As a result, a timeout longer than necessary is not counted as compared with a fixed timeout value according to the assumed maximum number of relay stages of radio, and a reduction in current consumption is possible.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the wireless master device, the wireless relay device, and the previous wireless slave device are associated with the own device when releasing the wireless relay device already associated with the own device. The re-association between the upstream device and the downstream device that was associated with the device itself is automatically performed. As a result, it is not necessary to manually manually re-equipment of the devices under the device to be demarcated, and the work can be facilitated.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the wireless master device has a function of holding an error log when a communication error occurs in communication with a downstream subordinate device, and the connection path between the error log and the subordinate device From this, an area where communication failure is likely to occur is identified and notified to the center side network control device. As a result, it is not necessary to specify an area in the center side network control device, and it is possible to reduce human work and the number of communications.

  With the above configuration, in the wireless communication between the wireless master device and the wireless slave device, the present invention can expand a communication area over a wide range with respect to one master device by adding a multi-stage wireless relay device. In addition, it is possible to change the communication timeout time in accordance with the increase in the number of wireless relay stages, thereby realizing low current consumption.

  As described above, according to the present invention, useless current consumption due to waiting for an unnecessarily necessary communication timeout time is eliminated, and the installation range of devices in the wireless communication between the wireless master device and the wireless slave device in the terminal network control device And the quality of wireless communication can be improved.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the wireless telemeter system of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration for performing communication in the wireless telemeter system of the present invention. The wireless telemeter system of the present invention includes a center side network control device 11, a terminal network control device (hereinafter referred to as “wireless master”) 12, a wireless repeater 13 (13a, 13b to 13n), and a wireless slave device 14 (14a). , 14b, 14c) and the meter device 15. The center side device 11 and the terminal network control device 12 are connected via a telephone network and have a function of performing data communication with each other. The wireless master device 12, the wireless relay device 13 and the wireless slave device 14 each have a wireless communication function. The wireless master device 12 is connected to the wireless relay device 13 and the wireless slave device 14 by wireless communication, and is mutually connected. A function to perform data communication is provided. The wireless repeater 13 is connected to one wireless master unit 12 or another wireless repeater 13 by wireless communication on the upstream side of wireless communication, and a plurality of other wireless repeaters 13 or further downstream is connected. It is connected to the wireless slave unit 14 by wireless communication and has a function of performing data communication with each other. Further, the wireless slave unit 14 is connected to a single wireless master unit 12 or a wireless relay unit 13 by wireless communication on the upstream side of wireless communication, and is connected to a plurality of meter devices 15 on the downstream side by wire communication. It has a function to communicate.

  FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a memory configuration of wireless edge information (hereinafter abbreviated as “edge information”) in the wireless telemeter system of the present invention. The data included in the association information of this wireless telemeter system is composed of the ID information 21 of the own device and the ID information 23 of the upstream device associated with the device corresponding to the ID assigned to the association information management table 22. Has been. Each device has a similar memory area and a function for managing the association information. Note that the association information table 22 has a function of recording memories for IDs of all wireless relay devices and wireless slave devices that may exist within one wireless master device 12.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a reference procedure for wireless communication route information (hereinafter, abbreviated as “route information”. The same applies to the description in FIG. 3) in the wireless telemeter system. First, a case where route information from an upstream device to a downstream device is referred will be described. When the wireless master device 12 (ID: 000) refers to the route information to the wireless slave device 14a (ID: 201), first, the relationship information 31 of the wireless master device 12 has the route information in the relationship information management table 22. The value of a certain wireless slave device 14a, that is, the value of the ID information 23 of the upstream device corresponding to ID: 201 (108 in this case) is read. Next, the value (107 in this case) of the ID information 23 of the upstream device corresponding to the value (ID: 108) of the association information management table 22 that matches the value (108) of the read ID information is read. In the same manner, the above processing is repeated until the value in the ID information 23 of the upstream device that has been read matches the value in the ID information 21 of the own device (in this case, 000). The path information 33 from the wireless master device 12 (ID: 000) to the wireless slave device 14a (ID: 201) is constructed by accumulating the ID of the matching information management table 22 or the upstream device ID 23 read at this time. be able to.

  Next, the case where the route information from the downstream device to the upstream device is referred will be described. When the wireless slave device 14b (ID: 202) refers to route information to the wireless master device 12 (ID: 000), first, an ID value (ID: 000) corresponding to the wireless master device 12 that is the route destination is obtained. A search is made from the ID information 23 of the upstream device of the association information 32 held by the wireless slave device 14b, and the value (ID: 101) of the association information management table 22 corresponding to the memory area in which the found ID is recorded is read. Next, an ID that matches the read ID value (ID: 101) is searched from the ID information 23 of the upstream device. In the same manner, the process is repeated until the read ID value of the matching information management table 22 matches the value in the ID information 21 of the own device. The route information 34 to the wireless master device 12 (ID: 000) can be constructed by accumulating the ID of the association information management table 22 or the ID 23 of the upstream device read at this time.

  In this manner, the wireless telemeter system has a function of referring to wireless communication path information with a partner that performs wireless communication. In addition, the wireless communication path information is provided with a function of acquiring the number of wireless stages with the other party performing wireless communication.

  FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a communication packet configuration used for wireless communication in the wireless telemeter system. A communication packet used for wireless communication includes a transmission request source ID 41. The transmission request source ID 41 is an ID of a source device that has issued a communication request. In wireless communication including a plurality of stages, all devices that have performed wireless communication specify the source device that has issued a packet transmission request. It has a function.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart for performing wireless communication by setting a timeout according to the number of wireless communication stages in the wireless telemeter system. When performing wireless communication, first, the number of wireless stages up to the end communication partner is acquired (step S1), and the acquired number n of wireless stages is stored (step S2). Next, the communication timeout time T in the case of one radio stage is referred (step S3), and multiplied by the value of the radio stage number n stored in step S2, and the communication timeout period (t) (= n × T) As a timer counter (step S4). Next, when the wireless data transmission is completed (step S5), it is determined whether or not to wait for the next reception (step S6). If it is determined to wait for the reception, the value (t) of the timer counter set in step 4 is constant. In order to decrement at a cycle, a timer count is started (step S7). If it is determined that it is not waiting for reception, the communication process is terminated. After the timer count is started in step S7, it is determined whether or not a timeout (timer counter value (t) = 0) has been reached (step S8). When it is determined that it is not time-out, it is determined whether or not the data reception is completed (step S9). When it is determined that the data reception is not completed, the process returns to step S8. If it is determined that data reception has been completed, it is determined whether or not to continue communication (step S10). If it is determined that communication is to be continued, the process returns to step S4. If it is determined that the communication is not continued, the communication process is terminated.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing changes in the edge information when the edge of the repeater 13a is canceled in the wireless telemeter system. When canceling the connection of the wireless relay device 13a that has already been connected, the upstream device (wireless master device 12) and the downstream device (wireless relay device 13b, wireless slave device 14b) that are connected to the wireless relay device 13a. The device that has notified and received further has a function of performing similar notification to the upstream and downstream devices. The device that has received the notification reads the ID 23 of the upstream device stored in the ID part of the marriage information table 22 corresponding to the ID (ID: 101) of the device (wireless repeater 13a) to be unmarried. If there is an ID 23 that matches the ID (ID: 101) of the device to be unmarried, the read data (this time the wireless master device 12 becomes the upstream device and the wireless master device 12 A function of rewriting to ID (ID: 000)) is provided. Further, when the above-described rewriting process is completed, a function of deleting the ID 23 (ID: 000) of the upstream device corresponding to the registration ID (ID (ID: 101) of the association information management table 22 in the past) as indicated by a dotted line 61. It has.

  FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a communication packet returned when a reception timeout from a downstream device occurs in the wireless telemeter system. The communication packet used at the time of reception timeout has a configuration including error information 71. When a reception timeout occurs, the device that has determined that the timeout has set the ID of the transmission request source ID 41, sets the error information 71 to be a timeout, and transmits to the wireless master device 12. Yes. In addition, the wireless master device 12 identifies the section that caused the communication error from the received transmission request source ID 41 and the device ID that the wireless master device 12 should have transmitted when the reception time-out occurred, and stores it as a log. And a function for identifying an area where a communication error is likely to occur from log information.

It is a block diagram which shows the communication structure in the radio | wireless telemeter system by this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the memory structure of radio | wireless edge information in the radio | wireless telemeter system shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the reference procedure of the radio | wireless communication path | route information in the radio | wireless telemeter system shown in FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the communication packet structure used for radio | wireless communication in the radio | wireless telemeter system of this invention. It is a flowchart which performs the time-out setting according to the radio | wireless communication step number in the radio | wireless telemeter system of this invention. It is the figure which showed the change of the edge information at the time of canceling the edge of one repeater in the radio telemeter system of this invention. It is a block diagram of the communication packet returned when the reception timeout from a downstream apparatus generate | occur | produces in the radio | wireless telemeter system of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the communication structure in the conventional radio telemeter system.

Explanation of symbols

11 Center side network controller 12 Terminal network controller (wireless master unit)
13a-13n Wireless repeater 14a, 14b, 14c Wireless slave unit 15 Meter device (microcomputer meter)
21 ID of own device 22 Matching information management table 23 ID of upstream device
31 Marriage information possessed by the wireless master device 32 Margin information 33, 34 route information possessed by the wireless slave device ID of the transmission request source
61 Rewritten part 62 Deleted part 71 Error information

Claims (6)

A terminal network control device connected to the center-side network control device via a communication line, a wireless master device wired to the terminal network control device, and a wireless device comprising a plurality of stages wirelessly connected to the wireless master device In a wireless telemeter system comprising a repeater, and a plurality of wireless slave devices that are wirelessly connected to the wireless master device or the wireless relay device and each connected to a microcomputer meter by wire,
Each of the wireless master device and the wireless relay device has means for managing wireless connection information of all the wireless relay devices and wireless slave devices wirelessly connected to each of the wireless master devices and the wireless slave devices. A wireless telemeter system characterized by having a function of searching for a connection path.   Each of the wireless relay device and the wireless slave device has a function of storing wireless connection route information to the wireless master device obtained from the wireless connection information of the subordinate device and the searched connection route. The radio telemeter system according to claim 1.   The wireless master device, the wireless relay device, and the wireless slave device each have a function of adding and transmitting information indicating a device from which a transmission request is issued when performing wireless communication. Item 3. The marginal telemeter system according to item 1 or 2.   The wireless master device and the wireless relay device each have a function of calculating the number of wireless stages with a device that performs communication based on the wireless connection information and changing a wireless communication timeout time according to the number of stages. The wireless telemeter system according to any one of claims 1 to 3.   The wireless master unit, the wireless repeater, and the previous term wireless slave unit, when canceling the border of the wireless repeater that is already associated with the own device, the upstream device and the own device are associated with the own device. The wireless telemeter system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the wireless telemeter system has a function of automatically performing re-association between downstream devices.   The wireless master unit has a function of holding an error log when a communication error occurs in communication with a downstream subordinate device, and an area where a communication failure is likely to occur from the connection path of the error log and the subordinate device. 2. The radio telemeter system according to claim 1, further comprising a function of specifying and notifying the center side network control device.