JP2011193541A - Radio communication apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve such problems of a radio communication apparatus that there is a lack of effectiveness of preferential scanning, not in accordance with an actual call arrival state because a preferential channel fixedly set in advance has been scanned, and further there is an inconvenience for registration and change of channels because a receiver is connected to a PC through a cable. <P>SOLUTION: The number of call arrival times and call arrival time with respect to each signal receiving channel are counted within prescribed time or during the prescribed number of times of scanning cycles, and a priority degree is evaluated by referring to a reception history, and then a preferential channel is automatically set. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a scanning function of a wireless communication device, and more particularly, to a wireless communication device with a scanning function and a scanning method capable of changing a scanning priority based on a scanning reception history.

  In a communication system in which a plurality of wireless communication channels are set, a scanning reception function that receives signals while sequentially switching each wireless communication channel is often used. The scanning reception function is frequently used not only in commercial radio communication systems used for disaster prevention, police, security, transportation, but also in leisure radio communication systems such as amateur radio and personal radio.

  FIG. 7 is a scanning sequence showing basic scanning reception processing (normal scan) of a conventional wireless communication device. As an example of a system having four reception channels Ch1 to Ch4 as wireless communication channels, as shown in FIG. 7 (a), CH1 → CH2 → CH3 → CH4 → CH1 → CH2 → CH3 → CH4 → ... Simply scans CH1 to CH4 repeatedly, and sequentially switches while detecting the presence or absence of an incoming call. If an incoming call is detected on one of the channels during scanning reception, scanning stops and reception continues while the incoming call continues on that channel, and if the incoming call stops for a certain period of time, it moves to the next channel. Restart scanning reception.

In addition, the reception time on the channel where the incoming call is detected is limited to a predetermined time, and if an operation for instructing the reception to be continued is performed within that time, the reception is continued continuously. When there is no scan instruction, after the set time elapses, control may be performed so that scanning reception from the next channel is resumed even if the incoming call continues.
There is also known a method of priority scanning reception in which a specific channel is set as a priority channel, and the priority channel is called more times than other channels and received by monitoring during one scan. FIG. 7B is a diagram showing a reception sequence showing an example of conventional priority scanning reception. In this example, one channel CH3 is registered as a priority channel (PRI: priority channel). CH1 → PRI (CH3) → CH2 → PRI (CH3) → CH4 → PRI (CH3) → CH1 → PRI (CH3) → CH2 → PRI (CH3) → CH4 → PRI (CH3) →... Scanning reception is performed.

However, the number of scanning reception channels increases, and monitor reception of channels to be noticed is delayed, and reception of radio stations that are rarely transmitted is missed. In addition, if the target channel to be scanned is not clear, it is a matter of course that the priority channel cannot be set in advance, and there is a problem in usability.
Therefore, as disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 1, if the incoming call is not detected even if the first group set as the scanning reception target is detected, the second group set as the possibility of the response. There has been proposed a radio communication apparatus having an operation of transmitting a check signal to a wireless communication apparatus, detecting a wireless communication apparatus that has responded to the check signal, and adding the detected signal to a scanning channel.
Further, as disclosed in Patent Document 2, scanning is performed while arbitrarily selecting a predetermined number of channels from a large number of scanning target channels, and all target channels are scanned in a predetermined number of scanning cycles. For example, a method of performing random scan control is known.

Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-63132 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-179018

  However, in the conventional scanning receiver or the scanning reception method as described above, only a preset priority channel is preferentially scanned. For example, there is a channel that may receive incoming calls relatively frequently. When setting the channel as the priority channel, if it is not clear which channel corresponds to it, it may be counterproductive. That is, if it is not known that there are incoming calls relatively frequently and it is excluded from the priority channel, the chance of receiving the monitor is reduced, and the possibility of missing the incoming call increases. In particular, such troubles are likely to occur when moving over a wide area. Furthermore, when the number of scanning target channels is enormous, it may be difficult to set the scanning target in advance, and an efficient scanning receiving means in such a case has been desired.

  The present invention has been made in view of the problems of such conventional scanning receiving means, and automatically detects necessary ones based on the situation in which an incoming signal is actually detected in past scanning reception. It is an object of the present invention to provide a radio communication apparatus with a scanning reception function that can be set as a priority channel and a control method thereof.

In the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, a wireless communication device with a scanning function according to claim 1 receives a plurality of reception channels in a preset order and detects whether there is an incoming call. In a wireless communication device with a scanning function for performing a receiving operation, an incoming number counting means for counting the number of incoming calls for each reception channel within a predetermined time or a predetermined number of scanning cycles, and based on the result of the number of incoming calls Priority order setting means for setting the priority order, and scanning reception control means for performing scanning reception according to the order set by the priority order setting means.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the wireless communication device with a scanning function according to the first aspect, the priority order setting means sets the priority in the time series to the past incoming calls so that the incoming call in the immediately preceding scanning has a higher priority. It is characterized by having means for weighting.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the wireless communication device with a scanning function according to the first or second aspect, the priority setting means selects a channel with a small number of incoming calls within a preset number of scanning cycles or scanning time. It is characterized by having a function to exclude it from scanning.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the wireless communication device with a scanning function according to any one of the first to third aspects, the invention further corresponds to a transmission unit and a priority set by the priority setting unit. It is characterized by comprising priority transmission means for transmitting on a channel.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the wireless communication device with a scanning function according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the priority channel set by the priority channel setting means corresponds to a priority level and corresponds to one scanning. A feature is that the number of reception operations performed during the cycle is set to be large or the scan stop monitoring time is set to be long.
The invention according to claim 6 relates to a scanning method for a radio communication device, which has a scanning function for receiving a plurality of reception channels in a preset order and detecting the presence / absence of an incoming call, and performing a reception operation on a channel with an incoming call. In the scanning method of a wireless communication device, the number of incoming calls is counted for each reception channel within a predetermined time or during a predetermined number of scanning cycles, and the priority order is based on the result of the incoming call count processing. And a scanning reception process for performing scanning reception according to the order set by the priority setting process.

  Since the present invention is configured as described above, the following effects can be obtained. The wireless communication device with a scanning function according to claim 1, wherein the number of times an incoming call is received for each reception channel within a predetermined time or during a predetermined number of scanning cycles in the wireless communication device with a scanning function for receiving a plurality of reception channels by scanning. When the priority is set based on the number of incoming calls and the scanning reception is performed according to the order set by the priority setting means, a fixed channel set in advance is used as the priority channel. Unlike the above, it is possible to preferentially scan a channel that has actually received an incoming call as a result of the previous scan, thereby improving the effect of priority scanning reception. In addition, since these settings can be performed automatically, a PC is not required as in the prior art, and the operational convenience is extremely high.

In the wireless communication apparatus with a scanning function according to claim 2, in the wireless communication apparatus with a scanning function according to claim 1, time-series weighting is applied to the past incoming calls so that the incoming call in the immediately preceding scanning has a higher priority. Since it is configured to perform, it is possible to set a priority channel that reflects the actual incoming state, and to further improve the effect of priority scanning reception.
The invention according to claim 3 is provided with a function for excluding, from the scanning object, a channel with a small number of incoming calls within a preset scanning cycle number or scanning time in the wireless communication device with a scanning function according to claim 1 or 2. Therefore, scanning of the priority channel that should increase the degree of attention can be performed in a short time, so that the effect of receiving the priority scanning can be further improved.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the wireless communication device with a scanning function according to any one of the first to third aspects, the transmission is performed according to the priority set by the transmission means and the priority setting means. Since the transmission function is provided, it is possible to remarkably increase the possibility of ensuring communication in emergency communication or the like.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the wireless communication device with a scanning function according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the priority channel set by the priority channel setting unit corresponds to the priority level, and is set to one scanning- Since the number of reception operations performed in the cycle is set to be large or the scan stop monitoring time is set to be long, a plurality of priority scanning means can be set, and if used properly according to the situation, it is more convenient. Priority scanning reception is possible.

  The invention described in claim 6 relates to a scanning method for a radio communication device. Since the invention described in claims 1 to 5 described above is a step process, if a program is created to execute these processes, the CPU The present invention can be realized in software in an electronic device equipped with the above, and the same effect as the wireless communication device with a scanning function according to claims 1 to 5 described above can be obtained.

It is a general | schematic block diagram which shows an example of the radio | wireless communication apparatus with a scanning function which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the radio | wireless communication apparatus with a scanning function of this invention, and a scanning method. It is a sequence diagram which shows an example of the scanning method of this invention. It is a sequence diagram which shows another example of the scanning method of this invention. It is a sequence diagram which shows other another example of the scanning method of this invention, (a) is a figure which shows the example which lengthens reception monitor time according to a priority, (b) deletes a channel with low priority. It is a figure which shows the example to do. It is a general | schematic block diagram which shows the other example of the radio | wireless communication apparatus with a scanning function which concerns on this invention. It is a sequence diagram explaining the conventional scanning reception method, (a) is a figure which shows a normal scan, (b) is a figure which shows a priority scan.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings. However, the technical terms, components, types, combinations, shapes, relative arrangements, and the like described in this embodiment are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to specific examples unless otherwise specified. Only.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a radio communication apparatus having a scanning function according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a receiving circuit, which converts an incoming radio wave into an electric signal by an antenna 2 and receives a supply. The receiving circuit 1 is subjected to various controls by the CPU 3, and scanning control and priority channel setting are included as one of the controls. Further, in order to control each processing step and scanning reception function of the present invention, the CPU 3 includes a counter 4 for performing various counts such as a time count, an incoming call count, an incoming time count, and the like. A write-only storage device ROM 5 that stores necessary programs and the like, a readable / writable storage device RAM 6 that similarly stores data necessary for implementing the present invention and set priority channel information, and a scanning reception on / off setting switch ( SW) 7.
With these configurations, as will be described in detail below, a plurality of reception channels are received in a preset order to detect the presence or absence of an incoming call, and a scanning receiver that performs a reception operation on a channel with an incoming call is realized. , Means and processing for counting the number of incoming calls for each reception channel within a predetermined time or during a predetermined number of scanning cycles, time, frequency of incoming calls, etc., and priority for setting priority based on these counting results A setting process and a scanning reception control process for performing scanning reception according to a set order are realized. Note that the case where the receiving circuit itself is configured as a software radio is also included.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of a wireless communication device with a scanning function and a scanning method according to the present invention, and exemplifies a system including four reception channels Ch1 to Ch4 as in the case of the conventional example. In the processing shown in this example, when the flow is started, the switch (FIG. 1) 7 first confirms the operation. When scanning reception is instructed by this switch (S1), the scanning processing is started (S2). The scanning process S3 is started. The scanning process S3 checks whether the switch 7 (scan key) is on or off, and sequentially scans Ch1 to Ch4 when the switch 7 is not operated (when the switch remains on: S3-1 No). Then, the presence / absence of an incoming call to each channel is confirmed (S3-2 to S3-5). At this time, if the priority channel has not been set in the first scan, the normal scan in the order shown in S3 of FIG. 2 is performed. At this time, when the switch 7 (scan key) is operated in the scanning process internal flow of S3 to cancel the scanning reception and the normal reception is instructed (S3 Yes), the scanning reception process ends ( S4).

  On the other hand, in the scanning process of S3, if there is an incoming call on any channel during the normal scan, the scanning is stopped on that reception channel (S5), the number of incoming calls detected on that channel is counted, and a preset numerical value is set. It is determined whether or not the priority order needs to be changed by determining whether or not the channel has exceeded the maximum priority or whether or not the channel is already the highest priority (S6). As a result of this determination, if it is not necessary to change the priority order (No in S6), the reception continues while the incoming call continues while determining whether or not the incoming call is continued (S7). When confirmed (the delay time has elapsed: S7 No), the process returns to S3 and scanning is performed (S8 No). On the other hand, if it is determined in S6 that the priority order needs to be changed (S6 Yes), the priority channel scan change process is performed, the result is stored in the RAM 6 or the like as necessary, and the scanning process in S3 is performed. The scanning order based on the new priority channel is set (S9).

  In the above example, the number of incoming calls is counted. However, the present invention is not limited to this example, and various methods are conceivable. For example, the priority order is determined based on the predetermined number of scanning cycles or the integrated value of the reception time (incoming time) of each channel within a predetermined time, or time series such that the priority is increased to the latest incoming history. Appropriate selection can be made, for example, by giving a proper weighting, and by combining these to set a priority order. Further, the priority channel scan changing process may be performed for each scanning, but may be changed every time a predetermined time or a predetermined scanning cycle elapses.

  3 to 5 are sequence diagrams illustrating an example of scanning when the priority channel is set in this way. For example, the priority scanning reception process shown in FIG. 3 is performed when the number of incoming calls of each channel in a predetermined scanning cycle is assumed to be CH1 = 2, CH2 = 5, CH3 = 0, and CH4 = 10. FIG. 3 shows the scanning sequence when the priority is set according to CH4> CH2> CH1> CH3. That is, the scan order within one scan is a repetition of CH4 → CH2 → CH1 → CH3 →. In this example, even if priority is given to each channel, the number of monitor receptions in one scan is the same, and if it is necessary to have a substantial scanning effect, as shown in FIG. In order to increase the priority of the incoming CH2 in the previous scanning reception, it is also useful to set the sequence in which CH2 is first "prioritized" at the next scanning reception. According to this, since there is a high possibility that the channel that has just received an incoming call is still in communication, it is possible to provide an opportunity to continuously intercept the communication contents.

  FIG. 5 is a scanning sequence diagram showing another embodiment of the scanning reception method according to the present invention. First, in the example shown in FIG. 5A, when there is an incoming history in CH1 to CH4 as in the examples of FIGS. 3 and 4, the first priority CH is continuously received four times, and so on. In the order of the number of incoming calls, CH2 is received 3 times, CH1 is received twice, and CH3 is received once. Note that continuous scanning means that if a single scanning time is, for example, 100 ms, 400 ms is received in four consecutive scannings, and 300 ms is received in three times. If the time for continuous reception increases, the chance of catching incoming calls increases accordingly, and the effect of priority scanning can be obtained.

In addition, as a method for increasing the priority of a channel with a relatively large number of incoming calls, it is also useful to exclude a channel with few incoming calls from the scanning process according to the latest incoming call history. For example, as shown in FIG. 5B, in the first scanning reception, reception is performed in the sequence of CH4 → CH2 → CH1 → CH3, but in the second scanning, CH3 with the least number of incoming calls is removed. In the third scan, CH1 that had the least number of incoming calls is deleted, and in the next fourth scan, CH2 is also deleted. By repeating this sequence as a single scanning reception sequence, scanning reception with a practically high priority is performed on a channel having a large number of incoming calls.
Conventionally, when a new scanning channel is registered or updated in a wireless communication device, it has been necessary to operate the PC after connecting to a personal computer (PC) via a cable. According to the above, since all processes can be automatically executed, a great effect that the operation is simplified can be obtained.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made. For example, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, the presence of wireless communication devices that are powered on but are waiting for reception without performing a transmission operation is detected. It is also useful to use a means for registering with the scanning reception channel. For this purpose, a transmission function is added as shown in FIG. That is, FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the wireless communication device with a scanning function according to the present invention. This example differs from the configuration shown in FIG. 1 in that the reception circuit 1 is replaced with a transmission / reception circuit 10 having a transmission function, and a second switch 8 for transmission control is provided. In this manner, a transmission function is added, and a 700 ms check signal is transmitted in the channel of the search target frequency band according to, for example, Patent Document 1, and then returned to the reception channel to wait for a response from the other party. If there is a response, register the channel in the list of scanning channels. Channels that are subjected to such check transmission processing are sequentially performed and registered as channels that have a response, that is, channels that may cause communication. According to this method, although no transmission operation is performed, it is possible to detect a channel in which a wireless communication device in a standby state exists and register it as a scanning channel. Note that this method can be used if the wireless communication device in the standby state (waiting for reception) has a system that responds to the check transmission, but in other cases, for example, communication is performed in a repeater device or a wireless base station. In the case where the existence information of mobile radio stations existing within the range is managed and held, if such information can be obtained by any means, the check transmission need not necessarily be executed, and the present invention can be It becomes possible to carry out. It may be useful to register a channel in which a wireless station in a standby state exists as a scanning group separately from other reception channels. Needless to say, when the wireless communication system is the simultaneous transmission / reception method and the transmission channel and the reception channel are different, it is necessary to detect the incoming call based on the relationship.

  In addition, the priority channel may be added to the channel whose presence has been confirmed in this way by performing evaluation judgment of the priority channel. If the existence channel of such a wireless station in the standby state is known, it is very useful in the case of emergency communication, for example. In emergency communication, it is important to communicate whether or not there is a communication partner and if so, it is important to communicate information accurately. Finding it is very difficult and time consuming. Therefore, if the check transmission is performed as described above and the existence of the wireless station responding to the check transmission is known, it is possible to make an emergency communication including these pieces of information at the time of emergency communication. In preparation for such emergency communication, it is extremely useful to always have channel information from which the latest incoming call can be obtained and channel information in which a standby radio station exists.

As described above, according to the present invention, the priority channel is set based on the past reception history, so that the priority channel can be received according to the situation at that time, and the setting channel is automatically set. Therefore, there is no need for labor and equipment for connecting to a personal computer with a cable as in the prior art, and the convenience can be remarkably improved.
In addition, although several Example of this invention was described above, this invention does not need to be limited to these examples, A various deformation | transformation is possible. First, the wireless communication apparatus to which the present invention is applied can be variously modified in addition to those shown in FIGS.
Further, although the case where a plurality of priority channels are set has been described, only one may be selected, and the number of repeated scans and the length of the monitor reception time may be set according to the priority. For example, if a channel that has received an incoming call in the previous scanning reception is continuously received by the monitor five times in the next scan, and there is no incoming call during the scan, it is reduced to 4 in the next scan and no incoming call continues. If there are various controls such as controlling to reduce the number of times, or if there is an incoming call, returning to 5 times again and repeating the same scanning reception process, the scanning reception process with excellent convenience can be performed. It becomes possible.

  It would also be useful to store as a scanning information a list in which only priority channels set with reference to the incoming call history according to the present invention are edited, and to call and receive only priority channels. Alternatively, in the embodiment, the priority channel is set for each scanning cycle. However, if the processing is too complicated, or if the priority channel is frequently changed and is inconvenient, a relatively preset value is set. It may be effective to evaluate the priority based on the accumulated history information for each predetermined scanning cycle having a long period and reflect it in the order of scanning reception.

The above-described controls, determination settings, and the like are performed by the ROM 5 and the RAM 6 with the CPU 3 as the center, and it is needless to say that the function of the counter 4 can also be realized by the CPU and the ROM. FPU (Floating-Point-number-Processing-Unit) is included, and priority channel determination, setting, updating, and the like are performed to reduce CPU operation addition and enable rapid processing.
In addition, if the processing described above is configured as a program that can be processed by a computer, the present invention can be realized by installing the software in an electronic device equipped with a necessary CPU and memory. Is possible. In particular, in recent years, the number of digital processing is increased, and a CPU or DSP is often provided for the processing, so that implementation with software will be easy.

  That is, when the present invention is implemented as a scanning reception method, for example, at least the reception circuit 1, the antenna 2, the CPU 3, the ROM 5, and the RAM 6 in the configuration diagram shown in FIG. 1 are provided, and the ROM 5 includes a plurality of reception channels. In addition to detecting the presence / absence of incoming calls in a preset order and installing a program that performs reception on channels that have incoming calls, the CPU and counter can be used within a predetermined time or during a predetermined number of scanning cycles. An incoming call count process for counting the number of incoming calls for each reception channel, and a priority setting process for setting a priority order based on the result of the incoming call count process, and further set by this priority setting process The receiving circuit is controlled to receive scanning according to the order. Then, if the list set as the priority channel is appropriately stored in the RAM 6 and is executed together with the program, the same effects as those of the respective embodiments can be obtained by causing them to function in the same manner as the above embodiments. it can. Further, each function / method described in the present invention is programmed, written in advance on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, and the CD-ROM is installed in a medium driving device such as a CD-ROM drive mounted on a computer. Or the like, and the program may be stored in a computer memory or storage device and executed to achieve the object of the present invention.

1 receiving circuit, 2 antenna, 3 CPU, 4 counter, 5 ROM, 6 RAM,
7 Scan key, 8 operation key.

Claims (6)

  Receives multiple reception channels in a preset order and detects the presence or absence of incoming calls. In a wireless communication device with a scanning function that performs reception on a channel with incoming calls, it is received within a predetermined time or during a predetermined number of scanning cycles. An incoming number counting unit that counts the number of incoming calls for each channel, a priority setting unit that sets a priority based on the result of the incoming number counting, and scanning reception according to the order set by the priority setting unit. A wireless communication device with a scanning function, comprising: a scanning reception control unit for performing the scanning reception.   2. The wireless communication apparatus with a scanning function according to claim 1, wherein the priority order setting means comprises means for weighting so that the priority of the incoming channel in the latest scanning in time series becomes higher. Wireless communication device with scanning function.   3. The wireless communication apparatus with a scanning function according to claim 1, wherein the priority order setting means has a function of excluding, from a scanning target, a channel with a small number of incoming calls within a preset number of scanning cycles or scanning time. A wireless communication device with a scanning function.   The wireless communication device with a scanning function according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising: a transmission means, and a priority transmission means for transmitting on a corresponding channel in accordance with the priority set by the priority setting means. A wireless communication device with a scanning function.   The priority channel set by the priority channel setting means is characterized in that the number of reception operations performed in one scanning cycle is set to be large or the scan stop monitoring time is set to be long corresponding to the priority. A wireless communication device with a scanning function according to any one of claims 1 to 4. In a scanning method of a wireless communication device with a scanning function that receives a plurality of reception channels in a preset order and detects whether there is an incoming call, and performs a reception operation on a channel where there is an incoming call, a scanning cycle within a predetermined time or a predetermined number of times An incoming call count process for counting the number of incoming calls for each reception channel, a priority setting process for setting a priority order based on the result of the incoming call count process, and an order set by the priority setting process And a scanning reception process for performing scanning reception in accordance with the wireless communication device scanning method.

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