JP2013106097A - Device and method for response confirmation, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device and a method for response confirmation, and a program, capable of securely confirming information reception, and even capable of flexibly coping with a terminal failure.SOLUTION: A response confirmation device having a plurality of terminal devices connected through a network includes: a communication control unit for controlling communication with the plurality of terminal devices; a response management unit for managing the presence or absence of a response from each terminal device; a representative terminal management unit for managing a predetermined number of terminal devices, from which responses are newly confirmed by the response management unit, as representative terminals; and a response destination setting unit for setting the response destination of the terminal device to one of the representative terminals, in simultaneous communication that simultaneously performs transmission to the plurality of terminal devices. The communication control unit performs the simultaneous communication. In the simultaneous communication, the response confirmation device transmits information including the response destination set by the response destination setting unit.

Description

  The present invention relates to a response confirmation device, a response confirmation method, and a program.

  For example, in a horse racing / bicycle sales / refund system, the control device and multiple terminals are connected via the same network, and the start and stop of the race are broadcasted simultaneously from the control device to multiple terminals. Delivered. At this time, the terminal receives the start or stop of the race sale from the control device, thereby changing the terminal state of the race to the sale start or the sale stop. They are used for screen display of the terminal sale status and confirmation of the contents of a voting ticket purchase request (for example, reading a mark card).

  When all terminals connected on the same network make a response to such data distributed simultaneously by broadcast, the control device receives data from all terminals almost simultaneously. Therefore, there is a possibility that the reception processing of the control device is not in time and the responses of some terminals are discarded.

  In addition, when the terminal cannot receive communication from the control device, the terminal does not start or stop selling as a matter of course, which causes operational problems. For this reason, if no response is received from the terminal, retry transmission will be performed. However, if broadcast transmission is performed again, the reception processing of the control device may not be in time, and some responses may be discarded. The meaning of retry is lost.

  For this reason, in broadcast data distribution, an interface rule that the terminal does not respond may be used. At this time, the control device repeats broadcast transmission a predetermined number of times, and data transmission is performed in an uncertain manner that it is only necessary that the terminal side can receive it once. Therefore, it is impossible for the control device to detect that the terminal cannot receive the signal, and there is a risk that the terminal may be left unattended without being started or stopped.

  Therefore, for example, in a system including a master station that transmits broadcast information and a plurality of slave stations that receive the broadcast information, a representative slave station and a slave station are included in the grouped slave stations. There are examples to be defined. At this time, the representative slave station transmits information based on the response information of the own station and the response information of all slave stations in the same group (see, for example, Patent Document 1). There is also a method of transmitting confirmation responses sequentially to the upper layer after the upper layer receives communication from the lower layer based on the hierarchical structure defined by the transmission software on the transmission site (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

JP-A-4-13318 JP-A-7-200505

  However, when a plurality of stations are grouped as described above or a hierarchical structure is used, for example, if a representative slave station or a higher-layer station fails, information is transmitted to that station. There is a problem that all the station information does not reach the parent station.

  In view of the above-described problems, the present invention provides a response confirmation device, a response confirmation method, and a program that can reliably confirm reception of information and can flexibly cope with a failure of a terminal.

  The response confirmation apparatus according to one aspect is configured such that a plurality of terminal devices are connected via a network, a communication control unit that controls communication with the plurality of terminal devices, and whether or not there is a response from the terminal device A response management unit, a representative terminal management unit that manages, as a representative terminal, a predetermined number of terminal devices whose responses are newly confirmed by the response management unit among the terminal devices, and a plurality of the terminal devices that transmit all at once. A response destination setting unit that sets a response destination of the terminal device to one of the representative terminals in the simultaneous communication to be performed, and the communication control unit performs the simultaneous communication, and in the simultaneous communication, the response It is characterized in that information including a response destination set by the destination setting unit is transmitted.

  A terminal device according to another aspect is connected to a response confirmation device via a network and recognizes a response destination terminal device set by data transmitted from the response confirmation device, and the response destination When the recognition unit recognizes that the response destination is the terminal device itself, the terminal device itself manages the communication from the child terminal device set as the response destination, and the response destination recognition unit When the response destination is recognized as the terminal device itself, it receives communications from the child terminal device, sends the received communications together to the response confirmation device, and the response destination is other than the terminal device itself. A communication control unit that performs communication with the recognized response destination.

  In another aspect, the response confirmation method manages a process in which a response confirmation device in which a plurality of terminal devices are connected via a network transmits data to the plurality of terminal devices, and whether or not there is a response from the terminal device. In the processing, in the processing for managing a predetermined number of terminal devices for which new responses have been confirmed among the terminal devices as representative terminals, and in the simultaneous communication in which transmission is performed simultaneously to the plurality of terminal devices, the response destination of the terminal device And a process of performing the simultaneous communication and transmitting information including the set response destination to the terminal device in the simultaneous communication.

  Still further, the response confirmation method according to another aspect includes a process in which a terminal device connected to a response confirmation device via a network recognizes a response destination terminal device set by data transmitted by the response confirmation device; When the response destination is recognized as the terminal device itself, the terminal device itself recognizes that the response destination is the terminal device itself, and a process for managing communication from the child terminal device set as the response destination. Then, the communication from the child terminal device is received, the received communication is collectively transmitted to the response confirmation device, and when the response destination is other than the terminal device itself, the recognized response destination is And a process of performing communication.

  In addition, even if it is a program for causing a computer to perform the method according to the present invention described above, since the program is executed by the computer, the same operations and effects as the method according to the present invention described above are achieved. The aforementioned problems are solved.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a response confirmation device, a response confirmation method, and a program that can surely confirm reception of information and can flexibly cope with a failure of a terminal.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the response confirmation system by one embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of the control apparatus by one Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of the terminal device by one embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the function of the control apparatus by one embodiment It is a block diagram which shows the function of the terminal device by one embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the response destination information by one Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the data transmitted by one Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the sequence of normal simultaneous communication by one Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the sequence of normal simultaneous communication by one Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the sequence of the simultaneous communication with an error by one Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the sequence of the simultaneous communication with an error by one Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the representative terminal management table by one Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the specific example of the representative terminal management table by one Embodiment. It is a figure explaining the order of reception of communication by one embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement of normal communication of the control apparatus by one Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement of the representative terminal setting process by one Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement of the normal communication of the terminal device by one Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement of simultaneous communication of the control apparatus by one Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement of simultaneous communication of the control apparatus by one Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement of the retry transmission process of the control apparatus by one Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement of the retry transmission process of the control apparatus by one Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement of the simultaneous transmission reception of the terminal device by one Embodiment.

  Hereinafter, a response confirmation system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a response confirmation system 1 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the response confirmation system 1 according to the present embodiment includes a control device 3 and a plurality of terminal devices 7-0, 7-1,..., 7-N (N is an integer of 2 or more: , Collectively or as a representative terminal device 7) is a system connected via the network 5. The response confirmation system 1 is used, for example, for a public competition sale / refund system.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the control device 3. As shown in FIG. 2, the control device 3 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 13, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 15, a timer 17, an input / output unit 18, and a communication circuit 19. doing.

  The CPU 11 is an arithmetic processing device that controls the operation of the entire control device 3. The ROM 13 is a storage unit that stores in advance a program for controlling basic operations of the control device 3, for example. The RAM 15 is, for example, a storage unit for storing various control programs executed by the CPU 11 in the control device 3 and using them as a work area as necessary when executing the programs. The input / output unit 18 is, for example, an input device such as a keyboard device or a mouse device, and an output device such as a display device. When operated by the user of the control device 3, the input device is a device that acquires input of various information from the user associated with the operation content and sends the acquired input information to the CPU 11. The output device is a device that outputs a processing result by the control device 3, and displays text and an image in accordance with display data sent by the CPU 11.

  The timer 17 is a timing device that manages the time in the control device 3 and measures, for example, the time after transmission. For example, the CPU 11 can perform various control processes by reading and executing a predetermined control program recorded in the RAM 15. The communication circuit 19 is an interface device that manages transmission / reception of various types of data performed externally by wire or wireless.

  A program that causes the control device 3 to execute processing as a response confirmation device is stored in, for example, the RAM 15. The CPU 11 reads the program from the RAM 15 and causes the control device 3 to perform a response confirmation operation.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the terminal device 7. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the terminal device 7 includes a CPU 21, a ROM 23, a RAM 25, a timer 27, an input / output unit 28, and a communication circuit 29.

  The CPU 21 is an arithmetic processing device that controls the operation of the entire terminal device 7. The ROM 23 is a storage unit that stores in advance a program for controlling the basic operation of the timer 17, for example. The RAM 25 is a storage unit for storing, for example, various control programs executed by the CPU 21 in the terminal device 7 or using as a work area as necessary when executing the programs. The input / output unit 28 is, for example, an input device such as a keyboard device or a mouse device, and an output device such as a display device. When operated by the user of the terminal device 7, the input device is a device that acquires input of various information from the user associated with the operation content and sends the acquired input information to the CPU 21. The output device is a device that outputs a processing result by the terminal device 7 and displays text and an image according to display data sent by the CPU 21.

  The timer 27 is a timing device that manages the time in the terminal device 7, and measures the time after receiving communication from the control device 3, for example. The CPU 21 can perform various control processes by reading and executing a predetermined control program recorded in the RAM 25, for example. The communication circuit 29 is an interface device that manages transmission / reception of various data performed between the outside by wired or wireless. A program for causing the terminal device 7 to execute each process is stored in the RAM 25, for example. The CPU 21 reads the program from the RAM 25 and causes the terminal device 7 to perform each operation.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating functions of the control device 3. As shown in FIG. 4, the control device 3 executes a program stored in the RAM 15, thereby executing a control unit 31, a representative terminal management unit 33, a response destination setting unit 35, a response management unit 37, a timer monitoring unit 39, And it functions as the communication control unit 41.

  The control unit 31 controls the operations of the representative terminal management unit 33, the response destination setting unit 35, the response management unit 37, the timer monitoring unit 39, and the communication control unit 41. The representative terminal management unit 33 sets a predetermined number of representative terminals from the terminal devices 7 connected to the control device 3, and manages the operation. The response destination setting unit 35 sets a response destination of a terminal other than the representative terminal set by the representative terminal management unit 33 (hereinafter referred to as a child terminal). The response management unit 37 manages whether or not there is a response from each terminal device 7. The timer monitoring unit 39 manages the time in the control device 3. The communication control unit 41 controls communication with the terminal device 7.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating functions of the terminal device 7. As illustrated in FIG. 5, the terminal device 7 executes a program stored in the RAM 25, thereby controlling the control unit 43, the response destination recognition unit 45, the child terminal management unit 47, the timer monitoring unit 49, and the communication control unit 51. Function as.

  The control unit 43 controls operations of the response destination recognition unit 45, the child terminal management unit 47, the timer monitoring unit 49, and the communication control unit 51. The response destination recognition unit 45 analyzes communication from the control device 3 and recognizes a designated response destination terminal. The child terminal management unit 47 manages the response from the child terminal when designated by the control device 3 as the representative terminal. The timer monitoring unit 49 manages the time in the terminal device 7. The communication control unit 51 controls communication between the control device 3 and the terminal device 7 serving as a child terminal.

  In the response confirmation system 1 as described above, for example, there is a system in which the control device 3 and a maximum of 100 terminals are connected. If there are 20 packet reception buffers in the control device 3, responses from the 20 devices can be received reliably. If buffers for 100 units are prepared, responses from 100 units can be received. However, when the state of processing the buffers for 100 units continues, other processing does not operate at all, and systematic May be a problem. That is, there is a problem that communication with a host higher than the control device 3 does not operate at all, and the host recognizes the control device 3 as abnormal and disconnects the control device 3. Therefore, normally, the number of buffers is determined while leaving a performance margin.

  In view of this, the number of terminals that can communicate with remaining capacity is set as the representative terminal, and other terminals perform communication with the representative terminal. At this time, the response destination setting unit 35 sets the response destination of each terminal device 7 and records the response destination in, for example, the RAM 15.

  Here, a case where 20 representative terminals are determined will be described. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of response destination information indicating the set representative terminal and the response destination of each terminal. As shown in FIG. 6, in a system in which the control device 3 and terminal devices 7-0 to 7-99 (hereinafter also simply referred to as terminals 7-0 etc.) are connected, representative terminals are designated as terminals 7-0, Assume that 20 units 7-5, 7-10,..., 7-95 are set. At this time, as shown in the columns 64 to 72 of the response destination information 60, the response destinations of the terminals 7-0 to 7-4 are set to the terminal 7-0. Similarly, a response destination is set for each of the 100 terminal devices 7.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of data to be transmitted. As shown in FIG. 7, for example, data 80 is generated when communication with the terminal device 7 is performed. In the response confirmation system 1, data 80 transmitted to all terminals includes a header 82, a response destination area 84, and transmission data 86. The response destination area 84 has response destinations 88, 90,..., 96 for each of the terminals 7-0 to 7-99, and the response destinations of all the terminal devices 7 are set. That is, the response destination information 60 is described in the response destination area 84.

  8A and 8B are diagrams showing a normal simultaneous communication sequence 100. FIG. As shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, first, the control device 3 performs simultaneous communication with all the terminal devices 7. Communication 102 represents simultaneous communication. Each terminal device 7 refers to its own response destination area 84 in the transmitted data 80, and when its own terminal number is stored, the timer monitoring unit 39 activates a monitoring timer (not shown) as a representative terminal Then, it enters a state of waiting for a response from the monitored child terminal that monitors the response. If another terminal number is stored in its own response destination area 84, response data indicating that it has been normally received is transmitted to that terminal.

  Thus, each terminal device 7 sends a reply to the representative terminal designated in the response destination area 84. Communication 104 represents communication from each terminal device 7 that has become a child terminal to the representative terminal. When each representative terminal receives response data from all the child terminals designated as response destinations or times out, the representative terminal transmits the presence / absence of the response of the target terminal to the control device 3 like the communication 106.

  At this time, the control device 3 confirms the presence / absence of responses of all terminals on the network based on the response from the representative terminal. In addition, in the case where the representative terminal is abnormal, the control device 3 itself also measures the time after performing the simultaneous communication and monitors the response of the simultaneous communication with a timer.

  9A and 9B are diagrams showing a sequence 110 of simultaneous communication with an error. As shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B, the control device 3 performs simultaneous communication with all the terminal devices 7. Communication 112 represents simultaneous communication. Each terminal device 7 replies like a communication 114 to the representative terminal designated in the response destination area 84. At this time, it is assumed that a response from the terminal 7-14 to the terminal 7-10 is not normally received as in error 116. When a predetermined time elapses after receiving the communication from the control device 3, the terminal 7-10 replies to the control device 3 with the response that has been received so far.

  In this example, in the communication 118, the error 120 also occurs in the communication from the terminal 7-20 to the control device 3. The terminal 7-20 has received the communication from all the child terminals normally, but the control device 3 does not receive a response. At this time, the control device 3 executes a retry to transmit the same content once again as in the communication 124 to the terminals 7-14 and 7-20 to 7-24 that have not been normally received.

  As described above, in the response data from the representative terminal, there is a terminal that has not responded (if there is no response from the representative terminal, there is a representative terminal itself and all the terminals that the representative terminal should monitor for response). , Retry transmission. At this time, for example, a storage area (for example, the response destination area 84 may be used) of all terminal devices 7 (for example, 100 units) is provided in the RAM 15, and the area of the terminal that has responded normally indicates that retransmission is unnecessary. A value (for example, 00) is stored. For a terminal that has not responded, the number of the corresponding terminal is stored with an upper limit of the number of units (20 in the example) that can be reliably received by the control device 3 itself. When the number of terminals that have not responded exceeds the number that can be reliably received by the control device 3 itself (21 or more in the example), the retry is performed in several times.

  If the number of units that can be reliably received is 20, it is divided into 1 time up to 20 units, 2 times up to 40 units, 3 times up to 60 units, 4 times up to 80 units, and 5 times up to 100 units. Will be sent. However, since all normally respond normally, the processing is almost completed in one transmission. If there is a terminal device 7 that does not respond even after retrying, it is excluded from the retry target until communication is restored, thereby preventing a heavy load on the system.

  In addition, when designating a representative terminal for data transmission in the above-described simultaneous communication, a terminal that is highly likely to have a response should be selected as the representative terminal. Therefore, for example, the terminal device 7 of the communication that has been normally received is linked in time series, and the terminal device 7 of the communication that has a newer reception time is selected.

  Here, the representative terminal setting process will be described with reference to FIGS. 10, 11A, and 11B. Hereinafter, for convenience of explanation, a case where there are ten terminals 7-0 to 7-9 connected to the control device 3 will be described as an example. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the representative terminal management table 500, FIG. 11A is a diagram illustrating a specific example of the representative terminal management table 500, and FIG. 11B is a diagram illustrating the reception order of communication. The representative terminal management table 500 is stored in, for example, the RAM 15 of the control device 3.

  As illustrated in FIG. 10, the representative terminal management table 500 indicates the terminal number 502, the link source 504, and the link destination 506 of the terminal device 7. The link source 504 is the terminal number of the transmission source of the communication in which the reception time of the communication in which the control device 3 has normally received data is newer than the communication from the terminal device 7 of the corresponding terminal number. The link destination 506 is a terminal number of a communication source whose reception time when the control device 3 has normally received data is one older than the reception time of communication from the terminal device 7 of the corresponding terminal number.

  The representative terminal management table 500 stores this terminal number 502, link source 504, and link destination 506 for all terminals. Here, the terminal number of the terminal device 7 that is the transmission source of the communication normally received by the control device 3 is displayed in the “latest” link destination 506 in the uppermost column of the representative terminal management table 500 shown in FIG. The In FIG. 10, FIG. 11A, and FIG. 11B, the terminal number of the terminal device 7-n is simply described as “n” for convenience of description.

  FIG. 11A shows a table in a state in which the order in which the control device 3 has normally received is the terminal number and is “7 → 1 → 0 → 8 → 9 → 2 → 3 → 5 → 6 → 4” from the newest one. . That is, for example, as shown in the column 522 of the representative terminal management table 520 of FIG. 11A, the communication that has been normally received by the control device 3 the latest is the terminal 7− corresponding to the “latest” link destination number = “7”. 7 is a sender. As shown in the column 524, the terminal device 7 that is the communication source one older than the communication from the terminal 7-7 is the terminal 7-1 corresponding to the link destination number = “1” of the terminal 7-7. . At this time, as shown in a column 526, since the terminal of the communication source that is confirmed to be received after the communication from the terminal 7-7 is still unknown, "-" is described. Also, the terminal device 7 that is the source of communication one older than the communication from the terminal 7-1 is the terminal 7-0 corresponding to the link destination number = “0” of the terminal 7-1 as shown in the column 528. It is. At this time, as shown in the column 530, the communication source terminal confirmed to be received after the communication from the terminal 7-1 is described as the link source number of the terminal 7-1 = “7”. ing.

  In this way, by sequentially looking at the link destination in the representative terminal management table 500, the terminal device 7 that is the transmission source of the communication that has been confirmed to be received immediately before can be confirmed sequentially. In addition, by sequentially looking at the link source in the representative terminal management table 500, it is possible to sequentially check the terminal device 7 that is the transmission source of the newly confirmed reception.

  Here, for reference, the table 600 shown in FIG. 11B is a table in which the terminal device 7 and its link source and link destination are arranged in the order in which reception is confirmed. As shown in the table 600, information in which the order of “7 → 1 → 0 → 8 → 9 → 2 → 3 → 5 → 6 → 4” newly confirmed to be received at the terminal number 602 is shifted to the oldest one. Is stored as the link source 604, and the information shifted to the newest one is stored as the link destination 606.

  Hereinafter, processing when normal data is received from the terminal 7-5 in the state of the representative terminal management table 520 will be described. First, in the representative terminal management table 520, it is confirmed that the “latest” link destination number 522 is not the terminal number “5” corresponding to the terminal 7-5. At this time, as in the representative terminal management table 540, the link destination number 546 of the terminal 7-3 corresponding to “3” of the link source number 542 of the terminal 7-5 is changed to “ 6 ”. The link source number 544 of the terminal 7-6 corresponding to “6” of the link destination number 548 of the terminal 7-5 is updated to “3” of the link source number 542 of the terminal 7-5.

  Next, as in the representative terminal management table 560, the link source number 562 of the terminal 7-7 that is the link destination of the latest receiving terminal 7-5 corresponds to the terminal 7-5 that is the transmission source of the communication received this time. It is updated to “5”.

  Finally, as in the representative terminal management table 580, the link source number 582 of the terminal 7-5 that is the transmission source of the communication received this time is “−” indicating no link, and the link destination number 586 of the terminal 7-5 is , It is updated to “7” corresponding to the terminal 7-7 that is the latest transmission source. Further, the link destination number 584 of the latest receiving terminal is updated to “5” corresponding to the terminal 7-5 that is the transmission source of the communication received this time. When 100 terminal devices 7 are provided, the representative terminal management table 500 is set for 100 devices and updated in the same procedure as described above.

  When using the representative terminal management table 500 to select the terminal device 7 that has transmitted the normally received communication in the order of reception, for example, in the representative terminal management table 580, first, the link destination of the latest receiving terminal The terminal device 7-5 corresponding to the number 584 “5” is selected. Second, the terminal device 7-7 corresponding to “7” of the link destination number 586 of the terminal number “5” is selected. Third, the terminal device 7-1 corresponding to “1” of the link destination number 588 of the terminal number “7” is selected. Hereinafter, similarly, a desired number of representative terminals are designated by sequentially searching for terminal numbers of link destinations.

  Hereinafter, operation | movement of the response confirmation system 1 comprised as mentioned above is further demonstrated, referring a flowchart. In the response confirmation system 1, two types of communication are performed. One is communication (hereinafter referred to as normal communication) performed between the control device 3 and each terminal device 7, and the other is simultaneous communication in which transmission is simultaneously performed from the control device 3 to a plurality of terminal devices 7. It is.

  First, the operation of normal communication will be described. FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the normal communication operation of the control device 3. As shown in FIG. 12, the control unit 31 sets a retry counter (not shown) monitored by the timer monitoring unit 39 to zero (S201). The retry counter is a counter that counts the number of times that transmission is performed when transmission is performed but a response from the terminal device 7 cannot be confirmed.

  The communication control unit 41 sets the address of the terminal device 7 that is the destination of communication (S202), and sets transmission data (S203). The timer monitoring unit 39 starts a monitoring timer (not shown) at the same time that the control unit 31 starts transmission via the communication control unit 41 (S204). At this time, the control unit 31 sets a predetermined time for monitoring the response in the monitoring timer.

  The response management unit 37 determines whether or not there is a response from the terminal device 7 that transmitted the data within a predetermined time set in the monitoring timer (S205). When there is no response (S205: NO), the control unit 31 determines whether or not the retry counter exceeds a predetermined count number (S206). When the count number of the retry counter is equal to or smaller than the predetermined count number (S206: NO), the control unit 31 adds 1 to the value of the retry counter (S207), and returns the process to S202. When the count number of the retry counter exceeds the predetermined count number (S206: YES), the control unit 31 ends the process with an error. If a response is detected within a predetermined time in S205 (S205: YES), representative terminal setting processing is performed (S208), and the control unit 31 ends the control device 3 normally.

  Here, the representative terminal setting process will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the operation of the representative terminal setting process. As illustrated in FIG. 13, first, the representative terminal management unit 33 sets “a” to the terminal number of the latest normal reception message received in the normal communication received via the communication control unit 41 (S401). In the example of the representative terminal management table 520 in FIG. 11A, it is assumed that a = 5.

  The representative terminal management unit 33 determines whether or not the latest link destination terminal number is “a” (S402). When the latest link destination is “a”, the representative terminal management unit 33 ends the representative terminal setting process (S402: YES). In the example of the representative terminal management table 520 in FIG. 11A, the latest link destination is “7” (S402: NO).

  The representative terminal management unit 33 sets “X” as the terminal number of the link source of the terminal “a” (S403). The representative terminal management unit 33 sets “Y” as the terminal number of the link destination of the terminal “a” (S404). Also, the representative terminal management unit 33 sets “Z” as the latest link destination terminal number (S405). In the example of the representative terminal management table 520 in FIG. 11A, X = 3, Y = 6, and Z = 7.

  The representative terminal management unit 33 rewrites the link destination terminal number of “X” to the link destination terminal number (“Y”) of “a” (S406). The representative terminal management unit 33 rewrites the link source terminal number of “Y” to the link source terminal number (“X”) of “a” (S407). The representative terminal management unit 33 sets “a” as the terminal number of the link source of “Z” (S408).

  The representative terminal management unit 33 sets the terminal number of the link source of “a” to “−” (S409) and sets the terminal number of the link destination of “a” to the latest link destination terminal number (“Z”). (S410). Further, the representative terminal management unit 33 rewrites the latest link destination terminal number to “a” (S411). By repeating the above processing every time normal reception is performed, the reception time is always kept in the newest order, and the latest predetermined number of representative terminals are set.

  FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the normal communication operation of the terminal device 7. The communication control unit 51 of the terminal device 7 performs monitoring until communication from the control device 3 is received (S211: NO). When reception is confirmed (S211: YES), the communication control unit 51 transmits a response (S212).

  Next, the operation of simultaneous communication in the response confirmation system 1 will be described. 15A and 15B are flowcharts showing the simultaneous communication operation of the control device 3. As shown in FIG. 15A, the control unit 31 sets a retry counter (not shown) monitored by the timer monitoring unit 39 to zero (S221).

  For example, in the response destination information 60, the response destination setting unit 35 sets the response destination of the representative terminal to the terminal number of the representative terminal itself (S222), and sets the terminal number of the representative terminal as the response destination of the child terminal other than the representative terminal. Are set evenly (S223). The communication control unit 41 sets a broadcast address for simultaneous communication (S224) and sets transmission data (S225).

  The timer monitoring unit 39 starts a monitoring timer (not shown) at the same time as the control unit 31 starts transmission via the communication control unit 41 (S226). At this time, the control unit 31 sets a predetermined time for monitoring the response in the monitoring timer.

  The response management unit 37 determines whether or not there is a response from the representative terminal within a predetermined time set in the monitoring timer (S227). When a response is detected within a predetermined time in S227 (S227: YES), the response management unit 37 records the terminal number that has responded in the response message, for example, in the RAM 15 (S228). At this time, the response management unit 37 may create a response management table (not shown) in, for example, the RAM 15 and record the presence / absence of responses for all the terminal devices 7. If a response is not detected within the predetermined time in S227 (S227: NO), the control unit 31 advances the process to S231.

  The response management unit 37 determines whether or not there is a response from all the terminal devices 7, and when there is a response (S229: YES), the simultaneous communication ends normally. If there is no response from all the terminal devices 7 within the predetermined time set by the timer monitoring unit 39 (S229: NO), the response management unit 37 determines whether or not responses from all the representative terminals have been received. A determination is made (S230). When the responses from all the representative terminals are confirmed (S230: YES), the control unit 31 advances the process to S231. When a response from any of the representative terminals cannot be received (S230: NO), the control unit 31 returns the process to S227.

  As illustrated in FIG. 15B, the communication control unit 41 sets transmission targets for all terminals that have not responded (S231), and performs retry transmission processing (S232). Details of the retry transmission process will be described later. As a result of the retry transmission, when responses from all the terminal devices 7 are confirmed (S233: YES), the control unit 31 ends the processing normally. When the responses from all the terminal devices 7 cannot be confirmed (S233: NO), the control unit 31 determines whether or not the retry counter exceeds the predetermined number and is a retry-out (S234). In the case of retry-out (S234: YES), the control unit 31 ends the process with an error. When the retry-out has not been performed (S234: NO), the control unit 31 adds 1 to the retry counter (S235), and returns the process to S231.

  Next, the retry transmission process of the control device 3 will be described with reference to FIGS. 16A and 16B. 16A and 16B are flowcharts showing the retry transmission process of the control device 3. As shown in FIG. 16A, first, the control unit 31 sets variables n = 0 and m = 0 (S251). Here, the variable n indicates the terminal number, and the variable m indicates the number of retry target terminals. The response management unit 37 checks whether or not the terminal number = n is a transmission target, for example, with a response management table (not shown) recorded in the RAM 15 as described above (S252).

  When the terminal device 7 with the terminal number = n is not a transmission target (S252: NO), the control unit 31 advances the process to S255. When the terminal device 7 with the terminal number = n is the transmission target (S252: YES), the control unit 31 sets the response destination terminal number with the terminal number = n = the terminal number n (S253) and sets m = m + 1 ( S254), the process proceeds to S255.

  In S255, n = n + 1 is set, and the process proceeds to S256. The control unit 31 determines whether or not m <the total number of representative terminals (S256). When m <the total number of representative terminals is not satisfied (S256: NO), the control unit 31 advances the process to S258. If m <total number of representative terminals (S256: YES), the control unit 31 determines whether n <total number of terminals is satisfied (S257). If n <total number of terminals (S257: YES), the control unit 31 returns the process to S252. If n <the total number of terminals is not satisfied (S257: NO), the communication control unit 41 sets a broadcast address for retry communication (S258) and sets transmission data (S259).

  As shown in FIG. 16B, in the timer monitoring unit 39, the control unit 31 starts transmission via the communication control unit 41 and starts a monitoring timer (not shown) (S260). At this time, the control unit 31 sets a predetermined time for monitoring the response in the monitoring timer.

  The response management unit 37 determines whether or not there is a response from each terminal device 7 that transmitted the retry within a predetermined time set in the monitoring timer (S261). When a response is detected within a predetermined time in S261 (S261: YES), the response management unit 37 records the terminal number that has responded in the response message in, for example, the RAM 15 (S262). At this time, the response management unit 37 may create a response management table (not shown) in, for example, the RAM 15 and record the presence / absence of responses for all the terminal devices 7. When there is no response within the predetermined time in S261 (S261: NO), the control unit 31 advances the process to S264.

  The response management unit 37 determines whether or not there is a response from all the terminal devices 7 to be retried. If there is no response (S263: NO), the process returns to S261. When there is a response from all the terminal devices 7 to be retried (S263: YES), the response management unit 37 determines whether n <total number of terminals (S264), and n <total number of terminals. In the case of (S264: YES), the process returns to S252. If n <the total number of terminals is not satisfied (S264: NO), the retry transmission process is terminated.

  If there is no response from all the terminal devices 7 to be retried within the predetermined time set by the timer monitoring unit 39 (S261: NO), it is determined whether n <total number of terminals (S264). If n <total number of terminals (S264: YES), the process returns to S252. If n <total number of terminals (S264: YES), the retry transmission process is terminated.

  Next, the operation of simultaneous transmission / reception of the terminal device 7 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing the simultaneous transmission / reception operation of the terminal device 7. As shown in FIG. 17, the response destination recognition unit 45 of the terminal device 7 determines whether or not the response destination is its own terminal number in the received data 80 (S301).

  When the response destination is not its own terminal number (S301: NO), the communication control unit 51 transmits a response to the terminal device 7 described in the corresponding response destination area 84 (S302), and ends the process.

  When the response destination is its own terminal number (S301: YES), the child terminal management unit 47 extracts from the response destination area 84 the child terminal whose own number is designated as the response destination (S303). . The child terminal management unit 47 determines whether the number of child terminals whose responses are to be monitored is zero (S304). When the number of child terminals to be monitored is zero (S304: YES), the control unit 41 advances the process to S310.

  When the monitoring target child terminal is not zero (S304: NO), the timer monitoring unit 49 activates the monitoring timer (S305), and determines whether or not there is a response from the child terminal within the time (S306). . When there is a response from the child terminal (S306: YES), the child terminal management unit 47 records the terminal number of the child terminal that has responded (S307), and identifies the terminal that has received the response as the child terminal to be monitored. (S308), and it is determined again whether or not the monitored child terminal is zero (S309). When a timeout occurs without a response from the child terminal (S306: NO), the control unit 43 advances the process to S310.

When the number of child terminals to be monitored is zero (S309: YES), the control unit 43 advances the process to S310. When the monitoring target child terminal is not zero (S309: NO), the control unit 41 returns the process to S306.
In S310, the communication control unit 51 transmits its own terminal number and the terminal number of the child terminal that has received the response to the control device 3, and ends the response process.

  As described above, according to the response confirmation system 1 according to the present embodiment, transmission from the control device 3 to the terminal device 7 is normally performed in a system configuration in which the control device 3 and a plurality of terminal devices 7 are connected. This is done by communication or broadcast. In the normal communication, the control device 3 always records and updates the terminal number of the terminal device 7 that is the transmission source of the normally received communication in the representative terminal management table 500 in the order of the reception time. The number of representative terminals is preferably such that the control device 3 can reliably receive data at one time.

  When the control device 3 transmits data by simultaneous communication, a predetermined number of terminal devices 7 are set as representative terminals based on the representative terminal management table 500. In the data 80 to be transmitted, each terminal number and the number of the representative terminal to which each terminal responds are associated and recorded in the response destination area 84. The terminal device 7 that has received the data 80 refers to the response destination area 84 to determine whether or not it is a representative terminal, and if it is a representative terminal, it is a child terminal that monitors the response, and if it is not a representative terminal, the response destination By recognizing the terminal number, operation as a representative terminal or a child terminal is performed. At this time, the response includes information indicating that the data 80 has been received.

  The control device 3 performs retry transmission to a terminal whose response cannot be confirmed within a predetermined time after simultaneous transmission. At this time, it is preferable that the number of terminal devices 7 to be transmitted all at once does not exceed the number of representative terminals, for example, the control device 3 can reliably receive at one time. If there are retry transmissions that cannot be transmitted at once, it is divided into multiple times.

  As described above, according to the response confirmation system 1 according to the present embodiment, since the terminal device 7 that has always been newly received normally can be used as the representative terminal, a situation in which the representative terminal is out of order can be avoided. . In addition, the failure of the representative terminal can reduce the possibility that a failure occurs until the child terminal of the failed representative terminal transmits.

  By making the number of representative terminals the number that can be reliably received by the control device 3, the response from the terminal device 7 is not discarded when simultaneously transmitted to a plurality of terminal devices 7 connected to the network 5. It can be received by the control device 3. Furthermore, since a retry transmission is performed for a terminal that does not respond, the transmission can be performed more reliably.

  The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various configurations or embodiments can be adopted without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, the configurations and functions of the control device 3 and the terminal device 7 are not limited to the above-described examples, and are within the scope of the present invention as long as they have the same effects.

  The method for setting the representative terminal is not limited to the method using the representative terminal management table 500. Another method may be used as long as it is a method that can select an arbitrary number from the terminal device 7 that has been confirmed to be newly received. For example, only the terminal number and link destination data in the representative terminal management table 500 may be used. A method is also conceivable in which terminal numbers are stored in the storage areas for the number of representative terminals in the order in which reception is confirmed. At this time, if the terminal number overlaps with the already stored number, the number of the terminal device 7 of a predetermined number is always stored by a method such as rearranging the already stored number in the latest order. be able to.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Response confirmation system 3 Control apparatus 5 Network 7 Terminal device 11 CPU
13 ROM
15 RAM
17 Timer 18 Input / Output Unit 19 Communication Circuit 21 CPU
23 ROM
25 RAM
27 Timer 28 Input / output unit 29 Communication circuit 31 Control unit 33 Representative terminal management unit 35 Response destination setting unit 37 Response management unit 39 Timer monitoring unit 41 Communication control unit 43 Control unit 45 Response destination recognition unit 47 Child terminal management unit 49 Timer monitoring Unit 51 Communication control unit 80 Data 82 Header 84 Response destination area 86 Transmission data 500 Representative terminal management table

Claims (10)

A response confirmation device in which a plurality of terminal devices are connected via a network,
A communication control unit that performs communication with the plurality of terminal devices;
A response management unit that manages the presence or absence of a response from the terminal device;
Among the terminal devices, a representative terminal management unit that manages, as a representative terminal, a predetermined number of terminal devices whose responses are newly confirmed by the response management unit;
A response destination setting unit that sets a response destination of the terminal device to one of the representative terminals in a simultaneous communication that transmits to a plurality of the terminal devices at the same time;
Have
The communication control unit performs the simultaneous communication, and transmits information including a response destination set by the response destination setting unit in the simultaneous communication. The communication control unit further performs individual communication for individually transmitting / receiving with any of the plurality of terminal devices,
The representative terminal management unit manages, as the representative terminal, a predetermined number of terminal devices whose responses are newly confirmed by the response management unit among the terminal devices in the individual communication.
The response confirmation apparatus according to claim 1.   In the individual communication, the representative terminal management unit associates the terminal device for which the response has been newly confirmed with the terminal device for which the response has been previously confirmed, and recognizes the order of the responses. The response confirmation apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the response confirmation apparatus is managed. The response management unit confirms whether or not there are responses from the plurality of terminal devices for the simultaneous communication,
The response confirmation apparatus according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the communication control unit performs the individual communication or the simultaneous communication with a terminal device that does not have a response confirmed by the response management unit. A terminal device connected to the response confirmation device via a network,
A response destination recognition unit for recognizing a response destination terminal device set by data transmitted from the response confirmation device;
When the response destination recognition unit recognizes that the response destination is the terminal device itself, the terminal device itself manages the communication from the child terminal device set as the response destination;
When the response destination recognizing unit recognizes that the response destination is the terminal device itself, it receives communication from the child terminal device, transmits the received communication collectively to the response confirmation device, and receives the response destination. A communication control unit that communicates with the recognized response destination;
The terminal device characterized by having.   A system in which the response confirmation device according to any one of claims 1 to 4 and the plurality of terminal devices according to claim 5 are connected via a network. A response confirmation device in which a plurality of terminal devices are connected via a network.
Processing to transmit to the plurality of terminal devices;
A process for managing the presence or absence of a response from the terminal device;
A process of managing a predetermined number of terminal devices for which new responses have been confirmed among the terminal devices as representative terminals;
In simultaneous communication that transmits to a plurality of the terminal devices all at once, a process of setting a response destination of the terminal device to one of the representative terminals;
A process of performing the simultaneous communication and transmitting information including a set response destination to the terminal device in the simultaneous communication;
A response confirmation method characterized by comprising: The terminal device connected to the response confirmation device via the network
Processing for recognizing a response destination terminal device set by data transmitted by the response confirmation device;
When recognizing that the response destination is the terminal device itself, the terminal device itself manages communication from the child terminal device set as the response destination;
When it is recognized that the response destination is the terminal device itself, it receives communications from the child terminal device, sends the received communications together to the response confirmation device, and the response destination is the terminal device itself Otherwise, the process of communicating with the recognized response destination,
A response confirmation method characterized by comprising: In a response confirmation device in which a plurality of terminal devices are connected via a network,
Processing to transmit to the plurality of terminal devices;
A process for managing the presence or absence of a response from the terminal device;
A process of managing a predetermined number of terminal devices for which new responses have been confirmed among the terminal devices as representative terminals;
In simultaneous communication that transmits to a plurality of the terminal devices all at once, a process of setting a response destination of the terminal device to one of the representative terminals;
A process of performing the simultaneous communication and transmitting information including a set response destination to the terminal device in the simultaneous communication;
A program that causes a computer to execute. In the terminal device connected to the response confirmation device via the network,
Processing for recognizing a response destination terminal device set by data transmitted by the response confirmation device;
When recognizing that the response destination is the terminal device itself, the terminal device itself manages communication from the child terminal device set as the response destination;
When it is recognized that the response destination is the terminal device itself, it receives communications from the child terminal device, sends the received communications together to the response confirmation device, and the response destination is the terminal device itself Otherwise, the process of communicating with the recognized response destination,
A program that causes a computer to execute.