JP2014165721A - Terminal device, method and program for proposing communication path - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To select and switch an optimal communication environment among all available communication environments including an invalidated communication environment.SOLUTION: A terminal device 2 capable of communication by switching a plurality of communication environments collects a communication environment type, used by other terminal devices 3, 4 located in the vicinity of the self-device, and a communication speed when using the communication environment. Using the collected communication environment type and the communication speed, the terminal device 2 selects a communication environment to be used when executing an application in coordination with servers 9, 10. Thereafter, the terminal device 2 displays the selected communication environment.

Description

  The present invention relates to a terminal device, a communication path proposal method, and a communication path proposal program.

  In recent years, with the advancement of communication technology and distributed processing technology, the development of applications that automatically select the communication environment between the server and the terminal device and distribute processing to the server and the terminal device using the selected communication environment has been developed. It has been broken.

“Offloading Android Applications to the Cloud without Customizing Android”, Eric Chen, Satoshi Ogata, Keitaro Horikawa, Eighth IEEE PerCom Workshop on Pervasive Wireless Networking 2012, Lugano (23 March 2012)

  Here, as a method for selecting the communication environment between the server and the terminal device, the state of each communication environment that can be used by the terminal device is collected, and the optimum communication environment is selected according to the collected state of each communication environment. A method can be considered. However, when selecting the communication environment between the server and the terminal device, if the state of the communication environment disabled without using the terminal device cannot be collected, even if the state of the disabled communication environment is good, There is a problem that a disabled communication environment cannot be selected.

  An embodiment of the disclosure has been made in view of the above, and an object thereof is to realize selection and switching of an optimal communication environment from all available communication environments including a disabled communication environment.

  In one embodiment, the terminal device includes a plurality of communication units that perform communication using different communication environments. Also, the terminal device collects the type of communication environment used by other terminal devices located in the vicinity of the own device and the communication speed when the communication environment is used. And a terminal device selects the communication environment used when cooperating with a server and executing an application using the classification and communication speed of the communication environment which the communication condition collection part collected. Thereafter, the terminal device displays the selected communication environment.

  In one embodiment, selection or switching of the optimum communication environment can be realized from all available communication environments including a disabled communication environment.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an information processing system according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating information collected by the terminal device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a functional configuration of the terminal device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a functional configuration of the collection server according to the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a communication status table according to the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram illustrating a flow of processing executed by the terminal device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram illustrating variations of processing executed by the terminal device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating information collected by the terminal device according to the second embodiment. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the functional configuration of the terminal device according to the second embodiment. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating a flow of processing executed by the terminal device according to the second embodiment. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a computer that executes a communication path proposal program.

  A terminal device, a communication channel proposal method, and a communication channel proposal program will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(First embodiment)
Hereinafter, an information processing system 1 including a terminal device that realizes selection and switching of an optimal communication environment from all available communication environments including a disabled communication environment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an information processing system according to the first embodiment. In the example illustrated in FIG. 1, the information processing system 1 includes a plurality of terminal devices 2 to 4, a radio base station 5, a base station 6, a network 7, a distributed execution environment 8, and a collection server 11. The distributed execution environment 8 includes a plurality of servers 9 and 10.

  Although omitted in FIG. 1, the information processing system 1 includes a plurality of terminal devices that exhibit the same functions as the terminal devices 2 to 4 and servers that exhibit the same functions as the servers 9 and 10. Shall. Although omitted in FIG. 1, the information processing system 1 is assumed to include other radio base stations similar to the radio base station 5 and base stations similar to the base station 6. Further, the terminal devices 3 and 4 exhibit the same functions as the terminal device 2 and will not be described below.

  Further, in the example illustrated in FIG. 1, the terminal apparatuses 2 to 4, the radio base station 5, the base station 6, the servers 9 and 10, and the collection server 11 are connected via a network 7. Here, the network 7 is an arbitrary communication network such as a WWW (World Wide Web), a LAN (Local Area Network), or a WAN (Wide Area Network).

  Each of the terminal devices 2 to 4 is an information processing device that executes various applications. For example, the terminal devices 2 to 4 are information processing devices such as PCs (Personal Computers) and servers, or mobile terminal devices such as smartphones, mobile terminal devices, and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). Each terminal device 2 to 4 can be connected to the network 7 via a plurality of communication environments regardless of wired or wireless.

  For example, the terminal devices 2 to 4 are connected to the network 7 via the wired communication path 12. Each of the terminal devices 2 to 4 is wirelessly connected via a short-range wireless communication path 13 such as Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) (registered trademark), wireless LAN (Local Area Network), Bluetooth (registered trademark), or the like. Connect to the base station 5 and connect to the network 7 via the radio base station 5. Each of the terminal devices 2 to 4 is connected to the base station 6 via a third generation mobile communication system, LTE (Long Term Evolution), or any other wireless communication path 14, and connected to the network 7 via the base station 6. Connecting.

  The wireless base station 5 performs wireless communication with the terminal devices 2 to 4 via the short-range wireless communication path 13. For example, when receiving data from the terminal device 2 via the wireless LAN, the wireless base station 5 transmits the received data to the collection server 11, the distributed execution environment 8, or other terminal devices 3 and 4.

  The base station 6 performs wireless communication with each of the terminal devices 2 to 4 via the wireless communication path 14. For example, the base station 6 is a base station such as a macro cell or a femto cell that performs wireless communication with each of the terminal devices 2 to 4 using 3G (third generation mobile communication system).

  Here, the terminal devices 2 to 4 execute applications in cooperation with the servers 9 and 10 included in the distributed execution environment 8. For example, the terminal device 2 divides the application into a plurality of threads, depending on the complexity of each thread, the processing capability of the arithmetic processing device included in the terminal device 2, the throughput between the terminal device 2 and the servers 9, 10, and the like. A thread executed by the own device and a delegation thread that delegates execution to the servers 9 and 10 are selected.

  Then, the terminal device 2 transmits a delegation thread to the servers 9 and 10. Then, the servers 9 and 10 execute the delegation thread received from the terminal device 2 and transmit the execution result of the delegation thread to the terminal device 2. Thereafter, the terminal device 2 executes the application by combining the received execution result of the delegation thread and the execution result of the thread by the own device.

  In the following description, the information processing system 1 in which the terminal devices 2 to 4 execute applications in cooperation with the servers 9 and 10 included in the distributed execution environment 6 will be described. However, the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment. For example, each of the servers 9 and 10 may be a terminal device owned by a user, like each of the terminal devices 2 to 4. In other words, the information processing system 1 can perform distributed execution even if the types of execution environments of the terminal devices 2 to 4 and the servers 9 and 10 and the types of applications to be executed are the same. Further, the information processing system 1 may be an embodiment in which each of the terminal devices 2 to 4 performs distributed execution for a certain application.

  Here, when transmission / reception of large-capacity data occurs, the terminal device 2 preferably transmits / receives data via a communication path with a relatively high throughput in order to efficiently distribute and execute applications. For example, the terminal device 2 should perform communication using the wired communication path 12 or the short-range wireless communication path 13 having a relatively high throughput when large-capacity data is transmitted and received for distributed execution of the application. .

  On the other hand, if data transmission / reception with a large capacity does not occur much, the terminal device 2 may perform data transmission / reception via a communication path with a relatively low throughput in order to reduce battery consumption and bandwidth. For example, the terminal device 2 may perform communication using the wireless communication path 14 having a relatively small throughput when transmission / reception of data with a large capacity does not occur so much.

  Here, the throughput of the wired communication path 12, the short-range wireless communication path 13, and the wireless communication path 14 varies depending on the position of each terminal device 2 to 4, the band in use, and the like. For this reason, when switching the communication path, the terminal device 2 should determine the state of each communication path, and switch the communication path according to the determined state of each communication path.

  However, although the terminal device 2 can measure the throughput of a communication channel that is actually in use, the terminal device 2 may not be able to measure the throughput of a communication channel that is invalidated without being used. As a specific example, the terminal device 2 may disable Wi-Fi when performing communication using 3G, and may reduce power supplied to a circuit for performing Wi-Fi communication. . In such a case, for example, even when the terminal device 2 is located in the vicinity of the radio base station 5 and the Wi-Fi state is good, the Wi-Fi throughput cannot be measured. Wi-Fi cannot be selected as the communication path.

  Accordingly, each of the terminal devices 2 to 4 executes the following processing. First, the terminal devices 2 to 4 acquire the throughput for the communication environment used by the own device. Then, each of the terminal devices 2 to 4 transmits communication status information indicating the communication environment used by the own device and the acquired throughput to the collection server 11. Here, the communication status information transmitted by each of the terminal devices 2 to 4 includes the throughput measured for one or more communication environments. That is, when each of the terminal devices 2 to 4 can measure the throughput for a plurality of communication environments, the terminal devices 2 to 4 measure the throughput for the plurality of measurable communication environments, and collect the communication status information including each measurement result. Send to. And the collection server 11 memorize | stores the communication status information received from each terminal device 2-4.

  The collection server 11 also stores the positional information of the terminal devices 2 to 4 together. Here, the position information of the terminal devices 2 to 4 stored in the collection server 11 is information that can be collected by an arbitrary method. For example, the collection server 11 may collect the position information acquired by each terminal device 2 to 4 using a positioning system such as GPS (Global Positioning System) or Galileo.

  Further, the collection server 11, for example, when each of the terminal devices 2 to 4 transmits communication status information to the collection server 11 via the radio base station 5, an SSID (Service Set Identifier) indicating the radio base station 5 or the like. The identifier may be stored as position information. In addition, for example, when each of the terminal devices 2 to 4 transmits communication status information to the collection server 11 via the base station 6, the collection server 11 may store an identifier indicating the base station 6 as position information. . That is, if the collection server 11 is information that can roughly identify the positions of the terminal devices 2 to 4, the collection server 11 can store arbitrary position information collected by the terminal devices 2 to 4 or the collection server 11. That's fine.

  For example, the terminal device 2 collects the communication status information of the terminal device located in the vicinity of the own device among the communication status information stored in the collection server 11. For example, when the collection server 11 stores the position information collected by each of the terminal devices 2 to 4 as the position information, the terminal apparatus 2 transmits the position information collected by the own apparatus to the collection server 11. Then, the collection server 11 identifies the terminal device located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2 using the position information collected by the terminal device 2, and transmits the communication status information collected by the identified terminal device 2 to the terminal device 2. To do.

  Here, the vicinity of the terminal device 2 is a range in which the communication speed can be expected to be approximately the same when each terminal device including the terminal device 2 uses the same communication environment. That is, the vicinity of the terminal device 2 is a range in which the communication speed can be expected to be approximately the same for the type of communication environment used by each terminal device including the terminal device 2.

  For example, when the location information is coordinates acquired using GPS or the like, the collection server 11 associates the distance between terminals that is assumed to have the same communication speed for each type of communication environment. Remember in advance. Then, when the collection server 11 receives the position information from the terminal device 2, the collection server 11 sets the terminal device located inside the circle whose center is the position indicated by the received position information and whose radius is the distance between the terminals stored in advance as a communication environment. Identify each type. That is, the collection server 11 identifies terminal devices included in different ranges for each type of communication environment as terminal devices located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2. Then, the collection server 11 transmits the communication status information collected by the identified terminal device to the terminal device 2 for each type of communication environment.

  In another example, when the location information uses an identifier indicating a radio base station as the location information, the collection server 11 determines that it exists in the vicinity because the connection to the radio base station is secured. For example, when receiving the identifier of the radio base station 5 from the terminal device 2, the collection server 11 identifies the terminal device connected to the radio base station 5. Here, as a method for identifying the terminal device connected to the radio base station 5, the collection server 11 may identify the terminal device that has transmitted the identifier of the radio base station 5 as position information within a predetermined time. Further, the collection server 11 may make an inquiry to the radio base station 5 to identify a terminal device that is actually connected to the radio base station 5.

  On the other hand, when the collection server 11 stores the identifiers of the radio base station 5 and the base station 6 to which the terminal devices 2 to 4 are connected, the terminal device 2 requests the communication status information of the neighboring terminals from the collection server 11. Then, the collection server 11 receives from the terminal device connected to the wireless base station 5 or base station 6 indicated by the same identifier as the wireless base station 5 or base station 6 connected when the terminal device 2 requests the communication status information. The transmitted communication status information is transmitted to the terminal device 2.

  As a result, the terminal device 2 can collect the communication status information of the terminal device located in the vicinity of the own device. Here, not only a terminal that performs communication using the same communication environment as the terminal device 2 but also a terminal that performs communication using a communication environment different from the terminal device 2 is included in the terminal device located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2. May be included. That is, the communication status information collected by the terminal device 2 may include information indicating the state of the communication environment invalidated by the terminal device 2.

  Therefore, the terminal device 2 compares the collected communication status information with the communication status information collected by the own device, and selects the optimal communication environment for application execution according to a predetermined policy. For example, when the terminal device 2 executes an application with a large amount of data to be transmitted / received through a 3G line in a distributed manner, if the Wi-Fi throughput collected by the nearby terminal device 3 is good, the communication environment As Wi-Fi. Then, the terminal device 2 displays the selected communication environment.

  Note that the range in the vicinity of the terminal device 2 is not limited to the above-described example. That is, the information processing system 1 has a terminal device 2 as long as the communication speed can be expected to be approximately the same when each terminal device including the terminal device 2 uses the same communication environment. An arbitrary range can be handled as the vicinity of the terminal device 2 in accordance with the protocol, communication path, radio wave intensity, communicable distance of each communication environment, and the like. For example, the collection server 11 calculates the distance between each of the terminal devices 2 to 4 and the base station 6, and sets the terminal device whose calculated distance is approximately the same as the distance between the terminal device 2 and the base station 6 in the vicinity of the terminal device 2. It is good also as a terminal device located in.

  Further, the vicinity of the terminal device 2 is not limited to a range in which the communication speed is strictly the same. For example, the communication speed is significantly different between a 3G communication environment and a Wi-Fi communication environment. For this reason, for the 3G communication environment, for example, a range that can be expected when the difference in communication speed is within 50 kbps (Kilo Bit Per Second) is set as a nearby range, and for the Wi-Fi communication environment, for example, communication A range that can be expected when the difference in speed is within 5000 kbps may be set as a nearby range. That is, for a communication environment with a high communication speed, the vicinity range may be expanded to a range where the communication speed is considered to be greatly different.

  In the following description, the collection server 11 is identified as a terminal device located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2 that is located within a circle having a radius of a predetermined distance with the terminal device 2 as the center. An example will be described.

  Here, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining information collected by the terminal device according to the first embodiment. In the example illustrated in FIG. 2, an example in which the terminal devices 3 and 4 are located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2 is described. For example, the collection server 11 stores the communication status information collected by the terminal devices 3 and 4 and the position information in association with each other. When the collection server 11 receives the position information from the terminal device 2, the collection server 11 transmits the communication status information received from the terminal devices 3 and 4 located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2 to the terminal device 2 using the received position information. To do. Then, the terminal device 2 uses the communication status information received from the collection server 11, that is, the communication status information collected by the terminal devices 3 and 4, to propose switching of the communication environment to the user. As a result, the terminal device 2 can propose an optimal communication environment when the application is distributed and executed, including the communication environment invalidated by the own device.

[Functional configuration of terminal device 2]
Next, the functional configuration of the terminal device 2 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a functional configuration of the terminal device according to the first embodiment. In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, the terminal device 2 includes a communication unit 20, an input unit 24, a display unit 25, a GPS 26, a control unit 30, and a storage unit 38. In the terminal device 2, an arithmetic processing device such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) (not shown) executes the process 27.

  The communication unit 20 has a plurality of communication paths 21 to 23. The control unit 30 includes a situation grasping unit 31 and a communication control unit 32. The status grasping unit 31 includes a position information acquisition unit 33 and a communication path status acquisition unit 34. In addition, the communication control unit 32 includes a communication path status recording unit 35, another communication path information collection unit 36, and a communication path switching proposal unit 37. The process 27 includes an OS (Operating System) 28 process and a higher-level API (Application Programming Interface) 29. Each process uses one of the communication paths 21 to 23 to perform data communication. It is carried out.

  The communication paths 21 to 23 perform communication using different communication environments. For example, the communication path 21 is connected to the base station 6 via the wireless communication path 14 such as 3G to perform communication. The communication path 22 is connected to the wireless base station 5 via the short-range wireless communication path 13 such as Wi-Fi for communication. The communication path 23 performs communication via the wired communication path 12.

  The input unit 24 is an input device for inputting various types of information to the terminal device 2 and is, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, or the like. The display unit 25 is a display device for displaying an execution result of an application by the terminal device 2 and is, for example, a display or a touch panel. GPS26 acquires the positional information on the terminal device 2 using a GPS positioning system.

  The position information acquisition unit 33 collects the position information of the terminal device 2 at a predetermined time interval or at an arbitrary timing such as a request from the other communication path information collection unit 36. For example, the location information acquisition unit 33 collects location information of the terminal device 2 measured by the GPS 26. For example, the position information acquisition unit 33 collects position information of the terminal device 2 from various information used when the process 27 performs data communication. Specifically, the position information acquisition unit 33 acquires the identifier of the radio base station 5 or the base station 6 connected when the process 27 performs data communication as position information. In another example, the position information acquisition unit 33 may acquire the position information of the terminal device 2 acquired by the process 27 using an arbitrary method.

  Then, the position information acquisition unit 33 notifies the acquired position information to the communication path status recording unit 35 or the other communication path information collection unit 36. The position information acquisition unit 33 may notify the communication path status recording unit 35 or the other communication path information collection unit 36 of the position information acquired using one or more of the above-described techniques. That is, the position information acquisition unit 33 may notify the communication path condition recording unit 35 or the other communication path information collection unit 36 of the position information acquired using a plurality of methods.

  The communication path status acquisition unit 34 collects the status of the communication environment used by the own device. For example, the communication path status acquisition unit 34 collects the type of communication environment used when the process 27 performs data communication and the throughput in data communication. Note that the communication path status acquisition unit 34 may collect arbitrary information related to data communication in addition to the throughput. Then, the communication path status acquisition unit 34 outputs communication status information including the collected communication environment type and throughput to the communication path status recording unit 35.

  The communication path status recording unit 35 transmits the position information and communication status information of the own device to the collection server 11 and causes the collection server 11 to record the information. For example, the communication path status recording unit 35 receives position information from the position information acquisition unit 33. In addition, the communication path status recording unit 35 receives communication status information about the communication environment used by the terminal device 2 from the communication path status acquisition unit 34. Then, the communication path status recording unit 35 transmits the position information and the communication status information to the collection server 11 via an arbitrary communication environment. Further, the communication path status recording unit 35 stores the communication status information in the storage unit 38 via the communication control unit 32.

  The other communication path information collection unit 36 collects communication status information of a terminal device located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2. For example, the other communication path information collection unit 36 instructs the position information acquisition unit 33 to acquire the current position information of the terminal device 2. Then, when the other communication path information collection unit 36 receives the position information from the position information acquisition unit 33, it transmits the received position information to the collection server 11.

  Here, when the collection server 11 receives the position information from the terminal device 2, the collection server 11 transmits the communication status information received from the terminal device located in the vicinity of the position indicated by the received position information to the terminal device 2. For this reason, the other communication path information collection unit 36 can collect the communication status information of the terminal device located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2. Thereafter, the other communication path information collection unit 36 stores the collected communication status information in the storage unit 38.

  The communication channel switching proposing unit 37 selects an appropriate communication environment when performing distributed application execution using the communication status information collected by the other communication channel information collecting unit 36. Then, the communication path switching proposing unit 37 causes the display unit 25 to display a screen for proposing switching to the selected communication environment.

  For example, the communication path switching proposal unit 37 acquires the communication status information stored in the storage unit 38, and identifies each communication environment included in each acquired communication status information and the throughput of each communication environment. Then, the communication path switching proposal unit 37 selects a communication environment with the highest throughput from the identified communication environments, and displays a screen for proposing to switch to the selected communication environment.

  In another example, the communication path switching proposal unit 37 acquires the communication environment and throughput of the terminal device 2 acquired by the communication path status acquisition unit 34. Further, the communication path switching proposal unit 37 identifies each communication environment included in the communication status information received from the other communication path information collection unit 36 and the throughput of each communication environment. Then, the communication path switching proposing unit 37 proposes to switch to the identified communication environment when the largest throughput among the identified communication environments is larger than the throughput of the communication environment used by the own device. Also good.

  In other words, the communication channel switching proposing unit 37 uses the communication status information of the terminal device 2 collected by the communication channel status acquisition unit 34 as well as the communication status information received from the other communication channel information collection unit 36 to change the communication environment. You may choose. Further, the communication channel switching proposal unit 37 includes the communication status information received from the other communication channel information collection unit 36, the amount of data to be transmitted / received in the process 27 being executed, the remaining power of the terminal device 2, the complexity of the process 27, and the like. A communication environment that satisfies a predetermined policy determined in advance may be selected based on the information.

  As described above, the terminal device 2 collects the communication status from the terminal device located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2 for the communication environment in which the communication status such as the throughput cannot be measured due to the invalidation. Then, the terminal device 2 selects a communication environment based on the communication status collected from the terminal device located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2. For this reason, the terminal device 2 can select an appropriate communication environment when executing the application in a distributed manner from various communication environments including a communication environment in which the communication state cannot be measured by invalidation.

[Functional configuration of collection server 11]
Next, the functional configuration of the collection server 11 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a functional configuration of the collection server according to the first embodiment. In the example illustrated in FIG. 4, the collection server 11 includes a storage unit 50, a collection unit 51, and a provision unit 52. The storage unit 50 also stores a communication status table 53.

  The memory | storage part 50 is a memory | storage part which memorize | stores the communication status information received from each terminal device 2-4. The communication status table 53 is a table in which communication status information received from each of the terminal devices 2 to 4 is stored for each terminal device.

  For example, FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a communication status table according to the first embodiment. In the example shown in FIG. 5, the communication status table 53 stores terminal information, location information, communication environment, throughput, and other information in association with each other. Here, the terminal information is information for identifying a terminal device that is a transmission source of associated position information, communication environment, throughput, and other information.

  Further, the position information is position information received from the terminal device indicated by the associated terminal information. The communication environment and throughput are the communication environment and throughput received from the terminal device indicated by the associated terminal information, and the other information is other information included in the received communication status information. In the example illustrated in FIG. 5, specific examples of other information are omitted.

  For example, in the example illustrated in FIG. 5, the communication status table 53 stores terminal information “1”, position information “50, 40”, communication environment “3G”, and throughput “100 kbps” in association with each other. The communication status table 53 stores terminal information “1”, position information “50, 40”, communication environment “Wi-Fi”, and throughput “5000 kbps” in association with each other. The terminal information “2”, Position information “10, 10”, communication environment “Wi-Fi”, and throughput “2000 kbps” are stored in association with each other. The communication status table 53 stores terminal information “3”, position information “10, 15”, communication environment “3G”, and throughput “50 kbps” in association with each other.

  Returning to FIG. 4, the collection unit 51 stores the communication status information and the position information received from the terminal devices 2 to 4 in the communication status table 53. For example, when receiving the communication status information and the position information from the terminal device 2, the collection unit 51 stores the terminal information indicating the terminal device 2, the received position information, and the communication status information in association with each other in the communication status table 53. To do.

  The providing unit 52 distributes communication status information of terminal devices located in the vicinity of the terminal devices 2 to 4. For example, when receiving the location information from the terminal device 2, the providing unit 52 refers to each location information in the communication status table 53 and extracts a terminal device located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2. For example, when the position information is coordinate information such as GPS, the providing unit 52 uses the position information stored in each entry of the communication status table 53 and the position information received from the terminal apparatus 2 to use the terminal device. The distance between 2 and another terminal device is calculated. Then, the providing unit 52 extracts a terminal device whose calculated distance is smaller than a predetermined threshold. Thereafter, the providing unit 52 transmits the communication status information received from the extracted terminal device to the terminal device 2.

  The providing unit 52 may set a different range for each communication environment as a nearby range. For example, with respect to the communication environment information related to 3G, the providing unit 52 extracts a terminal device located within a distance that is somewhat long from the terminal device 2 and receives the communication environment related to 3G received from the extracted terminal device. Information is transmitted to the terminal device 2. In addition, for the communication environment information related to Wi-Fi, the providing unit 52 extracts a terminal device located within a range of a distance that is relatively short to the terminal device 2 and receives the Wi-Fi received from the extracted terminal device. The communication environment information according to may be transmitted to the terminal device 2.

  Hereinafter, an example of processing executed by the providing unit 52 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. In the following description, an example will be described in which a terminal device whose distance calculated by the providing unit 52 from position information is “10” or less is determined to be a nearby terminal device. For example, the providing unit 52 receives the position information “10, 8” from the terminal device 2. Then, the providing unit 52 calculates the distance between the received position information and each piece of position information stored in the communication status table 53 illustrated in FIG. 5, and the terminal device indicated by the terminal information “2” and the terminal information “3” Are extracted as terminal devices located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2.

  Then, the providing unit 52 transmits the communication status information associated with the terminal information “2” and the communication status information associated with the terminal information “3” to the terminal device 2. Here, in the example illustrated in FIG. 5, when the communication status information transmitted to the terminal device 2 is compared, in the terminal device indicated by the terminal information “2”, the Wi-Fi throughput is 2000 kbps and the state is good. . For this reason, for example, when 3G is used as a communication environment, the terminal device 2 proposes switching of the communication environment together with the fact that the Wi-Fi communication status is good.

  When the location information received from the terminal device 2 is the identifier of the radio base station 5 or the base station 6, the providing unit 52 transmits the same identifier as the received identifier from the communication status table 53 as the location information. Extract terminal devices. Then, the providing unit 52 transmits the communication status information received from the extracted terminal device to the terminal device 2.

[Flow of processing executed by terminal device 2]
Next, the flow of processing executed by the terminal device 2 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram illustrating a flow of processing executed by the terminal device according to the first embodiment. For example, the communication path status acquisition unit 34 of the terminal device 2 acquires the communication status information of the terminal itself and outputs it to the communication control unit 32 (step S101). Then, the communication control part 32 requests | requires recording the communication status information of an own terminal in the memory | storage part 38 (step S102).

  As a result, the storage unit 38 records the communication status information (step S103). Subsequently, the position information acquisition unit 33 acquires the position information of the terminal itself and outputs it to the communication control unit 32 (step S104). Then, the communication control unit 32 transmits the location information and communication status information of the terminal itself to the collection server 11 (step S105). In such a case, the collection server 11 stores position information and communication status information (step S106).

  Next, the position information acquisition unit 33 acquires the position information of the terminal itself and outputs it to the communication control unit 32 (step S107). Then, the communication control unit 32 transmits the position information to the collection server 11 (Step S108). In such a case, the collection server 11 calculates the distance of each terminal device from the received position information (step S109), and extracts a terminal device near the terminal device 2 based on the calculated distance (step S110). ).

  Then, the collection server 11 transmits the extracted communication status information of the terminal device to the terminal device 2 (step S111). Thereafter, the communication control unit 32 records the communication status information of other terminals received from the collection server 11 in the storage unit 38 (step S112). Note that the terminal device 2 and the collection server 11 execute the processes of steps S107 to S112 shown in FIG.

  Subsequently, the communication control unit 32 requests communication status information from the storage unit 38 (step S113). Then, the memory | storage part 38 outputs communication status information to the communication control part 32 (step S114). And the communication control part 32 proposes communication environment switching based on the acquired communication status information (step S115), and complete | finishes a process.

  In the example illustrated in FIG. 6, an example in which the terminal device 2 uses the storage unit 38 as a cache of communication status information has been described, but the embodiment is not limited thereto. For example, the terminal device 2 may not have the storage unit 38 and may acquire the communication status information of the nearby terminal in response to a request from the communication control unit 32.

  Hereinafter, the flow of processing executed by the terminal device 2 that does not have the storage unit 38 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram illustrating variations of processing executed by the terminal device according to the first embodiment. Of the processes shown in FIG. 7, steps S206 to S210 are the same as steps S107 to S111 shown in FIG.

  For example, the communication path status acquisition unit 34 acquires the communication status information of its own terminal and outputs it to the communication control unit 32 (step S201). Further, the position information acquisition unit 33 acquires the position information of the terminal itself and outputs it to the communication control unit 32 (step S202). Then, the communication control unit 32 transmits the communication status information and position information of the terminal itself to the collection server 11 (step S203). In such a case, the collection server 11 stores the position information and the communication status (Step S204).

  Here, the communication control unit 32 requests position information from the position information acquisition unit 33 at predetermined time intervals, for example (step S205). With this process as a trigger, the terminal device 2 executes the processes of steps S206 to S210 shown in FIG. Thereafter, the communication control unit 32 proposes switching of the communication environment based on the acquired communication status information without storing the communication status information received from the collection server 11 in the storage unit 38 (step S211). finish.

[Effect of terminal device 2]
As described above, the terminal device 2 includes the communication paths 21 to 23 that perform communication using different communication environments. Further, the terminal device 2 collects the type and throughput of the communication environment used by other terminal devices located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2. Then, the terminal device 2 selects a communication environment to be used for distributed application execution based on the collected communication environment type and throughput, and proposes switching to the selected communication environment.

  For this reason, the terminal device 2 can implement | achieve selection and switching of an optimal communication environment from all the available communication environments including the invalidated communication environment. That is, since the terminal device 2 can collect the situation when the nearby terminal device performs communication using the communication environment invalidated by the terminal device 2, the terminal device 2 is optimal including the communication environment invalidated by the own device. It is possible to select and switch various communication environments.

  In addition, the terminal device 2 includes a position information acquisition unit 33 that acquires position information of the own device. Then, the terminal device 2 uses the position information acquired by the position information acquisition unit 33 to collect the communication status information from each of the terminal devices 2 to 4, and the terminal device 2 located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2. Get communication status information. Therefore, the terminal device 2 can collect the type of communication environment used by the terminal device located in the vicinity of the terminal device and the status of the communication environment.

  In addition, the terminal device 2 includes a communication path status acquisition unit 34 that acquires the type and throughput of the communication environment used by the terminal device 2. The terminal device 2 also includes a communication path status recording unit 35 that transmits and records communication status information including information acquired by the communication path status acquisition unit 34 to the collection server 11. For this reason, the terminal device 2 can transmit the communication status information of its own device to other terminal devices located in the vicinity.

  Further, the terminal device 2 acquires position information using a positioning system such as the GPS 26. And the terminal device 2 acquires the communication status information collected by the other terminal device which collected the positional information from which the difference with the positional information which the terminal device 2 acquired becomes below a predetermined threshold value. For this reason, the terminal device 2 can acquire the communication status information of the terminal device located in the vicinity of the own device.

  In addition, the terminal device 2 acquires an identifier indicating the wireless base station 5 or the base station 6 connected in the communication environment used by the terminal device 2 as position information. And the terminal device 2 acquires the communication status information collected by the terminal device which acquired the identifier same as the identifier which the terminal device 2 acquired as position information. That is, the terminal device 2 acquires the communication status of a terminal device that performs communication using the same radio base station 5 or base station 6 as the own device, that is, a terminal device located in the vicinity of the own device. For this reason, the terminal device 2 can acquire the communication status information of the terminal device located in the vicinity of the own device without using a positioning system or the like.

(Second Embodiment)
The terminal device 2 described above uses position information using the GPS 26 or position information using the identifiers of the radio base station 5 and the base station 6. However, the embodiment is not limited to this, and the terminal device 2 can use any information as the position information as long as the information can identify the terminal device located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2. it can.

  Further, the terminal device 2 may not use the position information as long as the terminal device 2 can identify the communication status of the terminal device located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2. For example, the terminal device 2 uses the short-range wireless communication path 13 to transmit and receive communication status information to and from a nearby terminal device using a P2P (Peer to Peer) technique, so that the communication status of the terminal device located in the vicinity can be determined. You may identify. Here, the method in which the terminal device 2 transmits and receives communication status information to and from nearby terminal devices is not limited to the short-range wireless communication path 13. For example, the terminal device 2 may directly transmit / receive communication status information to / from other terminal devices via an arbitrary communication path such as wireless LAN, Bluetooth, infrared communication, or NFC (Near Field Communication).

  Hereinafter, as a second embodiment, terminal devices 2a to 4a for identifying a communication status of a terminal device located in the vicinity using P2P technology will be described. In addition, each terminal device 2a-4a can operate | move as a terminal device contained in the information processing system 1, similarly to each terminal device 2-4 shown in FIG.

  First, the outline | summary of the process which each terminal device 2a-4a performs is demonstrated using FIG. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating information collected by the terminal device according to the second embodiment. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 8, each of the terminal device 3 a and the terminal device 4 a collects communication status information of its own device, and uses the collected communication status information via the short-range wireless communication path 13 for P2P technology. By using it, it transmits directly to the terminal device 2a.

  Here, the short-range wireless communication path 13 does not have a wide communication range. For this reason, the terminal device 2a can collect the communication status information of the terminal device located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2a when the communication status information is collected using the P2P technology. Then, the terminal device 2a uses the communication status information collected using the P2P technology to select the optimal communication environment for the divided execution of the application, and to the communication path for performing communication using the selected communication environment. Suggest switching.

  Note that the terminal device 2 a is not limited to a terminal device connected via the short-range wireless communication path 13, but a terminal that can communicate directly between the terminal devices is a terminal located in the vicinity range. That is, the terminal device 2a treats a terminal that can establish a direct connection with the terminal device 2a as a terminal located in the vicinity regardless of the distance from the terminal device 2a. Thus, when collecting communication status information from a terminal device located in the vicinity using the P2P technology, the vicinity is not a physical range but a terminal device capable of communicating with the terminal device 2a exists. Will be defined as a set of

[Functional configuration of terminal device 2a]
Next, the functional configuration of the terminal device 2a will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the functional configuration of the terminal device according to the second embodiment. In addition, about each part which shows the function similar to each part shown in FIG. 3 among each part shown in FIG. 9, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected and description is abbreviate | omitted.

  In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, the control unit 30 does not include the situation grasping unit 31 and includes only the communication control unit 32. The communication control unit 32 includes another communication path information collection unit 36 a and a communication path status collection unit 39.

  The communication path status collection unit 39 collects communication status information of its own device. For example, the communication path status collection unit 39 acquires the type of communication being used, throughput, and other information from the OS 28 and the API 29 of the upper module. Then, the communication path status collection unit 39 generates communication status information, and stores the generated communication status information in the storage unit 38 together with a time stamp. Further, the communication path status collection unit 39 deletes from the storage unit 38 communication status information for which a predetermined time has elapsed since storage in the storage unit 38. In addition, the communication path status collection unit 39 transmits the communication status information of its own apparatus to other terminal devices using the short-range wireless communication path 13 such as wireless LAN, infrared communication, Bluetooth, NFC or the like.

  The other channel information collection unit 36a collects communication status information from other terminal devices using P2P technology. For example, the other communication path information collection unit 36 a collects communication status information from other terminal devices via the short-range wireless communication path 13. Then, the other communication path information collection unit 36a stores the collected communication status information in the storage unit 38 together with a time stamp. Further, the other communication path information collection unit 36 a deletes the communication status information after a predetermined time has elapsed from the storage unit 38 after being stored in the storage unit 38.

  As a result, the communication path switching proposal unit 37 selects the optimum communication environment for the divided execution of the application using each piece of information stored in the storage unit 38, as in the first embodiment, and selects the selected communication environment. Proposals can be made to switch to a communication channel that uses.

[Flow of processing executed by terminal device 2a]
Next, the flow of processing executed by the terminal device 2a will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating a flow of processing executed by the terminal device according to the second embodiment. In the example illustrated in FIG. 10, an example in which the terminal device 2 a and the terminal device 3 a transmit and receive communication status information using the P2P technology is described.

  For example, the OS 28 or API 29 of the terminal device 2a acquires the communication status information of the terminal itself and outputs it to the communication control unit 32 (step S301). Then, the communication control part 32 requests | requires recording the communication status information of an own terminal in the memory | storage part 38 (step S302). As a result, the storage unit 38 records the communication status information (step S303). Further, the storage unit 38 deletes the communication status information after a predetermined time has elapsed since the storage in response to the request from the communication control unit 32 (step S304). And the communication control part 32 transmits the communication status information of an own terminal to the terminal device 3a.

  Further, the terminal device 3a outputs the communication status information of the terminal device 3a to the communication control unit 32 (step S306). Then, the communication control unit 32 requests to record the communication status information received from the terminal device 3a in the storage unit 38 together with the reception time (step S307). Then, the memory | storage part 38 records communication status information (step S308). In addition, the communication control unit 32 requests communication status information from the storage unit 38 (step S309). Then, the storage unit 38 outputs the communication status information to the communication control unit 32 (step S310). And the communication control part 32 proposes switching of a communication environment based on the acquired communication status information (step S311).

[Effect of terminal device 2a]
As described above, the terminal device 2a collects communication status information from other terminal devices that can be directly connected to the terminal device 2a. For example, the terminal device 2a collects communication status information from other terminal devices that can directly communicate with the terminal device 2a using the P2P technology. Therefore, the terminal device 2a can identify the type and throughput of the communication environment used by the terminal device located in the vicinity of the own device without using the position information. As a result, the terminal device 2a can propose an optimal communication environment for dividing and executing an application from all communication environments including the communication environment invalidated by the terminal device 2a.

(Other embodiments)
Although the first embodiment and the second embodiment have been described so far, the disclosed invention may be implemented in various different forms other than the above-described embodiments. Therefore, other embodiments will be described below.

(1) Position Information The terminal device 2 described above uses coordinate information obtained by a positioning system and identifiers of the radio base station 5 and the base station 6 as position information. However, the embodiment is not limited to this. For example, the terminal device 2 can identify a terminal device located in the vicinity of the terminal device 2 such as an upper bit of an IP (Internet Protocol) address, a packet routing route, and an identifier of a router to which the wired communication route 12 is connected. If it is information, arbitrary information can be used. Further, the terminal device 2 may use a plurality of pieces of position information in combination.

  Further, the terminal device 2a described above collects communication status information directly from nearby terminal devices. However, the embodiment is not limited to this. For example, the terminal device 2a has the same functional configuration as the collection server 11 according to the first embodiment, and is directly from another terminal device or via the short-range wireless communication path 13 or the wireless communication path 14. Collect communication status information and location information. Then, the terminal device 2a may identify a communication status of a nearby terminal device using the collected communication status information and position information, and may propose a communication environment based on the identified communication status. Further, when the terminal device 2a receives position information from another terminal device, the terminal device 2a may transmit the communication status information received from the terminal device located in the vicinity of the other terminal device.

  That is, the function of the collection server 11 in the first embodiment is built in the terminal device 2a, and the terminal devices 2a to 4a transmit and receive the communication status information and the position information by using the P2P technology. The form which exhibits the function and effect similar to this embodiment may be sufficient.

(2) About nearby terminal devices The terminal device 2a mentioned above acquired communication status information from the terminal device located in the vicinity using the technique of P2P. However, the embodiment is not limited to this. For example, the terminal device 2a may collect communication status information from the terminal device connected to the same wireless base station 5, that is, the terminal device assigned the same network address, via the wireless base station 5. That is, any method can be applied to the terminal devices 2 and 2a as long as the communication status information can be collected from the terminal devices located in the vicinity.

  Further, as described above, the terminal device located in the vicinity of the terminal devices 2 and 2a is limited to the terminal device located in a circle region having a predetermined distance as a radius around the terminal devices 2 and 2a. It is not a thing. For example, a terminal device located in the vicinity of the terminal devices 2 and 2a is a terminal device whose distance from the radio base station 5 is the same as the distance between the radio base station 5 and the terminal devices 2 and 2a, for example. May be. That is, the vicinity in the information processing system 1 indicates a range in which the communication speed is approximately the same for each communication environment, and is not limited to a specific concept of distance.

  Further, in the information processing system 1, when the communication speed is greatly different for each communication environment, it is not always necessary to set a range where the communication speed is approximately the same. For example, the information processing system 1 may expand a range that is close to a range in which the communication speed is greatly different in a communication environment having a higher communication speed than other communication environments. Thus, in the information processing system 1, the range in the vicinity of the terminal device is not limited to the range in which the communication speed is comparable.

(3) Information processing system The information processing system 1 mentioned above can mix the terminal device which exhibits the function similar to the terminal device 2, and the terminal device which has the function similar to the terminal device 2a. Moreover, the terminal device 2 has the function of the terminal device 2a, and may operate as the terminal device 2 or the terminal device 2a depending on the communication status or any other situation.

(4) Program Moreover, the program which described the process which the terminal device 2 or the terminal device 2a demonstrated in the said embodiment performed in the language which a computer can execute can also be created. For example, it is possible to create a communication path proposal program in which processing executed by the terminal device 2 according to the first embodiment is described in a language that can be executed by a computer. In this case, when the computer executes the communication path proposal program, the same effect as in the above embodiment can be obtained.

  Further, the communication path proposal program is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, and the communication path proposal program recorded on the recording medium is read by the computer and executed, thereby executing the same processing as in the first embodiment. May be realized. Hereinafter, an example of a computer that executes a communication path proposal program that realizes the same function as the terminal device 2 or the terminal device 2a will be described.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a computer 1000 that executes a communication path proposal program according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 11, the computer 1000 includes, for example, a memory 1010, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 1020, a hard disk drive interface 1030, a disk drive interface 1040, a serial port interface 1050, a video adapter 1060, and a network. Interface 1070. These units are connected by a bus 1080.

  The memory 1010 includes a ROM (Read Only Memory) 1011 and a RAM (Random Access Memory) 1012. The ROM 1011 stores a boot program such as BIOS (Basic Input Output System). The hard disk drive interface 1030 is connected to the hard disk drive 1090. The disk drive interface 1040 is connected to the disk drive 1100. A removable storage medium such as a magnetic disk or an optical disk is inserted into the disk drive 1100, for example. For example, a mouse 1110 and a keyboard 1120 are connected to the serial port interface 1050. For example, a display 1130 is connected to the video adapter 1060.

  Here, as shown in FIG. 11, the hard disk drive 1090 stores, for example, an OS (Operating System) 1091, an application program 1092, a program module 1093, and program data 1094. The communication path proposal program according to the present embodiment is stored in, for example, the hard disk drive 1090 as a program module in which a command executed by the computer 1000 is described. Specifically, a program module for executing the collection step, the selection step, and the display step executed by the situation grasping unit 32 and the communication control unit 32 described in the above embodiment is stored in the hard disk drive 1090. The

  Further, like data stored in the database described in the above embodiment, data used for information processing by the communication path proposal program is stored as program data in, for example, the hard disk drive 1090. Then, the CPU 1020 reads out program modules and program data stored in the hard disk drive 1090 to the RAM 1012 as necessary, and executes a collection step, a selection step, and a display step.

  Note that the program module and program data related to the communication path proposal program are not limited to being stored in the hard disk drive 1090, but are stored in, for example, a removable storage medium and read out by the CPU 1020 via the disk drive 1100 or the like. May be. Alternatively, a program module and program data related to the information transmission / reception program are stored in another computer connected via a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network) or a WAN (Wide Area Network), and the CPU 1020 via the network interface 1070. May be read.

  Although several embodiments have been described so far, the technology disclosed in the present application is not limited to these embodiments. That is, these embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made.

  For example, the specific form of distribution / integration of each device (for example, the form shown in FIG. 3) is not limited to the one shown in the figure, and all or a part thereof can be changed in arbitrary units according to various loads and usage conditions. Functionally or physically distributed and integrated. As an example, the position information acquisition unit 33 and the communication path status acquisition unit 34 may be integrated as one unit.

  In addition, among the processes described in the embodiments, all or a part of the processes described as being automatically performed can be manually performed.

  These embodiments and modifications thereof are included in the invention disclosed in the claims and equivalents thereof as well as included in the technology disclosed in the present application.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Information processing system 2-4, 2a-4a Terminal device 5 Wireless base station 6 Base station 7 Network 8 Distributed execution environment 9, 10 Server 11 Collection server 20 Communication part 21-23 Communication path 24 Input part 25 Display part 26 GPS
27 Process 28 OS
29 API
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 30 Control part 31 Situation grasping part 32 Communication control part 33 Position information acquisition part 34 Communication path condition acquisition part 35 Communication path condition recording part 36, 36a Other communication path information collection part 37 Communication path switching proposal part 38, 50 Storage part 39 Communication Road status collection unit 51 Collection unit 52 Provision unit 53 Communication status table

Claims (8)

A plurality of communication units that communicate using different communication environments,
A communication status collection unit that collects the type of communication environment used by other terminal devices located in the vicinity of the own device and the communication speed when using the communication environment;
A selection unit that selects a communication environment to be used when executing an application in cooperation with a server, using the type and communication speed of the communication environment collected by the communication status collection unit;
And a display unit that displays a communication environment selected by the selection unit. It further has a position information acquisition unit that acquires the position information of its own device,
The communication status collection unit, from a collection server that collects a type of communication environment used by each terminal device, a communication speed when using the communication environment, and position information indicating the position of the terminal device, Using the position information of the own device acquired by the position information acquisition unit, the type of communication environment used by other terminal devices located in the vicinity of the own device and communication when using the communication environment The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein a speed is acquired. A communication status acquisition unit that acquires the type of communication environment used by the own device and the communication speed when the communication environment is used;
The type of communication environment used by the own device acquired by the communication status acquisition unit, the communication speed when using the communication environment, and the location information of the own device collected by the location information collection unit. The terminal device according to claim 2, further comprising a recording unit that transmits and records the data to the collection server. The location information acquisition unit acquires location information indicating the location of the device using a positioning system,
The communication status collection unit uses a type of communication environment used by a terminal device that has collected position information whose difference from the position information acquired by the position information acquisition unit is a predetermined threshold or less, and uses the communication environment. The terminal device according to claim 2, wherein a communication speed at the time of the acquisition is acquired. The location information acquisition unit acquires an identifier indicating a base station to which the device is connected in a communication environment used by the device.
The communication status collection unit uses a type of communication environment used by another terminal device connected to a base station indicated by the same identifier as the identifier acquired by the location information acquisition unit, and the communication environment. The terminal device according to claim 2, wherein a terminal communication speed is acquired.   The communication status collection unit, from another terminal device that can be directly connected to the own device, the type of communication environment used by the other terminal device, the communication speed when using the communication environment, The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the terminal device is collected. A communication path proposal method executed by a terminal device capable of performing communication by switching a plurality of communication environments,
A communication status collection step for collecting the type of communication environment used by other terminal devices located in the vicinity of the own device and the communication speed when using the communication environment;
A selection step of selecting a communication environment to be used when executing an application in cooperation with a server, using the type and communication speed of the communication environment collected in the communication status collection step;
And a display step for displaying the communication environment selected in the selection step. To a computer that can communicate by switching multiple communication environments,
A communication status collection step for collecting the type of communication environment used by other terminal devices located in the vicinity of the own device and the communication speed when using the communication environment;
A selection step of selecting a communication environment to be used when executing an application in cooperation with a server, using the type and communication speed of the communication environment collected in the communication status collection step;
And a display step for displaying the communication environment selected in the selection step.

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