JP2020120179A - Wireless communication device, communication system, wireless communication method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a wireless communication device that can prevent a wireless slave unit from being unable to re-attach after wireless channel change.SOLUTION: A wireless communication device 1 includes a control unit 1a and a wireless communication unit 1b. The wireless communication unit 1b communicates with a wireless slave unit. The control unit 1a changes wireless channels used for communication by the wireless communication unit 1b. The control unit 1a performs a re-change process of changing wireless channels again if there is a wireless slave unit that cannot attach before or after the change of wireless channels.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present disclosure relates to a wireless communication device, a communication system, a wireless communication method, and a program.

In a wireless communication system, wireless communication can be performed between a wireless communication device as a wireless master device and a wireless communication device as a wireless slave device according to a standard such as a wireless LAN (Local Area Network). In this wireless communication, a plurality of wireless channels can be used.

Patent Document 1 describes a wireless base station that dynamically updates a wireless channel to be used. In the wireless base station described in Patent Document 1, when another wireless base station using the same wireless channel appears, wireless channel update processing is immediately started without waiting for a DFS (Dynamic Frequency Selection) cycle. ing.

JP, 2007-259042, A

By the way, various wireless cordless handsets are mixedly distributed in the market, and there are wireless cordless handsets which do not comply with the latest wireless standard. Therefore, in the technology described in Patent Document 1, the channel of the wireless master device may be set to a frequency band that the wireless slave device does not support, and the wireless slave device may not be able to belong to the wireless master device. .. For example, if the wireless slave device belonging to the wireless master device does not support the W56 band (5150-5250 MHz), if the channel setting of the wireless master device is changed to the W56 band, the wireless slave device will be wireless. I cannot belong to the base unit.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a wireless communication device, a communication system, a wireless communication method, and a program that solve the above problems. The above problem is that it is not possible to prevent the wireless slave device from being unable to re-associate after the wireless channel is changed.

A wireless communication device according to a first aspect of the present disclosure includes a wireless communication unit that communicates with a wireless slave device, and a control unit that changes a wireless channel used for communication in the wireless communication unit, and the control unit includes: When there is a wireless slave device that cannot be assigned before and after the wireless channel is changed, the re-changing process for changing the wireless channel is executed again.

A wireless communication method according to a second aspect of the present disclosure includes a wireless communication step of communicating with a wireless slave device, and a changing step of changing a wireless channel used for communication in the wireless communication step. When there is a wireless slave device that cannot be assigned before and after the wireless channel is changed, the re-changing process for changing the wireless channel is executed again.

A program according to a third aspect of the present disclosure is a program for causing a computer to execute a wireless communication step of communicating with a wireless slave device and a changing step of changing a wireless channel used for communication in the wireless communication step. Then, in the changing step, if there is a wireless slave device that cannot be assigned before and after the wireless channel is changed, a re-changing process of changing the wireless channel again is executed.

According to the present disclosure, it is possible to provide a wireless communication device, a communication system, a wireless communication method, and a program that solve the above problems. That is, according to the present disclosure, it is possible to provide a wireless communication device, a communication system, a wireless communication method, and a program capable of preventing a wireless slave device from being unable to re-associate after changing a wireless channel. it can.

1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of a wireless communication device according to a first embodiment. 9 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a communication system including a wireless communication device according to a second embodiment. FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of a wireless communication device according to a second embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flow chart for explaining an example of a wireless channel changing process in the wireless communication device of FIG. 3. FIG. FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of a wireless communication device according to a third embodiment. 6 is a flowchart for explaining an example of a wireless channel changing process in the wireless communication device of FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of a wireless communication device.

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, in the embodiment, the same or equivalent elements may be denoted by the same reference numerals, and overlapping description may be omitted.

<Embodiment 1>
FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the wireless communication device according to the first embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 1, the wireless communication device 1 according to this embodiment includes a control unit 1a and a wireless communication unit 1b. The wireless communication device 1 is a device that can wirelessly communicate with a wireless communication device that is a slave device (wireless slave device) thereof, and can be referred to as a wireless master device. A communication system (wireless communication system) can be constructed by the wireless communication device 1 and one or more wireless slave devices.

The wireless communication unit 1b is a unit that communicates with a wireless slave device via a wireless network, and can have a wireless communication interface. A wireless LAN can be used as the wireless network, but the wireless network is not limited to this. In other words, the standard adopted for wireless communication between the wireless master device and the wireless slave device does not matter.

As the wireless LAN, for example, a wireless LAN of IEEE (The Institute Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.) 802.11 standard can be adopted. Regarding the wireless channel in the case of the IEEE802.11a standard, up to 19 channels can be used by using the W52 band (5150-5250 MHz), the W53 band (5250-5350 MHz), and the W56 band (5470-5725 MHz). In addition, various wireless LAN standards such as IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, and IEEE 802.11n can be adopted. In addition, other wireless communication standards such as Bluetooth (registered trademark, the same applies below) such as the IEEE 802.15 standard can be adopted. Examples of Bluetooth include Bluetooth Basic Rate/Enhanced Data Rate (BR/EDR) and Bluetooth Low Energy (LE).

The control unit 1a can be realized by, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a work memory, and a nonvolatile storage device that stores a program for controlling the entire wireless communication device 1. The control unit 1a can also be realized by, for example, an integrated circuit.

The control unit 1a is a unit that changes (switches) the wireless channel used for communication by the wireless communication unit 1b. Regardless of the trigger for this change, the simplest example is the change of the setting by the user. Also, the change of the wireless channel may be made between different standards.

Then, when there is a wireless slave device that cannot be attached before and after the change of the wireless channel (that is, before the change, but not after the change), the control unit 1a re-changes the wireless channel again. Execute the change process. In order to confirm the existence of such a wireless slave device, the control unit 1a may be configured to detect the belonging state of the wireless slave device via the wireless communication unit 1b before and after changing the wireless channel. it can.

As described above, in the wireless communication device 1 according to the present embodiment, the wireless channel is set in consideration of the handset belonging state, and the belonging handset before and after the radio channel change can be confirmed and the handset can be attached by changing the channel. It is possible to detect the presence or absence of a lost child device. Then, in the wireless communication device 1 according to the present embodiment, when a child device that cannot be attached is detected, the channel is changed again so that the child device that was able to belong before the first channel change can be attached again. To do.

More specifically, a wireless slave device that can belong to the wireless communication device 1 in the W56 band and the W52 band will be described as an example. In the wireless communication device 1, when the W56 band is used and the wireless handset belongs to the wireless handset, if the wireless channel change is executed in response to the request for changing to the W53 band, the wireless handset cannot belong. The wireless handset is automatically set to the W52 band to which it can belong. In addition, when changing again, the original wireless channel may be basically not used, but it may be returned to the original wireless channel (W56 band in this example).

As described above, in the wireless communication device 1 according to the present embodiment, the belonging slaves before and after the wireless channel change are confirmed, and if there is a slave that cannot be belonging due to the wireless channel change, the channel is changed again. By doing so, the belonging handset before the channel change can be re-assigned. Therefore, according to the wireless communication device 1 according to the present embodiment, it is possible to prevent the wireless slave device from being unable to re-associate after the wireless channel is changed.

<Embodiment 2>
The second embodiment will be described mainly with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4 focusing on the differences from the first embodiment, but various examples described in the first embodiment can be applied. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a communication system including the wireless communication device according to the second embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of the wireless communication device according to the second embodiment. ..

As shown in FIG. 2, the communication system according to the present embodiment includes a wireless master device 1, a wireless slave device 2, and a PC (Personal Computer) 3. The wireless master device 1 is the device described as the wireless communication device 1 in FIG. 1, and as illustrated in FIG. 3, the control unit 13 and the storage unit 14 corresponding to the control unit 1a, and the wireless communication unit 1b. And a communication unit 11. Further, the wireless master device 1 can have a wired communication unit 12 for connecting to the PC 3 by wire.

The wireless communication unit 11 transmits/receives high-frequency signals, and the wired communication unit 12 transmits/receives signals via a wired LAN. The control unit 13 controls each function of the wireless master device 1. The storage unit 14 stores various data and programs used by the control unit 13, and also stores pre-change belonging slave unit information 14a and post-change belonging slave unit information 14b. Here, the before-change belonging slave device information 14a is information including slave device information (wireless slave device information) indicating the wireless slave device that is currently belonging, and the after-change belonging slave device information 14b is the wireless device after the channel change. This is information including the child device information. Examples of such wireless slave device information include a MAC (Media Access Control) address, but the wireless slave device information is not limited to this and may be any information that can identify the wireless slave device.

The wireless slave device 2 can include a control unit 2 a that controls the entire wireless slave device 2 and a wireless communication unit 2 b that wirelessly communicates with the wireless master device 1. The wireless communication unit 2b transmits and receives high frequency signals. The PC 3 can include a control unit 3a that controls the entire PC 3 and a communication unit 3b that connects to the wireless master device 1 by wire. The communication unit 3b transmits/receives signals via a wired LAN.

In this communication system, the wireless slave device 2 is in a state of being able to wirelessly communicate with the wireless master device 1, in other words, the wireless slave device 2 belongs to the wireless master device 1. Further, in the present embodiment, the case where the standard used for wireless communication is the IEEE802.11a standard will be described as an example, but one or more other wireless communication standards may be adopted.

As described in the first embodiment, the wireless master device 1 according to the present embodiment responds to the channel setting process of the wireless master device in consideration of the slave device belonging state, that is, the wireless slave device belonging state before and after the wireless channel change. Performs channel setting processing for the wireless master device.

The change of the wireless channel will be described. The user can use the PC 3 to perform various settings of the wireless master device 1. The wireless base unit 1 may intentionally change the channel by user setting via the PC 3, or may automatically change the channel by the DFS function of the IEEE802.11a standard. The change of the wireless channel can be triggered by other than these.

Next, an operation example of the wireless master device 1 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a flow chart for explaining an example of the wireless channel changing process in the wireless master device 1.

First, when the control unit 13 detects a channel change event for changing the wireless channel (YES in step S1), the control unit 13 confirms the information indicating the wireless slave device currently belonging (wireless slave device information), and the pre-change belonging It is stored so as to be included in the child device information 14a (step S2). It should be noted that such a memory can be executed when the wireless slave device belongs, but in that case, it is necessary to perform a process of excluding it when the wireless slave device no longer belongs.

Next, the control unit 13 changes the wireless channel used by the wireless communication unit 11 based on the channel change event detected in step S1 (step S3). Next, the control unit 13 stores the wireless slave device information indicating the wireless slave device that has belonged after the wireless channel change so as to be included in the after-change belonging slave device information 14b. Then, the control unit 13 confirms whether or not the wireless slave device that has belonged to before the wireless channel change has re-owned by comparing the after-change belonging slave device information 14b and the before-change belonging slave device information 14a. Yes (step S4). As a result of the confirmation, if YES in step S4, the process ends.

As a result of the confirmation, when the wireless handset that was assigned before the wireless channel change is not reassigned (NO in step S4), the control unit 13 changes the wireless channel to another wireless channel again (returns to step S3). ). Even if the wireless channel re-change process (the process of returning from step S4 to step S3 and executing step S3) is performed a fixed number of times (for example, twice), the wireless slave device may not re-associate. Although the procedure is omitted in FIG. 4, in this case, the control unit 13 regards it as belonging to another wireless master device (or has moved to the outside of the communication area), and ends the process.

The wireless communication device according to the present embodiment described above has the same effects as the first embodiment. That is, according to the wireless communication device according to the present embodiment, since the wireless master device confirms the belonging slave device before and after the channel change, when the wireless slave device is not re-affected after the channel change, the wireless slave device automatically The channel can be changed again. By automatically re-changing the channel, it is possible to prevent the belonging wireless slave device from being unable to re-associate.

Further, as described regarding the process of returning from step S4 to step S3, in the present embodiment, the re-change process is aborted by a fixed number. That is, the control unit 13 according to the present embodiment does not include any wireless slave device that cannot be assigned before and after the wireless channel is changed, with the re-change process having a predetermined number of times as an upper limit (within the number of times). Run to. Accordingly, even when the wireless slave device 2 belongs to another wireless master device (or moves out of the communication area), it is not necessary to repeatedly perform the re-change process.

<Embodiment 3>
The third embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 together, focusing on the differences from the second embodiment. However, the various examples described in the first and second embodiments can be appropriately applied to the third embodiment. FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of the wireless communication device according to the third embodiment.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, the wireless communication device (wireless master device) 1 according to the present embodiment is specified in the storage unit 14 in place of the pre-change belonging slave device information 14a in the wireless master device 1 illustrated in FIG. The belonging slave unit information 14c and the non-settable channel information 14d are stored. Other configurations are basically as described in the second embodiment.

The designated belonging slave device information 14c stored in the storage unit 14 includes wireless slave device information indicating a wireless slave device to be re-affiliated even after the wireless channel is changed. Such wireless slave device information includes, for example, a MAC address, but the information is not limited to this and may be any information that can identify the wireless slave device. The designated belonging slave device information 14c is information set by the control unit 13 via the PC 3 or the like, and is belonging maintenance information indicating a wireless slave device that maintains the belonging even when the wireless channel is changed.

The unsettable channel information 14d includes channel information indicating a wireless channel that the wireless slave device could not belong to in the past for the wireless slave device whose wireless slave device information is included in the designated belonging slave device information 14c. That is, the unsettable channel information 14d is unchangeable channel information indicating a wireless channel to which the wireless slave device targeted by the designated belonging slave device information 14c could not belong. The post-change belonging slave device information 14b includes the wireless slave device information belonging after the change of the wireless channel, as described above.

Next, an operation example of the wireless master device 1 shown in FIG. 5 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining an example of the wireless channel changing process in the wireless master device 1 shown in FIG.

First, the user uses the PC 3 shown in FIG. 2 to access the wireless master device 1 and makes a setting for designating the MAC address of the wireless slave device to which the user wants to re-associate after changing the wireless channel. According to this setting, the control unit 13 stores the MAC address so as to be included in the designated belonging slave device information 14c (step S11).

Next, when the control unit 13 detects a channel change event for changing the wireless channel (YES in step S12), the control unit 13 reads the designated belonging slave device information 14c. Then, the control unit 13 confirms whether or not the wireless slave device whose wireless slave device information is included in the read designated belonging slave device information 14c is currently belonging (step S13).

As a result of the confirmation, if the designated wireless slave device is not belonging (NO in step S13), the control unit 13 uses the wireless channel used by the wireless communication unit 11 based on the channel change event detected in step S12. Is changed (step S16), and the process is terminated.

On the other hand, when the designated wireless slave device is belonging (YES in step S13), the control unit 13 changes the channel used by the wireless communication unit 11 based on the channel change event detected in step S12. Yes (step S14).

However, in step S14, if the channel information is stored in the non-settable channel information 14d, the channel is changed to a wireless channel other than the wireless channel indicated by the channel information. In this way, it is preferable that the control unit 13 sets the unsettable channel information 14d indicating the wireless channel to which the wireless slave device targeted by the designated belonging slave device information 14c could not belong by storing the history or the like. Then, when changing the wireless channel, the control unit 13 preferably changes the wireless channel other than the wireless channel indicated by the non-settable channel information 14d.

Next, the control unit 13 stores the wireless slave device information indicating the wireless slave device that has belonged after the wireless channel change so as to be included in the after-change belonging slave device information 14b, and the after-change belonging slave device information 14b and the designated belonging slave device. Compare with information 14c. By this comparison, the control unit 13 confirms whether or not the designated wireless slave device has re-assigned (step S15).

As a result of the confirmation, when the designated wireless slave device is not re-affiliated (NO in step S15), the channel information indicating the wireless channel is added so as to be included in the non-settable channel information 14d, and the other wireless channel is added. Change again (return to step S14). As described above, in the present embodiment, when the wireless slave device that cannot be assigned before and after the wireless channel change is the wireless slave device indicated in the designated associated slave device information 14c, the re-change process is executed.

Also in such re-change processing, in step S14, when the channel information is stored in the non-settable channel information 14d, the channel is changed to a wireless channel other than the wireless channel indicated by the channel information. In this way, it is preferable that the control unit 13 sets the unsettable channel information 14d indicating the wireless channel to which the wireless slave device targeted by the designated belonging slave device information 14c could not belong by storing the history. Then, when changing the wireless channel, the control unit 13 preferably changes the wireless channel other than the wireless channel indicated by the non-settable channel information 14d.

Also in the present embodiment, it is desirable to terminate the re-change process by a fixed number. In other words, the control unit 13 does not re-assign the designated wireless slave device even after performing the wireless channel re-changing process (the process of returning from step S15 to step S14 and executing step S14) a certain number of times (for example, twice). Should end the process. The reason for terminating the process is to assume that it has belonged to another wireless master device or has moved out of the communication area, as in the second embodiment. At that time, the fixed channel information is not stored so as to be included in the non-settable channel information 14d.

In this way, the control unit 13 preliminarily determines the re-changing process when the wireless slave device that cannot belong to the wireless slave device before and after the wireless channel is changed is the wireless slave device indicated by the designated belonging slave device information 14c. It is preferable that the number of times is set as an upper limit and the process is performed until the wireless slave device belongs.

The wireless communication device according to the present embodiment described above not only achieves the same effect as that of the second embodiment, but also stores the wireless channel to which the designated wireless slave device could not reassign, and uses this as a history. Since this is utilized, the number of times of re-changing the wireless channel can be reduced.

<Other Embodiments>
[A]
Although the functions of the control unit 1a and the wireless communication unit 1b of the wireless communication device 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 have been described in the first embodiment, it is sufficient that the wireless communication device 1 realizes these functions. Similarly, in the second and third embodiments, the functions of the respective constituent elements of the wireless communication device 1 shown in FIGS. 3 and 5 have been described, but it is sufficient if these functions can be realized as a wireless communication device.

[B]
The wireless communication device 1 according to the first to third embodiments can have the following hardware configuration. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the wireless communication device 1 according to the first to third embodiments. The same applies to the other embodiment [a] described above.

The wireless communication device 100 illustrated in FIG. 7 includes a processor 101, a memory 102, and a communication interface 103. The communication interface 103 includes a wireless communication interface. The functions of each unit such as the control unit described in the first to third embodiments are realized by the processor 101 reading a program stored in the memory 102 and executing the program while using the communication interface 103. The wireless slave device 2 and the PC 3 in FIG. 2 can also have the same hardware configuration.

In the above example, the program can be stored using various types of non-transitory computer readable media and supplied to the computer. Non-transitory computer readable media include various types of tangible storage media. Examples of non-transitory computer readable media include magnetic recording media (eg, flexible disks, magnetic tapes, hard disk drives), magneto-optical recording media (eg, magneto-optical disks). Further, this example includes a CD-ROM (Read Only Memory), a CD-R, and a CD-R/W. Further, this example includes a semiconductor memory (for example, mask ROM, PROM (Programmable ROM), EPROM (Erasable PROM), flash ROM, RAM (Random Access Memory)). Further, the program may be supplied to the computer by various types of transitory computer readable media. Examples of transitory computer-readable media include electrical signals, optical signals, and electromagnetic waves. The transitory computer-readable medium can supply the program to the computer via a wired communication path such as an electric wire and an optical fiber, or a wireless communication path.

[C]
Furthermore, in the various embodiments described above, the present disclosure discloses a wireless communication method as exemplified by the procedure of the communication processing (mainly, the channel setting processing of the wireless master device in consideration of the slave device attribution state) in the wireless communication device or the communication system. A form as a communication method can also be adopted. This wireless communication method has the following wireless communication steps and changing steps. The wireless communication step communicates with the wireless slave device. The changing step changes the wireless channel used for communication in the wireless communication step. Then, in the changing step, when there is a wireless slave device that cannot be assigned before and after the wireless channel is changed, a re-changing process for changing the wireless channel again is executed. Note that other examples are as described in the above-described various embodiments. It can be said that the program is a program for causing a computer capable of wireless communication to execute the wireless communication method described above.

It should be noted that the present disclosure is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be modified as appropriate without departing from the spirit. Further, the present disclosure may be implemented by appropriately combining the respective embodiments.

1,100 Wireless communication device (wireless base unit)
1a, 13 Control unit 1b, 11 Wireless communication unit 2 Wireless communication device (wireless slave device)
2a Wireless slave unit control unit 2b Wireless slave unit wireless communication unit 3a PC control unit 3b PC communication unit 12 Wired communication unit 14 Storage unit 14a Pre-change attribution handset information 14b Post-change attribution handset information 14c Designated attribution unit Machine information 14d Unsettable channel information 101 Processor 102 Memory 103 Communication interface

Claims (8)

A wireless communication unit that communicates with a wireless slave device,
A control unit for changing the wireless channel used for communication in the wireless communication unit;
Equipped with
The control unit executes re-change processing for changing the wireless channel again when there is a wireless slave device that cannot be assigned before and after changing the wireless channel.
Wireless communication device. The control unit executes the re-change process with a predetermined number of times as an upper limit until there is no wireless slave device that cannot be attached before and after the change of the wireless channel.
The wireless communication device according to claim 1. The control unit is
Set attribution maintenance information that indicates the wireless slave unit that maintains attribution even when the wireless channel is changed,
When the wireless slave device that cannot be assigned before and after the change of the wireless channel is the wireless slave device indicated in the attribution maintenance information, the re-change process is executed,
The wireless communication device according to claim 1. The control unit, when the wireless slave device that cannot belong to the wireless slave device before and after the wireless channel is changed is the wireless slave device indicated in the belonging maintenance information, the re-changing process is performed with a predetermined number of times as an upper limit. Run until the wireless handset becomes attached,
The wireless communication device according to claim 3. The control unit sets unchangeable channel information indicating a wireless channel to which the wireless slave device targeted for the attribution maintenance information could not belong,
When changing the wireless channel, the wireless channel is changed to a channel other than the wireless channel indicated by the unchangeable channel information,
The wireless communication device according to claim 3. A communication system comprising: the wireless communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 5; and the wireless slave device. A wireless communication step of communicating with the wireless slave device;
A changing step of changing a wireless channel used for communication in the wireless communication step;
Equipped with
In the changing step, if there is a wireless slave device that cannot be assigned before and after the wireless channel is changed, a re-changing process of changing the wireless channel again is executed,
Wireless communication method. On the computer,
A wireless communication step of communicating with the wireless slave device;
A changing step of changing a wireless channel used for communication in the wireless communication step;
Is a program for executing
In the changing step, if there is a wireless slave device that cannot be assigned before and after the wireless channel is changed, a re-changing process of changing the wireless channel again is executed,
program.

Images