JP2022040416A - Communication apparatus, control method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To establish a wireless connection between apparatuses with lower power consumption while suppressing the apparatus cost.

SOLUTION: A communication apparatus is configured to transmit Publish including a first Attribute relating to the Neighbor Awareness Network (NAN), which includes at least one of a Service ID or Service Info indicating a print service and to receive print data transmitted from another communication apparatus, according to the NAN. The communication apparatus further transmits a second Attribute relating to the NAN, which includes a BSSID to be used for establishing a wireless LAN connection, establishes a wireless LAN connection with the other communication apparatus in response to receiving a probe request destined for the BSSID from the other communication apparatus, and receives the print data via the established wireless LAN connection.

SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

COPYRIGHT: (C)2022,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a communication partner search and connection control technique.

The communication function by wireless LAN conforming to the IEEE802.11 standard series is widely used for providing services such as printers. Patent Document 1 describes a technique for securely establishing a wireless LAN connection between a printer and a user device, and transmitting print data by the established connection. Further, in Patent Document 2, Bluetooth (registered trademark) Low Energy (BLE) is used to detect a printer that can be connected by wireless LAN, and then establish a wireless LAN connection with the detected printer. The method is described.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-060578 JP-A-2015-200989

According to the technique described in Patent Document 2, a printer that can be connected is detected by using BLE before establishing a connection by wireless LAN, so that power saving can be achieved. In order to use this method, it is necessary that both of the two devices that perform communication are equipped with not only the communication function of the wireless LAN but also the communication function of BLE. However, since the signal format and packet structure of the physical layer are different between BLE and wireless LAN, it is necessary to prepare another communication circuit in order for the communication device to use both of these communication functions. There was a problem that the cost of parts increased.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for establishing a wireless connection between devices while suppressing the cost of the device and with low power consumption.

A communication device according to an aspect of the present invention transmits a Public containing a first Attribute related to a NAN including at least one of a Service ID indicating a printing service and a Service Info, based on the Neighborhood Awareness Network (NAN). It has a first communication means and a second communication means for receiving print data transmitted from another communication device, and the first communication means is used for establishing a wireless LAN connection. A second Attribute related to the NAN including the BSSID is further transmitted, and the second communication means receives a probe request destined for the BSSID from the other communication device. And establish a wireless LAN connection, and receive the print data via the established wireless LAN connection.

According to the present invention, it is possible to establish a wireless connection between devices while suppressing the cost of the devices and with low power consumption.

It is a figure which shows the configuration example of a system. It is a figure which shows the frame structure of SDF. It is a figure which shows the configuration example of the user equipment. It is a figure which shows the example of the processing flow of a control part. It is a figure which shows the example of the screen display of an application in a user device. It is a figure which shows the example of the flow of a printer search process. It is a figure which shows the example of the information which is saved as a printer search result. It is a figure which shows the example of the screen display which accepts a printer selection operation. It is a figure which shows the example of the processing flow between a user equipment and a printer. It is a figure which shows the example of the processing flow of a control part. It is a figure which shows the example of the screen display of an application in a user device. It is a figure which shows the example of the screen display for setting the permission / disapproval of a communication function.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiment, communication is performed between a user device having a wireless LAN communication function conforming to the IEEE802.11 standard series and a printer. At this time, the user device detects the printer by the WiFi Alliance's Neighborhood Awareness Network (NAN), and transmits the print data to the detected printer using the wireless LAN. Since the communication in NAN is intermittent communication by setting the Discovery Window (DW) for a predetermined short period in a predetermined cycle, the power consumption can be suppressed low. Further, since the communication in NAN is the communication conforming to the IEEE802.11 standard series, it can be executed by using the communication circuit for other communication in the wireless LAN conforming to the IEEE802.11 standard series. Therefore, the cost of the communication device can be kept low as compared with the case where communication that cannot share the communication circuit such as BLE is used. In the following, the configuration of the system and the device will be described first, and then some examples of the processing flow will be described.

(System configuration)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a wireless communication system according to the present embodiment. The wireless communication system includes, for example, a user device 100, a printer 101, and another device 102. These devices are examples of communication devices in this embodiment. In the present embodiment, all of these devices conform to the IEEE802.11 standard series, and have a low power consumption NAN communication function and a relatively high power consumption wireless LAN communication function. In addition, each device may have a wireless communication function according to a wireless communication standard other than the IEEE802.11 standard series. That is, if it is a communication device that supports a plurality of wireless communication methods that can share wireless communication hardware and at least one of them is a low power consumption wireless communication method, the following discussion is made. Can be applied.

The user device 100 has, for example, a user interface such as a liquid crystal screen and a touch panel, and is a battery-powered mobile device, but is not limited thereto. The user device 100 can be, for example, any type of portable or stationary, mains connected or battery-powered device with communication capabilities. The mobile device that can be used as the user device 100 may be, for example, a smartphone, a mobile phone, a tablet PC (Personal Computer), a laptop PC, a notebook PC, or a portable game machine. Further, in the present embodiment, the user device 100 has a function of searching for peripheral printers and transmitting content data such as images to the detected printers for printing. The processing executed in the user device 100 such as the processing for realizing this function can be realized by operating the software of the OS (Operating System) and the application running on the OS by hardware such as a processor.

The printer 101 provides a printing service to other devices such as the user device 100. The printer 101 may have not only a wireless communication function but also a wired communication function, and can provide a printing service in response to a printing request by a device connected via a wired network. In this embodiment, an example in which a printer 101 that provides a printing service is used will be described. The printer 101 is a device that provides other arbitrary services such as a storage device that executes a storage service for storing data. May be replaced with.

As described above, the user device 100 performs communication related to printer search with a low power consumption NAN, and performs communication related to print data transmission with a high-speed wireless LAN having relatively high power consumption. The NAN communication between the user device 100 and the printer to be searched is bidirectional communication in the channel 6 (2.437 GHz) in the frequency band of 2.4 GHz and in the DW set as a period of a predetermined length that arrives periodically. Is executed as. The set of communication devices sharing the DW schedule is called a NAN cluster. The DW is set as a period of 16 TU for every 512 TU. "TU" is an acronym for Time Unit, and 1TU is 1024 microseconds. When the user equipment 100 and the printer 101 belong to the same NAN cluster 110, the user equipment 100 can communicate with the printer 101 during the DW period. It should be noted that one or more other devices 102 in FIG. 1 may also belong to the same NAN cluster 110.

The NAN cluster includes a device that operates as a master that repeatedly transmits a Discovery Beacon, which is a signal for making a terminal that does not belong to the NAN cluster recognize the NAN cluster. The Discovery Beacon is transmitted, for example, every 100 ms at a timing outside the DW period. In addition, the device operating as a master transmits a Synchronization Beacon (hereinafter referred to as a Sync Beacon), which is a beacon for each terminal to identify and synchronize the DW, within the DW period. Further, in NAN, roles such as Non-Master Sync and Non-Master Non-Sync are defined in addition to Master, but the description thereof is omitted here.

In this embodiment, it is assumed that the printer 101 operates as a master of the NAN cluster 110. The user device 100 recognizes the NAN cluster 110 by receiving the Discovery Beacon from the printer 101, and further detects the DW period of the NAN cluster 110 by receiving the Sync Beacon. Since it is permissible to change the device that operates as a Master in the NAN cluster, the user device 100 can operate as a Master after this. Further, the NAN cluster 110 may be configured by the user device 100 transmitting the Discovery Beacon as the Master and the nearby printer receiving the Discovery Beacon. Further, the other device 102 may operate as a master, and the printer 101 and the user device 100 may receive the Discovery Beacon transmitted from the other device 102 and participate in the NAN cluster 110.

The user equipment 100 and the printer 101 transmit and receive information regarding the presence or absence of the print service within the DW period of the NAN cluster 110. The user device 100 notifies that the device providing the print service is being searched for by transmitting a Subscribing message, which is a message for detecting or requesting the service, within the DW period. On the other hand, the printer 101 notifies the user device 100 that the print service is provided by transmitting a Public message, which is a message for notifying that the service is being provided, within the DW period. do. The user equipment 100 and the printer 101 may further send and receive additional information by a Follow-up message. Messages such as Publish, Subscribe, and Follow-up are transmitted in a frame format called Service Discovery Frame (SDF). When the user device 100 searches for a device that is providing a service other than the printing service, the user device 100 transmits a Subscribing message that specifies the service. On the other hand, the device providing the service sends a Public message indicating that the service is being provided.

FIG. 2 shows the frame configuration of the SDF200. The SDF200 is a type of MAC frame defined in the IEEE802.11 standard series, and includes a Transmitter Addless 201 which is an address of a NAN device whose source is NAN device, and one or more NAN Attribute 202. In the following, Transmitter Address will be referred to as TA. There are a plurality of types of NAN Attribute, the types are defined by Attribute ID, and the contents of Attribute Body Field are defined for each type. The NAN Attribute when the value of the Attribute ID is 0x03 is called a Service Descriptor Attribute. The Attribute Body Field of the Attribute Descriptor Attribute includes the Service ID, Service Control, and Service Info fields. The Service ID can include information indicating the type of service such as a print service. The Service Control can include information indicating a message type such as Publish, Subscribe, and Follow-up. The Service Info can contain arbitrary information. It also defines a NAN Attribute for sending other information.

When the user device 100 receives the Public message indicating that the print service is being provided from the printer 101 within the DW period, the user device 100 establishes a wireless LAN connection different from the NAN with the printer 101. For example, the printer 101 may operate as a wireless LAN access point (AP), and the user device 100 may operate as a wireless LAN station (STA) to connect to the printer 101. The printer 101 may operate as an STA and the user device 100 may operate as an AP, or the user device 100 and the printer 101 may both operate as an STA and connect to an external AP. That is, it suffices if one of the user device 100 and the printer 101 operates as an access point and the other operates as a station and can communicate with each other, and which one operates as an access point is not limited. Further, the user equipment 100 and the printer 101 may be P2P connected (directly connected) based on the Wi-Fi Direct standard. In this way, establishing a wireless connection for data communication in a network different from NAN after discovering a connection partner by NAN is generally called Post NAN. The user device 100 and the printer 101 transmit print data from the user device 100 to the printer 101 using the wireless connection of Post NAN. The user equipment 100 and the printer 101 may be configured to exchange timing information by communication within the DW period of NAN and to communicate print data outside the DW period based on the favorable timing information. That is, the print data may be transmitted using communication by NAN instead of transmitting the print data using the wireless connection of Post NAN. At this time, the frequency channel (for example, 6ch) used in the DW communication may be continuously used, or a different frequency channel may be used. By using different frequency channels, even if a part of the communication period of the print data overlaps with the DW, the influence of signal interference can be suppressed.

When the Post NAN is used for transmitting the print data, the user equipment 100 and the printer 101 exchange information necessary for establishing a wireless connection with the Post NAN by SDF based on the NAN standard. For example, when the printer 101 is an AP of a wireless LAN, the printer 101 includes a WLAN Infrastructure Attribute, which is a kind of NAN Infrastructure, in the SDF. Then, the printer 101 transmits an SDF including a BSSID (Basic Service Set Identifier) in the Attribute Body Field. The user device 100 establishes a wireless LAN connection by using the information contained in the received SDF. BSSID may be included in the Service Info in the Service Descriptor Attribute, which is another type of NAN Attribute. In addition, connection setting information other than BSSID, which is necessary for establishing a wireless connection, can also be exchanged by SDF based on the NAN standard.

(Configuration of user equipment)
Subsequently, a configuration example of the user device 100 will be described with reference to FIG. As an example, the user device 100 has a control unit 301, a wireless communication unit 302, a display unit 303, an input unit 304, a timer 305, and a memory 306.

The control unit 301 is composed of, for example, one or more processors, and controls the entire user device 100 by executing a control program stored in the memory 306. The processor is, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) or an MPU (Micro Processing Unit), but is not limited thereto. For example, FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) or DSP (Digital Signal Processor) may be used as a processor. For example, the control unit 301 may be configured to automatically generate and execute a dedicated circuit on a Gate Array such as an FPGA by using a predetermined compiler and a program corresponding to a predetermined process. Further, the control unit 301 may be configured by a combination of a plurality of processors or the like, for example, a part of the processing is realized by an FPGA or the like and another processing is realized by a CPU or the like. The control unit 301 can use one or more memories 306 in various situations for storing information, such as when storing a variable value during execution of a control program, and also stores other than the memory 306. Information may be stored in a device or a memory built in the control unit 301. Further, the control unit 301 can measure the time by using the timer 305.

Under the control of the control unit 301, the wireless communication unit 302 transmits or receives at least one of data to and from another device (for example, the printer 101) by a communication method compliant with the wireless LAN and NAN standards. conduct. The wireless communication unit 302 has, for example, an antenna, a modulation / demodulation circuit, a processor for media access control, and the like, and has essential configurations and functions for performing communication by wireless LAN and NAN. As described above, in the communication by wireless LAN and the communication by NAN, at least a part of the communication circuit, the antenna, and the like constituting the wireless communication unit 302 are shared.

Under the control of the control unit 301, the display unit 303 visually provides the user with arbitrary information such as content information such as an image and information necessary for the user to operate the user device 100 using the input unit 304. Present to. For example, the display unit 303 is a liquid crystal screen or an organic EL display. The display unit 303 may further include a speaker or a vibrator that presents information to the user through hearing, tactile sensation, or the like, in place of or in addition to the display. The input unit 304 may be any hardware having a reception function for accepting operations by the user. For example, the input unit 304 may be a keyboard or a mouse. Further, a touch panel type display in which the input unit 304 and the display unit 303 are integrated may be used. The timer 305 is, for example, a general timer that starts timing by a trigger given by the control unit 301 and measures the elapsed time from the start of timing. The memory 306 holds various information such as the control program of the control unit 301, the values of variables output while the control unit 301 is executing the control program, and content information such as images.

(Process flow)
Subsequently, some examples of the flow of processing executed in the above-mentioned system and device configuration will be described mainly from the viewpoint of the user equipment 100. This process is started, for example, in response to the execution of a predetermined application on the user device 100.

<Processing example 1>
A first example of the process executed by the user device 100 will be described with reference to FIG. When the process is started, the control unit 301 controls the wireless communication unit 302 to turn off the wireless LAN and waits for the printer search operation by the user (S401, S402). The target to be turned off here may be only a part of the communication function of the wireless LAN, for example, the high-speed large-capacity communication function, but the communication function of the NAN may also be turned off. When the control unit 301 determines in S402 that the application termination operation or the predetermined termination processing related to the predetermined service such as printing has been performed, the control unit 301 terminates the processing of FIG. An example of the display content of the display unit 303 at this time will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 (A) and 5 (B). The screen 500 of FIG. 5A is the display content of the display unit 303 when the predetermined application X is executed and the image content is displayed. The process of FIG. 4 may be started, for example, by starting the application X, or in response to a predetermined process such as displaying image content in the application X. When the menu button 501 for performing an operation on the image content being displayed is tapped, the control unit 301 controls the display unit 303 to transition to the screen 502 of FIG. 5B and display the menu. Further, when the print button 503 in the menu is tapped, the control unit 301 determines that the printer search operation has been performed by the user.

When the control unit 301 detects the printer search operation, it controls the wireless communication unit 302 to join the NAN cluster, receives the Discovery Beacon and the Sync Beacon, and detects the DW period (S403). Subsequently, the control unit 301 controls the wireless communication unit 302 to search for a printer existing in this NAN cluster in the communication performed during the DW period (S404). Here, the printer search process executed in S404 will be described with reference to FIG.

First, the control unit 301 reads out a character string representing the print service previously stored in the memory 306 (S601). This character string is a character string called Service Name in the NAN standard. The character string may be, for example, "print_service", but other character strings may be used. Further, for example, a character string including a domain name such as "org.organization_xxx.print_service" may be used. Subsequently, the control unit 301 calculates a hash value for this character string (S602). For example, the control unit 301 may use a character string as an input of the hash function SHA-256 and the first 48 bits (6 bytes) of the output result of this hash function as a hash value. The hash value may be calculated by the wireless communication unit 302 instead of the control unit 301. Further, the hash value may be calculated by another calculation method. Further, in some cases, a predetermined value corresponding to the character string but not a hash value, such as the character string itself, may be used.

Next, the control unit 301 starts the timer (S603) and repeatedly executes the following processes S604 to S607 for a predetermined period. In S604, the predetermined period is, for example, 10 seconds, but the predetermined period is not limited to this, and any time length can be used as the predetermined period. The control unit 301 controls the wireless communication unit 302 to transmit a Subscribing message during the DW period (S604). The Subscribing message here is transmitted by an SDF including a Service ID that matches the hash value acquired in S602, with information for identifying the Subscribing message set in the Service Control.

Subsequently, the control unit 301 controls the wireless communication unit 302 to receive a Public message including a Service ID that matches the hash value described above during the DW period (S605). For example, when the wireless communication unit 302 has a function of filtering based on the Service ID, the wireless communication unit 302 may be set to block the Public message in which the above-mentioned hash value is not set in the Service ID. When the wireless communication unit 302 receives the Public message with the matching Service ID, the wireless communication unit 302 notifies the control unit 301 of that. Upon receiving this notification from the wireless communication unit 302, the control unit 301 determines that the device from which the Public message is transmitted is a printer that provides a printing service. Then, the control unit 301 associates the TA of this Public message with the content of the NAN Attribute received from the same TA and stores it in the memory 306, and stores this as a printer search result. The control unit 301 ends the process of FIG. 6 after executing the processes of S604 to S607 for a predetermined time.

The NAN standard defines two operations as a method for transmitting a Public message. A Solidified Public in which a Public signal is transmitted in response to a Subscribing signal, and a Unified Public in which a Public signal is repeatedly transmitted without a Subscribing signal. In the process of FIG. 6, when searching only the printer performing Unified Public, the transmission of the Subscribing message in S604 may be omitted.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the printer search result 700 stored in the memory by the printer search process of S404. For example, it is assumed that a Public message including a Service ID that matches the hash value calculated in S602 is received from the device of TA = 01-23-45-67-89-BB. Further, it is assumed that the Service Info of this Public message contains the character string "Printer on the south side of the office on the 13th floor" as information representing the printer name. Further, it is assumed that the information BSSID = "BB-BB-BB-BB-BB-BB" is received from the same TA source in the WLAN Infrastructure Attribute, which is one of the NAN Infrastructure. In this case, as shown in the information 701, the information associated with the TA, the printer name, and the BSSID is stored in the memory 306. When similar information is received from other TA devices, information such as information 701 is stored for each TA. The contents of the stored NAN Attribute can be part or all of the received information. The printer search result 700 of FIG. 7 is an example when four printers are found.

Returning to FIG. 4, when one or more printers are detected by the printer search process (YES in S405), the control unit 301 displays the printer selection screen on the display unit 303 based on the search result, and the printer to be connected. Waits for user selection (S406). Then, the control unit 301 controls the wireless communication unit 302 to turn on the high-speed and large-capacity communication function of the wireless LAN that was turned off in S401, and the wireless LAN different from the NAN with the printer selected by the user. Establish a connection (S407). When the printer is not detected in the printer search process (S404) (NO in S405), the control unit 301 notifies the user that the printer has not been found, for example, by presenting information via the display unit 303. (S409), and the process is returned to S401.

FIG. 8A shows an example of the printer selection screen 800 displayed in S406. On the printer selection screen 800, the information of the printer name of NAN Attribute stored as the printer search result 700 is displayed in a list by TA. This information may be displayed in any order such as alphabetical order or character code order. Further, the control unit 301 stores the TA selected by the user in the past in the memory 306, and displays the TA that has been selected at the top in a format that facilitates selection. May be good. That is, display control may be performed based on the past connection history information. When the control unit 301 detects that the user has tapped the information 801 of the displayed information, the control unit 301 refers to the corresponding information 701 of the printer search results 700 and acquires the BSSID corresponding to the information 701. do. Then, the control unit 301 controls the wireless communication unit 302 to transmit a probe request addressed to this BSSID. After that, the wireless communication unit 302 receives the Probe Response, and subsequently performs the procedures of Authentication and Association to establish the wireless LAN connection. Since the procedure for establishing a wireless LAN connection, such as the transmission of the Probe Request, is the same as the general wireless LAN connection procedure, the description thereof will be omitted. As the security key used here, the wireless communication unit 302 may use one received from the printer 101 by the NAN Attribute, or may use one acquired by user input via the input unit 304. .. Further, the acquired security key may be held in the memory 306 in association with the BSSID. In this case, the wireless communication unit 302 can omit the second and subsequent user inputs by referring to the memory 306 when connecting to the printer of the same BSSID later.

The control unit 301 may display a screen 810 including search results for not only the printer but also other types of devices as shown in FIG. 8B as the screen displayed in S406. good. Devices other than the printer are searched by setting the character string input in the calculation of the hash value used in S604 and S605 of FIG. 6 as a character string corresponding to a service other than the printing service such as a projector and a speaker. .. Other processes are the same as in the case of the printer search process. At this time, since the search process is performed for each character string, the control unit 301 can display the search results of the printer and other devices separately as shown on the screen 810. Further, in S406, instead of waiting for the timeout in S607 and then displaying the search result, the search result is displayed each time a device providing the desired service is found. good. In that case, for example, the list of search results displayed in FIG. 8A will be displayed so as to be updated in real time. By displaying in this way, the user can select the printer to be used without waiting for the timeout of S607 to elapse.

After establishing the wireless LAN connection of S407, the control unit 301 further controls the wireless communication unit 302 and transmits print data to the printer using the wireless connection (S408). When the control unit 301 completes the transmission of the print data, the control unit 301 returns the process to S401. The print data transmitted here is, for example, image content included in the screen 500 when the printer search operation is performed on the screen 500 of FIG. The print data may not be fixed at the time of S408 when the printer search operation is performed by a method not based on the screen 500 of FIG. In this case, the control unit 301 may display the display unit 303 on the display unit 303 to display a menu for the user to select a print target in S408. Further, in this case, the control unit 301 performs the process to S401 without transmitting the print data when the data to be printed is not determined for a predetermined time after displaying the menu or when the user performs a cancel operation. You may put it back. Further, the control unit 301 may control to display the menu before the wireless LAN connection process of S407, instead of displaying the menu for accepting the selection of the data to be printed in S408. In this case, the control unit 301 may control the wireless communication unit 302 so as to stand by without executing the wireless LAN connection process of S407 until the print data is confirmed.

Subsequently, an example of the processing flow in the wireless communication system will be described with reference to FIG. At the start of FIG. 9, the printer 101 repeatedly transmits the Discovery Beacon and the Sync Beacon, and the wireless LAN of the user device is in the off state (F901, S401). After that, the user executes a printer search operation for the user device 100 (F902). In response to this printer search operation, the user device 100 receives the Discovery Beacon and the Sync Beacon (F903, F904), detects the DW period, and participates in the NAN cluster (S402, S403). Then, the user device 100 searches for a printer by transmitting a Subscribing message (F905) and receiving a Public message (F906) during the DW period (S404). Then, the user device 100 displays the result of searching for the printer (F907) and waits for the user's printer selection operation (S406). Then, when the user device 100 detects the printer selection operation (F908), it turns on the high-speed large-capacity communication function of the wireless LAN and transmits a probe request to the printer 101 (F909). After that, the user device 100 receives the probe response (F910), establishes a connection for high-speed and large-capacity wireless LAN communication with the printer 101 (F911, S407), and transmits print data (F912). , S408). Then, when the user device 100 completes the transmission of the print data, the wireless LAN is turned off (S401), and the user device 100 returns to the state of waiting for the printer search operation by the user (S402). The connection of the Post NAN of F909 to F912 can be established with the printer 101 as the AP of the wireless LAN and the user device 100 as the STA of the wireless LAN, but the connection is not limited to this. For example, the user equipment 100 and the printer 101 may acquire information necessary for P2P connection such as P2P Device Role by NAN Attribute with Attribute ID = 0x06, and may make P2P connection of wireless LAN using this information. Further, the print data may be transmitted using the connection of NAN without using Post NAN. That is, the user equipment 100 and the printer 101 exchange communication timing information by NAN Attribute, and instead of establishing a wireless LAN connection, maintain the NAN connection and transmit print data in a period outside the DW period. You may go.

As described with reference to FIG. 9, the user device 100 turns on the high-speed large-capacity communication function of the wireless LAN only during the period from the printer selection operation to the completion of the transmission of print data, and other than that. This feature is turned off during the period. Further, in the user device 100, if there is no printer in the vicinity during the printer search operation, the high-speed large-capacity communication function of the wireless LAN is not turned on. That is, among the functions of the wireless LAN of the user device 100, the function having a relatively large power consumption needs to be connected to the printer and is turned on only during the period in which the printer can be connected. Further, the user device 100 detects a connection partner device such as a printer without using another wireless communication method such as BLE that cannot share a communication circuit or the like. Therefore, the user device 100 of this processing example can establish a wireless connection with a communication partner device (for example, a printer 101) while suppressing the cost of the device and with low power consumption. Further, after that, the communication method can be switched to transmit a large amount of data.

In this processing example, the user device 100 receives the NAN Attribute including the Service ID by the SDF transmitted during the DW period, and searches for the printer based on the value of the Service ID. However, the Discovery Beacon and the Sync Beacon may also include a NAN Attribute with a Service ID. Therefore, when the user device 100 detects the Service ID when receiving the Discovery Beacon or the Sync Beacon, the TA and the Service ID included in the Beacon may be added to the printer search result 700. As a result, the user device 100 can find the printer transmitting the Service ID on the Discovery Beacon or the Sync Beacon.

In the above description, the process of FIG. 4 is started by starting the application X or by performing a predetermined process such as displaying the image content in the application X. However, it is not limited to this. For example, the process of FIG. 4 may be started when the power of the user device 100 is turned on or the operation of returning from the sleep state is performed. Further, in the above description, the printer search operation by the user is explicitly performed, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, it is considered that the printer search operation has been performed because the condition for starting the process of FIG. 4 described above is satisfied. For example, while the user device 100 is operating, the state of participating in the NAN cluster is always maintained. You may. In this case, the control unit 301 may execute the printer search operation of S404, for example, when the print data is confirmed. Further, the processes of S604 to S606 in the printer search operation of S404 may be performed as background processes, and the control unit 301 may execute the processes of S405 when the print data is confirmed.

<Processing example 2>
In this processing example, when the user device 100 has a printer that has communicated with the high-speed and large-capacity communication function of the wireless LAN in the past, it first tries to connect to the printer and connects. If the establishment is not successful, the same process as in FIG. 4 is executed. On the other hand, when the user device 100 succeeds in establishing a connection with a printer that has communicated using the high-speed and large-capacity communication function of the wireless LAN in the past, the process as shown in FIG. 4 is not executed. Send print data to the printer. This eliminates the need to search for a printer unnecessarily. The flow of this process will be described with reference to FIG.

When the control unit 301 detects the printer search operation in S402, it turns on the high-speed communication function of the wireless LAN and tries to connect to the printer connected by the high-speed large-capacity communication function in the past (S1001). Here, if there are a plurality of printers connected in the past, the most recently connected printer may be preferentially tried to connect. Alternatively, a plurality of printers connected in the past may be displayed, and the user may be made to select a printer to try the connection. Then, when the connection in S1001 is successful (YES in S1002), the control unit 301 transmits the print data to the printer by the connection (S408). On the other hand, if the control unit 301 does not succeed in this connection (NO in S1002), the control unit 301 turns off the high-speed communication function of the wireless LAN (S1003). Then, the control unit 301 searches for a printer by NAN, establishes a connection with the found printer by the high-speed large-capacity communication function, and transmits print data (S403 to S408), as in the process example 1. After transmitting the print data to the printer, the control unit 301 saves the connection setting information used when establishing the connection with the printer in the memory before turning off the wireless LAN (S1004).

As described above, in the present processing example 2, when the user equipment 100 exists in a place where the user equipment can communicate with the printer to which the user equipment has been connected before, the processing of S403 to S407 is omitted. As a result, the user device 100 can establish a connection with the printer and perform printing in a shorter time. Further, since the printer selection by the user can be omitted, the user's operation can be simplified. Information such as the printer name acquired by NAN Attribut may be added to the information stored in S1004, such as the printer search result 700.

Here, as the screen display when waiting for the printer search operation in S402, the screen 1100 of FIG. 11 (A) may be used instead of the screen 500 of FIG. 5 (A). In the application X of FIG. 5A, the user device 100 connects to the printer after the content is selected, but in the application Y of FIG. 11A, the content is selected after the user device 100 connects to the printer. .. The control unit 301 can recognize that the printer search operation has been performed, for example, by activating the application Y of FIG. 11A in S402. Then, when the control unit 301 tries to connect to the previously connected printer (S1001) and succeeds (YES in S1002), the control unit 301 displays the information of the printer to which the connection is established on the screen like the information 1101. .. At this time, as the information 1101, for example, the printer name or the like may be displayed by referring to the information of the NAN Attribute saved in S1004.

The print data to be transmitted in S408 is determined based on the content selected by the user in the menu 1103. The user device 100 may be configured to receive content data such as an image scanned by the printer from the printer instead of transmitting the print data to the printer by the established connection.

Further, the user device 100 may provide a button 1102 on the screen 1100, and when an operation for searching another printer is detected, the process may be shifted to S403 to execute the printer search process. Further, the user device 100 displays the screen 1110 of FIG. 11B before starting the printer search process, and performs the process after S403 when NAN is selected among the plurality of printer search methods. You may do so.

<Processing example 3>
In this processing example, the user device 100 is configured to have a terminal setting menu for permitting / disallowing the NAN function and searching for the NAN device. In this processing example, when the control unit 301 waits for the printer search operation in S402 of FIG. 4, the control unit 301 opens the terminal setting menu as shown in the screen 1200 of FIG. 12A in response to a predetermined operation. Control. For example, when the user device 100 is a smartphone, by flicking the upper part of the screen 500 of FIG. 5A, control is performed so that the terminal setting menu as shown in the screen 1200 of FIG. 12A is opened. .. Further, for example, on the screen 500 of FIG. 5A, a button corresponding to the terminal setting menu is displayed, and the terminal setting menu is opened when the button is tapped, so that the terminal setting menu can be opened by another method. The user device 100 may be configured. It should be noted that the screen 1200 is merely a display example of the terminal setting menu, and other displays that present information to the same effect may be performed.

On the screen 1200, the "icon 3" is an icon indicating NAN, and each time the tap of the "icon 3" is detected, the permission / non-permission of the NAN function in the user device 100 is changed. For example, in the permitted state, the icon 3 is displayed as it is as in the screen 1210, and in the disallowed state, the icon 3 is displayed with the diagonal line 1201 superimposed as in the screen 1200. As a result, the control unit 301 presents to the user a state of whether or not the current NAN function is enabled. It should be noted that the screen 1200 and the screen 1210 are merely examples, and the permission / disapproval state of the NAN function may be presented by any other display method such as displaying an icon in gray out. For example, the control unit 301 stores information indicating the permission / non-permission state of NAN in the memory 306, and when it detects that the printer search operation is performed in S402 of FIG. 4, for example, the NAN function is activated. If it is in the unauthorized state, the process proceeds to S409 without proceeding to S403. Further, in this case, the control unit 301 may present to the user in S409 information indicating that the NAN function is not permitted as the reason why the printer is not found. Further, in this case, the control unit 301 may pop up the screen 1200 in S409 and urge the user to enable the NAN function.

Further, the control unit 301 may enable / disallow the high-speed large-capacity communication of the wireless LAN by the "icon 1" on the screen 1200. In this case, the control unit 301 stores information indicating the permission / non-permission status of the high-speed large-capacity communication of the wireless LAN. Then, when the high-speed large-capacity communication function of the wireless LAN is in a disallowed state, the control unit 301 may end the process without turning on this function in S407 of FIG. Further, in this case, the control unit 301 may display that the high-speed large-capacity communication of the wireless LAN is in an unauthorized state as the reason why the high-speed large-capacity communication function of the wireless LAN is not turned on. Further, the control unit 301 may present information or accept a switching operation with the same icon regarding the permission / non-permission of the NAN function and the permission / disapproval of the high-speed large-capacity communication function of the wireless LAN. Further, the character or button 1202 representing the NAN function on the screen 1200 may be shared with the high-speed large-capacity communication function of the wireless LAN. That is, the control unit 301 accepts the selection of the function type such as the NAN function and the high-speed large-capacity communication function of the wireless LAN by the button 1202, and permits / disallows the selected function according to the tapping of the icon. You may control to switch between.

When the character representing NAN or the button 1202 is tapped on the screen 1200, the control unit 301 may determine that the printer search operation has been performed and control the screen 1200 to perform the processing after S403. .. That is, the control unit 301 can perform the processing after S403 in FIG. 4 in response to the operation for starting the search for peripheral devices by NAN, that is, the NAN function is activated.

According to this processing example, it is possible to suppress the transmission of radio waves for NAN or wireless LAN communication from the user device against the intention of the user in a place where the transmission of radio waves should be suppressed, such as in an aircraft or a hospital. be able to.

In each of the above processing examples, an example of searching for a device that provides a predetermined service based on the Service ID included in the NAN Attribute has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a device that provides a predetermined service may be searched based on the value of Service Info included in NAN Attribute. Further, in each of the above-mentioned processing examples, it is determined whether or not the Service ID and Service Info information match the hash value of the predetermined value held by the user device 100, but the present invention is not limited to this. That is, the determination may be made based on other criteria such as whether or not the Service ID and Service Info information is a predetermined value different from the hash value.

According to each of the above processing examples, the user device 100 is another device that provides a predetermined service by the first method having low power consumption among a plurality of wireless communication methods that can share at least a part of communication circuits. To search for. Then, based on the search result, the user device 100 is found to be connected by the second method, which has relatively high power consumption and is capable of high-speed and large-capacity communication, among the above-mentioned plurality of wireless communication methods. Establish and communicate with other devices. As a result, the user device 100 can find the communication partner device while suppressing the cost of the device and with low power consumption. For example, since the physical layer configuration and the packet structure are the same between NAN and wireless LAN high-speed large-capacity communication, the user device 100 and the printer 101 have the same physical layer configuration and packet structure as compared with the case of using another wireless communication method such as BLE. The cost of parts can be reduced. That is, a wireless chip having a wireless LAN communication function may be able to support NAN by updating the firmware. In this case, the component cost does not increase. Further, since NAN is an intermittent communication method, battery consumption on the user equipment side can be suppressed as in BLE and the like.

<Other embodiments>
In each of the above-mentioned processing examples, it has been described that the control unit 301, which is a processor, executes the processing shown in FIG. 4 by executing the program stored in the storage device such as the memory 306, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, each of the above-mentioned processes may be partially or wholly performed by dedicated hardware. Further, for example, a part or all of the above-mentioned processing examples may be executed by controlling the processor included in the wireless communication unit 302.

The present invention supplies a program that realizes one or more functions of the above-described embodiment to a system or device via a network or storage medium, and one or more processors in the computer of the system or device reads and executes the program. It can also be realized by the processing to be performed. It can also be realized by a circuit (for example, ASIC) that realizes one or more functions.

301: Control unit, 302: Wireless communication unit, 303: Display unit, 304: Input unit, 306: Memory

Claims (8)

It ’s a communication device,
Based on the Network Awareness Network (NAN), a first communication means for transmitting a public including a first Attribute related to a NAN including at least one of a Service ID indicating a printing service and a Service Info.
A second communication means for receiving print data transmitted from another communication device,
Have,
The first means of communication further transmits a second Attribute associated with the NAN, including the BSSID used to establish a wireless LAN connection.
The second communication means establishes a wireless LAN connection with the other communication device based on receiving a probe request destined for the BSSID from the other communication device, and the established wireless LAN. A communication device characterized by receiving the print data via a connection. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the communication performed by the first communication means is performed by Discovery Window conforming to the NAN standard. Both the first communication means and the second communication means perform wireless communication conforming to the 802.11 standard series.
The communication device according to claim 1 or 2. The second communication means communicates with the other communication device based on the Wi-Fi Direct standard.
The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the communication device is characterized by the above. The second communication means communicates outside the period of the Discovery Window in the NAN standard.
The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the communication device is characterized by the above. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the communication device operates as a role of constructing a network of the wireless LAN. It is a communication method of a communication device.
Based on the Network Awareness Network (NAN), a first communication step of transmitting a Public containing a NAN-related first Attribution including at least one of a Service ID indicating a printing service and a Service Info, and a first communication step.
A second communication process that receives print data transmitted from other communication devices, and
Have,
In the first communication step, a second Attribute related to NAN including BSSID used for establishing a wireless LAN connection is further transmitted.
In the second communication step, a wireless LAN connection is established with the other communication device based on receiving a probe request destined for the BSSID from the other communication device, and the established wireless LAN is used. A communication method of a communication device, characterized in that the print data is received via a connection. A program for making a computer function as each means included in the communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

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