JP2023075676A - Wireless communication system, wireless access point device, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a wireless communication system, a wireless access point device, and a program capable of improving network availability.SOLUTION: An access point device 10 communicates with a terminal device 200 via any one of a plurality of interfaces including a first interface for performing communication compatible with a predetermined high-speed roaming method and a second interface for performing communication with the predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled. The access point device 10 accepts a connection request from the terminal device 200 and, upon receiving the connection request, acquires information identifying the terminal device 200. On the basis of the acquired information, the access point device determines via which interface among the plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface to perform communication.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, wireless access point device, and program.

In recent years, the use environment of wireless LAN has spread, and access point devices are installed and used in various places.

In such a situation where a plurality of access point devices are installed in various places, when a client communicating with a certain access point device moves, the wireless LAN communication destination is changed to another access point device. So-called roaming occurs.

In the conventional technology, when roaming occurs, the client disconnects communication with the currently communicating access point device (roaming source), and performs association and authentication with a new roaming destination access point device. As a result, the wireless LAN connection was interrupted at least temporarily, causing communication delays.

Toshi Fujinoki, "[Wireless Blog 9th] Roaming", [online], November 21, 2019, [searched on November 16, 2021], Internet <URL: https://licensecounter.jp/engineer -voice/blog/articles/20191121__9.html>

Therefore, as described in Non-Patent Document 1, for example, standards such as IEEE802.11r have been established, and techniques for relatively high-speed roaming (high-speed roaming techniques) have been developed. However, in order to use this high-speed roaming technology, both the access point device side and the client side need to perform processing corresponding to the high-speed roaming technology of the same standard. There were cases where connection failed when fast roaming was enabled due to discrepancies.

Also, in a wireless LAN, once network settings for communication are made, the original network settings continue to be used until the user explicitly switches the network settings. After that, the connection is not possible, and the network availability is reduced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and one of its objects is to provide a wireless communication system, a wireless access point device, and a program capable of improving network availability.

One aspect of the present invention that solves the problems of the conventional example is a wireless communication system including a wireless LAN system including a plurality of access point devices and a terminal device, wherein each access point device of the wireless LAN system , any one of a plurality of interfaces including a first interface that performs communication corresponding to a predetermined high-speed roaming method and a second interface that performs communication with the predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled, with the terminal device. an access point device that communicates via the interface, wherein the wireless LAN system includes: means for accepting a connection request from a terminal device; and acquisition means for acquiring information identifying the terminal device at the time of the connection request. , determining means for determining through which of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface communication is to be performed, and through the determined interface, the It controls to start communication with the terminal device that has made the connection request.

Another aspect of the present invention is an access point device, comprising a first interface for performing communication corresponding to a predetermined high-speed roaming method with a terminal device, and disabling the predetermined high-speed roaming method. communication means for communicating via one of a plurality of interfaces including a second interface for communication; means for accepting a connection request from a terminal device; and identifying the terminal device at the time of the connection request Acquisition means for acquiring information, and based on the information acquired by the acquisition means, determining through which of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface communication is to be performed. and means for providing information on the interface to be connected after the setting is completed, and controls to start communication with the terminal device that has issued the connection request via the determined interface. .

According to these aspects of the present invention, communication is performed via the second interface for terminal devices determined to be unable to connect to the interface for which fast roaming is enabled, and communication is performed via the first interface for terminal devices that support fast roaming. While maintaining the availability of terminal equipment that supports high-speed roaming, high-speed roaming is used for terminal equipment that is determined to be unable to connect to an interface for which high-speed roaming is enabled. Since it is controlled not to do so, its availability can also be improved.

Here, at least the first interface and the second interface may be configured with mutually different frequency bands or with mutually different SSIDs.

In this example, a terminal device determined to be unable to connect to the first SSID with high-speed roaming enabled communicates via the second SSID, and a terminal device compatible with high-speed roaming communicates with the second SSID. can be distributed to perform communication via different first SSIDs.

Further, here, the access point device can access a holding means for holding information identifying a terminal device to which connection has failed after connection setting in the past, and the determination means is identified by the information acquired by the acquisition means. accesses the holding means to check whether or not the terminal device to be connected has failed in connection after the predetermined connection setting in the past, and connects the first interface and the second interface; It is also possible to determine which of a plurality of interfaces to be used for communication.

According to this example, a terminal device that has failed to connect after connection setting in the past can communicate with the second interface based on the information provided by the access point, and the interface is effective for high-speed roaming. By a relatively simple operation, the terminal device determined to be incapable of connecting to the first interface is controlled so as not to connect to the first interface that enables high-speed roaming.

Further, at this time, when the terminal device detects that the connection after the predetermined connection setting has failed, the holding means may be accessed to hold the information identifying the terminal device that has failed in the connection. .

In this example, terminal devices that have failed in roaming in the past are recorded without any manual operation. It will be controlled to connect to an interface, frequency band or SSID.

Another aspect of the present invention is a program, comprising: a first interface for performing communication corresponding to a predetermined high-speed roaming method with a terminal device; and performing communication with the predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled. an access point device having communication means for communicating via any one of a plurality of interfaces including a second interface; and communication via any one of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface based on the information obtained by the obtaining means for obtaining information identifying the and a means for providing information on the interface to be connected after the setting is completed, and controls to start communication with the terminal device that has issued the connection request via the determined interface. This is what I decided to do.

According to the present invention, the network availability of a terminal device can be improved regardless of whether the terminal device can be connected to an interface for which fast roaming is effective.

1 is a configuration block diagram of a radio communication system according to an example of an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing an example of a control unit of the access point device according to the embodiment of the present invention; FIG. FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing an operation example of the access point device according to the embodiment of the present invention;

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. A wireless communication system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a wireless LAN system 100 and a terminal device 200 (client), as illustrated in FIG. The wireless LAN system 100 also includes a plurality of access point devices 10a, 10b, .

Furthermore, the access point device 10 includes a control section 11 , a storage section 12 and a communication section 13 . Here, the control unit 11 is a program control device such as a CPU, and operates according to a program stored in the storage unit 12 .

In the example of the present embodiment, the control unit 11 controls the communication unit 13 to perform communication with the terminal device 200 with a predetermined high-speed roaming method enabled, and a predetermined Communication is performed via any one of a plurality of interfaces including a second interface that performs communication with the fast roaming method disabled. Further, when receiving a connection request from the terminal device 200, the control unit 11 acquires information identifying the terminal device 200, and includes the first interface and the second interface based on the acquired information. Determines which of the multiple interfaces to use for communication. After the setting is completed, the control unit 11 sends information on the determined interface to the terminal device 200 by means of providing information on the interface to be connected, and starts communication with the terminal device 200 that made the connection request. The operation of this control section 11 will be described later in detail.

The storage unit 12 includes a nonvolatile memory device and holds programs executed by the control unit 11 . The storage section 12 also operates as a work memory for the control section 11 . This storage unit 12 may include a volatile memory device.

The program held in the storage unit 12 may be provided by being stored in a computer-readable non-temporary recording medium and copied to the storage unit 12, or may be stored in the storage unit 12 via a network or the like. It may have been received.

Under the control of the control unit 11, the communication unit 13 communicates with the terminal device 200 according to the wireless LAN standard, and also communicates with the controller device 20 by wire or wirelessly. As already described, in the example of the present embodiment, this communication unit 13 performs communication via an interface selected from a plurality of interfaces for each terminal device 200 and determined.

When performing high-speed roaming, the controller device 20 transmits an authentication request received from the roaming source access point device 10a to the roaming destination access point device 10b, and transmits the response to the roaming destination access point device 10b. It performs an operation of receiving from the point device 10b and sending it to the access point device 10a which is the roaming source. Such an operation is widely known as the Over-the-DS roaming method, so further detailed description will be omitted.

The terminal device 200 is various electronic devices such as a smart phone, a portable game machine, or a home appliance. The terminal devices 200 may include those that perform communication compatible with high-speed roaming according to the same standard as the access point device 10, and those that do not support high-speed roaming according to the same standard as the access point device 10.

Next, an operation example of the control unit 11 of the access point device 10 of this embodiment will be described. As already described, the access point device 10 of the present embodiment has a first interface that performs communication with a predetermined high-speed roaming method enabled, and a second interface that performs communication with a predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled. interface, and is configured to communicate via any one of a plurality of interfaces. Here, the interface is identified by a frequency band such as 2.4 GHz band, 5 GHz band, or 6 GHz band, or SSID (Service Set Identifier). In other words, as a specific example, the access point device 10 of the present embodiment has a network identified by the first SSID that performs communication with a predetermined high-speed roaming method enabled, and a network with the predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled. The terminal device 200 is connected to one of the networks identified by the second SSID for communication.

The control unit 11 performs high-speed roaming according to, for example, the IEEE802.11r Over-the-DS roaming method for the terminal device 200 connected to the network identified by the first SSID that performs communication with a predetermined high-speed roaming method enabled. . For example, the control unit 11 of the roaming destination access point device 10 receives an authentication request (FT Request) via the controller device 20 and starts high-speed roaming operation. This authentication request includes information for identifying the terminal device 200, such as the MAC (Media Access Control) address of the terminal device 200 performing high-speed roaming.

Upon receiving this authentication request, control unit 11 sends a predetermined response (FT Response) to the authentication request to terminal device 200 via controller device 20 and roaming source access point device 10 . After that, the control unit 11 receives a reconnection request from the terminal device 200 via the communication unit 13, performs reconnection processing, and sends out a response.

If the control unit 11 fails to reconnect to the corresponding terminal device 200 within a predetermined time while receiving an authentication request (Auth Request) after setting the connection, the control unit 11 provides information for identifying the terminal device 200. (for example, MAC address) is sent to the controller device 20, and the controller device 20 accumulates and stores the information.

In this example, the controller device 20 operates as holding means for holding information (hereinafter referred to as failure history information) identifying terminal devices 200 that have failed in a predetermined connection in the past.

Further, as illustrated in FIG. 2, control unit 11 of the present embodiment functionally includes receiving unit 111 that receives a connection request from terminal device 200, acquiring unit 112, determining unit 113, and connecting unit 114. Consists of

The accepting unit 111 accepts a connection request from the terminal device 200 at a predetermined timing (for example, when an association request is received, or when connection setting is performed by WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) or the like). This connection request includes information such as the MAC address that identifies the terminal device 200 . The acquisition unit 112 acquires information identifying the terminal device 200 included in the connection request accepted by the acceptance unit 111 .

Based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit 112, the determination unit 113 connects the terminal device 200 identified by the information to any one of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface. communication.

As an example, the determination unit 113 accesses the controller device 20, and determines that the acquisition unit 112 checks whether the acquired information is included.

In other words, the determination unit 113 determines whether the terminal device 200 that has issued the connection request has failed in connection after setting the connection in the past (reconnection has failed, and the identification information is stored in the failure history information). (whether or not

If the information obtained by the obtaining unit 112 is not included in the failure history information, the determining unit 113 assigns the terminal device 200 that has made the connection request to the first SSID that performs communication with a predetermined high-speed roaming method enabled. Decide to connect to the identified network. Further, if the failure history information includes the information acquired by the acquisition unit 112, the determination unit 113 causes the terminal device 200 that has made the connection request to perform communication with the predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled. It decides to connect to the network identified by the SSID.

The connection unit 114 controls to connect the terminal device 200 that has made the connection request to the network of the SSID determined by the determination unit 113 .

[motion]
This embodiment has the configuration of the above example and operates as follows. In the following example, it is assumed that the failure history information held by the controller device 20 for identifying terminal devices that failed to connect after the above-described predetermined connection setting was initially empty is initially empty.

When the terminal device 200a makes a connection request (for example, a WPS connection request) to any of the access point devices 10 of the wireless LAN system 100, the access point device 10 that receives the connection request performs the processing illustrated in FIG. , and acquires information such as the MAC address (identification information “A” here) for identifying the terminal device 200a that has made the connection request (S11).

Then, the access point device 10 accesses the controller device 20 and checks whether or not the acquired information "A" is included in the failure history information held by the controller device 20 (S12).

Here, since this terminal device 200a has never failed in connection after connection setting at this point in the past, and the failure history information held by the controller device 20 is empty (S12: No), the access point device 10 Then, the terminal device 200a identified by this information "A" is controlled to be connected to the network identified by the first SSID for performing communication with a predetermined high-speed roaming method enabled (S13).

After that, while connecting to the network identified by the first SSID with the access point device 10a included in the wireless LAN system 100, the terminal device 200a moves, When communication with the device 10b is appropriate (for example, when it is determined that the strength of the signal transmitted to and received from the access point device 10b is stronger than the signal transmitted to and received from another access point device 10), The controller device 20 prompts the terminal device 200a to perform roaming to the access point device 10b (S14: start high-speed roaming processing).

Here, when the terminal device 200a supports the high-speed roaming method, the terminal device 200a sends an authentication request (Auth Request) to the access point device 10b, which is the roaming destination, via the access point device 10a and the controller device 20. to send out.

Then, the access point device 10b sends a predetermined response (Auth Response) to the authentication request to the terminal device 200a via the controller device 20 and the roaming source access point device 10a.

The terminal device 200a then requests re-association to the access point device 10b, and the access point device 10b responds with re-association to complete the roaming, which is an example of the original high-speed roaming method. be.

Therefore, the access point device 10b checks whether or not the connection after the connection setting has succeeded (S15). If the terminal device 200a is reconnected to the access point device 10b and the connection after the connection setting has : Yes), the process is terminated assuming that the connection is completed, and communication is continued.

On the other hand, in the connection processing after the connection setting in step S14, the terminal device 200a does not send an authentication request (Auth Request) for some reason, does not request reconnection to the access point device 10b, or does not respond. If the correct processing is not performed for the authentication request, it will not be completed within a predetermined time after the response to the authentication request is performed (connection processing after connection setting has failed). Therefore, if the connection processing after the connection setting fails in this way, the access point device 10a or the access point device 10b determines in step S15 that the connection processing after the connection setting has not succeeded (S15: No).

Then, the access point device 10, which has determined that the terminal device 200a has failed in the connection processing after the connection setting, sends the information "A" identifying this terminal device 200a to the controller device 20, and the failure history is sent to the controller device 20. It is stored as information (S16).

In this example, the terminal device 200a fails to connect after the connection setting, and loses connection with the wireless LAN system 100. FIG.

After that, the user fails to connect after setting the connection, and in response to the fact that the connection is lost, requests the terminal device 200a to connect again using WPS. Then, the access point device 10 that has received this connection request executes the processing of FIG. Then, it is checked whether or not the acquired information "A" is included in the failure history information held by the controller device 20 (step S12).

Here, in the previous process, the controller device 20 includes and holds the information "A" in the failure history information (step S12: Yes), so the access point device 10 is identified by this information "A". The terminal device 200a is controlled so as to be connected to the network identified by the second SSID that performs communication in which the predetermined high-speed roaming method is disabled (S17).

[Another example of high-speed roaming method]
In the description so far, as an example of the high-speed roaming method, an example in which the wireless LAN system 100 performs roaming processing according to the IEEE802.11r Over-the-DS roaming method has been described. Without limitation, the wireless LAN system 100 may perform roaming processing according to the IEEE802.11r Over-the-Air roaming method. Furthermore, a similar configuration can be employed when performing roaming processing in a high-speed roaming method other than IEEE802.11r.

[Modification 1]
Also, in the description so far, the access point device 10 and the controller device 20 have been described as separate entities, but the controller device 20 is integrated with any one of the access point devices 10 included in the same wireless LAN system 100. may be configured

[Modification 2]
Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the access point device 10 determines the interface to which the terminal device 200 is connected based on the failure history information. At least once, the user of the terminal device 200 receives the notification and operates the terminal device 200 to change the interface. may Also, if the failure history information is not retained, the interface may be changed in response to the connection failure of the user of the terminal device 200 .

[Modification 3]
Also, the interface of the access point device 10 can be set by the administrator of the access point device 10 using an interface for setting the access point device 10 (which may be accessible via a web server). , it may be possible to select whether to enable or disable fast roaming for each interface (each SSID or each frequency band).

[Modification 4]
Furthermore, in the explanation so far, the fast roaming method valid/invalid information is held for each interface, but instead of the access point device 10 holding the fast roaming method valid/invalid information for each interface, the terminal device 200 , in spite of being connected to an interface on which the fast roaming method is enabled, if the connection fails after setting the connection, the history to that effect is retained, and the fast roaming method is disabled based on the history. It may be controlled to connect to the interface that is connected.

[Modification 5]
Furthermore, some terminal devices 200 may use a technique in which information for identifying the terminal device 200 changes randomly. Therefore, the access point device 10 detects the terminal device 200 that has failed in connection after connection setting regardless of the record of the failure history information, and records the identification information of the terminal device 200 in the failure history information. When connection setting is performed within a predetermined period (for example, the first connection setting after that, or within a predetermined time such as within 24 hours after recording), high-speed roaming is performed for the terminal device 200 that performed the connection setting. may be transmitted to prompt connection via the second interface.

1 wireless communication system, 10 access point device, 11 control unit, 12 storage unit, 13 communication unit, 20 controller device, 100 wireless LAN system, 111 reception unit, 112 acquisition unit, 113 determination unit, 114 connection unit, 200 terminal device .

Claims (7)

including a wireless LAN system including a plurality of access point devices and a terminal device,
Each access point device of the wireless LAN system has a first interface for performing communication corresponding to a predetermined high-speed roaming method and a second interface for performing communication with the predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled. an access point device that communicates via any one of a plurality of interfaces including
The wireless LAN system is
means for accepting a connection request from a terminal device;
Acquisition means for acquiring information identifying the terminal device at the time of the connection request;
determining means for determining through which of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface communication is to be performed;
has
A wireless communication system that controls to start communication with the terminal device that has issued the connection request via the determined interface. Any one of a plurality of interfaces including a first interface that performs communication corresponding to a predetermined high-speed roaming method and a second interface that performs communication with the predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled. a communication means for communicating via an interface;
means for accepting a connection request from a terminal device;
Acquisition means for acquiring information identifying the terminal device at the time of the connection request;
determining means for determining through which of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface communication is to be performed; and means for providing information on the interface to be connected after completion of setting. , has
An access point device that controls to start communication with the terminal device that has made the connection request via the determined interface. The access point device according to claim 2,
The access point apparatus, wherein different frequencies are set for at least the first interface and the second interface. The access point device according to claim 2,
An access point device in which different SSIDs are set for at least the first interface and the second interface. The access point device according to any one of claims 2 to 4,
Accessible to a holding means for holding information identifying a terminal device that failed to connect after the predetermined connection setting in the past,
The determination means determines whether or not the terminal device identified by the information acquired by the acquisition means is a terminal device that has failed in the past to connect to an interface in which the predetermined high-speed roaming method is valid. and determines through which of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface communication is to be performed. The access point device according to claim 5,
When the terminal device detects that the predetermined fast roaming method has failed to connect to the valid interface, the terminal device accesses the holding means and stores information identifying the terminal device that failed to connect to the interface. point device. Any one of a plurality of interfaces including a first interface that performs communication corresponding to a predetermined high-speed roaming method and a second interface that performs communication with the predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled. An access point device equipped with communication means for communicating via an interface,
means for accepting a connection request from a terminal device;
Acquisition means for acquiring information identifying the terminal device at the time of the connection request;
Determination means for determining through which of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface communication is to be performed, and means for providing information on the interface to be connected after completion of setting make it work,
A program for controlling to start communication with the terminal device that has issued the connection request via the determined interface.

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