JP6302169B2 - COMMUNICATION DEVICE, COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND PROGRAM - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication device, a communication method, and a program for performing wireless communication via a wireless channel.

  In a wireless communication system, a method (for example, an infrastructure mode) is known in which wireless communication is performed with a partner device via an access point that is a third device when wireless communication is performed between the device and the partner device. Yes. Furthermore, a wireless connection method in a peer-to-peer (P2P) mode in which the own device or the counterpart device operates as an access point and directly establishes a radio connection with the counterpart device without going through the access point that is the third device. Are known.

  As a standard for realizing such a P2P wireless connection method, for example, Wi-Fi Direct (registered trademark) is known. A device that supports Wi-Fi Direct can operate as an access point (GroupOwner), thereby enabling direct wireless connection with a counterpart device. At this time, which of the counterpart device and the own device operates as an access point is determined by a sequence called GroupOwner Negotiation (Patent Document 1).

  In general, when the own device operates as a client, an access point that transmits a device search response command in response to a device search request command from the own device leads the determination of the channel to be used. When the own apparatus operates as a Group Owner, a channel to be used is determined by comparing the channel information of the client obtained by Group Owner Negotiation with the channels that can be used by itself.

JP 2011-249960 A

  The wireless communication in the two modes as described above can be executed simultaneously (in parallel) in one apparatus. For example, this is a case where the own apparatus performs wireless connection with an access point as a client while the own apparatus performs P2P wireless connection with another client as a Group Owner. In that case, it is conceivable to wirelessly connect via two separate channels as a wireless interface. However, if a plurality of channels are simultaneously assigned to a single wireless IC chip for communication, the configuration and processing become complicated. Therefore, it is desirable to use a common channel in the two modes.

  An object of the present invention is to solve such conventional problems. In view of the above points, an object of the present invention is to provide a communication device, a communication method, and a program capable of performing wireless communication in parallel using a plurality of wireless communication methods via a common channel.

In order to solve the above-described problem, a communication device according to the present invention is a communication device, and is a predetermined device that wirelessly connects to the external access point using a wireless channel specified by an access point external to the communication device. Communication means capable of executing a first wireless communication method compliant with a communication standard and a second wireless communication method compliant with the predetermined communication standard for wirelessly connecting to an external device without going through the external access point Control means for operating the communication device as a role of assigning a radio channel in the second radio communication method when using the first radio communication method and the second radio communication method in parallel; a, wherein the communication means transmits the request to the external access point using the selected radio channel, child receives a response to the request When a request using the wireless channel is received from the external device in a state where a first wireless connection is established with the external access point by the first wireless communication method, a response is transmitted to the external device. using said radio channel specified from the outside of the access point to establish a second wireless connection with the second wireless communication method with the external device by the second wireless communication method, the radio Including a negotiation process for determining a device operating as a role of assigning a channel, and when operating the communication device as a role of assigning a radio channel in the second wireless communication method, the external device accesses the communication device A wireless connection with the communication apparatus is provided as a point.

  According to the present invention, a wireless connection using a common channel can be established in parallel by a plurality of wireless communication methods.

It is a figure which shows the structure of a system. It is a figure which shows the external appearance of a portable communication terminal device. 2 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of an MFP. FIG. It is a top view of an operation display part. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a portable communication terminal device. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an MFP. FIG. It is a figure which shows the channel determination sequence between MFP and an access point. It is a figure for demonstrating being wirelessly connected by the channel common to a system. It is a figure for demonstrating a channel determination sequence. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the channel determination method.

  Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following examples do not limit the present invention according to the scope of claims, and all the combinations of features described in the present embodiment are not necessarily essential to the solution means of the present invention. . The same constituent elements are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a wireless communication system including a portable communication terminal device and a printing device (MFP). The portable communication terminal device 200 is a device having a wireless LAN (WLAN) communication unit and a proximity wireless communication unit. Note that the proximity wireless communication means wireless communication represented by NFC in which a communication range is a relatively small predetermined range (for example, 1 meter to several centimeters or less). The portable communication terminal device 200 may be a personal information terminal such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a mobile phone, a digital camera, or the like, and can perform wireless communication (WLAN) with the printing device 200. The printing apparatus (MFP) 300 only needs to be able to perform wireless communication with the portable communication terminal apparatus 200, and may have a reading function (scanner), a FAX function, and a telephone function. In this embodiment, a Multi Function Printer (MFP) having a reading function and a printing function is taken as an example. Both the portable communication terminal apparatus 200 and the MFP 300 have a near field wireless communication unit by NFC, and the portable communication terminal apparatus 200 can be connected to the MFP 300 at a predetermined distance that allows NFC communication even when no power is supplied to the portable communication terminal apparatus 200. Proximity wireless communication is also possible by approaching. Further, the MFP 300 can wirelessly communicate with a terminal on a network (a network capable of communication according to TCP / IP) by a WLAN communication unit. Either or both of the portable communication terminal device 200 and the MFP 300 may perform wireless communication only by the WLAN communication unit without the proximity wireless communication unit.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of the portable communication terminal device 200. In this embodiment, a smartphone is taken as an example. A smartphone is a multi-function mobile phone equipped with a camera, a web browser, an e-mail function, etc. in addition to the functions of a mobile phone. The NFC unit 201, which is a close proximity wireless communication unit, is a unit that performs communication using NFC, and performs communication by NFC by bringing the NFC unit 201 close to a partner NFC unit within a predetermined distance (for example, about 10 cm). be able to.

  The WLAN unit 202 is a unit for performing communication by WLAN. It is assumed that the WLAN unit 202 is capable of data (packet) communication in a WLAN system compliant with, for example, the IEEE 802.11 series. In addition, in wireless communication using the WLAN unit 202, communication based on Wi-Fi Direct (WFD), communication in software AP mode, ad hoc mode, infrastructure mode, and the like are possible. The display unit 203 is, for example, a display provided with an LCD type display mechanism. The operation unit 204 includes a touch panel type operation mechanism, and detects an operation by the user. As a typical operation method, there is a method in which the display unit 203 displays a button icon or a software keyboard, and detects an operation event that is performed when the user touches those portions. A power key 205 is a hard key used when the power is turned on and off.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of the MFP 300. In FIG. 3A, a document table 301 is a glassy transparent table on which a document to be read by a scanner (reading unit) is placed. The document cover 302 is a cover for holding down the document when reading with the scanner or preventing light from the light source that irradiates the document from being leaked to the outside during reading. The printing paper insertion port 303 is an insertion port through which various sizes of paper can be set. The sheets set in the printing sheet insertion port 303 are conveyed one by one to the printing unit, printed by the printing unit, and discharged from the printing sheet discharge port 304.

  In FIG. 3B, the operation display unit 305 and the NFC unit 306 are arranged on the upper part of the document cover 302. The operation display unit 305 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The NFC unit 306 is a unit for performing close proximity wireless communication, and is a place where the portable communication terminal apparatus 200 is brought close to the MFP 300. An NFC communication effective distance is within a predetermined distance (about 10 cm) from the NFC unit 306. The WLAN antenna 307 is embedded with an antenna for communicating by WLAN.

  FIG. 4 is a plan view of the operation display unit 305. The display unit 406 is a display screen that displays a user interface such as an image or an operation menu. For example, a dot matrix LCD is given as an example. A cross key 401 is used for operations such as cursor movement on the display unit 406. A set key 402 is a key for setting input. The function key 403 is used for operations such as function setting. A start key 404 instructs execution of functions such as printing start.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the portable communication terminal device 200. The portable communication terminal device 200 includes a main board 701 that performs main control of the device itself, a WLAN unit 717 that performs WLAN communication, an NFC unit 718 that performs NFC communication, and a BT (BlueTooth) that performs Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication. (Registered trademark)) unit 721.

  In the main board 701, the CPU 702 is a system control unit and controls the entire portable communication terminal device 200. The processing of the portable communication terminal device 200 shown below is executed under the control of the CPU 702. The ROM 703 stores a control program executed by the CPU 702, an embedded operating system (OS) program, and the like. In the present embodiment, each control program stored in the ROM 703 performs software control such as scheduling and task switching under the management of the embedded OS stored in the ROM 703.

  The RAM 704 is configured by SRAM (Static RAM) or the like, stores data such as program control variables, and stores data such as setting values registered by the user and management data of the portable communication terminal device 200. A buffer area is provided.

  The image memory 705 is configured by a memory such as a DRAM (Dynamic RAM), and temporarily stores image data received via the communication unit and image data read from the data storage unit 712 for processing by the CPU 702. Here, the communication unit is a general term for communication functions including the WLAN unit 717, the NFC unit 718, and the BT unit 721.

  The nonvolatile memory 722 is configured by a memory such as a flash memory and continues to store data even when the power is turned off. Note that the memory configuration is not limited to this. For example, the image memory 705 and the RAM 704 may be shared, or data backup or the like may be performed in the data storage unit 712. In the present embodiment, a DRAM is used for the image memory 705, but this is not a limitation because other storage media such as a hard disk or a nonvolatile memory may be used.

  The data conversion unit 706 performs analysis of various types of data, and data conversion such as color conversion and image conversion. The telephone unit 707 performs telephone communication by controlling the telephone line and processing voice data input / output via the speaker unit 713. The operation unit 708 controls the signal of the operation unit 204 (FIG. 2). A GPS (Global Positioning System) 709 acquires position information such as the current latitude and longitude of the portable communication terminal device 200. A display unit 710 electronically controls the display content of the display unit 203 (FIG. 2), and can perform various input operations, display the operation status and status status of the MFP 300, and the like.

  The camera unit 711 has a function of electronically recording and encoding an image input via a lens. An image captured by the camera unit 711 is stored in the data storage unit 712. The speaker unit 713 implements a function for inputting or outputting voice for a telephone function, and other functions such as alarm notification. The power supply unit 714 is a portable battery and controls power supply to the apparatus. The power state includes a battery exhausted state with no remaining battery power, a power off state in which the power key 205 is not pressed, a normal starting state, and a power saving state in which the power is activated but is in a power saving state. is there.

  The portable communication terminal apparatus 200 is equipped with three communication units for wireless communication, and can perform wireless communication using WLAN, NFC, and BlueTooth (registered trademark). As a result, the portable communication terminal apparatus 200 performs data communication with other devices such as an MFP. This communication unit converts data into a packet and transmits the packet to another device. Conversely, a packet from another external device is restored to the original data and transmitted to the CPU 702. The WLAN unit 717, NFC unit 718 and BT unit 721 are connected to the main board 701 via bus cables 715, 716 and 720, respectively. The WLAN unit 717, the NFC unit 718, and the BT unit 721 are units for realizing communication complying with the respective standards.

  Various components in the main board 701 (ROM 703-power supply unit 714, WLAN unit 717, NFC unit 718, BT unit 721 and nonvolatile memory 722) are connected to each other via a system bus 719 managed by the CPU 702. Yes.

  FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of MFP 300. The MFP 300 includes a main board 801 that performs main control of the apparatus itself, a WLAN unit 817 that performs WLAN communication, an NFC unit 818 that performs NFC communication, and a BT unit 819 that performs Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication.

  In the main board 801, the CPU 802 is a system control unit and controls the entire MFP 300. The following processing of the MFP 300 is executed under the control of the CPU 801. The ROM 803 stores a control program executed by the CPU 802, an embedded operating system (OS) program, and the like. In the present embodiment, each control program stored in the ROM 803 performs software control such as scheduling and task switching under the management of the embedded OS stored in the ROM 803. The RAM 804 is composed of SRAM (Static RAM) or the like, stores data such as program control variables, stores data such as setting values registered by the user and management data of the MFP 300, and provides various work buffer areas. It has been.

  The nonvolatile memory 805 is configured by a memory such as a flash memory, and continues to store data even when the power is turned off. The image memory 806 is configured by a memory such as a DRAM (Dynamic RAM), and is acquired through the image data received via the communication unit, the image data processed by the encoding / decoding processing unit 812, or the memory card controller 516. Accumulate image data. Further, like the memory configuration of the portable communication terminal apparatus 200, such a memory configuration is not limited to this. A data conversion unit 807 performs analysis of various types of data, conversion from image data to print data, and the like. Here, the communication unit is a general term for communication functions including the WLAN unit 817, the NFC unit 818, and the BT unit 819.

  A reading control unit 808 controls a reading unit 810 (for example, a CIS image sensor (contact image sensor)) to optically read an image on a document. Next, an image signal obtained by converting this into electrical image data is output. At this time, various image processing such as binarization processing and halftone processing may be performed before outputting.

  An operation unit 809 and a display unit 811 correspond to the operation display unit 305 in FIG. The code decoding processing unit 812 performs code decoding processing and enlargement / reduction processing on image data (JPEG, PNG, etc.) handled by the MFP 300. A paper feed unit 814 holds paper for printing. Paper can be fed from the paper feed unit 814 under the control of the recording control unit 816. In particular, the paper feeding unit 814 can prepare a plurality of paper feeding units in order to hold a plurality of types of paper in one apparatus. The recording control unit 816 can control from which paper feeding unit the paper is fed.

  The recording control unit 816 performs various image processing such as smoothing processing, recording density correction processing, and color correction on the image data to be printed, and then outputs the image data to the recording unit 815. The recording unit 815 can employ, for example, an inkjet printer that prints an image by ejecting ink supplied from an ink tank from a recording head. In addition, the recording control unit 816 also plays a role of periodically reading information in the recording unit 815 and updating information in the RAM 804. Specifically, the status information such as the remaining amount of the ink tank and the state of the recording head is updated.

  Similarly to the portable communication terminal apparatus 200, the MFP 300 is also equipped with three communication units for performing wireless communication, and the functions are the same, and thus description thereof is omitted. However, the WLAN unit 817 of the MFP 300 can perform wireless communication in parallel in a plurality of wireless communication modes, but the same wireless channel is used at this time. Here, the WLAN unit 817, the NFC unit 818, and the BT unit 819 are connected to the main board 801 via bus cables 820, 821 and 822, respectively. Various components (CPU 802 to BT unit 819) in the main board 801 are connected to each other via a system bus 823 managed by the CPU 802.

[Peer-to-peer wireless connection method]
The portable communication terminal apparatus 200 and the MFP 300 can establish a peer-to-peer (P2P) wireless connection according to Wi-Fi Direct (WFD). WFD is a standard established by Wi-Fi Alliance and is described in “Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Technical Specification Version 1.1”. The portable communication terminal device 200 and the MFP 300, which are WFD compatible devices, have a software access point (soft AP) function for operating as an access point. Therefore, the portable communication terminal device 200 and the MFP 300 can be wirelessly connected to each other directly by WFD without using other access points. Which of the plurality of WFD compatible devices operates as a soft AP is determined according to a sequence called GroupOwner Negotiation. Hereinafter, a device that is a WFD compatible device and plays the role of an access point is particularly referred to as GroupOwner.

  In a wireless communication system including an access point and a client, not limited to P2P wireless connection, a device serving as an access point first transmits a beacon signal. When the client receives the beacon signal, the client transmits a probe request command (Probe Request frame) including information such as SSID (Service Set ID) to the access point. Particularly in the case of P2P wireless connection, the probe request command includes information (P2P element) related to P2P wireless connection. When the access point transmits a probe response command (Probe Response frame) with reference to the received probe request command, it can discover each other's devices (device discovery (Discovery)). In the normal infrastructure mode, when the SSID of the client included in the probe request command is different from the SSID of the access point, the access point does not transmit a response command to the probe request command. Subsequently, after performing authentication (authentication) and connection request (association) between devices and establishing a wireless communication path, a sequence such as device information indicating the type of device and confirmation of an IP address is executed using the wireless communication path. After that, various applications such as printing can be executed.

  Here, three types of wireless communication modes in the WLAN of the apparatus in this embodiment are defined. One is a mode (referred to as an infrastructure mode) in which a wireless connection is established with a counterpart device via a device serving as another access point, unlike the P2P wireless connection. In the infrastructure mode, the device operates as a client. One is a mode (WFD mode) that operates as a WFD-compatible device and as a Group Owner. One is a mode (WFD expansion mode) that operates as an expanded WFD-compatible device and as a Group Owner. The extended WFD is a mode in which an extended function at the service level is added to the WFD. For example, an information element for defining its own specification is attached to the probe request command conforming to the extended WFD as attribute information. In general, the information element is added in the form of an argument to a probe request command conforming to WFD. The WFD mode is a mode that operates as a non-expanded WFD device. Which mode the MFP 300 is to operate in may be specified by the user from the operation unit 809 or the like, or may be fixedly operated in any mode.

[Channel determination sequence in each mode]
The wireless connection is performed using a specific frequency band (wireless channel). When deciding which channel to use, the client checks with the access point whether or not wireless connection is possible using the channel that the client can use, in order to identify the channel that responded from the access point, Determine as. That is, the access point transmits a response command to the client only when a request command from the client is transmitted on a channel that can be used by the access point. That is, the client establishes a wireless connection via a channel that has responded from the access point, that is, a wireless channel designated by the access point.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram for describing a channel determination sequence between MFP 300 operating in infrastructure mode and access point 700. In phase 701, the MFP 300 operating as a client sequentially checks whether wireless connection is possible using a channel that can be used by itself when transmitting a device search request command. Here, the device search request command corresponds to the probe request command described above.

  In the infrastructure mode, the right to determine a channel for wireless connection is on the access point side. The access point 700 does not transmit a response command to a device search request command transmitted through a channel other than the channel that can be used by the access point 700. For example, if the channel that can be used by the access point 700 is the nth channel (n is an arbitrary positive integer), the response command is not transmitted to the device search request command transmitted using the first channel. When the MFP 300 determines that there is no response from the access point 700 due to a timeout or the like after transmitting the device search request command using the first channel, the MFP 300 transmits the device search request command using the second channel. . When the MFP 300 repeats the above-described trial while increasing the channel number and transmits a device search request command using the n-th channel, the access point 700 indicates that the channel is not in use and a device search response command Send. Here, the device search response command corresponds to the probe response command described above. In the subsequent phase 702, the nth channel is used. In phase 702, after performing authentication and connection request with the device discovered by the device search and establishing the wireless communication path, for example, confirmation of the IP address is performed using the wireless communication path. Connections are made at the application level such as printing and faxing. In the above example, usable channels are searched while being incremented one by one from the first channel, but the trial order is not limited to this.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a channel determination sequence among the portable communication terminal apparatus 200 in the WFD mode, the MFP 300 in the infrastructure mode and the WFD mode, and the access point 700. In FIG. 8, the MFP 300 operates in the infrastructure mode for the access point 700, and at the same time operates in the WFD mode for the portable communication terminal device 200. When wireless communication is performed in a plurality of communication modes in parallel as shown in FIG. 8, the same channel is used in phases 801 and 802 in order to simplify the processing of the WLAN unit 817 of the MFP 300.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram for describing a channel determination sequence among portable communication terminal device 200 that operates as a client of a WFD-compatible device, MFP 300 that operates as an infrastructure mode and Group Owner, and access point 700. In FIG. 8, the MFP 300 operates as an infrastructure mode for the access point 700, and at the same time operates as a Group Owner for the portable communication terminal device 200. The MFP 300 can determine itself as a GroupOwner by a sequence called GroupOwner Negotiation with the portable communication terminal device 200.

  As shown in FIG. 8, when two modes are operating simultaneously in the MFP 300, first, in the phase 801, the MFP 300 determines a channel for the access point 700 according to the sequence as described in FIG. Establish a wireless connection. Here, it is assumed that the wireless connection is made through the nth channel that the access point 700 can use.

  In phase 802, the MFP 300 performs Group Owner Negotiation with the portable communication terminal apparatus 200, and connects with the n-th channel used for communication with the access point 700.

  As described above, in the infrastructure mode, the channel decision right is on the access point 700 side. As described above, phase 802 is performed after phase 801 because MFP 300 operating as a client with respect to access point 700 does not have the right to determine a channel. Accordingly, the access point 700 takes the lead in determining the channel between the MFP 300 and the access point 700, and then the MFP 300 takes the lead in determining the channel between the portable communication terminal device 200 and the MFP 300. In the phase 802, after GroupOwner Negotiation is performed, information such as a push button and a PIN code and confirmation of an IP address are executed, and then connection at an application level such as printing and fax is performed.

[Channel determination sequence]
FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining a channel determination sequence in the present embodiment. FIG. 9 shows that the MFP 300 operates as an infrastructure mode for the access point 700 and further operates as a Group Owner for the portable communication terminal device 200 in parallel. The MFP 300 can determine itself as a GroupOwner by a sequence called GroupOwner Negotiation with the portable communication terminal device 200.

  First, in phase 901, the MFP 300 establishes a wireless connection with the access point 700 by determining a channel according to the sequence described with reference to FIG. Here, it is assumed that a wireless connection is established on the channel a (a is an arbitrary positive integer) that can be used by the access point 700. The MFP 300 stores the a-th channel used in the phase 901 in a storage area such as the RAM 804 and waits for transmission of a device search request command from the portable communication terminal apparatus 200.

  In phase 902, the portable communication terminal apparatus 200 tries channels that can be used by the portable communication terminal apparatus 200 in order when transmitting the device search request command. The MFP 300 does not transmit a response command to the device search request command transmitted on a channel other than the channel used in the phase 901. Here, if the channel used in the phase 901 is the a-th channel, no response command is transmitted to the device search request command transmitted using a channel other than the a-th channel stored in the RAM 804. If portable communication terminal apparatus 200 determines that there is no response from MFP 300 due to a timeout or the like after transmitting a device search request command using the first channel, device search request command using the second channel Send. When portable communication terminal apparatus 200 repeats the above-described trial and transmits a device search request command using channel a, MFP 300 transmits a device search response command using channel a.

  Upon receiving the device search response command from the MFP 300, the portable communication terminal device 200 ends the device search for P2P wireless connection. In the subsequent phase 903, for example, setting of an identification ID such as an SSID, a password, etc. and confirmation of an IP address are executed, and then connection at an application level such as printing and faxing is executed.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the channel determination method in the present embodiment. Each process illustrated in FIG. 10 is realized by, for example, the CPU 802 of the MFP 300 developing and executing a control program stored in the ROM 803 in the RAM 804. The flowchart of FIG. 10 is executed in the wireless communication system shown in FIG.

  First, in S <b> 1001, the MFP 300 attempts to operate as an infrastructure mode for the access point 700 and to operate as a Group Owner for the portable communication terminal device 200 in parallel. In step S <b> 1002, the MFP 300 starts a device search process for the access point 700.

  In step S <b> 1003, the MFP 300 sequentially tries channels that can be used by the MFP 300 when transmitting a device search request command. The access point 700 does not transmit a response command in response to a device search request command transmitted on a channel other than the channel that the access point 700 can use. Here, if the channel that can be used by the access point 700 is the a-th channel, the access point 700 transmits a device search response command on the a-th channel only for the device search request command transmitted on the a-th channel. .

  In S1004, when the MFP 300 receives a device search request command from the access point 700, the MFP 300 ends the device search. In S1005, the a-th channel information is stored in a storage area such as the RAM 804.

  In step S <b> 1006, the MFP 300 starts device search processing as a Group Owner for the portable communication terminal device 200 and waits for reception of a device search request command from the portable communication terminal device 200. In S1007, when receiving the device search request command from the portable communication terminal device 200, the MFP 300 acquires the use channel information of the received device search request command, and determines whether or not it is the same as the channel information stored in S1005. judge. If it is determined that they are not the same, the processing from S1007 is repeated. On the other hand, if it is determined that they are the same, the process proceeds to S1009. In step S <b> 1009, the MFP 300 transmits a device search response command to the portable communication terminal apparatus 200 using the a-th channel, and ends the process of FIG. 10.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the own apparatus operates as a Group Owner at the same time as the infrastructure mode, it is possible to share channels used by a plurality of wireless interfaces. That is, when performing wireless communication in parallel in a plurality of wireless communication modes, when the MFP 300 becomes a client in one mode and becomes an access point in the other mode, wireless communication is appropriately performed via a common channel. Can be done. Further, when performing wireless communication in parallel in a plurality of wireless communication modes, it is not necessary to set different channels in each mode, and the processing load can be reduced.

  The present invention is also realized by executing the following processing. In other words, software (program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various computer-readable storage media, and the computer of the system or apparatus (or CPU, MPU, or the like). This is a process of reading and executing a program. Further, the number of computers that execute the program may be one, or a plurality of computers may cooperate to execute the program. Furthermore, hardware such as a circuit that executes a part of the program may be provided, and the hardware and the computer that executes the software may cooperate to execute the processing described in the present embodiment.

Claims (21)

A first wireless communication method compliant with a predetermined communication standard for wirelessly connecting to the external access point using a wireless channel designated from an external access point of the communication device; Communication means capable of executing the second wireless communication method based on the predetermined communication standard for wirelessly connecting to an external device without going through the access point;
When using the first wireless communication method and the second wireless communication method in parallel, a control unit that operates the communication apparatus as a role of assigning a wireless channel in the second wireless communication method is provided. And
The communication means transmits a request to the external access point using a selected wireless channel, and receives a response to the request to receive the first access point and the first access point in the first wireless communication method. while establishing a wireless connection, by using the radio channel specified from the outside of the access point by sending a response when from the external device has received a request using the wireless channel to the external device Establishing a second wireless connection with the external device in the second wireless communication method;
The second wireless communication method includes a negotiation process for determining a device operating as a role to allocate the wireless channel,
When operating the communication device as a role of assigning a wireless channel in the second wireless communication method, the external device wirelessly connects to the communication device using the communication device as an access point,
A communication device. Storage means for storing the wireless channel used in the first wireless connection of the first wireless communication method;
It said communication means, using said radio channel stored in said storage means, to claim 1, wherein establishing a second wireless connection with the external device by the second wireless communication method The communication device described. The communication device according to claim 2 , wherein the storage unit stores the wireless channel determined by the external access point that is wirelessly connected by the first wireless communication method. The second wireless communication method, a communication apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that a peer-to-peer wireless connection system. Wherein the second wireless communication method and role allocating radio channels, communication apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that a group owner in the WiFi Direct. The predetermined and communication standards, the communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that a IEEE802.11 series. Communication apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising a short-range wireless communication means for communicating with a shorter communication distance communication range by the communication means. 8. The communication apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the short-range wireless communication unit is a Near Field Communication unit or a Bluetooth unit. A communication method executed in a communication device,
A first wireless communication method compliant with a predetermined communication standard for wirelessly connecting to the external access point using a wireless channel designated from an external access point of the communication device; and without passing through the external access point A communication step capable of executing a second wireless communication method based on the predetermined communication standard for wirelessly connecting to an external device;
A control step of operating the communication device as a role of assigning a radio channel in the second radio communication method when using the first radio communication method and the second radio communication method in parallel; And
In the communication step, a request is transmitted to the external access point using a selected wireless channel, and a response to the request is received, so that the first wireless communication method and the first access point while establishing a wireless connection, by using the radio channel specified from the outside of the access point by sending a response when from the external device has received a request using the wireless channel to the external device Establishing a second wireless connection with the external device in the second wireless communication method;
The second wireless communication method includes a negotiation process for determining a device operating as a role to allocate the wireless channel,
When operating the communication device as a role of assigning a wireless channel in the second wireless communication method, the external device wirelessly connects to the communication device using the communication device as an access point,
A communication method characterized by the above. A first wireless communication method based on a predetermined communication standard for wirelessly connecting to the external access point using a wireless channel designated from an external access point of the communication device; and without going through the external access point A communication device comprising communication means capable of executing a second wireless communication method based on the predetermined communication standard for wireless connection with an external device, wherein a computer as the communication device is
When the first radio communication method and the second radio communication method are used in parallel, the communication device is caused to function as a control unit that operates as a role of assigning a radio channel in the second radio communication method. ,
The communication means transmits a request to the external access point using a selected wireless channel, and receives a response to the request to receive the first access point and the first access point in the first wireless communication method. while establishing a wireless connection, by using the radio channel specified from the outside of the access point by sending a response when from the external device has received a request using the wireless channel to the external device Establishing a second wireless connection with the external device in the second wireless communication method;
The second wireless communication method includes a negotiation process for determining a device operating as a role to allocate the wireless channel,
When operating the communication device as a role of assigning a wireless channel in the second wireless communication method, the external device wirelessly connects to the communication device using the communication device as an access point,
A program characterized by that. Causing the computer to further function as storage means for storing in a memory the wireless channel used in the first wireless connection of the first wireless communication method;
It said communication means, using said radio channel stored in said storage means, to claim 10, characterized by establishing the second wireless connection with the external device by the second wireless communication method The listed program. The program according to claim 11 , wherein the storage unit stores the wireless channel determined by the external access point wirelessly connected by the first wireless communication method. The program according to any one of claims 10 to 12 , wherein the second wireless communication method is a peer-to-peer wireless connection method. The program according to any one of claims 10 to 13 , wherein the role of assigning the wireless channel in the second wireless communication method is a group owner in WiFi Direct. 15. The program according to claim 10 , wherein the predetermined communication standard is an IEEE 802.11 series. The program according to any one of claims 10 to 15 , wherein the communication device further includes short-range wireless communication means for performing communication at a communication distance shorter than a communication distance by the communication means. The program according to claim 16 , wherein the short-range wireless communication unit is a Near Field Communication unit or a Bluetooth unit. The first wireless communication method is a communication according to the infrastructure mode, the second wireless communication method, according to any one of claims 10 to 17, characterized in that a communication by WiFi Direct Mode Program. The program according to any one of claims 10 to 18 , wherein the communication device further includes a plurality of paper feeding units. The first wireless communication method is a communication according to the infrastructure mode, the second wireless communication method, according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that a communication by WiFi Direct Mode Communication equipment. Communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 8 and claim 20, characterized by further comprising a plurality of paper feeding means.

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