JP6476239B2 - Relay terminal, mobile management system, relay method, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present disclosure relates to a relay terminal, a mobile management system, a relay method, and a program that relay signals.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a mesh wireless communication system that transfers data using a bucket relay method is known (see Patent Document 1). In this mesh wireless communication system, in order to cover a wide communication area with low-power wireless communication, measurement data (gas metering data such as gas) measured by individual wireless terminals is sequentially transmitted to a wireless terminal close to the counting device. To do. When receiving the measurement data from the latest wireless terminal, the counting device calculates the measurement time of each wireless terminal.

  In this data transfer, the wireless terminal A transmits a beacon request packet to transmit measurement data, and then waits until a beacon transmitted from another wireless terminal at a constant period is received. When a beacon is received from the wireless terminal B, the wireless terminal A compares the distance information included in the received beacon with the distance from the own terminal to the counting device, and the wireless terminal B is closer to the counting device than the own terminal The connection request packet is transmitted to the wireless terminal B. The wireless terminal B that has received the connection request packet returns a connection permission packet if the measurement data can be received. The wireless terminal A that has received the connection permission packet transmits measurement data to the wireless terminal B. As described above, in Patent Document 1, handshaking is performed and session establishment is performed.

JP 2014-120939 A

  In Patent Document 1, each wireless terminal performs a handshake to establish a session, so that a communication device becomes expensive. For this reason, for example, when a large number of wireless communications are installed in a wide facility such as a shopping mall, it is difficult to reduce costs in this system.

  On the other hand, when communicating without establishing a session in a mesh wireless communication system, for example, a signal transmitted by the wireless terminal A is received by the wireless terminal B, and then a signal transmitted by the wireless terminal B is received by the wireless terminal A. There can be. In this case, there is a possibility of falling into an infinite loop in which the same signal is repeatedly communicated between the wireless terminal A and the wireless terminal B.

  The present disclosure has been made in view of the above circumstances, and can reduce the cost of the entire system that relays signals, and can prevent a specific signal from being continuously communicated between specific communication devices, and mobile management A system, a relay method, and a program are provided.

  The relay terminal according to the present disclosure is a relay terminal that relays a signal, and includes a reception unit, a processing unit, and a transmission unit, and the reception unit receives a transmission signal from a transmission terminal or a first signal from another relay terminal. A relay signal is received as a received signal, and the processing unit processes the received signal to generate a second relay signal, and causes the transmission unit to transmit the second relay signal, thereby transmitting the transmission signal. A broadcast transmission of the second relay signal, and when the received signal is from the originating terminal, the processing unit adds identification information of the own relay terminal to the received signal. If the second relay signal is generated, the transmission unit transmits the second relay signal, and the received signal is from another relay terminal, the identification information of the own relay terminal is obtained. Generating the second relay signal without adding To perform the transmission of the second relay signal to the transmitting unit, a predetermined period after the second relay signal is transmitted broadcast to stop the reception of signals by the receiver.

  A mobile management system according to the present disclosure is a mobile management system including one or more transmission terminals, a plurality of relay terminals fixed at predetermined positions, and a server, wherein the transmission terminal transmits a transmission signal. Each of the plurality of relay terminals includes a reception unit, a processing unit, and a transmission unit, and the reception unit transmits the transmission signal from the transmission terminal or the first relay signal from another relay terminal. The processing unit processes the received signal to generate a second relay signal, causes the transmission unit to transmit the second relay signal, and the transmission unit The second relay signal is broadcasted, and the processing unit adds the identification information of the own relay terminal to the received signal when the received signal is from the transmitting terminal, and transmits the second relay signal. Signal to the transmitter The second relay signal is transmitted, and when the received signal is from another relay terminal, the second relay signal is generated without adding identification information of the own relay terminal, The transmission unit transmits the second relay signal, stops the reception of the signal by the reception unit for a predetermined period after the second relay signal is broadcasted, and the server Based on the identification information of the relay terminal included in the second relay signal transmitted by the terminal and the current time information given to the second relay signal, the movement status of the transmission terminal is estimated .

  The relay method of the present disclosure is a relay method of a relay terminal that relays a signal, and receives a transmission signal from a transmission terminal or a first relay signal from another relay terminal as a reception signal; Processing the received signal to generate a second relay signal, causing the transmitter to transmit the second relay signal, and transmitting the broadcast to transmit the second relay signal. And in the processing step, when the received signal is from the transmitting terminal, the identification information of the own relay terminal is added to the received signal to generate the second relay signal, and the transmitting unit When the second relay signal is transmitted to the other relay terminal, the second relay signal is generated without adding the identification information of the own relay terminal. The transmitter To perform the transmission of the second relay signal for said second predetermined period after the relay signal is transmitted broadcast to stop receiving signals.

  According to this indication, the cost of the whole system which relays a signal can be reduced, and it can control that a specific signal continues communicating between specific communication apparatuses.

The figure which shows the structural example of the mobile body management system in 1st Embodiment. Block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of each device in the mobile management system Block diagram showing a hardware configuration example of a relay terminal Diagram showing an example of the frame structure of a beacon signal Timing chart showing an operation example of a relay terminal when a beacon signal is received from a calling terminal Timing chart showing an operation example of a relay terminal when a beacon signal is received from another relay terminal Flow chart showing an example of operation procedure of relay terminal The flowchart which shows an example of the operation | movement procedure of a gateway apparatus Sequence diagram showing an operation example in the mobile management system The figure explaining an example of the route from the calling terminal to the gateway device via the relay terminal

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings.

  The mobile body management system of the following embodiment is introduced into work places, such as a factory and a construction site, as an example, and is used for a worker's trend and equipment location management. Further, as an example, the mobile management system is introduced into a commercial facility such as a shopping mall or an amusement facility such as a theme park, and is used for examining trends of visitors or the like visiting the facility. In addition, the mobile body may include a transmission terminal, a person or an object located in the vicinity of the transmission terminal, and other mobile bodies.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of the configuration of a mobile management system 5 in the first embodiment. The mobile management system 5 has a configuration including one or more transmission terminals 10, one or more relay terminals 20, a gateway device 50, an access point 60, and a mobile management server 70.

  As an example, in a medium-scale facility where the mobile management system 5 is introduced, about 300 relay terminals 20 may be arranged for one gateway device 50. As an example, in a large-scale facility, thousands of relay terminals 20 may be arranged for a plurality of gateway devices 50.

  A beacon terminal may be employed as the transmission terminal 10. The beacon signal is broadcast by a beacon terminal at a constant interval (for example, 1 second) at low power consumption ((BLE: Bluetooth (registered trademark) Low Energy), and reaches a range of about several tens of meters in the 2.4 GHz band. The beacon signal is a signal that can be received by a terminal having the function of receiving this signal, the beacon signal is also an example of a control signal, and BLE is an example of connectionless communication. .

  The transmission terminal 10 is carried by, for example, a worker or a visitor, and continues to transmit beacon signals intermittently after activation. In FIG. 1, three transmission terminals 10A, 10B, and 10C are shown. When there is no particular need to distinguish these, they are simply expressed as the transmission terminal 10. Here, the beacon signals bs (bs1, bs2, bs3) transmitted from the transmission terminal 10 by broadcast are also referred to as transmission beacon signals bs.

  The relay terminal 20 may be fixedly set at a predetermined position. The relay terminal 20 may be installed on the ceiling, roof, or wall of a building, for example. The relay terminal 20 receives a beacon signal transmitted from each transmission terminal 10 or another relay terminal 20. The relay terminal 20 processes the received beacon signal as necessary. The relay terminal 20 immediately broadcasts the beacon signal processed as necessary. The transmitted beacon signal is received by the next relay terminal 20 or gateway device 50. The term “immediately” as used herein may mean immediately after the time required for receiving, processing, and transmitting the beacon signal without waiting.

  In FIG. 1, relay terminals 20 </ b> A and 20 </ b> B are shown. When it is not necessary to distinguish between them, they are simply expressed as relay terminals 20. Here, the beacon signal bt (bt1, bt2) transmitted from the relay terminal 20 by broadcast is also referred to as a relay beacon signal bt.

  In addition, when describing with beacon signal bs and bt, you may include at least 1 of beacon signal bs and beacon signal bt.

  The gateway device 50 receives a beacon signal transmitted from the relay terminal 20 or the transmission terminal 10. The gateway device 50 transmits the signal set information ms to the mobile management server 70 via the access point 60 at regular intervals (for example, 1 minute). The signal set information ms includes information of at least one beacon signal bs, bt when the beacon signals bs, bt reach the gateway device 50. The gateway device 50 transmits information to the mobile management server 70 via, for example, a LAN (Local Area Network) or the Internet.

  The access point 60 may be connected to the gateway device 50 via a LAN. This LAN may be a wireless LAN. The access point 60 may be connected to the mobile management server 70 via the Internet or the like. The access point 60 transmits the signal set information ms transmitted from the gateway device 50 to the mobile management server 70.

  The mobile management server 70 receives the signal set information ms from the gateway device 50 via the access point 60. The mobile management server 70 recognizes the source information of the beacon signals bs and bt from the information of the beacon signals bs and bt included in the signal set information ms. The transmission source information may include identification information of the transmission terminal 10 that is the transmission source. The identification information of the relay terminal 20 may be used in association with the position where the signal transmitted from the transmission terminal 10 is first received.

  The mobile management server 70 may hold information on the installation position of the relay terminal 20 and identification information of the relay terminal 20 in association with each other. The mobile management server 70 may acquire the position information of the relay terminal 20 based on the identification information of the relay terminal 20 included in the signal set information ms, and may estimate the position of the transmission terminal 10.

  In FIG. 1, the mobile management server 70 recognizes that the relay terminal 20A has received the beacon signal bs1 from the calling terminal 10A and the beacon signal bs2 from the calling terminal 10B. The mobile management server 70 recognizes that the gateway device 50 has received the beacon signal bs3 from the calling terminal 10C. The reception time of these beacon signals bs1, bs2, and bs3 may be the time when the beacon signals bt1, bt2, and bs3 arrive at the gateway device 50.

  The relay terminal 20 may not add the reception time, and the gateway device 50 may add the reception time. Even in this case, since the mobile unit management system 5 has a small time difference between the reception time A when added by the gateway device 50 and the reception time B when added by the relay terminal 20, the transmitting terminal based on the time information A It is possible to suppress the degradation of the estimation of the 10 position information within an allowable range. Moreover, the mobile management system 5 can simplify the configuration of the relay terminal 20 and reduce the cost by providing the time stamp function only to the gateway device 50. Further, as will be described later, when the relay flag (described later) included in the beacon signal bs3 has a value of 0, the mobile management server 70 confirms that the gateway device 50 has received directly without the relay terminal 20. You may recognize it.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of each device in the mobile management system 5. The transmission terminal 10 includes a transmission unit 11 that intermittently broadcasts a beacon signal (signal information). The beacon signal may include a moving object ID (see FIG. 4) for identifying the calling terminal. The moving object ID is an example of identification information of the transmission terminal 10.

  The relay terminal 20 includes a reception unit 21 that receives a beacon signal, a processing unit 22 that processes the received beacon signal, and a transmission unit 23 that intermittently transmits the beacon signal.

  The processing unit 22 changes the relay flag, which is a control flag included in the moving object ID, and the number of relays, and the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) value (an example of received signal strength) of the relay terminal 20 and a UUID (Universally Unique Identifier). And a beacon signal bt may be generated. The RSSI value indicates the received signal strength of the relay terminal 20. The UUID is a value unique to the relay terminal 20 and is one piece of identification information of the relay terminal 20.

  The transmission terminal 10 and the relay terminal 20 are configured with beacon terminals that are inexpensive and have the same specifications as the gateway device 50. Note that the transmitting terminal 10 and the relay terminal 20 may be beacon terminals having different specifications.

  Here, the hardware configuration of the relay terminal 20 will be described, and the description of the transmitting terminal 10 having the same hardware configuration as that of the relay terminal 20 will be omitted. In addition, since the transmitting terminal 10 and the relay terminal 20 are the same beacon terminal, the number of transmitting terminals 10 and the number of relay terminals 20 can be dynamically and dynamically allocated.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the relay terminal 20. The relay terminal 20 has a configuration including, for example, a processor 201, a communication device 202, a cache memory 203, a memory 204, a timer 205, and an LED (Light Emitting Diode) 206.

  The processor 201 may include, for example, an MPU (Micro Processing Unit), a CPU (Central Processing Unit), or a DSP (Digital Signal Processor). The processor 201 implements a function as, for example, the processing unit 22 by executing a program held in the memory. The processing unit 22 controls each unit in the relay terminal 20 and performs various types of processing (for example, processing related to calculation, communication, and storage).

  For example, when the processor 201 receives the beacon signals bs and bt, the processor 201 may register (store) the data (for example, UUID) included in the beacon signals bs and bt in the cache memory 203 of the memory 204.

  The processor 201 may set an effective period (for example, 3 seconds) from when data included in the beacon signals bs and bt is acquired until the data is deleted. The cache memory 203 stores and holds data such as a valid period (for example, 3 seconds) and UUID preset by the processor 201, and erases the data when the valid period elapses. The data loss may be performed by overwriting new data by the processor 201, for example.

  The processor 201 stores various parameters in the memory 204. For example, parameters such as UUID, signal strength when receiving the relay beacon signal bt, LED control, and transmission / reception interval (seconds) of life / death monitoring advertisement are held in the memory 204 in a changeable manner. As an example, in the LED control, it is possible to set an operation in which the LED 206 blinks blue once or does not blink blue at the time of transmission.

  The communication device 202 includes a device that performs wireless communication. Communication device 202 may include, for example, a device for implementing near field radio (eg, BLE). The communication device 202 may have functions as the reception unit 21 and the transmission unit 23. The transmission unit 23 may broadcast the beacon signal bt at regular intervals, for example, within a radius of 20 m to 30 m. The receiving unit 21 may receive the beacon signals bt and bt when the beacon signals bs and bt reach the terminal.

  The memory 204 includes a ROM (Read Only Memory) and a RAM (Random Access Memory). The memory 204 includes a cache memory 203. The memory 240 may include other memories.

  The timer 205 measures various times. The timer 205 may measure the time interval when the beacon signal bt is intermittently transmitted by the communication device 202 and notify the processor 201 of the time interval.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the gateway device 50 is a network node for connecting networks having different protocols. For example, the gateway device 50 connects a network (for example, a BLE system) including the transmission terminal 10 and the relay terminal 20 and a network (for example, a LAN) on the access point 60 side.

  Although not shown, the gateway device 50 may be configured to include a processor, a communication device, a memory, and the like as a hardware configuration. The gateway device 50 has, as a functional configuration, a receiving unit 51 that receives the beacon signals bs and bt, and the current time of the received beacon signals bs and bt (the current time when the beacon signals bs and bt are received, that is, the reception time). A processing unit 52 that assigns information and a transmission unit 53 that collects the received beacon signals bs and bt to create signal set information ms and transmits the signal set information ms to the mobile management server 70.

  The processing unit 52 may add the current time as a time stamp to the received beacon signals bs and bt, respectively.

  When the same outgoing beacon signal bs reaches the gateway device 50 via a plurality of routes (relaying different relay terminals 20), the reception time of these beacon signals bs and bt is determined by the gateway device 50 as the beacon signal bs, It may be different because it is the time when bt was received. Even in this case, the difference between the reception times of the beacon signals bs and bt arrived through different routes is assumed to be slight, and thus may be within an allowable range.

  The processing unit 52 may set the UUID added to the received beacon signals bs and bt as the gateway ID (see FIG. 4) of the signal set information ms. The transmission unit 53 may transmit the generated signal set information ms to the mobile management server 70 at regular intervals (for example, 30 seconds, 1 minute). The signal set information may be transmitted to the mobile management server 70 via the access point 60.

  The mobile management server 70 may be configured with a general-purpose computer device. The mobile management server 70 may be configured to include, for example, a processor, a memory, and a communication device as a hardware configuration. As a functional configuration, the mobile management server 70 includes a receiving unit 71 that receives the signal set information ms transmitted from the gateway device 50, a storage unit 72 that stores the received signal set information ms in a recording medium, and a processing unit 73. And may be configured to include.

  The processing unit 73 manages the transmitting terminal 10 as a mobile object based on the signal set information ms. For example, the processing unit 22 is based on the position of the relay terminal 20 or the gateway device 50 identified by the gateway ID included in the signal set information ms, and the time stamps of the beacon signals bs and bt included in the signal set information ms. It recognizes information on the location of the transmitting terminal 10 and information on the time at which the location is located. It can be said that the position information and time information of the transmission terminal 10 correspond to position information and time information of a person who has the transmission terminal 10 or an object to which the transmission terminal 10 is attached.

  The signal set information ms may include information in which beacon signals bs transmitted from the same transmitting terminal 10 reach the gateway device 50 via a plurality of routes (see FIG. 10).

  Next, signals handled by the transmission terminal 10, the relay terminal 20, and the gateway device 50 will be described. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the frame structure of various signals.

  The transmitting terminal 10 generates and transmits a beacon signal bs. The relay terminal 20 generates and transmits a beacon signal bt. The gateway device 50 generates and transmits a gateway signal including the signal set information ms. The included information is different between the beacon signal bs and the beacon signal bt.

  The beacon signal bs includes a moving object ID for identifying the calling terminal 10. The beacon signal bt includes a moving object ID, an RSSI value, and a gateway ID. The gateway signal includes signal set information ms. The signal set information ms includes a gateway ID, a time stamp added to the beacon signals bs and bt, an RSSI value, and a moving object ID.

  The moving object ID is indicated by 32 bits, for example. These 32 bits include 16 bits of Major and 16 bits of Minor. Of the moving object ID, 24 bits (16 bits of Minor and 1st to 8th bits of Major) represent an ID for identifying the calling terminal 10. Of the moving object ID, the remaining 8 bits (9th to 16th bits of Major) represent a control flag. The information of the control flag can be changed by the relay terminal 20 or the gateway device 50.

  Among the control flags, the first 4 bits (9th to 12th bits of Major) represent the number of relays, which is the number of times the beacon signal bs has passed through the relay terminal 20. In FIG. 4, the number of relays can be counted up to a maximum value of 15 where all 4 bits have a value of 1. The maximum value 15 is an example, and the limit value of the number of relays may be set to an arbitrary value.

  The remaining 4 bits (13th to 16th bits of the Major) of the control flag are each expressed by 1 bit, and represent a life / death monitoring notification, a relay flag, a three-axis sensor notification, and a low battery level notification. The life and death monitoring notification of the 13th bit of Major indicates whether or not the relay terminal 20 is in an operating state. For example, a value 1 represents non-operation and a value 0 represents operation. Whether the relay terminal 20 is in an operating state is notified to the mobile management server 70 by the life / death monitoring notification. The relay flag of the 14th bit of Major indicates whether or not the beacon signal is relayed by the relay terminal 20. For example, the value 1 (on) indicates relay, and the value 0 (off) indicates non-relay. Major 15-bit 3-axis sensor notification of Major indicates the presence or absence of movement of the transmitting terminal 10, for example, a value 1 indicates that there is movement, and a value 0 indicates stillness. Therefore, the mobile management server 70 can determine whether or not the transmission terminal 10 as a mobile is moving based on the information of the three-axis sensor notification. The 16th bit remaining battery level notification of “Major” indicates whether or not the remaining battery level of the transmitting terminal 10 has decreased. For example, a value of 1 indicates a decrease in the remaining battery level, and a value of 0 indicates a normal remaining battery level.

  The gateway ID included in the relay beacon signal bt stores the UUID of the relay terminal 20 that first relayed the beacon signal bs. The RSSI value included in the relay beacon signal bt stores the RSSI value when the beacon signal bs is received by the relay terminal 20 that relayed first. The moving object ID included in the relay beacon signal bt is obtained by changing (processing) a part of the moving object ID included in the transmission beacon signal bs.

  The gateway ID included in the signal set information ms stores the UUID of the relay terminal 20 or the gateway device 50 that first relayed the beacon signal bs. The time stamp stores the reception time when the gateway device 50 receives the beacon signals bs and bt. The RSSI value included in the signal set information ms is the same as the RSSI value included in the relay beacon signal bt, and the RSSI value when the beacon signal bs is received by the relay terminal 20 that relayed first is stored. The moving object ID included in the signal set information ms is obtained by changing (processing) a part of the moving object ID included in the relay beacon signal bt.

  FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing the operation of the relay terminal 20 when the beacon signal bs is received from the transmission terminal 10.

  The relay terminal 20 waits until the processing unit 22 receives the beacon signal bs in the standby period t0, and the reception unit 21 receives the transmission beacon signal bs at time t1. After the processing unit 22 performs the processing on the beacon signal bs, at time t2, the transmission unit 23 transmits the processed relay beacon signal bt once or a plurality of times at regular intervals (for example, 500 ms). Thereafter, the processing unit 22 stops the reception for the suspension period t3 (for example, 3 seconds). During this period, the processing unit 22 does not have to monitor the transmission beacon signal bs transmitted from the transmission terminal 10. Therefore, even if the transmission beacon signal bs reaches the relay terminal 20 during the suspension period t3, the reception unit 21 does not receive it. After the suspension period t3 ends, at time t4, the transmission unit 23 transmits the transmission beacon signal bs received after the suspension period t3. Thereafter, the processing unit 22 waits until the next outgoing beacon signal bs is received in the standby period t5. The reception period is central and the transmission period is peripheral.

  Thus, since the relay terminal 20 switches the state (for example, transmission state, reception state, and dormant state) of the relay terminal 20, even when one communication thread is used, it can be suitably switched and transmitted / received. Note that transmission and reception of a beacon signal may be performed simultaneously.

  Note that the time from when the relay terminal 20 receives the beacon signal bs to switching to transmission, the time from the transmission of the beacon signal bt to the start of the suspension period, the time to switch from the suspension period to reception, and the beacon A predetermined time (for example, 100 milliseconds) is required for the time from when the signal bt is transmitted to when the signal bt is switched to reception.

  Note that the stop of reception of the beacon signal may be stop of reception of the beacon signal bs from all transmitting terminals 10. In this case, the beacon signal bs need not be received without identifying the moving object ID of the beacon signal bs. Further, the stop of the reception of the beacon signal may be limited to the stop of the reception of the beacon signal bs from the specific transmission terminal 10. In this case, it is not necessary to identify the moving body ID of the beacon signal bs to identify the specific transmitting terminal 10 and receive the beacon signal to which the moving body ID of the transmitting terminal 10 is attached for a predetermined period.

  In this way, by providing the pause period, the relay terminal 20 can receive other beacon signals with low received signal strength without being chased only by the process of relaying beacon signals with high received signal strength (RSSI value). It becomes.

  That is, even when reception of the beacon signal bs from all the transmitting terminals 10 is stopped, when the pause period ends, a beacon signal having a high signal level, for example, that may fall into an infinite loop may be transferred. small. Therefore, the relay terminal 20 has a high possibility of receiving other beacon signals having a low received signal strength other than this signal, for example.

  In addition, when the reception of the beacon signal bs from a specific transmission terminal 10 is stopped, there is a possibility of falling into an infinite loop by not receiving the beacon signal of the same transmission terminal 10 again within the suspension period. A beacon signal with a high signal level is not received repeatedly. Therefore, the relay terminal 20 has a high possibility of receiving other beacon signals having a low received signal strength other than this signal, for example.

  FIG. 6 is a timing chart showing the operation of the relay terminal 20A when a beacon signal is received from another relay terminal 20B. The relay terminals 20A and 20B are an example of the relay terminal 20.

  When the relay beacon signal bt is received from another relay terminal 20B, the processing unit 22 receives the beacon signal bt in the standby period t10 in the relay terminal 20A, as in the case of receiving the transmission beacon signal bs from the transmission terminal 10. Until time t11, the reception unit 21 receives the relay beacon signal bt from the other relay terminal 20B. After the processing unit 22 performs the processing on the beacon signal bt, at time t12, the transmission unit 23 transmits a new relay beacon signal bt that has been processed. Thereafter, the processing unit 22 stops the reception during the suspension period t13 (for example, 3 seconds). During the suspension period t13, the relay terminal 20A stops receiving beacon signals bs and bt transmitted from the other relay terminal 20B and the transmission terminal 10. After the suspension period t13 ends, at time t14, the transmission unit 23 transmits the relay beacon signal bt received after the suspension period t13 ends. Thereafter, the processing unit 22 performs an operation of waiting until the next relay beacon signal bt is received in the waiting period t15.

  When receiving the relay beacon signal bt from the other relay terminal 20B, in the relay terminal 20A, the processing unit 22 has the same UUID (gateway ID) included in the received beacon signal bt as the UUID of itself (relay terminal 20A). In some cases, the reception operation may be continued without switching to the transmission operation. That is, the transmission unit 23 does not have to transfer the received relay beacon signal bt. Thereby, the relay terminal 20A repeats the beacon signal bs of the same transmitting terminal 10 repeatedly when the beacon signal bs of the transmitting terminal 10 that has been relayed once is re-relayed from another relay terminal B and returns. It can suppress falling into an infinite loop transmitted and received between.

  Further, the relay terminal 20A may continue the reception operation without switching to the transmission operation when the number of relays included in the received beacon signal bt has reached a threshold th (for example, 15 times). That is, the transmission unit 23 does not have to transfer the received relay beacon signal bt. Thereby, the relay terminal 20A repeats the beacon signal bs of the same transmitting terminal 10 repeatedly when the beacon signal bs of the transmitting terminal 10 relayed once is relayed by many relay terminals 20 and returns. It can suppress falling into the infinite loop transmitted / received between the terminals 20.

  Further, the stop of reception of the beacon signal bt may be stop of reception of the beacon signal bt from all the relay terminals 20. In this case, the beacon signal bt may not be received without identifying the moving object ID of the beacon signal bt. Further, the stop of reception of the beacon signal bt may be limited to the stop of reception of the beacon signal bt from the specific relay terminal 20. In this case, the moving body ID of the beacon signal bt is identified to identify the specific transmitting terminal 10, and the beacon signal bt to which the moving body ID of the transmitting terminal 10 is attached may not be received for a predetermined period.

  In this way, by providing the pause period, the relay terminal 20 can receive other beacon signals with low received signal strength without being chased only by the process of relaying beacon signals with high received signal strength (RSSI value). It becomes.

  Next, the operation of the mobile management system 5 will be described.

  As an example, it is assumed that the relay terminals 20A, 20B, and 20C are in positions away from the gateway device 50 in this order. That is, it is assumed that the relay terminal 20C is closest to the gateway device 50, the relay terminal 20B is next closest to the gateway device 50, and the relay terminal 20A is farthest away.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the relay terminal 20.

  First, the processing unit 22 waits for arrival of beacon signals bs and bt transmitted from the transmission terminal 10 or another relay terminal 20. When the beacon signals bs and bt arrive, the receiving unit 21 receives the beacon signals bs and bt (S1).

  The processing unit 22 determines whether or not the UUID is registered (stored) in the cache memory 203 (S2). This UUID is registered when the beacon signals bs and bt are relayed within the suspension period. When the UUID is registered in the cache memory 203, the processing unit 22 ignores the received beacon signals bs and bt, and returns to the process of S1, assuming that it is during the suspension period.

  When the UUID is not registered in the cache memory 203 in S2, the processing unit 22 determines whether or not the relay flag included in the received beacon signals bs and bt is on (S3). When the relay flag is on, the processing unit 22 determines that the beacon signal is the relay beacon signal bt. Then, the processing unit 22 determines whether or not the UUID (gateway ID) included in the beacon signal bt is the UUID of the own terminal (S4). If it is the UUID of its own terminal, the processing unit 22 ignores the received beacon signal bt and returns to the process of S1.

  When the UUID included in the beacon signal bt is not the UUID of the terminal in S4, the processing unit 22 determines whether or not the number of relays included in the beacon signal bt is equal to or greater than a threshold th (for example, 15 times) (S5). . When the relay count is equal to or greater than the threshold th, the processing unit 22 ignores the received beacon signal and returns to the process of S1.

  On the other hand, when the relay count is less than the threshold th, the processing unit 22 adds 1 to the relay count to process the beacon signal bt, and the transmission unit 23 transmits the processed beacon signal bt by broadcast (S6). ). Then, the processing unit 22 sets a valid period (for example, 3 seconds), and registers the UUID and moving object ID included in the beacon signal bt in the cache memory 203 (S8). The effective period of 3 seconds is an example, and may be any time such as 5 seconds or 10 seconds. Thereafter, the processing unit 22 returns to the process of S1.

  When the relay flag is off in S3, the processing unit 22 determines that the beacon signal bs is not relayed, performs the processing, and the transmission unit 23 transmits the processed beacon signal bt by broadcast. (S7). In the processing, the processing unit 22 assigns the gateway ID and RSSI value in which the UUID of the terminal is set in the beacon signal bs, changes the relay flag to ON, sets the number of relays to the value 1, A signal bt is generated. Therefore, the processed beacon signal bt may include a processed moving object ID, information on each control flag, a gateway ID, and an RSSI value. Then, the processing unit 22 proceeds to the process of S8.

  According to the processing of FIG. 7, the relay terminal 20 includes the UUID of the relay terminal 20 that first relayed the beacon signal bs transmitted from the transmission terminal 10 in the beacon signal bt. The relay terminal 20 refers to the UUID included in the beacon signal bt and does not relay the further beacon signal bt when the terminal itself has been relayed. Thereby, it is possible to avoid the beacon signal bt being continuously communicated between the plurality of relay terminals 20 and falling into an infinite loop.

  Further, the relay terminal 20 does not receive the beacon signal bt even if the beacon signal bt once relayed from the other relay terminal 20 is transferred by providing the suspension period. Therefore, the relay terminal 20 can avoid the beacon signal bt being continuously communicated between the plurality of relay terminals 20 and falling into an infinite loop.

  In FIG. 7, the processes of S2 and S8 may be omitted. That is, the relay terminal 20 may omit providing a reception idle period by registering a UUID or the like in the cache memory 203 and setting a valid period. Even in this case, due to the presence of S4, the relay terminal 20 can suppress the transfer of the beacon signal bt when the UUID of the relay terminal 20 itself is included in the beacon signal bt, and is infinite between other relay terminals. It can suppress falling into a loop.

  In FIG. 7, the process of S3 may be omitted. That is, the relay terminal 20 may omit confirmation of whether or not the received beacon signals bs and bt include the UUID of the relay terminal 20 itself. Even in this case, due to the presence of S2 and S8, the relay terminal 20 can suppress the transfer of the beacon signals bs and bt by providing a reception pause period, so that the relay terminal 20 falls into an infinite loop with other relay terminals. Can be suppressed.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the gateway device 50. This operation is repeatedly executed every predetermined time.

  First, the processing unit 52 waits for arrival of beacon signals bs and bt transmitted from the transmission terminal 10 or the relay terminal 20. When the beacon signals bs and bt arrive, the receiving unit 51 receives the beacon signals bs and bt (S11).

  The processing unit 52 determines whether or not the relay flag included in the received beacon signals bs and bt is on (S12). When the relay flag is on, the processing unit 52 gives the current time information as a time stamp (Timestamp) to the received beacon signal bt (S13). Therefore, the reception time when the beacon signal bt is received is stored in this time stamp.

  The processing unit 52 processes the received beacon signal bt (S14). In this processing, the processing unit 52 sets the UUID (gateway ID) included in the beacon signal bt to the gateway ID of the signal set information ms. The processing unit 52 performs mask processing on the control flag of the moving object ID (the 9th to 14th bits and the 16th bit of the Major of the moving object ID) included in the received beacon signal bt. In the mask process, data may be erased, or data may not be used simply. Therefore, the processed beacon signal bt may include the ID of the transmitting terminal 10 of the moving object ID, the RSSI value, and a time stamp may be added.

  On the other hand, when the relay flag is OFF in S12, the processing unit 52 gives the current time information to the time stamp (Timestamp) included in the received beacon signal bs (S15).

  The processing unit 52 processes the received beacon signal bs (S16). In this processing, the processing unit 52 sets the UUID for identifying the gateway device 50 to the gateway ID of the signal set information ms. The processing unit 52 gives the RSSI value when the beacon signal bs is received by the gateway device 50 to the beacon signal bs. Therefore, the processed beacon signal bs may include the ID of the transmitting terminal 10 of the moving object ID, the RSSI value, and a time stamp may be added.

  The processing unit 52 registers the beacon signals bs and bt processed in S14 and S16 in the signal set information queue (S17). The processing unit 52 creates signal set information ms including at least one processed beacon signal bs, bt registered in the signal set information queue. In this case, signal set information ms is generated for each gateway ID set in the signal set information ms.

  The transmitting unit 53 transmits the signal set information ms periodically (for example, every minute) to the mobile management server 70 via the Internet or the like (S18). Thereafter, the processing unit 52 ends this operation.

  According to the processing of FIG. 8, the gateway device 50 can collect the beacon signals bs and bt from the relay terminal 20 and the transmission terminal 10 to generate the signal set information ms and transmit it to the mobile management system 5. In addition, the gateway device 50 communicates with the mobile management system 5 on behalf of the relay terminal 20 and the gateway device 50 that relay the beacon signal bs of the transmission terminal 10, so that the function of the relay terminal 20 can be simplified. For example, the relay terminal 20 and the transmission terminal 10 can have the same configuration. In this case, by increasing the number of relay terminals 20, the number of relay points of the transmission terminal 10 can be increased, and the position detection accuracy of the transmission terminal 10 can be improved. Further, the gateway device 50 can omit the function for the relay terminal 20 to give the time stamp by the gateway device 50 giving the time stamp, and the configuration of the relay terminal 20 can be simplified.

  FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram showing a transmission operation in the mobile management system 5.

  In the mobile management system 5, the transmission terminal 10 repeatedly transmits the beacon signal bs by broadcast at regular intervals (for example, 1 second). When the relay terminal 20A receives the transmission beacon signal bs from the transmission terminal 10, the relay terminal 20A processes the transmission beacon signal bs such as granting the UUID of the terminal itself, and transmits the processed relay beacon signal bt1 by broadcast (TS1). . The relay terminal 20A may stop the reception operation after the broadcast transmission with the pause period as an effective period (for example, 3 seconds).

  When the relay terminal 20B receives the relay beacon signal bt1 from the relay terminal 20A, since the relay flag of the relay beacon signal bt1 is on, the UUID (gateway ID) and the moving object ID included in the beacon signal bt1 are stored in the cache memory 203. Register. The relay terminal 20B broadcasts the relay beacon signal bt1 as the relay beacon signal bt2 (TS2).

  When the relay terminal 20A receives the relay beacon signal bt2 from the relay terminal 20B, the UUID included in the relay beacon signal bt2 matches the UUID of the own terminal. Therefore, the relay terminal 20A determines the beacon signal bt1 relayed by the own terminal, The relay beacon signal bt2 is ignored (not relayed) (TS3). Thereby, the mobile management system 5 can suppress the communication of the beacon signal between the relay terminals 20A and 20B from infinitely looping.

  In addition, when the relay terminal 20C receives the relay beacon signal bt2 from the relay terminal 20B, if the number of relays is less than a threshold th (for example, 15 times), the relay terminal 20C relays and transmits the relay beacon signal bt3 by broadcast (TS4). .

  When the relay terminal 20B receives the relay beacon signal bt3 transmitted from the relay terminal 20C, the UUID and the like included in the relay beacon signal bt3 are registered in the cache memory 203 with an effective period of 3 seconds. Therefore, the relay beacon signal bt3 Is ignored (not relayed) (TS5). Thereby, the mobile management system 5 can suppress the communication of the beacon signal between the relay terminals 20B and 20C from infinitely looping.

  Then, after the suspension period ends, when receiving the beacon signal bs, the relay terminal 20B broadcasts a beacon signal bt4 obtained by adding the UUID of the terminal to the beacon signal bs (TS6).

  When relay terminal 20A receives relay beacon signal bt4 from relay terminal 20B, relay terminal 20A relays and transmits relay beacon signal bt5 by broadcast (TS7). Similarly, when relay terminal 20C receives relay beacon signal bt4 from relay terminal 20B, relay terminal 20C relays and transmits relay beacon signal bt6 by broadcasting (TS8).

  The relay terminal 20B determines that the UUIDs included in the two relay beacon signals bt5 and bt6 respectively transmitted from the relay terminal 20A and the relay terminal 20C are the same as the UID of the own terminal, and is a beacon signal relayed by the own terminal. Therefore, these beacon signals bt5 and bt6 are ignored (not relayed) (TS9). That is, here, the relay terminal 20B does not transfer the beacon signals bt5 and bt6. Thereby, the mobile management system 5 can suppress the communication of the beacon signal between the relay terminals 20A and 20B from infinitely looping. Moreover, it is possible to suppress the beacon signal communication from infinitely looping between the relay terminals 20B and 20C.

  Thereafter, similarly to the procedures TS1 to TS5, when the relay terminal 20A receives the beacon signal bs transmitted from the transmission terminal 10, the relay terminal 20A processes the beacon signal such as granting the UUID of the terminal itself, and processes the relay beacon signal bt7 after processing. Is transmitted by broadcast (TS10). The relay terminal 20A may enter a suspension period after a broadcast transmission with an effective period of 3 seconds.

  When receiving the relay beacon signal bt7 from the relay terminal 20A, the relay terminal 20B registers the UUID and moving object ID included in the relay beacon signal bt7 in the cache memory 203, and then transmits the relay beacon signal bt8 by broadcast (TS11). .

  When the relay terminal 20A receives the relay beacon signal bt8 from the relay terminal 20B, the UUID included in the relay beacon signal bt8 matches the UUID of the own terminal. Therefore, the relay terminal 20A determines the beacon signal bt7 relayed by the own terminal, The relay beacon signal bt8 is ignored (not relayed) (TS12).

  Further, when the relay terminal 20C receives the relay beacon signal bt8 from the relay terminal 20B, if the number of relays is less than a threshold th (for example, 15 times), the relay terminal 20C relays and transmits the relay beacon signal bt9 by broadcast (TS13). .

  When the relay terminal 20B receives the relay beacon signal bt9 transmitted from the relay terminal 20C, the UUID included in the relay beacon signal bt9 is registered in the cache memory 203 with an effective period of 3 seconds. Ignore (TS14).

  Further, the gateway device 50 receives the beacon signals bs and bt transmitted from at least one relay terminal 20 and the transmission terminal 10 at a transmission interval (for example, 1 minute) longer than the transmission interval of the beacon signal bs by the transmission terminal 10, for example. Based on this, the signal set information ms is generated and periodically transmitted to the mobile management server 70.

  For example, the gateway device 50 generates the signal set information ms1 based on the relay beacon signal bt3 transmitted from the relay terminal 20C at the timing after processing of TS5, and transmits it to the mobile management server 70 via the access point 60. (TS5A).

  For example, the gateway device 50 generates the signal set information ms2 based on the relay beacon signals bt6 and bt9 transmitted from the relay terminal 20C at the timing after processing of the TS 14, and passes the access point 60 to the mobile management server 70. (TS14A).

  The mobile management server 70 manages the movement status of the transmitting terminal 10 based on the signal set information ms1 transmitted by TS5A and the signal set information ms2 transmitted by TS14A.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a route from the transmitting terminal 10 to the gateway device 50 via the relay terminal 20.

  In FIG. 10, there are various routes (routes) until the beacon signal bs transmitted from the transmission terminal 10 reaches the gateway device 50. In the route p1, the transmission beacon signal bs from the transmission terminal 10 reaches the gateway device 50 as the relay beacon signal bt via the relay terminals 20A, 20B, 20C, 20E, 20F, and 20G. In another route p2, the transmission beacon signal bs from the transmission terminal 10 reaches the gateway device 50 as the relay beacon signal bt via the relay terminals 20A, 20D, 20E, 20F, and 20G.

  Therefore, the relay beacon signal bt based on the transmission beacon signal bs from the same transmission terminal 10 may reach the gateway device 50 by a plurality of routes. There should only be one relay beacon signal based on the transmission beacon signal bs or the transmission beacon signal bs transmitted from the same transmission terminal 10 at the same time. Therefore, the gateway device 50 may discard (delete) the beacon signals bs and bt other than the specific one, and in this case, the processing load on the gateway device 50 can be reduced. For example, the beacon signals bs and bt to be discarded may be determined based on the RSSI value included in the beacon signals bs and bt, the number of relays, and the like.

  When the mobile body management server 70 receives the signal set information ms from the gateway device 50, the mobile body management server 70 manages the status of the mobile body based on the signal set information ms. For example, when the mobile management server 70 is used for business activities such as a company, the mobile management server 70 compares the status of movement between a person with good sales and a person with poor sales, analyzes the movement, The efficiency may be improved. Further, when the mobile management server 70 is used for a monitoring system, the mobile management server 70 recognizes that a worker who has the transmission terminal 10 is approaching a place where entry is prohibited and gives a warning, so that the safety and security can be ensured. You may plan. Further, the mobile management server 70 may manage warehouses and entrance / exit management of a logistics company by managing the position of a person in the monitoring area and the time at which the person is located.

  In addition, the mobile management server 70 acquires, manages, and analyzes a log of the transmitting terminal 10 (for example, information of a person who owns the transmitting terminal 10, position information of the transmitting terminal 10, and time information at the position). You can do it. The mobile management server 70 may set this information, for example, when it is not preferable that a predetermined number of persons (for example, three persons) exist in a predetermined area. The mobile body management server 70 may notify the administrator of the mobile body management server 70 when a predetermined number of persons are detected in a predetermined area at the same time or at the same time.

  In FIG. 10, a dotted circle centered on the position of each relay terminal 20 indicates an example of a range in which the relay beacon signal bt from the relay terminal 20 positioned at the center can be received.

[Effects of this embodiment]
As described above, in the relay terminal 20 of the present embodiment, the reception unit 21 receives the beacon signal bs (an example of the transmission signal) having the moving body ID (an example of identification information) of the transmission terminal 10 from the transmission terminal 10 or other A beacon signal bt (an example of a first relay signal) from the relay terminal 20 is received as a reception signal. When the beacon signal bs includes neither the UUID of the own relay terminal (an example of identification information) nor the UUID of another relay terminal, the processing unit 22 adds the UUID of the own relay terminal to the beacon signal bs, A signal bt (an example of a second relay signal) is generated. When the beacon signal bt includes the UUID of the own relay terminal, the transmission unit 23 does not broadcast the beacon signal bt. When the beacon signal bt does not include the UUID of the own relay terminal, the transmission unit 23 transmits the beacon signal bt. .

  Thereby, like the transmission terminal 10, the relay terminal 20 can be realized at a low cost with a simple configuration, and can relay the beacon signal bs transmitted from the transmission terminal 10 by broadcast. Further, since the relay terminal 20 has a simple configuration and is inexpensive, it can be easily arranged in large numbers, and the cost of the entire mobile management system 5 can be reduced. Moreover, the relay terminal 20 can suppress that the beacon signal bt which the self-relay terminal transmitted between the self-relay terminal and other relay terminals continues to be communicated. That is, the relay terminal 20 can suppress falling into an infinite loop in which the relay beacon signal bt is repeatedly communicated between its own relay terminal (for example, the relay terminal 20A) and another relay terminal (for example, the relay terminal 20B). Therefore, the relay terminal 20 can suppress a specific signal from being continuously communicated between specific communication devices.

  The processing unit 22 may stop reception by the receiving unit 21 for a predetermined period after the broadcast transmission of the relay beacon signal bt.

  Thereby, the relay terminal 20 can suppress that a self-relay terminal and another relay terminal continue receiving the transmission signal transmitted from the transmission terminal 10 with strong received signal strength by providing the suspension period. Therefore, the relay terminal 20 can receive new beacon signals bs and bt after the suspension period, and can also receive, for example, a transmission beacon signal bs transmitted from the transmission terminal 10 having a weak reception signal strength. Further, by receiving the transmission beacon signal bs of the transmission terminal 10 having a weak reception signal strength, it is possible to track the location information of the transmission terminal 10 having a low reception signal strength. Further, another relay terminal (for example, relay terminal B) provides the same relay beacon signal by receiving a relay beacon signal bt from another relay terminal (for example, relay terminal C) by providing a pause period. It is also possible to prevent bt from being repeatedly communicated. Therefore, the other relay terminal can suppress repeated communication with another other relay terminal and falling into an infinite loop.

  The beacon signals bs and bt may include information on the number of relays by any one of the plurality of relay terminals 20. The processing unit 22 may generate the relay beacon signal bt by adding one time to the information on the number of relays included in the beacon signals bs and bt. When the beacon signals bs and bt do not include the UUID of the own relay terminal and the information on the number of relays included in the beacon signal is less than the predetermined number, the transmission unit 23 broadcasts the relay beacon signal bt. Good.

  As a result, the relay terminal 20 detects that the relay beacon signal bt to which the UUID of the relay terminal (for example, the relay terminal A) is not assigned is different from another relay terminal (for example, the relay terminal B). It is possible to suppress repeated communication with the terminal C) and falling into an infinite loop. In this case, for example, the relay terminal 20 can suppress relay of the relay beacon signal bt that is sequentially relayed through the relay terminals and eventually circulates back to the own relay terminal. That is, the relay terminal 20 falls into an infinite loop that goes around, for example, relay terminal A → relay terminal B → relay terminal C → relay terminal D → relay terminal E →. Can be suppressed.

  When the beacon signals bs and bt include neither the UUID of the own relay terminal nor the UUIDs of other relay terminals, the processing unit 22 includes an RSSI value indicating the signal level of the beacon signals bs and bt in the beacon signals bs and bt ( An example of signal level information) may be added to generate the relay beacon signal bt.

  Accordingly, when the beacon signal bs is first relayed by the own relay terminal, the relay terminal 20 can include information on the signal level at the time of reception at the own terminal. Therefore, the mobile device management server 70 that receives the signal set information ms from the gateway device 50 or the gateway device 50 that counts the beacon signals bs and bt can grasp the signal level when the beacon signals bs and bt are first received. Therefore, when the beacon signals bs and bt based on the beacon signal bs transmitted by the same transmission terminal 10 are received by the plurality of relay terminals 20, the gateway device 50 and the mobile management server 70 are located at the nearest relay terminal 20. Can be determined based on the reception level. Therefore, the mobile management server 70 can improve the position detection accuracy of the transmission terminal 10 using the relay terminal 20.

  Further, a plurality of transmission terminals 10 may exist. Each of the plurality of transmission beacon signals bs transmitted by the plurality of transmission terminals 10 may include the moving body ID of the transmission terminal 10 that is the transmission source.

  Thereby, the relay terminal 20 can grasp | ascertain and notify the positional information on the transmission terminal 10 for every transmission terminal 10. FIG.

  The relay terminal 20 may be fixed at a predetermined position.

  Thereby, since the position information of the relay terminal 20 is fixed, the mobile management server 70 can estimate the position of the transmission terminal 10 based on the position information of the relay terminal 20. That is, the mobile management server 70 can estimate the position information of the transmission terminal 10 according to the installation position of the relay terminal 20 that has received the transmission beacon signal bs. Therefore, the mobile management server 70 can derive movement information of the transmission terminal 10 based on the position information of the transmission terminal 10.

  In the relay terminal 20, the receiving unit 21 may receive the beacon signal bs having the moving body ID of the transmitting terminal 10 from the transmitting terminal 10 or the beacon signal bt from another relay terminal 20. When the beacon signals bs and bt include neither the UUID of the own relay terminal nor the UUID of the own terminal, the processing unit 22 generates the beacon signal bt by adding the UUID of the own relay terminal to the beacon signals bs and bt. You can do it. When the UUID of the own relay terminal is included in the beacon signals bs and bt, the processing unit 22 transmits the received beacon signal bt (an example of the first relay signal) to the transmission beacon signal bt (the second relay signal). An example). The transmission unit 23 may broadcast the relay beacon signal bt. The processing unit 22 may stop the reception of the signal by the receiving unit 21 for a predetermined period after the broadcast transmission of the relay beacon signal bt.

  As a result, the relay terminal 20 can be realized at a low cost with a simple configuration like the transmission terminal 10 and can relay the beacon signal bs transmitted by broadcast from the transmission terminal 10. Further, since the relay terminal 20 has a simple configuration and is inexpensive, it can be easily arranged in large numbers, and the cost of the entire mobile management system 5 can be reduced. Furthermore, the relay terminal 20 can suppress the reception of a transmission signal transmitted from the transmission terminal 10 having strong reception signal strength by the relay terminal 20 and other relay terminals by providing a pause period. Therefore, the relay terminal 20 can receive a new transmission signal after the suspension period, and can also receive a transmission signal transmitted from a transmission terminal having a weak reception signal strength. Further, the other relay terminal (for example, the relay terminal B) provides the same relay beacon signal bt by receiving a relay beacon signal from another relay terminal (for example, the relay terminal C) by providing a pause period. Can be prevented from being repeatedly communicated. Therefore, the other relay terminal can suppress repeated communication with another other relay terminal and falling into an infinite loop.

  In addition, the mobile management system 5 of this embodiment includes one or more transmission terminals 10, a plurality of relay terminals 20, and a mobile management server 70. The transmission terminal 10 transmits a transmission beacon signal bs including the moving object ID of the transmission terminal 10. Each of the plurality of relay terminals 20 receives a signal including a transmission beacon signal bs from the transmission terminal 10 or a relay beacon signal bt from another relay terminal 20 as a reception signal. Each of the plurality of relay terminals 20 adds the UUID of the own relay terminal to the received beacon signals bs and bt when the received signal does not include the UUID of the own relay terminal and the UUID of another relay terminal. A signal bt is generated. Each of the plurality of relay terminals 20 does not broadcast the relay beacon signal bt when the received beacon signal bt includes the UUID of the own relay terminal, and the identification information of the own relay terminal is included in the received beacon signals bs and bt. If not included, the relay beacon signal bt is broadcast. The mobile management server 70 estimates the movement status of the transmission terminal 10 based on the plurality of relay beacon signals bt transmitted by each of the plurality of relay terminals 20.

  Accordingly, the mobile management system 5 can be configured to arrange a plurality of inexpensive relay terminals 20 with a simple configuration and relay the beacon signal bs transmitted from the transmission terminal 10 by broadcast, as with the transmission terminal 10. Therefore, the moving body management system 5 can reduce the cost of the entire moving body management system 5. Furthermore, the mobile management system 5 suppresses that the beacon signal bt (an example of a specific signal between specific communication devices) transmitted by the local relay terminal continues to be communicated between the local relay terminal and another relay terminal. it can. That is, the mobile management system 5 can suppress the relay beacon signal bt being repeatedly communicated between its own relay terminal (for example, the relay terminal A) and another relay terminal (for example, the relay terminal B) and falling into an infinite loop.

  For example, the cost of the relay terminal 20 is about 1/20 of the cost of the gateway device 50. Therefore, as compared with the case where a large number of gateway devices 50 are arranged and a mobile management system is constructed, the mobile management system 5 is constructed by a small number of gateway devices 50 and a large number of relay terminals 20. The cost required for the management system 5 can be greatly reduced.

  The mobile management system 5 may include one or more transmission terminals 10, a plurality of relay terminals 20, and a mobile management server 70. The transmission terminal 10 may transmit a transmission beacon signal bs including the moving object ID of the transmission terminal 10. Each of the plurality of relay terminals 20 may receive a signal including a transmission beacon signal bs from the transmission terminal 10 or a relay beacon signal bt from another relay terminal 20 as a reception signal. Each of the plurality of relay terminals 20 adds the UUID of the own relay terminal to the received beacon signals bs and bt when neither the UUID of the own relay terminal nor the UUID of another relay terminal is included in the received signal, The relay beacon signal bt may be generated. Each of the plurality of relay terminals 20 may broadcast the relay beacon signal bt by using the received beacon signal bt as the transmission target beacon signal bt when the received beacon signal bt includes the UUID of the relay terminal 20 . Each of the plurality of relay terminals 20 may stop reception by the own relay terminal for a predetermined period after the broadcast transmission of the relay beacon signal bt. The mobile management server 70 may estimate the movement status of the transmission terminal 10 based on the plurality of relay beacon signals bt transmitted by each of the plurality of relay terminals 20.

  Accordingly, the mobile management system 5 can be configured to arrange a plurality of inexpensive relay terminals with a simple configuration and relay the beacon signal bs transmitted from the transmission terminal 10 by broadcast, as with the transmission terminal 10. Therefore, the moving body management system 5 can reduce the cost of the entire moving body management system 5. Furthermore, the mobile body management system 5 can suppress that the self-relay terminal and other relay terminals continue to receive the transmission signal transmitted from the transmission terminal 10 having a strong reception signal strength by providing the suspension period. Therefore, the mobile management system 5 can also receive, for example, a transmission signal transmitted from the transmission terminal 10 having a low reception signal strength.

  In addition, the mobile management system 5 may include a gateway device 50 that relays communication between the plurality of relay terminals 20 and the mobile management server 70. The gateway device 50 may receive a plurality of relay beacon signals bt from the plurality of relay terminals 20. The gateway device 50 may add time information indicating the time when each of the relay beacon signals bt is received to each of the relay beacon signals bt. The gateway device 50 may include each of the relay beacon signals bt to which the time information is added, for example, in the signal set information ms and transmit it to the mobile management server 70 at a predetermined timing.

  Thereby, the mobile management system 5 does not have the function for the relay terminal 20 to give time information because the gateway apparatus 50 adds time information, and can simplify the structure of the relay terminal 20.

  In other words, in the mobile management system 5 according to this embodiment, the gateway device 50 adds time information to the relay beacon signal. For this reason, the gateway device 50 is required to have a higher processing capability and stability than the relay terminal 20 and is expensive. If the relay terminal 20 is not used, it is necessary to install a large number of expensive gateway devices 50 in order to grasp the position of the moving body with high accuracy, and the cost required for the moving body management system 5 increases. In the present embodiment, the relay terminal 20 does not need to have a function of performing processing on a relay beacon signal (hereinafter referred to as signal processing) such as addition of time information, and the configuration of the relay terminal 20 is simplified. Can be made inexpensive. As a result, it is possible to grasp the position of the moving object with high accuracy while suppressing the cost required for the moving object management system 5.

  As the signal processing performed by the gateway device 50, in addition to the addition of the reception time described above, for example, as described with reference to FIG. 10, the relay beacon signal bt based on the transmission beacon signal bs from the same transmission terminal 10 is A process of discarding (deleting) beacon signals bs and bt other than a specific one when the gateway device 50 is reached by a plurality of routes is not particularly limited.

  The function for signal processing performed by the gateway device 50 as described above is a function that can be performed by the mobile management server 70. Therefore, in the present embodiment, it can be said that the gateway device 50 shares the function of the mobile management server 70. That is, the gateway device 50 in the present embodiment plays a role of distributing the load of the mobile management server 70 based on the idea of edge computing. For this reason, as the edge computing progresses, the gateway device 50 becomes more sophisticated and expensive, so it is predicted that the cost reduction effect required for the mobile management system 5 will be further enhanced.

  While various embodiments have been described above with reference to the drawings, it goes without saying that the present disclosure is not limited to such examples. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made within the scope of the claims, and these are naturally within the technical scope of the present disclosure. Understood.

  In the above embodiment, the communication using the beacon signals bs and bt is exemplified. However, as long as broadcast communication is possible, communication using signals other than the beacon signal may be used.

  In the above embodiment, the current time is exemplified by the gateway device 50. Instead, the time when the relay terminal 20 receives the beacon signals bs and bt from the transmission terminal 10 may be given as a time stamp. Thereby, the reception time of the beacon signals bs and bt relayed by the relay terminal 20 becomes close to the transmission time of the transmission terminal 10, for example, and the location information of the transmission terminal 10 at the time indicated by the time stamp becomes closer to the actual situation. .

  When the relay terminal 20 has a clock, the relay terminal 20 may use clock time information. When the relay terminal 20 has a GPS receiver, the relay terminal 20 may acquire time information included in a GPS signal transmitted from a GPS satellite. When the relay terminal 20 has a network communication interface, the relay terminal 20 may acquire time information from an NTP server by NTP (Network Time Protocol).

  Therefore, in the relay terminal 20, the processing unit 22 receives the beacon signals bs and bt in the beacon signals bs and bt when the beacon signals bs and bt do not include the UUID of the own relay terminal and the UUIDs of other relay terminals. The relay beacon signal bt may be generated by adding time information indicating the received time.

  Thereby, the relay terminal 20 can provide the reception time by the relay terminal 20 and the position of the relay terminal 20 as information regarding the movement of the transmission terminal 10. Therefore, the mobile management server 70 can track the movement of the transmission terminal 10 in time series. Further, the relay terminal 20 can add time information closer to the time when the transmission terminal 10 is detected by adding the time information by the relay terminal 20, and can improve the detection accuracy regarding the movement of the transmission terminal 10.

  In the said embodiment, the case where beacon signals bs and bt were communicated using BLE was illustrated as an example of a wireless communication standard. Instead, near field communication such as UWB (Ultra Wide Band) and ZigBee may be applied to communication of beacon signals bs and bt. The above-described embodiment can also be applied to wireless communication standards such as LoRa and Wi-SUN (Wireless Smart Utility Network) capable of long-distance wireless communication.

  In the above-described embodiment, the transmission terminal 10 is possessed by a person (visitor or the like), but may be added to a product in a distribution warehouse or the like, a device in a factory, or other mobile objects.

  The present disclosure is useful for a relay terminal, a mobile management system, a relay method, a program, and the like that can reduce the cost of the entire system that relays a signal and can prevent a specific signal from being continuously communicated between specific communication devices. is there.

5 Mobile management system 10, 10A to 10C Transmission terminal 11 Transmission unit 20, 20A to 20G Relay terminal 21 Reception unit 22 Processing unit 23 Transmission unit 201 Processor 202 Communication device 203 Cache memory 204 Memory 205 Timer 206 LED
50 Gateway device 51 Reception unit 52 Processing unit 53 Transmission unit 70 Mobile management server 71 Reception unit 72 Storage unit 73 Processing units bs, bs1, bs2, bs3, bt, bt1, bt2, bt3 Beacon signal

Claims (6)

A relay terminal for relaying signals,
A receiver, a processor, and a transmitter;
The reception unit receives a transmission signal from a transmission terminal or a first relay signal from another relay terminal as a reception signal,
The processing unit processes the received signal to generate a second relay signal, and causes the transmission unit to transmit the second relay signal,
The transmission unit broadcasts the second relay signal ,
Before Symbol processing unit,
When the received signal is from the transmitting terminal, identification information of the relay terminal is added to the received signal to generate the second relay signal, and the second relay signal is sent to the transmitter Send
When the received signal is from another relay terminal, and when the received signal does not include identification information of the own relay terminal, the second relay is performed without adding the identification information of the own relay terminal. Generating a signal, causing the transmission unit to transmit the second relay signal,
Stopping the reception of the signal by the receiving unit for a predetermined period after the second relay signal is broadcast.
Relay terminal. A mobile management system comprising one or more transmission terminals, a plurality of relay terminals fixed at predetermined positions, and a server,
The calling terminal transmits a calling signal;
Each of the plurality of relay terminals is
A receiver, a processor, and a transmitter;
The reception unit receives the transmission signal from the transmission terminal or the first relay signal from another relay terminal as a reception signal,
The processing unit processes the received signal to generate a second relay signal, and causes the transmission unit to transmit the second relay signal,
The transmission unit broadcasts the second relay signal,
The processor is
When the received signal is from the transmitting terminal, identification information of the relay terminal is added to the received signal to generate the second relay signal, and the second relay signal is sent to the transmitter Send
When the received signal is from another relay terminal, and when the received signal does not include identification information of the own relay terminal, the second relay is performed without adding the identification information of the own relay terminal. Generating a signal, causing the transmission unit to transmit the second relay signal,
For a predetermined period after the second relay signal is broadcast, stop receiving the signal by the receiving unit,
The server
Based on the identification information of the relay terminal included in the second relay signal transmitted by the relay terminal and the current time information given to the second relay signal, the movement status of the transmitting terminal is determined. presume,
Mobile body management system. A gateway device that relays communication between the plurality of relay terminals and the server;
The gateway device is
Receiving a plurality of the second relay signals from the plurality of relay terminals;
Applying signal processing to the second relay signal;
Transmitting the second relay signal subjected to the signal processing to the server at a predetermined timing;
The mobile body management system according to claim 2. The signal processing includes adding time information indicating a time when the second relay signal is received to the second relay signal.
The mobile body management system according to claim 3. A relay method for relay terminals that relay signals,
A reception step of receiving a transmission signal from a transmission terminal or a first relay signal from another relay terminal as a reception signal;
A processing step of processing the received signal to generate a second relay signal and transmitting the second relay signal;
A transmitting step of broadcasting the second relay signal;
Have
In the processing step,
If the received signal is from the originating terminal, identification information of the relay terminal is added to the received signal to generate the second relay signal, and the second relay signal is transmitted.
When the received signal is from another relay terminal, and when the received signal does not include identification information of the own relay terminal, the second relay is performed without adding the identification information of the own relay terminal. Generating a signal and transmitting the second relay signal;
Stop receiving the signal for a predetermined period after the second relay signal is broadcast.
Relay method.   A program for causing a computer to execute each step of the relay method according to claim 5.

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