JP7127455B2 - Relay device and relay method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to techniques for repeating radio signals and signals over networks.

In a multi-site environment in which multiple relay devices (repeaters) are connected via an IP network, each repeater transmits downlink signals from other sites via the IP network in addition to uplink signals from its own site terminals. do.

JP-A-2002-133244

In a multi-site environment, when input signals from multiple systems collide, repeaters need to select and transmit input signals. Conventionally, the priority of signals to be selected was set in advance. For example, if the repeater gives priority to uplink input signals from terminals within a site and lowers the priority of input signals for communication via the network from other sites, uplink input signals will stop within the site. Otherwise, the signal from the terminal via the network will be rejected. However, it is desirable to be able to dynamically determine the priority of the signals to be selected.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to dynamically determine the communication priority of relay devices.

A relay device according to the present invention is a relay device that relays communication between terminal devices, and includes a receiving unit that receives a first signal on a first path and a second signal on a second path. , a storage unit that stores a usage history of communication using the first path for each terminal device; a selection unit that selects either the first signal or the second signal; and a transmission unit configured to transmit a signal obtained by transmitting the signal, wherein the selection unit includes the usage history of the terminal device that is the transmission source of the first signal and the usage history of the terminal device that is the transmission source of the second signal. history , and selecting a signal of a terminal device with a large number of communications .

A relay method according to the present invention is a relay method for relaying communication between terminal devices, and includes the steps of receiving a first signal through a first route and receiving a second signal through a second route. a step of storing a usage history of communication using the first route for each terminal device; a step of selecting either the first signal or the second signal; and the selecting step includes the use history of the terminal device that is the transmission source of the first signal and the terminal device that is the transmission source of the second signal. It is characterized by comparing the usage history and the signal of the terminal device with a large number of communication times .

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the priority of communication of a relay apparatus can be determined dynamically.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a situation when an uplink signal from one's own site collides with a signal from another site; It is a functional block diagram which shows the structure of the relay apparatus of this embodiment. It is a figure for demonstrating operation|movement of a relay apparatus. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram for explaining the timing at which the relay device updates the usage history; 7 is a flow chart showing a flow of processing in which a relay device updates usage history; 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for selecting signals received from multiple systems by a relay device; FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a console terminal is connected to a relay device;

First, the operation of a conventional relay device (repeater) when signals collide will be described. For example, it is assumed that the repeater 50A in FIG. 1 sets a high priority to wireless uplink signals from terminals within its own site, and sets a low priority to signals from other sites via the network 100. . Since the repeater is used to repeatedly transmit wireless uplink signals as downlink signals, the priority of uplink signals should be set high, and the priority of signals from other repeaters via the network should be set low. There are many. The priority may be set inversely.

As shown in FIG. 1, when a wireless uplink signal from terminal B within the site of repeater 50A collides with a signal via network 100 from terminal A within the site of another repeater 50B, repeater 50A According to the settings in advance, the signal from terminal B is preferentially selected, and a downlink signal is transmitted to terminal C within its own site.

Based on the settings in advance, the repeater 50A transmits a signal via the network 100 even when a signal via the network 100 is being transmitted when an uplink signal from a terminal within its own site having a high priority is input. to repeat the uplink signal. Repeater 50A also rejects signals from network 100 when repeating uplink signals.

When the priority is fixed, inconvenience sometimes occurs. For example, when terminal A communicating with terminal C within the site of repeater 50A roams to another site under the control of repeater 50B and communicates with terminal C within the site of repeater 50A, repeater 50A becomes a terminal within the site. When repeating B's uplink signal, the signal from terminal A through repeater 50B and network 100 will be rejected.

A relay device according to an embodiment will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The relay device 1 of this embodiment shown in FIG. Each unit included in the relay device 1 may be configured by a computer including an arithmetic processing unit, a storage device, and the like, and the processing of each unit may be executed by a program. This program is stored in a storage device included in the relay device 1, and can be recorded on a recording medium such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or a semiconductor memory, or can be provided through a network.

The receiving unit 11A receives an uplink signal from a terminal within its own site. The receiver 11A may receive a signal from a console terminal, which will be described later.

The receiving unit 11B is connected to the network 100 and receives signals via the network 100 from other relay devices.

When the uplink signal received by the receiving unit 11A collides with the signal via the network 100 received by the receiving unit 11B, the selection unit 12 transmits a downlink signal based on the usage history of each terminal stored in the storage unit 15. select the signal to If the signals received by the receivers 11A and 11B do not collide, the signal received by one of the receivers 11A and 11B is selected.

The transmission unit 13 transmits the signal selected by the selection unit 12 as a downlink signal to the terminal within the site under the control of the relay device 1 .

The counting unit 14 updates the usage history stored in the storage unit 15 based on the uplink signal from the terminal within the site. In the present embodiment, the number of times the terminal transmits a signal to start a new call to the relay device 1 is used as the usage history. For example, when the relay device 1 is not transmitting a downlink signal and the terminal A in the site presses the PTT (Push-to-Talk) switch to start a call, the counting unit 14 detects that the receiving unit 11A Upon receiving the signal from terminal A, the number of times of communication of terminal A stored in storage unit 15 is incremented by one.

The storage unit 15 stores the usage history of each terminal. Specifically, the unit ID assigned to the terminal is stored in association with the number of times a new call is started. In this embodiment, only the number of new calls is counted, and the number of talkbacks is not added to the number of communications. A new call is a call initiated from a terminal when relay device 1 is not transmitting a signal. After starting a call, the relay device 1 maintains transmission for a certain period of time even after the signal from the terminal stops. This fixed time is a time for smooth response (talkback), and is called Repeater Hold Time. A talkback is a call initiated from a terminal while the repeater 1 continues transmission until the Repeater Hold Time expires.

The storage unit 15 may store the unit ID (individual ID or group ID) of the partner terminal, the communication time, and whether it is a new call or a talkback as the usage history of each terminal. The storage unit 15 may store the number of times of communication that satisfies a predetermined condition as the usage history of each terminal.

Next, the operation of the relay device of this embodiment will be described.

In the example of FIG. 3, the relay devices 1A and 1B of this embodiment are connected via a network 100 which is a public network such as the Internet. The relay device 1A stores the number of communication times of the terminals A, B, and C as a usage history. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the number of communications for terminal A with a unit ID of 1 is 100, the number of communications for terminal B with a unit ID of 2 is 50, and the number of communications for terminal C with a unit ID of 3 is 10.

Assume that after terminal A roams under the control of relay device 1B, it starts a call via relay device 1B. The relay device 1B transmits the signal received from the terminal A to the relay device 1A via the network 100 by IP (Internet Protocol). At this time, it is assumed that terminal B within the site of relay device 1A also starts a call. The relay device 1A receives the signal of the terminal A via the network 100 and the uplink signal of the terminal B wirelessly from the relay device 1B.

Since the relay apparatus 1A receives signals simultaneously from a plurality of routes, it selects a signal to be transmitted at its own site based on the number of times of communication between the terminals A and B, which are the transmission sources of the signals. In the example of FIG. 3, the number of communication times of terminal A is 100, and the number of communication times of terminal B is 50 times. Since the number of communications of terminal A is greater than the number of communications of terminal B, relay device 1A selects the signal transmitted by terminal A as a downlink signal and transmits the signal to terminal C within its own site. Note that while the relay device 1A is receiving the signal from the terminal A, it does not select the uplink signal from the terminal B as the downlink signal. Further, when the relay device 1A receives a signal from the terminal A while the terminal B is communicating via the relay device 1A, the communication of the terminal B is interrupted.

As described above, when the terminal A of its own site communicates with the site of another relay device 1B during roaming, the relay device 1A of the present embodiment calculates the number of times of communication of the terminal A at its own site. It is determined whether or not the communication via the network 100 of the site should be given priority over the communication from the terminal B of its own site.

Next, the timing of updating the usage history by the relay device will be described with reference to the sequence diagram of FIG.

In FIG. 4, the horizontal axis is the time axis, and the vertical arrows indicate transmitted signals. It is assumed that terminals A, B, and C exist within the site of the relay device.

Transmission of a call signal is started from terminal A within the site of the relay device to the relay device, and the relay device starts receiving the call signal (step S101).

When the relay device receives a call signal from terminal A, the number of times of communication corresponding to the unit ID of terminal A is incremented by 1 (step S102), and the relay device transmits the call signal received from terminal A to the site. is started (step S103). A signal transmitted from a repeater arrives regardless of whether terminals within the site are ready to receive it. For example, even if terminal A is of simplex system and cannot receive during transmission, the signal from the repeater arrives. Also, the terminal may have a function of receiving and demodulating a signal that has arrived from the relay device during transmission.

The repeater continues repeating the call signal while the terminal A is transmitting the call signal, that is, until the PTT switch of the terminal A is turned off.

When the PTT switch of terminal A is turned off (step S104), the repeater stops transmission of the call signal and starts a timer for the time specified as Repeater Hold Time (steps S105 and S106). Start sending a silent continuation signal to the inside (step S107). The repeater continues to transmit the continuation signal until the timer expires or there is talkback from terminals A, B, and C.

When the PTT switch of terminal B is turned on before the timer expires and the relay device receives a call signal from terminal B (step S108), the relay device stops the timer (step S109) and terminates the call received from terminal B. Transmission of the signal into the site is started (step S110). The call signal received from terminal B before the timer expires is talkback. In this embodiment, talkback calls are not counted as the number of communications. That is, in step S108, the number of times of communication corresponding to the unit ID of terminal B is not updated.

The repeater continues repeating the call signal while the terminal B is transmitting the call signal.

When the PTT switch of terminal B is turned off (step S111), the repeater stops transmission of the call signal and starts a timer for the time specified as Repeater Hold Time (steps S112, S113). Start sending a silent continuation signal to the inside (step S114).

The relay device stops transmitting the continuation signal when the timer expires (step S115). When the timer in step S115 expires, the call initiated by terminal A in step S101 is completed. In this embodiment, when the relay apparatus receives a call signal from terminal A in step S102, the number of times of communication of terminal A is updated. You may update the number of times of communication.

As the usage history, the number of times of communication in consideration of call duration may be used. For example, the relay device measures the call duration while repeating call signals from terminals A, B, and C, and counts the number of times of communication in which the call duration is longer than a predetermined time (for example, 30 seconds or longer). do. In this case, regardless of whether the call is a new call or a talkback, if the call duration is longer than the predetermined time, the number of times of communication of the terminals A, B, and C is increased by one. Specifically, if the time from step S101 to step S104 in FIG. 4 is longer than the predetermined time, the number of times of communication of terminal A is increased by 1, and if the time from step S108 to step S111 is longer than the predetermined time, The communication count of terminal B is incremented by one.

Next, the flow of processing for updating the number of times of communication performed by the counting unit 14 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The processing shown in FIG. 5 is executed by the counting unit 14 at the timing when the receiving unit 11A of the relay device 1 receives the uplink signal, specifically at the timing of steps S101 and S108 in FIG.

The counting unit 14 determines whether or not the call signal received by the receiving unit 11A is a new call (step S201), and ends the process if it is not a new call. For example, if the call signal received by the receiver 11A is talkback as in step S108 of FIG. 4, the counter 14 terminates the process.

In the case of a new call, the counting unit 14 acquires the unit ID of the sender from the call signal of the new call (step S202).

The counting unit 14 determines whether the count value (the number of times of communication) corresponding to the unit ID of the transmission source is stored in the storage unit 15 (step S203).

When the count value corresponding to the unit ID of the transmission source is stored in the storage unit 15, the counting unit 14 acquires the count value corresponding to the unit ID of the transmission source from the storage unit 15 (step S204). The count value is incremented by 1 (step S205), and the updated count value is stored in the storage unit 15 (step S207).

When the count value corresponding to the unit ID of the transmission source is not stored in the storage unit 15, the count unit 14 sets the count value to 1 (step S206), and initializes the storage unit 15 with the unit ID of the transmission source. The calculated count value is associated and stored (step S207).

Through the above processing, the number of times of communication of each terminal is updated. In the present embodiment, the relay device 1 updates the number of times of communication in communication via wireless within its own site, but does not update the number of times of communication in communication via the network. The relay device 1 may record the number of times of communication for terminals other than the terminals within its own site for communication via the network.

Regarding the number of times of communication, even if the number of times is the same, it is considered that the most recent communication is more important than the past when viewed on the time axis, and the number of times of communication may be quantified by weighting it according to the elapsed time. For example, the counting unit 14 halves the number of communications corresponding to each unit ID at a predetermined timing such as 0:00 AM, so that the number of communications on the current day is weighted more than the number of communications up to yesterday. good.

The relay device 1 may store the date and time when the new call was started as the usage history, and may use the number of new calls made during a predetermined period as the count value. Then, the usage history before a predetermined period may be deleted autonomously. Alternatively, the system administrator may intentionally operate the relay device 1 to initialize the count value.

Next, a flow of processing in which the selection unit 12 selects signals received from multiple paths will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 6 . The processing shown in FIG. 6 is executed by the selection unit 12 at the start or end of wireless communication and at the start or end of network communication.

The selector 12 determines whether the receiver 11A has received a wireless signal or whether the receiver 11B has received a signal from another relay device via the network (steps S301 to S303).

When only the wireless signal is received, the selector 12 transmits the wireless signal to the transmitter 13 (step S309). The transmission unit 13 wirelessly transmits the signal received from the selection unit 12 into its own site.

When receiving only a signal via the network from another relay device, the selector 12 transmits the signal via the network to the transmitter 13 (step S310). The transmission unit 13 wirelessly transmits the signal received from the selection unit 12 into its own site.

When both a wireless signal and a signal via a network are received, the selection unit 12 acquires the unit ID of the transmission source from the signal via the network, and obtains a count value (hereinafter referred to as "Count_IP") corresponding to the unit ID. ) from the storage unit 15 (step S304).

Further, the selection unit 12 acquires the unit ID of the transmission source from the wireless signal, and acquires the count value (hereinafter referred to as "Count_RF") corresponding to the unit ID from the storage unit 15 (step S305).

The selection unit 12 compares Count_IP and Count_RF (step S306).

Not only when Count_IP and Count_RF are equal, but also when the difference between Count_IP and Count_RF is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold value, the selection unit 12 determines that there is no difference between Count_IP and Count_RF, and determines that there is no difference between Count_IP and Count_RF. A signal is selected based on (step S307). Specifically, if the priority of the wireless signal is higher than the priority of the signal via the network in the settings in advance, the process proceeds to the left side of the flowchart in FIG. Send (step S309). If the priority of the signal via the network is higher than the priority of the signal via the radio in the settings in advance, the process proceeds to the right side of the flowchart in FIG. 6, and the selector 12 transmits the signal via the network to the transmitter 13 (step S310).

If the difference between Count_IP and Count_RF is greater than the predetermined threshold, the selector 12 selects a signal based on the values of Count_IP and Count_RF (step S308). Specifically, when Count_RF is greater than Count_IP, the process proceeds to the left side of the flowchart in FIG. 6, and the selection unit 12 transmits a wireless signal to the transmission unit 13 (step S309). If Count_IP is greater than Count_RF, the process proceeds to the right side of the flowchart in FIG. 6, and selector 12 transmits a signal via the network to transmitter 13 (step S310).

By the above processing, one of the signals simultaneously received from the multiple paths is selected based on the history of use or the order of priority set in advance. Note that the usage history does not affect the priority of communication between terminals within the own site.

The console terminals D and E communicating with the relay device 1A via the network 100 are treated in the same manner as the terminals within the site of the relay device 1A. In other words, it can be said that the signals from the console terminals D and E are routed through which the relay device 1A directly receives them. The relay device 1A stores the usage history of the console terminals D and E under its control. When the signal from the other relay device 1B and the signal from the console terminals D, E collide, either the signal from the console terminals D, E or the signal from the relay device 1B is selected based on the usage history. do.

In the example of FIG. 7, the relay device 1A receives the signal from the console terminal E and the signal from the terminal A within the site of the relay device 1B at the same time. Since there were many, the signal from the console terminal E was rejected and the signal from the relay device 1B was transmitted. When the number of times of communication of console terminal E is greater than the number of times of communication of terminal A, the signal of console terminal E is given priority.

Signals from the console terminals D and E are received by the receiver 11A via the network 100. FIG. The receiver 11A directly receives a signal from a terminal under the control of the relay device 1A, and the receiver 11B receives a signal via another relay device 1B.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the receiving unit 11A receives the uplink signal from the terminal B within its own site, and the receiving unit 11B receives the signal from the terminal A via the other relay apparatus 1B. When the selection unit 12 receives the The communication priority of the relay device 1A can be dynamically determined.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1, 1A, 1B... Relay apparatus 11A, 11B... Reception part 12... Selection part 13... Transmission part 14... Count part 15... Storage part 50A, 50B... Repeater 100... Network

Claims (5)

A relay device that relays communication between terminal devices,
a receiver that receives a first signal on a first path and a second signal on a second path;
a storage unit that stores a usage history of communication using the first route for each terminal device;
a selection unit that selects either the first signal or the second signal;
A transmission unit that transmits the signal selected by the selection unit,
The selection unit compares the usage history of the terminal device that is the transmission source of the first signal and the usage history of the terminal device that is the transmission source of the second signal, and selects a terminal with a large number of communications. A relay device that selects a signal of a device. the first path is a path for directly receiving a signal from a terminal device;
The relay device according to claim 1, wherein the second route is a route via another relay device. The usage history is the number of times a new communication is started,
The relay device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the selection unit selects a signal whose transmission source is the terminal device with a large number of communications. The usage history is the number of communications in which one communication time is equal to or longer than a predetermined time,
The relay device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the selection unit selects a signal whose transmission source is the terminal device with a large number of communications. A relay method for relaying communication between terminal devices,
receiving a first signal on a first path;
receiving a second signal on a second path;
a step of storing a usage history of communication using the first route for each terminal device;
selecting either the first signal or the second signal;
and transmitting the signal selected in the selecting step,
The selecting step compares the usage history of the terminal device that is the transmission source of the first signal and the usage history of the terminal device that is the transmission source of the second signal, and compares the usage history of the terminal device that is the transmission source of the second signal. A relay method characterized by selecting a signal of a terminal device .

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