JPH0583262A - Network connecting terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the need or managing addresses or all information processors in a network by a person by allowing the network connecting terminal itself to have a network address. CONSTITUTION:First of all, in the case of transmitting a message from an information processor, the message passes through a connecting part 2 and reaches a message control mechanism 4. The control mechanism 4 sets an address to an address setting part 3 as a transmitting origin address, adds it to the received message, and transmits it to a network through a connecting part 1. Subsequently, in the case of receiving the message from the network, the message passes through the connecting part 1 and reaches the control mechanism 4. The control mechanism 4 compares the address set to the setting part 3 and a transmitting destination address in the message, and transmits only the message which coincides to the connecting part 2. In such a way, it becomes unnecessary that a person manages addresses of all information processors in the network.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network connection terminal, and more particularly to a network connection terminal included in a mechanism for connecting an information processing device to a network that transmits digital data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of network connection terminal 7 does not have a network address, and as shown in FIG.
In addition, the network address could be set with the DIP switch 9 etc. The network address (hereinafter, abbreviated as “address”) is set to distinguish each information processing device 11 among a plurality of information processing devices 11 connected to the network.

Hereinafter, how a message is transmitted and a response is made in a conventional network will be described.

To send a message to another information processing device on a network, a destination address is set at a specific position of the communication message and the message is sent on the network. On the other hand, the transmission / reception mechanism compares the address of the destination at a specific position of the message on the network with the address set in itself, extracts only the message with the matching address, and transmits the message to the information processing device body. have. Therefore, the message is taken out by the transmission / reception mechanism having the destination address in the message as its own address and transmitted to the information processing apparatus main body. As described above, a certain package is transmitted from one information processing device on the network to another information processing device.

Next, in order to transmit a message and to respond to it, that is, to establish a conversation between two information processing devices connected to the network, the transmission / reception mechanism transmits not only the destination address but also the specific address of the message. The original address is also set. The information processing device that has received the message extracts the source address in the message, sets it as the destination address of the response message, and transmits it to the network. The message can be responded as described above. Generally when using a network,
The response function is essential because it is necessary for the sender information processing device to confirm whether or not the transmitted message has surely reached the partner information processing device.

As can be seen from the above description, if there are a plurality of information processing devices having the same address, there is a possibility that a terminal not transmitting the transmission data will receive the response data. In this situation, the conversation between the terminals will not be established. Therefore, among a plurality of information processing devices connected to the network, it is not allowed that there are a plurality of information processing devices having the same address.

[0007]

The above-mentioned conventional terminal for network connection has the following drawbacks in the following usage conditions of the terminal.

First, the usage situation will be described.

The terminal is portable and is carried by each individual.
On the other hand, each room in the office has a network connection terminal for connecting the terminal to a network, and the user connects the terminal to the network connection terminal when needed. One or more computers are connected to the network, and the computers can perform various information processing in response to a request from the terminal and transmit the result to the terminal. Generally, multiple computers are connected to the network, and
It is assumed that one computer can perform a plurality of information processing services. The user can receive the information processing service of the computer by connecting the terminal to the terminal for network connection and causing communication between the terminal and the computer capable of processing required by the user. This is the end of the description of the usage status.

Next, the drawbacks of the conventional network connection terminals will be described.

Since the above-mentioned conventional network connection terminal does not have an address but the information processing apparatus has an address, a person needs to set the address when connecting the information processing apparatus to the network. At that time, it is necessary to set the address so that it does not match the addresses of other information processing devices on the network. Therefore,
When using the above-mentioned conventional terminal for network connection, there is a disadvantage that a person needs to manage the addresses of all the information processing devices on the network.

As one method of avoiding this drawback, a method of automatically determining the address so that the connected information processing apparatus does not overlap with other information processing apparatuses can be considered. However, in this case, the information processing device to be connected needs to communicate with all the other information processing devices connected to the network to acquire the addresses of all the information processing devices. For this reason, the information processing apparatus that is about to connect now needs to send a message with all the addresses available in the network as the destination address, and check whether there is a response. Therefore, this method is not suitable for practical use, because the number of terminals for network connection increases and the number of possible addresses in the network increases, the time required to determine the address increases in proportion to it. There are drawbacks.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the need for a person to manage the addresses of all information processing devices on the network,
Moreover, it seems to be able to operate on a network with a large number of network connection terminals. It is to provide a terminal for network connection.

[0014]

The network connection terminal of the present invention has a connection section with a network, a connection section with an information processing apparatus, a network address setting section, and a source address added to a transmission message. , And a message control mechanism having a function of transmitting only a message of a specific destination address among the received messages to the connection unit with the information processing apparatus.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block circuit diagram showing a network connection terminal according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The network connection terminal of this embodiment is a network connection unit 1
And a connection unit 2 with an information processing device and an address setting unit 3
And a message control mechanism 4.

The address setting unit 3 has a function of holding an address. The message control mechanism 4 adds the source address to the transmission message received from the connection unit 2 with the information processing apparatus and transmits it to the connection unit 1 with the network,
Among the received messages received from the connection unit 1 with the network, only the message of a specific destination address is transmitted to the connection unit 2 with the information processing device.

The operation will be described below.

In advance, a person sets the network address setting units 3 of all network connection terminals on the network so that they have different addresses. That is, one address is set so as to correspond to one network connection terminal.

First, when a message is transmitted from the information processing device, the message reaches the message control mechanism 4 through the connection section 2. The message control mechanism 4 adds the address set in the address setting unit 3 as a source address to the received message and adds it to the connection unit 1.
Through the network. Then, when receiving a message from the network, the message reaches the message control mechanism 4 through the connection 1. The message control mechanism 4 compares the address set in the address setting unit 3 with the destination address in the message, and informs the connecting unit 2 of only the matching message. The message reaches the information processing device through the connection unit 2. As described above, message transmission / reception is realized on the network using the source address and the destination address as in the conventional case. Moreover, in this case, the address is set only once for each short-circuit resource for network connection, and not every time the information processing device is connected, so that it is not necessary for a person to manage the address of the terminal.

In the above embodiment, it was explained that a person sets the address of the address setting section 3 for simplification of description. However, the network connection terminals communicate with each other to automatically set the address. May be. Even in this case, the address is set only once for each terminal for network connection, and not every time the information processing device is connected.

FIG. 2 is a block circuit diagram showing a network connection terminal according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The network connection terminal of this embodiment includes a network connection unit 1, a data processing device connection unit 2, and an address setting unit 3.
It has a message control mechanism 4, a power outlet 5, and a power cable 6. The functions from the connection unit 1 with the network to the message control mechanism 4 have the same functions as those of the first embodiment. The power outlet 5 is for supplying power to the information processing device connected to the network. FIG. 3 is a front view of the second embodiment of the present invention.

The second embodiment has an advantage over the first embodiment in that the data communication cable and the power cable can be connected together when the information processing apparatus is connected to the network. In this case, connect the data communication cable connector and power outlet to the information processing device side as well.
In summary, since the power cable and the data communication cable can be connected in one operation, there is an advantage that the connection operation becomes simpler.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, the network address setting unit is used to add a source address to a transmitted message or to connect only a message of a specific destination address among received messages to an information processing apparatus. By having a message control mechanism having a function of transmitting information to the department, it is possible to eliminate the need for a person to manage the addresses of all information processing devices on the network.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block circuit diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating how to connect a conventional network connection terminal of this type to an information processing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Connection part with network 2 Connection part with information processing device 3 Address setting part 4 Message control mechanism 5 Power outlet 6 Power cable 7 Network connection terminal 8 Transmission / reception mechanism 9 Dip switch 10 Information processing device main body 11 Information processing device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A network connection terminal having a mechanism for connecting an information processing apparatus to a network for transmitting digital data, wherein the network connection terminal itself has a network address.