JPH0918484A - Data communicating method for radio system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To shorten data transmission time and to further reduce the memory capacity of the reception data bufferings of radio master/slave equipments by arranging the radio master equipment and the radio slave equipment between the controller and the terminal equipment of a radio system, making wire communication and radio communication coexist and performing a data transmission. CONSTITUTION: A radio system controls terminal equipments T 11 to T 13, T 21 and T 31, and is composed of a controller 100 performing a control, radio master equipments M 1 to M 3 connected with the controller via wire communication cables 111 to 113, 121 and 131, and radio slave equipments S 11 to S 13, S 21 and S 31 which are connected with the controller and perform the radio communication with the radio master equipment. As compared with the data transmission rateof the wire communication cable section from the controller to the radio master equipment, the data transmission rate of the radio sections Z 1 to Z 3 from the radio master equipment to the radio slave equipment is set faster. By this constitution, the data transmission time between the controller and the terminal equipment is shortened, and the capacity of the memories of the reception data bufferings provided on the radio master equipment and the radio slave equipment is made small.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention comprises a terminal device and a control device for controlling and managing the terminal device. A wireless master device is connected to the control device via a wired communication cable and a wireless slave device is connected to the terminal device. And a data communication method of a wireless system in which wireless communication is performed between a wireless master device and a wireless slave device.

[0002]

In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-62058, a wireless unit is wire-connected to a control station, a wireless terminal is connected to a vending machine or other vending terminal device, and wireless communication between both wireless units is used. Data communication between the control station and the sales terminal device. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 8, a plurality of vending machines 2A which are sales terminal devices.
To 2F are provided with wireless units 1A to 1F, respectively, and are connected by wire. Then, of the vending machines 2A to 2F, the vending machines 2A to 2C and the wireless units 1A to 1C are used as the first group 3 to configure a wireless communication area, and the vending machines 2D to 2F and the wireless units 1D to 1F are configured. As a second group 4 to form another wireless communication area. The wireless units 1A to 1C in the first group 3 are composed of one wireless unit 1A which is a master unit and two wireless units 1B and 1C which are slave units, and the wireless unit 1D in the second group 4 is also included. 1F is composed of one wireless unit 1D which is a master unit and two wireless units 1E and 1F which are slave units.

A radio unit 1H, which is a master machine, is connected to a control station 5 composed of a personal computer via a public line 6 and a modem 7, and the radio unit 1H manages each of the radio units 1A to 1F. To do. The wireless master device 1H communicates with each of the wireless master devices 1A and 1D by a polling method by a wireless packet switching method. The wireless master devices 1A, 1D and the wireless slave devices 1B, 1C, 1E,
Even between 1F, communication is similarly performed by the wireless packet switching method by the polling method. In each group, the wireless slave devices 1B, 1C, 1E and 1F perform wireless communication only with the wireless master devices 1A and 1D, and do not perform wireless communication with the wireless master device 1H. In addition, wireless communication is not performed between the wireless slave devices. The wireless master devices 1A and 1D perform wireless communication with wireless slave devices in the group to which they belong, but do not perform wireless communication with wireless slave devices outside the group. In addition, the wireless master devices 1A and 1D do not directly perform wireless communication.

In this wireless system, the control station 5 uses the route of the modem 7 → the wireless master device 1H → the wireless master device 1A or 1D → the vending machine 2A or 2D, or the modem 7 →
Data can be transmitted to the vending machine through the route of the wireless master machine 1H → the wireless master machine 1A or 1D → the wireless slave machines 1B, 1C or 1E, 1F → the automatic vending machines 2B, 2C or 2E, 2F. In addition, the control station 5 can collect data by being generated in the vending machines 2A to 2F through the reverse route.

Wireless master devices 1A and 1D, wireless slave devices 1B and 1
As shown in FIG. 9, each of the wireless units C, 1E, 1F and the wireless master device 1H is a microcomputer 10, R.
It includes an AM 11, a ROM 12, an EEPROM 13, a wireless transmission unit 14, a wireless reception unit 15 and an antenna 16. The RAM 11 is mainly used as a data buffer during communication, the ROM 12 stores a communication control program and the like, and the EEPROM 13 stores an address and the like of each wireless unit. The microcomputer 10 is connected to the vending machines 2A to 2F or the modem 7 by the communication cable 17.

In this wireless system, when data is downloaded from the control station 5 to, for example, the vending machine 2A, as shown in FIG. 10, the control station 5 and the master machine 1H transmit / receive download data and signals, and then the master station. The download data is wirelessly transmitted from the device 1H to the wireless master device 1A, and after this wireless transmission, the download data and signals are transmitted and received between the wireless master device 1A and the vending machine 2A. Although FIG. 10 only shows the flow of data and signals and does not consider time, when this is taken into consideration, it becomes as shown in FIG. Communication control commands other than download data are extremely shorter than download data, and a group of communication control commands transmitted and received prior to transmission of download data is collectively shown as HS1 and is transmitted and received after transmission of download data is completed. The communication control command group is shown collectively as HE1. Further, although the communication starts in FIG. 10 from the transmission of the download data, the communication control command etc. may be transmitted prior to the transmission of the download data. Therefore, in FIG. 11, HS1 is described before the transmission of the download data. ing. Further, although the download data is transmitted in one direction, communication control commands and the like are shown as bidirectional communication because they are exchanged by both parties.

First, the control station 5 uses the public line 6 and the modem 7.
The communication control command group HS1, the download data, and the communication control command group HE1 are transmitted to the master unit wireless unit 1H via the. The master unit wireless unit 1H does not perform the wireless transmission operation until receiving the entire text of the download data, and temporarily stores all the download data in the RAM 11 which is the communication buffer. After receiving all the download data, the communication control command group HE
When the transmission / reception of 1 is completed, the data transmission between the control station 5 and the master radio unit 1H is completed. In addition, modem 7
The time delays in the can be ignored.

Subsequently, the master unit wireless unit 1H and the master unit wireless unit 1A wirelessly exchange the communication control command group HS1, exchange the download data, and exchange the communication control command group HE1. Subsequently, the master unit wireless unit 1A and the vending machine 2A exchange the communication control command group HS1 via the communication cable 17, send download data, and communicate the communication control command group HE1.
And the download data is transmitted to the vending machine 2A.

Here, the data transmission rate in the wired communication section between the control station 5 and the master wireless unit 1H and the data transmission rate in the wired communication section between the master wireless unit 1A and the vending machine 2A are A (Bps), the data transmission rate in the wireless communication section between the master unit wireless unit 1H and the master unit wireless unit 1A is B (bps), and B> A, for example, B = 2A, the transmission time is as shown in FIG. As shown. For example, control station 5, master unit radio unit 1H
The data transmission time in the wired communication section between HS1 is t1
, HE1 is t3, and the download data is t2, the data transmission time in the wired communication section between the master unit wireless unit 1A and the vending machine 2A is also t1 and H for HS1.
E1 is t3, and download data is t2. Also,
The data transmission time of the wireless communication section between the master unit wireless unit 1H and the master unit wireless unit 1A is HS1 at t4, H
If E1 is t6 and the download data is t5, the data transmission rate in the wireless communication section is twice as high as the data transmission rate in the wired communication section. Therefore, t4 = 0.5 × t1 (1) t6 = 0. 5 × t3 (2) t5 = 0.5 × t2 (3)

Here, ignoring the processing time of the microcomputer in the radio unit, the time T1 required for data transmission from the control station 5 to the vending machine 2A is: T1 = t1 + t2 + t3 + t4 + t5 + t6 + t1 + t2 + t3 = 2 .5 (t1 + t2 + t3) (4).

On the other hand, when the control station 5 collects the sales data of the vending machine 2A, the control station 5 sends a polling signal to the vending machine 2A, and the vending machine 2A receives an instruction by the polling signal. Sales data to control station 5
Will be sent to The transmission of the polling signal from the control station 5 to the vending machine 2A is performed at the same timing as in FIG. However, the data transmission time in the case of the polling signal is extremely shorter than that in the case of the download data or becomes zero. If zero, communication control command group H
This is the case where a control signal indicating data polling is included in E1.

The transmission timing of the sales data transmitted from the automatic vending machine 2A to the control station 5 is as shown in FIG. Also in this case, the communication control command group transmitted / received prior to the transmission of the sales data is collectively shown as HS2, and the communication control command group transmitted / received after the transmission of the sales data is collectively shown as HE2.

Vending machine 2A, wireless master unit wireless unit 1
The data transmission time in the wired communication section between A and HS2 is t
7, HE2 is t9, and sales data is t8, the data transmission time in the wired communication section between the master radio unit 1H and the control station 5 is also t7 for HS2 and t9 for HE2.
, Sales data becomes t8. Further, if the data transmission time of the wireless communication section between the master unit wireless unit 1A and the master unit wireless unit 1H is t10 for HS2, t12 for HE2, and t11 for sales data, the data transmission rate of the wireless communication section is the wired communication section. Since it is twice as high as the data transmission rate of t10 = 0.5 × t7 (5) t12 = 0.5 × t9 (6) t11 = 0.5 × t8 (7).

Here, ignoring the processing time of the microcomputer inside the wireless unit, the time T2 required for data transmission from the vending machine 2A to the control station 5 is: T2 = t7 + t8 + t9 + t10 + t11 + t12 + t7 + t8 + t9 = 2.5 ( t7 + t8 + t9) (8)

[0015]

As described above, in the conventional data transmission method, the time T1 required for transmitting the download data from the control station 5 to the vending machine 2A is the time shown in the equation (4), and the automatic sales The time T2 required for transmitting the sales data from the machine 2A to the control station 5 is the time shown in the equation (8). That is, in each of the master unit wireless unit 1H and the master unit wireless unit 1A, the received data is temporarily buffered, and the next transmission operation is not performed until the reception of all the received data is completed. However, there has been a problem that the time required for the whole communication becomes long because of serialization. This problem becomes prominent when the download data reaches several megabytes, the sales data reaches several tens of kilobytes to several hundred kilobytes, and the amount of data is large. In addition, since all the received data is temporarily buffered, there is a problem that a large capacity memory must be provided in the wireless unit.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the data transmission time between the control device and the terminal device can be shortened, and the capacity of the memory used for buffering the received data provided in the wireless master device and the wireless slave device can be reduced. A data communication method for a wireless system is provided.

[0017]

The invention corresponding to claim 1 is:
From a terminal device, a control device that controls and manages this terminal device, a wireless master device connected to this control device via a wired communication cable, and a wireless slave device that connects to the terminal device and performs wireless communication with the wireless master device. In a wireless system in which the data transmission speed in the wireless section from the wireless master unit to the wireless slave unit is set higher than the data transmission speed in the wired section from the control unit to the wireless master unit, the wireless master unit and the wireless slave unit If the length of the transmission data to be transmitted to the terminal device via the device exceeds a predetermined length, the wireless master device sets the transmission data to a predetermined length before receiving the transmission data from the control device. The wireless slave unit divides the data into lengths and wirelessly communicates with the wireless slave unit, and the wireless slave unit transmits the divided transmission data to the terminal device every time the divided transmission data is received from the wireless master unit.

According to the second aspect of the invention, a terminal device, a control device for controlling and managing the terminal device, a wireless master device connected to the control device via a wired communication cable, and a wireless device connected to the terminal device. A wireless system that consists of a wireless slave unit that performs wireless communication with the master unit, and that sets the data transmission rate in the wireless section from the wireless master unit to the wireless slave unit faster than the data transmission rate in the wired section from the control device to the wireless master unit. In, when the length of the transmission data to be transmitted to the terminal device via the wireless master device and the wireless slave device exceeds the predetermined length, the control device divides the transmission data into predetermined lengths. Then, the wireless master unit wirelessly communicates the divided transmission data to the wireless slave unit every time the divided transmission data is received from the control device, and the wireless slave unit transmits from the wireless master unit. Each time the divided transmission data is received Is to transmit the transmission data the division into the terminal device.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a terminal device, a control device for controlling and managing the terminal device, a wireless master device connected to the control device via a wired communication cable, and a wireless device connected to the terminal device. A wireless system that consists of a wireless slave device that performs wireless communication with the master device, and that sets the data transmission speed in the wireless interval from the wireless slave device to the wireless master device faster than the data transmission speed in the wired interval from the terminal device to the wireless slave device. In the case where the length of the transmission data transmitted from the terminal device to the control device via the wireless slave device and the wireless master device exceeds a predetermined length,
Before receiving the transmission data from the terminal device, the wireless slave unit divides this transmission data into a predetermined length and wirelessly communicates with the wireless master unit, and the wireless master unit transmits the divided data from the wireless slave unit. The divided transmission data is transmitted to the control device every time the data is received.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a terminal device, a control device for controlling and managing the terminal device, a wireless master device connected to the control device via a wired communication cable, and a wireless device connected to the terminal device. A wireless system that consists of a wireless slave device that performs wireless communication with the master device, and that sets the data transmission speed in the wireless interval from the wireless slave device to the wireless master device faster than the data transmission speed in the wired interval from the terminal device to the wireless slave device. In, when the length of the transmission data to be transmitted to the control device via the wireless slave device and the wireless master device exceeds the predetermined length, the terminal device divides this transmission data into predetermined lengths. The wireless slave unit wirelessly communicates the divided transmission data to the wireless master unit each time it receives the divided transmission data from the terminal device. Each time the divided transmission data is received Is to transmit the transmission data the division into the controller.

[0021]

In the invention according to claim 1, the wireless master device or the control device judges whether or not the transmission data length from the control device is larger than a predetermined length L, and based on this judgment, the wireless master device. The device stores the received data in the internal memory until the received data amount of the transmission data from the control device reaches the set value L, and when the received data amount reaches the set value L, it is received by the wireless slave device from this point. The transmitted data is divided into packets and wirelessly transmitted. While performing the wireless transmission, the wireless master device simultaneously continues to receive the transmission data from the control device. Then, when the first wireless transmission ends,
When the wireless master device has finished receiving all the data from the control device, the wireless master device wirelessly transmits the remaining data stored in the internal memory from this time point to the wireless slave device.
If the wireless master device has not finished receiving all data from the control device at the end of the first wireless transmission, the wireless master device until the received data amount of the transmission data from the control device reaches the set value L. The aircraft suspends wireless transmission. Then, after that, when the amount of received data again reaches the set value L or when the data reception from the control device ends, the wireless master device wirelessly transmits the received data stored in the internal memory to the wireless slave device. Thus, when the length of the transmission data from the control device exceeds the set value L, the wireless master device
Packets are divided for each length L and wirelessly transmitted to the wireless slave device.

Each time the wireless slave device receives the packet-divided data from the wireless master device, the data is temporarily stored in the internal memory, and the received data is transmitted to the terminal device each time reception of one packet is completed. To do.

In the invention according to claim 2, the control device determines whether or not the transmission data length from the control device is larger than a predetermined length L, and based on this determination, the control device determines the transmission amount. The data packet is divided into L data packets and transmitted to the wireless master device. The wireless master device wirelessly transmits a data packet of the data amount L transmitted from the control device to the wireless slave device, and the wireless slave device similarly transmits the received data packet to the terminal device.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, when the transmission data length from the terminal device is larger than the predetermined length L, the wireless slave device sets the received data amount of the transmission data from the terminal device to the set value L. The received data is stored in the internal memory until it reaches the set value, and when the received data amount reaches the set value L, the received transmission data is divided into packets and wirelessly transmitted to the wireless master device from this point. While doing this wireless transmission
At the same time, the wireless slave device continues to receive the transmission data from the terminal device. Then, when the wireless slave device finishes receiving all data from the terminal device at the time when the first wireless transmission is completed, the wireless slave device stores the remaining data stored in the internal memory from this time. Wirelessly transmits to the wireless master device. If the wireless slave device has not completely received data from the terminal device at the time of completion of the first wireless transmission, the wireless slave device is used until the received data amount of the transmission data from the terminal device reaches the set value L. The aircraft suspends wireless transmission. Then, after that, when the amount of received data reaches the set value L again or when data reception from the terminal device ends, the wireless slave device wirelessly transmits the received data stored in the internal memory to the wireless master device. In this way, when the length of the transmission data from the terminal device exceeds the set value L, the wireless slave device divides the packet for each length L and wirelessly transmits it to the wireless master device.

Each time the wireless master device receives the packet-divided data from the wireless slave device, the data is temporarily stored in the internal memory, and the received data is transmitted to the control device each time reception of one packet is completed. To do.

In the invention according to claim 4, the terminal device determines whether or not the transmission data length from the terminal device is greater than a predetermined length L, and based on this determination, the terminal device determines the transmission amount. It is divided into L data packets and transmitted to the wireless slave device. The wireless slave device wirelessly transmits a data packet of the data amount L transmitted from the terminal device to the wireless master device, and the wireless master device similarly transmits the received data packet to the control device.

[0027]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. (First Embodiment) This embodiment is an embodiment corresponding to the invention described in claim 1. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of the entire wireless POS system. T11, T12, and T13 are POS terminal devices arranged in a wireless zone Z1, T21 is a POS terminal device arranged in a wireless zone Z2, and T31 is a wireless zone Z3. It is a POS terminal device.

Each of the POS terminal devices T11, T12, T13,
Each of T21 and T31 is arranged at a predetermined sales floor in the store, and is configured to register data such as the sales amount of the product purchased by the customer and to display the total amount on the display. Further, when the customer pays based on the total amount of money, the total amount of money is keyed in and the settlement key is operated by operating the closing key for registration.

In the registration process, the sales amount and quantity of each product purchased by the customer are accumulated in the memory, for example, by product or department, and in the settlement process, the total amount or points are calculated, for example, by transaction (cash). Transactions, credit transactions, etc.) in the memory, and issue a receipt that prints the sales amount, number, etc. of each product and the total amount, total points, etc., and also the sales amount, number, total amount, total points of each product. And the like as transaction data to a control device, which will be described later, which is a higher-level device.

Each of the POS terminal devices T11, T12, T13,
T21 and T31 are communication cables 111 and 112, respectively.
The wireless slave devices S11, S12,
It is connected to S13, S21 and S31. In the wireless zone Z1, a wireless master device M1 that performs wireless communication with the wireless slave devices S11, S12, S13 is arranged, and in the wireless zone Z2, the wireless slave device S21.
A wireless master unit M2 that wirelessly communicates with
3 is a wireless master device M3 that performs wireless communication with the wireless slave device S31.
Has been placed. Each of the wireless zones Z1, Z2, Z3
In this case, the frequencies for wireless communication between the wireless slave device and the wireless master device are different.

Each of the wireless master devices M1, M2, M3 is controlled by the control device 100 via a communication cable 150 of bus type, for example.
Connected to The control device 100 transmits download data to each of the POS terminal devices T11, T12, T13, T21, T31, and each POS terminal device T11,
Transaction data including the sales amount, the number of products, the total amount, the total points, etc. of each product transmitted from T12, T13, T21, T31 is received and accumulated in a file, and the data is centrally managed.

Each of the wireless slave devices S11 to S13, S21, S31 and each of the wireless master devices M1 to M3 has the structure shown in FIG. 2, for example. Microprocessor 2 that constitutes the control unit main body
1, a microprocessor (ROM) 22 is provided with a ROM (read only memory) 22 that stores program data for communication control, and a RAM (random access memory) that is provided with a reception buffer for temporarily storing received data. 23, EEPROM storing its own ID code, etc.
24, a communication controller 25 for wireless communication, a communication controller 26 for wired communication, and a DMA (direct memory access) controller 27 are electrically connected via a bus line 28.

The communication controller 25 includes a receiving section 25.
a and a transmitting unit 25b, the data received by the antenna 29 is taken into the receiving unit 25a via the duplexer 30 and the wireless receiving circuit 31, and from the transmitting unit 25b via the wireless transmitting circuit 32 and the duplexer 30. Transmission data is wirelessly transmitted from the antenna 29. The communication controller 26 includes a receiving unit 26.
a and a transmission unit 26b, and the reception unit 26a and the transmission unit 26b are connected to the wired interface 33. In the case of a wireless slave device, the wired interface 33 includes communication cables 111, 112, 113, 121, which are connected to the POS terminal devices T11, T12, T13, T21, T31.
131, the control device 100 in the case of a wireless master device.
It is connected to the communication cable 150 which is connected to.

Reference numeral 34 is an interrupt controller. The interrupt controller 34 is the communication controller 25, 26.
When receiving data and storing it in the receive buffer
When the MA controller 27 receives and transmits the data stored in the receiving buffer, it interrupts the microprocessor 21.

The wireless slave units S11 to S13, S having the above structure
21, S31 and the wireless master devices M1 to M3 are connected to the communication cable 150 or 111, 112, 113, 12 from the control device 100 or the POS terminal devices T11, T12, T13, T21, T31.
The data transmitted via 1, 131 is taken into the wired interface 33. Wired interface 33
Receives the received data from the receiving unit 2 of the communication controller 26.
Supply to 6a. The communication controller 26 performs protocol control or the like on the received data and then converts the received data into parallel data. Then, under the control of the DMA controller 27, the received data is transferred from the communication controller 26 to the RAM 23 word by word and stored in the receive buffer. The data stored in the reception buffer is then DMA-transferred to the transmitter 25b of the communication controller 25 under the control of the DMA controller 27 again.

As described above, the communication controller 26 is used for data transmission with a wired line, and the communication controller 25 is used for wireless communication. Note that the communication controllers 25 and 26 can also be configured by one IC if the transceiver has two channels of ICs. The data transferred to the communication controller 25 is the wireless transmission circuit 3
2 and is transmitted from the antenna 29 via the duplexer 30.

The wireless slave units S11 to S13, S21, S31 and the wireless master units M1 to M3 transmit the wireless transmission data to the antenna 2 as well.
When the data is received at 9, the data is taken into the wireless reception circuit 31 via the duplexer 30. The wireless reception circuit 31 demodulates the received data and converts it into a serial data signal,
It is supplied to the receiving unit 25a of the communication controller 25. The reception unit 25a of the communication controller 25 performs protocol control or the like on the received data and then converts the received data into parallel data. Then, under the control of the DMA controller 27,
RA of received data from the communication controller 25 word by word
Transfer to M23 and store in receive buffer. The data stored in the reception buffer is then DMA-transferred to the transmission unit 26b of the communication controller 26 under the control of the DMA controller 27 again. The data transferred to the communication controller 26 is converted into serial data after being subjected to protocol control and the like, and is transmitted via the wired interface 33 to the communication cable 150 or 111, 112, 113,
121, 131.

In this way, the wireless slave units S11 to S13, S21, S
The 31 and the wireless master devices M1 to M3 have a wireless transmission / reception circuit and a wired transmission / reception circuit independently of each other, so that the wired interface 33 receives data and wirelessly transmits data, or wirelessly. The data can be transmitted from the wired interface 33 while receiving the data.

In the embodiment having such a configuration, when transmitting the download data from the control device 100 to the POS terminal device T11, for example, the data transmission speed of the wired section between the control device 100 and the wireless master device M1 and Let A (bps) be the data transmission rate in the wired section between the wireless slave unit S11 and the POS terminal device T11, and let B (bps) be the data transmission rate in the wireless section between the wireless master unit M1 and the wireless slave unit S11. ,
When B> A, for example, B = 2A, data transmission is performed at the timing shown in FIG.

In this example, the download data from the control device 100 is divided into three transmission packets in the wireless master device M1 and wirelessly transmitted to the wireless slave device S11. Further, the communication control commands other than the download data are extremely shorter than the download data, and a group of communication control commands transmitted / received prior to the transmission of the download data is collectively shown as HS, and is transmitted / received after the transmission of the download data is completed. The communication control command group is collectively shown as HE.

Further, for example, in the microprocessor 21 of the radio master M1, the data length of the download data is a predetermined length Lx = 1/3 × t2 × A (bi
When t) is exceeded, the transmission data is programmed to be divided into packets of this length for wireless transmission, and
The microprocessor 21 of the wireless slave device S11, which receives the packet-divided and wirelessly transmitted transmission data, POs the wireless data packet every time it receives each data packet.
Programmed to transmit to S terminal device T11,
Further, the operation will be described below, assuming that the POS terminal device T11 performs an operation of reassembling the download data that is divided and received therein into one data packet.

When the control device 100 tries to start the transmission of download data, first, the control command group HS is exchanged between the control device 100 and the wireless master device M1 to establish a data link. At this time, the data length of the download data to be transmitted from the control device 100 to the wireless master device M1 may be presented in advance. When the exchange of the control command group HS between the control device 100 and the wireless master device M1 is completed, the download data is subsequently transmitted from the control device 100 to the wireless master device M1. At this time, the total amount of download data is t2 x A (bit).

When the data length of the download data exceeds Lx = 1/3 × t2 × A (bit), the wireless master device M1 divides this transmission data packet and wirelessly transmits it to the wireless slave device S11. Operate. Whether or not the received data length in the wireless master device M1 exceeds Lx can be determined by a method in which the control device 100 notifies the wireless master device M1 of the amount of data when transmitting the control command group HS. Machine M
It is also possible to adopt a method in which 1 monitors the data amount actually received from the wired interface 33 and determines whether or not the received data amount exceeds Lx.

Whichever method is used, the wireless master device M1 starts wireless transmission of the received data to the wireless slave device S11 when the data length of the download data exceeds Lx. Data length of download data is t
Since 2 × A = 3Lx (bit), the first 1/3 of this download data is wirelessly started as the data packet D1. The wireless master device M1 receives the data packet D
Even during the wireless transmission of 1, the download data continues to be received from the control device 100 via the wired interface 33.

Since the data transmission rate B in the wireless section is twice as high as the data transmission rate A in the wired section, the data D2 corresponding to the next one packet is completely received from the control device 100 via the wired interface 33. Before that, the wireless transmission of the data packet D1 to the wireless slave device S11 is completed. Therefore, as the control timing, the data D from the control device 100 after the wireless transmission of the data packet D1 is completed.
Tw suspends the wireless transmission operation until the reception of 2 is completed.

The wireless master device M1 has a wired interface 3
When the data length received from the control device 100 via 3 again exceeds Lx, wireless transmission is started and the next data packet D2 is wirelessly transmitted to the wireless slave device S11. Hereinafter, similarly, the receiving operation from the wired interface 33 and the wireless transmitting operation are simultaneously performed until there is no download data from the control device 100.

The control of the reception buffer in the RAM 23 by the radio master unit M1 in this communication operation is as follows. The wireless master device M1 receives the received data from the wired line via the wired interface 33 at the data transmission rate A (bp).
s), and by the control of the DMA controller 27,
A DMA transfer occurs for each W / A (where W is the word length at the time of DMA transfer by the DMA controller), and data is written in the receive buffer of the RAM 23. In the receive buffer, as shown in FIG. 4, writing of data is started from the address ADD0, and when the time 1/3 × t2 elapses, the write address reaches ADD1 and the writing of the data D1 portion of the download data ends. . When the write address reaches ADD1, wireless transmission is started, and reading of data from the addresses ADD0 to ADD1 and transfer of the read data to the communication controller 25 are performed under the control of the DMA controller 27.

At this time, the operation of writing the received data from the wired line is also performed at the same time, and the address ADD0 →
Data read / wireless transmission operation of ADD1 and address A
Wired reception / data writing operations of DD2 → ADD3 proceed simultaneously. However, since the data transmission speed in the wireless section is twice as high as the data transmission rate in the wired section, the data read / wireless transmission speed becomes twice as fast as the wired reception / data writing speed, so the read operation is performed at the address ADD1. At that time, the data is written at the addresses ADD2 and A
Only halfway point DDD20 of DD3 is reached.

The data read / wireless transmission operation is performed at the address A.
When it reaches DD1, the data read / wireless transmission operation is suspended. During this period, the wired reception / data writing operation continues, and the write address eventually reaches ADD3. When the write address reaches ADD3, the data read / wireless transmission operation is restarted and the transmission of the data packet D2 is started. Thereafter, similarly, data writing and data reading are sequentially repeated, and addresses ADD0 to ADD
At the same time when the wired reception data is written in 5, the written data is divided into data blocks of data D1, D2, D3 and transmitted by wireless packet.

The wireless slave unit S11 receives the data packet wirelessly transmitted as described above, and receives the received data via the wired interface 33 every time the packet is received.
It is transmitted to the S terminal device T11. The communication control operation in the wireless slave device S11 is the same as that in the wireless master device M1, but in the wireless slave device S11, the data transmission rate of the wireless line on the receiving side is the data of the wired line on the transmitting side. Since the transmission speed is higher than the transmission speed, there is no processing for temporarily suspending the wired transmission operation when transmitting data to the wired line. As described above, the control device 1
The download data is transmitted from 00 to the POS terminal T11.

When the time required for data transmission from the control device 100 to the POS terminal device T11 is T3, the time T3
Becomes as shown in the following equation. T3 = t1 + 3 × 1/3 × t2 + 1/3 × t5 + 1/3 × t2 + t3 = t1 + 4/3 × t2 + 1/6 × t2 + t3 = t1 + 3/2 × t2 + t3 (9) where t1 is It is an exchange time of the communication control command group HS in the wired section, and t3 is an exchange time of the communication control command group HE in the wired section.

By the way, the data transmission time T1 required for transmitting the conventional download data shown in FIG. 11 is (4)
As shown in the equation, T1 = 2.5 (t1 + t2 + t3)
It is. By transforming this, T1 = 2.5 (t1 + t2 + t3) = (t1 +3/2 x t2 + t3) +3/2 x t1 + t2 +3/2 x t3 = T3 + (3/2 x t1 + t2 +3/2 x t3) (10) and T1> T3.

As described above, the time T3 required for data transmission in this embodiment is (3/2 × t1 + t2 +3) as compared with the conventional case.
It can be shortened by the time of / 2 × t3). Moreover, the wireless master devices M1 to M3 and the wireless slave devices S11 to S13, S2
The buffer data is not sent to the receiving buffer provided in the RAM 23 of S31, but is received and stored before being read out and transmitted, but is transmitted when the predetermined data length Lx is received. The amount can be reduced as compared with the conventional one. That is, the capacity of the reception buffer can be reduced.

(Second Embodiment) This embodiment is an embodiment corresponding to the invention described in claim 2. The configuration of the entire system and the configurations of the wireless master device and the wireless slave device are the same as those in FIGS. 1 and 2. In this embodiment, when the data length of the download data exceeds the predetermined data length Lx, the control device 100 previously sets Lx = 1/3 × t2 × A (bit).
Each data packet D1, D2, D3 is divided and transmitted to the wireless master device. In this way, the download data has a predetermined data length Lx in the controller 100.
Since the wireless master device is divided into the following, the download data is not divided. Then, the control device 100
Communication command group H before and after transmission of data packets D1, D2, D3 of download data from the
S and HE will be exchanged. Otherwise, the same communication control as in the first embodiment is performed. That is, in this embodiment, data transmission is performed at the timing shown in FIG.

In this embodiment, since the communication control command groups HS and HE are exchanged before and after the transmission of the data packets D1, D2 and D3 of the download data, the data transmission time is slightly longer than that of the first embodiment. Become. For example, the time T4 required to transmit the download data from the control device 100 to the POS terminal device T11 is as follows: T4 = 3t1 + 3 × 1/3 × t2 + 2t3 + 1/3 × t5 + 1/3 × t2 + t3 = 3t1 + 3/2 × t2 + 3t3 (11)

By the way, the communication control command groups HS and HE
The transmission times t1 and t3 are normally shorter than the transmission time T2 of the download data. That is, t1 << t2
, T3 << t2 holds. Therefore, the equation (11), that is, T4 = 3t1 + 3 / 2.times.t2 + 3t3 is approximately 3 /
It can be 2 × t2. Further, T1 = 2.5 (t1 + t2 + t3) shown in the equation (4) is also t1 << t2,
From the relationship of t3 << t2, it becomes approximately 5/2 × t2, and approximately T4
It becomes + t2. As described above, when the transmission time of the download data is sufficiently longer than the transmission time of the communication control command groups HS and HE, the data transmission time can be shortened by about t2 time as compared with the conventional transmission method.

(Third Embodiment) This embodiment is an embodiment corresponding to the invention described in claim 3. The configuration of the entire system and the configurations of the wireless master device and the wireless slave device are the same as those in FIGS. 1 and 2. In each of the above-described embodiments, the control device 100 to the POS
The case where the download data is transmitted to the terminal device has been described, but this embodiment is a case where the sales data is transmitted from the POS terminal device to the control device 100, and the data transmission direction is different from those of the respective embodiments. The opposite is true.

In this embodiment, the POS terminal device T11
When the sales data is transmitted from the control device 100 to the control device 100, for example, the data transmission speed in the wired section between the POS terminal device T11 and the wireless slave device S11 and the wireless master device M1 and the control device 10 are transmitted.
The data transmission rate in the wired section between 0 and A (bps),
Let B (bps) be the data transmission rate in the wireless section between the wireless slave device S11 and the wireless master device M1, and B> A, for example B = 2A.
Then, data transmission is performed at the timing shown in FIG.

In this example, the sales data from the POS terminal device T11 is divided into three transmission packets in the wireless slave device S11 and wirelessly transmitted to the wireless master device M1. Further, the communication control commands other than the sales data are extremely shorter than the sales data, and the communication control command group transmitted / received prior to the transmission of the sales data is collectively shown as HS2, and is transmitted / received after the transmission of the sales data is completed. The communication control command group is collectively shown as HE2.

Further, for example, when the data length of the sales data exceeds the predetermined length Lx = 1/3 × t8 × A (bit) in the system, the microprocessor 21 of the wireless slave device S11 transmits the transmission data. The microprocessor 21 of the wireless master device M1, which is programmed to divide the packet into packets of this length and wirelessly transmits the packets, and which receives the transmission data that is packet-divided and wirelessly transmitted, receives each data packet. The wireless data packet is transmitted to the control device 10
The operation will be described below assuming that the controller 100 is programmed to transmit to 0, and that the controller 100 performs an operation of reassembling the divisionally received sales data into one data packet.

When the POS terminal device T11 tries to start the transmission of sales data, first, the control command group HS2 is exchanged between the POS terminal device T11 and the wireless slave device S11 to establish a data link. At this time, the data length of the sales data to be transmitted from the POS terminal device T11 to the wireless slave device S11 may be presented in advance. When the exchange of the control command group HS2 between the POS terminal device T11 and the wireless slave device S11 is completed, the sales data is subsequently transmitted from the POS terminal device S11 to the wireless slave device S11. At this time, the total amount of sales data is t8 × A (bit).

When the data length of the sales data exceeds Lx = 1 / 3.times.t8.times.A (bit), the wireless slave device S11 divides this transmission data packet and wirelessly transmits it to the wireless master device M1. Operate. The control command group H is used to determine whether the received data length in the wireless slave device S11 exceeds Lx.
Even if the method of notifying the data amount from the POS terminal device T11 to the wireless slave device S11 at the time of transmitting S2,
A method may be adopted in which 11 monitors the amount of data actually received from the wired interface 33 and determines whether the amount of received data exceeds Lx.

Whichever method is used, the wireless slave device S11 starts wireless transmission of the received data to the wireless master device M1 when the data length of the sales data exceeds Lx. Data length of sales data is t8 x A = 3Lx
(Bit), so the first 1/3 of this sales data
Wireless transmission is started as a data packet D1. The wireless slave device S11 continues to receive the sales data from the POS terminal device T11 via the wired interface 33 even while wirelessly transmitting the data packet D1.

Since the data transmission rate B in the wireless section is twice as high as the data transmission rate A in the wired section, the data D2 corresponding to the next one packet is received from the POS terminal T11 via the wired interface 33. Before the end, the wireless transmission of the data packet D1 to the wireless master device M1 is completed. Therefore, as the control timing, the wireless transmission operation is temporarily suspended at tw1 after the end of the wireless transmission of the data packet D1 until the end of the reception of the data D2 from the control device 100.

The wireless slave unit S11 has a wired interface 3
When the data length received from the POS terminal T11 via 3 again exceeds Lx, wireless transmission is started and the next data packet D2 is wirelessly transmitted to the wireless master device M1. Hereinafter, similarly, the reception operation from the wired interface 33 and the wireless transmission operation are simultaneously performed until the sales data from the POS terminal device T11 is exhausted.

The wireless master device M1 receives the data packet wirelessly transmitted as described above, and transmits the received data to the control device 100 via the wired interface 33 every time the packet is received. The communication control operation in the wireless master device M1 is the same as that of the wireless slave device S11, but the wireless master device M1
In No. 1, the data transmission rate of the wireless line on the receiving side is faster than the data transmission rate of the wired line on the transmitting side.
There is no processing for temporarily suspending the wired transmission operation when transmitting data to the wired line. As described above, the sales data is transmitted from the POS terminal device T11 to the control device 100.

If the time required for data transmission from the POS terminal device T11 to the control device 100 is T5, then time T5
Becomes as shown in the following equation. T5 = t7 + 3 × 1/3 × t8 + 1/3 × t11 + 1/3 × t8 + t9 = t7 + 4/3 × t8 + 1/6 × t8 + t9 = t7 + 3/2 × t8 + t9 (12) where t7 is a wire It is the communication time of the communication control command group HS2 in the section, and t9 is the communication time of the communication control command group HE2 in the wired section.

By the way, the data transmission time T2 required to transmit the conventional sales data shown in FIG. 12 is T2 = 2.5 (t7 + t8 + t9) as shown in the equation (8).
When this is transformed, T2 = 2.5 (t7 + t8 + t9) = (t7 +3/2 x t8 + t9) +3/2 x t7 + t8 +3/2 x t9 = T5 + (3/2 x t7 + t8 +3/2 x t9) (13), and T2> T5.

As described above, the time T5 required for the data transmission of this embodiment is (3/2 × t7 + t8 +) as compared with the conventional time.
The time can be shortened by 3/2 × t9). Moreover, the wireless master devices M1 to M3 and the wireless slave devices S11 to S13, S
The data to be buffered is received when a predetermined data length Lx is received instead of receiving and storing all the sales data in the reception buffer provided in the RAM 23 in S21 and S31 and then reading and transmitting the data. The amount can be reduced as compared with the conventional one. That is, the capacity of the reception buffer can be reduced.

(Fourth Embodiment) This embodiment corresponds to the fourth aspect of the invention. The configuration of the entire system and the configurations of the wireless master device and the wireless slave device are the same as those in FIGS. 1 and 2. In this embodiment, when the data length of the sales data exceeds the predetermined data length Lx, the POS terminal device T
In 11, the data packet D1, D2, D3 for each Lx = 1/3 x t8 x A (bit) is divided and transmitted to the wireless slave device. In this way, the sales data is P
Since the OS terminal device T11 divides the data into a predetermined data length Lx or less, the wireless slave device does not divide the sales data. Then, the communication control command groups HS2 and HE2 are exchanged before and after the transmission of the data packets D1, D2 and D3 of the sales data from the POS terminal device T11 to the wireless slave device. Otherwise, the same communication control as in the case of the third embodiment is performed. That is, in this embodiment, data transmission is performed at the timing shown in FIG.

In this embodiment, since the communication control command groups HS2 and HE2 are exchanged before and after the transmission of the sales data data packets D1, D2 and D3, the data transmission time is slightly longer than that in the third embodiment. Become. For example, P
The time T6 required to transmit the sales data from the OS terminal device T11 to the control device 100 is: T6 = 3t7 + 3 × 1/3 × t8 + 2t9 + 1/3 × t11 + 1/3 × t8 + t9 = 3t7 + 3/2 × t8 + 3t9 ... It becomes (14).

By the way, communication control command groups HS2, H
The transmission times t7 and t9 of E2 are extremely shorter than the transmission time T8 of the normal sales data. That is, t7 << t8, t
9 << t8 holds. Therefore, the above formula (14), that is,
T6 = 3t7 + 3/2 × t8 + 3t9 is approximately 3/2 × t8
It can be. In addition, T2 shown in the above equation (8)
= 2.5 (t7 + t8 + t9) also t7 << t8, t9
<< From the relationship of t8, it becomes approximately 5/2 × t8, and approximately T6 + t
It becomes 8. In this way, when the transmission time of the sales data is sufficiently longer than the transmission time of the communication control command groups HS2 and HE2, the data transmission time can be shortened by about t8 hours as compared with the conventional transmission method.

In each of the above-mentioned embodiments, for convenience, the data transmission rate in the wireless section is set to 2 times the data transmission rate in the wired section.
In the above description, the number of divisions of the download data and the sales data is three, but the data transmission speed and the number of divisions are not limited to these numbers. Further, in each of the above embodiments, for the sake of convenience, regarding the data transmission speed in the wired section, the data transmission speed between the control device and the wireless master device and the data transmission speed between the wireless slave device and the POS terminal device are made the same. However, the present invention is not limited to this. In each of the above embodiments, the wireless POS system using the POS terminal device as the terminal device is described, but the present invention is not limited to this.

[0074]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a wireless system for arranging a wireless master device and a wireless slave device between a control device and a terminal device to perform data transmission by mixing wired communication and wireless communication, The data transmission time can be shortened, and the capacity of the memory used for buffering the received data provided in the wireless master device and the wireless slave device can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an entire wireless POS system showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a wireless master device and a wireless slave device in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a data transmission timing of each unit when transmitting download data from the control device to the POS terminal device in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a memory map for explaining the data writing and data reading operations of the reception buffer of the wireless master device in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a control unit P of a second embodiment of the present invention.
The figure which shows the data transmission timing of each part at the time of transmission of download data to an OS terminal device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a data transmission timing of each unit at the time of transmitting sales data from a POS terminal device to a control device according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a data transmission timing of each unit at the time of transmitting sales data from a POS terminal device to a control device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a wireless system showing a conventional example.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a wireless unit of the conventional example.

FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram showing a data transmission procedure of the conventional example.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a data transmission timing of each unit when transmitting download data from the control station to the vending machine of the conventional example.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a data transmission timing of each unit when transmitting sales data from the vending machine of the conventional example to the control station.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 ... Control device M1 to M3 ... Wireless master device S11 to S13, S21, S31 ... Wireless slave device T11 to T13, T21, T31 ... POS terminal device 21 ... Microprocessor

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A terminal device, a control device for controlling and managing the terminal device, a wireless master device connected to the control device via a wired communication cable, and a wireless master device connected to the terminal device and wirelessly connected to the wireless master device. In a wireless system comprising a wireless slave device that performs communication, a wireless system in which the data transmission speed in the wireless interval from the wireless master device to the wireless slave device is set higher than the data transmission speed in the wired interval from the control device to the wireless slave device, When the length of the transmission data transmitted from the control device to the terminal device via the wireless master device and the wireless slave device exceeds a predetermined length, the wireless master device transmits the data from the control device. Before receiving the data, the transmission data is divided into a predetermined length and wirelessly communicated to the wireless slave device, and the wireless slave device receives the divided transmission data from the wireless master device, This divided transmission data Data communication method of a radio system and transmits the data to the terminal device. 2. A terminal device, a control device for controlling and managing the terminal device, a wireless master device connected to the control device via a wired communication cable, and a wireless master device connected to the terminal device and wirelessly connected to the wireless master device. In a wireless system comprising a wireless slave device that performs communication, a wireless system in which the data transmission speed in the wireless interval from the wireless master device to the wireless slave device is set higher than the data transmission speed in the wired interval from the control device to the wireless slave device, If the length of transmission data to be transmitted to the terminal device via the wireless master device and the wireless slave device exceeds a predetermined length, the control device sets the transmission data to a predetermined length. Divide and transmit to the wireless base unit, the wireless base unit,
Each time the divided transmission data is received from the control device,
Wirelessly communicate the divided transmission data to the wireless slave device,
The data communication method for a wireless system, wherein the wireless slave device transmits the divided transmission data to the terminal device every time the divided transmission data is received from the wireless master device. 3. A terminal device, a control device for controlling and managing the terminal device, a wireless master device connected to the control device via a wired communication cable, and a wireless master device connected to the terminal device and wirelessly connected to the wireless master device. In a wireless system configured of a wireless slave device that performs communication, in which the data transmission speed of the wireless section from the wireless slave device to the wireless master device is set higher than the data transmission speed of the wired section from the terminal device to the wireless slave device, When the length of the transmission data transmitted from the terminal device to the control device via the wireless slave device and the wireless master device exceeds a predetermined length, the wireless slave device transmits the data from the terminal device. Before receiving the data, the transmission data is divided into a predetermined length and wirelessly communicated to the wireless master device, and the wireless master device receives the divided transmission data from the wireless slave device, This divided transmission data Data communication method of a radio system and transmits the data to the controller. 4. A terminal device, a control device for controlling and managing the terminal device, a wireless master device connected to the control device via a wired communication cable, and a wireless master device connected to the terminal device and wirelessly connected to the wireless master device. In a wireless system configured of a wireless slave device that performs communication, in which the data transmission speed of the wireless section from the wireless slave device to the wireless master device is set higher than the data transmission speed of the wired section from the terminal device to the wireless slave device, When the length of transmission data to be transmitted to the control device via the wireless slave device and the wireless master device exceeds a predetermined length, the terminal device sets the transmission data to a predetermined length. Divide and transmit to the wireless slave device, the wireless slave device,
Each time the divided transmission data is received from the terminal device,
This divided transmission data is wirelessly communicated to the wireless master device,
The data communication method of the wireless system, wherein the wireless master device transmits the divided transmission data to the control device every time the divided transmission data is received from the wireless slave device.