JPH11316667A - Printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing system with improved versatility and availability. SOLUTION: This printing system has plural printers 1-4 connected to a network such as LAN and a print server PC 6 connected to the network so as to enable connection to peripheral equipment through communication functions of TCP/IP and USB. On the network, the plural printers 1-4 connected through the USB or the like can be accessed from the network with the same IP address while performing TCP/IP-based communication with other client CPs only with one address as a computer. Thus, a program such as IP address lack (waste) caused by allocation of IP address of respective printers is solved. Further, since any network board is not required, production costs of the printers 1-4 can be reduced as well so that a printing system with improved versatility and availability can be provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing system applied to a printer, a network printer, and the like, and more particularly, to a multifunction peripheral having a printer function, a USB, and the like.
The present invention relates to a print system configured as a high-speed serial communication system using (Universal Serial Bus).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printing system, especially a laser printer (LP) for business use, has a T
CP / IP (Transport Control Protocol / Internet Pr
otocol). This allows
The printer can function independently without being connected to a host machine such as a PC. TCP / IP is an Internet standard compiled in RFC (Request for Comments) which is an Internet document.

In the general printing system of the prior art 1, when there is no printer having a plurality of paper output trays (bins), for example, when it is necessary to print a plurality of copies of one document, the output result is printed vertically and horizontally. The output is alternately output, or the output is shifted left and right.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 9-141975 discloses, as a second conventional example, a printer in which printers are connected in a daisy chain without being connected to a network.

[0005] As a third conventional example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-36474 discloses a printing system which realizes simultaneous printing (parallel printing) with all the printers connected to a network.

[0006]

However, the above conventional example has the following problems. In Conventional Example 1, it became more convenient by increasing the functions.
Address must be set, IP in office
This is one of the causes of address shortage. In recent years, laser printers (LP) for business use have
The ability to connect via CP / IP has become a well-known function.
As a result, conventionally, the printer can function independently without connecting to a host machine such as a PC. However, it is necessary to set an IP address for each printer, which is one of the causes of the shortage of the IP address in the office. There is a problem that has become.

[0007] In the second conventional example, a unique I / F device must be mounted on each printer in order to realize a daisy chain, and there is a problem that there is no versatility.

The prior art 3 is partially similar to the present invention, but is fundamentally different from the present invention in that the printer is controlled with a single IP address.

Therefore, in each of the above-described conventional examples, when there is no printer having a plurality of paper output trays (bins), for example, when it is necessary to print a plurality of copies of one document,
Some ideas have been devised, such as outputting the output result alternately vertically and horizontally, or shifting the output left and right. However, these methods are fundamentally sequential in order to print, and therefore physically take a long time. In addition, due to limitations in versatility, a plurality of printers cannot be handled equally, and there is a limit to increase the operation rate. With the problem.

[0010] It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing system having improved versatility and operation rate of a printer.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 comprises a plurality of peripheral devices connected to a network and a TCP / I connected to the network.
A computer having communication means for communicating by P and connection means connectable to peripheral devices by USB, and performing TCP / IP communication with another computer using only one IP address as a computer on a network, Connect multiple peripheral devices connected to USB to the same I
It is characterized in that it can be accessed from a network with a P address.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the peripheral device is a printer.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the printer can print a plurality of copies of the same document simultaneously in parallel.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, the printers are printers having different settings, and are referred to as one abstract and multifunctional printer from the network, whereas the printers are different from the network. When printing is requested, a printer most suitable for the requested printing conditions is selected and printing is enabled.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, an embodiment of a printing system according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 to 6, there is shown an embodiment of the printing system of the present invention. In these figures, FIG.
1 illustrates a configuration example of a print system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a print server PC applied to the print system of FIG. 3 to 6 are flowcharts for explaining an operation example.

In FIG. 1, a client PC 5 and a print server PC 6 are connected by a LAN, and the print server PC 6 and the printers 1 to 4 are connected by a USB network 7 or a USB root hub (USB ROOT HUB).

In the printing system configured as described above, the print server PC 6 is connected to the LAN network and receives a print request from the client PC 5. A USB root hub is attached to the print server PC6, and a USB port of each printer is connected to the USB root hub. In FIG. 1, four printers are connected as examples, and are named printer 1, printer 2, printer 3, and printer 4, respectively. These printers are connected to the client PC 5 on the LAN by the print server PC.
The printer can be referred to as a printer connected to the printer 6, and can be designated for printing. In FIG. 1, the USB root hub is described as a device external to the PC, but is actually internal, and in most cases, a controller is mounted on an LSI on the motherboard of the PC.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the print server PC6. The print server PC 6 of the present embodiment shown in FIG.
, A TCP / IP control unit 12, a printer list control unit 13, a distribution control unit 14, a USB I / F control unit 15, a printer mapping table 16, and a printer function information table 17. Be composed.

The LAN I / F control unit 11 performs physical control for connecting to the LAN and hardware control. The TCP / IP control unit 12 is a control unit that implements the TCP / IP protocol. In the present embodiment, control is performed using one IP address. However, the TCP / IP control unit 12 does not consider this, and performs only pure TCP / IP control.

The printer list control unit 13 has an enumeration function and detects how many printers are connected. After that, the detected printer, the printer name, and the index value of the printer information table 17 for registering the printer function are registered in the printer mapping table 16.

The distribution control unit 14 includes a client PC
5 determines which of the printers 1 to 4 should output the print request requested. USB I / F
The control unit 15 performs USB protocol control.

(Operation Example 1) FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing Operation Example 1 of the print system according to the embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 3, the client PC 5 acquires printer information from the print server PC 6 (Step S).
1). The client PC 5 issues a print request by designating a printer name (step S2). Print server PC6
Sends the printer name and print data to be printed to the client P
Receive from C5 (step S3). The USB address is obtained from the printer name using the index value of the printer function information table 17 in the printer mapping table 16 (step S4). USB based on USB address
Printing is performed via the I / F control unit 15 (step S
5).

FIG. 6 shows the procedure of steps S1, S11 and S21 of FIGS. 3 to 5 in more detail. In FIG. 6, in order for the client PC 5 to perform printing, it is necessary to obtain information on the printer connected to the print server PC 6. Therefore, a request for information acquisition is issued to the print server PC 6 via the USB network (TCP / IP) 7 (step S31).

It should be noted that the TCP / IP (Transp
ort Control Protocol / Internet Protocol is RFC (Request for Co
mments). In the present embodiment, a plurality of printers can be connected to a PC and controlled using a USB standardized as a high-speed serial bus, so that a plurality of printers can be used with one IP address.

In steps S32 to S36, the print server PC 6 executes the LAN I / F control 1
1. Client P via TCP / IP control unit 12
The printer list control unit 13 receives a printer information acquisition request from C5. Upon receiving the printer information acquisition request, the printer list control unit 13 refers to the printer mapping table 16 and refers to the printer function information table 17. Here, the printer mapping table 16 and the printer function information table 17 will be described.

Table 1 shows a configuration example of the printer mapping table 16. The printer mapping table 16 associates a printer name with an address on the USB, and also holds an index value of a field of the printer function information table 17 to refer to each function of the printer. A printer named “printer all” whose function information index is FF is a printer specified when the printer of the operation example 3 is abstracted.

[0027]

[Table 1]

Table 2 shows a configuration example of the printer function information table 17. The printer function information table 17 can be referred to by an index from the printer mapping table 16 as described above. The contents include the printer name, USB address, paper size of the first tray and the second tray for each index. Note that the example shown in Table 2 is merely an example, and the actual printer information is an unrealistic example because much more information should have been entered.

[0029]

[Table 2]

In Table 2, the fact that the contents of the indexes 01 and 04 are empty and the printer names and the USB addresses are irregular correspond to the USB hot swap (which can be inserted and removed while the PC is energized). Each time the printer cable is connected or disconnected, the table is rewritten each time, which indicates that the order is out of order or an entry is missing in the middle. Printer list control unit 13
Collects the information of this table and returns it to the client PC 5 (step S37).

The user of the client PC 5 selects a printer that meets the desired printing conditions from the returned information,
Determines the printer and print server P together with the output data
A print request is made to C6 (step S3).

[0032] The print server PC 6 is connected to the client P
The print data and the printer name received from C5 are received, the index value of the printer function information table 17 is calculated from the printer name by the printer list control unit 13, and the data is transferred to the distribution control unit 14 (step S4). The distribution control unit 14 instructs the printer specified from the index value to print through the USB I / F control unit 15 (step S5).

The printer connected in the system of the above-mentioned operation example 1 performs printing in parallel, even if it does not have a plurality of discharge bins, so that the printing speed is high and the output is also output to each printer. For this reason, there is no need for a troublesome operation such as sorting output documents stacked vertically and horizontally.

(Operation Example 2) FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing Operation Example 2 of the print system according to the embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 4, the details of the procedure of step S11 are the procedures shown in FIG. 4 and 6, it is assumed that an instruction to print a plurality of copies of an A4 document has been received from the client PC 5 (step S1).
1, Step S12, Step S13). The client PC 5 requests the printer name as “printer all”.

The print server PC 6 checks from the printer function information table 17 whether the A4 size can be printed (step S14). In this case, the printers 2 and 4 do not have the A4 size on the first tray and have the A4 size on the second tray.

Here, the distribution control unit 14 instructs the printers 1 and 3 to print on the first tray and the printers 2 and 4 to print on the second tray, and the USB I / F control unit 15
Print via. The parallel printing operation itself is U
Since it can already be realized as a function of the SB, it will not be described here.

In the second operation example, even when the printer connected in the system does not have a plurality of output bins, the printing is performed in parallel, so that the printing speed is high, and the output is also output to each printer. There is no need for troublesome work such as sorting output documents.

(Operation Example 3) FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing Operation Example 3 of the printing system according to the embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 5, the details of the procedure of step S11 are the procedures shown in FIG. 5 and 6, a client PC 5 sends a print server PC 6
It is assumed that the printer “Printer All”, which requests printing from any printer, is selected, and printing of B4 is requested (step S21, step S22,
Step S23).

In the print server PC 6, the printer list controller 13 selects the printer all in the printer mapping table 16. However, since the value of the function information index table 17 is FF, no printer is specified, and It is determined that a print with similar conditions is printed (step S24).

Next, the printing conditions are passed to the distribution control unit 14, and a printer capable of printing in B4 is searched. Then, since only the printer 2 is possible, printing is performed on the printer 2 (steps S25, S26, and S27).

The present embodiment can be easily realized by using a highly versatile USB device. Another object of the present invention is to connect printers in a daisy chain so as to stabilize the operation rate of the printers. Therefore, this is different from the conventional one in which a plurality of printers are controlled by one IP address.

Conventionally, the settings for printing have to be changed for each document or printer to be printed, which is cumbersome, and wasteful printing due to setting errors has occurred. However, according to the above operation example, a printer suitable for the most requested printing condition or a printer closest to the most requested printing condition is automatically selected from among a number of printers connected to the USB and printing is performed. You do not need to be aware of conditions.

The present invention can be easily realized by using a highly versatile USB. Another object of the present invention is to connect printers in a daisy chain so as to keep the operation rate of the printer constant. Therefore, this is different from the case where a plurality of printers can be controlled by one IP address.

[0044]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the print system of the present invention, a computer is connected to a USB or the like while performing TCP / IP communication with another computer using only one IP address as a computer. Since a plurality of connected peripheral devices can be accessed from the network with the same IP address, it is easy to use.

Further, according to the printing system of the present invention, the problem of shortage (wasting) of the IP address caused by assigning the IP address of each printer can be solved. In addition, since the printer does not require a network board, the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

According to the printing system of the present invention, since printing is performed in parallel, the printing speed can be dramatically improved. In addition, by using a plurality of printers each having only one paper output tray, a printer having a plurality of paper output trays can be substituted, thereby improving usability.

Further, according to the printing system of the present invention, the user of the printer can perform printing without setting detailed printing conditions for the printer, thereby reducing the burden on the user.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing a print system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a print server PC according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example 1 of the print system in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example 2 of the printing system in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example 3 of the print system in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a partial detailed operation example of operation examples 1, 2, and 3 according to the embodiment of the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1-4 printer 5 client PC 6 print server PC 11 LAN I / F control unit 12 TCP / IP control unit 13 printer list control unit 14 distribution control unit 15 USB I / F control unit 16 printer mapping table 17 printer information table

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A computer comprising: a plurality of peripheral devices connected to a network; a communication unit connected to the network for performing TCP / IP communication; and a connection unit connectable to the peripheral devices via a USB. On the network, the computer can be connected to another computer by using only one IP address.
A print system, wherein the plurality of peripheral devices connected to the USB are accessible from the network with the same IP address while performing CP / IP communication. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein said peripheral device is a printer. 3. The printing system according to claim 2, wherein the printer is capable of simultaneously printing a plurality of copies of the same document in parallel. 4. The printing system according to claim 2, wherein the printers are printers having different settings, are referred to from the network as one abstract and multifunctional printer, and request a print from the network. Then, a printing system that selects a printer most suitable for the requested printing conditions and enables printing.