JPH11355325A - Communication terminal and address display method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow a terminal on a TCP/IP network to confirm other terminal with a multicast address designated by a user. SOLUTION: Terminals 10-14 connect to a network 1 in compliance with the TCP/IP protocol. Each of the terminals 10-14 is provided with an entry section that enters a command to confirm a multicast group, a communication section that sends a multicast group confirmation packet in response to the command entered by the entry section, and receives an acknowledgement packet to the multicast group confirmation packet, and a CPU that extracts an IP address of a packet sender from the received acknowledgement packet and allows a display section to display information of the sender of the acknowledgement packet including the IP address.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to, for example, a communication terminal device and an address display method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, many terminals are connected to a network such as a LAN, and the number of terminals and the setting of multicast groups are frequently changed. It is very difficult to grasp in what group form the terminals are connected.

In a conventional network system,
The multicast address can be freely set and changed at each terminal. The multicast address is not managed collectively by the management server on the network, but the operator can determine which multicast address is set to which terminal, In other words, the only way for a person to check is to actually go to the position of each terminal, operate the terminal and display the routing table on the display screen of the monitor to check.

[0004]

However, in a network system in which terminals are frequently added or multicast group settings are changed, it is necessary for a person to look around and check the routing tables of all terminals on the network. Is a very time-consuming task,
There is a problem that confirmation may be omitted.

[0005] The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and one terminal on a TCP / IP network can confirm another terminal having a multicast address designated by the user. It is an object of the present invention to provide a communication terminal device and an address display method.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a communication terminal device according to the first aspect of the present invention comprises a TCP / IP
In a communication terminal device connected to a network conforming to a protocol, input means for inputting a command for confirming a multicast group, and transmitting a multicast group confirmation packet to the network in accordance with the command input by the input means Means to
Means for receiving a response packet to the multicast group confirmation packet, means for extracting a source IP address of the packet from the received response packet, and display means for displaying source information of the response packet including the extracted IP address Are provided.

According to the first and third aspects of the present invention, when a command for confirming a multicast group is input from the input means, a multicast group confirmation packet is transmitted to the network in accordance with the input command. Is done. When a response packet to the multicast group confirmation packet is received, the IP address of the packet transmission source is extracted from the response packet, and the transmission source information of the response packet including the IP address is displayed on the display means.

Accordingly, the user can know what other communication terminal device is in the same multicast group as his / her communication terminal device while staying at a certain communication terminal device.

[0009] The communication terminal device according to the second aspect of the present invention is a communication terminal device,
In a communication terminal device connected to a network conforming to the IP protocol, a means for receiving a packet from the network and the type of the received packet are determined, and if the packet is a multicast group confirmation packet, its own IP address is stored. Means for returning a response packet to the source of the multicast group confirmation packet.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when a multicast group confirmation packet is received from the network, a response packet storing its own IP address is returned to the source of the multicast group confirmation packet. From the terminal of the transmission source can automatically confirm the multicast group to other terminals.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication terminal apparatus comprising:
An input unit for inputting a command for confirming a multicast group in a communication terminal device connected to a network conforming to the IP protocol, and a multicast group confirmation packet transmitted to the network in response to the command input by the input unit Means for transmitting; means for receiving a packet from the network;
Packet determining means for determining the type of the received packet; and transmitting, when the packet determined by the packet determining means is a multicast group confirmation packet, a response packet storing its own IP address to the multicast group confirmation packet. Means for replying to the packet, means for extracting an IP address of a packet transmission source from the response packet when the packet determined by the packet determination means is a response packet to the multicast group confirmation packet, And display means for displaying transmission source information of the response packet including:

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an address display method comprising:
In an address display method for displaying an address on a communication terminal device connected to a network conforming to the P / IP protocol, a step of inputting a command for confirming a multicast group, and confirming a multicast group in accordance with the inputted command Transmitting a packet to the network, receiving the packet from the network, and determining a type of the received packet, if the packet is a response packet to the multicast group confirmation packet, the response packet Extracting the IP address of the packet transmission source from the server and displaying transmission source information of the response packet including the IP address.

In other words, according to the present invention, a user of a terminal on a network wants to know what other terminals belong to the same multicast group as his / her terminal and which terminals do not belong to the same multicast group as his / her own. In this case, by inputting a predetermined command to the terminal itself, the terminal transmits a multicast group confirmation packet to all terminals on the network. If there is a reply, the source IP
Display the address.

When a certain terminal on the network receives the multicast group confirmation packet, the terminal returns a response packet with its own IP address added to the transmission source. Information that the packet is a packet for confirmation is added to the multicast address confirmation packet.
Information indicating which packet is the reply is added to the reply packet to be returned.

Thus, one terminal on the TCP / IP network can confirm another terminal having a multicast address designated by the user.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a network system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the network system includes a network 1 having a plurality of network computers (hereinafter, referred to as terminals) 10-1 as communication terminals.
4 are connected.

The network 1 is, for example, a TC such as a LAN.
A network that conforms to the P / IP protocol.
Any type of physical layer can be used as long as the CP / IP protocol is implemented. The terminals 10 to 14 are terminals capable of transmitting and receiving the multicast group confirmation packet, and the terminal receiving the multicast group confirmation packet returns a response packet to this terminal. The terminal 10 is, for example, 224.
The terminal has a multicast address such as 2.224.2. The terminal 11 is a terminal to which the same multicast address as the terminal 10 is set. The terminal 13 has a multicast address different from that of the terminal 10, for example, 224.1.
The terminal is set to 224.1. The terminal 12 is a terminal to which the same multicast address as the terminal 10 is set. The terminal 14 is a terminal for which no multicast address is set.

As shown in FIG. 2, each of the terminals 10 to 14 comprises a ROM 2, a CPU 3, a RAM 4, an input unit 5, a display unit 6, a communication unit 7, a hard disk device 8, and the like. The ROM 3 stores an operating system (hereinafter referred to as an OS) or a program for booting the OS, a program for transmitting / receiving a multicast group confirmation packet and displaying an IP address according to the present invention, and the like. The CPU 3 reads the OS at the time of startup and expands the OS into the RAM 4, and thereafter reads each program of the ROM 3 and the hard disk device 8 into the RAM 4 and executes the processing of each program under the OS environment. The input unit 5 is an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse. The display unit 6 is a display device such as a monitor or an LCD. The communication unit 7 is a network communication interface such as a LAN interface card and a board. The hard disk device 8 stores an OS and various other application programs, and also stores various data.

Next, the operation of the network system will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an operation of transmitting a multicast address confirmation packet from a certain terminal, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an operation of returning a response packet from a terminal having the same multicast address.

First, the operation of transmitting a multicast address confirmation packet from the terminal 10 will be described with reference to FIG. For example, assuming that a terminal operated by a user who wants to check a multicast address is the terminal 10 shown in FIG. A command is input to the CPU 3 by pressing the confirmation execution button after selection and the like, and the CPU 3 specifies the own IP address 224.2.224.2 based on the input command. An address confirmation packet is generated, and the generated confirmation packet is passed to the communication unit 7. Then, a confirmation packet is transmitted from the communication unit 7 to the network 1 toward the multicast address to be confirmed (). When specifying the multicast address, it is not always necessary to match the multicast address set in the terminal 10 itself, and a completely different address may be specified. Since this confirmation packet is a multicast packet, only the terminal whose multicast address matches is received. In the example of FIG. 3, the terminal 10 itself and the terminal 11,
12 corresponds to this.

Next, the operation of returning a response packet from a terminal having the same multicast address will be described. When a packet is received from the network 1 in each of the terminals 10 to 14, the CPU 3 in each of the terminals 10 to 14 determines the type of the packet.

If the result of the determination is that the received packet is a multicast group confirmation packet, only terminals belonging to the same multicast group as the address specified in the confirmation packet perform reception processing, and the other terminals discard the received packet. In this case, the terminals in the same multicast group as the terminal 10 are the terminals 11 and 12, and therefore the terminals 10, 11, and 12 proceed to the reception processing.

Each of the terminals 10, 11, 12 generates a response packet storing its own IP address as a reply to the confirmation packet, and passes it to the communication unit 7. As a result, the response packet is returned via the network 1 to the terminal 10 that has transmitted the multicast group confirmation packet.

That is, the confirmation packet is transmitted to the terminals 10, 1
When received by the terminals 1 and 12, each of the terminals 10, 11 and 12 returns a response packet to the terminal 10 which is the transmission source of the confirmation packet, as shown in FIG. The terminal 10 that has transmitted the confirmation packet also internally returns a response packet ().

In the terminal 10, the communication unit 7 controls the network 1
, The CPU 3 determines the type of the packet.

If the result of the determination is that the received packet is a response packet to the multicast group confirmation packet, the CPU 3 determines from the response packet
The P address is extracted, and the extracted IP address is sent to the display unit 6.

That is, a response packet to the confirmation packet transmitted by itself, that is, the terminal 10, 1 to which the reply has arrived
The IP addresses 1 and 12 are displayed on the display screen of the own display device ().

As described above, according to the network system of the present embodiment, the user of a certain terminal 10 simply inputs an address on the terminal 10 used by himself and presses a confirmation button, so that the user can display on the display screen of the display device. Is displayed on the terminal (for example, IP addresses of the terminals 11 and 12) to which the same multicast address as that of the terminal 10 is set. A terminal having the same multicast address as 10 can immediately know which terminal on the network 1 is.

Thus, the user can easily confirm whether or not the state of the multicast group is correct (for example, whether or not a terminal unrelated to the group is present).

The present invention is not limited to only the above embodiment. In the above embodiment, the confirmation packet is transmitted by the multicast address. However, by transmitting this by broadcast, it is possible to confirm not only the designated multicast group but also the multicast group of the entire network. As a result, FIG.
In the example of FIG. 4, the multicast group of the terminal 13 can also be confirmed. Further, if the user knows only the locations of all the terminals connected on the network, the user can also know the terminal 14 which has not exclusively set the multicast group.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, when a command for confirming a multicast group is input at a certain terminal on the network, a multicast group confirmation packet is transmitted to the network, and the multicast group confirmation packet is transmitted. Extract the IP address of the packet source from the response packet to the packet
Since the information of the transmission source of the response packet including the P address is displayed, the user can know what other communication terminal is in the same multicast group as his own terminal while staying at a certain communication terminal. it can.

When the terminal on the network receives the multicast group confirmation packet, its own I
Since the response packet storing the P address is returned to the transmission source of the multicast group confirmation packet, the transmission source terminal of the multicast group confirmation packet can automatically confirm the multicast group to another terminal.

As a result, one terminal on the TCP / IP network can confirm another terminal having a multicast address designated by the user.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a terminal of the network system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an operation of transmitting a multicast address confirmation packet from a certain terminal in this network system.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an operation of returning a response packet from terminals having the same multicast address in this network system.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 network 2 ROM 3 CPU 4 RA
M, 5: input unit, 6: display unit, 7: communication unit, 8: hard disk drive, 10 to 14: terminal.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A communication terminal device connected to a network conforming to a TCP / IP protocol, comprising: input means for inputting a command for confirming a multicast group; and multicasting in response to a command input by the input means. Means for transmitting a group confirmation packet to the network; means for receiving a response packet to the multicast group confirmation packet; means for extracting an IP address of a packet transmission source from the received response packet; Display means for displaying transmission source information of the response packet. 2. A communication terminal device connected to a network conforming to the TCP / IP protocol, comprising: means for receiving a packet from the network; and determining the type of the received packet, and determining that the packet is a multicast group confirmation packet, Means for returning a response packet storing its own IP address to the source of the multicast group confirmation packet. 3. A communication terminal device connected to a network conforming to the TCP / IP protocol, comprising: input means for inputting a command for confirming a multicast group; and multicasting in response to the command input by the input means. Means for transmitting a group confirmation packet to the network; means for receiving a packet from the network; packet determination means for determining the type of the received packet; and a packet determined by the packet determination means is a multicast group confirmation packet. And means for returning a response packet storing its own IP address to the source of the multicast group confirmation packet; and determining whether the packet determined by the packet determination means corresponds to the multicast group confirmation packet. If the response packet is a response packet to be transmitted, there is provided means for extracting an IP address of a packet transmission source from the response packet, and display means for displaying transmission source information of the response packet including the extracted IP address. Communication terminal device. 4. An address display method for displaying an address on a communication terminal device connected to a network conforming to a TCP / IP protocol, comprising: a step of inputting a command for confirming a multicast group; Transmitting a multicast group confirmation packet to the network, receiving the packet from the network, and determining the type of the received packet. As a result, the packet is a response packet to the multicast group confirmation packet. A step of extracting an IP address of a packet transmission source from the response packet and displaying transmission source information of the response packet including the IP address.