KR100755711B1 - Apparatus and method for wireless communication - Google Patents

Abstract

A wireless communication device and a method are provided to reduce the quantity of operation and time consumed for controlling an apparatus under wireless network environment, and to confirm and control status and information on apparatuses easily which constitute a wireless network. A packet processor(1420) generates a control command packet which includes a control command that instructs operation of a slave apparatus searched by using a directional search signal. A wireless communication unit(1430) outputs a wireless signal which includes the control command packet in a direction that the search signal is outputted. A header area of the control command packet includes a destination address field where an address of the slave apparatus is set, and does not include a source address field where an address of a master apparatus(100) for sending the control command packet is set.

Description

Apparatus and method for wireless communication

1 is a diagram comparing the frequency band between the IEEE 802.11 standard and mmWave.

2 is a diagram illustrating a wireless network system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a diagram illustrating a control command packet according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a diagram illustrating a response packet according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a diagram illustrating a control command packet and a response packet including a packet identification field according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a view showing the shape of a beam generated according to an embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a diagram illustrating a beam steering state of an array antenna according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a process of searching for a wireless communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

9 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of searching for a wireless communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention from the standpoint of a slave device.

10 is a flowchart illustrating a UI providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

11 is a diagram illustrating a UI according to an embodiment of the present invention.

12 is a flowchart illustrating a control process of a slave device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

13 is a diagram illustrating a UI according to an embodiment of the present invention.

14 is a block diagram illustrating a master device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

15 is a block diagram illustrating a slave device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols on main parts of the drawings>

1410: storage unit 1420: packet processing unit

1430: wireless communication unit 1440: output direction control unit

1450: device information management unit 1460: calculation unit

1470: UI generation unit 1480: Display unit

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to wireless communications, and more particularly, to a wireless communication apparatus and method using a high frequency wireless signal having a wavelength in millimeters.

Networks are becoming wireless and researches on effective transmission methods in a wireless network environment have been conducted due to an increase in demand for transmission of multimedia data. Due to the nature of a wireless network in which a plurality of wireless communication devices share and use a given radio resource, it is likely that the increased competition will waste valuable radio resources due to collisions during communication. In order to reduce the collision or loss and to transmit and receive data stably, in a wireless LAN (wireless local area network) environment, a competitive-based distributed coordination function (DCF) or a contention-free point coordination function (PCF) In the wireless personal area network (PAN) environment, a time division scheme called channel time allocation is used.

Although such a method can be applied to a wireless network to reduce collisions to some extent and provide stable communication, there is still a high possibility of collision between transmission data compared to a wired network. This is because there are many elements in the wireless network environment that inherently interfere with stable communication such as multi-path, fading, and interference. In addition, as the number of wireless communication devices participating in the wireless network increases, the possibility of problems such as collisions and losses increases.

Such collisions require retransmissions that have a fatal adverse effect on the throughput of the wireless network. In particular, when better quality of service (QoS) is required, such as audio / video data (AV data), it is very important to secure more available bandwidth by reducing the number of retransmissions.

Furthermore, given the growing need for wireless transmission of high-quality video, such as digital video disk (DVD) video and high-definition television (HDTV) video, between various home devices, the high-quality video, which requires wide bandwidth, continues to be seamless. At this point, a technical standard for transmitting and receiving data is required.

Currently, a task group of IEEE 802.15.3c is pursuing a technical specification for transmitting a large amount of data in a wireless home network. This specification, called Millimeter Wave (mmWave), uses radio waves (ie, radio waves with frequencies between 30 GHz and 300 GHz) of millimeters in physical wavelengths for large data transmission. In the past, such a frequency band has been used as an unlicensed band for a limited number of purposes, such as for telecommunication carriers, radio astronomy, or vehicle collision prevention.

1 is a diagram comparing the frequency band between the IEEE 802.11 standard and mmWave. IEEE 802.11b and IEEE 802.11g have a carrier frequency of 2.4 GHz and a channel bandwidth of about 20 MHz. In addition, IEEE 802.11a and IEEE 802.11n have a carrier frequency of 5 GHz and a channel bandwidth of about 20 MHz. In contrast, mmWave uses a carrier frequency of 60 GHz and has a channel bandwidth of approximately 0.5 to 2.5 GHz. Therefore, mmWave has a much larger carrier frequency and channel bandwidth than the existing IEEE 802.11 standard.

On the other hand, in addition to a technique for increasing the data rate in a wireless network by securing sufficient bandwidth, a technique for reducing the amount of time and computation required to process data transmitted and received by a wireless communication device is also required. In particular, in the case of the AV devices constituting the AV network, the computational power is inferior to those of the PC-based devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to reduce the amount of time and computation required for controlling a device in a wireless network environment.

The objects of the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned objects, and other objects that are not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

In order to achieve the above object, the wireless communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of generating a control command packet including a control command for instructing the operation of the slave device, and transmitting the control command packet by wireless And the header area of the control command packet includes a destination address field in which the address of the slave device is set and does not include a source address field in which the address of the master device transmitting the control command packet is set.

In order to achieve the above object, a wireless communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of: receiving a control command packet including a control command at a predetermined time, generating a response packet to the control command packet, and the response packet Wirelessly transmitting the control command packet, wherein the header area of the control command packet includes a destination address field in which an address of a slave device receiving the control command packet is set, and an address of a master device transmitting the control command packet is set. It does not include the source address field that is set.

In order to achieve the above object, a wireless communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, a packet processing unit for generating a control command packet including a control command for instructing the operation of the slave device, and a radio for wirelessly transmitting the control command packet And a communication unit, wherein the header area of the control command packet includes a destination address field in which an address of the slave device is set, and does not include a source address field in which an address of a master device transmitting the control command packet is set.

In order to achieve the above object, a wireless communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a wireless communication unit for receiving a control command packet including a control command at a predetermined time and wirelessly transmitting a response packet corresponding to the control command packet; A packet processing unit for generating a response packet, wherein a header area of the control command packet includes a destination address field in which an address of a slave device receiving the control command packet is set, and an address of a master device transmitting the control command packet; Does not include the source address field being set.

Specific details of other embodiments are included in the detailed description and the drawings.

Advantages and features of the present invention and methods for achieving them will be apparent with reference to the embodiments described below in detail with the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below, but can be implemented in various different forms, and only the embodiments make the disclosure of the present invention complete, and the general knowledge in the art to which the present invention belongs. It is provided to fully inform the person having the scope of the invention, which is defined only by the scope of the claims. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a diagram illustrating a wireless network system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The illustrated wireless network system 10 includes one master device 100 and one or more slave devices 200.

The master device 100 performs a wireless communication using a high frequency radio signal having a wavelength in millimeters, such as a millimeter wave, and controls a slave device 200 in the vicinity.

The slave device 200 performs a wireless communication using a high frequency wireless signal having a wavelength in millimeters, such as a millimeter wave, and performs a predetermined operation according to a control command of the master device 100.

Preferably, the master device 100 and the slave device 200 may be AV devices configuring a wireless AV (Audio / Video) network. For example, the master device 100 may be a digital TV, and the slave device 200 may be a digital versatile disc player (DVD player), a personal video recorder (PVR), a set top box, or the like.

The master device 100 transmits a control command packet to control the slave device 200, and the slave device 200 transmits a response packet to the control command packet, and shows a schematic structure of the control command packet and the response packet. 3 and FIG. 4.

3 is a diagram illustrating a control command packet 300 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the control command packet 300 includes a header area 310 including information about the packet and a body area 320 including a control command to be transmitted.

The control command included in the body region 320 is a message instructing the slave device 200 to perform a predetermined operation. For example, when the slave device 200 is a PVR, the master device 100 includes a control command in the body area 320 instructing storage of the AV data in order to store the AV data in the slave device 200. Command packets can be generated.

The header area 310 includes a destination address field 312 in which an address of the slave device 200 to receive the control command packet 300 is set. However, unlike the conventional packet structure, the illustrated control command packet 300 does not have a source address field in which the address of the transmitting device, that is, the address of the master device 100 transmitting the control command packet 300 is set. Do not. According to an embodiment of the present invention, in a wireless network in which only one master device 100 outputting the control command packet 300 exists, the control command packet 300 may be included even if the source address field does not exist in the control command packet 300. This is because the slave device 200 that receives the message may know that the sender of the control command packet 300 is the master device 100.

4 is a diagram illustrating a response packet 400 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the drawing, the response packet 400 includes a header area 410 including information on the packet and a body area 420 including information required for an operation result or response to the control command. The header area 410 includes a source address field 412 in which the address of the slave device 200 that transmits the response packet 400 is set. However, unlike the conventional packet structure, the illustrated response packet 400 does not have a destination address field in which the address of the receiving device, that is, the address of the master device 100 to receive the response packet 400 is set. According to an embodiment of the present invention, in a wireless network in which only one master device 100 outputting the control command packet 300 exists, a destination address field does not exist in the response packet 400 for the control command packet 300. This is because the master device 100 and the slave device 200 may know who the receiver of the response packet 400 (that is, the master device 100) is.

As such, if only one of the source address and the destination address is set in the packet, the time and calculation amount required for the master device 100 and the slave device 200 to process the control command packet and the response packet can be reduced. In the case of the MAC frame (Medium Access Control frame) used in the IEEE 802.15.3 standard, in order to reduce the overhead of the system, a device ID (DevID) of 1 octet long is used instead of an 8 octet MAC address. As a result, it is possible to predict the efficiency of the control command packet 300 and the response packet 400 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Meanwhile, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the header areas 310 and 410 of the control command packet 300 and the response packet 400 are packet identification fields 314 and 414 indicating the type of packet as shown in FIG. ) May be further included. For example, 1 bit is allocated for the packet identification fields 314 and 414, and the packet identification fields 314 and 414 are respectively set to 0 in the control command packet 300 and 1 in the response packet 400, respectively. ) Can be set. Accordingly, the master device 100 and the slave device 200 can identify the control command packet 300 and the response packet 400 through the packet identification fields 314 and 414 of the packet received wirelessly.

According to an embodiment, two bits are allocated for the packet identification field, '00' is used for the control command packet 300, '01' is used for the response packet 400, and other conventional methods are used. By using # 11 for packets containing both source and destination addresses, as in the description, it is possible to identify the control command packet 300 and the response packet 400 used in the present invention.

Meanwhile, the high frequency radio signal having a wavelength in millimeters used by the master device 100 and the slave device 200 is preferably a signal of a communication band including 60 GHz as shown in FIG. 1. Since the high-frequency radio signal having a wavelength in millimeters has a short range, the master device 100 and the slave device 200 may form the radio signal as a sharp beam using an array antenna. . Since the formed beam has a pattern in which the radiant powers of the respective antenna elements forming the array antenna are combined, the reach distance is further increased.

Figure 6 shows the shape of the beam generated in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. As shown, a beam generated using an array antenna may include one main lobe 610 and one or more side lobes 620. Of these, the main lobe 610 is used as a main medium for transmitting necessary data. Of course, the side lobe 620 may also be used in some embodiments, but considering the purpose of increasing the reach, the side lobe 620 is not very valuable to use.

Considering the main lobe 610 mainly, the generated beam has directivity. In the case of the beam shown in FIG. 6, it can be seen that the intensity of a signal transmitted at a direction angle in a range of 120 degrees to 150 degrees among a direction angle range of 0 degrees to 360 degrees is maximized. As such, when the generated beam has directivity, a signal output by the transmitting device (which may correspond to both the master device 100 and the slave device 200) is output from the receiving device (master) located in the output direction of the beam from the transmitting device. Since both the device 100 and the slave device 200 may be applied to the device 100, the other receiving device may not receive a signal output from the transmitting device. Accordingly, the master device 100 and the slave device 200 may adjust the output direction of the beam 720 as shown in FIG. 7 by using a beam steering method. For reference, FIG. 7 illustrates only the main lobe of the beam output from the array antenna 710.

The master device 100 may search for slave devices 200 that exist in the vicinity by steering a beam having a directionality. Hereinafter, a process of searching for the slave device 200 by the master device 100 will be described.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a process of searching for a wireless communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The illustrated process is performed by the master device 100.

First, the master device 100 generates a search packet for searching for the slave device 200 (S810), and determines an output direction for outputting a wireless signal (S820). The output direction can be determined by adjusting the phase and amplitude for each antenna element constituting the array antenna. The temporal priority of the search packet generation process S810 and the output direction determination process S820 is not limited to the present invention.

Thereafter, the master device 100 generates a radio signal including a search packet (hereinafter referred to as a search signal) (S830), and outputs a search signal in the output direction determined in step S820 (S840).

The master device 100 that outputs the search signal waits for reception of a radio signal (hereinafter referred to as a response signal) including a response packet to the search packet until a predetermined time elapses (S850). If a response signal is received before a predetermined time elapses, the master device 100 maps the identifier of the slave device 200 that has transmitted the response signal and information on the direction in which the search signal is output and stores them (S860). . Here, the MAC address of the slave device 200 may be used as the identifier of the slave device 200. The information on the direction in which the search signal is output may be used for the phase and amplitude of the array antenna when the search signal is output in step S840. Information can be used.

Thereafter, the master device 100 determines whether a search signal is output in all directions that can be covered (S870). If there is a direction in which the search signal is not output, the master device 100 changes the output direction of the search signal by adjusting the phase and amplitude of the array antenna (S880) and outputs the search signal in the changed direction (S840). The master device 100 may change the output direction so that the output direction of the wireless signal increases or decreases by a predetermined angle.

If, as a result of the determination in step S870, the search signal is output in all the coverable directions, the master device 100 completes the search operation.

On the other hand, if a predetermined time elapses without receiving the response signal in step S850, the master device 100 determines whether the search signal is output in all the coverable direction (S870).

As a result of the search operation, the master device 100 may know in which direction the radio signal to be transmitted to the slave device 200 should be output later.

9 is a flowchart illustrating a process of searching for a wireless communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention from the standpoint of the slave device 200. According to the present embodiment, when the master device 100 operates as described with reference to FIG. 8, the operation process of the slave device 200 corresponding thereto is illustrated.

First, the slave device 200 waits to receive a search signal output from the master device 100 (S910). When the search signal is received (S920), the slave device 200 extracts a search packet from the search signal (S930). Upon receiving the search signal, the slave device 200 receives the same wireless signal having a different phase from each antenna element of the array antenna. In this case, the slave device 200 performs a discrete Fourier transform on the received wireless signal. The direction of arrival (DOA) can be calculated through the Discrete Fourier Transform. The slave device 200 may establish the directionality of the received signal through the combination of the amplitude and phase of the received wireless signal and optimize the array antenna in the corresponding direction.

The slave device 200 extracting the search packet from the received search signal generates a response packet corresponding to the search packet (S940), and generates a radio signal (the response signal described above) including the generated response packet (S950). .

Thereafter, the slave device 200 outputs a response signal (S960), and outputs the response signal in a direction in which the reception of the search signal is optimized. In order to establish the output direction of the response signal, the slave device 200 may adjust the phase and amplitude of the array antenna like the master device 100.

The search packet and the response packet used in FIGS. 8 and 9 are one of the control command packet 300 and the response packet 400 described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. Therefore, the header area of the search packet does not include a source address field, and a broadcast address may be set in the destination address field of the header area. In addition, the header area of the response packet does not include a destination address field, and the address of the slave device 200 may be set in the source address field of the header area.

Meanwhile, the master device 100 may collect information on the slave device 200 through the wireless communication device discovery process of FIGS. 8 and 9. The information on the slave device 200 includes location information, an operation state, a communication state, and the like of the slave device 200. Accordingly, the master device 100 that collects information about the slave device 200 may provide a user interface (UI) for guiding control of the wireless network system using the collected information.

10 is a flowchart illustrating a UI providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, when a UI request is input from a user (S1010), the master device 100 performs a search operation on the slave device 200 included in the wireless network system 10 (S1020). Detailed operations of the master device 100 and the slave device 200 for the searching operation are as described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9.

The master device collects information on the slave device 200 through the response signal received from the slave device 200 in the search operation (S1030), and generates a UI using the collected information (S1040). Thereafter, the master device 100 displays the generated UI to the user (S1050). Of course, since the master device 100 may generate the UI by using the result of the search operation previously performed, the input process (S1010) of the UI request must always be ahead of time (S1020) to perform the search operation. It is not.

The UI according to an embodiment of the present invention may include location information, operation state information, and communication state information about the slave device 200. The operation state may be obtained from a response packet transmitted from the slave device 200. That is, the slave device 200 responds to the discovery packet of the master device 100 with its own address, device type (PVR, set-top box, etc.), and operation status (pause, play, power on / off, etc.). Information may be included, and the master device 100 may obtain such information by analyzing a response packet.

In addition, information on the communication state of the slave device 200 may be calculated through a response signal received from the slave device 200. For example, the master device 100 may determine a communication state by measuring a reception strength of a response signal and a signal to noise ratio (SNR), and comparing the measurement result with a predetermined threshold. In this case, the threshold value may be information set based on the test result by measuring the strength of the signal received from the slave device 200 and the communication quality according to the SNR through a preliminary experiment.

The location information of the slave device 200 includes distance information of the slave device 200 spaced apart from the master device 100 and direction information of the slave device 200 based on the master device 100. 11 illustrates a UI 1100 according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which distance information is displayed as text 1110. The distance information may be determined by comparing the reception strength of the response signal received from the slave device with predetermined thresholds previously stored. Here, the threshold value may be information set based on measurement results by measuring the separation distance of the slave device 200 to the reception strength of the response signal in a general environment through a preliminary experiment. In addition, as described above, the UI 1100 of FIG. 11 provides information about an operation state or a communication state of the slave device 200.

In addition, the direction information among the location information may be graphically represented so that the user intuitively knows the arrangement state between the master device 100 and the slave device 200. The UI 1100 illustrated in FIG. 11 includes an icon 1120 representing the master device 100 and an icon 1130 representing the slave device 200, and the icons 1120 and 1130 represent the wireless network system 10. ) Is disposed on the UI 1100 to correspond to a physical arrangement structure of the master device 100 and the slave devices 200. In this case, the information stored in process S860 of FIG. 8 may be used for direction information of the slave device 200 based on the master device 100. For reference, the UI 1100 of FIG. 11 is written to correspond to an arrangement structure of the master device 100 and the slave device 200 in the wireless network system 10 shown in FIG. 2.

The user may control the wireless network system 10 through the UI provided by the master device 100, and a process thereof is illustrated in FIG. 12.

12 is a flowchart illustrating a control process of a slave device 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

When the user selects the desired slave device 200 through the UI (S1210), the master device 100 checks whether the communication state with the selected slave device 200 is good (S1220).

If the communication state is good, the master device 100 generates a control command packet including control information requested by the user for the slave device 200 (S1230), and transmits it to the slave device 200 (S1240). For example, when a user selects a DVD player and requests playback of predetermined content, the master device 100 may generate a control command packet instructing playback of the content, convert it into a wireless signal, and transmit the same to a DVD player. have.

However, if the communication state with the selected slave device 200 is not satisfactory as a result of the check in step S1220, the master device 100 may provide the user with information indicating that the communication state with the slave device 200 is not good and a necessary countermeasure. (S1250), an example of which is illustrated in FIG. 13.

In FIG. 13, the master device 100 detects an obstacle between the master device 100 and the slave device 200 in order to solve the problem and information that the communication status of the selected slave device 200 (PVR in FIG. 13) is not good. The warning window 1310 is instructed to remove. This information allows the user to check the network status and take action as necessary.

Hereinafter, the configuration of the master device 100 and the slave device 200 performing the above-described operation will be described.

14 is a block diagram illustrating a master device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The illustrated master device 100 includes a storage unit 1410, a packet processor 1420, a wireless communication unit 1430, an output direction controller 1440, a device information manager 1450, a calculator 1460, and a user interface (UI). ) A generation unit 1470, and a display unit 1480.

The storage unit 1410 stores information on an output direction managed by the device information manager 1450 and an identifier of a wireless communication device mapped thereto. The storage unit 1410 may be a nonvolatile memory device such as a ROM, a PROM, an EPROM, an EEPROM, a flash memory, or a volatile memory device such as a RAM, or a hard disk. , A storage medium such as an optical disk, or any other memory known in the art.

The packet processor 1420 generates a search packet and provides it to the wireless communication unit 1430. Before providing the search packet to the wireless communication unit 1430, the packet processing unit 1420 may check whether there is a direction in which the search signal is not output through the output direction control unit 1440, and if there is a direction in which the search signal is not output, If so, the packet processor 1420 notifies the output direction control unit 1440 that the search signal is output while providing the search packet to the wireless communication unit 1430.

In addition, the packet processor 1420 analyzes the response packet provided from the wireless communication unit 1430 and extracts various necessary information. For example, the packet processor 1420 may extract information about the slave device from the response packet corresponding to the search packet.

The search packet generated by the packet processor 1420 is a kind of control command packet described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 5, and the packet processor 1420 is another type for controlling the operation of the slave device 200 in addition to the search packet. A control command packet can be generated.

The wireless communication unit 1430 generates and outputs a radio signal including a packet provided from the packet processing unit 1420. In addition, the wireless communication unit 1430 receives a response signal transmitted from the slave device, and transmits a response packet included in the response signal to the packet processing unit 1420. To this end, the wireless communication unit 1430 generates a baseband processor for processing the baseband signal, and generates an actual radio signal from the processed baseband signal and transmits the generated radio signal through the antenna 1434. It may be subdivided into a radio frequency (RF) processor 1434 for transmitting to the air.

More specifically, the baseband processor 1432 performs frame formatting, channel coding, and the like, and the RF processor 1434 operates analog wave amplification, analog / digital signal conversion, and modulation. Do this. On the other hand, the antenna 1434 is preferably configured as an array antenna to enable beam steering. The array antenna may be in the form of a plurality of antenna elements arranged in a line. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, the array antenna may be composed of a plurality of antenna elements arranged in a two-dimensional matrix form, in which case more precise and three-dimensional beam steering is possible.

The RF processor 1434 tunes the amplitude and phase of each antenna element constituting the array antenna 1434 using information on the output direction provided from the output direction controller 1440 before transmitting the radio signal. The direction of the radio signal to be output can be established.

The device information manager 1450 maps the identifier of the slave device that has transmitted the response packet corresponding to the search packet and the information on the output direction of the search signal, and stores the information in the storage unit 1410. In this case, the identifier of the slave device 200 may be provided from the packet processor 1420 analyzing the response packet, and information about the output direction may be provided from the output direction controller 1440. If the information on the new output direction is provided from the output direction controller 1440 without providing the identifier of the slave device 200 from the packet processor 1420 while the information on the output direction is provided, the device information management unit ( 1450 may discard the information on the output direction that was previously provided.

The output direction controller 1440 determines a direction in which the radio signal is output, and provides information on the determined output direction to the wireless communication unit 1430 (more specifically, the RF processor 1434). In addition, the output direction controller 1440 provides the device information manager 1450 with information about the output direction of the search signal.

The output direction controller 1440 may be notified whether or not the search signal is output from the packet processor 1420, and when notified that the search signal is to be output, the output direction controller 1440 may provide information about the output direction.

When there is a packet to be transmitted to a specific slave device 200 while the master device 100 completes the search operation of the wireless communication device, the packet processing unit 1420 sends the device information manager 1450 of the slave device 200. You can request the retrieval of information about the output direction while sending the identifier. The device information manager 1450 may search the storage unit 1410 for information on an output direction mapped to the identifier of the slave device 200, and provide the information to the output direction controller 1440.

At this time, the output direction controller 1440 provides information on the output direction to the wireless communication unit 1430, and the wireless communication unit 1430 uses the information on the output direction provided from the output direction control unit 1440 to process the packet. It is possible to establish the directionality of the wireless signal including the data transferred from 1420. Accordingly, the master device 100 may transmit necessary data to the destination wireless communication device using the directional radio signal.

The calculation unit 1460 measures the signal strength or the SNR of the response signal received by the wireless communication unit 1430 from the slave device 200, and determines the communication state and the separation distance of the slave device 200 based on the measurement result. Calculate Thereafter, the calculator 1460 may obtain the communication state and the separation distance of the slave device 200 by comparing the calculation result with a predetermined threshold stored in advance.

The UI generator 1470 generates a UI based on information about the slave device 200 according to a user's request. An embodiment of the UI generated by the UI generator 1470 is as described with reference to FIGS. 11 and 13. Information on the slave device 200 necessary for generating the UI may be obtained from the packet processor 1420 and the calculator 1460. The UI generated by the UI generator 1470 may be provided to the user through a predetermined display (not shown).

15 is a block diagram illustrating a slave device 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The illustrated slave device 200 includes a storage unit 1510, a packet processor 1520, a wireless communication unit 1530, and an output direction control unit 1540. The components of the slave device 200 are similar to those of the master device 100. However, since the slave device 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention has been described mainly for performing a predetermined task or sending a response packet according to the control command packet received from the master device 100, the master device The calculator 1460, the UI generator 1470, and the display 1480 that are present at 100 are not essential to the slave device 200. Hereinafter, components of the slave device 200 having a difference from the master device 100 will be described. Other non-mentioned descriptions may be understood with reference to the description of the master device 100.

The storage unit 1510 may store various AV data such as music, movies, and images.

The packet processor 1520 analyzes the control command packet provided from the wireless communication unit 1530 and generates a response packet corresponding thereto. The generated response packet is provided to the wireless communication unit 1530. The structure of the response packet generated by the packet processor 1520 is as described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

In addition, the packet processor 1520 controls the operation of the slave device 200 according to the control command included in the control command packet. If a search packet, which is a kind of control command packet, is received, the packet processor 1520 may provide information about the slave device 200 such as an address, a device type, and an operation state of the slave device 200 when generating a response packet to the search packet. Can be included in the response packet.

The wireless communication unit 1530 receives a wireless signal transmitted from the master device 100, extracts a control command packet from the wireless signal, and provides the packet to the packet processing unit 1530. In addition, the wireless communication unit 1530 generates a wireless signal including a response packet provided from the packet processing unit 1520 and outputs it to the air. Upon reception of the radio signal, the radio communication unit 1530 may optimize the antenna 1536 to establish a reception direction of the radio signal. Here, the antenna 1536 is an array antenna.

Meanwhile, the output direction controller 1540 manages information on the direction in which the radio signal is received, and outputs a radio signal corresponding to the received radio signal (for example, a response signal) in a direction corresponding to the reception direction of the radio preference. Control the wireless communication unit 1530 to be.

In the above description, '~ part' referring to components of the master device 100 and the slave device 200 may be implemented as a kind of module. Herein, the term 'module' refers to a hardware component such as software or a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and a module plays a role. However, modules are not meant to be limited to software or hardware. The module may be configured to be in an addressable storage medium and may be configured to execute one or more processors. Thus, as an example, a module may include components such as software components, object-oriented software components, class components, and task components, and processes, functions, properties, procedures, subroutines. , Segments of program code, drivers, firmware, microcode, circuits, data, databases, data structures, tables, arrays, and variables. The functionality provided by the components and modules may be combined into a smaller number of components and modules or further separated into additional components and modules.

Although embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may implement the present invention in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features thereof. You will understand that. Therefore, it should be understood that the embodiments described above are exemplary in all respects and not restrictive.

According to the wireless communication apparatus and method of the present invention as described above has one or more of the following effects.

First, there is an advantage of reducing the time and the amount of computation required to control the device in a wireless network environment.

Second, there is also an advantage that can easily check and control the information and status of the devices constituting the wireless network.

Claims (28)

As a wireless communication method of the master device, Outputting a search signal including a search packet in a predetermined direction; Receiving a response signal including a first response packet to the search packet from a slave device; Generating a control command packet including a control command instructing an operation of the slave device; And Outputting a first radio signal including the control command packet in a direction in which the search signal is output; And the header area of the control command packet includes a destination address field to which the address of the slave device is set and does not include a source address field to which the address of the master device is set. The method of claim 1, Receiving a second radio signal including a second response packet to the control command packet from the slave device; And Processing the second response packet further; And the header area of the second response packet includes a source address field in which an address of the slave device is set and does not include a destination address field in which the address of the master device is set. The method of claim 1, The header area of the control command packet further includes a packet type field indicating whether the packet includes any one of the destination address field and the source address field or a packet including both the destination address and the source address field. Wireless communication method. The method of claim 1, And the channel through which at least one of the search signal, the response signal, and the first wireless signal is transmitted comprises a 60 GHz band. The method of claim 1, And providing a predetermined user interface using information on the slave device obtained through the response signal. The method of claim 5, The user interface includes at least one of an icon corresponding to the master device, an icon corresponding to the slave device, location information on the slave device, a communication state with the slave device, and an operation state of the slave device. Wireless communication method. The method of claim 6, The arrangement structure of the icon corresponding to the master device and the icon corresponding to the slave device corresponds to the arrangement structure between the master device and the slave device. The method of claim 6, Providing the user interface comprises measuring the communication state using at least one of a reception strength and an SNR of the response signal. As a wireless communication method of a slave device, Receiving a search signal comprising a search packet; Outputting a response signal including a first response packet to the search packet in a direction in which the search signal is received; Receiving a first radio signal comprising a control command packet comprising a predetermined control command; Generating a second response packet to the control command packet; And Outputting a second radio signal including the second response packet in a direction in which the first response signal is transmitted; And the header area of the control command packet includes a destination address field to which the address of the slave device is set and does not include a source address field to which the address of the master device transmitting the control command packet is set. The method of claim 9, And the header area of the second response packet includes a source address field in which an address of the slave device is set and does not include a destination address field in which the address of the master device is set. The method of claim 9, The header area of the second response packet is a packet type field indicating whether the packet includes any one of the destination address field and the source small and medium field, or a packet including both the destination address field and the source address field. Further comprising, a wireless communication method. The method of claim 9, And the channel through which at least one of the search signal, the response signal, the first radio signal, and the second radio signal is transmitted comprises a 60 GHz band. The method of claim 9, And the second response packet includes information about the slave device. The method of claim 13, The information on the slave device includes at least one of an address, a type, and an operating state of the slave device. A packet processing unit for generating a control command packet including a control command for instructing an operation of the found slave device using the directional search signal; And A wireless communication unit configured to output a wireless signal including the control command packet in a direction in which the search signal is output; And the header area of the control command packet includes a destination address field to which the address of the slave device is set and does not include a source address field to which the address of the master device transmitting the control command packet is set. The method of claim 15, When the wireless communication unit receives a response signal including a response packet to the control command packet from the slave device, the packet processing unit analyzes the response packet to extract predetermined information, And the header area of the response packet includes a source address field in which the address of the slave device is set, and does not include a destination address field in which the address of the master device is set. The method of claim 15, The header area of the control command packet may include a packet type field indicating whether the packet includes any one of the destination address field and the source address field or a packet including both the destination address field and the source address field. Further comprising a wireless communication device. The method of claim 15, And the channel on which at least one of the search signal and the wireless signal is transmitted comprises a 60 GHz band. The method of claim 15, If the wireless communication unit receives a response signal to the search signal from the slave device, further comprising a user interface generation unit for generating a predetermined user interface using the information on the slave device obtained through the response signal; , Wireless communication device. The method of claim 19, The user interface includes at least one of an icon corresponding to the master device, an icon corresponding to the slave device, location information on the slave device, a communication state with the slave device, and an operation state of the slave device. Wireless communication device. The method of claim 20, The arrangement structure of the icon corresponding to the master device and the icon corresponding to the slave device corresponds to the arrangement structure between the master device and the slave device. The method of claim 20, And a calculator configured to measure the communication state using at least one of a reception strength and an SNR of the response signal. Receiving a search signal including a search packet, outputting a response signal including a first response packet to the search packet in a direction in which the search signal is received, and including a control command packet including a predetermined control command; A wireless communication unit for receiving a wireless signal and outputting a second wireless signal including a second response packet corresponding to the control command packet in a direction in which the response signal is output; And A packet processing unit configured to generate the first response packet and the second response packet; The header area of the control command packet includes a destination address field in which an address of a slave device receiving the control command packet is set and does not include a source address field in which an address of a master device transmitting the control command packet is set. Wireless communication device. The method of claim 23, wherein And the header area of the second response packet includes a source address field in which the address of the slave device is set, and does not include a destination address field in which the address of the master device is set. The method of claim 23, wherein The header area of the second response packet is a packet type field indicating whether the packet includes any one of the destination address field and the source address field or a packet including both the destination address field and the source address field. The wireless communication device further comprises. The method of claim 23, wherein And the channel through which at least one of the search signal, the response signal, the first radio signal, and the second radio signal is transmitted comprises a 60 GHz band. The method of claim 23, wherein And the second response packet includes information about the slave device. The method of claim 27, The information on the slave device includes at least one of an address, a type, and an operating state of the slave device.

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