KR101406490B1 - Communication apparatus for connecting access point and control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a communication terminal connected to a wireless LAN connection device and a control method thereof. A control method of a communication terminal according to the present invention includes: storing first wireless LAN access device information; Determining whether a connection to a first WLAN access device using the stored first WLAN access device information is possible if a preset event is detected in a state of being connected to a predetermined second WLAN access device; If the signal strength of the first WLAN access point is lower than the signal strength of the second WLAN access point when the connection to the first WLAN access point is possible, And a step of switching.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a communication terminal connected to a wireless LAN access device and a control method thereof,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a communication terminal and a control method thereof, and more particularly to a communication terminal and a control method thereof that can be connected to a local area wireless LAN access device.

Generally, a communication terminal can access a mobile communication network via a base station, but can also perform data communication by accessing a wireless LAN access device (e.g., an access point (AP)).

That is, the user of the communication terminal can access the Internet network through the short-range wireless LAN access device in the same manner as the WIFI to receive the web surfing or other necessary services.

In this way, when a user accesses a wireless LAN access device through a communication terminal and communicates, it is advantageous in that it is cheaper than data communication through a mobile communication network.

However, a plurality of wireless LAN access devices may exist in the vicinity of the communication terminal. The user may manually select any one of them to connect to the communication terminal, but the communication terminal may automatically select any one of them and connect .

However, the conventional communication terminal has used the signal strength of each wireless LAN access device to automatically connect to the wireless LAN access device.

For example, if there are two wireless LAN access devices AP1 and AP2 in the vicinity, the signal strengths of the communication terminals AP1 and AP2 are compared with each other, and an AP having a larger signal strength is selected. When the signal strength of the AP 1 is lower than a preset threshold even when the AP 1 is connected to the AP 1, the communication terminal re-scans (searches for neighboring APs). If the signal strength of the AP 2 is higher than that of the AP 1 And performs connection switching to AP2.

However, performing the access switching only on the basis of the signal strength of the AP is problematic in that it is not practically appropriate in a situation in which the mobile station moves within a predetermined short radius (for example, in-house) and makes a call.

For example, when a user communicates in a room away from the AP1 provided in the house, the user is close to the AP2 located next to the home or near the home.

In this case, even if the AP1 has a small signal strength, when there are many people using AP2, it may be more advantageous to use AP1 in terms of communication quality than AP2.

However, if the connection switching is performed on condition that only the signal strength of the AP is used as in the conventional case, the user will use the AP having a deteriorated communication quality.

Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem [8] The present invention has been made to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages of the related art, and its object is to provide a communication terminal that enables connection switching according to various conditions without depending on signal strength only when a plurality of APs are nearby, .

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication terminal comprising: a storage unit for storing first wireless LAN access point information; An event detection unit for detecting an event occurring according to a predetermined condition; A connection processing unit for connecting to the wireless LAN connection device; When the predetermined event is detected in the event detection unit in a state where the connection processing unit is connected to a predetermined second wireless LAN connection apparatus, the connection processing unit is connected to the first wireless LAN access apparatus using the first wireless LAN access apparatus information stored in the storage unit A judging unit for judging connection possibility; If the signal strength of the first WLAN access point is lower than the signal strength of the second WLAN access point, if the connection to the first WLAN access point is possible as a result of the determination, And a connection switching control section for controlling connection switching to the wireless LAN connection device.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a communication terminal, the method comprising: storing first wireless LAN access point information; Determining whether a connection to a first WLAN access device using the stored first WLAN access device information is possible if a preset event is detected in a state of being connected to a predetermined second WLAN access device; If the signal strength of the first WLAN access point is lower than the signal strength of the second WLAN access point when the connection to the first WLAN access point is possible, .

As described above, according to the present invention, when the user performs communication while moving freely in the home, the connection to the wireless LAN access device is switched according to a predetermined priority level instead of only the strength of the signal, The average communication quality during the entire time can be increased.

That is, it is possible to switch the wireless LAN connection according to a predetermined priority than the intensity of the signal, thereby realizing a substantial sensory communication quality.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a total communication configuration including a communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention,
2 is a functional block diagram of the communication terminal of FIG. 1,
3 is a signal flow diagram of an overall communication configuration including a communication terminal in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

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

The overall communication network configuration including the communication terminal 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is as shown in FIG.

That is, the entire communication network includes the communication terminal 100, the first access point 210 (access point), and the second access point 220 (access point).

Here, the first AP 210 and the second AP 220 correspond to a local area wireless LAN access device, and are devices configured to communicate with the communication terminal 100, allocate a wireless channel, and communicate with the corresponding communication terminal 100 . Although not shown in FIG. 1, the WLAN access device can be connected to the Internet network, and in this case, the WLAN access device 100 can support communication with a predetermined server of the Internet network through a wireless section.

The wireless LAN access device has a connection ID that can specify the wireless LAN access device to support the connection of the communication terminal 100 as described above. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the first AP 210 may have MAC ID 123B as a home ID and U + 070 as a common ID, as shown in FIG. 1, for example. And the second AP 220 may have MAC_123C as a home ID and U + 070 as a common ID.

Here, the home ID corresponds to an ID for exclusive use by a specific user, and the public ID corresponds to an ID that can be used by any general user. In this embodiment, the public ID corresponds to the first AP 210, (220), it is needless to say that the common ID may be set differently for each AP.

A wireless LAN access device (AP) that provides a communication connection service to the communication terminal 100 through the wireless section is only known, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In this embodiment, both the first AP 210 and the second AP 220 are provided in the house. The first AP 210 is a device provided in the house where the user of the communication terminal 100 lives, 2 < / RTI > AP 220 is a device provided next to a user of the communication terminal 100. [

Meanwhile, the communication terminal 100 includes an apparatus for forming a communication channel with an AP according to a user's operation as described above. For example, the communication terminal 100 may correspond to a mobile phone, a smart phone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), and the like.

The communication terminal 100 may include a storage unit 110, an event detection unit 120, a connection processing unit 130, a determination unit 140, and a connection switching control unit 150 as shown in FIG. have.

The storage unit 110 stores access device information of the first AP 210. For example, only the home ID (i.e., MAC_123B) information of the connection IDs held by the first AP 210 may be stored in the storage unit 110. [

As another example, the home ID (MAC_123B) and the public ID (U + 070) may be stored with priority. For example, the home ID (MAC_123B) may be stored in the first storage unit 110 and the public ID (U + 070) may be stored in the second storage unit 110 in the second order.

The event detection unit 120 detects an event occurring according to a predetermined condition, wherein the event is generated according to at least one of a predetermined time, a call start, a call termination, a message transmission, and a message reception .

The connection processing unit 130 performs a function of connecting to the wireless LAN connection device. At this time, the connection processing unit 130 can select and connect to the connection ID of the wireless LAN connection device. For example, the connection processing unit 130 can find a home ID (MAC_123B) and a common ID (U + 070) included in the first AP 210 through searching for a neighboring AP. Among the home IDs (MAC_123B) To access the first AP 210. The connection processing unit 130 may connect to the second AP 220 instead of the first AP 210. For example, the communication terminal 100 may be connected to the second AP 220 more proximately It is possible to connect to the second AP 220.

The process of selecting and using the connection ID of the wireless LAN access point by the communication terminal 100 is a known technology, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

When the connection processing unit 130 is connected to the second AP 220 and the predetermined event not related to the signal strength of the second AP 220 is detected by the event detection unit 120, And determines the possibility of access to the first AP 210 using the first AP 210 information stored in the storage unit 110.

For example, when a predetermined home ID (MAC_123B) is stored in the storage unit 110, the determination unit 140 determines the possibility of access to the first AP 210 using the home ID (MAC_123B).

As another example, when a predetermined home ID (MAC_123B) and a public ID (U + 070) are stored in the storage unit 110 in order (priority), the determination unit 140 determines the order (U + 070) to the first AP 210 using the corresponding home ID (MAC_123B) according to the public ID (U + 070).

For example, the determination unit 140 may determine whether there is an access point in the vicinity of the AP. If the same AP as the home ID stored in the scan result storage unit 110 is found, The AP 140 determines that the AP access using the home ID is possible.

Here, the first AP 210 may provide all of its own plurality of connection IDs in response to a request from the communication terminal 100 in a state that the first AP 210 has a plurality of connection IDs. At this time, It is judged that the connection ID of the AP is a separate AP, and connection can be attempted.

That is, in reality, they are connected to the same AP. However, when there are a plurality of connection IDs supported by the corresponding AP, the communication terminal 100 can access the corresponding AP by using the respective connection IDs.

The connection switching control unit 150 determines that the connection processing unit 130 is connected to the first AP 210 from the currently connected second AP 220 when the determination unit 140 determines that the connection processing unit 130 can access the first AP 210. [ And performs a function of controlling the switching.

At this time, the connection switching control unit 150 controls to switch the connection to the first AP 210 even if the signal strength of the first AP 210 is smaller than the signal strength of the second AP 220. [ This is a big difference from the conventional method of switching connection to an AP having a strong signal strength only based on AP signal strength.

The connection switching control unit 150 compares the signal strength of the first AP 210 that can be connected with a predetermined minimum threshold value and if the signal strength of the first AP 210 is greater than a predetermined minimum threshold The connection processing unit 130 may control to switch the connection to the first AP 210. [

The user of the communication terminal 100 can be connected to the second AP 220 provided at the next door instead of being connected to the first AP 210 provided in the home when communicating (or communicating) while moving in the house.

However, the connection to the second AP 220 provided in the neighboring house is performed by using a public ID (U + 070) which can be freely used by several persons. However, in the case of communicating while moving (moving around in a room) in the house, it is more excellent in terms of average communication efficiency to connect to the AP provided in the home rather than to access and communicate with the AP provided at the next house or other home.

Therefore, if it is possible to communicate as much as possible, it is possible to increase the satisfaction of the user's communication quality by switching to the first AP 210 provided in the home based on the priority, will be.

That is, the communication terminal 100 transmits the home ID (i.e., MAC_123B) based on the information stored in the storage unit 110, rather than the connection ID (i.e., the second AP 220 connection through the U + 070) It is confirmed that there is a priority and the first AP 210 is accessed by using the corresponding home ID (i.e., MAC_123B).

The communication terminal 100 scans (searches) the surrounding AP every time a specific event occurs, such as when a predetermined time is reached or when a call is terminated, thereby causing the first AP 210 (or the first AP 210) (I.e., the connection ID provided by the terminal 210).

Hereinafter, a control procedure of the communication terminal 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

First, it is assumed that the first AP 210 information is stored in the communication terminal 100 such that the priority of the first AP 210 is higher than that of the second AP 220 (step S1). At this time, the communication terminal 100 may not store the second AP 220 information at all but only the first AP 210 information in a first place.

The communication terminal 100 connects to the second AP 220 to perform communication (step S3). When a specific event (for example, communication termination through the second AP 220) has occurred (step S5) The AP 100 scans (searches) the surrounding APs (step S7). At this time, the communication terminal 100 may search only the first AP 210 using the first AP 210 information.

If the first AP 210 having a higher priority than the currently connected second AP 220 is found as a search result (step S9), the communication terminal 100 makes a connection request to the first AP 210 S11). Accordingly, the communication terminal 100 accesses the first AP 210 (step S13) and performs various communications.

Here, connecting to the first AP 210 means switching the connection from the second AP 220, and thus releases the connection with the second AP 220.

In this way, the communication terminal 100 scans the neighboring AP when a specific event is detected, wherein the specific event includes events irrelevant to the signal strength of the second AP 220 to which the communication terminal 100 is currently connected.

As shown in FIG. 3, the communication terminal 100 preferably scans the neighboring APs according to communication-related events such as communication start or interruption, such as termination of a call.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the invention. It is to be understood that such variations and modifications are intended to be included in the scope of the appended claims.

100: communication terminal 210: first AP
220: 2nd AP
110: storage unit 120: event detection unit
130: connection processing unit 140:
150: connection switching control section

Claims (9)

A control method of a communication terminal having a different home ID and communicating with a first wireless LAN connection device and a second wireless LAN connection device having the same common ID,
(a) storing a home ID of the first WLAN access point;
(b) if a preset event is detected while connected to the second WLAN access device using the common ID of the second WLAN access point, Determining a possibility of access to a wireless LAN access device;
(c) if the signal strength of the first WLAN access point is lower than the signal strength of the second WLAN access point when the connection to the first WLAN access point is possible, And switching the connection to the first wireless LAN connection device using the home ID of the device. delete The method according to claim 1,
The step (c)
(c1) comparing the signal strength of the connectable first WLAN access point with a predetermined minimum threshold;
(c2) if the signal strength of the first WLAN access point is greater than a predetermined minimum threshold as a result of the comparison in the step (c1), switching to the first WLAN access point A method of controlling a terminal. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the event of step (b) occurs according to at least one of elapsing of a predetermined time, call initiation, call termination, message transmission, and message reception. A computer-readable recording medium recording a program for executing the method according to any one of claims 1, 3, and 4. A communication terminal communicating with a first wireless LAN connection device and a second wireless LAN connection device having different home IDs and having the same common ID,
A storage unit for storing a home ID of the first WLAN device;
An event detection unit for detecting an event occurring according to a predetermined condition;
A connection processing unit connected to the first wireless LAN connection device and the second wireless LAN connection device, respectively;
When the connection processing unit is connected to the second wireless LAN connection device using the common ID of the second wireless LAN connection device, if a preset event is detected in the event detection unit, the first wireless LAN connection A determination unit for determining a possibility of connection to the first wireless LAN access device using the home ID of the device;
If the signal strength of the first WLAN access point is lower than the signal strength of the second WLAN access point, if the connection to the first WLAN access point is possible as a result of the determination, And a connection switching control section for controlling connection switching to the first wireless LAN connection device by using the home ID of the wireless LAN connection device. delete The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the connection switching control unit compares the signal strength of the connectable first WLAN access point with a predetermined minimum threshold and if the signal strength of the first WLAN access point is greater than a predetermined minimum threshold, 1 wireless LAN access device. The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the event detected by the event detection unit occurs according to at least one of elapsing of a predetermined time, call initiation, call termination, message transmission, and message reception.

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