KR102298731B1 - Device for Wireless Communications and Driving Method Thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a wireless communication device and a driving method thereof. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the wireless communication device includes: a communication interface unit for performing short-range wireless communication (WLAN) with a peripheral device; and a control unit which randomly changes address information while maintaining a part of the least significant bit (LSB) in a data packet, and confirms the identity of the device based on the part of the least significant bit maintained in the (previously) changed new address system to perform communication, when there is a request to change an address system in the data packet during communication with the peripheral device. Accordingly, even when there is a change in the address system during low-power Bluetooth (BLE) communication, power consumption can be reduced by checking the identity of devices using existing connection information.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] Device for Wireless Communications and Driving Method Thereof

The present invention relates to a wireless communication device and a method of driving the device, and more particularly, even when there is a change in the address system during low-power Bluetooth (BLE) communication, power consumption by confirming the identity of the device using existing connection information It relates to a wireless communication device capable of reducing

Recently, with the development of Internet of Things (IoT) communication technology, a lot of interest in P2P (Peer to Peer) communication between various devices, including smart phones, is emerging. As a representative example, communication such as a smartphone and a smart TV can be regarded as representative. Of course, various communication technologies may be available for device-to-device communication, but Bluetooth communication is by far the most popular. Bluetooth started as a short-range communication technology and has passed through many generations with different features added. In 2010, Bluetooth 4.0 was developed with the main goal of low power consumption. A key feature of Bluetooth 4.0 is that one-way communication allows a Bluetooth device to transmit information but does not have to wait to receive it.

More specifically, Bluetooth is a standard for wireless communication with low power in a short distance between wireless communication devices standardized in IEEE 802.15.1. It is a technology that transmits about 3Mbps data at a distance of less than 10m, and it recognizes and moves if it is a Bluetooth-compatible device without complicated settings. The scope of application of Bluetooth is expanding from portable IT devices such as mobile phones, laptops, and MP3 players to automobiles, TVs, refrigerators, exercise equipment, and medical devices. In 1998, Nokia, Sony, Ericsson, Intel, Microsoft, Toshiba, and Lenovo, seven companies formed the Bluetooth SIG, a standardization organization for the first time. Currently, 10,000 companies, including Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, have joined as members and are working together to ensure each other's operation.

However, according to a recent specification of a data packet for Bluetooth communication, if a static device address is randomly changed, the previously stored device address becomes invalid. Due to this, when the address system is changed in a specific device, unnecessary power consumption may occur in the process of re-performing the recognition operation with the existing device.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2047496 (2019.11.15) Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2094505 (2020.03.23) Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2158846 (2020.09.16) Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2020-0035788 (2020.04.06)

An embodiment of the present invention provides a wireless communication device capable of reducing power consumption by confirming the identity of the device using existing connection information even when there is a change in the address system during low-power Bluetooth (BLE) communication, and a method of driving the device. The purpose is to provide.

A wireless communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a communication interface unit for performing short-range wireless communication (WLAN) with a peripheral device, and when there is a request to change an address system in a data packet in a communication process with the peripheral device, the data A control unit that randomly changes address information while maintaining a part of the least significant bit (LSB) in the packet, and confirms the identity of the device based on a part of the maintained least significant bit in the changed new address system and communicates include

The control unit may check the identity of devices in a connection before the change of the address system and after the change of the address system based on a part of the least significant bit.

The controller may change the remaining changeable address information while maintaining a portion of the least significant bit as it is when there is a reset command.

The controller may maintain the lowest 16 bits among the 46 randomly changeable bits in the data format and change the remaining 30 bits randomly.

The control unit may store address information through communication with the peripheral device before the change of the address system in the storage unit, and compare the stored address information with the stored address information to confirm the identity even when the address system is changed.

In addition, the method of driving a wireless communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes the steps of, by a communication interface unit, performing short-range wireless communication with a peripheral device, and a control unit, changing an address system in a data packet in a communication process with the peripheral device When there is a request, the address information is randomly changed while maintaining a part of the least significant bit (LSB) in the data packet, and the identity of the device is confirmed based on the part of the maintained least significant bit in the changed new address system. including the steps of

In the communicating step, based on a part of the least significant bit, the identity of the devices may be confirmed in a connection before the change of the address system and after the change of the address system.

In the communicating, when there is a reset command, the remaining changeable address information may be changed while maintaining a part of the least significant bit as it is.

In the communicating step, the least significant 16 bits among 46 randomly changeable bits in a data format may be maintained as it is, and the remaining 30 bits may be randomly changed.

In the communicating step, address information by communication with the peripheral device before the change of the address system is stored in a storage unit, and the identity can be confirmed even when the address system is changed by comparing it with the stored address information.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, even when an address system for communication is changed in one device between communication devices performing P2P communication, the sameness between the existing connection with the existing device and the current connection can be quickly confirmed.

In addition, the embodiment of the present invention can reduce unnecessary operations according to specifications in, for example, Bluetooth communication in order to confirm continuity of communication between existing and current devices, which may lead to reduction of power consumption.

1 is a diagram illustrating a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention;
2 is a diagram illustrating a data structure in a data packet used in the user terminal device or wireless LAN device of FIG. 1;
3 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed structure of a wireless communication device such as a user terminal device or a wireless LAN device of FIG. 1;
4 is a flowchart illustrating a driving process of a wireless communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

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

1 is a diagram illustrating a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a data structure in a data packet used in the user terminal device or wireless LAN device of FIG. 1 .

As shown in FIG. 1 , the wireless communication system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a user terminal device (or a first user device) 110 and a wireless LAN device (or a second user device) 120 . include

Here, the user terminal device 110 may include various devices that perform short-range wireless communication with peripheral devices such as the wireless LAN device 120 . For example, the user terminal device 110 includes various devices such as a smart phone, a laptop computer, a tablet PC, a wearable device that is worn on a wrist, etc. to access the Internet. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the user terminal device 110 may refer to a device that performs Bluetooth communication as a P2P communication with a peripheral device such as the wireless LAN device 120 and operates as a control device in the communication process. can In this sense, the wireless LAN device 120 may be a controlled device. It may be any device capable of performing Bluetooth communication or the like as short-range communication between two devices. Alternatively, it may operate in the form of a master and a slave.

Of course, it can also be seen that the user terminal device 110 operates by means of Internet of Things (IoT) communication with a nearby wireless LAN device 120 . IoT communication is not limited to Bluetooth communication. In addition, in the past, a pairing operation between two devices, that is, an operation for recognizing each other's identification information (eg, device ID, etc.) and registering each identification information was performed, but recently, communication without such a separate pairing operation this is being done Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, the user terminal device 110 will not specifically limit the type of communication with the neighboring wireless LAN device 120 .

For example, the user terminal device 110 may perform an operation according to an embodiment of the present invention when a reset operation for initializing the device is performed. Of course, the same is true for the wireless LAN device 120 . When the reset operation is performed in this way, according to the Bluetooth communication specification, that is, according to the communication protocol, the (static) address system in the data packet is changed randomly. A setting operation for this is performed. 2, (a) shows the existing Bluetooth specification. This should be understood as showing only the address system among the data structures in the data packet. In other words, most data packets distinguish between actual data and data as additional information. For example, in general communication, it is typical to store additional information in a header portion of a data packet and store actual data in a payload portion. For example, when the sensor provides sensing data, if identification information of the sensor is stored in the header part, the actual sensing data is stored in the payload part. Accordingly, in the case of Bluetooth, the address system may be formed in a separate area, and in this case, the address system may have a 48-bit static address system based on (a) of FIG. 2 . Two bits of the most significant bit (MSB) may be fixed, but the remaining 46 bits may be randomly changed to a new address.

However, in the embodiment of the present invention, although 46 bits are randomly changeable according to the specification, a new address system is formed in a form in which some of them are fixed. The user terminal device 110 according to the embodiment of the present invention operates in the same address system as in (b) of FIG. 2 during a reset operation of the wireless LAN device 120 or the like. In this regard, the wireless LAN device 120 will be described later and will be described in more detail.

The user terminal device 110 may perform short-distance communication with an access point (AP), such as a smart TV or a refrigerator, or a wireless router, which operates as a peripheral device as a smart phone, for example. According to an embodiment of the present invention, Bluetooth communication may be performed. At this time, when a reset operation is performed in one's own device or a reset operation is performed in a nearby wireless LAN device 120, the data packet generation operation according to the embodiment of the present invention enables faster communication while reducing power consumption compared to the existing one. can

The wireless LAN device 120 may perform short-range wireless communication, for example, Bluetooth communication, with the user terminal device 110 such as a smartphone. The wireless LAN device 120 may transmit and receive data packets while communicating with the user terminal device 110 . Of course, data packet transmission can be viewed as a kind of data group or bundle. Accordingly, it will not be particularly limited to using a packet.

For example, since the wireless LAN device 120 has a previous communication performance history with the user terminal device 110 , it stores identification information of the user terminal device 110 , such as device ID, as well as MAC address information, in the internal memory. can be saved Accordingly, when a communication request is received from the user terminal device 110 , it can be seen that the received identification information or address system information is compared with pre-stored information to respond to the communication response and control of the user terminal device 110 .

However, in this process, when an operation for changing the address system occurs in the wireless LAN device 120, for example, when a reset operation occurs, the wireless LAN device 120 does not randomly change all static addresses according to the Bluetooth specification, Part of the least significant bit (LSB) is still maintained. For example, as shown in (b) of FIG. 2, 16 bits of the least significant bit are fixed. And, among the 46 changeable bits, the remaining 30 bits except for the 16 bits are randomly changed. Of course, these sizes can be changed at any time. However, in the embodiment of the present invention, a part of the static address system that is randomly changed in the specification is maintained as before. This can be considered to be to quickly recognize devices that have previously performed communication when changing to a new address system according to an operation such as reset, or to have continuity in operation with the device. In other words, it can be viewed as confirming the sameness between devices before and after the address system change. Before the address system change, it is the existing connection, and after the address system change, it corresponds to the current connection.

Accordingly, when the address system is changed, the wireless LAN device 120 can quickly find out a newly changed address based on previously stored address information. In other words, since address information of pre-stored devices is pre-stored, and a part is maintained even in newly changed address information, when the corresponding parts are compared with each other, the identity or continuity of the devices can be confirmed. Accordingly, it is possible to have continuity of communication by matching the address information of the existing device and the newly changed address information with each other or by updating or changing the identification information of the device of the existing address information to the data of the newly changed address system. As a result, unnecessary power consumption generated in the process of re-performing the recognition operation can be significantly reduced.

The wireless LAN device 120 according to an embodiment of the present invention may be a smart TV or a set-top box connected thereto. Or it could be a refrigerator, or it could be an AP like a wireless router. It may operate as a controlled device in relation to the user terminal device 110 . Since various devices may be used, the embodiment of the present invention is not particularly limited to any one device. Of course, the wireless LAN device 120 is a Bluetooth device, and not only portable devices such as BLE phones and BLE tablet PCs, but also accessories such as BLE watches and BLE earphones may be used.

3 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed structure of a wireless communication device such as a user terminal device or a wireless LAN device of FIG. 1 .

As shown in FIG. 3 , the wireless communication device 290 according to the embodiment of the present invention may refer to the user terminal device 110 and the wireless LAN device 120 of FIG. 1 , and the communication interface unit 300 . , the control unit 310 , the data packet generation unit 320 , and some or all of the storage unit 330 , and may further include an interface unit for receiving a user command (eg, a reset command, etc.).

Here, "including some or all" means that some components such as the storage unit 330 are omitted to configure the wireless communication device 290, or some components such as the data packet generation unit 320 are controlled by the control unit ( 310), which means that it can be configured by being integrated with other components, etc., and will be described as including all in order to help a sufficient understanding of the invention.

The communication interface unit 300 may perform short-range wireless communication with a peripheral device, for example, Bluetooth wireless communication. According to the communication as described above, the communication interface unit 300 may obtain data such as device ID or MAC address information of a peripheral device and provide it to the control unit 310 . For example, the communication interface unit 300 may perform communication according to a Bluetooth communication protocol when transmitting a data packet to a peripheral device, and may provide a response to a corresponding request according to a request of the peripheral device.

The control unit 310 is in charge of overall control operations of the communication interface unit 300 , the data packet generation unit 320 , and the storage unit 330 constituting the wireless communication device 290 of FIG. 3 . Typically, the control unit 310 may store, for example, device IDs or MAC addresses of peripheral devices performing Bluetooth communication in the storage unit 330 .

Also, when performing a reset operation according to a user command, the controller 310 may randomly change an address system in a data packet according to a Bluetooth communication protocol. This has been sufficiently described with reference to FIGS. 2 (a) and (b) above. When a static address is randomly changed, the whole is not changed as before. For example, based on the 24 bits corresponding to the center of all 48 bits, if one side is the low bit part and the other side is the high bit part, a part of the low bit part is Keep it as it is. That is, it remains unchanged. Although 16 bits are changed in the embodiment of the present invention, it will not be particularly limited thereto. Therefore, except for 16 bits, the remaining 30 bits among 46 randomly changeable bits are randomly changed according to the Bluetooth specification. Of course, such a communication protocol can already be recognized by the user terminal device 110 or the wireless LAN device 120 of FIG. 1 . In other words, it may be preset. Therefore, when the control unit 310 changes the address system by an operation such as reset, the lower 16 bits are left, compares this with the existing address information stored in the storage unit 330, and if they match, the corresponding device returns to the existing address. It will be easy to recognize that it is the device that was communicating.

In this way, by easily recognizing an existing device, communication is performed by matching the old address information with the new address information, or by matching the changed address information with the identification information of the device in the old address information and updating it to communicate. It will be possible to have continuity with existing devices, that is, continuity of communication.

The data packet generator 320 has, for example, an address change scheme according to the Bluetooth specification, but has a modified address change scheme according to an embodiment of the present invention. In other words, when there is a reset operation, that is, when there is a command for changing the address system, the command may occur through various events or accidents, for example, may occur during a power failure. When there is any such instruction, it does not change all static addresses randomly, but keeps some of the existing low-order bits the same as before. That is, whenever there is a command to change the address system, only 30 bits except for the lowest 16 bits are continuously and randomly changed.

In addition, the data packet generation unit 320 receives the existing address information stored in the storage unit 330 under the request of the control unit 310 or by requesting the control unit 310 to perform a comparison operation with the newly generated address information. can be compared, for example, only the least significant 16 bits can be compared. And, if the comparison result matches each other, the existing address information is updated with the newly generated address information, and at this time, identification information such as device ID is maintained as it is, so that the device that was previously communicating can be recognized quickly. The continuity of communication can be ensured by easily confirming the identity of the current connection and the connection. Above all, updating the existing address information with the newly changed address information may take various forms, and therefore, the embodiment of the present invention will not be limited to any one form.

On the other hand, although the embodiment of the present invention has been described as generating a data packet while naming the data packet generating unit, the name is not particularly limited. For example, it may be possible to perform communication without performing data packetization. Accordingly, the packet may be named as a group or a bundle. In other words, it is good if it can be understood as a unit of data.

The storage unit 330 performs various operations under the control of the control unit 310 . For example, various information such as identification information and MAC address information of devices that have communicated before changing the address system may be stored under the control of the controller 310 . Such information may be provided under the control of the control unit 310 at the request of the data packet generation unit 320 .

In addition to the above, the communication interface unit 300, the control unit 310, the data packet generation unit 320, and the storage unit 330 of FIG. 3 may perform various operations, and other details have been sufficiently described above. instead of content.

On the other hand, as another embodiment of the present invention, the control unit 310 may include a CPU and a memory, and may be formed as a single chip. The CPU includes a control circuit, an arithmetic unit (ALU), an instruction interpreter and a registry, and the memory may include a RAM. The control circuit performs a control operation, the operation unit performs an operation operation of binary bit information, and the instruction interpretation unit converts a high-level language into a machine language and a machine language into a high-level language, including an interpreter or compiler. , the registry may be involved in software data storage. According to the above configuration, for example, by copying the program stored in the data packet generating unit 320 in the initial operation of the wireless communication device 290 such as the user terminal device 110 or the wireless LAN device 120 of FIG. It is possible to quickly increase the data operation processing speed by loading it into a memory, that is, RAM and then executing it.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a driving process of a wireless communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4 together with FIG. 3 for convenience of explanation, the wireless communication device 290 according to an embodiment of the present invention performs short-range wireless communication (eg, Bluetooth communication) with a peripheral device (S400).

In addition, the wireless communication device 290 randomly changes the address information while maintaining a part of the least significant bit (LSB) in the data packet when there is a request to change the address system in the data packet during communication with the peripheral device. Based on a part of the least significant bit maintained in a new address system, device identity is checked and communication is performed (S410).

In an embodiment of the present invention, the existing device can be recognized by comparing the least significant 16 bits of the previously stored address information and the newly changed address information, and the continuity of the device can be found through this. Also, through this, it is possible to check the identity between the existing (communication) connection and the current connection.

In addition to the above, the wireless communication device 290 of FIG. 4 may perform various operations, and since the other details have been sufficiently described above, those contents will be replaced.

On the other hand, even though it has been described that all components constituting the embodiment of the present invention are combined or operated as one, the present invention is not necessarily limited to this embodiment. That is, within the scope of the object of the present invention, all the components may operate by selectively combining one or more. In addition, although all of the components may be implemented as one independent hardware, some or all of the components are selectively combined to perform some or all functions of the combined components in one or a plurality of hardware program modules It may be implemented as a computer program having Codes and code segments constituting the computer program can be easily deduced by those skilled in the art of the present invention. Such a computer program is stored in a computer-readable non-transitory computer readable media, read and executed by the computer, thereby implementing an embodiment of the present invention.

Here, the non-transitory readable recording medium refers to a medium that stores data semi-permanently and can be read by a device, not a medium that stores data for a short moment, such as a register, cache, memory, etc. . Specifically, the above-described programs may be provided by being stored in a non-transitory readable recording medium such as a CD, DVD, hard disk, Blu-ray disk, USB, memory card, ROM, and the like.

In the above, preferred embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, but the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, and it is common in the technical field to which the present invention pertains without departing from the gist of the present invention as claimed in the claims. Various modifications may be made by those having the knowledge of, of course, and these modifications should not be individually understood from the technical spirit or perspective of the present invention.

110: user terminal device 120: wireless LAN device
300: communication interface unit 310: control unit
320: data packet generation unit 330: storage unit

Claims (6)

As a wireless communication device for performing Bluetooth (BLE) communication with a peripheral device,
a communication interface unit for performing Bluetooth short-range wireless communication (WLAN) with the peripheral device; and
When there is a request to change the address system in the data packet during the communication process with the peripheral device, the address information of the static address system in the data packet is randomly changed according to the specified Bluetooth communication protocol to create a new address system. generated, but the address information is randomly changed while maintaining a part of the least significant bit (LSB) of the static address system, and the identity of the device is confirmed based on a part of the maintained least significant bit in the changed new address system. a control unit that includes;
The controller is configured to perform low-power Bluetooth communication by reducing some operations during a communication process according to the designated Bluetooth communication protocol in order to check the identity of the device when there is a request for changing the address system. According to claim 1,
The control unit, based on a part of the least significant bit, the wireless communication device for checking the identity of the device before the change of the address system and the connection after the change of the address system. According to claim 1,
The control unit, when there is a reset (reset) command, while maintaining a portion of the least significant bit as it is, the wireless communication device to change the remaining address information that can be changed. 4. The method of claim 3,
The control unit maintains the lowest 16 bits among the 46 randomly changeable bits in the data format and randomly changes the remaining 30 bits. According to claim 1,
The control unit stores the address information through communication with the peripheral device before the change of the address system in the storage unit, and compares the stored address information with the stored address information to confirm the identity even when the address system is changed. As a driving method of a wireless communication device for performing Bluetooth (BLE) communication with a peripheral device,
performing, by the communication interface unit, Bluetooth short-range wireless communication with the peripheral device; and
The control unit generates a new address system by randomly changing the address information of the static address system in the data packet according to the specified Bluetooth communication protocol when there is a request to change the address system in the data packet in the communication process with the peripheral device, randomly changing address information while maintaining a part of the least significant bit (LSB) of the static address system, confirming the identity of the device based on the part of the maintained least significant bit in the changed new address system, and communicating; includes,
The communicating step is
A method of driving a wireless communication device for performing low-power Bluetooth communication by reducing some operations during a communication process according to the specified Bluetooth communication protocol to confirm the identity of the device when there is a request to change the address system.

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