KR20090103538A - Wireless internet connection device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A wireless internet connection repeater is provided to minimize the power consumption in a standby state and to manage the power consumption efficiently by completely blocking the power supplied to a wireless module in a communication shadow area that disables WiBro communication. CONSTITUTION: A wireless internet connection repeater includes a power supply unit(250), a main controller(220) and a power control unit(210). The power supply unit includes a chargeable battery, and supplies battery power to each unit of the system. The main controller discriminates the shadow region of a WiBro communication. In addition, the main controller sets up one of plural power supply modes and control the power supply for each unit of the system according to the setup mode. The power control unit controls the power supply path to the each unit according to the control of the main controller.

Description

Wireless Internet Connection Repeater {WIRELESS INTERNET CONNECTION DEVICE}

The present invention relates to a wireless internet access repeater, and more particularly, to a repeater capable of wirelessly accessing terminals via a WiBro network that can communicate using a wireless LAN protocol.

As communication technologies and portable terminal related technologies have developed, various methods of communication have been introduced. Among them, a wireless LAN method is a short-range communication method using radio waves or an infrared transmission method. The wireless LAN method is capable of transmitting and receiving data wirelessly and is relatively inexpensive, but suffers from high speed and distance limitations.

One of the communication methods developed to overcome these disadvantages is Wibro service. WiBro service is a service based on IEEE802.16e technology and uses 2.3GHz frequency band to enable high-speed internet access on the go at 60Km / h. For reference, a terminal equipped with a WiBro module communicates wirelessly to a base station, after which it is connected to the Internet by wire.

WiBro service will be useful in that it is relatively high speed and distance-free compared to wireless LAN method, but WiBro service cannot be normally used through terminals supporting only WLAN. Accordingly, wireless Internet access devices or repeaters that can be connected to the WiBro service network have been developed.

However, in general wireless Internet access devices or repeaters, channel status must be continuously checked in order to use WiBro service. In this case, since the modem must be always active to determine the channel state, power consumption is required, which requires more efficient power management. Moreover, in the case of a portable wireless Internet access device, it is more urgently required to efficiently manage the power consumption of the battery.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a portable wireless Internet access repeater including a power supply unit capable of charging wirelessly anytime, anywhere, and supports terminals that can communicate using a wireless LAN protocol through a WiBro network.

Furthermore, another object of the present invention is to provide a portable wireless Internet access repeater capable of minimizing standby power consumption.

In addition, another object of the present invention is to provide a portable wireless Internet access repeater that can efficiently manage the power consumption of the power supply by completely blocking the power supplied to the wireless LAN module in the communication shade area that is not available WiBro communication.

Portable wireless Internet access repeater according to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object as a repeater including a wireless LAN module and a WiBro communication module,

A power supply including a rechargeable battery and supplying battery power to each part of the system;

A main control unit for discriminating a WiBro communication shadow area and setting one of a plurality of power supply modes according to the determination result to select and control a system supply power according to a setting mode;

And a power control unit for controlling a power supply path supplied to each unit under control of the main control unit.

More specifically, the main controller is configured to completely control the power supplied to the wireless LAN module by setting the maximum power saving mode in the WiBro communication shadow area.

That is, the present invention can completely prevent the waste of power by completely shutting off the power supplied to the WLAN module in the shaded area where the WiBro communication is not possible.

In addition, the main control unit intermittently cuts off the operation power of the WiBro communication module in the hibernation mode, and cuts off the time except for the time required to periodically collect the channel state information of the WiBro network.

This also minimizes power consumption in standby mode because only the time required to collect channel status information is supplied to the WiBro communication module.

Furthermore, the main controller intermittently cuts off the operation power of the WiBro communication module by setting a power saving mode in a WiBro communication enabled area, and controls the cutoff for a time except for a time required for periodically collecting channel state information of the WiBro network. It is characterized by. This is also a useful way to minimize power consumption in the standby mode.

In addition, the main controller supplies power only to a signal receiver necessary to receive a packet transmitted from a portable terminal of a WLAN module in a power saving mode, thereby minimizing power consumption in a standby mode.

According to the problem solving means of the present invention as described above, since the present invention completely cuts off the power supplied to the wireless LAN module in the WiBro communication shade area, the wireless LAN module unnecessarily in an environment in which the repeater does not perform its original function By activating the power consumption is an advantage that can be prevented at the source.

Furthermore, the present invention intermittently blocks and controls the operating power of the WiBro communication module in the hibernation mode set in an area where WiBro communication is not possible, and performs WiBro communication for a time except for a time required for periodically collecting channel state information of the WiBro network. By controlling the power cut off of a part of the module, power consumption in the standby mode can be minimized.

In addition, the present invention intermittently controls the operation power of the WiBro communication module even in the power saving mode set in the WiBro communication area, the power of the WiBro communication module for a part of the time except for the time required to periodically collect the channel state information of the WiBro network This also has the effect of minimizing power consumption in standby mode.

In some cases, it is a useful invention that the power consumption in the standby mode may be reduced by supplying some power only to a signal receiver necessary to receive a packet transmitted from a portable terminal of the WLAN module in the power saving mode.

1 is a peripheral configuration diagram of a portable wireless Internet access repeater 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is an exemplary block diagram of a portable wireless Internet access repeater 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a block diagram illustrating the WLAN module 210 of FIG. 2.

4 is an exemplary block diagram of the WiBro communication module 230 of FIG. 2.

5 is a view for explaining a power management system of a portable wireless Internet access repeater 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily understand and reproduce the present invention.

First, Figure 1 shows a peripheral configuration of a portable wireless Internet access repeater 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the portable wireless Internet access repeater 200 is equipped with a wireless LAN module conforming to any one of IEEE802.11a, IEEE802.11b, and IEEE802.11g to be connected to the portable terminals 100 and 110. It is possible to access a wireless Internet network by mounting a WiBro communication module based on IEEE802.16e technology, which is different from the WLAN protocol. That is, the portable wireless Internet access repeater 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention plays a role of a repeater for supporting wireless LAN access terminals 100 and 110 to access wireless Internet through a WiBro network. Referring to the configuration of the portable wireless Internet connection repeater 200 with reference to Figures 2 to 4,

First, Figure 2 illustrates a block diagram of a portable wireless Internet access relay 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 3 is a block diagram of a wireless LAN module 210 of Figure 2, Figure 4 is FIG. Block diagrams of the WiBro communication module 230 are respectively illustrated.

As shown in FIG. 2, the portable wireless Internet access repeater 200 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention basically performs wireless LAN communication with portable terminals 100 and 110 equipped with a wireless LAN module based on a wireless LAN protocol scheme. A module 210 and a WiBro communication module 230 for performing communication with the WiBro base station 300. In addition to the heterogeneous communication module, the wireless Internet connection repeater 200 includes a battery that can be charged by a power supplied by down-converting the AC commercial power, and a power supply unit 250 for supplying the battery power to each part of the system; The main control unit 220 and the main control unit 220 for determining the widow communication shadow area and setting one of the plurality of power supply modes according to the determination result to select and control the supply power of each unit according to the setting mode. The apparatus further includes a power interrupter 240 for controlling a power supply path supplied to each part of the system according to the control.

For reference, FIG. 2 illustrates only the minimum components necessary for power management of the system, but in addition to these configurations, converts a WLAN packet received through the WLAN module 210 into a WiBro packet or processes a packet transmitted in the reverse direction. It will be apparent that the packet processing unit for the portable wireless Internet access relay 200 should be included as one component.

In addition, a plurality of power supply modes to be mentioned in the present invention is a concept including a hibernate mode, a power saving mode, the maximum power saving mode is a mode for driving the system with a minimum driving power, the power saving mode is higher than the maximum power saving mode This is defined as a mode for driving the system with power consumption. A method of efficiently managing power by the main controller 220 determining a wibro communication shadow area and setting one of a plurality of power supply modes according to the determination result will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 5.

Hereinafter, the configuration of the WLAN module 210 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 3.

The WLAN module 210 includes a duplexer 210 for separating RF signals transmitted and received from the terminals 100 and 110 into a transmission signal and a reception signal, a transmitter 213 and a receiver 215 for transmitting and receiving RF signals, respectively. And a modem 217 for modulating and demodulating the signals transmitted and received by the transmitter 213 and the receiver 215 according to a predetermined wireless communication standard, and processing a protocol for WLAN access through the modem 217. The protocol processing unit 219 is included. For reference, the protocol processor 219 controls the input / output of the WLAN packet according to a wireless MAC protocol such as IEEE802.11a / b / g. The WLAN packet processed by the protocol processor 219 is then transmitted to the packet processor for processing as a WiBro packet.

The WLAN module 210 having the above-described configuration is completely cut off the operation power in the hibernation mode under the control of the main controller 220, and is required to receive the WLAN packet transmitted from the terminals 100 and 110 in the power saving mode. Power is supplied only to the signal receiving unit, for example, the duplexer 211, the receiving unit 215, and the signal receiving processing terminal of the modem 217, thereby saving power consumption in the standby mode.

Meanwhile, referring to FIG. 4, the configuration of the WiBro communication module 230 will be described in detail.

WiBro communication module 230 is also separated from the duplexer 231, an antenna for transmitting and receiving a wireless signal with the WiBro base station 300, the duplexer 231 for separating the transmission signal and the received signal from the signal transmitted and received through the antenna A portable Internet connection is established between the receiver 235 for transmitting the received signal to the modem 237 and the transmitter 233 and the WiBro base station 300 for transmitting the transmitted signal transmitted from the modem 237 through the duplexer 231. It includes a protocol processing unit 239 for performing. In addition, a memory for buffering transmission and reception packets is further included.

The WiBro communication module 230 is intermittently supplied with operating power in the hibernation mode and the power saving mode under the control of the main controller 220. More specifically, the WiBro communication module 230 is supplied with the operating power only at a time required for periodically collecting channel state information of the WiBro network, and the operating power is cut off at other time intervals.

Hereinafter, the power management control operation of the main controller 220 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 5. In the following, it is assumed that the battery included in the power supply unit 250 is fully charged, and that the system operation power is supplied from the battery.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a power management system of a portable wireless internet access repeater 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, first, the main controller 220 requests the collection of channel state information to the WiBro communication module 230 (step S1). The WiBro communication module 230, which is requested to collect channel state information, receives a channel state such as a received field strength (RSSI) and a carrier-to-interference and noise ratio (CINR) through a signal transmitted and received with the WiBro base station 300. Obtain information (step S2). The WiBro communication module 30 transmits a response to whether the channel state information is acquired to the main controller 220.

The main controller 220 determines that the WiBro communication is possible when the channel state information is obtained normally, and otherwise, determines that the WiBro communication shadow area is. If it is determined in step S3 that the channel state information cannot be collected, the repeater cannot perform its original function, and thus, the main controller 220 sets the power mode of the system to the hibernation mode (step S4). In the hibernation mode, the main controller 220 controls the power interrupter 240 to completely block the power supplied to the WLAN module 210 (step S5). As a result, the power supply to the WLAN module is cut off in the WiBro communication shadow area, thereby reducing the power consumed by the WLAN module.

On the other hand, the main control unit 220 that cuts off the power supply of the wireless LAN module 210 supplies the operating power only at a time necessary for periodically collecting the channel state information of the WiBro network, and cuts off the supply of the operating power in the remaining time intervals ( Step S6, S7). That is, the power is supplied when the channel state information collection request is received and the response is received. During this process, if the channel status information is acquired and determined to be a WiBro communication area (step S8), the process proceeds to step S10 to set the power mode of the system to the power saving mode, but if it is determined to be the communication shadow area, steps S6 to S8. Repeat. That is, the present invention provides the maximum power saving effect because it supplies the operating power to the WiBro communication module 230 only at a time point for determining whether the WiBro communication is possible even in the hibernation mode and cuts off the power in other time intervals. will be. For reference, in the power saving mode, the WLAN module 210 supplies power only to a signal receiver necessary to receive a packet transmitted from the mobile terminals 100 and 110. This is to correspond to the event from the mobile terminal (100, 110).

If it is determined that the communication is possible in the hibernation mode and proceeds to step S10, the main controller 220 determines whether an event such as an internet call request is transmitted from the WiBro network (step S11). As a result of the determination, if there is no event, the power supply (step S12) is provided only to a signal receiver necessary for receiving a packet transmitted from some power, for example, the mobile terminals 100 and 110, to the WLAN module 210, such a power saving mode. In order to reduce the power consumption in step S6 to repeat the process up to step S12.

On the other hand, if an event signal occurs in the power saving mode, the main controller 220 sets the power mode to the active mode (step S13) to supply normal system operation power to the WLAN module 210 and the WiBro communication module 230 ( Step S14). In this regard, the portable wireless Internet access repeater 200 converts and transmits a wireless LAN packet and a WiBro packet transmitted and received between the portable terminals 100 and 110 and the WiBro network, thereby allowing a terminal user to wirelessly access the Internet network through the repeater 200. Will be.

As described in the above embodiments, since the present invention completely cuts off the power supplied to the WLAN module in the WiBro communication shadow area, power consumption is consumed by activating the WLAN module unnecessarily in an environment in which the repeater does not perform its original function. By blocking the source at the source can be obtained to extend the battery life.

In addition, the present invention intermittently controls the operation power of the WiBro communication module in the hibernation mode set in the area that is not available for WiBro communication, the WiBro communication module for a time except for the time required to periodically collect the channel state information of the WiBro network By shutting off and controlling some power supplies, power consumption in the standby mode can be minimized.

And in the power saving mode set in the area where WiBro can communicate, intermittently block and control the operation power of the WiBro communication module, but block some power of the WiBro communication module for a time except for the time necessary to collect the channel state information of the WiBro network periodically. This also minimizes power consumption in standby mode. That is, the present invention can be said to be a useful invention that can reduce power consumption in the standby mode.

As described above, the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings, which are merely exemplary, and various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible from those skilled in the art. I will understand the point. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention should be defined only by the appended claims.

Claims (6)

In the portable wireless Internet access repeater comprising a wireless LAN module and a WiBro communication module, A power supply including a rechargeable battery and supplying battery power to each part of the system; A main control unit for determining a wireless communication communication area and setting one of a plurality of power supply modes according to the determination result to select and control the supply power of each unit according to the setting mode; And a power intermittent for controlling a power supply path supplied to each system part under the control of the main controller. The method according to claim 1, wherein the main control unit, Portable wireless Internet access repeater to set the power saving mode in the WiBro communication shadow area to completely block the power supplied to the wireless LAN module. The method of claim 2, wherein the main control unit intermittently cuts off the operation power of the WiBro communication module in the hibernation mode, and cuts off the time except for the time required to periodically collect the channel state information of the WiBro network. Portable wireless internet access repeater. The method according to claim 1, wherein the main control unit, Portable wireless, characterized in that by setting the power saving mode in the WiBro communication area to intermittently cut off the operating power of the WiBro communication module except the time required to periodically collect the channel state information of the WiBro network Internet access repeater. The portable wireless Internet access repeater according to claim 4, wherein the main controller controls power supply only to a signal receiver necessary for receiving a packet transmitted from a portable terminal of the WLAN module in a power saving mode. The portable wireless Internet access repeater according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the main controller sets an active mode when receiving a packet in a power saving mode to control normal power supply to the WiBro communication module and the wireless LAN module.