TWI707568B - Communication device, communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

The subject of the present invention is to provide a technology for speeding up processing while using a limited amount of identification information. The transmitting unit 132 transmits the first signal to each of the plurality of terminal devices 300. The receiving unit 134 receives the second signal from each of the plurality of terminal devices 300 that have transmitted the first signal via the transmitting unit 132 as a response to the first signal. The control unit 120 specifies two or more groups including one or more terminal devices 300, and classifies the plurality of terminal devices 300 into each of two or more groups, and assigns unencrypted identification to each group Information, by using the identification information, the receiving unit 134 receives the second signal.

Description

Communication device, communication system

The present invention relates to a communication device and communication system for performing communication.

One of the technologies for communication devices to push data to each other is WebSocket which operates on TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). When using the always-connected technology in WebSocket and the server sends data to the client, the server sends data to all the clients that are always connected. In order to specify the client push data of a part of the always-connected client, the server memorizes the always-connected ID (Identification) used to identify a plurality of electronic devices and to identify a plurality of groups The corresponding relationship of the group ID. The server pushes data to at least one electronic device belonging to the corresponding group based on the designation of the group ID (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).

[Prior Technical Literature] [Patent Literature]

[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2015-103122

Similar to the relationship between a server and an electronic device in the background art, in a communication system that connects a plurality of terminal devices to one communication device, there are situations where the communication device wants to collect data from each of the plurality of terminal devices. At this time, the communication device sends a request signal for requesting data transmission to a plurality of terminal devices, and each terminal device sends a response signal containing the data to the communication device. In order to receive the data from each terminal device, the communication device uses the port number in the transport layer protocol (TCP or UDP (User Datagram Protocol, User Datagram Protocol)). In the case of using one port number for multiple terminal devices, in the communication device, if the data receiving process from one terminal device is not ended, the data receiving process from the next terminal device cannot be started, which results in The time to collect data becomes longer. On the other hand, when a different port number is used for each of a plurality of terminal devices, the time for collecting data becomes shorter. However, the number of ports that can be used is limited. Therefore, it is impossible to collect data from terminal devices exceeding the number.

The present invention was completed in view of this situation, and its purpose is to provide a technology that uses a limited amount of identification information while speeding up processing.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a communication device of one aspect of the present invention is a communication device that communicates with a terminal device, and includes: a transmitting unit that transmits a first signal to each of a plurality of terminal devices; Each of the plurality of terminal devices that sent the first signal by the transmitting unit receives the second signal as a response to the first signal; and the control unit specifies two or more groups including one or more terminal devices, and Classify a plurality of terminal devices into each of 2 or more groups, and assign unencrypted identification information to each group, thereby using the identification information to connect The receiving unit receives the second signal.

Another aspect of the present invention is a communication system. This communication system includes: a plurality of terminal devices; and a communication device that communicates with each of the plurality of terminal devices. The communication device includes: a transmission unit that transmits a first signal to each of the plurality of terminal devices; and a receiving unit that receives the second signal from each of the plurality of terminal devices that have transmitted the first signal via the transmission unit as a response to the first signal 1 signal response; and the control unit, which specifies two or more groups including one or more terminal devices, and classifies the plurality of terminal devices into each of two or more groups, and for each group Distribute unencrypted identification information, thereby using the identification information to make the receiving unit receive the second signal.

Furthermore, any combination of the above constituent elements and the expression of the present invention in a method, device, system, computer program, or a recording medium on which the computer program is recorded, etc., are also converted into aspects of the present invention. effective.

According to the present invention, it is possible to increase the processing speed while using a limited amount of identification information.

100: Communication device

110: Memory Department

112: Facial

120: Control Department

130: Ministry of Communications

132: Sending Department

134: Receiving Department

200: Relay device

200a: 1st relay device

200b: 2nd relay device

200c: 3rd relay device

200n: Nth relay device

300: terminal device

300a: 1st terminal device

300b: 2nd terminal device

300c: 3rd terminal device

300d: 4th terminal device

300e: 5th terminal device

300f: 6th terminal device

300g: 7th terminal device

300h: 8th terminal device

300i: 9th terminal device

300l: L terminal device

300s: S terminal device

300x: X terminal device

310: Ministry of Communications

320: Control Department

330: Acquisition Department

400: Group

400a: Group 1

400b: Group 2

400c: Group 3

400n: Group N

500: server

510: Processing Department

512: Memory Department

600: Fuel gauge

610: Processing Department

612: Sensor

1000: Communication system

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of the communication system of the embodiment.

2(a)-(b) are diagrams showing the structure of the communication device and terminal device of FIG. 1.

Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the outline of the routing table memorized in the memory section of Fig. 2(a).

Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the allocation of port numbers in the communication part of Fig. 2(a).

Fig. 5 is a diagram showing the outline of the processing of the communication system of Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is a diagram showing the format of the frame used in the communication part of Fig. 2(a).

Figs. 7(a)-(b) are diagrams showing the configuration of a server and electricity meter equipped with the communication device and terminal device in Figs. 2(a)-(b).

Fig. 8 is a flowchart showing the procedure of obtaining data by the communication device of Fig. 2(a).

Fig. 9 is a diagram showing the allocation of port numbers in the communication part of a modified example.

Before specifically describing the embodiment of the present invention, the outline of the embodiment will be described. The embodiment relates to a communication system in which a plurality of terminal devices are connected to one communication device. For example, the communication device is mounted on the server, and the terminal device is mounted on the electricity meter. In this configuration, the communication device collects data from each terminal device. The data includes, for example, the measurement result of the electric quantity. Previously, the terminal device automatically sent data to the specific port number of the communication device, and the communication device receiving the data sent a response to the terminal device. In such processing, the communication device cannot collect data at the time it expects. In order to enable the communication device to collect data at a desired point in time, the communication device sends a request signal (hereinafter, also referred to as the "first signal") for requesting data transmission to the terminal device. The terminal device that has received the first signal transmits a response signal containing data (hereinafter, also referred to as "second signal") to the communication device.

The communication device uses the TCP port number to receive the second signal, but if one port number is used for a plurality of terminal devices, the time for collecting data becomes longer. Therefore, the communication device uses a plurality of port numbers in order to simultaneously perform receiving processing of the second signals from a plurality of terminal devices. However, the number of port numbers that can be used in the communication device is "65535". Furthermore, in IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) It is defined as the range of "49152" ~ "65535" for freely used port numbers, which is only "16383". That is, if the number of terminal devices that want to collect the second signal at the same time is hundreds of thousands or more, the number of port numbers that can be used is lower than the number of terminal devices. Therefore, it is not practical to assign port numbers to each terminal device. As such, even if the number of terminal devices to be processed increases, it is required to suppress the increase in the time required for processing. It is also possible to use the port number of UDP instead of the port number of TCP. However, in the following, the port number of TCP is used to describe the embodiments.

In order to cope with this situation, in this embodiment, two or more groups including one or more terminal devices are defined. In addition, a port number is assigned to each group. That is, the second signals from the terminal devices included in different groups using different port numbers are received in parallel. On the other hand, the number of groups is regulated so as to be less than the number of port numbers that can be used. Therefore, even if the number of terminal devices increases, the increase in the number of required port numbers is suppressed.

FIG. 1 shows the structure of the communication system 1000. The communication system 1000 includes a communication device 100, a first relay device 200a, a second relay device 200b, a third relay device 200c, an Nth relay device 200n, and a terminal device 300 collectively referred to as a relay device 200 The first terminal device 300a to the ninth terminal device 300i. The number of relay devices 200 and terminal devices 300 is not limited to that shown in FIG. 1. The first relay device 200 a to the N-th relay device 200 n are connected to the communication device 100, and one or more terminal devices 300 are connected to each relay device 200. The communication between the communication device 100, the relay device 200, and the terminal device 300 may use wired communication, wireless communication, or a combination thereof. In addition, for wired communication, optical communication, power line communication (PLC: POwer Line Communications), etc. can be used, and wireless communication can use mobile phone communication, wireless LAN (Local Area Network, local area network), and the like.

The communication device 100 communicates with each of the plurality of terminal devices 300 via the relay device 200, and collects data from the plurality of terminal devices 300. At this time, the communication device 100 transmits the first signal to the terminal device 300, and receives the second signal from the terminal device 300. For example, the first signal transmitted from the communication device 100 to the second terminal device 300b is sequentially transmitted by the first relay device 200a and the first terminal device 300a. In addition, the second signal transmitted from the second terminal device 300b to the communication device 100 is sequentially transmitted by the first terminal device 300a and the first relay device 200a.

The terminal device 300 provides data to the communication device 100 according to a request from the communication device 100. At this time, the terminal device 300 receives the first signal from the communication device 100 and transmits the second signal to the communication device 100. Here, a multi-hop network can also be formed by a plurality of terminal devices 300. In a multi-hop network, if the terminal device 300 included in the path between the communication device 100 and another terminal device 300 receives the first signal from the communication device 100, it transmits the first signal to the other terminal device 300. For example, when the first terminal device 300a receives the first signal from the communication device 100 via the first relay device 200a, it transmits the first signal to the second terminal device 300b. Furthermore, when the terminal device 300 receives the second signal from the other terminal device 300, it transmits the second signal to the communication device 100. For example, if the first terminal device 300a receives the second signal from the second terminal device 300b, it transmits the second signal to the communication device 100 via the first relay device 200a.

The relay device 200 is arranged between the communication device 100 and the terminal device 300 and relays signals. For example, if the first relay device 200a receives the first signal from the communication device 100, it transmits the first signal toward the first terminal device 300a, and if it receives the second signal from the first terminal device 300a, Signal, the first signal is transmitted to the communication device 100. That is, the communication between the communication device 100 and the plurality of terminal devices 300 is relayed by at least one of the two or more relay devices 200. Here, the relay device 200 may also be a gateway device. In this case, a different network is formed for each terminal device 300 connected to the relay device 200. For example, a network is formed by the first terminal device 300a to the third terminal device 300c connected to the first relay device 200a, and the fourth terminal device 300d to the sixth terminal device 300d to the sixth terminal device connected to the second relay device 200b The device 300f forms another network. Furthermore, these networks may also form a network different from the network between the communication device 100 and the relay device 200.

2(a)-(b) show the configuration of the communication device 100 and the terminal device 300. FIG. 2(a) shows the configuration of the communication device 100. The communication device 100 includes a storage unit 110, an interface surface 112, a control unit 120, and a communication unit 130, and the communication unit 130 includes a sending unit 132 and a receiving unit 134. The storage unit 110 stores a routing table when the communication device 100 performs communication with the relay device 200 and the terminal device 300 in the network shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 shows the outline of the routing table stored in the memory unit 110. The routing table shows the connection relationship with the relay device 200 and the terminal device 300 in a manner similar to that of FIG. 1. The data structure of the routing table and the generation of the routing table only need to use known technologies, so the description is omitted here. Return to Figure 2(a).

The interface 112 is an interface outside the communication device 100 for inputting or outputting specific information. For example, in a situation where the communication device 100 is mounted on a server, the interface 112 accepts a collection instruction of data from each of the plurality of terminal devices 300 as information from the server. The interface 112 outputs the input information, such as a data collection instruction, to the control unit 120.

The control unit 120 controls the communication processing in the communication unit 130. For example, when the control unit 120 receives a data collection instruction from the interface 112, it generates a first signal that is a request signal for requesting data transmission for each terminal device 300. At this time, the control unit 120 sets the path to each terminal device 300 to the first signal. The control unit 120 outputs the generated first signal to the transmission unit 132. The communication unit 130 performs communication with the terminal device 300 via the relay device 200 not shown. The communication unit 130 may perform wired communication and may also perform wireless communication. Since wired communication and wireless communication are as described above, the description is omitted here. When the transmitting unit 132 receives the first signal from the control unit 120, it transmits the first signal to each of the plurality of terminal devices 300.

The receiving unit 134 receives the second signal from each of the plurality of terminal devices 300 that have transmitted the first signal via the transmitting unit 132 as a response to the first signal. The second signal contains data. The receiving unit 134 outputs the received second signal to the control unit 120. When the control unit 120 receives the second signal from the receiving unit 134, it obtains a combination of the data and the information of the terminal device 300. The control unit 120 outputs a combination of the data and the information of the terminal device 300 to the interface 112 as a response to the collection instruction of the data received from the interface 112. The combination of the output data of the interface 112 and the information of the terminal device 300 is used as specific information.

FIG. 2(b) shows the configuration of the terminal device 300. The terminal device 300 includes a communication unit 310, a control unit 320, and an acquisition unit 330. The communication unit 310 performs communication with the communication device 100 via the relay device 200 not shown. The communication unit 130 may perform wired communication and may also perform wireless communication. Since wired communication and wireless communication are as described above, the description is omitted here. The communication unit 310 receives the first signal from the communication device 100. The communication unit 310 outputs the received first signal to the control unit 320. When the control unit 320 is the terminal device 300 at the destination of the received first signal When the request is sent from the first signal to retrieve data. The control unit 320 receives the data through the acquisition unit 330 according to the request for sending the data. The acquisition unit 330 is an interface outside the terminal device 300 and receives specific information, such as data. The control unit 320 generates a second signal containing data as a response to the first signal. At this time, the control unit 320 sets the reverse path of the path of the first signal to the second signal. The control unit 320 outputs the second signal to the communication unit 310. When the communication unit 310 receives the second signal from the control unit 320, it transmits the second signal to the communication device 100.

If the destination of the received first signal is not the own terminal device 300 but another terminal device 300, the control unit 320 causes the communication unit 310 to transmit the first signal to the other terminal device 300. That is, the communication unit 310 transmits the first signal according to the path. In addition, the communication unit 310 receives the second signal from another terminal device 300. The communication unit 310 outputs the received second signal to the control unit 320. The control unit 320 causes the communication unit 310 to transmit the second signal to the communication device 100. That is, the communication unit 310 transmits the second signal according to the reverse path.

In the communication system 1000, the communication device 100 becomes an opportunity to collect data from the terminal device 300. At this time, the communication unit 130 of the communication device 100 uses the TCP port number in order to receive the second signal as data. As mentioned above, the number of ports that can be used is limited to "16383". Therefore, when the number of terminal devices 300 to be processed is large, if a port number is assigned to each terminal device 300, the port number is insufficient. On the other hand, when one port number is used for a plurality of terminal devices 300, if the data collection process for one terminal device 300 is not ended, the data collection process for the next terminal device 300 cannot be executed. As a result, the time required for collection processing has become longer. Hereinafter, the communication unit used to suppress the increase of the time required for collection processing even if the number of terminal devices 300 to be processed is large The processing in 130 is explained.

FIG. 4 shows the allocation of port numbers in the communication unit 130. This shows the processing in the control unit 120, and the communication unit 130 is connected to the first relay device 200a to the Nth relay device 200n in the same manner as in FIG. 1. In addition, one or more terminal devices 300 are connected to each relay device 200. The control unit 120 includes the plurality of terminal devices 300 connected to the first relay device 200a in the first group 400a, and includes the plurality of terminal devices 300 connected to the second relay device 200b in the second group 400b. The same is true for the third group 400c to the Nth group 400n. The first group 400a to the Nth group 400n are collectively referred to as a group 400. That is, the control unit 120 defines two or more groups 400 including one or more terminal devices 300. In addition, the control unit 120 classifies the plurality of terminal devices 300 into each of the two or more groups 400. In particular, classification is performed as if one or more terminal devices 300 connected to the same relay device 200 are included in the same group 400. This is equivalent to forming a group 400 for each relay device 200.

In addition, the control unit 120 assigns a port number to each group 400. For example, the port number "49152" is assigned to the first group 400a, the port number "49153" is assigned to the second group 400b, and the port number "49154" is assigned to the third group 400c. With this allocation, the control unit 120 uses the port number to make the receiving unit 134 receive the second signal. In a way corresponding to this, the control unit 320 in the terminal device 300 sets the port number allocated to the group 400 containing the terminal device 300 to the second signal. As a result, the second signals from the terminal devices 300 included in the same group 400 are received and processed one by one in the communication device 100, but the second signals from the terminal devices 300 included in a different group 400 are used for communication The device 100 receives processing in parallel.

Furthermore, the control unit 120 limits the number of terminal devices 300 included in one group 400 based on the number of terminal devices 300 that can be connected to the relay device 200. Specifically, the number of terminal devices 300 included in one group 400 is limited so as to be less than the number of terminal devices 300 that can be connected to the relay device 200.

In order to further describe the communication between the communication device 100 and the terminal device 300 using such a port number, FIGS. 5 and 6 are used here. FIG. 5 shows the outline of the processing of the communication system 1000. In FIG. 5, it is assumed that the communication unit 130 of the communication device 100 communicates with the L-th terminal device 300l, the S-th terminal device 300s, and the X-th terminal device 300x. In the receiving section 134, as an example, a port with a port number "60001", a port with a port number "60002", and a port with a port number "60100" are set. In addition, the port number "60001" is assigned to the group 400 including the L-th terminal device 3001, and the port number "60002" is assigned to the group 400 including the S-th terminal device 300s. Furthermore, the port with the port number "60100" is allocated to the group 400 including the X-th terminal device 300x.

FIG. 6 shows the format of the frame used in the communication unit 130. In the frame, IP (Internet Protocol, Internet Protocol) header, TCP header, and encrypted data are sequentially configured from the beginning. In addition, the TCP header contains the source port number and destination port number. As long as the publicly known technology is used, the description is omitted here. When the port number is referred to as non-encrypted first identification information, the identification information when identifying the terminal device 300 in the group 400 can also be referred to as second identification information. The control unit 120 assigns the second identification information to each terminal device 300 in the group 400. Since the first identification information is the port number in TCP, the second identification information is the encrypted identification information in a protocol higher than TCP. This second identification information is included in the encrypted data. Return to Figure 5.

When the control unit 120 causes the transmission unit 132 to transmit the first signal to the L-th terminal device 3001, it sets "60001" to the transmission source port number so that the second identification information for the L-th terminal device 3001 is included in the encrypted data. That is, the first signal sent from the sending unit 132 includes a combination of the first identification information and the second identification information. Therefore, the port number for the terminal device 300 can also be assigned when the first signal is transmitted. The control unit 320 of the L-th terminal device 3001 receiving the first signal obtains the transmission source port number "60001" and the second identification information. In addition, when the control unit 320 transmits the second signal to the communication device 100, the destination port number "60001" is set based on the transmission source port number "60001", and the second identification information is included in the encrypted data. As a result, the receiving unit 134 of the communication device 100 receives the second signal from the L-th terminal device 3001 at the port number "60001". In this way, the control unit 120 uses the combination of the first identification information and the second identification information to make the receiving unit 134 receive the second signal.

In addition, the same processing is performed on the third terminal device 300s, and the control unit 120 of the communication device 100 sets the transmission source port number "60002" for the first signal of the third terminal device 300s. The control unit 320 of the third terminal device 300s sets the destination port number "60002" for the second signal sent to the communication device 100. Furthermore, the same processing is performed on the Xth terminal device 300x, and the control unit 120 of the communication device 100 sets the transmission source port number "60100" for the first signal of the Xth terminal device 300x. The control unit 320 of the X-th terminal device 300x sets the destination port number "60100" for the second signal sent to the communication device 100. Since different port numbers are set in the L-th terminal device 300l, S-th terminal device 300s, and X-th terminal device 300x, the reception processing for the L-th terminal device 300l, S-th terminal device 300s, and X-th terminal device 300x It can be executed in parallel in the communication device 100.

7(a)-(b) show the configuration of the server 500 and the electricity meter 600 equipped with the communication device 100 and the terminal device 300. FIG. 7(a) shows the structure of the server 500. The server 500 includes a communication device 100, a processing unit 510, and a storage unit 512. The processing unit 510 collects power measurement results from each of the plurality of terminal devices 300 and manages them. The processing unit 510 outputs to the communication device 100 a collection instruction of the electric quantity measurement results of each of the plurality of electric quantity meters 600. Corresponding to this, the transmission unit 132 of the communication device 100 transmits a request signal for transmission of the measurement result as the first signal. The receiving unit 134 of the communication device 100 receives the encrypted data including the measurement result as the second signal. The processing unit 510 receives the measurement result of the electric quantity in each of the plurality of electric quantity meters 600 from the communication device 100. The processing unit 510 stores the received measurement result of the electric quantity in the storage unit 512.

FIG. 7(b) shows the structure of the electricity meter 600. An example of the fuel gauge 600 is a smart meter. The sensor 612 measures the amount of electricity used by users such as houses. The measurement of the electric quantity only needs to use a well-known technique, so the explanation is omitted here. The processing unit 610 receives the measurement result of the electric quantity from the sensor 612. When the terminal device 300 receives the first signal from the communication device 100, it outputs a collection instruction of the measurement result of the electric quantity to the processing unit 610. If the processing unit 610 accepts the instruction, it outputs the measurement result of the electric quantity to the processing unit 610. The terminal device 300 converts the measurement result of the electric quantity into encrypted data and transmits the second signal.

The main body of the device, system, or method in the present invention has a computer. The computer executes the program to realize the functions of the main body of the device, system, or method of the present invention. The computer is equipped with a processor that operates in accordance with the program as the main hardware structure. The type of the processor is not limited as long as it can realize the function by executing the program. The processor consists of one or more electronic circuits including semiconductor integrated circuits (IC) or LSI (Large Scale Integration) constitute. A plurality of electronic circuits can be integrated on one chip or can be arranged on a plurality of chips. Multiple chips can be concentrated in one device, or can be installed in multiple devices. Programs are recorded on non-transitory recording media such as ROM (Read Only Memory), optical discs, and hard disk drives that can be read by the computer. The program can be stored in a recording medium in advance, or can be supplied to the recording medium via a wide area communication network including the Internet.

The operation of the communication system 1000 configured as above will be described. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the steps of obtaining data of the communication device 100. The control unit 120 specifies the first identification information and the second identification information for the terminal device 300 (S100). The sending unit 132 sets the first identification information to the sending source port number, and sends a frame in which the encrypted data includes the second identification information (S102). The control unit 120 extracts the first identification information and the second identification information of the destination port number from the frame received by the receiving unit 134 (S104). When the extracted first identification information and second identification information are specified first identification information and second identification information (Yes in S106), the control unit 120 obtains the data (S108). When the first identification information and the second identification information that have been extracted are not the first identification information and the second identification information that have been specified (No in S106), the process is ended.

Next, the modified example will be explained. Previously, a group 400 was formed for each relay device 200, and a port number was assigned to each group 400. That is, the terminal devices 300 included in different networks are assigned different port numbers. A plurality of terminal devices 300 can also be all included in the same network. At this time, the communication system 1000 shown in FIG. 1 may not include the relay device 200, or may include the relay device 200 without the function of a gateway.

FIG. 9 shows the allocation of port numbers in the communication unit 130. It is the same as Figure 4, but does not include With relay device 200. Here, the control unit 120 also assigns a port number to each group 400 by assigning a port number "49152" to the first group 400a, for example. On the other hand, since each terminal device 300 is included in the same network, the control unit 120 may also move the terminal device 300 included in one group 400 to a different group 400. For example, the control unit 120 classifies the plurality of terminal devices 300 into two or more groups 400 based on the number of available port numbers so that the number of terminal devices 300 included in each group 400 is nearly uniform. By. For example, when the number of terminal devices 300 is "100000" and the number of group 400 is "10000", the control unit 120 makes one group 400 include 10 terminal devices 300.

According to this embodiment, since a port number is assigned to each group 400 including more than one terminal device 300, data from terminal devices 300 assigned different port numbers can be processed in parallel. In addition, since the data from the terminal devices 300 assigned with different port numbers are processed in parallel, the processing speed can be increased. In addition, since the port number is allocated to each group 400, even if the number of terminal devices 300 increases, the number of required port numbers can be limited. In addition, since the port number is allocated to each group 400, it is possible to increase the processing speed while using a limited number of port numbers.

Moreover, since one or more terminal devices 300 connected to the same relay device 200 are classified into the same group 400, processing can be performed for each relay device 200. In addition, since the processing is executed for each relay device 200, the processing can be simplified. Furthermore, based on the number of terminal devices 300 that can be connected to the relay device 200, the number of terminal devices 300 included in a group 400 is limited, so the number of terminal devices 300 can be limited to the receiving stations of the relay device 200 Below the number. In addition, since the number of terminal devices 300 is limited to the number of relay devices 200 Therefore, the retrieval process of the terminal device 300 for each port number can be simplified.

Furthermore, based on the number of usable port numbers, the plurality of terminal devices 300 are classified into two or more groups 400 in such a way that the number of terminal devices 300 included in each group 400 approaches. The retrieval processing of the terminal device 300 for each port number can be simplified. In addition, since the first signal sent from the sending unit 132 includes a port number, the port number can be dynamically assigned. In addition, since the port number in TCP is used, it can be used for TCP/IP. In addition, since the communication device 100 is mounted on the server 500, the measurement result of the electric power from the electricity meter 600 can be collected.

The outline of one aspect of the present invention is as follows. The communication device 100 of one aspect of the present invention is the communication device 100 that communicates with the terminal device 300, and includes: a transmitting unit 132 that transmits a first signal to each of the plurality of terminal devices 300; Each of the plurality of terminal devices 300 that have transmitted the first signal via the transmission unit 132 receives the second signal as a response to the first signal; and the control unit 120 specifies two or more terminal devices 300 including one or more And classify a plurality of terminal devices 300 into two or more groups 400, and assign unencrypted identification information to each group 400, thereby using the identification information to make the receiving unit 134 receive the first 2Signal.

The communication between the communication device 100 and a plurality of terminal devices 300 is relayed by at least one of two or more relay devices 200, and the control unit 120 can also connect to more than one of the same relay device 200 The terminal devices 300 are classified into the same group 400.

The control unit 120 may also be based on the number of terminal devices 300 that can be connected to the relay device 200, The number of terminal devices 300 included in one group 400 is limited.

The control unit 120 may also classify the plurality of terminal devices 300 into two or more groups 400 based on the number of available identification information so that the number of terminal devices 300 included in each group 400 is close. By.

The first signal sent from the sending unit 132 includes identification information.

The identification information in the control unit 120 may also be a port number in a transmission layer protocol (TCP: Transmission Control Protocol or UDP: User Datagram Protocol).

The communication device 100 is a server 500 that collects measurement results from each of a plurality of terminal devices 300. The sending unit 132 sends a request signal for sending the measurement results as the first signal, and the receiving unit 134 can also receive data containing the measurement results as the first signal. The second signal.

Another aspect of the present invention is the communication system 1000. The communication system 1000 includes: a plurality of terminal devices 300; and a communication device 100 that communicates with each of the plurality of terminal devices 300. The communication device 100 includes: a transmitting unit 132 that transmits a first signal to each of the plurality of terminal devices 300; and a receiving unit 134 that receives the second signal from each of the plurality of terminal devices 300 that have transmitted the first signal from the transmitting unit 132 Signal, as a response to the first signal; and the control unit 120, which defines two or more groups 400 including one or more terminal devices 300, and classifies the plurality of terminal devices 300 into two or more groups 400 Each of them is assigned unencrypted identification information for each group 400, so that the receiving unit 134 receives the second signal using the identification information.

Above, the present invention has been described based on the embodiments. The industry practitioner should understand that this embodiment is an example, and various combinations of its constituent elements or processing processes can be modified, and such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention.

In this embodiment, the port number is used as the first identification information. However, it is not limited to this. For example, non-encrypted identification information other than the port number may be used as the first identification information. According to this modification, the freedom of composition can be improved.

In this embodiment, the communication device 100 is mounted on the electricity meter 600. However, it is not limited to this. For example, the communication device 100 may be mounted on an electronic device other than the electricity meter 600. According to this modification, the freedom of composition can be improved.

100‧‧‧Communication device

110‧‧‧Memory Department

112‧‧‧Face

120‧‧‧Control Department

130‧‧‧Ministry of Communications

132‧‧‧Delivery Department

134‧‧‧Receiving Department

300‧‧‧Terminal device

310‧‧‧Ministry of Communications

320‧‧‧Control Department

330‧‧‧Acquisition Department

Claims (7)

A communication device characterized in that it is a person communicating with a terminal device, and includes: a transmission unit that transmits a first signal to each of a plurality of terminal devices; and a reception unit that transmits the first signal via the transmission unit Each of the above-mentioned plurality of terminal devices of the signal receives the second signal as a response to the first signal; and the control unit specifies two or more groups including one or more terminal devices, and the above-mentioned plurality of terminals The device is classified into each of two or more groups, and each group is assigned an unencrypted port number in the transport layer protocol (TCP: Transmission Control Protocol or UDP: User Datagram Protocol). The above-mentioned port number is used to enable the receiving unit to receive the second signal; and the above-mentioned control unit is to make two or more terminal devices included in the same group use the same port number, and make the terminal devices included in different groups each other Use different port numbers. For example, the communication device of claim 1, wherein the communication between the communication device and the above-mentioned plural terminal devices is relayed by at least one of two or more relay devices, and the above-mentioned control unit will be connected to the same relay device More than one terminal device is classified into the same group. For the communication device of claim 2, wherein the control unit limits the number of terminal devices included in a group based on the number of terminal devices that can be connected to the relay device. Such as the communication device of claim 1, wherein the control unit classifies the plurality of terminal devices into two or more in a manner that the number of terminal devices included in each group approximates based on the number of the above-mentioned port numbers that can be used Each of the group. Such as the communication device of any one of claim 1 to 4, wherein the first signal sent from the sending unit includes the port number. For example, the communication device of claim 1, wherein the communication device is a server that collects measurement results from each of the plurality of terminal devices, the sending unit sends a request signal for sending the measurement results as the first signal, and the receiving unit receives The data including the measurement result is used as the second signal above. A communication system is characterized by comprising: a plurality of terminal devices; and a communication device for communicating with each of the plurality of terminal devices; and the communication device includes: a transmission unit for communicating with each of the plurality of terminal devices A first signal is transmitted; a receiving unit that receives a second signal from each of the plurality of terminal devices that have transmitted the first signal via the transmitting unit as a response to the first signal; and a control unit, which specifies two or more It includes a group of more than one terminal device, and the above-mentioned plural terminal devices are classified into two or more groups, and each group is assigned non-encrypted and a transmission layer protocol (TCP: Transmission Control Protocol). Or UDP: the port number in the User Datagram Protocol), by which the above-mentioned port number is used to make the above-mentioned receiving unit receive the second signal The above-mentioned control unit is to make two or more terminal devices included in the same group use the same port number, and make the terminal devices included in different groups use different port numbers from each other.

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