JP2003018234A - Wireless systems - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] Even when terminal stations are very close to each other and there is no need to use infrastructure, communication must always be performed via a base station and communication time is required. In addition, there is a disadvantage that the infrastructure is wasted. Normally, when a terminal station performs communication with a base station and simultaneously performs communication between another terminal station and another terminal station, a driver for communication with the base station, NI
C, two software / hardware are required: a driver for communication with other terminal stations and a NIC. In one hardware of a terminal station, a communication mode can be set for each MAC address of a terminal or a base station with which communication is performed, whereby a system can be configured with a minimum of hardware. Even when a station and a terminal station are communicating, communication can be performed between different terminal stations.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wireless communication system for transferring a packet containing user information or control information between a plurality of wireless terminals.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional technique will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4 are diagrams for briefly explaining a conventional communication system using a wireless access line between a base station and a terminal station, respectively. First, in FIG. 3, the base station 1 and the terminal station 2a communicate with each other in the infrastructure mode using the radio access line 21 via the antenna 31 and the antenna 32a, respectively, or the base station 1 and the terminal station 2a.
2b communicates in the infrastructure mode using the radio access line 22 via the antenna 31 and the antenna 32b, respectively. Here, the infrastructure mode refers to communication via the base station 1 (hereinafter referred to as infrastructure mode).

For example, when the terminal station 2b wants to communicate with the base station 1, a communication request is made to the base station 1 via the antenna 32b, and after confirming that the radio access line is available, the radio access line 22 is connected. Use to communicate in infrastructure mode. In the example of FIG. 3, a radio access line having a different frequency is required for each terminal station that communicates with the base station. However, as shown in FIG. 3, even when the terminal station 2a and the terminal station 2b are in the same room, if the communication is performed by such a method, the two frequencies of the radio access lines 21 and 22 will be used. Will be wasted. That is, if the base station 1 communicates with another terminal station not shown in FIG. 3, another radio access line (frequency) is required, but the terminal station 2a and the terminal station 2b have already been connected. Uses two frequencies, there is a possibility that one will run short.

Further, in FIG. 4, the base station 1 and the terminal station 2a '
However, when the base station 1 and the terminal station 2b communicate by using the wireless access line 21 via the respective antennas 31 and 32a-1 to communicate in the infrastructure mode,
In the same room, the terminal station 2a 'and the terminal station 2b perform inter-terminal station communication using the radio access line 23 via the antennas 32a-2 and 32b, respectively. In the case of the example in FIG. 4, the terminal station 2a ′ has hardware for communication with the base station 1 and a driver for operating the hardware, and hardware for communication with the terminal station 2b and its hardware. It is necessary to prepare two types of hardware for a driver to operate and a driver (software).

The above example will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of communication hardware and software of a conventional terminal station. In conventional communication, application program 51, network protocol 5
2, OS (Operating System) 53, software of driver 54, and Network operated by driver 54
It consists of hardware called Interface Card (hereinafter referred to as NIC) 55. When the terminal station 2a and the terminal station 2b perform inter-base station communication as in the example of FIG. 3, both the terminal station 2a and the terminal station 2b have one driver 54 as shown in FIG. A configuration with one NIC 55 running with 54 is sufficient. However, as shown in the example of FIG. 4, when the terminal station 2a 'tries to perform inter-base station communication and inter-terminal station communication, the terminal station 2a'
Two Ns operating by two drivers 54-1 and 54-2 as shown in FIG. 6 and drivers 54-1 and 54-2 respectively.
Requires IC 55-1 and 55-2.

[0006]

Even when a plurality of terminal stations are installed in the same indoor and are very close to each other and the infrastructure is not required to be used, communication is always performed via the base station. However, there are disadvantages that it takes time to start communication and wastes infrastructure. Further, when one terminal station normally communicates with the base station and simultaneously communicates with another terminal station between the terminal stations, the terminal station is used for communication with the base station. It requires two software and two hardware: driver, NIC, driver for communication with terminal station, and NIC, which has the drawback of increasing cost. An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, configure a system that does not burden the infrastructure in terminal-to-terminal communication in the same room, etc., and configure the system with minimum hardware. To provide a wireless system capable of doing so.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a radio system in which a base station for transmitting and receiving a predetermined signal and a plurality of terminal stations for transmitting and receiving signals from the base station are used for communication. M of the terminal station or base station
By providing the memory for setting the communication mode for each AC address, it is possible to refer to the memory corresponding to the MAC address for each communication partner and perform communication in the referred communication mode.

Further, the memory of the wireless system of the present invention designates a broadcast address as a destination address when a signal is transmitted from a terminal station to a base station and peripheral terminal stations, and all radio waves received from the terminal station as notification signals. It is a memory for transmitting a signal to a terminal and registering a source address of a received signal for the transmitted notification signal.

That is, the radio system of the present invention is a radio system including a base station for transmitting and receiving signals and a plurality of terminal stations for transmitting and receiving signals to and from the base station. MAC of terminal station or base station
A communication mode setting memory for setting a communication mode for each address is provided, and communication is performed in a different communication mode for each communicating party.

Further, the terminal station of the wireless system of the present invention is
When transmitting signals to the base station and multiple other terminal stations,
Designate all terminal stations and base stations as destination addresses, transmit signals to all terminal stations and base stations to which radio waves reach, and based on the response signal to the transmitted signal, the source address of the response signal, It is registered in the communication mode setting memory.

[0011]

1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a wireless system of the present invention. Base station 101 and terminal station
102a communicates in the infrastructure mode using the radio access line 21 via the antenna 31 and the antenna 32a, respectively. In addition, the terminal station 102 existing in the same room
a and terminal station 102b have antenna 32a and antenna
Communication is performed in ad hoc mode using wireless line 23 via 32b. Here, the ad hoc mode refers to communication between terminal stations.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the configuration of communication hardware and software of the terminal station of the present invention. In the communication of the embodiment of FIG. 7, the application program 71, the network protocol 72, the OS (Operatin
g System) 73, driver 74 software, and
Consists of NIC 75 running with driver 74. Further, the driver 74 is provided with a communication mode setting memory (not shown) for the terminal station. In FIG. 7 and FIG. 1, the driver 74 of the terminal station 102a refers to the received information (received signal) and the communication mode setting memory to determine whether the communication request is in the infrastructure mode or the ad hoc mode.

The details of the communication mode setting memory are shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the data contents of an embodiment of the communication mode setting memory of the terminal station of the present invention. In FIG.
To each MAC address unique to multiple terminals or base stations,
There is a To DS field column that stores the data content of the DS field and a From DS field column that stores the data content of the From DS field. In addition, if the data corresponding to the To DS field and From DS field are both "0", it is an ad hoc mode, and if at least one is "1", it is an infrastructure mode. The settings of are registered (stored).

A detailed description of the To DS field and From DS field is shown in FIGS. 11 to 13. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a signal used for communication of this embodiment, and shows a general MAC frame format of IEEE 802.11. In FIG. 11, the number at the top indicates the length of each constituent field, and the unit is octet.
Here, regarding the Frame Control field, FIG.
The detailed configuration is shown in. The Duration / ID field indicates the frame type and the like. Further, the Address 1 to 4 fields indicate the destination MAC address, the source MAC address, etc., and the Sequence Control field indicates the sequence control information.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing each structure of the Frame Control field. In FIG. 12, the numbers at the top are
The length of each configuration field is shown, and the unit is bits.
As shown in FIG. 12, the Frame Control field is Pr
otocol Version field, frame format (Contro
l, Data, Management) to identify information
Type field and Subtype field, “1” when transmitting to the base station, “0” otherwise To DS field, and “1” when receiving from the base station
, "0" in other cases, From DS field, More Fragments Field field, Ret
It consists of ry field, Power Management (PwrMgt) field, More Data field, WEP field, and Order field.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of data in the To DS field and From DS field in FIG. Where DA is the Destination Address, SA is the Source Address, BSSID is the Basic Service SetIdentification,
RA is the Receiver Address, TA is the Transmitter Addre
ss and N / A are Not Applicable. Figure 13 shows To DS
A for the data content of the field and the From DS field, that is, a combination (1 bit) of "0" or "1"
Indicates the type of data written in ddress 1 to Address 4.

In the communication setting memory shown in FIG. 2, the MAC
The data stored in the addresses 1 to 4 is a unique identification number that is predetermined when the system is constructed for each terminal station and base station. In Figure 2, To DS
Field field is "0", From DS field field is "0"
In the case of ", communication is performed in ad hoc mode. In addition, T
o If at least one of the DS field column and From DS field column is "1", the communication is performed in the infrastructure mode. For example, since the To DS field column is “1” and the From DS field column is “0”, the communication partner defined by the MAC address 1 in FIG. 2 is infra mode communication. Also, for example, the communication partner with MAC address 2 is T
o Since the DS field field is "0" and the From DS field field is "0", the communication is in ad hoc mode.
Further, the unique identification numbers are not yet registered in the MAC address 3, MAC address 4, .... Also,
In Fig. 2, the number of MAC addresses is from 1 to 4, and the addresses of other communication partners are omitted. However, although not shown, this communication setting memory has a data structure that can be set for all partner stations of the constructed system.

FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 are flowcharts for explaining a detailed processing procedure at the time of transmission / reception of the driver according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 shows the case of transmission and FIG. 9 shows the case of reception. First, an explanation when the terminal station 101 receives data will be explained with reference to FIG. Data reception step 901
Now, get the data from the received signal via NIC 75. In the reference step 902, first, based on the data acquired from the NIC 75, it is determined whether or not the MAC address of the transmission source is registered (stored) in the communication mode setting memory.
If it is not registered in the communication mode setting memory, DS
Proceed to field determination step 903. If already registered, refer to the corresponding MAC address in the communication mode setting memory to check if the communication request is in infrastructure mode or in ad hoc mode. In some cases, the processing branches to infrastructure mode communication processing step 907, and in the case of a communication request in the ad hoc mode, processing branches to ad hoc mode communication processing step 906.

In the DS field determination step 903, the frame control field of the received signal (received data)
The data in the To DS field and From DS field
It is determined whether both are "0". If the From DS field is "1", it is understood that the received signal is the data from the base station (the transmission source is the base station).
Refer to the combination of From DS field and To DS field shown in to refer to the corresponding SA (Source Address).
MAC address (for example, the From DS field is “1”)
Then, if the To DS field is “0”,
Add SA data in Address 3 of 3) to the communication mode setting memory of Fig. 2 as an infrastructure mode (for example, "0" in the To DS field column of MAC address 3 of Fig. 2 and "in the From DS field column". 1 ", data that means" infrastructure mode "is stored in the communication mode column)
Then, the process branches to the infrastructure mode communication processing step 907. Also, the From DS and To DS fields are
If both are "0", it is understood that the received signal is data from another terminal station, and therefore From From shown in FIG.
MA of SA (Address 2 data) when the combination of both DS field and To DS field is "0"
Add C address to the communication mode setting memory as ad hoc mode (for example, To DS of MAC address 4 in Fig. 2)
"0" in the field column, "0" in the From DS field column
", Stores the data that means" ad hoc mode "in the communication mode column), and branches to ad hoc mode communication processing step 906. Infrastructure mode communication processing step"
The 907 performs infrastructure mode communication processing and passes information (data) to the NIC 75 shown in FIG. In ad hoc mode communication processing step 906, ad hoc communication processing is performed and information (data) is passed to the NIC 75 shown in FIG.

Next, an example of transmitting data from the terminal station 101 will be described with reference to FIG. In the data receiving step 801, the driver 74 shown in FIG. 7 receives the transmission data (transmission signal) from the OS 73. Reference step 802
Then, based on the data obtained from OS 73, it is determined whether the MAC address of the destination (destination) is registered (stored) in the communication mode setting memory. If it is not registered in the communication mode setting memory, proceed to DS field determination step 803. If already registered, refer to the corresponding MAC address in the communication mode setting memory to check if the communication request is in infrastructure mode or in ad hoc mode. In some cases, the processing branches to infrastructure mode communication processing step 807, and in the case of a communication request in the ad hoc mode, processing branches to ad hoc mode communication processing step 806.

In the DS field determination step 803, the frame control field of the transmission signal (transmission data)
It is determined whether the data in the To DS field field and the From DS field field are both "0". When the data in the To DS field is "1", the transmission signal is sent to the base station (destination is the base station)
Since it can be understood as data, referring to the combination of the From DS field and To DS field shown in FIG. 13, DA (Desti
nation MAC address (eg From DS
When the field is “0” and the To DS field is “1”, the DA data is present in Address 1 of FIG. 13) is added to the communication mode setting memory of FIG. 2 as the infrastructure mode (for example, 2 MAC address 5 To
Data "1" is stored in the DS field column, data "0" is stored in the From DS field column, and data indicating "infrastructure mode" is stored in the communication mode column), and the process branches to infrastructure mode communication processing step 807. Also, the From DS field and To
When the DS fields are both 0, it can be known that the data to be transmitted is the data to be transmitted to another terminal station, and therefore the combination of the From DS field and the To DS field shown in FIG. 13 is "0". DA (Address 2
Data) is added as an ad hoc mode to the communication mode setting memory (for example, “0”, From DS in the To DS field column of MAC address 6 in FIG. 2).
"0" is stored in the field column and data meaning "ad hoc mode" is stored in the communication mode column), and the process branches to ad hoc mode communication processing step 806. In infrastructure mode communication processing step 807, infrastructure mode communication processing is performed, and information (data) is passed to the OS 73 shown in FIG. In ad-hoc mode communication processing step 806, ad-hoc communication processing is performed and information (data) is passed to the OS 73 shown in FIG. FIG. 14 shows an example of the case of being newly registered in the communication mode setting memory of FIG. 2 along with the description of the embodiment of FIG. 9 and FIG.

The control of infrastructure / ad hoc communication according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Figure 10
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of infrastructure / ad hoc control according to the present invention. In FIG. 10, the base station 101 is periodically
It transmits (transmits) a predetermined signal such as Beacon signal.
Next, the terminal station 102a transmits a Probe Request signal. In the case of this example, since the transmission source is the terminal station 102a, the From DS field column of FIG. 14 is "0".
Therefore, all terminal stations and base stations within the range of the radio wave from the terminal station 102a (in FIG. 10, the base station 101 and the terminal station
Probe request signal to (only 102b). In this example, the To DS field may be "0" or "1". When the To DS field is "0", enter the broadcast address in Address 1 (DA). By doing so, the terminal station 1
Probe Request to all terminal stations within the range of 02a's radio wave
It becomes possible to transmit a signal. Here, the broadcast address means an abandoned information address. If the To DS field is "1", the Address
Enter the broadcast address in 1 (BSSID) and Address 3 (DA). By doing so, the terminal station 1
Probe Request to all base stations within the range of 02a's radio wave
It becomes possible to transmit a signal. All terminal stations (eg, terminal station 102b) and base stations that have received the Prob Request signal transmitted by the terminal station 102a (eg, base station 101
) Sends back a probResponse (response) signal separately. The terminal station 102a creates or updates the contents of the communication mode setting memory based on the received Prob Response signal.

In another example, the base station 101 is Pr
The case of transmitting an ob Request signal will be described. In this example, since the base station 101 is the transmission source,
The From DS field column of is "1". Therefore, the base station 101 transmits a Prob Request signal to all terminal stations and base stations within the range of the radio wave. In this example, the To DS field may be "0" or "1". If the To DS field is "0", Ad
Enter the broadcast address in dress 1 (DA) and Address 2 (BSSID). By doing so, all terminal stations within range of the radio wave of the base station 101 can be
It becomes possible to send a Request signal. Also, To
Address 1 (RA), A when the DS field is "1"
Enter the broadcast address in ddress 2 (DA). By doing so, it becomes possible to transmit the Prob Request signal to all the base stations within the range of the radio wave of the base station 101. Prob Req sent by terminal station 101
All terminal stations and base stations that have received the uest signal send back prob Response signals separately. The terminal station 101 creates or updates the contents of the communication mode setting memory based on the received Prob Response signal.

After that, when performing communication in the infrastructure mode, the terminal station 102a sets, for example, the base station 101 as the destination address of the destination in the DA (Destination Address) and communicates with the base station 101 of the other party. Authentication (Authen
tication) and attribution (Association) signal transmission / reception, then data transmission / reception. Also, for example, the terminal station 102
When communicating with the terminal b in ad hoc mode, the terminal station 102a sets the terminal station 102b as the destination address of the destination in DA (Destination Address) and establishes communication with the destination terminal station 102b. , Authentication,
Data is sent and received after sending and receiving an Association signal.

Further, by setting the MAC address in the communication mode setting memory of the terminal station 102a,
102a can act as a relay station for relaying. For example, if the terminal station 102b wants to communicate with the base station 101, but
102a performs relay, terminal station 102b and terminal station 102a communicate in ad hoc mode, and terminal station 102a and base station 1
01 communicates in infrastructure mode, and as a result, the terminal station
Data can be transmitted and received between 102b and the base station 101.

In the above embodiment, for example, IEEE 80
2.11 I explained the case of applying the protocol,
Other communication protocols that can realize the same function may be used.

[0027]

According to the present invention, it is possible to construct a system that does not burden the infrastructure by using the ad hoc mode in communication between terminals in the same room. In addition, by enabling the communication mode to be set for each MAC address of the terminal or base station that communicates with one piece of hardware in the terminal station, the system can be configured with a minimum of hardware. Even when a station is communicating, it is possible to communicate between different terminal stations.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a wireless system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a data structure of an embodiment of a communication mode setting memory of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for briefly explaining a conventional communication system using a wireless access line between a base station and a terminal station.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for briefly explaining a conventional communication system using a wireless access line between a base station and a terminal station.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of communication hardware and software of a conventional terminal station.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the configuration of communication hardware and software of the terminal station of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration of a terminal station according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining a detailed processing procedure at the time of transmission of the driver unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining a detailed processing procedure at the time of reception by the driver unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of infrastructure / ad hoc control according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a configuration of an IEEE 802.11 MAC frame format.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing the structure of an IEEE 802.11 Frame Control field.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of a To DS field and a From DS field.

FIG. 14

[Explanation of symbols]

1: base station, 2a, 2a ', 2b: terminal station, 21, 22: wireless access line, 23: wireless line, 31, 32a, 32b, 32a-
1, 32a-2: Antenna, 51: Application program, 52: Network protocol, 53: OS, 54, 54
-1, 54-2: Driver, 55, 55-1, 55-2: NIC, 71:
Application program, 72: Network protocol, 73: OS, 74: Driver, 75: NIC, 10
1: base station, 102a, 102b: terminal station.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A wireless system comprising a base station transmitting / receiving a signal and a plurality of terminal stations transmitting / receiving the signal to / from the base station, wherein the plurality of terminal stations are the plurality of terminal stations of a communication partner or A wireless system comprising a communication mode setting memory for setting a communication mode for each MAC address of the base station, and performing communication in a different communication mode for each communicating party. 2. The terminal station of the wireless system according to claim 1, when transmitting a signal to the base station and the plurality of terminal stations, specifies all the terminal stations and the base station as destination addresses. A signal is transmitted to all terminal stations and base stations to which radio waves reach, and a transmission source address of the response signal is registered in the communication mode setting memory based on the response signal to the transmitted signal. Wireless system.