KR20040037637A - Apparatus for selecting a communications route of a mobile communications terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus for selecting a communication path of a wireless communication terminal capable of automatically selecting and accessing an optimal wireless communication path in consideration of transmission efficiency, usage fee, and regional characteristics. According to the present invention for this purpose, a plurality of wireless communication unit for transmitting and receiving data wirelessly using different access methods; A memory unit which stores various reference data for calculating connection efficiency with respect to each communication path connected through each of the wireless communication units; When a wireless connection is required by a user's operation, the connection efficiency is calculated for each communication path using the respective reference data, and the wireless communication unit having the highest connection efficiency is selected to connect the wireless communication terminal to the network. Provided is a communication path selection apparatus of a wireless communication terminal including a control unit.

According to the present invention, the wireless communication terminal is provided with a variety of wireless connection means there is an effect that can automatically select the optimal wireless communication path according to the use environment. As a result, the overall function of the wireless communication terminal can be improved, and at the same time, the user side performing wireless data transmission / reception using the same can receive a more economical wireless data service.

Description

Communication path selector of wireless communication terminal {APPARATUS FOR SELECTING A COMMUNICATIONS ROUTE OF A MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS TERMINAL}

The present invention relates to an apparatus for selecting a communication path of a wireless communication terminal, and more particularly, to automatically transmit and receive wireless data in a wireless communication terminal, automatically selecting an optimal communication path in consideration of economical efficiency and transmission efficiency among various communication paths. The present invention relates to a data communication path selection device of a wireless communication terminal capable of transmitting and receiving data.

As is well known, recent mobile communication systems provide various types of data transmission functions such as wireless voice calls as well as wireless Internet and video services due to the increase in transmission bandwidth and the development of digital technology. The mobile communication terminal can use the wireless Internet and data transmission services between subscribers.

In this regard, when a user performs wireless data transmission and reception using a conventional general mobile communication terminal, a wireless data transmission channel supported by the mobile communication terminal is generally used. Therefore, the user is connected through the wireless data network of the mobile carriers subscribed uniformly regardless of their will. This phenomenon is automatically connected to the wireless data network of the wireless service provider to which the user subscribes even when using a wireless PDA equipped with a wireless LAN port.

Such wireless data transmission / reception services are currently being serviced in various forms by various operators, and connection quality and fee system also vary according to each operator and service type. However, in the conventional general wireless communication terminals (mobile communication terminal and wireless PDA, etc.) as described above, the user can access only by using the wireless network of the wireless operator to which the user has subscribed. It is virtually impossible to select an optimal radio path in consideration of the strength of radio waves according to characteristics.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems, the communication path of the wireless communication terminal that can automatically select and connect the optimal wireless communication path in consideration of the transmission efficiency, usage fee and regional characteristics in the wireless communication terminal The purpose is to provide a selector.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object,

A communication path selection device provided in a wireless communication terminal capable of wireless data transmission and reception for automatically selecting and connecting an optimal wireless communication path, comprising: a plurality of wireless communication units for transmitting and receiving data wirelessly using different connection methods; A memory unit which stores various reference data for calculating connection efficiency with respect to each communication path connected through each of the wireless communication units; When a wireless connection is required by a user's operation, the connection efficiency is calculated for each communication path using the respective reference data, and the wireless communication unit having the highest connection efficiency is selected to connect the wireless communication terminal to the network. Provided is a communication path selection apparatus of a wireless communication terminal including a control unit.

1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the communication path selection apparatus of the wireless communication terminal according to the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a process of selecting an optimal radio path in the communication path selection apparatus according to the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

100: communication path selection device 110: control unit

120, 130, 140: first, second and third wireless communication unit

150: input and output interface unit 160: memory unit

170: display unit

200, 300, 400: first, second and third communication system

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

First, the wireless communication terminal described below means all wireless communication means supporting short range wireless communication and wireless data transmission as well as a mobile communication terminal and a wireless PDA supporting wireless data transmission and reception. In addition, the communication path selection device according to the present invention is embedded in the wireless communication terminal to provide an optimal path selection function according to the present invention.

1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the communication path selection device of the wireless communication terminal according to the present invention, the control unit 110, the first wireless communication unit 120, the second wireless communication unit 130, the third wireless The communication path selection device 100 and the PC 200 including the communication unit 140, the input / output interface 150, the memory unit 160, and the display unit 170, respectively, The first, second, and third communication systems 200, 300, 400 that perform selective data transmission and reception are shown.

Referring to the drawings, each component is described in detail as follows.

First, the communication path selection device 100 is included in a wireless communication terminal and means for selecting an optimal path among various wireless communication paths according to the present invention. First, the control unit 110 operates and mutually operates each component described below. By controlling the signal transmission of the means for controlling the overall operation of the communication path selection apparatus 100. In particular, the controller 110 pre-stores a predetermined algorithm in the form of a program for selecting an optimal communication path according to the present invention. The detailed function of this control part 110 is demonstrated with the function of each structural means below.

The first, second, and third wireless communication units 120, 130, and 140 connected to the control unit 110 are means for performing wireless data transmission / reception with each of the external communication systems 200, 300, and 400 described later. It is selectively driven by the control signal provided from the controller 110 described above. Here, each of the wireless communication unit 120, 130, 140 is a different communication means having a different communication protocol, for example, infrared communication means, Bluetooth (Bluetooth) communication means, wireless LAN communication means, mobile communication module, etc. Each can be configured differently.

The input / output interface 150 is connected to an external device (for example, a personal computer, a notebook computer, etc.) by wire and receives data provided from an external device under the control of the controller 110 and provides the same to the controller 110. Performs a function of transmitting data provided from the controller 110 to an external device. The memory unit 160 is a means for storing predetermined reference data or the like for driving the communication path selection device under the control of the controller 110, and the display unit 170 displays an operation state and various menus of the communication path selection device. Will be displayed.

As described above, the communication path selection device 100 of the present invention having each configuration means selects an optimal communication path from various wireless communication paths through respective processes described below, which are embedded in the wireless communication terminal. Each configuration means described above may be configured separately from the means provided in the existing wireless communication terminal, but the function according to the present invention is provided in the means provided in the existing wireless communication terminal in consideration of the efficiency and economic efficiency of the product design. May be given to minimize duplication of each component. That is, the control unit 110, the input / output interface unit 150, the memory unit 160, and the display unit 170 by adding the function according to the present invention to each constituent means provided in a conventional wireless communication terminal to minimize hardware redundancy can do.

The first, second, and third communication systems 200, 300, and 400 shown in FIG. 1 are systems capable of wirelessly transmitting and receiving data to and from the communication path selection apparatus 100 of the present invention as described above. Means a system capable of wireless communication having a wireless communication protocol corresponding to the wireless communication unit (120, 130, 140). For example, each of the communication systems 200, 300, and 400 includes an infrared communication or a Bluetooth communication module, and provides a wireless Internet service through a personal computer or a wireless network equipped with short-range wireless communication. It can be configured as a system or a general mobile communication system.

Meanwhile, in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the wireless communication path selection apparatus 100 according to the present invention is illustrated as an example including three types of wireless communication units having different communication methods, but the technical scope of the present invention. Other various forms of wireless communication means may be added within the communication system, and a communication system may also be further configured.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an actual configuration of the communication path selection device 100 of the present invention as shown in FIG. 1 by way of example. Each wireless communication unit mounted in the communication path selection device 100 of FIG. Reference numerals 120, 130, and 140 are configured as a short range wireless communication module 121, a wireless LAN communication module 131, and a mobile communication module 141, respectively. Here, the short-range communication module 121 refers to an infrared communication module or a Bluetooth communication module, the mobile communication module 141 is a wireless communication terminal (mobile communication terminal or a wireless PDA) mounted with a communication path selection device according to the present invention. Etc.) means a general mobile communication module.

In addition, each communication system 200, 300, and 400 in FIG. 1 is a personal computer capable of transmitting and receiving data using the same data transmission method as each communication module 121, 131, and 141 shown in FIG. 2. PC) 210, a wireless Internet system 310, and a mobile communication system (410).

Here, the PC 21 is a means for performing wireless communication with the short-range communication module 121 described above, and means a personal computer equipped with an infrared communication means or a Bluetooth communication module corresponding to the short-range communication module 121. In addition, the wireless Internet system 310 refers to an overall system for providing a wireless Internet service using a wireless network, and includes a wireless LAN access device and a repeater, but detailed configuration thereof is already known. This is omitted in the figure. The wireless Internet system 310 is wirelessly connected to the wireless LAN communication module 131 in the communication path selection device 100 described above to perform data transmission and reception. The mobile communication system 400 is a system for providing a voice call and data transmission / reception service to a mobile subscriber, including a base station, a base station controller, a mobile communication switch, and the like, and is wirelessly connected to the mobile communication module 141 described above. Each of these communication systems 210, 310, and 410 is connected to a network such as an internet network.

On the other hand, the communication path selection device 100 according to the present invention must pre-store the predetermined reference data used to select the optimal wireless communication path in the memory unit 160. Here, the optimal wireless communication path according to the present invention means a path in consideration of the usage fee and connection quality index (connection speed) according to the access time. Thus, as shown in Table 1, the memory unit 160 stores reference data on the charge factor and the quality factor according to each communication path, and the controller 110 uses the reference data to determine an optimal communication path. Will be chosen. The reference data stored in the memory unit 160 can be edited and updated by the user.

Communication Rate element Quality factor Evaluation Basic unit Base rate Additional unit Additional unit Quality Index Quality weight Mobility First Wireless Communications Department 2nd Wireless Communication Department ː Nth Wireless Communications Department

3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of selecting an optimal path in the communication path selecting apparatus according to the present invention. Referring to FIG.

First, when a user switches the overall operation mode to a wireless data transmission / reception mode by operating a wireless communication terminal in which the communication path selection device 100 of the present invention as described above is input, and then inputs a radio connection request signal (step In step S301, the control unit 110 in the communication path selecting apparatus 100 calculates the connection efficiency for each wireless communication path supported by the wireless communication terminal by driving the built-in optimal path selection algorithm (step S303). . That is, for each communication path using the short range communication module 121, the wireless LAN communication module 131, and the mobile communication module 141, predetermined charge factors and quality factors as shown in Table 1 are taken into consideration. Calculate the estimate. In this process, an algorithm for calculating an evaluation value for each communication path may be programmed in various forms, but an algorithm such as Equation 1 may be used.

Evaluation Value = (Basic Unit × Base Rate + Additional Unit × Extra Charge) × (Quality Index × Weighted Value) × Mobility

Here, as shown in FIG. 2, the present time point is provided when the communication path selection device 100 according to the present invention is provided with a short range communication module 121, a wireless LAN communication module 131, and a mobile communication module 141. The usage fee at is the shortest path to the PC 210 using the local area communication module 121, and then to the network via the PC 210, and then to the wireless LAN communication module 131. The path to connect to the wireless Internet system 310 by using a low cost. In the case of the short-range communication module 121, since the transmission distance of the wireless data is limited, the mobility is reduced, but the connection quality is excellent. The communication path using the wireless LAN communication module 131 may occur when a service is not available depending on the region, and the mobile communication module 141 is relatively expensive, but has a wide range of mobility and service area coverage. Therefore, in consideration of each of these characteristics, the reference data as shown in Table 1 is prepared, and then the evaluation value for each communication path is calculated using the same.

On the other hand, when the evaluation value (connection efficiency) for each communication path is calculated using this algorithm, the control unit 110 selects the communication path having the highest evaluation value as the optimal communication path (step S305). The communication module 121 or 131 or 141 corresponding thereto is driven to attempt a wireless connection using the corresponding communication path (step S307). When the wireless connection is attempted and the connection with the selected optimal communication path is normally established (step S309), the control unit 110 transmits and receives corresponding data using the currently connected communication path based on the user's operation. (Step S311).

On the contrary, when the connection attempt in the step S307 described above is not possible, the controller 110 selects a communication path having an evaluation value of the next rank if the connection with the communication path selected by the surrounding environment such as the local characteristic is not possible. (Step S313), by repeating the above-described steps (S307) to attempt a wireless connection using the corresponding communication path. If, as a result of repeating this process, the wireless connection to all the communication paths supported by the communication path selection device 100 becomes impossible, the control unit 110 connects to all the communication paths through the display unit 170. After displaying a predetermined error message indicating that it is impossible, the wireless data transmission / reception mode of the wireless communication terminal is terminated.

As a result, through each of these processes, the communication path selection device 100 automatically searches for and connects an optimal communication path among the connectable wireless communication paths.

In the detailed description of the present invention as described above, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined by the claims below and equivalents thereof.

As described above, according to the present invention, the wireless communication terminal is provided with various wireless connection means, and thus, an optimum wireless communication path can be automatically selected and connected according to the use environment. As a result, the overall function of the wireless communication terminal can be improved, and at the same time, the user side performing wireless data transmission / reception using the same can receive a more economical wireless data service.

Claims (5)

In the communication path selection device provided in the wireless communication terminal capable of transmitting and receiving wireless data, and automatically selects and connects the optimum wireless communication path, A plurality of wireless communication units for wirelessly transmitting and receiving data using different connection methods; A memory unit which stores various reference data for calculating connection efficiency with respect to each communication path connected through each of the wireless communication units; When a wireless connection is requested by a user's operation, the control unit calculates connection efficiency for each communication path using each reference data, selects a wireless communication unit having the highest connection efficiency, and connects the wireless communication terminal to the network. Communication path selection device of a wireless communication terminal comprising a. The method of claim 1, The reference data, And a predetermined value according to the usage fee, connection quality, and mobility for each communication path, stored in the memory unit, and updated by the user. The method of claim 1, The control unit, And when it is impossible to connect to the network by using the selected wireless communication unit, selecting a wireless communication unit having a next highest connection efficiency to connect the wireless communication terminal to the network. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, The plurality of wireless communication unit, An infrared communication unit having an internal infrared communication module and transmitting and receiving an infrared wireless signal to and from a PC connected to a network to enable network connection through the PC; A Bluetooth communication unit that has a built-in Bluetooth communication module and performs Bluetooth communication with a PC connected to a network to enable network connection through the PC; Wireless LAN communication means capable of accessing a wireless Internet system for providing Internet services using a wireless network; And a mobile communication module capable of accessing a network connected to a mobile communication system through a mobile communication base station. The method of claim 2, The reference data is, Information on the use charges classified into basic charges by unit of time and additional charges by unit of time, information on connection quality expressed by relative quality index and weight for each communication path, and mobility of each communication path And include relative numeric information about The control unit, Equation for the connection efficiency for each communication path (Basic Unit × Basic Rate + Additional Unit × Additional Charge) × (Quality Index × Weighted Value) × Mobility And a communication path selecting device for a wireless communication terminal.