JP2002190772A - Wireless communication network, its wired connection radio - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wireless communication network, and more particularly, to a wireless communication network that enables communication even when the network is divided by an obstacle or the like, and a wired connection wireless device thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art First, in the prior application (Japanese Patent Application No. 10-185866, Japanese Patent Application No. 11-206810, etc.), the applicant of the present invention disclosed a plurality of radio units (at least flexible relay) in a specific area. The wireless communication network proposes a wireless communication network in which data transmission is performed while another wireless device existing between a source wireless device and a destination wireless device repeats relaying. In this wireless communication network, the wireless communication path is not fixed,
Each wireless device has a function to change the relay destination autonomously, so that it is automatically and flexibly changed.For example, even if a line failure due to an obstacle or a wireless device failure occurs, the relay The route can be changed automatically to respond.

[0003] Each wireless device in this wireless communication network is assigned a unique identification code so as to be distinguishable from each other. For example, in the wireless communication network illustrated in FIG. 8, it is assumed that identification codes A to F are assigned to the respective wireless devices 51 as illustrated in FIG. 8 (hereinafter, wireless devices 51A, Radio 51
B, wireless device 51C, wireless device 51D, wireless device 51E, wireless device 51F).

In FIG. 1, a straight line (dotted line) connecting the wireless devices 51A to 51F indicates a communication path through which each of the wireless devices 51A to 51F can directly perform wireless communication. The distance that each wireless device in the wireless communication network can directly communicate is finite (short distance). For example, if the wireless devices 51A to 51F are dispersedly installed in an outdoor facility such as a factory or a park, each wireless device is 51A-51F cannot perform direct wireless communication with all other wireless devices. Therefore, when constructing the wireless communication network, all the wireless devices can directly communicate with at least one or more other wireless devices, and configure the wireless communication network by passing through the other wireless devices. Make communication possible with all wireless devices. Normally, if there is a plurality of types of relay routes, if a failure occurs in a certain communication path, switching to another relay route does not prevent communication failure. This is omitted in the specification for simplicity of description. Further, in this specification, an example in which the number of wireless devices is small is shown for simplicity of description, but in actuality, there are many examples in which the number of wireless devices is large.

[0005] Each wireless device constituting the above wireless communication network needs to know which other wireless device is directly connected to which wireless device having a direct communication path. For example, system configuration information (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as configuration information) is stored in a memory (EEPROM, RAM, flash memory, or the like) built in each wireless device (not shown).

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the system configuration information, in which the system configuration information stored / held by each wireless device is shown together. That is, each wireless device does not store / hold all the system configuration information shown in FIG. 9 but stores / holds its own configuration information and the configuration information of the wireless device with which it can directly communicate. .

[0007] The system configuration information 60 shown in FIG. 1 will be described by taking the wireless device 51A as an example. In the configuration information 61 of the wireless device 51A, the destination wireless device having the hop number of 1 is 51
There is only B, and the destination wireless device having two hops is only 51C. The number of hops indicates the number of times a packet transmitted by a transmission source radio (here, radio A) reaches the destination radio, and is referred to as “communication” in the above-mentioned prior application. It is called "number of times." A hop count of 1 means that communication can be performed once, that is, direct communication can be performed. When the number of hops is 2, it means that the communication is performed twice, that is, the relay communication is performed once by another wireless device.

As described above, each wireless device stores, in addition to its own configuration information, the configuration information of another wireless device capable of direct wireless communication. This is made possible by mutually transmitting and receiving the presence notification packet (for details, see the prior application). For example, the wireless device 51A stores its own configuration information 61 and also stores the configuration information 62 of the wireless device 51B. The wireless device 51B stores its own configuration information 62, configuration information 61 of the wireless device 51A, and configuration information 63 of the wireless device 51C. In the example of FIG. 8, it may be difficult to understand because the number of wireless devices is small, but in this case, in order to transmit a packet to the wireless device of the destination (destination), first, the wireless device to which itself can directly communicate It is possible to determine to which wireless device the packet should be transmitted.

The above configuration information is not fixed. When there is a change in the system configuration (for example, a new communication path is set in the system, a new radio is added,
If the previously valid communication path becomes invalid, or vice versa, the invalid communication path becomes valid), the configuration information stored / managed by each wireless device is updated. . For this, the presence notification packet described in the above-mentioned prior application is used, but is not specifically described here.

Further, although not specifically described herein, the wireless communication network includes, as described in the above-mentioned prior application, a communication path reliability diagnosis, a packet transmission timing setting, a reply indicating that a packet has been received, It has various functions, such as retaining the arrival history of communication packets, introducing broadcast packets, detecting missing wireless terminals, and selecting a bypass transfer route. However, it is not always necessary to have all the functions described in the above-mentioned prior application. However, it is necessary to have at least a flexible relay function and a function of automatically updating configuration information (a well-known function).

[0011]

As described above, in the wireless communication network of the prior application, a change in the environment (a communication path is interrupted by an obstacle or a communication path that has been interrupted is restored). That can automatically respond to changes in the network configuration due to movement / addition / reduction of wireless devices,
It is possible to provide a highly reliable system with no labor / cost.

However, if the communication path is completely blocked by a large shield 54 or the like as shown in FIG. 8 (a situation where a wireless device for a bypass communication path cannot be added), as shown in FIG. Is divided into the wireless communication network 53. That is, wireless communication between the wireless device belonging to the wireless communication network 52 and the wireless device belonging to the wireless communication network 53 cannot be performed.

Here, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-308240
A wireless communication method capable of performing communication even in the case where there is an obstacle of radio waves is disclosed in this document. For example, even when there is an obstacle between the wireless nodes 1A and 1B, a bridge is disclosed. Means that communication can be performed via the wireless node 1C defined as
Cannot be handled when there is an obstacle that completely separates the groups GP1 and GP2 as in (1)
In the wireless communication network of the prior application, all wireless devices have a relay function.
In the situation shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 of No. 0 (that is, in the situation where there is no large obstruction), it is not such that the two groups are divided.

To deal with such a situation, it is conceivable to connect between the obstacles by a wire (in this example, the TV common listening wire 21) as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-125600.

FIG. 10 shows a configuration in which the obstacles 54 are connected by a wired communication line 55 in the situation shown in FIG. In the illustrated example, a wired communication line 5 is connected between the wireless device 51C and the wireless device 51D.
5 are connected. The wired communication line 55 is, for example, R
It is an S-232C cable, and performs communication using a nonprocedural communication method.

However, as described above, the wired communication line 5
5 does not mean that a wireless device belonging to the wireless communication network 52 and a wireless device belonging to the wireless communication network 53 can communicate with each other. The wireless communication network of the prior application has a function of automatically updating the content of configuration information by mutually exchanging configuration information wirelessly when, for example, a new wireless device is added. This function does not work when connected. For this reason, the configuration information held by each wireless device remains as shown in FIG. 9 and the wireless devices 51A, 51B, 51C
Cannot recognize that the wireless devices 51D, 51E, and 51F exist.

For this reason, conventionally, it is possible to transmit a packet from a wireless device belonging to one wireless communication network to a wireless device belonging to the other wireless communication network, with the labor described below, by manual labor. Was.

First, humans such as an administrator and a user are shown in FIG.
Naturally, it can be known that the network configuration shown in FIG. When a packet is transmitted from the wireless devices 51A and 51B to the wireless device 51C, the packet is eventually transferred from the wireless device 51C to the wireless device 51D even if the wireless device 51C does not know the existence of the wireless device 51D. That is, in the above-described wireless communication network of the prior application, when a packet arrives at a destination wireless device, the wireless device is connected to a device connected thereto by a wire (for example, when used in an information processing terminal or a factory). Transfers the packet to a PLC, a control device, or the like. When this is used, the wireless device 51C deletes its destination and transfers the packet to the wireless device 51C via a wire, and as a result, this packet is passed to the wireless device 51D. Therefore, if the destination of the packet is duplicated, the wireless device 51D performs wireless transmission to the second destination.

For example, when transmitting from the wireless device 51A to the wireless device 51F, an administrator, a user, or the like uses the above-described wired connection as a first destination in a device (not shown) connected to the wireless device 51A by wire. The wireless device 51C connected to the wireless communication network 53 is specified, and the wireless device 51F, which is the original destination, is specified as the second destination, and the transmission operation is performed. Know the identification number).

By this operation, a packet passed (requested to be transmitted) from the above-mentioned device (not shown) to the wireless device 51A is
As shown in FIG. As illustrated, two destinations are stored in the header section 71 of the packet 70. That is, the identification number “C” of the wireless device 51C is stored at the head, and the identification number “F” of the wireless device 51F is stored next.

The wireless device 51A recognizes that the destination is the wireless device 51C by looking at the head of the header section 71, and transmits the packet. At this time, referring to the configuration information in FIG. 9, it can be seen that direct communication with the wireless device 51C is not possible (hop count = 2), and relaying is performed by the wireless device 51B with the hop count = 1. When a packet addressed to itself arrives, the wireless device 51C performs the above-described predetermined receiving process. That is, the header of the packet 71 (the identification number 'C' of the wireless device 51C) is deleted and the packet is transferred via the wired communication line 55. As a result, the identification of the wireless device 51F is added to the header 71. The packet with the number left is passed to the wireless device 51D.
Thus, the wireless device 51D recognizes that a packet addressed to the wireless device 51F is to be transmitted, and wirelessly transmits the packet. Then, this packet arrives at the wireless device 51F after being relayed by the wireless device 51E.

As described above, even in a situation where the wireless communication network of the prior application is disconnected, a part of the wireless communication network can be connected by wire to enable communication. As described above, a person who knows the network configuration and the identification number of each wireless device has to perform an operation of determining two destinations and inputting them each time, which is troublesome. On the other hand, it is conceivable that two destinations are registered in advance for each wireless device. However, when a network configuration changes due to, for example, failure or deletion of an existing wireless device, or addition of a new wireless device, While the configuration information can be automatically updated and handled in the wireless communication network of the above-mentioned prior application, it is necessary for each person to perform the registration work again.

Further, the example in which the wireless communication network is divided into two has been described so far. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when the wireless communication network is divided into five, a maximum of five destinations are included in the header portion of the packet. Must be stored.

An object of the present invention is to provide a wireless communication system capable of performing communication while maintaining the advantages of the above-described wireless communication network even in a situation where the network is divided and a part of the network must be connected by wire. Communication networks,
It is to provide the wired connection radio.

[0025]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A wireless communication network according to the present invention transmits or relays a data packet based on configuration information held by itself, and updates the configuration information according to a change in network configuration. A wireless communication network composed of a plurality of wireless devices having functions,
In a wireless communication network that is divided due to a situation where a wireless communication path cannot be secured, a wired connection wireless device belonging to one of the divided wireless communication networks and a wired connection wireless device belonging to the other wireless communication network are wired. Connected, and each of the wired connection radios obtains, via a wire, configuration information of the other-side wired connection radio connected to each other by a wire, and configures its own device based on the obtained configuration information. Updating means for updating information, and publicly known means for distributing the updated configuration information to other wireless devices of the wireless communication network to which the own device belongs and updating the configuration information of each wireless device I do.

With this configuration, each wireless device updates its own configuration information to configuration information that reflects the network configuration of a wireless communication network other than the wireless communication network to which it belongs. Can be
Packet transmission can be performed as if it were one wireless communication network, without being aware of wired connection. This eliminates the need to set two destinations in consideration of wired connection as in the related art.

Further, the processing by the updating means is performed at regular intervals set in advance, or when the configuration information of the connected wireless connection wireless device changes. By doing so, another wireless communication network is notified that the configuration information of the own device has changed, that is, the configuration of the wireless communication network to which the own device belongs has changed (for example, addition or deletion of a wireless device). Thereby, each wireless device of another wireless communication network can be updated to the configuration information corresponding to this change.

Also, for example, the configuration information is information on the number of hops from the own device to each of the other wireless devices, and the updating means increments each number of hops of the configuration information obtained via the wire by one. To update its own configuration information, assuming that the number of hops of the wired wireless device of the other side connected by wire is 1 and the number of hops of the other wireless devices of the other side is uniformly 2 Alternatively, the number of hops of the other-side wired connection wireless device and the other wireless devices are uniformly set to one, and their configuration information is updated.

In the method of uniformly setting the number of hops to 2 or 1, the updated configuration information does not become the correct number of hops, but communication can be performed without any problem. In this method, the configuration information can be simplified.

The wired connection wireless device according to the present invention transmits or relays a data packet based on the configuration information held by itself, and has a plurality of functions having a function of updating the configuration information according to a change in the network configuration. A wireless communication network composed of wireless devices is a wired connection wireless device provided in at least one of each of a plurality of wireless communication networks divided by a situation where a wireless communication path cannot be secured, and a wireless communication network of another wireless communication network. An update unit configured to update the configuration information of the wireless communication device based on the configuration information of the wired connection wireless device of the other wireless communication network received by the communication unit; Means, and disseminating the updated configuration information to another wireless device of the wireless communication network to which the own device belongs, and updating the configuration information of each wireless device. Configured to have a well-known means.

[0031]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a wireless communication network according to the present embodiment.

This figure shows the same example as the network configuration of the prior art shown in FIG. 10, but the radio 1C and the radio 1D, which connect the obstacles 5 with the wired communication line 4, include: New functions are added to the conventional radio.
The wireless devices (wireless devices 1A, 1B, 1E, 1F in the illustrated example) not connected to the wired communication line 4 are the same as the conventional wireless devices. However, as a result of the processing by the functions of the wireless devices 1C and 1D, the configuration information is different from that in FIG. 9 (details will be described later).

The wireless devices connected to the wired communication line 4 such as the wireless device 1C and the wireless device 1D have the same functions as those of the conventional wireless device and also have a wired communication line 4 (which will be described in detail later).
It has a function of transmitting and receiving configuration information via the. In this case, a dedicated wireless device for wired connection may be prepared, or the wireless device for wired connection or a normal wireless device may be switched by setting.

The wireless device used as the wireless device for wired connection performs the process shown in FIG. 2 in addition to the process using the same functions (wireless relay function, configuration information updating function, etc.) as the conventional wireless device. .

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an example of processing by the wired connection radio. First, it is determined whether or not the configuration information acquisition timing has come. The process of acquiring (exchanging) the configuration information is performed at the first start-up after the wired communication line 4 is connected.
By performing the process of acquiring (exchanging) the configuration information at the timing (b) (either one or both may be performed), the addition, deletion, failure, or new wireless communication of a wireless device is performed. Even if the network configuration changes due to connection to a network or the like, the configuration information can be automatically updated and handled without any trouble. (A) When the configuration information in its own wireless communication network changes (b) At predetermined fixed intervals (a) FIG. 2 (a) and (b) for FIG. 2 (b) ) Shows an example of the processing contents.

The case (a) refers to a case where the configuration information held by itself is updated due to a change in the configuration of the wireless communication network to which the wireless communication device belongs. ). For example, when a new wireless device G (not shown) is added to the wireless communication network 3 side, the configuration information of all the wireless devices belonging to the wireless communication network 3 transmits the presence notification packet described above by wireless communication to each other. Since the transmission / reception automatically updates the information, the configuration information of the wireless device D is also updated.

As described above, when the configuration information in the own wireless communication network changes (step S1), the own configuration information is transmitted to the other party connected by the wired communication line 4 (step S2). This allows the other party's wireless communication network to be updated to configuration information corresponding to a change in the configuration of the other party's network (the other party's processing is the same as steps S6 and S7 in (b) below). .

On the other hand, in the case of (b), the configuration information of the other party connected by the wired communication line 4 is acquired at predetermined intervals. In other words, in FIG. 2B, when it is determined that the timing has come at predetermined intervals of a predetermined period (step S3), first, the configuration information of the other party is requested via the wired communication line 4. A request command is transmitted (step S4). When the configuration information returned in response thereto is received (step S
5, YES), a process of updating its own configuration information is performed based on the received connection destination configuration information (step S).
6). Then, by distributing the updated configuration information to another wireless device of the wireless communication network to which the wireless communication device belongs, the configuration information of the other wireless device is also updated (step S).
7). Note that the request command in step S4 uses a command different from a command conventionally used in processing for updating configuration information wirelessly. Than this,
When the request command in step S4 is received, the wireless device on the partner side can set the return destination channel to the wired communication line 4 and return its own configuration information via the wired communication line 4. By doing so, it is possible to avoid a situation in which the configuration information is returned by wireless by mistake.

The updating process in step S6 will be described below with reference to an example. This description is assumed to be the first update process after connection through the wired communication line 4. Therefore, the wireless device 1C and the wireless device 1D do not yet know each other's existence (of course, they do not know the existence of the other party's network).

First, it is assumed that the configuration information shown in FIG. 9 is held first. In this state, the wireless device 1C
When receiving the configuration information of D, it first recognizes that the wireless device 1D exists, and adds this wireless device 1D to the configuration information as a wireless device located one hop from itself. Furthermore, the fact that the other party connected by the wired communication line 4 is the wireless device 1D is stored as wired connection destination information (not shown). Further, the configuration information of the wireless device 1D is added to its own configuration information after performing a process of incrementing all the hop counts by one. That is, the configuration information of the wireless device 1D shown in FIG. 9 includes the wireless device 1E with the hop number = 1 and the wireless device 1F with the hop number = 2. In addition, the configuration information of the wireless device 1C is as shown in the upper part of FIG. It should be noted that instead of the above-mentioned wired connection destination information, a wireless device (in this example, the wireless devices 1D, 1E, and 1F) whose presence has been newly recognized may be stored / managed as a "wireless device belonging to another network". Good.

On the other hand, the wireless device 1D performs the same processing, so that the configuration information of the wireless device 1D is as shown in the lower part of FIG. Thus, in this example, in addition to the functions of the conventional wireless device, the wireless device connected to the wired communication line 4 includes the wireless device connected to the wired communication line 4 as described above. By exchanging configuration information with each other, a function of acquiring configuration information of the wireless communication network of the other party and reflecting the configuration information in its own configuration information is provided. If the configuration information can be updated to the configuration information shown in FIG. 3, the automatic update process of the configuration information (that is, the process of step S7; sometimes referred to as "notify"), which is also performed in the conventional wireless communication network, is performed. Thus, all the wireless devices can update their configuration information to the configuration information including the wireless communication network of the partner. That is, in the above example, FIG.
Can be updated to the configuration information 10 shown in FIG. FIG.
9 shows the configuration information of all the wireless devices collectively as in the case of FIG. 9 described above. Actually, for example, the wireless device A has its own configuration information 11 and the wireless device B Is stored / held. In addition, the case where the wireless device for wired connection passes the configuration information via wired,
In the case where the configuration information is publicized by ordinary wireless communication, when the configuration information is generated, since the configuration information of the wireless communication and the configuration information of the wire are generated as separate commands, it is possible to determine whether the command is wired or wireless from the command. .

Here, if it is assumed that the obstacle 5 does not exist in FIG. 1, the wireless communication network is not divided into two and one wireless communication network constituted by the wireless devices 1A to 1F. However, the configuration information created in this case is the same as that in FIG. That is, if the configuration information shown in FIG. 4 is obtained, each wireless device may have its network disconnected by the obstacle 5 or may have its wireless device 1C-1D connected by the wired communication line 4. It is only necessary to perform packet transmission / reception processing as if it were one wireless communication network without being conscious.

In the wireless communication network having the above configuration, a case where a packet is transmitted from the wireless device 1A to the wireless device 1F will be described as an example. First, the wireless device 1A, which is the transmission source, refers to its own configuration information 11 shown in FIG.
It recognizes that the wireless device 1F, which is the destination, is 5 hops from itself. Next, referring to the configuration information 12 of the wireless device 1B stored / maintained by itself, it can be seen that there are four hops to the wireless device 1F. Then, the packet is transmitted to the wireless device 1B having a small number of hops to the wireless device F which is the destination (in this example, the wireless device with which the wireless device A can directly communicate is only the wireless device 1B, which may be difficult to understand. However, if there is another wireless device capable of direct communication, the signal is transmitted to the wireless device with the least number of hops to the destination.)

Similarly, the radio 1B receiving this packet refers to its own configuration information 12 and has four hops to the destination radio 1F, and the radio 1C has three hops to the destination. Knowing that there is, the packet is relayed to the wireless device 1C.

As described above, the packet always arrives at the wireless device (the wireless device 1C in this example) connected to the network to which the destination wireless device belongs by the wired communication line 4.

When the wireless device 1 refers only to the configuration information in FIG. 4, the wireless device 1D also relays the packet wirelessly to the wireless device 1D. Communication line 4 for the machine 1D
, And switches the channel to the wired communication line 4 to transfer the packet via the wired communication line 4. Since this process is performed as a “relay” process, the destination of the header portion of the packet is not deleted.

Thereafter, as in the above, the radios 1D, 1E
Wirelessly relays the packet by referring to the configuration information held by itself in the configuration information 10 shown in FIG. 4, and the packet arrives at the wireless device 1F that is the destination.

As described above, packet 1A to packet 1
What is necessary is just to send to F, and it is not necessary to set a destination twice like the conventional one. Thus, even in a situation where the wireless communication path is completely cut off and no detour is provided, even in a situation where a part of the wireless communication path is connected by the wired communication line 4, the existence of the wired communication line 4 must be considered. Instead, communication between different networks can be performed with the communication / relay procedure of the conventional wireless communication network (referring to the configuration information).

FIGS. 3 and 4 show an example of new configuration information updated / created by exchanging configuration information between the wireless devices CD connected to each other by the wired communication line 4. It is not limited to this. For example, FIGS.
May be the configuration information shown in FIG. It should be noted that, similarly to FIG. 4, the configuration information of all the wireless devices is collectively shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, and each wireless device holds all the configuration information shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. Not necessarily.

The process of creating the configuration information shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 will be described below. First, the configuration information 20 shown in FIG. 5 will be described. In this case, for example, when the wireless device 1C updates its configuration information based on the configuration information of the wireless device 1D received via the wired communication line 4, the wireless device 1D that is the connection destination of the wired communication line 4 Is the same as one hop from itself, but for other radios,
The difference is that it is regarded as two hops from itself. In this example, by referring to the configuration information of the wireless device 1D and recognizing the presence of the wireless devices 1E and 1F, the presence of which has not been recognized until then, regardless of the actual number of hops, the wireless device 1D uniformly receives the information from itself. Assuming that it is two hops, its own configuration information is updated. Then, this new configuration information 23 is notified (known) to the other wireless devices in the wireless communication network 2 to which it belongs, and each configuration information is updated.

The radio 1D also performs the same processing to update its own configuration information, disseminates the updated configuration information 24, and transmits the configuration information of another radio in the radio communication network 3 to which it belongs. Also update.

The result of such processing is the configuration information 20 shown in FIG. In the configuration information 20, for example, when the wireless device 1A transmits a packet to the wireless device 1F, the wireless device 1A erroneously recognizes that it is three hops to the wireless device 1F by referring to its own configuration information 21. When the packet arrives at the wireless device 1D, the wireless device 1D attempts to perform the relay process by referring to its own configuration information 24 because the destination is not its own. In the position of
Based on the configuration information 25 of the wireless device 1E held by D, the wireless device 1F recognizes that the wireless device 1F is one hop away from the wireless device 1E. Therefore, the packet is transmitted to the wireless device 1E and relayed, and as a result, the packet arrives at the wireless device 1F. As described above, according to the function of the wireless communication network assumed by the present invention, the packet arrives at the destination wireless device without any problem even if the source wireless device does not correctly recognize the hop number to the destination. I do. Therefore, the configuration information 20 as shown in FIG. 5 may be created.

Although the configuration information 10 shown in FIG. 4 manages five steps of the maximum number of hops from 1 to 5, the configuration information 20 of FIG. 5 shows four levels of the maximum number of hops of 1 to 4. And the configuration information can be simplified.

Further, in the configuration information 30 shown in FIG. 6, the wireless devices 1C and 1D are respectively connected to the other wireless device connected by the wired communication line 4 and all the wireless devices belonging to the other wireless communication network. Is regarded as being one hop from itself, and the configuration information is updated.

Although the configuration information 10 shown in FIG. 4 manages five steps of the maximum number of hops from 1 to 5, the configuration information 30 shown in FIG. This is a stage, and the configuration information can be further simplified.

According to the above-described method, the present invention is not limited to the case where there are two wireless communication networks, and can cope with a large number of wireless communication networks without any problem. For example, even if there are four wireless communication networks interrupted by an obstacle 41 as shown in FIG. 7, a wired communication line 4 is connected between the wireless communication networks as shown.
2, 43, 44 (of course, the radios 1C, 1D
A wireless device having the same function as that of the wireless device is installed and the wireless devices are connected to each other), and each wireless device transmits configuration information reflecting the presence of wireless devices of a wireless communication network other than the wireless communication network to which the wireless device belongs. The source radio can simply obtain the configuration information regardless of whether or not the destination radio is on another wireless communication network (without being aware of the wired connection). If the destination is originally specified, communication can be performed without any problem.

Even when a plurality of networks as shown in FIG. 7 are connected to communication lines in arbitrary shapes,
Since the transmission source wireless device does not need to be aware of the wired connection, the possibility of installing a wireless communication network of such a form is expanded.

[0058]

As described above in detail, according to the wireless communication network, the wired connection wireless terminal, and the communication method of the present invention, the wireless communication network is connected by a wire (because of a large obstacle, etc., Can communicate with the wireless device of another wireless communication network, without taking the trouble of duplicating the destination, without being aware that there is another wireless communication network, Communication can be performed in the same manner as when communicating with a wireless device of a communication network.

The feature of being able to automatically cope with a change in the configuration of the wireless communication network is that it can automatically change the configuration of its own wireless communication network as well as the configuration of another wireless communication network connected by wire. Can also respond to changes in

Further, even if there are two or more other wireless communication networks instead of one, it can cope with no problem.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a wireless communication network according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an example of processing by a wired connection wireless device;

FIG. 3 is a diagram collectively showing configuration information updated by a process in step S6 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram collectively showing configuration information updated by the process of step S7 in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram (part 1) collectively showing another example of the configuration information updated by the processing in step S7 of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram (part 2) collectively showing another example of the configuration information updated by the process of step S7 in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining that the present invention is applicable to various situations.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication network.

FIG. 9 is a diagram collectively showing configuration information held by each wireless device.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a configuration in which two wireless communication networks of FIG. 8 are connected by wire.

11 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a packet transmitted in the configuration of FIG. 10;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1A to 1F Radio 2 Radio communication network 3 Radio communication network 4 Communication line 5 Obstacle 10 Configuration information 11 Configuration information of radio 1A 12 Configuration information of radio 1B 13 Configuration information of radio 1C 14 Configuration information of radio 1D 15 Configuration Information of Radio 1E 16 Configuration Information of Radio 1F 20 Configuration Information 21 Configuration Information of Radio 1A 22 Configuration Information of Radio 1B 23 Configuration Information of Radio 1C 24 Configuration Information of Radio 1D 25 Configuration of Radio 1E Configuration information 26 Configuration information 30 of radio 1F 30 Configuration information 41 Obstacle 42 Communication line 43 Communication line 44 Communication line

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor: Masashi Morita 1-1-1, Tanabe-Nitta, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. No. 1 Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hideyuki Mineo 1-Fuji-cho, Hino-shi, Tokyo Fuji IT Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5K033 AA09 CB08 DA05 DA17 EA07 EC02 EC04 5K067 AA33 BB21 CC08 DD52 DD53 EE02

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A wireless communication system comprising a plurality of wireless devices having a function of transmitting or relaying a data packet based on configuration information held by its own device and updating the configuration information according to a change in network configuration. The communication network
In a wireless communication network divided by a situation where a wireless communication path cannot be secured, a wired connection wireless device belonging to one of the divided wireless communication networks and a wired connection wireless device belonging to the other wireless communication network are wired. The respective wired connection wireless devices obtain configuration information of the other-side wired connection wireless device connected to each other via a wire via a wire, and configure their own devices based on the obtained configuration information. Update means for updating information; and publicly known means for making the updated configuration information known to other wireless devices to which the own device belongs and for updating the configuration information of each wireless device. A wireless communication network characterized by: 2. The process according to claim 1, wherein the processing by the updating means is performed at predetermined intervals, or when the configuration information of the connected wired connection wireless device changes. The wireless communication network as described. 3. The configuration information is information on the number of hops from the own device to each of the other wireless devices, and the updating unit adds one to the number of hops of the configuration information acquired via the wire, and Or the configuration information of the other-side wireless device connected by wire is updated to 1, and the hop number of the other-side wireless device is uniformly set to 2, and the configuration information is updated. 2. The wireless communication device according to claim 1, wherein the number of hops of the other wireless device and the other wireless device are uniformly set to one and their configuration information is updated.
Or the wireless communication network according to 2. 4. A wireless communication device comprising a plurality of wireless devices having a function of transmitting or relaying a data packet based on configuration information held by the own device and updating the configuration information according to a change in network configuration. The communication network
A wired connection wireless device provided in at least one of each of a plurality of wireless communication networks divided by a situation where a wireless communication channel cannot be secured, and communicating with a wired connection wireless device of another wireless communication network via a wire Communication means for performing the following, updating means for updating the configuration information of its own device based on the configuration information of the wired connection wireless device of the other wireless communication network received by the communication means, and updating the updated configuration information to itself. A publicly known means for making the configuration information of each wireless device known to other wireless devices belonging to the wireless communication network to which the device belongs, and updating the configuration information of each wireless device.