JP2004048152A - Radio network system, radio terminal, and radio access point - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem the radio band cannot effectively be utilized when radio terminals are sometimes concentratedly connected onto one radio access point because the radio terminals are connected to a radio access point with the highest electric field strength in the radio network system. <P>SOLUTION: Each radio terminal receives a transfer speed and the number of connected radio terminals from each radio access point to automatically select a radio access point with least traffic. The radio terminals are uniformly connected to each radio access point according to this method resulting that the radio band can effectively be used. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a wireless network system, a wireless terminal, and a wireless access point.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a wireless terminal determines a wireless access point to connect to in a wireless network, the wireless terminal measures an electric field strength and a transfer error rate with the wireless access point described in JP-A-2000-101596, and A technique for determining an access point to perform is known.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the method of determining the wireless access point of the connection destination based on the electric field strength and the error rate described above, the radio terminals are concentrated on the radio access point having a high electric field strength, the traffic of only a specific wireless access point increases, As a result, the bandwidth of the entire wireless network cannot be used effectively.
[0004]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
To solve this problem, a first invention (corresponding to claim 1) is a wireless network system having a wireless terminal and a plurality of wireless access points, wherein the wireless terminal transmits a transfer rate to the plurality of wireless access points. Transmit the pattern data for measuring, the plurality of wireless access points receive the pattern data transmitted by the wireless terminal and measure the transfer rate, the measured transfer rate and the own wireless access point is connected And transmitting wireless traffic information based on the number of wireless terminals to the wireless terminal, wherein the wireless terminal determines a wireless access point to be connected based on the wireless traffic information transmitted by the plurality of wireless access points. Wireless network system.
[0005]
With this configuration, each wireless terminal is automatically allocated to and connected to each access point, and can effectively use the band of the entire wireless network.
[0006]
Further, a second invention (corresponding to claim 2) provides a pattern data transmitting means for transmitting pattern data for measuring a transfer rate to a plurality of wireless access points, Wireless traffic information receiving means for receiving wireless traffic information based on the transfer rate and the number of wireless terminals to which the own wireless access point is connected; and a wireless traffic information table based on the wireless traffic information received by the wireless traffic information receiving means. A wireless traffic information table creating means for creating, a display means for displaying the wireless traffic information table to a user, and a wireless access point for instructing a wireless access point to be connected to the user and outputting instruction information based on the instruction input Indicating means and the wireless Based on the instruction information scan point instruction means outputs a wireless terminal; and a wireless access point determining means for determining a wireless access point.
[0007]
With this configuration, the user can determine the wireless access point by checking the wireless traffic information.
[0008]
Further, a third invention (corresponding to claim 3) is a pattern data transmitting means for transmitting pattern data for measuring a transfer rate to a plurality of wireless access points, and transmitting the pattern data from the plurality of wireless access points. Wireless traffic information receiving means for receiving wireless traffic information based on a transfer rate and the number of wireless terminals to which the own wireless access point is connected, connection condition instruction means for outputting connection condition information, and the wireless traffic information receiving means; A wireless terminal comprising wireless access point determining means for determining a wireless access point based on received wireless traffic information and connection condition information output by the connection condition instruction means.
[0009]
With this configuration, the wireless terminal can automatically connect to the wireless access point that meets the wireless traffic conditions.
[0010]
A fourth invention (corresponding to claim 4) is the wireless terminal according to the third invention, wherein the connection information instruction means outputs connection condition information based on a connection condition input by a user. is there.
[0011]
With this configuration, a wireless access point can be selected according to the needs of the user.
[0012]
A fifth invention (corresponding to claim 5) provides a pattern data reception measuring means for receiving pattern data from a wireless terminal and measuring a transfer rate, and detecting the number of connected wireless terminals for outputting the number of connected wireless terminals. Means, wireless traffic information creating means for creating wireless traffic information based on the transfer rate measured by the pattern data reception measuring means and the number of wireless terminals output by the wireless terminal connected number detecting means, and the wireless traffic information creating means A wireless traffic information transmitting means for transmitting the created wireless traffic information to the wireless terminal.
[0013]
With this configuration, it is possible to transmit effective information for determining a wireless access point to a wireless terminal.
[0014]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
[0015]
(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 shows a wireless network system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. 11 to 13 are wireless access points and 101 to 109 are wireless terminals. Now, consider a case where the wireless terminals 102 to 109 are connected to the wireless access points 11 to 13 as shown in FIG. 1 and the wireless terminal 101 is newly connected. In the conventional method, the wireless terminal 101 is connected to a wireless access point having the highest electric field strength. Therefore, for example, in the case of the positional relationship as shown in FIG. 1, the access point 13 is usually connected to the closest access point 13. However, since four wireless terminals are already connected to the access point 13, the traffic of the wireless channel used by the access point 13 increases, and good throughput cannot be obtained.
[0016]
FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a wireless terminal for solving this, and FIG. 3 shows the configuration of a wireless access point. First, the wireless terminal creates pattern data in the pattern data transmission unit 22 and transmits the pattern data to each wireless access point via the wireless interface 21. The pattern data is, for example, data having a size of several KB to several MB and is randomly generated by the wireless terminal side.
[0017]
Each wireless access point receives the pattern data at the pattern data receiving unit 33 and measures the transfer speed. On the other hand, the wireless terminal connection number detection unit 34 measures the number of other wireless terminals currently connected to the own wireless access point. After the above processing, the wireless traffic information transmitting unit 32 transmits the transfer speed and the number of connected wireless terminals to the wireless terminal via the wireless interface 31 as wireless traffic information.
[0018]
In the wireless terminal, the wireless traffic information transmitted from the wireless access point is received by the wireless traffic information receiving unit 23 via the wireless interface 21. The received wireless traffic information is sent to the wireless traffic information table creating unit 24, and a table of the traffic state of each wireless access point is created.
[0019]
FIG. 4 shows a wireless traffic information table in the state of FIG. By displaying this table on the connection setting user interface 26, the user can know the current state of each wireless access point.
[0020]
Then, the user can set conditions for automatically connecting to the wireless access point in the automatic connection condition setting unit 25 via the connection setting user interface 26. FIG. 5 shows the conditions. For example, when the connection condition 1 is selected, the access point 11 that matches the connection condition 1 in FIG. 4 is selected.
[0021]
The connection condition has a priority. For example, when the transfer speed between a plurality of wireless access points hardly changes, a condition can be set such that the determination is made based on the number of connected wireless access points.
[0022]
Through the above processing, the wireless terminal can automatically select the wireless access point having the best throughput, and can use the bandwidth of the wireless network effectively by being equally allocated to each wireless access point.
[0023]
(Embodiment 2)
FIG. 6 illustrates a state in which the wireless terminals 103 and 104 have disconnected from the wireless access point 12 from a state in which the wireless terminal 101 has already been connected to the wireless access point 11. At this time, since only one of the wireless terminals 105 is connected to the wireless access point 12, the throughput is in a good state.
[0024]
Each wireless terminal transmits pattern data to the wireless access points 11 to 13 at certain fixed intervals, and constantly monitors the transfer speed and the number of connected wireless access points. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6, the number of connected wireless access points 12 is reduced, and each wireless terminal connects to the wireless access point having a good throughput, and as a result, as shown in FIG. Each wireless terminal can be assigned, and the wireless band can be used effectively.
[0025]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, in a wireless network including a plurality of wireless terminals and a plurality of wireless access points, a wireless terminal can automatically use a wireless band by effectively connecting to a wireless access point having a high throughput.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a wireless network system according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a wireless terminal according to Embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a wireless access point according to Embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a wireless traffic information table. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a connection condition table. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state before an access point is changed in the wireless network system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. A diagram showing a state after a change of an access point in a wireless network system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
11 to 13 wireless access points 101 to 109 wireless terminal 21 wireless interface 22 pattern data transmitting unit 23 wireless traffic information receiving unit 24 wireless traffic information table creating unit 25 automatic connection condition setting unit 26 connection setting user interface 31 wireless interface 32 wireless traffic information Transmission unit 33 Pattern data reception unit 34 Number of connected wireless terminals detection unit

Claims (5)

A wireless network system having a wireless terminal and a plurality of wireless access points,
The wireless terminal transmits pattern data for measuring a transfer rate to the plurality of wireless access points,
The plurality of wireless access points receive the pattern data transmitted by the wireless terminal, measure a transfer rate, and calculate wireless traffic information based on the measured transfer rate and the number of wireless terminals to which the wireless access point is connected. Transmitting to the wireless terminal,
The wireless network system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless terminal determines a wireless access point to be connected based on the wireless traffic information transmitted by the plurality of wireless access points. Pattern data transmitting means for transmitting pattern data for measuring a transfer rate to a plurality of wireless access points,
Wireless traffic information receiving means for receiving wireless traffic information based on the transfer speed of the pattern data and the number of wireless terminals to which the own wireless access point is connected from the plurality of wireless access points,
A wireless traffic information table creating means for creating a wireless traffic information table based on the wireless traffic information received by the wireless traffic information receiving means, and a display means for displaying the wireless traffic information table to a user;
A wireless access point instructing means for instructing a wireless access point to be connected by a user and outputting instruction information based on the instruction input, and a wireless communication device for determining a wireless access point based on the instruction information output by the wireless access point instructing means A wireless terminal comprising: an access point determining unit. Pattern data transmitting means for transmitting pattern data for measuring a transfer rate to a plurality of wireless access points,
Wireless traffic information receiving means for receiving wireless traffic information based on the transfer speed of the pattern data and the number of wireless terminals to which the own wireless access point is connected from the plurality of wireless access points,
Connection condition instruction means for outputting connection condition information;
A wireless terminal, comprising: a wireless access point determining unit that determines a wireless access point based on wireless traffic information received by the wireless traffic information receiving unit and connection condition information output by the connection condition instruction unit. 4. The wireless terminal according to claim 3, wherein the connection information instruction unit outputs connection condition information based on a connection condition input by a user. Pattern data reception measurement means for receiving the pattern data from the wireless terminal and measuring the transfer rate;
Wireless terminal connection number detection means for outputting the number of connected wireless terminals,
Wireless traffic information creating means for creating wireless traffic information based on the transfer rate measured by the pattern data reception measuring means and the number of wireless terminals output by the wireless terminal connected number detecting means,
A wireless traffic information transmitting unit for transmitting the wireless traffic information created by the wireless traffic information creating unit to the wireless terminal.

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