JP2009278210A - Location information management device and system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a location acquisition technique and a data management technique, which are effective in a facility. <P>SOLUTION: A location information management device (1) is connected with access points (AP11 to AP33) which are connected by radio with terminals (Ta to Tz) entering in a communication area, to make communication speech possible, and manages locations of the terminals (Ta to Tz). The access points (AP11 to AP33) hold connection information consisting of identifiers of the terminals (Ta to Tz) connected by radio. The location information management device (1) carries out processing of acquiring connection information every access point (AP11 to AP33), associating each information with time, and forming a location information table every terminal (Ta to Tz). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a location information management device that manages the location of a terminal that enables wireless communication with an access point, and a location information management system.

  In recent years, there is a movement to apply position information of people in facilities and buildings to equipment control of lighting, air conditioning, elevators and escalators. Conventional automatic equipment control methods include schedule control, human sensor and temperature sensor control, but it is difficult to perform detailed control based on the identification and number of individuals in the space with conventional sensors. .

  A location information management system is a system that obtains location information of people and objects in a space and provides some services based on the location information, and various efforts have been made regarding location acquisition methods and their applications. . AeroScout (registered trademark) and AirLocation (registered trademark: Hitachi) are position information systems to which wireless LAN technology is applied, and position detection is possible with an accuracy of several meters of error.

In buildings, ventilation is necessary to maintain the air quality in the room, but airflow control is not performed (ignoring air conditioning efficiency at all times), or feedback control using a CO ₂ sensor. It is common to control the air volume by It is known that the number of people staying in the building is related to the observed change in CO ₂ concentration, and the same effect as when using a CO ₂ sensor is achieved by controlling the air flow according to the number of people staying in the building. There is.

If the number of visitors and individuals can be specified in units of rooms in a building or in blocks of about 100m ² in an open space, energy saving and comfort can be improved by controlling air conditioning and lighting equipment based on that. In addition, it is possible to contribute to the improvement of building utilization efficiency and business efficiency by diagnosing how it is used, such as grasping the degree of congestion and usage rate by area within the building.

Patent Document 1 describes a location management server that dynamically manages the location of a moving terminal in a wireless IP telephone system or the like. Each access point has its own identifier and location identifier for the location management server field. The process of notifying the identifier of the terminal connected to itself is performed.
JP 2007-274092 A

However, the above-described various location information management systems require a dedicated device specialized for the location acquisition function mainly on the network infrastructure side, and are expensive compared to ordinary wireless LAN devices. Even a CO ₂ sensor is very expensive at about 100,000 yen / piece and cannot be used for other purposes. Further, in Patent Document 1, although the location management server manages the location of the terminal, information on the location of the terminal is mainly notified to the location management server by the access point. A specific configuration different from that of the wireless IP telephone system is required.

In addition, although the position information management system can be applied in various ways, it has not been widely spread due to the following operational management problems.
(1) It is difficult to obtain location information of almost all persons in the facility at all times.
(2) When a person has a device, he or she often imposes a burden on normal activities and actions.
(3) It takes time to supply power to devices and replace batteries during long-term operation.
(4) There are many things that use dedicated hardware, and the investment cost is high for the effect.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention is a location information management device that manages the location of a terminal connected to an access point that enables wireless communication with a terminal that has entered a communication area, and the access point is The connection information consisting of the identifiers of the connected terminals is held, and the location information management apparatus acquires the connection information for each access point, associates it with the time, and makes it possible to create a location information table for each terminal. It is characterized by that.

According to the present invention, an effective location acquisition method and data management method in an existing facility can be realized by a simple configuration in which a location information management device is added to a normal wireless communication system. Moreover, the following uses can be expected as its application.
(1) Equipment control according to the number of people staying in the space.
(2) Grasping usage status of rooms and spaces based on location information history.
(3) Retrieval of people's whereabouts in the facility It is a heavy operational burden to have all position information acquisition target persons carry a device for position acquisition, but wireless telephones (PHS and wireless LAN connection IP telephones) For example, it is possible to reduce the introduction cost and operation burden by using a device and its system, which are introduced and operated for a certain purpose, for location information acquisition. The present invention is characterized in that a PHS or a wireless LAN connection IP telephone is used as a device carried by a person.

  FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a system to which the present invention is applied. This system is a system constructed in a facility or a building. In the present embodiment, the terminals Ta to Tz are systems that use wireless LAN connection IP telephones. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and may be wireless telephone systems that use, for example, PHS. The terminals Ta to Tz can wirelessly connect to the access points AP11 to AP33, and when entering the communication area of any of the access points AP11 to AP33, the access points AP11 to AP33 are determined as communication partners and connected. Authentication is performed, and connections with the authenticated access points AP11 to AP33 are established.

  Therefore, each terminal Ta to Tz holds identification information such as a MAC address. Further, the terminals Ta to Tz are observing the radio waves of the access points AP11 to AP33, and when the radio wave intensity from the currently connected access points AP11 to AP33 falls below a certain threshold value, the access point AP11 having a higher radio wave intensity. Search for AP33, and if there is, perform a handover process for switching the connection.

  The access points AP11 to AP33 hold identification information of terminals that can be connected by authentication, and thereafter, communication with these terminals becomes possible. In the present embodiment, the access points AP11 to AP33 are divided into predetermined groups, and management such as setting and monitoring of the access points AP11 to AP33 is performed collectively by the access point control means APC1 to APC3 for each group. . In this embodiment, the system using the access point control means APC1 to APC3 is used. However, a system that directly controls the access points AP11 to AP33 without providing the access point control means APC1 to APC3 may be used.

  The call control means 5 is a means for carrying out a switching function when the terminals Ta to Tz make a call within a facility or a call outside the facility using a public network or an IP network. It is constructed using PBX or the like and is connected to the system via a LAN.

  In the present invention, the location information management device 1 is added to the existing system using the terminals Ta to Tz, the access points AP11 to AP33, the access point control means APC1 to APC3, and the call control means 5 as described above. Thus, it becomes possible to perform position management that has not been conventionally performed.

  As shown in the figure, the position information management apparatus 1 includes a control unit 2, a storage unit 3, and a time measuring unit 4, and is constituted by a known server PC or the like. Although not shown, an input unit such as a keyboard or a display unit may be connected so that the position information management apparatus 1 can be directly operated, or can be remotely operated from a PC terminal connected to the LAN.

  The control unit 2 is a unit configured by a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, and the like, and realizes a position acquisition function, a connection confirmation function, an analysis function, and the like in cooperation with the storage unit 3 and the timing unit 4. The storage means 3 stores a position information table, its history, terminal related information, access point related information, and the like.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the location management of the terminal is performed using the system shown in FIG. 1. First, the relationship between the communication area of the access point and the terminal will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the communication status of the access points AP11 and AP12 in an ideal radio wave environment free from obstacles and radio wave interference. In an ideal radio wave environment, the radio wave intensity decreases in proportion to the square of the distance from the access point. Therefore, when the terminal connects the points of the threshold radio wave intensity at which the access point is switched, the access point is constant. A circle with a radius (communication area) is formed. That is, since the terminal connected to the access point is in the communication area, the position of the terminal, that is, the position of the owner carrying the terminal can be specified.

  However, in reality, the communication area does not become an ideal circle due to the overlapping of the communication area with the radio field intensity exceeding the threshold value, the influence of reflection and absorption by the characteristics of the antenna, floor, wall, furniture, etc. The terminal does not always connect to the nearest access point.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, as a premise, the arrangement of the access points and the output adjustment are performed in accordance with the following procedure 1 to procedure 3 in order to match the space separation from the viewpoint of building use and the radio communication area.
Procedure 1. Arrange access points in consideration of the structure of the building, partitions, wall and floor members, fixture layout, usage, etc.
Procedure 2. Measurement of radio field intensity distribution and confirmation of communication area with actual terminals.
Procedure 3. Based on the measurement results, radio wave output adjustment including the number of access points, arrangement, and antenna is performed.

  Steps 2 and 3 are repeated in accordance with the required granularity (fineness) and accuracy (accuracy) of the position information, and a radio wave environment is established in which the space division and the radio communication area as seen from the use of the building coincide. Location information management of the terminal is performed under the radio wave environment constructed by such a procedure.

  Now, location information management in this embodiment will be described. In the present embodiment, the position information management apparatus 1 mainly performs two processes, a position information acquisition process and an analysis process. First, an outline of the position information acquisition process will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a flow diagram showing a series of flow of position information acquisition processing, FIG. 4 is a flow diagram showing inquiry processing, which is one processing during position information acquisition processing, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing position information table creation processing.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a position information acquisition process that is a main process of the position information management apparatus 1. When the process is started (step S100), first, a time t at which time t = 0 is set in step S200. Is initialized. Then, the time measurement of t is started in step S300. In step S400, the inquiry process described in FIG. 4 is performed, and in step S500, the position information table creation process described in FIG. 5 is performed. In step S600, the process waits until the time t exceeds a predetermined time t ₀ (for example, 3 minutes), and then the process returns to step S200 to start measuring the time t again.

Above, the position information acquisition processing in the location information managing device 1, between t ₀ as the interval time, the query process in step S400, position information table creation processing in step S500 is performed. Note that the present invention is not limited to the periodic processing as in the present embodiment. For example, a regular processing for performing a set of processing of inquiry processing (step S400) and subsequent position information table creation processing (step S500) with a predetermined time interval. It may be a target process.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing details of the inquiry process in step S400 of FIG. In this embodiment, the access points AP11 to AP33 are divided into groups and managed by the access point control means APC1 to APC3. Therefore, this inquiry process is performed for the access point control means APC1 to APC3. The access point control means APC1 to APC3 manage the identifiers of the terminals Ta to Tz connected to the respective access points AP11 to AP33 under their control. Therefore, in this embodiment, it is possible to determine the terminals Ta to Tz connected to the access points AP11 to AP33 via the access point control means APC1 to APC3 without inquiring from the access point AP11 to AP33. Become.

  In FIG. 4, when the inquiry process is started (step S401), n is initialized in step S402. First, in step S403, a thread for the first access point control means APC1 is generated. This thread generation is similarly generated for the other access point control means APC2 and APC3 (steps S403 to S405), and the processing is ended (step S406). Since one thread generation is completed on the order of milliseconds, the thread generation processing for all the access point control means APC1 to APC3 is completed in a very short time. Based on the thread generation generated here, the processing from step S410 to step S413 is executed simultaneously and in parallel for each of the access point control means APC1 to APC3.

  When the process is started in step S410, an inquiry is made to the access point control means APn corresponding to the thread in step S411. In step S412, the AP connection information acquired in response to the inquiry is acquired, and the process ends. Although the processing in steps S410 to S413 requires processing time on the order of seconds, the processing is completed in a relatively short time because a plurality of access point control means are simultaneously processed in parallel. Can do.

  It is possible to construct the system of the present invention without providing the access point control means APC1 to APC3. In this case, the location information management device 1 directly makes an inquiry to the access point to connect information. Is acquired. Even in this case, by performing thread generation for each terminal, if simultaneous parallel processing is performed for each terminal, the processing time can be completed in a short time.

As described above, in the present embodiment, in this inquiry process, the location information management apparatus 1 actively makes an inquiry to the access point control means APC1 to APC3 to acquire the AP connection information. Access point control means APC1 ~
AP connection information, which is information related to the terminal position, can be acquired without providing a special configuration for the APC 3 or the access points AP11 to AP33. That is, location information management can be realized simply by adding the location information management device 1 to an existing system.

  Next, the position information table creation process (step S500) in the position information acquisition process of FIG. 3 will be described with reference to FIG. The table shown on the left side of FIG. 5 is AP connection information indicating the terminal connection status at each of the access points AP11 to AP33 acquired from the access point control means APC1 to APC3. By assigning the information acquisition time to this AP connection information and converting it into a position information table for each terminal, efficient position information management becomes possible.

  In the example illustrated in FIG. 5, the AP connection information indicates a situation in which two terminals Ta and Te are connected to the access point AP11 and a terminal Tb is connected to the access point AP12. Further, the access point AP13 has no connected terminal. Hereinafter, the connection status of each terminal is also described for the access points AP21 to AP33. In the present embodiment, this AP connection information is rearranged from the viewpoint of the terminal, and the location information table is created by adding information acquisition times that are times acquired by the location information management device 1 from the access point control means APC1 to APC3. The

  In the example shown in FIG. 5, for example, according to the AP connection information, it can be seen that the terminal Ta is connected to the access point AP11. It can also be seen that the terminal Tb is connected to the access point AP12. Therefore, rearrangement is performed from the viewpoint of the terminal, and the position information table shown on the right is created. In this embodiment, since the access points AP11 and AP12 are managed by the same access point control means APC1, the information acquisition times of the terminals Ta and Tb connected to the access points AP11 and AP12 are the same time. ing.

  By creating a location information table in this way and referring to it, it is possible to grasp the location information of people in the facility / building, for example, various types of air conditioning according to the number of people staying in a predetermined space in the facility It is possible to provide various services such as equipment control and retrieval of a person's whereabouts in the facility. In addition, by performing various analysis processes based on the history of the position information table, it is possible to grasp the usage status of rooms and spaces in the facility.

  FIG. 6 shows various kinds of information necessary for performing the service and analysis processing by the position information table, and is information registered in the storage means 3 in the position information management apparatus 1 of FIG. 6 (a) and 6 (b) show examples of terminal-related information and AP-related information, respectively. Of these, terminal-related information corresponds to the terminal ID, and the owner ID, owner affiliation, owner's It is information related to the owner of the terminal, such as regular working hours. Not only the information but also information related to the terminal or the owner of the terminal (for example, the name of the owner) is described in the terminal related information.

  The AP-related information is obtained by associating the names related to the partition of the space from the viewpoint of building use described above with each access point. By referring to such terminal-related information and AP-related information and associating with the created position information table, it is possible to grasp the position information of people in the facility / building in real time, for example, a predetermined space in the facility It is possible to provide various services such as lighting, air conditioning, control of various equipment such as elevators and escalators, and search for a person's whereabouts in the facility.

Further, by referring to the terminal-related information and AP-related information and associating them with the history of the position information table, for example, it is possible to confirm the state of movement of a certain user shown in FIG. Since the terminal Ta as a wireless telephone is carried by the user 1 (according to the terminal related information), the movement of the user 1 corresponds to the movement of the terminal Ta. Furthermore, since the access point to which the terminal Ta is connected corresponds to the place in the facility (according to the AP related information), the movement of the terminal Ta (user 1) shown in FIG. 7 can be created by referring to this information. In FIG. 7, a time zone indicated by a thick line at each place in the facility indicates the whereabouts of the user 1.

  Such a diagram may be displayed on a display unit connected to the location management information 1 or may be displayed on a display unit of an appropriate PC terminal connected to the location management device 1 via the LAN. Good. By specifying an appropriate viewpoint, the user can display various states in the facility. For example, by referring to the affiliation of the terminal-related information, it is possible to display the state of movement in affiliation (department) units, and it is also possible to manage attendance (attended) with reference to the specified working hours.

  The access point AP22 (second floor office) shown in FIG. 7 is shaded, which indicates that the second floor office is the “home position” of the user 1. It has become a thing. In the present embodiment, this home position registration function is provided as one of analysis processes in the position information management apparatus 1. Hereinafter, the home position registration function will be described.

  One of the uses of location information is grasping the usage status of space. When performing statistical analysis on the location information (movement) history of people in an office building, whether or not they are in their seats has an important meaning. For example, if it is found that there are departments with a low ratio of staying at their own seats, it is possible to increase the space efficiency by concentrating such departments and making each person a free address without a fixed seat. In addition, when searching for a person's current position, it is possible to guess whether the person is at his or her desk and whether it is during desk work or a meeting / conference. Since an appropriate communication means can be selected based on this, it can contribute to business efficiency improvement. Therefore, the position information management device 1 has a home position registration function for registering a “home position” as an access point nearest to the position where the seat is located.

  Conventionally, information on infrastructure such as access point placement and terminals has been managed / understood by telephone / IT infrastructure managers or maintenance companies, and personnel information for individuals and departments has been managed / understood by corporate personnel or general affairs departments. ing. However, the “home position” information is data that is not used other than the position information and has high management cost because it is necessary to grasp both the infrastructure information and the personnel information described above.

  Therefore, when the location information management device 1 in the present embodiment specifies the target person, location, and period, the location time ratio of each person is counted from the location information table that has already been accumulated, and the location with the highest stay rate Is automatically registered as the person's home position. By using this home position registration function in the position information management device 1, the cost for home position registration can be greatly reduced.

  As described above, according to the location information management apparatus 1 that mainly performs location information acquisition processing, a system for acquiring location information of a person can be constructed with a small additional cost by using an infrastructure for a wireless telephone in a facility. . Furthermore, the system can be realized with only functions necessary for general wireless telephone / wireless communication, and no special hardware or software is required for the terminal or the access point, so that the degree of freedom of device selection can be increased. In addition, according to the analysis processing of the position information management device 1, it is possible to perform various types of analysis using the position information table, for example, to realize a home position registration function for people who require human and time costs. Can do.

  As described above, the present invention effectively utilizes the infrastructure for wireless telephones. However, with regard to further embodiments and other countermeasures for dealing with the problems by using such wireless telephone infrastructure, Give an explanation. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a state of handover processing when the terminal Ta moves between access points and a state of change in AP connection information. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating how the terminal Ta moves from the communication area of the access point. It is a figure which shows a mode that it moves out of service area, and the state of AP connection information.

  In FIG. 8, when a certain terminal Ta is handed over from the access point AP11 to another access point AP12, the terminal Ta moves from the destination access point AP12 to the source access point AP11 by the standard access point function. The information is notified, and the access point AP11 of the movement source can immediately delete the terminal Ta from its own AP connection information, and the information of the terminal moved between the access points is surely reflected in the AP connection information. Such a handover process (when the terminal switches to which access point) is performed based on the initiative of the terminal.

  On the other hand, the access point does not always check whether the terminal connected to the access point is maintaining the connection. Normally, the terminal that has not communicated for about 30 minutes is regarded as out of service area and connected to the AP. It will be deleted from the information. In such a situation, when the terminal Ta connected to the access point AP11 moves to a place (out of service area) where the radio waves of any access point do not reach, the movement of the terminal Ta is not notified from anywhere. Only the information that the terminal Ta is connected remains on the point AP11. When position acquisition by the position information management device 1 is performed in this state, information including the terminal Ta is output to the connection terminal of the access point AP11, so the actual position (out of service area) of the terminal Ta and the position on the data ( There is a problem that the access point AP11) is different (FIG. 9).

  In order to solve the problem that the obtained location information is different from the actual state of the terminal, in this embodiment, connection confirmation processing is performed based on the initiative of the location information management device 1. In addition, since the position information table creation process is slightly different from the previous embodiment with the execution of the connection confirmation process, this will also be described.

First, position information table creation processing based on connection confirmation processing will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 10 shows a flow chart of the position information table creation processing in the present embodiment, FIG. 11 shows an example of the position information table in the present embodiment, and FIG. t ₁ ) shows a definition table.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 10, when the position information table creation process is started (step S501), the position information table created last time is first read in step S502. In the subsequent processing in this embodiment (steps S504 to S516), the location information table (FIG. 11) is created based on the location information table created last time for each terminal and the AP connection information acquired this time. In this process, a new connection confirmation table (FIG. 13) is also created.

  In step S504, the current connection access point and the previous connection access point are compared. If the previous connection access point according to the location information table read out in step S502 is different from the current connection access point according to the AP connection information acquired this time, this indicates that the terminal has moved, so the connection is established in step S507. Set the current time to the start time. Although the present time is set in the present embodiment, the information acquisition time may be set instead. In step S508, the connection confirmation time in the connection confirmation table is reset.

  On the other hand, if the connection access points are the same, the connection start time described in the position information table read in step S506 is set as the connection start time of the position information table created this time. This is because the terminal is not moving.

  In step S509, a position information table is created. FIG. 11 shows an example of this position information table. Similarly to the previous embodiment, the connection access point and the information acquisition time are described for each terminal, and newly determined in steps S505 to S508. The connection start time is described.

  The subsequent processes, steps S510 to S516, are processes for determining the connection confirmation flag of each terminal in the connection confirmation table shown in FIG. 13, and the connection confirmation process only when this connection confirmation flag is set to “true”. Then, response request communication to the terminal is performed.

  First, in step S510, based on the location information table created in step S509 or the AP connection information acquired this time, it is determined whether or not the terminal is out of service area, that is, is not connected to any access point. The If it is determined that it is out of service area, it is not necessary to perform a response request communication. Therefore, in step S516, the connection confirmation flag in the connection confirmation table is set to “false” and the process of the next terminal is started ( Step S517).

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S510 that there is a service area, that is, a state of being connected to any access point, it is determined in step S511 whether there is a connection confirmation time. This process is a process for determining whether or not a connection confirmation process has already been performed at the same access point. Note that the configuration is not limited to the process using the connection confirmation time as long as the determination is possible, and a configuration in which the determination can be made by setting a flag or the like may be used.

If it is determined in step S511 that connection confirmation processing has not yet been performed at the same access point, in step S512, the continuous connection time t1 is referred to with reference to the continuous connection time (t ₁ ) definition table shown in FIG. _{Get 1} The continuous connection time t ₁ is a continuous connection time from when a new connection is made to an access point until connection confirmation processing is first performed at the access point. If the terminal is connected to the same access point continues over time defined by t _1, so that the connection confirmation processing is executed.

In the present embodiment, by using the continuous connection time (t ₁ ) definition table in FIG. 12, it is possible to set the continuous connection time t ₁ according to the situation such as each access point (location), date and time, and so on. . For example, on weekday nights and weekends and holidays, a longer continuous connection time t ₁ is set compared to weekday daytime. By setting in this way, the interval of the connection confirmation process becomes long in a time zone with a small number of people in the room, and it becomes possible to suppress the burden on the location information management device 1 and the power consumption at the terminal. Similarly, an access point (location) can be set according to the situation of the location. The continuous connection time t ₁ may be fixed, and the access point (
It may be variable according to any one of (location), date / time, and time.

In step S513, the difference between the current time and the connection start time, whether exceeds a continuous connection time t ₁ the read is determined. If exceeded, the connection confirmation flag is set to “
It is set to “true”, and response request communication is performed in the subsequent connection confirmation processing. On the other hand, if not exceeded, the connection confirmation flag is set to “false” in step S516.

If it is determined in step S511 that the connection confirmation time exists in the connection confirmation table, that is, it is determined that the connection confirmation process has already been performed at the same access point, the current time and connection are established in step S515. The difference in confirmation time is a predetermined time t ₂ (for example, 20
Min) is determined. If exceeded, the connection confirmation flag is set to “true” in step S514, and if not exceeded, the connection confirmation flag is set to “false” in step S516.

This process is the only process in step S513, after t ₁ has elapsed after connecting to the same access point, will be exceed the t ₁ to check the time, every time, sets the connection confirmation flag to "true" This is a process provided to prevent this. In this way, the response request communication is not performed until the predetermined time t ₂ elapses for the terminal that has made the response request communication once. In the present embodiment, t ₂ is set as a predetermined time. However, as with the continuous connection time t ₁ , it may be changed according to the situation such as each access point (location), date and time, or the like.

  An example of the connection confirmation table created by the above processing is shown in FIG. Since the terminal Ta has the connection confirmation flag “true” and has a connection confirmation time, the terminal Ta has already performed the first response request communication and needs the second response request communication. State. Since the terminal Tb has the connection confirmation flag “true” and does not have a connection confirmation time, the terminal Tb is in a state that requires the first response request communication. The terminals Tc and Td both have the connection confirmation flag set to “false” and do not require a response request communication. However, since the terminal Td has a connection confirmation time, it has already been the first time. It can be seen that the response request communication is finished and the second response request communication is awaited.

  Based on the connection confirmation table created by the above process, the connection confirmation process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 14 is performed. This connection confirmation process may be started at an appropriate timing such as every predetermined time independently of the position information table creation process or the like, or as a part of the position information acquisition process of FIG. The execution may be started following the position information table creation process S500. In this embodiment, each terminal is sequentially processed. However, it is desirable that a plurality of terminals be simultaneously processed in parallel by generating threads for the terminals as in the inquiry process of FIG.

  When the process is started in step S701, the process is performed for the first terminal Ta. First, in step S703, the connection confirmation flag of the terminal Ta is read, and it is determined in step S704 whether or not it is “true”. When it is not “true”, that is, when it is “false”, the process is terminated for the terminal Ta, and the process proceeds to step S705 to perform the process for the next terminal Tb. On the other hand, if the connection confirmation flag is “true”, response request communication is performed in step S706.

This response request communication is processing for asking the access point to which the terminal Ta is connected as information in the location information table whether or not the terminal Ta actually exists in the communication area. Then, a signal for confirming the presence / absence of the terminal Ta is transmitted wirelessly. In step S707, if the terminal Ta responds to the response request communication within the timeout time t ₃ (for example, 8 seconds), it is determined that the terminal Ta is still in the communication area, and the connection confirmation time is set in step s708. Set to the current time.

On the other hand, if there is no response within the timeout time t ₃ , the terminal Ta is determined to be out of range,
A modification is made to delete the identifier of the terminal Ta from the AP connection information held at the access point (step S709). At this time, the connection confirmation time is also reset (step S710). The above processing is performed for all the terminals Ta to Tz (steps S711 and S705).

In this embodiment in which connection confirmation processing is performed in this way, by correcting the AP connection information at the access point, AP connections can be quickly made even for terminals that are already out of service and cannot be immediately reflected in the existing system. It can be reflected in information. Also, since only terminals that stay at the same access point for a predetermined time such as t ₁ and t ₂ are subject to response request communication, it is possible to recognize out-of-service terminals with as little communication frequency and number of terminals as possible, and to suppress battery consumption of the terminals. Is possible.

The figure which shows one Embodiment of the system to which this invention is applied. The figure which shows the communication condition of the access point in an ideal electromagnetic wave environment. The flowchart which shows a series of flows of a position acquisition process. The flowchart which shows an inquiry process. The figure which shows a positional information table creation process. The figure which shows terminal related information and AP related information. The figure which showed the mode of the movement of a certain user. The figure which showed the mode of the hand-over process of a terminal. The figure which showed a mode that the terminal moved out of the service area from the communication area of the access point. The flowchart of a positional information table creation process. The figure which showed an example of the position information table. Continuous connection time (t ₁₎ shows the definition table. The figure which showed the connection confirmation table. The flowchart of a connection confirmation process.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Location information management apparatus, 2 ... Control means, 3 ... Memory | storage means, 4 ... Time measuring means, 5 ... Call control means, APC1-APC3 ... Access point control means, AP11-AP33 ... Access point, Ta-Tz ... Terminal

Claims (7)

A location information management device that is connected to an access point that enables wireless communication with a terminal that has entered a communication area and manages the location of the terminal,
The access point holds connection information composed of identifiers of wirelessly connected terminals,
The location information management device enables processing to acquire connection information for each access point, associate it with time, and create a location information table for each terminal. The position information management device enables a process of making a response request communication with a terminal to an access point based on the position information table and correcting connection information of the access point based on the response. Location information management device. The location information management device according to claim 2, wherein the location information management device performs response request communication to a terminal whose connection duration at the same access point has exceeded a set time. The location information management device according to claim 3, wherein the set time is changed at least one of every date and time, every hour, and every access point. The position information management device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the position information management device performs an analysis process based on a history of the position information table. The in-facility location information system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein a communication area of the access point substantially coincides with a partition of a space from the viewpoint of building use. A location information management system including an access point that enables wireless communication with a terminal that has entered a communication area, and a location information management device that is connected to the access point and manages the location of the terminal,
The access point holds connection information composed of identifiers of wirelessly connected terminals,
A location information management system is a location information management system that enables processing for acquiring connection information for each access point and associating it with time to create a location information table for each terminal.

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