JPH1198186A - Communication control equipment and its method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to acquire communicatable terminal information(CTI) even when there are many terminals by receiving CTI indicating that a terminal is communicatable, relating terminal identification information(TIDI) and CTI received from the same terminal with each other and storing these information as communication environment information(CEI). SOLUTION: A receiving part 101 sends TIDT indicating the existence of a terminal, CTI indicating a communicatable terminal, etc., in a received packet to a CEI processing part 102. The processing part 102 has a TIDI processing part 111 and a CTI processing part 112. The processing part 111 extracts a terminal identifier from the packet obtained from the receiving part 101 and the processing part 112 extracts CTI or the like related to a terminal having the terminal identifier extracted by the processing part 111. The extracted information is sent to a CEI acquiring part 105 through a CEI storing part 103 and a required packet is generated and sent to a transmitting part 110.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication control device suitable for application to, for example, a portable information communication device which is easy to carry.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When communicating between terminals using a conventional network such as the Internet, which is rapidly expanding at present, it is necessary to know in advance an identifier such as an address for identifying a communicating party. there were. An IP address or a host name on the Internet corresponds to this. Conversely, if the user does not know the IP address or host name of the other party, communication cannot be performed.

[0003] On the other hand, for example, Microsoftoffer provided in Microsoft Windows 95
With the network browsing function, users can simply click the icon without any pre-
It is possible to know the terminals connected to the software network and to start communication with the other party only by selecting the other party to communicate with. This Mi
The reference function of the cross network is such that one of the networks serves as a reference server, and each terminal connected to the network notifies the reference server of its existence at the time of startup, while the presence of other terminals is determined by inquiring the server. Has been realized.

[0004] In the reference function of the Microsoft network, it is assumed that a terminal that can communicate with the reference server can directly communicate with the terminal.
However, when a network is formed using a wireless LAN, for example, communication with a reference server may not necessarily mean that terminals can communicate with each other. There may be so-called hidden terminals. In such a case, since the reference function of the Microsoft network cannot know the existence of the hidden terminal, there has been a problem that the communication is started without knowing the hidden terminal, but the communication cannot be performed.

When a portable terminal having a wireless communication function is used, it is conceivable to move without shutting down the OS (operating system). May take several tens of minutes to detect that communication has been disabled. As described above, the reference function of the Microsoft network has a problem in that it is not possible to quickly respond to a change in the network environment that is constantly changing.

On the other hand, as a method for each terminal to know whether or not communication is possible between the terminals, there is, for example, a method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 7-232549. In this method, all the terminals transmit the terminal identifiers of the terminals that can communicate with the own terminal together with the identifiers identified by the own terminals. This allows each terminal to know not only its own communicable partner but also the terminals with which other terminals can communicate. However, this method has a problem that the traffic of the network increases when the number of terminals existing in the network increases because all the terminals exchange information of the terminals that can communicate with each other. In addition, there is a problem that only the communicable information of the other terminal of the one HOP destination (the other terminal is not interposed) and the own terminal can be received, and the communicable information of a plurality of HOPs cannot be obtained.

[0007]

As described above, in the conventional reference function such as the Microsoft network, it is impossible to know the existence of the hidden terminal and to start communication without knowing the hidden terminal. There was a problem that it was not possible to respond quickly to changes in In addition, for example, the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 7-232459 in which each terminal knows whether or not the terminals can communicate with each other includes information on communicable information between terminals when the number of terminals in the network increases. However, there is a problem that the traffic for notifying the terminal increases and that the communicable information of the terminal of a plurality of hop destinations cannot be obtained.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and even when the number of terminals in a network is large, each terminal acquires communicable information of each terminal without increasing traffic, and It is an object of the present invention to provide a communication control device that can also acquire communicable information of a terminal at a HOP destination.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, a communication control apparatus according to the present invention comprises a terminal identification information receiving means for receiving terminal identification information transmitted from another terminal for identifying the terminal. And communicable terminal information receiving means for receiving communicable terminal information transmitted by another terminal and indicating communicable terminal information indicating that the terminal can communicate, and communicating the terminal identification information and communicable terminal information received from the same terminal in association with each other. By providing communicable information storage means for storing as environment information and communicable information transmitting means for transmitting the stored communicable information to another terminal, a representative terminal among many terminals can be connected to another terminal. The terminal identifiers and the terminal information with which the terminal can communicate, and collectively transmit that information to reduce traffic and allow each terminal to communicate with each other. It made it possible to know the opponent.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of the communication control apparatus according to the first embodiment.

The receiving section 101 is connected to a network and is a section for receiving a packet transmitted from another terminal addressed to the own terminal. Among the received packets, information relating to terminal identification information indicating the presence of a terminal, communicable terminal information indicating a communicable terminal of the terminal, and communication environment information which is communicable terminal information of another terminal is transmitted to the communication environment information processing. Part 1
Send to 02.

The communication environment information processing section 102 has a terminal identification information processing section 111 and a communicable terminal information processing section 112, and the terminal identification information processing section 111 extracts a terminal identifier from a packet passed from the receiving section 101. Then, the communicable terminal information processing unit 112 extracts communicable terminal information and the like regarding the terminal having the terminal identifier extracted by the terminal identification information processing unit 111. Then, it notifies the communication environment information storage unit 103 of the extracted terminal identifier and communicable terminal information.
Also, it notifies the communicable terminal storage unit 106 of the source terminal identifier contained in the packet as the identifier of the communicable terminal.

The communication environment information storage unit 103 stores the terminal identifier notified from the communication environment information processing unit 102 and the communicable terminal information of the terminal in association with each other.

The timer (1) 104 periodically sends a signal to the communication environment information acquisition unit 105.

Upon receiving a signal from the timer (1) 104, the communication environment information acquisition unit 105 acquires a terminal identifier for each terminal stored in the communication environment information storage unit 103 and communicable terminal information associated therewith. Then, a packet carrying the obtained information is generated, and a destination is specified and transmitted to the transmitting unit 110. As the destination, there is the simplest method of broadcasting, but it is not limited to this.

The communicable terminal storage unit 106 stores a terminal identifier of a communicable terminal notified from the communication environment information processing unit 102.

The own terminal identifier setting section 107 determines and stores the identifier of the own terminal. The method of determining the own terminal identifier is not particularly limited, and includes, for example, a method designated by a user.

The timer (2) 108 periodically sends a signal to the communicable terminal information acquisition unit 109.

Upon receiving a signal from timer (2) 108, communicable terminal information acquiring section 109 acquires communicable terminal information stored in communicable terminal information storage section 106, and a packet containing the acquired information. Is generated, and a destination is specified and sent to the transmission unit 110. As the destination, there is the simplest method of broadcasting, but it is not limited to this.

The transmission unit 110 is a communication environment information acquisition unit 10
5 or the packet sent from the communicable terminal information acquisition unit 109 is given the address of the designated destination terminal and sent to the network.

FIG. 2 shows a packet format for transmitting and receiving communicable terminal information and communication environment information. The source terminal identifier is a terminal identifier of a terminal transmitting a packet, and the target terminal identifier is a terminal identifier of a terminal on which communicable terminal information is described. The communicable terminal information is a list of identifiers of communicable terminals having the target terminal identifier.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing when a packet of communicable terminal information and communication environment information transmitted by another terminal is received.

When a packet is received (step A1),
First, the terminal identifier of the transmission source is extracted (step A2),
The extracted terminal identifier is registered in the communicable terminal storage unit 106 (step A3). Next, the terminal identifier of the terminal that is the target of the communicable terminal information and the communicable terminal information of the terminal are extracted (step A4), and registered in the communication environment information storage unit 103 (step A5).

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing when the timer (1) 104 is activated.

When started by the timer (1) 104,
First, communication environment information is acquired from the communication environment information storage unit 103 (step B1). Then, a communication environment information packet for each terminal is generated from the acquired information (steps B2 to B3) and transmitted to the network (step B4).

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing when the timer (2) 108 is started.

When started by the timer (2) 18, a communicable terminal is first obtained from the communicable terminal storage unit 106 (step C1). Then, a communicable terminal information packet is generated from the obtained information (step C2),
The data is transmitted to the network (step C3).

The specific operation of the communication control apparatus according to the first embodiment will be described based on a specific example of a network configuration. FIG. 6 shows a specific example of a network configuration.
In FIG. 6, X, A1 to A3, and B1 to B3 are terminals to which the communication control device according to the first embodiment is applied. Where X
In other terminals, the timer (1) 104 is not set,
Therefore, transmission of communication environment information is not performed. The setting and unsetting of the timer includes, for example, a method designated by the user. The solid lines between the terminals in FIG. 6 indicate that they can directly communicate with each other. That is, X, A
1, A2 and A3 can communicate with each other.
X, B1, B2, and B3 can communicate with each other, but for example, it is assumed that direct communication cannot be performed between A1 and B1.

Here, each terminal broadcasts its own terminal identification information and communicable terminal information. There is no communicable terminal when it first starts up, but the communicable terminal is recognized by receiving a packet of communicable terminal information from another terminal. For example, A1 is A
2, A3, by receiving packets from X, A
It recognizes that it can communicate with 2, A3, and X. After this recognition, a specific example of the communicable terminal information packet transmitted by A1 is shown in FIG.

X receives a packet similar to the packet shown in FIG. 7 not only from A1 but also from A2, A3, B1, B2 and B3. The received information is stored in the communication environment information storage unit 103 for X. FIG. 8 shows a specific example of the storage information of X.

X uses the function of the communication environment information acquisition unit 105 to periodically generate the stored communication environment information for each terminal shown in FIG. 8 in accordance with the packet format shown in FIG. 2 and transmit them. This transmission may be a broadcast. Alternatively, terminals A1 to A3 have B1 to
Only the information of the terminal of B3 is provided, and the terminals of B1 to B3 are A1 to A3.
If only the information of the terminal A3 is transmitted, the communication amount can be reduced. By receiving the communication environment information transmitted by X, each terminal of A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, and B3 can know a terminal that can directly communicate with another terminal. For example, when A1 receives information about B2 from X, it can know that a terminal B2 exists and can directly communicate with B1 and B3, but cannot directly communicate with A1, A2 and A3. . FIG. 9 shows a specific example of the content stored in the communication environment information storage unit 103 of A1.

(Second Embodiment) Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram of a communication control device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

The difference between the communication control device of the second embodiment and the communication control device of the first embodiment described above is that a communication environment information transmission judgment unit 113 is newly added.
Here, the communication environment information transmission determination unit 113 will be mainly described.

The communication environment information processing unit 102 compares the source terminal identifier and the target terminal identifier in the packet in addition to the processing in the first embodiment. If the two are different, it can be understood that the information is communicable terminal information on a terminal different from the packet transmitting terminal, that is, communication environment information. In this case, the communication environment information transmission determination unit 113 is notified.

Communication environment information transmission determining section 113 determines whether or not to transmit communication environment information, and sets timer (1) 104 when transmitting. The following method can be used to determine whether to transmit the communication environment information. Wait for a while after starting the terminal, and check if any other terminal is transmitting the communication environment information. If there is a terminal transmitting the communication environment information, a notification from the communication environment information processing unit 102 should be received. If you are notified,
The timer (1) 104 is not set. Conversely, if there is no notification after a certain period of time, the timer (1) 104 is set to transmit the communication environment information.

The specific operation of the communication control device according to the second embodiment will be described based on a specific example of a network configuration. FIG. 11 shows a specific example of a network configuration. In FIG. 11, X, Y, A1 to A3, and B1 to B3 are terminals to which the communication control device according to the second embodiment is applied.
However, terminals other than X and Y do not set the timer (1) 104, and therefore do not transmit communication environment information. Also, the solid lines between the terminals in FIG. 11 indicate that they can directly communicate with each other. That is, X,
Y, A1 to A3 can communicate with each other, and
X, Y, B1 to B3 can communicate with each other,
For example, it is assumed that direct communication is not possible between A1 and B1.

First, X and Y are not activated, while
It is assumed that A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, and B3 have been activated. Here, when X starts, the reception of the packet is continued for a while. At this time, A1, A2, A3, B1, B2,
Although the packet of the communicable terminal information in which the source terminal identifier and the target terminal identifier match from B3 is received, the communication environment information in which the transmission terminal identifier and the target terminal identifier are different is not received. That is, it can be determined that there is no terminal transmitting the communication environment information, and X itself starts transmitting the communication environment information.

Next, it is assumed that Y is activated. Y keeps receiving packets for a while after activation. At this time, Y does not transmit the communication environment information in order to receive a packet from X whose transmission terminal identifier and target terminal identifier are different. As described above, it is possible to eliminate waste that a plurality of terminals transmit the same communication environment information.

For example, as shown in FIG. 12, suppose that X and B1 cannot communicate directly. At this time, Y
Can recognize that the link between X and B1 has been broken by the communicable terminal information from X or B1. In that case, Y sets transmission of communication environment information related to A1 to A3 to B
1 may be started.

As a determination method of the communication environment information transmission determination unit 113, besides the above-described method, for example, an inquiry is made to the user at the time of starting the terminal whether or not to transmit the communication environment information, or the communication environment information is not transmitted. May be set as a default value, and the user can change the value on the way.

(Third Embodiment) Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. The difference between the communication control device of the third embodiment and the communication control device of the first embodiment described above is that
Is that the communication environment information acquisition unit 105 generates a packet in which communication environment information relating to a plurality of terminals is combined into one. The packet format used for that is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 13, a field indicating the number of target terminals carrying communicable terminal information is provided, and a target terminal identifier and communicable terminal information of the terminal are added by the number of fields.

The communication environment information processing section 102 of the terminal that has received this packet first extracts the number of target terminal identifiers, and then extracts a pair of the target terminal identifier and communicable terminal information by the number of target terminal identifiers. Is performed in the same manner as in the first embodiment.

For example, FIG. 6 used in the description of the first embodiment
In the network configuration shown in FIG.
FIG. 14 shows specific packet contents when transmitting the communication environment information regarding 1 to B3. Thereby, A1 to A
As compared with the case where the third terminal receives the information on the terminals B1 to B3 in separate packets, it is possible to reduce the amount of packet transmission and reception and the amount of traffic transmitted to the network.

(Fourth Embodiment) Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 15 is a configuration diagram of a communication control device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

The difference between the communication control device of the fourth embodiment and the communication control device of the first embodiment is that the timer (1) 104 is eliminated and the communication environment information transmission requesting unit 11
4 and the communication environment information transmission request receiving unit 115 are newly added. Hereinafter, the difference will be mainly described.

Communication environment information transmission request section 114 generates a packet for requesting another terminal to transmit communication environment information. This generated packet carries information indicating which terminal needs the communication environment information. As a method of acquiring information to be included in a packet or a timing of packet generation, for example, there is a method of acquiring from a user. The generated packet is also transmitted to the transmitting unit 110 so as to be transmitted as broadcast if specified by the user, or to be transmitted by broadcast if not specified by the user.

The receiving section 101 receives a transmission request packet for communication environment information from the network in addition to the processing in the first embodiment, and notifies the communication environment information transmission request receiving section 115 of the reception when receiving the packet.

The communication environment information transmission request receiving section 115 extracts the contents of the communication environment information transmission request from the communication environment information packet received from the receiving section 101. The contents of the transmission request include information on which terminal to transmit the communication environment information, specifically, whether to transmit only for a specific terminal, or for all stored terminals. Then, it sends the extracted contents and information on the transmission requesting terminal to communication environment information acquiring section 105.

When the communication environment information acquisition unit 105 is notified by the communication environment information transmission request reception unit 115 that there is a communication environment transmission request together with the content of the transmission request and the requesting terminal, it responds to the content of the transmission request. Communication environment information storage unit 10
3 to obtain necessary communication-capable terminal information of the terminal, and generate a packet carrying communication environment information. Then, it instructs the transmitting section 110 to transmit to the transmission requesting terminal.

The specific operation of the communication control device according to the fourth embodiment will be described based on the example of the network configuration shown in FIG. 6 used in the description of the first embodiment. In FIG. 6, X,
A1 to A3 and B1 to B3 are terminals to which the communication control device of the fourth embodiment is applied. Here, it is assumed that, for example, the terminal A1 requests the communication environment information on all the terminals registered in X from X at the request of the user. Upon receiving the communication environment information transmission request from A1, X generates communication environment information of A2, A3, and B1 to B3 and sends it to A1. Thereby, transmission of communication environment information as needed becomes possible.

(Fifth Embodiment) Next, a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 16 is a configuration diagram of a communication control device according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

The difference between the communication control device according to the fifth embodiment and the communication control device according to the first embodiment is that the timer (1) 104 is eliminated and the communication environment information processing unit 102 transfers the communication environment information acquisition unit 105. Is added to the flow of the control information. Hereinafter, the difference will be mainly described.

The communication environment information processing unit 102 first extracts a terminal identifier and communicable terminal information on a terminal having the terminal identifier from the packet passed from the receiving unit 101. Then, it is checked whether or not the same content as the extracted content has already been registered in the communication environment information storage unit. If registered, this packet is discarded. On the other hand, if the terminal identifier has not been registered, the terminal is newly registered, and the terminal identifier is already registered, but the communicable terminal information differs between the content extracted from the packet and the content of the communication environment information storage unit. , The content of the communication environment information storage unit 103 is updated. When new registration or update is performed, the communication environment information acquisition unit 1
05 to that effect.

When notified of new registration or update from communication environment information processing section 102 to communication environment information storage section 103, communication environment information acquiring section 105 receives a packet containing communication environment information relating to the terminal. And generates the transmission unit 11
Send to 0.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing processing when a packet of communicable terminal information and communication environment information transmitted by another terminal is received.

When a packet is received (step D1),
A terminal identifier and communication environment terminal information about a terminal having the terminal identifier are extracted (step D2). Next, it is checked whether or not the same content as the extracted content is registered in the communication environment information storage unit 103 storing the content of the communication environment information received so far (step D3).

If it has been registered (YE in step D3)
S), the packet is discarded, and this process ends. On the other hand, if the terminal identifier itself has not been registered (NO in step D3), it is newly registered in the communication environment information storage unit 103 (step D4), and the terminal identifier has been registered but has been extracted from the packet. If the communicable terminal information differs between the contents and the contents of the communication environment information storage unit 103 (step D
3), the content of the communication environment information storage unit 103 is updated (step D4). When a new registration or update is performed, a packet containing communication environment information on the terminal that has performed the registration or update is generated (step D5) and transmitted to the network (step D6).

The specific operation of the communication control device according to the fifth embodiment will be described based on a specific example of a network configuration. Here, it is assumed that the network configuration is such that a new terminal B4 starts up as shown in FIG. 18 from the state shown in FIG. 6 used in the description of the first embodiment. FIG.
Among them, A1 to A3 and B1 to B4 are communication control apparatuses having the configuration shown in FIG.
It is assumed that the communication environment information is not transmitted because 104 is not set. On the other hand, it is assumed that X is a communication control device having the configuration shown in FIG.

B4 broadcasts communicable terminal information immediately after starting up in a state where the terminal is not a communicable terminal. The packet at that time is shown in FIG.

Upon receiving this packet and checking the communication environment information storage unit 103, X finds that there is no registration for B4, and broadcasts the communication environment information for B4 or transmits only to A1 to A3. The packet at that time is shown in FIG. Thereby, A1 to A3
Can know that there is a terminal of B4 and that there is no terminal with which B4 can communicate. Then, B4 is X, B1-B
By receiving the communicable terminal information packet of No. 3, B
X, B1 to B3 are registered in No. 4 communicable terminal. Next, the communicable terminal information transmitted by B4 is as shown in FIG. When X receives the packet shown in FIG. 21 and checks the communication environment information storage unit 103, it is found that there is registration for B4, but the communicable terminal information for B4 is different, and broadcasts the communication environment information for B4. Alternatively, it transmits only to A1 to A3. The packet at that time is shown in FIG. Thereby, A1 to A3 become B
4 can communicate with X, B1 to B3.

(Sixth Embodiment) Next, a sixth embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 23 is a configuration diagram of a communication control device according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

The communication group setting section 116 is a section for managing a plurality of terminals by dividing them into a plurality of logical groups. In a communication group, one terminal is a representative terminal of the group. As a group division method, there is a method in which a user explicitly inputs a group ID to each terminal and terminals having the same group ID belong to the same communication group, but there is no particular limitation. The representative terminal of each communication group can also be determined by the user, but is not particularly limited.
When a communication group is divided, a communication path through which only terminals belonging to the same communication group can transmit and receive is assigned. This can be realized, for example, by assigning a different multicast address to each communication group. It is also assumed that communication channels through which representative terminals of the group can transmit and receive are also assigned. After being divided into communication groups, terminals in the same communication group communicate directly using the assigned communication path, and terminals in other communication groups communicate via representative terminals of each communication group. Perform If the own terminal is the representative terminal of the communication group, the timer (1) 104 is set to transmit the communication environment information to the terminal in the communication group to which the terminal belongs and the representative terminal in another communication group.

The receiving section 101 is connected to a network and is a section for receiving a packet transmitted from another terminal addressed to the own terminal. Among the received packets, information relating to terminal identification information indicating the presence of a terminal, communicable terminal information indicating a communicable terminal of the terminal, and communication environment information which is communicable terminal information of another terminal is transmitted to the communication environment information processing. Part 1
Send to 02. Also, if the terminal is a representative terminal of the communication group, a packet is transmitted to a terminal belonging to a communication group other than the communication group to which the terminal belongs, or to a terminal in the own communication group from a representative terminal of another communication group. Send to section 117.

Communication environment information processing section 102 has terminal identification information processing section 111 and communicable terminal information processing section 112, and terminal identification information processing section 111 extracts a terminal identifier from a packet passed from reception section 101. Then, the communicable terminal information processing unit 112 extracts communicable terminal information and the like regarding the terminal having the terminal identifier extracted by the terminal identification information processing unit 111. Then, it notifies the communication environment information storage unit 103 of the extracted terminal identifier and communicable terminal information.
Also, it notifies the communicable terminal storage unit 106 of the source terminal identifier contained in the packet as the identifier of the communicable terminal.

The communication environment information storage unit 103 stores the terminal identifier notified from the communication environment information processing unit 102 and the communicable terminal information of the terminal in association with each other.

When set by communication group setting section 116, timer (1) 104 periodically sends a signal to communication environment information acquisition section 105.

Upon receiving a signal from timer (1) 104, communication environment information acquiring section 105 stores a terminal identifier for each terminal stored in communication environment information storage section 103, communicable terminal information associated therewith, and communicable terminal information. Obtains the communicable terminal information of the own terminal stored in the terminal storage unit 106, generates a packet carrying the obtained information, and sends the packet to a terminal in a communication group to which the own terminal belongs and a representative terminal of another communication group. Instruct transmission unit 110 to send.

The communicable terminal storage unit 106 stores a terminal identifier of a communicable terminal notified from the communication environment information processing unit 102.

The own terminal identifier setting section 107 determines and stores the identifier of the own terminal.

Timer (2) 108 periodically sends a signal to communicable terminal information acquisition section 109.

Upon receiving a signal from timer (2) 108, communicable terminal information obtaining section 109 obtains communicable terminal information stored in communicable terminal information storage section 106, and a packet containing the obtained information. And instructs the transmitting unit 110 to send the terminal to a terminal in the same communication group as the terminal itself.

The packet transfer unit 117 instructs the transmission unit 110 to transmit the packet addressed to the terminal belonging to another communication group passed from the reception unit 101 to the representative terminal of the communication group to which the destination terminal belongs. In addition, it instructs transmitting section 110 to transmit a packet addressed to a terminal in its own communication group sent from another communication group passed from receiving section 101 to the terminal.

The transmitting unit 110 is a communication environment information acquiring unit 10
5. Send the packet transmitted from the communicable terminal information acquisition unit 109 or the packet transfer unit 117 to the network so that it reaches the designated partner.

The specific operation of the communication control device according to the sixth embodiment will be described based on a network configuration example shown in FIG. Here, there are three communication groups, a communication group A to which terminals A1 to A4 belong, a communication group B to which terminals B1 to B4 belong, and a communication group C to which terminals C1 to C4 belong. Can be directly communicated. The representative terminals of the communication group are A1, B1, and C1, respectively.
1, C1 can communicate directly with each other. Also, for example, A
2 communicates with B2 via A1 and B1.

First, in communication group A, each terminal sends its own communicable terminal information to other terminals belonging to communication group A. For example, A1 does not recognize a communicable terminal immediately after activation, and transmits communicable terminal information without a communicable terminal. Thereafter, A1 receives the communicable terminal information from A2, A3, and A4, and stores A2, A3, and A4 in the communicable terminal storage unit 106. Thereafter, A1 periodically transmits communicable terminal information as shown in FIG. The other terminals similarly recognize the communicable terminal, and periodically transmit the communicable terminal information to the communication group A. FIG. 26 shows the contents of the communication environment information storage unit 103 of A1 after exchanging the communicable terminal information within the communication group A a sufficient number of times.

A1 periodically transmits the communication environment information in communication group A to representative terminals B1 and C1 in another communication group. Conversely, A1 receives communication environment information in communication groups B and C from B1 and C1. FIG. 27 shows the communication environment information from B1. A1 receives and processes this, and the contents of the communication environment information storage unit 103 become as shown in FIG. The communicable terminal storage unit 106 stores the A2
To A4 and B1 to B4. The transmission and reception of the communication environment information between the representative terminals, as shown in FIG. 27, collectively transmits the communication environment information about a plurality of terminals in one packet, and when transmitting periodically, there is no change from the previously transmitted information. In such a case, if only the information without change is transmitted, the traffic transmitted to the network is reduced.

The communication environment information on the terminals in the communication group B is also transmitted by A1 to A2 to A4.
The communicable terminal information of B1 to B4 is also registered in the communication environment information storage unit 103 of No. 4. Also in this case, similarly to the transmission and reception of the communication environment information between the representative terminals, when the communication environment information on a plurality of terminals is collectively transmitted in one packet, or when transmitted periodically, there is no change from the previously transmitted information. In this case, if only the information without change is transmitted, the traffic transmitted to the network is reduced. Similarly to A1, in A2 to A4, target terminal identifiers B1 to B4 in the packet are added as communicable terminals. Therefore, the communicable terminal information transmitted by A1 to A4 thereafter includes B1 to B4. Conversely, the communicable terminal information transmitted by B1 to B4 includes A1
To A4. As a result, after sufficient transmission and reception of the communication environment information, it is recognized that A1 to A4 and B1 to B4 can communicate with each other. For example, the contents of the communication environment information storage unit 103 of A1 are shown in FIG. As shown.

Terminals belonging to the communication group C are registered in the communication environment information storage unit 103 by following the same process, and finally, A1-A4, B1-B4, C1-C
All terminals can know that all four terminals can communicate with each other.

By dividing the transmission / reception of the communication environment information into communication groups and transmitting the communication environment information in the communication group collectively, all the terminals can share the communication environment information equally with each other without dividing into communication groups. The traffic volume transmitted to the network can be reduced as compared with the case of transmitting and receiving.

If the representative terminal of the communication group is changed, the same process as described above is followed on the network including the new representative terminal.

The method described in the above-described embodiment can be applied to various devices by writing it on a storage medium such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or a semiconductor memory as a program that can be executed by a computer, or by using a communication medium. It is also possible to transmit and apply to various devices. A computer that realizes this apparatus reads a program recorded on a recording medium, and executes the above-described processing by controlling the operation of the program.

[0088]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, even when the number of terminals in the network increases, each terminal obtains the communicable terminal information of another terminal while keeping the traffic low. can do. Further, even when there is a change in the communicable terminal information, the information is quickly transmitted to each terminal.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a communication control device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a format of a communicable terminal information packet according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing when a packet of communicable terminal information and communication environment information transmitted by another terminal of the first embodiment is received.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing when the timer (1) of the first embodiment is started.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing when the timer (2) of the first embodiment is started.

FIG. 6 is a view showing an example of a network configuration according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a view showing a specific example of a communicable terminal information packet according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a view showing a specific example of communication environment information stored in the terminal X of the first embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a view showing a specific example of communication environment information stored in the terminal A1 according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram of a communication control device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a network configuration example according to the second embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a view showing an example of a network configuration after a state change according to the second embodiment;

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a format of a communicable terminal information packet of a communication control device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a view showing a specific example of a communicable terminal information packet according to the third embodiment;

FIG. 15 is a configuration diagram of a communication control device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a configuration diagram of a communication control device according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing processing when a packet of communicable terminal information or communication environment information transmitted by another terminal of the fifth embodiment is received.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a network configuration example according to the fifth embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a specific example of a communicable terminal information packet broadcast immediately after the terminal B4 of the fifth embodiment has started up.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing a specific example of a communicable terminal information packet related to a terminal B4 that is broadcast when the terminal X of the fifth embodiment receives the communicable terminal information shown in FIG. 19;

FIG. 21 shows terminals B4 and B1 to B3 of the fifth embodiment.
The figure which shows the specific example of the communication possible terminal information packet which is transmitted after receiving the packet of the communication possible terminal information.

FIG. 22 is a view showing a specific example of a communicable terminal information packet related to a terminal B4 that is broadcast when the terminal X of the fifth embodiment receives the communicable terminal information shown in FIG. 21;

FIG. 23 is a configuration diagram of a communication control device according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing a network configuration example according to the sixth embodiment.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing a specific example of a communicable terminal information packet that terminal A1 of the sixth embodiment periodically transmits to communication group A.

FIG. 26 is a view showing a specific example of communication environment information stored in a terminal A1 according to the sixth embodiment.

FIG. 27 is a view showing a specific example of a communication environment information packet transmitted and received between representative terminals according to the sixth embodiment.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing a specific example of communication environment information stored after the terminal A1 of the sixth embodiment receives the communication environment information packet shown in FIG. 27.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing a specific example of communication environment information stored by the terminal A1 of the sixth embodiment after sufficient transmission and reception of communication environment information.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: receiving unit, 102: communication environment information processing unit, 103
... communication environment information storage unit, 104 ... timer (1), 105
... communication environment acquisition unit, 106 ... communicable terminal storage unit, 10
7 ... own terminal identifier setting unit, 108 ... timer (2), 10
9: communicable terminal information acquisition unit, 110: transmission unit, 111
... terminal identification information processing unit, 112 ... communicable terminal information processing unit, 113 ... communication environment information transmission determination unit, 114 ... communication environment information transmission request unit, 115 ... communication environment information transmission request reception unit, 116 ... communication group setting unit 117: Packet transfer unit.

Claims (9)

[Claims] A communication control apparatus applied to at least one terminal among a plurality of terminals connected to a network, wherein the terminal receives terminal identification information for identifying the terminal transmitted by another terminal. Identification information receiving means, communicable terminal information receiving means for receiving communicable terminal information indicating a terminal with which the terminal can communicate, transmitted by another terminal, and the terminal identification information and communicable terminal received from the same terminal A communication control device comprising: communication environment information storage means for storing information as communication environment information in association with each other; and communication environment information transmission means for transmitting the stored communication environment information to another terminal. 2. A communication environment information transmission determining means for determining whether to transmit communication environment information stored in said communication environment information storage means in accordance with a predetermined condition. The communication control device according to claim 1. 3. The communication environment information transmitting unit transmits the communication environment information on a plurality of terminals stored in the communication environment information storage unit in one or a plurality of packets. 3. The communication control device according to 2. 4. A communication environment information transmission request receiving means for receiving a communication environment information transmission request from another terminal, wherein when the communication environment information transmission request is received, the communication environment information transmitting means 4. The communication control device according to claim 1, wherein the communication environment information stored in the communication environment information storage means is transmitted. 5. A communication environment information update detecting means for detecting an update of communication environment information stored in said communication environment information storage means, wherein said communication environment information is detected when the update of the communication environment information is detected. 4. The communication control device according to claim 1, wherein the communication environment information stored in the communication environment information storage unit is transmitted by a transmission unit. 6. A communication environment information receiving means provided in another terminal for receiving the communication environment information transmitted by the communication control device according to claim 1, and a communication environment information storage for storing the received communication environment information. And a communication control device. 7. A plurality of terminals connected to a network are one
In a communication system in which one or more representative terminals are selected for each communication group while being grouped into one or more communication groups, the terminal selected as the representative terminal is the terminal to which another terminal transmits. Terminal identification information receiving means for receiving terminal identification information for identifying a terminal, and communicable terminal information receiving means for receiving communicable terminal information indicating a terminal with which the terminal can communicate, transmitted by another terminal, and Communication environment information storage means for storing terminal identification information and communicable terminal information received from the terminal as communication environment information in association with each other; and communication environment information transmission means for transmitting the stored communication environment information to another terminal. The terminals other than the terminal selected as the representative device are at least terminals automatically selected as representative terminals belonging to the same communication group. Terminal identification information transmitting means for transmitting own terminal identification information for identifying oneself, and own communicable terminal information indicating a terminal that can communicate with at least a terminal selected as a representative terminal belonging to the same communication group. A communication system comprising: communicable terminal information transmitting means for transmitting. 8. A communication control method applied to at least one terminal among a plurality of terminals connected to a network, the terminal receiving terminal identification information for identifying the terminal transmitted by another terminal. Receiving communicable terminal information indicating a terminal with which the terminal can communicate, transmitted by another terminal, storing the terminal identification information and communicable terminal information received from the same terminal as communication environment information in association with each other, Transmitting the stored communication environment information to another terminal. 9. A program for executing communication control on at least one or more computers among a plurality of computers connected to a network, the terminal identification information transmitted by another terminal for identifying the terminal. Receiving communicable terminal information indicating a terminal with which the terminal can communicate transmitted by another terminal, storing the terminal identification information and the communicable terminal information received from the same terminal in association with each other, A computer-readable recording medium recording a program for operating the computer so as to transmit the communication environment information to another terminal.