Optical wireless communication system

• US 20030170031A1
• Filed: 03/10/2003
• Published: 09/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Honda Motor Company), Stanley Electric Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Uchida, Daisuke, Kawabe, Koji, Oka, Hiroyuki, Yokoyama, Hiroki, Hibiya, Kazuyoshi, Furukawa, Yoshiki, Hirosawa, Kazunori
• Granted Patent: US 7,187,867 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/118
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/1149 Arrangements for indoor wireless networking of information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4604 LAN interconnection over a backbone network, e.g. Internet, Frame Relay
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

The present invention provides a bilateral communication network system, particularly, a optical wireless communication system communicating information frames via an optical node mounted on a mobile object and a plurality of optical repeaters connected to a wired network, which can prevent transfer performance from deteriorating without increasing frames to be transferred. The optical wireless communication system is constituted as follows. A plurality of the optical repeaters having functions to switch information frames are attached to a ceiling. The optical node bilaterally communicating with the optical repeaters are mounted on a moving object such as a robot, a vehicle or the like. Information frames including address information of the optical node are periodically transmitted from an information processor connected to the optical node via optical wireless communication. The address information is continuously transmitted from the optical repeaters to a trunk network, and a filter function is arranged in the trunk network so as to make only one frame effective among frames with the same content.

Claims

1. A optical wireless communication system for constituting a bilaterally communicating network comprising:

a plurality of optical repeaters having a function to switch information frames, and

a mobile optical node bilaterally communicating with said optical repeaters, wherein;

a communication area from each of said optical repeaters to said optical node is set wider than a communication area from said optical node to each of said optical repeaters such that the latter communication area is included in the former communication area.

2. The optical wireless communication system according to claim 1, wherein:

information frames including address information of said optical node are periodically transmitted from an information processor connecting said optical node to said optical repeaters via wireless optical transmission.

3. The optical wireless communication system according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein:

each communication area of said optical repeaters is arranged so as to overlap to other communication areas in a predetermined zone.

4. An optical repeater having a plurality of photo-emitting elements and photo-detecting elements, wherein:

each photo-emitting area of said photo-emitting elements is set wider than each photo-detecting area of said photo-detecting elements.

5. A optical wireless communication system for constituting a bilaterally communicating network comprising:

a plurality of optical repeaters having a function to switch information frames, and

a mobile optical node bilaterally communicating with said optical repeaters, wherein;

information frames including address information of said optical node are periodically transmitted from an information processor connecting said optical node to said optical repeaters via wireless optical transmission;

said address information is continuously transmitted from said optical repeaters to a trunk network, and

a filter function is arranged so as to make only one frame effective among frames with the same content.

6. The optical wireless communication system according to claim 5, wherein:

each communication area from said optical repeaters to said optical node is set wider than a communication area from said optical node to each of said optical repeaters such that the latter communication area is included in the former communication area.

7. The optical wireless communication system according to claim 5 or claim 6, wherein:

each communication area of said optical repeaters is arranged so as to overlap to other communication areas in a predetermined zone.

8. A optical wireless communication system communicating network comprising:

a mobile optical node;

a plurality of optical repeaters bilaterally communicating with said optical node, and

a transit post for connecting said optical repeaters to a trunk communication network, wherein;

a bilateral network system is attained by a optical wireless communication.

9. An optical repeater having a function to switch information frames, capable of optical bilateral communication with a mobile optical node, wherein:

a photo-emitting area of said optical repeater is set outwardly wider than a photo-detecting area of said optical repeater.

10. A transit post for connecting an optical repeater which has a function to switch information frames and is capable of optical bilateral communication with a mobile optical node, wherein:

said transit post comprises;

a filter unit for passing one frame with the same content from said repeater among information frames;

an administration table for registering and administrating addresses of the information frames on said optical repeater and said optical node; and

a frame sorting unit for refusing the passed frame when an FCS data of the frame is the same as a receiving refusal FCS data.

11. An optical wireless communication system comprising:

a mobile optical node;

an optical repeater according to claim 9;

and

a transit post according to claim 10.