Wireless LAN system, communication terminal, LAN control apparatus and QoS control method

• US 20040105415A1
• Filed: 11/07/2003
• Published: 06/03/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Infrontia Corporation (NEC Corporation)
• Inventors: Fujiwara, Hidehiko, Kobayashi, Yoshikazu
• Granted Patent: US 7,567,539 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/24 Negotiating SLA [Service Level Agreement]; Negotiating QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Disclosed is a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) system which overcomes a troublesome operation and process of setting QoS needed for each LAN at the time of using various LANs in a home, an office, countless Hotspots and so forth. The wireless LAN system has a terminal and LAN control section. The terminal has a QoS (Quality of Service) analyzing/setting section which requests of the LAN control section for a QoS management table as a QoS policy to manage QoS of communication data at the time of establishing connection to a wireless LAN, analyzes the table sent from the LAN control section in response to the request, sets QoS setting data based on the result of that analysis, and sends the data to the LAN control section. The LAN control section has a QoS setting DB (Data Base) which holds the table in an updatable manner, and a QoS communication control section which sends the table in response to the request from the terminal, updates the QoS setting data from the communication terminal on the table, and executes QoS control on the communication data with the communication terminal in accordance with the QoS policy.

Claims

1. A wireless LAN (Local Area Network) system comprising:

a communication terminal connectable to a wireless LAN; and

a LAN control apparatus to be connected to said communication terminal via said wireless LAN in such a manner as to be able to exchange communication data with said communication terminal, wherein

said communication terminal including

policy request means which requests of said LAN control apparatus for a QoS (Quality of Service) management table as a QoS policy to manage QoS of said communication data at a time of establishing connection to said wireless LAN,

analyzing/setting means which analyzes said QoS management table sent from said LAN control apparatus in response to a request made by said policy request means and sets QoS setting data of said communication terminal in an updatable manner based on a result of that analysis, and

setting-data transmission means which sends said QoS setting data, set by said analyzing/setting means, to said LAN control apparatus, and

said LAN control apparatus including

table holding means which holds said QoS management table in an updatable manner,

table transmission means which sends said QoS management table in response to said request from said communication terminal,

policy reconstruction means which updates said QoS setting data, sent from said communication terminal, on said QoS management table to reconstruct said QoS policy, and

QoS control means which executes QoS control on said communication data with said communication terminal in accordance with said QoS policy which is determined by said QoS management table.

2. The wireless LAN system according to claim 1, wherein

said LAN control apparatus further includes means which spontaneously distributes said QoS management table as said reconstructed QoS policy to every communication terminal connected to said wireless LAN, and

said communication terminal further includes means which changes said QoS setting data, set by said analyzing/setting means, based on said QoS management table spontaneously distributed from said LAN control apparatus.

3. A communication terminal in a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) system, which is connected to a LAN control apparatus via a wireless LAN in such a manner as to be able to exchange communication data with said communication terminal, comprising:

policy request means which requests of said LAN control apparatus for a QoS (Quality of Service) management table as a QoS policy to manage QoS of said communication data at a time of establishing connection to said wireless LAN;

analyzing/setting means which analyzes said QoS management table sent from said LAN control apparatus in response to a request made by said policy request means and sets QoS setting data of said communication terminal in an updatable manner based on a result of that analysis; and

setting-data transmission means which sends said QoS setting data, set by said analyzing/setting means, to said LAN control apparatus.

4. The communication terminal according to claim 3, further comprising

means which changes said QoS setting data, set by said analyzing/setting means, based on said QoS management table spontaneously distributed from said LAN control apparatus.

5. A LAN (Local Area Network) control apparatus in a wireless LAN system, which is connected to a communication terminal via a wireless LAN in such a manner as to be able to exchange communication data with said communication terminal, comprising:

table holding means which holds a QoS (Quality of Service) management table in an updatable manner as a QoS policy to manage QoS of said communication data;

table transmission means which sends said QoS management table in response to a request from said communication terminal;

policy reconstruction means which updates QoS setting data, sent from said communication terminal in response to said table transmission means and set through analysis on said QoS management table, to reconstruct said QoS policy; and

QoS control means which executes QoS control on said communication data with said communication terminal in accordance with said QoS policy which is determined by said QoS management table.

6. The LAN control apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising

means which spontaneously distributes said QoS management table as said reconstructed QoS policy to every communication terminal connected to said wireless LAN.

7. A QoS (Quality of Service) control method for a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) system having a communication terminal connectable to a wireless LAN and a LAN control apparatus to be connected to said communication terminal via said wireless LAN in such a manner as to be able to exchange communication data with said communication terminal, said method comprising the steps of:

causing said LAN control apparatus to hold a QoS management table in an updatable manner as a QoS policy to manage QoS of said communication data;

causing said communication terminal to request of said LAN control apparatus for said QoS management table at a time of establishing connection to said wireless LAN;

causing said LAN control apparatus to send said QoS management table in response to a request from said communication terminal;

causing said communication terminal to analyze said QoS management table sent from said LAN control apparatus in response to said request and set QoS setting data of said communication terminal in an updatable manner based on a result of that analysis;

causing said communication terminal to send said set QoS setting data to said LAN control apparatus;

causing said LAN control apparatus to update said QoS setting data, sent from said communication terminal, on said QoS management table to reconstruct said QoS policy; and

causing said LAN control apparatus to execute QoS control on said communication data with said communication terminal in accordance with said QoS policy which is determined by said QoS management table.

8. The QoS control method according to claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

causing said LAN control apparatus to spontaneously distribute said QoS management table as said reconstructed QoS policy to every communication terminal connected to said wireless LAN; and

causing said communication terminal to change said QoS setting data based on said QoS management table spontaneously distributed from said LAN control apparatus.