RADIO COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, TERMINAL AND PACKET

• US 20080095095A1
• Filed: 12/10/2007
• Published: 04/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Toshimitsu, Kiyoshi, Adachi, Tomoko
• Granted Patent: US 8,320,394 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/315
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

A radio communication system includes a plurality of radio communication terminals, in which a first radio communication terminal stores, in a first field contained in a header of a radio communication packet, address information indicating at least one radio communication terminal to which the radio communication packet is directly transmitted, and a second terminal relays the radio communication packet with reference to the address information stored in the first field. The header of the radio communication packet includes a second field which stores address information indicating a final destination terminal and a third field which stores address information indicating the first terminal as a sending source.

Claims

1. A radio communication terminal which is included in a plurality of radio communication terminals and relays a radio communication packet, comprising:

a relaying module configured to relay the radio communication packet,

a header of the radio communication packet including a first field which stores address information indicating at least one radio communication terminal to which the radio communication packet is directly transmitted, a second field which stores address information indicating a final destination terminal, a third field which stores address information indicating a source terminal of the relayed radio communication packet, and a fourth field which stores an allowable number of relays given to the radio communication packet;

a receiving module configured to receive a radio communication packet from one of the radio communication terminals;

a first extracting module configured to extract the address information from the first field of the received radio communication packet;

a first determining module configured to determine, based on the address information extracted, whether or not the radio communication terminal is an immediate destination to which the radio communication packet is transmitted;

a second extracting module configured to extract a first number from the fourth field of the received radio communication packet if the radio communication terminal is the immediate destination;

a stop-relaying module configured to stop relaying the radio communication packet if a second number obtaining by subtracting one from the first number is zero; and

an updating module configured to update the first, second, third and fourth fields of the radio communication packet for the relaying module if the second number is not zero, the fourth field obtaining the second number.

2. The terminal according to claim 1, further comprising a second determining module configured to determine the allowable number of relays if the received radio communication packet does not include the fourth field,

wherein the relaying module relays the radio communication packet including the determined allowable number of relays as the fourth field.

3. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the address information stored in the first field includes group address information.

4. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the address information stored in the second field includes group address information.

5. A radio communication terminal which is included in a plurality of radio communication terminals and relays a radio communication packet, comprising:

a relaying module configured to relay the radio communication packet,

a header of the radio communication packet including a first field which stores address information indicating at least one radio communication terminal to which the radio communication packet it directly transmitted, a second field which stores address information indicating a final destination terminal, a third field which stores address information indicating a source terminal of the relayed radio communication packet, and a fourth field which stores a total number of relays which the radio communication packet has been relayed through;

a receiving module configured to receive a radio communication packet from one of the radio communication terminals;

a first extracting module configured to extract the address information from the first field of the received radio communication packet;

a first determining module configured to determine, based on the address information extracted, whether or not the radio communication terminal is an immediate destination to which the radio communication packet is transmitted;

a second extracting module configured to extract a first number from the fourth field of the received radio communication packet if the radio communication terminal is the immediate destination;

a stop-relaying module configured to stop relaying the radio communication packet if the first number is an allowable number of relays; and

an updating module configured to update the first, second, third, and fourth fields of the radio communication packet for the relaying module if the first number is less than the allowable number of relays, the fourth field obtaining a second number by adding one to the first number

6. The terminal according to claim 5, the updating module further configured to determine the second number to be one for the fourth field if the received radio communication packet does not include the fourth field.

7. The terminal according to claim 5, wherein the address information stored in the first field includes group address information.

8. The terminal according to claim 5, wherein the address information stored in the second field includes group address information.