COMMUNICATION CONTROL APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF, COMMUNICATION APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF, WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, PROGRAM, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

• US 20080212699A1
• Filed: 11/13/2007
• Published: 09/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Imaeda, Eiji, Kato, Ichiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,441,979 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/34 Signalling channels for network management communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 based on terminal or device properties

Abstract

A communication control apparatus that performs wireless communication with a plurality of communication apparatuses, the communication control apparatus comprises: a grouping unit adapted to group the plurality of communication apparatuses based on the relative positions of each of the plurality of communication apparatuses; a notification unit adapted to notify each of the plurality of communication apparatuses of the group to which that communication apparatus belongs and of a communication slot allocated to that group; and a transmission unit adapted to transmit transmission data at a predetermined timing.

Claims

1. A communication control apparatus that performs wireless communication with a plurality of communication apparatuses, the communication control apparatus comprising:

a grouping unit adapted to group the plurality of communication apparatuses based on the relative positions of each of the plurality of communication apparatuses;

a notification unit adapted to notify each of the plurality of communication apparatuses of the group to which that communication apparatus belongs and of a communication slot allocated to that group; and

a transmission unit adapted to transmit transmission data at a predetermined timing.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a determination unit adapted to determine the relative positions of each of the plurality of communication apparatuses,

wherein the grouping unit groups the plurality of communication apparatuses based on the relative positions of each of the plurality of communication apparatuses as determined by the determination unit.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an allocation unit adapted to allocate a communication slot to each of the groups based on the relative positions of the communication apparatuses belonging to the group,

wherein when performing the allocation for two of the groups to which communication slots adjacent to one another have been allocated, the allocation unit performs the allocation so that at least one communication apparatus in a first group is present within a distance in which communication with one of the communication apparatuses belonging to the other group is possible.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein the allocation unit allocates the communication slots in order from the group positioned nearest to the communication control apparatus to the group positioned farthest from the communication control apparatus.

5. The apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein the allocation unit:

does not allocate a communication slot to the group when the number of groups is one;

allocates a communication slot to each of all the groups when the number of groups is two; and

does not allocate a communication slot to the group positioned farthest from the communication control apparatus when the number of groups is three or more.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the transmission data includes data of each of the communication apparatuses.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the transmission unit transmits the transmission data using Time Division Multiple Access, Code Division Multiple Access, Frequency Division Multiple Access, and/or Space Division Multiple Access techniques.

8. The apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the determination unit determines based on the strength of a transmitted signal, on the transmission delay of an acoustic signal or an ultrasonic signal from the communication apparatus, or on an imaging result by an optical imaging unit.

16. A program stored on a computer readable storage medium, the program causing a computer to function as the communication control apparatus according to claim 1.

17. A computer-readable storage medium on which is stored the program according to claim 16.

9. A communication apparatus that performs wireless communication in a wireless communication system that includes a plurality of communication apparatuses and a communication control apparatus, the communication apparatus comprising:

a notification receiving unit adapted to receive, from the communication control apparatus, a notification of the group to which the communication apparatus belongs and a communication slot allocated to that group;

a data receiving unit adapted to receive transmission data from an external apparatus and store the received data in a storage device;

a maximum likelihood processing unit adapted to perform maximum likelihood processing on the transmission data stored in the storage device; and

a transmission unit adapted to transmit the transmission data on which the maximum likelihood processing has been performed using the communication slot allocated to the group to which the communication apparatus belongs.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9,

wherein data of each of the communication apparatuses is included in the transmission data received from the external apparatus, and

further comprising a readout unit adapted to read out the data for the communication apparatus from among the transmission data on which the maximum likelihood processing has been performed.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9,

wherein the data receiving unit and the transmission unit perform communication using Time Division Multiple Access, Code Division Multiple Access, Frequency Division Multiple Access, and/or Space Division Multiple Access techniques.

12. The apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

a control unit adapted, in response to a request from the communication control apparatus, to generate information for estimating the distance to another communication apparatus based on communication with that other apparatus and to control the transmission of that information to the communication control apparatus.

13. A wireless communication system comprising a plurality of communication apparatuses and a communication control apparatus,

wherein the communication control apparatus includes:

a grouping unit adapted to group the plurality of communication apparatuses based on the relative positions of each of the plurality of communication apparatuses;

a notification unit adapted to notify each of the plurality of communication apparatuses of the group to which that communication apparatus belongs and of a communication slot allocated to that group; and

a transmission unit adapted to transmit transmission data at a predetermined timing, and

each of the communication apparatuses includes;

a notification receiving unit adapted to receive, from the communication control apparatus, a notification of the group to which the communication apparatus belongs and a communication slot allocated to that group;

a data receiving unit adapted to receive the transmission data from an external apparatus and store the received data in a storage device;

a maximum likelihood processing unit adapted to perform maximum likelihood processing on the transmission data stored in the storage device; and

a transmission unit adapted to transmit the transmission data on which the maximum likelihood processing has been performed using the communication slot allocated to the group to which the communication apparatus belongs.

14. A control method for a communication control apparatus that performs wireless communication with a plurality of communication apparatuses, the method comprising:

grouping the plurality of communication apparatuses based on the relative positions of each of the plurality of communication apparatuses;

notifying each of the plurality of communication apparatuses of the group to which that communication apparatus belongs and of a communication slot allocated to that group; and

transmitting transmission data at a predetermined timing.

15. A control method for a communication apparatus that performs wireless communication in a wireless communication system that includes a plurality of communication apparatuses and a communication control apparatus, the method comprising:

receiving, from the communication control apparatus, a notification of the group to which the communication apparatus belongs and a communication slot allocated to that group;

receiving transmission data from an external apparatus and storing the received data in a storage device;

performing maximum likelihood processing on the transmission data stored in the storage device; and

transmitting the transmission data on which the maximum likelihood processing has been performed using the communication slot allocated to the group to which the communication apparatus belongs.