ROUTER APPARATUS AND NETWORK TROUBLE DETERMINING METHOD

• US 20090049487A1
• Filed: 12/06/2006
• Published: 02/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Iwai, Yasuhiro, Koukai, Teruo
• Application Number:
  US12/067,519
• Publication Number:
  US 20090049487A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/87
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0677 Localisation of faults
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5051 Service on demand, e.g. definition and deployment of services in real time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2404 Monitoring of server processing errors or hardware failure error or fault detection G06F11/07; monitoring in general G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6338 directed to network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64738 Monitoring network characteristics, e.g. bandwidth, congestion level data switched network analysis H04L41/14; monitoring functioning in data switched networks H04L43/0817; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal

Abstract

The router apparatus monitors packets among plural networks and relays the packets among the networks based on information obtained from the packets. The router apparatus includes an HTTP server and a speed measuring page. The HTTP server monitors a transmission request from an HTTP client and transmits information to the client on the basis the request. The speed measuring page includes information on which the transmission speed of data is measured in a storage device controlled by the HTTP server. A terminal requests transmitting the speed measuring page and measures a bit rate between the router apparatus and the terminal according to information in the speed measuring page transmitted responding to the request.

Claims

1. A router apparatus comprising:

an HTTP server that monitors a packet among a plurality of networks, relays the packet based on information obtained from the packet, separates a home network from an out-of-home network, monitors a transmission request from an HTTP client provided in a terminal included in the home network and transmits information to the HTTP client based on the transmission request; and

a storage device that is controlled by the HTTP server and has a speed measuring page including information for measuring data transmission speed.

2. A network trouble determining method comprising:

a requesting step of requesting the router apparatus to transmit the speed measuring page by the terminal; and

a measuring step of measuring a bit rate between the router apparatus and a terminal according to information in the speed measuring page transmitted from the router apparatus responding to the request by the terminal,

wherein the router apparatus includes;

an HTTP server that monitors a packet among a plurality of networks, relays the packet based on information obtained from the packet, separates a home network from an out-of-home network, monitors a transmission request from an HTTP client and transmits information to the HTTP client based on the transmission request; and

a storage device that is controlled by the HTTP server and has the speed measuring page including information for measuring data transmission speed,

wherein the terminal is connected to the router apparatus through the home network.

3. The network trouble determining method of claim 2, wherein the measuring step includes calculating a ratio of the number of bytes of set data to be read, to a time obtained by a difference time between completion of reading and starting of reading.

4. The network trouble determining method of claim 2, further comprising:

a display step of displaying whether or not a trouble is present in a home network based on a result obtained in the measuring step.

5. The network trouble determining method of claim 2, further comprising:

an external requesting step of requesting a video distribution server to transmit an external speed measuring page by the terminal; and

an external measuring step of measuring a bit rate between the terminal and the video distribution server according to information in the external speed measuring page transmitted from the video distribution server to the terminal via the router apparatus responding to the transmission request by the terminal,

wherein the out-of-home network connected to the home network includes the video distribution server,

wherein the video distribution server includes;

an external HTTP server; and

an external storage device,

wherein the external HTTP server accumulates a screen to be presented to a user described in a given format in the external storage device,

wherein the external storage device includes an external speed measuring page including information for measuring data transmission speed between the terminal and the video distribution server.

6. The network trouble determining method of claim 5, further comprising:

an external display step of displaying whether or not a trouble is present in the out-of-home network based on a result obtained in the external measuring step.

14. The network trouble determining method of claim 2,

wherein the terminal is a digital television set,

wherein the requesting step includes requesting the router apparatus to transmit the speed measuring page by the digital television set, and

wherein the measuring step includes measuring a bit rate between the router apparatus and the digital television set according to information in the speed measuring page transmitted from the router apparatus responding to the request.

15. The network trouble determining method of claim 14, further comprising:

a display step of displaying whether or not a trouble is present in the home network based on a result obtained in the measuring step.

16. The network trouble determining method of claim 3, further comprising:

a display step of displaying whether or not a trouble is present in the home network based on a result obtained in the measuring step.

17. The network trouble determining method of claim 5,

wherein the terminal is a digital television set,

wherein the requesting step includes requesting the video distribution server to transmit the speed measuring page by the digital television and

wherein the measuring step includes measuring a bit rate between the digital television set and the video distribution server according to information in the speed measuring page transmitted from the video distribution server to the digital television set via the router apparatus responding to the request.

18. The network trouble determining method of claim 17, further comprising:

an external display step of displaying whether or not a trouble is present in the out-of-home network based on a result obtained in the external measuring step by the digital television set.

7. A digital television set which is one of terminals included in a home network, comprising:

an input unit as a user interface, and

a browser that transmits a transmission request input through the user interface to a router apparatus,

wherein the digital television set is connected to the home network via the router apparatus, the router apparatus including;

an HTTP server that monitors a packet among a plurality of networks, relays the packet based on information obtained from the packet, separates the home network from an out-of-home network, monitors a transmission request from an HTTP client provided in a terminal included in the home network and transmits information to the HTTP client based on the transmission request; and

a storage device that is controlled by the HTTP server and has a speed measuring page including information for measuring data transmission speed,

wherein the digital television set measures data transmission speed between the digital television set and the router apparatus based on a measuring procedure described in the speed measuring page including information for measuring data transmission speed between the digital television set and the router apparatus, which is obtained based on the transmission request from the router apparatus.

8. The digital television set of claim 7 further comprising:

a display unit that displays whether or not a trouble is present in the home network based on the data transmission speed between the digital television set and the router apparatus.

9. The digital television set of claim 7 further comprising:

a speed measuring button at lease at one of a front panel, a command acceptance screen of the browser and a remote controller of the digital television set.

10. The digital television set of claim 7,

wherein the digital television set measures data transmission speed between the digital television set and a video distribution server based on a measuring procedure described in an external speed measuring page obtained from the video distribution server via the router apparatus,

wherein the out-of-home network connected to the home network further includes the video distribution server, the video distribution server including:

an external HTTP server; and

an external storage device that is controlled by the external HTTP server and has the external speed measuring page including information for measuring data transmission speed between the digital television set and the video distribution server.

11. The digital television set of claim 10 further comprising:

a display unit that displays whether or not a trouble is present in the out-of-home network based on the data transmission speed between the digital television set and the video distribution server.

12. The digital television set of claim 10 further comprising:

an external speed measuring button at least at one of a front panel, a command acceptance screen of the browser and a remote controller of the digital television set.

13. The digital television set of claim 7 further comprising:

the router apparatus.