MOBILE COMMUNICATION TERMINAL, COMMUNICATION APPARATUS, MOBILE COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND COMMUNICATION METHOD

• US 20090052377A1
• Filed: 08/11/2008
• Published: 02/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Tamura, Takayuki, Matsuoka, Hosei
• Granted Patent: US 8,054,743 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/324 in the data link layer [OSI layer 2], e.g. HDLC
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/28 involving a plurality of connections, e.g. multi-call or multi-bearer connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/36 by user or terminal equipment

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to make it possible to appropriately maintain PPP-based communications even in an environment in which the terminal moves and the communication environment continually changes. A mobile communication terminal comprises a plurality of wireless accessing means for establishing PPP-based communication links for respectively different modes of wireless communications with a fixed communication apparatus, which is a communication partner; a PPP device for combining the established communication links; and a valid wireless LAN searching portion for detecting that wireless communication is possible for a wireless LAN adapter. The PPP device executes control so as to establish communication links for the wireless LAN adapter detected as being capable of wireless communication, and for a L2TP virtual device.

Claims

1. A mobile communication terminal comprising:

a plurality of wireless accessing means for establishing PPP-based communication links for respectively different modes of wireless communications with a communication partner;

combining means for combining the communication links established by the plurality of wireless accessing means;

detecting means for detecting that wireless communication is possible for at least one of the plurality of wireless accessing means; and

controlling means for executing control so as to establish the communication link for the wireless accessing means detected as being capable of wireless communication by the detecting means.

2. The mobile communication terminal according to claim 1, wherein one of the wireless accessing means acquires an IP address, uses this IP address to establish a L2 tunnel with the communication partner, and establishes a communication link by way of this L2 tunnel.

3. The mobile communication terminal according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the detecting means detects for at least one of the plurality of wireless accessing means that the communication link established by this wireless accessing means has become invalid, and

the combining means removes the communication link detected as being invalid by the detecting means.

4. The mobile communication terminal according to claim 1 or claim 2, further comprising:

measuring means for measuring a radio field intensity of the communication link established by the wireless accessing means;

switching means for switching a packet-transmitting communication link based on the radio field intensity measured by the measuring means; and

notifying means for notifying, when the packet-transmitting communication link has been switched by the switching means, the communication partner to that effect.

5. The mobile communication terminal according to claim 1 or claim 2, further comprising:

communication link change receiving means for receiving a request from the communication partner to change the packet-transmitting communication link;

switching means for switching the packet-transmitting communication link based on the request to change the communication link received by the communication link change receiving means; and

notifying means for notifying, when the packet-transmitting communication link has been switched by the switching means, the communication partner to that effect.

6. A communication apparatus comprising:

a plurality of communicating means for establishing PPP-based communication links for respectively different modes of communications with a communication partner;

combining means for combining the communication links established by the plurality of communicating means;

monitoring means for monitoring a communication status of at least one of the plurality of communicating means; and

communication link change requesting means for requesting the communication partner to change a packet-transmitting communication link based on the communication status monitored by the monitoring means.

7. A mobile communication method of a mobile communication terminal that comprises a plurality of wireless accessing means for establishing PPP-based communication links for respectively different modes of wireless communications with a communication partner, the mobile communication method comprising the steps of:

combining the communication links established by the plurality of wireless accessing means;

detecting that wireless communication is possible for at least one of the plurality of wireless accessing means; and

executing control so as to establish the communication link for the wireless accessing means detected as being capable of wireless communication in the detection step.

8. A communication method of a communication apparatus that comprises a plurality of communicating means for establishing PPP-based communication links for respectively different modes of communications with a communication partner, the communication method comprising the steps of:

combining the communication links established by the plurality of communicating means;

monitoring a communication status of at least one of the plurality of communicating means; and

requesting the communication partner to change a packet-transmitting communication link based on the communication status monitored in the monitoring step.