MANAGEMENT APPARATUS, COMMUNICATION PATH CONTROL METHOD, COMMUNICATION PATH CONTROL SYSTEM, AND COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM

• US 20090240834A1
• Filed: 03/06/2009
• Published: 09/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Otsuka, Mitsuru
• Application Number:
  US12/399,788
• Publication Number:
  US 20090240834A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/239
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76

Abstract

A management apparatus manages relay apparatus information about communication of a relay apparatus, and connection information about a relay apparatus to which a communication apparatus is connected, and controls change of a communication path between communication apparatuses based on information including the relay apparatus information and the connection information.

Claims

1. A management apparatus for managing a plurality of relay apparatuses and a plurality of communication apparatuses which communicate via the relay apparatuses, comprising:

a first management unit configured to manage relay apparatus information about communication of each of the relay apparatuses;

a second management unit configured to manage connection information about connection between each of the communication apparatuses and a relay apparatus to which the communication apparatus is connected; and

a control unit configured to control change of a communication path between the communication apparatuses based on information including the relay apparatus information managed by said first management unit and the connection information managed by said second management unit.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control unit controls change of the communication path based on at least one of the number of relay apparatuses, the number of channels of each relay apparatus, and a communication bandwidth usable by each relay apparatus, on the communication path between the communication apparatuses.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the communication apparatus comprises a request unit configured to request promotion of efficiency of a communication path to a communication partner apparatus, and

said control unit controls change of the communication path in response to a request from said request unit.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein if the number of relay apparatuses on a communication path between a communication apparatus which has caused said request unit to request promotion of efficiency of the communication path and a communication partner apparatus designated by the request is smaller than a predetermined number, the number of relay apparatuses on an another communication path between another communication apparatus connected to a relay apparatus on the communication path and the communication apparatus which has requested promotion of efficiency is not less than the predetermined number, and the relay apparatuses on the another communication path include a relay apparatus having a free communication bandwidth not less than a predetermined range, said control unit changes the another communication path to perform communication via the relay apparatus which has a free communication bandwidth not less than a predetermined range.

5. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein if the number of relay apparatuses on a communication path between a communication apparatus which has caused said request unit to request promotion of efficiency of the communication path and a communication partner apparatus designated by the request is not less than a predetermined number, and the relay apparatuses include a relay apparatus having not more than a predetermined number of channels and a free communication bandwidth not less than a predetermined range, said control unit changes the communication path of one of the communication apparatus which has requested promotion of efficiency and the designated communication partner apparatus to perform communication via the relay apparatus which has not more than a predetermined number of channels and has a free communication bandwidth not less than a predetermined range.

6. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein if the number of relay apparatuses on a communication path between a communication apparatus which has caused said request unit to request promotion of efficiency of the communication path and a communication partner apparatus designated by the request is not less than a predetermined number, and each of the relay apparatuses does not have a free communication bandwidth not less than a predetermined range, said control unit changes the communication paths of the communication apparatus which has requested promotion of efficiency and the designated communication partner apparatus to perform communication via another relay apparatus which is not located on the communication path and has a free communication bandwidth not less than a predetermined range.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control unit instructs to change a relay apparatus that is a connection destination of a communication apparatus to request change of the communication path.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control unit decreases the number of channels to be used by a relay apparatus on the communication path between the communication apparatuses upon changing the communication path.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the relay apparatus information includes at least one of identification information of a relay apparatus, a frequency channel and an SSID to be used by the relay apparatus, and a bandwidth of the relay apparatus.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the connection information includes at least one of identification information of a communication apparatus, identification information of a relay apparatus that is a connection destination of the communication apparatus, and a channel to be used.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the relay apparatus comprises a first registration unit configured to register, in the management apparatus, relay apparatus information about communication of the relay apparatus, and

said first management unit manages the relay apparatus information registered by said first registration unit.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the communication apparatus comprises a second registration unit configured to register, in the management apparatus, connection information about connection to a relay apparatus to which the communication apparatus is connected, and

said second management unit manages the connection information registered by said second registration unit.

13. A communication path control method of a management apparatus for managing a plurality of relay apparatuses and a plurality of communication apparatuses which communicate via the relay apparatuses, comprising:

managing relay apparatus information about communication of each of the relay apparatuses;

managing connection information about connection between each of the communication apparatuses and a relay apparatus to which the communication apparatus is connected; and

controlling change of a communication path between the communication apparatuses based on information including the relay apparatus information and the connection information.

14. A communication path control system including a plurality of relay apparatuses, a plurality of communication apparatuses which communicate via the relay apparatuses, and a management apparatus,

the management apparatus comprising:

a first management unit configured to manage relay apparatus information about communication of each of the relay apparatuses;

a second management unit configured to manage connection information about connection between each of the communication apparatuses and a relay apparatus to which the communication apparatus is connected; and

a control unit configured to control change of a communication path between the communication apparatuses based on information including the relay apparatus information managed by said first management unit and the connection information managed by said second management unit.

15. A computer-readable storage medium storing a communication path control program which causes a computer incorporated in a management apparatus for managing a plurality of relay apparatuses and a plurality of communication apparatuses which communicate via the relay apparatuses to function as:

a first management unit configured to manage relay apparatus information about communication of each of the relay apparatuses;

a second management unit configured to manage connection information about connection between each of the communication apparatuses and a relay apparatus to which the communication apparatus is connected; and

a control unit configured to control change of a communication path between the communication apparatuses based on information including the relay apparatus information managed by the first management unit and the connection information managed by the second management unit.