RADIO RELAY APPARATUS, RADIO TERMINAL APPARATUS, METHOD, AND RECORDING MEDIUM FOR PERFORMING RADIO COMMUNICATION BASED ON BEACON

• US 20100091698A1
• Filed: 10/05/2009
• Published: 04/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Nunokawa, Masato, AIBARA, Takehiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,978,676 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/315
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 Processing of subscriber group data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A radio relay apparatus to periodically transmit a beacon to a radio terminal apparatus, comprises: a control section for generating a beacon including group identification information indicating a group to which a radio terminal apparatus of a reception object of the beacon belongs; and a transmission section for transmitting the generated beacon to the radio terminal apparatus.

Claims

1. A radio relay apparatus to periodically transmit a beacon to a radio terminal apparatus, comprising:

a control section for generating a beacon including group identification information indicating a group to which a radio terminal apparatus of a reception object of the beacon belongs; and

a transmission section for transmitting the generated beacon to the radio terminal apparatus.

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

a terminal information storage section for storing information of each radio terminal apparatus with which the radio relay apparatus is capable of communicating, wherein

the control section generates the group identification information as information indicating classification of the number of groups corresponding to the number of the radio terminal apparatuses and stored in the terminal information storage section.

6. The radio relay apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control section generates the beacon including terminal type information and the group identification information, the terminal type information indicating a type of the radio terminal apparatus and classified based on an interval of reception of the beacon by the radio terminal apparatus.

7. The radio relay apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

a terminal information storage section for storing information of each radio terminal apparatus with which the radio relay apparatus is capable of communicating for every type of the radio terminal apparatuses, wherein

the control section generates the group identification information as information of classification of groups to which the radio terminal apparatuses belong according to the terminal type information of the radio terminal apparatuses.

3. A radio terminal apparatus to perform communication by receiving a beacon to be periodically transmitted from a radio relay apparatus, comprising:

a reception section for receiving a beacon including group identification information indicating a group to which a radio terminal apparatus of a reception object of the beacon belongs;

an identification information storage section for storing terminal identification information for identifying the radio terminal apparatus itself; and

a control section for calculating timing of starting the reception section based on the group identification information included in the beacon received by the reception section and the terminal identification information, and for causing an operation of the reception section to be stopped until the calculated timing.

4. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the group identification information includes a sequence number being a value increasing every transmission time of the beacon, and

mask information defining the value of the sequence number to be extracted based on a total number of classified groups of a plurality of the radio terminal apparatuses;

the control section calculates a difference value between a first calculation value indicating the extracted value of the sequence number using the mask information and a second calculation value extracted from the terminal identification information using the mask information, the control section calculating a third calculation value indicating a value obtained by multiplying a preset interval of transmitting the beacon by the difference value, the control section stopping an operation of the reception section until the timing based on a time obtained by adding the third calculation value to a time of receiving the beacon.

5. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

the beacon includes the terminal identification information of the radio terminal apparatus of a transmission object of data, and

if the beacon received by the reception section is one addressed to the group to which the radio terminal apparatus belongs, the control section receives the data when the terminal identification information of the radio terminal apparatus itself is included.

8. A radio terminal apparatus to perform communication by receiving a beacon periodically transmitted from a radio relay apparatus, comprising:

a reception section for receiving a beacon including terminal type information indicating a type of a radio terminal apparatus, and group identification information indicating a group to which the radio terminal apparatus of a reception object of the beacon belongs for every type of the radio terminal apparatus;

an identification information storage section for storing the terminal type information indicating the type of the radio terminal apparatus, and terminal identification information for identifying the radio terminal apparatus itself; and

a control section for calculating timing to start the reception section based on the terminal type information and the group identification information, both included in the beacon received by the reception section, and the terminal type information and the terminal identification information, both stored in the identification information storage section, the control section stopping an operation of the reception section until the calculated timing.

9. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the control section extracts the group identification information corresponding to the terminal type information included in the beacon agreeing with the terminal type information stored in the identification information storage section, the control section judging that the beacon received by the reception section is addressed to the group to which the radio terminal apparatus belongs among groups classifying types of radio terminal apparatuses based on the extracted group identification information and the terminal identification information.

10. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

the group identification information includes a sequence number of a value increasing every transmission time of the beacon, and mask information defining the value to be extracted from the sequence number based on a total number of groups of a plurality of radio terminal apparatuses classified by the type of the radio terminal apparatus indicated by the terminal type information, and

the control section extracts the mask information corresponding to the terminal type information included in the beacon agreeing with the terminal type information stored in the identification information storage section, the control section calculating a difference value between a first calculation value showing the value extracted from the sequence number using the extracted mask information and a second calculation value indicating a value extracted from the terminal identification information using the extracted mask information, the control section calculating a third calculation value indicating a value obtained by multiplying a preset interval of transmitting the beacon by the difference value, the control section stopping an operation of the reception section until timing based on a time obtained by adding the third calculation value to a time of receiving the beacon.

11. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

the beacon includes the terminal identification information of the radio terminal apparatus of a transmission object of data, and

if the beacon received by the reception section is one addressed to the group to which the radio terminal apparatus belongs, the control section receives the data with the reception section when the beacon includes the terminal identification information of the radio terminal apparatus itself.

12. A beacon transmission method of a radio relay apparatus to periodically transmit a beacon to a radio terminal apparatus, the method comprising the steps of:

generating a beacon including group identification information indicating the number of groups of radio terminal apparatuses to be reception objects of the beacon, the number of groups corresponding to the number of the radio terminal apparatuses, and

transmitting the generated beacon to the radio terminal apparatus.

15. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium having a computer-readable program code embodied thereon, the program code being adapted to carry out all steps of claim 12.

13. A beacon reception method of a radio terminal apparatus to perform communication by receiving a beacon with a reception section, the beacon periodically transmitted from a radio relay apparatus, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a beacon with the reception section, the beacon including group identification information indicating a group to which a radio terminal apparatus belongs, the radio terminal apparatus being a reception object of the beacon;

storing terminal identification information for identifying the radio terminal apparatus; and

calculating timing of starting the reception section based on the group identification information included in the beacon received with the reception section and the stored terminal identification information to stop an operation of the reception section until the calculated timing.

16. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium having a computer-readable program code embodied thereon, the program code being adapted to carry out all steps of claim 13.

14. A beacon reception method of a radio terminal apparatus to perform communication by receiving a beacon with a reception section, the beacon periodically transmitted from a radio relay apparatus, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a beacon with the reception section, the beacon including terminal type information indicating a type of a radio terminal apparatus and group identification information indicating a group to which the radio terminal apparatus of a reception object of the beacon belongs for every type of the radio terminal apparatus;

storing the terminal type information indicating the type of the radio terminal apparatus, and terminal identification information for identifying the radio terminal apparatus itself; and

calculating timing of starting the reception section based on the terminal type information and the group identification information, both included in the beacon received with the reception section, and the stored terminal type information and the stored terminal identification information, and stopping an operation of the reception section until the calculated timing.

17. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium having a computer-readable program code embodied thereon, the program code being adapted to carry out all steps of claim 14.