MOBILE COMMUNICATION RELAY DEVICE

• US 20100195562A1
• Filed: 02/04/2010
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
• Original Assignee: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
• Inventors: Filin, Stanislav, Harada, Hiroshi, ISHIZU, Kentaro, Murakami, Homare
• Granted Patent: US 8,526,354 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/315
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

The present invention provides a user-carriable mobile communication relay device that relays communication between an internal network and an external network, in which even when the device is moved, the device dynamically selects and connects the external network depending on a surrounding radio wave environment or a communication content. The device is provided with an internal network communication adapter 13 compatible with the internal network connecting to a specific terminal device 4; external network communication adapters 11, 12 compatible with external networks with a mobile telephone network and with a wireless LAN at an installation site; a network selection processing portion 102 automatically selecting one or more networks to be connected, out of the external networks, according to stored profile information 141; an internal network connection processing portion 104 establishing or reconfiguring the connection to an internal network selected for a predetermined opportunity; an external network connection processing portion 105 establishing or reconfiguring the connection to an external network selected for a predetermined opportunity; and a communication relay processing portion 101 relay-processing communication between the internal network and the external network.

Claims

1. A user-portable mobile communication relay device relaying communication between an internal network and an external network, the mobile communication relay device comprising:

an internal network communication adapter compatible with the internal network connecting to a single or a plurality of specific terminal devices;

an external network communication adapter compatible with two or more external networks;

a network selection processing portion for automatically selecting, from the external networks, one or more networks to be connected in accordance with stored profile information;

an internal network connection processing portion for establishing or reconfiguring the connection to an internal network selected on pre-determined timing;

an external network connection processing portion for establishing or reconfiguring the connection to an external network selected on pre-determined timing; and

a communication relay processing portion for relay-processing communication between the internal network and the external networks.

2. The mobile communication relay device according to claim 1, wherein

in said stored profile information, a priority ranking of the external networks to be connected is defined, and

said network selection processing portion is also for selecting the external network according to the order of priority.

3. The mobile communication relay device according to claim 1, wherein

in said stored profile information, verification information necessary for connection to each external network is stored, and

said external network connection processing portion employs the verification information for establishing or reconfiguring the connection to the external network.

4. The mobile communication relay device according to claim 1, wherein

in a configuration in which a selection rule for a communication channel when said external network or said internal network is a wireless LAN is provided in said profile information, at least one of said external network connection processing portion or said internal network connection processing portion acquires information about an available channel at a current site,

when there is an available channel, produces an available channel table tabulating, for each channel, numbers of available channels continued before and after a reference channel, and

selects the channel according to an available status on the available channel table.

5. The mobile communication relay device according to according to claim 1, wherein

in a configuration in which a selection rule for a communication channel, when said external network or said internal network is a wireless LAN, is provided in said profile information, at least one of said external network connection processing portion or said internal network connection processing portion acquires a signal strength of a channel in use at a current site,

produces a signal strength table tabulating signal strengths of channels in use, and

selects the channel according to the signal strength for each channel on the signal strength table.

6. The mobile communication relay device according to claim 5, wherein

at least one of said external network connection processing portion and said internal network connection processing portion in said mobile communication relay device selects, when there is the available channel on said available channel table, a channel with a largest number of consecutive available channels before and after, and on the other hand,

selects, when there is no available channel, a channel having a weakest signal strength from the signal strength table.

7. The mobile communication relay device according to claim 1, wherein

in a configuration in which any server device on an external network side is previously provided with link aggregate management portion performing link aggregation integrating and dispersing traffic with a communication terminal into and over a plurality of links, said mobile communication relay device is provided with terminal link aggregate management portion performing link aggregation on traffic with the link aggregation management portion, and

said network selection processing portion is also for selecting two or more combinations from a plurality of external networks and a plurality of channels on the wireless LAN.

8. The mobile communication relay device according to claim 1, wherein

said network selection processing portion is provided with a connection policy information production portion employing required condition information input from input device or stored in the profile information regarding a predetermined communication parameter in the wireless communication network so as to produce said connection policy information table based on the required condition information, and

said network selection processing portion is also for selecting the network according to the connection policy information table.

9. The mobile communication relay device according to claim 8, wherein

said communication parameter is one of or a combination of a communication speed, a communication amount, a communication line load, a packet loss rate, a communication delay, a jitter, a radio wave strength, a communication fee, and a value calculated from a value of each of the preceding parameters according to a predetermined calculation formula.

10. The mobile communication relay device according to claim 8, wherein

said mobile communication relay device is provided with:

a communication network measurement information collection portion extracting from each wireless communication network any information on said communication parameters; and

a connection policy information evaluation portion evaluating content of said connection policy information table based on the information collected by the communication network measurement information collection portion, and

said connection policy information production portion is for updating each connection policy information table according to the evaluation.