WIRELESS COMMUNICATION DEVICE, PROGRAM, AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATION METHOD

• US 20110299461A1
• Filed: 05/26/2011
• Published: 12/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Nagara, Toru, Yamaura, Tomoya
• Granted Patent: US 8,755,817 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

There is provided a wireless communication device including a determination unit that determines a location region of the wireless communication device, a communication unit that wirelessly communicates with another wireless communication device, and a setting unit that sets a frequency in accordance with the location region of the wireless communication device determined by the determination unit to the communication unit. The determination unit determines a location region of the wireless communication device based on a plurality of pieces of location region information of the wireless communication device acquired by a plurality of different methods.

Claims

1. A wireless communication device comprising:

a determination unit that determines a location region of the wireless communication device;

a communication unit that wirelessly communicates with another wireless communication device; and

a setting unit that sets a frequency in accordance with the location region of the wireless communication device determined by the determination unit to the communication unit,

wherein the determination unit determines a location region of the wireless communication device based on a plurality of pieces of location region information of the wireless communication device acquired by a plurality of different methods.

2. The wireless communication device according to claim 1,

wherein a priority is assigned to location region information acquired by each of the plurality of methods, and

wherein, when the location region information acquired by each of the plurality of methods is different, the determination unit determines a location region of the wireless communication device according to the location region information acquired by a method with a highest priority.

3. The wireless communication device according to claim 2,

wherein the plurality of methods include

a first method using GPS,

a second method that makes access to a network and acquires the location region information from a global address allocated to a router, and

a third method that acquires the location region information from broadcast station information contained in a received broadcast wave.

4. The wireless communication device according to claim 3,

wherein a priority of the second method is lower than a priority of the first method, and a priority of the third method is lower than the priority of the second method.

5. The wireless communication device according to claim 1,

wherein the plurality of methods include a method that acquires the location region information registered in advance in a storage medium, and

wherein, when the location region information acquired by the method and the location region information acquired by another method match, the determination unit determines a location region of the wireless communication device according to the matching location region information.

6. The wireless communication device according to claim 5,

wherein, when the location region information acquired by the method and the location region information acquired by the another method do not match, the setting unit sets a frequency available in all regions to the communication unit.

7. The wireless communication device according to claim 6,

wherein the another method is one of a method using GPS, a method that makes access to a network and acquires the location region information from a global address allocated to a router, and a method that acquires the location region information from broadcast station information contained in a received broadcast wave.

8. The wireless communication device according to claim 1,

wherein, when the location region information acquired by each of the plurality of methods is different, the determination unit determines a location region of the wireless communication device according to the location region information acquired by a largest number of methods.

9. A program causing a computer to function as a wireless communication device, the wireless communication device comprising:

a determination unit that determines a location region of the wireless communication device;

a communication unit that wirelessly communicates with another wireless communication device; and

a setting unit that sets a frequency in accordance with the location region of the wireless communication device determined by the determination unit to the communication unit,

wherein the determination unit determines a location region of the wireless communication device based on a plurality of pieces of location region information of the wireless communication device acquired by a plurality of different methods.

10. A wireless communication method comprising steps of:

determining a location region of a wireless communication device; and

wirelessly communicating with another wireless communication device by use of a frequency in accordance with the determined location region of the wireless communication device;

wherein the determination of a location region is made based on a plurality of pieces of location region information of the wireless communication device acquired by a plurality of different methods.