Radio communication system and reception status display method

• US 7,133,666 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2002
• Issued: 11/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Arai, Shunji
• Primary Examiner(s): Anderson, Matthew D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): PHU, SANH D
• Application Number:
  US10/079,845
• Publication Number:
  US 20020119756A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,719 Days
• Field of Search: 455/462, 455/463, 455/465, 455/554, 455/555, 455/226.1, 455/226.2, 455/226.3, 455/226.4, 455/67.7, 455/9, 455/67.11, 455/67.13, 455/67.14, 455/554.1, 455/421
• US Class Current: 455/421
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72502 with one base station connected to a single line
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

In a radio communication system, during radio connection between a base station 100 and a terminal 200, the base station 100 transmits a reception status notification request to the terminal 200. The terminal 200 receives the reception status notification request from the base station 100, then measures reception electric field intensity and error rate in the communication with the base station 100 and transmits these values as reception status information to the base station 100. The base station 100 stores the reception status information notified from the terminal 200, with linkage to a terminal number. When call origination to all the terminals has been completed, the base station 100 displays all the reception status information stored in a storage device 104, with linkage with terminal numbers, on an external display device.

Claims

1. A radio communication system having a plurality of terminals and a base station,

wherein each of the terminals comprises:

a reception status detector for detecting a reception status of a signal received from said base station; and

a notification unit for notifying said base station of the reception status detected by said reception status detector, and

wherein the base station comprises;

a management unit for managing the terminals based on identification information to identify each terminal;

a connection unit for trying to wirelessly connect to the terminals managed by said management unit;

a collector for collecting the reception statuses of the terminals notified from said notification unit of the terminal that could be connected by said connection unit;

an out-of-area display buffer for storing identification information of terminals that could not be connected by said connection unit;

a display buffer for storing identification information and reception status of a terminal that has the worst reception status among reception statuses collected by said collector; and

a display control unit for displaying on a display unit, identification information stored in said out-of-area display buffer and identification information and the reception status stored in said display buffer.

2. The radio communication system according to claim 1, wherein said terminals detect at least one of a received signal strength and a reception data error rate, as the reception status of the signal received from said base station.

3. The radio communication system according to claim 1, wherein the signal received from said base station is a signal obtained upon radio connection between said base station and said terminals.

4. The radio communication system according to claim 1, wherein:

said base station issues a reception status notification request to request the terminal to send the reception status; and

when said terminals receive the reception status notification request from said base station, said notification unit of said terminals notifies said base station of the reception status in response to the reception status notification request.

5. The radio communication system according to claim 1, wherein:

the signal received from said base station is a notification signal which is always transmitted from said base station;

said terminals have a storage device for storing the reception status; and

said reception status detector detects the reception status upon reception of the notification signal and notifies said base station of the reception status.

6. The radio communication system according to claim 1, wherein said base station has an interface for connection with said display unit.

7. The radio communication system according to claim 1, wherein a system of communication between said base station and said terminals is a digital cordless phone system.

8. A reception status display method, in a radio communication system having a plurality of terminals and a base station, for displaying a reception status of said terminals on said base station, wherein said base station:

manages the terminals based on identification information to identify each terminal;

tries to wirelessly connect to the managed terminals;

collects the reception statuses of terminals notified from a notification unit of the terminal that could be connected by said base station;

stores identification information of terminals that could not be connected by said base station in an out-of-area display buffer;

stores identification information and reception status of a terminal that has the worst reception status among the collected reception statuses, in a display buffer; and

displays identification information stored in said out-of-area display buffer and identification information and the reception status stored in said display buffer.

9. A communication apparatus comprising:

a manager configured to manage a plurality of terminals based on identification information to identify each terminal;

a connection unit configured to try to wirelessly connect to the terminals managed by said manager;

a collector configured to collect reception statuses of the terminals notified from a notification unit of the terminal that could be connected by said connection unit;

an out-of-area display buffer configured to store identification information of terminals that could not be connected by said connection unit;

a display buffer configured to store identification information and reception status of a terminal that has the worst reception status among reception statuses collected by said collector; and

a display controller configured to display on a display unit, identification information stored in said out-of-area display buffer and identification information and the reception status stored in said display memory buffer.

10. A communication apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said display controller displays an identification information about terminals that could and could not communicate, and displays the reception status, on the display unit.

11. The communication apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said collector collects at least one of a received signal strength and a reception data error rate, as the reception status of the signal received from said base station.

12. A method for displaying a reception status of signals received by a plurality of terminals at a base station, said method comprising steps of:

managing the plurality of the terminals based on identification information to identify each terminal;

trying to wirelessly connect to the managed terminals;

collecting the reception statuses of the plurality of the terminals notified from a notification unit of each terminal that could be connected by said base station;

storing identification information of terminals that could not be connected by said base station in an out-of-area display buffer;

storing identification information and reception status of a terminal that has the worst reception status among the collected reception statuses, in a display buffer; and

displaying the identification information stored in said out-of-area display buffer and identification information and the reception status stored in said display buffer.