Wireless base station and wireless terminal

• US 7,912,489 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2006
• Issued: 03/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Adachi, Tomoko, Nonin, Katsuya, Nabetani, Toshihisa, Kaburaki, Satoshi, Tandai, Tomoya
• Primary Examiner(s): Corsaro; Nick
• Assistant Examiner(s): DONADO, FRANK E
• Application Number:
  US11/417,134
• Publication Number:
  US 20060268816A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,783 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 455/519
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A wireless communication system including at least one wireless base station and two or more wireless terminals, and each of the wireless terminals can communicate with the wireless base station or directly communicate with another wireless terminal. The wireless base station observes reception frames from the wireless terminals, and transmits to one of the wireless terminals a start frame for starting direct communication of the wireless terminal concerned with another wireless terminal on the basis of the reception information of the reception frames.

Claims

1. A wireless base station comprising:

a transmitting and receiving portion configured to receive data frames that are transmitted from a first wireless terminal and destined for another terminal and that are transmitted from a second wireless terminal that is different from the first wireless terminal and destined for another terminal;

a storage portion configured to extract identifiers of transmitters from the frames and stores reception information of the data frames and the identifiers; and

a processor configured to judge whether or not to stop direct communication between the wireless terminals on the basis of the reception information of the data frames,

wherein, in the case of making a judgment of stopping the direct communication, a stop frame for stopping the direct communication with the second wireless terminal is transmitted to the first wireless terminal from the transmitting and receiving portion,

the storage portion stores identifiers of authenticated wireless terminals, and

in a case where a data frame observed by the transmitting and receiving portion is a direct communication data frame and a transmitter of the direct communication data frame does not accord with any of the identifiers of the authenticated wireless terminals stored in the storage portion, the processor makes a judgment of stopping the direct communication.

2. The wireless base station according to claim 1, wherein

the storage portion stores identifiers of authenticated wireless terminals, and

the first wireless terminal is one of the authenticated wireless terminals.

3. A wireless terminal that is connected to a wireless base station and is configured to make direct communication with other wireless terminals connected to the wireless base station, comprising:

a transmitting and receiving portion configured to receive a frame that is transmitted from another wireless terminal to one of the other wireless terminals among terminals including the wireless base station; and

a processor configured to extract an identifier of a transmitter from the frame, and judge whether or not direct communication with the wireless terminal having the extracted identifier is possible on the basis of reception information of the frame, decide whether to establish direct communication with the another wireless terminal, establish direct communication with the another wireless terminal through the wireless base station, generate or rewrite new address fields of direct communication data, and transmit said data.

4. The wireless terminal according to claim 3, further comprising a storage portion that stores identifiers of wireless terminals as candidates for direct communication,

wherein, in the case where an identifier of a transmitter extracted from the frame is one of the stored identifiers, it is judged that direct communication with the wireless terminal having the extracted identifier is possible.

5. The wireless terminal according to claim 3, wherein

the transmitting and receiving portion transmits a first data frame whose direct transmission destination is the wireless base station and whose final destination is another wireless terminal,

the wireless terminal observes a frame transmitted by the another wireless terminal as a response to a second data frame that is transferred by the wireless base station to the another wireless terminal on the basis of the first data frame, and

the processor judges whether direct communication with the another wireless terminal is possible or not is made using the response frame.

6. The wireless terminal according to claim 5, wherein

the transmitting and receiving portion also observes the second data frame, and when the second data frame and the response frame are received, judgment of whether direct communication with the another wireless terminal is possible or not is made using the response frame.

7. The wireless terminal according to claim 5,

wherein, if the response frame is addressed to the wireless base station, it is judged that direct communication with the another wireless terminal is possible.

8. The wireless terminal according to claim 3,

wherein the wireless terminal uses reception electric field intensity as the reception information.