Radio relay apparatus, radio terminal apparatus, method, and recording medium for performing radio communication based on beacon

• US 7,978,676 B2
• Filed: 10/05/2009
• Issued: 07/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Aibara, Takehiro, Nunokawa, Masato
• Primary Examiner(s): Ryman; Daniel J
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEE, JAE YOUNG
• Application Number:
  US12/573,220
• Publication Number:
  US 20100091698A1
• Time in Patent Office: 645 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/346
• 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 terminal apparatus of a radio communication system which includes the radio terminal apparatus and a radio relay apparatus that periodically transmits a beacon, wherein the radio terminal apparatus includes a reception section which receives the beacon to perform data transmission/reception when an own address of the radio terminal apparatus exists in the beacon, the radio terminal apparatus comprising:

an identification information storage section which stores terminal identification information for identifying the radio terminal apparatus; and

a control section which calculates a timing of starting the reception section based on group identification information included in the beacon received by the reception section and the stored terminal identification information, and which causes an operation of the reception section to be stopped until the calculated timing,

wherein the group identification information indicates whether or not the received beacon is addressed to a group to which the radio terminal apparatus belongs, and wherein the group identification information includes;

a sequence number which is a value that increases every transmission time of the beacon, and

mask information which defines a value of the sequence number to be extracted based on a total number of classified groups of a plurality of the radio terminal apparatuses, and

wherein the control section;

(i) 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, (ii) calculates a third calculation value indicating a value obtained by multiplying a preset interval of transmitting the beacon by the difference value, and (iii) stops the 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.

2. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

a terminal information memory of the radio relay apparatus stores information of each of a number of communicable radio terminal apparatuses,

a control section of the radio relay apparatus generates the group identification information as information which indicates a classification into the number of groups of the number of the communicable radio terminal apparatuses, and

the reception section of the radio terminal apparatus receives the beacon which includes the group identification information indicating the group to which the radio terminal apparatus belongs.

3. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the beacon includes terminal identification information of a radio terminal apparatus to which data is to be transmitted, and

if the beacon received by the reception section is 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 in the beacon.

4. A radio terminal apparatus of a radio communication system which includes the radio terminal apparatus and a radio relay apparatus that periodically transmits a beacon, wherein the radio terminal apparatus includes a reception section which receives the beacon to perform data transmission/reception when an own address of the radio terminal apparatus exists in the beacon, the radio terminal apparatus comprising:

an identification information storage section which stores terminal identification information for identifying the radio terminal apparatus; and

a control section which calculates a timing of starting the reception section based on group identification information included in the beacon received by the reception section and the stored terminal identification information, and which causes an operation of the reception section to be stopped until the calculated timing,

wherein the group identification information indicates whether or not the received beacon is addressed to a group to which the radio terminal apparatus belongs,

wherein the reception section receives the beacon including terminal type information indicating a type of radio terminal apparatus, and for every type of radio terminal apparatus, group identification information indicating a group to which the radio terminal apparatus to receive the beacon belongs,

wherein the identification information storage section further stores the terminal type information indicating the type of the radio terminal apparatus itself, in addition to the terminal identification information for identifying the radio terminal apparatus itself,

wherein the control section;

(i) calculates the 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, and (ii) stops the operation of the reception section until the calculated timing,

wherein the group identification information includes;

a sequence number which is a value that increases every transmission time of the beacon, and

mask information which defines a 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

wherein the control section;

(i) extracts the mask information corresponding to the terminal type information included in the beacon based on the terminal type information stored in the identification information storage section, (ii) calculates a difference value between a first calculation value indicating the extracted value of the sequence number using the extracted mask information and a second calculation value extracted from the terminal identification information using the extracted mask information, (iii) calculates a third calculation value indicating a value obtained by multiplying a preset interval of transmitting the beacon by the difference value, and (iv) stops the 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:

a control section of the radio relay apparatus generates the beacon including the terminal type information and the group identification information, the terminal type information indicating the type of the radio terminal apparatus and classified based on an interval of reception of the beacon by the radio terminal apparatus, and

the reception section of the radio terminal apparatus receives the beacon which includes the terminal type information of the radio terminal apparatus and the group identification information indicating the group to which the radio terminal apparatus belongs.

6. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 4, wherein:

a terminal information memory of the radio relay apparatus stores information of each communicable radio terminal apparatus for every type of the radio terminal apparatuses,

a control section of the radio relay apparatus generates the group identification information as information of classification into the groups to which the radio terminal apparatuses belong according to the terminal type information of the radio terminal apparatuses, and

the reception section of the radio terminal apparatus receives the beacon which includes the terminal type information of the radio terminal apparatus and the group identification information indicating the group to which the radio terminal apparatus belongs.

7. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the control section:

(i) extracts the group identification information corresponding to the terminal type information included in the beacon based on the terminal type information stored in the identification information storage section, and (ii) judges whether the beacon received by the reception section is addressed to the group to which the radio terminal apparatus belongs among the groups classifying the types of radio terminal apparatuses, based on the extracted group identification information and the terminal identification information.

8. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 4, wherein:

the beacon includes terminal identification information of a radio terminal apparatus to which the data is to be transmitted, and

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

9. A beacon reception method of a radio terminal apparatus which includes a reception section to perform communication by receiving a beacon, wherein the beacon is periodically transmitted from a radio relay apparatus which generates the beacon, and the beacon includes group identification information which indicates a group to which a given radio terminal apparatus to receive the beacon belongs, the method comprising:

storing terminal identification information which identifies the radio terminal apparatus;

receiving the beacon with the reception section, wherein the beacon includes the group identification information which indicates whether or not the received beacon is addressed to a group to which the radio terminal apparatus belongs; and

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

wherein the group identification information includes;

a sequence number which is a value that increases every transmission time of the beacon, and

mask information which defines a value of the sequence number to be extracted based on a total number of classified groups of a plurality of the radio terminal apparatuses, and

wherein the calculation of the timing of starting the reception section and the stopping of the operation of the reception section until the calculated timing comprises;

(i) calculating 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, (ii) calculating a third calculation value indicating a value obtained by multiplying a preset interval of transmitting the beacon by the calculated difference value, and (iii) stopping the 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.

10. The beacon reception method of the radio terminal apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

storing terminal type information indicating a type of the radio terminal apparatus itself, in addition to the terminal identification information for identifying the radio terminal apparatus itself;

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

calculating the timing of starting 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 stored terminal type information and the stored terminal identification information, and stopping the operation of the reception section until the calculated timing.

11. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having a computer-readable program code embodied thereon, the program code being adapted to carry out all steps of claim 9.

12. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having a computer-readable program code embodied thereon, the program code being adapted to carry out all steps of claim 10.