Communication apparatus, computer-readable storage medium having stored therein communication control program, communication control method, and communication system

• US 9,124,604 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2014
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: Yamaguchi, Takahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): WASEL, MOHAMED A
• Application Number:
  US14/260,538
• Publication Number:
  US 20140237132A1
• Time in Patent Office: 495 Days
• Field of Search: 709227-229, 455/500, 455/507
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point

Abstract

A first determination section determines, when an instruction for connection establishment is issued, whether or not connection information including target apparatus specifying information that uniquely specifies a predetermined target apparatus is stored in a first storage section. A first connection section performs, when the first determination section determines that the connection information is stored in the first storage section, a process for establishing a connection by wireless communication to the target apparatus that is specified based on the target apparatus specifying information stored in the first storage section.

Claims

1. A communication apparatus comprising at least one processor and configured to perform wireless communication with a target apparatus, the communication apparatus configured to:

obtain target apparatus specifying information that uniquely identifies a given target apparatus;

store, in a storage device of the communication apparatus, the target apparatus specifying information uniquely identifying the given target apparatus for accessing the given target apparatus; and

perform a process for establishing a connection, by wireless communication, to the given target apparatus by using the target apparatus specifying information stored in the storage device of the communication apparatus.

2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the process for establishing the connection using the target apparatus specifying information is a first communication process in a series of communication processes for establishing the connection.

3. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the process for establishing the connection includes a series of sequences for attempting connection to the target apparatus wherein at least one process is not performed in the series of sequences for attempting connection.

4. The communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the at least one process that is not performed in the series of sequences is a process of scanning for an access point.

5. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication apparatus is further configured to perform the process for establishing a connection to the target apparatus by using the stored target apparatus specifying information without being based on communication performed after the storage of the target apparatus specifying information.

6. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication apparatus is further configured to:

perform a process for establishing a connection to a target apparatus without referring to the stored target apparatus specifying information; and

store the target apparatus specifying information that can uniquely identify the target apparatus when the connection is established.

7. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the target apparatus specifying information that can uniquely identify the target apparatus is stored in a nonvolatile storage medium.

8. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

frequency band information indicating a frequency band used for the wireless communication with the target apparatus is stored, and

a process for establishing a connection to the target apparatus is performed in the frequency band indicated by the stored frequency band information.

9. The communication apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

when the instruction for connection establishment is issued, a connectable target apparatus is searched for, a signal including the target apparatus specifying information is received, and a process for establishing a connection to the target apparatus is performed using the target apparatus specifying information included in the received signal,

when a connection has been established, the target apparatus specifying information used for the connection is stored, and

when the instruction for connection establishment is issued, if the target apparatus specifying information is stored, the connection establishing process for establishing a connection to the target apparatus by using the stored target apparatus specifying information is performed, and if the target apparatus specifying information is not stored, the connection establishing process for establishing the connection to the target apparatus without referring to the target apparatus specifying information is performed.

10. The communication apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

success or failure of performing the process for establishing the connection to the target apparatus by using the stored target apparatus specifying information is determined,

when the instruction for connection establishment is issued, if the process for establishing the connection to the target apparatus by using the stored target apparatus specifying information fails, then the process for establishing the connection to the target apparatus without referring to the stored target apparatus specifying information is performed, and

when the process for establishing the connection to the target apparatus without referring to the stored target apparatus specifying information has succeeded, the target apparatus specifying information used for the successful connection is stored.

11. The communication apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the target apparatus specifying information stored, when the process for establishing the connection to the target apparatus without referring to the stored target apparatus specifying information has succeeded in connection establishment, remains stored after the established connection was disconnected.

12. The communication apparatus according to claim 6, wherein a target apparatus is searched for by scanning all available frequency bands.

13. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the target apparatus specifying information is a BSSID (Basic Service Set Identifier).

14. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication apparatus is further configured to:

store a plurality of pieces of target apparatus specifying information corresponding to a plurality of target apparatuses, respectively;

determine whether the process for establishing the connection to the target apparatus by using the stored target apparatus specifying information has succeeded or failed;

set connection priorities to the plurality of target apparatuses in association with the plurality of pieces of target apparatus specifying information; and

determine whether or not target apparatus specifying information of a target apparatus having a highest connection priority is stored, and when the target apparatus specifying information of a target apparatus having a highest connection priority is stored, a connection to the target apparatus having the highest connection priority is attempted, and, wherein if the connection attempt to the target apparatus having the highest connection priority has failed, determination is made as to whether or not target apparatus specifying information of a target apparatus having a second highest connection priority is stored.

15. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication apparatus further configured to:

store a plurality of pieces of target apparatus specifying information corresponding to a plurality of target apparatuses, respectively;

set connection priorities to the plurality of target apparatuses in association with the plurality of pieces of target apparatus specifying information; and

determine whether or not target apparatus specifying information of a target apparatus having a highest connection priority is stored, and when it is determined that the target apparatus specifying information of a target apparatus having a highest connection priority is not stored, determination is made as to whether or not target apparatus specifying information of a target apparatus having a second highest connection priority is stored.

16. The communication apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the communication apparatus is further configured to at least change the order of the connection priorities given to the plurality of target apparatuses.

17. The communication apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the communication apparatus is further configured to:

store a plurality of pieces of target apparatus specifying information corresponding to a plurality of target apparatuses, respectively;

set connection priorities to the plurality of target apparatuses in association with the plurality of pieces of target apparatus specifying information; and

determine whether or not target apparatus specifying information of a target apparatus having a highest priority is stored,

when the target apparatus specifying information of a target apparatus having a highest priority is not stored, the target apparatus having the highest connection priority is searched for, a signal including the target apparatus specifying information of the target apparatus having the highest priority is received, and a process for establishing a connection to the searched target apparatus is performed.

18. The communication apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the communication apparatus is further configured to:

include, in the target apparatus specifying information, frequency band information indicating a frequency band used when a connection is established, and store the target apparatus specifying information; and

perform a process for establishing a connection to the target apparatus, using the target apparatus specifying information, by the use of the frequency band indicated by the stored frequency band information.

19. The communication apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the communication apparatus is further configured to:

receive a signal including at least the target apparatus specifying information and network identifying information which is identification information relating to a network to which the target apparatus belongs and is different from the target apparatus specifying information;

store the network identifying information; and

determine whether or not the network identifying information included in the received signal matches the stored network identifying information, wherein

when the network identifying information included in the received signal matches the network identifying information stored, the connection establishing process with specifying the frequency band used when the signal has been received is performed, and, as a destination of connection, the target apparatus indicated by the target apparatus specifying information included in the signal is specified.

20. The communication apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the communication apparatus is further configured to:

store a plurality of pieces of target apparatus specifying information corresponding to a plurality of target apparatuses, respectively;

set connection priorities to the plurality of target apparatuses in association with the plurality of pieces of target apparatus specifying information; and

determine whether or not target apparatus specifying information of a target apparatus having a highest connection priority is stored, wherein

when the target apparatus specifying information of the target apparatus having the highest connection priority is not stored, a signal which is periodically transmitted from the given target apparatus is received and includes the network information and the target apparatus specifying information,

whether or not the network identifying information included in the received signal matches the network identifying information of the stored target apparatus having the highest connection priority is determined,

when the network identifying information included in the received signal matches the stored network identifying information, a connection establishing process is performed in which the target apparatus indicated by the target apparatus specifying information included in the received signal is specified as a destination of connection, and

when a connection is established, the connection target specifying information included in the received signal is stored, and the frequency band information indicating the frequency band used for the connection is stored.

21. The communication apparatus according to claim 20, wherein when connection establishment has failed, whether or not network identifying information corresponding to a target apparatus having a second highest priority, among the stored pieces of network identifying information, matches the network identifying information included in the received signal is determined.

22. The communication apparatus according to claim 20, wherein when the network identifying information corresponding to the target apparatus having the highest priority, among the stored pieces of network identifying information, does not match the network identifying information included in the received signal, determination is made as to whether or not network identifying information corresponding to a target apparatus having a second highest connection priority is included in the stored pieces of network identifying information.

26. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the target apparatus specifying information is a BSSID (Basic Service Set Identifier) that uniquely identifies the target apparatus, and the communication apparatus performs the process for establishing connection to the target apparatus, without performing preprocessing for connection, by using the BSSID.

27. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication apparatus includes the target apparatus specifying information that uniquely identifies the target apparatus by an address of the target apparatus and a frequency channel in which the apparatus wirelessly communicates.

23. A communication system comprising at least one communication apparatus that is configured to perform wireless communication with at least one target apparatus, the at least one communication apparatus configured to:

obtain target apparatus specifying information that uniquely identifies a given target apparatus;

store, in a storage device of the communication apparatus, the target apparatus specifying information uniquely identifying the given target apparatus for accessing the given target apparatus; and

perform a process for establishing a connection, by wireless communication, to the given target apparatus by using the target apparatus specifying information stored in the storage device of the communication apparatus.

24. A method for controlling a communication apparatus configured to perform wireless communication with a target apparatus, the method comprising:

obtaining target apparatus specifying information that uniquely identifies a given target apparatus;

storing, in a storage device of the communication apparatus, the target apparatus specifying information uniquely identifying the given target apparatus for accessing the given target apparatus; and

performing a process for establishing a connection, by wireless communication, to the given target apparatus by using the target apparatus specifying information stored in the storage device of the communication apparatus.

25. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising a program which causes a computer of an apparatus to:

obtain target apparatus specifying information that uniquely identifies a given target apparatus;

store, in a storage device of the apparatus, the target apparatus specifying information uniquely identifying the given target apparatus for accessing the given target apparatus; and

perform a process for establishing a connection, by wireless communication, to the given target apparatus by using the target apparatus specifying information stored in the storage device of the apparatus.