Radio base station and method for setting utilization frequency of the radio base station

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD [Detailed description of the invention]

【0001】

[Technical field to which the invention belongs]

The present invention relates to radio equipment, and is particularly suitable for minimizing interference between communicable areas in radio equipment connected to a LAN, interference by a wireless terminal wirelessly connected to the radio equipment, and interference due to external noise. It is related to the LAN system that sets various frequencies.

【0002】

[Conventional technology]

Currently, in wireless LAN, as a measure against noise from the outside, a communication method that spreads the frequency by a direct spreading method (hereinafter referred to as DS method), a frequency hopping method (hereinafter referred to as FH method), or a combined method thereof is common. Is the target. The DS method is a method in which each radio equipment (for example, a wireless HUB) spreads a frequency by adding a code indicating a specific frequency band occupied by the radio equipment to a signal and transferring the signal. The FH method is a method in which each HUB transfers signals by changing the frequency used for signal transfer at regular time intervals. Both methods take noise immunity into consideration, but the DS method, which occupies a certain frequency band and transfers data, enables faster signal transfer than the FH method, which transfers one data in each frequency band. Is.

【0003】

Here, the number of wireless terminals that can be wirelessly connected to one wireless HUB is limited to about 20 in actual use. Therefore, under the condition that a large number of wireless terminals are used, it is necessary to increase the number of wireless facilities. As described above, when a plurality of radio equipments are arranged in the same area, not only noise countermeasures but also arrangements or methods that do not cause interference between the radio equipments are required.

【0004】

As such a technique, there is a wireless LAN system described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-275401. In this example, the hopping sequence and hopping start frequency for minimizing the interference between the communicable areas of the wireless LAN system using the FH method are determined.

【0005】

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

The above-mentioned prior art described in JP-A-9-275401 is an example in which the FH method that does not occupy a specific frequency band is used, and cannot be applied to the DS method that occupies a specific frequency band.

【0006】

Since the DS method occupies a certain frequency band as described above, the radio equipment cannot share the same band when a plurality of communicable areas exist in an overlapping manner. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 12, the communicable area 123A configured by the radio equipment 121A connected to the wired LAN 120 and the communicable area 123B configured by the radio equipment 121B should not overlap, or the radio equipment should not overlap. There is no choice but to further divide the frequency bands used by 121A and 121B.

【0007】

At present, these setting areas and frequency allocation are manually set. Therefore, as the number of radio equipments in the same area increases, the optimum setting becomes difficult and it takes a long time. Further, increasing the number of wireless facilities in the same area naturally means that the number of wireless terminals connected to the wireless facilities wirelessly also increases, which makes the setting more difficult. Further, there is a problem that it cannot be avoided against the sudden external noise and the interference of the wireless terminal used by moving.

【0008】

The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a system and a method for setting a frequency band so as to minimize interference between radio equipments in a wireless LAN system including radio equipments using the FH method. That is. Another object of the present invention is to reduce the man-hours required for setting to avoid interference between radio equipments and to reduce setting mistakes. In addition, the object of the present invention will be clarified in the specification.

【0009】

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above object, the wireless base station connected to the wired LAN of the present invention has a wireless communication unit that wirelessly communicates with the LAN terminal and a control device that sets its own frequency band. Detects the first device that emits radio waves in the first frequency band in its communicable area. Further, the control device is set to use a frequency band different from the frequency band generated from the detected first device.

【0010】

Further, the control device of the wireless base station of the present invention generates information about other wireless devices in the area of other wireless devices existing in an area where the wireless communication unit can communicate with each other, and uses this information. And set the frequency band.

【0011】

Further, the control device of the radio base station of the present invention acquires information about another radio base station connected to the wired LAN to which it connects, and stores the information in a storage device of the radio base station.

【0012】

Desirably, the information about the other radio base station includes the frequency band used by the radio base station, the number of radio base stations included in the communicable area of the radio, and the like.

【0013】

According to the radio base station of the present invention, it is possible to set the frequency band to be used by itself so as not to cause radio wave interference with other radio base stations. Further, it is possible to use the frequency band used by oneself while reducing the frequency band setting change processing in each base station.

【0014】

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, examples of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, when newly connecting radio equipment, the radio equipments are present in a mutually communicable area. In this case, for the existing radio equipment, the new radio equipment is set so as not to cause interference without changing the settings.

【0015】

In FIG. 1, there are two wireless facilities 11A and 11B connected to the wired LAN 10, and further, the wireless terminals (12A and 12B) connected wirelessly to these wireless facilities A1 and A2 (11A and 11B) are configured. Here, the wireless equipment is, for example, a terminal adapter (hereinafter referred to as TA), a wireless LAN HUB, or the like. The wireless terminal is, for example, a personal computer equipped with a wireless LAN system, a peripheral device, or the like. The communicable area of radio equipment A1 (11A) is the range surrounded by 13A, and the communicable area of radio equipment A2 (11B) is the range surrounded by 13B. In this embodiment, different communication frequencies are assigned to each radio equipment so that the radio equipments do not interfere with each other.

【0016】

The location information used to assign the communication frequency is shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. These are the position information in the case of the configuration of FIG.

【0017】

The position information in FIG. 2 is information showing a simple positional relationship. It is a radio equipment connected to a wired LAN, and indicates which radio equipment can be seen from the radio equipment and the positional relationship of the radio equipment existing in the same area. For example, in this embodiment, since there are two radio equipments, only the information of the two radio equipments 21A and 21B exists. The radio equipment 21A corresponds to the radio equipment A1 (12A) in FIG. 1, and the radio equipment 21B corresponds to the radio equipment A2 (12B) in FIG. The arrow (20) indicates that the communicable area of the radio equipment A1 and the communicable area of the radio equipment A2 overlap each other. Each radio equipment A1 and A2 holds such information and grasps the mutual positional relationship.

【0018】

FIG. 3 shows the setting information of each radio equipment. It is composed of information such as the setting channel information of each radio equipment, the Signal / Noise ratio indicating the quality of the setting channel, and the Packet Error rate. With this setting information, it is possible to determine the priority when changing the frequency band and prevent repeated resetting when setting the frequency channel. Further, if this setting information includes information on the quality of channels not set as seen from each radio equipment, more accurate setting becomes possible.

【0019】

Next, an example of the internal configuration of the radio equipment is shown in FIG. The wireless equipment (130) includes an Antenna unit (131) that outputs wireless signals, a Radio Frequency (hereinafter, RF) interface (132) that modulates and demotes wireless signals, and a wired LAN interface (134) that communicates with a wired LAN. ), Controller (133) that controls them, Memory (135) that stores setting information of wireless equipment, etc.

【0020】

The position information (136) shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is stored in this Memory (135). When obtaining location information (136) wirelessly, radio waves from other wireless equipment or wireless terminals are received by the Antenna unit (131), and Memory (135) is received via the RF interface (132) and Controller (133). ) Is sent to the location information file (136). When obtaining location information via a wired LAN, the wired LAN interface (134) receives packets sent by other wireless equipment from the wired LAN (137), and the location in the Memory (135) via the Controller (133). Sent to information file (136).

【0021】

Figure 4 shows the procedure for allocating frequency bands based on the above configuration. FIG. 4 is an operation flow diagram when setting the operating frequency when newly adding wireless equipment to the wired LAN. Here, in FIG. 1, the case where the radio equipment A2 is newly connected to the existing wired LAN (50) to which the radio equipment A1 is connected.

【0022】

First, the power of the added radio equipment A2 is turned on (401), and the operation is started with the default channel setting (402). Here, the channel means a channel that divides and allocates a frequency band to some in order to effectively use the usable frequency range determined for each radio equipment. For example, in the case of wireless LAN, the frequency range used is 97MHz from 2.4GHz to 2.497GHz, and this range is divided into 13 channels.

【0023】

Next, the channel information set as the initial value is reflected in the position information held in the radio equipment A2 (403). In this case, since the radio equipment A2 is a newly added device, only the radio equipment A2 is known in advance from the position information. Next, in order to check whether there is any other radio equipment in the communicable area of the radio equipment A2, all frequency bands (all channels) that can be used by the radio equipment A2 are scanned (404). Scanning refers to a process of checking whether or not there is a signal to be received in the antenna section (131) of FIG. 13 in the frequency band.

【0024】

Here, if there is another radio equipment in the communicable area of the radio equipment A2, that information is added to the location information of the radio equipment A2 (406). From the position information obtained in this way, it is determined whether the number of radio equipments existing in the communicable area of the radio equipment A2 exceeds the maximum number of channels that can be selected (407). If it exceeds, move the radio equipment A2 to another place (408). In the case of this embodiment, since there are two radio equipments A1 and radio equipment A2, for example, in the case of a wireless LAN, the number of channels is less than 13.

【0025】

In this way, if the maximum number is not exceeded, the location information is used to determine whether the current channel settings are okay (409). If there is a problem with the current channel setting, change the setting to a channel that can be set from the location information.

【0026】

This completes the channel setting process for the newly added radio equipment A2, but it is also necessary to know if there is any radio equipment that exists outside the communicable area of the radio equipment A2. Therefore, the newly added radio equipment A2 outputs a broadcast packet (412) on the wired LAN, and transmits the newly added information to other radio equipment connected to the wired LAN. In addition, the position information updated by the radio equipment in step 406 or 411 is also output to this packet.

【0027】

Each radio equipment that receives the broadcaster packet checks to see if it needs to send its information to radio equipment A2. That is, if there is another radio equipment outside the communicable area of the radio equipment A2, or if the scan is incomplete for some reason and the radio equipment A2 does not know the information, it is via a wired LAN. The broadcast packet received in is not included in the information of the radio equipment. Therefore, the radio equipment that determines that it does not have its own information returns a packet of the location information possessed by the radio equipment to the radio equipment A2 via the wired LAN (413).

【0028】

By this process, the location information of the newly added radio equipment can be the same as that of the existing radio equipment. In the above flow, the radio equipment that is turned on sets the channel to the initial value and operates it, but by stopping the operation of the newly added radio equipment until the automatic setting after the power is turned on, interference until the automatic setting is prevented. Can be prevented.

【0029】

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. This embodiment is a case where interference occurs after channel setting. In this embodiment, since the setting is already changed after the channel is set, the priority of the setting change is set for each radio equipment.

【0030】

In Fig. 5, two radio equipments A1 and A2 (51A, 51B) are connected to the wired LAN (50). The communication area of the radio equipment A1 (51A) is the area surrounded by 53A, and the communication area of the radio equipment A2 (51B) is the area surrounded by 53B. Further, the wireless LAN system of FIG. 5 is composed of a wireless terminal A1 (52A) that wirelessly connects to the wireless equipment A1 (51A) and a wireless terminal (52B) that wirelessly connects to the wireless equipment A2 (51B). .. The wireless terminal 52A exists in the communicable area 53B of the radio equipment A2 (51B), and the radio equipment A2 (51B) is interfered with.

【0031】

FIG. 6 shows a wireless LAN system composed of a wireless facility A1 (61) connected to a wired LAN and a wireless terminal (62) wirelessly connected to the wireless facility A1 (61). In FIG. 6, the radio equipment 61 is interfered with by the external noise 63 that generates radio waves in the same frequency band as the radio waves used by the radio equipment in the communicable area 64 of the radio equipment A1 (61). FIG. 7 shows an operation flow diagram of channel setting change performed when interference occurs after the channel setting as in the cases of FIGS. 5 and 6.

【0032】

When the radio equipment is interfered with, it becomes necessary to switch the channel setting (701). In FIG. 5, the radio equipment A2 that receives interference first searches for a free channel that can be set based on the location information (702). At this time, the location information shown in FIG. 3 is used to search for free channels to which radio equipment is not assigned. If there is no free channel, change the allowable range of Signal / Noise ratio and the allowable range of Packet Error rate (704), and change the setting to the channel with the best conditions. The change is reflected in the location information of the radio equipment (706), and according to the priority set in the location information, the setting change is sent to the radio equipment with high priority by packet via the wired LAN. Send (707). In the case of FIG. 5, radio equipment A1 receives this packet.

【0033】

Radio equipment A1 updates the location information (708) and confirms that there is no problem with the channel setting of the radio equipment (709). When the change is necessary, the radio equipment A1 executes the processing in the broken line in the figure (710), and after the setting is completed, sends the packet to the radio equipment having the next higher priority again (707).

【0034】

All the above processing is performed in other radio equipment. This operation enables setting that minimizes the interference received by the radio equipment. That is, when interference occurs after the channel is set, the radio equipment that causes interference and the setting change is indispensable is changed first, and then the channel is assigned according to the priority, so that the channel allocation conflicts. It is possible to change the channel settings while preventing the problem.

【0035】

As shown in FIG. 6, the external noise source can be set by the same procedure even in the case of another radio equipment that uses the same band as the radio equipment or an electronic device that handles an electric signal in the same band. Needless to say.

【0036】

Further, as in the first embodiment, it is possible to grasp other radio equipment outside the communication area range in advance and use the information when changing the setting. For example, even if there is no free channel, if it is the same channel as the radio equipment that is not affected by either radio equipment A2 or radio equipment A1, there is no problem in sharing it, so change the setting for that channel. Can be done.

【0037】

Such an embodiment will be described below. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a third embodiment of the present invention. The wireless LAN system of FIG. 8 is composed of a wired LAN, three or more wireless facilities, and a plurality of wireless terminals connected wirelessly to them. In FIG. 8, radio equipment A1 to A6 (81A to 81F) and six radio terminals (83A to F) are arranged in the radio equipment installation area (80). Radio equipment A1 (81A) is connected to Hub (84A) by wired LAN (82A), radio equipment A2 (81B) is connected to Hub (84A) by wired LAN (82B), and radio equipment A3 (81C). Is connected to Hub (84B) by wired LAN (82C), radio equipment A4 (81D) is connected to Hub (84A) by wired LAN (82D), and radio equipment A5 (81E) is connected to Hub (84A) by wired LAN (82E). It is connected to the Hub (84A), and the radio equipment A6 (81F) is connected to the Hub (84B) by a wired LAN (82F).

【0038】

Furthermore, Hub (84A) and Hub (84B) are connected by a wired LAN (82G). Each wireless facility is wirelessly connected to a wireless terminal (83A to F). Radio equipment A1 (81A) has a radio terminal (83A), radio equipment A2 (81B) has a radio terminal (83B), radio equipment A3 (81C) has a radio terminal (83C), and radio equipment A4 (81D). ) Is connected to the radio terminal (83D), the radio equipment A5 (81E) is connected to the radio terminal (83E), and the radio equipment A6 (81F) is connected to the radio terminal (83F).

【0039】

With such an arrangement, the communicable area of the radio equipment A1 (81A) is 85A, the communicable area of the radio equipment A2 (81B) is 85B, the communicable area of the radio equipment A3 (81C) is 85C, and the radio equipment A4 (81D). The location information when the communicable area of) is 85D, the communicable area of the radio equipment A5 (81E) is 85E, and the communicable area of the radio equipment A6 (81F) is 85F is shown in FIGS. 9 and 10.

【0040】

The position information in FIG. 9 corresponds to FIG. 2 in the first embodiment, and is information indicating a simple positional relationship.

【0041】

In Fig. 8, 81A corresponds to 91A, 81B corresponds to 91B, 81C corresponds to 91C, 81D corresponds to 91D, 81E corresponds to 91E, and 81F corresponds to 91F. The arrows 90A to 90G indicate that the communicable areas overlap. From this information, it can be determined that the radio equipment A1 (91A) overlaps with the radio equipments A2 (91B) and A4 (91D) in the communicable area. Further, from this figure, it can be seen that the radio equipments A3 (91C), A5 (91E), and A6 (91F) are outside the communicable area of the radio equipment A1 (91A). Based on these positional relationships, prioritized information is shown in FIG.

【0042】

FIG. 10 shows the setting information of each radio equipment as in FIG. The setting information is composed of information on the setting channel of each radio equipment, a Signal / Noise ratio indicating the quality of the setting channel, and information such as a Packet Error rate. The number of overlaps of the communicable areas in FIG. 9 above is stored in the column of radio stations in the area. In this embodiment, this item is the highest priority when determining the priority. This is because, although it depends on the number of available channels, the greater the overlap of communicable areas, the less freedom in channel setting. In the case of FIG. 9, the radio equipments 91B and 91E have the largest number of overlaps in the communicable area, which is 4, so the priority is also high. The settings are changed as shown in FIG. 7 according to the priority set in this way.

【0043】

If the condition of channels other than the channel setting of the radio equipment is bad, this condition should be taken into consideration to prevent repeated resetting when setting the channel so that the optimum setting can be performed promptly. It can also be.

【0044】

FIG. 11 shows a configuration example of a wireless LAN system in which two wired LANs exist. Radio equipment A1 (111A) and A2 (111B) are connected to the wired LAN (110A), and radio equipment A3 (111C) and A4 (111D) are connected to the wired LAN (110B). Each radio equipment A1 to A4 (111A to D) is wirelessly connected to a wireless terminal (112A to D), and the radio equipment A1 (111A) has a wireless terminal (112A) and the radio equipment A2 (111B). A wireless terminal (112B) is connected to the radio equipment A3 (111C), a wireless terminal (112C) is connected to the radio equipment A3 (111C), and a wireless terminal (112D) is connected to the radio equipment A4 (111D).

【0045】

Regarding the communicable areas of each radio equipment A1 to A4 (111A to D), the radio equipment A1 (111A) is 113A, the radio equipment A2 (111B) is 113B, and the radio equipment A3 (111C) is available. It is 113C for the radio equipment A4 (111D) and 113D for the radio equipment A4 (111D). Further, as shown in FIG. 11, radio equipments A2 (111B), A3 (111C), and wireless terminals (112B, 112C) exist in the overlapping area of the communicable areas 113B and 113C.

【0046】

When exchanging the location information required for setting between different wired LANs, use a wireless terminal that exists in the area where the above-mentioned communicable areas overlap. In the case of the figure, for example, when the location information of the wireless equipment connected to the wired LAN 110A is reflected in the wired LAN 110B, the location information is sent from the wireless equipment 111B to the wireless terminal 112B, and the wireless terminal forcibly connects to the wireless equipment 111C. Switch to and send the location information of the wired LAN 110A to the wireless equipment 111C. The radio equipment 111C sends this information to the radio equipment 111D via the wired LAN 110B. This makes it possible to share location information and automatically set channels for wireless equipment connected to another wired LAN. If the communicable areas do not overlap at all between wireless facilities and wireless terminals with different wired LANs, the above method cannot be applied, but there is no problem because no interference occurs.

【0047】

[Effect of the invention]

By using the present invention, interference between wireless equipment having a wired LAN can be minimized, and even when interference by a wireless terminal wirelessly connected to the wireless equipment or sudden external noise occurs, it can be promptly performed. It can be automatically changed to the optimum setting. In addition, even in radio equipment that has two or more wired LANs, if there is an overlap in the communicable area between the radio equipments connected to different wired LANs, the automatic setting method of the radio equipment and the radio that incorporates the method Equipment can be provided.

[Simple explanation of drawings]

[Figure 1]

This is a basic configuration example of the present invention.

[Figure 2]

Fig. 1 Simple position information of the configuration.

[Fig. 3]

Figure 1 This is the setting information for the radio equipment configured.

[Fig. 4]

This is the automatic setting operation flow of newly installed radio equipment.

[Fig. 5]

This is another configuration example 1 of the present invention.

[Fig. 6]

This is another configuration example 2 of the present invention.

[Fig. 7]

This is the operation flow when a channel setting change occurs.

[Fig. 8]

This is another configuration example 3 of the present invention.

[Fig. 9]

Fig. 8 Simple position information of the configuration.

[Fig. 10]

Fig. 8 This is the setting information of the radio equipment of the configuration.

[Fig. 11]

This is another configuration example 4 of the present invention.

[Fig. 12]

This is a conventional basic configuration example.

[Fig. 13]

This is an example of the internal configuration of radio equipment.

[Explanation of symbols]

10: Wired LAN, 11A / B: Wireless equipment, 12A / B: Wireless terminal, 13A / B: Communication area, 20: Communication area overlap, 21A / B: Wireless equipment, 50: Wired LAN, 51A / B : Wireless equipment, 52A / B: Wireless terminal, 53A / B: Communication area, 60: Wired LAN, 61: Wireless equipment, 62: Wireless terminal, 63: External noise, 64: Communication area, 80: Wireless equipment installation Area, 81A ~ F: Wireless equipment, 82A ~ G: Wired LAN, 83A ~ F: Wireless terminal, 84A / B: Hub, 85A ~ F: Communication area, 90A ~ G: Communication area overlap, 91A ~ F : Wireless equipment, 110A / B: Wired LAN, 111A ~ D: Wireless equipment, 112A ~ D: Wireless terminal, 113A ~ D: Communication area, 120: Wired LAN, 121A / B: Wireless equipment, 122A / B: Wireless Terminal, 123A / B: Communicable area, 130: Wireless equipment, 131: Antenna section, 132: RF I / F section, 133: Controller section, 134: Wired LAN I / F section, 135: Memory section, 136: Position Information storage part, 137: Wired LAN