Network control apparatus

Network control device

5-1 Field of invention:

The present invention relates to an Internet control device, in particular to a device that allows all Internet access devices in a family or a small and medium-sized enterprise to share a transmission line to connect to the Internet.

5-2 Background of the invention:

With the advent of the Internet era, the demand for home networking and Internet access is increasing. At the same time, Internet devices have also expanded from simple computers to various other devices.

Generally, in the family or small and medium-sized gold industry, it is necessary to exchange data between computers. The current data exchange method is based on the connection of the local area network (LAN; Local Area Network). Local area network generally refers to the establishment of a network in a small area, usually in the same office area or a building, or the internal network of a company organization, all belong to the local area network. Range. Usually the range of network connection is limited to 100 meters, which is called a local area network. The basic components of the local network architecture include the following items: the personal computer or workstation of the network user end, and the transmission medium, such as Coaxial line, network interface card, network operating system, the common ones are Novell or Windows NT, and file servers, and the common ones are high-end personal computers or workstations.

Local area network is the basis of office automation. Common local area networks can be divided into three categories according to different access methods:

The first type is the FDDI optical fiber network and the token ring network (Token Ring) that use tokens as the basis for access. It is characterized by the use of optical fibers as the transmission medium, and it is a ring network.

The second type of local area network is the widely used Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance protocol (CSMA/CD; Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance) Ethernet. This network is the IEEE 802.3 local area network. Depending on the speed, there are 10Base-x, 100Base-x, and 1000Base-x. The following x represents the supported transmission distance or media. Common transmission media include twisted pair (UTP, STP), Coaxial cable, optical fiber, etc. This type of network can be connected into a bus-shaped, star-shaped, or hybrid network.

The third type is a demand priority network. The most common one is 100VG-AnyLAN, which can reach a transmission rate of 100 Mbps. You can choose to use twisted pair or optical fiber lines for transmission.

Today's networks are mostly star topology. In a star topology network, a hub acts as a machine for connecting or re-establishing signals, which can expand analog or digital signals. In addition to improving the quality of the line, it can also prevent the subsequent network nodes from being affected after a certain line is disconnected. Because the hub is a device that connects the network cable, it belongs to the physical layer. device of.

However, the local area network alone cannot connect to the Internet. Nowadays, in ordinary households or small and medium-sized enterprises, most of the ways to connect to the Internet are telephone lines. Generally, a modem (MODEM; abbreviation of MOdulator/DEMadulator, commonly known as modem) is required to access the Internet through a telephone line. It can convert the digital signal of the computer into an analog signal. We can use it to connect to the telephone line. Communicating messages and transferring data with remote computers is the main tool for ordinary home computers to connect to the Internet.

According to the equipment connected to the modem, it can be divided into four categories: dial-up modem, LAN modem, ISDN modem and cable modem. The first type is the most common model we see on the market. It must use the telephone line provided by Chunghwa Telecom to connect to the other party by dialing; the second type of modem is mainly used as a network to network Therefore, this type of modem has the capability of a bridge, and it must support TCP/IP, Etheraet and other protocols; the third type of modem must be connected to other networks through ISDN, and its rate can reach 144 Kbps; fourth Class modems use the currently very popular cable television (CATV) cable to reach an Internet speed of tens of Mbps.

With the advent of the Internet era, the demand for home networking and Internet access is increasing. At the same time, Internet devices have expanded from simple computers to various other devices. For example, by wireless, users can use a web tablet (WebPad; a tablet device that can access the Web) to access the Internet, which is more flexible and convenient. At the same time, more and more families have two or more computers. However, Internet resources (Internet lines) are limited, and how to use resources rationally, economically, and effectively has become an important topic.

However, networking and sharing of Internet bandwidth (bandwidth) is often in demand for general household users, but lacks technology. In addition, it is neither convenient nor economical to equip each Internet device with a telephone line. Especially in the combination of Ethernet and wireless networks, there is still a lack of better solutions.

5-3 The purpose and summary of the invention:

In view of the above-mentioned background of the invention, the present invention provides users with fast grouping and networking, convenient to establish a family or small and medium-sized enterprise local area network, and enables all the Internet devices of the family or small and medium-sized enterprises, including computers and other Internet access devices. The equipment, sharing a telephone line, not only makes full use of the bandwidth, but also enables centralized management of all Internet-connected devices.

Another object of the present invention is convenience and ease of use. It is ready to use through simple and intuitive network settings. This system also provides a better solution for the combination of Ethernet and wireless networks.

According to the above-mentioned objective, the present invention provides a network control device, which is used to connect Internet access equipment to the Internet through a transmission line. The device of the present invention includes a hub for connecting a plurality of computers, a wireless network device for connecting a plurality of network digital tablets, and a wireless network device for connecting an Ethernet device and a wireless network device to form a zone A network bridge, and a modem used to connect the local network to the Internet. In the device of the present invention, the hub can use a 10Base-T Ethernet controller or a 100 Base-T Ethernet controller, and the wireless network device uses a PCMCIA card. The bridge includes a central processing unit and memory, and is connected to the Ethernet and wireless networks by software. In this device, the local network and the modem are controlled by network address translation, which includes a network address translation address translation correspondence table. In addition, the device of the present invention includes a dynamic host configuration protocol server in the application layer to allocate network protocol addresses, a simple network management protocol agent to handle network management, and a network server to perform system configuration tasks.

5-5 Detailed description of the invention:

Some embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail as follows. However, in addition to the detailed description, the present invention can also be widely implemented in other embodiments, and the scope of the present invention is not limited, and the following patent scope shall prevail.

The present invention relates to a network control device, which is a product developed for centralized management of shared resources of various Internet equipment such as home users or small and medium-sized enterprises. Through a network control device, users only need to connect a computer to it through a network cable to easily establish a home or small and medium-sized local area network (LAN; Local Area Network), which can perform various network-related applications. Online games, etc. At the same time, both the network tablet and the computers in the local area network can share a telephone line to achieve the purpose of surfing the Internet through the built-in modem of the network control device. In addition, a network control device uses software to implement a bridge, so that information can be exchanged between the computer in the local network and the network tablet.

The network control device of the present invention basically includes a wired network device, a wireless (Wireless) network device, an external connection device, and a bridge device. Among them, the current wired network is mainly an Ethernet device However, other wired networks include optical fiber networks, tokenring networks, and other types of networks. The function of the Ethernet device is similar to that of a traditional hub, which mainly connects the personal computer to the Ethernet network. The part of the wireless network device is mainly for connecting devices such as a notebook computer or a network tablet to the network control device of the present invention, and the connection method is mainly a PCMCIA card connection. The external connection device is usually a modem, which is usually connected to the Internet by an RJ11 telephone line. In addition to modems, you can also use integrated services digital network (ISDN; Integrated Services Digital Network), asymmetric digital subscriber loop (ADSL; Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), or cable modem (Cable modem) and other external connections. The bridge device mainly connects the above-mentioned Ethernet network device and the wireless network device, so that any devices connected to the network control device of the present invention can transmit data to each other and surf the Internet. Next, with regard to the network control device of the present invention, a preferred embodiment will be introduced through the description of the first to the ninth figures.

As shown in the first figure, a schematic diagram of a network control device 10 and a diagram of the communication relationship between the network control device 10 and peripheral components are shown. The network control device 10 mainly includes four parts, an Ethernet device 10-1, a wireless network device 10-2, an external connection device 10-3, and a bridge device 10-4. In this embodiment, there are four personal computers 110-1, 110-2, 110-3, and 110-4, whose numbers are from PC1, PC2, PC3, and PC4, respectively connected to the Ethernet of the network control device 10 Road device 10-1. In this embodiment, the wireless network device 10-2 is implemented by a PCMCIA card, and some wireless network digital board 112-1, network digital board 112-2, and a wireless personal computer 114 are connected to the wireless network Device 10-2 is connected. In this embodiment, the external connection device 10-3 is a modem, which is connected to the Internet through a telephone line 102. The bridging device 10-4 connects the Ethernet device 10-1, the wireless network device 10-2, and the external connection device 10-3 together to make four personal computers 110-1, 110-2, 110- 3. 110-4 and the wireless network tablet 112-1, and the network tablet 112-2 can not only exchange data, but also connect to the Internet through the external connection device 10-3.

As shown in the second figure, it is a schematic diagram of the appearance of the network control device 10. The network control device 10 is composed of a hardware structure. Its appearance is shown in the figure. It has a power socket 12, an RJ11 telephone line connector 14, a PCMCIA connector 16, a plurality of RJ45 connectors 18, and some light-emitting diodes. (LEDs) lights (not shown in the figure) and other components. The hardware in the network control device 10, as shown in the third figure, includes a central processing unit (CPU) 20, memory (including SDRAM, FLASH, MROM, NVSRAM) 22, and a built-in modem (On- Board Modem) 25, a set of 10 Base-T Ethernet control 327 (or 100 Base-T) with 4 ports of Repeater Controller, a buffer 26 connected to the PCMCIA interface 16, And some light-emitting diodes and other components. The central processing unit 20 and the memory 22 can use software to implement the physical functions of the network system, such as the bridge described later, or the software in the application layer. For users, there are three types of interfaces: one RJ11 interface to connect to the telephone line 14; four RJ45 interfaces to connect to the network cable 18; one PCMCIA interface to connect to the wireless PCMCIA card 16 for communication with the network tablet.

Next, we will introduce the software hierarchical structure diagram of the network control device in the Open System Interconnection (OSI; Open System Interface). As shown in the fourth figure, the bottom part is the hardware 401, above it is the driver 402 and the real time operating system (RSTO; Real Time Operating System) core 403. In the figure, the driver 402 includes the modem driver 402. -1, Ethernet driver 402-2, PCMCIA driver 402-3, wireless network driver 402-4, and Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) driver 402-5. In the Data-Link layer, it is necessary to use software to realize the bridge 404, and in the Network layer and Transport layer, the TCP/IP stack 405 is used, and the network address translation (NAT) is used. ). At the application layer, there is a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP; Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server 406-1 to assign IP addresses; Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP; Simple Network ManagementProtocol (Agent) 406-2 to realize network management, and Web Server 406-3 to perform system setting work. The software in the application layer is completed in the central processing unit and memory.

The main function of the network control device is the sharing of Internet resources (telephone lines) by the Ethernet and wireless networks. The realization is realized by bridge and network address translation. The bridge implements the mutual access between Ethernet and wireless network at the second data link layer of the open system interconnection; the network address translation implements the Ethernet at the third network layer of the open system interconnection Internet and wireless network access to the Internet. Next, the fifth figure introduces a simplified data flow diagram of the network control device software.

As shown in the fifth figure, starting from the Internet, the data in the network 501 is linked to the entity 503 in the 502, and the data in the entity 503 is connected to the modem 504 through the telephone line, and this is the end Invented network control device. The transmission protocol between the modem 504 and the IP packet 506 is a point-to-point transmission protocol 505 connection. The IP packet 506 is connected to the network card 508 via the 802.3 protocol 507. The data coming out and received from the modem 504 are controlled by network address translation. The flow of this section is detailed in the description of the eighth and ninth figures.

As shown in the fifth figure, starting from the Ethernet side, the data is linked 511 in the entity 512 in the network 510. At this time, the data can be sent to the modem 504 via the IEEE 802.3 medium to be sent to the Internet or from the Internet. Get the data on the Internet, or send it to the wireless network via a bridge.

As shown in the fifth figure, starting from the wireless end, the data in the network 520 is linked 521 in the entity 522, and then a bridge is transmitted through the wireless medium. The main function of the bridge is to transmit the packet 530. The packet 530 is transmitted to the Ethernet or modem via the network card 531, or to the wireless network via the application program (AP) 532. The transmission process is detailed in The sixth figure.

In the network control device, the realization of the bridge is at the data link layer, and the interface is on the driver of the Ethernet and wireless networks. Specifically, it is realized by the transfer process of media access control (MAC) address buckle. The address table separately records the media access control address set of the Ethernet end and the wireless network end. The transfer process judges the media access control address based on the packet sent by the driver. The main purpose of the bridge is to connect the Ethernet and the wireless network. The flowchart is shown in Figure 6. After starting 601, a packet 602 is obtained from the driver; and then based on the source medium access control address of the packet Update the media access control address set 603; then, determine whether the destination address is in the source media access control address set (no need to forward) 604, if not, discard the packet 607 and return to the start 601; then, transmit the packet to the wireless network Road driver interface 605; Next, determine whether the destination address of the packet is in the wireless network media access control address set 606, if it is not in the wireless network media access control address set, return to the beginning 601, if the packet destination address is not in the wireless network If the media access control address is centralized, the packet is sent to the network layer 608 in the open system interconnection at the same time.

In the network control device, the realization of the network address translation is at the network layer, and the interface is in the network protocol (IP; Internet Protocol) write (Write) and network reception (NetReceive), which is the specific use of network address translation Address table and transfer process to achieve. The address table separately records the correspondence between the network protocol addresses of the internal network (including Ethernet and wireless networks) and the external network (wide area network). The structure of the corresponding table is shown in Figure 7. The transfer process judges the network protocol address based on the packets received and sent by the network. The flowchart is shown in Figure 8.

As shown in the seventh figure, the network address translation address translation correspondence table is the realization of multiple people sharing the same Internet account. The external address 701 column records the network protocol address on the external Internet, and the external port number 702 column records the external port number. (80 stands for WWW, 25 stands for SMTP, 23 stands for Telnet, 110 stands for POP3), the internal address 703 column records the actual network protocol address of each user, and the port number 704. The external address 705 records a network protocol address to which a network control device is assigned. (That is, the actual network protocol address used when the packet is sent). The correspondence represented by this correspondence table can ensure that each packet is correctly transmitted to each user's computer or network tablet.

If the user has several computers and network tablets, the network protocol addresses are respectively 10.0.0.2 to 10.0.0.6. When each user wants to access the Web, send and receive emails, or download files, the source address in the network protocol header of the user's request packet, data packet, and connection packet will be changed to a network control device assigned to This network protocol address and the corresponding relationship of this connection such as external address 701, external port number 702, internal address 703, internal port number 704 will be recorded in the network address translation address translation correspondence table. In this way, when the requested data is sent back, the packet will be sent to each user's computer and network tablet according to the corresponding relationship, so as to achieve the purpose of sharing by multiple people.

Figure 8 is a flowchart of a network address translation program for a network control device. As shown in the figure, first get a packet from the interface received from the network at the beginning 801. Next, determine whether it is Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPV4) 802, otherwise continue to receive packets. Then, it is judged whether the destination address and source of the network protocol are in the area 803, if it is a local area network, it does not need to be forwarded and directly returns to the start 801. Then determine whether the source address is in the local 804. If yes, it will be processed by the local area network to the Internet (toc2inet; LOCal area netto InterNET) 805 (Figure 9) and then sent to the wide area network. If the source address is from the wide area network (representing from The data is received by the modem), sent to the local area network via the Internet (inet2loc; InterNET to LOCal areanet), processed 807, and then sent to the local area network.

The ninth figure is a flowchart of the local network to the Internet function in the network address translation program. As shown in the figure, from the beginning 901, take the network protocol address and port number 902 of the packet; then, determine whether the network address translation table already exists 903, if not, create a new network address translation table 905; according to the external address, The external port number, internal address, and internal port number are registered in the network address translation table 904; then, 906 is ended.

As mentioned above, the present invention provides a network control device, which realizes the open system interconnection bridge through the simulation of software to connect the Ethernet and the wireless network into a local network, and then through the network address translation The local network is connected to the Internet. This provides users with a solution that is easy to combine Ethernet and wireless networks, share resources, and surf the Internet. If the user is a home or small office with several computers and some wireless Internet devices, such as a network tablet, the user only needs to connect the computer to the network control device through a network cable, which is convenient for setting up a local network. The computers connected to the network control device can transmit data to each other. The network tablet can also transmit data to and from computers connected to the network control device through the PCMCIA card. Moreover, only one Internet account and one telephone line are required, and all computers and network tablets connected to the network control device can be connected to the Internet. Visit Web sites, send and receive e-mails, download files, etc.

The above are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the patent application of the present invention; all other equivalent changes or modifications made without departing from the spirit of the present invention should be included in the following Within the scope of patent application.

<p>10 Network control device</p><p>10-1 Ethernet device</p><p>10-2 Wireless device</p><p>10-3 External connection device</p><p>10-4 Bridge device</p><p>12 Power outlet</p><p>14 Telephone line interface</p><p>16 PCMCIA interface</p><p>18 RJ45 interface</p><p>20 CPU</p><p>twenty two Memory</p><p>twenty four receiver</p><p>25 Modem</p><p>26 Buffer</p><p>27 Hub</p><p>102 telephone line</p><p>110 personal computer</p><p>112 Network tablet</p><p>114 Wireless personal computer</p><p>116 Internet</p><p>401-406 network control device software level</p><p>501-531 Network control device software data flow</p><p>601-608 Network control device bridge program flow</p><p>701-704 Network address translation and address translation correspondence</p><p>801-807 Network address translation program flow for network control device</p><p>901-906 Regional to Internet function process</p>

The above-mentioned objects and advantages of the present invention will be described in the following embodiments and figures

The detailed description is as follows, among which:

The first figure is a schematic diagram of the connection of a network control device;

The second figure is a schematic diagram of the appearance of a network control device;

The third figure is a schematic diagram of the hardware architecture of a network control device;

The fourth figure is a software hierarchical structure diagram of a network control device;

The fifth figure is a simplified diagram of the software data flow of a network control device;

The sixth figure is a flow chart of a network control device bridge program;

The seventh figure is the corresponding table of network address translation address conversion;

Figure 8 is a flowchart of a network address translation program for a network control device;

The ninth figure is the function flow chart of the area to the Internet in the network address translation program.