Communication system

Abstract

To make it possible to stably receive large-capacity data of a comparatively large capacity including update software from a server and suppress deterioration in a communication environment.SOLUTION: A communication system includes: a server side file storage unit sc1 that is provided in a server device s and storing a large-capacity file; a communication environment measurement unit dc3 that is provided in a facility device d, and measuring a communication environment between a first communication unit sn and a second communication unit dn; a communication environment determination unit dc1 that is provided in the facility device d, and determines whether or not the communication environment is good based on communication environment information that indicates the communication environment measured by the communication environment measurement unit dc3; and a request unit dc4 that is provided in the facility device d, and requests the server device s to acquire the large-capacity file via the second communication unit dn when the communication environment determination unit dc1 determines that the communication environment is good.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a communication system including a server device and facility equipment capable of communicating with the server device via a network, wherein the facility equipment is configured to receive a large-capacity file including update software for updating the software of the facility equipment from the server device.

Background Art

[0002] Conventionally, in a monitoring system including a server or a facility control device (hereinafter collectively referred to as a server device) in an installation area such as indoors and various facility equipment (hereinafter referred to as facility equipment) configured to be communicable with the server device via a network line, there is known a monitoring system including a success rate calculation unit that calculates an acquisition success rate indicating the amount of data that can be received with respect to the amount of data transmitted from the various facility equipment (see Patent Document 1). In this monitoring system, the acquisition success rate calculated by the success rate calculation unit is configured to be displayed on a display of the server device.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] Now, usually, the above-described facility equipment is configured to periodically request a large-capacity file including relatively large-capacity update software from the server device, and when the facility equipment holds the latest update software at the time of the request, it does not execute the download communication of the large-capacity file, and when the facility equipment does not hold the latest update software at the time of the request, it executes the download communication of the large-capacity file. However, the success or failure of downloading large files, including update software, is particularly susceptible to the communication environment. If a download attempt is made under relatively poor communication conditions and the download does not complete within the session timeout period from the start of communication to the completion of reception, the download of the large file must be started again from the beginning. Furthermore, such re-downloading of large files can worsen the communication environment. Furthermore, with the recent proliferation of various home IoT (Internet of Things) technologies, in environments where multiple pieces of equipment communicate with mobile devices such as smartphones via short-range wireless communication, there has been a problem where radio waves between the equipment interfere with each other, making communication unstable.

[0005] This invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to provide a communication system that can stably receive relatively large amounts of data, including update software, from a server, while suppressing deterioration of the communication environment. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The communication system for achieving the above objectives is: The system comprises a server device and equipment that can communicate with the server device via a network. The aforementioned equipment is configured to receive a large file containing update software for updating the equipment's software from the server device, and its characteristic configuration is as follows: A second communication unit is provided in the aforementioned equipment and is capable of communicating with a first communication unit provided in the server device, The server device includes a server-side file storage unit for storing the large-capacity file, The aforementioned equipment includes a communication environment measurement unit that measures the communication environment between the first communication unit and the second communication unit, A communication environment determination unit is provided in the aforementioned equipment and determines whether the communication environment is good or bad based on communication environment information indicating the communication environment measured by the communication environment measurement unit, The equipment includes a request unit which, when the communication environment determination unit determines that the communication environment is good, requests the server device to acquire the large-capacity file via the second communication unit.

[0007] According to the above characteristic configuration, the equipment side includes a communication environment measurement unit that measures the communication environment between the server device and the equipment, a communication environment determination unit that determines whether the communication environment is good or bad based on the communication environment information indicating the communication environment measured by the communication environment measurement unit, and a request unit that requests the server device to acquire a large file if the communication environment determination unit determines that the communication environment is good. Therefore, based on the communication environment information indicating the communication environment measured on the equipment side, the communication environment determination unit on the equipment side determines whether the communication environment is good or bad, and if the communication environment is good, the request unit on the equipment side can request the server device to acquire a large file. This enables a communication system that can stably receive (download) large files, including update software, and reduces the number of downloads due to failures of such large files, thereby suppressing deterioration of the communication environment.

[0008] Further features of the communication system include: The communication environment measurement unit measures, as communication environment information, the number of times the second communication unit sends a communication request to the first communication unit and the number of times the second communication unit receives a success status code from the first communication unit, which signifies the successful reception of the communication request, at second time intervals that are shorter than the first time interval, which is the time interval from the time the second communication unit first receives the large file from the first communication unit until the time the second communication unit receives the large file again. The communication environment determination unit determines whether the communication environment is good or bad based on the success response ratio, which is calculated as the ratio of the number of times the second communication unit received the success status code from the first communication unit to the number of times the second communication unit sent the communication request to the first communication unit during a third time interval that is longer than the second time interval, and which is used as communication environment information.

[0009] According to the above characteristic configuration, the equipment performs the transmission of communication requests and the reception of success status codes indicating the successful reception of said communication requests, separately from the transmission and reception of large files including update software. Furthermore, the communication environment measurement unit installed in the equipment derives a success response ratio as communication environment information, which is the ratio of the number of times a success status code indicating the successful reception of said communication requests is received to the number of times a communication request is transmitted. Based on this success response ratio, the quality of the communication environment is determined. Therefore, there is no need to transmit or receive large files when deriving the success response ratio, and deterioration of the communication environment caused by this can be suppressed.

[0010] Further features of the communication system include: The server device is provided with a session timeout setting unit, which, when the communication environment determination unit determines that the communication environment is good, sets a longer session timeout time, which is the allowable time from the start of communication to the completion of receiving the large file when the large file is sent from the first communication unit to the second communication unit, the lower the success response ratio calculated by the communication environment determination unit is.

[0011] According to the above configuration, when the communication environment determination unit determines that the communication environment is good, the session timeout setting unit sets the session timeout time, which is the allowable time from the start to the end of transmission when sending a large file from the first communication unit to the second communication unit, to be longer the lower the success response ratio calculated by the communication environment determination unit is. This makes it possible to improve the success rate of sending and receiving large files while suppressing the session timeout time from becoming unnecessarily long.

[0012] A further characteristic configuration of the communication system is that when a request for acquiring the large-capacity file is made from the request unit to the server device via the second communication unit, a session timeout setting unit is provided in the server device, which sets the session timeout time, which is the allowable time from the start of communication to the completion of reception of the large-capacity file when transmitting the large-capacity file from the first communication unit to the second communication unit, to be not less than twice and not more than four times the normal timeout time.

[0013] According to the above characteristic configuration, when acquiring a large-capacity file including relatively large-capacity update software, by increasing the session timeout time compared to the case of transmitting and receiving files of normal capacity that are smaller in capacity than the large-capacity file, the success rate of transmitting and receiving the large-capacity file, for which transmission and reception failures are likely to occur, can be improved, and deterioration of the communication environment due to transmission and reception failures can be suppressed.

[0014] A further characteristic configuration of the communication system is that the large-capacity file used in the facility equipment is divided into predetermined sizes and transmitted from the first communication unit to the second communication unit.

[0015] With such a configuration, for the update software used in the home facility equipment, since it is finely divided and distributed from the server, interrupt processing can be allowed as needed in the facility equipment, and various processes on the facility equipment side can be prevented from being delayed.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0016] [Figure 1] It is a schematic configuration diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment. [Figure 2] It is communication environment information and a determination result of the communication environment. [Figure 3] It is a schematic configuration diagram of a communication system according to another embodiment.

Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[0017] The communication system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention relates to a system that can stably receive large-capacity data including update software from a server device and can suppress deterioration of the communication environment. Hereinafter, the communication system 100 according to the embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

[0018] As shown in FIG. 1, the communication system 100 according to the embodiment includes one server device s and facility equipment d capable of communicating with the server device s. In this embodiment, a plurality of facility devices (d, d', d'') are provided for one server device s. Here, the facility equipment d corresponds to a remote controller for home equipment such as a fuel cell, a water heater, a stove, a fan heater, an air conditioner, and a storage battery installed in a general household or the like. Note that the facility equipment d may be the home equipment itself. The facility equipment d is connected to the server device s via a network N such as an Internet line through a relay device (not shown) such as a router or a load balancer, and is configured to be able to download and update update software for updating the software of the facility equipment d from the server device s.

[0019] The facility equipment d includes a communication environment measurement unit dc3, a communication environment information storage unit dc2, a communication environment determination unit dc1, a request unit dc4, and a device-side file storage unit dc5 in a control device dc, and further includes a second communication unit dn. The server device s includes a server-side file storage unit sc1 and a session timeout setting unit sc2 in a control device sc, and further includes a first communication unit sn. These functional units are constructed in such a manner that hardware or software or both cooperate with a CPU as a core member to execute processes related to software update. However, each functional unit may be divided into different parts, or one part may have functions of a plurality of functional units.

[0020] The server-side file storage unit sc1 stores various software, including update software used by equipment d, in the form of large-capacity files (for example, several MB in size). This update software includes communication module software related to the operation sequence of the communication module, and equipment control software that controls the operation of the entire equipment d, including the communication module. It also includes client certificate files and server certificate files necessary for encrypted communication between equipment d and server device s.

[0021] The first communication unit sn communicates with the second communication unit dn. The first communication unit sn is connected to the second communication unit dn via the network N, such as the Internet connection described above. This configures the first communication unit sn to be able to communicate with the second communication unit dn. The first communication unit sn transmits a large file containing new update software to the second communication unit dn when a request is received from the request unit dc4 of equipment d and the server-side file storage unit sc1 contains the large file.

[0022] Now, with the recent proliferation of various home IoT (Internet of Things) technologies, for example, each piece of equipment (d, d', and d'') has come to communicate with mobile devices such as smartphones using short-range wireless communication means such as Bluetooth LE (registered trademark) (not shown). This has led to the problem that radio waves interfere with each other between the pieces of equipment (d, d', and d'' in the diagram), making communication unstable. Therefore, the communication system 100 according to this embodiment has the following configuration.

[0023] The communication environment measurement unit dc3, installed in equipment d, measures the communication environment between the first communication unit sn and the second communication unit dn. At a second time interval (a 5-minute interval) which is shorter than the first time interval (for example, a time interval of several days or more) which is the time interval from when the second communication unit dn first receives a large file from the first communication unit sn until it receives another large file, the second communication unit dn measures the number of times it sends a communication request to the first communication unit sn and the number of times it receives a success status code indicating the successful reception of the communication request, as communication environment information.

[0024] The communication environment determination unit dc1 determines whether the communication environment is good or bad based on the communication environment information measured by the communication environment measurement unit dc3. To elaborate, the communication environment determination unit dc1 determines the quality of the communication environment based on a success response ratio calculated as the ratio of the number of times the second communication unit dn received a success status code from the first communication unit sn to the number of times the second communication unit dn sent a communication request to the first communication unit sn during a third time interval longer than the second time interval (for example, a 24-hour time interval). The communication environment determination unit dc1 is configured to determine that the communication environment is good when, for example, the success response ratio is 0.7 (70%) or higher (more preferably 0.8 (80%) or higher: an example of a determination threshold described later).

[0025] In equipment d, as described above, the number of times a communication request was sent, the number of times a success status code was received, and the success response ratio calculated from these are stored in the communication environment information storage unit dc2 at three time intervals.

[0026] When the communication environment determination unit dc1 determines that the communication environment is good, the request unit dc4 requests a large file containing the update software from the second communication unit dn to the first communication unit sn via the network N. Upon receiving a request from request unit dc4, the first communication unit sn transmits a large file stored in the server-side file storage unit sc1 to the second communication unit dn via network N. The received large file is stored in the device's file storage unit dc5, and update software is installed on the control unit dc.

[0027] The aforementioned large file is divided into multiple packets of a predetermined size and transmitted along with a header. This header is numbered according to the order in which the packets are transmitted, and the final packet contains information indicating that it is the last packet. The server device s is equipped with a session timeout setting unit sc2 that sets a session timeout period, which is the time allowed from the start of communication until the completion of receiving a large file, that is, from the start of communication when the second communication unit dn requests a large file from the first communication unit sn until the second communication unit dn receives the final packet and the first communication unit sn receives a success status code from the second communication unit dn indicating successful reception. The session timeout setting unit sc2, in order to improve the success rate of sending large files, sets the session timeout time, which is the allowable time from the start to the end of transmission when the first communication unit sn sends a large file to the second communication unit dn, to more than 2 to 4 times the normal timeout time for normal files (for example, files with a capacity of tens of KB or less) which are smaller than large files, when the request unit dc4 requests the server device s to acquire a large file.

[0028] [Experimental results] Next, the results of experiments conducted on the communication system 100 according to this embodiment will be explained based on Figure 2. In this experiment, the first time interval, which is the time interval from the time the first large file was received until the next large file is received, was set to 24 hours (1 day). The second time interval, which is the time interval for checking the communication status, was set to 5 minutes. The third time interval, which is the time interval for calculating the success response ratio, was set to 24 hours. In the experimental environment, the communication environment was changed every 24 hours by changing the distance between equipment d and the wireless router, or by installing shielding between equipment d and the wireless router. The size of the large file was set to 0.5 MB.

[0029] As shown in Figure 2, the experimental results indicate that large files were successfully received when the success response rate was 0.8 (80%) or higher, or when the success response rate was 0.7 (70%) or higher and the session timeout time was 1200 seconds. This experiment shows that the success rate of receiving large files can be improved by setting the success response rate threshold above a predetermined threshold or by appropriately setting the session timeout time.

[0030] [Another embodiment] (1) In the above embodiment, the communication environment determination unit dc1 sets a third time interval of 24 hours (1 day) and determines the communication environment based on the success response probability in the most recent third time interval. Here, the communication environment determination unit dc1 may, for example, set a time interval shorter than one day (for example, one hour) as the third time interval, calculate the success response probability for each of the third time intervals within a day, and determine, for example, the time period within the most recent week in which the success response probability for a day is high, and determine that the communication environment is good during that time period. In this case, requester dc4 will request a large file during a time of day when the communication environment is favorable.

[0031] (2) In addition to the settings described in the above embodiment, the session timeout setting unit sc2 may also be configured to set a longer session timeout time, which is the allowable time from the start of communication to the forced termination of communication when sending a large file from the first communication unit sn to the second communication unit dn, if the communication environment determination unit dc1 determines that the communication environment is good, and the success response ratio calculated by the communication environment determination unit dc1 is low. This method prevents session timeouts from becoming unnecessarily long, improves the success rate of sending and receiving large files, and reduces the deterioration of the communication environment due to failures in sending and receiving large files.

[0032] (3) In the above embodiment, the communication environment information storage unit dc2, which stores the number of communication requests sent, the number of success status codes received, and the success response ratio, is shown as being installed on the equipment d side. The communication environment information storage unit dc2 may also be configured to be provided as a communication environment information storage unit sc3 on the server device s side, as shown in Figure 3. In this configuration, when the communication environment determination unit dc1 determines the communication environment, it receives the number of communication requests sent, the number of success status codes received, and the success response ratio as communication environment information from the communication environment information storage unit sc3 on the server device s side.

[0033] (4) The communication environment determination unit dc1 may determine the quality of the communication environment based on the number of successful responses rather than the success response ratio.

[0034] Furthermore, the configurations disclosed in the above embodiments (including other embodiments, the same applies hereinafter) can be applied in combination with configurations disclosed in other embodiments, provided that no inconsistencies arise. Moreover, the embodiments disclosed herein are illustrative, and the embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto, and can be modified as appropriate without departing from the object of the present invention. [Industrial applicability]

[0035] The communication system of the present invention can be effectively used as a communication system that can stably receive relatively large amounts of data, including update software, from a server, while also suppressing deterioration of the communication environment. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0036] 100: Communication Systems N: Network d: Equipment dc1: Communication environment determination section dc2: Communication environment information storage unit dc3: Communication Environment Measurement Unit dc4 :Request part dn: Second Communications Department s: Server device sc1: Server-side file storage unit sc2: Session timeout setting section sc3: Communication environment information storage unit sn: 1st Communications Department

Claims

1. A server device and equipment capable of communicating with the server device via a network, A communication system configured such that the facility equipment receives from the server device a large file containing update software for updating software of the facility equipment, a second communication unit provided in the facility device and capable of communicating with a first communication unit provided in the server device; a server-side file storage unit provided in the server device for storing the large-capacity file; a communication environment measurement unit provided in the facility device and configured to measure a communication environment between the first communication unit and the second communication unit; a communication environment determination unit that is provided in the facility device and determines whether the communication environment is good or bad based on communication environment information that indicates the communication environment measured by the communication environment measurement unit; a request unit that is provided in the facility device and that, when the communication environment determination unit determines that the communication environment is good, requests the server device to acquire the large-capacity file via the second communication unit.

2. the communication environment measuring unit measures, as the communication environment information, the number of times the second communication unit has transmitted a communication request to the first communication unit and the number of times the second communication unit has received a success status code, meaning that the communication request has been successfully received, from the first communication unit, at each second time interval that is shorter than a first time interval that is a time interval from when the second communication unit first received the large capacity file from the first communication unit to when the second communication unit newly receives the large capacity file; The communication system described in claim 1, wherein the communication environment determination unit determines whether the communication environment is good or bad based on a success response ratio as the communication environment information calculated as the ratio of the number of times the second communication unit receives the success status code from the first communication unit to the number of times the second communication unit sends the communication request to the first communication unit during a third time interval longer than the second time interval.

3. The communication system of claim 2 further comprises a session timeout setting unit provided in the server device, which, when the communication environment determination unit determines that the communication environment is good, sets a longer session timeout time, which is the allowable time from the start of communication when sending the large-capacity file from the first communication unit to the second communication unit to the completion of reception of the large-capacity file, the lower the successful response ratio calculated by the communication environment determination unit.

4. The communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a session timeout setting unit provided in the server device, which, when the request unit makes a request to the server device to obtain the large-capacity file via the second communication unit, sets a session timeout time, which is the allowable time from the start of communication when transmitting the large-capacity file from the first communication unit to the second communication unit to the completion of reception of the large-capacity file, to a value between two and four times the normal timeout time.

5. The communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the large-capacity file used by the facility device is divided into files of a predetermined size and transmitted from the first communication unit to the second communication unit.

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