Wireless communication system, wireless access point device, and program

Abstract

To provide a wireless communication system, a wireless access point device, and a program capable of improving network availability.SOLUTION: An access point device 10 communicates with a terminal device 200 via any one of a plurality of interfaces including a first interface for performing communication compatible with a predetermined high-speed roaming method and a second interface for performing communication with the predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled. The access point device 10 accepts a connection request from the terminal device 200 and, upon receiving the connection request, acquires information identifying the terminal device 200. On the basis of the acquired information, the access point device determines via which interface among the plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface to perform communication.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, a wireless access point device, and a program. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, wireless LAN environments have become widespread, and access point devices are being installed and used in various places.

[0003] In a situation where multiple access point devices are installed in various locations like this, when a client communicating with a certain access point device moves, the client switches its communication destination over the wireless LAN to another access point device, a phenomenon known as roaming.

[0004] In conventional technology, when roaming occurs, the client disconnects communication with the access point device with which it is currently communicating (the roaming source) and then associates and authenticates with the access point device that will be the new roaming destination, which results in at least a temporary disconnection of the wireless LAN connection and communication delays. [Prior art documents] [Non-patent literature]

[0005] [Non-Patent Document 1] Toshi Fujinoki, "[Wireless Blog No. 9] Roaming", [online], November 21, 2019, [Retrieved November 16, 2021], Internet<URL:https: / / licensecounter.jp / engineer-voice / blog / articles / 20191121__9.html> Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] Therefore, as described in Non-Patent Document 1, for example, standards such as IEEE802.11r have been established, and technologies for performing roaming at relatively high speeds (fast roaming technologies) have been developed. However, in order to use this fast roaming technology, both the access point device side and the client side need to perform processing compatible with the same standard of fast roaming technology, but there have been cases where connection has failed when fast roaming is enabled due to minor differences between the two standards.

[0007] Furthermore, with wireless LAN, once the network settings for communication have been configured, the original network settings will continue to be used until the user explicitly switches the network settings. Therefore, if a connection fails with a certain network setting, subsequent connections will not be possible, reducing network availability.

[0008] The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and one of its objects is to provide a wireless communication system, a wireless access point device, and a program that can improve network availability. [Means for solving the problem]

[0009] One aspect of the present invention that solves the problems of the above-mentioned conventional examples is a wireless communication system that includes a wireless LAN system including a plurality of access point devices and a terminal device, wherein each access point device of the wireless LAN system is an access point device that communicates with the terminal device via one of a plurality of interfaces including a first interface that communicates in accordance with a predetermined high-speed roaming method and a second interface that communicates with the terminal device with the predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled, and the wireless LAN system has: means for accepting a connection request from the terminal device; acquisition means for acquiring information that identifies the terminal device at the time of the connection request; and determination means for determining which of the plurality of interfaces including the first interface or the second interface will be used for communication, and controls to start communication with the terminal device that made the connection request via the determined interface.

[0010] Another aspect of the present invention is an access point device comprising: communication means for communicating with a terminal device via one of a plurality of interfaces, including a first interface for communication corresponding to a predetermined high-speed roaming method and a second interface for communication with the predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled; means for accepting a connection request from the terminal device; acquisition means for acquiring information identifying the terminal device at the time of the connection request; determination means for determining, based on the information acquired by the acquisition means, which of a plurality of interfaces, including the first interface or the second interface, to communicate via; and means for providing information on the interface to which to connect after configuration is completed, and controlling the device to start communication with the terminal device that made the connection request via the determined interface.

[0011] According to these aspects of the present invention, terminal devices that are determined to be unable to connect to an interface that has high-speed roaming enabled can be assigned to communicate via the second interface, and terminal devices that support high-speed roaming can be assigned to communicate via the first interface.This allows terminal devices that support high-speed roaming to maintain their availability, while terminal devices that are determined to be unable to connect to an interface that has high-speed roaming enabled are controlled not to perform high-speed roaming, thereby improving their availability.

[0012] Here, the first interface and the second interface may at least be set to different frequency bands, and different SSIDs may be set to different SSIDs.

[0013] In this example, terminal devices that are determined to be unable to connect to the first SSID with high-speed roaming enabled can be assigned to communicate via the second SSID, while terminal devices that support high-speed roaming can be assigned to communicate via the first SSID, which is different from the second SSID.

[0014] In addition, the access point device may be able to access a storage means for storing information identifying terminal devices that have previously failed to connect after setting up a connection, and the determination means may access the storage means to check whether the terminal device identified by the information acquired by the acquisition means is a terminal device that has previously failed to connect after setting up the specified connection, and may determine which of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface to use for communication.

[0015] In this example, for terminal devices that have previously failed to connect after setting up a connection, it is possible to communicate via the second interface based on information provided by the access point, and for terminal devices that are determined to be unable to connect to an interface for which high-speed roaming is enabled, a relatively simple operation can be used to control them so that they do not connect to the first interface for which high-speed roaming is enabled.

[0016] Furthermore, at this time, if the terminal device detects that the connection after the predetermined connection setting has failed, the terminal device may access the storage means and store information identifying the terminal device that has failed to connect.

[0017] In this example, terminal devices that have failed to roam in the past are recorded without any human intervention, so that terminal devices that are determined not to be compatible with high-speed roaming can be controlled, through a relatively simple operation, to connect to a second interface, frequency band, or SSID that disables high-speed roaming.

[0018] Another aspect of the present invention is a program that causes an access point device having communication means for communicating with a terminal device via one of a plurality of interfaces, including a first interface for communicating in accordance with a predetermined high-speed roaming method and a second interface for communicating with the predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled, to function as means for accepting a connection request from the terminal device, acquisition means for acquiring information that identifies the terminal device at the time of the connection request, determination means for determining, based on the information acquired by the acquisition means, which of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface or the second interface will be used for communication, and means for providing information on the interface to be connected to after configuration is complete, and controls the access point device to start communication with the terminal device that made the connection request via the determined interface. [Effects of the Invention]

[0019] According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the network availability of a terminal device regardless of whether the terminal device is connectable to an interface for which high-speed roaming is enabled. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0020] [Figure 1] 1 is a configuration block diagram of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 2] 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating an example of a control unit of the access point device according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. [Figure 3] FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operation of the access point device according to the embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0021] An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in Fig. 1, a wireless communication system 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a wireless LAN system 100 and a terminal device 200 (client). The wireless LAN system 100 also includes a plurality of access point devices 10a, 10b, ... (hereinafter, referred to as access point devices 10 when there is no need to distinguish between them) and a controller device 20.

[0022] The access point device 10 further includes a control unit 11, a storage unit 12, and a communication unit 13. The control unit 11 is a program-controlled device such as a CPU, and operates according to a program stored in the storage unit 12.

[0023] In this embodiment, the control unit 11 controls the communication unit 13 to communicate with the terminal device 200 via one of a plurality of interfaces, including a first interface for communication with a predetermined high-speed roaming method enabled and a second interface for communication with a predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled. Upon receiving a connection request from the terminal device 200, the control unit 11 acquires information for identifying the terminal device 200 and, based on the acquired information, determines which of the plurality of interfaces, including the first interface and the second interface, the communication will be via. After completing the setting, the control unit 11 sends information about the determined interface to the terminal device 200 using a means for providing information about the interface to be connected, and starts communication with the terminal device 200 that made the connection request. The operation of the control unit 11 will be described in detail later.

[0024] The storage unit 12 includes a non-volatile memory device and stores programs executed by the control unit 11. The storage unit 12 also operates as a work memory for the control unit 11. The storage unit 12 may include a volatile memory device.

[0025] The program held in this memory unit 12 is provided by being stored in a computer-readable and non-temporary recording medium, and may be copied to this memory unit 12 or received via a network or the like.

[0026] The communication unit 13, under the control of the control unit 11, communicates with the terminal device 200 in accordance with the wireless LAN standard, and also communicates with the controller device 20 via wired or wireless communication. As already mentioned, in the example of this embodiment, the communication unit 13 communicates via an interface selected and determined from a plurality of interfaces for each terminal device 200.

[0027] When performing high-speed roaming, the controller device 20 performs the following operations: it receives an authentication request from the roaming source access point device 10a, sends it to the roaming destination access point device 10b, and it receives a response from the roaming destination access point device 10b and sends it to the roaming source access point device 10a. Such operations are widely known as the Over-the-DS roaming method, and therefore further detailed description will be omitted.

[0028] The terminal device 200 may be any of various electronic devices such as a smartphone, a portable game console, or a home appliance. The terminal device 200 may include devices that perform communication compatible with high-speed roaming according to the same standard as the access point device 10, and devices that do not support high-speed roaming according to the same standard as the access point device 10.

[0029] Next, an example of the operation of the control unit 11 of the access point device 10 of this embodiment will be described. As already described, the access point device 10 of this embodiment is configured to perform communication via any one of a plurality of interfaces, including a first interface for performing communication with a predetermined high-speed roaming method enabled and a second interface for performing communication with the predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled. Here, the interface is identified by, for example, a frequency band such as the 2.4 GHz band, the 5 GHz band, or the 6 GHz band, or an SSID (Service Set Identifier). That is, as a specific example, the access point device 10 of this embodiment connects the terminal device 200 to either a network identified by a first SSID for performing communication with a predetermined high-speed roaming method enabled, or a network identified by a second SSID for performing communication with the predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled.

[0030] The control unit 11 performs high-speed roaming, for example, by the IEEE802.11r Over-the-DS roaming method, for the terminal device 200 connected to the network identified by the first SSID that performs communication with a predetermined high-speed roaming method enabled. For example, the control unit 11 of the access point device 10 that is the roaming destination receives an authentication request (FT Request) via the controller device 200 and starts the high-speed roaming operation. This authentication request includes information for identifying the terminal device 200, such as the MAC (Media Access Control) address of the terminal device 200 that performs high-speed roaming.

[0031] The control unit 11, which has received this authentication request, sends a predetermined response (FT Response) to the authentication request to the terminal device 200 via the controller device 20 and the roaming source access point device 10. Thereafter, the control unit 11 accepts a reconnection request from the terminal device 200 via the communication unit 13, performs reconnection processing, and sends a response.

[0032] After setting up the connection, if the control unit 11 receives an authentication request (Auth Request) but is unable to reconnect with the corresponding terminal device 200 within a predetermined time, it sends information identifying the terminal device 200 (e.g., a MAC address) to the controller device 20, and causes the controller device 20 to accumulate and store the information.

[0033] In this example, the controller device 20 operates as a storage unit that stores information identifying the terminal device 200 that has failed to make a predetermined connection in the past (hereinafter referred to as failure history information).

[0034] In addition, the control unit 11 of this embodiment is configured to functionally include an accepting unit 111 that accepts a connection request from the terminal device 200, an acquiring unit 112, a determining unit 113, and a connecting unit 114, as illustrated in Figure 2.

[0035] The accepting unit 111 accepts a connection request from the terminal device 200 at a predetermined timing (for example, when an association request is made or when connection settings are made using WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) or the like). This connection request includes information such as a MAC address that identifies the terminal device 200. The acquiring unit 112 acquires information that identifies the terminal device 200, which is included in the connection request accepted by the accepting unit 111.

[0036] Based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit 112, the determination unit 113 determines to which of a plurality of interfaces, including the first interface and the second interface, the terminal device 200 identified by the information will be connected to communicate.

[0037] As an example, the determination unit 113 accesses the controller device 20 and checks whether the information acquired by the acquisition unit 112 is included in the failure history information held by the controller device 20, which identifies terminal devices that have previously failed to connect after the above-mentioned specified connection settings.

[0038] That is, the determination unit 113 checks whether the terminal device 200 that made the connection request has failed to connect after connection setup in the past (whether it has failed to reconnect and the identification information for that has been stored in the failure history information).

[0039] If the failure history information does not include the information acquired by the acquisition unit 112, the decision unit 113 decides to connect the terminal device 200 that has made the connection request to a network identified by a first SSID that performs communication with a predetermined high-speed roaming method enabled. If the failure history information includes the information acquired by the acquisition unit 112, the decision unit 113 decides to connect the terminal device 200 that has made the connection request to a network identified by a second SSID that performs communication with a predetermined high-speed roaming method disabled.

[0040] The connection unit 114 performs control so that the terminal device 200 that has made the connection request is connected to the network of the SSID determined by the determination unit 113 .

[0041] [Operation] This embodiment has the configuration of the above example and operates as follows: In the following example, it is assumed that the failure history information held by the controller device 20 and identifying terminal devices that have failed to connect in the past after the above-mentioned predetermined connection setting is initially empty.

[0042] When the terminal device 200a makes a connection request (for example, a connection request using WPS) to one of the access point devices 10 in the wireless LAN system 100, the access point device 10 that receives the connection request starts the process illustrated in FIG. 3 and acquires information such as a MAC address that identifies the terminal device 200a that made the connection request (here, this is referred to as identification information "A") (S11).

[0043] Then, this access point device 10 accesses the controller device 20 and checks whether the acquired information "A" is included in the failure history information held by the controller device 20 (S12).

[0044] Here, at this point in time, the terminal device 200a has never failed to connect after connection setup in the past, and the failure history information held by the controller device 20 is empty (S12: No), so the access point device 10 controls the terminal device 200a identified by this information "A" to connect to the network identified by the first SSID that communicates with a specified high-speed roaming method enabled (S13).

[0045] Thereafter, while connected to a network identified by a first SSID with an access point device 10a included in the wireless LAN system 100, if the terminal device 200a moves and reaches a state where communication with access point device 10b is more appropriate than communication with access point device 10a (for example, a state where the strength of the signal transmitted and received between access point device 10b and the terminal device 200a is determined to be stronger than the signal transmitted and received with other access point devices 10), the controller device 20 prompts the terminal device 200a to roam to access point device 10b (S14: start of high-speed roaming processing).

[0046] If the terminal device 200a supports the fast roaming method, the terminal device 200a sends an authentication request (Auth Request) via the access point device 10a and the controller device 20 to the access point device 10b, which is the roaming destination.

[0047] In response to this authentication request, the access point device 10b then transmits a predetermined response (Auth Response) to the terminal device 200a via the controller device 20 and the roaming source access point device 10a.

[0048] The terminal device 200a then requests re-association from the access point device 10b, and the access point device 10b responds with a re-association request, completing roaming. This is an example of the original fast roaming method.

[0049] Therefore, the access point device 10b checks whether the connection after the connection setup is successful (S15), and if the terminal device 200a is reconnected to the access point device 10b and the connection after the connection setup is successful (S15: Yes), the access point device 10b terminates the processing as if the connection was completed and continues the communication.

[0050] On the other hand, if, for some reason, the terminal device 200a does not send an authentication request (Auth Request) in the connection processing after connection setup in step S14, or does not request reconnection from the access point device 10b, or does not perform correct processing in response to the response, the connection processing after connection setup will not be completed within a predetermined time after the response to the authentication request, etc. (the connection processing after connection setup has failed). Therefore, if the connection processing after connection setup has failed in this way, the access point device 10a or the access point device 10b determines in step S15 that the connection processing after connection setup has not been successful (S15: No).

[0051] Then, the access point device 10, which has determined that the terminal device 200a has failed in the connection processing after connection setup, sends information "A" that identifies this terminal device 200a to the controller device 20, which then stores the information as failure history information (S16).

[0052] In this example, the terminal device 200a fails to establish a connection after the connection setup, and the connection with the wireless LAN system 100 is lost.

[0053] Subsequently, the user fails to connect after the connection setup and, in response to the loss of the connection, again makes a WPS connection request from terminal device 200a. Access point device 10, which receives this connection request, executes the process of Fig. 3, acquires information "A" that identifies terminal device 200a that made the connection request in step S11, and then accesses controller device 20 to check whether the acquired information "A" is included in the failure history information held by controller device 20 (step S12).

[0054] Here, in the previous processing, the controller device 20 has included the information "A" in the failure history information and retained it (step S12: Yes), so the access point device 10 controls the terminal device 200a identified by this information "A" to connect to the network identified by the second SSID that communicates with a specified high-speed roaming method disabled (S17).

[0055] [Another example of high-speed roaming] In the above description, an example of a fast roaming method has been described in which the wireless LAN system 100 performs roaming processing using the IEEE802.11r Over-the-DS roaming method, but the present embodiment is not limited to this example, and the wireless LAN system 100 may also perform roaming processing using the IEEE802.11r Over-the-Air roaming method. Furthermore, a similar configuration can be adopted when performing roaming processing using a fast roaming method other than IEEE802.11r.

[0056] [Variation 1] Furthermore, in the explanation up to this point, the access point device 10 and the controller device 20 have been described as separate entities, but the controller device 20 may also be configured integrally with any of the access point devices 10 included in the same wireless LAN system 100.

[0057] [Variation 2] Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the access point device 10 determines the interface to connect the terminal device 200 based on the failure history information, but instead, a configuration may be adopted in which a notification is sent at least once to the terminal device 200 whose identification information is recorded in the failure history information, that the terminal device 200 has been recorded in the failure history information, and the user of the terminal device 200 receives the notification and changes the interface by operating the terminal device 200. Furthermore, if the failure history information is not stored, the user of the terminal device 200 may change the interface in response to a connection failure.

[0058] [Variation 3] In addition, the interface of the access point device 10 may be an interface for configuring the access point device 10 (which may be accessible via a web server), allowing an administrator of the access point device 10 to select whether to enable or disable high-speed roaming for each interface (each SSID or each frequency band).

[0059] [Variation 4] Furthermore, in the explanation up to this point, the access point device 10 has maintained the enable / disable information of the high-speed roaming method for each interface, but instead of maintaining the enable / disable information of the high-speed roaming method for each interface, if the terminal device 200 is connected to an interface for which the high-speed roaming method is enabled but connection after connection setup fails, the access point device 10 may maintain a history to that effect and control the terminal device 200 to connect to an interface for which the high-speed roaming method is disabled based on the history.

[0060] [Variation 5] Furthermore, some terminal devices 200 may use a technology that randomly changes information that identifies the terminal device 200. Therefore, the access point device 10 may detect a terminal device 200 that has failed to connect after connection setup, regardless of the recording of failure history information, record the identification information of the terminal device 200 in the failure history information, and then, when a connection setup is performed within a predetermined period thereafter (for example, the first connection setup thereafter, or within a predetermined period such as within 24 hours after recording), transmit information about a second interface that disables high-speed roaming to the terminal device 200 that performed the connection setup, and prompt the terminal device 200 to connect via the second interface. [Explanation of symbols]

[0061] 1 wireless communication system, 10 access point device, 11 control unit, 12 storage unit, 13 communication unit, 20 controller device, 100 wireless LAN system, 111 acceptance unit, 112 acquisition unit, 113 determination unit, 114 connection unit, 200 terminal device.

Claims

1. A wireless LAN system including a plurality of access point devices and a terminal device, each access point device of the wireless LAN system is an access point device that communicates with the terminal device via any one of a plurality of interfaces including a first interface that performs communication in accordance with a predetermined fast roaming method and a second interface that performs communication in which the predetermined fast roaming method is disabled; The wireless LAN system means for accepting a connection request from a terminal device; an acquisition means for acquiring information for identifying the terminal device at the time of the connection request; a determination means for determining which of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface will be used for communication; and storing information identifying a terminal device that has previously failed to connect to the first interface corresponding to the predetermined fast roaming method; the determining means accesses the stored information to check whether the terminal device identified by the information acquired by the acquiring means is a terminal device that has previously failed to connect to a first interface that supports the predetermined fast roaming method, and determines which interface of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface to use for communication; a wireless communication system that controls the start of communication with the terminal device that has made the connection request via the determined interface;

2. a communication means for communicating with a terminal device via one of a plurality of interfaces including a first interface for performing communication in accordance with a predetermined fast roaming method and a second interface for performing communication in which the predetermined fast roaming method is disabled; means for accepting a connection request from a terminal device; an acquisition means for acquiring information for identifying the terminal device at the time of the connection request; a determination means for determining which of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface will be used for communication; means for providing information on an interface to be connected based on the determination by said determining means; a storage means for storing information identifying a terminal device that has previously failed to connect to the first interface corresponding to the predetermined fast roaming method; the determining means accesses the retaining means to check whether the terminal device identified by the information acquired by the acquiring means is a terminal device that has previously failed to connect to a first interface that supports the predetermined fast roaming method, and determines which interface of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface to use for communication; an access point device that performs control so as to start communication with the terminal device that has made the connection request via the determined interface;

3. 3. The access point device according to claim 2, The access point device, wherein at least the first interface and the second interface are set to different frequencies from each other.

4. 3. The access point device according to claim 2, The access point device has at least the first interface and the second interface set with different SSIDs.

5. 5. The access point device according to claim 2, wherein: When a terminal device detects that it has failed to connect to a first interface in which the specified high-speed roaming method is valid, the access point device accesses the storage means and stores information identifying the terminal device that has failed to connect to the first interface.

6. an access point device having a communication means for communicating with a terminal device via any one of a plurality of interfaces including a first interface for performing communication in accordance with a predetermined fast roaming method and a second interface for performing communication in which the predetermined fast roaming method is disabled; means for accepting a connection request from a terminal device; an acquisition means for acquiring information for identifying the terminal device at the time of the connection request; a determination means for determining which of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface will be used for communication; and providing information on an interface to be connected based on the determination by the determining means; the access point device is connected to a storage means for storing information identifying a terminal device that has previously failed to connect to the first interface corresponding to the predetermined fast roaming method, and When functioning as the determination means, the storage means is accessed to check whether the terminal device identified by the information acquired by the acquisition means is a terminal device that has previously failed to connect to a first interface that supports the predetermined fast roaming method, and the determination means is made to determine which interface of a plurality of interfaces including the first interface and the second interface will be used for communication; a program for controlling the start of communication with the terminal device that has made the connection request via the determined interface;

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