Radio transmitting device, radio receiving device, radio relay device, control circuit, storage medium, communication system, and communication method

Abstract

The wireless transmitting device (1) includes a wired receiving unit (101A, 101B) that receives a wired signal that is a signal transmitted by wire and is composed of a plurality of frames, a wireless control signal providing unit (103) that inserts a wireless control signal, which is a control signal for managing wireless communication, into a section where no information transmission is taking place between frames of the received wired signal, and a wireless signal generating unit (104) that generates a wireless signal to be transmitted wirelessly using a received bit pattern of the wired signal and the wireless control signal.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a wireless transmitting device, a wireless receiving device, a wireless relay device, a control circuit, a storage medium, a communication system, and a communication method for making part of wired communication wireless. [Background technology]

[0002] There are various known technologies for making wired communication wireless. It is necessary to appropriately select the frequency band and medium to be used depending on the requirements and conditions for wireless communication. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technology for converting wired signals into millimeter waves for wireless transmission. Millimeter waves are suitable for high-capacity, low-latency wireless transmission because they are less likely to interfere with other communications due to their high linearity and because it is easy to secure a wide bandwidth. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2018-014716 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, the above-mentioned conventional technology only discloses re-modulating a wired signal into a wireless bit pattern and transmitting it, and there was a problem that it was not possible to perform communication management such as measuring communication quality or adjusting the communication rate in the wireless transmission section.

[0005] The present disclosure has been made in view of the above, and has an object to provide a wireless transmission device that enables communication management in a wireless transmission section in which part of wired communication is made wireless. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the object, a wireless transmission device according to the present disclosure is a wireless transmission device for wirelessly transmitting a partial section of a communication signal of wired communication between a source device and a destination device that are previously associated one-to-one, and includes a wired receiving unit that receives a wired signal that is a signal transmitted by wire and is composed of a plurality of frames, a wireless control signal providing unit that inserts a wireless control signal, which is a control signal for managing wireless communication, into a section in which no information transmission is performed between the frames of the received wired signal, and a wireless signal generating unit that generates a wireless signal to be wirelessly transmitted by using a received bit pattern of the wired signal and the wireless control signal. The wireless signal generation unit performs modulation processing by adaptive modulation using a modulation method according to the communication quality of the wireless transmission section of the wireless signal, and the wireless control signal includes information indicating the modulation method used in the modulation processing. It is characterized by: Effect of the Invention

[0007] The wireless transmission device according to the present disclosure has an effect of enabling communication management in a wireless transmission section in which part of wired communication is made wireless. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a functional configuration of a wireless transmission device according to a first embodiment; [Diagram 2] FIG. 1 shows a wired signal received by a wireless transmission device and a wireless signal transmitted by the wireless transmission device when an Ethernet frame is used. [Diagram 3] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a functional configuration of a wireless receiving device according to a first embodiment; [Figure 4] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of the configuration of a communication system including a wireless transmitting device and a wireless receiving device. [Diagram 5] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a communication system including a wireless transmitting device, a wireless receiving device, and a wireless relay device. [Figure 6] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a functional configuration of a wireless relay device according to a second embodiment; [Figure 7] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a communication system including a communication device having a bidirectional communication function. [Figure 8] FIG. 1 shows an example of a hardware configuration. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0009] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A wireless transmitting device, a wireless receiving device, a wireless relay device, a control circuit, a storage medium, a communication system, and a communication method according to embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0010] Embodiment 1 1 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a wireless transmission device 1 according to a first embodiment. The wireless transmission device 1 is an example of a communication device having a function of receiving a wired signal, which is a signal transmitted by wire, and a function of converting the wired signal into a wireless signal and wirelessly transmitting the wireless signal.

[0011] The wireless transmission device 1 includes wired receiving units 101A and 101B, a wired signal detection unit 102, a wireless control signal providing unit 103, a wireless signal generation unit 104, a wireless transmission unit 105, and a transmission antenna unit 106. Since the wired receiving units 101A and 101B perform similar processing, hereinafter, when there is no need to particularly distinguish between the wired receiving unit 101A and the wired receiving unit 101B, they may be simply referred to as the wired receiving unit 101. The signal system of the wired signal received by the wired receiving unit 101A is referred to as signal system #A, and the signal system of the wired signal received by the wired receiving unit 101B is referred to as signal system #B.

[0012] The wired receiver 101 receives a wired signal. The wired receiver 101 performs wired communication according to a communication method such as Ethernet (registered trademark), RS-232C, RS-422, or RS-485. These communication methods all perform burst transmission in which a frame is treated as a single block for wired communication. The wired receiver 101 generates demodulated data of the received wired signal, and outputs a bit string of the generated demodulated data to the wired signal detector 102 and the wireless signal generator 104.

[0013] The wired signal detection unit 102 detects a section where no information is transmitted between frames of the wired signal received by the wired receiving unit 101. The wired signal detection unit 102 outputs information indicating the detected section to the wireless control signal providing unit 103.

[0014] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a wired signal received by the wireless transmission device 1 and a wireless signal transmitted by the wireless transmission device 1 when an Ethernet frame is used. The wired signal received by the wireless transmission device 1 is composed of a plurality of wired frames. Each wired frame can include a preamble, a header, a payload, and a checksum. Here, the wired frame is an Ethernet frame. In the case of Ethernet, the presence of an Ethernet frame is recognized by using a predetermined bit pattern called an SFD (Start Frame Delimiter) present in the preamble or in the header received following the preamble as a marker, and an operation is performed to decode the payload in the Ethernet frame and deliver the payload data to a higher layer. One burst is composed of Ethernet frames. Between frames, there is a guard time section called an IPG (Inter Packet Gap) or IFG (Inter Frame Gap). Although no significant Ethernet frame exists in this section, a synchronization signal between transmission and reception may be transmitted in the wired physical layer. In a typical Ethernet PHY module, only the Ethernet frame portion excluding the guard time section, which is a synchronization signal, is passed to the function responsible for the MAC (Media Access Control) layer. Therefore, from the MAC layer's perspective, this guard time section is judged to be a section where there is no signal, in other words, a section where no information is being transmitted.

[0015] In addition, in RS-232C, a chunk of data surrounded by a start bit and a stop bit is transmitted as one burst, and the period from the stop bit to the next start bit is a guard time period during which no information is transmitted.

[0016] The wired signal detection unit 102 outputs information indicating a section in which no information transmission between frames of a wired signal is performed as described above to the wireless control signal providing unit 103. The "information indicating a section in which no information transmission between frames of a wired signal is performed" may be, for example, information indicating a section in which a wired burst exists, and a section other than a section in which a wired burst exists may be determined to be a "section in which no information transmission between frames of a wired signal is performed."

[0017] The wireless control signal providing unit 103 inserts a wireless control signal, which is a control signal for wireless communication, into a section where no information transmission is performed between frames of the wired signal. The wireless control signal is composed of one or more wireless control information frames. As shown in FIG. 2, the wireless control information frame includes a wireless preamble, a wireless header, and wireless control information. Note that although it has been stated that the wireless control signal is inserted into a section where no information transmission is performed, if the wired signal includes a long preamble such as an Ethernet frame and includes information in the header such as an SFD that indicates the start position of the frame body, as shown in FIG. 2, a part of the preamble of the wired frame may be overwritten with the wireless control signal. The wireless signal includes information included in the wired frame of the wired signal and the wireless control signal, and in the example shown in FIG. 2, a part of the preamble of the wired frame #2 is overwritten with the wireless control signal. In this case, it is possible to transmit a wireless control signal that is longer than the guard time section by the length of the overwritten section. If a part of the preamble of the wired frame is overwritten with the wireless control signal, a valid wired signal can be restored by re-adding the preamble to the beginning when the SFD is received on the receiving side.

[0018] The wireless signal generating unit 104 generates a wireless signal to be wirelessly transmitted by the wireless transmitting unit 105, using the reception bit pattern of the wired signal received by the wired receiving unit 101 and the wireless control signal inserted by the wireless control signal adding unit 103. The wireless signal generating unit 104 outputs the generated wireless signal to the wireless transmitting unit 105.

[0019] The wireless transmitting unit 105 wirelessly transmits the wireless signal generated by the wireless signal generating unit 104 via the transmitting antenna unit 106. As a result, the wireless signal transmitted from the wireless transmitting device 1 has a wireless control signal inserted in a section where no information is transmitted between wired frames of the wired signal, as shown in FIG.

[0020] Ethernet frames often have an error detection function called FCS (Frame Check Sequence) using CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check). However, when converting a wired signal to a wireless signal, the wireless transmitting device 1 does not necessarily need to perform a CRC check and remove frames in which an error is detected. This is because if all frames are received before the CRC calculation is completed and then a decision is made as to whether to transmit the frames before transmitting them to a later stage, a large amount of delay will occur. The CRC check can be performed by a communication device that performs upper layer processing, and error detection does not need to be performed in a device that relays and transfers Ethernet frames, etc., as is, such as the wireless transmitting device 1.

[0021] An example of the radio control information included in the radio control signal is a known sequence for channel estimation required for synchronous detection, such as BPSK (Binary Phase Shift Keying). If the phase rotation amount of the known sequence can be corrected on the receiving side, synchronous detection can be realized, and signal multiplexing using QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) or a spreading code, which will be described later, can also be realized. Furthermore, by transmitting the known sequence as the radio control information, it becomes possible to measure the signal level and noise level based on the reception result of the known sequence, and it becomes possible to use adaptive modulation using a modulation method according to the reception environment. For example, when the reception SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) is lower than a threshold, a modulation method that is resistant to noise, such as BPSK or binary ASK, can be used, and when the reception SNR exceeds the threshold, multi-value transmission can be performed. In this case, transmission parameters such as a modulation method can also be stored as the radio control information.

[0022] The wireless control information frame can include the above-mentioned known sequence, transmission parameters, etc. as the wireless control information. The wireless control information frame can include information that indicates that the frame is dedicated to wireless control, the type of control information, and the control information itself. In this case, if the application that transmits and receives the original wired frame aims to minimize the transmission delay of the wired frame, when the next wired frame arrives during the transmission of the wireless control information, the wireless control information frame can be updated to avoid missing information in the wired frame. Sending If a sufficient delay can be allowed, it is possible to avoid missing radio control information frames, but since there is a trade-off between the amount of delay and the frame size of the radio control information frame, when transmitting these in a time-division manner as shown in Figure 2, it is necessary to either add a delay to ensure the frame size of the radio control information frame, or to allow the interruption of the radio control information frame to prevent an increase in delay.

[0023] It is preferable that the wireless control information frame is a frame of a different form from the wired frame. However, if the duty ratio of the wired signal is small and the possibility of interruption is low even if the frame size of the wireless control information frame is secured to be large, the wireless control information frame may be a frame of a form such as an Ethernet frame having a long preamble and header like the wired frame. For example, when an Ethernet frame is transmitted by wire and it is known that the time occupancy rate of the wired frame is not high in the system, for example, when it is known that wireless has a transmission capacity of 1 Gbps but Ethernet has a rate of up to 100 Mbps, the duty ratio of the wired signal is considered to be small. If it is possible to distinguish in the header whether the information is included in the original wired frame or the information added when converting to a wireless signal, it is also possible to configure the receiving side to select and output only the information included in the wired frame. In addition, if the duty ratio of the wired signal is expected to be high, a configuration in which a data block with a small header such as 64b / 66b is used as one wireless control information frame is also considered. The wireless control information frame may have any configuration other than the above example, as long as the information can be identified from the information contained in the wired signal on the receiving side.

[0024] In addition, the multiple signal systems received by the wireless transmission device 1 may be processed in parallel by the wired signal detection unit 102 and the wireless control signal providing unit 103, and the multiple signal systems may be multiplexed by the wireless signal generation unit 104. In the example of FIG. 1, the wireless transmission device 1 receives signal system #A and signal system #B, so the wired signal detection unit 102 and the wireless control signal providing unit 103 process the signal system #A and the signal system #B in parallel, and the wireless signal generation unit 104 can multiplex the signal system #A and the signal system #B. When multiplexing multiple signal systems, the wireless transmission rate needs to be equal to or greater than the sum of the transmission rates of each wired connection. As a multiplexing method, when multiplexing two signal systems, a method of mapping the series of each signal system to the real axis and the imaginary axis using a transmission method that can obtain orthogonal channels such as QPSK is considered. When multiplexing two or more signal systems, a method of allocating multiple bits to each of the real axis and the imaginary axis such as 64QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) is considered. In 64QAM, three bits can be assigned to each of the real and imaginary axes, so up to six signal systems can be accommodated. It is also possible to multiplex multiple signal systems using a spread multiplexing method that uses orthogonal codes. One example of a spread code is a method that uses Walsh codes, which have good cross-correlation properties. By multiplexing multiple signal systems using the above-mentioned QPSK, 64QAM, spread codes, etc., it is possible to transmit while suppressing the delay fluctuation of each signal system.

[0025] Another method for multiplexing multiple signal systems is to switch and map the signal system assigned to each wireless modulation symbol or bit, as in P / S (Parallel to Serial) conversion. In this case, as with multiplexing by spreading, the environment must have a sufficiently high wireless transmission speed. When performing P / S conversion, data must be supplied even in sections where there is no information to be transmitted in a specific signal system. However, as described above, by inserting a wireless control signal into a section where no information is being transmitted by a wired signal, the section where no information is being transmitted can be eliminated, and the original signal series can be correctly restored on the receiving side.

[0026] 3 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the wireless receiving device 3 according to the first embodiment. The wireless receiving device 3 is an example of a communication device having a function of receiving a wireless signal transmitted by the wireless transmitting device 1, converting the received wireless signal into a wired signal, and transmitting the wired signal.

[0027] The wireless receiving device 3 includes a receiving antenna section 300 , a wireless receiving section 301 , a demodulating section 302 , a wireless control signal processing section 303 , a wired signal generating section 304 , wired transmitting sections 305 A and 305 B, and a display section 306 .

[0028] The wireless receiving section 301 receives the wireless signal radiated into the air as a radio wave by the wireless transmitting device 1 using the receiving antenna section 300, and outputs the received signal to the demodulating section 302.

[0029] The demodulation unit 302 performs demodulation processing on the received signal corresponding to the modulation method used on the transmitting side, and outputs the bit string of the demodulation result to each of the wired signal generation unit 304 and the wireless control signal processing unit 303. When the modulation method is fixed, the demodulation unit 302 performs demodulation processing using the fixed demodulation method, thereby enabling the data included in the received signal to be correctly demodulated.

[0030] When the modulation method is variable, the modulation method used on the transmitting side is stored in the wireless control signal, but the modulation method is unknown until the wireless control signal processing unit 303 decodes the modulation method stored in the wireless control signal. For this reason, for example, it is possible to fix only the modulation method of the wireless control signal. In this case, the demodulation unit 302 performs demodulation processing corresponding to a predetermined modulation method on the wireless control signal, decodes the modulation method for the signal sequence included in the wired frame, and performs demodulation processing corresponding to the decoded modulation method. It is also possible to limit the candidates of the modulation method for the wireless control signal to about two types. In this case, the demodulation unit 302 may perform demodulation processing corresponding to each of the candidates of the predetermined modulation method, for example, and attempt to decode each demodulation result, and adopt the demodulation result whose header can be read.

[0031] The radio control signal processing unit 303 can perform processing based on the radio control signal. For example, when the radio control signal includes a known pilot signal, the radio control signal processing unit 303 can measure communication quality using the received pilot signal. In addition, in a BPSK modulation system, when the radio control signal includes a known sequence for channel estimation, the radio control signal processing unit 303 can realize a synchronous detection function including phase tracking such as a PLL (Phase Locked Loop) by observing the phase rotation amount of the known sequence and applying feedback to the down converter of the demodulation unit 302. In addition, the radio control signal processing unit 303 can measure SNR using a known signal included in the radio control signal and handle the SNR as an indicator of communication quality. In addition, the radio control signal processing unit 303 can also perform error detection from the demodulation result of the known signal included in the radio control signal and handle the error detection result as an indicator of communication quality. For example, when the radio control signal processing unit 303 determines that reception of multiple frames has failed consecutively, it can display communication error information using the display unit 306. Display unit 306 may be a display device such as an LED (Light Emitting Diode) or an interface that outputs information to an external device such as a serial console. Display unit 306 may display not only the wireless control signal but also the FCS result of the wired frame. In this case, wireless control signal processing unit 303 reads the wired frame from the data obtained from demodulation unit 302 and executes FCS.

[0032] The wired signal generating unit 304 extracts the original wired frame from the received signal, excluding the wireless control signal, and generates a wired signal that is a signal to be transmitted by wire. The wired signal generating unit 304 outputs the generated wired signal to either the wired transmitting unit 305A or 305B. The wired transmitting unit 305A, which is the output destination of the wired signal generating unit 304, corresponds to the wired receiving unit 101A of the wireless transmitting device 1, and the wired transmitting unit 305B corresponds to the wired receiving unit 101B of the wireless transmitting device 1. In other words, the wired transmitting unit 305A corresponds to the signal system #A, and the wired transmitting unit 305B corresponds to the signal system #B. From the perspective of the wired transmission section, it can be handled as if the wired receiving unit 101A and the wired transmitting unit 305A are directly connected, and the wired receiving unit 101B and the wired transmitting unit 305B are directly connected, without being aware of the presence of a wireless transmission path between them. The wired signal generating unit 304 can select the output destination of the received signal from the wired transmitting unit 305A, 305B based on, for example, address information included in the Ethernet frame. In the case of a communication method in which address information cannot be assigned, such as RS-232C, the wireless control signal processing unit 303 outputs information that allows the wired signal generating unit 304 to determine the output destination of each signal sequence, so that the wired signal generating unit 304 can select the output destination of the generated wired signal. If the preamble of the original wired signal is overwritten when the wireless control signal is inserted, the wired signal generating unit 304 can restore the original wired signal by re-assigning the preamble, which is a predetermined sequence, based on the position of the SFD.

[0033] Although the wireless transmitting device 1 shown in FIG. 1 and the wireless receiving device 3 shown in FIG. 3 are shown to have two signal systems transmitted via wired communication, the number of signal systems may be one, or three or more.

[0034] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a communication system 10A including a wireless transmitting device 1 and a wireless receiving device 3. The communication system 10A includes one wireless transmitting device 1 and one wireless receiving device 3 that receives a wireless signal transmitted by the wireless transmitting device 1. The wireless transmitting device 1 converts a wired signal into a wireless signal and transmits the wireless signal wirelessly, and the wireless receiving device 3 receives the wireless signal, converts it into a wired signal, and transmits it by wire. At this time, the wireless transmitting device 1 inserts a wireless control signal, which is a control signal for wireless use, into a section in which information transmission between a plurality of frames included in the wired signal is not performed, so that it becomes possible to transmit wireless control information for performing various controls in the wireless transmission section to the wireless receiving device 3. The wireless receiving device 3 removes the wireless control signal from the received signal, restores the original wired signal, that is, the wired signal received by the wireless transmitting device 1, and transmits it by wire.

[0035] Although omitted in Fig. 4 for simplicity, a plurality of devices including a source device and a destination device of the wired signal of each signal system are connected in the wired transmission section. As described above, since the wired signal transmitted in the wired transmission section does not change before and after the wireless transmission section, each device connected to the wired transmission section can operate without being aware of the existence of the wireless transmission section, that is, in the wireless transmission section, in the same way as if it were connected by wire instead of wirelessly.

[0036] As described above, the wireless transmission device 1 according to the first embodiment is characterized by including wired reception units 101A and 101B for receiving a wired signal that is a signal transmitted by wire and is composed of a plurality of frames, a wireless control signal providing unit 103 for inserting a wireless control signal, which is a control signal for wireless communication management, into a section where information transmission between frames of the received wired signal is not performed, and a wireless signal generating unit 104 for generating a wireless signal to be wirelessly transmitted using a reception bit pattern of the wired signal and the wireless control signal. With this configuration, when the wireless transmission device 1 receives a wired signal, it transmits a wireless signal in which a wireless control signal, which is a control signal for wireless communication management, is inserted into a section where information transmission between frames of the wired signal is not performed, so that it is possible to perform wireless communication management of the wireless transmission section by using the wireless control signal in the wireless transmission section where part of the wired communication is made wireless. Wireless communication management refers to grasping a communication environment such as communication quality of the wireless transmission section and adjusting parameters related to wireless communication such as a communication rate. This makes it possible to externally monitor the wireless communication environment, isolate the cause of any communication problems, and check the communication status. It also makes it possible to flexibly provide a variety of communication functions, such as adjusting the transmission rate and signal multiplexing, by providing a means for selecting the wireless transmission mode according to the communication quality.

[0037] Here, the wireless signal generating unit 104 can generate a wireless signal including a wireless control signal that is longer than the section in which no information is transmitted between frames of the wired signal by overwriting the preamble included in the frame with the wireless control signal.

[0038] Furthermore, even if the wired signal includes an error detection code, the wireless transmission device 1 does not need to perform error detection processing. This makes it possible to suppress the occurrence of delay jitter and to easily achieve low delay, low delay fluctuation, and communication quality at the same time.

[0039] Moreover, the wireless transmission device 1 includes a plurality of wired receiving units 101A, 101B corresponding to the plurality of signal systems, respectively, and one wireless transmission unit 105 for transmitting wireless signals, and the wireless signal generating unit 104 multiplexes the plurality of signal systems to generate a wireless signal, and the single wireless transmission unit 105 can multiplex and transmit the plurality of signal systems. Whereas a single wire is required for each signal system in a wired system, the wireless transmission device 1 can transmit and receive the plurality of signal systems with a single antenna. In this case, by using a channel that controls interference between the signal systems, it is possible to suppress the influence of interference and maintain communication quality even when the plurality of signal systems are simultaneously transmitted and received with a single antenna.

[0040] The frames constituting the wired signal may be Ethernet frames.

[0041] According to the first embodiment, the wireless receiving device 3 receiving the wireless signal transmitted by the wireless transmitting device 1 can include a wireless control signal processing unit 303 that performs wireless communication management in a wireless transmission section by the wireless signal based on a wireless control signal included in the wireless signal. This makes it possible to perform wireless communication management of the wireless transmission section on the receiving side based on the wireless control signal inserted on the transmitting side. For example, the wireless control signal processing unit 303 can perform at least one of measuring wireless communication quality in the wireless transmission section and controlling the operation of reception processing of the wireless signal transmitted by the wireless transmitting device 1 as the wireless communication management.

[0042] Moreover, the wireless receiving device 3 may further include a wired signal generating unit 304 that removes a wireless control signal from the received wireless signal to restore the wired signal received by the wireless transmitting device 1, and wired transmitting units 305A and 305B that transmit the restored wired signal by wire. As a result, the wired signal received by the wireless transmitting device 1 and the wired signal transmitted by the wireless receiving device 3 become the same, so that the source device and destination device of the wired communication can communicate in the same procedure as if they were all connected by wire, without recognizing that part of the communication path between the source device and the destination device is connected wirelessly.

[0043] As described above, in wireless transmitting device 1, there are cases where the preamble portion of a frame is overwritten, but if wired signal generating section 304 of wireless receiving device 3 cannot detect a preamble of a predetermined bit pattern in the information transmission frame portion of the received wireless signal, the preamble is re-added to restore the wired signal. Therefore, even if the preamble portion of the frame is overwritten by a wireless control signal in wireless transmitting device 1, it is possible to reliably restore the original wired signal.

[0044] Furthermore, the functions of the wireless transmission device 1 according to the first embodiment can be realized using a control circuit, as described later. This control circuit controls the wireless transmission device 1, which receives a wired signal that is a signal transmitted by wire and is composed of a plurality of frames, converts the wired signal into a wireless signal and transmits it, and can cause the wireless transmission device 1 to execute a step of inserting a wireless control signal, which is a control signal for managing wireless communication, into a section in which no information transmission is performed between frames of the received wired signal.

[0045] It is also possible to provide a storage medium for implementing the functions of the wireless transmission device 1 according to the first embodiment. This storage medium stores a program for controlling the wireless transmission device 1 that receives a wired signal that is a signal transmitted by wire and is composed of a plurality of frames, converts the wired signal into a wireless signal, and transmits the wireless signal, and the program causes the wireless transmission device 1 to execute a step of inserting a wireless control signal, which is a control signal for wireless communication, into a section in which no information transmission is performed between frames of the received wired signal.

[0046] Moreover, the communication system 10A according to the first embodiment includes a wireless transmitting device 1 that makes part of wired communication wireless, receives a wired signal that is a signal transmitted by wire and is composed of a plurality of frames, generates a wireless signal by inserting a wireless control signal, which is a control signal for wireless communication, into a section where information transmission between frames of the received wired signal is not performed, and transmits the generated wireless signal, and a wireless receiving device 3 that receives the wireless signal transmitted by the wireless transmitting device 1, performs wireless communication management in the wireless transmission section by the wireless signal based on the wireless control signal contained in the received wireless signal, and removes the wireless control signal from the received wireless signal to restore the wired signal received by the wireless transmitting device 1, and transmits the restored wired signal via a wired connection.

[0047] Also, according to the first embodiment, it is possible to provide a communication method for making part of wired communication wireless. This communication method includes the steps of: receiving a wired signal, which is a signal transmitted by wire and is composed of a plurality of frames, by the wireless transmitting device 1; generating a wireless signal by inserting a wireless control signal, which is a control signal for wireless communication, into a section where no information transmission is performed between the frames of the received wired signal by the wireless transmitting device 1; transmitting the generated wireless signal by the wireless transmitting device 1; receiving the wireless signal by the wireless receiving device 3; performing wireless communication management in the wireless transmission section by the wireless signal based on the wireless control signal included in the received wireless signal by the wireless receiving device 3; removing the wireless control signal from the received wireless signal by the wireless receiving device 3 to restore the wired signal received by the wireless transmitting device 1; and transmitting the restored wired signal by wire by the wireless receiving device 3.

[0048] Embodiment 2 In FIG. 4, the wireless signal transmitted by the wireless transmitting device 1 is directly transmitted to the wireless receiving device 3. However, the wireless signal may be transmitted via the wireless relay device 4.

[0049] 5 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a communication system 10B including a wireless transmitting device 1, a wireless receiving device 3, and a wireless relay device 4. Note that, although the configuration of the communication system 10B including one wireless relay device 4 is shown here, a configuration in which a wireless signal transmitted by the wireless transmitting device 1 is relayed in series by two wireless relay devices 4 and transmitted to the wireless receiving device 3 may also be used.

[0050] 6 is a diagram showing a functional configuration of the wireless relay device 4 according to the embodiment 2. The wireless relay device 4 includes a receiving antenna unit 400, a wireless receiving unit 401, a demodulating unit 402, a wireless control signal processing unit 403, a wireless retransmission signal generating unit 404, a wireless transmitting unit 405, a display unit 406, and a transmitting antenna unit 407.

[0051] The receiving antenna section 400 has the same function as the receiving antenna section 300. The radio receiving section 401 has the same function as the radio receiving section 301. The demodulating section 402 has the same function as the demodulating section 302. The display section 406 has the same function as the display section 306.

[0052] In addition to the functions of the wireless control signal processing unit 303, the wireless control signal processing unit 403 has a function of generating a wireless control signal for a signal to be transmitted as a relay signal in the same manner as the wireless control signal providing unit 103, and outputting the generated wireless control signal as a bit string to the wireless retransmission signal generating unit 404. The wireless control signal generated by the wireless control signal processing unit 403 may be the same as the received wireless control signal, or may be, for example, the received wireless control signal plus information such as the number of relays indicating how many hops the signal will be relayed. Furthermore, when there is a possibility of interference with other relay links, a different sequence having good orthogonality to the signal of the previous link may be selected as a pilot signal, so that a control signal different from that of the previous link is sent.

[0053] The wireless retransmission signal generation unit 404 generates a wireless retransmission signal, which is a signal to be retransmitted as a relay signal, based on the received bit pattern of the wireless signal output by the demodulation unit 402 and the bit sequence of the wireless control signal output by the wireless control signal processing unit 403, and outputs the generated wireless retransmission signal to the wireless transmission unit 405.

[0054] Radio transmitting unit 405 has the same function as radio transmitting unit 105, and transmits the radio retransmission signal output by radio retransmission signal generating unit 404 using transmitting antenna unit 407. Transmitting antenna unit 407 has the same function as transmitting antenna unit .

[0055] Although the wireless relay device 4 shown in FIG. 6 has both a function of receiving a wireless signal and a function of transmitting a wireless signal, all the functions of the wireless relay device 4 may not be realized in one device by being housed in one housing. For example, the demodulation function of the receiving side and the signal generation function of the transmitting side may be implemented in physically separate positions. For example, the demodulation unit 402 and the wireless retransmission signal generation unit 404 may be connected by a cable of about several meters. Note that not only between the demodulation unit 402 and the wireless retransmission signal generation unit 404, but also between any other components, the connection may be made by a cable of about several meters. This makes it possible to achieve the effect of easily ensuring communication performance by combining a wired connection that is more resistant to electromagnetic noise than wireless.

[0056] As described above, the wireless relay device 4 in embodiment 2 is a wireless relay device 4 that relays a wireless signal transmitted by the wireless transmitting device 1, and can include a wireless retransmission signal generating unit 404 that generates a wireless retransmission signal, which is a wireless signal to be retransmitted, based on the received wireless signal, and a wireless transmitting unit 405 that transmits the wireless retransmission signal.

[0057] In addition, the wireless relay device 4 further includes a wireless control signal processing unit 403 that generates a wireless control signal for a wireless retransmission signal by adding information about the number of relays to the wireless control signal included in the received wireless signal, and the wireless retransmission signal generating unit 404 generates a wireless retransmission signal including the wireless control signal generated by the wireless control signal processing unit 403.

[0058] By using the wireless relay device 4, it becomes possible to extend the wireless transmission distance of a wireless signal, which is generated by converting a wired signal and in which a wireless control signal is inserted.

[0059] In the above, the wireless transmitting device 1 having the function of transmitting wireless signals and the wireless receiving device 3 having the function of receiving wireless signals are separate devices, but a single communication device 6 may have both the functions of the wireless transmitting device 1 and the wireless receiving device 3.

[0060] 7 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a communication system 10C including communication devices 6A and 6B having a bidirectional communication function. Note that here, the two communication devices 6 having a bidirectional communication function are distinguished by being referred to as communication devices 6A and 6B. The communication system 10C includes a communication device 6A and a communication device 6B.

[0061] Each of the communication devices 6A and 6B has a wireless transmission device 1 and a wireless reception device 3. The function of the wireless transmission device 1 is the same as that described with reference to FIG. 1, and therefore the description thereof will be omitted here. The function of the wireless reception device 3 is the same as that described with reference to FIG. 3, and therefore the description thereof will be omitted here. The wireless reception device 3 of the communication device 6B receives the wireless signal that the wireless transmission device 1 of the communication device 6A converts a wired signal into a wireless signal and transmits wirelessly. The wireless reception device 3 of the communication device 6B can perform various wireless control processing based on the demodulation result of the wireless control signal included in the received wireless signal. The wireless reception device 3 of the communication device 6A receives the wireless signal that the wireless transmission device 1 of the communication device 6B converts a wired signal into a wireless signal and transmits wirelessly. The wireless reception device 3 of the communication device 6A can also perform various wireless control processing based on the demodulation result of the wireless control signal included in the received wireless signal. In this way, by using the communication devices 6A and 6B including the wireless transmitting device 1 and the wireless receiving device 3, it is possible to wirelessly perform two-way communication between two points that are part of a wired system. Since a wireless control signal is included in the wireless signal between the communication devices 6A and 6B, it is possible to realize various wireless control processes even when part of the wired communication is wireless.

[0062] Here, the hardware configuration will be described. Here, as an example, an example of the hardware configuration of a communication device 6 having a bidirectional communication function will be described. Fig. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration. The communication device 6 performs bidirectional communication by FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) or TDD (Time Division Duplex), and has the functions of both the wireless transmitting device 1 and the wireless receiving device 3.

[0063] The communication device 6 includes a wired signal receiving circuit 501 , a wireless control signal processing circuit 502 , a wireless signal transmitting circuit 503 , a wireless signal receiving circuit 504 , and a wired signal transmitting circuit 505 .

[0064] The wired signal receiving circuit 501 has a function of receiving a wired signal and generating demodulated data. The wireless control signal processing circuit 502 has a function of providing a wireless control signal, processing the wireless control signal, and displaying the communication quality. The wireless signal transmitting circuit 503 has a function of generating and modulating a wireless signal and converting it to a wireless frequency. The wireless signal receiving circuit 504 has a function of converting a wireless signal from a wireless frequency to a baseband or an intermediate frequency and performing demodulation processing. The wired signal transmitting circuit 505 has a function of generating a wired signal and transmitting the generated wired signal. The above functional blocks are connected to each other.

[0065] Here, an example of the hardware configuration of a communication device 6 having bidirectional communication capability is shown, but it is also possible to configure the wireless transmitting device 1, wireless receiving device 3, and wireless relay device 4 by omitting some of these functional blocks.

[0066] The functions of wired receivers 101A and 101B and wired signal detector 102 are realized by wired signal receiver circuit 501. The function of wireless control signal assigner 103 is realized by wireless control signal processing circuit 502. The functions of wireless signal generator 104 and wireless transmitter 105 are realized by wireless signal transmitter circuit 503. In other words, the functions of wireless transmitter 1 can be realized by wired signal receiver circuit 501, wireless control signal processing circuit 502, and wireless signal transmitter circuit 503.

[0067] Furthermore, the functions of wireless receiving unit 301 and demodulating unit 302 are realized by wireless signal receiving circuit 504. The functions of wireless control signal processing unit 303 and display unit 306 are realized by wireless control signal processing circuit 502. The functions of wired signal generating unit 304 and wired transmitting units 305A and 305B are realized by wired signal transmitting circuit 505. In other words, the functions of wireless receiving device 3 can be realized by wireless signal receiving circuit 504, wireless control signal processing circuit 502, and wired signal transmitting circuit 505.

[0068] Moreover, the functions of the wireless receiving unit 401 and the demodulating unit 402 are realized by the wireless signal receiving circuit 504. The functions of the wireless control signal processing unit 403 and the display unit 406 are realized by the wireless control signal processing circuit 502. The functions of the wireless retransmission signal generating unit 404 and the wireless transmitting unit 405 are realized by the wireless signal transmitting circuit 503. In other words, the functions of the wireless relay device 4 can be realized by the wireless signal receiving circuit 504, the wireless control signal processing circuit 502, and the wireless signal transmitting circuit 503.

[0069] Each of the wired signal receiving circuit 501, the wireless control signal processing circuit 502, the wireless signal transmitting circuit 503, the wireless signal receiving circuit 504, and the wired signal transmitting circuit 505 is a processing circuit. These processing circuits may be dedicated hardware or a control circuit using a CPU (Central Processing Unit). In the case of dedicated hardware, the processing circuit is a single circuit, a composite circuit, a programmed processor, a parallel programmed processor, an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), or a combination of these. In the case of a control circuit using a CPU, the processing circuit has a CPU and a memory, and the CPU can realize the processing of each component by reading and executing a program stored in the memory. The CPU is also called an arithmetic unit, a microprocessor, a microcomputer, a DSP (Digital Signal Processor), etc. The memory may be, for example, a non-volatile or volatile semiconductor memory such as a random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), a flash memory, an erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically EPROM (EEPROM (registered trademark)), a magnetic disk, a flexible disk, an optical disk, a compact disk, a mini disk, a digital versatile disk (DVD), etc. The memory is also used as a temporary memory for each process executed by the CPU. The program executed by the CPU may be provided in a state stored in a storage medium, or may be provided via a network such as the Internet.

[0070] The configurations shown in the above embodiments are merely examples, and may be combined with other known technologies, or the embodiments may be combined with each other. Also, parts of the configurations may be omitted or modified without departing from the spirit of the invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0071] 1 wireless transmitting device, 3 wireless receiving device, 4 wireless relay device, 6, 6A, 6B communication device, 10A, 10B, 10C communication system, 101, 101A, 101B wired receiving unit, 102 wired signal detection unit, 103 wireless control signal providing unit, 104 wireless signal generating unit, 105, 405 wireless transmitting unit, 106, 407 transmitting antenna unit, 300, 400 receiving antenna unit, 301, 401 wireless receiving unit, 302, 402 demodulation unit, 303, 403 wireless control signal processing unit, 304 wired signal generating unit, 305A, 305B wired transmitting unit, 306, 406 display unit, 404 wireless retransmission signal generating unit, 501 wired signal receiving circuit, 502 wireless control signal processing circuit, 503 wireless signal transmitting circuit, 504 Wireless signal receiving circuit, 505 wired signal transmitting circuit.

Claims

A wireless transmission device for wirelessly transmitting a partial section of a communication signal of a wired communication between a source device and a destination device that are pre-associated one-to-one, comprising: A wired reception unit that receives a wired signal that is a signal transmitted by wire and is composed of a plurality of frames; A wireless control signal adding unit that inserts a wireless control signal, which is a control signal for wireless communication management, into a section where information transmission between frames of the received wired signal is not performed; A wireless signal generation unit that generates a wireless signal to be wirelessly transmitted using the received bit pattern of the wired signal and the wireless control signal; A wireless transmission device characterized by comprising the above.

2. The wireless signal generation unit generates the wireless signal including the wireless control signal that is longer than the section where information transmission between frames of the wired signal is not performed by overwriting a preamble included in the frame with the wireless control signal. The wireless transmission device according to claim 1.

3. The wireless transmission device according to claim 1, characterized in that even when the wired signal includes an error detection code, error detection processing is not performed.

4. A plurality of wired reception units provided corresponding to each of a plurality of signal systems, each of which receives a wired signal that is a signal transmitted by wire and is composed of a plurality of frames; A wireless control signal adding unit that inserts a wireless control signal, which is a control signal for wireless communication management, into a section where information transmission between frames of the received wired signal is not performed; A wireless signal generation unit that generates a wireless signal to be wirelessly transmitted using the received bit pattern of the wired signal and the wireless control signal; One wireless transmission unit that transmits the wireless signal; Comprising: The wireless signal generation unit multiplexes the plurality of signal systems to generate the wireless signal; A wireless transmission device characterized in that one wireless transmission unit multiplexes and transmits a plurality of the signal systems.

5. The frame constituting the wired signal is an Ethernet frame. The wireless transmission device according to claim 1.

6. A wireless reception device that receives the wireless signal transmitted by the wireless transmission device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, comprising: A wireless control signal processing unit that performs wireless communication management in a wireless transmission section by the wireless signal based on the wireless control signal included in the wireless signal; A wireless reception device characterized by comprising the above.

7. The wireless control signal processing unit performs at least one of measurement of wireless communication quality in the wireless transmission section and operation control of reception processing of the wireless signal transmitted by the wireless transmission device as the wireless communication management, the wireless reception device according to claim 6.

8. A wired signal generation unit that removes the wireless control signal from the received wireless signal and restores the wired signal received by the wireless transmission device; A wired transmission unit that wiredly transmits the restored wired signal; The wireless reception device according to claim 6, further comprising:

9. When a preamble determined in advance cannot be detected in a frame portion for information transmission of the received wireless signal, the wired signal generation unit restores the wired signal by reattaching the preamble, the wireless reception device according to claim 8.

10. A wireless relay device that relays the wireless signal transmitted by the wireless transmission device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, A wireless control signal processing unit that performs wireless communication management in a wireless transmission section by the wireless signal based on the wireless control signal included in the received wireless signal; A wireless retransmission signal generation unit that generates a wireless retransmission signal that is a wireless signal to be retransmitted based on the received wireless signal; A wireless transmission unit that transmits the wireless retransmission signal; A wireless relay device, comprising:

11. The wireless control signal processing unit adds information on the number of relay times to the wireless control signal included in the received wireless signal to generate a wireless control signal of the wireless retransmission signal, The wireless relay device according to claim 10, wherein the wireless retransmission signal generation unit generates the wireless retransmission signal including the wireless control signal generated by the wireless control signal processing unit.

12. The wireless control signal processing unit performs at least one of measurement of wireless communication quality in the wireless transmission section and operation control of reception processing of the wireless signal transmitted by the wireless transmission device as the wireless communication management, the wireless relay device according to claim 10.

13. A wireless transmission device for wirelessly transmitting a partial section of a communication signal of wired communication between a transmission source device and a transmission destination device that are pre-associated one-to-one, a control circuit that receives a wired signal composed of a plurality of frames, which is a signal transmitted by wire, and controls the wireless transmission device that converts the wired signal into a wireless signal and transmits it, Inserting a radio control signal, which is a control signal for radio communication management, into a section where information transmission between frames of the received wired signal is not performed; A control circuit, characterized in that the wireless transmission device is caused to execute the above steps.

14. A wireless transmission device for wirelessly transmitting a partial section of a communication signal of wired communication between a transmission source device and a transmission destination device that are pre-associated one-to-one, the wireless transmission device receiving a wired signal composed of a plurality of frames, which is a signal transmitted by wire, and storing a program for controlling the wireless transmission device that converts the wired signal into a wireless signal and transmits it. In the storage medium, the program includes: Inserting a radio control signal, which is a control signal for radio communication management, into a section where information transmission between frames of the received wired signal is not performed; A storage medium, characterized in that the wireless transmission device is caused to execute the above steps.

15. A communication system for wirelessly transmitting a partial section of a communication signal of wired communication between a transmission source device and a transmission destination device that are pre-associated one-to-one, the communication system comprising: A wireless transmission device that receives a wired signal composed of a plurality of frames, which is a signal transmitted by wire, generates a wireless signal by inserting a radio control signal, which is a control signal for radio communication management, into a section where information transmission between frames of the received wired signal is not performed, and transmits the generated wireless signal; A wireless reception device that receives the wireless signal transmitted by the wireless transmission device, performs wireless communication management in a wireless transmission section by the wireless signal based on the radio control signal included in the received wireless signal, removes the radio control signal from the received wireless signal, restores the wired signal received by the wireless transmission device, and transmits the restored wired signal by wire; A communication system, characterized by comprising the above.

16. A communication method for wirelessly transmitting a partial section of a communication signal of wired communication between a transmission source device and a transmission destination device that are pre-associated one-to-one, the communication method comprising: A step in which a wireless transmission device receives a wired signal composed of a plurality of frames, which is a signal transmitted by wire; A step in which the wireless transmission device generates a wireless signal by inserting a radio control signal, which is a control signal for radio communication management, into a section where information transmission between frames of the received wired signal is not performed; A step in which the wireless transmission device transmits the generated wireless signal; A step in which a wireless reception device receives the wireless signal; The step in which the wireless receiving device performs wireless communication management in a wireless transmission period by the wireless signal based on the wireless control signal included in the received wireless signal; The step in which the wireless receiving device removes the wireless control signal from the received wireless signal and restores the wired signal received by the wireless transmitting device; The step in which the wireless receiving device performs wired transmission of the restored wired signal; A communication method characterized by including the above steps.

Images