Relay device, relay method, and relay program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12047848-B2
Application number	US-201917291259-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 25, 2019
Priority date	Nov 7, 2018
Publication date	Jul 23, 2024
Grant date	Jul 23, 2024

Abstract

A relay device including: an information storage unit that stores conversion-target header information; a downlink signal dividing unit that divides a downlink signal received from the radio control device into a header and a payload; a signal replicating unit that makes the same number of copies of the payload of the downlink signal as the number of the plurality of destination radio devices; a downlink signal header information conversion unit that performs conversion on the header of the downlink signal for each destination radio device based on the header information stored in the information storage unit; and a signal addition assignment unit that adds the header converted by the downlink signal header information conversion unit to each of the payloads of the downlink signal replicated by the signal replicating unit, and transfers the payloads to the radio devices respectively corresponding thereto.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A relay device that relays between a plurality of radio devices serving as terminal devices, and at least one radio control device that controls the radio devices, the relay device comprising:
a processor; and
a storage medium having computer program instructions stored thereon, when executed by the processor, perform to:
stores predetermined conversion-target header information in a non-transitory information storage unit on the relate device; divides a downlink signal received from the radio control device into a header and a payload; makes the same number of copies of the payload of the downlink signal as the number of the plurality of destination radio devices; performs conversion on the header of the downlink signal for each destination radio device based on the header information stored in the information storage unit; adds the header to each of the payloads of the downlink signal, and transfers the payloads to the radio devices respectively corresponding thereto; divides each of uplink signals received from the plurality of radio devices into a header and a payload; combines payloads of the plurality of uplink signals for each destination radio control device; performs conversion on the header of the uplink signal for each destination radio control device based on the header information stored in the information storage unit; and adds the header to the payload of the uplink signal, and transfers the payload to the radio control device corresponding thereto
wherein the predetermined conversion-target header information includes, for each radio device in the plurality of radio devices, destination information and sender information of the uplink signal in association with each other in the information storage unit as header information for downlink communication and, for each radio control device in the plurality of radio devices, destination information and sender information of the downlink signal in association with each other in the information storage unit as header information for uplink communication, such that conversion on the destination information of the downlink signal is performed using the sender information of the uplink signal, based on the header information for downlink communication stored in the information storage unit, and conversion on the sender information of the uplink signal is performed using the destination information of the downlink signal, based on the header information for uplink communication stored in the information storage unit.

2. The relay device according to claim 1 , wherein the computer program instructions further perform to acquires the header information stored in the information storage unit, based on at least one of a signal transmitted from the radio device to the radio control device and a signal transmitted from the radio control device to the radio device.

3. The relay device according to claim 2 , wherein the information acquisition unit acquires information that identifies the destination and the sender as the radio control device or the radio device, based on the header information of a signal that has a predetermined direction.

4. The relay device according to claim 1 , wherein the downlink signal header information conversion unit performs conversion only on destination information, and the uplink signal header information conversion unit performs conversion only on sender information.

5. The relay device according to claim 1 , wherein both the downlink signal header information conversion unit and the uplink signal header information conversion unit perform conversion on destination information and sender information.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, upon execution of the instructions by a processor of a computer, cause the computer to function as the relay device according to claim 1 .

7. A relay method for relaying between a plurality of radio devices serving as terminal devices, and at least one radio control device that controls the radio devices, the relay method comprising: a step in which a non-transitory information storage unit stores predetermined conversion-target header information; a step of dividing a downlink signal received from the radio control device into a header and a payload; a step of making the same number of copies of the payload of the downlink signal as the number of the plurality of destination radio devices; a step of performing conversion on the header of the downlink signal for each destination radio device based on the header information stored in the information storage unit; a step of adding the converted header to each of tile replicated payloads of the downlink signal, and transferring the payloads to the radio devices respectively corresponding thereto; a step of dividing each of uplink signals received from the plurality of radio devices into a header and a payload; a step of combining payloads of the plurality of uplink signals for each destination radio control device; a step of performing conversion on tile header of the uplink signal for each destination radio control device based on the header information stored in the information storage unit; and a step of adding the converted header to the payload of the uplink signal generated through combination, and transferring tile payload to the radio control device corresponding thereto
wherein the predetermined conversion-target header information includes, for each radio device in the plurality of radio devices, destination information and sender information of the uplink signal in association with each other in the information storage unit as header information for downlink communication and, for each radio control device in the plurality of radio devices, destination information and sender information of the downlink signal in association with each other in the information storage unit as header information for uplink communication, such that conversion on the destination information of the downlink signal is performed using the sender information of the uplink signal, based on the header information for downlink communication stored in the information storage unit, and conversion on the sender information of the uplink signal is performed using the destination information of the downlink signal, based on the header information for uplink communication stored in the information storage unit.

8. The relay method of claim 7 further comprises acquiring the header information stored in the information storage unit, based on at least one of a signal transmitted from the radio device to the radio control device and a signal transmitted from the radio control device to the radio device.

9. The relay method of claim 8 , further comprises acquiring information that identifies the destination and the sender as the radio control device or the radio device, based on the header information of a signal that has a predetermined direction.

10. The relay method of claim 7 further comprises performing conversion only on destination information, and performing conversion only on sender information.

11. The relay method of claim 7 further comprises performing conversion on destination information and sender information.

Assignees

• Nippon Telegraph & Telephone

Inventors

• Shibata Naotaka
• Yamamoto Hirofumi
• Takahashi Keita
• Ota Noriyuki
• Terada Jun

Classifications

• H04B7/155

  Ground-based stations (H04B7/204 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04W92/12

  between access points and access point controllers · CPC title

• H04W4/06 Primary

  Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services · CPC title

• H04B7/15528 Primary

  Control of operation parameters of a relay station to exploit the physical medium · CPC title