Radio communication system and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018351789-A1
Application number	US-201815905866-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 27, 2018
Priority date	Jun 1, 2017
Publication date	Dec 6, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

A radio communication system includes: slave devices which repetitively transmit, a plurality of times, a radio signal with a prescribed frequency that includes device identification information during a radio communication with a master device; a master device which generates communication situation information including a reception success rate and received signal strength of a radio signal during each radio communication from each slave device; and a failure factor estimation apparatus which, based on communication situation information with respect to a plurality of radio communications including a radio communication in which a communication failure of the received signal strength is lower than prescribed strength and/or the reception success rate is lower than a prescribed rate has occurred, generates and outputs failure factor presentation information indicating a failure inducer estimated to have induced the communication failure and an estimation result of a position of the failure inducer.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A radio communication system, which comprises a plurality of slave devices, a master device, and a failure factor estimation apparatus and in which a unidirectional radio communication from each of the plurality of slave devices to the master device is performed, wherein
each of the plurality of slave devices includes: a radio communication unit which repetitively transmits, a plurality of times, a radio signal with a prescribed frequency that includes device identification information of the slave device itself during a radio communication with the master device, the master device includes: a specifying unit which specifies, each time the radio signal of a prescribed frequency is received, the device identification information included in the received radio signal and reception strength of the radio signal; and an information generating unit which generates, based on a specification result by the specifying unit, for each radio communication, communication situation information indicating a transmission source device of the radio communication, a reception success rate and received signal strength of a radio signal during the radio communication, and a time and date at which the radio communication has been performed, and the failure factor estimation apparatus includes: a retention unit which retains each piece of communication situation information generated by the information generating unit of the master device; and a failure factor estimating unit which, based on communication situation information with respect to a processing-object radio communication retained in the retention unit, determines whether or not a communication failure in which the received signal strength is lower than prescribed strength and/or the reception success rate is lower than a prescribed rate has occurred during the processing-object radio communication, and in a case where the communication failure has occurred during the processing-object radio communication, generates and outputs failure factor presentation information indicating a failure inducer estimated to have induced the communication failure and an estimation result of a relative position of the failure inducer with respect to a transmission source device of the processing-object radio communication and/or the master device by using communication situation information with respect to one or more radio communications other than the processing-object radio communication which are retained in the retention unit.

2 . The radio communication system according to claim 1 , wherein
the failure factor estimation apparatus further includes an accepting unit which accepts a time range set by a user as a processing-object time range, and the failure factor estimating unit of the failure factor estimation apparatus handles each radio communication performed within the processing-object time range accepted by the accepting means as the processing-object radio communication.

3 . The radio communication system according to claim 1 , wherein
the failure factor estimation apparatus further includes a specifying unit which specifies, based on communication situation information with respect to a set number of recently performed radio communications by one or a plurality of slave devices designated by the user, an estimation object time range to be an object of estimation of a failure factor, out of the set number of radio communications, and when the estimation object time range is specified by the specifying unit, the failure factor estimating unit of the failure factor estimation apparatus handles each radio communication performed within the estimation object time range by the one or the plurality of slave devices designated by the user as the processing-object radio communication.

4 . The radio communication system according to claim 3 , wherein
based on communication situation information with respect to the set number of recently performed radio communications by the one or the plurality of slave devices, the specifying unit of the failure factor estimation apparatus retrieves, from the radio communications, a radio communication with highest received signal strength and a radio communication with lowest received signal strength and specifies as the estimation object time range a time range having a time and date, at which each retrieved radio communication has been performed, as a boundary.

5 . The radio communication system according to claim 3 , wherein
based on communication situation information with respect to the set number of recently performed radio communications by the one or the plurality of slave devices, the specifying unit of the failure factor estimation apparatus retrieves a lowest strength radio communication with lowest received signal strength and a highest strength radio communication with highest received signal strength performed by a slave device having performed the lowest strength radio communication among the radio communications, and specifies as the estimation object time range a time range having a time and date, at which the retrieved highest strength radio communication has been performed, and a time and date, at which the retrieved lowest strength radio communication has been performed, as boundaries.

6 . The radio communication system according to claim 1 , wherein
the failure factor estimating unit of the failure factor estimation apparatus determines whether or not the communication failure has occurred with respect to each radio communication performed within a prescribed time range including a time at which the processing-object radio communication has been performed, and based on a determination result with respect to each radio communication, estimates a relative position of the failure inducer with respect to a transmission source device of the processing-object radio communication and/or the master device.

7 . The radio communication system according to claim 1 , wherein
the failure factor estimating unit of the failure factor estimation apparatus: generates, in a case where a first communication failure in which the received signal strength is lower than the prescribed strength and the reception success rate is equal to or higher than the prescribed rate has occurred during the processing-object radio communication, first information indicating that the failure inducer is an obstacle on a communication path and indicating an estimation result of a relative position of the obstacle with respect to a transmission source device of the processing-object radio communication and/or the master device as the failure factor presentation information; and generates, in a case where a second communication failure in which the received signal strength is equal to or higher than the prescribed strength and the reception success rate is lower than the prescribed rate has occurred during the processing-object radio communication, second information indicating that the failure inducer is a generation source of a radio wave and indicating an estimation result of a relative position of the generation source with respect to a transmission source device of the processing-object radio communication and/or the master device as the failure factor presentation information.

8 . The radio communication system according to claim 7 , wherein
the failure factor estimating unit of the failure factor estimation apparatus generates the first information as the failure factor presentation information when a third communication failure in which the received signal strength is lower than the prescribed strength and the reception success rate is lower than the prescribed rate has occurred during the processing-object radio communication.

9 . The

Assignees

• Omron Tateisi Electronics Co

Inventors

• Ohmae Soji
• Yamada Ryota
• Umeki Hajime
• Kawashima Yasushi
• Inoue Yuki

Classifications

• H04L41/0677 Primary

  Localisation of faults · CPC title

• H04W84/20

  Leader-follower arrangements · CPC title

• H04B7/14

  Relay systems · CPC title

• H04L41/0631 Primary

  using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis · CPC title

• H04W84/18

  Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks · CPC title