Image forming apparatus supporting peer to peer connection and method of performing image forming operation thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9826116-B2
Application number	US-201414471611-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 28, 2014
Priority date	Dec 12, 2011
Publication date	Nov 21, 2017
Grant date	Nov 21, 2017

Abstract

A method of performing an image forming operation in an image forming apparatus supporting peer to peer (P2P) connection includes P2P connecting the image forming apparatus to an external wireless device while the image forming apparatus is wirelessly connected to an access point (AP) of an infrastructured network, receiving a discovery packet from the wireless device via a P2P interface, transmitting to the wireless device a response packet including an Internet protocol (IP) address of the P2P interface, receiving from the wireless device an image forming operation performing request having the IP address of the P2P interface as a destination, and performing the requested image forming operation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of performing a scanning operation in an image forming apparatus supporting Wi-Fi direct connection, the method comprising:
receiving a discovery packet from a mobile device;
transmitting a response packet to the mobile device in response to the discovery packet;
transmitting to the mobile device an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a Wi-Fi direct connection interface via a Wi-Fi direct connection established by using connection information included in the response packet; and
performing a scanning operation, and transmitting scan data to the mobile device in response to a scan request packet, which is received from the mobile device, the scan request packet having the IP address as a destination.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the image forming apparatus supports an access point (AP) connection and Wi-Fi direct connection concurrently, and an IP address of an AP connection interface is different from the IP address of the Wi-Fi direct connection interface.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the image forming apparatus operates as a group owner automatically for the Wi-Fi direct connection.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving of the discovery packet comprises receiving the discovery packet transmitted from the mobile device by using multicast or broadcast.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the response packet comprises information on a service providable by the image forming apparatus.

6. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon computer-readable codes to execute a method of performing a scanning operation in an image forming apparatus supporting Wi-Fi direct connection, the method comprising:
receiving a discovery packet from a mobile device;
transmitting a response packet to the mobile device in response to the discovery packet;
transmitting to the mobile device an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a Wi-Fi direct interface via a Wi-Fi direct connection established by using connection information included in the response packet; and
performing a scanning operation, and transmitting scan data to the mobile device in response to a scan request packet, which is received from the mobile device, the scan request packet having the IP address as a destination.

7. An image forming apparatus supporting Wi-Fi direct connection, the image forming apparatus comprising:
a wireless local area network (WLAN) interface including a Wi-Fi direct connection interface for supporting Wi-Fi direct connection;
a controller configured to control a scan operation via a Wi-Fi direct connection with a mobile device;
a scanner configured to perform the scan operation,
wherein the controller transmits a response packet to the mobile device in response to a discovery packet transmitted from the mobile device, transmits to the mobile device an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the Wi-Fi direct connection interface via the Wi-Fi direct connection and the scanner performs the scan operation and transmits scan data to the mobile device in response to a scan request packet, which is received from the mobile device, the scan request packet having the IP address as a destination.

8. The image forming apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the WLAN interface supports an access point (AP) connection and Wi-Fi direct connection concurrently, and an IP address of an AP connection interface is different from the IP address of the Wi-Fi direct connection interface.

9. The image forming apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the controller sets the image forming apparatus as a group owner automatically for the Wi-Fi direct connection.

10. The image forming apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the WLAN interface receives the discovery packet transmitted from the mobile device by using multicast or broadcast.

11. The image forming apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the controller generates the response packet to include information on a service providable by the image forming apparatus.

12. A method of receiving an image forming operation request through a peer to peer (P 2 P) connection in an image forming apparatus, the method comprising:
releasing a connection between the image forming apparatus and an access point (AP) of an infrastructure network;
P 2 P connecting the image forming apparatus to a wireless device;
receiving a discovery packet from the wireless device via a P 2 P interface;
transmitting to the wireless device a response packet comprising an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the P 2 P interface;
receiving from the wireless device an image forming operation performing request having the IP address of the P 2 P interface as a destination; and
performing the requested image forming operation,
wherein the image forming apparatus operates as an access point by using a soft access point when the image forming apparatus is P 2 P connected.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the receiving of the discovery packet comprises receiving via the P 2 P interface the discovery packet transmitted from the wireless device by using a multicast or broadcast method.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the response packet transmitted to the wireless device further comprises information on services providable by the image forming apparatus.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein
the P 2 P connection is a Wi-Fi Direct connection, and
the P 2 P connecting of the image forming apparatus comprises P 2 P connecting the image forming apparatus to operate the image forming apparatus as a group owner (GO) and to operate the wireless device as a client.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the receiving of the discovery packet is performed by using any one protocol from among Bonjour, Universal Plug & Play (UPNP), Web Server Director (WSD), Service Location Protocol (SLP), and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein
if the image forming operation is a print operation, the receiving of the image forming operation performing request comprises receiving from the wireless device print data having the IP address of the P 2 P interface as a destination, and
the performing of the image forming operation comprises performing a print operation according to the print data.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein
if the image forming operation is a scan operation, the receiving of the image forming operation performing request comprises receiving from the wireless device a scan request having the IP address of the P 2 P interface as a destination, and
the performing of the image forming operation comprises scanning a document and transmitting scan image data to the wireless device.

19. The method of claim 12 , wherein releasing the connection comprises:
determining whether the image forming apparatus is connected to the AP of the infrastructure network; and
releasing the connection between the image forming apparatus and the AP of the infrastructure network, if the image forming apparatus is connected to the AP of the infrastructure network.

20. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon computer-readable codes to execute a method of receiving an image forming operation request through a peer to peer (P 2 P) connection in an image forming apparatus, the method comprising:
releasing a connection between the image forming apparatus and an access point (AP) of an infrastructure network;
P 2 P connecting the image forming apparatus to a wireless device;
receiving a discovery packet from the wireless device via a P 2 P interfa

Assignees

• S Printing Solution Co Ltd

Inventors

• Park Hyun-Wook
• Kim Jin-Hyung
• Park Sung-Joon

Classifications

• H04N1/32797 Primary

  Systems adapted to communicate over more than one channel, e.g. via ISDN (changing transmission mode according to type of channel H04N2201/33364; multichannel or multilink communication protocols H04L69/14) · CPC title

• G06F3/1204

  resulting in reduced user or operator actions, e.g. presetting, automatic actions, using hardware token storing data · CPC title

• H04N1/00204

  with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server (programmed control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32561) · CPC title

• H04N2201/0094

  Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception · CPC title

• G06F3/1236

  Connection management · CPC title