Patent Application
20170339743
The present invention relates to an error control technique in communication.
As a wireless connection mode that is used when a communication apparatus is to be connected to a partner apparatus, either an infrastructure mode of wirelessly connecting to the partner apparatus via another apparatus such as an access point (AP) or a peer-to-peer (P2P) mode of wirelessly connecting to the partner apparatus directly can be used. Note that the P2P mode includes a mode in which the communication apparatus or the partner apparatus operates as a base station such as an AP and performs wireless connection by handling the other apparatus as a terminal accommodated by the base station.
Wi-Fi Direct® is a one of the specifications developed for P2P mode communication. In Wi-Fi Direct, two or more wireless LAN terminals for communicating in the P2P mode each play either of a role called a Group Owner (GO) or a role called a Client (CL). Note that a GO operates like an AP, and a CL operates like a station (STA) which connects to the AP. Note that whether the communication apparatus or the partner apparatus is to operate as a GO is decided by a sequence called a Group Owner Negotiation. This eliminates the need for a conventional dedicated device as an access point, and direct communication between the communication apparatus and the partner apparatus is possible. In general, when a communication apparatus is to operate as an STA or a CL, the decision of a channel to be used is led by an AP which transmits a search response command in response to a search request command from the communication apparatus. Additionally, when a communication apparatus is to operate as a GO, the communication apparatus decides the channel to be used by comparing the channel information of the CL obtained by the Group Owner Negotiation and channels that the communication apparatus can use.
The above-described wireless communications by the infrastructure mode and the P2P mode can be simultaneously (concurrently) executed in a single apparatus. For example, the communication apparatus can serve as an STA and perform wireless connection with an AP on one hand but can also function as a GO in the P2P mode to perform wireless connection with a partner apparatus functioning as a CL. In this case, the communication apparatus can perform wireless connection by using concurrent wireless interfaces via two distinct wireless channels serving as the wireless interfaces. However, when communications are performed by simultaneously allocating a plurality of channels using a single wireless IC chip, the apparatus arrangement and processing become complicated. Thus, in practice, a common channel may be used for the aforementioned two modes when performing concurrent communication.
In some cases, an error can occur when the communication apparatus is setting a connection for communication or is in communication. For example, there can occur an error related to information which the communication apparatus has exchanged with the partner apparatus or an error arising from the continuation of a predetermined period in which the communication apparatus cannot receive a beacon due to a crowded communication environment where many apparatuses are using the wireless resource. Also, when a temporary memory shortage occurs in the communication apparatus and creates a period of time in which communication cannot be performed normally, a discrepancy between the communication state recognized by the partner apparatus and that of the communication apparatus arises, and an error can occur.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-129898, there is disclosed an invention that automatically changes the settings and retries the Group Owner Negotiation when information exchange has failed in the Group Owner Negotiation. However, if a communication apparatus that implements communications of a plurality of modes by a single wireless IC chip attempts, in one of the modes, such a retry as that disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-129898, it can have influence on the normal communication of other modes. As a result, a packet loss or a delay can problematically occur even in the communication by a mode that has been operating normally.
According to the present invention, in a communication apparatus that can execute a plurality of communications simultaneously, if an error related to one of the communications occurs, it is possible to prevent the error from influencing the other communications.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: a communication unit configured to concurrently perform first communication in which communication is performed with a partner apparatus via another apparatus and second communication in which communication is performed with the partner apparatus not via the other apparatus; and a control unit configured to control the first communication and the second communication of the communication unit, wherein the control unit controls, when an error related to the second communication occurs while no error related to the first communication has occurred in a state in which the first communication and the second communication are concurrently performed, the communication unit so as to stop the second communication without performing reactivation automatically.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: a communication unit configured to perform first communication of performing communication with an access point and second communication complying with Wi-Fi Direct; and a control unit configured: to stop, when an error related to the second communication occurs while no error related to the first communication has occurred in a state in which the first communication and the second communication are concurrently performed, the second communication without performing reactivation automatically, and to automatically reactivate the second communication when the error related to the second communication occurs in a state in which the first communication is not performed and the second communication is performed by the communication unit.
Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments (with reference to the attached drawings).
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention, and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
An exemplary embodiment(s) of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the relative arrangement of the components, the numerical expressions and numerical values set forth in these embodiments do not limit the scope of the present invention unless it is specifically stated otherwise.
(System Configuration)
A mobile communication apparatus 200 is, for example, a portable communication apparatus which has a wireless LAN (WLAN) communication function. Here, assume that data (packet) communication in a wireless LAN system complying with e.g., the IEEE 802.11 standard series will be performed by the wireless LAN communication function. The mobile communication apparatus 200 can use the wireless LAN communication function to perform communication based on Wi-Fi Direct (WFD), communication by a software access point mode, or communication by an infrastructure mode. Note that the software access point mode is also called a software AP mode, and the infrastructure mode is also called an “infra” mode.
Note that the mobile communication apparatus 200 may have a wireless communication function other than for a wireless LAN complying with the IEEE 802.11 standard series. For example, the mobile communication apparatus 200 may have a wireless LAN function that complies with a standard other than the IEEE 802.11 standard series or have a communication function other than for a wireless LAN. However, it is assumed that the mobile communication apparatus 200 can operate in one of a first mode of performing wireless communication with a partner apparatus via another apparatus and a second mode of performing wireless communication with a partner apparatus not via another apparatus. It is also assumed that the mobile communication apparatus 200 can simultaneously (concurrently) perform wireless communications by the first mode and the second mode. The mobile communication apparatus 200 can be, for example, a personal information terminal such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a mobile phone, or a digital camera.
The print apparatus (MFP 300) can have a communication function that performs wireless communication with the mobile communication apparatus 200. The print apparatus can also have other functions such as a scanning function (scanner), a FAX function, and a telephone function. Here, the wireless communication function is a function corresponding to the communication function of the aforementioned mobile communication apparatus 200. That is, assume that, for example, in a case in which the mobile communication apparatus 200 has a wireless LAN communication function, the MFP 300 has a wireless LAN communication function that complies with the same standard. In this embodiment, the MFP 300 has a scanning function in addition to the print function, but the present invention is not limited to this. The MFP 300 may have only the print function or have a function unrelated to image processing such as printing.
Note that the MFP 300 can also operate, in the same manner as the mobile communication apparatus 200, in one of a first mode of performing wireless communication with a partner apparatus via another apparatus and a second mode of performing wireless communication with a partner apparatus not via another apparatus. Assume also that the MFP 300 can simultaneously perform wireless communications by the first mode and the second mode.
An access point 400 has a wireless LAN communication function and relays communication between communication apparatuses functioning as wireless LAN stations (may also be referred to as clients hereinafter) that have been permitted, by the access point, to connect to the access point itself. In addition, the access point 400 can also relay communication between an aforementioned communication apparatus and an apparatus (for example, an apparatus directly connected to a network by a LAN cable or the like) connectable via the network to which the access point 400 is connected. A communication apparatus (station) which is present around the access point 400 can perform communication by the infrastructure mode via the access point 400. Note that if the mobile communication apparatus 200 is to communicate with a partner apparatus via another apparatus using a communication function which is not the wireless LAN, the access point 400 can be replaced with the other apparatus.
The mobile communication apparatus 200 and the MFP 300 can use their respective wireless LAN communication functions to perform wireless communication by the infrastructure mode via the access point 400. The mobile communication apparatus 200 and the MFP 300 can also perform wireless communication in a peer-to-peer mode (P2P mode) in accordance with Wi-Fi Direct or the like. Note that, the mobile communication terminal apparatus 200 and the MFP 300 can execute processing corresponding to a plurality of print services via a wireless LAN, as will be described later.
(Apparatus Arrangement)
The mobile communication apparatus 200 includes, for example, a touch panel integrating a display unit 202 and an operation unit 203 and can include a bezel 201 portion that fixes or protects the touch panel. Note that an antenna for performing communication by the wireless LAN can be provided on the back side of the bezel 201, and the mobile communication apparatus 200 can perform communication using this antenna and a wireless communication circuit. The display unit 202 and the operation unit 203 can be, for example, a touch panel display having an LCD display mechanism. For example, the display unit 202 displays button icons and a software keyboard, and the operation unit 203 can detect an operation event when a user touches the icons and the keyboard. A power key 204 is a hard key used to accept an operation to turn on/off the power.
In the main board 501, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 502 is a system control unit, and controls the overall operation of the mobile communication apparatus 200. The following processing by the mobile communication apparatus 200 is executed under the control of, for example, the CPU 502. Note that the mobile communication apparatus 200 can use an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or the like to implement at least some of the functions.
A ROM 503 stores control programs to be executed by the CPU 502, an embedded operating system (OS) program, and the like. In this embodiment, the respective control programs stored in the ROM 503 perform software control such as scheduling and task switching under the management of the embedded OS stored in the ROM 503. A RAM 504 is implemented by an SRAM (Static RAM) or the like, stores data such as program control variables, and stores data such as setting values registered by the user and management data of the mobile communication apparatus 200. The RAM 504 is provided with various work buffer areas. An image memory 505 is implemented by a memory such as a DRAM (Dynamic RAM) and temporarily stores image data received via the WLAN unit 517 and image data read out from a data storage unit 513 that are to be processed by the CPU 502. A nonvolatile memory 512 is formed from a memory such as a flash memory and continues to store data even when the power of the mobile communication apparatus 200 is turned off. Note that such memory structures are not limited to the above-described structures. For example, the image memory 505 and the RAM 504 may have a shared memory structure, or the data may be backed up in the data storage unit 513. Although the image memory 505 has been described as being implemented by a DRAM, it may be implemented by another storage medium such as a hard disk or a nonvolatile memory.
A data conversion unit 506 executes an analysis of data of various formats and data conversion such as color conversion and image conversion. A telephone unit 507 processes speech data input/output via a loudspeaker unit 514 to generate and transmit a speech communication signal to a communication circuit or reconstruct the speech data from a signal received from the communication circuit. An operation unit 508 generates and outputs a signal representing an operation which has been accepted via the operation unit 203 of
A camera unit 511 has a function of electronically recording and encoding an image input via a lens. Image data related to an image captured by the camera unit 511 is saved in the data storage unit 513. The data storage unit 513 can be a storage device in which various kinds of data are stored as described above. The loudspeaker unit 514 implements the function of inputting or outputting speech for a telephone function and also other functions such as alarm notification and the like. A power supply unit 515 is a battery of a size that can be stored in the mobile communication apparatus 200 and performs power supply control to the apparatus. The mobile communication apparatus 200 can be in one of power supply states including a battery dead state in which the battery has no remaining amount, a power-off state in which the power key 204 is not pressed, an active state in which the apparatus is normally active, and a power saving state in which the apparatus is active but is set in a power saving mode.
The WLAN unit 517 is formed by including an antenna and a communication circuit (for example, a circuit having a baseband processing function and an RF processing function) to perform wireless communication complying with the wireless LAN standard. The mobile communication apparatus 200 performs, via the WLAN unit 517, data communication using the wireless LAN with another device such as an MFP serving as the partner apparatus. The WLAN unit 517 can convert data into packets and perform wireless packet transmission to another device. The WLAN unit can also receive packets wirelessly transmitted from the other external device, reconstruct the original data, and transmit the reconstructed data to the CPU 502.
The respective components of the main board 501 are connected to each other via a system bus 518 managed by the CPU 502. The WLAN unit 517 is connected to the system bus 518 of the main board 501 via a bus cable 516. Therefore, under the control of the CPU 502, data generated or stored by the respective components of the main board 501 are transmitted via the WLAN unit 517, and data received by the WLAN unit 517 are transferred to the respective components of the main board 501.
Note that the mobile communication apparatus 200 can have functions of a general smartphone such as a communication function for cellular communication.
In the main board 601, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 602 is a system control unit, and controls the overall operation of the MFP 300. The following processing by the MFP 300 is executed, for example, under the control of the CPU 602. Note that the MFP 300 can use an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or the like to implement at least some of the functions.
A ROM 603 stores control programs to be executed by the CPU 602, an embedded operating system (OS) program, and the like. In this embodiment, the respective control programs stored in the ROM 603 perform software control such as scheduling and task switching under the management of the embedded OS stored in the ROM 603. A RAM 604 is implemented by an SRAM (Static RAM) or the like, stores data such as program control variables, and stores data such as setting values registered by the user and management data of the MFP 300. The RAM 604 is provided with various work buffer areas. A nonvolatile memory 605 is formed from a memory such as a flash memory and continues to store data even when the power of the MFP 300 is turned off. An image memory 606 is implemented by a DRAM (Dynamic RAM) or the like and stores image data received via the WLAN unit 616 and image data processed by an encoding/decoding processing unit 611. Also, similarly to the memory structure of the mobile communication apparatus 200, the memory structure of the MFP 300 is not limited to the above-described structure.
A scan control unit 607 controls a scanning unit 609 (for example, a CIS (contact type image sensor)) to optically scan a document placed on the document table 301 of
An operation display unit 610 generates a signal representing a user operation accepted via the operation display unit 305 of
A paper feed unit 613 holds paper sheets and supplies paper sheets for printing under the control of a print control unit 614. As the paper feed unit 613, a plurality of paper feed units can be prepared so as to hold a plurality of types of paper sheets in one apparatus. In this case, the print control unit 614 can perform control to select a paper feed unit to be used to supply paper sheets. The print control unit 614 performs various kinds of image processing such as smoothing processing, print density correction processing, and color correction to the print target image data and outputs the processed image data to a printing unit 612. The printing unit 612 can be a circuit and a mechanism functioning as an inkjet printer which prints an image by discharging, from a printhead, ink supplied from an ink tank. The print control unit 614 can also periodically read out the information of the printing unit 612 and perform control to update the information stored in the RAM 604. For example, the print control unit 614 can update status information, such as the remaining amount in an ink tank and the state of the printhead, which are stored in the RAM 604.
A NW (network) subsystem 620 is a subsystem in charge of controlling the input/output related to network communication in order to reduce the control load of the CPU (Central Processing Unit) 602. A control code to be executed by a NW sub-CPU 621 is stored in a part of the RAM 604, and this control code is DMA-transferred from the RAM 604 to a RAM 622 in the subsystem 620 in a boot sequence of the CPU 602. The control code is executed by the NW sub-CPU 621 after the NW sub-CPU 621 is reset. As result, input/output control related to network communication is executed. The respective modules (the NW sub-CPU 621, the RAM 622, and a UHOST module 623) in the NW subsystem are connected to each other via a local bus 624 separate from a system bus 625 of the main board 601. The NW subsystem 620 is capable of performing network control that has minimal influence on other modules in the main board 601 by taking on, among the functions related to network communications, particularly, functions of a layer near the hardware layer.
The WLAN unit 616 is the same as the WLAN unit 517 of the mobile communication apparatus 200. Hence, a detailed description will be omitted. Note that the WLAN unit 616 may be formed by a single wireless IC chip. Even when the WLAN unit 616 is formed by a single wireless IC chip, the WLAN unit can simultaneously (concurrently) perform communications by the infrastructure mode and the P2P mode. In this case, MFP 300 can perform communications by the infrastructure mode and the P2P mode on the same frequency channel and can switch between the communication by the infrastructure mode and the communication by the P2P mode in a time division manner. The WLAN unit 616 is connected, for example, to the NW subsystem 620 via, for example, the UHOST module 623 and a bus cable 615. The modem 619 is, for example, a functional unit to perform wired communication and is formed by including a circuit and a mechanism for performing data (packet) communication complying with, for example, the IEEE 802.3 standard series. The modem 619 includes, for example, an Ethernet® interface and is connected to a LAN by a cable connected to this interface. This allows communication with an external device such as a PC that has been similarly connected to a LAN. In addition, the modem 619 can communicate with, via the wired LAN, a communication apparatus that is connected to the access point which is connected to the wired LAN. The modem 619 can be connected to the system bus 625 of the main board 601 via a bus cable 618 but may be connected to, for example, the local bus 624 of the NW subsystem 620. Note that the respective components of the main board 601 are connected to each other via the system bus 625 managed by the CPU 602.
(Wireless Connection Method)
In this embodiment, the P2P mode in which a communication apparatus directly communicates with a partner apparatus not via another apparatus (an external AP) and the infrastructure mode in which the communication apparatus indirectly communicates with the partner apparatus via another apparatus such as an AP can be used as the connection methods of the wireless LAN.
The P2P mode can have a plurality of modes. In these modes, for example, the communication apparatus uses a common search request command (for example, a Probe Request frame) between the modes to search for and discover the communication partner apparatus. It is possible to transmit a search request command added with various kinds of attribute information. Normally, if attributes are designated in a search request command, it is recommended that the apparatus which received the search request command transmits a response related to interpretable attributes as widely as possible within the range defined by the specifications of the mode and specifications based on which the mode is defined (Wi-Fi for WFD). Also, in a case in which a piece of uninterpretable information is included in the information (including the aforementioned attributes) added to the search request command, the apparatus which received the search request command can respond based on only information that can be interpreted.
The plurality of modes included in the aforementioned P2P mode can include further modes called a mode A (software AP mode) and a mode B (Wi-Fi Direct mode). For the respective modes, compatible devices may be different, and usable applications may also be different.
In the software AP mode, the client searches for a device which will serve as a software AP by using a search request command 701, and the software AP responds by transmitting a search response 702 to the search request command 701. When the software AP is discovered by the client, the remaining wireless connection processing (establishment of a wireless connection and the like) is performed between the client and the software AP, and then IP connection processing (allocation of IP addresses and the like) is executed. Note that as commands and parameters transmitted/received to establish a wireless connection between the client and the software AP, those which are defined by, for example, the Wi-Fi standard or IEEE 802.11 standard are used, and a description thereof will be omitted.
For example, the communication apparatus transmits a search request command 801 and searches for a partner apparatus to connect by the WFD mode. The partner apparatus responds by transmitting a search response 802 to the received search request command 801. When the partner apparatus is discovered by the communication apparatus, the communication apparatus and the partner apparatus confirm information about services and functions which can be provided to each other (device information confirmation). The services and functions are, for example, a print service, an image display service, a file transmission service, a video streaming service, a video display service, and the like. Note that the device information confirmation is not essential but optional. This device information confirmation phase is performed by, for example, a Service Discovery of the WFD standard. By confirming the device information of each other, the communication apparatus and the partner apparatus can know, before performing the WFD connection, what kind of service can be provided by the other apparatus which is connectable by the WFD mode. When the partner apparatus is discovered by the communication apparatus, an apparatus which is to operate as the P2P Group Owner (GO) and that which is to operate as the P2P Client (CL) are decided. This role decision can be performed by, for example, a GO Negotiation in the WFD standard. In the GO Negotiation, the communication apparatus and the partner apparatus transmit to each other the respective Intent values, which are values set in the respective apparatuses, to compare the magnitudes of the Intent values. Next, as a result of the comparison, the communication apparatus and the partner apparatus decide that the apparatus which has the larger value will operate as the GO and the apparatus which has the smaller value will operate as the CL. If the respective Intent values have the same values, the communication apparatus and the partner apparatus will compare random values (0 or 1) generated after the initial comparison and decide the roles of the GO and the CL. After the roles of the GO and the CL are decided, the communication apparatus and the partner apparatus shift to a parameter exchange phase and exchange parameters to perform WFD communication. Subsequently, the communication apparatus and the partner apparatus perform the remaining wireless connection processing and the IP connection processing based on the exchanged parameters. Note that in the parameter exchange phase, parameters (for example, information used for encrypted communication) concerning the security of the wireless LAN are automatically exchanged by using, for example, a Wi-Fi Protected Setup. As the parameters, for example, an SSID as identification information of a wireless network, an encryption key, an encryption scheme, an authentication key, an authentication scheme, and the like are included.
The infrastructure mode will be described next.
In the infrastructure mode, each communication apparatus searches for an AP by a search request command 901 (search request command 903). The AP responds by transmitting a search response 902 (search response 904) to the received search request command. Next, when the AP is discovered by the communication apparatus, the remaining wireless connection processing (establishment of a wireless connection and the like) and IP connection processing (allocation of IP addresses and the like) are performed between the communication apparatus and the AP. Note that since it is sufficient to use commands and parameters defined by the Wi-Fi standard or the IEEE 802.11 standard as the commands and the parameters transmitted/received to establish a wireless connection between the communication apparatus and the AP, and a description thereof will be omitted.
(Channel Decision Processing of Infrastructure Mode and P2P Mode)
When performing wireless communication by concurrently performing the infrastructure mode and the P2P mode, the communication apparatus uses a channel provided from the AP in the infrastructure mode as the common channel for both modes. Hence, wireless communication using both modes can be stably maintained in the communication apparatus. A mode that can concurrently (simultaneously) execute a plurality of communication modes in this manner is called a simultaneous operation mode. The wireless connection of the infrastructure mode is performed using a specific frequency band (wireless channel).
In the infrastructure mode, a station (STA) confirms whether it is possible to wirelessly connect to the AP in a channel usable by the station. Next, the STA specifies the channel which received a response from the AP and decides to use the channel as the subsequent use channel. That is, the AP transmits a response command to the STA only when a request command from the STA arrives in a channel that the AP can use.
In a wireless communication system formed by the AP and the STA, an apparatus which operates as the AP transmits a Beacon signal, and an apparatus which operates as the STA transmits a search request command to the AP upon receiving this beacon signal. The search request command is, for example, a Probe Request frame. The AP does not transmit a response command to a search request command transmitted on a channel other than channels that can be used by the AP itself. Here, the response command is, for example, a Probe Response Frame.
For example, if the channel that can be used by the access point 400 is the nth channel, the access point 400 does not transmit a search response command to the search request command transmitted using the 1st channel. If the MFP 300 determines that no response has been received from the access point 400 due to a timeout or the like after transmitting the search request command using the 1st channel, a search request command is subsequently transmitted using the 2nd channel. The MFP 300 repeats the above-described trial by increasing the channel numbers. When the MFP 300 transmits a search request command using the nth channel, the access point 400 transmits a search response command if the channel is in an unused state.
In the infrastructure mode, the nth channel in which a search response command is returned from the access point in this above-described manner is used in the subsequent wireless communication operation.
The wireless connection of the P2P mode is performed using a specific frequency band (wireless channel). At this time, to stably maintain the wireless communication by the infrastructure mode and the P2P mode, the channel in which a response was received from the AP in the infrastructure mode is obtained and set as the common channel for the GO of the P2P mode.
A channel defined by the Wi-Fi standard is used in each of the infrastructure mode and the P2P mode. In the Wi-Fi standard, 1 to 13 channels can be used as channels of a 2.4 GHz frequency band depending on the country or region. In this embodiment, a description will be given assuming that the range of usable channels is 1 to 13 channels. However, the present invention is not limited to this. That is, although the number of channels may increase in a different frequency band or the channels may be limited to 1 to 11 channels even in the same frequency band depending on the frequency band regulations according to each country or region, the method according to this embodiment is usable in an actually usable channel range. For example, in the IEEE 802.11a wireless LAN standard, a frequency band of 5 GHz is used. Hence, it is known that a range of about 36 to 140 channels can be used. Note that for a communication apparatus using both frequency bands 2.4 GHz (1 to 13) and 5 GHz (36 to 140), this means that the number of channels to transmit a search request command to the AP will increase.
The MFP 300 can perform communication via the access point 400 by enabling the communication by the infrastructure mode in response to a user operation accepted via the operation display unit 305. The MFP 300 changes to a state in which cloud communication with a partner apparatus of a desired content server or the like on the Internet is possible by performing communication by the infrastructure mode, for example, via the access point. That is, although the MFP 300 can communicate with the mobile communication apparatus 200 via the access point by the communication by the infrastructure mode, the MFP also changes to a state in which it is possible to communicate with an apparatus different from the mobile communication apparatus 200.
In addition, by enabling the communication by the WFD mode in response to the user operation accepted via the operation display unit 305, the MFP 300 can perform communication by WFD with a partner apparatus such as the mobile communication apparatus 200. Here, the partner apparatus in the infrastructure mode and the partner apparatus in the WFD mode may be the same apparatus or may be different apparatuses. Note that in a state in which communications by the infrastructure mode and the WFD mode have been enabled together, the MFP 300 can concurrently (simultaneously) perform communications by these two modes. Note also that the MFP 300 can set the communication by the infrastructure mode or that by the WFD mode to be disabled in response to a user operation accepted via the operation display unit 305.
As described above, the MFP 300 can perform settings to enable/disable the communication to implement the operations of the aforementioned “infrastructure mode”, “WFD mode”, and “simultaneous operation mode” which allows communications by concurrently performing these two modes.
Note that these operations of the MFP 300 can be executed by the mobile communication apparatus 200. That is, the mobile communication apparatus 200 can operate by one of the infrastructure mode, the WFD mode, and the simultaneous operation mode. Hence, the mobile communication apparatus 200 can, for example, browse a Web page via the Internet by the infrastructure mode while communicating with the MFP 300 by the WFD mode. In addition, the mobile communication apparatus 200 can, in some cases, communicate with the MFP 300 by using both the WFD mode and the infrastructure mode.
(Processing Procedure)
The procedure of error control processing in a communication apparatus that can execute communications concurrently by a plurality of modes, such as the communication by the infrastructure mode and the communication by the WFD mode, will be described hereinafter. Note that a case in which a WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) error has occurred in the MFP 300 due to receiving a non-standard packet from a partner apparatus when the WFD connection is set will be described below. However, the error is not limited to this. For example, the same processing can be performed for an error related to another piece of information which the communication apparatus has exchanged with the partner apparatus or for an error arising from the continuation of a predetermined period in which the communication apparatus cannot receive a beacon due to a crowded communication environment. Also, the same processing can be executed when an error occurs from a discrepancy between the communication state recognized by the partner apparatus and that of the communication apparatus which arose from a period of time in which communication was not normally performed due to a temporary memory shortage that occurred in the communication apparatus.
In response to accepting, on the operation display unit 305, a user operation to re-enable the communication by WFD, the MFP 300 can reactivate stopped communication by WFD. Here, the MFP 300 can be set so that the communication by WFD is not automatically reactivated. Hence, the MFP 300 can prevent, for example, a state in which printing is canceled due to a packet loss caused by reactivation during printing through the communication by the infrastructure mode. If the ROM or RAM is limited, the MFP 300 can have an arrangement in which a common socket is used for the communication by the infrastructure mode and for the communication by WFD in order to implement “a simultaneous operation mode” with sufficiently small resources. In this case, if the MFP 300 reactivates the communication by WFD, it will not only have influence on the communication by WFD but also on the communication by the infrastructure mode, and it can fall into a state in which socket communication is temporarily impossible. As a result, packets that should have been received during this period by the MFP 300 are lost, and a problem such as the printing being canceled or an apparatus newly connected to the LAN not detecting the MFP 300 can occur. Therefore, instead of automatically reactivating the communication by WFD, the MFP 300 can reactivate the communication by WFD after notifying the user that the communication by the WFD has stopped and recognizing the determination of the user through the operation display unit 305.
On the other hand, if it is determined that the current operation mode is the WFD mode in step S1001, the MFP 300 reactivates the communication by WFD (step S1004). That is, if the MFP 300 is currently performing only the communication by WFD at that point, the communication by WFD can be automatically reactivated since it is obvious that the communication by the other communication mode (for example, the infrastructure mode) will not be influenced. Note that in this reactivation, a device search according to the processing of
In the above-described example, the occurrence of an error related to the communication by WFD has been exemplified. However, a case in which both communications by the infrastructure mode and the WFD mode fail together in “the simultaneous operation mode” can also be considered. The procedure of processing for a case assuming such a case will be described below with reference to
First, upon detecting the occurrence of an error related to communication, the MFP 300 determines the current operation mode (step S1101). If the operation mode is “the simultaneous operation mode”, the MFP subsequently determines the type of error (step S1102). Here, if an error related only to the communication by WFD is determined, the MFP 300 stops the communication by WFD (step S1103) and displays that an error has occurred on the operation display unit 305 (step S1104) in the same manner as the steps S1002 and S1003 of
Note that “errors related to both the communication by the infrastructure mode and the communication by WFD” can be, for example, internal errors due to a temporary memory shortage of the WLAN unit 616. A temporary memory shortage can be caused when communication with an unexpectedly high load continuously occurs or when a low-rate clock is supplied to the CPU 602.
In addition, “errors related to both the communication by the infrastructure mode and the communication by WFD” need not be errors that occur simultaneously. That is, the error related to the communication by the infrastructure mode and the error related to the communication by WFD can occur at separate timings from each other. For example, assume a case in which the communication by the WFD has stopped (step S1103) in the above-described manner due to the occurrence of an error related to the communication by WFD but an error related to the communication by the infrastructure mode subsequently occurs. In this case, reactivation of the communication by the infrastructure mode and the communication by WFD can be performed (step S1105).
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. For example, if the error that has occurred is related to the communication by the infrastructure mode, only the communication by the infrastructure mode may be stopped. In this case, the error need not be displayed. If an error related to the communication by the infrastructure mode has occurred, the MFP 300 may reactivate the communication by the infrastructure mode. Furthermore, the P2P communication mode need not be the WFD mode but may be the software AP mode. Also, the setting to enable/disable each communication mode is not limited to the operation from the operation display unit 305. For example, this setting may be performed by a terminal such as a PC using an application by communication via a USB connection.
Note that, as described above, the processing described in this embodiment can be executed by the mobile communication apparatus 200. That is, if it is a communication apparatus that can perform simultaneous communications by the infrastructure mode and the P2P mode, the above-described processing can be executed. In addition, although the infrastructure mode and the P2P mode have been described as the examples in the above-described embodiment, the present invention is not limited to them. That is, the above-described processing is applicable to a communication apparatus capable of simultaneous communications in a plurality of communication modes.
According to the present invention, in a communication apparatus that can execute a plurality of communications simultaneously, if an error related to one of the communications occurs, it is possible to prevent the error from influencing the other communications.
Embodiment(s) of the present invention can also be realized by a computer of a system or apparatus that reads out and executes computer executable instructions (e.g., one or more programs) recorded on a storage medium (which may also be referred to more fully as a ‘non-transitory computer-readable storage medium’) to perform the functions of one or more of the above-described embodiment(s) and/or that includes one or more circuits (e.g., application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)) for performing the functions of one or more of the above-described embodiment(s), and by a method performed by the computer of the system or apparatus by, for example, reading out and executing the computer executable instructions from the storage medium to perform the functions of one or more of the above-described embodiment(s) and/or controlling the one or more circuits to perform the functions of one or more of the above-described embodiment(s). The computer may comprise one or more processors (e.g., central processing unit (CPU), micro processing unit (MPU)) and may include a network of separate computers or separate processors to read out and execute the computer executable instructions. The computer executable instructions may be provided to the computer, for example, from a network or the storage medium. The storage medium may include, for example, one or more of a hard disk, a random-access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), a storage of distributed computing systems, an optical disk (such as a compact disc (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), or Blu-ray Disc (BD)™), a flash memory device, a memory card, and the like.
While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2016-102762, filed May 23, 2016 which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-102762 | May 2016 | JP | national |
