Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Special service
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-06
2001-01-23
Bost, Dwayne D. (Department: 2744)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Special service
C455S507000, C455S517000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06178323
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system for and a method of determining a tentative master of a radio conference system in case of bringing an unspecified number of radio terminals to arbitrary places, determining a tentative master thereof, temporally constituting a network by means of radio using the tentative master as a center, and conducting communication. Conventionally, as this kind of a system for determining a tentative master, there is a system disclosed in JP-A-245690/1991, for example.
FIG. 5
is a view showing the construction of the entirety of this conventional conference system between multi-points. Multi-points control units (referred to as MCUs, hereinafter)
50
-
52
are arranged at each position, respectively, and have jurisdiction over communication terminals within each of control areas
80
-
82
and conduct entire control of a conference. For example, the MCU
50
has jurisdiction over the communication terminal
40
indicated as “A”, the MCU
51
has jurisdiction over the communication terminals
41
-
43
indicated as “B”-“D”, and, the MCU
52
has jurisdiction over the communication terminals
44
and
45
indicated as “E” and “F” Communication circuits
60
-
65
are connecting circuits for connecting finally determined optimum MCUs to each of the terminals
40
-
45
. Communication circuits
70
and
71
are connecting circuits which are used when a notice from the terminal
40
of the opening of the conference is issued to the MCU
51
by way of the MCU
50
. Each of the MCUs has a terminal control table (kinds of the circuit, fee information and so forth).
The system shown in
FIG. 5
operates as follows:
At first, in order to open a multi-points conference between the terminal
40
and other terminals
41
-
45
, the circuit
70
is connected to the MCU
50
over which the terminal
40
has jurisdiction, and a demand for opening the conference is transmitted to the MCU
50
. For determining an optimum MCU for controlling the said conference, the terminal control table is referred to by the MCU
50
that has received the demand, and the MCU
50
determines whether or not only its terminal control table has enough information. If the terminal control table has enough information, the optimum MCU is determined based on the information, the circuit is connected to the optimum MCU. Here, if the MCU
51
is selected, the circuit
71
becomes to be connected to the MCU
50
. In addition, based on the information for the determination, the sum total of fees is calculated and obtained, for example, in case of assuming that the terminals are connected to each other with each MCU placed at a center. Also, if the information is not enough for the sole determination by the MCU
50
, the MCU
50
conducts communication with other MCUs
51
and
52
and determines the optimum MCU based on information obtained from each of the MCUs
51
and
52
.
After the optimum MCU
51
is determined in this manner, the demand for the opening is transmitted to the MCU
51
. And then, after the connections between MCUs are cut and a notice of the opening from the MCU
51
is issued to the terminal
40
, the circuit
70
is cut. Thereafter, the circuits
60
-
65
are connected between the MCU
51
and each of the terminals
40
-
45
, and the conference is held in an optimum connecting form.
As mentioned above, the optimum MCU is determined based on the information of the terminal control table which is stored in the MCU, using information of the terminal control tables of other MCUs also if necessary.
However, although, in this prior art, the MCUs are needed in addition to the terminals for determining the optimum MCU and setting communication paths, the MCUs do not always exist in case of bringing unspecified radio terminals to arbitrary places.
Also, since the MCUs have the terminal control table and the terminals do not have the terminal control tables, communication of the terminal information cannot be conducted by only the terminals, and accordingly, the optimum MCU (which is a tentative master in the present invention) cannot be determined by only the terminals.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the objective of the present invention is to solve the above-described task, and is to provide a system for or a method of determining an optimum tentative master in case of bringing an unspecified number of radio terminals, temporally constituting a network, and conducting communication.
In the present invention for achieving the above-described objective, each radio terminal has a unit (a self-terminal information storing section
4
in
FIG. 1
) for storing terminal information (such as remaining power of a battery, transmission power of a radio section, and a terminal processing speed) of its own, a unit (an other terminal information storing section
3
in
FIG. 1
) for receiving terminal information of other terminals and storing it, and a unit (a master determining section
2
in
FIG. 1
) for determining a radio terminal to be an optimum tentative master, and in case of determining a tentative master, when a user arbitrarily selects one radio terminal, other radio terminals connect circuits to the radio terminal (referred to
FIG. 2
) and transmit terminal information thereto, and determine a tentative master in the terminal, and thereafter, re-connect the circuits to the terminals to be a tentative master newly to construct a temporary network (referred to FIG.
3
).
Each of the radio terminals has terminal information, and can freely communicate the information with other radio terminals via radio. Also, each of the radio terminals can temporarily store the terminal information transmitted from the other radio terminals. In case of determining a tentative master, by selecting one appropriate radio terminal and collecting the terminal information to the selected radio terminal, the master determining section of the radio terminal successively compares the stored terminal information with each other, and can determine an optimum tentative master while giving priority to, for example, remaining power of a battery in case of desiring to maintain a network for a long time and transmission power of the radio terminal in case of desiring to make a network range wide.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4924457 (1990-05-01), shimizu
patent: 5276678 (1994-01-01), Hendrickson et al.
patent: 5475867 (1995-12-01), Blum
patent: 5619553 (1997-04-01), Young et al.
patent: 5889844 (1999-03-01), Kim et al.
patent: 5915211 (1999-06-01), Fujiwara
patent: 6026303 (2000-02-01), Minamissawa
Bost Dwayne D.
NEC Corporation
Ostrolenk Faber Gerb & Soffen, LLP
Vu Quang
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