JPH0756982B2 - Two-way communication optical space transmission network - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an optical space transmission network for two-way communication in which control data is spatially transmitted by an optical signal to control a device.

[Conventional technology]

In the case of transmitting information by optical space transmission, especially 1 to N
In communication, it is difficult to expand the network area due to the spatial line-of-sight restrictions on the transmitting side and the receiving side. Of course, if a repeater is provided, this problem will be solved, but installing a dedicated repeater will increase the cost, and if there are multiple repeaters, it will be difficult to take measures against interference and receive from the transmission circuit. Since a malfunction occurs due to wraparound in the circuit, another problem occurs such as being restricted in the installation place to prevent this or requiring a devised structure.

FIG. 5 shows an optical space transmission device without using a dedicated repeater.
For example, the optical space transmission network disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-122143 is provided with a relay function.

In FIG. 5, reference numeral 1 is an optical space transmission device having a transmitter T and a receiver R, which is connected to a host computer HC, a network node and the like. Optical space transmission devices 1a-1c
Has a transmitter T, a receiver R, and a data terminal 2 such as a personal computer as shown in FIG. 6, and the receiver R has an optical / electrical converter 3 and a demodulator 4, and T has a modulator 5 and an electro-optical converter 6, and the data terminal 2 has a switch 7 constituting a folding circuit, a control address discriminator 8 thereof, and a memory 9 for storing demodulated data.
have. The optical space transmission device 1d includes a transmitter T and a receiver R.
Consists of.

Upon receiving the optical signal, each of the optical space transmission devices 1a to 1c performs optical / electrical conversion of the optical signal and inputs it to the demodulator 4. The demodulator 4 extracts and demodulates the clock, and the demodulated data is written in the memory 9 by the extracted clock. When sending,
The transmission data obtained by adding the address of the transmission destination and the address of the transmission source to the data to be transmitted enters the modulator 5 through the switch 7, is modulated there, and the modulated output is electro-optically converted, and this is emitted as an optical signal. It The address discriminator 8 checks the transmission destination address included in the output of the demodulator 4, and if the address is not addressed to itself, connects the switch 7 forming the folding circuit to the modulator 5 to output the output of the demodulator 4. To the modulator 5 and this modulator 5 is transmitted to the space through the electro-optical converter 6.

In this configuration, a unique address is assigned to each of the optical space transmission devices 1, 1a to 1c, 1d. When the space optical transmission apparatus 1a transmits to the space optical transmission apparatus 1, it transmits data from the transmitter T with its own address and destination address (in this case, the address of the space optical transmission apparatus 1) attached. The optical space transmission device 1b receives this optical signal, but since the destination is not addressed to itself, the return data is used as it is by the loopback function (without changing the data and the destination address, the source address), and the transmitter T Transfer to the optical space transmission device 1. Since the received signal is addressed to itself in the optical free space transmission apparatus 1,
The loopback mode is released and the received data is sent to the host computer HC.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

Optical space transmission devices 1a ~ 1c in this network, if the destination address is not the address assigned to itself,
Since it has the function of relaying the received signal, the above-mentioned problem has been solved, but the received signal is either received directly from the source or relayed by another optical space transmission device. Since it is not possible to distinguish whether or not there is an optical space transmission device 1a that is not the destination when the optical section transmission device 1 specifies the optical space transmission device 1c and sends out the optical signal L, as shown in FIG. Repeated relays occur between 1b (,, ...
• indicates the number of relay operations), and relay operations may continue.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and uses a control terminal having a relay function, but provides a practically excellent two-way communication optical space transmission network in which there is no risk of repeated relay operations. The purpose is to do.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises a main controller for transmitting and receiving optical signals, and a plurality of control terminals for transmitting and receiving optical signals, and an optical space transmission in which addresses are assigned to the main controller and each control terminal. In the network, the main controller sends its control data to its own destination and specifies the address of the destination terminal, and the control terminal monitors the state of the controlling equipment and changes the state or periodically. The data of the state,
A source address is added and the destination is sent as the address of the main controller. The control terminal decodes the control data and sends the control signal to the controlling device when the received signal is addressed to itself. At the same time, a confirmation signal designating the address of the main controller is sent back to the main controller, and if it is addressed to the main controller or another terminal, the relay operation is performed to send the received signal with relay information. Among the control terminals that have received the signal having the relay information, the ones for which the received signal is not addressed are configured so as not to perform the output operation. The transmission operation is stopped during the return waiting time, and when the confirmation signal is received before the return waiting time elapses, the transmitting operation is possible. No sense after sending control signal It is configured to be set between, in claim 4, relay information, and to be a raised flag to the transmission data format.

[Action]

According to the present invention, when the received signal is not addressed to the own terminal, the control terminal carries the relay information and relays it, and the control terminal which receives the signal having the relay information decodes the relay information and relays it If it is determined that the terminal is not the relay stage and the received signal is not addressed to the own terminal, the output operation is not performed. When the received signal is addressed to itself, the control terminal performs a control operation and returns a confirmation signal for confirmation of reception to the main controller. Further, when the control terminal fetches the state of the controlled device, it sends the data of this state by designating the address of the main controller, and the main controller cordlessly controls the device controlled by all the control terminals. Can be monitored with.

〔Example〕

 An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, 10 is a main controller to which an address is assigned, which has a control unit MC to which a display device can be connected, a transmission unit MT, and a reception unit MR. A control data D created by designating an address (the address of the main controller 10) and an address of the destination terminal is transmitted to a modulator (not shown) with a predetermined transmission data format 30 (shown in FIG. 3 (a)). The output of the circuit and the modulator is the optical signal Li
It has an electro-optical converter that converts the light into a space and radiates it into the space. After transmitting the optical signal Li, the transmission operation is stopped until a predetermined waiting time T3 elapses, and within this waiting time T3. When the confirmation signal, which will be described later, for the transmitted control data D is received, the transmission stop is canceled and the transmission becomes possible.

20A, 20B, and 20C are control terminals, each of which is assigned a unique address. The control terminals 20A to 20C, as shown in FIG. 2, include a transmitter T, a receiver R, and a controller C.
have.

In FIG. 2, a receiving unit R for receiving an optical signal includes an optical / electrical converter 21 for converting the optical signal into an electric signal, and the optical / electrical converter.
Demodulator 22 for demodulating the received signal converted into an electric signal by 21
And sends the demodulated data to the control unit C. Control unit C
Has a reception data memory 23 for temporarily storing the demodulated data, an address decoder 24, a controller 25, and an input circuit 29. The transmission unit T includes a transmission circuit 26 and a modulator.
The transmission circuit 26 has an electric power converter 27 and an electro-optical converter 28, is activated by a command from the address decoder 24, reads all the data stored in the reception data memory 23, and assembles the transmission data format 30. A status signal to be described later, which is activated by a command from the circuit 29, is transmitted with a flag in the transmission data format 40, and when activated by a command from the controller 25, the confirmation signal is transmitted in the transmission data format 50. To do. The modulator 27 modulates the signal having the transmission data format 30, 40, 50 and inputs it to the electro-optical converter 28.

In response to a command (notification) from the address decoder 24, the controller 25 reads the control code of the data stored in the reception data memory 23, decodes it, sends a control signal to the controlling device, and sets the time. When T2 elapses, a command is given to the transmission circuit 26 to activate the transmission circuit 26.

The input circuit 29 is a status signal of the controlled object controlled by the control terminal (for example, whether it is in the ON state or the OFF state)
Is monitored and is input to the transmission circuit 26 together with a command at the time of change and / or periodically. The transmission circuit 26 which has received this command and the status signal has the format 40 shown in FIG.
Signal is applied to the modulator 27 without flagging.

FIG. 3 (a) shows an example of the transmission data format 30. The synchronization bit 31 and the address bit for designating the receiving destination.
32A, a transmission address bit 32B designating a transmission destination, a flag bit 33, a control code bit 34 and a check bit. FIG. 3 (b) shows the format in the case of transmitting the status signal, and FIG. 3 (c) shows the format of the confirmation signal described later.

Next, the operation of this device will be described with reference to the time chart shown in FIG.

For convenience of explanation, it is assumed that the control objects controlled by the control units C of the control terminals 20A, 20B, and 20C are the first illuminating lamp, the second illuminating lamp, and the third illuminating lamp in the building, respectively, and the main controller 10 Sends a command to turn on (ON) the third lamp.

The control unit MC of the main controller 10 sends a control code for instructing the lighting (ON) of the third illuminating lamp to the transmitting circuit by designating the address of the control terminal 20C, and the predetermined signal sent by the transmitting circuit. The signal of the transmission data format 30 of is modulated and is radiated to the room space as the optical signal Li. At this time, the flag of the transmission data format 30 is not set and the flag bit is "0".

The optical signal Li radiated to the room space is the control terminal, 20
In the control terminal 20A, the received optical signal Li is converted into an electrical signal by the optical / electrical converter 21, demodulated by the demodulator 22 and stored in the received data memory 23 in the control terminal 20A. When the received data is stored in the received data memory 23, the address decoder 24 reads the destination address and the flag from the received data stored in the received data memory 23, and determines whether the received data is addressed to its own terminal from the destination address. It is determined whether it is addressed to the terminal, and whether a flag is set (whether it has relay information). If the received data is addressed to its own terminal, it notifies the controller 25 to that effect.
In this case, since the other terminal does not have the relay information, the transmission circuit 26 is notified that the data addressed to the other terminal has been received (the relay operation should be performed). Receiving this notification, the transmission circuit 26 reads the data (destination address, control code) stored in the reception data memory 23, and sends this to the modulator 27 by the transmission data format 30 with a flag. The transmission signal modulated by the modulator 27 is an optical signal by the electro-optical converter 28.
It is converted into L ₀ and radiated into space. This optical signal L ₀ is received by the control terminals 20B and 20C at the next stage. In the control terminal 20C, the address decoder 24 decodes that its own terminal is the non-relay stage because the flag is set, that is, has the relay information, and the received data is addressed to the own terminal. Therefore, the controller 27 reads the control code of the reception data stored in the reception data memory 23, decodes the control code, gives an ON command to the third illuminating lamp, and sets the dead zone at time T2.

As described above, when the address decoder 24 determines that the received data is addressed to the own terminal, the 20C receives the time T2 after the reception.
The dead zone of is set, but this dead zone T2 is the main controller 10,
The time required for the control terminals 20A to 20C to send and receive signals
When T1 is set and the processing time delay is set to TL, it is given by T2T1 + 2 × TL (1). The waiting time T3 is given by T33 * T1 + 4 * TL + T2 (2).

The control terminal 20C may receive twice from the control terminal 20A and the main controller and may repeatedly send a control signal (ON command) to the third illumination lamp to be controlled, depending on the arrangement of the equipment. However, since the dead zone T2 is provided, such malfunction does not occur at all.

As described above, the control terminal 20B also receives from the control terminal 20A at the same time as the control terminal 20C, but since the flag is set, the terminal itself is a non-relay stage and the destination address is not addressed to the terminal itself. Therefore, the address decoder 24 does not issue a command to either the controller 25 or the transmission circuit 26, and erases the contents of the reception data memory 23.

When the time T2 has elapsed, the controller 25 of the control terminal 20C gives a return command to the transmission circuit 26. The transmission circuit 26, which has received this return command, specifies the reply destination address (the address of the main controller 10) specified by the received data and updates the flag to "0". The confirmation signal of is sent to the modulator 27. The modulator 27 modulates this confirmation signal and then supplies it to the electro-optical converter 28. The confirmation signal sent by the control terminal 20C is received by the control terminal 20A. Since the control terminal 20A has not flagged the received signal, the received signal (confirmation signal) is relayed with the flag set, and the main controller 10 that has received the relayed signal cancels the transmission suspension. Ready to send. If the confirmation signal does not arrive within the waiting time T3, the main controller 10 retransmits the same signal as the signal transmitted last time, and if there is no confirmation signal for the retransmission, for example, the display device displays the third signal. Command the "abnormality" display of the lighting of.

Control object controlled by control terminal 20C (third lamp) is ON
Then, the transmission circuit 26 is activated and the status code is "ON",
The destination address is the address of the main controller 10, the source is the address of the control terminal 20C, and the control terminal 20C sends a status signal in a format in which the flag is "0". The control terminal 20A receiving this signal sets a flag and sends it because the flag has not been set. The main controller 10 receiving the status signal relayed by the control terminal 20A decodes the status of the device controlled by the control terminal 20C from the status code,
Display or change the display contents on the screen of the display device.

When the main controller 10 receives the status signal from each of the control terminals 20A to 20C, it sends a confirmation signal to the control terminal of the transmission source.

As described above, in this embodiment, since the “state” of the device controlled by each control terminal 20A to 20C can be reliably communicated to the main controller 10, the main controller 10 is cordless and controlled by each control terminal. You can control and monitor the devices that operate.

The main controller 10 also specifies the address of the destination terminal,
The control data is sent without setting a flag, and the control terminals 20A to 20C specify the address of the main controller 10 to send the status signal of the device without setting a flag, and the control terminal 20A
~ 20C performs relay operation when the flag of the received signal is not set and does not perform relay operation when the flag is set and the address is not its own address. To be prevented.

Further, since the main controller 10 stops the transmission operation after transmitting the signal and waits for the waiting time T3 and waits for the confirmation signal to be returned before performing the next transmission, the control of the control device is not confused.

Further, when the received signal is addressed to its own terminal, each control terminal 20A to 20C sets the dead zone T2 after reception and interrupts the receiving operation, so that it operates only with the signal that arrives first and controls the control target. There is no danger of malfunction.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, the main controller and the control terminal of the present invention send signals by designating a destination address and a source address, and each control terminal transmits relay information when the received signal is not addressed to itself. When a received signal has relay information and is not addressed to its own terminal, the relay operation is not repeated, and the relay operation is not repeated. Since the control terminal itself has a relay function, there is no malfunction due to the above-mentioned optical signal wraparound, so there are few restrictions due to price and space perspective, and a practical two-way communication optical space transmission network is provided. Further, it is possible to easily construct without worrying about the arrival route of the signal, and it is possible to easily increase or decrease the number of control terminals.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a network showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a concrete configuration of a control terminal in the above embodiment, and FIGS. 3 (a) to 3 (c) are transmission data formats in the above embodiment. FIG. 4 is a signal time chart for explaining the relay operation in the above embodiment, FIG. 5 is a view showing a conventional optical space transmission network, and FIG. 6 is an internal configuration of an optical transmission device in the above conventional example. Block Diagram,
FIG. 7 is a network diagram for explaining the problems of the above conventional example. 10 ... Main controller, 20A to 20C ... Control terminal, 21 ... Optical / electrical converter, 22 ... Demodulator, 23 ... Received data memory, 24 ...
… Address decoder, 25 …… Controller, 26 …… Transmission circuit,
27 …… Modulator, 28 …… Electro-optical converter, 20 …… Input circuit,
R: receiving unit, MT, T: transmitting unit, MC, C: control unit.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI technical indication H04B 10/22

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An optical space transmission network comprising: a main controller for transmitting and receiving optical signals; and a plurality of control terminals for transmitting and receiving optical signals, wherein the main controller and each control terminal are assigned addresses. The main controller sends the control data by designating the address of the destination terminal and sending the control data by designating the address of the destination terminal, and the control terminal monitors the state of the controlling device and periodically or periodically changes the state data. , The source address is attached and the destination is sent as the address of the main controller, and the control terminal decodes the control data and sends the control signal to the controlling device when the received signal is addressed to itself. A relay operation that sends a confirmation signal specifying the address of the main controller and sends it back to the main controller, and sends the received signal with relay information if it is addressed to the main controller or another terminal. And do Of the control terminal receiving the signal having the information, and reception signal it is not addressed to its own terminal space optical transmission network of two-way communication, characterized in that no output operation. 2. The main controller suspends the transmission operation during a predetermined return waiting time after the signal is transmitted, and when the confirmation signal is received before the elapse of the return waiting time, the main controller can perform the transmission operation. An optical space transmission network for two-way communication according to claim 1, characterized in that. 3. The two-way communication optical space transmission network according to claim 1, wherein the control terminal sets a dead time after transmitting the control signal to the controlling device. 4. The two-way communication optical space transmission network according to claim 1, wherein the relay information is a flag set in a transmission data format.