JPH0756983B2 - Multi-stage, two-way communication optical space transmission network - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a multi-stage / two-way optical space transmission network for spatially transmitting control data 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 6 checks the 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, which is sent out into 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 5, 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 5) 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 is a practically excellent multi-stage, two-way communication optical space transmission network in which there is no risk of repeated relay operations. The purpose is to provide.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises a main controller for transmitting / receiving an optical signal and a plurality of control terminals for transmitting / receiving an optical signal, and the main controller and each control terminal are multi-stage optical In a space transmission network, the main controller sends a control data by designating a reply destination to itself, designating an address of a destination terminal and a signal relay stage number to the destination terminal, and the control terminal is a controlling device. When the status is changed or periodically, the data of the status is attached with the source address, the destination is the address of the main controller, and the number of signal relay stages up to the address is designated and transmitted. When the received signal is addressed to itself, the control terminal decodes the control data, sends a control signal to the controlling device, sets a dead time in consideration of the number of signal relay stages, and sends a signal to the main controller. During ~ The confirmation signal specifying the number of stages is returned to the main controller, and if it is addressed to the main controller or another terminal, the received signal is relayed by updating the number of signal relay stages and transmitting the received signal. Among the control terminals which have received the signal whose number of signal relay stages has been updated to a predetermined value, the one whose received signal is not addressed to itself is configured not to perform the output operation. The transmission operation is stopped during a predetermined return waiting time after the signal is transmitted, and the transmission operation is possible when a confirmation signal is received before the return waiting time elapses. The number of stages is updated by decrementing the number of stages by 1, and the predetermined value is set to 0.

[Action]

In the present invention, until the value of the number of signal relay stages up to the destination terminal included in the received signal is updated to a predetermined value, the control terminals of each stage are sequentially relayed, the number of signal relay stages is a predetermined value, and The control terminal that receives the signal addressed to it performs a control operation, and sends a confirmation signal for confirmation of reception in a format having the address of the main controller and the number of signal relay stages to the main controller. Although the number of signal relay stages is a predetermined value, the control terminal that has received the signal addressed to the other terminal does not perform the relay operation or the control operation. When the state of the equipment controlled by the control terminal is fetched, the address of the main controller and the number of signal relay stages up to the main controller are designated and transmitted, so that the main controller outputs the equipment controlled by all the control terminals, It can be cordlessly controlled and monitored.

〔Example〕

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

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a main controller to which an address is assigned, which has a control unit MC to which a display device can be connected and a transmission unit MT. The transmission unit MT is a reply destination address (main control unit). The control data D created by designating the address of the receiver 10), the address of the destination terminal and the number N of signal relay stages to the destination terminal (stage number code) are transmitted in a predetermined transmission data format (shown in FIG. 3 (a)). In the figure, a transmitter circuit for sending to the modulator (not shown) and an electro-optical converter for converting the output of the modulator into an optical signal Li and radiating it into space are provided. The transmission operation is stopped until the waiting time T3 of the transmission of the control data D
When a confirmation signal described later is received, the transmission stop is canceled and the transmission becomes possible.

20A, 20B, and 20C and 20D are control terminals arranged in multiple stages, each of which is assigned a unique address. Each of the control terminals 20A to 20D has a transmitter T, a receiver R, and a controller C, as shown in FIG.

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, which has 27 and an electro-optical converter 28, is activated by a command from the address decoder 24, reads all the data stored from the reception data memory 23, and updates the stage number code N (-1 subtraction). In addition to assembling the transmission data format 30, the transmission data format 40 is activated by a command from the input circuit 29 and a status signal described later is transmitted.
When the control signal is activated by a command from the controller 25, the confirmation signal is transmitted in the transmission data format 50. The modulator 27 is the above-mentioned transmission data format 30, 40, 50.
Is modulated and input 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.
Is applied to the modulator 27.

As described above, the control terminals 20A to 20D set the dead zone of the time T2 after reception when the address decoder 24 determines that the received data is addressed to the own terminal.
When T2 is the time required for the main controller 10 and the control terminals 20A to 20D to send and receive signals and T1 is the processing time delay, T2> N × (T1 + TL) (1) where N: It is given by the value of the number of signal relay stages received. The waiting time T3 is given by T3> (2N + 1) × (T1 + TL) (2), where N is the value of the number of signal relay stages transmitted.

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 destination, a signal relay stage number 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, the control unit C of the control terminals 20A, 20B, 20C, 20D
The control objects controlled by are the first illuminating lamp, the second illuminating lamp, the third illuminating lamp, and the air conditioner, respectively, in the building,
It is assumed that the main controller 10 sends a command to turn on (ON) the third illumination lamp.

The control unit MC of the main controller 10 sends a control code for instructing lighting (ON) of the third illumination lamp to the transmission circuit by designating the control terminal 20C (destination address and stage number code),
Predetermined transmission data format transmitted by the transmission circuit 30
Is modulated and is radiated as an optical signal Li into the room space. The stage number code of the transmission data format 30 at this time is “2” because the number of signal relay stages up to the control terminal 20C is 2.

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 stage number code 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 another terminal, and whether the stage number code is a predetermined value "0" which means a non-relay stage. If the received data is addressed to its own terminal, it notifies the controller 25 of that fact. In this case, since the stage number code is "2", the transmission circuit 26 indicates that the data addressed to another terminal has been received. Notify that the relay operation should be performed. Receiving this notification, the transmission circuit 26 reads out the data (destination address, control code) stored in the reception data memory 23 and sends it to the modulator 27 by the transmission data format 30 with the stage number code updated to "1". . The transmission signal modulated by the modulator 27 is converted into an optical signal L ₀ by the electro-optical converter 28 and radiated into space. This optical signal L ₀
Is received by the control terminal 20B at the next stage. In the control terminal 20B, since the stage number code of the received data is "1", the transmission circuit 26 is instructed to perform the relay operation. Receiving this command, the transmission circuit 26 reads the data (transmission destination address, control code) stored in the reception data memory 23 and updates the stage number code to “0” in the transmission data format 30 in the same manner as above. The signal is sent to the modulator 27. The transmission signal modulated by the modulator 27 is converted into an optical signal L ₀ by the electro-optical converter 28 and radiated into space. This optical signal L ₀ is received by the control terminals 20C and 20D at the next stage.

In the control terminal 20C, the address decoder 24 determines from the stage number code “0” that the own terminal is the non-relay stage and the received data is addressed to the own terminal. Therefore, the controller 27 is stored in the received data memory 23. The control code in the received data is read and decoded to give an ON command to the third illuminating lamp and set a dead zone at time T2. This time T2
Is T20 × (T1 + TL) 0 as shown in FIG.

In this case, the control terminal 20C receives the signal from the control terminal 20B, but also receives a signal from the main controller 10 and the control terminal 20A to control the third illuminating lamp that is the control target (ON command).
May be repeatedly transmitted, but since the dead zone T2 is provided, when the dead zone is received from the main controller 10, T22
X (T1 + TL), and when received from the control terminal 20A
Since T21 × (T1 + TL), the control signal (designated ON) is prevented from being repeatedly transmitted.

As described above, the control terminal 20D also receives from the control terminal 20B at the same time as the control terminal 20C, but since the destination address is not addressed to itself and the stage number code is “0”, the address decoder 24 No command is issued to either the controller 27 or the transmission circuit 26, and the contents of the reception data memory 23 are erased.

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 return destination address (the address of the main controller 10) specified by the received data and updates the stage number code to "2", the format of FIG. 3 (c). The confirmation signal of 50 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 20B. Since the control terminal 20B has a step number code of "2" in the received signal, the received signal (confirmation signal) is relayed after updating the step number code to "1", and the control terminal 20A receiving this signal is the same. Then, the stage number code is updated to "0" and transmitted. Main controller 10 that received this confirmation signal that the stage number code became "0"
Is canceled and the transmission is ready. 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.

When the controlled object (third illumination lamp) controlled by the control terminal 20C is manually turned ON, the transmission circuit 26 is activated, the status code is "ON", the destination address is the address of the main controller 10, the source The control terminal 20C sends a signal in a format in which the address of the control terminal 20C and the stage number code are "2", and this signal is relayed and received by the main controller 10 as described above, and the main controller 10 controls The display content of the display device for displaying the state of the device controlled by the terminal 20C is changed. When the main controller 10 receives the status signal from each of the control terminals 20A to 20D, 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 20D 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.

Further, the main controller 10 sends the control data by designating the number of relay stages N to the destination terminal and the address, and sends the control data to the control terminals 20A to 20A-2.
0D designates the address of the main controller 10 and sends out a device status signal, and the control terminals 20A to 20D perform a relay operation when the stage number code of the received signal is not "0", and are "0".
In addition, when the address is not its own address, the relay operation is not performed, so that the repeat relay described above is surely prevented.

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

When the received signal is addressed to itself, each of the control terminals 20A to 20D sets the dead zone T2 after reception and interrupts the reception 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, in the present invention, the signals sent from the main controller and the control terminal include the destination address, the source address, and the number of signal relay stages up to the destination address. , The number of signal relay stages to the destination terminal is updated and transmitted, and if the value of the number of signal relay stages of the received signal is updated to a predetermined value and it is not addressed to the own terminal, the output operation is not performed As a result, the relay operation is not repeated, and since the control terminal itself has the relay function, there is no malfunction due to the above-mentioned optical signal sneak, so there are few restrictions due to price and space perspective, and practical use. It is possible to easily construct an optical space transmission network with excellent multi-stage / two-way communication, without worrying about the signal arrival route, and to easily increase or decrease the number of control terminals. It can be.

[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 showing
FIG. 7 is a network diagram for explaining the problems of the above conventional example. 10 ... Main controller, 20A to 20D ... 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,
MR, 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 (3)

[Claims] 1. A multi-stage 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 addresses are assigned to the main controller and each control terminal. Then, the main controller sends the control data with the reply destination addressed to itself, specifying the address of the destination terminal and the number of signal relay stages to the destination terminal, and the control terminal monitors the state of the controlling device. When the status changes or periodically, the status data is sent with the source address, the destination is the address of the main controller, and the number of signal relay stages up to the address is specified and sent. When the signal is addressed to the terminal itself, the control data is decoded, the control signal is sent to the controlling device, and the dead time considering the number of signal relay stages is set to specify the number of signal relay stages to the main controller. Confirmation No. was returned to the main controller, when the main controller or other terminal addressed is the received signal,
Perform the relay operation of updating and transmitting the number of signal relay stages, and among the control terminals that have received the signal in which the number of signal relay stages of the received signal has been updated to a predetermined value, those that do not receive the received signal perform the output operation. A multi-stage, two-way communication optical space transmission network characterized by the absence thereof. 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 multistage / two-way communication according to claim 1. 3. The optical space transmission network for multi-stage / two-way communication according to claim 1, wherein the number of signal relay stages is updated by decrementing the number of stages by 1, and the predetermined value is 0 stage number.