Patent Publication Number: US-2007121563-A1

Title: Method and apparatus to determine wireless network link

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
      This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2005-102501, filed on Oct. 28, 2005, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present general inventive concept relates to a method and apparatus to determine and/or form a wireless network, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus to determine and/or form a wireless network link, in which a peripheral supporting wireless networking detects one or more connectable wireless networks, connects itself to each of the detected wireless networks via wireless to determine whether data from a host is received via any of the connected wireless networks, and detects a wireless network to which the host is connected based on the determination result.  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
      A peripheral is a device that operates under control of a host, and is connected to the host via wire or wireless. To connect the peripheral and the host via wireless, the host or the peripheral must support wireless networking.  
      That the host and the peripheral are connected via wireless represents that they are connected to the same wireless network. Since there may be more than one wireless network to which the host or the peripheral can be connected, the wireless network to which the host is connected must be the same as that to which the peripheral is connected to establish a wireless connection therebetween.  
      For the wireless connection between the host and the peripheral, a user has to handle the setting of the host or the peripheral so that the host and the peripheral are connected to the same wireless network. Therefore, conventionally, user inconvenience is unavoidable in establishing the wireless connection between the host and the peripheral. This problem becomes more serious when the user does not know how to change the setting of the host or the peripheral.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The present general inventive concept provides a method of determining a wireless network link, in which settings of a peripheral is not needed to establish a wireless link with a host. In the method, the peripheral supporting wireless networking detects one or more connectable wireless networks, connects itself to each of the detected wireless networks via wireless to check whether data from a host can be received via any of the connected wireless networks, and detects a wireless network to which the host is connected from the detected wireless networks based on the checking result.  
      The present general inventive concept also provides an apparatus to determine a wireless network link, in which a peripheral supporting wireless networking detects one or more connectable wireless networks, connects itself to each of the detected wireless networks via wireless to check whether data from a host can be received via any of the connected wireless networks, and detects a wireless network to which the host is connected from the detected wireless networks based on the checking result.  
      The present general inventive concept also provides a computer readable medium that stores a computer program in which a peripheral supporting wireless networking detects one or more connectable wireless networks, connects itself to each of the detected wireless networks via wireless to check whether data from a host can be received via any of the connected wireless networks, and detects a wireless network to which the host is connected from the detected wireless networks based on the checking result.  
      Additional aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the general inventive concept.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects and utilities of the present general inventive concept may be achieved by providing a method of determining a wireless network link, the method including detecting one or more connectable wireless networks, forming a link to one of the detected wireless networks, determining whether predetermined data is received via the linked wireless network, and determining the linked wireless network as a host-connected network when the predetermined data is received via the linked wireless network.  
      The method is performed by a peripheral, and the predetermined data is transmitted from a host via the host-connected network.  
      The method may further include forming a second link to the other one of the detected wireless networks and performing the determining of whether the predetermined data is received via the secondly linked wireless network when it is determined that the predetermined data is not received via the secondly linked wireless network.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects and utilities of the present general inventive concept may also be achieved by providing a system to determine a wireless network link, the apparatus including a host to transmit predetermined data via a predetermined wireless network; and a peripheral to detect one or more wireless networks to which a link is to be formed with the peripheral, to form a link to each of the detected wireless networks to determine whether the predetermined data is received via the linked wireless network, and to determine the linked wireless network as the predetermined wireless network when it is determined that the predetermined data is received via the linked wireless network.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects and utilities of the present general inventive concept may also be achieved by providing an apparatus to determine a wireless network link, the apparatus including a peripheral to detect one or more wireless networks, to form a link to make a link with one of the detected wireless networks to determine whether the predetermined data is received via the linked wireless network, and to determine the linked wireless network as a predetermined wireless network when it is determined that the predetermined data is received via the linked wireless network.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects and utilities of the present general inventive concept may also be achieved by providing a computer readable recording medium having embodied thereon a program which executes a method of determining a wireless network link, the method detecting one or more connectable wireless networks, forming a link to one of the detected wireless networks, determining whether predetermined data is received via the linked wireless network, and determining the linked wireless network as a host-connected network when the predetermined data is received via the linked wireless network. The method is performed by a peripheral, and the predetermined data is transmitted from a host via the host-connected network. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      These and/or other aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:  
       FIG. 1  is a reference diagram illustrating a method of determining a wireless network link according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept;  
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a system to determine a wireless network link according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept;  
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating a method of determining a wireless network link according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept; and  
       FIG. 4  is a view illustrating an image forming apparatus to determine a wireless network with an external host according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present general inventive concept, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present general inventive concept by referring to the figures.  
       FIG. 1  is a reference diagram illustrating a method of determining a wireless network link according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept. Referring to  FIG. 1 , a host  110  is connected to a peripheral  130  via wireless through a first wireless network  120 - 1 , a second wireless network  120 - 2 , . . . , or an n th  wireless network  120 -N.  
      The peripheral  130  indicates a device that operates under control of the host  110 . A personal computer (PC) is an example of the host  110 , and an image forming apparatus, such as a printer, a scanner, and a multi-functional peripheral (MFP), is an example of the peripheral  130 . The image forming apparatus may include a wireless interface unit to wirelessly communicate with the PC to receive data, a printing unit to print an image, and a controller to control the wireless interface unit and the printing unit to print the image according to the received data from the PC through the wireless interface unit. The wireless interface unit of the image forming apparatus may receive and/or detect one or more signals corresponding to one or more wireless networks and communicates with a second wireless interface unit of the PC to form the wireless network link through, for example, at least one of the received and/or detected one or more signals.  
      Although  FIG. 1  illustrates N number of wireless networks, such as the first wireless network  120 - 1 , the second wireless network  120 - 2 , . . . , and the n th  wireless network  120 -N (N is an integer equal to or greater than 3), the number of wireless networks is not limited. That is, more than one wireless network can be used in the present embodiment.  
      The wireless network  120 - 1 ,  120 - 2 , . . . , or  120 -N may have an ad-hoc structure or an infrastructure. An ad-hoc structure wireless network does not require an access point (AP), but an infrastructure wireless network requires the AP.  
      Each of the wireless networks  120 - 1 ,  120 - 2 , . . . , and  120 -N has a service set identifier (SSID) that identifies it from the other wireless networks. The SSID may be attached to a header of one or more packets which are transmitted between wireless interface units of the host  110  and the peripheral  130  through a predetermined wireless network. The host  110  and the peripheral  130  may exchange data through the predetermined wireless network using the SSID.  
      Referring to  FIG. 1 , both the host  110  and the peripheral  130  may be connected to one of the N wireless networks  120 - 1 ,  120 - 2 , . . . , and  120 -N.  
      When the host  110  and the peripheral  130  are connected via wireless, a wireless network including the host  110  and the peripheral  130  is formed. To establish the wireless network, the wireless network to which the host  110  is connected must be the same wireless network to which the peripheral  130  is connected. The host  110  and the peripheral  130  may determine a wireless network as the same wireless network according to the SSID.  
      For instance, when the host  110  is connected to the second wireless network  120 - 2 , the peripheral  130  must also be connected to the second wireless network  120 - 2  in order to establish the wireless network that includes the host  110  and the peripheral  130 . Since the peripheral  130  does not know which one of the N wireless networks  120 - 1 ,  120 - 2 , . . . , and  120 -N is connected to the host  110 , the peripheral  130  is required to determine whether the one of the N wireless networks  120 - 1 ,  120 - 2 , . . . , and  120 -N is connected to the host  110  by checking a packet transmitted from the host  110  through the determined wireless network  120 - 1 ,  120 - 2 , . . . , or  120 -N.  
      Hereinafter, establishing the wireless network will be referred to as ‘wireless networking. Also, for convenience, a wireless network to which the host  110  is connected will be referred to as a ‘host-connected network’.  
      The present embodiment discloses a wireless networking technology that allows the peripheral  130  to automatically detect a host-connected network from the N wireless networks  120 - 1 ,  120 - 2 , . . . , and  120 -N without a user&#39;s operation. For instance, assuming that the host  110  is connected to the first wireless network  120 - 1  and the peripheral  130  is connected to the second wireless network  120 - 2 , in order to establish the wireless network that includes the host  110  and the peripheral  130 , the user need not individually change setting of the host  110  (or the peripheral  130 ) to change information regarding the wireless network to which the host  110  (or the peripheral  130 ) is connected. In this case, according to the present embodiment, the first wireless network  120 - 1  to be connected is automatically detected by the peripheral  130 . The wireless networking technology according to the present embodiment will now be described in greater detail with reference to  FIGS. 2 and 3 .  
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating a system to determine a wireless network link according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept. Referring to  FIG. 2 , the system includes a host  210  and a peripheral  220 . The peripheral  220  includes a wireless network detecting unit  222 , a wireless network connecting unit  224 , a checking unit  226 , and a wireless network determination unit  228 .  
      The host  210  and the peripheral  220  of  FIG. 2  respectively correspond to the host  110  and the peripheral  130  of  FIG. 1 . That is, the host  210  transmits predetermined data via a host-connected network. Here, the predetermined data may be in the form a packet. The predetermined data may include the SSID in the packet, and the SSID may be used to identify the peripheral  130  or the host  110 . Hereinafter, the predetermined data will now be referred to as “a search packet.  
      The host  210  may transmit the search packet for a first period of time. The first period of time is predetermined but can be changed.  
      The search packet may be data that the peripheral  220  can recognize. Thus, the peripheral  220  detects one or more wireless networks to which it can be connected, connects itself to each of the detected wireless networks to determine whether the search packet is received via any of the connected wireless networks, and detects the host-connected network from the detected wireless networks based on the determination result.  
      The above-described operation of the peripheral  220  will now be described in more detail. The wireless network detecting unit  222  may have a wireless interface unit to detect one or more wireless networks connected thereto. The detection result may be in a form of a list which includes the detected wireless networks. The wireless network connecting unit  224  selects one of the detected wireless networks, and connects itself to the selected wireless network. The expression “connect itself to the selected wireless network” may be referred to as an expression “establish a link to a wireless network”.  
      The checking unit  226  checks whether the search packet is received via the connected wireless network for a second period of time. The second period of time is predetermined but can be changed. The second period of time may be included in the first period of time.  
      Next, the wireless network determination unit  228  determines the connected wireless network as the host-connected network, based on the checking result received from checking unit  226 .  
      In detail, when the checking unit  226  determines that the search packet is received via the connected wireless network, the wireless network determination unit  228  determines the connected wireless network as the host-connected network.  
      However, when the checking unit  226  determines that the search packet is not received via the connected wireless network, the wireless network connecting unit  224  disconnects the peripheral  220  from the connected wireless network and connects the peripheral  220  to the other one of the wireless networks.  
      Then, the checking unit  226  checks whether the search packet is received via the newly connected wireless network, and the wireless network determination unit  228  determines the newly connected wireless network as the host-connected network when it is determined that the search packet is received via the newly connected wireless network.  
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating a method of determining a wireless network link according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept. Referring to  FIG. 3 , the method includes operations  310  through  360 , in which a peripheral supporting wireless networking detects one or more wireless networks to which it can be connected, connects itself to each of the detected wireless networks via wireless to determine whether data from a host is received via any of the connected wireless networks, and detects a host-connected network from the detected wireless networks, based on the determination result.  
      Referring to  FIGS. 2 and 3 , the host  210  transmits a search packet via a host-connected network in operation  310 . The peripheral  220  may be connected to the host-connected network. That is, there may one or more wireless networks including the host-connected network to which the peripheral  220  can be connected.  
      The wireless network detecting unit  222  of the peripheral  220  detects the one or more wireless networks to which the peripheral  220  can be connected in operation  320 . The wireless network connecting unit  224  of the peripheral  220  forms a link to one of the detected wireless networks in operation  330 . That is, the wireless network connecting unit  224  connects the peripheral  220  to one of the detected wireless networks.  
      Operations  320  or  330  may be performed prior to operation  310 , but operation  310  may be performed prior to the following operation  340 .  
      The checking unit  226  of the peripheral  220  determines whether the search packet is received via the wireless network connected in operation  330  in operation  340 .  
      When it is determined in operation  340  that the search packet is not received via the connected wireless network, the wireless network connecting unit  224  of the peripheral  220  disconnects the peripheral  220  from the wireless network connected in operation  330  and connects the peripheral  220  to the other one of the wireless networks, detected in operation  320 , to which the peripheral  220  has yet to be connected in operation  350 . After operation  350 , operation  340  is performed again.  
      If it is determined that the search packet is received via the connected wireless network in operation  340 , the wireless network determination unit  228  of the peripheral  220  determines the wireless network connected in operation  330  or  350  as the host-connected network in operation  360 .  
      More specifically, when operation  330  is performed right before operation  340 , the peripheral  220  determines the wireless network connected in operation  330  as the host-connected network. If operation  350  is performed right before operation  340 , the peripheral  220  determines the wireless network connected in operation  350  as the host-connected network.  
      The present general inventive concept can be embodied as computer readable code in a computer readable medium to perform the above-described method. Here, the computer readable medium may be any recording apparatus capable of storing data that is read by a computer system, e.g., a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a compact disc (CD)-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disk, an optical data storage device, and so on. Also, the computer readable medium may be a carrier wave that transmits data via the Internet, for example. The computer readable medium can be distributed among computer systems that are interconnected through a network, and the present invention may be stored and implemented as a computer readable code in the distributed system. Also, functional program, code, and code segments for accomplish the present invention can be easily derived by programmers in the art.  
       FIG. 4  is a view illustrating an image forming apparatus  400  to determine a wireless network with an external host according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept. Referring to  FIG. 4 , the image forming apparatus  400  is an example of the peripheral  130  or  220  of  FIG. 1  or  2 , and includes a determination unit  200  which includes the wireless network detecting unit  222 , the wireless network connecting unit  224 , the checking unit  226 , and the wireless network determination unit  228  as illustrated in  FIG. 2 , a printing unit  420  to print an image according to data received from the host  110  or  210 , and a controller to control the determination unit  200  to establish a wireless link with the host  10  or  210  without manual settings thereof and to control the printing unit  420  to print the image according to data received through the established wireless link.  
      As described above, in a method and apparatus to determine a wireless network link according to the present embodiment, a peripheral supporting wireless networking detects one or more wireless networks to which it can be connected, connects itself to each of the detected wireless networks to determine whether data from a host is received via any of the connected wireless networks, and detects a host-connected network from the detected wireless networks, based on the determination result. Accordingly, the peripheral can detect a host-connected wireless network without changing settings of the host, thereby easily establishing a wireless connection between the peripheral and the host without a user&#39;s operation.  
      Although a few embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.