1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication device, a wireless communication system, a wireless communication method, and a computer program.
2. Description of the Related Art
A method of building a wireless network by a plurality of wireless communication devices is generally used. Among them, WiMedia Distributed MAC Specification clearly describes a mechanism in which each wireless communication device builds a network in an autonomous distributed control. This specification describes determining a beacon period to a predetermined superframe cycle, and having each wireless communication device exchange beacon signals within the beacon period.
A method of grasping the connection relationship with each other, maintaining the network and implementing data transmission through exchange of the beacon signals is described. In other words, a method of exchanging its address information and address information of a communication device existing at the periphery, and information of a beacon slot being used on its beacon signal, as predetermined network management information, is described.
Furthermore, the specification discloses a configuration capable of implementing low power consumption operation of a certain extent by having the communication device repeat a dormant operation and an activity operation at a cycle of a certain extent for hibernation (dormant) operation. For the hibernation operation, the communication device in hibernation is assumed to have a configuration of continuously using a beacon slot in the beacon period even during hibernation. Specifically, other communication devices existing at the periphery of the communication device in hibernation operation have a configuration of notifying the other newly entered communication device of the continuous use of the beacon slot.
A technique related to hibernation operation is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-166196 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-124524. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-166196 describes a method of waking up the communication terminal device at low cost using a beacon of a pulse signal different from a data communication signal. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-124524 describes a method of using a low-speed clock to maintain time synchronization with the base station and using a high-speed clock to receive signals from the base station.