Image forming apparatus supporting peer to peer connection and method of performing image forming operation thereof

1. A method of performing an image forming operation in an image forming apparatus supporting peer to peer (P2P) connection, the method comprising:

P2P connecting the image forming apparatus to an external wireless device while the image forming apparatus is wirelessly connected to an access point (AP) of an infrastructured network;

receiving a discovery packet from the wireless device via a P2P interface;

transmitting to the wireless device a response packet comprising an Internet protocol (IP) address of the P2P interface;

receiving from the wireless device an image forming operation performing request having the IP address of the P2P interface as a destination; and

performing the requested image forming operation.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving of the discovery packet comprises receiving via the P2P interface the discovery packet transmitted from the wireless device by using a multicast or broadcast method.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitting of the response packet comprises transmitting the response packet further comprising information on services providable by the image forming apparatus.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the P2P connection is Wi-Fi Direct connection, and

wherein the P2P connecting of the image forming apparatus comprises P2P connecting the image forming apparatus to operate the image forming apparatus as a group owner (GO) and to operate the wireless device as a client.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving of the discovery packet is performed by using any one protocol from among bonjour, universal plug & play (UPNP), web server director (WSD), service location protocol (SLP), and simple network management protocol (SNMP).

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein, if the image forming operation is a print operation, the receiving of the image forming operation performing request comprises receiving from the wireless device print data having the IP address of the P2P interface as a destination, and

wherein the performing of the image forming operation comprises performing a print operation according to the print data.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein, if the image forming operation is a scan operation, the receiving of the image forming operation performing request comprises receiving from the wireless device a scan request having the IP address of the P2P interface as a destination, and

wherein the performing of the image forming operation comprises scanning document and transmitting scan image data to the wireless device.

8. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon computer-readable codes to execute a method of performing an image forming operation in an image forming apparatus supporting peer to peer (P2P) connection, the method comprising:

P2P connecting the image forming apparatus to an external wireless device while the image forming apparatus is wirelessly connected to an access point (AP) of an infrastructured network;

receiving a discovery packet from the wireless device via a P2P interface;

transmitting to the wireless device a response packet comprising an Internet protocol (IP) address of the P2P interface;

receiving from the wireless device an image forming operation performing request having the IP address of the P2P interface as a destination; and

performing the requested image forming operation.

9. An image forming apparatus supporting peer to peer (P2P) connection, the image forming apparatus comprising:

a wireless local area network (WLAN) interface unit to wirelessly connect the image forming apparatus to an infrastructured network and to P2P connect the image forming apparatus to an external wireless device;

an Internet protocol (IP) address management unit to manage an IP address of a P2P interface and an IP address of an infrastructured network interface;

a control unit to receive an IP address from the IP address management unit and to control performing of an image forming operation requested by the wireless device; and

an image forming operation performing unit to perform the requested image forming operation under control of the control unit,

wherein, if a discovery packet is received from the wireless device via the P2P interface, the control unit generates and transmits a response packet comprising the IP address of the P2P interface to the wireless device, and

wherein, if an image forming operation performing request is received from the wireless device via the P2P interface, the control unit controls the image forming operation performing unit to perform the requested image forming operation.

10. The image forming apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the WLAN interface unit receives via the P2P interface the discovery packet transmitted from the wireless device by using a multicast or broadcast method.

11. The image forming apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the control unit generates the response packet to further comprise information on services providable by the image forming apparatus.

12. The image forming apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the P2P connection is Wi-Fi Direct connection, and

wherein the WLAN interface unit P2P connects the image forming apparatus to operate the image forming apparatus as a group owner (GO) and to operate the wireless device as a client.

13. The image forming apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the WLAN interface unit receives the discovery packet from the wireless device by using any one protocol from among bonjour, universal plug & play (UPNP), web server director (WSD), service location protocol (SLP), and simple network management protocol (SNMP).

14. The image forming apparatus of claim 9 , wherein, if the image forming operation is a print operation, the control unit controls the image forming operation performing unit to perform a print operation according to the received print data if print data having the IP address of the P2P interface as a destination is received from the wireless device.

15. The image forming apparatus of claim 9 , wherein, if the image forming operation is a scan operation, the control unit controls the image forming operation performing unit to scan document and transmits scan image data to the wireless device if a scan request having the IP address of the P2P interface as a destination is received from the wireless device.

16. An image forming apparatus supporting peer to peer (P2P) connection, the image forming apparatus comprising:

a wireless local area network (WLAN) interface unit to concurrently establish an infrastructure network connection and a P2P connection with an external wireless device;

a central processing unit (CPU) to provide an Internet protocol (IP) address of a P2P interface corresponding to the P2P connection to the external wireless device in response to an image forming operation requested by the external wireless device if the external wireless device is P2P connected to the image forming apparatus; and

an image forming operation performing unit to perform the requested image forming operation based on print data received from the external wireless device if the print data includes the IP address of the P2P interface.

17. The image forming apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the CPU comprises:

an IP address management unit to manage the IP address of the P2P interface and an IP address of an infrastructured network interface corresponding to the infrastructure network connection; and

a control unit to receive the IP address of the P2P interface from the IP address management unit based on the image forming operation requested by the external wireless device and to control performance of the requested image forming operation.

18. The image forming apparatus of claim 16 , wherein:

the CPU sends a response packet including the IP address of the P2P interface in response to receiving a discovery packet from the external wireless device, and

the CPU controls the image forming operation performing unit to perform the requested image forming operation based on at least one of a plurality of image forming operations provided in the response packet.

19. The image forming apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the at least one of a plurality of image forming operations includes printing, copying, faxing, and scanning.

20. The image forming apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the receipt of the discovery packet prompts the image forming apparatus that the external wireless device is within P2P connection range and is requesting information regarding the plurality of image forming operations provided by the image forming apparatus.

21. The image forming apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the P2P connection is a Wi-Fi Direct connection.

22. An image forming apparatus supporting peer to peer (P2P) connection, the image forming apparatus comprising:

a wireless local area network (WLAN) interface unit to concurrently establish a plurality of different wireless connections;

a central processing unit (CPU) to provide an Internet protocol (IP) address corresponding to one of the wireless connections to an external wireless device if the external wireless device is connected to the image forming apparatus by one of the wireless connections; and

an image forming operation performing unit to perform the requested image forming operation based on print data received from the external wireless device if the print data includes the IP address corresponding to the one of the wireless connections.

23. The image forming apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the plurality of different wireless connections includes an infrastructure network connection and a P2P connection.

24. The image forming apparatus of claim 23 , wherein the image forming apparatus establishes the infrastructure network connection by at least one of wirelessly connecting the image forming apparatus to an external access point (AP) and determining the image forming apparatus to be an AP.

25. The image forming apparatus of claim 24 , wherein the WLAN interface unit determines the image forming apparatus to be the AP by determining the image forming apparatus to be a group owner (GO) from among a plurality of Wi-Fi Direct connected external wireless devices.