JP2002101453A - Radio communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a radio communication system where the total sum of minimum charges to be paid even without making any communication can be reduced lower in the case of a group which uses a plurality of communication terminals, at least part of which is not used at a too high frequency. SOLUTION: A personal handy phone system PHS on which charging corresponding to number of contracted communication channels is imposed has 2 PHS terminals 4a, 4b and a service center 3 that makes a contract of one communication channel shared by the two PHS terminals 4a, 4b where it is inhibited for the two terminals 4a, 4b to use two communication channels or more at the same time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a radio communication system in which one subscriber number is shared by a plurality of terminals.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, portable telephones and PHS (Personal Computers) have been developed.
nal Handyphone System: 2nd
2. Description of the Related Art Portable communication terminals, such as a generation cordless telephone system, are widely used not only by adults and junior high school students, but also by elementary school students who go to juku.

[0003] Some people own a plurality of wireless communication terminals and use the wireless communication terminals to be used in accordance with the place to go and the purpose of use.

[0004] Since a contract with a telecommunications carrier must be made for each wireless communication terminal, for example, in an environment where almost all members of a family have a mobile communication terminal, at least one of the holders is required. If the department is not a so-called "heavy user" that uses it so frequently, or if it has multiple wireless communication terminals by itself, the basic fee that must be paid as a whole will be enormous,
This can be a significant financial burden.

[0005]

As described above, when a family member uses a plurality of communication terminals and at least a part of the communication terminals does not use the communication terminals at a very high frequency, each communication terminal is not used. There was a problem in that the sum of the basic charges that had to be paid even without communication in a contract for each machine became a large burden.

[0006] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a group such as a family or a company using a plurality of communication terminals, and at least a part of the group. It is an object of the present invention to provide a wireless communication system capable of suppressing the total sum of basic charges that must be paid without performing communication when not used at such a high frequency.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
A plurality of wireless communication terminals sharing the same subscriber number;
When a predetermined wireless communication terminal among the plurality of wireless communication terminals is communicating with the plurality of wireless communication terminals using the subscriber number, another wireless communication sharing the subscriber number is performed. And a center device for prohibiting communication of the terminal device.

With such a system configuration, a group such as a family or a company that uses a plurality of communication terminals,
In addition, in the case where at least a part thereof is not used so frequently, it is possible to reduce the sum of the basic charges that must be paid even if no communication is made according to a contract. For this reason, many communication lines are not occupied at the same time, the number of lines can be increased, and the communication line network can be efficiently operated.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the center device sets a priority order with respect to communication terminals sharing the same subscriber number,
When there is a communication request from a wireless communication terminal having a higher priority than the wireless communication terminal currently communicating, or when there is a communication request to a wireless communication terminal having a higher priority, The communication is terminated, and the communication of the wireless communication terminal having the higher priority is permitted.

[0010] With such a system configuration, in addition to the operation of the first aspect of the present invention, by setting the priority order for each communication terminal, the user of the communication terminal having higher importance can be set. Communication can be performed with priority.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the center device notifies the wireless communication terminal having prohibited the communication that the communication has been prohibited. Item 2. The communication system according to Item 1.

With such a system configuration, in addition to the effect of the first aspect of the present invention, it can be seen from the notification that the communication has been prohibited that another wireless communication terminal is in use.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (First Embodiment) A first embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a PHS will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the entire system.
1 is a public line network (PSTN, ISDN, wireless communication network, etc.)
Are connected to the public line network 1 and a number of base stations (CS) 2, 2,...
A service center 3 operated by a telecommunications carrier that provides management services by integrating the location registration means, line connection means, charging processing means, and the like is connected.

By connecting to one of the base stations 2, 2,..., A plurality of mobile stations (PS), for example, two PHS terminals 4a and 4b can communicate with each other.

Here, these two PHS terminals 4a, 4
"b" is registered in the subscriber management database of the service center 3 by making a contract to share one communication line (telephone number, subscriber number) with the communication carrier, as shown in FIG. In addition, the PHS terminals 4a and 4b have the same telephone number and also have a subaddress, terminal status, and priority.

The sub-address identifies a terminal having the same telephone number. If this sub-address is present, the sub-address is inserted into the sub-address area of the outgoing or incoming call message.

The terminal status indicates the status of a terminal having the same telephone number, and there are two types: unused and used. In the non-use state, the other terminal can be used while the terminal is turned off or explicitly declared to be not used. Use is a state in which the terminal can make a call (however, it changes depending on the priority). Note that if there is no outgoing / incoming call or a call using the telephone number (line), any terminal can be on standby regardless of use or use.

The priority order determines which terminal is given priority when the use of the terminal is in conflict. For example, the PHS terminal 4a is given priority 1 and the PHS terminal 4b is given priority 2 and PHS terminal 4b is given priority. Replace terminal 4a with PHS terminal 4b
It is assumed that registration is set as a higher priority.

Therefore, the service center 3 determines the corresponding priority set from the ID information (telephone number + sub-address) of each of the PHS terminals 4a and 4b available at that time, and thereby determines the PHS terminal. In a state in which the PHS terminal 4a can communicate, it is assumed that the PHS terminal 4b is not allowed to make outgoing calls (unused state) irrespective of the standby state and the call state in order to restrict the use of the PHS terminal 4b.

Next, referring to FIG. 2, the PHS terminal 4a,
4b shows the circuit configuration of FIG.

In the figure, reference numeral 11 denotes an antenna, to which a transmitting / receiving unit 12 is connected. This transmitting / receiving unit 1
Reference numeral 2 denotes a frequency conversion unit and a modem. On the receiving side of the frequency conversion unit, a signal input from the antenna 11 is input via an antenna switch for distributing transmission / reception, and is output from a PLL synthesizer. By mixing with the local oscillation signal of the frequency, the frequency is converted from the 1.9 GHz band to the IF signal of about 1 MHz.

On the transmission side, on the other hand, the π / 4-shift QPSK modulated wave input from the modem is mixed with a local oscillation signal of a predetermined frequency output from the PLL synthesizer to convert the frequency into a 1.9 GHz band. Radiation is radiated from the antenna 11 via the antenna switch.

On the receiving side of the modem, the IF signal from the frequency converter is demodulated and separated into IQ data, which is transferred to the communication controller 13 as a data string. On the transmission side, on the other hand, IQ data is generated from the data transferred from the communication control unit 13 and the π / 4 shift QP is generated.
The signal is modulated to SK and output to the frequency converter.

A communication control unit 13 and a voice processing unit 14 are connected to the transmitting / receiving unit 12 in this order.
4 shows a speaker 15 on the receiving side and a microphone 1 on the transmitting side.
6 is connected.

The communication controller 13 performs frame synchronization and slot data format processing.
On the receiving side, data for one slot is taken out from the received data sent from the modem of the transmitting / receiving section 12 at a predetermined timing, a unique word (synchronization signal) is extracted from this data, frame synchronization is performed, and control is performed. After descrambling the data section and the audio data section or the communication data section, the control data and the communication data are sent to the control section 17 described later, and the audio data is transferred to the audio processing section 14.

On the transmitting side, control data and the like are added to the audio data sent from the audio processing unit 14 or the communication data sent from the control unit 17, and after scrambling, a unique word is added. Then, transmission data for one slot is created, inserted into a predetermined slot in the frame at a predetermined timing, and transmitted to the modem of the transmission / reception unit 12.

The speech processing unit 14 is composed of a speech codec and a PCM codec. The speech codec performs compression / expansion processing of digital data. On the receiving side, the ADPCM sent from the communication control unit 13 is used. Audio signal (4 bits x 8 kHz = 3
2Kbps) to a PCM audio signal (8 bits x 8KHz =
Decompress to 64Kbps to expand PCM
Output to codec. On the other hand, the transmitting side converts the PCM audio signal sent from the PCM codec into an ADPC
It is compressed by encoding into M audio signals and output to the communication control unit 13.

The PCM codec is analog /
A digital conversion process is performed. On the receiving side, the PCM audio signal sent from the speech codec is converted to a D / D signal.
A conversion is performed and an analog audio signal is output to the speaker 15. On the transmission side, on the other hand, the analog audio signal input from the microphone 16 is A / D converted to obtain a PCM audio signal, which is output to a speech codec.

A control unit 17 is connected to the transmitting / receiving unit 12, the communication control unit 13, and the voice processing unit 14,
The control unit 17 includes a display unit 18, a key input unit 19, a ROM
20 and the RAM 21 are connected.

The control unit 17 is composed of a CPU or the like, and controls the entire apparatus based on a predetermined protocol stored in the ROM 20. The ROM 20 includes transmission / reception of call data during a call and operation for avoiding interference. A control operation program in the control unit 17, ID information (phone number) of the PHS terminal 4a (4b) and the like are fixedly stored.

The RAM 21 has a work area for temporarily storing various data handled under the control of the control unit 17, and a telephone directory area for storing a plurality of telephone directory data including the name and telephone number of the connection destination. Etc.

The display section 18 is composed of, for example, a color liquid crystal display panel with a backlight and its driving circuit.

The key input unit 19 has a dial key, a "call" key, an "off" key, an "unused" key, a redial key, various mode selection keys, and the like. Is entered.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described.

FIG. 4 shows a location registration process executed at predetermined intervals while the PHS terminals 4a and 4b are turned on, and an unusable request from the PHS terminals 4a and 4b.
This shows the contents to be processed by the service center 3. The unusable request is transmitted from the PHS terminals 4a and 4b when the power key of the PHS terminals 4a and 4b is turned off and when the unusable key is pressed.

First, the process waits for a position registration request from the PHS terminals 4a, 4b via the base stations 2, 2,... (Step A01).

When it is determined that a position registration request has been received, a position registration process is performed including the subaddress (step A02). And the PHS that sent the request
If a subaddress is added to the telephone number of the terminal (step A03), a search is made from the subscriber management database using the telephone number and the subaddress (step A).
04).

Here, the service center 3 determines whether or not the PHS terminal having the ID information (telephone number + subaddress) is set to the priority 1 based on the search result (step A05). If it is determined that it is set to 1, for example, if it is a location registration request from the PHS terminal 4a, then a contract is made to share a communication line with that terminal (with the same telephone number). Regardless of the terminal status of the PHS terminal of rank 2,
The PHS terminal 4b of priority 2 is notified of the non-use state (step A07). In this case, if the PHS terminal 4b is in a call, a sound is generated in a call sound like a call waiting, and if the PHS terminal 4b is not in a call, the sound is notified by a sound or a message.

Then, the non-use processing of the PHS terminal 4b is performed (step A08). This is to set the terminal state to "unused" after disconnecting the line if the PHS terminal 4b is talking, or as it is while waiting.

In step A05, if the terminal that has made the location registration request is the terminal of priority 2, if the terminal of priority 2
It is determined whether or not the terminal status of the terminal of “priority 2” is “used” (step A09). If the terminal status of the terminal of priority 1 is “used”, non-use processing is performed on the terminal of priority 2 (Steps A7, A8). On the other hand, if the terminal status of the terminal of priority 1 is “unused”, the telephone number (line) is usable, so that the terminal status of the terminal of priority 2 is set to “used” and the terminal of priority 2 is The terminal is notified that it can be used (step A10).

As described above, this series of processing is temporarily ended, and the flow returns to the standby processing from step A01.

When the PHS terminal sends a non-use request instead of a location registration request in step A01 (step A11), the PHS terminal that sent the non-use request
The terminal state is set to “unused” for the S terminal, and the PHS terminal is notified of the non-use. As described above, this series of processing is temporarily ended, and the above-described step A01 is performed again.
It returns to the standby processing from.

Upon receiving the above notification, the PHS terminal notifies the user with a display or a sound indicating "usable" or "unusable".

Therefore, as shown in FIG.
In a state where both the terminals 4a and 4b are turned on and the use is not refused, the PHS terminal 4a having the priority 1 based on the above-mentioned priority can be used,
Although the PHS terminal 4b having the priority order 2 is actually located within the communicable area of the nearest base station 2 and is communicable, the PHS terminal 4b is processed as being unusable by the processing of steps A07 and A08. Will be.

Also, as shown in FIG. 5 (2), the PHS terminal 4a of priority 1 is set to "unused" by turning off the power or pressing the "unused" key. In a state where only the power supply of the terminal 4b is turned on, the PHS terminal 4a intentionally requests "non-use", so that the PHS terminal 4a cannot be used as it is as a matter of course. The PHS terminal 4b changes its terminal state to the “used” state by the processing in step A10 and becomes usable.

When a sub-address is added, an incoming call is made individually based on the location registration information. However, when a sub-address is not added, a terminal having a higher priority is called.

As described above, one communication line (telephone number)
Can be shared by a plurality of terminals, and by setting a priority order for each terminal, communication of a user of a terminal having higher importance can be executed with priority.

(Second Embodiment) The present invention will now be described with reference to a PHS.
A second embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.

The configuration of the entire system is substantially the same as that shown in FIG.
The circuit configuration of the HS terminal is also the same as that shown in FIG. 2, and the subscriber management database of the service center 3 is also the same as that shown in FIG. The same reference numerals are given and their illustration and description are omitted.

Thus, in FIG. 1, two PHS terminals 4a and 4b share one communication line (telephone number). However, here, a larger number of n terminals,
For example, a plurality m of five PHS terminals 4a to 4e,
For example, two communication lines (telephone numbers) are shared.

Further, in the first embodiment, the description has been made assuming that the priority order is set for the two PHS terminals 4a and 4b so as to limit the number of devices that can receive location registration.
Here, for the sake of simplicity, priorities are not intentionally set, and all five PHS terminals 4a to 4e are terminals that have requested use under the same conditions (terminals that have requested incoming and outgoing calls). It is assumed that the terminal status is "used" and the number of actual connection to the communication line by calling or receiving is limited based on the contract.

FIG. 6 shows the PH executed by the service center 3.
It shows the basic concept of the process related to the calling of the S terminal, and the process related to the incoming call is almost the same in that the number of communication lines is limited (basically, the calling portion in FIG. This can be realized by changing to), and the illustration thereof is omitted.

At the beginning of the process, the system waits for a call request (step B01), and when it is determined that the request has been made, another PHS of the same contract which is already busy at that time. It is determined whether the number i of the terminals is within a range represented by “0 ≦ i ≦ m−2” (step B).
03).

Here, the PHS of the same contract that is already in a call
There is no problem when the number i of terminals is within the range of “0 ≦ i ≦ m−2”, but when the number i is out of the range, that is, “m”
If -1 ", the PH of the same contract already in a call
Except for the S terminal and the PHS terminal that sent the call request, the remaining "nm" PHS terminals are all set to "not in use" and the PHS terminal becomes unused. A non-use process for notifying the user of the non-use is performed (step B04).

Thereafter, the calling process according to the request is executed until there is a response from the calling party (steps B04, B0).
5) When it is determined that there is a response, the line is connected until it is determined that the call has ended (step B).
06, B07).

Then, when it is determined in step B07 that the call has been completed, that is, the operation of terminating the call by at least one of the PHS terminal that made the call or the communication terminal of the call destination (on-hook operation). Is performed (step B08), and the remaining "n-
If “m” PHS terminals are all “unused”, the “unused” setting is set to “used”, and the fact is notified to the “unused” PHS terminals. The non-use release processing is executed (step B09), and the series of processing is once ended, and the process returns to the standby processing from step B01.

Upon receiving the above notification, the PHS terminal notifies the user of "usable" or "unavailable" with a display or sound.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7 (a), the power supply of all five PHS terminals 4a to 4e is changed from the state in which the power supply is turned on to the standby state. When the two PHS terminals 4a and 4b perform communication, the remaining three PHS terminals 4c to 4e actually communicate with the nearest base station 2 as shown in FIG. 6B. Despite being located within the available area and being communicable, the processing of step B04 is processed as a call disabled. The billing in the first and second embodiments is usually billed to the reasonable contracted line (telephone number), but the sub-address is also stored at the time of billing, and the communication charge for each sub-address may be calculated. Good.

In the first and second embodiments, the terminal is displayed to indicate "usable" or "unavailable". However, the present invention is not limited to this. .

In the first and second embodiments,
In each case, the number of communication lines to be used is limited to the number of contracted lines. However, in the case where a plurality of contracted PHS terminals are connected to each other for communication, an extension is required. Judging that this is a connection, not counting the number of lines in use, and not charging a call fee, even if the number of lines in use is full of contracted lines, Communication connection can be ensured, so that the usability for the user is improved, communication can be performed with peace of mind, and the merchant carrier operating the service center 3 can also enhance the merchantability as a service.

Further, the first and second embodiments have been described in connection with the case where the present invention is applied to a PHS. However, in a terminal and a system for performing communication by sharing a communication line under a contract. If there is, for example, a digital cellular phone (PDC) or CDMA (CodeDivision)
The present invention can be easily applied to a mobile phone of an n Multiple Access (code division multiple access) type.

In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the gist thereof.

Furthermore, the above embodiments include inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining a plurality of disclosed constituent elements. For example, even if some components are deleted from all the components shown in the embodiments, at least one of the problems described in the column of the problem to be solved by the invention can be solved and the effects described in the column of the effect of the invention can be solved. In a case where at least one of the effects described above is obtained, a configuration in which this component is deleted can be extracted as an invention.

[0065]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when a group such as a family or a company that uses a plurality of communication terminals, and at least a part of the group does not use the communication terminal at a high frequency, It is possible to keep the sum of the basic charges that must be paid even without performing communication by contract low, so that many communication lines are not occupied at the same time even for the communication company that operates the center device. In addition, the number of lines can be increased and the communication line network can be operated efficiently.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect of the first aspect of the present invention, by setting the priority order for each communication terminal, the user of the communication terminal having higher importance is set. Communication can be executed with priority.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect of the first aspect of the present invention, it can be understood that another wireless communication terminal is in use by the notification that the communication is prohibited. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an entire PHS system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a circuit configuration of the PHS terminal according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary view exemplifying information of each PHS terminal registered in a subscriber management database of the service center according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary flowchart showing contents at the time of a location registration process executed by the service center according to the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an operation according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing contents at the time of a call acceptance process executed by the service center according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates an operation according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Public line network 2 ... Base station (CS) 3 ... Service center 4a-4e ... PHS terminal (PS) 11 ... Antenna 12 ... Transmission / reception part 13 ... Communication control part 14 ... Voice processing part 15 ... Speaker (SP) 16 ... Microphone (MIC) 17 ... Control unit 18 ... Display unit 19 ... Key input unit 20 ... ROM 21 ... RAM

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of wireless communication terminals sharing the same subscriber number, and a predetermined wireless communication terminal among the plurality of wireless communication terminals is assigned to the plurality of wireless communication terminals. And a center device for prohibiting communication of another wireless communication terminal sharing a subscriber number when communication is performed by using a wireless communication system. 2. The center device sets a priority order for communication terminals sharing the same subscriber number, and a communication request is issued from a wireless communication terminal having a higher priority than a wireless communication terminal currently communicating. When there is, or when there is a communication request to the high-priority wireless communication terminal, the communication of the communicating wireless communication terminal is terminated, and the communication of the high-priority wireless communication terminal is permitted. The wireless communication system according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The wireless communication system according to claim 1, wherein the center device notifies the wireless communication terminal that has prohibited the communication that the communication has been prohibited.