JP2007150840A - Communication apparatus, communication system, and communication method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication system and a communication method for preventing unwanted calling to a communication partner having no intention to take a part in group communication, and also to provide a communication apparatus used for such communication system. <P>SOLUTION: When a PTT communication start notification is transmitted to multiple participant terminals from a host terminal of the sponsor, the PTT communication start notification is re-transmitted from the host terminal of sponsor to the participant terminals that does not send a response within the predetermined period for the PTT communication start notification, but the PTT communication start notification is re-transmitted to the communication terminals that has sent the response to show no intention to participate in the PTT communication to the host terminal of the sponsor. Since the participant terminal can send a response to show no intention to participate in the group communication to the host terminal of sponsor, re-transmission of the PTT communication start notification can be prevented from the host terminal of sponsor to the communication terminals having no intention to participate in the group communication. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication device such as a mobile phone that performs one-to-many group communication and the one-to-many communication system.

  In recent years, modes of communication by communication terminals such as mobile phones have been diversified, and in addition to conventional voice calls by circuit switching, new modes of communication such as packet communication using an IP (internet protocol) network are being performed. . For example, there is “chat mail” in which conversation is performed by exchanging characters between communication terminals in real time (see Patent Document 1). Chat mail is one of communication modes called “group communication” in which a group is formed between members registered in advance and data such as characters is communicated in real time within the group.

  In addition, one of group communications that has been attracting attention recently is called PTT (push to talk) or PoC (push to talk over cellular). In PTT, a plurality of communication terminals forming a group perform a real-time voice call by VoIP (voice over internet protocol) (see Patent Document 2).

  When starting PTT group communication, the organizer's communication terminal first accesses the PTT communication management device, designates one or more communication terminals, and requests the start of group communication. Upon receiving this request, the management apparatus calls the designated communication terminal and notifies that the PTT group communication is started. The communication terminal of the participant participates in the group communication by returning a response to the call of the management device.

When group communication starts, a user who wishes to speak presses a predetermined button (PTT button) provided on the communication terminal, whereby a message request is transmitted from the communication terminal to the management device. The management device receives a speech request from each communication terminal and gives a speech right to one communication terminal. The communication terminal that is given the right to speak transmits the user's voice data to the management apparatus, and the management apparatus transmits the voice data to other communication terminals all at once. Thereby, a one-to-many real-time voice call is performed.
JP 2003-174520 A JP-T-2005-522067

  In general, in PTT group communication, a communication terminal that has received a start notification returns a response to a call from a management device and accepts participation in group communication. Cannot communicate non-participation intention to the device. Therefore, when there is no intention to participate in group communication, useless calls from the management device are repeated many times, and there is an inconvenience that the user feels uncomfortable.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to use a communication system and a communication method capable of preventing an unnecessary call to a partner who does not intend to participate in group communication, and such a communication system. It is to provide a communication device.

  When a communication unit that transmits and receives data, an operation unit, and a group communication start instruction designating a plurality of destinations are input by the operation unit, the communication device according to the first aspect of the present invention receives the group. A control unit configured to transmit a communication start notification from the communication unit to each of the plurality of counterparts, and to start communication with a partner that has responded to the start notification with a group communication start response. The control unit sends the start notification from the communication unit to a partner other than the partner who has responded to participate in the group communication and the partner who has not responded to the group communication. Resend.

  Preferably, the control unit performs the retransmission after a predetermined time has elapsed since the initial transmission of the group communication start notification.

Further preferably, when the response from the other party to the group communication start notification includes information on the time for performing the retransmission, the control unit waits for the elapse of time according to the time information. The retransmission to the destination is performed.
In this case, after receiving a response from the other party to the group communication start notification, the control unit may perform the retransmission after a waiting time specified in the time information included in the response has elapsed. Further, the control unit may perform the retransmission at a time specified in the time information.

The communication apparatus according to the first aspect may include a storage unit that stores a list in which a participation state of each of the plurality of counterparts is registered.
In this case, the control unit transmits the group communication start notification from the communication unit to a partner in an undecided state whether to participate in the group communication in the list, and in response to the group communication start notification. If there is a response from the other party, the registered content of the list for the other party that returned the response may be updated according to the response. In addition, when the response from the other party to the group communication start notification includes information regarding the time for performing the retransmission, the control unit registers the time information in the list and responds to the time information in the list. The re-transmission to the destination may be performed after waiting for a certain amount of time.

  When the communication device according to the second aspect of the present invention receives a start notification of group communication when the communication unit that transmits and receives data, a notification unit, an operation unit, and the communication unit receives a start notification of group communication, the communication device receives the start notification. A control unit configured to notify the notification unit and transmit a response to participation in the group communication by the communication unit to start the group communication. The control unit, when informing the start notification, if information indicating non-participation in the group communication or information designating the time of retransmission of the start notification is input by the operation unit, the input information Is transmitted from the communication unit to the source of the start notification.

A communication system according to a third aspect of the present invention includes a first communication device that performs group communication and a plurality of second communication devices.
The first communication device receives a first communication unit that transmits and receives data, a first operation unit, and a group communication start instruction that specifies a plurality of destinations by the first operation unit. A first control for transmitting a communication start notification from the first communication unit to each of the plurality of second communication devices and starting communication with a second communication device that has responded to the start notification with a group communication start response. Part. The first control unit is configured to correspond to a partner other than the second communication device having a response to participate in the group communication and the second communication device having a non-participation response among the plurality of second communication devices. Retransmits the start notification from the first communication unit.
The second communication device receives the start notification when the second communication unit that transmits and receives data, the notification unit, the second operation unit, and the second communication unit receive the group communication start notification. A second control unit configured to notify the notification unit and to transmit a response to participation in the group communication by the second communication unit to start the group communication. When the second control unit receives information indicating participation or non-participation in the group communication at the time of notification of the start notification, the second control unit sends a response including the input information to the first control unit. 2 Transmit from the communication unit to the source of the start notification.

  A communication method according to a fourth aspect of the present invention includes a first step in which a first communication device transmits a group communication start notification to a plurality of second communication devices, and a second communication that has received the group communication start notification. A second step in which a part of the device transmits a response of participation in group communication or a response of non-participation to the first communication device; and the first communication device includes the second communication device among the plurality of second communication devices, And a third step of retransmitting the group communication start notification to other second communication devices other than the second communication device that has returned a response to participation in group communication or a response to non-participation.

  According to the present invention, by not retransmitting the notification to the communication device that has returned a non-participation response to the group communication start notification, an unnecessary call to a partner who does not intend to participate in group communication can be made. Can be prevented.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The communication system according to the present embodiment includes, for example, a plurality of communication terminals (100-1 to 100-5) and a communication management device 200, as shown in FIG.

  The communication terminal 100-i (i represents a natural number) is a wireless communication terminal such as a mobile phone, and is connected to the communication network 300 via base stations (300-1, 300-2,...). The communication terminal 100-i performs data communication according to the control of the communication management apparatus 200 connected to the communication network 300. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that group communication by PTT (push to talk) (hereinafter also referred to as PTT communication) is performed as an example. The data transmitted in the PTT communication includes, for example, voice of a call, data such as images, characters, and music.

The communication terminal 100-1 is a terminal (hereinafter also referred to as an organizer terminal) that can be an organizer of PTT communication.
When starting PTT communication, first, the communication terminal 100-1 accesses the communication management apparatus 200, specifies a plurality of counterparts (100-2, 100-3, 100-4, 100-5), and starts communication. Request. In response to this request, when a site for PTT communication management is set up by the communication management apparatus 200, the communication terminal 100-1 acquires information such as the network address and login ID of the site from the communication management apparatus 200.

Next, the communication terminal 100-1 transmits a PTT communication start notification to the counterpart communication terminal.
The PTT communication start notification includes various information necessary for participating in the PTT communication. For example, PTT communication organizer identification information (telephone number, e-mail address, etc.), PTT communication management site network address acquired from the communication management device 200, login ID, and the like are included. The communication terminal 100-1 transmits this PTT communication start notification to the communication terminal of the other party by e-mail, for example.

  Thereafter, the communication terminal 100-1 monitors the response from the communication terminal of the other party to the PTT communication start notification, and receives a response to participate in PTT communication from at least one communication terminal, via the communication management apparatus 200. The PTT communication with the communication terminal is started.

When there is a communication terminal that does not return a response within a predetermined time after transmitting the PTT communication start notification, the communication terminal 100-1 retransmits the PTT communication start notification to the unresponsive communication terminal.
However, for communication terminals that have returned a response indicating participation in PTT communication or a response indicating non-participation, the PTT communication start notification is not retransmitted. Also, if the response from the other party includes information on the time for retransmitting the PTT communication start notification (such as waiting time until retransmission and information specifying the time of retransmission), this time After the elapse of time according to the information, the PTT communication start notification is retransmitted to the destination.

Communication terminals 100-2 to 100-5 are terminals (hereinafter, may be referred to as participant terminals) that participate in PTT communication upon receiving notification from the organizer terminal.
When receiving the PTT communication start notification from the organizer terminal, the communication terminals 100-2 to 100-5 notify the user of the reception of the PTT communication start notification by, for example, a notification unit that generates an image, light, sound, vibration, or the like. To do. At the time of this notification, when information indicating participation or non-participation in PTT communication, information designating the time for re-sending the PTT communication start notification, or the like is input by, for example, a user key operation, the input information is changed. A response (such as e-mail) containing the response is sent to the organizer terminal. If the information input operation is not performed even if this notification is performed for a certain period of time (for example, when the user does not have a communication terminal), the transmission of a response to the organizer terminal is postponed.

  When participating in PTT communication, the communication terminals 100-2 to 100-5 access a site installed by the communication management apparatus 200 based on information included in the PTT communication start notification, and start PTT communication.

  Note that the communication terminals 100-2 to 100-5 may be host terminals for group communication different from group communication hosted by the communication terminal 100-1. In this case, the communication terminal 100-1 may be a participant terminal in group communication hosted by another communication terminal.

The communication management apparatus 200 manages PTT group communication performed by the communication terminals (100-1 to 100-5).
Upon receiving a PTT communication start request issued by the organizer terminal, the communication management device 200 manages the identification information (telephone number, e-mail address, etc.) of the communication terminal participating in the PTT communication, and the PTT communication of the communication terminal. A site for performing control related to PTT communication, such as participation in and exit from the network, transmission / reception of data between communication terminals, and granting a speaking right to a communication terminal that requests a speech, is set on the communication management apparatus 200 (or on the network). Other server devices may be provided). Then, information (such as a network address of the site and a login ID) necessary to start PTT communication is transmitted to the organizer terminal.

  When the participant terminal accesses the site in response to the PTT communication start notification from the organizer terminal, the communication management device 200 participates based on the login ID provided by the participant terminal, the telephone number of the participant terminal, and the like. User terminal login. Then, the information of the newly logged-in participant terminal is registered in the management table in the site that manages the information of the members of the PTT communication. In addition, the organizer terminal and the participant terminal are notified that a new participant has joined.

  In one communication terminal that participates in PTT communication, when a speech request (data transmission request) is issued, for example, when a call button is pressed, the communication management device 200 determines that there is no other communication terminal that is speaking. The right to speak is granted to one communication terminal. That is, it receives the call voice data sent from the one communication terminal and transmits it to the other participating communication terminals. If there is another communication terminal that is speaking, a rejection response is returned to the one communication terminal. When speech requests of several communication terminals are overlapped, the priority order of each communication terminal is determined according to a predetermined rule (for example, a terminal having a smaller number of speeches is ranked higher), and based on this, each communication terminal is determined. The right to speak is granted in turn.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the communication terminals (100-1 to 100-5) according to the embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, communication terminals having the configuration shown in FIG. 2 may be collectively referred to as “communication terminal 100”.
A communication terminal 100 shown in FIG. 2 includes an antenna 101, a communication unit 102, a key input unit 103, an audio processing unit 104, a speaker 105, a microphone 106, a display unit 107, a storage unit 108, and a control unit. 110.

  The communication unit 102 performs wireless communication with base stations (300-1, 300-2,...) Connected to the communication network 300. For example, the communication unit 102 performs predetermined modulation processing on the transmission data supplied from the control unit 110 to convert it into a radio signal, and transmits it from the antenna 101. In addition, a predetermined demodulation process is performed on the radio signal from the base station received by the antenna 101 to convert the received signal into reception data, which is output to the control unit 110 of the communication terminal 100.

  The key input unit 103 has keys to which various functions such as a call key, a numeric key, a character key, a direction key, and a determination key are assigned, and when these keys are operated by the user, A signal corresponding to the operation content is generated and input to the control unit 110 of the terminal as a user instruction.

  The audio processing unit 104 processes an audio signal output from the speaker 105 and an audio signal input from the microphone 106. That is, the audio signal input from the microphone 106 is subjected to signal processing such as amplification, analog-digital conversion, encoding, and the like, converted into digital audio data, and output to the control unit 110 of the terminal. Further, the audio data supplied from the control unit 110 of the terminal is subjected to signal processing such as decoding, digital-analog conversion, amplification, etc., converted into an analog audio signal, and output to the speaker 105.

The display unit 107 is configured using a display device such as a liquid crystal display panel or an organic EL panel, for example, and displays an image corresponding to a video signal supplied from the control unit 110. For example, various information such as the telephone number of the callee at the time of outgoing call, the telephone number of the callee at the time of incoming call, the contents of the received mail and the outgoing mail, the date, time, and the remaining battery level are displayed.
Further, when the display unit 107 receives the PTT communication start notification, the display unit 107 displays a screen that prompts the user to select participation or non-participation. When PTT communication is started, various information sent from the communication management apparatus 200 is displayed.

  The storage unit 108 stores various data used for processing in the control unit 110. For example, a computer program provided in the control unit 110, an address book for managing telephone numbers and e-mail addresses, information on a group of communication terminals used at the start of PTT communication, an audio file for playing ringtones and alarm sounds, Various setting data, temporary data used in the program processing, etc. are stored.

  In addition, when the communication terminal 100 serves as an organizer terminal and performs PTT communication, the storage unit 108 stores a list in which the participation states of a plurality of destinations that call for participation in PTT communication are registered.

  The storage unit 108 includes, for example, a non-volatile storage device (non-volatile semiconductor memory, hard disk device, optical disk device, etc.), a randomly accessible storage device (eg, RAM, DRAM), or the like.

The control unit 110 comprehensively controls the overall operation of the communication terminal 100. That is, various processes of the communication terminal 100 (voice communication performed via a circuit switching network, group communication using PTT, creation and transmission / reception of e-mail, browsing of Internet websites, etc.) according to the operation of the key input unit 103 The operations of each unit described above (transmission / reception of signals in the communication unit 102, input / output of audio in the audio processing unit 104, display of images on the display unit 107, etc.) are controlled so as to be executed in an appropriate procedure.
For example, the control unit 110 includes a computer that executes processing based on a program (operating system, application, etc.) stored in the storage unit 108, and executes the above-described processing according to a procedure instructed by the program.

When the communication terminal 100 operates as an organizer terminal, the control unit 110 performs the following process.
First, when an instruction to start PTT communication specifying a plurality of destinations is input from the key input unit 103, the control unit 110 transmits a PTT communication start request to the communication management apparatus 200 from the communication unit 102. For example, the start request includes information (telephone number or the like) of the other party who calls for participation in PTT communication.
The designation of the other party may be performed, for example, by arbitrarily selecting the other party registered in the address book stored in the storage unit 108, or by using the numeric key or character key of the key input unit 103. The identification information (phone number, e-mail address, etc.) may be directly input. Alternatively, when member information is registered in advance in the communication management apparatus 200, the registration number or the like may be input through the key input unit 103.

  Next, the control unit 110 receives information transmitted from the communication management apparatus 200 in response to the PTT communication start request in the communication unit 102. This information includes information for starting PTT communication, and includes, for example, the network address of the PTT communication management site and the login ID thereof. The control unit 110 creates a PTT communication start notification using these pieces of information acquired from the communication management apparatus 200, and transmits this notification from the communication unit 102 to each of a plurality of counterparts.

At this time, the control unit 110 creates a list in the storage unit 108 for registering the participation status of each partner.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a participation state list created in the storage unit 108. The list shown in the example of FIG. 3 includes, as items, a member name of a partner, a participation state, and a telephone number. When the PTT communication is started, the participation states of the respective counterparts are all initialized to the “undecided” state (FIG. 3A).

  When the control unit 110 transmits a PTT communication start notification to each partner, the control unit 110 monitors whether or not a response is returned from the partner with respect to the transmitted PTT communication start notification using the received data of the communication unit 102. In addition, the control unit 110 activates an internal timer together with the transmission of the PTT communication start notification, and monitors whether or not the elapsed time since the transmission of the notification has reached a predetermined time.

  When a response is returned from the other party within a predetermined time, the registered content of the list for the other party that returned the response is updated according to the response. For example, the response from the other party includes information indicating whether or not to participate in PTT communication, and information specifying the time for retransmitting the PTT communication start notification, and the control unit 110 performs a list based on this information. Update.

  When it is determined by the internal timer that a predetermined time has elapsed, if there is a communication terminal that has not yet returned a response to the PTT communication start notification, the communication terminal 100-1 communicates with this non-response communication terminal. Resend start notification. This retransmission may be executed periodically at regular time intervals until the other party's communication terminal returns a response while holding the PTT communication, for example, and an upper limit is set for the number of retransmissions. It may be executed periodically until the upper limit is reached.

  However, the control unit 110 does not retransmit a PTT communication start notification for a communication terminal that has returned a response indicating participation or non-participation in PTT communication. That is, the control unit 110 does not retransmit the PTT communication start notification to a communication terminal in which the participation state or non-participation state in the PTT communication is confirmed in the participation state list of the storage unit 108.

In addition, in a case where information regarding the time for retransmitting the PTT communication start notification is included in the response from the other party, the control unit 110 waits for the time corresponding to this time information to elapse and then sends the PTT to the other party. Resend communication start notification.
For example, if the response from the other party includes information specifying the waiting time for retransmission, the control unit 110 receives this response and then the PTT communication start notification is received after the specified waiting time elapses. Re-send. In addition, when information specifying the time at which retransmission is performed is included in the response from the other party, control unit 110 retransmits the PTT communication start notification at the time specified by this information.

When a response to participate in PTT communication is returned from at least one communication terminal in response to the PTT communication start notification, control unit 110 starts processing of PTT communication with this communication terminal.
When the call key of the key input unit 102 is pressed, the control unit 110 transmits a message request from the communication unit 102 to the communication management apparatus 200. When the communication unit 102 receives a notification of permission from the communication management apparatus 200 in response to the request for speech, the control unit 110 converts the audio signal input from the microphone 106 into audio data in the audio processing unit 104, and the communication unit 102. To the communication management apparatus 200. When the call key is not pressed, the voice processing unit 104 converts voice data from the communication terminal that is speaking received by the communication unit 102 into a voice signal and outputs the voice from the speaker 105. In addition to call voice data, various types of data such as image data and music data are also transmitted and received.

On the other hand, when the communication terminal 100 operates as a participant terminal, the control unit 110 performs the following process.
When the communication unit 102 receives the PTT communication start notification from the organizer terminal, the control unit 110 displays a screen informing the display unit 107 that the PTT communication start notification has been received. At this time, a notification sound may be generated from the speaker 105, the casing of the communication terminal 100 may be vibrated by a vibration unit (not shown), or light may be generated by a light emission unit (not shown).

  When this notification operation is performed, if information indicating participation or non-participation in PTT communication, information designating a time for retransmitting the PTT communication start, or the like is input by operating the key input unit 103, the control unit 110 transmits a response (e-mail or the like) including the input information to the organizer terminal via the communication unit 102.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen displayed on the display unit 107 when a PTT communication start notification is received from the organizer terminal.
On the screen shown in FIG. 4, the organizer's information is displayed as “The organizer is Mr. xxx” along with a message “A request for participation in group communication has arrived”.
Below that, a message prompting the user to select one of “participate”, “non-participate”, and “notify again” is displayed, and “participation” is selected by operating the direction key or the like. In the case where a response is made, a response indicating participation in group communication is transmitted from the communication unit 102 to the organizer terminal, and a response indicating non-participation in group communication is transmitted from the communication unit 102. On the other hand, when “Notify again” is selected, the message “How many minutes later?” Is displayed, and if a numerical value is entered using a numeric key or the like in response to this, the time specified by this numerical value has elapsed. A response instructing to retransmit the PTT communication start notification is transmitted from the communication unit 102 to the organizer terminal.

  When an instruction to participate in PTT communication is input by the operation of the key input unit 103, the control unit 110 performs a process of accessing a site installed by the communication management apparatus 200 based on information included in the PTT communication start notification. Do. When login is permitted from the communication management apparatus 200, the same PTT communication process as that of the above-described host terminal is started.

  In addition, when an input operation is not performed in the key input unit 103 even if the notification operation is performed for a certain time, the control unit 110 stops transmitting a response to the organizer terminal.

  If no response is returned to the organizer terminal, retransmission of the PTT communication start notification is repeated as described above. Therefore, the communication unit 102 receives the same PTT communication start notification from the same organizer terminal. Then, it is stored in the storage unit 108 as a reception history. In this case, the control unit 110 may delete old notifications received previously from the storage unit 108 and leave only new notifications in the storage unit 108. As a result, it is possible to prevent unnecessary notifications duplicated in the reception history of the storage unit 108 from being saved.

  Here, the operation of the communication system according to the present embodiment having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  The communication terminal 100-1 transmits a PTT communication start request to the communication management apparatus 200. In response to this start request, the communication management apparatus 200 establishes a site for managing PTT communication, and transmits information necessary for participating in PTT communication (site address, login ID, etc.) at the site to the communication terminal 100. -1. The communication terminal 100-1 creates a PTT communication start notification that includes information acquired from the communication management device 200, its own identification information (telephone number, e-mail address, etc.), information such as the PTT communication start time, This is transmitted to the communication terminals (100-2 to 100-5) of the other party (step ST100). For example, a message as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed on the display unit 107 of each communication terminal that has received this notification.

  When the PTT communication start notification is transmitted, the communication terminal 100-1 creates a list for registering each partner's participation state in the storage unit 108, and initializes all the other party's participation states to “undecided” in this list. (FIG. 3A). Further, the timer in the control unit 110 is initialized so as to end the time measurement after a predetermined time, and the time measurement is started (step ST105).

Before a predetermined time elapses after the timer is started in step ST105, communication terminal 100-2 transmits a response indicating participation in PTT communication to communication terminal 100-1 (step ST110).
Receiving this response, the communication terminal 100-1 updates the list in the storage unit 108 so that the state of the communication terminal 100-2 becomes “participation” (step ST115).
Also, the communication terminal 100-2 that has selected to participate in PTT communication logs in to the PTT communication management site installed by the communication management apparatus 200 using the information of the PTT communication start notification received from the communication terminal 100-1. To do. Thereby, PTT communication is started between communication terminals 100-1 and 100-2 (steps ST115 and ST120).

On the other hand, communication terminal 100-3 transmits a response indicating that it does not participate in PTT communication to communication terminal 100-1 (step ST125).
Receiving this response, the communication terminal 100-1 updates the list in the storage unit 108 so that the state of the communication terminal 100-3 becomes “non-participation” (step ST130).

Communication terminal 100-4 transmits a response instructing communication terminal 100-1 to transmit a PTT communication start notification again after a predetermined time (for example, after 5 minutes) (step ST135).
Receiving this response, the communication terminal 100-1 updates the state of the communication terminal 100-4 in the list in the storage unit 108 so as to be “a state in which retransmission is performed after 5 minutes” (step ST140).

Here, when the timer started in step ST105 finishes counting the predetermined time (step ST145), the communication terminal 100-1 indicates the state of the communication terminal 100-5 that has not returned a response within the predetermined time, for example, “ It is updated so as to be in a state of “retransmission after 3 minutes” (step ST145). Here, “3 minutes” is a time set in advance as a time interval for performing retransmission to a communication terminal that does not return a response to the PTT start notification. This time may be arbitrarily changed according to a user instruction input from the key input unit 103.
The list in the storage unit 108 in step ST150 is, for example, as shown in FIG.

  When the list is updated, the communication terminal 100-1 next uses the waiting time (3 minutes in the example of FIG. 3B) of the communication terminal that must be retransmitted earliest in the list as the timer time. The timer is set to start counting (step ST155).

When the timer started in step ST155 finishes the time measurement for 3 minutes (step ST160), since the response from the communication terminal 100-5 has not yet returned, the communication terminal 100-1 responds to the communication terminal 100-5. The PTT communication start notification is retransmitted (step ST165).
At this time, since 3 minutes have elapsed since step ST145, the state of communication terminal 100-4 in the list is updated to be “a state in which retransmission is performed after 2 minutes”. As a result of this update, the waiting time of the communication terminal that must be retransmitted earliest is “2 minutes”, so the communication terminal 100-1 sets the timer time to “2 minutes” Is started (step ST170).

When the timer started in step ST105 finishes timing for 2 minutes (step ST175), communication terminal 100-1 retransmits a PTT communication start notification to communication terminal 100-4 (step ST180).
Receiving this notification, communication terminal 100-4 transmits a response indicating participation in PTT communication to communication terminal 100-1 (step ST185).
The communication terminal 100-2 that has selected to participate in the PTT communication logs in to the PTT communication management site installed by the communication management apparatus 200 using the information of the PTT communication start notification received from the communication terminal 100-1. Thereby, communication terminal 100-4 newly participates in PTT communication (step ST190).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when a PTT communication start notification is transmitted from the organizer terminal to a plurality of participant terminals, a response is sent to the PTT communication start notification within a predetermined time. The PTT communication start notification is retransmitted from the organizer terminal to the participant terminals that are not returned, but the PTT communication start notification is sent to the communication terminals that have returned a non-participation response to the PTT communication to the organizer terminal. There is no retransmission.
As described above, since the participant terminal can return a non-participation response to the organizer terminal, the notification of the start of PTT communication from the organizer terminal to the communication terminal that does not intend to participate in the group communication is repeated. Can also be prevented from being retransmitted. In addition, in order to stop re-transmission of the PTT communication start notification, it is not necessary to perform useless communication such as once participating in group communication that does not intend to participate and leaving immediately. Can save.

In addition, when the PTT communication start notification is first received, if the participant terminal cannot participate in the communication, the participant terminal can designate a time for retransmitting the PTT communication to the organizer terminal. It becomes easy to participate.
Furthermore, in the method of reading the PTT communication start notification from the reception history and participating in the PTT communication halfway, the user may forget that there was a PTT communication start notification over time, but as in this embodiment If the PTT communication start notification is retransmitted at the time designated by the user, the user will not forget to participate in the PTT communication, and can participate in the PTT communication without fail.

  Up to this point, the embodiment of the present invention and one modification thereof have been described. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made.

  In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to group communication by PTT has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. The present invention can also be applied to various other group communications that perform one-to-many data communications.

  All of the processing of the control unit 110 in the communication terminal 100 may be executed by a computer based on a program, or at least a part thereof may be executed by hardware.

  The communication terminal of the present invention is not limited to a mobile phone. For example, the present invention can be widely applied to devices having communication functions such as PDA (personal digital assistants) and game machines.

It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the communication system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the communication terminal which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the list of the participating states produced in the memory | storage part of a communication terminal. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen displayed on a display part, when the notification of a PTT communication start from a sponsor terminal is received. It is a flowchart which shows an example of operation | movement of the communication system which concerns on this embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 ... Antenna, 102 ... Communication part, 103 ... Key input part, 104 ... Sound processing part, 105 ... Speaker, 106 ... Microphone, 107 ... Display part, 108 ... Memory | storage part, 110 ... Control part, 100, 100-1 100-5: Communication terminal, 200: Communication management device, 300 ... Communication network

Claims (10)

A communication unit that transmits and receives data;
An operation unit;
When a group communication start instruction designating a plurality of destinations is input by the operation unit, a group communication start notification is transmitted from the communication unit to each of the plurality of destinations. A control unit that starts communication with the other party that responded to the communication start,
The control unit sends the start notification from the communication unit to a partner other than the partner who has responded to participate in the group communication and the partner who has not responded to the group communication. A communication device characterized by retransmitting. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit performs the retransmission after a predetermined time has elapsed since the initial transmission of the group communication start notification. In a case where the response from the other party to the group communication start notification includes information regarding the time for performing the retransmission, the control unit waits for the time according to the time information to pass the retransmission to the other party. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein transmission is performed. The control unit, after receiving a response from the other party to the group communication start notification, performs the retransmission after a waiting time specified in the time information included in the response has elapsed. Item 4. The communication device according to Item 3. The communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the control unit performs the retransmission at a time specified in the time information. A storage unit for storing a list in which a participation state of each of the plurality of destinations is registered;
The control unit transmits the group communication start notification from the communication unit to a partner in an undecided state whether or not to participate in the group communication in the list, and the partner for the group communication start notification 6. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein when there is a response, the registered content of the list for the partner that has returned the response is updated according to the response. . In a case where the response from the other party to the group communication start notification includes information on the time for performing the retransmission, the control unit registers the time information in the list, and the time according to the time information in the list The communication apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the retransmission to the destination is performed after waiting for elapse of time. A communication unit that transmits and receives data;
A notification unit;
An operation unit;
When the communication unit receives a group communication start notification, the notification unit notifies the reception of the start notification, and the communication unit transmits a response to participation in the group communication to start the group communication. And
The control unit, when informing the start notification, if information indicating non-participation in the group communication or information designating the time of retransmission of the start notification is input by the operation unit, the input information A response including: is transmitted from the communication unit to the transmission source of the start notification. A first communication device that performs group communication and a plurality of second communication devices;
The first communication device is
A first communication unit for transmitting and receiving data;
A first operation unit;
When an instruction to start group communication specifying a plurality of destinations is input by the first operation unit, a notification of start of the group communication is transmitted from the first communication unit to each of the plurality of second communication devices, Communication with a second communication device that has responded to start notification in response to a start notification, and among the plurality of second communication devices, a second communication device that has responded to participate in the group communication; and A first control unit that retransmits the start notification from the first communication unit to a partner other than the second communication device that has made a non-participating response;
The second communication device is
A second communication unit for transmitting and receiving data;
A notification unit;
A second operation unit;
When the second communication unit receives the start notification of the group communication, the notification unit notifies the reception of the start notification, and the second communication unit transmits a response to participation in the group communication to transmit the group communication. When information indicating participation or non-participation in the group communication is input by the second operation unit at the time of notification of the start notification, a response including the input information is transmitted to the second communication unit. And a second control unit that transmits the start notification to a transmission source of the start notification. A first step in which a first communication device transmits a group communication start notification to a plurality of second communication devices;
A second step in which a part of the second communication device that has received the group communication start notification transmits a response of participation in group communication or a non-participation response to the first communication device;
The group of the first communication device with respect to other second communication devices other than the second communication device that has returned a response of participation in the group communication or a response of non-participation among the plurality of second communication devices. And a third step of retransmitting a communication start notification.

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