JP4053560B2 - Call control apparatus and group communication control method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a call control device and a group communication control method, and more particularly to a call control device and a group communication control method for controlling group communication performed by a plurality of terminals via a mobile communication network.

  FIG. 12 shows an example of a mobile communication system that provides communication between a plurality of terminals. In the figure, a mobile communication system 100 includes n (n is an integer of 3 or more) terminals 11, 12,..., 1n, a radio apparatus 20 that performs radio communication control, and each terminal to communicate with each other. The call control device 30 is configured to connect between terminals, and the service control device 40 manages subscriber information that uses each terminal. The arrangement of the radio device 20, the call control device 30, and the service control device 40 varies depending on the area supported by the mobile communication network and the accommodated user. Here, the viewpoint of describing details of control of group communication between terminals is described here. It is simplified from.

  In the mobile communication system of FIG. 12, when the user of the terminal 11 desires group communication, the procedure is as follows. That is, the terminal 11 performs login or the like to the mobile communication network in advance prior to communication, sets the wireless communication path by the wireless device 20 for the terminals 12,. A call origination request for starting communication is made (S11). Then, the call control device 30 makes an inquiry to the service control device 40 (S12), and makes a service determination for the caller on the terminal 11 side. At the same time, the call control device 30 makes a service determination for the called terminal on the called side terminal 12... 1n specified by the terminal 11 after making an inquiry to the service control device 40. If the determination result permits the incoming call, the call control device 30 performs an incoming call process on the called terminal 12,..., 1n together with a response to accepting the call request to the calling terminal 11 (S13). ).

With the above procedure, basically, a terminal that responds to an incoming call can participate in group communication. In order to handle a plurality of such group communications at the same time, the mobile communication system has a temporary or permanent number for identifying a communication group, and manages the relationship between the participants.
By the way, in group communication, it is assumed that participants vary with time. For example, there may be a case where a terminal that has been participating in group communication so far leaves the group communication. In this case, the terminal desiring to leave transmits a withdrawal request to the call control device 30. Then, the call control device 30 notifies the withdrawal to other terminals that continue the group communication as well as accepting the withdrawal.

  On the other hand, any of the terminals participating in the group communication may add a new participant. In this case, a terminal that desires to add transmits a participant addition request to the call control device 30. Then, the call control device 30 makes an inquiry to the service control device 40, and performs a service determination of the user of the terminal that has made a participant addition request and the new participant user to be added. If this determination result permits addition, the call control device 30 performs incoming processing for the terminal of the addition target user.

  On the condition that group communication is continued for a terminal that has once left, a terminal that has received an incoming call but has not responded and has not participated in group communication, or a terminal that knows the identification number of the communication group in advance. You may wish to participate again. In these cases, a rejoin request is transmitted to the call control device 30 using the number identifying the communication group received at the time of the first incoming call. Then, the call control device 30 permits re-participation after confirming that the communication group number is a group number to which each terminal can participate and that the group is continuously communicating.

The group communication service described above includes, for example, POC (Push to talk over Cellular) standardized by OMA (open Mobile Alliance). This is described in OMA specifications (for example, OMA-RD-POC-V10).
By the way, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-228561 describes a technique that allows another terminal to newly participate in the middle of group communication. Also, Patent Document 2 describes a technique related to participation and withdrawal of terminals during group communication.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-84577 JP 2004-165742 A

In a conventional mobile communication system, the call control device performs a call process after determining the service of a user who uses the terminal in cooperation with the service control device, and the terminal does not support the call process. Performs error processing during call processing and notifies the processing result to both the calling terminal and the called terminal.
Therefore, from the viewpoint of the user requesting service activation, such as the originating terminal user, although the functions of the terminals used by each user differ with the improvement of the network and terminal functions, the capabilities of the receiving terminal can be distinguished. First, when starting a group communication or adding a service during communication, if even one device is not available on the receiving terminal side, call it to all the receiving terminals and handle the error. You may know services that are not available in the group only by generating them. Even if an error is received, it is possible to guess the fixed capability of the terminal that caused the error, but it is not possible to grasp the accurate capability as the number of generations of the terminal increases as the function of the terminal advances. .

Also, in group communication, when the participant's terminal capabilities are different, each participant must basically assume the use of a service that matches the terminal with the lowest capability. There is a problem that this cannot be confirmed, and it is not known until the service is started whether the service as much as each participant is available. Such a problem cannot be solved by the techniques described in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 described above.
The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and the purpose of the present invention is to allow any group communication participant using each terminal to use any service among the participants currently participating. It is to provide a call control device and a group communication control method capable of managing whether or not to improve service convenience.

  The call control apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention includes a capability detection means for detecting a capability common to a plurality of communication terminals to participate in group communication by a plurality of communication terminals, and a common detection detected by the capability detection means. A notification means for notifying a service that can be commonly used by the plurality of communication terminals to perform group communication according to capability, and realizing group communication by the communication terminal that has received the notification by the notification means, To do. According to such a configuration, since the group communication participant using each terminal can share what service is available among the currently participating participants, the convenience of the service can be improved. .

The call control device according to claim 2 of the present invention is the call control device according to claim 1, wherein when the number of communication terminals participating in the group communication changes during the group communication, the capability detection means Re-detect common capabilities for communication terminals after the change in the number of communication terminals,
The notification by the notification means is performed again. According to such a configuration, even when a terminal leaves during group communication or when a terminal newly joins, it is possible to share what services can be used among the currently participating participants.

  The call control device according to claim 3 of the present invention further includes a terminal capability management table for managing capabilities of communication terminals that can participate in the group communication according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the capability detection means includes the terminal capability management. A capability common to the plurality of communication terminals is detected based on the contents of the table. According to such a configuration, it is possible to share what services can be used among the currently participating participants based on the contents of the terminal capability management table.

The group communication control method according to claim 4 of the present invention includes a capability detection step for detecting a capability common to a plurality of communication terminals that intend to participate in group communication by a plurality of communication terminals, and a common detection detected in the capability detection step. A notification step of notifying a service that can be commonly used by the plurality of communication terminals to perform group communication according to the capability of the communication, and a step of realizing group communication by the communication terminal that has received the notification in the notification step It is characterized by. In this way, since the group communication participants using each terminal can share what services are available among the currently participating participants, the convenience of the services can be improved.
In short, in the present invention, when a plurality of terminals communicate via a mobile communication network, the mobile communication network compares the capabilities of each terminal to determine a communication service that can be used in common between terminals having different capabilities. By notifying each terminal, it is possible to improve the convenience of the terminal user in communication between a plurality of terminals.

  According to the present invention, when performing group communication between users using a plurality of terminals having different capabilities, the user knows in advance the services that can be commonly used in the group communication, so that the user's effective The service activation can be determined, and the convenience of the service can be improved.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the drawings referred to in the following description, the same parts as those in the other drawings are denoted by the same reference numerals.
(Group communication control system configuration example)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a group communication control system realized by using a call control device according to the present invention. In the figure, the group communication control system includes n (n is an integer of 3 or more) terminals 11, 12,... 1n, a radio device 20, a call control device 30, and a service control device 40. Yes.

The call control device 30 stores a group communication management table 300 that includes terminal IDs that are identification information for terminals belonging to a group and information indicating the capabilities of the terminals.
For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the service control device 40 includes a terminal ID that is identification information about a terminal of a user who has contracted for a group communication service, and information indicating the content of the service under contract. A correspondence table is stored.

(Configuration example of call control device)
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the call control device in FIG. In the figure, the call control device of this example acquires the generation information of the storage function 31 for storing information necessary for the operation of the device, such as the group communication management table 300 described above, and the generation information of the terminal. Generation information acquisition / retention function 32 for storing information, capability detection function 33 for detecting the capability of the terminal based on the generation information of the terminal, creation of group communication management table 300, addition and deletion of the contents thereof The table control function 34 for performing the above and the like, and the communication function 35 for transmitting / receiving information and notifying incoming calls by communicating with other devices. Note that the above functions are actually realized by a known server device including a CPU, a storage device, a communication device, and the like.

(Terminal configuration example)
A configuration example of each terminal in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, each terminal sends a request sending function 1a for sending a request for starting or leaving group communication or adding a user, and a plurality of designated communication partners by a user operation or the like. A service for inquiring to a call control device about a service that can be used with a terminal to be used, or for confirming information related to a service function that can be commonly used by all users in a group, notified from the call control device 30 during communication. It includes a control function 1b, a display function 1c for displaying various information, an information input function 1d for inputting information by key operation or the like, and a storage function 1e for storing various information. ing. Note that the above functions are actually realized by a known server device including a CPU, a storage device, a communication device, and the like.

(Operation of this system)
The call control device 30 includes information indicating terminal capability corresponding to generation information included in a signal transmitted from a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone and capable of distinguishing terminal capability, and a subscriber of a user who uses the terminal. The terminal ID, which is information, is managed in association with each other.
Each terminal logs in to the mobile communication network in advance of communication with other terminals, and when the mobile communication network can identify the terminal type, a request is sent from a certain terminal and group communication is started. Sometimes, the call control device 30 places the subscriber information of all users who participate in group communication under the communication group number, and the capability of each terminal based on the generation information of the terminals used by each newly managed group communication participating user. Analyze. Then, service functions that can be commonly used by all terminals and all users in the group communication at that time are extracted. Then, after the incoming call process triggered by the incoming call notification is performed, the contents of the service function that can be commonly used by all users in the communication group are notified to all users in the communication group.

  The call control device 30 is set not only for the above-mentioned notification to the terminal at the start of group communication, but also as a response to an inquiry in a situation where such group communication is not managed, when the group communication is started. In addition, a service that can be commonly used among a plurality of terminals is detected, and the service is notified to the terminal of the caller (the person who made the inquiry). Therefore, when the generation information of the communication partner terminal is unknown prior to the arrival of the group communication, this is confirmed between the call control device 30 and each terminal by a procedure different from the incoming call.

(Specific operation example)
An example of the operation of the system of this example will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, the operation of this system will be described focusing on the change in the contents of the table managed by the call control device 30 and the notification to the terminal.

(Start group communication)
As shown in FIG. 5, in this example, there are three terminals 11 to 13, and the terminal 13 is a terminal of a generation before the generation of the terminals 11 and 12. It is assumed that the terminals 11 and 12 enable group communication by five parties, the terminal 13 enables group communication by three parties, and group communication is performed between these terminals 11 to 13.
The user of the terminal 11 makes a group communication start request to the user who uses the terminals 12 and 13 on the assumption that any terminal can be used as long as the group communication is performed by three parties. At this time, the terminal 11 notifies the generation information of the own terminal (S21).

  Upon receiving this, the call control device 30 performs service determination as the caller of the user of the terminal 11 and service determination as the callee of the user of the terminals 12 and 13 (S22), and sends a response to the request to the terminal 11. At the same time, the terminal 12 and 13 are received (S23). In addition, a group management table is created with the group number as a key, and the participation status and available services for the caller and the called party, as well as generation information of the calling terminal and available services, are stored in the group management table. Mapping is performed (S24). When the terminals 12 and 13 respond to the incoming call, they notify the call control device of the generation information of each terminal. Here, for simplicity, it is assumed that there is no difference in services that can be used as a user, and there is a difference in services that can be used only depending on the generation of terminals. Similarly, the call control device 30 maps the generation information and available services of the terminals 12 and 13 to the group management table. In addition, when the group number is designated from the caller terminal, both when the call control device 30 designates the group number are conceivable.

In this example, generation information is acquired to determine terminal capabilities. In order to realize this, a conversion table for converting the acquired generation information into the capability of the terminal is necessary. With regard to this conversion table, a form that is managed by the service control apparatus 40 and is referred to by the call control apparatus 30 and a form that the call control apparatus 30 has as a system value can be considered.
The call control device 30 can grasp the generation information of all terminals that perform group communication from the information of the created group management table, and together with the subscriber information of each user, it is common in the communication group established at this time. It is possible to extract available services. In order to extract services that can be used in common, the capability axes in the table may be viewed in order, and all “o” abilities (abilities without “x”) may be determined as common abilities. In this example, it can be determined that the three-party group communication is possible between the terminals 11, 12, and 13, and the five-party group communication is impossible. The shaded portion in the figure is an extraction portion of available terminals and services.
The call control device 30 notifies this determination result to the terminals 11, 12, and 13 as commonly available services in the group configuration at that time (S25).

(When leaving the group communication)
Shifting to FIG. 6, here, since the terminal 13 once leaves the group communication, a withdrawal request is transmitted (S 31). Then, the call control device 30 updates the group management table when the number of group participants decreases (S32). That is, the participation state of the terminal 13 indicates withdrawal, and as a result, the services that can be commonly used in the group are the results of re-determination between the terminals 11 and 12 excluding the terminal 13. Changed to group communication. After updating the group management table, the call control device 30 notifies the terminals 11 and 12 (S33).

(When re-joining group communication)
When the terminal 13 that has moved to FIG. 7 and left earlier rejoins this group again, the following occurs. That is, since the terminal 13 participates in group communication, a rejoin request is transmitted (S41). Then, contrary to the above, the call control device 30 changes the participation state of the terminal 13 to participation and updates the group management table (S42). Then, the call control device 30 adds the terminal 13 again and determines a service that can be commonly used in the group. As a result of the determination, the group communication of three parties is performed in the same manner as when the group communication is first started. After updating the group management table, the call control device 30 notifies the terminals 11 and 12 (S43).

(When newly participating in group communication)
Assuming a state in which the terminal 13 is detached again, the operation when the terminals 14 and 15 are newly added as group communication members from the terminal 11 will be described here. Here, it is assumed that the terminal 14 supports five-party group communication, and the terminal 15 supports only three-party group communication. Then, when these terminals are called at the same time, four-party group communication is performed together with the terminals 11 and 12 that are continuing the group communication. Therefore, although the terminal 15 receives a call once, it cannot participate in communication because the service capabilities do not match thereafter.

In order to solve such a problem, an operation performed will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, first, when the terminal 11 designates the terminals 14 and 15 as additional participants, the terminal 11 inquires the call control device 30 about the generation information of the terminals 14 and 15 (S51).
Then, the call control device 30 acquires the generation information of the terminals 14 and 15 as follows. That is, if the terminals 14 and 15 have connected to the call control device 30 and the call control device 30 has acquired generation information of the terminals 14 and 15 at that time, the acquired information is used. On the other hand, if it has never been connected and has not been acquired, information is obtained by making an inquiry to the terminals 14 and 15 by means other than incoming calls (S52). In addition, when the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) protocol is adopted, when the terminal generation is notified to the network at the time of SIP registration, group communication is performed thereafter, and SIP registration is normally canceled after the communication ends. is there. However, depending on the conditions on the network side, it is conceivable that the SIP registration is not canceled even after the end of the communication, or a certain grace period is taken before the SIP registration is canceled. Thus, when making a call to a terminal in which SIP registration has not been cancelled, since the network already knows the generation on the called side, no inquiry is required.

Based on the generation information of the terminals 14 and 15, the call control device 30 updates the group management table (S53). Then, the call control device 30 returns the generation information of the terminals 14 and 15 to the terminal 11 as a response to the inquiry about the generation information (S54).
When the terminal 11 acquires the generation information of the terminals 14 and 15 from the call control device 30, the user of the terminal 11 can select the optimum transmission. That is, the user of the terminal 11 can select to add the terminal 14 to the participant, add the terminal 15 to the participant, or not add the terminal. This operation is applicable not only when adding participants but also when starting group communication.

  Here, an operation when the user of the terminal 11 performs an operation of adding the terminal 15 to the participant will be described with reference to FIG. That is, in the figure, the terminal 11 transmits a request for adding the terminal 15 (S61). Then, the call control device 30 performs a service determination as a callee of the user of the terminal 15 (S62), and performs an incoming call process on the terminal 15 (S63). If there is an incoming call from the terminal 15, the group management table is updated, and the terminal 15 is added as a participant in group communication (S64).

  Through the above processing, the call control device 30 can grasp generation information of all terminals performing group communication from the information in the created table, and together with the subscriber information of each user, in the communication group established at this time. It becomes possible to extract commonly available services. Here, it can be determined that the three-party group communication is possible between the terminals 11, 12, and 15, and the five-party group communication is impossible. The call control device 30 notifies this determination result to the terminals 11, 12, and 15 as commonly available services in the group configuration at that time (S65).

(Example of adding a member)
An example of a user operation in the above-described group communication control system will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, a screen display example of the terminal 11 is shown. In the state of FIG. 5A, the communication partner terminal 12 is displayed on the screen. If a five-party call is possible, there are four vacant communication partner fields.
In this state, a vacant communication partner column is selected ((a) in the figure) and a function button is pressed ((b) in the figure). Then, a function menu is displayed as shown in FIG. The function menu includes “1. call”, “2. advance confirmation”, and “3. partner reference input”. Here, “3. Partner reference input” is selected.

  Then, a partner reference input menu is displayed as shown in FIG. The partner reference input menu includes “1. phone book”, “2. outgoing call history”, and “3. incoming call history”. Here, “3. Incoming call history” is selected. Then, a telephone directory is displayed (not shown). If, for example, the terminal 14 is selected from the displayed telephone directory, “terminal 14” is added to the item selected in FIG. 5A, and group communication with the terminal 14 added can be performed.

As described above, the method of selecting a terminal to be added to group communication can be considered in the same way as the existing mail destination setting. When starting group communication, a terminal may be selected by a similar operation.
Ad hoc type, pre-created type, and chat type are defined as outgoing methods of PoC (Push-to-Talk over Cellular) communication. In any case, a terminal may be selected by the same operation. The ad-hoc type is a transmission method that sets a destination for each communication. The pre-created type is a group name (number) and member combination registered in advance on the network side, and the group name (number) is specified during communication. The name of the conference room (number) is known in advance, and the chat type allows users who want to participate to communicate by entering the conference room without calling. It is a transmission method to do.

  An operation for preventing a specific terminal from being added to the group communication (not participating) can be considered as an ad hoc type. As for the method of selecting terminals not to be added to the group communication, similar to the above, registration may be performed on the network side by menu operation of the terminals. If this operation is performed, management is performed by the call control device while communication is continued, and transmission from a terminal that is not added is rejected.

(Application examples)
In the above description, only two capabilities of three-party group communication and five-party group communication are considered as differences between terminal generations, but the capability axis of the group management table can be expanded in accordance with future capability expansion. . For example, an additional function for members who can communicate with a group, a function for switching from a PoC communication state, which is a transceiver type communication, to a mixing type telephone conference, a function for handling media other than voice (text, still images, videos), and Web simultaneously with PoC communication A function for sharing browsing among groups can be added as a capability axis of the group management table.
In the group management table, the terminal axis can be expanded according to the maximum number of participants in group communication.

(Group communication control method)
A group communication control method realized by the call control apparatus described above will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, when there is a request from the terminal (step S101), the process proceeds to the following process. The request from this terminal is, for example, a transmission request, a participation request, an addition request, or a withdrawal request.
When the request from the terminal is a request other than the withdrawal request, the call control device 30 inquires of the service control device 40 about the service condition for the terminal (steps S102 → S103). Further, the call control device 30 confirms the generation information of the terminal, and acquires the generation information for the terminal whose generation information is unknown (step S104). Thereafter, the call control device 30 creates a group management table or updates its contents (step S105). In step S102, when the content of the request from the terminal is a withdrawal request, the processing proceeds to step S105 without performing the processing of steps S103 and S104, and the content of the group management table is updated (step S102 → S105).

After creating the group management table or updating its contents, the call control device 30 notifies the terminal of available services (step S106). Group communication can be realized by the terminal that has received this notification.
By adopting the group communication control method as described above, in order to detect the common ability of a plurality of communication terminals trying to participate in group communication by a plurality of communication terminals, and to perform group communication by the detected common ability An incoming notification is transmitted to a plurality of communication terminals, and group communication by the communication terminal that has received the incoming notification can be realized. According to this group communication control method, the group communication participants using each terminal can share what services are available among the currently participating participants, so that the convenience of the service can be improved. it can.

(Summary)
In this system, when a terminal starts communication with another terminal via a mobile communication network, the call control device refers to the information of the service control device and determines the service condition of each subscriber. The terminal generation information is received from each terminal, and the service functions that can be commonly used for communication among all the terminals participating in the same communication are determined by collating these, and notified to all the terminals. In addition, when the number of participants in communication, that is, the number of terminals increases or decreases during communication, the service functions that can be used during communication in common for all terminals participating in the communication that has been continued after the increase or decrease in the number of terminals are similarly applied. Re-determine and notify all terminals if there is a change. By controlling in this way, it is possible to improve the convenience of the terminal user in communication between a plurality of terminals.

  In addition, in a situation where each terminal logs in to the mobile communication network in advance prior to communication with other terminals and the mobile communication network can identify the terminal type, one terminal can communicate with another terminal via the mobile communication network. When communication is started, the communication partner is specified at the discretion of the subscriber who uses the terminal, and the service functions that can be commonly used for these communication partner terminals are acquired from the mobile communication network prior to the call. can do. In the middle of communication, when one terminal makes a call to another terminal in order to increase the number of participants, the communication partner is designated on the terminal side according to the judgment of the subscriber who uses the terminal. Thereafter, a service function that can be commonly used for these communication partner terminals can be acquired from the mobile communication network prior to transmission.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be used to improve service convenience for group communication performed by a plurality of terminals via a mobile communication network.

It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the group communication control system implement | achieved using the call control apparatus by this invention. It is an example of a structure of the corresponding | compatible table memorize | stored in the service control apparatus with terminal ID and the information which shows the content of the service under contract. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the call control apparatus in FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of each terminal in FIG. It is a figure which shows the start process of group communication in the group communication control system of FIG. In the group communication control system of FIG. 1, it is a figure which shows a process when a terminal detaches | leaves from group communication. In the group communication control system of FIG. 1, it is a figure which shows a process when a terminal rejoins in group communication. It is a figure which shows the inquiry process of generation information in the group communication control system of FIG. In the group communication control system of FIG. 1, it is a figure which shows the process when the user of a certain terminal performs operation which adds another terminal to a participant. It is a figure which shows the user's operation example in the group communication control system of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the group communication control method implement | achieved by the call control apparatus in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the mobile communication system which provides communication between several terminals.

Explanation of symbols

1a request sending function 1b service control function 1c display function 1d information input function 1e storage function 11 to 1n terminal 20 wireless device 30 call control device 31 storage function 32 generation information acquisition / holding function 33 capability detection function 34 table control function 35 communication function 40 Service Control Device 100 Mobile Communication System 300 Group Communication Management Table

Claims (4)

  Capability detection means for detecting a capability common to a plurality of communication terminals trying to participate in group communication by a plurality of communication terminals, and the plurality of communications for performing group communication with the common capability detected by the capability detection means A call control apparatus comprising: a notification unit configured to notify a service that can be commonly used by a terminal, and realizing group communication by a communication terminal that has received the notification from the notification unit. When there is a change in the number of communication terminals participating in the group communication during the group communication, the capability detection means detects again the common capability for the communication terminals after the change in the number of communication terminals,
The call control device according to claim 1, wherein the notification by the notification means is performed again.   A terminal capability management table for managing capabilities of communication terminals that can participate in the group communication, and the capability detection means detects capabilities common to the plurality of communication terminals based on the contents of the terminal capability management table. The call control device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that.   A capability detection step for detecting a capability common to a plurality of communication terminals that intends to participate in group communication by a plurality of communication terminals, and the plurality of communications for performing group communication with the common capability detected in the capability detection step A group communication control method comprising: a notification step of notifying a service that can be commonly used by terminals; and a step of realizing group communication by a communication terminal that has received the notification in the notification step.

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