JPH0334644A - Communication control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To respond to a call required actually for communication by forcibly suspending a call with a low priority in the course of communication and responding to a call of a device of high priority and reconnecting automatically the suspending call after the priority communication is ended. CONSTITUTION:In the case the priority of a new incoming call is higher than the priority of the communication contents in the course of communication at present, the suspension of communication is informed to the other party (for instance, a user C) of a channel using a telephone being in the course of communication at present and a disconnection processing is executed. Subsequently, when communication started preferentially is ended, a disconnecting signal is sent from the other equipment 320 (user D), and mutual communication is ended. Accordingly, communication (telephone communication) to the other party to which communication is suspended previously is restarted. In such a way, in the case of an incoming call from a designated attribute, or in the case of an incoming call from the other designated party, and also, in the case the priority of equipments 315 (300) being in the course of communication at present is low like a telephone, the telephone being in the course of communication is forcibly disconnected, the communication is executed preferentially, and after the incoming processing is ended, a call of the telephone disconnected forcibly previously is connected automatically.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a communication control system in a communication device connected to a network capable of data communication through multiple channels.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, compound terminal devices (e.g., G-4 facsimile, G-3 facsimile, devices equipped with a telephone, etc.) connected to a network capable of multi-channel communication represented by I5DN (Service Integrated Digital Network) have been used. In this system, when all communication channels are in use, new incoming calls are rejected until the channel in use becomes free.

An example of the sequence of this conventional communication control method is shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, it is assumed that the number of channels that can communicate simultaneously is two.

In FIG. 5, the users are A, B, and C.

Assume that there are four users D.

As shown at 201, user A and user B are already communicating using channel l. Further, as shown at 202, user A and user C are also communicating using channel 2 (all available channels are already in use).

In this state, consider a case where user D receives a call from user A as shown in 203.

At this time, since all available channels are already in use, user A responds to this incoming call by sending a call rejection response to user D, as shown in 204, and channels 1.
Or this state will continue until 2 becomes vacant.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, since all incoming calls are rejected while the communication channel is in use, calls cannot be received to the main device that the multifunction terminal device is equipped with, or the priority A situation occurred where calls could not be received from highly sensitive parties, making it impossible to process them appropriately or efficiently.

Alternatively, even if it is known that the communication process for a new incoming call is very short, there is a drawback that incoming call processing cannot be performed preferentially.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention has been made for the purpose of solving the above-mentioned problems, and includes the following configuration as one means for solving the above-mentioned problems.

In other words, in a communication device connected to a network capable of data communication using multiple channels, when all stored communication channels are in use, a new incoming call is received from a device having a specific attribute specified in advance. a determining means for determining whether the call is from a specific party number specified in advance, and comparing the priority order of the called party's device and the device currently communicating when the determining means makes a determination. a comparison means; and when the comparison means determines that the priority of the partner device currently in communication is low, the call in progress is forcibly canceled, the incoming call from the device with a higher priority is answered, and the communication due to the incoming call is stopped. and communication control means that automatically reconnects the canceled call after the call ends to enable recommunication.

[Function] With the above configuration, it is possible to reliably and quickly respond to incoming calls from devices with high communication priority or devices with urgent communication needs, and perform data communication. data communication may be inadvertently delayed.

For example, a composite terminal device (for example, G4
facsimiles, G3 fax machines, telephone-equipped devices, etc.), when all communication channels are in use, a new incoming call is: 2) Determine whether the call is coming from one of the specified numbers, and determine whether the call is coming from one of these devices and the device currently communicating has a low priority, such as a telephone. In such a case, the current call can be forcibly canceled and a new incoming call can be accepted preferentially. Then, after incoming call processing is complete,
By automatically reconnecting forced aborted calls,
Priority call rules such as calls to the main device of the multifunction terminal (in this case, for example, a G4 facsimile machine), calls from high-priority parties, calls with very short communication processing, etc. It becomes possible.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a composite terminal device as an embodiment of the present invention, and the device of this embodiment is capable of G4 facsimile communication, G3 facsimile communication, and telephone calls.

In FIG. 1, 101 is a CPU which is stored in ROM 2 and controls the entire apparatus of this embodiment according to the control procedure shown in the second cylinder described later, and 102 is a read-only memory (ROM) in which the above-mentioned programs and the like are stored. ), 103 is C
Random access memory (RAM) that temporarily stores processing progress and transmitted/received data, etc. in P U 10.1
4 is an operation panel for inputting a communication partner number and other control instructions, and 105 is a display device for displaying various information.

Reference numeral 106 denotes an I10 control device for controlling the connected Ilo, and in this embodiment, an image reader 107 and a printer 108 are connected as the Ilo. 109 is a telephone handset used during a call.

110 is a disk device that stores various programs and image data transmitted and received by facsimile, and 111 is a companding circuit that compresses/expands image data transmitted and received during facsimile communication.

112 is G4, which performs facsimile communication in accordance with the G-4 standard.
A facsimile communication unit 113 is a G3 facsimile communication unit that performs facsimile communication in accordance with the G-3 standard, 114 is a telephone communication unit that controls call charges in telephone mode, and 115 is a connection between these communication units 112 to 114. and controls the communication interface between each of these communication units and the connected 15DN 200. All communication data is transmitted and received via the communication control unit 115.

Also, 200 is l5DN, 300.315320 is l5
Other devices A to D connected to DN 200 are users B to D.

The communication control of this embodiment having the above configuration will be explained below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 2 and the diagram of FIG. 3 showing an example of the sequence of the communication control method of this embodiment.

In the following explanation, the rsDN 200 has user A, which is the device of this embodiment, and other devices 300-32, which are users B, C, and D.
Communication control with 0 will be explained as an example.

First, in step S1, the CPU 101 checks whether the communication control device has received an incoming call request from the INDN 200, and if not, checks in step S2 whether there is an outgoing call request.

If there is no call request, the process advances to step S3, and it is checked whether or not communication is currently in progress. If communication is not in progress, go to step S again.
Return to 1 and continue the above loop processing.

In this state, if there is a call request from the own device, the process proceeds from step S2 to step S5, and the call request is sent to an empty channel, for example, channel l. For example, in the case of a G3 facsimile communication request, the G3 communication unit 113,
The communication control unit 115 outputs a transmission request to the 15DN 200 via an empty channel (for example, channel 1). Upon receiving this, the l5DN200 communicates with the communication partner device,
For example, an incoming call request is sent to the other device 300 (user B). The partner device returns a call acknowledgment response if communication is possible, and a call rejection response if communication is not possible. Therefore, in the following step S6, based on the response from the partner device, <l5DN2
Wait for a response from 00.

When a response is received, it is checked in step S7 whether or not the received response is an acknowledgment of outgoing call indicating permission to receive the call. Here, if the received response is not a call acknowledgment but a call rejection response, the CPU 101 is notified of this, and the CPU 101 returns to step S5 to establish a communication channel. Repeat the process such as pointing four times. Note that this reconstruction may be performed after a predetermined period of time has elapsed.

On the other hand, if an outgoing acknowledgment is sent, step S
7, the process proceeds to step S8, where a call is set up, a communication path is constructed, and communication processing is performed as shown in step S9, while the process returns to step S1. An example of this communication state is shown in Figure 3.
Indicated by 01.

On the other hand, during the loop processing from step 81 to step S3,
If the above-mentioned process is executed and communication is in progress, the process advances from step S2 to step S10, where communication is continued, and in step Sll, it is checked whether or not the communication in the currently communicating channel has ended. If the communication is still continuing, the process returns to step S1 and waits for the communication to end.

If the communication ends here, the process advances from step Sll to step S12, where a known disconnection process is executed and the communication is ended. Here, a disconnection signal is sent to the 15DN 200. This disconnection signal is also sent to the communication partner device, and the communication partner device also ends the communication.

When any of the ISD N 200 connected devices wishes to communicate with the device of this embodiment, it sends an outgoing request to the empty channel of the 15DN 200. l5DN2 from the device
When a call request addressed to the device of this embodiment is sent to 00, l5D
N200 sends an incoming signal to the device of this embodiment. The CPU 101 detects this via the communication control unit 115 etc.
The process proceeds from step S1 to step S15, and it is checked whether the channel where the call was received is in use. For example, other device 3
10 (user C), the CPtJ 101 receives the incoming call signal via the communication control section 115 and the telephone communication section 114, and proceeds from step S1 to step S15. In step S15, it is checked whether there is an empty channel.

If there is an empty channel, the process advances to step S16, and an incoming acknowledgment is sent to the 15DN 200 via the communication control unit 115 etc. in order to communicate using the empty channel (for example, channel 2).
Send to. Upon receiving this, the 15DN 200 sends a transmission acknowledgment to the transmission requesting device, for example, the other device 300. This enables communication, so in the subsequent step S17, communication is performed using the channel. The third example of this state is
Shown in FIG. 302.

In this state, at 301 shown in FIG. 3, user A and user B are communicating using channel 1, and at 302, user A and user C are communicating by telephone using channel 2. . Therefore, if there are two available channels, then all available channels are in use.

In this state, as shown by 303 in FIG.
For example, there is an incoming call from 0 (user D) to the apparatus of this embodiment (user A) requesting G4 facsimile communication,
When the communication control unit 5 receives this and notifies the CPU 101, in this case, there is no empty channel in step S15. Therefore, in this case, step S15
The process then proceeds to step S20. In step S20, the CPU 101 examines the priority table including the attributes and device numbers of the incoming call requesting devices registered in the disk device 110.

This priority table is created on the operation panel 10 according to a priority setting program stored in the ROM 102 in advance.
Enter from step 4. The setting information input in this way is stored in the disk device 110. An example of registration of this priority order table is shown in FIG.

This priority order is not limited to the example in Figure 4,
For example, it is possible to determine and register based on whether or not the call is coming from a certain specified attribute (for example, higher layer compatibility) or whether the call is coming from a certain specified number. This can be optimized depending on the processing form of the called device.

Check the priority table in step S20, and
At step 21, the priority order of the currently communicating device and communication contents is compared with the priority order of the new incoming call.

If the priority of the new incoming call is lower than the priority of the current communication, the process advances to step S22, and 20 is shown in FIG.
As shown in 4, an incoming call rejection response is output and the process returns to step S1 to continue the current communication.

In step S21, if the priority of the new incoming call is higher than the priority of each device currently communicating and the communication content (for example, in the case of an incoming call from a specified device due to higher layer compatibility) If the communication currently in progress is a phone call communication, etc.), the process proceeds to step S25, and the communication is canceled to the other party (for example, user C) of the channel that is currently using the telephone as fl, as shown in 304 in Fig. 3. is notified and the disconnection process is performed.

In this case, it is also possible to use voice synthesis to convey a message to both users on the phone, informing them that high-priority reception processing will now be performed.

In step S25, after the disconnection process to the other device 310 (user C) in 304 in FIG. An incoming call request destination device, for example, another device 32o (
The message is sent back to user D) and the user is notified that the call has been picked up.

When this incoming call is accepted, communication using the telephone channel previously used, that is, channel 2, becomes possible, and this communication is performed in step S27. This state is shown at 306 in FIG.

In general, only those communications that require a short communication time should be allowed to receive priority processing, and communications that require too long a communication time should not be prioritized. When this is completed, a disconnection signal is sent from the other device 320 (user D) as shown in FIG. 3 307, and mutual communication is terminated. As a result, the process moves from step S27 to step S28, and communication (telephone communication) with the other party with which communication was previously stopped in step S25 is resumed. That is, as shown at 308 in FIG. 3, a calling request is automatically sent to the other party's device (user C), and an incoming call signal is sent to the other party's device. Then, in step S29, a response from the partner device is monitored. The outgoing acknowledgment from the other party's device is shown in Figure 3.30.
If a reply like 9 is received, mutual communication is possible,
As shown at 310, it becomes possible to resume telephone communication between the device of this embodiment (user A) and another device 315 (user C) using channel 2. and step S
Return to 1.

If a call rejection response is received from the other party's device, communication with the device is not possible, so communication is interrupted in step S30 and the process returns to step S1.

As explained above, according to the present embodiment, even if all channels are in use, communication with a partner that truly requires communication can be interrupted.

In addition, if the communication time with the receiving party is short, and canceling the current communication will not have much of an impact, the incoming call from another device can be processed in the same way, allowing for an appropriate response. .

[Other Embodiments] Although the above description has been made using an example in which the multifunction terminal device can simultaneously process G4 facsimile communication, G3 facsimile communication, and telephone communication, the data communication control method according to the present invention is limited to the above example. It can be applied to any data communication, etc. For example, it can be applied to other personal computer-based compound terminal devices and workstation-based compound terminal devices.

In addition, the high layer compatibility attribute (HLC) used in I5DN is used as a method for determining which priority processing should be performed.
However, other attributes may be used as long as the information is notified by the network.

Furthermore, although telephone calls are targeted as communication to be interrupted when priority processing is performed, other communication other than telephone calls may be used as long as the communication has a low priority and will not have much impact if interrupted.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, even if all channels are in use, new incoming calls are determined to be based on a certain specified attribute (for example, higher layer compatibility). By providing a means that can determine whether the call is an incoming call or whether it is an incoming call from a specific designated number, incoming calls from specified attributes,
Or, if the call comes from a specified party, and the device currently communicating has a low priority, such as a telephone,
It is possible to forcibly disconnect the telephone in progress and receive and receive incoming calls preferentially for communication. Then, after the incoming call processing is completed, the previously disconnected telephone call can be forcibly and automatically connected.

Therefore, it is possible to give priority processing to incoming calls to the main device that the multifunction terminal device is equipped with, incoming calls from high-priority parties, or incoming calls that require very short communication processing, which results in more efficient communication. be.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, incoming calls that truly require communication from devices with high communication priority or devices with urgent communication can be reliably and quickly handled. can communicate in response to

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of a composite terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a communication control flowchart of this embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a sequence of a communication control method of this embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a priority order table of this embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a sequence of a communication control method in a conventional example. In the figure, 101...CPU, 102...Read only memory (ROM), 103...Random access memory (RAM), 104...Operation panel, 105...
・Display device, 106... I10 control device, 107...
・Image League, 108...Printer, 109...
・Handset, 110...Disk device, 111・
...Companding circuit, 112...G-4 communication section, 113...
・G-3 Communication Department, 114...Telephone Communication Department, 115...
・Communication control unit, 200...15DN, 300, 310
, 320... are other devices. Figure 3 Figure 4

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A communication control method for a communication device connected to a network capable of data communication using multiple channels, which controls when a new incoming call occurs while the communication channel stored in the communication device is in use. Compare the communication priorities of the new called party's device and the currently communicating device, and if the currently communicating party's priority is low, the current call is forcibly canceled and the communication priority is set to a higher priority. 1. A communication control method, characterized in that in response to an incoming call from a device, the canceled call is automatically reconnected after the communication due to the incoming call is terminated to enable recommunication. (2) In the communication control method according to claim 1, when the communication channel stored in the communication device is in use,
When a new incoming call is from a device with specific attributes specified in advance, and when it is an incoming call from a specific destination number specified in advance, the priority order is compared with the device currently communicating. , if the priority of the other party's device currently in communication is low, the call in progress is forcibly canceled, the incoming call from the device with a high priority is answered, and the communication is automatically canceled after the communication due to the incoming call ends. A communication control method characterized by controlling a call so that it can be reconnected and communicated again.