JPH05207090A - Terminal communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten latency time at a transmission terminal and to remarkably shorten transmission time by allocating plural pieces of document data on plural information channels from terminal equipment, and transmitting each data in parallel. CONSTITUTION:The data to be transmitted, the destination address of the data, and a transmission order are stored an image memory 3. A communication control part 8 transmits the data in the memory 3 to an opposite device via a line control part 7 by a transmission order discrimination part 8-1 and an interface circuit 6 according to the transmission order. When a large amount of data are desired to send via a large number of information channels in one to one, a document unit discrimination part 5 attaches managing information on divided data in the memory 3 by an original page managing part 5-1, and performs the transmission of those data by using the plural information channels. At a reception side, the assembling of all the data are performed by using such managing data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a terminal communication system between communication terminals connected to a communication network having a plurality of information channels for data transmission such as ISDN.
The present invention relates to a terminal communication method capable of significantly reducing a transmission waiting time and a transmission time at a transmitting side terminal device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional technique relating to a high-speed communication system via a digital network such as ISDN, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No.
The technology described in Japanese Patent No. 185142 is known.

In this prior art, when a terminal such as a facsimile is connected to an ISDN network for communication, one information channel is captured by a calling process, and a transmission original is image data compressed and encoded by the MMR system. This image data is transmitted to the captured information channel. Further, according to this conventional technique, when the remaining page determination unit determines that the transmission document has a plurality of pages, the other information channel is connected to the same terminal, and the other terminal can use both information channels. If it is possible to communicate using both channels, it is possible to speed up the communication by allocating information channels in page units and performing communication using two information channels. is there.

However, this prior art cannot perform high-speed communication when transmitting one page of data,
Also, in order to perform high-speed communication, the receiving side terminal device must be
The information channel of the book is limited to the terminal having the function.

Further, in this prior art, since both information channels are simultaneously used to send one data, it is not possible to send different data to different parties at the same time, and it is necessary to consider this. There is something.

[0006]

In the prior art, when one piece of data covers a plurality of pages, both information channels of ISDN are used to transmit the data, and therefore another method is required. When data is desired to be transmitted, the next data cannot be transmitted unless the transmission process of the data is completed, which causes a problem that a waiting time occurs on the transmitting terminal side.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art and, if the transmitting terminal device can use n information channels, transmit data in parallel to n different parties. In addition, when performing one-to-one communication with a terminal device having the same function as the transmitting side, it is possible to simultaneously transmit n document unit data using n information channels, As a result, it is possible to significantly reduce the transmission waiting time and the transmission time in the terminal device on the transmitting side, and a terminal transmission method between terminal devices connected to a digital communication line having a plurality of information channels such as ISDN. To provide.

[0008]

According to the present invention, the object is to handle and transmit one page of data or data of a plurality of pages in units of one document unit data. Necessary information is added to each of the n pieces of document data of the side terminal device, the data is once stored in the memory, and the data is transferred to the designated destination using the n information channels in the registered order. It is achieved by doing so.

[0009] Further, the above object is to monitor the state of the information channel when the terminal device tries to transmit more document data than the number of available information channels and to add the data to the data when an empty channel occurs. Based on the transmission order
When vacant channel transmission waiting data is allocated and transmitted, and by performing control for shortening the transmission waiting time of the terminal device, when further one-to-one communication is performed, management information is added to each document data. This is achieved by controlling documents so as to shorten the transmission time by distinguishing documents and allocating each document to each information channel and communicating at the same time.

[0010]

According to the present invention, when it is desired to transmit a plurality of document data from one terminal device by the means described above, the data can be transmitted in parallel to a plurality of destinations according to the available capacity of the information channel of the terminal device. It is possible to send the data, and the waiting time in the terminal device can be shortened. Further, in the case of one-to-one communication between terminal devices having the same function, the transmission time can be significantly shortened.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a terminal communication system according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an IS to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.
2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a DN communication system, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a terminal device, FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an image memory, and FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an operation when a communication line is in a busy state. 5 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the broadcast communication,
FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the operation of one-to-one communication, FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining a normal transmission processing operation, FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining a broadcast communication processing operation, and FIG. 9 is a one-to-one communication processing operation. It is a flowchart explaining. 1 to 3
, T _{E1 to} T _En are terminal devices, NT _{1 to} NT _n are network terminators, 1 is a scanner, 1-1 is a document input section, 2 is an encoding / combining section, 3 is an image memory, 4 is an output section. 5 is a document unit discrimination unit, 5-1 is a manuscript page management unit, and 6 is ISDN.
Interface circuit, 7 ISDN line control unit, 8 communication control unit, 8-1 transmission order determination unit, 9 operation panel,
Reference numeral 10 is a display unit, 11 is a system control unit, and 12 is a control bus.

In FIG. 1, terminal devices T _{E1 to} T _En are facsimile devices installed in subscribers' homes, respectively, and ISDN via corresponding network terminators NT _{1 to} NT _n.
It is connected to the web. In addition, the terminal devices TE _{1 to} TE _n are
It has the same configuration and is configured as shown in FIG.

That is, the terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 2 is provided with various functional parts as described below.

The scanner 1 reads an image of a document input to the document input section 1-1 and converts it into image information data.

The encoding / combining unit 2 encodes the image information data from the scanner 1 for compression, and also performs the encoding for returning the received compressed image information data to the original image information. It is something to do.

The image memory 3 stores the image information to be transmitted or received, and the output unit 4 prints the image information.

The document unit discriminating unit 5 is an original page managing unit 5
The number of pages of a document is managed by -1, and the number of pages of each document is determined based on the information.

The ISDN interface circuit 6 is a CCI.
It has a layer 1 function of an I interface corresponding to the TT I series recommendation, and is connected to an ISDN network terminator.

The ISDN line controller 7 has the functions of layers 2 and 3, and controls the information transmitted between networks using the function of layer 1.

The communication control unit 8 monitors the state of each information channel, and the transmission order discriminating unit 8-1 discriminates the transmission order of telegrams to be transmitted and controls the transmission of image information data in accordance with the transmission order. It is a thing.

The operation panel 9 is used by the operator to perform various operations, and the display section 10 displays operation guidance, messages, the state of the apparatus, and the like.

The system control unit 11 performs data transfer between the functional units described above via the control bus 12,
It also controls transfer of control data.

The image memory 3 for storing the above-mentioned image information to be transmitted or received stores the data of one document unit in blocks according to the size thereof, and as shown in FIG. / It is configured by being divided into a transmission order data area and a data area. And in the data area,
Data divided into one document block is stored as transmission image information data, and the data of each block includes a data address and a continuous data address or data EN.
D is added and registered. Further, in one block of the destination / transmission order data area, the data of the block in the data area in which the destination data, the transmission order data, and the data to be transmitted are stored for each transmission image information data. The address is registered.

The continuous data address registered in one block of the data area is when the volume of image information data of one document to be transmitted is larger than the volume of one block and the data is stored in a plurality of blocks. To indicate the address where the subsequent data is stored, and the data END is registered in the block storing the last data as the end of the data.

When transmitting the image information data stored in the image memory 3 in the above-mentioned format, the transmission order discriminating unit 8
-1 monitors the transmission order data of the destination / transmission order data registered in the image memory 3, determines the transmission order, and controls the transmission order.

Next, an example of order control when transmitting the above-mentioned image information data according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the case where three data whose transmission order is determined are transmitted using two information channels, and this example will be described below.

Now, it is assumed that data 1, data 2, and data 3 are stored in the data area of the image memory 3 in the order of the transmission order, and these data are data to be sent to different receiving side terminal devices.

In this case, the communication control unit 8 first determines the data 1 based on the transmission order determination result of the transmission order determination unit 8-1.
To B ₁ channel and data 2 to B ₂ channel to start transmission. At this time, if the other terminal device attempting to transmit data using the B ₁ channel cannot transmit data because it is transmitting other data or receiving other data, communication control is performed. The unit 8 determines that transmission is impossible, and first performs the process of transmitting the data 3 using the B ₁ channel.

When the communication control unit 8 determines that the data transmission is normally completed, it instructs the image memory 3 to erase the data and the destination / transmission order data from the image memory 3. Erase these data.

As described above, in the embodiment of the present invention, when each of a plurality of data is transmitted to different receiving side terminal devices, the order of data transmission is changed according to the state of the receiving side terminal device on the other side. Therefore, data can be efficiently transmitted at high speed.

FIG. 5 shows an example in which one data is transmitted to a plurality of destinations. This example is ISDN
It is assumed that there are more channels than two that can be used in the network.

In this example, it is assumed that the data 3 registered in the data area of the image memory 3 is transmitted to a plurality of destination terminal devices. In this case, the operator inputs three pieces of destination address data A, B, C from the operation panel 9 in order to transmit the data 3 to a plurality of destinations. As a result, 3 in the destination / transmission order data area of the image memory 3
The destination data A, B, and C are respectively registered in one block, the transmission order data is given as 1 to 3, and the address at which the transmission data is stored, 103 in this case, is registered as the data address. ..

The communication control section 8 finds an empty information channel in the ISDN based on the data in the image memory 3,
Data (although the same data) for each destination terminal device is assigned to the channel and transmission is performed.

FIG. 6 shows an example in which the terminal device performs one-to-one communication using n information channels.

The transmitting terminal device and the receiving terminal device have the same functions, and a plurality of different data, data 1, data 2, data 3, ... Registered in the image memory 3 are communicated between these terminals. When transmitting to the terminal device, the operator of the transmitting terminal device inputs the one-to-one communication information from the operation panel 9. As a result, the manuscript page management unit 5-1
At the beginning of each data, management information such as A, B, C, ...
Is added, and the data is stored in the data area in the image memory 3 as shown in the drawing, as in the case already described.

When transmitting these data, the transmission order discriminating unit 8-1 identifies the management information A, B, C, ... Assigned to each data, and the communication control unit 8 transmits each data. Allocate to the information channels B _{1 to} B ₃ . Then, at the time of transmission, not only the data in the transmission side field image memory 3, but also the information of the data address, the subsequent data or the data END is transmitted together.

If no data is stored in the image memory 3, the receiving side terminal stores the received data in the position of the address sent together with the data and adds it to the received data. If other data is stored at the position of the specified address, the data address is converted to another data address and the data is stored in the empty area.

In order to assemble the data received as described above and stored in the image memory 3 of the terminal device on the receiving side in a scattered state, the transmission order discriminating unit 8 uses the management information added to the beginning of each data. -1 is detected, and data up to the data END is sequentially transferred to the encoding / decoding unit 2 according to the subsequent data address. The data converted into the original data by the encoding / combining unit 2 is sent to the output unit 4 and printed.

Next, the operation of the normal transmission processing will be described with reference to the flow shown in FIG.

(1) When a document is set in the document input section 1-1, operation guidance is displayed on the display section 10 (step 200).

(2) The operator inputs the other party information and the number of originals from the operation pulse 9 according to the operation guidance. The input destination information is registered in the destination / communication order data area in the image memory 3 through the control bus 12, and the transmission order determination unit 8-1 adds the transmission order data to the transmission data from this document. It is given and registered in the destination / communication order data area in the image memory 3 as described above. Further, the data of the number of originals is sent to the original page management section 5-1 through the control bus 12 and used to determine the data END (step 201).

(3) The scanner 1 reads image information of a document. The data is registered in the image memory 3 through the control bus 12 (step 202).

(4) The communication control unit 8 monitors the state of the ISDN line control unit 7 to determine whether all the information channels are in use, and if all the information channels are in use, then either Wait for information channel to open (step 20)
3).

(5) If there is an empty channel in the determination in step 203, the communication control unit 8 causes the transmission order determination unit 8-1 to search the image memory 3 for data with a fast transmission order, and the data is sent to the control bus. 12 via IS, IS
The DN line control unit 7 and the interface circuit 6 call the intended partner terminal device and check whether the partner terminal device is in use (steps 204, 2).
05).

(6) If it is determined in step 205 that the partner terminal device is receiving or transmitting data and cannot connect, the communication control unit 8 informs the communication order determining unit 8-1 that the transmission order is next shortest. In order to search for data and perform transmission from another found data, the partner terminal device is called according to the transmission order, and the data is allocated to the empty channel in the transmission order (steps 206 and 207).

(7) After the connection with the partner terminal device is completed, the data registered in the image memory 3 is stored in the control bus 12
After being transferred to the communication control unit 8 through the ISDN line control unit 7, the ISDN line control unit 7 controls the ISDN interface circuit 6 to send the data to the partner terminal device (step 20).
8).

(8) The transmission order discrimination section 8-1 manages the data registered in the image memory 3 even during transmission,
The data END set at the end of the data is detected (step 209).

(9) When the data END is detected, the communication control unit 8 detects the channel for which the data transmission is normally completed, and the ISDN line control unit 7 via the control bus 12.
A channel release command is issued to the channel for which data transmission has been normally completed to release the channel (step 210).

(10) When the opening of the channel is completed, the communication control unit 8 causes the image memory 3 which has been transmitted by the channel.
The control bus 1 is added to the image memory 3 to erase the data in it.
Issue an erase command through 2. Upon receiving the command, the image memory 3 erases the corresponding data. From the above,
The data transmission process ends (step 211).

Next, with reference to the flow shown in FIG. 8, the processing operation when one message is sent to a plurality of destinations will be described.

(1) The operation of writing data from the original set to the image memory 3 is the same as steps 200 to 202 in the above-mentioned normal transmission processing except that a plurality of destination information is registered as input of the destination information. (Steps 300 to 302).

(2) Since it is broadcast communication, the operation panel 9
Enter the broadcast information. As a result, the address of the transmission partner is registered for the same data to be transmitted as the data address in the destination / transmission order data registered in the image memory 3 (steps 303 and 304).

(3) After that, the processing from step 203 onward, which is similar to the communication transmission processing described with reference to FIG. 7, is performed to transmit data to the intended partner terminal device.

Next, with reference to the flow shown in FIG. 9, the processing operation when a plurality of electronic messages are sent to the same destination (one-to-one communication) will be described.

(1) First, it is confirmed that the transmitting terminal device is unused, and if it is not used, the original is set, the information of the other party is registered, and the data from the original is written in the image memory 3. This operation is the same as the normal call processing described above (steps 400 to 403).

(2) Since one-to-one communication is performed, one-to-one communication information is input from the operation panel 9. As a result, the manuscript page management unit 5-1 adds management information to the document data so that the electronic message of each document can be distinguished (step 40).
4, 405).

(3) The document unit discrimination unit 5 sends the data of the number of documents to the communication control unit 8 via the control bus 12. The communication control unit 8 compares the number of usable information channels with the number of documents (step 406).

(4) As a result of the comparison in step 406, when the number of messages is larger than the number of usable information channels, the transmission order discriminating unit 8-1 discriminates the management information attached to each data, and the communication control unit. 8 allocates each document unit data to usable information channels. The remaining data is allocated to the vacant channel as soon as the communication control unit 8 finds the vacant channel (step 407).

(5) The data in the image memory 3 assigned to each channel is transmitted to the partner terminal device, and after the end of the data is detected, the channel is released from the channel which has been normally transmitted, and the data is transmitted. Is deleted from the image memory 3. These operations are the same as the normal transmission process described above (steps 408 to 411).

According to the above-described embodiment of the present invention, if the transmitting terminal device can use n information channels, n
Data can be transmitted in parallel to different parties, and in the case of one-to-one communication with a terminal device having the same function as the transmitting side, n pieces of document unit data are converted into n pieces of information. Since it is possible to simultaneously transmit using the channels, it is possible to greatly reduce the transmission waiting time and the transmission time at the transmitting side terminal device.

In the above-described embodiment of the present invention, the facsimile device is taken as an example of the terminal device and the image data is transmitted. However, in the present invention, when the terminal device is used as the file device and the document data is transmitted. Can also be applied to.

Although the above-described embodiments of the present invention have been described as using the ISDN network as a communication line, the present invention can use any digital communication line having a plurality of information channels.

[0065]

As described above, according to the present invention, a terminal device such as a facsimile device allocates a plurality of document data to respective information channels and transmits each data in parallel, so that the transmitting terminal can It is possible to shorten the waiting time, and when transmitting a plurality of document data in one-to-one communication, it is possible to significantly reduce the transmission time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an ISDN communication system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a terminal device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an image memory.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an operation when a communication line is in a busy state.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the operation of broadcast communication.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the operation of one-to-one communication.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a normal transmission processing operation.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a broadcast communication processing operation.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a one-to-one communication processing operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

TE _{1 to} TE _n terminal device NT _{1 to} NT _n network terminating device 1 scanner 1-1 original document input unit 2 encoding / decoding unit 3 image memory 4 output unit 5 document unit determination unit 5-1 original page management unit 6 ISDN interface Festival circuit 7 ISDN line control unit 8 Communication control unit 8-1 Transmission order determination unit 9 Operation panel 10 Display unit 11 System control unit 12 Control bus

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. In a terminal communication system for transmitting data between terminal devices via a digital network having a plurality of information channels, each terminal device for communication has a memory for storing data, and a transmitting side The terminal device handles one transmission original in the memory as one document data unit, and when transmitting a plurality of document data, allocates one information channel for each document data unit and simultaneously uses a plurality of channels. A terminal communication system characterized in that the terminal device on the receiving side stores and outputs the data of one document unit received from each information channel as a separate document. 2. A document to be transmitted is stored in the memory.
The data area and the destination / transmission order data area are divided and stored. The data area stores a plurality of document data. The destination / transmission order data area stores a data address corresponding to the document data. The terminal communication system according to claim 1, wherein transmission order data and a destination address are stored. 3. If the number of document data to be transmitted is larger than the number of available information channels, the terminal device on the transmitting side waits for the information channels to become available, and allocates the remaining document data to the channels to transmit. In addition, if the receiving terminal is busy and cannot connect, the terminal communication method is characterized in that the document data is transmitted to another destination first. 4. When transmitting a large amount of document data to one partner terminal device, the terminal device serving as the transmitting side attaches management data to each document data and transmits it via a plurality of information channels. 4. The method according to claim 1, 2 or 3
The terminal communication method described. 5. When transmitting the document data to a plurality of different partner terminal devices, the terminal device which is the sender side uses the information channel assigned to each of the partner terminal devices based on the transmission order data. The terminal communication method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the terminal communication method is performed.