JPH06120947A - Remote terminal data collecting method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To transfer information data with minimum communication cost by selecting a transfer method from the compared result of a data amount to be transferred and a data amount discrimination number for indicating the data amount to be the minimum communication cost found from communication conditions and the transfer methods. CONSTITUTION:At the time of originating a call from a data collecting center 3 to remote terminal equipments 2a and 2b, the data amount to be the minimum communication cost is found from the communication conditions and the transfer method, the data amount is added to the user/user information components of a call setting message as the data amount discrimination number, the data amount discrimination number and the data amount to be transferred are compared at the remote terminal equipments 2a and 2b and the transfer method is selected.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote terminal data collection method for transferring information data of a remote terminal device to a data collection center via an ISDN network. The present invention relates to a remote terminal data collection method for selecting a transfer method having a minimum communication cost from a plurality of transfer methods having different communication costs for the amount of communicable data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to monitor and control equipment distributed in various places, it is necessary to collectively process information data generated in each equipment, so that each equipment is equipped with a remote terminal device. It is necessary to transmit the information data of the facility equipment to the data collection center by this remote terminal device and concentrate it at one place. At this time, the collection of information data by the data collection center has a great influence on the processing capacity of the entire system. Therefore,
As a remote terminal data collection method for collecting information data transmitted from a remote terminal device by a data collection center, various methods have been implemented and proposed in consideration of communication speed, communication efficiency and the like.

That is, conventionally, a remote terminal device is provided with a dedicated communication port having a function of receiving a data transmission request from a data collection center and transmitting data to the data collection center. Remote terminal data collection methods have been implemented for transmitting information data to a data collection center via the same.

Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-77142 discloses that
ISDN (Integrated Services Digita)
l Network) to operate as a packet terminal with a packet switching function, and give this remote terminal device an ISDN number for normal communication and an ISDN number for responding to a data transfer request from a data collection center, and collect data. When there is an incoming call from the center, the remote terminal device is made to identify the data transfer destination by the channel number shown in the packet so that the data transfer to the data collection center and the information data in normal communication can be distinguished. A remote terminal data collection method has been proposed.

[0005]

However, in the remote terminal data collecting method in which a dedicated communication port is provided in the remote terminal device to transmit information data, the same number of communication ports as the number of remote terminal devices are required, and the dedicated communication port is dedicated. However, there is a problem that the equipment cost when constructing the system is likely to be excessive.

Further, in the remote terminal data collection method using the ISDN packet switching method, the above equipment cost can be reduced, but the data amount of information data transmitted from the remote terminal device to the data collection center is small. Since the communication cost increases with the increase, there is an insufficient point in the operation cost after the system is constructed.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a remote terminal data collection method capable of reducing both equipment cost and operation cost.

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the remote terminal data collecting method of the present invention has a communication condition when transferring information data of a remote terminal device to a data collecting center via an ISDN network. The transfer method that minimizes the communication cost is selected from a plurality of transfer methods that differ in the communication cost for the amount of data that can be communicated at one time, and has the following characteristics.

That is, in the remote terminal data collection method, when a call is made from the data collection center to the remote terminal device, the minimum communication cost data amount is obtained from the communication conditions and the transfer method, and this data amount is determined by the data amount judgment number. Is added to the user-user information element of the call setting message, and the transfer method is selected by comparing the data amount determination number with the data amount to be transferred at the remote terminal device.

[0010]

According to the above structure, the minimum amount of data required for communication is obtained from the communication conditions such as the distance between the data collection center and the remote terminal device, the communication time zone, and the transfer method.
After this data amount is added to the user / user information element of the call setup message as the data amount determination number, the data collection center makes a call to the remote terminal device. Then, this data amount determination number is compared with the data amount to be transferred in the remote terminal device. Therefore, the transfer method selected from the comparison result of the data amount determination number and the data amount to be transferred is the minimum communication even if the communication cost for the data amount that can be communicated at one time differs depending on the communication condition of each transfer method. The information data can be transferred at a cost.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The following will describe one embodiment of the present invention with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 1, the remote terminal data collecting method according to the present embodiment uses a DSU (Digita) in the ISDN network 1.
The data collection center 3 and the remote terminal devices 2a and 2b are connected via the Service Unit) 4 ... The ISDN network 1 is a network for completely providing various telecommunications services such as telephone and data communication, which have been provided separately by the same communication network, by completely digitizing the communication network. This I
Services using the SDN network 1 include, for example, the INS net 64 in NTT.

The data collection center 3 and the remote terminal devices 2a and 2b connected to the ISDN network 1 are ISDN.
The network 1 has a circuit switching function for connection / communication by circuit switching and a packet switching function for connection / communication by packet switching. The circuit switching function uses a call setup message to make a call request, and uses a response message and a release completion message to make a connection response or a connection rejection response to an incoming call. . And in each of these messages,
Arbitrary information data can be added as a user / user information element as long as the data amount is equal to or less than a predetermined amount.

The data collection center 3 described above, when making a call,
The data amount determination number is added to the user / user information element of the call setup message. The number of data amount determinations is set so as to minimize the cost required for data transfer in consideration of the distance between the data collection center 3 and the remote terminal devices 2a and 2b and the communication time zone. Then, the remote terminal devices 2a and 2b that read this data amount determination number are
By comparing the data amount of the information data to be transferred with the data amount judgment number, a transfer method is selected, which is based on the user / user information element in the message, packet switching, or circuit switching, and the selected transfer The information data is transferred according to the method.

A remote terminal data collection method in the case of transferring information data using one data amount determination number in the above configuration will be described.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the data collection center 3 sets the maximum data amount of the user / user information element as the data amount determination number N, and this data amount determination number N is set to the user / user information. After being included in the call setup message as an element, a call is made to the remote terminal device 2a based on the circuit switching function.

The remote terminal device 2a, which has received the call setup message by the above-mentioned calling procedure, reads the data amount determination number N from the user / user information element of the call setup message. After that, for example, if the data amount of the information data to be transmitted when the data transfer request from the data collection center 3 is accepted is M, the remote terminal device 2
In the case of a, the M data amount is used as the comparison number M, and the comparison number M is compared with the read data amount determination number N.

At this time, when the comparison result showing the comparison number M> the data amount determination number N is obtained, as shown in FIG.
After the line is connected by accepting the incoming call and making a connection response, the M pieces of information data held in the remote terminal device 2a are transferred to the data collection center 3 by the transfer method of the circuit switching system.

On the other hand, when the comparison result showing the comparison number M ≦ the data amount determination number N is obtained, as shown in FIG. 2, the remote terminal device 2a holds the user / user information element of the connection refusal message. The connection information will be rejected by setting M pieces of information data that are being transmitted, and the information data will be transferred to the data collection center 3 by being included in the user-user information element of the connection rejection message.

As a result, when the data amount transferred from the remote terminal device 2a is smaller than the data amount determination number N,
Information data is transferred as a user-user information element,
Moreover, since the line is not connected in the ISDN network 1, the communication can be carried out at an extremely low cost.

Next, a remote terminal data collection method in the case of transferring information data using two data amount determination numbers will be described.

As shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, the data collection center 3 sets the maximum data amount of the user-user information element as the data amount determination number N1 and also the data amount of one packet in the packet switching system. Is set as the data amount determination number N2. Then, after including these data amount determination numbers N1 and N2 as user / user information elements in the call setup message, a call is made to the remote terminal device 2a based on the circuit switching function.

The remote terminal device 2a, which has received the call setup message by the above-mentioned calling procedure, determines the data amount judgment number N1, N2 from the user / user information element of the call setup message.
Will be read. After that, for example, if the data amount of the information data to be transmitted when the data transfer request from the data collection center 3 is received is M, the remote terminal device 2a determines the M data amount as the comparison number M. Then, the comparison number M is compared with the read data amount determination numbers N1 and N2.

At this time, the comparison number M ≦ the data amount determination number N1
4 is obtained, as shown in FIG. 4, M pieces of information data held in the remote terminal device 2a are set in the user / user information element of the connection refusal message to establish a connection. I will refuse. As a result, the amount of data transferred from the remote terminal device 2a is N
When the number is less than 1, the information data is transferred as a user-user information element without connecting the line in the ISDN network 1.

Further, when the comparison result showing the data amount judgment number N1 <the comparison number M ≦ the data amount judgment number N2 is obtained,
As shown in FIG. 5, the connection is rejected by setting the information data indicating that the information data is transferred by the packet switching method in the connection-rejected user-user information element. After this, the remote terminal device 2a makes a call by packet switching to the data collection center 3 to connect, and then the information data held by the remote terminal device 2a is transferred to the data collection center 3 by the packet switching method. Will be.

Further, when the comparison result showing the comparison number M> the data amount determination number N2 is obtained, as shown in FIG.
It receives an incoming call and responds to the line connection. When the line is connected, the M pieces of information data held by the remote terminal device 2a are transferred to the data collection center 3 by the line connection method.

As described above, according to the remote terminal data collection method of this embodiment, the data collection center 3 operates the remote terminal device 2a.
When the call to 2b is made, the data amount which is the minimum communication cost is obtained from the communication condition and the transfer method, and this data amount is added to the user / user information element of the call setup message as the data amount judgment number, and the remote terminal device On the side of 2a and 2b, the data amount judgment number is compared with the data amount to be transferred,
The transfer method is selected by using the comparison result. Therefore, according to this remote terminal data collection method, the connection refusal message is set by setting the data amount determination number in consideration of the communication conditions such as the distance between the data collection center 3 and the remote terminal device 2a and the communication time zone. The transfer method that minimizes the communication cost required for data transfer is selected even if the three types of transfer methods of user / user information element, packet switching, and circuit switching have different communication costs for the amount of data depending on the communication conditions. You will be able to do it.

That is, a specific example in which the communication cost required for data transfer can be minimized by applying the remote terminal data collection method of this embodiment to the INS net 64 which is an ISDN network service in NTT will be described.

First, assuming that the remote terminal device 2a and the data collection center 3 belong to the same exchange, and the communication time zone is between 8:00 and 19:00 on weekdays, when using line switching. It is possible to transfer information data of up to about 1 megabyte for 10 yen, but a communication fee of 10 yen is required even for information data of only 1 byte.

On the other hand, when the user-user information element is used, a maximum of 128 is included in one user-user information element.
Information data up to bytes can be included, and 1
Since the cost of one user-user information element is 0.4 yen, up to 128 bytes of information data can be transferred at a communication cost of 0.8 yen. Further, when packet communication is used, if one packet has 4096 octets, then 4096 bytes of information data per packet can be transferred for 6.2 yen.

Therefore, when the data amount determination number N1 is set to 128 and the data amount determination number N2 is set to 4096, if the remote terminal devices 2a and 2b have information data of 128 bytes or less, The transfer method of the user / user information element that enables communication at the lowest cost (0.8 yen) is selected from among the transfer methods. If the remote terminal devices 2a and 2b have, for example, 4 kilobytes of information data, the cheapest method among the transfer methods (6.2.
A packet-switched transfer method that enables communication is selected. Further, as the information data increases, for example, 8 kilobytes of information data can be transferred to the remote terminal devices 2a and 2b.
If it has, the transfer method of the circuit switching method that can communicate at the lowest cost (10 yen) will be selected from the transfer methods.

[0032]

As described above, the remote terminal data collection method of the present invention obtains the minimum amount of communication data from the communication condition and the transfer method when the data collection center makes a call to the remote terminal device. This data amount is added to the user / user information element of the call setup message as the data amount determination number, and the remote terminal device compares the data amount determination number with the data amount to be transferred to select the transfer method.

As a result, the transfer method is selected based on the result of comparison between the data amount determination number indicating the data amount that is the minimum communication cost obtained from the communication condition and the transfer method and the data amount to be transferred. Even if the communication cost for the amount of data that can be communicated at one time differs in each transfer method, it is possible to transfer the information data with the minimum communication cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a connection state of a data collection center and a remote terminal device for executing a remote terminal data collection method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a transfer method using a user-user information element in a message.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a transfer method of a circuit switching system.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a transfer method using a user-user information element in a message.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a packet-switching transfer method.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a transfer method of a circuit switching system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ISDN network 2a remote terminal device 2b remote terminal device 3 data collection center 4 DSU

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. When transferring information data of a remote terminal device to a data collection center via an ISDN network, a minimum of a plurality of transfer methods having different communication costs for the amount of data that can be communicated at one time depending on communication conditions. A remote terminal data collection method for selecting a transfer method that becomes a communication cost, wherein when a call is made from the data collection center to the remote terminal device,
The data amount that is the minimum communication cost is obtained from the communication conditions and the transfer method, and this data amount is added to the user / user information element of the call setup message as the data amount determination number and transferred with the data amount determination number in the remote terminal device. A remote terminal data collection method, characterized in that a transfer method is selected by comparing with a data amount.