JPH0723136A - Charging system for satellite communication - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To relieve the charge collection load by a host station by allowing a telephone station to collect an information utility charge on behalf of the host station of an added value substitute collection line in'' the case of bi- directional satellite communication. CONSTITUTION:A host station registers an added value substitute collection line 15 to a telephone station. When a terminal equipment requests payed information stored in a database 11, the host station sends the information by a determined communication protocol. The terminal equipment receives the information and collates its own ID with terminal address information and receives a packet when they are coincident and allows a control CPU 6 to process the packet. When the IDs are not coincident, a satellite signal analysis section 3 skips the information to avoid use of information without permission. When the terminal equipment receives the information, the terminal equipment sends utility charge of a data class information write to the host station. A reception section 9 receives it and connects a reception port to a telephone line 14 to call a line 15. The charging is imposed based on the connection time of the line 15. Thus, the line is connected for a time equivalent to the charge.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system by which an information provider side corresponding to a host station in satellite communication can effectively collect a fee for use of information by the user side.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Current satellite communication is set mainly for the purpose of video and data distribution from a host station, and it is not possible for each user to transmit data to the host station by satellite communication. The current situation is that we rarely expect it. This is only for the user side to obtain information such as a database from the host station, and if the host station keeps track of the number of times each user has accessed the information and the time, it will not be charged. One of the reasons is that it is possible and there is little need to exchange information in both directions. Further, the fact that the transmission device is extremely expensive and the regulation of the frequency band used is strict is one of the reasons why it is not widely used.

However, assuming that satellite communications will become full-scale in the future, there will be many demands for bidirectional data communications, and the configuration for collecting fees will also be diversified.

The present invention addresses such a future form of satellite communication, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a toll collection system that is not currently being implemented.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the inventor has focused on a telephone line capable of collecting value-added agents. Then, when the information transmitted from the user side is the charge information, the host station connects to the telephone line and the telephone station side collects the charge according to the connection time.

As means for that purpose, a pay station is used as a database, and a host station which transmits necessary information from the database when a request from a terminal device is received,
It is a system consisting of a plurality of terminal devices that receive the pay information transmitted from this host station based on its own request and perform the necessary processing. In the above host station, a telephone line is directly connected to the receiving port of the receiving unit. The pay information sent from the host station includes the identification number of the requesting terminal device and the charge information, and the pay information received by the terminal device is received. After the processing of step 1 is completed, the charge information is transmitted to the host station, and the host station directly connects the receiving port to the telephone line according to the received charge information and connects to the value-added agency collection line for a predetermined time. The technical means of doing is adopted.

[0007]

The host station and the terminal device perform bidirectional communication by satellite communication. The telephone line connected to the host station functions as a telephone line for each terminal device by being directly connected to the receiving port of the host station. In addition, the value-added surrogate collection line functions to act on behalf of the host station so that the telephone station collects the telephone usage fee and the information usage fee. In addition, the reason why the pay information transmitted from the host station includes the information about the terminal device is to prevent another terminal device from receiving and processing the information. By means of returning information from the terminal device to the host station, security of fee collection is ensured.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a device on the user side, that is, a terminal device. 1 is an antenna for transmission and reception, 2 is a transmission / reception unit for satellite signals, 3 is an analysis unit for satellite signals, and 4 is data to be transmitted and received. Is a temporary buffer memory, 5 is a storage device for received data, and 6 is a control CPU for controlling these devices and performing necessary processing on the data. Reference numeral 7 is a connector for connecting to an external device.

Next, the configuration of the host station will be described with reference to the block diagram shown in FIG. 8 is an antenna for transmission / reception of the host station,
Reference numeral 9 denotes a receiving device for receiving a signal from the terminal device, 1
0 is a transmitting device for transmitting information requested by the host station to the terminal device and also transmitting control signals, and 11 is a database storing information to be provided to the terminal device and user information. , 12 is a proxy collection processing unit for collecting value-added proxy collection on public telephone lines according to the charge information transmitted from each user's terminal device, and 13 is a central control unit for controlling each device of the host station. It is a department. Also, the host station is connected to the value-added surrogate collection network A of the public telephone station, and 14 is an ordinary telephone line, 1
Reference numeral 5 is a value-added agent collection line. Here, the value-added surrogate collection means that if the host station, which is the information provider, is called by a specific telephone number, the information usage fee will be added to the line usage fee at a predetermined time unit while the line is connected. Define the mode of charge collection such that the station collects the charge.

In order for the host station to collect the information usage fee from the terminal device on the user side in the above system,
First, the host station registers its own value-added surrogate collection line 15 in the telephone station and secures a number. Then, when the terminal device requests the pay information stored in the database 11 to the host station by transmitting, for example, an identification code, the host station confirms this and transmits necessary information to the predetermined communication. Send according to protocol. In this case, as the transmission data structure, a format as shown in FIG. 3 is adopted as an example. Where a is the header,
b is terminal address information in which the ID of the terminal device is written, c is data type information in which the type of transmission data and usage charge are written, d is the data body, e is an error correction code, f
Is the footer. That is, packet communication is basically adopted in order to avoid erroneous transmission and disturbance of transmission data. Then, the terminal device receives this signal, collates its own ID with the terminal address information c, receives the matching packet, and is processed by the control CPU 6. Packets whose IDs do not match are skipped by the satellite signal analysis unit 3, thereby avoiding unauthorized use of information.

Then, when the terminal device can capture the received data in a usable state without any disturbance, the usage fee written in the data type information c is transmitted to the host station. When the receiving unit 9 of the host station receives the data on the usage charge from the terminal device, the receiving port is connected to the telephone line and the value-added surrogate collection line 15 in which the host station is registered is called. here,
An important point in connecting to the value-added surrogate collection line 15 is that the fee is charged according to the connection time of the line 15, and the usage fee is converted into time at the host station or terminal device, and only that time is charged. Will be connected. Since the receiving port is opened based on the received data from the terminal device, the telephone line 14 can be considered as a telephone line used by the terminal device. Further, in this embodiment, the charge collection process is described every time the terminal device requests the pay information, but the charge data may be periodically uploaded from the terminal device in order to avoid complication. .

According to the present invention, the charging process is not performed when the host station transmits the pay information to the terminal device.
After confirming that the terminal device has received valid data, the charging process is performed based on the data from the terminal device. This is to ensure communication security, and to avoid mutual trouble in terms of charges by charging based on the information transmitted by the terminal device itself.

[0013]

Since the system of the present invention adopts the above-mentioned configuration, it is possible to collect charges by the processing of the terminal device itself while utilizing the two-way satellite communication. Therefore, compared to the case where the charge is calculated by the processing of the host station itself as in the conventional case, the trouble on the charge is greatly reduced. Further, since the telephone station employs a system that collects charges, the host station side can reduce the collection work and can provide information efficiently.

Further, since the telephone line is installed only between the host station and the telephone station under its jurisdiction, this system can be easily adopted even in an area where it has been difficult to construct a telephone network in the past. , It is possible to broaden the scope of various paid information providing services.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a terminal device,

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a host station,

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a data structure of pay information transmitted from a host station.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 antenna for transmission / reception 2 transmission / reception section 3 analysis section 4 buffer memory 5 storage device 6 control CPU 7 connector 8 transmission / reception antenna 9 reception apparatus 10 transmission apparatus 11 database 12 proxy collection processing section 13 central control section 14 telephone line 15 addition Value collection line

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A pay station is used as a database, and when a request from a terminal device is received, a host station which sends necessary information from the database and a pay station which is sent from this host station based on its own request are received. In addition, the host station has a telephone line directly connected to the receiving port of the receiving unit and a value-added surrogate collecting line of the host station, The pay information transmitted from the station includes the identification number of the terminal device that received the request and the charge information.The terminal device sends the charge information to the host station after processing of the received pay information is completed. , The host station directly connects the receiving port to the telephone line according to the received charge information and connects to the value-added agency collection line for a predetermined time. Billing system of satellite communication, which was characterized by Rukoto.