JPH10304099A - Plural line accommodation communication terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To minimize a case when an incoming call from another communication terminal is not accepted by summing up and storing the incoming frequency of each line in every prescribed time zone and selecting a line that has the smallest incoming frequency which is stored in accordance with a present time at the time of calling. SOLUTION: A table is provided for each line L1 to LN of a line controlling part 2, and the incoming frequency of each table is summed up every hour of every day of the week and stored in ROM and RAM 8. On the other hand, a main controlling part 1 refers to the ROM and RAM 8 before calling, automatically selects a line L1 to LN which has the smallest incoming frequency that stored based on a present time of a clock circuit 9 in accordance with it and starts to call. In such cases, if the selected line L1 to LN is in the middle of use, e.g. a line L1 to LN which has the next smallest incoming frequency can successively be selected. When there are plural lines that have the same smallest incoming frequency, a line is selected in a preliminarily defined order.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement in a communication terminal apparatus accommodating a plurality of lines which connects a plurality of lines and enables simultaneous communication on each line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, communication terminal devices having a function of connecting a plurality of lines are becoming popular, and in addition to a telephone network, a facsimile communication network (F-net), ISDN, or the like are connected to each other to provide different terminals. Simultaneous communication with the other party. For example, if a facsimile apparatus is connected to two lines, the facsimile transmission is performed from one of the lines while the facsimile transmission is being performed on one of the lines by utilizing the memory transmission or memory reception function. In a line, facsimile reception or facsimile transmission can be performed simultaneously in parallel. Also, at the start of communication, if one of the predetermined lines is in use (communicating), communication can be performed by another unused (empty) line.

[0003]

However, in the conventional communication terminal apparatus accommodating a plurality of lines, if a predetermined line is not performing communication before the call is transmitted, even if there is another available line, the line is not used. In some cases, calls are made and transmitted, so that calls from other communication terminals through this line cannot be received.

[0004] That is, if transmission is performed using another line, even if the call can be received through the line being transmitted,
Until the transmission ends, no incoming call can be received from another communication terminal device. That is, the other communication terminal device was in a busy state. The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and by selecting a line having a low frequency of incoming calls from a plurality of lines and transmitting a call, it is possible to reduce a case where an incoming call from another communication terminal device cannot be received. The purpose is to do.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a communication terminal apparatus accommodating a plurality of lines according to the first aspect of the present invention collects the reception frequency of each line of the line control section for each predetermined time zone. Storage means for storing, and control means for referring to the storage means before calling and selecting a line having the lowest incoming call frequency corresponding to the current time to start calling. I do. According to this, since the outgoing call is started using the line that is least likely to receive a call, the probability that a call cannot be received can be minimized.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the storage means totalizes and stores the number of incoming calls and / or the reception time as the frequency of incoming calls of each line of the line control unit for each hour of each day of the week. According to the third aspect, the control means validates the incoming frequency of each line of the line control unit stored in the storage means only for a predetermined period. Here, the predetermined period includes a period until the total number of incoming calls reaches a predetermined number, a period until a predetermined operation is performed, and the like, in addition to a calendar period such as one month, half year, and one year. When the predetermined period elapses, the counting of the predetermined period may be reset, and the counting of the incoming call frequency may be restarted from the beginning.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a communication terminal apparatus accommodating a plurality of lines according to the present invention. Here, the configuration of the facsimile machine F is shown as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, as long as a plurality of lines can be connected, such as a personal computer having a data communication function. Is also good.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a main control unit which is constituted by a CPU or the like as control means of the present invention and controls the following units. 2 denotes a line control which accommodates a connection function of a plurality of lines L1, L2,. Reference numeral 3 denotes an operation unit including various operation keys and switches, 4 denotes a display unit including a liquid crystal screen and an LED, and 5 denotes reading for reading image data of a document set on a document table (not shown). Unit 6, a recording unit that prints out image data on recording paper prepared in advance, 7 is an image storage unit that stores image data encoded for facsimile communication, and 8 is a ROM that constitutes storage means of the present invention The RAM 9 is a clock circuit for recognizing the day of the week and the date in addition to the time.

The line control unit 2 includes each of the lines L1 to L
For N, there are provided an NCU (network control device) for transmitting dial numbers and the like, and modems 21 to 2N for modulating and demodulating signals for performing facsimile communication. Further, the main control unit 1 includes processing circuits for facsimile communication control, encoding / decoding of image data, and the like. The facsimile apparatus F encodes image data read by the reading unit 5 and transmits the encoded image data through any of the lines L1 to LN, and decodes the image data received through any of the lines L1 to LN. Is printed out from the recording unit 6 to enable simultaneous communication in each of the lines L1 to LN.

In the case where data is received from other lines L1 to LN during recording of the received image data, the image data received later is temporarily stored in the image storage unit 7, and then stored in the storage unit. At the time when the printing output by the printing unit 6 is completed, the stored image data is taken out and printed out from the recording unit 6. The facsimile apparatus F performs such a basic operation, but in the present invention, each line L1
The LN incoming frequency is counted for each predetermined time zone, and the
On the other hand, the main control unit 1 refers to the RAM 8 before making a call and, based on the current time of the clock circuit 9, automatically stores the lines L1 to LN with the lowest incoming call frequency corresponding thereto. Select to start calling.

[0011] In this way, since the outgoing call is started using the lines L1 to LN which are the least likely to receive an incoming call, the probability that an incoming call (reception) from another communication terminal device (the other party) cannot be made is minimized. , The other party is less likely to be busy, and does not have to wait until transmission starts. Here, the frequency of incoming calls includes the number of incoming calls and the receiving time. At the time of calling, a line having a small number of incoming calls and a short receiving time in the current time zone may be selected and transmitted. In addition, during a predetermined time period, which is a counting unit,
In addition to every hour and every two hours, there are daytime, nighttime, midnight, and early morning units.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the above operation. FIG. 2A shows a process at the time of reception. After the reception, the current time of the clock circuit 9 is referred to, the number of times of reception stored in the RAM 8 corresponding to the current time is incremented, and the reception process is started. I do. Then, at the end of the reception, the time required for reception (reception time) stored corresponding to the current time is added.

FIG. 2B shows the processing at the time of transmission. When an instruction to start transmission is made by operating the start key of the operation unit 3 or the like, the current time of the clock circuit 9 is referred to, and
From the AM 8, the lines L1 to LN with the least number of incoming calls or the shortest receiving time (or the shortest receiving time) corresponding to the current time are selected, and then transmission is started, and the transmission process is started. At this time, if the selected lines L1 to LN are in use, the lines L1 to LN having the next smallest number of incoming calls (incoming frequencies) may be selected and transmitted in order, or the number of lines that can be selected in order may be limited. You may. In addition, transmission may be prohibited while the terminal is in use. If the number of selectable lines is limited or calling is prohibited, there is no case where all the lines L1 to LN are used.
The possibility of receiving a call through the LN increases.

Next, the counting of the incoming call frequency in the RAM 8 will be described with reference to FIG. Here, each line L
A table is provided for each of 1 to LN, and the frequency of incoming calls is counted in each table for each hour of each day of the week. Note that the data of the incoming call frequency to be counted here may be either the number of incoming calls, the receiving time, or both. Further, the totaling unit may be a unit including an element for each day of the month.

In the case of this figure, the main control unit 1 controls each line L1
ＬLN, the incoming call frequency corresponding to the current day of the week and time referred to by the clock circuit 9 is referred to, and the outgoing call is transmitted using the least frequently used line. However,
If there are a plurality of the same incoming calls with the lowest incoming frequency, the line is selected in a predetermined order. For example, among those having the same number of incoming calls, the one with the shortest cumulative reception time or the one with the youngest (smallest) line number is selected.

Further, the main control unit 1 has the RAM 8
Can be recalculated every predetermined period. That is, the frequency of incoming calls for each of the lines L1 to LN can be made valid only for a predetermined period. Here, the predetermined period includes a calendar period such as one month, half year, and one year, a period until the total number of incoming calls reaches a predetermined number (for example, 300 times), and a predetermined operation ( There is a period until a key operation for resetting the total data) is performed. When the predetermined period elapses, reset the timing of the predetermined period,
What is necessary is just to clear the tallying data of the frequency of incoming calls and restart tallying from the beginning.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation in this case. Here, July and August (strictly speaking,
The period from 1:00 a.m. on July 1 to 1:00 a.m. on September 1) is defined as daylight saving time, and the period for counting the incoming call frequency is divided into this period and other periods. In the above description, only one area for summarizing and storing the data on the frequency of incoming calls is provided in the RAM 8 as a storage means, and the same totaling section (for example, one section such as 12:00 on Sunday of the line 1) is provided. Shows an example in which only one piece of data is aggregated. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and two areas, for example, the first month and the second
A data storage area for the month is provided, and data for March is stored in the area for the first month, and data for April is stored in the area for the second month. The area (data for March) may be cleared and data for May may be sequentially stored. In this case, the area of the second month (April data) is used as the data of the incoming call frequency. In addition, when counting the incoming call frequency for each day in January, an area for one month may be provided, and this area may be sequentially overwritten for each day.

Further, the configuration in which a plurality of lines L1 to LN are connected to one communication terminal device (facsimile device F) by the line control unit 2 has been described above, but the present invention is not limited to this. Instead, one or more option boards having a communication function may be added to the communication terminal device body, and each of these may be connected in a daisy chain. According to this, data can be transferred between the communication terminal device main body and the option board via the dual port RAM provided in each option board, and communication of a plurality of lines can be realized.

[0019]

As can be understood from the above description, according to the communication terminal apparatus accommodating a plurality of lines according to the first aspect of the present invention, the frequency of incoming calls of each line is counted for each predetermined time period, and the outgoing call is transmitted. Sometimes, the line with the least incoming frequency is selected, so that it is possible to minimize the case where a call from another communication terminal device cannot be received. Therefore, the number of cases in which the other communication terminal device is busy can be reduced, and there is no need to wait for the start of communication.

According to the second aspect, the number of incoming calls and / or the receiving time of each line is totaled for each hour of each day of the week, and the line is selected based on this, so that a more accurate line incoming state can be grasped. Yes, the probability of not being able to receive a call can be reduced. Claim 3
According to this method, since the totaling of the incoming call frequency of each line can be made valid only for a predetermined period, the line incoming state according to the current situation can be grasped more, and the probability of not receiving an incoming call can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a communication terminal apparatus accommodating a plurality of lines according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of a basic operation of the communication terminal apparatus accommodating a plurality of lines according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a storage unit.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing another example of the basic operation of the communication terminal apparatus accommodating plural lines of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

F: Communication terminal device accommodating a plurality of lines (facsimile device) 1: Main control unit 2: Line control unit 8: ROM / RAM 9: Clock circuit L1 to LN: Line

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A communication terminal device comprising a line control unit accommodating a function of connecting a plurality of lines, wherein a storage means for counting and storing an incoming call frequency of each line of the line control unit for each predetermined time zone. , By referring to this storage means before calling, the incoming call frequency stored corresponding to the current time is
And a control means for selecting the least number of lines and starting transmission. 2. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the storage means totalizes and stores, for each time of each day of the week, the number of times of reception and / or the reception time as the frequency of reception of each line of the line control unit. 2. The communication terminal device accommodating a plurality of lines according to 1. 3. The multi-line accommodating communication terminal according to claim 1, wherein said control means makes the incoming frequency of each line of said line control unit stored in said storage means effective only for a predetermined period. apparatus.