EP1760665B1 - Franking system with distributed account - Google Patents

Description

Technical area

The present invention relates exclusively to the field of mail processing and more particularly relates to a postage system whose implementation is facilitated.

State of the art

Today, as illustrated by figure 3 when a user wishes to implement several franking machines 2-1 to 2-N, possibly located at various locations of his operating site, he must credit each of these machines by accessing the server 6 of the dealer of these machines via an individual modem 4-1 to 4-N and an external communication network 8, which forces it to immobilize significant sums of money.

This problem is avoided in open franking systems of the type described in the patent. US 5,822,738 the plaintiff and illustrated at the figure 4 , in which the printing of postal impressions made by standard printers 12-1 to 12-N connected to general purpose computers 14-1 to 14-N can be carried out remotely from a single security accounting device 10 (also known under the names SMD for Secure Metering Device or PSD for Postal Security Device) to which the computers are connected via the local network 4 of the user and who is then the only one to be credited from the server 6 of the dealer of this device .

Requirement WO 01/50227 discloses a similar system with a secure central accounting device and a plurality of local postage management modules.

However, such systems are not without inconvenience. Firstly, it is not possible to obtain high print speeds because the PSD which is responsible for managing the security of the exchanges in the system must be able to simultaneously calculate and sign the postal imprints of all the printers that it receives. are attached. In addition, it is very difficult to calibrate the necessary calculation power of the PSD and thus to be able to produce, as is desirable, a single capacity security accounting device, because this will be very different depending on whether PSD is connected for example to 2 printers processing 5000 mails per hour or to 30 printers processing 18000 mails per hour. Then, the transmission between the security accounting device and the standard printers ensuring the impression of the postal imprints, or at least their dynamic part (that which is modified with each printing), must imperatively be carried out in real time, which, from a certain franking rate, requires the use of a dedicated network to franking communications whose flow, transmission and access times can then be fully controlled.

However, such use of an independent network is particularly expensive and there is now a need for a solution to directly use the network resources of the user.

Disclosure of the invention

The present invention therefore aims to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks by proposing a new method of franking mail items in a mail franking system comprising a central security accounting device connected to a remote server reloading credit and a plurality of local postage management modules each comprising a local security accounting device and connected to said central security accounting device through a user's local network, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: opening of a franking session, reservation by each of the local franking management modules of a pre-determined amount of franking with the central security accounting device, secure franking of the mail items by each of the modules local postage management in the limi this pre-determined predetermined postage amount, at the end of the session, sending to the central security accounting device by each of the local postage management modules the postage amount consumed during the session and the statements relating to the corresponding postage, and flow in the central device of security posting of an overall postage amount equal to the sum of the postage amounts consumed by each of the local postage management modules.

Thus, by distributing the means of posting and reloading credit between a central PSD and the local PSDs, it becomes possible to limit the sums of money involved and to eliminate the disadvantages of networking by ensuring a local impression by real time.

Advantageously, there is provided a step of sending by the central security accounting device a temporary session key to each of the local postage management modules in response to their reservation request for a predetermined postage amount. and a step of destroying the temporary session key at the end of the session.

Preferably, if the amount of postage consumed at the end of the session is less than the amount reserved, the difference is released to be reallocated to another local security accounting device.

Advantageously, there is provided a step of booking a new postage amount with the central security accounting device when the pre-booked predetermined postage amount is exhausted before the end of the session. Preferably, the step of booking a new postage amount is preceded by a step of sending statistical statements relating to the postage paid and it is committed if the remaining postage amount is less than a predetermined amount corresponding to at most some additional impressions.

Brief description of the drawings

• la figure 1 montre un exemple de système d'affranchissement selon l'invention,
• la figure 2 illustre les différentes étapes du procédé mis en oeuvre dans le système de la figure 1,
• la figure 3 montre un premier exemple de système d'affranchissement de l'art antérieur, et
• la figure 4 montre un second exemple de système d'affranchissement de l'art antérieur.

Other characteristics and advantages of the present invention will emerge more clearly from the following description, given by way of non-limiting indication, with reference to the appended drawings, in which:

• the figure 1 shows an example of franking system according to the invention,
• the figure 2 illustrates the different steps of the process implemented in the system of the figure 1 ,
• the figure 3 shows a first example of franking system of the prior art, and
• the figure 4 shows a second example of franking system of the prior art.

Mode (s) of realization of the invention

An example of a franking system allowing an implementation of the invention is illustrated in FIG. figure 1 . It is a modular franking system organized around the local area network (LAN) of a user to which are connected on the one hand a postal security accounting device 20 (PSD) and on the other hand various modules of postage management 22-1 to 22-N for printing postal impressions. These franking management modules may be general purpose computers each connected to a standard printer or franking machines having a simplified operation as will be described below. The PSD can, as illustrated, be connected directly to the network but it can also be connected to the network via a management computer (not shown) or be integrated with this computer. It can also conventionally be integrated with a traditional franking machine (not shown).

To ensure reloading of the accounting device and a statistical follow-up of postage effected by the various franking management modules of the system, the PSD taken separately or that of the traditional franking machine or the administration computer when they exist, is connected via a dedicated link 24 (or via a communication network not shown) to a remote management server 26 of the franchisee of the franking system or the postal administration.

According to the invention, in order to avoid the problems of computing power and communication of postage data on the user's network posed by the franking system of the figure 4 and in order to avoid too much downtime caused by the franking system of FIG. 5, it is expected that the PSD 20 called the central PSD will be assisted by local PSDs 28-1 to 28-N associated with each of the franking management modules 22-1 to 22-N.

• comptabilisation des montants d'affranchissement (gestion des registres ascendant, descendant et montant cumulé),
• mémorisation et communication de relevés postaux y compris les différentes erreurs constatées (gestion du registre des défauts) relatives aux affranchissements effectués, et
• téléchargement de données de reconfiguration et de rechargement de crédit depuis le serveur de gestion distant.

The central PSD provides all the functions traditionally associated with such an accounting device, namely:

• posting postage amounts (upward, downward and cumulative record management),
• memorization and communication of postal statements, including the various errors found (management of the fault register) relating to the postage effected, and
• downloading data for reconfiguration and reloading of credit from the remote management server.

On the other hand, the generation of secure postal impressions (encrypted or signed) by means of an encryption algorithm is no longer the result of this central PSD but of local PSDs which, for this generation, will receive from the central PSD temporary keys to single-use, so-called session keys, developed in the central PSD.

Similarly, this central PSD will be provided with a complementary credit reservation function which may, within the limit of the credit granted by the remote management server, allocate to each local PSD a total amount of postage to enable the management module postage stamp associated with it to print postal impressions within the limit of this global amount.

Each local PSD essentially ensures the generation of secure postal impressions from the temporary key received from the central PSD and the development of postal records which will then be communicated to this central PSD for storage. It does not have reconfiguration and credit reload data download functions running on the single central PSD and its function of accounting is limited to the management of a single downward counter initially charged by the postage amount reserved on the central PSD and decremented as and when postage effected.

The operation of the franking system will now be described in relation to the organization chart of the figure 2 which shows the different steps necessary to achieve a postage.

The first step 100 consists of the end of commissioning of the franking management module, to automatically open a session which is intended to establish an authenticated and secure connection (SSL protocol) between the local PSD of the management module. and central PSD for the purpose of reserving from the central PSD a predetermined amount of postage in a next step 102. Indeed, when a user wishes to clear a lot of mail items, it must first to reserve (but this reservation may be made automatically at the opening of the session) a predetermined amount of postage corresponding to the postage he thinks he will carry out during the session. Once this amount has been reserved, the central PSD goes in a step 104 to send a temporary key (session key) allowing the local PSD once this key received to sign its postal imprints in a next step 106. The franking process can then take place classically within the limit of the amount of reserved postage. At the end of the session (test of step 108), for example at mid-day or at the end of the day, the local PSD goes to a step 110 to send to the central PSD the detailed records relating to postage effected and to destroy the temporary key received at the beginning of the session. On receipt of these data, the central PSD goes in a step 112 to store these postal statements in its secure memory and debit its postal credit the amount of total postage of the session corresponding to the sum of the amounts of postage consumed by each of the Local postage management modules. If this amount is less than the reserved amount, the difference corresponding to the remaining balance is released and can therefore be reallocated to another local DSP at step 114. Indeed, the amount initially reserved for a given franking management module can not be assigned to another module.

During the session, if the reserved amount is almost exhausted and therefore close to being reached (test of step 116), that is to say if the amount of postage remaining is less than the amount allowing at most some additional impressions , For example the next two impressions, the local PSD will then address in a step 118 a statement of postage made to the central PSD and ask him to reserve a new amount of postage. This margin is necessary to guarantee a continuous franking process (that is to say without interruption during the reservation) because the franking system of the invention is not a real time system, the reservation can take a few seconds, and especially if the network is congested, it may be necessary to retransmit the request several times before it reaches the central PSD. In addition, when several postage management modules simultaneously request a new reservation, it is necessary to queue these requests and the response is not immediate.

Thus, the invention brings many advantages to the franking process using franking management modules connected in a network. The use of a local PSD for the calculation of the postal fingerprint allows a real time treatment of the printing and a limitation of the computing power. The use of a central PSD allows the user to be credited in a single location at which all postage statistics relating to all postage management modules are also available.

Claims (5)

1. Method of franking mail items in a mail franking system including a central secure metering device (PSD 20) connected to a remote credit reloading server (26) and a plurality of local franking management modules (22-1 to 2-N) each including a local secure metering device (28-1 to 28-N) and connected to said central secure metering device via a user's local area network (LAN), comprising the following steps: opening of a franking session, booking by each of the local franking management modules of a predetermined franking value from a central secure metering device, in response to their request, transmittal by the central secure metering device of a temporary session key for generating said secure mail items to each of the local franking management modules, secure franking of mail items by each of the local franking management modules up to the limit of this pre-booked predetermined franking value, at the end of the session transmittal to the central secure metering device by each of the local franking management modules of the franking value consumed during the sessions and statistics relating to the corresponding frankings, destruction of the temporary session key allowing the generation of said secure mail items, and debiting in the central secure metering device of an overall franking value equal to the sum of the franking values consumed by each of the local franking management modules.
2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that, if said franking value consumed at the end of the session is less than the booked value, the difference is released for reallocation to another local secure metering device.
3. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a step involving the booking of a new franking value at the central secure metering device when the predetermined franking value previously booked is nearly depleted before the end of the session.
4. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that the step involving the booking a new franking value is initiated if the remaining franking value is less than a predetermined value corresponding at most to several additional printings.
5. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that the step involving the booking a new franking value is preceded by a step involving the transmittal of statistics relating to the frankings completed.

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