JP2002077383A - Subscriber-accommodating apparatus and method for controlling its communication channel assigning - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable suitable alignment of a communication channel for a general calling and a communication channel for an internet accessing and to hold the connection quality of the general calling. SOLUTION: A statistic analyzer 28 of a master station 20 statistically processes and stores a communication traffic amount by the general calling of past originating and incoming processings and communication traffic by the internet access call, and decides an optimum alignment ratio of the channel for the general calling to the channel for the internet of the communication channel from the statistical state stored. A controller 24 of the station 20 receives a decision result from the analyzer 28 for each unit time, and processes to align the channel for the internet and the channel for the general calling in the communication channel group 30. With such a process, the communication channel of the minimum limit necessary for the general calling can be assured. Even when the internet access calling is concentrated, the effect of holding the connection quality of the general calling is obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a subscriber accommodating apparatus for selecting a plurality of communication channels to control a connection between a subscriber and a communication network, and a communication channel allocation control method therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a plurality of communication channels are formed between a remote station (LE) for accommodating a plurality of subscribers at remote locations and a parent station (AN) for controlling the remote stations. 2. Description of the Related Art There is known a remote subscriber accommodating apparatus that connects a communication line group and selects a communication channel in accordance with an outgoing / incoming operation of each subscriber to control a connection between the subscriber and a communication network. That is,
In this remote subscriber accommodating apparatus, the master station (AN) and the remote station (LE) each have a communication path switch, and each communication path switch responds to a call from each subscriber or an incoming call from the communication network side. , A communication channel that is vacant at that time is selected and assigned, and a telephone call or data communication is performed.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional remote subscriber accommodating apparatus, a communication channel is not distinguished between a general call for voice communication and an Internet access call for data communication on the Internet. Selection and assignment. However, the average hold time of Internet access calls is longer than that of general calls, and recently, due to the explosion of Internet traffic, available communication channels are occupied by Internet access.
There is a problem that a general call cannot be used easily, the connection quality of the general call cannot be maintained, and the service grade is reduced. Note that such a problem is not limited to a remote subscriber accommodation device having a remote station and a parent station, but also to, for example, an apparatus that accommodates a subscriber directly in a parent device and allocates a communication channel to each subscriber. It occurs similarly.

An object of the present invention is to provide a subscriber accommodating apparatus capable of appropriately assigning a communication channel for general calls and a communication channel for Internet access, and maintaining the connection quality of general calls. An object of the present invention is to provide a communication channel assignment control method.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a subscriber accommodating apparatus of the present invention is capable of accommodating a plurality of subscribers and has a plurality of communication channels, and responds to incoming / outgoing calls for the subscribers. A subscriber accommodating device that selects a plurality of communication channels to control a connection between a subscriber and a communication network, and determines a traffic volume of a general call and an Internet access call from past statistical information; An assignment control unit dynamically assigning the plurality of communication channels to a general call channel and an Internet access call channel based on a result of the determination by the determination unit. Further, the communication channel assignment control method of the present invention is capable of accommodating a plurality of subscribers and has a plurality of communication channels, and selects the plurality of communication channels in accordance with outgoing / incoming calls regarding the subscribers, and In a communication channel allocation control method for a subscriber accommodation apparatus that controls connection to a communication network, a traffic amount of a general call and an Internet access call is determined from past statistical information, and the plurality of traffics are determined based on a result of the determination. Is dynamically allocated to a general call channel and an Internet access call channel.

[0006] In the subscriber accommodating apparatus according to the present invention, the judging means judges the traffic volume of the general call and the Internet access call from the past statistical information. For example, the traffic amount of a general call and an Internet access call per unit time is detected, and this is stored as statistical information. Then, the current traffic volume of the general call and the Internet access call is determined from the statistical information. Further, the allocation control means dynamically allocates a plurality of communication channels to the general call channel and the Internet access call channel according to the current traffic volume of the general call and the Internet access call determined by the determination means. As a result, communication channels can be allocated at a rate that is as adaptive as possible to the current traffic volume of general calls and Internet access calls, and the minimum communication channels required for general calls can be secured, and Internet access calls are concentrated. Even in this case, the connection quality of a general call can be maintained.

In the communication channel assignment control method for a subscriber accommodation apparatus according to the present invention, the traffic volume of a general call and an Internet access call is determined from past statistical information, and a plurality of communication channels are determined based on the result of the determination. It is dynamically allocated to a general call channel and an Internet access call channel. For example, by detecting the traffic volume of general calls and Internet access calls per unit time,
This is stored as statistical information. Then, the current traffic volume of the general call and the Internet access call is determined from the statistical information. Then, a plurality of communication channels are dynamically allocated to the general call channel and the Internet access call channel according to the determined current traffic volume of the general call and the Internet access call.
As a result, communication channels can be allocated at a rate that is as adaptive as possible to the current traffic volume of general calls and Internet access calls, and the minimum communication channels required for general calls can be secured, and Internet access calls are concentrated. Even in this case, the connection quality of a general call can be maintained.

The operation of allocating a communication channel can be performed, for example, every predetermined unit time, and the unit time for allocating the communication channel can be changed as necessary. Good. Also, the statistical information of the traffic volume of the general call and the Internet access call reflects, for example, a time zone in which communication channels are assigned, a day of the week in which communication channels are assigned, or a communication channel assignment. It is possible to appropriately use one that reflects the date of the operation.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The embodiments of the subscriber accommodating apparatus and the communication channel allocation control method according to the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a subscriber accommodation device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The subscriber accommodation apparatus according to the present embodiment connects a master station and a remote station with a communication line group constituted by a plurality of communication lines,
The communication is performed by selectively connecting a communication line between a master station and a remote station in accordance with an outgoing / incoming call to a communication network. In this subscriber accommodating apparatus, a communication channel composed of a plurality of communication lines is dynamically changed to a general call channel (N-ch) and an Internet channel (M-c).
h) has the function of assigning
A general call is changed by changing the number of allocated channels (N-ch) for the general call and channels (M-ch) for the Internet in units of time in accordance with statistical information based on traffic characteristics of the master station and the remote station. The required minimum communication channel is secured so that connection quality of general calls can be maintained even when Internet access calls are concentrated.

Next, the configuration of the subscriber accommodation apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in the figure, the subscriber accommodation apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a remote station (AN) 1.
0, a master station (LE) 20, a communication line group (HW) 30,
And a maintenance terminal (MAT) 40. The remote station 10 accommodates general subscribers and Internet subscribers (various subscriber terminals) at remote locations, and includes a switching unit (SW) 12 and a control unit (CPU) 1.
4 The switching unit 12 selectively connects a communication channel path between each subscriber and the communication line group 30. Further, the control unit 14 controls the entire remote station 10, and particularly controls the switching operation of the switching unit 12 and manages the transmission and reception of the subscriber.

The master station 20 controls the entire system of the subscriber accommodating apparatus according to the present embodiment, and includes a switching section (SW) 22, a control section (CPU) 24, a maintenance terminal interface section (OMIF) 26, and a statistical analysis. (TSA; t)
rough static aNalysi
s) 28. The switching unit 22 selectively connects a communication channel path between a communication network (not shown) and the communication line group 30. The control unit 24 controls the entire operation of the master station 20. In particular, the control unit 24 controls the switching operation of the switching unit 12 and the operation of allocating a communication channel based on the statistical information of the traffic volume by the statistical analysis unit 28. Further, the maintenance terminal interface unit 26 exchanges various maintenance signals with the maintenance terminal 40.

Further, the statistical analysis unit 28 communicates with the subscriber accommodating apparatus of the present embodiment in terms of the communication traffic volume of general calls (mainly voice calls) and the communication traffic of Internet access calls (mainly data communications) in the outgoing / incoming processing. Are statistically processed and accumulated, and the optimal allocation ratio between the general call channel and the Internet channel of the communication channel is determined from the accumulated statistical state. For example,
The information of the general call and the Internet access call in the communication line group 30 is received from the control unit 24, and is sequentially collected for each predetermined unit time, and the ratio of the traffic amount at that time is calculated. Then, based on the result of the calculation, the optimum number of allocated channels for the Internet and general call on the communication line group 30 is determined and notified to the control unit 24.

The unit time when the statistical analysis unit 28 calculates the traffic volume or determines the number of allocations is appropriately set via the maintenance terminal 40 or the like, for example, because it is necessary to be able to cope with sudden changes in traffic. It can be changed, and for example, the unit time can be set from one hour unit to one minute unit. For example, in the case of one hour unit, the time is specified in a format of year, month, day, and time, and processing such as totalization of traffic volume is performed. In the case of one minute unit,
It is assumed that a minute is specified in a format of year, month, day, hour, and minute, processing such as totalization of traffic volume is performed, and data such as a totaling place and a determination result are appropriately stored in a memory.

The control unit 24 is provided with such a statistical analysis unit 28
The judgment result is received for each unit time, and the statistical analysis unit 28
Based on the result of the determination, a process of allocating an Internet channel and a general call channel on the communication line group 30 is performed. That is, in the subscriber accommodation device according to the present embodiment,
A determination means for determining the traffic volume of the general call and the Internet access call from the past statistical information is constituted by the statistical analysis unit 28, and based on the determination result by the determination means, a plurality of communication channels are set to the general call channel and the Internet access channel. An assignment control means for dynamically assigning a call channel is formed by the control unit 24. The function allocation of the statistical analysis unit 28 and the control unit 24 is not limited to the configuration of the present embodiment. For example, a function of determining the optimal number of allocated Internet channels and general call channels is provided. May be provided on the control unit 24 side.

The maintenance terminal 40 comprises a personal computer or the like, exchanges various signals with the master station 20 via the maintenance terminal interface unit 26, and performs maintenance of the master station 20. In this embodiment, the maintenance terminal 40 can change the unit time of the statistical processing and the like in the statistical analysis unit 28 described above.
Further, the result of the statistical processing in the statistical analysis unit 28 is output to the maintenance terminal 40 and can be displayed. Note that the above-described unit time change processing in the statistical analysis unit 28 is not limited to the maintenance terminal 40, and may be performed by another method, for example, a predetermined procedure via a communication network. Also, the display of the result of the statistical processing in the statistical analysis unit 28 may be configured to be monitored by a remote terminal according to a predetermined procedure via a communication network, for example.

Next, a specific procedure of a communication channel assignment control method in the subscriber accommodation apparatus having the above configuration will be described in order. First, call information (data and voice) of an Internet subscriber and a general subscriber accommodated in the remote station 10 is mapped to a free channel on the communication line group 30 and notified to the master station 20. Statistical analysis unit 2 of master station 20
8 receives the traffic information of the communication line group 30 from the control unit 24, and receives a general call channel (N-
ch) and traffic information of the Internet channel (M-ch) are statistically processed in time units as described above.

Then, the statistical analysis unit 28 controls the communication line group 3
The usage rate (M / N) of the Internet channel and the general call channel on the communication line group 30 is calculated for each set time unit, and the number of allocations of the Internet channel and the general call channel on the communication line group 30 is used. And notifies the control unit 24. Here, when setting the number of assignments of the Internet channel and the general call channel, control is performed so as to maintain a constant connection quality. That is, for example, even when the usage rate of the Internet channel becomes extremely large, the minimum number of general call channels to be allocated is ensured to secure a certain connection quality. The control of setting the number of channels to be allocated to the Internet channel and the general call channel by such statistical processing is performed in a minute unit so as to cope with a sudden change in traffic in a short time (minute unit) as described above. Make it possible.

Here, the total number of channels on the communication line group 30 is L, the number of allocated Internet channels is M,
When the number of allocated general call channels is N, L = (M + N). The maximum usable number of Internet channels on the communication line group 30 is M, and the maximum usable number of general call channels on the communication line group 30 is N. And
In a time zone where there are many general calls, N> M is allocated, and in a time zone where there are few general calls, N <M is allocated.

Next, the control unit 24 uses the M / N channel assignment information from the statistical analysis unit 28 to execute call processing (paths in the remote station (AN) 10 by calling from Internet subscribers / general subscribers). Setting instructions). Here, if the maximum path setting number of the Internet access call in the remote station 10 is m, m ≦ M, and if the maximum path setting number of the general call in the remote station 10 is n, n ≦ N. Note that N
The minimum time unit for the operation of switching between the assignments of M and M is one minute. The M and N allocation information statistically processed by the statistical analysis unit 28 is also notified to the maintenance terminal 40.
The maintenance terminal 40 displays the allocation information of M and N statistically processed by the statistical analysis unit 28 on a display unit in a predetermined format at any time so that the operator can monitor the information. Further, the M and N allocation information determined by the statistical analysis unit 28 is immediately validated and reflected in the communication channel allocation operation in the control unit 24, or at any time after the statistical processing is started, the communication channel allocation operation is started. Whether it is effectively reflected can be set from the maintenance terminal 40.

According to the above-described embodiment of the present invention, the remote station 1 performs statistical processing based on past communication results.
Since the assignment of a communication channel between 0 and the master station 20 is dynamically controlled and an effective communication channel is assigned, connection quality of a general call can be maintained. Further, in the above example, since the statistical processing of the traffic volume on the communication network is always performed and the maintenance terminal 40 is notified, this information is displayed on the display unit of the maintenance terminal 40, so that the information on the communication network can be obtained. It is also possible to obtain the effect that the traffic characteristics can be understood at a glance.

The embodiment of the present invention has been described above, but the present invention can be further modified as follows.
First, in the above-described example, the configuration in which the communication channels are allocated between the remote station 10 and the master station 20 has been described. However, the present invention can be applied to a master station that directly accommodates a subscriber. In this case, by controlling the path setting of the switching unit 22 in the master station 20 according to the traffic characteristics (usage rate) of the Internet subscriber and the general subscriber, it is possible to effectively utilize the connection quality of the general call. .

Further, in the above example, the traffic volume is totaled for each unit time by the statistical analysis unit 28, and the communication channel is allocated in accordance with the total value of the traffic volume for the immediately preceding unit time. However, for example, the configuration may be such that statistics of the traffic volume are obtained for each time period of the day, and the number of allocated communication channels is changed according to the time period of the day. In this way, the time zone is reflected in the number of communication channel assignments, and effective channel assignment can be performed particularly in a time zone in which Internet access is large or a general call is in use. Becomes Similarly, a configuration may be adopted in which statistics of the traffic volume are obtained for each day of the week, and the number of communication channels allocated is changed according to the day of the week. In this way, the day of the week is reflected in the number of communication channel assignments, and effective channel assignment can be performed particularly according to the day of the week when Internet access increases or the day of the week when general calls increase. It is also possible to perform statistical processing in consideration of holidays in addition to the day of the week.

[0023]

As described above, in the subscriber accommodating apparatus of the present invention, the judgment means for judging the traffic volume of the general call and the Internet access call from the past statistical information, and the judgment result by the judgment means, Assignment control means for dynamically assigning the plurality of communication channels to a general call channel and an Internet access call channel is provided. For this reason, communication channels can be allocated at a rate that is as adaptive as possible to the current traffic volume of general calls and Internet access calls, and the minimum communication channel required for general calls can be secured, and Internet access calls are concentrated. Even in this case, there is an effect that the connection quality of a general call can be maintained.

In the communication channel allocation control method according to the present invention, the traffic volume of a general call and an Internet access call is determined from past statistical information, and the plurality of communication channels are changed based on a result of the determination. And an Internet access call channel. For this reason, communication channels can be allocated in proportion to the current traffic volume of general calls and Internet access calls as much as possible, and the minimum communication channels required for general calls can be secured.
Even when Internet access calls are concentrated, the connection quality of general calls can be maintained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a subscriber accommodation apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 remote station, 12, 22 switching section, 1
4, 14 control unit, 20 master station, 26 maintenance terminal interface unit, 28 statistical analysis unit, 30 communication line group, 40 maintenance terminal.

Claims (16)

[Claims] 1. A communication system capable of accommodating a plurality of subscribers and having a plurality of communication channels, wherein said plurality of communication channels are selected in accordance with outgoing / incoming calls related to said subscribers to select a communication channel between the subscribers and a communication network. In a subscriber accommodating device for controlling connection, determining means for determining the traffic volume of a general call and an Internet access call from past statistical information; and, based on a determination result by the determining means, the plurality of communication channels are used for a general call. Allocation control means for dynamically allocating to a channel and a channel for an Internet access call. 2. The subscriber accommodating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said allocation control means allocates a communication channel every unit time. 3. The subscriber accommodation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for changing a unit time for allocating a communication channel in said allocation control means. 4. The subscriber accommodating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the statistical information is statistical information reflecting a time zone in which a communication channel is allocated. 5. The subscriber accommodation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the statistical information is statistical information reflecting a day of the week on which a communication channel is allocated. 6. The subscriber accommodating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the statistical information is statistical information reflecting a date on which a communication channel is allocated. 7. The remote control system according to claim 1, further comprising a remote station for accommodating a plurality of subscribers at remote locations, and a master station connected to said remote station via a plurality of communication lines. Subscriber accommodation device. 8. The subscriber accommodating apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a master station for directly accommodating said subscriber. 9. The communication control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the allocation control means allocates the communication channel to the general call channel and the Internet access call channel at a rate substantially corresponding to the rate of traffic between the general call and the Internet access call. The subscriber accommodation device according to claim 1. 10. A communication system capable of accommodating a plurality of subscribers and having a plurality of communication channels, wherein said plurality of communication channels are selected in accordance with outgoing / incoming calls regarding said subscribers, and a communication between the subscribers and a communication network is selected. In a communication channel allocation control method for a subscriber accommodation apparatus that controls connection, a traffic amount of a general call and an Internet access call is determined from past statistical information, and based on a result of the determination, the plurality of communication channels are allocated to a general call. A communication channel allocation control method for a subscriber accommodating apparatus, wherein a communication channel and a channel for an Internet access call are dynamically allocated. 11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the communication channel is allocated for each unit time. 12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the unit time for allocating the communication channel can be changed. 13. The communication channel allocation control method for a subscriber accommodating apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said statistical information is statistical information reflecting a time zone in which communication channels are allocated. 14. The method according to claim 10, wherein the statistical information is statistical information reflecting a day of the week on which a communication channel is allocated. 15. The method according to claim 10, wherein said statistical information is statistical information reflecting a date when a communication channel is allocated. 16. A communication channel is allocated to a general call channel and an Internet access call channel at a rate substantially corresponding to a rate of traffic between the general call and the Internet access call.
0. A communication channel allocation control method for a subscriber accommodating apparatus according to 0.