JP2002232599A - Digital information multiple address distribution system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a digital information multiple address distribution system that distributes digital information of a large capacity to a subscriber's home. SOLUTION: An information providing terminal 2 is connected to an ISDN 4 via a digital leased line 3. An exchange 5 has a multiple incoming call connection function. An interface converter 6 makes interface conversion between the digital leased line 3 and the exchange 4. A subscriber information communication terminal 10 makes automatic dialing to request distribution of digital information for an idle time of a communication channel. The exchange 5 connects the subscriber information communication terminal 10 to a destination information terminal 2 in response to the automatic dialing from at least one of the subscriber information communication terminals 10 and distributes the digital information sent from the information providing terminal 2 to the subscriber information communication terminal 10.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technology for providing a one-way broadcast service to a subscriber terminal, among the supplementary services of a telephone service provided by a communication carrier, and more particularly to a technology utilizing an idle time of a call. The present invention relates to a digital information broadcasting system for delivering a large amount of digital information to subscriber terminals.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a voice broadcasting service (for example, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation) that broadcasts various kinds of information from an information providing center to a subscriber's home by using the idle time of a subscriber's telephone line. Off-talk communication service) is known. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional broadcast distribution system.

[0003] Three devices, ie, a home device 401, a speaker 402, and a telephone 403, are installed in a subscriber's home of an analog off-talk subscriber. The home device 401 switches to the speaker 402 when receiving the off-talk information, and switches to the telephone 403 when making or receiving a call.
The information providing terminal 101 in the information providing center sends analog off-talk information such as voice information and back music to an analog dedicated line. On the subscriber line of the digital exchange 6 for analog subscribers, an analog off-talk station device 21 having a multi-distribution function is provided. The analog off-talk station device 21 adds the analog off-talk information sent from the analog dedicated line to the subscriber line of the digital switch 6 for analog subscribers.

[0004] The analog off-talk information is transmitted from the analog off-talk station device 21 to the in-home device 401 at the subscriber's home, and from the in-home device 401 to the speaker 402.
Thus, audio information, back music, and the like flow from the speaker 402. On the other hand, a terminal adapter (Terminal Adapter, hereinafter referred to as TA) 414 for INS off-talk, an information communication terminal 415, a telephone 413, an in-home device 411, and a speaker 412 are provided at the subscriber home of the INS (registered trademark) off-talk subscriber. Four devices are installed. The analog off-talk information sent from the analog leased line is converted into I
The digital information is converted into digital information conforming to the SDN interface standard, transmitted from the ISDN subscriber digital exchange 5 to the TA 414 at the subscriber's home, converted into analog information by the TA 414, and then transmitted from the home device 411 to the speaker 412.

[0005]

As described above, in the broadcast distribution system, information can be distributed from the information providing center to each subscriber's home. However, in the conventional broadcast distribution system, since a public network such as a telephone line and an information providing center are connected by an analog dedicated line, voice information having a frequency of 3.4 kHz is transmitted from the information providing center to the public network. It is possible to send digital information to the subscriber's home via the Internet, but the transmission speed is insufficient to send large volumes of digital information such as images and data to the subscriber's home. There was a problem. In the conventional broadcast distribution system, even if a modem is provided on an analog dedicated line between the public network and the information providing center, the transmission speed is at most 14.
4 kbps, which was insufficient to send a large amount of digital information to a subscriber's house. The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to provide a digital information broadcasting system capable of sending a large amount of digital information to a subscriber's house.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided a digital information broadcast / distribution system comprising:
Interface conversion between an information providing terminal (2) connected to a DN network (4), an exchange (5) installed in the ISDN network having a multi-incoming connection function, and an interface between the digital leased line and the exchange An exchange unit (6) for performing a communication, and a subscriber information communication terminal (10) connected to the ISDN network and automatically issuing a request to request distribution of digital information during an idle time of a communication channel. Connects the originating subscriber information communication terminal to the destination information providing terminal in response to automatic transmission of at least one of the subscriber information communication terminals, and transmits the information from the destination information providing terminal. The digital information is distributed to the subscriber's information communication terminal as the transmission source. In one configuration example of the digital information broadcasting system of the present invention, the subscriber information communication terminal selects a desired channel from a plurality of channels provided by the information providing terminal and performs the automatic transmission. Things.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a digital information broadcasting system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 2 denotes an information providing terminal which is installed in the information providing center 1 and includes, for example, a computer. The information providing terminal 2 is connected to an ISDN 4 via a digital leased line 3.

[0008] The information provider includes a scanner, a video camera,
Digital information to be delivered to the subscriber is created by the information providing terminal 2 or another computer based on multimedia information such as images, data, and audio captured by an input device such as a digital camera or an audio microphone. And
The information provider transmits the created digital information to the information providing terminal 2.
To the digital leased line 3.

[0009] An interface converter 6 is provided between the exchange 5 of the ISDN 4 and the digital private line 3. The interface conversion device 6 is a digital private line 3
Is converted into BRI (Basic Rate Interface: 2B + D) which is a basic interface of the ISDN line. As a result, the digital information sent from the information providing terminal 2 via the digital leased line 3 can be transferred to the exchange 5 on the ISDN channel.

Next, the TA9 (9-1 to 9-n) provided in the subscriber's home 8 (8-1 to 8-n) is connected to the ISDN line 7 (9-1 to 9-n).
It is connected to the ISDN network 4 by (7-1 to 7-n). Each TA 9 is equipped with a digital line connection device (Digital Service Unit, hereinafter referred to as DSU) not shown. The DSU performs processing such as synchronization with the ISDN line 7 and speed conversion.

The digital information port of the TA 9 is connected to the subscriber information communication terminal 10 (10-
1 to 10-n), and a telephone 11 (11-1 to 11-n) is connected to the analog port of TA7. As is well known, when a subscriber makes a telephone call using the telephone 11, the telephone 11 on the calling side receives TA9, ISDN.
It is connected to the telephone set 11 on the receiving side via the line 7 and the ISDN network 4 (switch 5), and can make a telephone call like an analog line.

Each TA 9 always manages the occupancy of the communication channel between itself and the exchange 5 and, when the communication channel is free, dials a predetermined destination number to request distribution of digital information. Make an automatic call. This destination number is a number for calling the information providing terminal 2 of the information providing center 1 and is transmitted to the ISDN line 7. In addition, ISDN
Since there are two B channels that can be the communication channels, the TA 9 performs automatic transmission when at least one B channel is free.

The exchange 5 has a multi incoming connection function for connecting a plurality of TAs 9 to one destination in response to a call from a plurality of TAs 9 to the same destination number.
That is, when a call is made from the TA 9 to the information providing terminal 2, the exchange 5 sets the communication channel between the TA 9 and the information providing terminal 2 through the interface converter 6. Connect to a communication channel.

Thus, the TA 9 and the information providing terminal 2 are connected, and the digital information is transmitted from the information providing terminal 2 to the TA 9. The subscriber information communication terminal 10 that has received the digital information via the TA 9 temporarily stores the received digital information in an internal storage device (not shown). Here, each subscriber is a subscriber information communication terminal 10 installed at home.
For example, it is possible to set whether to reproduce digital information during the daytime and to stop reproducing the digital information at nighttime.

[0015] If the reproduction is permitted at the time of receiving the digital information, the subscriber information communication terminal 10 immediately starts reproducing the digital information stored in the storage device. Thus, for example, if the digital information is video content, the image sent from the information providing center 1 is displayed on the screen of the subscriber information communication terminal 10, and if the digital information is audio content, the subscriber information communication Sound is played from the speaker of the terminal 10. Further, the subscriber can instruct the subscriber information communication terminal 10 to reproduce digital information at any time. In response to this instruction, the subscriber information communication terminal 10
The reproduction of the digital information stored in the storage device is started.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the ISD
Since the N network 4 and the information providing center 1 are connected by the digital dedicated line 3, a large amount of digital information can be distributed from the information providing center 1 to each subscriber's home. In this embodiment, the transmission speed of the digital leased line 3 is 64 k.
bps or 128 kbps. Therefore, if both B channels on the subscriber side are vacant, a maximum of 2 × 64 kbps = 128 using these two B channels
kbps high-speed communication becomes possible. As a method of charging the subscriber, a conventional INS off-talk fee billing mode (a fixed amount is included in a monthly telephone bill and billed to the subscriber and the information provider) can be used.

In the present embodiment, each subscriber line is terminated at TA9.
0 may incorporate all the functions of TA9. Further, in the present embodiment, the information provided by the information providing terminal 2 is one channel, but information of a plurality of channels may be provided. In this case, different numbers are assigned to the information of each channel provided by the information providing terminal 2. Each subscriber operates the subscriber information communication terminal 10 to select a desired channel in advance. As a result, the selection signal is output from the subscriber information communication terminal 10 to the TA 9.
When performing automatic transmission as described above, the TA 9 performs automatic transmission by dialing a destination number corresponding to a channel previously selected by the subscriber. The exchange 5 is an information providing terminal 2
And the channel corresponding to the destination number among the plurality of channels set between the TA9 and the TA9. In this way, the subscriber can select a channel, that is, select program contents.

[0018]

According to the present invention, an information providing terminal is connected to an ISDN network via a digital leased line, and an interface conversion device is provided between the digital leased line and the exchange. Alternatively, a large amount of digital information can be broadcasted to a plurality of subscriber information communication terminals. As a result, the communication carrier is expected to increase sales by using the new service using the available resources of the communication line, and the subscriber can receive various large-capacity digital information in addition to the conventional telephone service. Also, for example, public information and disaster information of local governments can be distributed to each home as large-capacity multimedia data. Recent IT (Info
With the progress of rmation technology), CATV of the analog information service type that has been conventionally provided is also being digitized and bi-directional, and is playing a role as a core digital subscriber line. , CATV
Utilizing telephone lines that are more than 10 times as wide as CATV
In the same manner as described above, large-capacity images and data can be distributed to each subscriber's information communication terminal in the broadcast mode, so that it is not necessary to lay a new line unlike CATV, and the line laying cost is unnecessary.

Further, by selecting a desired channel from a plurality of channels provided by the information providing terminal and automatically transmitting the call by the subscriber information communication terminal, the subscriber can select a channel, that is, select program contents. It can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a digital information broadcasting system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional broadcast distribution system.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Information provision center, 2 ... Information provision terminal, 3 ... Digital leased line, 4 ... ISDN network, 5 ... Switching equipment, 6 ... Interface converter, 7-1 to 7-n ... ISDN line, 8-1
... 8-n ... subscriber home, 9-1 to 9-n ... terminal adapter, 10-1 to 10-n ... subscriber information communication terminal, 1
1-1 to 11-n: Telephone.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An information providing terminal connected to an ISDN network via a digital leased line, an exchange installed in the ISDN network and having a multi-incoming connection function, and a connection between the digital leased line and the exchange. An interface conversion device for performing an interface conversion; and a subscriber information communication terminal that is connected to the ISDN network and automatically issues a call to request distribution of digital information when a communication channel is idle. In response to the automatic transmission of the two subscriber information communication terminals, the source subscriber information communication terminal is connected to the destination information providing terminal, and the digital information sent from the information providing terminal is transmitted to the destination information providing terminal. A digital information broadcast distribution system for distributing to an originating subscriber information communication terminal. 2. The digital information broadcasting system according to claim 1, wherein the subscriber information communication terminal selects a desired channel from a plurality of channels provided by the information providing terminal and performs the automatic transmission. Digital information broadcasting system characterized by performing.