JP2003030239A - Service method and system for providing information - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide all users with information of high significance within a fixed time by suppressing loads on an information providing device and a communication line. SOLUTION: When the information providing device 12 receives an information providing request from an information terminal 11, the information providing device 12 acquires load situations with an information providing device monitoring means 15 and a communication line monitoring means 16 and also a user level with a user DB information retrieving means 24 respectively, decides a providable level on the basis of a decision rule predetermined in a providable information deciding means 24, retrieves information coinciding with the providable level from a providing information DB 13 with a providing information DB retrieving means 23, and provides the information terminal 11 with the information.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an information providing service method and an information providing system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional information providing system is a service that surely provides information requested by a user. For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-22714, processing is distributed according to load conditions, results are returned early to users with high priority, and results are returned late to users with low priority. Here, the requested processing is always executed as requested. The user selects the information provided at the time of starting the information providing service at the time of contract.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned prior art, when a large number of users simultaneously provide information providing requests, the load on the server or the communication line is increased to provide the requested information. It took time and service was poor. Moreover, in order to provide information in a comfortable state in accordance with an increase in the number of registered users, the information provider must further invest in the information providing device.

An object of the present invention is to provide a business model of a service method for dynamically changing the information to be provided according to the load condition of a server or a communication line in order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art. Another object of the present invention is to provide an information providing system capable of providing necessary information to a large number of users without compelling excessive capital investment.

[0005]

The present invention for achieving the above object provides a service method for providing information to a user who requests information from the information providing device through the communication line, in the information providing device and the communication line. The contents of the information to be provided are changed for each user according to the load situation of.

[0006] Further, at the time of registering the user, a user level that defines the content of information to be provided when the load is high can be set, and can be provided based on a predetermined standard based on the user level and the load status. It is characterized in that a level is sought and information that matches this level of availability is provided.

In the information providing system of the present invention, the information providing device is provided with an information providing device monitoring means for monitoring the operating condition and the load condition of the information providing device, a communication line monitoring means for monitoring the load condition of the communication line, and a user. User information retrieval means for retrieving a user level from information, provable information determination means for retrieving a provable level based on the status of the information providing device, the status of the communication line and the user level, and the provable It is characterized in that provision information searching means for retrieving provision information from the provision information database based on the level is provided.

According to the present invention, the service content provided is automatically changed according to the load situation. For example, if many users make an information provision request in an emergency such as a disaster, regardless of the content of the request, the content of the information to be provided is operated according to the user level, and the most important and necessary minimum information is operated. Is provided to all users. At the same time, since all the information is provided to the users having a high user level, the necessary information can be provided to all the users within a fixed time. On the other hand, when the load is low, such as when the number of requests from the user is small, all the information is provided to all the users regardless of the user level, thereby improving the service to the users.

Further, according to the present invention, the information provider can prepare the facilities on the basis of providing all the information to the users having a high user level, so that excessive capital investment can be suppressed. it can.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the information providing system. An information provision request terminal (hereinafter, information terminal) 11 issues a request for information from a user. The information providing device 12 has an additional information database 13 and user attribute information 14, and manages additional information and searches for additional information. The information providing device monitoring device 15 monitors the operating status and load status of the information providing device 12. The communication line monitoring device 16 monitors the load status of the communication line. With the load status obtained by the information providing device monitoring device 15 and the communication line monitoring device 16,
Based on the user level managed by the user attribute information 14, the provided information database 13 is searched to provide information according to the load state and the user level.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information providing apparatus. The user uses the information terminal 11 and makes an information provision request from the information display means 20 to the information provision request reception means 21 of the information provision device 12. The information provision request reception means 21 inquires of the provisionable information determination means 24 about the level at which information can be provided. The provable information determining means 24 confirms the current device operating status, load status, and communication line load status with the information providing device monitoring means 15 and the communication line monitoring means 16, and the user attribute information searching means 22.
The user level of the user who has requested the information provision is searched for, and the information level that can be provided is determined from these.

The device operating status is the number of operating information providing devices when there are a plurality of information providing devices 12. Further, the load status of the information providing device 12 can be defined as an average load of the CPU at a specific time. The better the device operating condition and the lower the load condition, the higher the information providing capability of the information providing device. The load status of the communication line is calculated from the time required to reach the file by transmitting the file to a specific device.

The information providing request receiving means 21 searches the provided information with the provided information DB searching means 23 according to the available information level determined by the available information determining means 24, and provides the information to the user. .

FIG. 3 shows a specific process of the information providing request receiving means. The providing information request receiving means 21 receives the information providing request in the information providing request receiving process (S301),
The request information is confirmed in the request information confirmation process (S302). In the request information confirmation process, the user name, password,
It is confirmed whether or not there is information such as the request information ID that is necessary for the subsequent processing.

Based on the received information, the process (S303) by the available information determining means 24 is activated to determine the available information level. Based on the determined provisionable information level and the accepted information, the processing by the provision information DB search means 23 (S304) is activated to acquire the provision information, and the information is provided to the user who has made the request (S305). I do.

The provision information database 13 is divided according to the importance of data, the data capacity, etc., and the provision possible level is defined in advance. FIG. 4 shows the content of the provided information divided by the data volume, using disaster information as an example. An information ID 41 is assigned to each item of disaster information and managed together with the information name 42. The capacity 43 for each piece of information is stored in the number of bytes, and the provision level 44 is defined. Here, the provisionable level is divided into three stages of A, B, and C, and information having a large data capacity is defined as C and information having a small data capacity is defined as A. For example, the level A includes the disaster name and the damage scale.

The available level C is information provided when the load of the information providing device 12 is low, the facility operating condition is good, the information providing capability is high, and the load of the communication line is low. Providable level A is information that is provided when the load of the information providing device is high or the information providing ability is low, and even when the load of the communication line is high.

FIG. 5 shows the contents in which the provided information is divided according to the importance of the data. Disaster name, disaster location, damage scale,
The information is classified into essential information for knowing the status of disasters such as casualties, information necessary to know the outline of disasters, details of damages, and disaster-related information. Defines importance 53. Based on the importance level 53, the available levels 54 are classified into A, B, and C. The information for knowing the disaster situation of the level A that can be provided is provided even when the load of the information providing apparatus is high (the information providing ability is low) and the communication line load is high.

FIG. 6 shows an example of specific processing of the provisionable information determining means. The process of the provisionable information determination unit 24 (S303) is the provisionable information determination request process (S60).
The judgment request is accepted in 1). Request information confirmation process (S
602), user name, password, request information ID
Confirm that the information required for subsequent processing exists.

Next, the operating status and load status of the information providing device 12 are acquired by the information providing device status acquisition process (S603). When there are a plurality of information providing devices 12, the device operating status is the number of operating information providing devices. Also, the load status of the information providing device 12 is evaluated by the average load of the CPU at a specific time.

Next, the load status of the communication line is acquired by the communication line status acquisition process (S604). The load status of the communication line is calculated from the time required to reach the file by transmitting the file to a specific device.

Next, the usage level of the user is acquired by the user information search process (S605). Further, the provisionable level is determined in the provisionable level determination processing (S605). The determination of the available level is performed by the information providing device status acquisition process (S603), the communication line status acquisition process (S604),
Based on the respective information obtained in the user information search process (S605), using the determination criteria (FIG. 8) described later,
judge.

FIG. 7 shows user information set for each user. User information is user name 71, password 7
2. Information for identifying a user such as user affiliation 74, information provision priority 73, and user level 75. The user level 75 is determined by the information provision priority 73.

The user level A is defined as being able to acquire all information even when the load condition of the information providing device is high or the information providing capability is low and the communication line load condition is high. Taking a disaster as an example, it will be people involved in fire fighting. The user level C is a level at which all the information can be acquired only when the load condition of the information providing device is low or the information providing capability is high and the communication line load condition is low. Limited.

FIG. 8 shows the judgment conditions for the provision level. The information providing device status 81 indicates the load and operating status of the information providing device. For example, in state A, the CPU load factor is 50%.
It is the following, all the processing devices with multiple units are also operating,
Indicates a good information provision environment. State B is CPU
It shows a state in which a plurality of processing devices are all operating when the load factor is 50 to 70%. The state C is a state in which the CPU load factor is 70% or more, or some of a plurality of processing devices have failed and are not operating, and indicate a bad state as an information providing environment.

The communication line status 82 indicates the communication load status as a ratio of the actual communication speed to the specified communication speed of the communication line, the status C is 90% or more, and the status B is 80 to 90.
%, The state A represents a state of 80% or less (C has a high load and A has a low load).

User level 83 (user level 7 in FIG. 7)
5) is ranked based on the priority of information provision given at the time of user registration. User level A is a level at which information is always given the highest priority, user level B is a level at which information provided by the information providing device and communication line is restricted, and user level C is at a further restricted level. Represents

The available level 84 is determined by acquiring the above-mentioned information providing device status, communication line status, and user level. In a state where the information providing ability of the information providing device is low (for example, C) or a load of the communication line is high (for example, C), the information provided according to the user level is limited.

For example, the state of the information providing device is C (bad),
If the communication line status is B (medium) or A (good), the information provided when the user level is A (highest priority) is A to C (all information), conversely the user level is C. (Bottom)
In the case of, the information provided is C (large limitation). Also,
If the information providing device state is A (good) and the communication line state is A (good), the information provided at the user levels A to C is all information (A to C).

As described above, the contents of the information to be provided are dynamically changed according to the status of the information providing apparatus and the status of the communication line, so that the load is kept at a constant level to prevent the deterioration of the information providing apparatus. It is possible to avoid such troubles.

FIG. 9 shows an execution flow of the business form of the present invention by taking the weather information providing service as an example. The weather information provider 91 uses users 92, 93, 94 through the public line network.
Provides weather information for a fee.

FIG. 10 shows a menu of weather information. The weather information providing service company or company provides the illustrated information menu. For the weather information, the level that can be provided is defined by the data capacity 102. For example, the data capacity of the weekly weather forecast and the weather warning information is small, and the available level is A.

FIG. 11 shows information providing conditions for each user.
An information providing priority 112 and a user level 113 are defined for each user. The user pays the monthly fee according to the information provision priority 112 and receives the information provision.
For example, the priority A of information provision is that the monthly fee is 10, 0.
00 yen, priority B is 5,000 yen, priority C is 3,000
The fee system is fixed like 0 yen.

[0034] The weather information providing company has a priority A of information providing.
Regardless of the status of the server and communication line,
You must be sure to provide the information. On the other hand, it is sufficient to provide all the information to the users of the information providing priority levels B and C only when the load of the server and the load of the communication line are low. It will be good to maintain according to. This allows the weather information provider to minimize capital investment, and
The users B and C can receive the provision of all information at a low cost, but not always.

[0035]

According to the present invention, the load of the information providing device and the communication line is maintained at a constant level by dynamically changing the content of the information to be provided according to the load states of the information providing device and the communication line. Therefore, there is an effect that the capital investment of the information providing device can be suppressed.

Further, by dynamically changing the level of information to be provided, important information such as disaster information can be provided to all users within a certain period of time, and all information can be provided in a low load state. Since it can be provided to all users, it has the effect of improving the service to users.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an information providing system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing details of an information providing device.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a specific process of an information provision request receiving unit.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a data structure for dividing the provided information database by capacity.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a data structure for dividing the provided information database by importance.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a specific process of a provisionable information determination procedure.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a data configuration of a user information management database.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a specific determination criterion of the provisionable information determination means.

FIG. 9 is an execution flow chart showing an example of a business form of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a database of a weather information providing service.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram that defines a user information providing priority and a user level.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... Information providing request terminal (information terminal), 12 ... Information providing device, 13 ... Offer information database, 14 ... User information database, 15 ... Information providing device monitoring device, 16 ... Communication line monitoring device, 20 ... Information display means , 21 ... Information providing request receiving means, 22 ... User information DB searching means, 23 ...
Provision information DB search means, 24 ... Provisionable information determination means.

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Kazuo Tsutsui             5-2-1 Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture             Information Control Systems Division, Hitachi, Ltd.             Within F-term (reference) 5B075 KK00 KK07 QP10 QS20

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A service method for providing information to a user requesting information from an information providing device using a communication line, the method comprising:
An information providing service method, characterized in that the content of the information provided is changed for each user. 2. The information providing service method according to claim 1, wherein the user level is set when the user is registered and the content of the information provided when the load is high is set. 3. The information providing service method according to claim 2, wherein an available level is obtained from the user level and the load status based on a predetermined standard, and information matching the available level is provided. 4. The information providing service method according to claim 3, wherein the provisionable level is divided in advance according to a data capacity. 5. A service method for providing information to a user requesting information from an information providing device using a communication line, providing highly important information within a certain period of time in case of emergency information provision such as disaster. A service method for providing information, characterized in that the content of the provided information is dynamically changed for each user so that it can be performed. 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the load condition of the information providing device or the communication line is low,
An information providing service method characterized by providing all information to all users. 7. An information providing system for providing information from an information providing device to an information terminal requesting information using a communication line, wherein the information providing device provides information for monitoring an operating condition and a load condition of the information providing device. Device monitoring means, communication line monitoring means for monitoring load status of communication line, user information searching means for searching user level from user information, status of the information providing device, communication line status and user level An information providing system comprising: an available information determining unit that searches for available levels based on the available level; and an available information search unit that searches for available information from an available information database based on the available levels.