JP2005184177A - Communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication device for monitoring whether the connection of the telephone line of a public network, or the like is normal. <P>SOLUTION: The communication device includes: a line connector 12 for connecting a telephone line; a telephone connector 14 for connecting a telephone terminal for calling using the telephone line; a network control unit 28 for connecting the line connector 12 and a telephone connector 14, terminating a communication network, and controlling call connection; a CODEC 30 for converting the output of the network control unit 28 to digital signals; a DSP 32 for performing the arithmetic processing of a digital signal for detecting dial tones; and a control circuit (CPU) 34 for forming a DC loop by the network control means for allowing the DSP 32 to detect dial tones, when monitoring the telephone line. It is determined whether a dial tone signal is being supplied to the line connector 12, based on the detection result of the DSP 32, and output according to the determination result is displayed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication device that performs information communication by connecting a wired communication line, and relates to a communication device that detects whether a communication line is connected in a normal state.

  In recent years, various modem devices are connected to a telephone line, and a computer device and a modem device are connected. For example, a personal computer is operated to connect to a server on the Internet, which is a computer network, via a desired Internet service provider. be able to. When using an ADSL line, a personal computer is connected to the ADSL modem via a LAN cable, and a splitter for dividing the band is inserted between the modular jack into which the ADSL line is drawn and the ADSL line. This splitter can connect a conventional telephone to another connector for normal analog calls. In this case, an existing telephone can make and receive a telephone call as usual through a splitter.

  In such an Internet connection environment, research and development of VoIP that performs telephone communication using the Internet protocol network is also being conducted. In this case, an IP telephone to which VoIP technology is applied can be connected to an ADSL modem via a router, for example. In addition, when using conventional analog telephone terminals for VoIP telephone communication, prepare a communication device such as an IP telephone adapter with a VoIP function, and connect the telephone terminal and ADSL modem to this IP telephone adapter. By doing so, VoIP telephone communication using existing terminals is performed.

  The line connection portion of such a communication device such as an IP telephone adapter or a modem device employs a configuration that can be attached and detached by, for example, a 6-pole RJ-11 type modular jack and a corresponding modular plug. For this reason, the installation of the apparatus by the general user side who does not have special qualification, a technique, etc. can be performed.

  It should be noted that 10-base-T and 100-base-T LAN cables and ISDN lines that connect digital communication equipment to the communication line, and 8-wire RJ-45 type modular jack and its plugs Is used.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a line misconnection detection device that detects a misconnection by reversely inserting a cable between a modular jack line line of a communication device and a telephone line.

JP-A-8-46719

  As mentioned above, communication devices such as IP phones and modems and telephones are convenient because they can be easily attached to and detached from the modular jack by operating the modular plug. Tend to think connected. In the case of initial installation of communication devices, it is necessary to perform registration operations such as installing various software in a computer device and setting IP phone communication settings in an IP phone adapter.

  Here, it is conceivable that the installation work is terminated and, for example, outgoing and incoming calls cannot be normally performed. When there is no dial tone from the telephone, it is necessary to check whether there are any mistakes in various registrations, to check the connection of the telephone itself, and to check the connection wiring between the IP telephone adapter and the splitter.

  In addition, a smaller RJ-11 type modular plug can be inserted into the RJ-45 type modular jack, so the modular plug on the line side can be connected not only to the telephone side but also to the modular jack on the LAN side. There is also a possibility of mistaken insertion.

  In addition, when detecting an abnormality in these communication lines on the communication device side, for example, based on the line polarity, a circuit configuration corresponding to the reference polarity of the pole feeding between the normal time and the abnormal time is necessary. In other words, a circuit configuration is required in which L1 and L2 are wired in reverse, so that, for example, even when a loop current flows in the reverse direction at the line connection portion, erroneous connection is detected normally.

  It is an object of the present invention to provide a communication apparatus that can eliminate such drawbacks of the prior art and can monitor whether or not the connection of a telephone line such as a public network is normal.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a communication apparatus for connecting a telephone line fed from the communication network side, and this apparatus uses a telephone line connection means for detachably connecting a telephone line and a telephone line. The telephone terminal connecting means for detachably connecting the telephone terminal to be connected to the telephone, and the telephone line connecting means and the telephone terminal connecting means are connected to terminate the communication network on the telephone line side and control the call connection with the communication network. Network control means, a conversion means connected to the network control means for converting the output of the network control means into a digital signal, and an arithmetic processing for detecting a dial tone by arithmetic processing of the digital signal converted by the conversion means And a processing control means for controlling the network control means to form a DC loop in the telephone line when the telephone line is monitored, and for causing the arithmetic processing means to detect the dial tone. The control means determines whether the dial tone signal from the communication network is supplied to the telephone line connection means via the telephone line based on the detection result of the arithmetic processing means, and the determination result of the determination means Display means for displaying the output according to the case, in this case, LAN interface means connected to the processing control means for controlling connection with the computer network, and LAN connection means for detachably connecting the LAN cable; The processing control means may perform VoIP processing for making a voice call through the computer network, and send and receive voice packets to and from the computer network through the LAN interface means.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to detect the dial tone of a telephone line, determine the normality of the telephone line, and display whether the telephone line is normally connected.

  Next, an embodiment of a communication apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown an IP telephone adapter device 10 to which the present invention is applied. The IP telephone adapter device 10 is an internet protocol telephone adapter device for connecting, for example, an ADSL line and performing a VoIP call using an analog telephone. The analog telephone can perform an analog voice call as in the past using the analog telephone band of the ADSL line connected to the IP telephone adapter device 10.

  The IP telephone adapter 10 includes a line connector 12 to which the telephone lines L1 and L2 are connected, a telephone connector 14 to which the telephone (TEL) shown in FIG. 2 is connected, and a plurality of LANs to which the computer apparatus 200 and the ADSL modem 210 are connected. The LAN connector 16 is connected to a LAN I / F circuit 18. In this embodiment, the line connector 12 and the telephone connector 14 are RJ-11 type modular jacks having 6-pole connection terminals. The LAN connector 16 employs an RJ-45 type modular jack having 8-pole connection terminals. The line connector 12 is connected to the splitter 230 by the modular cable 220 as shown in FIG. 2, and the ADSL modem 210 is connected to the other connector of the splitter 230. The splitter 230 is further connected to a connector 240 of an RJ-11 type modular jack installed in the house. Each connector of the splitter 230 is similarly configured by an RJ-11 type modular jack.

  The L1 terminals of the line connector 12 and the telephone connector 14 are respectively connected to a switch (SW) 20 as shown in FIG. 1, and the L2 terminals of the telephone connectors 12 and 14 are connected to each other, and the loop forming circuit 24 and the transformer. Connected to 26.

  The switch (SW) 20 is a switch that connects and switches the L1 terminal of the line connector 12 to the L1 terminal side of the telephone connector 14 or the current detection circuit 22. The switch 20 connects the line connector 12 to the telephone connector 14 when the telephone connected to the telephone connector 14 is in the on-hook state, and switches to connect the L1 terminal of the line connector 12 to the current detection circuit 22 when in the off-hook state. The switching in this case is performed in response to the current detection of the current detection circuit 22. Further, the switch 20 can perform connection switching in response to a switching signal supplied from the CPU 34. The current detection circuit 22 is a DC detection circuit that supplies a detection signal to the switch 20 when a DC current is detected.

  When the switch 20 checks whether or not the telephone line is normally connected under the control of the control circuit (CPU) 34, the switch 20 receives the switching signal from the control circuit 34 and connects the L1 terminal of the line connector 12 to the current detection circuit. Connect to 22 to form a DC loop. The loop forming circuit 24 is a direct current forming circuit that includes a resistor inserted in parallel with the current detection circuit 22 and the L2 terminal side, and forms a direct current loop of a telephone line that is locally fed from the communication network side.

  Note that the switch 20 connects the L1 terminal of the telephone connector 14 to the current detection circuit 22 in response to a switching signal from the control circuit 24 when a telephone call connected to the telephone connector 14 is used to make a call by VoIP communication. It is configured to switch connections.

  The transformer 26 is formed by a transformer having a filter function to pass the audio signal component, removes the DC component and allows the AC component to pass through, and transmits the two-wire line on the station side and the four wires on the communication device 10 inside side. This is a hybrid transformer that couples with an expression line.

  The switch 20, the current detection circuit 22, the loop forming circuit 24, and the transformer 26 form a network control unit 28 that terminates the network side.

  The CODEC 30 is connected to the network control unit 28 and has analog / digital conversion and inverse conversion functions. The CODEC 30 encodes an analog audio signal into a digital audio signal and decodes the digital audio signal into analog. The CODEC 30 converts the encoded data output from the DSP 32 into analog audio and outputs the analog audio signal to the network control unit 28, and converts the analog audio signal sent from the network control unit 28 into a digital audio signal. And output to DSP 32.

  The DSP 32 is a digital signal processor (Digital Signal Processor) that performs arithmetic processing on digital signals. The DSP 32 includes a compression / decompression processing function for a digital audio signal, a function for generating a tone signal, and a processing function for analyzing the digital audio signal and detecting the tone signal.

  The DSP 32 has a function of calculating and analyzing the digital audio signal output from the CODEC 32 and determining whether the audio signal data is a dial tone (DT) signal. The DSP 32 determines the presence / absence and quality of the dial tone signal according to the control of the control circuit 34 through arithmetic processing, and notifies the control circuit 34 of the detection result when a normal dial tone signal is detected.

  The control circuit (CPU) 34 is a processing circuit that controls VoIP communication that communicates via an ADSL line. The control circuit (CPU) 34 is formed by peripheral circuits such as a microcomputer and a memory circuit, and corresponds to a program stored in the memory circuit. Each part is controlled according to the procedure, and processing for the audio signal is performed. Specifically, the control circuit 34 assembles a voice packet from the voice signal and outputs the voice packet together with the control packet to the LAN I / F circuit 18. The control circuit 34 decomposes the packet that is output from the LAN I / F circuit 18 and inputs the voice signal and It has a packet processing function for reproducing the control signal. The control circuit 34 performs VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) processing such as call processing, voice packet control, and UDP / IP (User Datagram Protocol / Internet Protocol) processing conforming to ITU-T recommendation H.323, for example.

  The LAN I / F circuit 18 connected to the control circuit 34 is a network interface circuit that transmits and receives packets to and from the ADSL modem 210 (FIG. 2) and the computer device 200 (FIG. 2) connected to the connector 16, for example.

  The control circuit 34 further has a monitoring function for controlling the network control unit 28 and monitoring a telephone line connected to the line connector 12 to determine whether or not the telephone line is in a normal state.

  In this line connection monitoring operation, CODC 30 and DSP 32 are activated in the state in which a switching signal is output to switch 20 to form a DC loop, and the determination result of DSP 32 is recognized. It is determined whether or not the line connector 12 is normally connected. The control circuit 34 outputs an output corresponding to the determination result to a display 36 such as an LED, and displays it by lighting, for example. This display is not limited to blinking of light, but may be configured to output various audible display outputs such as a confirmation sound by a buzzer or the like.

  This monitoring operation can be performed during a period other than during actual information communication. For example, the control circuit 34 periodically performs control so that the monitoring operation is repeatedly performed at predetermined time intervals such as a preset time. Further, the control circuit 34 can perform the monitoring operation in response to a manual operation. Further, for example, when a monitoring command is input to the control circuit 34 from the computer device 200 or the ADSL modem 210 connected to the connector 16, the line state can be monitored. In addition, the monitoring operation can be automatically performed when the IP telephone adapter device 10 is powered on. In addition to the dial tone detection described above, the control circuit 34 may perform an erroneous connection monitoring operation by combining the polarity detection function at the time of current detection of the current detection circuit 22, for example.

  As described above, the line connector 12 and the telephone connector 14 provided in the IP telephone adapter device 10 adopt the same size and the same shape modular jack, and this modular jack is further drawn into the splitter or the house. It is the same shape and size as the ADSL line modular jack. Furthermore, the LAN connector 16 to be connected with a LAN cable is composed of an RJ-45 type modular jack that is larger than the RJ-11 type, and the modular cord for the RJ-11 type modular jack is the RJ-45 type modular jack. The structure is substantially connectable to the modular jack.

  For this reason, it is possible to completely avoid erroneous connections such as accidentally connecting the telephone cord to the line connector 12 or mistakenly inserting the telephone line 220 into the telephone connector 14 at the time of new installation work or rewiring. Can not. Further, a modular plug of the telephone line 220 may be inserted into the LAN connector 16. However, in this IP telephone adapter device 10, a normal line is connected to the line connector 12 by forming a DC loop to detect whether the telephone line 220 is normally connected and detecting a signal processed dial tone. It is possible to determine whether or not it is connected and display its state.

  In this embodiment, when the normal connection state of the telephone line is confirmed, the display 36 is turned on. Therefore, if the indicator 36 does not light up, such as when a modular plug is connected to the line connector during installation work, it can indicate that the connection is incorrect, and if it is lit, it indicates the normality of the line. Can do. Note that this monitoring operation can be performed even when a telephone is not connected to the telephone connector 14.

  In the embodiment, the telephone line monitoring function is applied to the IP telephone adapter device 10. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to other communication devices such as an ADSL modem and an analog modem.

It is a block diagram which shows the Example of the IP telephone adapter apparatus with which this invention was applied. It is a block diagram which shows the connection state of an IP telephone adapter apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

10 IP phone adapter device
12 line connector
14 Telephone connector
16 LAN connector
18 LAN I / F circuit
20 Switch (SW)
22 Current detection circuit
24 Loop forming circuit
26 Transformer
28 Network control unit
30 CODEC
32 DSP
34 Control circuit (CPU)
36 Display

Claims (2)

In a communication device that connects a telephone line that is fed from a communication network side, the device includes:
Telephone line connection means for detachably connecting the telephone line;
A telephone terminal connection means for detachably connecting a telephone terminal for calling using the telephone line;
Network control means connected to the telephone line connection means and the telephone terminal connection means for terminating the communication network on the telephone line side and controlling call connection with the communication network;
Conversion means connected to the network control means for converting the output of the network control means into a digital signal;
Arithmetic processing means for detecting a dial tone by arithmetically processing the digital signal converted by the conversion means;
A process control means for controlling the network control means to form a DC loop in the telephone line when the telephone line is monitored, and for causing the arithmetic processing means to detect the dial tone;
The processing control means includes
Determination means for determining whether a dial tone signal from the communication network is supplied to the telephone line connection means via the telephone line based on a detection result of the arithmetic processing means;
And a display unit for displaying an output corresponding to the determination result of the determination unit. 2. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the device includes a LAN interface unit that is connected to the processing control unit and performs connection control with a computer network, and a LAN connection unit that detachably connects a LAN cable.
The communication apparatus, wherein the processing control means performs VoIP processing for performing a voice call through the computer network, and transmits and receives voice packets to and from the computer network via the LAN interface means.

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