JP2007282018A - Internet telephone support system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make speech communication between IP telephone terminals by utilizing telephone book data from a computer also which is not associated with the IP telephone terminals. <P>SOLUTION: A server which presents the telephone book data to a client computer and receives telephone information of a called party and a calling party from the client computer establishes a bidirectional call path of two types between the server and the calling IP telephone terminal and between the server and the called IP telephone terminal. The server rewrites a transmitter IP address, a destination IP address, a transmitter port number and a destination port number of a received call packet, whereby a call between the calling IP telephone terminal and the called IP telephone terminal can be enabled to carry out at an intermediate of the call packet. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an Internet telephone support system using an electronic telephone directory.

As is well known, the initial telephone system used a method of establishing a communication path by a telephone number. The telephone number required for making a call was read from the contents written down in the telephone book provided by the management or the personal management notebook, and then dialed.
This is because the telephone book was provided by paper media and could not be used electronically.
In recent years, mobile phones have become widespread, and it has become possible to use an electronic telephone directory built into the mobile phone body. By using the electronic phone book, the operation of “dial” for a call is changed to the operation of “selecting a user name”. This makes it convenient, and there are fewer opportunities to recognize phone numbers. The use of an electronic phone book has the advantages of easy operation and convenience, as well as fewer errors. In addition, since input mistakes of the telephone number are reduced, the psychological and cost are excellent.

  Although it is such a convenient electronic phone book, it has not yet spread on a large scale. In particular, even in offices where telephones are frequently used, many telephones, mainly dials, remain. In order to spread the electronic telephone directory, it is not easy because the hardware of existing telephones must be replaced. Especially when installed in an office, data update management is important, so it is desirable to centrally manage data. Further, it is necessary to connect the telephone in the office to a network separately from the telephone line, which becomes a large-scale system and is difficult to introduce.

On the other hand, Internet telephones using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology have become popular in homes and offices.
The purpose is to suppress expensive communication costs that have conventionally used distance-dependent charging systems. Internet telephones initially had poor communication quality and had practical problems, but the quality of the telephone has stabilized as the communication infrastructure has been improved. By using the Internet, call charges have become independent of distance.

For example, the following Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 are disclosed regarding a system that supports an Internet telephone using an electronic telephone directory.
The system described in Patent Document 1 downloads phone book data from a WWW (World Wide Web) server to a client terminal, and performs voice communication from the client terminal to a destination telephone using Internet telephone software in the client terminal. To establish.
In the system described in Patent Document 2, a client terminal receives telephone book data from a WWW server by operating an IP telephone terminal, and transmits a destination telephone number selected on the client terminal to the IP telephone terminal. The telephone call is automatically made from the IP telephone terminal to the other party's telephone.
Japanese Patent No. 3263339 Japanese Patent No. 3555852

  However, the technique described in Patent Document 1 uses the Internet telephone software stored in the client terminal (user's personal computer) to communicate with the destination telephone using a microphone and a speaker connected to the client terminal. The existing telephone terminal cannot be used, and additional peripheral devices such as a microphone and a speaker are required.

  The technology described in Patent Document 2 can use an existing IP telephone terminal, but requires an association between the IP telephone terminal and a client terminal that receives telephone book data from a WWW server. There is a problem that software for issuing an instruction to receive telephone directory data from the WWW server from the telephone terminal to the client terminal needs to be installed in the IP telephone terminal.

  The present invention has been made in view of the circumstances as described above, and an object thereof is to provide a client terminal that receives and operates an existing IP telephone terminal and telephone book data without requiring the use of a special peripheral device. Is to provide an internet telephone system that requires no special settings or software.

In order to achieve the above object, an Internet telephone support system according to the present invention is an Internet telephone support system for performing communication between Internet telephone terminals using telephone directory data.
The client terminal that transmits the information on the destination telephone terminal selected from the telephone directory data to the Internet telephone support server together with the information on the calling telephone terminal, and the received information on the called IP telephone terminal and the information on the calling IP telephone terminal Originally, two types of bidirectional communication paths are established between itself and the caller IP phone terminal and between itself and the callee IP phone terminal, and the source IP address, destination IP address and source port number of the received call packet are The Internet telephone support server which mediates a call packet by rewriting a destination port number and enables a call between a caller IP telephone terminal and a callee IP telephone terminal.

According to the present invention, since the Internet phone support server establishes communication between the caller IP phone terminal and the callee IP phone terminal, the IP phone terminal and the client terminal do not require any special software and peripheral devices. The equipment can be used as is.
As a secondary effect, it is possible to establish a call between two IP telephone terminals that are remote from the client terminal. For example, if you do not know the other party's phone number at a business trip destination, inform the person at the office of the IP phone terminal number at the business trip destination and have the call established with the other party you want to call, When it is desired to talk between two persons who are not in the office, communication can be established between the two IP telephone terminals in the office.

Hereinafter, an embodiment for carrying out the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an Internet telephone support system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The Internet telephone support system of the present embodiment is configured around an IP network 100 including a wide area network and a local area network. In this case, the network 100 may be configured only by a local area network without being connected to the Internet.
As shown in FIG. 1, an Internet telephone support server 110, an address server 120 such as a gatekeeper, a user base A, and a user base B are connected to the IP network 100 via a router 160.
At the user site A, an IP telephone 170 (170a, b...) And a client computer 190 (190a, b,...) Are connected via the IP-PBX 130.
Further, at the user base B, analog telephone terminals 180 (180a, b,...) Are connected via the VoIP gateway 140 and PBX 150, and client computers 190 (190c, d,...) Are directly connected from the router 160. It is the composition which is.

  The address server 120 is a device for associating a telephone number with an IP address. It corresponds to a gatekeeper in the H.323 protocol, a SIP proxy server in the SIP protocol, a location server, and the like.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the Internet telephone support server 110.
The Internet phone support server 110 responds to requests from the user information database 210, the communication unit 220 that performs various communications, the phone book data creation unit 230 that creates electronic phone book data in a format that can be displayed on the client computer 190, and the client computer 190. The WWW server unit 240 that transmits the electronic phone book browsing screen to the client computer 190, the packet conversion unit 250 that converts IP packets, the Internet phone unit 260 that establishes a communication path with the Internet phone terminal, and the like.
In addition, the Internet telephone support server 110 has a necessary number of network interface cards mounted and IP addresses assigned so as to withstand simultaneous use by a plurality of users.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the data structure of the user information database 210 managed by the Internet telephone support server 110.
The user information 310 includes a user ID 311 for identifying a user, a base name 312, a company name 313, a user name 314, a telephone number 315, a disclosure range 316, and a usage range 317.
The telephone number 315 may describe the user ID of the Internet telephone service, and in the case of an Internet telephone terminal with a fixed IP address, the IP address itself may be described.
Here, the disclosure range is a range in which the user's information such as a telephone number is disclosed, and “in the base”, “in-house”, “in the specified base”, “in the specified company”, “only the specified user” ”Etc. are set.
When “inside the base” is set, only the user in the base to which the user belongs, and when “internal” is set, only the user in the company to which the user belongs can refer to the user information.
When "designated site", "designated company", or "designated user only" is specified, only one or more sites, companies, and users specified in the database (not shown) refer to the user information. it can.
The use range 317 indicates a range of registered users that the user can call, and stores information such as “only me”, “inside the base”, “in-house”, and “all users”.
In the case of “Only me”, you can make a call using this system only from the telephone with the phone number associated with your user ID. It is possible to make a call from all telephones in the office to which the company belongs and in the company.
In the case of “all users”, it is possible to make a call from the telephones of all users registered in the user information database 210.
In this example, information about four persons and two bases is managed.

Hereinafter, with reference to FIG. 4, a connection sequence for forming a communication path between telephones via the IP network 100 in the system configuration described above will be described.
Here, an example is shown in which the user A1 of the site A happens to be near the user A2 of the same site A and makes a call to the analog phone 180a of the user B1 of the site B using the IP phone 170b of the user A2.
First, the user A1 starts a Web browser from an arbitrary client computer 190, and transmits an electronic telephone directory browsing request to the Internet telephone support server 110 (step 401).

When the communication unit 220 accepts the electronic telephone directory browsing request, the Internet telephone support server 110 transmits an electronic telephone directory browsing screen from the WWW server unit 240 to the client computer 190 (step 402).
The user A1 logs in with the user ID of the user A1 from the electronic telephone directory browsing screen displayed on the client computer 190, and inputs the name, base name, company name, etc. of the other party as search conditions on the displayed telephone number search screen. To the Internet telephone support server 110 (step 403).

The internet telephone support server 110 uses the client computer 190 to browse the contents of the electronic telephone directory database 210 that can be disclosed to the user A1 by the disclosure range 316 among the user information that meets the conditions transmitted by the electronic telephone directory data creation unit 230. The data is converted into a possible format and returned to the client computer 190.
At this time, as shown in FIG. 3, the disclosure range 316 of the user B1 is a designated company, and the list of designated companies of the user B1 (not shown) includes A Trading, and the user A1 belonging to A Trading operates The information of the user B1 is also transmitted to the client computer 190 (step 404).

The user A1 selects the user B1 as a party to make a call from the electronic telephone directory data returned on the screen of the client computer 190, selects the user A2 as a user to make a call, and sends it to the Internet telephone support server 110. Send. At this time, the user ID of user A2 is transmitted as the transmission source, and the ID of user B2 is transmitted as the reception source (step 405).
The Internet telephone support server 110 checks whether the user A1 has the authority to make a call to the user A2 phone based on the usage range 317 corresponding to the user ID of the user A1, and if there is no authority, an error to that effect is given. Return to client computer 190.
Here, as shown in the example of FIG. 3, it is assumed that the user A has the authority to make a call to all the telephones in his base. If there is no problem in authority, the telephone number 315 is acquired from the electronic telephone directory database 210 using the user ID of the user A2 as the key, and the address server 120 is inquired about the IP address of the connection destination device. (Step 406).

The address server 120 transmits the IP address of the IP-PBX 130 to the Internet telephone support server 110 as the IP address of the connection destination device to the telephone of the user A2 (step 407).
The Internet telephone 260 of the Internet telephone support server 110 transmits a call packet to the IP-PBX 130 using the available IP address and port number as the transmission source IP address and port number, and the telephone number of the user A2 as an argument (step 408). ).

The IP-PBX 130 that has received the call packet automatically calls the IP phone 170b of the user A2 using the telephone number of the user A2 included in the call packet (step 409).
As a result, the bell of the IP telephone 170b is changed, and when the user A1 takes this telephone call, a call is established with the IP-PBX 130 (step 410), and the IP-PBX 130 transmits a connection packet to the Internet telephone support server 110. Then (step 411), a bidirectional voice communication path is established between the Internet telephone support server 110 and the IP telephone 170b (step 412).
At this time, it is preferable that the Internet telephone support server 110 transmits the following message together with music to the IP telephone 170b.
"I will call Mr. XX. Please wait for a while as the call will be established."

Next, the Internet telephone support server 110 acquires the telephone number 315 from the electronic telephone directory database 210 using the user ID of the destination user B1 as a key, and inquires the IP address of the connection destination device from the address server 120 (step 413). .
The address server 120 transmits the IP address of the VoIP gateway 140 to the Internet telephone support server 110 as the IP address of the device connected to the telephone of the user B2 (step 414).
The Internet telephone 260 of the Internet telephone support server 110 transmits a call packet to the VoIP gateway using the available IP address and port number as the transmission source IP address and port number and the telephone number of the user B1 as an argument (step 415). ).

The VoIP gateway 140 that has received the call packet automatically calls the PBX 150 using the telephone number of the user B1 included in the call packet (step 416).
As a result, the analog telephone 180a of the user B1 becomes a bell, and when this telephone is picked up, a communication path is established with the VoIP gateway 140 (step 417), and the VoIP gateway 140 connects the connection packet to the Internet telephone support server 110. (Step 418), a two-way voice communication path is established between the Internet telephone support server 110 and the analog telephone 180a (step 419).
At this point, two bidirectional communication paths are established between the IP telephone 170b and the Internet telephone support server 110 and between the analog telephone 180a and the Internet telephone support server 110.

  Finally, the Internet telephone support server 110 changes the destination IP address and destination port number of the VoIP packet received from the IP telephone 170b by the packet conversion unit 250 to the IP address and port number of the VoIP gateway 140 from that of the Internet telephone support server 110, The source IP address and source port number are changed from that of the IP telephone 170b to the IP address and port number of the Internet telephone support server 110, and the voice signal from the IP telephone 170b is transmitted to the analog telephone 180a of the user B1 through the communication unit 220. Then, the destination IP address and the destination port number of the VoIP packet from the analog telephone 180a are changed to the IP address and port number of the IP telephone terminal 170b from that of the Internet telephone support server 110, and the outgoing call is made. The voice signal from the analog telephone 180a is transmitted to the IP telephone 170b of the user A2 through the communication unit 220 by changing the IP address and the source port number from that of the VoIP gateway 140 to the IP address and port number of the Internet telephone support server 110 ( Step 420).

At this time, the packet converter 250 also converts the packet format if necessary if the two communication protocols are different.
In this way, the Internet telephone support server 110 mediates the VoIP packet from both sides and transmits it to both sides, thereby enabling conversation between the IP telephone set 170b and the analog telephone set 180a.

  In the above embodiment, the phone book data is distributed from the Internet telephone support server. However, if the phone book data includes data as shown in FIG. 3, the phone book data is distributed from a web server that specializes in phone book distribution. It goes without saying that it can be configured to do so.

It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the telephone assistance system of one embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the internet telephone assistance server of this invention. It is a figure which shows the data structure example of the database managed with the data server of FIG. It is a sequence diagram explaining the method of forming the speech path between telephones in this invention.

Explanation of symbols

100 IP network 110 Internet telephone support server 120 Address server 130 IP-PBX
140 VoIP gateway 150 PBX
160 router 170 IP telephone terminal 180 analog telephone terminal 190 client computer

Claims (1)

In the Internet phone support system that allows communication between Internet phone terminals using phone book data,
A client terminal that transmits information on the destination telephone terminal selected from the telephone directory data to the Internet telephone support server together with information on the calling telephone terminal;
Based on the received call destination IP phone terminal information and caller IP phone terminal information, two types of two-way communication paths are established between itself and the caller IP phone terminal and between itself and the callee IP phone terminal. The call packet is mediated by rewriting the source IP address, destination IP address, source port number, and destination port number of the received call packet, and a call between the caller IP phone terminal and the callee IP phone terminal can be performed. An internet phone support system comprising the internet phone support server.

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