JP2013258579A - Message distribution method, message distribution apparatus, and message distribution program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a message distribution apparatus which, in consideration of traffic properties in occurrence of a diaster, enables preferential message distribution operation according to the importance of information, thereby improving the reachability of an important message in the occurrence of the disaster.SOLUTION: A message queue management unit 14 comprises a normal queue of waiting the transmission of normal messages and a preferential queue of waiting the transmission of messages which have to be more preferentially distributed than the messages loaded on the normal queue. The preferential queue furthermore comprises transmission queues for respective local areas which are provided with distribution priority for each local area calculated in accordance with the types of the messages and the areas of the transmission sources of the messages by a local area reachability determination unit 16 and a message priority management unit 15. A message transmission unit 11 preferentially distributes messages loaded in a transmission queue provided with higher distribution priority.

Description

  The present invention relates to a message delivery method, a message delivery apparatus, and a message delivery program, and more particularly, to a message delivery method, a message delivery apparatus, and a message delivery program that provide a priority delivery service for a message when a disaster occurs.

  When a disaster occurs, a communication situation occurs that makes it difficult to communicate with users, especially users in the disaster area, due to congestion in the voice call network. Under such communication conditions at the time of a disaster, Demand for transmission / reception among users who intend to send and receive highly urgent messages increases in a burst manner. Therefore, in consideration of urgency and importance, there is a strong demand to make it possible to prioritize and implement truly necessary communication.

  In the conventional message delivery service, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-319209 “Data communication control method, data communication control system, data transmission mechanism, data communication control program, and data communication control program recording medium” of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-319090. As described above, with respect to data communication control in the Internet, in order to realize a data communication control system capable of performing priority control based on data contents, metadata relating to data contents is held and Thus, a mechanism for performing packet priority control has been proposed.

  However, the technique of Patent Document 1 is not a priority control of a message specialized in the event of a disaster, and whether or not it is an important message related to a disaster by detecting the congestion state of the entire system and the regulations associated therewith. , Delivery of all messages will be uniformly regulated. As described above, the technique of Patent Document 1 determines the priority in message delivery without considering the priority of the message contents based on the urgency and importance in the event of a disaster. The priority of message delivery to respond to a serious situation could not be properly determined. Delivery of messages such as safety information after a disaster has the property that reachability is more important than immediacy. Therefore, the priority delivery service for messages at the time of a disaster requires not the regulation of the entire communication system but the control of delivery according to the message type (urgentness, importance).

JP 2003-319209 A (page 4-6)

  As described above, in the conventional message transmission service such as the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, congestion due to a high load of equipment such as a base station or a core network is detected even when trying to use it in the event of a disaster, and the uniform regulation associated therewith is detected. Will be implemented. With such a message transmission service, it is difficult to send and receive messages with users in the affected area, and it becomes difficult for important messages such as safety information about users in the affected area to reach the inquiring user. There was a problem to be solved.

(Object of the present invention)
The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and enables message distribution based on the distribution priority according to the traffic characteristics and the importance of the message at the time of the disaster occurrence, and thus important at the time of the disaster occurrence. An object of the present invention is to provide a message delivery method, a message delivery apparatus, and a message delivery program capable of improving message reachability.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the message delivery method, the message delivery apparatus, and the message delivery program according to the present invention mainly adopt the following characteristic configuration.

  (1) A message distribution method according to the present invention is a message distribution method in a message distribution apparatus that distributes messages between communication terminals via a communication network, and normally waits for transmission of a normal message to the message distribution apparatus. A priority queue that waits for transmission of a message to be delivered in preference to a message loaded in the normal queue, and the priority queue further includes a message type and an area where the message is transmitted. Consists of a plurality of transmission queues with distribution priority set for each region calculated accordingly, and priority is given to messages loaded in the corresponding transmission queue for transmission queues with higher distribution priority It is characterized by.

  (2) A message delivery apparatus according to the present invention is a message delivery apparatus that delivers messages between communication terminals via a communication network. The message delivery apparatus has a normal queue that waits for transmission of a normal message and a message that is loaded in the normal queue. A priority queue that waits for transmission of a message to be preferentially distributed, and the priority queue further has a distribution priority for each region calculated according to the message type and the region of the transmission source of the message. A transmission queue that is configured from a plurality of transmission queues that are set and has a higher distribution priority is preferentially distributed to messages that are loaded in the corresponding transmission queue.

  (3) The message delivery program according to the present invention is characterized in that at least the message delivery method described in (1) is implemented as a program executable by a computer.

  According to the message delivery method, message delivery apparatus, and message delivery program of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

  That is, it is possible to improve the reachability of important messages with high priority by setting the message delivery priority according to the type of message and the area from which the message is sent. That is, for example, the message that should be delivered with the highest priority in the event of a disaster is set such that the message type and the area from which the message is sent are a reply message from the disaster area (a message that notifies information on safety information). Thus, it is possible to preferentially distribute the safety information from the stricken area to the safety inquiring user.

It is a block block diagram which shows an example of the block configuration of the message delivery apparatus by this invention. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating an example of operation | movement of the message delivery apparatus shown in FIG. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the operation example from which the determination process in the area reachability determination part of the message delivery apparatus shown in FIG. 1 differs.

  Preferred embodiments of a message delivery method, a message delivery apparatus, and a message delivery program according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, the message delivery method and message delivery apparatus according to the present invention will be described. However, the message delivery method may be implemented as a message delivery program that can be executed by a computer, or message delivery. Needless to say, the program may be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium.

(Features of the present invention)
Prior to the description of the embodiments of the present invention, an outline of the features of the present invention will be described first. The present invention realizes a message delivery service capable of improving the reachability of important messages by controlling the delivery priority of messages according to the type of message and the area of the message transmission source. In particular, in consideration of the nature of traffic at the time of a disaster, it is possible to perform preferential message delivery according to the importance of the message. For example, in the event of a disaster, information that is important in the event of a disaster can be obtained by performing priority control so that priority is given to a reply message of safety information from the affected area rather than sending a safety confirmation message to the affected area. It is possible to improve the reachability of safety information.

  More specifically, in the present invention, the reachability of a geographical message is dynamically determined based on the reach of message transmission in the area where the message is transmitted, instead of the metadata as in Patent Document 1. The lower the reachability of the message is, the more likely the reply message (response message) from the area is, for example, a notification message about the safety information from the affected area when a disaster occurs. Priority delivery control is performed by setting the delivery priority so that a reply message from an area with a low message reach is a message that has a higher importance to be delivered with priority. This is the main feature.

(Configuration example of embodiment of the present invention)
Next, a configuration example of the message delivery apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram showing an example of a block configuration of a message delivery apparatus according to the present invention, and also shows a state in which a message is connected to a communication terminal used by a user via a communication network. The message delivery apparatus 10 shown in FIG. 1 uses a communication network 20 as a message delivery priority for messages exchanged between user communication terminals, for example, between the communication terminal 30a of the user a and the communication terminal 30b of the user b. Accordingly, an important message having a higher priority is provided with at least the following means in order to enable more reliable delivery.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the message delivery apparatus 10 includes a message transmission unit 11, a message reception unit 12, a retransmission message management unit 13, a message queue management unit 14, a message priority management unit 15, and a regional reachability determination unit 16. Is included.

  The message transmission unit 11 takes out the message loaded in the transmission queue of the corresponding region according to the distribution priority dynamically set for each region according to the type of the message, and via the communication network 20, It has a function of transmitting to a communication terminal of a destination user as a destination, and a function of measuring the degree of arrival of the transmitted message for each region. In addition, the message receiving unit 12 has a function of receiving a message transmitted from the communication terminal of the transmission source user via the communication network 20.

  In addition, the retransmission message management unit 13 tries to transmit a message that has not been transmitted to the communication terminal of the transmission destination user among the messages that have been transmitted to the communication terminal of the transmission destination user. Deliver the message to be retransmitted via the message priority management unit 15 to the message queue management unit 14 having a function of storing in a transmission queue determined according to the message type and the transmission source region, It has a function of handing over information indicating that the message transmission has failed to the area reachability determination unit 16 having a function of measuring the degree of arrival of the transmitted message for each area.

  In addition, the message queue management unit 14 has a function of managing a transmission queue (queue) for waiting for transmission of a message to be transmitted, and the newly arrived message is classified into the message type, the transmission source region, and the like. To be loaded into the transmission queue determined according to the management. The transmission queue is composed of a plurality of types, a normal queue for waiting for transmission of a normal message, and a priority for waiting for transmission of a message to be delivered in preference to a message loaded in the normal queue. And at least a queue. The priority queue further includes a plurality of transmission queues corresponding to the type of message and the region of the transmission source. In the present embodiment, a reply message from each region is awaiting transmission for each region of the transmission source. For each region.

  Here, in consideration of the fact that the message transmission priority differs for each transmission source region, the regional return route queue performs queue management by arranging separate transmission queues for each transmission source region. For example, when the message type of a newly arrived message is a reply message for notifying safety information in the affected area having the affected area as a transmission source area, the message is delivered with priority over other messages. It is necessary. For this reason, in this embodiment, for the message to be distributed, the return message on the return side is sent separately for each region so that the distribution priority can be set in consideration of the message type and regionality. Queue management is performed by arranging a queue, that is, a plurality of transmission queues, as a return queue for each region.

  In addition, the message priority management unit 15 has a function of managing the priority of the message according to the region related to the transmission of the message, and based on the result of determining the reachability of the transmitted message for each region Based on the determination result from the regional reachability determination unit 16 that determines the reachability of the return route message (reply message), the distribution priority of the return route queue for each region managed by the message queue management unit 14 is determined. Note that the delivery priority set in the return route queue for each region is dynamically changed as appropriate according to the change in reachability of the outgoing message on the outgoing route according to the determination result from the region reachability determination unit 16. To go.

  The area reachability determination unit 16 has a function of determining the reachability of a message for each area. The regional reachability determination unit 16 inspects the forward reachability of the message to each region based on the degree of arrival of the outgoing message transmitted for each region by the message transmission unit 11, and based on the inspection result. Then, the return route priority for each region is calculated and notified to the message priority management unit 15 as a determination result.

  That is, the region reachability determination unit 16 is a region closer to the disaster-stricken region as the region where the forward message reachability of the transmitted message is lower, and a region where a more important message regarding safety is more likely to be returned. Judgment is made and the return route priority is set to a larger value. The message priority management unit 15 that has received the set return route priority for each region as the determination result from the region reachability determination unit 16 is based on the return route priority for each region of the determination result from the region reachability determination unit 16. Thus, it can be considered that the region with the higher return route priority is closer to the disaster-stricken region at the time of the disaster, so the return message from the region, that is, the reply message, is given higher priority. It is determined that the message is an important message to be delivered, and the delivery priority of the return route queue by region in which the reply message for each region is loaded is set.

(Description of operation of embodiment)
Next, an example of the operation of the message delivery apparatus 10 shown in FIG. 1 will be described using the schematic diagram shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram for explaining an example of the operation of the message delivery apparatus 10 shown in FIG. 1, and controls the delivery priority of messages to be sent according to the type of message and the region from which the message is sent. An example of a priority transmission control system is shown. In the following description, the message distribution device 10 receives a safety confirmation message from the communication terminal 30a of the user a shown in FIG. 1 existing in the area A to the communication terminal 30b of the user b existing in the area B of the disaster area. Then, the message is transmitted from the message distribution device 10 to the communication terminal 30b of the user b in the disaster area, while a reply message for notifying safety information is transmitted from the communication terminal 30b of the user b existing in the area B of the disaster area. An example of the operation when the message delivery device 10 receives the reply message from the message delivery device 10 to the communication terminal 30a of the user a who is the safety inquiry source is shown.

  In FIG. 2, when the message receiving unit 12 receives a message transmitted from the communication terminal 30 a of the user a or the communication terminal 30 b of the user b via the communication network 20, the received message is delivered to the message priority management unit 15. .

  When the message priority management unit 15 receives a message from the message reception unit 12, each message priority management unit 15 refers to the determination result of the regional reachability determination unit 16 determined according to the message type and the region from which the message is transmitted. The priority for each region is dynamically re-determined, a transmission queue is selected according to a predetermined distribution condition, and the received message is delivered to the message queue management unit 14. The distribution condition includes, as conditions at the time of disaster occurrence, whether or not the type of the received message is a reply message, and which area the transmission source area of the received message is (for example, message reachability) At least a region that is highly likely to be a stricken area (that is, whether or not it is a region corresponding to region B).

  The message queue management unit 14 manages a transmission queue (queue) of transmission messages, and distributes a message from the message reception unit 12 delivered via the message priority management unit 15 to a designated transmission queue. Transmission queues are broadly divided into priority queues and normal queues. Priority queues are queues that send loaded messages with priority over normal queues, and are affected by disasters as a response to safety inquiries in the event of a disaster. Regions configured to be loaded in different transmission queues for each region according to the region from which each reply message is sent, so that reply messages regarding safety information returned from the ground can be sent with the highest priority. This is another return queue. In other words, the priority queue is divided into separate transmission queues for each transmission source region in consideration of the difference in message distribution priority for each transmission source region.

  FIG. 2 shows an example in which the priority queue is divided into three regional return queues of region A, region B, and region C. In the present embodiment, when a reply message returned from the communication terminal 30a of the user a existing in the area A is received, the message that matches the distribution condition to the priority queue is sent to the transmission queue (priority queue) of the area A. When a reply message sent back from the communication terminal 30b of the user b existing in the region B is received, it is loaded into the transmission queue (priority queue) in the region B as a message that matches the distribution condition to the priority queue. In addition, when a reply message returned from the user's communication terminal existing in the region C is received, it is similarly loaded into the transmission queue (priority queue) of the region C. Here, the area B is a disaster area, and the message loaded in the transmission queue (priority queue) of the area B according to the instruction from the message priority management unit 15 is transmitted from the transmission queue (priority queue) of the area A or C. Also, the distribution priority is set high.

  On the other hand, the normal queue is a transmission queue in which normal messages that do not meet the conditions for distribution to the priority queue are loaded. All normal messages are loaded in one normal queue regardless of the transmission source area. In the present embodiment, a general message or a safety inquiry message transmitted from the communication terminal 30a of the user a existing in the area A or a communication terminal of the user existing in the area C, or the area B of the disaster area About the general message transmitted from the communication terminal 30b of the existing user b, it is loaded into the normal queue with the lowest priority as a message that does not match the distribution condition to the priority queue.

  The message transmission unit 11 sequentially acquires the messages loaded in the transmission queue managed by the message queue management unit 14 according to the distribution priority, and transmits the acquired messages to the communication terminal indicated by the destination. 20 to transmit. Here, as a result of attempting transmission to the destination communication terminal, when it is detected that the message has not reached the destination communication terminal, the message transmission unit 11 retransmits the unreachable message. The message is delivered to the retransmission message management unit 13 as a power retransmission message. Further, the message transmission unit 11 calculates the message arrival degree to the destination communication terminal for each region, and outputs the calculated arrival degree for each region to the region reachability determination unit 16 regarding the message transmission operation. To do.

  When the retransmission message management unit 13 receives the retransmission message from the message transmission unit 11, the retransmission message management unit 13 passes through the message priority management unit 15 in order to load the received retransmission message into a transmission queue corresponding to the priority corresponding to the retransmission message. Then, the message is delivered to the message queue management unit 14. At this time, the retransmission message management unit 13 determines a retransmission interval to be a transmission timing of the retransmission message, waits for a waiting time calculated so as to be an appropriate retransmission interval, and then delivers the message to the message queue management unit 14. After the waiting time elapses, the retransmission message is loaded into an appropriate transmission queue indicated by the area from which the retransmission message is transmitted.

  The regional reachability determination unit 16 determines, for each region, the reachability of the forward message transmitted to each target region from the degree of arrival of the message output from the message transmission unit 11 as appropriate for each region. Thereafter, based on the determination result of the message reachability in the forward path, the priority for the return path message (that is, the reply message) transmitted from the communication terminal in each area is set for each area of the transmission source, and the message priority Output to the management unit 15. The message priority management unit 15 sets the return route queue (priority queue) for each region in which the return route reply message is loaded for each source region according to the return route priority for each region received from the region reachability determination unit 16. Determine the priority. The return path reachability of the reply message is affected by the distribution priority of the return path queue for each region determined by the message priority management unit 15. In other words, the arrival rate of reply messages loaded in each return route queue (priority queue) for each region is greatly improved in return route reachability for return messages loaded in region-specific return queues with higher delivery priority. As the reply message is loaded in the return route queue for each region having a lower delivery priority, the degree of improvement in the reachability of the return route decreases.

  Further description is as follows. Considering the traffic nature that the more likely the disaster area is, the more messages sent for safety inquiries, etc., and the lower the reachability of outbound messages sent for the purpose of safety inquiries, etc., the safety from that area In order to improve the reachability of the reply message related to information, the regional reachability determination unit 16 sets a higher delivery priority as a return path of the return message from the region in a region where the forward reachability of the transmission message is lower. The message priority management unit 15 is notified. The message priority management unit 15 that has received the notification from the region reachability determination unit 16 sets the return route so that the return message from the region is more preferentially delivered in the region where the delivery priority of the return route is set higher. The return priority of the reply message is set higher for the return route queue by region corresponding to the region where the distribution priority is set higher.

  Thus, the higher the possibility of the disaster area, the more preferentially the reply message from the area will be delivered, and more important information such as safety information in the disaster area will be more surely sent to the inquiry source. Can be delivered.

(Description of the effect of this embodiment)
As described in detail above, the following effects are obtained in the present embodiment.

  Generally, when a disaster occurs, the number of messages exchanged increases in a burst manner, and the communication system falls into a congestion state. Furthermore, in a disaster occurrence area, the communication network 20 is disconnected or a message is difficult to reach, resulting in a network state different from the normal time.

  In the present embodiment, the reachability of important messages with high priority can be improved by setting the message delivery priority according to the type of message and the region from which the message is sent. That is, for example, the message that should be delivered with the highest priority in the event of a disaster is set such that the message type and the area from which the message is sent are a reply message from the disaster area (a message that notifies information on safety information). Thus, it is possible to preferentially distribute the safety information from the stricken area to the safety inquiring user.

(Other embodiments of the present invention)
Next, as another embodiment of the present invention, an operation example in which the determination process in the regional reachability determination unit 16 shown in FIG. 1 is different will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining different operation examples of the determination process in the regional reachability determination unit 16 of the message delivery device 10 shown in FIG. 1, and the return route priority for each region is expressed as the reciprocal of the forward route reachability. It shows the case of setting by the product with the maximum queue length. That is, the case is shown in which weighting in inverse proportion to the forward reachability of the transmission message is performed with respect to the delivery priority of the return route for each region.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 3, when the reachability determination unit 16 acquires the degree of arrival of the transmitted forward message from the message transmission unit 11 (step S1), first, each region acquired during a predetermined time interval is obtained. The reachability for each forward message is calculated (step S2).

For example, assuming that the total number of transmission messages m _k for the region i is n _i and the message reachability of each transmission message m _k (k = 0 to n _i ) is f (m _k ), the forward reachability R of the region i _i is given by the following equation (1) can be defined as including at least a function of the achievement f of the transmission message region i (m _k) and total messages n _i. The message arrival degree f (m _k ) is a function (0 ≦ f (m _k ) ≦ 1) indicating the rate at which the transmission message m _k arrives at the transmission destination, and “0” (unreachable) and “1” The value between '(arrival) is left to the determination of the message transmission unit 11 so that the message transmission technology can be tuned flexibly.

Once the outbound message reachability R _i of each region is calculated, the reachability of the return message for each region is calculated using the calculated outbound property R _i (step S3). The return path reachability S _i of the region _i is given by the following equation (2) as the allowable queue length of the From priority queue (that is, the return route queue for each region). That is, the permissible queue length for each region of the From priority queue (that is, the return route queue for each region) can be determined by the product of the reciprocal of the forward reachability R _i and the maximum queue length. In Equation (2), C is a constant arbitrarily determined as an appropriate value indicating the maximum queue length, and the allowable queue length of the return path in area i, that is, the return path reachability S _i is the arrival distance in area i. It indicates that the given as the reciprocal of sex R _i, as the backward allowable queue length i.e. the region i of greater value backward reachability S _i region i, means that the priority of the return of the reply message is higher ing.

When the return route reachability S _i of the return route message for each region is calculated, the calculated return route reachability S _i is output to the message priority management unit 15 as information indicating the priority of the return route. Message priority management unit 15, in response to backward reachability S _i received from the local reachability determination unit 16 determines the priority of the priority queue embarked a return message.

  The configuration of the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above. However, it should be noted that such embodiments are merely examples of the present invention and do not limit the present invention in any way. Those skilled in the art will readily understand that various modifications and changes can be made according to a specific application without departing from the gist of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Message delivery apparatus 11 Message transmission part 12 Message reception part 13 Retransmission message management part 14 Message queue management part 15 Message priority management part 16 Area reachability determination part 20 Communication network 30a Communication terminal 30b Communication terminal A Area B Area C Area a User b User

Claims (9)

  A message delivery method in a message delivery apparatus for delivering a message between communication terminals via a communication network, comprising: a normal queue for waiting for transmission of a normal message in the message delivery apparatus; and a message loaded in the normal queue A priority queue that waits for transmission of a message to be delivered with priority, and the priority queue further includes a delivery priority for each region calculated according to the type of message and the region from which the message is transmitted A message delivery method comprising: a plurality of transmission queues set with a priority, and a delivery queue set with a higher delivery priority giving priority to delivery of messages loaded in the corresponding transmission queue.   The priority queue is a transmission queue for loading a return message whose return type is a reply to the transmission message, and is composed of a plurality of transmission queues independent for each area where the reply message is transmitted. The message delivery method according to claim 1, wherein the message delivery method is provided as a return route queue for each region.   As an operation of setting the delivery priority of the priority queue, by using the result of checking the forward reachability of the message for each region based on the acquisition result of the degree of arrival of the transmission message to the transmission destination, 3. The message delivery method according to claim 2, wherein the delivery priority of the return route queue for each region in which the reply message is loaded is calculated and set.   The lower the reachability of the message for each region, the higher the delivery priority of the return route queue for each region in that region, and the higher priority is given to the reply message loaded in the return route queue for that region. The message delivery method according to claim 3, wherein delivery is performed.   In a message distribution device that distributes messages between communication terminals via a communication network, a normal queue for waiting for normal message transmission and a message transmission waiting to be delivered in preference to a message loaded in the normal queue A priority queue to perform, and the priority queue further includes a plurality of transmission queues each having a distribution priority set for each region calculated according to the message type and the region from which the message is transmitted. A message delivery apparatus characterized in that a message queued in a corresponding transmission queue is preferentially distributed as a transmission queue having a distribution priority set.   The priority queue is a transmission queue for loading a return message whose return type is a reply to the transmission message, and is composed of a plurality of transmission queues independent for each area where the reply message is transmitted. 6. The message delivery apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the message delivery apparatus is provided as a return route queue for each region.   As an operation of setting the delivery priority of the priority queue, by using the result of checking the forward reachability of the message for each region based on the acquisition result of the degree of arrival of the transmission message to the transmission destination, The message delivery apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the delivery priority of the return route queue for each region in which the reply message is loaded is calculated and set.   The lower the reachability of the message for each region, the higher the delivery priority of the return route queue for each region in that region, and the higher priority is given to the reply message loaded in the return route queue for that region. The message delivery device according to claim 7, wherein the message delivery device is delivered.   5. A message delivery program, wherein the message delivery method according to claim 1 is implemented as a program executable by a computer.

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