JP2020036218A - Communication control unit and method - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a communication control unit that can prevent continuation of call loss for a wireless terminal when a base station device fails.SOLUTION: A communication control unit includes receiving means for receiving a call signal from any one of a plurality of terminals, base station detecting means for detecting a base station device in a calling area where a wireless terminal 1 is located when the designated call destination of the call signal received by the receiving means is the wireless terminal 1, failure detection means for detecting a failure of the base station device detected by the base station detecting means, a storage section for storing address information of a terminal to which the wireless terminal 1 is transferred, and calling means for sending a calling signal to the transfer destination terminal in place of the base station device on the basis of the transfer destination terminal address information stored in the storage section when a failure of the base station device is detected by the failure detection means.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication control apparatus and method for accommodating a plurality of terminals including a wireless terminal and controlling communication between the terminals.

  In a private communication system, there is a system in which a base station device is connected to a private branch exchange (PBX) so as to support a wireless terminal in consideration of a user's local movement, in addition to a wired terminal such as an extension telephone.

  In such a wireless terminal-compatible private communication system, communication between the PBX and the base station device may fail due to various factors such as line abnormalities.

  Patent Literature 1 discloses a telephone system that can quickly isolate a failure point when communication between a base station device and a PBX cannot be performed. In such a telephone system, when a failure occurs between the base station device and the PBX and a communication failure is detected by the base station device, the base station device outputs voice data indicating that communication is disabled to the wireless terminal. Thus, the user of the wireless terminal can know the location of the failure.

JP 2005-72996 A

  However, when the base station device itself breaks down, when a call is made to a wireless terminal located in a calling area of the base station device as a communication partner, the wireless terminal cannot receive a call signal from the base station device, This makes it impossible to receive the response signal from the wireless terminal by the PBX. As a result, the user of the call source wired terminal cannot talk to the wireless terminal user forever. Therefore, there is a problem that the call control of the PBX to the wireless terminal at the time of such a failure of the base station apparatus causes a call loss.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a communication control device that can avoid continuation of a call loss to a wireless terminal when a base station device fails.

  A communication control device according to the present invention is a communication control device that accommodates a plurality of terminals including a wireless terminal and controls communication between the terminals, wherein a call is issued from any one of the plurality of terminals. Receiving means for receiving a signal; and a base for detecting a base station apparatus in a calling area where the wireless terminal 1 is located when a designated call destination of the call signal received by the receiving means is one of the wireless terminals 1 Station detection means, failure detection means for detecting a failure of the base station device detected by the base station detection means, a storage unit for storing address information of a transfer destination terminal of the wireless terminal 1; When a failure of the base station device is detected by the detection unit, a call signal is directed to the transfer destination terminal instead of the base station device based on the transfer destination terminal address information stored in the storage unit. It is characterized with calling means for exiting, further comprising: a.

  A communication control method according to the present invention is a communication control method of a communication control device that accommodates a plurality of terminals including a wireless terminal and controls communication between the terminals, wherein any one terminal of the plurality of terminals is provided. Receiving a call signal from a mobile station, and when a designated call destination of the call signal received in the receiving step is one of the wireless terminals, a base station in a call area where the wireless terminal 1 is located A base station detecting step of detecting a device, a failure detecting step of detecting a failure of the base station device detected in the base station detecting step, and storing when a failure of the base station device is detected in the failure detecting step. A call for transmitting a call signal to the transfer destination terminal in place of the base station apparatus based on the address information of the transfer destination terminal for the wireless terminal 1 stored in the unit A step, to include are characterized.

  According to the communication control device and method of the present invention, when a failure of a base station device is detected, a call signal is directed to a transfer destination terminal instead of a base station device based on address information of a transfer destination terminal of a wireless terminal. Since the call is transmitted, there is an effect that it is possible to avoid the useless continuation of the call loss, and it is possible to perform call control on the transfer destination terminal and communicate with the transfer destination terminal.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a private communication system to which the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration of a PBX in the system of FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of an exchange control unit in the PBX of FIG. 2; FIG. 2 is a transfer sequence diagram in the system of FIG. 1.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a private communication system to which the present invention is applied. This private communication system includes a private branch exchange (PBX) 11, which is a communication control device, and extension telephones 21, 22, base station devices 31a, 31b, 32a, 32b, 33a, 33b, and an IPLTU (Internet Protocol). (Line Trunk Unit) 41. The PBX 11 is an IP-PBX that accommodates a general fixed telephone that does not support VoIP (VoiceOver IP) and enables VoIP communication.

  The PBX 11 includes an extension interface 12, a LAN interface 13, an exchange control unit 14, and a storage unit 15, as shown in FIG. The exchange control unit 14 includes, for example, a microcomputer. The extension control unit 12, the LAN interface 13, and the storage unit 15 are individually connected to the exchange control unit 14.

  To the extension interface 12 of the PBX 11, extension telephones 21 and 22 as general fixed telephones are connected via telephone lines 18 and 19, respectively, and base station devices 31a and 31b are connected via a telephone line 20. . The extension telephones 21 and 22 are wired telephones. It is a matter of course that a plurality of extension telephones other than the extension telephones 21 and 22 may be connected to the extension interface 12.

  The LAN interface 13 of the PBX 11 is connected to a LAN (local area network) 16. The IPLTU 41 is connected to the LAN 16. A plurality of base station devices 32 a and 32 b are connected to the IPLTU 41 via a telephone line 42. The LAN 16 is connected to a plurality of base station devices 33a and 33b that support VoIP communication.

  Each of the base station devices 31a, 31b, 32a, 32b, 33a, and 33b is installed in the base station and is a device that can wirelessly communicate with a PHS terminal. Each of the base station devices 31a, 31b, 32a, 32b, 33a, and 33b has a calling area 31, 32, and 33 as an area that can wirelessly communicate with a PHS (Personal Handy Phone System) terminal. The PHS terminal is a wireless telephone terminal conforming to the PHS technical standard. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the PHS terminal 51 exists in the calling area 32 of the base station devices 32a and 32b.

  The IPLTU 41 is a device corresponding to a VoIP gateway, and is provided between a network line such as the LAN 16 and a telephone line, and can accommodate a general fixed telephone having no VoIP function. In this embodiment, the IPLTU 41 is merely connected to the base station devices 33a and 33b. However, a general fixed telephone having no VoIP function may be connected.

  Address information such as a terminal number (or extension number) and an IP address is set in advance for each of the terminals such as the extension telephones 21 and 22 and the PHS terminal 51. The storage unit 15 of the PBX 11 has address information as a management data table (not shown). The terminal address information indicates which line of the extension interface 12 or the LAN interface 13 the terminal is connected to. The address information includes terminal type information, that is, information indicating whether the terminal is a fixed telephone or a PHS terminal. In the case of a PHS terminal, the calling area where it is located is recorded. Similarly, address information such as an IP address is set in advance for the base station devices 31a, 31b, 32a, 32b, 33a, and 33b, and address information including a call area for each base station is recorded in the management data table. Have been. Further, the use state of each terminal number is recorded in the management data table together with the address information. The use state indicates an extension, an outside line, or idle (waiting for incoming call).

  When receiving a call signal from the calling terminal via the extension interface 12 or the LAN interface 13, the switching control unit 14 stores the address information corresponding to the called terminal indicated in the received call signal in the management data. A call signal including the address information is read from the table and transmitted via the extension interface 12 or the LAN interface 13. When the PHS terminal is a terminal to be called, the exchange control unit 14 reads out address information of the base station in the call area where the PHS terminal is present from the management data fooble together with address information corresponding to the PHS terminal, and reads those addresses. A call signal including information is transmitted via the extension interface 12 or the LAN interface 13. When the exchange control unit 14 receives a response signal from the called terminal via the extension interface 12 or the LAN interface 13 after transmitting the calling signal, the exchange control unit 14 performs communication such as a telephone call between the calling terminal and the called terminal. enable.

  Further, the exchange control unit 14 has an out-of-service transfer function. The out-of-service transfer function is a function of transferring a call signal to a pre-registered extension telephone instead of the wireless terminal when the called wireless terminal is located outside the calling area. The time from the start of the call to the wireless terminal to the transfer to the extension telephone can be set by an out-of-service transfer timer (not shown). In this embodiment, the extension telephone 22 is set in the PHS terminal 51 as an out-of-service transfer destination, and the address information of the out-of-service transfer destination is stored in the management data table of the storage unit 15 in advance.

  Next, in the private communication system having the above-described configuration, the user A (not shown) of the extension telephone 21 transmits from the extension telephone 21 to talk with the user B (not shown) of the PHS terminal 51 (one of the wireless terminals). The operation when calling the PHS terminal 51 will be described with reference to FIG.

  When the user A performs a calling operation by inputting the terminal number of the PHS terminal 51 on the extension telephone 21, a calling signal is supplied from the extension telephone 21 to the PBX 11. In the PBX 11, the extension interface 12, which is a receiving means, receives the call signal and supplies the contents specified by the call signal to the exchange control unit 14. The contents specified by the call signal include, for example, at least an operation mode indicating a call, a caller terminal number and a callee terminal number. As shown in FIG. 3, the exchange control unit 14 reads the address information of the PHS terminal 51 of the call destination from the management data table of the storage unit 15 (step S101), and determines whether the PHS terminal 51 is in use, as shown in FIG. It is determined from the management data table whether or not there is a vacancy (step S102). If the PHS terminal 51 is busy, the switching operation at the time of calling is terminated. In step S101, the base station device in the call area where the PHS terminal 51 is located is detected from the address information of the PHS terminal 51 of the call destination. That is, the base station devices 32a and 32b in the calling area 32 where the PHS terminal 51 is located are detected. The execution of step S101 forms a base station detecting means.

  On the other hand, if the call is not busy and the call is free, a call signal is created and output via the extension interface 12 or the LAN interface 13 (step S103). Since the PHS terminal 51 exists in the calling area 32 of the base station devices 32a and 32b as described above, the calling signal is actually output from the LAN interface 13 to the LAN 16. The contents indicated by the call signal include, for example, at least the operation mode indicating the call, the terminal number of the caller, the terminal number of the callee, and the identification number of the PBX. The call signal is transmitted on the LAN 16 in a packet format according to the TCP / IP protocol, for example. The call signal is converted into a signal on the telephone line by the IPLTU 41 and supplied to the base station devices 32a and 32b.

  If each of the base station devices 32a and 32b is operating normally, upon receiving a call signal, the base station device 32a sends back an ACK signal to the PBX 11 as a reception response signal and transmits the call signal as a radio signal. The ACK signal reaches the exchange control unit 14 via the IPLTU 41, the LAN 16, and the LAN interface 13 of the PBX 11. The switching control unit 14 starts a base station response timer (step S104), and upon receiving an ACK signal (Yes in step S105), waits for a call response signal from the PHS terminal 51 (step S106). Steps S104 and S105 will be described later.

  A calling signal wirelessly transmitted from one of the base station devices 32a and 32b reaches the PHS terminal 51. When the PHS terminal 51 receives the calling signal, a ringing tone is generated. When the user B of the PHS terminal 51 performs a response operation on the PHS terminal 51, the PHS terminal 51 generates a call response signal. The call response signal is wirelessly transmitted from the PHS terminal 51, and follows the flow opposite to the call signal. That is, after the call response signal is received by one of the base station devices 32a and 32b, it reaches the exchange control unit 14 via the IPLTU 41, the LAN 16, and the LAN interface 13 of the PBX 11 as a wired signal. Upon receiving the call response signal (Yes in step S106), exchange control unit 14 establishes a communication line between extension telephone 21 and PHS terminal 51 (step S107). That is, the exchange control unit 14 transfers a communication signal such as a voice signal transmitted from the extension telephone 21 to the PHS terminal 51, transfers a communication signal transmitted from the PHS terminal 51 to the extension telephone 21, A call can be made between the telephone 21 and the PHS terminal 51.

  When both the base station devices 32a and 32b have failed, it is impossible to send an ACK signal back to the PBX 11 even if a call signal arrives at the base station devices 32a and 32b. The exchange control unit 14 has a base station response timer (not shown), and starts the base station response timer in step S104 after transmitting the paging signal in step S103. The limit time is set in the base station response timer. The limit time is set to a longer time as the distance between the PBX 11 and the base station including the target base station device increases. The switching control unit 14 determines whether an ACK signal has been received while the base station response timer is measuring the limit time (step S105). If the ACK signal is received during the measurement of the limit time (Yes in step S105), it means that one of the base station devices 32a and 32b is determined to be normal. On the other hand, if the base station response timer has not received the ACK signal before the end of the measurement of the limit time (No in step S105), it is determined that both the base station devices 32a and 32b are in a failure state. . By performing steps S104 and S105 in this manner, a failure detection unit of the base station device is formed. Note that the failure of the base station devices 32a and 32b includes not only a state where the base station devices 32a and 32b themselves have failed but also a state where the power of each of the base station devices 32a and 32b is off.

  If it is determined that the base station devices 32a and 32b have failed, the exchange control unit 14 activates the out-of-service transfer timer and forcibly sets its measured value to 0 seconds (step S108). That is, the above-mentioned out-of-service transfer function is immediately activated. Therefore, the exchange control unit 14 reads from the storage unit 15 address information such as the terminal number of the extension telephone 22 that is the out-of-service transfer destination of the PHS terminal 51 (step S109), and determines whether the use state of the extension telephone 22 is empty. It is determined from the management data table (step S110). If the extension telephone 22 is busy, the exchange operation at the time of calling is terminated. On the other hand, if free, a call signal is created and output via the extension interface 12 (step S111). The execution of step S111 forms a calling unit. Then, upon receiving the call response signal from extension telephone 22 (Yes in step S112), exchange control unit 14 establishes a communication line between extension telephone 21 and extension telephone 22 (step S113).

  FIG. 4 shows a transfer sequence until a call to the PHS terminal 51 by a call from the extension telephone 21 is transferred to the extension telephone 22 when the base station devices 32a and 32b fail. First, when a call signal from the extension telephone 21 is transmitted to the PBX 11 (step S201), the PBX 11 outputs a call signal in response to the call signal. The call signal is transmitted to base station devices 32a and 32b (step S202). Since the base station devices 32a and 32b are out of order, even if the call signal reaches the base station devices 32a and 32b, an ACK signal corresponding thereto is not generated from each of the base station devices 32a and 32b. Therefore, as shown by the mark x in FIG. 4, no call signal is supplied to the PHS terminal 51 from either of the base station devices 32a and 32b. Since the ACK signal does not arrive at the PBX 11, the base station response timer ends the measurement of the limit time (step S203). Then, the out-of-service transfer timer is started and the measured value is forcibly set to 0 seconds, so that the out-of-service transfer operation to the extension telephone 22 is immediately performed. That is, the PBX 11 outputs a call signal for the extension telephone 22. The call signal is transmitted to extension telephone 22 (step S204). When the call response signal from the extension telephone 22 reaches the PBX 11 (step S205), a communication line between the extension telephone 21 and the extension telephone 22 is established (step S206).

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the base station devices 32a and 32b fail and cannot call the PHS terminal 51 located in the calling area, the extension telephone set as the transfer destination outside the service area of the PHS terminal 51 immediately. Since the call control is performed for the extension 22, the user A of the extension telephone 21 can talk with the user of the extension telephone 22 to which the call is transferred. Therefore, the continuation of the call loss to the PHS terminal 51 can be avoided, and the functional quality provided by the private branch exchange system can be improved.

  In the above-described embodiment, a case has been described in which a plurality of base station apparatuses exist in each paging area. However, it is needless to say that only a single base station apparatus may exist in a single paging area. It is.

  In the above-described embodiment, the out-of-service transfer function of the PBX 11 is used, but the terminal number and address information of the transfer destination terminal of each PHS terminal at the time of failure of the base station device are registered as data in the storage unit 15. In advance, when a failure of the base station device is detected, the terminal number or address information of the transfer destination terminal may be immediately read from the storage unit 15 and the transfer destination terminal may be called using the read information.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the failure detection of the base station apparatus is performed based on whether or not the ACK signal is received within the limit time after the transmission of the paging signal to the base station apparatus. It is not limited to. For example, a device that generates a failure signal indicating that a failure has occurred when a base station device has failed is provided on the line independently of the failed base station device, and the PBX receives the failure signal as a response to the calling signal. In this case, it may be determined that the base station apparatus has failed.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the PHS terminal is shown as the wireless terminal, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a so-called mobile phone or smartphone can be used as the wireless terminal.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, when the PHS terminal is called by calling the extension telephone, the transfer to another extension telephone due to the failure of the base station apparatus has been described. The second calling area is not limited to the case where another wireless terminal located in a second calling area different from the first calling area is called by calling a wireless terminal such as a PHS terminal located in the first calling area. The same applies to transfer to an extension telephone due to a failure of the base station device.

11 PBX
12 extension interface 13 LAN interface 14 exchange control unit 15 storage unit 21, 22 extension telephones 31a, 31b, 32a, 32b, 33a, 33b base station device 41 IPLTU
51 PHS terminal

Claims (7)

A communication control device that accommodates a plurality of terminals including a wireless terminal and controls communication between the terminals,
Receiving means for receiving a call signal from any one of the plurality of terminals;
Base station detecting means for detecting a base station device in a calling area where the wireless terminal 1 is located when the designated call destination of the calling signal received by the receiving means is one of the wireless terminals;
Failure detection means for detecting a failure of the base station device detected by the base station detection means,
A storage unit that stores address information of one transfer destination terminal of the wireless terminal;
When a failure of the base station device is detected by the failure detection means, a call signal is directed to the transfer destination terminal instead of the base station device based on the transfer destination terminal address information stored in the storage unit. A communication control device comprising:   The failure detection means determines whether a reception response signal from the base station apparatus to the paging signal has been received within a predetermined time limit after transmitting the paging signal to the base station apparatus. The communication control device according to claim 1, wherein the base station device is determined to have failed when the reception response signal is not received within the limit time.   3. The communication control device according to claim 1, wherein the calling unit sends the calling signal to the transfer destination terminal by an out-of-service transfer process.   The communication control device according to claim 3, wherein an out-of-service transfer timer is set to 0 seconds in the out-of-service transfer process.   The communication control device according to claim 1, wherein the wireless terminal is a PHS terminal.   The communication control device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the base station detection unit detects the base station device according to address information of one of the wireless terminals. A communication control method of a communication control device that accommodates a plurality of terminals including a wireless terminal and controls communication between the terminals,
A receiving step of receiving a call signal from any one of the plurality of terminals;
A base station detecting step of detecting a base station device in a call area where the wireless terminal 1 is located when the designated call destination of the call signal received in the receiving step is one of the wireless terminals;
A failure detection step of detecting a failure of the base station device detected in the base station detection step,
When a failure of the base station device is detected in the failure detecting step, a call signal is replaced by the base station device based on address information of a transfer destination terminal for the one of the wireless terminals stored in a storage unit. A communication control method, comprising: a calling step of sending the call to a transfer destination terminal.

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