JP2022191729A - Information distribution apparatus and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide an information distribution apparatus and program for distributing information more efficiently.SOLUTION: An integrated data storage unit stores integrated data including multiple nodes and edges which represent, for each set of two nodes out of the multiple nodes, associations between one node and the other node. A data conversion unit converts a structure of the integrated data into a structure according to a distribution planning method on information distribution, to generate converted data. A distribution planning unit determines distribution plan information using the distribution planning method, based on the converted data.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present embodiment relates to an information distribution device and program. For example, the present invention relates to an information distribution apparatus that organizes information obtained from various information sources and provides it to diversified devices of viewers.

Devices for viewing information distributed by media such as broadcasting are diversifying. For example, conventionally, radio receivers and television receivers have been widely used, but smartphones have recently spread remarkably. In addition, the spread of IoT (Internet of Things) devices capable of presenting various types of information, such as smart watches and smart speakers, is expected. It is expected that the devices used for viewing will continue to diversify in the future.

In addition, sources of information collected by distributors such as broadcasting stations for the purpose of distribution to viewers are diversifying. Broadcasting stations' original interviews and receiving information from public institutions, which have been common in the past, are not limited to the spread of information devices such as smartphones, and information provided by viewers is also used as broadcast materials. There are examples. In addition, promotional organizations and public institutions are making efforts to utilize open data. Therefore, it is expected that the diversification of devices that transmit data such as IoT devices and the diversification of information sources that provide information will continue.

RDF (Resource Description Framework) is sometimes used as a technique for describing diversified information. RDF is standardized by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), and RDF version 1.1 is recommended in 2014. RDF is a method of describing relationships among data using a set having three data as elements. These three data are called triples and contain a subject, a predicate and an object. In each piece of data, the location of information may be indicated by a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier). Relations among multiple pieces of data described in RDF can be expressed using a directed graph. The use of RDF is expected to enable centralized management of information obtained from diversified information sources and transmission paths for providing information to viewers.

Data described using RDF (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "RDF data") generally includes data indicating a large number of element information. A query language such as SPARQL (SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language) is used in extracting the required information from the RDF data. SPARQL is standardized by W3C. By using SPARQL, it is possible to extract a certain range of information using a technique similar to database search. However, the metadata notation used in RDF cannot always be applied to data distribution as it is, and even if it can be applied, it is not always rational. For example, an electronic program guide (EPG: Electronic Program Guide) for digital broadcasting generally uses SI (Service Information, program sequence information) defined by MPEG-2 Systems. Patent Literatures 1 and 2 describe a data delivery method for converting the format from RDF to SI in order to apply information expressed using RDF to digital broadcasting.

JP-A-2000-4272 JP-A-2000-224257

RDF is useful for unified management of information obtained from information sources. However, it is not necessarily easy to provide information using transmission paths suitable for diversifying devices only by extracting information using SPARQL and converting metadata from RDF data. For example, in a situation where the network is heavily loaded due to a disaster or the like, devices using a transmission line with a small capacity are relatively neglected in the conventional method, and there is a risk that they will not be selected as delivery destinations. In this way, it is a challenge to efficiently distribute information to diversified distribution destination devices, including IoT devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an information distribution apparatus and a program capable of more efficiently distributing information.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems. an integrated data storage unit that stores integrated data including an edge that indicates the relationship with the other node; and a structure of the integrated data that converts the structure of the integrated data into a structure that conforms to a distribution planning method for information distribution to generate converted data. The information distribution apparatus includes a data conversion unit and a distribution planning unit that determines distribution plan information using the distribution planning method based on the converted data.
According to the configuration [1], the distribution plan information is determined using the distribution plan method based on the converted data whose structure has been converted according to the distribution plan method. The delivery plan can be executed more efficiently and effective information delivery can be encouraged than if the structure of the integrated data is not converted or converted to a specific existing structure.

[2] One aspect of the present invention is the information distribution device described above, wherein the distribution planning method is based on the capacity of each distribution facility and the capacity of each service that can be provided using the distribution facility, wherein the data conversion unit determines, from the integrated data, a distributor node indicating a distributor, a distribution facility node indicating the distribution facility, and a distribution that is the capacity of the distribution facility. a service node that identifies a capacity and indicates a service provided by said distribution facility; and a service capacity that is the capacity of said service, and identifies said distributor node, said distribution facility node, and said service node, said generating the conversion data including an edge indicating the distribution capacity as a relationship between the distributor node and the distribution facility node, and an edge indicating the service capacity as a relationship between the distribution facility node and the service node; may
According to the configuration [2], a route including a distributor node, any distribution equipment node, and any service node is easily identified. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently determine the service based on the distributable capacity for each route.

[3] An aspect of the present invention is the above-described information distribution apparatus, wherein the distribution planning unit includes, for each route including one of the distributor node, the distribution facility node, and the service node, A service corresponding to a determined route may be selected based on the sum of capacities that can be delivered to.
According to the configuration [3], it is possible to easily determine the services that the distributor can provide based on the capacity that can be distributed by the distribution facility as a whole.

[4] An aspect of the present invention is the information distribution apparatus described above, wherein the distribution planning method is a method for determining the provision status of the service based on the distribution of service destinations to which distribution data is distributed. The data conversion unit identifies, from the integrated data, a post node related to use of the service and a place node related to the post node, and indicates the place node for each post node. The transformation data may be generated including the location where the
According to the configuration of [4], conversion data indicating the location to which the service is to be provided is obtained for each service to be used. By using the obtained conversion data, the spatial distribution of the service provider can be easily grasped.

[5] An aspect of the present invention is the information distribution device described above, wherein the distribution planning unit classifies the locations indicated by the location nodes into a plurality of clusters, and the The supply status may be determined based on the number of supply destinations.
According to the configuration of [5], an area where service destinations are more concentrated than other areas is identified, and the effective usage status of each service is grasped based on the number of service destinations in the identified area. can be done. Therefore, a useful delivery plan according to the usage situation is prompted.

[6] An aspect of the present invention is the information distribution device described above, wherein the distribution planning unit may organize distribution data within a distributable capacity for each service.
According to the configuration [6], it is possible to define distribution information to be transmitted through the service provided at that time.

[7] One aspect of the present invention may be a program for causing a computer to function as the information distribution device described above.
According to the configuration [7], the distribution plan information is determined using the distribution plan method based on the converted data whose structure has been converted according to the distribution plan method. The distribution plan can be executed more efficiently and effective information distribution can be promoted than integrated data including various types of information.

According to the present invention, information can be distributed more efficiently.

It is an explanatory view showing an example of whole composition of an information distribution system concerning this embodiment. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing a functional configuration example of an information distribution device according to an embodiment; FIG. It is a figure which shows the 1st example of the integrated data which concerns on this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the 1st example of the conversion data which concern on this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the 1st example of the conversion process of the integrated data which concerns on this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the distribution facility list|wrist which concerns on this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the service list|wrist which concerns on this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the 2nd example of the integrated data which concerns on this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the 2nd example of the conversion process of the integrated data which concerns on this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the contribution place list|wrist which concerns on this embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of clusters of location information according to the embodiment;

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of an information distribution system 1 according to this embodiment.
The information distribution system 1 includes an information distribution device 10 and one or more distribution facilities DP. The information distribution device 10 is wirelessly or wiredly connected to the distribution facility DP so that various data can be transmitted. The information distribution device 10 may be connected to the distribution facility DP using a dedicated communication line.

The information distribution device 10 is, for example, an information distribution device operated by a news organization such as a broadcaster or a newspaper company as an information distributor. The distribution facility DP is a device intended to distribute information to viewers or a facility equipped with the device.
The information distribution device 10 collects various types of information from devices operated by the information sources IS. FIG. 1 exemplifies original information collection, public institutions, information providers, and viewers as information sources IS.

Original information collection is information collection by the information distributor itself or by its employees. Collecting original information includes, for example, coverage by reporters. Collected information obtained by collecting original information corresponds to articles that have been interviewed.
Public institutions are public institutions such as governments, local governments, independent administrative agencies, or their affiliated institutions. The information collected from public institutions can include information that should be common or known to the general public, such as traffic information and disaster information.
An information provider is an information distribution company or a company that distributes various types of information in response to demand from viewers. Information distributors include, for example, news agencies. The information collected from the information distributor can include, for example, various news reports, and economic information such as exchange rates and stock prices.

A viewer is a recipient of distribution information from an information distributor. Collected information from viewers can include various kinds of posted information such as original articles, in addition to opinions on distributed information from information distributors. A viewer's terminal device (sometimes referred to as a "viewer's terminal device" in this application) is a device to which distribution data is provided. The viewer terminal device composes posted information using functions provided by executing the application, and provides the configured posted information to the information distribution device 10 . Transmission of posted information to the information distribution device 10 is mainly performed using a communication network. Posted information may be transmitted via an information sharing site such as an SNS (Social Networking Service) server connected to a communication network.

The information distribution apparatus 10 generates integrated data by integrating various types of collected information in a predetermined format, and stores the generated integrated data. The integrated data includes a plurality of nodes indicating element information, and an edge indicating the relationship between one node and the other node for each set of two nodes among the plurality of nodes. In this application, a case where integrated data is mainly RDF data defined in RDF1.1 is taken as an example. Integrated data is sometimes called structured data, linked data, and the like.

The information distribution device 10 converts the stored integrated data into converted data having a different structure. The conversion data has a structure according to the distribution plan method of the distribution data. A distribution plan refers to setting requirements for information distribution. The distribution plan includes, for example, defining distribution information to be distributed and defining distribution facilities or services to be used for distribution. The distribution planning method refers to the method of determining the requirements related to the information distribution. When the distribution planning method is a method of determining a service to be used for distributing distribution data based on the capacity of each distribution equipment DP of the distributor and the capacity of each service that can be provided using the distribution equipment DP, the information distribution apparatus 10 transforms the delivery data as follows. The information distribution apparatus 10 identifies a distributor node indicating the distributor, a distribution facility node indicating the distribution facility, and a distribution capacity, which is the capacity of the distribution facility, from the stored integrated data. The information distribution device 10 identifies a service node indicating a service provided by distribution equipment and a service capacity, which is the capacity of the service. The information distribution apparatus 10 includes the identified distributor node, distribution equipment node, and service node, and an edge indicating distribution capacity as a relationship between the distributor node and the distribution equipment node, and an edge between the distribution equipment node and the service node. Transformation data is generated that includes edges indicating service capacity as relevance.
Broadcasters, news organizations such as newspaper companies, publishers, and other information distributors can correspond to the distributors, for example.

The information distribution apparatus 10 determines distribution plan information by executing processing using the above-described distribution planning method based on converted data obtained by conversion. The information distribution apparatus 10 can distribute the distribution plan information obtained by the distribution plan for each route including, for example, the distributor node indicated in the conversion data, any distribution facility node, and any service node. Select a service corresponding to the determined route based on the sum of capacities.
The information distribution device 10 organizes the distribution data within the range of the distributable capacity for each selected service.
The information distribution device 10 distributes organized distribution data to distribution destinations DT via distribution facilities DP related to the service.

The distribution facility DP distributes the distribution data received from the information distribution device 10 to the viewer terminal device. Services that can be provided to the distribution destination DT are set in the distribution facility DP. The distribution facilities DP illustrated in FIG. 1 include permanent distribution facilities and temporary distribution facilities. A permanent distribution facility is a distribution facility installed at a fixed position. Permanent distribution facilities can respond to a variety of distribution services, but tend to be difficult to respond to changes in areas where demand for distribution services is required. A temporary distribution facility is a distribution facility that is temporarily installed. The temporary distribution facility may have a movable body that can move its position or a support that can be easily attached and detached to fix its position. Temporary distribution equipment is, for example, relay vans, vehicle-mounted base stations, and the like. Temporary distribution facilities can easily respond to changes in demand for distribution services, but tend to be limited in the types of distribution services they can handle. The information distribution apparatus 10 may recommend installation of temporary distribution equipment in the distribution plan.

Types of distribution facilities DP include, for example, broadcasting stations and server devices. Each distribution facility DP is connected to the information distribution device 10 wirelessly or by wire using a predetermined line. A broadcasting station is, for example, a broadcasting facility capable of providing broadcast wave services. A broadcast wave service is a service that carries distribution data using a broadcast wave of a predetermined broadcast channel as a transmission line (broadcast transmission line). A broadcast transmission path may include a communication network as part of it. The server device is, for example, communication equipment capable of providing either Internet service, LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) service, or a combination thereof. In this application, the server device may be simply referred to as "server". Internet service is a service that provides distribution data via a communication network including the Internet as a transmission line (communication transmission line). Communication LPWA service uses a communication network and uses a predetermined communication method (for example, 3GPP Release 13 or later version) that realizes long-distance communication with lower power consumption than normal wireless communication service. It is a service that provides data.

The delivery destination DT is the viewer terminal device. The viewer terminal device receives distribution data relating to at least one service from the information distribution system 1 and presents content included in the received distribution data. Viewer terminal devices include television receivers, radio receivers, etc., information terminal devices such as multi-function mobile phones (including so-called smartphones), IoT devices such as smart watches and smart speakers. may be Generally, the types of services and types of media that can be provided by a device are predetermined.

Next, a functional configuration example of the information distribution device 10 according to this embodiment will be described. FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing a functional configuration example of the information distribution device 10 according to this embodiment.
The information distribution device 10 includes an integrated data generation unit 122 , an integrated data storage unit 124 , a data conversion unit 126 , a distribution planning unit 128 and a distribution unit 130 .
Each component of the information distribution device 10 may be composed of a dedicated member or an integrated circuit, but is not limited to this. The information distribution device 10 may include a computer including a processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a storage medium such as a ROM (Read Only Memory) or a RAM (Random Access Memory). The processor reads a program stored in a storage medium in advance, executes the read program, cooperates with the storage medium or other hardware resources, and performs some or all of the functions of the above components. good. In the present application, "executing a program" or "executing a program" refers to performing processing according to various instructions written in the program. The storage medium temporarily or permanently stores various data such as parameters used for processing, input values to be processed, and calculated values that are intermediate or final processing results. The information distribution device 10 also includes an interface for inputting/outputting various data.

The integrated data generation unit 122 integrates various types of collected information collected from the information source IS and generates integrated data having a predetermined format. The integrated data includes a plurality of nodes and an edge indicating the relationship between one node and the other node for each set of two nodes among the plurality of nodes. Each node is associated with element information that is part of the collection information. The integrated data generating unit 122 may specify, for example, the element information and their relationship for each of the two pre-divided items that constitute the acquired collected information. The integrated data generation unit 122 may use a predetermined machine learning model to divide the collected information into sets of two pieces of element information, and identify the relationship between the two pieces of element information. The integrated data generation unit 122 generates integrated data including an edge indicating the relationship between one node and the other node for each set of two nodes. Integrated data generation unit 122 stores the generated integrated data in integrated data storage unit 124 .

For the collected information acquired in a format that can be described using RDF, the integrated data generation unit 122 may maintain the format as it is and adopt it as part or all of the integrated data. For example, linked data configured using a predetermined method such as JSON-LD and Turtle may have a format that can be described using RDF. In this application, data described using RDF may be called RDF data. The integrated data generation unit 122 may acquire collected information described in a format for which there is a format conversion method to RDF data. In that case, the integrated data generating unit 122 executes format conversion to RDF data using that method for the collected information. The integrated data generator 122 may employ collected information in RDF format as part or all of the integrated data.

RDF is a framework for describing resource metadata, which is element information. In RDF, relationship information between element information can be expressed using a set of two nodes and a directed edge indicating the relationship between one of the two nodes and the other node (Fig. 3 reference). In RDF, one node, edge, and other node correspond to subject, predicate, and object, respectively, and a set of three elements, such as subject, predicate, and object, is called a triple. The subject, predicate, and object are designations that indicate relationships between element information, and do not indicate grammatical parts of speech or syntactic elements of natural language. A subject is element information indicating a description target or its resource. A predicate indicates a relationship between a subject and an object such that the object is a characteristic or attribute of the subject. The object indicates the thing (value) given by the features or attributes indicated by the predicate, or other things or resources thereof related to the subject. In RDF, a URI, for example, may be used as an identifier indicating its location. A predicate of one triple may be the subject of one or more other triples. A chain of relationships between such element information is represented by a directed graph including corresponding nodes and directed edges. Therefore, according to RDF, it becomes possible to centrally manage various information with high flexibility.

Integrated data storage unit 124 stores integrated data generated by integrated data generation unit 122 .
In the integrated data, a plurality of nodes or edges having a common URI can be merged without substantially losing information. Also, one node or edge can be divided into a plurality of nodes or edges with a common URI. When part of the element information is updated in the integrated data, the integrated data storage unit 124 may reflect the difference between before and after the update, and maintain other parts that are not changed.

Modes of updating integrated data include node addition, node change, and node deletion. Adding a node involves adding a new node. Adding a node may involve adding an edge that indicates the relationship with the existing node that accompanies the addition. A node change involves changing some existing nodes. A node change may be accompanied by a change of edges that show the relationship with other existing nodes associated with the change. Node deletion involves deleting some existing nodes. Deletion of a node may be accompanied by the deletion of edges that indicate relationships with other existing nodes associated with the deletion. Element information that can be updated includes, for example, information sources, distribution facilities for distribution data, or information related to them. Integrated data storage unit 124 does not necessarily have to store a single integrated data. The integrated data storage unit 124 may store integrated data formed for each predetermined segment. Integrated data storage unit 124 may store integrated data for each category in association with the category. The classification may be, for example, the time when the collected information was acquired (eg, year, month, day, etc.) or the region (eg, local area, prefecture, municipality, etc.). The integrated data storage unit 124 includes, for example, a storage medium such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or an SSD (Solid State Drive). Integrated data storage unit 124 is connected to information distribution apparatus 10 wirelessly or by wire with another device, stores part of the data in a storage medium provided in the other device, and is readable from the storage medium. good. As a result, integrated data can be stored in a distributed manner among other devices.

The data conversion unit 126 converts the structure of the integrated data stored in the integrated data storage unit 124 into a structure according to the distribution planning method in the distribution planning unit 128 . The data conversion unit 126 converts integrated data as follows, for example, when selecting a distribution service based on a distribution capacity of distribution data as a distribution planning method.
The data conversion unit 126 identifies, from the integrated data, a service node indicating the service provided by the identified distribution facility DP and a distributable capacity of information related to the provision of the service as a service capacity. The information distribution apparatus 10 includes a distributor node, a distribution facility node, and a service node, and an edge indicating a distribution capacity as a relationship between the distributor node and the distribution facility node, and a relationship between the distribution facility node and the service node. Generate transformation data that includes an edge that indicates the service capacity as . The data conversion unit 126 may generate conversion data that further includes viewer nodes that indicate viewers and edges that indicate infinite service capacity as relationships between individual service nodes and viewer nodes (see FIG. 4). reference). Instead of infinite service capacity, a service capacity greater than or equal to the service capacity of the service node may be set. The data conversion unit 126 outputs the generated conversion data to the distribution planning unit 128 .

The distribution planning unit 128 generates distribution plan information using a predetermined distribution planning method based on the converted data input from the data conversion unit 126 . The distribution plan information includes information on distribution facilities related to services used to distribute distribution data. The distribution plan information specifies or implies a service used for distribution and a route for providing the service.
For example, when selecting a distribution service based on the distributable capacity, the distribution planning unit 128 selects from the converted data the route passing through the distributor node, any distribution facility node, and any service node. , selects a service corresponding to at least one path based on the capacity each path can deliver. Using the conversion data, for example, the distribution planning unit 128 selects the most Choose a path or a set of two or more paths that have the greatest capacity. Each path includes one distribution facility node and one service node. Each distribution facility node may be connected with one or more service nodes, each with an edge. However, a route connecting to one or a plurality of service nodes can be set so that the service capacity or the total value thereof is equal to or less than the distribution capacity of the own node. In other words, a route connecting to one or a plurality of service nodes exceeding the distribution capacity of the own node cannot be set. The delivery planner 128 can use, for example, the Ford-Fulkerson Algorithm in route selection. The distribution planning unit 128 can define the service and distribution facility corresponding to the selected route as the service and distribution facility to be used for distribution, respectively.

The distribution planning unit 128 organizes the distribution data so as not to exceed the service capacity set for each defined service. The distribution planning unit 128, for example, refers to the integrated data, specifies the capacity as an individual capacity for each piece of candidate information held in the database held by the distributor, and makes sure that the total value of the specified individual capacities does not exceed the service capacity. Select one or a plurality of candidate information as follows. Candidate information is information that is a candidate for element information forming distribution data. Discrete capacities typically depend on the type of media used for delivery. For example, the individual capacity decreases in the order of moving image, still image, voice, text, warning display, and warning sound, and moving image is the largest. When each piece of candidate information has relevance to urgency information indicating its urgency, the distribution planning unit 128 preferentially selects candidate information having relevance to urgency information indicating higher urgency. good too. In addition, when candidate information indicating an emergency situation has relevance with level information indicating its degree, candidate information having higher relevance to level information indicating a higher degree of emergency may be preferentially selected.

These pieces of priority information may be set in association with candidate information in integrated data. In that case, the distribution planning unit 128 can specify the priority indicated in the priority information set in association with the candidate information as the priority of the candidate information. In the RDF data illustrated in FIG. 3, "Earthquake A", which can be candidate information, has "B" as urgency information indicating "urgency", and "Earthquake A" as level information indicating "seismic intensity" as the degree of emergency. 5 strong” are associated.
The distribution planning unit 128 organizes distribution data including candidate information selected for each service. The distribution plan unit 128 generates distribution plan information indicating distribution data related to services related to the selected route and distribution facilities related to the route (or service). The distribution plan unit 128 associates the organized distribution data with the distribution plan information and outputs them to the distribution unit 130 .

Distribution unit 130 receives distribution data and distribution plan information for each service from distribution plan unit 128 . The distribution unit 130 identifies a distribution facility indicated in the distribution plan information for each service as a distribution destination, and transmits distribution data to the identified distribution facility. The distribution unit 130 includes one or both of a communication interface and an input/output interface that connect a predetermined line to enable transmission of various data.

(conversion of integrated data)
Next, an example of integrated data conversion processing according to the present embodiment will be described. Mainly, as the integrated data, the RDF data illustrated in FIG. 3 is to be converted. In this RDF data, collected information indicating the occurrence of an earthquake at 00:00:00 on January 1, 2021 originating from the Japan Meteorological Agency is added, and candidate information is added to the collected information. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a first example of integrated data conversion processing. The processing shown in FIG. 5 corresponds to a method of selecting a service so as to maximize the amount of information of distribution data on a transmission line operating as a distribution plan (flow maximization). This process is useful when the network is congested or likely to be congested. Such a case tends to occur when an emergency such as an earthquake occurs, and the distributor needs to efficiently transmit emergency information as distribution data. When extracting data (values) of specific conditions from RDF data, the data conversion unit 126 can issue commands to the integrated data storage unit 124 using a query language such as SPARQL. The data conversion unit 126 may start the processing shown in FIG. 5 when it detects collected information indicating predetermined content (for example, keywords related to emergency situations such as earthquake, typhoon, tsunami, and fire).

(Step S102) The data conversion unit 126 selects a distributor node indicating the distributor from the RDF data. "Broadcasting station Z" is selected from the RDF data illustrated in FIG. The distributor node may be designated by operation information input from an operation input unit provided in the information distribution device 10, or may be preset in the data conversion unit 126, for example.
(Step S104) The data conversion unit 126 sets a distributor node having the same name as the selected distributor node and a viewer node indicating "viewer", and sets a graph having the set distributor node and viewer node. is generated as the initial value of the directed graph G and stored.

(Step S106) The data conversion unit 126 extracts a distribution facility node that is "held" by the distributor and indicates a distribution facility whose attribute "type" is "distribution facility". Here, the data conversion unit 126 identifies a node that is connected to the distributor node by an edge that indicates "hold" as a relationship, and that is connected to a node that indicates "distribution facility" as an attribute and an edge that indicates "type". do. The data conversion unit 126 creates a list of extracted distribution facilities as a distribution facility list, and stores the created distribution facility list. The distribution facility list illustrated in FIG. 6 includes “Broadcast Station X” and “Server W” selected from the RDF data illustrated in FIG. In addition, in FIG. 3, the "type" is written as "type". "Type" includes the meaning of kind.

(Step S108) The data conversion unit 126 determines whether or not the distribution facility list is empty. According to this determination, the presence or absence of an unprocessed distribution facility is determined. When it is determined to be empty (step S108 YES), the process proceeds to step S110. When it is determined that it is not empty (step S108 NO), the process proceeds to step S112.
(Step S112) The data conversion unit 126 acquires the distribution facility M arranged at the top of the distribution facility list as a distribution facility to be processed, sets a distribution facility node having the same name as the distribution facility M, and sets the distribution facility node. The distributed facility node is included in the directed graph G and stored.

(Step S114) The data conversion unit 126 extracts the "capacity" of the transmission line "connected" to the distributor and the distribution facility M from the RDF data. Here, the data conversion unit 126 identifies transmission line nodes connected to edges each indicating "connection" as the relationship between the distributor node and any of the distribution facility nodes. The data conversion unit 126 can identify, as the capacity, the set value indicated by the node connected to the specified transmission line node, at the edge indicating "capacity" as the relationship with the specified transmission line node. In the RDF data illustrated in FIG. 3, "line ZW" that is "connected" to "broadcasting station Z" and "server W" is specified, and "10 Kbps" is obtained as the "capacity" of "line ZW". .
(Step S116) The data conversion unit 126 converts an edge indicating the "capacity" extracted as the relationship between the distributor node and the distribution facility node in the direction from the distributor node indicating the distributor to the distribution facility node indicating the distribution facility M. to the directed graph G.

(Step S118) The data conversion unit 126 extracts services "provided" by the distribution facility M and whose "type" is "service" from the RDF data. Here, the data conversion unit 126 is a node connected to the distribution facility node by an edge indicating "provided" as the relationship with the distribution facility node indicating the distribution facility M, and the relationship with the node is " A setting value of a node connected to another node indicating "service" by an edge indicating "type" can be specified as a service. The data conversion unit 126 generates a list of extracted services as a service list, and stores the generated service list. In the service list illustrated in FIG. 7, from the RDF data illustrated in FIG. 3, "broadcast wave service Z -(1)” is included.

(Step S120) The data conversion unit 126 determines whether the service list is empty. According to this determination, it is determined whether or not there is an unprocessed service. When determining that it is empty (step S120 YES), the data conversion unit 126 deletes the distribution facility M at that time from the distribution facility list, and proceeds to the process of step S108. When determining that it is not empty (step S120 NO), the data conversion unit 126 proceeds to the process of step S122.

(Step S122) The data conversion unit 126 acquires the service arranged at the top of the service list as a service to be processed, sets a service node having the same name as the service N, and adds the set service node to the directed graph G be included in the memory.
(Step S124) The data converter 126 extracts the "capacity" of the service N from the RDF data. The data conversion unit 126 identifies, as a capacity node, a node connected to the service node at an edge indicating "capacity" as the relationship of the service node indicating service N, and sets the setting value of the identified capacity node to "capacity". can be specified as

(Step S126) The data conversion unit 126 determines whether or not the unit of the extracted "capacity" is a predetermined unit (for example, bps). When it is determined to be the predetermined unit (step S126 YES), the process proceeds to step S130. When it is determined that the unit is not the predetermined unit (step S126 NO), the process proceeds to step S128.
(Step S128) The data conversion unit 126 converts the extracted capacity into the predetermined unit in step S126.
(Step S130) The data conversion unit 126 sets an edge indicating the extracted capacity as a weight in the directed graph G in the direction from the distribution facility node indicating the distribution facility M to the service node indicating the service N.

(Step S132) The data conversion unit 126 sets in the directed graph G an edge whose weight is infinite in the direction from the service node indicating the service N to the viewer node indicating "viewer". After that, the data conversion unit 126 deletes the service N at that time from the service list, and proceeds to the process of step S120.

By performing the processing shown in FIG. 5 on the RDF data exemplified in FIG. 3 as integrated data, conversion data representing a directed graph G exemplified in FIG. 4 is obtained. The directed graph G is based on the distribution capacity of each distribution facility held by the distributor and the service capacity of each service that can be provided by the distribution facility, according to the distribution path from the distributor to the viewer. and distribution facilities. From the digraph G, the distribution planning unit 128 can specify routes 1 to 3 as distribution route candidates, for example. Route 1 is a route from broadcasting station Z to broadcasting station X and airwave service Z-(1), and airwave service Z-(1) is provided to viewers. Path 2 is a path from broadcast station Z to server W and Internet service Z-(1), and Internet service Z-(1) is provided to viewers. Path 3 is the path from station Z to server W and LPWA service Z-(1), and LPWA service Z-(1) is provided to viewers.

Since the delivery capacity of 50 Mps for path 1 is greater than the service capacity of 24 Mps, the capacity of path 1 can be defined as 24 Mps. The distribution planning unit 128 extracts the element information from the RDF data so that the total capacity, which is the total value of the individual capacity for each element information, does not exceed 24 Mbps for the broadcast wave service Z-(1), and distributes the distribution data. Can be configured.
The distribution planning unit 128 shares the route from the node of the broadcasting station Z to the node of the server W for the route 2 and the route 3 . Therefore, the distribution planning unit 128 determines that the total value of the respective capacities of the routes 2 and 3 does not exceed 10 Kbps, which is the distribution capacity common to the routes 2 and 3, and that the capacity of the route 2 is equal to the LPWA service Z-(1). , and the capacity of route 3 does not exceed the capacity of 80 Mbps of Internet service Z-(1). The distribution planning unit 128 can set the capacity of route 2 to 9.2 Kbps and the capacity of route 3 to 800 bps as the maximum value (maximum flow) of the total capacity between all routes.

Therefore, the distribution planning unit 128 extracts the element information from the RDF data so that the total capacity, which is the total value of the individual capacity for each element information, does not exceed 9.2 Kbps for the Internet service Z-(1), Delivery data can be configured. The distribution planning unit 128 extracts the element information from the RDF data so that the total capacity, which is the total value of the individual capacity for each element information, does not exceed 800 bps for the LPWA service Z-(1), and composes the distribution data. can do. Also, if there is no element information of 9.2 Kbps or less among the unselected element information, the distribution planning unit 128 determines to stop providing Internet service Z-(1).

Therefore, according to the conversion data illustrated in FIG. 4, it is possible to easily grasp the distribution facility that is operating at that time and the distribution route indicating the service that can be provided by that distribution facility, and the distribution is performed for each route. can be efficiently determined. In this example, distribution of distribution data by broadcast wave service and distribution of distribution data by LPWA service are selected as appropriate distribution services. Distribution of distribution data accompanied by moving images by Internet service is not selected because it may cause congestion by exceeding the capacity that can be provided.

Note that in the converted data illustrated in FIG. 4, the person node indicating the “viewer” and the edge indicating the relationship between the person node and the service node indicating each service may be omitted. This is because the nodes and edges are not essential for the distribution planner 128 to identify routes containing individual services. It is sufficient for the distribution planning unit 128 to identify the route from the distributor node indicating "broadcasting station Z" to each service node.

In the above example, the distribution planning method executed by the distribution planning unit 128 is mainly for a case in which a set of services with a larger capacity within the range of capacities that can be provided is preferentially determined. is not limited. The distribution planning unit 128 may, for example, preferentially determine a service group with less delay. When defining a set of low-delay services, the distribution planner 128 may calculate delays for each route that includes nodes associated with each of the distribution facilities and services, and define services associated with the routes with the calculated low delays. The data conversion unit 126 uses the integrated data to generate converted data that indicates the delay of the distribution facility instead of the distribution capacity of each distribution facility, and indicates the delay associated with the provision of the service instead of the service capacity of each service. do it.

Next, a second example of integrated data conversion processing according to the present embodiment will be described. However, it is assumed that a disaster such as an earthquake causes a partial disconnection of the transmission line, such as failure of a wireless communication base station or collapse of a broadcasting station, depending on the region. In this case, the distributor may set up temporary distribution equipment such as a communication base station or broadcast relay vehicle to try to provide the distribution service as an emergency. The information distribution device 10 collects, as posted information, various pieces of posted information from mobile phones as viewer terminal devices using Internet services, and various kinds of beacon information from IoT terminal devices as viewer terminal devices that use LPWA services. Each viewer terminal device associates the posted information with the location information indicating the location of the own device and the service information indicating the service used by the own device, and transmits the posted information to the information distribution device 10 . Note that the viewer terminal device has, for example, a known GPS (Global Positioning System), and can acquire position information indicating the position of the device itself. Also, the viewer terminal device may determine the position of the device itself based on the position of the base station device connected to the device itself. The position of the viewer terminal device whose position is fixed may be set in advance in the own device.

The integrated data generation unit 122 of the information distribution device 10 identifies the service node indicated by the service information received from each of the viewer terminal devices serving as information sources, and indicates the post node indicating the received post information and the received location information. Include in the integrated data a location node, an edge indicating the relationship between the post node and the location node, and an edge indicating the relationship between the post node and the identified service node. Like the RDF data exemplified in FIG. 8, posted information and location information of the viewer terminal device are accumulated for each service. Further, data transmission from the viewer terminal device to the information distribution device 10 is not necessarily performed while the distribution service is being provided. However, with the RDF data exemplified in FIG. 8, the distributor cannot immediately grasp the area where the distribution facility is operating and the area where the distribution service is interrupted. Therefore, the data conversion unit 126 converts the RDF data into a list showing the correspondence between each piece of position information and the provided service as a position information list. The process of converting RDF data into a position information list, which will be described next, corresponds to the determination of the distribution service providing area and, by extension, to the management of distribution facilities.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing a second example of integrated data conversion processing. In the following description, the case where the RDF data illustrated in FIG. 8 is to be processed is taken as an example. The data conversion unit 126 may start the processing shown in FIG. 8 when it detects collected information indicating predetermined content (for example, keywords related to emergency situations such as earthquake, typhoon, tsunami, fire, etc.).
(Step S<b>152 ) The data conversion unit 126 reads the RDF data from the integrated data storage unit 124 .
(Step S154) The data conversion unit 126 sets an empty list as the initial state of the posting place list L. FIG.

(Step S156) The data conversion unit 126 identifies, from the RDF data, a node that is "held" by a database that is "held" by the distributor and whose "type" is "post" as a posted node. The data conversion unit 126 identifies a database node indicating a database in which an edge indicating "hold" is set as the relationship with the distributor node indicating the distributor, and sets "hold" as the relationship with the identified database node. A node to which an edge indicating "post" is set and an edge indicating "type" is set as a relationship with a node indicating "post" is specified as a post node. The data conversion unit 126 extracts posts that are set values indicated in the specified node, and generates a post list P indicating the extracted posts. From the RDF data exemplified in FIG. 8, a post list P indicating post nodes of “post A” to “post J” is generated.

(Step S158) The data conversion unit 126 determines whether or not the posting list P is empty. By this determination, it is determined whether or not there are any unprocessed post nodes left. When it is determined to be empty (step S158 YES), the process proceeds to step S164. When it is determined that it is not empty (step S158 NO), the process proceeds to step S160.

(Step S160) The data conversion unit 126 acquires the top post node N of the post list P as a post node to be processed.
(Step S162) The data conversion unit 126 extracts latitude and longitude as the set values of the node to which edges indicating "latitude" and "longitude" are set as direct or indirect relationships with the post node N from the RDF data. to extract The data conversion unit 126 extracts the service as the setting value of the service node to which the edge indicating “use” is set as the relationship with the posting node N. The data conversion unit 126 associates the extracted latitude, longitude, and service value pairs with the posting node N and adds them to the posting location list L. FIG. After that, the data conversion unit 126 deletes the post node N at that time from the post list P, and proceeds to the process of step S158.
(Step S<b>164 ) Data conversion unit 126 outputs posting location list L to distribution planning unit 128 . After that, the processing shown in FIG. 9 ends.

FIG. 10 exemplifies the posting location list L converted from the RDF data shown in FIG. The posting place list L shows position information indicating the position of each terminal device and service information indicating the service to be used. Location information is represented by a pair of latitude and longitude. For example, in the first row of FIG. 10, "35.65", "139.63", and "Internet service" indicate the latitude, longitude, and service used, respectively. Therefore, from the posting place list L, it is possible to more easily grasp the distribution of terminal devices used for each service. Note that, in the RDF data, when the posting location and posting time are associated, the data conversion unit 126 includes the location information and service information whose posting time is included in a predetermined time period in the posting location list L, and other It is not necessary to include location information and service information related to the posting time of In addition, in the RDF data, when the posting location and the identification information of the terminal device are associated, the data conversion unit 126 may include the identification information in the posting location list L in association with each posting. If there are two or more posts with the same identification information, the data conversion unit 126 may adopt one of the posts and reject the other posts and the posting locations and service information related to the posts. . When adopting one post for each piece of identification information, the data conversion unit 126 may give priority to a post associated with a newer post time among a plurality of posts.

The distribution planning unit 128 classifies (clusters) the position (latitude, longitude) of each post shown in the posting place list L into a plurality of clusters, and specifies areas that cover the classified clusters. The distribution planning unit 128 can use, for example, k-means as a clustering method. The k-means method is a type of non-hierarchical clustering, and is a method of classifying positions to be classified into predetermined k (k is 2 or more) clusters. The number of clusters k may be predetermined, for example, based on the number of groups of ranges (coverage groups) in which service provision ranges (coverages) in which distribution data can be received from individual distribution facilities overlap each other. The distribution planning unit 128 may use hierarchical clustering as a clustering method. Hierarchical clustering eliminates the need to set the number of clusters in advance.

The distribution planning unit 128 determines the utilization rate of the services used for each classified area, and identifies a service with a significantly higher utilization rate than other services (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "main service"). You may Here, the service utilization rate is obtained by dividing the number of posts (the number of terminal devices) of the service belonging to the cluster in the region by the total number of posts belonging to the cluster. Note that the distribution planning unit 128 may determine a service whose usage rate exceeds a predetermined usage rate threshold (for example, 0.8 or more) as a main service.

FIG. 11 illustrates clusters of location information. In FIG. 11, the positions of 21 terminal devices are classified into two clusters CL02 and CL04. The ○ mark indicates the position of the terminal device using the Internet service, and the △ mark indicates the position of the terminal device using the LPWA service. Therefore, the distribution planning unit 128 can determine that the main services in the areas covering the clusters CL02 and CL04 are the Internet service and the LPWA service, respectively.

As exemplified by cluster CL04, areas where the LPWA service with the smallest service capacity is the main service are estimated as areas where other services are not available. Therefore, the distribution planning unit 128 suspends the provision of the broadcast wave service and Internet service for the region and continues the LPWA service. The distribution planner 128 organizes the distribution data within the service capacity that can be transmitted by the LPWA service. For example, the distribution planning unit 128 refers to the distribution service information indicating the location and service provision range of the distribution facility related to the provision of each service in advance, and specifies the area or the distribution facility of the LPWA service that includes the area as coverage. can be done. The distribution plan unit 128 outputs the distribution plan information indicating the specified distribution facility and the distribution data of the LPWA service in association with the distribution unit 130, and in the distribution plan information, the distribution facility including the area as the service provision range is output to other distribution facilities. Exclude as an output destination for service delivery data.

The distribution planning unit 128 can estimate the occurrence of failures in distribution facilities for other services (that is, Internet services and broadcast wave services) that include the area as a service provision range. It may be decided to install a new distribution facility related to the provision of the service in a position that can be included in the provision range, and the provision of the other service can be restarted by installing the distribution facility.

Note that the distribution planning unit 128 counts the number of posts that include the location indicated by the location information associated with the service for each service provision range, and determines whether or not the counted number of posts is equal to or less than a predetermined determination threshold. You may The distribution planning unit 128 may estimate that a failure has occurred in a distribution facility related to the provision of a service for a service provision range in which the number of posts is equal to or less than a predetermined determination threshold. In that case, the distribution planning unit 128 may determine installation of a new distribution facility related to the provision of the service at a position where the service provision range can be included in the service range.

As described above, the information distribution apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment indicates the relationship between one node and the other node for each set of a plurality of nodes and two nodes among the plurality of nodes. An integrated data storage unit 124 that stores integrated data including edges. The information distribution apparatus 10 includes a data conversion unit 126 that converts the structure of the integrated data into a structure that conforms to the distribution planning method for information distribution and generates converted data, and based on the conversion data, distribution is performed using the distribution planning method. and a delivery planning unit 128 that defines plan information.
According to this configuration, the distribution plan information is determined using the distribution plan method based on the converted data whose structure has been converted according to the distribution plan method. The delivery plan can be executed more efficiently and effective information delivery can be encouraged than if the structure of the integrated data is not converted or converted to a specific existing structure.

The distribution planning method may be a method of determining services to be used for distribution of distribution data based on the capacity of each distribution facility and the capacity of each service that can be provided using the distribution facility. The data conversion unit 126 identifies the distributor node indicating the distributor, the distribution facility node indicating the distribution facility, and the distribution capacity, which is the capacity of the distribution facility, from the integrated data, and the service indicating the service provided by the distribution facility. A node and service capacity, which is the capacity of the service, may be specified. The data conversion unit 126 includes the specified distributor node, distribution equipment node, and service node, an edge indicating the distribution capacity as a relationship between the distributor node and the distribution equipment node, and an edge between the distribution equipment node and the service node. and an edge indicating service capacity as a relationship.
With this configuration, a route including a distributor node, any distribution equipment node, and any service node is easily identified. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently determine the service based on the distributable capacity for each route.

The distribution planning unit 128 may select a service corresponding to a route determined based on the sum of distributable capacities for each route including one of a distributor node, a distribution facility node, and one of a service node. good.
According to this configuration, services that can be provided by the distributor can be easily determined based on the capacity that can be distributed by the distribution facility as a whole.

The distribution planning method may be a method of determining the provision status of the service based on the distribution of service providers to whom the distribution data is distributed. The data conversion unit 126 identifies post nodes related to the use of the service and place nodes related to the post nodes from the integrated data, and converts the converted data including the places indicated by the place nodes for each post node. may be generated.
According to this configuration, conversion data indicating the location to which the service is to be provided can be obtained for each service to be used. By using the obtained conversion data, the spatial distribution of the service provider can be easily grasped.

The distribution planning unit 128 classifies the locations indicated by the location nodes into a plurality of clusters, and determines the provision status based on the number of service recipients for each service in the area containing the clusters.
According to this configuration, it is possible to identify an area where service destinations are more concentrated than other areas, and to grasp the effective usage status of each service based on the number of service destinations in the identified area. Therefore, a useful delivery plan according to the usage situation is prompted.

The distribution planning unit 128 may organize distribution data within the range of distributable capacity for each service.
According to this configuration, it is possible to define distribution information to be transmitted through services provided at that time.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the drawings, the specific configurations are not limited to those described above, and various design changes can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. It is possible to

For example, the configurations according to the above cases may be combined, the processes may be executed in parallel, or some of them may be omitted. More specifically, the data conversion unit 126 may execute the processing illustrated in FIG. 5 and the processing illustrated in FIG. 9 in parallel. The distribution planning unit 128 performs the processing of defining services using the conversion data illustrated in FIG. 4 and the processing of defining services for each specified region using the posting location list illustrated in FIG. 10 in parallel. may be executed. Also, the data conversion unit 126 and the distribution planning unit 128 may each perform the above-described processing for each information source of collected information.

A part of the information distribution apparatus 10 described above, for example, a part or all of the integrated data generation unit 122, the integrated data storage unit 124, the data conversion unit 126, the distribution planning unit 128, and the distribution unit 130 can be realized by a computer. You may make it In that case, a program for realizing this control function may be recorded in a computer-readable recording medium, and the program recorded in this recording medium may be read into a computer system and executed. The "computer system" referred to here is a computer system built into the information distribution apparatus 10, and includes hardware such as an OS and peripheral devices. The term "computer-readable recording medium" refers to portable media such as flexible discs, magneto-optical discs, ROMs and CD-ROMs, and storage devices such as hard discs incorporated in computer systems. Furthermore, "computer-readable recording medium" means a medium that dynamically stores a program for a short period of time, such as a communication line for transmitting a program via a network such as the Internet or a communication line such as a telephone line. It may also include a memory that holds the program for a certain period of time, such as a volatile memory inside a computer system that serves as a server or client in that case. Further, the program may be for realizing part of the functions described above, or may be capable of realizing the functions described above in combination with a program already recorded in the computer system.
Also, part or all of the information distribution device 10 in the above-described embodiment may be realized as an integrated circuit such as LSI (Large Scale Integration). Each functional block of the information distribution apparatus 10 may be individually processorized, or may be partially or entirely integrated into a processor. Also, the method of circuit integration is not limited to LSI, but may be realized by a dedicated circuit or a general-purpose processor. In addition, when an integration circuit technology that replaces LSI appears due to advances in semiconductor technology, an integrated circuit based on this technology may be used.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... Information distribution apparatus, 122... Integrated data generation part, 124... Integrated data storage part, 126... Data conversion part, 128... Distribution plan part, 130... Distribution part

Claims (7)

an integrated data storage unit for storing integrated data including a plurality of nodes and an edge indicating the relationship between one node and the other node for each pair of two nodes among the plurality of nodes;
a data conversion unit that converts the structure of the integrated data into a structure that conforms to a distribution planning method for information distribution to generate converted data;
a delivery plan unit that determines delivery plan information using the delivery plan method based on the converted data;
An information distribution device comprising: The distribution planning method is a method of determining a service to be used for distribution of distribution data based on the capacity of each distribution facility and the capacity of each service that can be provided using the distribution facility,
The data conversion unit, from the integrated data,
Identifying a distributor node indicating a distributor, a distribution facility node indicating the distribution facility, and a distribution capacity that is the capacity of the distribution facility;
identifying a service node indicating a service provided by the distribution facility and a service capacity that is the capacity of the service;
including the distributor node, the distribution equipment node, and the service node;
an edge indicating the distribution capacity as a relationship between the distributor node and the distribution equipment node;
2. The information distribution apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said conversion data is generated including an edge indicating said service capacity as a relationship between said distribution facility node and said service node. The distribution planning department
3. The service corresponding to the determined route is selected based on the sum of the distributable capacity for each route including the distributor node, the distribution equipment node, and the service node. information distribution device. The distribution planning method is a method for determining the provision status of the service based on the distribution of service providers to which distribution data is distributed,
The data conversion unit, from the integrated data,
a posting node associated with the use of the service;
identifying a location node that is related to the post node;
4. The information distribution apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the conversion data including the location indicated by the location node is generated for each of the posting nodes. The distribution planning department
classifying locations indicated in the location nodes into a plurality of clusters;
5. The information distribution apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said provision status is determined based on the number of said provision destinations for each service in an area including said cluster. The distribution planning department
6. The information distribution apparatus according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein distribution data is organized within a range of distributable capacity for each service. A program for causing a computer to function as the information distribution device according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

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