JP2794968B2 - Communication device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication device, and more particularly to an integrated services digital network (ISDN).
The present invention relates to a communication device that is used by being connected to a communication device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art ISDN services for realizing new communication services by integrating various communication media and integrating them with information processing technology have been put to practical use. This I
SDN has a facsimile, telephone,
In addition, there is an advantage that the portability of a terminal such as a personal computer is good.

That is, if sockets for ISDN are installed in a plurality of places in a home or business, a terminal plug can be inserted into these sockets and used immediately, and the installation location of the terminal is changed. If the need arises, the plug may be unplugged from the socket, moved to an arbitrary location where another socket is provided, and communication may be performed using the socket.

[0004] This is realized by the fact that the network can determine and process the types and device constants of each terminal, thereby making the communication lines for various terminals common.

[0005]

The above-mentioned ISDN has the following problems. Conventional Public Line (PSTN)
If, for example, a terminal such as a facsimile machine or telephone that was connected to a telephone line with a certain dial number was relocated and connected to a telephone line with another dial number, it was still connected to the previous telephone line Could communicate in exactly the same way.

On the other hand, the newly provided IS
In the DN, a terminal notifies a network of information set to the terminal (hereinafter, referred to as setting information), and the network notifies a called terminal of information of a calling terminal. The network or the terminal checks the setting information by such a notification, and tries to prevent erroneous communication from being performed. Since the terminal can be identified by such a function, the line can be shared, the portability of the terminal is improved, and services specific to various ISDN such as display of a calling number and display of a called number can be received. The setting information of the terminal includes its own station number,
The local station sub address, packet communication type, and the like.

Therefore, when the terminal is relocated, the information sent from the network and the setting information do not match unless the own station number and the own station subaddress are corrected and updated. As a result, a situation may occur in which a call cannot be received or transmitted.

As described above, if the terminal is relocated, the setting information must be re-entered and updated by the maintenance person or the user of the terminal. However, the setting information depends on the attention of the person. Therefore, there has been a problem that setting information may not be input.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems,
An object of the present invention is to provide a communication device capable of displaying that a terminal has been disconnected from a line in order to prevent omission of correction of the setting information, which may occur when the terminal is relocated.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and to achieve the object, the present invention detects a disconnection between a terminal and a line and outputs a disconnection detection signal;
Means for notifying the operator of confirmation of the setting information in response to this signal.

[0011]

According to the present invention having the above-described features, when the connection between the terminal and the line is disconnected, the operator is automatically notified of confirmation and input of setting information.
As a result, the difference in the setting information due to the omission of the correction of the setting information does not occur, and the communication can be prevented from being disabled.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a G4 facsimile apparatus showing one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, an image processing unit 1 has an encoding / decoding function of encoding and decoding image information of a document read by a reading device 2.

At the time of transmitting the image information, the image information processed by the image processing unit 1 is sequentially input to and stored in the image information memory 3. The stored image information is sent to the ISDN line controller 4
Through the line.

On the other hand, at the time of reception, the image information taken in from the line via the ISDN line control unit 4 is stored in the image information memory 3. The received image information stored in the image information memory 3 is decoded, output to the printer 6, and printed.

The operation panel 7 includes a key input unit 7a and a display unit 7b such as an LCD, and is used for inputting / setting various instructions and displaying processing results. The above elements are controlled by the system control unit 5 in accordance with the programs and management data stored in the management memory 8. This system control unit 5 can be constituted by a microcomputer (CPU).

The power supply to the facsimile apparatus will be described. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a line of an interface between the terminal (facsimile machine) TE and the network terminating device NT.

As shown in the figure, the interface line includes a transmission line SL for transferring a communication signal and information from the terminal TE to the network terminating device NT, a communication line from the network terminating device NT to the terminal TE, and the like. Receiving line R for transferring information
L are provided two each.

Then, power is supplied to the terminal TE from the power supply 9 provided in the network termination device NT using these lines SL and RL. In the terminal TE, the supplied power is received by the power receiving unit 10. Such a system in which a DC voltage is applied between the transmission line SL and the reception line RL is called phantom power supply. Although this power supply method is generally used, there is another method in which power is supplied from the network terminating device NT to the terminal TE on another line.

Next, activation of the ISDN basic interface in the layer 1 will be described. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a startup procedure from the terminal TE. In the activation procedure shown in the figure, a specific bit is transmitted between the terminal TE and the network terminating device NT.
An electrical signal frame (INFO) of the pattern is exchanged.

In the stop state, the terminal TE and the network terminating device NT send out INFO0 (no signal) to each other.
Sends INFO1 instead of NFO0. This INF
In response to O1, the network terminating device NT sends INFO2, and in response, the terminal TE sends INFO3 (normal signal).
Is sent. Network terminating device NT receiving this INFO3
Sends an activation notification to the upper function (layer 2). Finally, the network termination device NT starts sending INFO4 (normal signal), and the activation of the interface in layer 1 is completed.

Next, the function of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the function of the main part of the present embodiment, and the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 4 denote the same or equivalent parts.

In FIG. 1, a disconnection detecting unit 11 detects when the terminal, ie, the ISDN plug of the facsimile apparatus is disconnected from the socket and the connection between the line and the terminal is disconnected (disconnected). To output a disconnection detection signal. This disconnection detection signal is supplied to the print control unit 12 and the display control unit 13. Then, the print control unit 12
When the disconnection detection signal is supplied, the display control section 13 reads out the message stored in the management memory 8 in advance, outputs the message to the printer 6, and outputs the message to the display section 7b.
To be displayed.

A specific example of the disconnection detecting section 11 will be described.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the first embodiment. In this example, the frame INF of the interface described with reference to FIG.
The rules of O exchange are used. That is, IN
In the exchange of the FO, when a predetermined INFO is output from the terminal TE, the network termination device NT responds to the predetermined INFO.
Since it is specified to return O, that procedure is used.

In FIG. 2, a start request output section 14 outputs a start request signal to a frame generation section 15 at a predetermined interrupt timing. This signal is equivalent to the activation request signal described with reference to FIG.

The frame generator 15 generates INFO1 in response to the activation request signal and sends it to the ISDN line controller 4. The ISDN line controller 4 transfers this INFO1 to the network terminating device NT. If the terminal is connected to the line, the network terminating device NT responds to the INFO1 by the INF.
O2 should be returned.

Therefore, the frame monitor 16 transmits the ISD for a preset time after the transmission of the INFO1.
The INFO 2 that should be received by the N line controller 4 is monitored. An appropriate time for this monitoring is about 30 seconds. If INFO2 is not detected during this time, it is determined that the plug is disconnected, and the disconnection detection signal is output.

Next, a second embodiment of the disconnection detecting section 11 will be described. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the second embodiment. In this example, disconnection between a line and a terminal is detected based on the power supply state from the network terminating device NT. That is, since power is supplied from the network terminating device NT to the terminal TE, there is a predetermined potential difference between the transmission line SL and the reception line RL. Therefore, when the potential difference has dropped below a certain value, it is determined that the line and the terminal have been disconnected.

In FIG. 3, the potential difference detector 17 is an ISD
N transmission line SL and reception line R
The potential difference from L is detected. In the power supply monitoring unit 18, the detection value supplied from the potential difference detection unit 17 and the threshold value setting unit 19
And outputs a disconnection detection signal when the detected value is lower than the threshold value.

The disconnection detection signal is continued until a predetermined reset signal is input by the operator.
This is to prevent the message once displayed on the display unit 1b from disappearing when the terminal plug is inserted into the ISDN socket without noticing the display.

Next, the operation of the first and second embodiments will be described. First, the operation of the first embodiment, that is, INFO
The operation of detecting a disconnection between a terminal and a line based on the presence / absence of 2 and allowing the operator to recognize the disconnection will be described.

In the flowchart of FIG. 5, in step S1, it is determined whether there is a start request signal. If the activation request signal is detected, the process proceeds to step S2, where INFO1 is transmitted in the ISDN layer 1. In step S3, INF
A timer for setting a time to wait for O2 is started. In step S4, it is determined whether INFO2 has been detected. If INFO2 has not been detected, the process proceeds to step S5, and it is determined whether the set time of the timer started in step S3 has elapsed.

If the determination in step S5 is affirmative, that is, INFO2 is set even though the timer set time has elapsed.
Is not detected, it is determined that the terminal is disconnected from the line, and the process proceeds to step S6.

In step S6, a disconnection detection signal is output to the print control unit 12 and the display control unit 13. In step S7, the print control unit 12 and the display control unit 1
3 prints a scheduled message in response to the disconnection detection signal and displays it on the display unit 7b.

In step S8, it is determined whether the confirmation and correction of the setting information such as the own station number, the own station sub address, the packet communication type and the like have been completed. This determination can be made by providing a reset switch on the operation panel 7 and determining the presence or absence of operator intervention by the reset switch.

In step S9, the output of the disconnection detection signal between the terminal and the line is stopped.

Next, the operation of the second embodiment, that is, the operation of detecting disconnection between a terminal and a line based on the power supply state and causing the operator to recognize the disconnection will be described.

In the flowchart of FIG. 6, the potential difference value Vd is read from the potential difference detecting section 17 in step S10. In step S11, the threshold value Vs is read from the threshold value setting unit 19. In step S12, it is determined whether or not the read potential difference value Vd is lower than the threshold value Vs. If the determination in step S12 is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S13. Steps S13 to S16 are the same as steps S6 to S9 of the first embodiment, and thus description thereof will be omitted.

In the embodiment described above, an example of the facsimile apparatus connected to the ISDN has been described. However, the present invention is similarly applied to other communication apparatuses such as telephones and personal computers which are used by being connected to the ISDN. it can.

Further, in this embodiment, the power supply state is detected by monitoring the potential difference between the transmission line SL and the reception line RL. However, power is supplied from the network terminating device NT to the terminal NT using another line. In such a system, the same effect as in the present embodiment can be obtained by monitoring the potential difference of the other line.

In this embodiment, the operator is urged to review the setting information by means of both printing and displaying a message. However, notification may be made by either printing or displaying.

[0041]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily recognize that the terminal has been disconnected from the line, and to prompt the operator to review and correct the setting information based on the recognition result. be able to. As a result, it is possible to solve the conventional problem that the setting information is different due to the relocation of the terminal, so that reception or transmission becomes impossible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main part function of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating functions of a first embodiment of a disconnection detection unit.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating functions of a disconnection detection unit according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the facsimile machine.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a line of an interface.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a protocol for starting an interface.

[Explanation of symbols]

4 ISDN line control unit 5 System control unit 6
... printer, 7b ... display unit, 11 ... disconnection detection unit,
12 Print control unit 13 Display control unit 14 Start request output unit 15 Frame generation unit 16 Frame monitoring unit 17 Potential difference detection unit 18 Power supply monitoring unit

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) H04M 1/00 H04M 1/24 H04M 1/58-1/62 H04M 1/66-1/78 H04M 1/26-1 / 57 H04M 11/00-11/10

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A communication apparatus connected to the ISDN, and means for outputting a disconnection detection signal by detecting that the connection has been cut off the terminal and the line, in response to the disconnection absolute detection signal, to the operator And a notifying means for prompting the user to confirm the setting information of the terminal.