JP2862636B2 - Relay station billing method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Summary] The present invention relates to a relay station charging system in a telephone exchange network in which communication calls in a local area are connected free of charge and charging is performed by a relay exchange connecting communication calls between networks. An object of the present invention is to provide a relay station billing method capable of performing a billing process for a special call in a local area even in a telephone switching network where billing is performed and a switching mechanism in the local area is not provided with a billing mechanism. The control device of the exchange in the local area sends a billing request dial to the transit exchange when a request for a special service in the local area is issued, and sends out the originating telephone number when it detects a request for the outgoing telephone number from the transit exchange. The control unit of the transit exchange requests the calling telephone number when detecting the billing request dial, and stores the billing information when the calling telephone number is received. By doing so, it is configured to charge for a call requesting a special service in its own area.

[Industrial application field] The present invention relates to a relay station charging system in a telephone exchange network in which communication calls in a local area are connected free of charge and charging is performed by a relay exchange connecting communication calls between networks.

Generally, when using a public telephone network, a call fee is charged for calls within the local area (or within the city) and calls to other local areas (or outside the city). In an exchange (local station) in each local area, a charging process is executed for the calling subscriber for each call.

However, when using the public telephone network in some countries,
Calls within the same local area (in the city) are free of charge, and there are cases where a system is adopted that charges only for calls to other local areas (outside the city) (for example, oil-producing countries in the Middle East).

When performing such accounting, the exchanges in each local area are not provided with a mechanism for performing accounting processing, but are provided only with a relay exchange that connects to another local area.

However, when a subscriber requests a special service in an exchange in the local area, it is desired to charge.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, when a public telephone network is used in most countries, a call fee is charged regardless of whether it is a local call (a call to a local area) or a toll call (a call between different local areas). As described above, in the case of local calls in the public telephone network (calls in the same local area), there is a case where charges are made toll-free only for toll calls.

FIG. 4 (a) shows a connection diagram of a telephone network for charging a toll call, and FIG. 4 (b) is an explanatory diagram of a charging process for a toll call.

As shown in FIG. 4 (a), when the toll switch 50a, 50b, etc. performs connection processing between telephones (local calls) in the respective local areas, it does not perform charging processing for the call. Make free calls.

On the other hand, a toll call between local areas is connected via a transit exchange (or a relay station) 51, and when the connection is made, a billing process is executed in the transit exchange.

The billing process performed according to FIG. 4 (b) will be described.
When a subscriber of the local exchange 50a (called an originating station) dials for a toll connection to a subscriber of the local exchange 50b in another area, the originating office 50a makes a toll call by the received dial. Identify that there is. The originating station 50a captures a trunk line connected to the transit exchange (relay station) 51 and sends out connection control information (dial information). The transmitting station 50a simultaneously transmits the transmitting telephone number at this time.

The relay station 51 identifies the local exchange 50b of the connection partner based on the received dial information and controls the connection.
The billing information is recorded in the memory 52 using the calling telephone number.
In this way, charging corresponding to the calling telephone number is executed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the above-mentioned conventional method, a communication call in a local area is made free of charge, and a relay station is charged only for a toll call between local areas. Therefore, the exchanges in the local area (local exchanges) did not have a charging function. However, if the local exchange wants the subscriber to perform a special service (for example, a wake-up call), such a special service needs to be performed for a fee. However, there is a problem that a charging processing mechanism is not provided.

The present invention relates to a relay station charging system capable of performing a charging process for a special call in a local area even in a telephone exchange network in which charging is performed only at a relay station and a switching mechanism in the local area is not provided with a charging mechanism. The aim is to provide a scheme.

[Means for Solving the Problems] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the basic configuration of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes an originating telephone, 11 denotes an exchange (originating station) in the local area, and 12 denotes a transit exchange (relay station).

In the exchange 11 in the local area, 111 is a special dial detecting means, 112 is a billing request dial generating means, 113 is a calling telephone number requesting means, 114 is a calling telephone number sending means, 115 is a service registering means, and 116 is a memory. In the relay exchange 12, 121 is a billing request dial detecting means, 122 is a calling telephone number requesting means, 123 is a billing information registering means, 124 is a registration completion notifying means, and 125 is a billing information memory.

The present invention provides an exchange in a local area which, when detecting that a call from an originating telephone has requested a special service, sends a billing request dial to the intermediate exchange and transmits / receives a signal to / from the intermediate exchange to transmit the signal to / from the intermediate exchange. The calling telephone number is notified and accounting information is recorded in the relay exchange.

[Operation] When a call is made from the calling telephone set 10 to the exchange 11 in the local area and a dial requesting a special service executed by the exchange in the local area such as a wake-up call or a transfer telephone is made, the exchange 11 Dial detection means
A request for a special service is detected by 111 and the billing request dial generating means 112 is activated. The billing request dial generating means 112 sends a dial indicating that billing is requested to the transit exchange 12 via a trunk line connected to the transit exchange 12.

This dial signal is detected by the billing request dial detecting means 121 of the transit exchange 12, and the detection output drives the outgoing telephone number requesting means 122 to send a signal requesting the outgoing telephone number to the exchange 11 via the trunk line. Send out.

When the switching equipment 11 detects that the calling telephone number is requested by the calling telephone number requesting means 113, the calling telephone number sending means 114 detects the calling telephone number (the calling telephone number) which has been detected in advance when the calling telephone 10 made a call. (Which may be based on the accommodation terminal of the subscriber line) is retrieved from the memory 116 and sent to the transit exchange 12. When this calling telephone number is received by the charging information registering means 123 of the transit exchange 12, it is stored in the charging information memory 125. Next, the transit exchange 12 activates the registration completion notifying means 124 to notify the exchange 11 of the registration completion. The exchange 11 receiving this registers the contents of the requested service in the memory 116 by the service registration means 115.

[Embodiment] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a control flow of the embodiment.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 20 denotes a subscriber's telephone, reference numerals 21 and 22 denote a network and a control device constituting an exchange 1 (hereinafter referred to as a local exchange) in a local area, and reference numerals 23 and 24 denote a network and a control device constituting a transit exchange 2. , 25 represents a magnetic tape.

The local exchange 1 accommodates a large number of subscriber telephone sets 20,
Calls between subscribers in the local area are free of charge, and in the case of a call via the transit exchange 2 between the local areas, charging processing is performed in the transit exchange 2.

The third control flow for charging a call requesting a special service from the telephone of the subscriber A of the local exchange 1 is described below.
A wake-up call will be described below with reference to the configuration shown in FIG. In addition, the local exchange is the originating station,
The relay exchange 2 is a relay station.

Special service (wake-up call) from a telephone 20
It is assumed that a special call telephone number (telephone number dialing) requesting is received (30 in FIG. 3). In this example, as shown in FIG. 2, a dial of “* 55 * hour, minute #” is used as a telephone number for requesting a wake-up call service, and “hour, minute” is used for a wake-up call “ Numbers representing "hour" and "minute" are set.

The control unit 22 of the transmitting station 1 translates the received dial (number) (31). It is determined whether or not the translation result indicates a service to be forcibly charged next (No. 32). In this case, it is identified that the call is subject to compulsory charging (the first "* 55 *" indicates a wake-up call).

When the request for the special service is identified, a process for determining whether or not the calling telephone is qualified to receive the special service can be performed. In that case, the telephone number that is qualified to receive the service is checked against a registered table in advance.

If it is the target of the compulsory charging, the reading process of the charging request dial is started (33). In that case, first, a trunk line device (trunk) connected to the relay station is captured and a transmission signal is transmitted (the same as in the above).

Upon receipt of this transmission signal (41), the control device 24 of the relay station 2 is activated to perform dial reception criteria.

When the calling station sends outgoing signal, the dial number (“149” in the example of FIG. 2) predetermined as the billing request dial is stored in the memory, and the number is sent to the relay station. 35). When the relay station receives this dial (43), it performs a translation process (44) and identifies it as a billing request dial.

Then, the control device of the relay station sends a request for the calling telephone number (id. 45).

Upon receiving the request for the outgoing telephone number (telephone number) in an outgoing call (36), the already-exited outgoing telephone number is returned (37).

Upon receiving the calling telephone number, the relay station executes the billing process by adding 1 to the number of calls at the storage location of the billing memory corresponding to the telephone number of the subscriber A (see FIG.
47). When the charging process is completed, a charging completion signal is transmitted from the relay station to the originating station (48), and then a special call completion sound is transmitted (49).

When this charging completion signal is received by the calling station (3
8), the service station registers the service contents (see 3).
9). On the other hand, the calling subscriber is notified of the special call completion tone transmitted from the relay station 2 (40), and it can be seen that the wake-up call service has been accepted and registered.

In the above control of the transmitting station, if a telephone number in the city is indicated in step 32, a normal connection is made as a call without charging. Also, in the case of a long distance connection call, a connection to a normal relay station is made, and charging at the relay station is performed as in the conventional case. The billing is temporarily stored in the magnetic tape 25 from the billing registration memory, and is made to the subscriber based on the data.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, even if only a relay exchange has a charging function, an exchange (local exchange) in a local area can be forcibly charged to a calling subscriber. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the principle of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the embodiment, FIG. 3 is a control flow of the embodiment, FIG. FIG. 1B is an explanatory diagram of a conventional accounting process. In FIG. 1, 10: originating telephone 11: exchange in local area (originating station) 12: transit exchange (relay office)

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Shinsuke Yura 3-5-3 Ichibancho, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture Inside Fujitsu Tohoku Communication Systems Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-2-174359 (JP, A) JP-A-64-16062 (JP, A) JP-A-63-200665 (JP, A) JP-A-63-84245 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) ) H04M 15/00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] In a telephone exchange network in which communication calls in a local area are connected free of charge and charging is performed by a relay exchange for connecting communication calls between networks, a control device of an exchange in the local area is controlled by a switch in the local area. When a request for a special service occurs, a billing request dial is sent to the transit exchange, and when a call request from the transit exchange is detected, a calling telephone number is sent. A relay station billing method characterized by charging a call requesting a special service in its own area by storing a billing information upon requesting a number and receiving a calling telephone number.