JP3050893B2 - Network controller - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Purpose of the Invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention is connected between a telephone line and a terminal device, activated by a call request from the terminal device, and connected to a telephone line. The present invention relates to a network control device that performs a calling operation by transmitting a ring signal.

(Prior Art) This type of network control device connects a terminal device having a meter for metering the usage of electricity, gas, water, or the like to a telephone line, and uses usage data and usage data measured by the meter of the terminal device. It is used for an automatic meter reading system that transmits and collects quantity abnormality information to a sensor device via a telephone line. In such an automatic meter reading system, when the terminal device detects, for example, the usage amount or more, the terminal device makes a call request to the network control device to start the network control device, and the network control device sends the call to the exchange via the telephone line. A terminal calling operation of dialing the telephone number of the network control device for the device and calling the center device is performed.

When performing such a terminal calling operation, the network control device:
A dialing signal is transmitted according to the dialing type of the telephone line to which the network control device is connected. There are two types of dialing signals: a push button signal and a dial pulse signal. Since this dialing type is different depending on the telephone line to which the network control device is connected, the conventional network control device sets the dialing type semi-fixed locally by a setting device or the like. I am going to put it.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In the conventional network control device, since the dialing type information is semi-fixedly set by a setting device or the like, the dialing type of the telephone line to which the network control device is connected is set. Is changed in the middle, the dialing type set in the network controller differs from the actual dialing type of the telephone line.
There is a problem that the terminal control operation cannot be performed from the network control device.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and it is an object of the present invention to automatically perform a dialing type change setting process even when a dialing type of a telephone line is changed in the middle, and to always perform normal processing. An object of the present invention is to provide a network control device capable of performing a calling operation.

[Configuration of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, a network control device of the present invention is connected between a telephone line and a terminal device, and is activated by a call request from the terminal device. In a network control device for transmitting a dialing signal to a telephone line to perform a calling operation, a means for transmitting a push button signal, a means for transmitting a dial pulse signal, and a push button as a dialing signal when dialing is attempted. A control means for performing a calling operation by alternately switching a signal and a dial pulse signal, and storing dialing information of a normally performed calling operation in a storage means; and a storage means provided in the storage means. An error counter for counting the number of times the calling operation cannot be normally performed continuously by the calling operation based on the dialing signal stored in the means; Means for switching the dialing signal when the count value of the error counter reaches a predetermined value to perform a calling operation, and for resetting the count value of the error counter when a normal calling operation can be performed. I do.

(Operation) In the network control device of the present invention, a calling operation is performed by alternately switching the push button signal and the dialing at the time of the dialing trial, and the dialing information of the one where the calling operation is normally performed is stored. If the count value of the error counter reaches a predetermined value and the calling operation cannot be performed normally even if the calling operation is continuously performed a predetermined number of times using the stored dialing signal, the dialing signal is switched and the call is generated. A call operation is performed, and when a normal call operation is performed, the count value of the error counter is reset.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention is described using a drawing.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a network control device according to one embodiment of the present invention. The network control device shown in FIG. 1 is applied to an automatic meter reading system that collects, for example, electricity, gas, and water consumption by using a telephone line, and measures the electricity, gas, and water consumption. A terminal device interface 10 connected to a terminal device including a meter and a network control circuit 8 connected to a telephone line.
A transmission / reception circuit 9 is connected between the terminal and the terminal device interface 10. An answer tone detection circuit 11 and a PB signal generation circuit 12 are connected to the network control circuit 8. The network controller has a control circuit 13 for controlling the entire operation, for example, a microprocessor (CPU).
3 is connected to each of the circuits 8 to 12 described above. Further, a storage circuit 14 is connected to the control circuit 13.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an automatic meter reading system to which the network control device of FIG. 1 is applied. In the automatic meter reading system shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of network controllers shown in FIG. 1 are connected between the terminal device 7 and the telephone line 4 as indicated by reference numeral 6. The plurality of terminal devices 7 connected to the plurality of network control devices 6, respectively, are provided for each meter for reading gas, water, electricity, and the like, respectively.

A telephone 5 is connected in parallel with the network control device 6 to the telephone line 4 to which the network control device 6 is connected.
The telephone 5 and the network control device 6 are connected to the exchange 3 via the telephone line 4 and are connected from the exchange 3 to the center device 1 via the center network control device 2. The usage amounts of gas, water, electricity, etc. are transmitted from the network control device 6 to the center device 1 via the exchange 3 and the center network control device 2, and are collected by the center device 1.

Also, when the terminal device 7 detects, for example, a usage abnormality,
A terminal call communication is performed, whereby the terminal device 7 calls the center device 1 via the network control device 6, the telephone line 4, the exchange 3, and the center network control device 2, and sends information on the usage abnormality to the center device 1. To be sent. More specifically, the terminal call communication from the terminal device 7, as shown in FIG. 3, first, when the terminal device 7 detects an abnormal usage, sends a call request to the network control device 6, Activate the network controller 6. When activated by the terminal device 7, the network control device 6 closes the telephone line 4 and switches the telephone exchange 3 through the telephone line 4.
A dialing signal of the telephone number of the network controller 2 for the center is transmitted. When the exchange 3 receives the dialing signal, it connects the center network controller 2 to the network controller 6 and sends a line connection request to the center network controller 2. When receiving the line connection request from the exchange 3, the center network controller 2 transmits an answer tone as a response signal to the network controller 6 via the exchange 3 and the telephone line 4, and performs a line connection response operation. Upon receiving the answer tone from the center network control device 2, the network control device 6 confirms that data transmission between the center network control device 2 and the terminal device 7 has been enabled, and sends information to the terminal device 7. Make a request. In response to the information request, the terminal device 7 transmits an information telegram, that is, an information telegram relating to abnormal usage, etc., to the center network control device 2 via the network control device 6, the telephone line 4 and the exchange 3.

The network control device shown in FIG. 1 will be described in more detail. The network control circuit 8 connected to the telephone line 4 closes the telephone line 4 in response to a control signal from the control circuit 13 when performing call communication. A dial pulse (DP) type dialing signal, that is, a dial pulse signal is transmitted to the telephone line 4.
Has the function of sending to The transmission / reception circuit 9 receives a signal transmitted from the center network control device 2 via the network control circuit 8, converts the signal into an electric signal, and converts the signal into a terminal device interface.
10 or a control circuit 13, and further has a function of converting a signal supplied from the terminal device interface 10 or the control circuit 13 into an electric signal and transmitting the electric signal to the center network control device 2 via the network control circuit 8. . Terminal interface
Reference numeral 10 has a function of converting each transmission / reception signal from the transmission / reception circuit 9 and the terminal device 7 into an electric signal, receiving a call request from the terminal device 7, and supplying an activation signal to the control circuit 13. The answer tone detection circuit 11 receives and detects the answer tone from the center network control device 2 via the network control circuit 8, and supplies the answer tone detection signal to the control circuit 13. The PB signal generation circuit 12 generates a push button (PB) type dialing signal, that is, a push button signal, according to a control signal from the control circuit 13, and sends the push button signal to the telephone line 4 via the network control circuit 8. I do. The storage circuit 14 stores dialing type information indicating whether the dialing signal is a dial pulse signal or a push button signal. The control circuit 13 is started by a start signal from the terminal device interface 10 and supplies a control signal for closing the circuit to the network control circuit 8, whereby the telephone line 4 is closed or stored by the network control circuit 8. A control signal is supplied to the network control circuit 8 or the PB signal generation circuit 12 based on the dialing type information stored in the circuit 14, and a dial pulse signal or a push button signal is transmitted. Further, the control circuit 13 has a built-in timer circuit, and when calling communication is performed, if the answer tone detection signal cannot be received from the answer tone detection circuit 11 within a predetermined time, an error count is stored in the storage circuit 14. It supplies a signal. When the answer tone detection signal is received within a predetermined time, the dialing type information used at this time is supplied to the storage circuit 14 and stored in the storage circuit 14. The storage circuit 14 has an error counter for counting the error count signal, in addition to storing the dialing type information described above.

Upon receiving a call request from the terminal device 7 due to an abnormal usage amount or the like, the network control device 6 sends a terminal signal based on the dialing signal based on the dialing type information stored in the storage circuit 14 under the control of the control circuit 13. A calling operation is performed. In this case, the value of the error count stored in the error counter of the storage circuit 14 is checked, and if the error count value is a predetermined value, the error count is stored in the storage circuit 14. A dialing operation is performed with a dialing signal different from the dialing type information. That is, when the dialing signal stored in the storage circuit 14 is a dial pulse signal, a dialing operation is performed with a push button signal, and the dialing signal stored in the storage circuit 14 is a push button signal. In such a case, a dialing operation is performed with a dial pulse signal.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIG. 4 and FIG.

First, a dialing operation at the time of a dialing trial will be described with reference to FIG. At the time of dialing trial, a call operation performed on a trial basis from the terminal device 7 when the network control device 6 is attached is referred to.

First, as shown in FIG.
When a call request is supplied from the terminal device 7 to the network control device 6 and the control circuit 13 of the network control device 6 is activated, the control circuit 13 controls the network control circuit 8 to close the telephone line 4. , And sends a dialing signal to the exchange 3 via the telephone line 4. As a dialing signal in this case, either a dial pulse signal or a push button signal is used. As an example, a dial pulse signal is transmitted, but a push button signal may be used.

If an answer tone from the center network control device 2 cannot be detected within a predetermined time after sending the dialing signal, the answer is NG (no good) and dialing trial notification 2 is performed. The operation of the dialing trial issuance 2 is performed in the same procedure as the dialing trial issuance 1 described above, but only another dialing signal is used for the dialing signal. That is, in the dialing trial alert 1,
Since it was a dial pulse signal, dialing is performed with a push button signal.

In the dialing trial alert 2, if the answer to the tone cannot be detected from the center network control device 2 within a predetermined time after the dialing signal is transmitted, the answer is NG again.
In the same manner, dialing trial issuance 3 is similarly performed instead of the dialing signal from the push button signal to the dial pulse signal. As a result, when the answer tone is normally received from the center network control device 2, the dialing signal used in this case, that is, the dial pulse signal, is stored in the storage circuit 14 as dialing type information.

That is, in the dialing trial operation, the dialing operation is repeatedly performed while alternately switching the dialing signal between the dial pulse signal and the bush button signal in order to identify the dialing type, and the answer is normally answered within a predetermined time. The dialing signal when a tone is detected is stored in the storage circuit 14 as dialing type information.

Next, the dialing operation after storing the dialing type information will be described with reference to FIG. This operation is performed, as described with reference to FIG. 4, by issuing a dialing trial notification, storing dialing type information in the storage circuit 14, and then making a call request due to an abnormal usage of the terminal device 7. This is a terminal call communication operation. In this description, it is assumed that the predetermined value of the error count counted by the error counter of the storage circuit 14 is “4” and the error count value initially stored in the error counter is “0”. Also,
A dial pulse signal is stored in the storage circuit 14 as dialing type information, and the telephone line 4 has been a dial pulse signal line until now, but a case where this is changed to a push button signal line will be described.

As shown in FIG. 5, a call request from the terminal device 7 to the network control device 6 is supplied by the call 1 due to the usage abnormality or the like from the terminal device 7, and the control circuit 13 of the network control device 6 When activated by a call request, the control circuit 13 performs the closing operation of the telephone line 4 via the network control circuit 8, and furthermore, the storage circuit
The dial pulse signal and the error count value which are the dialing type information stored in 14 are read. In this case, the read error count value is “0” instead of the predetermined value “4”. Therefore, the control circuit 13 performs the dialing operation with the dial pulse signal according to the dialing type information. If an answer tone is detected from the center network control device 2 within a predetermined time after the dialing operation is performed, the terminal call communication is performed as described with reference to FIG. Could not be detected and NG
In other words, if the telephone line 4 is changed to the push button signal line and the dial pulse signal is sent out as a result of this example, the answer tone cannot be detected. An error count signal is supplied to the storage circuit 14, and the error count value of the storage circuit 14 is incremented by 1,
Let it be "1".

As described above, if the answer tone cannot be detected in the first outgoing call 1 and the error count value is not the predetermined value “4”, the dialing type information is not changed, and
In response to the re-call 1 of the terminal device 7 while the dial pulse signal remains, the network control device 6 performs a dialing operation in the same manner as the call 1 described above. Then, it waits to detect an answer tone from the center network control device 2. If the answer tone cannot be detected within a certain period of time, the error count value is incremented by 1 in the same manner as described above, and the re-call operation is repeated until the error count value reaches the predetermined value "4".

This recall operation is repeated a plurality of times, in this example three times,
When a recall 4 is performed after the error count value of the storage circuit 14 has reached the predetermined value "4", the control circuit 13 reads out the error count value of the storage circuit 14, and as a result, the error count value becomes the predetermined value. Is "4", the control circuit 13 switches the dialing signal from the dial pulse signal to the push button signal, stores the push button signal in the storage circuit 14 as the dialing type information, and performs the switching. The dialing operation is performed by the push button signal. As a result, when the dialing operation is normally performed and the answer tone from the center network control device 2 is detected, the terminal device 7 is operated in accordance with the procedure described with reference to FIG.
Information telegrams are transmitted and received between the network controller 2 for the center. Further, when the answer tone is normally detected, the error count value of the storage circuit 14 is reset to “0”. Further, the subsequent calling operation is performed by the push button signal.

In the above-described embodiment, the predetermined error count value is set to 4. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it suffices to know that the calling operation has been performed a predetermined number of times.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a calling operation is performed by alternately switching between a push button signal and a dialing at the time of a dialing trial, and the dialing operation of the one where the calling operation is normally performed is performed. If the ring information is stored, and the count value of the error counter reaches a predetermined value, if the call operation cannot be normally performed even if the call operation is continuously performed a predetermined number of times with the stored dialing signal, The dialing signal is switched to perform the calling operation, and when the normal calling operation is performed, the count value of the error counter is reset. Therefore, even if the dialing type of the telephone line is changed in the middle, the dialing is performed. The ring type change setting process is automatically performed, and a normal calling operation can always be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a network control device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an entire configuration of an automatic meter reading system applied in the network control device of FIG. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing the procedure of the terminal call communication of the automatic meter reading system of FIG. 2. FIGS. 4 and 5 are diagrams showing the dialing trial operation and the storing of the dialing type information of the network controller of FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows a dialing operation. 1 ... Center device, 4 ... Telephone line, 6 ... Network control device, 7 ...
Terminal device, 8: Network control device, 11: Answer tone detection circuit, 12: PB signal generation circuit, 13: Control circuit, 14: Storage circuit.

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-1-160147 (JP, A) JP-A-61-189055 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04M 11/00 303 H04M 1/26

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A network control device connected between a telephone line and a terminal device, activated by a call request from the terminal device and transmitting a dialing signal to the telephone line to perform a call operation. Means for sending a signal, means for sending a dial pulse signal, and a calling operation by alternately switching a push button signal and a dial pulse signal as a dialing signal when dialing is attempted,
Control means for storing in the storage means dialing information of the one where the call operation was performed normally, and provided in the storage means,
An error counter for calculating the number of times the calling operation could not be normally performed normally by the calling operation based on the dialing signal stored in the storage means; and the count value of the error counter reached a predetermined value. A network control device comprising: means for occasionally performing a call operation by switching a dialing signal and resetting a count value of an error counter when a normal call operation can be performed.