JPH012449A - Communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a communication device equipped with a mailbox, and in particular, it is possible to effectively utilize the mailbox by monitoring the time of mail information written in the mailbox. The present invention relates to a communication device designed to achieve.

[Prior Art] FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a mailbox communication sequence. When a sending terminal has mail information to be sent to a terminal such as a data terminal device or a facsimile device, it issues a write request to the mailbox in step 61. and sends the mail information to the mailbox in step 62.

When the mailbox finishes writing the mail information, it sends a confirmation notice to the sending terminal and ends the writing sequence.

When the mailbox receives the read request 64 from the receiving terminal, it transmits the mail information to the receiving terminal at 65 and ends the process.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve] However, in the above conventional example, when there is a large amount of mail information for which there is no withdrawal request from the receiving terminal, the mailbox becomes full of mail information, so the mailbox cannot be used. There was a problem in that the area was reduced by that much.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the conventional example, and the present invention has been made in view of the problems of the conventional example. It is an object of the present invention to provide a communication device capable of effectively utilizing a mailbox by sending a reception reminder No. 13 to prompt a receiving terminal to send and receive the message.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the communication device of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, a communication device is provided with a mailbox that is connected to a communication line and stores mail information from each terminal, and includes a timer that measures the retention time of the mail information in the mailbox, and a timer that measures the retention time when the retention time reaches a predetermined value. and transmitting means for transmitting a reception reminder signal to the terminal device that should receive the mail information.

[Operation] In the above configuration, the retention time of mail information in the mailbox is measured, and when the retention time reaches a predetermined value, a reception/1 prompting signal is sent to the rice grain terminal device to receive the mail information. Operates to prompt reception on the side terminal.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[Description of communication device (FIGS. 1 and 2)] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the communication system of the embodiment, and FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the communication device of the embodiment. .

In Fig. 2, 21 indicates a network composed of a public network, a private network, etc. % 24 indicates a network 21
A data terminal connected to the network 21 transmits and receives data. 25 is a facsimile device that transmits and receives image data and the like via the network 21;

10 is a communication device whose details are shown in FIG. 1, which receives mail information from a data terminal 24 and a facsimile device 25 and stores it in a mailbox 17, and also sends mail to the network 21 in response to reception requests from each terminal. In addition to transmitting mail information to be sent, it also controls various kinds of mail information, which will be described later.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a control unit that controls the communication device 10, and includes a CPU such as a microprocessor, and RoMm that stores the CPU control program and data shown in the schematic flowchart of FIG. ing. 12
is used as a work area for the CPU, and is also used as a mailbox control table 18 shown in FIG. 3(A).
This is a memory composed of RAM, etc., that stores information such as

Reference numeral 13 denotes a timekeeping section that measures time and outputs time information to the control section 11, which functions as a clock and also has a timer function for timing a predetermined period of time according to instructions from the control section 11. Reference numeral 14 denotes a console for outputting various data and messages to the control unit 11, and is composed of a keyboard, a CRT, and the like.

15 is a communication control unit that controls communication with the network 21; 16 is an input/output unit that performs human output such as mail information between the mailbox 17, which is configured with a disk-mounted device, and the communication device 10; This is the control section.

[Description of Data Table (FIG. 3)] FIG. 3(A) is a diagram showing the configuration of the mailbox li control table 18 provided in the memory 12.

Reference numeral 30 indicates index data corresponding to one piece of mail information, which is created sequentially each time one piece of mail information is manually input, and is deleted each time the mail information is deleted each time it is transmitted to a receiving terminal.

To explain the data h'J composition of this index data, 31 is the next data pointer indicating the address of the next index data, which is referred to when checking the index data of each terrestrial 21-inch blueprint in the mailbox 17. be done. Note that when this pointer 31 is "0", it indicates that it is the final index data.

32 is control data whose details are shown in FIG. 3(B). 3
3 is time data for storing the valid time, and stores the value obtained by adding the maximum allowable storage time of the mail information in the mailbox to the time when the mail information was input. 34 is the address of the mail information in the mailbox 17,
For example, it is a disk address indicated by a disk track number, sector address, etc.

FIG. 3(B) is a diagram showing an example of the structure of the control data 32.

In the figure, 35 is a flag indicating whether the index data 30 is valid. For example, when it is "1", the index data 30 is valid, and when it is '0゛°, the index data 30 is valid.
0 indicates invalid. Therefore, when erasing index data, it is sufficient to simply set this flag 35 to "O". 36 is the address of the sending terminal for email information, 3
7 indicates the address of the terminal that should receive the mail information.

[Description of mailbox communication processing (FIGS. 4 and 5)] FIG. 5 is a flowchart of mailbox communication processing by Tsushin Hto of the embodiment.

First, in step S1, the mailbox 17 from the sending terminal is
Check whether a write request is input. If there is no write request, the process proceeds to step S6, where the receiving terminal checks for a read request. If there is a request to write mail information in step S1, the process advances to step S2, and mail information from the sending terminal is received. In step S3, it is checked whether the reception of the mail information has been completed, and in step S4, based on the current reception time, the maximum allowable storage time of the mail/information received in step S2 is entered in the time data 33 of table 18. Se soto. still,
This time data 33 may be in units of hours, units of force, or units of seconds.

In step S5, a writing confirmation notification is sent to the sending terminal,
In step S6, it is checked whether there is a request to read mail information from each terminal. If there is a read request, the process advances to step S9, and it is checked with reference to the table 18 whether or not there is mail information fa for the terminal that issued the read request. is read from the mailbox 17 and sent to the terminal that issued the read request. In step SIO, the transmitted mail information in the mailbox 17 is deleted, and the corresponding index data in the table 18 is cleared.

On the other hand, if there is no read request in step S6, step S7
Go to , and see if any email information has expired. For example, by manually inputting time information every second from the clock section 13 and comparing it with the time data 33 of the index data of the table 18, it is determined whether or not there is mail information whose time has expired.

If there is mail information that has exceeded the effective storage time in the mailbox 17, the process advances to step S8, the address of the receiving terminal is obtained by referring to the control data 32 of the index data of the mail information, and a reception reminder signal is sent to the terminal. Then, the process returns to step S1 and the above-described operations are executed.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the above-mentioned communication sequence, in which a write request 41 is output from the sending terminal, mail information from the sending terminal is written to the mailbox 17 at 42, and a write confirmation signal 43 is sent to the sending terminal. do. When a predetermined period of time has elapsed after the completion of writing the mail information and the time has expired in the mailbox 17, a reception reminder signal is transmitted to the receiving side terminal in step 44.

Thereafter, when a read request 45 is sent from the receiving terminal, mail information 46 is read from the mailbox 17 and sent to the receiving terminal.

When the transmission of the mail information to the receiving terminal is completed, the mail information in the mailbox 17 is deleted, and the corresponding index data is also deleted.

In this embodiment, it has been explained that the time data 33 is set for each piece of mail information based on the time when the mail/information was written. 12:00 a.m., etc., and a reception reminder signal may be sent to the receiving terminals corresponding to all mail information whose time has expired.

Further, although the time data 33 is set based on the time when the mail information is written, it is not limited to this, and for example, the valid time (for example, 10 hours) (600 minutes, 36,000 seconds, etc.), and the time data 33 is decremented by 1 by the time signal input from the time measurement unit 13 every second or minute, and when the time data becomes "O", the time It may be determined that the cut has occurred.

As described above, according to this embodiment, when writing mail information to a mailbox, a table is created in which time data indicating the validity period of the mail information is set, and the information of the mailbox whose time has expired is handled. By transmitting a reception reminder signal to a receiving terminal to urge reception, a communication device that makes effective use of limited mailbox resources can be provided.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, by monitoring the time of e-mail information and prompting the receiving terminal to receive e-mail information that has been stored for a predetermined period of time or longer, it is possible to Since email information is no longer stored in the mailbox for hours, the mailbox can be used more effectively.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure M1 is a schematic configuration diagram of the communication device in the mailbox communication system of the embodiment, Figure 2 is a configuration diagram showing the schematic configuration of the mailbox communication system of the embodiment, and Figures 3 (A) and (B) are diagrams of mail information. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a control table, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a mailbox communication sequence in the embodiment, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing mailbox communication processing in the embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing conventional mailbox communication processing. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a sequence. In the figure, 10... communication device, 11... control unit, 12...
...Memory, 13...Timekeeping section, 14...Console, 15...Communication control section, 16...Person output control section, 1
7...Mailbox, 18...Table, 21.
...Network, 24...Data terminal, 25...
Facsimile machine, 30... index data,
31...Next data pointer, 32...Control data,
33... Time data, 34... Disk address, 35... Flag, 36... Sending terminal address, 3
7... Receiving terminal address.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A communication device comprising a mailbox connected to a communication line and storing mail information from each terminal, comprising: a timer for measuring the retention time of the mail information in the mailbox; and the retention time. 1. A communication device comprising: a transmitting means for transmitting a reception reminder signal to a terminal device that is to receive the mail information when the mail information reaches a predetermined value.