JPH02235474A - Incoming call reply device in facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To validate a new incoming call during communication by sending a call message to a caller when an incoming call is detected while a facsimile equipment applies communication and supplying a reply to the caller when the communication state is terminated thereafter. CONSTITUTION:When a new incoming call arrives during the communication, a normal incoming call detection section 2 detects it via a network control section 12 and informs it to a main control section 14. Since a communication state flag F is already set to 1, the control section 14 starts a call message transmission section 3 and the call message is sent to an ISDN 11 via the control section 12. The call message is sent to the caller in response to the new incoming call through the ISDN 11. When the communication is terminated, the transmission of the call message is stopped by the control section 14, which sends a reply message instead. Thus, when the caller is in standby of the call message from the facsimile equipment, the communication is started after the reply comes from the facsimile.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an incoming call answering device in a facsimile machine connected to a digital integrated service network.

<<Prior art>> As is well known, the public telephone network and DDXI! In 1, if a facsimile machine connected to the network is already in use, the facsimile machine is not notified of a new incoming call. That is, when such a network receives a call to a facsimile machine that is already in communication, it sends a visit tone to the calling party to notify the calling party that the facsimile machine on the receiving party is in communication. In this case, the calling party has no choice but to temporarily disconnect the line and then make the call again.

By the way, the digital integrated service network (hereinafter referred to as ISDN), which has become popular in recent years, requires control information. D channel for sending and receiving information and sending and receiving audio information, image information, etc.
Even if a facsimile machine connected to this communication line is communicating on one B channel, new incoming calls will be transferred to the D channel. will be notified.

FIG. 3 shows a conventional facsimile machine connected to ISOH, which includes a network control unit 12 that controls communication with the SDN 11, a facsimile communication control unit 13 that performs facsimile communication through the network control unit 12, and , and a main control section 14 that controls the facsimile machine in an integrated manner. Such a facsimile machine operates according to the flowchart shown in FIG. 4 when receiving a call.

First, when there is an @ signal from the ISDN 11, the network control unit 12
detects this incoming call and notifies the main control unit 14 of the incoming call <<Step 101>>. In response to this, the main control section 14 determines whether or not the facsimile device is in communication (step 102), and if it is not in communication, it performs response processing for the incoming call through the network control section 12 (step 103). . As a result, the facsimile communication control section 13 starts facsimile communication through the network control section 12.

Next, during facsimile communication, the process from step 101 is repeated, and if a new call arrives, the main IIJm unit 14 is notified of this new call by the network control unit 12, and In response to this, it is determined that the facsimile device is already communicating <<Step 102>>. When the main control unit 14 makes this determination, it performs call rejection processing for the new incoming call through the network 13 (Step 104). As a result, the new incoming call is rejected, and the facsimile communication based on this new incoming call is not received.

Further, if there is no new incoming call during the seven-door facsimile communication (step 101), the main control unit 14 determines whether this facsimile communication has ended or not (step 10).
5) When it is determined that the disconnection process has been completed, the network control unit 1
Step 106 is carried out through step 2. This allows IS
The line of DN11 is released.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, even if a conventional facsimile device connected to an ISDN is able to receive a new call during facsimile communication, it ends up rejecting the new call. Therefore, there is no difference in comparison with the case where the system is connected to a public telephone network or a DDX network, and there is a problem that the new incoming call is not effectively processed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a call response device for a facsimile machine that can effectively handle new calls when performing facsimile communications via ISDN.

[Structure of the invention]

<<Means for Solving the Problems>> In the present invention, in an incoming call response device in a facsimile device connected to a digital integrated service network, a communication detecting means for detecting whether or not this facsimile device W1 is in communication; Continuous call detection means for constantly detecting incoming calls;
If the constant call detection means detects an incoming call while the communication detection means detects that the communication is in progress, the call message is sent to the calling party, and then the communication detection means The present invention is characterized by comprising means for responding to the outgoing call fIJ' when it is detected that communication is not in progress.

<<Operation>> According to the present invention, if an incoming call is detected while the facsimile machine is communicating, it sends a paging message to the calling party, and when the communication ends and the call is no longer in progress, the facsimile machine sends the call message. 9]. Therefore, if the calling side waits after receiving a paging message from the facsimile machine, communication can be started from the moment a response is received from the facsimile machine.

<<Example>> Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a facsimile He to which an embodiment of the incoming call response device according to the present invention is applied. In this embodiment, the conventional facsimile machine shown in FIG. 1: It is configured by adding a communication detecting section 1, a constant snack saving section 2, and a paging message sending section 3 to [. In FIG. 1, the same reference numerals are given to parts that perform the same functions as those of the device shown in FIG. 3 for convenience of explanation.

The communication detecting unit 1 in this embodiment detects whether or not the communication is in progress based on whether the seven-house communication control unit 13 is working or not, and sends this detection result to the main control unit 14. Notice. The constant call detection unit 2 always detects incoming calls from the ISDN 11 via the network control unit 12, regardless of whether communication is in progress or not, and notifies the main control unit 14 of the detection result.

The paging message sending unit 3 sends the paging message to the network ff.
ilJ u[1 Send to ISDN 11 via section 12.

The main control section 14 centrally controls this facsimile machine.

Next, the operation of this facsimile machine will be described according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, when starting the operation of the facsimile machine, the main control section 14 clears the internally indicated 7-lag F during communication and sets the 7-lag F during communication to "0" (Step 201). At this time, since this facsimile machine is not communicating, the main control unit 14 determines that the communication has not started and also determines that the communication has not been completed.
02 and 203). These steps 202 and 2
03 is repeated until communication starts, and this state is called a steady state.

When there is an outgoing request or an incoming call in this steady state,
The main 1tlIJII1 unit 14 determines to start communication.
Step 202), when this determination is made, it is determined whether the communication flag F is "0" or "1" (Step 2).
04》. Here, in step 201, 7 lags F are being communicated.
is set to “0”, main 111Jill1
Judgment that there is 75 ku Fka "O" te in 4ha 3M communication,
In other words, it is determined that no communication is being performed, and the facsimile communication control section 13 is connected to the ISDN via the network control section 12.
II <<Step 205>>. As a result, the facsimile communication #iIl unit 13 starts communicating with the ISDN 11 via the network #J111 unit 12, and is in communication. At this time, the communication detecting unit 1 indicates that the communication is in progress!
! Since the IIJill unit 13 is operating, it detects that communication is in progress, and notifies the main control unit 14 of this detection result.

In response, the main control unit 14 sets the communication flag F to '0'.
' to "1"<<Step206>>. After this, the process returns to the steady state in which the processes of each step 202 and 203 are repeated. Therefore, the steady state is maintained during communication.

Next, when there is a new call while communicating,
The regular R call detection unit 2 detects this incoming call via the network control unit 12 and notifies the main control unit 14 of the new incoming call. In response to this, the main control unit 14 determines to start communication (step 202), and when this determination is made, the communication flag F is set to "0".
” or “1” (step 204). Here, since the communication flag F has already been set to “1”, the process moves to the next step 207. Become.

In this step 207, the main control section 14 activates the paging message sending section 3, which causes the paging message sending section 3 to send a paging message to the ISDN 11 via the network control section 12. This paging message is transmitted through ISDN II to the calling party that answers the new call. In this case, by receiving the paging message, the calling party can detect that the called party is continuing to call the facsimile device,
The paging message will continue unless the caller abandons the call.

When ζ, the facsimile device on the called side performs communication with one communication party using the facsimile communication control unit 13, and also sends a paging message from the paging message sending unit 3 to the calling side corresponding to the new incoming call. There will be. Here, the main control unit 14 determines whether or not the communication by the facsimile communication control unit 13 has ended, and also determines whether or not the transmission of the paging message by the paging message sending unit 3 has been completed. 208 and 209》. For example, if the communication by the facsimile communication control unit 13 ends while the call message sending unit 13 continues to send the call message, the main control unit 14 determines that the communication has ended (step 208). , upon making this determination, the network control unit 12
71km communication control unit 13 and ISDN 11 via
The layers are disconnected (step 210). At this time, the communication detecting section 1 detects that communication is not in progress since the facsimile communication control section 13 has stopped operating, and notifies the main control section 14 of this detection result. In response, the main control unit 14 sets the communication flag F to "0" (step 21).
1》. Then, the main control unit 14 stops sending the paging message from the paging message sending unit 3, and instead sends a response message from the network control unit 12 through the ISDN 11 to the calling side corresponding to the new incoming call.
2) Return to the process of step 202 above. Here, by sending a response message from the facsimile Be to the calling party, the main requesting unit 14 determines that communication between the facsimile machine and the calling party has started <<Step 202>>.

After this, the main control unit 14 determines that the communicating flag F is "0" since it has already been set to "0" in step 211 (step 204), and makes this determination. The facsimile communication control section 13 is connected to the network control section 1.
Connect to ISDN11 via 2《Step 205》
. Then, the main itI 11 control unit 14 sets the communication flag F to “
1'' (step 206), and the process returns to step 202.

Therefore, when the communication by the facsimile communication system Il1 section 13 and the calling message sending section 3 are being carried out together, and the facsimile communication system section 13 finishes communicating with one communication partner, the calling message is sent. , and instead sends a response message to the calling party corresponding to the new incoming call, thereby starting facsimile communication with this calling party.

Further, when the calling party corresponding to the new incoming call, to which this calling message is transmitted, abandons the call while the facsimile communication unit 13 is communicating and the calling message sending unit 3 is sending a calling message. The main control unit 14 is notified of this by the ISDN 11 via the network management unit 12, and determines whether to stop sending the paging message (step 209). When the main control unit 14 makes this determination, it stops sending out the calling message from the calling message sending unit 3 (step 213), and returns to the process of step 202. Therefore, when the calling party corresponding to the new incoming call abandons the call, the system quickly returns to a steady state in which steps 202 and 203 are repeated.

Furthermore, in this steady state, 7? When the communication by the Kushimiri communication control unit 13 is completed, the main control unit 14
Facsimile communication Mill section 13 via II section 12
and ISDN 11a 《Step 214》
. At this time, the communication detecting section 1 detects that communication is not in progress since the facsimile communication control section 13 is not operating, and notifies the main control section 14 of this fact. In response to this, the main control unit 14 sets the communication lag F to "0" (step 215), and returns to the steady state.

In this way, in this embodiment, when a new call arrives during facsimile communication, the facsimile communication is continued and a paging message is sent to the caller corresponding to the new call, so that the facsimile communication is terminated. When the process is completed, a new facsimile communication is started with the sender.

Therefore, the calling party can perform facsimile communication by waiting for the period until the call message is stopped, and there is no need to take the trouble of once disconnecting the line and repeating the call. Also, if the period from sending the paging message to stopping it is very short, this 7? The Kushimiri device can communicate efficiently and without interruption.

[Effects of tn Light] As explained above, according to the present invention, if an incoming call is detected while the facsimile machine is communicating, it sends a paging message to the calling party, and then the communication ends and the communication is stopped. Since a response is sent to the calling party when the machine is no longer in use, it is possible to provide an incoming call response device for a facsimile machine that can effectively handle new @ calls in progress.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 is a block diagram showing a facsimile machine to which an embodiment of the incoming call answering device according to the present invention is applied; FIG. 2 is a flowchart used to explain the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a conventional facsimile machine He, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart used to explain the operation of the conventional apparatus shown in FIG. 1...Communication detecting section, 2...Constant call detecting section, 3.
... paging message sending unit, 11... digital integrated service network, 12... network control unit, 13... facsimile communication control unit, 14... main control unit. Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] In an incoming call answering device for a facsimile device connected to a digital integrated service network, a communication detecting means for detecting whether or not the facsimile device is in communication; and a constant incoming call that constantly detects incoming calls. detecting means, and when the communication detecting means detects that the communication is in progress, if the constant incoming call detecting means detects an incoming call, it sends a paging message to the calling party, and then the communication 1. An incoming call response device for a facsimile machine, comprising means for responding to the calling party when the medium detection means detects that the communication is not in progress.