JPH03167953A - Data communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely continue the communication enable state between a center side and a data terminal equipment side quickly by receiving information by a terminal call on the occurrence of a specific event from the data terminal equipment side and deciding whether or not the communication line connection state is to be kept in response to the content of reception. CONSTITUTION:A terminal equipment side controller (T-NCU) 6 always confirms the presence of the occurrence of security and makes terminal call to a center when the occurrence of the security is confirmed. When a host computer 1 is called, the information relating to the security occurrence state is sent from the T-NCU 6 to the host computer 1. The center side host computer 1 applies the processing to specify the caller and the processing to analyze the reception information and sends a data in response to the content of the reception information and the caller to the T-NCU 6. A telephone line 13 of the T-NCU 6 is released and the processing is terminated when no line hold data exists in response to the content of the received data from the host computer 1. When the line hold data is included, a call signal to ring a ring tone notifying the arrival of the call is sent to a subscriber, s telephone set 9.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a data communication system, and particularly to a data communication system that controls data communication between a center side and a data terminal device side connected via a communication network. Regarding.

[Prior Art] Telemeter systems have conventionally been provided as one type of remote measurement system. This is a data communication system that uses a public telephone network as a communication line.

In this system, a host computer at a center of a water utility, gas utility, electric power utility, etc. is connected to a data terminal device via a telephone line network. Terminal-side network control device (hereinafter referred to as
(abbreviated as T-NCU) is the total number of meters installed at the subscriber's premises of the telemeter system and electrically connected to the equipment.
Transmits 1 value etc. to the host computer. Also, T-
In response to a connected sensor detecting the occurrence of a security state (an alert state requiring protection and safety measures), the NCU transmits a signal to the host computer indicating that a security state has occurred. Therefore, each business entity using the telemeter system can automatically read the measured values of water meters, gas meters, electricity meters, etc. without human intervention, and can also automatically read the measured values of water meters, gas meters, electricity meters, etc. It is possible to automatically detect the state of alarm (warning state) and prevent disasters from occurring.

Here, the control operation of the data communication system in the security state detection described above will be explained in detail. Note that the control operation of the data communication system in collecting measurement data of the connected meters will be briefly explained.

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram of a conventional data communication system.

The data communication system shown in FIG. 2 is a telemeter system using a no-ringing method as an example. The communication line of this data communication system uses existing telephone subscriber lines, but there are two types: a no-ringing method using a no-ringing trunk (a switch that calls the T-NCU at the subscriber's home without using a bell) and a ringing method. is adopted. Note that the telemeter system generally uses a 1-to-N data communication method in which a plurality of data terminal devices are connected to one arbitrary host computer on the center side. However, in order to simplify the explanation, the data communication system shown in Fig. 2 uses a one-to-one data communication system in which one host computer is provided on the center side, and one data terminal side device is connected to it. Assume that the following is taken.

In FIG. 2, the no-ringing telemeter system includes a center side and a data terminal device side. The center side is connected to a host computer ``1'' that performs various processing on data collected from the data terminal device side, a center side network control unit (hereinafter abbreviated as C-NCU) 2, a host side telephone 17, and the center side. Exchange center (abbreviated as LS)
Contains 3.

On the other hand, on the data terminal device side, the LS4 connected to the terminal side
, a no-ringing trunk 5, a T-NCU 6, a meter 7 and a sensor 8 with different interfaces, and a home telephone 9. The host computer 1 on the center side and the C-NCU 2 are connected via a connection line 10, and the C-NCU 2 is
The NCU 2 and the LS 3 are connected via a telephone line 11, and the C-NCU 2 and the host telephone 17 are connected via a connection line 10. In addition, the T-NC on the data terminal device side
U6, meter 7, sensor 8, and home telephone 9 are connected via connection line 10, LS4 and T-NCU6 are connected via telephone line 13, and LS4 and no-ringing trunk 5 are connected via interface lines 15 and 16. connected via. Furthermore, the center side and the data terminal device side are interconnected via an interoffice trunk line 12.

As described above, the data detected by the meter 7 and the sensor 8 is provided to the host computer 1 via a no-ringing communication network.

Note that when the data terminal device side is called from the center side, first, LS4 is called from the center side, and then LS4
transmits a paging signal to the T-NCU 6. At this time, LS4
is typically 16Hz via the no-ringing trunk 5.
, 75V intermittent signal (sent for 1 second, disconnected for 2 seconds) to the called party.
[Send to the T-NCU 6 that wins.] Accordingly, T
- The NCU 6 operates to perform subsequent data communication.

On the other hand, when transmitting data from the data terminal device to the host computer 1 on the center side, the telephone line 13, the interoffice trunk line 12, the telephone line 11, and the connection line 10 are used.
Data communication is performed via. At this time, the telephone lines 11 and 13 that connect the host computer 1 and the T-NCU 6 for communication need to be in an empty state and not busy.

Next, the functional configuration of the T-NCU 6 described above will be explained.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the functional configuration of the T-NCU 6 shown in FIG. 2.

In the figure, the T-NCU 6 includes a microcomputer 101 that controls the device, a ringer circuit section 102 that makes the home telephone 9 ring, an off-hook detection circuit 103 that detects the off-hook state of the home telephone 9, and an interface section 104.
to 107, the telephone line 13 is connected to the inside of the device and the home telephone 9.
The line control circuit 109 includes a relay control unit 108 and a modem function.

Note that the interface section 104 exchanges meter values, gas cutoff information, etc., between the gas meter 7 and the microcomputer 101, for example.

The interface unit 105 exchanges signals regarding the security state, such as the occurrence of a gas leak, between the sensor 8, which detects a gas leak, and the microcomputer 101, for example. The interface unit 106 controls communication between the home telephone 9 and the device. Interface unit 107 controls communication between telephone line 13 and the device.

In the data communication system configured as described above, information such as the measured value of the meter 9 is usually transmitted to the host computer 1 on the center side by a terminal at a fixed date and time every month, or information such as the measured value of the meter 9 is sent to the center side at a fixed date and time every month. T-NCU 6 from the host computer 1 using the no-ringing method.
, and sends information such as the measured value of the meter 9 to the center side. Therefore, the host computer 1 can periodically and automatically collect and process information such as measured values of arbitrary meters without human intervention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic processing flow diagram when a security state occurs in a conventional data communication system.

This processing flow is constructed based on a predetermined transmission control procedure of this system, and the processing on the data terminal device side is executed under the control of the microcomputer 101.

Next, processing operations when a security state occurs in a conventional data communication system will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4.

First, in step Sl (abbreviated as S1 in the figure) and step S2 in FIG. When the occurrence of the condition is recognized, the process moves to the next step S3. In other words, the microcomputer 101 of T-NCU6 is
In the loop process of steps S1 and S2, it is determined whether or not a detection signal indicating the occurrence of a security state is received from the sensor 8 via the interface unit 105.

In step S3, the T-NCU
6 operates to send a terminal call to the center side. At this time,
The microcomputer 101 has an off-hook detection circuit 1
In response to the off-hook detection signal of 03, the relay control unit 1
08 to disconnect the home telephone 9 from the telephone line 13. In response, the home telephone 9 connects to the telephone line 13.
When disconnected from the host computer 1, the microcomputer 101 sends a calling signal for calling the host computer 1 to the telephone line 1.
Send to 3. This paging signal is determined in advance based on a transmission control procedure. In response to instructions from microcomputer 101, line control circuit 109 converts this calling signal into a communicable signal and sends it to telephone line 13 via interface section 107. When this calling signal is received at the center side and the host computer 1 is called, the communication line connection is completed and the state is set to enable subsequent data communication.

In step S4, information regarding the occurrence of the security state is transmitted from the T-NCU 6 side to the host computer 1 side in response to completion of connection of the communication line. In other words,
In step S2 described above, the microcomputer 101 analyzes the data received from the sensor 8, creates data to be transmitted to the host computer 1, and provides the data to the line control circuit 109. In response, the line control circuit 109 converts the applied data into a predetermined signal based on a transmission control procedure, and sends it to the telephone line 13 via the interface section 107. As described above, information regarding the occurrence of the security state is transmitted to the center side, and processing on the center side is started.

The host computer 1 on the center side first performs step S5.
At this point, processing for identifying the sender and processing for analyzing the received information are performed.

Through this process, when the source is identified and the security state that is occurring is analyzed, the process moves to the next step S6.

In step S6, the currently connected telephone line 13 is temporarily disconnected in order to make telephone contact with the caller using the center telephone 17, and the process proceeds to the next step S7.

In step S7, based on the processing result of step S5 described above, first, the telephone number of the subscriber's home where the security state occurred and the terminal made the call is checked and determined. after that,
The corresponding home telephone 9 is called using the host telephone 17. To explain in detail, at this time, the LS4 does not go through the no-ringing trunk 5, but the ringing trunk (
(not shown) transmits an intermittent signal of 16 Hz, 75 V to the T-NCU 6. In response, the process again T-N
Return to CU6 side. Here, the T-NCU6 side performs step S
At step S8, it is determined whether or not the calling signal transmitted at step S7 described above is received.

First, a calling signal from the center side is given to the T-NCU 6 via the telephone line 13. In response to receiving a ringing signal,
Microcomputer 101 switches and controls relay control unit 108 so that in-home telephone 9 and telephone line 13 are connected. Thereafter, the ringer circuit section 102 is controlled to cause the home telephone 9 connected to the telephone line 13 to ring. Thereafter, in step S9, if the subscriber hears the ring of the home telephone 9, picks up the telephone and makes a call, the subscriber can accurately receive instructions from the center side. Therefore, disasters can be prevented by taking measures according to the instructions.

In addition, in the receiving process of step S8, it is necessary that the home telephone 9 is not in an off-hook (busy) state. Therefore, the microcomputer 101 controls the connection of the relay control section 108 based on the detection signal from the off-hook detection circuit 103.

As described above, in the conventional data communication systems shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, when the center side receives security information transmitted from the data terminal device side, it first analyzes the received data.

After that, the center side temporarily calls the caller.
The telephone line is cut off, and a manual call is made to the subscriber's home where the security information is sent, so that an abnormal situation such as a gas leak can be dealt with by telephone communication, and the system can recover from the security situation.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the conventional system processing operation when a security state occurs, the center side temporarily disconnects the connected telephone line due to the terminal call from the data terminal device side.

Thereafter, a call was made again to the subscriber's home where the security situation occurred, and the abnormal situation was dealt with by telephone contact. However, in this processing operation, the center side temporarily disconnects the connected telephone line and then calls the data terminal device again. This was time-consuming and inefficient. Furthermore, when the telephone number on the subscriber's home side is changed, the registered telephone number on the center side must also be updated in real time, resulting in a problem of poor maintainability.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide data that can continue to send and receive data including voice without disconnecting the line even after data is sent and received via a communication line between the data terminal device side and the center side by a terminal transmission. It is to provide a communication system.

[Means for Solving the Problems] A data communication system according to the present invention connects a center and a plurality of data terminal devices via a network control device, and in response to the occurrence of a specific event in the data terminal device, a data communication system connects a center and a plurality of data terminal devices. a data communication system that connects a communication line between a data terminal device and a data terminal device, the first data communication system being included in the network control device and transmitting data related to the specific event from the data terminal device side to the center side; and a second transmitting means for receiving the transmitted data from the first transmitting means and transmitting instruction data for maintaining the connected communication line to the network control device according to the content of the received data. , line holding means for receiving instruction data from the second transmitting means and holding the connected communication line according to the contents of the instruction data; and after holding the communication line connection by the line holding means, transmitting the data to the center side; and means for enabling data communication with the terminal device side.

[Operation] The data communication system according to the present invention is configured as described above, so that after receiving information regarding the occurrence of a specific event from the data terminal device side, the center side sends a message to the terminal according to the received content. It can be determined whether or not to maintain the connection state of the communication line.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic processing flow diagram when a security state occurs in a data communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

This processing flow is configured based on the predetermined transmission control of this system, and the processing on the data terminal device side is executed based on the control of the microcomputer 101. Note that the system configuration of the data communication system and the functional configuration of the T-NCU 6 described below are the same as the configurations shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 described above, and therefore the description thereof will be omitted.

Further, it is assumed that the home telephone 9 is a speakerphone that automatically goes off-hook when a ringer signal is detected twice from the ringer circuit section 102 and can receive a call through the speakerphone.

Here, with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3, processing operations when a security state occurs in a data communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

First, in step Sl (abbreviated as s1 in the figure) and step S2 of FIG. 1, the T-NCU 6 is in a security state (warning alert requiring protection and safety measures!3).
) The occurrence of the security state is constantly checked, and when the occurrence of the security state is recognized, the process moves to the next step S3. In other words,
The microcomputer 101 of the T-NCU 6 determines whether or not to receive a detection signal indicating the occurrence of a security state from the sensor 8 via the interface unit 105 in a loop process of step S1 and step S2.

In step S3, the terminal operates to send a call to the center based on the above-described security state occurrence determination process. At this time, the microcomputer 101 controls the relay control unit 108 to disconnect the home telephone 109 from the telephone line 13 in response to the off-hook detection signal from the off-hook detection circuit 103. In response to this, when the home telephone 9 is disconnected from the telephone line 13, the microcomputer 101 sends a calling signal to the telephone line 13 for calling the host computer 1. This paging signal is determined in advance based on a transmission control procedure. Line control circuit 1
09 modulates the calling signal into a communicable signal in response to an instruction from the host computer 101 and sends it to the telephone line 13 via the interface section 107. When this call signal is received at the center side and the host computer 1 is called, the communication line connection is completed and subsequent data communication is possible.

In step S4, information regarding the occurrence of the security state is transmitted from the T-NCU 6 side to the host computer 1 side in response to completion of the communication line connection. That is, the microcomputer 101 analyzes the data received from the sensor 8 in step S2 described above, creates data to be transmitted to the host computer 1, and generates data to be transmitted to the line control circuit 1.
Give to 09. In response to this, the line control circuit 109 modulates the applied data into a signal based on a transmission control procedure, and sends it out to the telephone line 13 via the interface section 107.

Next, after the information regarding the occurrence of the security state is transmitted in step S4, processing on the center side is started.

First, the host computer 1 on the center side performs step S
At step 101, a process for identifying the source and a process for analyzing the received information are performed. Through this process, the sender is identified and the received content is analyzed. In the next step S102, data corresponding to the source and the content of the received information in step S101 is transmitted to the LS4. The LS 4 transmits data to the T-NCU 6 in response to data received from the host computer 1. At this time, if the analysis result of the information in the host computer 101 determines that there is an emergency that requires immediate contact with the source T-NCU 6, the host computer 1 sends a notification to the LS 4 that an emergency is required. Send data including. This data content includes content that instructs the originating T-NCU 6 to hold the line. On the other hand, if the analysis result of the information of the host computer 1 determines that no emergency is required, data is transmitted to the LS 4 that does not instruct the T-NCU 6, which is the originator, to maintain the line. In response to this, the process starts again from the originating T-NCU 6.
Return to side processing.

Now, on the T-NCU 6 side, processes from step S103 onward are performed according to the contents of the data received from the host computer 1.

In step S103, the LS4 transmits the received data from the host computer 1 to the T-NCU6. Accordingly, the T-NCU 6 determines the contents of the received data from the LS 4, and branches to the process of step S104 or step S105 depending on the result of this determination. To explain in detail, in the process of step S103, if the microcomputer 101 determines that there is no line holding data that instructs line holding in the received data from LS4,
The process branches to step S104 and thereafter.

In step S104, processing is performed to release the telephone line 13 connected to the T-NCU 6 from the busy state.

That is, the microcomputer 1o1 connects the line control circuit 109 to the telephone line 1 via the interface section 107.
3 and the T-NCU 6. Thereby, the telephone line 13 is released from the communication line connection state with the T-NCU 6, and the process ends.

On the other hand, if the microcomputer 101 determines in step S103 that the received data from LS4 includes line holding data that instructs line holding, the process branches to step S105 and subsequent steps. In the process of step S105, the LS 4 transmits to the T-NCU 6 an instruction signal for ringing the home telephone 9 of the T-NCU 6 in the line holding state. T-NCU6
The microcomputer 101 receives this instruction signal via the interface section 107 and the line control section 109, and accordingly moves to the next step SIO6. In step S106, the microcomputer 10
1 controls the ringer circuit unit 1o2 to make the ringer of the home telephone 9 sound. In other words, phosphorus is
transmits a ringing signal to the home telephone 9 via the interface unit 106, which causes a ringing tone to indicate an incoming call. As a result, the bell of the home telephone 9 rings. After transmitting the call signal, the process moves to step 5107.

In the process of step S107, the microcomputer 101 determines based on the detection signal from the off-hook detection circuit 103 that the home telephone 9 has been off-hook due to the ringing of the bell.

By the way, as mentioned at the beginning, the home telephone 9 is assumed to be a speakerphone that automatically goes off-hook when it rings twice without picking up the handset, so the off-hook detection circuit 103 is connected to the ringer circuit section. An off-hook state can be detected immediately after the calling signal 102 is transmitted. When the microcomputer 101 receives the off-hook detection signal from the off-hook detection circuit 103, it proceeds to the next step SIO8.

In step S108, the above-mentioned step S107
In response to receiving the off-hook detection signal, the microcomputer 101 controls the relay control unit 108 to connect the home telephone 9 to the telephone line 13. in parallel,
The line control circuit 109 is controlled to transmit a line switching signal indicating that the home telephone 9 is connected to the telephone line 13.

In response to this, the process shifts again to the center side.

Now, whether the processing has shifted to the center side again or not, the center side checks whether or not it receives a line switching signal from the T-NCU 6 in step S109 after the processing in step S102 of the previous series. At this time, the center side
It is in a waiting state until it receives a line switching signal indicating that the line has been connected to the home telephone 9. This line switching signal is
First, it is received at the C-NCU2. Accordingly,
In the next step S110, the C-NCU 2 switches the connection of the telephone line 11 from the host computer 1 to the host telephone 17. As a result, a telephone line connection has been established that enables communication between the host telephone 17 and the home telephone 9.

Thereafter, in step S111 and step Sll2, the two parties communicate with each other via the telephone. Here, the person in charge on the center side informs the other party 611 about the security state by voice through the host side telephone 17. At this time, since the home telephone 9 of the other party is a speakerphone, it is possible to monitor the condition of the t-th party even if the other party is unable to move his or her body.

When the call ends and the security state is restored as described above, the series of processes ends.

In this embodiment, the calling signal of the home telephone 9 may be a signal such as ringing a bell, or a PB signal (push button dial signal) may be used.

Further, in this embodiment, a communication line including a telephone line is set, but a communication line including a wireless line for transmitting and receiving audio may also be set.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, after the center side receives information transmitted from the terminal when a specific event occurs from the data terminal device side, the center side determines the communication line connection state according to the received content. You can decide whether to keep it or not. Therefore, quickly
In addition, it is possible to maintain a communicable state between the center side and the data terminal device side without fail to identify the wrong party.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic processing flow diagram of security state generation I in a data communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a data communication system according to a conventional method and an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 3 shows the T-NC shown in Figure 2.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the functional configuration of U. FIG. 4 is a schematic processing flow diagram when a security state occurs in a conventional data communication system. In the figure, 1 is a host computer, 6 is a T-NCU, 8 is a sensor, 9 is an in-home Th3A machine, 11 and 13 are telephone lines, and 17 is a host side telephone. In each figure, the same reference numerals indicate the same or reference parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A center and a plurality of data terminal devices are connected via a network control device, and a communication line between the center side and the data terminal device side is connected in response to the occurrence of a specific event in the data terminal device. A first data communication system included in the network control device and configured to transmit data related to the specific event from the data terminal device side to the center side.
a second transmitting means for receiving the transmitted data from the first transmitting means and transmitting instruction data for maintaining the connected communication line to the network control device according to the content of the received data; , line holding means for receiving instruction data from the second transmitting means and holding the connected communication line according to the contents of the instruction data; and after holding the communication line connection by the line holding means, transmitting the data to the center side. A data communication system comprising means for enabling data communication with a terminal device.