JPH04239239A - Data collection system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a data collection system improving the processing capacity of the entire system by controlling the load of the terminal controller without deteriorating the line utilization efficiency. CONSTITUTION:In data collection, system, each terminal equipment P1i stores the number of data transfers to a terminal controller 20a, the terminal controller 20a stores the number of receptions of data to be transferred by each terminal equipment P1i, and each equipment P1i decides the presence or absence of the coincidence of the number of transmissions/receptions individually by each data transmission end so as to judge whether or not the data collecting state in the terminal controller 20a is normal. Based on the result, the data collection state in the data collection file F1 is recovered to a normal state.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data collection system, and particularly includes a plurality of data terminal devices and a terminal controller that aggregates and connects a group of data terminal devices for communication, and the terminal controller connects each of the data terminal devices. The present invention relates to a data collection system that receives and collects data transmitted from a computer.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, data collection systems have been provided to improve the efficiency of data processing. The data collection system collects data from a plurality of data terminal devices via a communication line, and performs desired processing on the collected data.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the system configuration of a POS (abbreviation for Point of Sales) system according to a conventional system and an embodiment of the present invention.

[0004] The adoption of POS systems is increasing in department stores, supermarkets, gas stations, etc. as the scale of business increases. Since this POS system is sold to general consumers, it handles products of other types. As a result, the amount and types of data handled are extremely large, and in this respect P.
The data collection capability of an OS system determines system efficiency.

[0005] In FIG. 5, the POS system includes a plurality of POS terminal devices P2i (hereinafter, i=1,
2, 3, ..., 200), a duplex terminal controller 20b that collectively connects the terminal devices P2i via a LAN (abbreviation for Local Area Network) 10, and a public line or dedicated terminal to the terminal controller 20b. C connected via line
AFIS (Credit and Finance)
(abbreviation for Information System) 30 and a store controller 40.

[0006] Each of the POS terminal devices P2i has:
The POS system is installed in each sales floor of the store where the POS system is adopted, and information about the products sold is inputted by the store staff.
Accordingly, the input information is transmitted via the LAN 10 to the terminal controller 20b connected to the upper level.

The terminal controller 20b includes a CPU (abbreviation for central processing unit), not shown, and the CPU
It includes a memory (not shown) accessed by. The CPU receives data transmitted from each POS terminal device P2i, and collects the received data by sequentially storing it in the memory. It also operates to transmit the received data as is to the store controller 40 as needed.

[0008]The terminal controller 20b is
Generally, the POS system is duplicated to improve reliability.

Next, a description will be given of a process for checking whether an error has occurred during data collection in the illustrated POS system.

[0010] The above-mentioned checking process has been carried out using the following two methods. First, in the first method, each POS terminal device P2i edits data related to the purchased product into text each time a customer pays for the purchased product, and then sends the data to the terminal controller via the LAN 10 according to a predetermined transmission control procedure. 20b. When the CPU of the terminal controller 20b receives the text, the CPU of the terminal controller 20b accordingly transmits a confirmation message to the POS terminal device P2i to confirm that the text reception has been confirmed. Each POS terminal device P
2i will receive the confirmation message. At this time, if the confirmation message can be received at each POS terminal device P2i, it is determined that the text regarding the sales data has been received and collected at the terminal controller 20b.
The process moves on to other processes including the next text transmission, but if the confirmation message cannot be received, it is determined that the text related to the sales data was not received by the terminal controller 20b due to a transmission error, etc., and each POS
The terminal device P2i processes the error by repeatedly transmitting text related to the sales data until the confirmation message is received.

[0011] Furthermore, in the second method, the POS terminal device P
2i assigns consecutive number data, for example in ascending order, to the header of each of the texts, and then data transmits each text to the terminal controller 20b. The terminal controller 20b identifies the received text for each POS terminal device P2i, and determines whether data transmission was performed normally based on whether or not the number data assigned to the received text are received in ascending order. Determine whether or not. The terminal controller 20b is a POS
If the text number data received for each terminal device P2i is not consecutive, at the point in time the corresponding POS terminal device P2i is requested to retransmit the text. In response, the corresponding POS terminal device P2i repeatedly executes the text transmission process so that the number data of the received text at the terminal controller 20b is continuous.

0012

However, the two methods of error checking processing during data collection in the conventional data collection system described above have the following problems.

[0013] In the case of the first method described above, the terminal controller 20b sends the POS terminal P2i of the sender each time it receives a text transmitted from the POS terminal P2i.
We will send a confirmation message that the text has been received, so
There has been a problem in that the traffic on the LAN 10 that connects each POS terminal device P2i and the terminal controller 20b for communication increases, reducing the line usage efficiency of the LAN 10 and, by extension, reducing the processing capacity of the system itself.

Furthermore, in the case of the second method described above, the terminal controller 20b uniquely identifies each POS terminal device P2i, and further checks whether or not the number data is continuous each time text is received from each identified POS terminal device P2i. The need for discrimination increases the load on the terminal controller 20b during data collection, resulting in a problem of lowering the processing capacity of the terminal controller 20b and also of the system itself.

As described above, the data collection system adopted in the conventional POS system has a controller having a data collection function including the terminal controller 20b, which performs data transmission error checking processing and collection processing at the time of data collection. Since the functions are concentrated, there is also a problem that the controller is overloaded.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a data collection system that includes a plurality of data terminal devices and a terminal controller that collectively connects the plurality of data terminal devices for communication, in which the use of the communication line during data collection processing is improved. It is an object of the present invention to provide a data collection system that improves the processing capacity of the system itself by suppressing load concentration on a terminal controller without reducing efficiency.

[0017]

[Means for Solving the Problems] A data collection system according to the present invention includes a plurality of data terminal devices, and a terminal controller that is communicatively connected to the plurality of data terminal devices and collects a plurality of data transmitted from each of the data terminal devices. Specifically, the terminal controller includes a reception frequency counting means for receiving the transmission data and counting the number of receptions for each data terminal device in response to the transmission data; storage means for storing the number of receptions for each data terminal device; and in response to reception of a read request transmitted from each data terminal device, reading the corresponding number of receptions stored in the storage means; and a transmitting means for transmitting data to a data terminal device.

Furthermore, each of the data terminal devices includes a data transmitting means for transmitting the plurality of data to the terminal controller, a transmitting number counting means for counting the number of times of transmission by the data transmitting means, and a transmitting means for counting the number of times of transmission by the data transmitting means. In response, request transmitting means transmits the read request to the terminal controller; receiving the number of receptions transmitted by the transmitting means; The data transmitting means is configured to include a determining means for determining a match, and an activating means for reactivating the data transmitting means in response to the determination of a mismatch by the determining means.

[0019]

[Operation] The data collection system according to the present invention is constructed as described above, and the transmission frequency counting means of each data terminal device counts the number of transmissions of data to be collected, and the reception frequency counting means of the terminal controller counts the number of times the data to be collected is received for each data terminal device. Each data terminal device receives the number of receptions counted by the terminal controller by transmitting a read request via the request transmitting means every time a plurality of data transmissions are completed, and is collected by the determining means accordingly. It is possible to independently determine whether or not the required data has been successfully collected on the terminal controller side. Further, if it is detected from the judgment result that data is not being collected normally, the activation means is used to restore the normal data collection state on the terminal controller side. As described above, transmission error checking during data collection is performed at each data terminal device after each data transmission is completed, and each data terminal device independently performs a check on the terminal controller to restore normal data collection state. Therefore, the usage efficiency of the lines connecting each data terminal device and the terminal controller for communication during data collection is improved, and load concentration on the terminal controller is effectively suppressed.

[0020]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

Although the data collection system in this embodiment is employed in a POS system, the target system is not limited to a POS system. In other words, a function that centrally connects a plurality of data terminal devices that input data to be collected from the outside and the plurality of data terminal devices, receives data sent from each terminal device, and collects the data accordingly. It is applicable to all systems including terminal controllers equipped with

Furthermore, since the system configuration of the POS system according to an embodiment of the present invention is the same as that shown in FIG. 5 described above, detailed explanation thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a data flow during data collection in a POS system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the POS system shown in FIG. 1, the terminal controller 20a connects the POS terminal devices P1i (i=1, 2, 3, . . . , 200) via the LAN 10 for communication. In this embodiment, 200 POS terminal devices P1i are connected, but the number of connected devices is not limited to this.

[0025] The terminal controller 20a has P
Terminal data reception processing P1 and counting processing P2 to receive and collect data transmitted from the OS terminal device P1i
and data collection processing P3 is executed. Each of the processes P1 to P3 is prepared as a subroutine. Further, the terminal controller 20a includes a data collection file F1 and a data collection count value file F2 as data files.

When the counting process P2 is executed, the data collection count value file F2 is accessed in parallel with the process. The data collection count value file F2 includes count value storage areas Ei corresponding to each of the connected POS terminal devices P1i. Further, when the data collection process P3 is executed, the data collection file F1 is accessed, and the received data is written and stored in the data collection file F1.

Data regarding sales at the POS terminal device P1i is provided to the terminal controller 20a via the LAN 10. The terminal data reception process P1 processes to receive data regarding the sales. The counting process P2 counts the number of times the data is received for each POS terminal device P1i in response to the data reception, and accordingly writes and stores the count value in the corresponding count value storage area Ei of the data collection count value file F2. Process it so that it does. In other words, the received data is
11, the counting process P2 counts up the data written in the area E1, updates the data, and then writes and stores the new data in the area E1. Further, if the received data is from the POS terminal device P1200, the counting process P2 is performed in the area E200.
After updating the data by counting up the data written in the area E200, new data is written and stored in the area E200.

As described above, each count value storage area Ei of the data collection count value file F2 of the terminal controller 20a stores the number of receptions of data transmitted from the corresponding POS terminal device P1i every time the data is received. The data is stored while being updated.

The transmission data from each POS terminal device P1i received by the terminal data reception process P1 is sequentially written and stored in the collection file F1 by the data collection process P3, or sent to a higher level via a line. Data is transmitted to the connected store controller 40.

As described above, the terminal controller 2
0a receives the data sent from the connected POS terminal device P1i, and accordingly accumulates and stores it in the data collection file F1, counts the number of times the data is received from each POS terminal device P1i, and stores the data. Processing is performed to store the collected count values in each count value storage area Ei of the collected count value file F2.

FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) are schematic diagrams showing the functional configuration of each POS terminal device P1i and terminal controller 20a shown in FIG. 1 above.

FIG. 2(a) shows the functional configuration of each POS terminal device P1i. Each POS terminal device P1i has a CPU (abbreviation for central processing unit) 11 for centrally controlling the terminal device P1i itself, and a text transmission count value that is accessed by the CPU 11 and data stored therein is read and written. A memory 12 for storing CN, an input/output control unit 13 for connecting the CPU 11 with a keyboard 15 and a barcode reader 16 which are devices for inputting data from the outside, and a communication control unit 14 for connecting the CPU 11 and the LAN 10. including.

Each POS terminal device P1i is configured as described above, and the CPU 11 inputs data input from the keyboard 15 or barcode reader 16 to the input/output control section 13.
After inputting the data via the LAN, the data is processed according to a predetermined program, and is stored in the memory 12 or sent to the LAN 10 via the communication control unit 14 and sent to the terminal controller 20a connected to the upper layer. Operate.

[0034] Note that the terminal controller 20a
The data to be sent is edited by the CPU 11 into a text of a predetermined length, and then sent with the header containing the terminal number pre-assigned to the sending POS terminal P1i. Therefore, when the data to be transmitted at one time is long, the data is divided in advance into a plurality of texts of a predetermined length, and the data is transmitted by repeatedly transmitting the texts. This number of text transmissions is stored by the count value CN.

There are three types of texts transmitted from the POS terminal device P1i to the terminal controller 20a:

First, the first type of text is a text sent by each POS terminal device P1i to initialize the corresponding area Ei of the data collection count value file F2 prior to data transmission, and is a text that is sent by each POS terminal device P1i to initialize the corresponding area Ei of the data collection count value file F2. It consists of:

The second type of text is a text sent by each POS terminal device P1i to update the count value in the corresponding area Ei of the data collection count value file F2 when sending sales data, and is a text that is sent by each POS terminal device P1i to update the count value in the corresponding area Ei of the data collection count value file F2. It consists of (data update) commands. Note that the final bit of the sales data is a data collection function that distinguishes whether the sales data is data that should be stored in the data collection file F1 of the terminal controller 20a or data that should be sent to the store controller 40. Contains type code.

Furthermore, the third type of text is
This is a text sent by the terminal device P1i to read the count value stored in the corresponding count value storage area Ei of the data collection count value file F2 when the second type of text transmission is completed, and does not include a read command. Consists of.

[0039] For any of the three types of text mentioned above, the header contains the POS of the text sender.
Since the terminal number of the terminal device P1i is added, the terminal controller 20a can uniquely identify the terminal device P1i that is the source of the text.

FIG. 2(b) shows the terminal controller 20
The functional configuration of a is shown. The terminal controller 20a has a CP that controls the terminal controller 20a itself.
U21, an internal memory 22 made up of, for example, an IC and accessed relatively quickly by the CPU 21;
Although accessed by the PU 21, its access speed is slower than that of the internal memory 22.
OS terminal device P1i and store controllers 40 and C
It includes a communication control unit 24 that performs communication connection with the PU 21.

Terminal data reception processing P shown in FIG. 1 above
1 is executed by the communication control section 24 under the control of the CPU 21. In addition, data collection count value file F2
is accessed relatively frequently by the CPU 21, so
The data collection file F1 is stored in advance in the internal memory 22, and since the data collection file F1 has a large amount of data to be stored therein, it is stored in the external memory 23 in advance.

The terminal controller 20a is configured as described above, and the CPU 21 receives the transmitted text from each POS terminal device P1i via the communication control unit 24, reads the header of the received text and identifies the text source. POS terminal device P1i is specified. Then, the data stored in the corresponding count value storage area Ei of the data collection count value file F2 stored in the internal memory 22 is incremented by one based on the command of the received text, or the data is read. or clear.

The CPU 21 also reads the data collection type code registered in the last bit of the sales data in the received text, and determines whether the sales data in the received text is data that should be stored in the data collection file F1 or whether it is stored in the data collection file F1. It is determined whether the data should be transmitted to the controller 40, and the sales data in the received text is collected and transmitted according to the determination result.

FIG. 3 is a schematic processing flow diagram on the POS terminal device side when collecting data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic processing flow diagram on the terminal controller side during data collection according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The processing flow shown in FIG. 3 is stored in advance as a program in the memory 12 of each POS terminal device P1i and executed under the control of the CPU 11. Also,
The processing flow shown in FIG. 4 is stored in advance as a program in the external memory 23 of the terminal controller 20a, but when executed, it is loaded from the external memory 23 to the internal memory 22 by the CPU 21 and controlled for execution.

Next, the operation of the POS system according to an embodiment of the present invention during data collection will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.
Explain with reference to.

When payment processing is performed with the customer at the POS terminal device P1i, data regarding the sales is sent to the computer via the keyboard 15 or barcode reader 16.
Given to PU11. The CPU 11 starts executing the processing flow shown in FIG. 3 in response to the input of the sales data.

First, step S1 in FIG.
), the CPU 11 controls the communication control unit 14.
and terminal controller 20 via LAN10
Send text containing a clear command to a. Thereafter, in the process of the next step S2, the CPU 11 stores the text transmission count value CN stored in the memory 12.
is initialized to (CN=0), and the process moves to step S3.

After the sales data is edited into text of a predetermined length in the process of step S3, the update command for the data collection count value file F2 described above is added to each text in the process of the next step S4, and then the following In the process of step S5, the edited text is transmitted to the controller 20a. Thereafter, in the next step S6, it is determined whether the transmission of the sales data divided into a plurality of texts as described above has been completed. In other words, since the sales data is divided in advance into a plurality of texts of a predetermined length, this discrimination process is not established until all the texts have been sent, and in the process of step S7, the increment process is performed as (CN=CN+1). After that, the process returns to step S3 again.

As described above, the loop processing from step S3 to step S7 is repeatedly executed until a plurality of texts obtained by dividing the sales data are completely transmitted to the terminal controller 20a, and the text transmission count value CN is will count the number of texts sent and store the resulting value.

When it is determined in the process of step S6 that the transmission of all the texts constituting the sales data has been completed, in the process of the next step S8, the CPU 11 transmits the text including the read command described above to the terminal controller 20a. Send to. In response, the terminal controller 20a reads out the count value data stored in the count value storage area Ei of the POS terminal P1i and transmits it to the POS terminal P1i.
Accordingly, in the process of step S9, the CPU 11 receives the transmission count value data. Thereafter, in the next step S10, the received count value data is compared with the text transmission frequency count value CN stored in the memory 12 to determine whether or not they match. At this time, if it is determined that both count values match, it is determined that the data transmission and collection processing regarding the current sales data was performed normally, and the data regarding the current sales data on the POS terminal P1i side is The collection process ends. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S10 that the two count values do not match, the number of transmitted texts of the sales data from the POS terminal device P1i does not match the number of texts received from the terminal controller 20a, and therefore the transmission It is determined that some error occurred during the process. In this case, the sales data is not collected normally on the terminal controller 20a side, so
In response, the CPU 11 returns to step S1 again,
Thereafter, text transmission processing is repeatedly executed for the same sales data in the same manner.

As described above, each POS terminal device P1i independently checks for transmission errors regarding sales data. Furthermore, if each POS terminal device determines that some kind of error has occurred based on the check results, error recovery processing is performed by retransmitting the transmission data in which the error occurred. In this way, transmission error checking is performed at regular intervals after each multiple text transmission is completed, and transmission error recovery processing is performed at each POS terminal device P1i, so line usage efficiency in data collection is maintained. Moreover, it is also possible to effectively suppress load concentration on the terminal controller 20a side during data collection.

Next, the processing at the time of data collection on the terminal controller 20a side will be explained.

In the process of step S20 in FIG. 4, when the CPU 21 receives the text sent from the POS terminal device P1i via the LAN 10 and the communication control unit 24, the CPU 21 temporarily stores the text in an internal buffer. . Thereafter, in the next step S21, the command in the received text is determined. If the commands in the received text are a clear command, an update command, and a read command, these series of file control commands for controlling the data collection count value file F2 are passed as data to the counting process P2 in step S22. In addition, the data regarding the sales data in the above text is obtained in step S2 as a data collection command.
The data is transferred to the data collection process P3 of 8.

In the process of step S23 of the counting process P2, the CPU 21 determines the processing type of the data collection count value file F2 based on the command in the received text. If the received command is a clear command, in the process of step S24, the CPU 21 accesses the file F2 based on the terminal number of the sending terminal device P1i attached to the header of the received text, and stores the data in the corresponding area Ei. Clear the existing data (set value = 0). Thereafter, the process ends and preparations are made for receiving the next text.

Further, if the received command is determined to be a read command in the step S23, the CPU 21 reads the file F2 in the process of step S25 based on the terminal number of the source terminal device P1i attached to the header of the received text. access, read the data stored in the corresponding area Ei, and send the read data to the communication control unit 24 and the LAN 1 in the process of the next step S26.
0 to the source POS terminal device P1i. Thereafter, the series of processing is completed and preparations are made for receiving the next text.

If the received command is an update command, the CPU 21 proceeds to step S27 and increments the reception count value stored in the corresponding area Ei of the file F2 by (+1). After updating the data, store it in the same area Ei. Thereafter, the series of processing is completed and preparations are made for receiving the next text.

On the other hand, in data collection process P3, CP
In the next step S29, U21 reads the data collection type code included in the sales data in the received text, and based on the read code, determines whether the received sales data should be stored in the data collection file F1 or not. It is determined whether data should be transmitted to the controller 40. If it is determined that the sales data should be stored in the data collection file F1, the sales data in the text received in the process of the next step S30 is sequentially stored in the data collection file F1. If it is determined that the data should be transmitted to the store controller 40, then in the next step S31, the sales data in the received text is sequentially transmitted to the store controller 40 connected to the upper level. After completing the processing in steps S30 and S31, the CPU 21 operates to prepare for receiving the next text.

In the process of step S31, the CPU 21 processes the data to be transmitted to the store controller 40 every time the text is received, but the data is temporarily stored in the external memory 23 and the data is transferred to the POS terminal device described above. The file may be transmitted to the store controller 40 after undergoing error recovery processing in P1i.

As described above, the number of text transmissions of sales data is stored in the text transmission frequency count value CN of the POS terminal device P1i, and the number of receptions of the transmission text at the terminal controller 20a is stored in the corresponding data collection count value file F2. Stored in area Ei. Therefore, when a series of sales data collection is successfully completed, the text transmission frequency count value CN and the count value stored in the corresponding area Ei are equal. Based on this premise, the POS terminal device P1i independently issues a read command each time text transmission is completed, and if it detects whether the two values match, it is possible to determine whether the data collection process has ended normally in the POS terminal device P1i. can be easily confirmed. If the two values do not match and the data collection status is abnormal, the POS terminal device P1i performs error recovery processing by retransmitting the sales data again.
Data regarding sales in the POS system can be reliably collected on the terminal controller 20a side.

[0062]

According to the data collection system according to the present invention, the transmission count means of each data terminal device counts the number of transmissions of data to be collected, and the reception count means of the terminal controller counts the number of transmissions of the data to be collected. The number of times each data terminal device receives the data to be received is counted. Therefore, each data terminal device checks whether the number of receptions obtained through the request transmission means matches the number of transmissions each time a plurality of data transmissions are completed. It is possible for the side to independently determine whether or not the information has been successfully collected. Furthermore, if each data terminal device side detects that data is not being collected normally based on the judgment result, it uses the activation means to repeat the previous data transmission, and the terminal controller side Since error recovery processing is performed to enter the data collection state, it is possible to effectively suppress load concentration on the terminal controller side during data collection processing, and improve line usage efficiency during data collection, including transmission error detection. It has the effect of improving.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a data flow during data collection in a POS system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 (a) and (b) show each PO shown in FIG.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the functional configuration of an S terminal device and a terminal controller.

FIG. 3: POS during data collection according to an embodiment of the present invention
FIG. 3 is a schematic processing flow diagram on the terminal device side.

FIG. 4 is a schematic processing flow diagram on the terminal controller side when collecting data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the system configuration of a POS system according to a conventional system and an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

P1i POS terminal device 20a Terminal controller P1 Terminal data reception processing P2 Counting processing P3 Data collection processing F1 Data collection file F2 Data collection count value file Ei Count value storage area CN Text transmission frequency count value (i = 1, 2, 3,... , 200) In each figure, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A data collection system comprising a plurality of data terminal devices and a terminal controller that is communicatively connected to the plurality of data terminal devices and collects a plurality of data transmitted from each of the data terminal devices, the system comprising: The terminal controller includes a reception number counting means for receiving the transmission data and counting the number of receptions for each of the data terminal devices, and a reception number counting means for counting the number of receptions for each of the data terminal devices, and a reception number counting means for counting the number of receptions counted by the reception number counting means for each of the data terminal devices. and a transmitting means that, in response to reception of a read request transmitted from each data terminal device, reads out the corresponding number of receptions stored in the storage means and transmits it to the requesting data terminal device. Each of the data terminal devices includes a data transmitting means for transmitting the plurality of data to the terminal controller, a transmission frequency counting means for counting the number of times the data is transmitted by the data transmitting means, and a transmission count means for counting the number of times the data is transmitted by the data transmitting means. In response, request transmitting means transmits the read request to the terminal controller, and receiving the number of receptions transmitted by the transmission means, and responsively counts the number of receptions and the number of transmissions counted by the number of transmissions counting means. A data collection system comprising: a determining means for determining a match with a number of times; and an activating means for reactivating the data transmitting means in response to a determination of a discrepancy by the determining means.