JPH05316185A - Communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To select an operator exactly offering the minimum charge by estimating a representative value of classification as the speech time duration depending on which representative pattern the speech characteristic pattern of the user is classified in. CONSTITUTION:A call management equipment 2 imports a dial signal to a path selection device 3 to request the selection of an operator offering a minimum charge. The path selection device 3 retrieves speech characteristic information stored in a storage device 4 based on distance information calculated from a dial signal received by the call management equipment 2 and a current time obtained from a clock device 7 to obtain an estimate speech time duration corresponding to the relevant characteristic. Then the path selection device 3 retrieves the distance dependent and time zone dependent charge of each operator stored in the storage device 4 by using the estimate speech time duration, the distance information and the current time obtained in this way as keys to decide an operator whose charge is predicted to be minimum and to inform it to the call management equipment 2, which sends a dial signal to a telephone line.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a conventional apparatus for selecting a communication network which minimizes the usage fee based on a call time, a usage time and a distance from a plurality of communication networks having different fee systems.
The present invention relates to a minimum cost line selection type communication device with a learning function, which is newly added.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the liberalization of the telecommunications business, a plurality of telecommunications carriers provide different communication paths between the same dialogue points. Therefore, the issue of which service of the service provider can be used to minimize the communication charge is of great concern to the user. When selecting a carrier, that is, selecting a communication network to connect to the destination point, each time when dialing, the user himself / herself refers to the charge charge table by distance and time zone by each carrier Choosing a person is a heavy time and labor burden. As a result, in the past, the price list of each operator was stored in the telephone, and the distance and time zone were considered based on the dial signal input by the user and the current time obtained from the clock device inside the telephone. The telephone has a function to select the operator with the minimum charge. As a result, the user can automatically select the communication network with the minimum fee by only inputting the other party's number as in the past, without being aware of the business number. However, the minimum call charge also depends on the length of the call time (that is, the call hold time). That is, even if the distance is the same and the time is the same, the carrier with the minimum charge varies depending on the length of the call time. Therefore, conventionally, the following three methods have been proposed or put into practical use for the call duration, which is the third factor for determining the minimum charge. (A) Fixed method ... This method is a method in which the call time is fixedly assumed to be a certain fixed value (for example, 3 minutes), and the operator with the minimum charge is selected. (B) Prediction method ... This method stores the past call record of the user inside the telephone, calculates the average call time per call, and calculates the average call time up to the previous call. This is a method to select the carrier with the lowest charge, assuming the current call time. (C) Declaration method ... This method allows the user to enter the planned call time into the telephone before each call, and the operator uses the planned call time entered into the telephone This is the method of selection.

[0003]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention (a) and (b)
In the fixed method (a) of the methods (c), the fixed value (for example, 3 minutes) assumed as the call time is not determined by recognizing the usage status of the telephone of each user, Depending on the user, there are cases where the call is made for a longer time, or there is a user who needs only one minute. Therefore, this fixed value is not only completely meaningless for users whose usage status does not match the fixed value set inside the telephone, but this fixed value is more than the value that reflects the user's user performance. When it comes to withdrawing high fees, it is rather counterproductive. Next, in (b) the prediction method, since the call time is assumed from the call record of the user, the method is quite effective when the frequency distribution of the call time is uniform or when it is not a characteristic distribution. Can be said. However, if there is some characteristic in the frequency distribution of the call time, for example, for users who have the characteristics of short morning calls and long day and night calls, the average call time Is set, so it is not very useful. In the final (c) filing method,
The user has to input the expected call time for each call, which is very annoying for the user. Moreover, the situation may change during a call and the time may become longer, and conversely the time may become shorter, so it is difficult to determine the expected time, and this is not a very practical method.
As described above, the conventional method has no extremely practical method. The object of the present invention is to solve these conventional problems,
Providing a communication device that does not bother the user and provides a communication path that more closely matches the call history of the user and that can select the operator with the lowest charge relatively accurately To do.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, the communication device of the present invention is a communication device capable of using a plurality of communication networks having different fee systems, and the communication device user's past communication device can be used. A call characteristic extraction device for extracting the call characteristic of the user from the call record, and the latest extracted call characteristic and data on the charge per unit time for each distance and time zone of the available communication network. Distance between the storage device to be saved and the predicted call time of the user based on the call characteristics saved in the storage device, and the predicted call time obtained by analyzing the dial signal input by the user. Information and the time information obtained from the clock device, a route selection device that obtains the minimum call charge based on these three parties and selects the communication network with the minimum call charge, and the communication network notified from the route selection device. Through the dial signal. It is characterized by comprising a call management device for sending by adding the carrier number that provides a network.

[0005]

In the present invention, the prediction accuracy of the call time is improved by calculating the call time after learning the past call characteristics of the calling user with respect to the call time. Then, a network that minimizes the usage charge of the communication network is selected by adding the usage time and the distance to the connection destination to this call time. As a method of extracting user characteristics, it is considered that the telephone user's call characteristic pattern (frequency distribution of call duration) can be classified into a plurality of representative patterns depending on the intended use. The results are accumulated in a storage device inside the communication device, and the characteristics of the call characteristic pattern are extracted from the accumulated call results of the user. Then, from the dial signal input by the user at the time of the call, it is determined which category that forms the feature of the call characteristic pattern of the user, and the representative value of the relevant category is assumed to be the current call time. By
Select the operator with the minimum charge that is more accurate or more accurate. In addition, since the user's call characteristics may change over time, the task of extracting features is autonomously performed inside the communication device at any time, at fixed time intervals, or at fixed call counts. Re-extract. As a result, it is possible to select a carrier that provides a communication path more suited to the call history of the user without bothering the user.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication device showing an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a dial device, 2 is a call management device, 3 is a route selection device, 4 is a storage device (1),
Reference numeral 5 is a call characteristic extraction device, 6 is a storage device (2), and 7 is a timepiece device. A call record is stored in the storage device 6 each time one call ends, and the call characteristics are extracted by the call characteristic extraction device 5 at certain intervals, and the communication time according to the call characteristics extracted in the storage device 4 is stored. Updated and saved. The storage device 4 stores a charge table and call characteristics.
The dial signal input from the dial device 1 is first sent to the call management device 2. Next, the call management device 2 passes the dial signal to the route selection device 3 and requests the selection of the carrier with the minimum charge. The route selection device 3 searches the call characteristic information stored in the storage device 4 based on the distance information calculated from the dial signal received from the call management device 2 and the current time obtained from the clock device 7, Obtain the expected call duration that corresponds to the characteristic in question. The route selection device 3 uses the estimated call time, distance information, and current time obtained in this way as keys to retrieve the charges by distance and time zone of each operator stored in the storage device 4. Then, the operator who predicts that the minimum charge will be determined is notified to the call management device 2. The call management device 2 sends a dial signal to which the carrier number is added to the telephone line. Call management device 2
Is the call information for the completed call (destination dial number,
(Calling time, call completion time, etc.) are added and saved in the storage device 6 as the latest call record. Separately from the above-described processing at the time of making a call, the call characteristic extracting device 5 independently at fixed intervals (fixed time or fixed number of calls) or at each call completion.
Re-extracts the call characteristics of the user from the call record data of the user stored in the storage device 6, updates the extracted characteristic pattern in the storage device 4, and saves it.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an outline of processing at the time of making a call in the present invention. First, the user dials to send a dial signal to the call management device 2 (step 100). Next, the route selection device 3
In consideration of the use time, the distance information to the connection destination, and the expected call time stored in the storage device 4, a network that minimizes the usage charge of the communication network is selected (step 101). The call management device 2 adds a carrier number corresponding to the communication path of the communication carrier that provides the selected network and sends a dial signal (step 102). Then, after being connected to the other party, the user talks. On the other hand, after making a call, time measurement is started and the other party is recorded. When the call ends, the call is disconnected (step 103). When one call ends, the call information is additionally stored in the storage device 6 (step 104). Thus, in this embodiment, the call characteristics of the calling user are sequentially updated and stored, and when a call occurs, the route selection device 3 calculates the call duration based on the call characteristics. As a result, the prediction accuracy of the call time can be improved. In consideration of the call time, the time of use, and the distance to the connection destination, the network that minimizes the usage charge of the communication network is selected.

FIG. 3 is a processing flowchart of the route selection device in FIG. When the dial signal is first input, the route selection device 3 calculates the distance from the dial signal to the ground (step 201). Next, the current time is acquired from the clock device 7 (step 202).
Next, the distance information and the current time are keyed to the storage device 4.
The call characteristic information is retrieved as (step 203). As a result of the search, the predicted call time is derived from the read characteristic information (step 204). Finally, the carrier number of the communication network with the minimum charge is acquired (step 205). Figure 4
Is a processing flow chart of the call characteristic extraction device in FIG.
It is First, it is judged whether or not the data reading process is completed for all combinations of the time zone and the distance division (step 301). If all combinations of the time zone and the distance division have been analyzed, the processing is completed because all the processing is completed. If it has not been completed yet, the call record data is read in the unit of combination of time delay and distance division (step 302). Next, the call characteristics are extracted based on them (step 303). When the characteristic is extracted, the characteristic information stored in the storage device 4 is updated (step 304).

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the call characteristics of the user stored in the storage device shown in FIG. here,
A representative value forming a feature is extracted from the call characteristic pattern (frequency distribution of call time) for each combination when the time zone and the distance division are both divided. However, the unit for extracting the call characteristics is not limited to this, and for example, a method of extracting each call partner (each partner dial number unit) may be considered. In FIG. 5, time zone 1,
There are various methods of 2, 3, ..., such as a time zone in which morning, noon, and night are divided into every 3 hours, and a zone in which one day is divided into every 2 hours. Further, the distance divisions 1, 2, 3, ... Are within 5 km, 5 km or more, 10 km or more, 20 km or more, 50 k.
There are divisions divided into m or more, 100 km or more, and so on. In all the characteristics, the horizontal axis represents the call time and the vertical axis represents the frequency. For example, the characteristics of time zone 1 / distance category 1 are high in the middle of the time zone and low in the first and last times. The characteristics of time zone 2 and distance category 1 are the first and last two peaks.
It is divided into two and the frequency is high. Compared with these, the frequency becomes gradually higher in the distance category 2,
After Ku, it will gradually decline. The characteristic of the distance division 3 is that it is also divided into two peaks at the beginning and the end, and is slightly higher in the time zone 1 and higher in the time zone 2.

FIG. 6 shows one of the combinations in FIG.
It is a figure showing two detailed characteristics. In the example of FIG. 6, a case where the call characteristic pattern (frequency distribution of call time) is classified into two groups, and a representative value for each classification and key information characterizing each classification are extracted. Shows. That is, the horizontal axis represents the call time and the vertical axis represents the frequency, but the peaks are divided into classification 1 and classification 2 for the first and last ones. The key information for this classification is the partner dial number. The representative values of both the classification 1 and the classification 2 are represented by "one-dot chain line". In this example, as shown in FIG. 5, the time zone and the distance category are divided into a plurality of numbers, the call characteristics are extracted for each combination of the time zone and the distance category, and the characteristic pattern is analyzed for each. Here, time zone division,
The number of divisions in each of the distance divisions is an arbitrary number of 1 or more. In addition,
In the characteristics shown in FIG. 6, the case where two categories of call characteristics are characterized by the dialing number of the other party is shown. Personal information such as job title, occupation, business partner, personality, etc. of users (employees, etc.)
It is also possible to accurately predict the call duration by tabulating and using it to characterize the classification of the call characteristic pattern associated with the call characteristic of the user.

[0011]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By accumulating the call history of a user and assuming that the representative pattern of the call characteristic pattern of the user is classified into the representative pattern, the call time of this time is assumed to be more significant. It is possible to select the operator with the exact minimum charge. In addition, even when the call characteristics of users change,
Since the call characteristics are re-extracted at any time or at a fixed time or at a fixed number of calls, it is possible to select a business operator according to the user's performance without bothering the user.

[0012]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of processing at the time of calling according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a processing flowchart of the route selection device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a processing flow chart of the call characteristic extraction device of the present invention.
It is

5 is a diagram of user call characteristics stored in the storage device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a characteristic diagram showing one call characteristic in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 dial device 2 call management device 3 route selection device 4 storage device (price list, characteristics) 5 call characteristic extraction device 6 storage device (call history) 7 clock device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a communication device capable of using a plurality of communication networks having different fee systems, a call characteristic extraction device for extracting the call characteristic of the user from the past call record of the user of the communication device. And a storage device for storing the extracted latest call characteristics and data on charges per unit time for each distance and time zone of the available communication network, and the call characteristics stored in the storage device. The predicted call time of the user is obtained on the basis of the predicted call time, and the predicted call time is converted into information on the distance to the ground obtained by analyzing the dial signal input by the user and the time information obtained from the clock device. In addition, the minimum call charge is obtained based on these three parties, and the communication signal is sent to the dial signal through the route selection device that selects the communication network with the minimum call charge and the communication network notified from the route selection device. The business number that provides the A communication device, comprising: an outgoing call management device.