JPH0630052A - Response controller in personal computer communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To permit the tariff of a public telephone network free when no desired communication is performed by detecting a fault generated in a host computer or a packet switching network, and stopping a response for an incoming call request when it occurs. CONSTITUTION:When the fault occurs in the host computer 2 or the packet switching network 4, a fault detecting means 9 detects it. A response stopping means 10 stops the response for the incoming call request from the public telephone network 3 to the host 2 by a response means 8. Meanwhile. when the fault in the host 2 or the packet switching network 4 is restored, a restoration monitoring means 11 detects it, and a response restart means 12 restarts the response for the incoming call request. Thereby, when no desired service is received due to the fault in, the host 2 or the packet switching network 4, the tariff of the telephone network 3 can be permitted free by the user of a personal computer terminal 1, which solves contradiction.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a response control device in a personal computer communication system. In recent years, with the spread of personal computers (personal computer terminals), a host computer owned by a service provider can be accessed through a public telephone network and a packet switching network to obtain desired information,
So-called personal computer communication, such as exchanging information with other personal computer terminals, is actively performed.

In general, charges are collected on the basis of the amount of transmitted data in the packet switching network, whereas charges are collected on the basis of the time of communication in the public telephone network. Therefore, the personal computer terminal accesses the host computer. At that time, the charges for the public telephone network may be levied even though the desired service could not be received due to a failure in the host computer or packet switching network. It is the current situation that it has a heavy burden. Therefore, there is a strong demand for this improvement.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the operation of a personal computer communication system when there is no failure.

In the figure, 1 is a personal computer terminal (personal computer), 2 is a host computer, 3 is a public telephone network, and 4 is a packet switching network. PC terminal 1
Is connected to the public telephone network 3.

The packet switching network 4 comprises a plurality of packet switches (PS) 5 and a packet assembling / disassembling device (PAD device) 6 connected to the packet switches 5, and the host computer 2 is recommended by CCITT (International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee). X. 25, the personal computer terminal 1 is connected to the packet exchange 5 via the public telephone network 3 and the recommendation X. It is connected to the packet assembling / disassembling apparatus 6 in 28 steps.

When the personal computer terminal 1 performs a predetermined call origination process, a call origination request is sent to the public telephone network 3 together with a dial number (eg, "1234") (step "abbreviated as ST" 1) 1 and the public telephone network 3 is sent. Issues an incoming call request to the packet assembling / disassembling apparatus 6 (ST2).

When the packet assembling / disassembling device 6 responds to this (ST3), the public telephone network 3 is connected to the personal computer terminal 1 O
Notify K (ST4). As a result, a communication path between the personal computer terminal 1 and the packet disassembling / assembling device 6 by the public telephone network 3 is established. Also, at this point, billing by the public telephone network 3 is started.

Next, when the address of the host computer (for example, CABC) is entered in the personal computer terminal 1,
The host address is sent to the packet assembling / disassembling apparatus 6 via the public telephone network 3 (ST5), and the packet assembling / disassembling apparatus 6 receiving this sends a connection request packet (CR packet) to the host computer 2 (ST6). .

The host computer 2 returns a connection confirmation packet (CC packet) to the packet disassembling / assembling device 6 (ST7), and the packet assembling / disassembling device 6 notifies the personal computer terminal 1 of the host connection completion (ST8). This allows
A communication path between the personal computer terminal 1 and the host computer 2 is established, and communication between the terminal and the host becomes possible (ST
9).

When the required communication is completed and a service end request is sent from the personal computer terminal 1 to the host computer 2 (S
At T10, the host computer 2 sends a PAD to host connection end request to the packet assembling / disassembling apparatus 6 (ST1).
1) The packet assembling / disassembling apparatus 6 notifies the personal computer terminal 1 of the end of host connection (ST12).

Further, the packet assembling / disassembling apparatus 6 sends a disconnection instruction packet (Ci packet) to the host computer 2 (ST13), and the host computer 2 sends a disconnection confirmation packet (CF packet) to the packet assembling / disassembling apparatus 6 (ST14). . As a result, the packet assembling / disassembling device 6-
The communication path between the host computers 2 is disconnected.

After that, when a predetermined disconnection process is carried out in the personal computer terminal 1, a disconnection request (on-hook) is sent to the public telephone network 3 (ST15), and the public telephone network 3 requests the packet assembling / disassembling device 6 to disconnect. By sending (ST16), the packet assembling / disassembling apparatus 6 responds to this (ST16).
17), the communication path between the personal computer terminal 1 and the packet assembling / disassembling device 6 is disconnected. At this point, the billing by the public telephone network 3 ends.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the conventional operation at the time of a failure in the personal computer communication system. When a communication path is established between the personal computer terminal 1 and the packet assembling / disassembling device 6 via the public telephone network 3 (ST1 to ST4), and the packet assembling / disassembling device 6 receives the host address from the personal computer terminal 1 (ST5), The packet assembling / disassembling device 6 sends a connection request packet (CR packet) to the host computer 2 (ST6).

At this time, if the host computer 2 is stopped due to a failure or a failure occurs in the line between the packet switch 5 and the host computer 2 (case 1), the packet switch 5 recognizing the failure is detected. Sends a disconnect request packet (CQ packet) to the packet assembling / disassembling device 6
To (ST7). The packet assembling / disassembling device 6 notifies the personal computer terminal 1 that connection is impossible (ST8), and sends a disconnection confirmation packet (CF packet) to the packet switch 5 (ST).
9).

The packet assembling / disassembling apparatus 6 receives the host address from the personal computer terminal 1 (ST5 '),
A connection packet is sent to the host computer 2 (ST6 '). At this time, if the application of the host computer 2 has a failure (case 2), the host computer 2 assembles and disconnects the disconnection request packet into packets. The packet is sent to the device 6 (ST7 '), and the packet assembling / disassembling device 6 notifies the personal computer terminal 1 that the connection is impossible (ST7').
8 '), and sends a disconnection confirmation packet to the host computer 2 (ST9').

Since the user of the personal computer terminal 1 cannot recognize that the failure such as the case 1 or the case 2 has occurred, the user of the personal computer terminal 1 can make a communication path through the public telephone network 3. The host address of the host computer 2 is transmitted again in the state of being connected, or the communication path by the public telephone network 3 is once disconnected (ST1
0 to ST12), and after a while, the above-mentioned series of operations is performed again on the host computer 2.

[0017]

As described above, when a failure occurs in the host computer or the packet switching network, the user of the personal computer terminal cannot naturally receive the service provided by the host computer. However, the communication path in the public telephone network between the personal computer terminal and the packet assembling / disassembling device is established without any change from the time of non-failure, and the public telephone network charges by the unit of time. You have to pay the usage fee.

This is extremely irrational because the user of the packet terminal is forced to pay money even though he / she fails to achieve the purpose due to a factor not depending on his / her responsibility.

Further, since the user of the personal computer terminal cannot recognize the timing of recovery from the failure, the user must repeatedly connect to the host computer in time, and each time, the public telephone network is connected. Must pay the usage fee.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and when the desired communication cannot be performed due to the failure of the host computer or the packet switching network, the usage charge of the public telephone network is not collected. The purpose is to do.

[0021]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle configuration of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a personal computer terminal (personal computer) of a personal computer communication user, 2 is a host computer of a personal computer communication service provider, 3 is a public telephone network to which the personal computer terminal 1 is connected, and 4 is a host computer 2 connected. It is a packet switched network.

The public telephone network 3 and the packet switching network 4 are connected via the response control device 7 according to the present invention. The response control device 7 includes a response means 8 for responding to an incoming call request from the public telephone network 3 and the host computer 2.
Failure detection means 9 for detecting the occurrence of a failure (including a failure in the packet switching network), and when the failure detection means 9 detects a failure occurrence, the host computer 2
Response stop means 10 for stopping the response by the response means 8 to the incoming call request to the host, recovery monitoring means 11 for detecting the recovery of the failure, and when the recovery monitoring means 11 detects the failure recovery, the host A response resuming means 12 for resuming a response by the response means 8 in response to an incoming request to the computer 2 is provided.

The fault detecting means 9 counts the number of transferred data packets in the communication between the host computer 2 and the personal computer terminal 1, and judges that a fault has occurred when the number of transferred data packets is zero. Can be configured as.

After detecting the occurrence of a failure, the recovery monitoring means 11 periodically sends a connection request packet to the host computer 2 until a connection completion packet for the connection request packet is received. It can be configured such that reception is judged to be a failure recovery.

[0025]

According to the present invention, when a failure occurs in the host computer 2 or the packet switching network 4, the failure detecting means 9 detects the failure, and the response stopping means 10 causes the response means 8 to send the host computer 2 from the public telephone network 3. To stop responding to incoming requests to.

On the other hand, when the failure of the host computer 2 or the packet switching network 4 is recovered, the recovery monitoring means 11 detects it, and the response restarting means 12 causes the response restarting means 8 to receive an incoming call from the public telephone network 3 to the host computer 2. Respond to the request again.

Generally, the public telephone network 3 does not charge when there is no response from the other party who is the incoming call requester, so-called,
If the desired service cannot be provided due to the failure of the host computer 2 or the packet switching network 4, the user of the personal computer terminal 1 will not be charged the usage fee of the public telephone network 3.

[0028]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a personal computer communication system to which the present invention is applied.

In the figure, 1 is a personal computer terminal (personal computer) of a personal computer communication user, 2 is a host computer of a personal computer communication service provider, 3 is a public telephone network, and 4 is a packet switching network. PC terminal 1
Is connected to the public telephone network 3.

The packet switching network 4 comprises a plurality of packet switches (PS) 5 and a packet assembling / disassembling device (PAD device) 13 connected to the packet switches 5, and the host computer 2 is recommended by CCITT (International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee). X. 25, the personal computer terminal 1 is connected to the packet exchange 5 via the public telephone network 3 and the recommendation X. It is connected to the packet assembling / disassembling apparatus 13 by 28 steps.

The present invention is applied to the packet assembling / disassembling apparatus 13. The packet assembling / disassembling device 13 includes a telephone network line controller 14, X. 28 procedure control unit 15, X. 25 packet controller 16, X. The 25-line control unit 17 is provided. Further, the packet assembling / disassembling device 13 includes a failure recovery monitoring mechanism 18, and the X.X. The 25 packet control unit 16 includes a host failure detection mechanism 19.

The telephone network line controller 14 controls the response when an incoming call is requested from the public telephone network 3 and the transmission / reception control of data (characters) to / from the public telephone network 3.

X. The procedure controller 15 interprets the contents of the data (characters) passed from the telephone network line controller 14, assembles the contents into packets, and X. 25 packet control unit 1
6 is to decompose the packet passed from 6 into data (character) and to send the decomposed character to the telephone network line control unit 14.

X. 25 packet control unit 16 sends the X.25 packet. 28
Regarding the packet passed from the procedure control unit 15, X. 25
Add packet header, X. After performing 25 steps control,
X. 25 requesting the transmission of packets to the line control unit 17, and X.25. 25 about the packet passed from the line control unit 17. After performing 25 procedures control, X. 28 Procedure control unit 1
It is handed over to 5.

In addition, X. The 25 packet control unit 16 includes a communication control memory (not shown). The communication control memory includes an X.25 packet before the communication path is established between the personal computer terminal 1 and the host computer 2. 25 data packet that has passed through the packet control unit 16 (DT packet)
Is set by counting up each time a data packet passes.

The host failure detection mechanism 19 is activated when a disconnection request packet (CQ packet) is received from the packet switch 5 or the host computer 2 and refers to the number of data packets set in the communication control memory, When the number of packets is zero, it is determined that some kind of communication failure has occurred in the packet switching network 4 or the host computer 2, and the failure recovery monitoring mechanism 18 is activated.

The failure recovery monitoring mechanism 18 is activated by the host failure detection mechanism 19 and has a telephone network response stop function, a host recovery monitoring function, and a telephone network response stop release function.

The telephone network response stop function prohibits a new incoming call to the telephone line port of the telephone network line control unit 14 for the host computer 2 in which the communication failure has occurred.
The telephone network line control unit 14 is instructed to close the line (inhibit incoming call). As a result, the telephone network line control unit 14 does not respond to the incoming call request from the public telephone network 3 to the corresponding telephone line port, and the personal computer terminal 1 side does not respond to the call while it is calling.

The host recovery monitoring function sends a connection request packet (CR packet) to the host computer 2. When a disconnection request packet (CQ packet) is sent from the packet switch 5 or the host computer 2 in response to this connection request packet, it is determined that the failure has not yet been recovered, and a disconnection confirmation packet (CF packet) is sent to the packet switch. 5 or return to the host computer 2, and after a certain period of time, the connection request packet is sent again to the host computer 2 and this process is repeated until the connection completion packet (CC packet) is received.

When the connection completion packet is sent in response to the connection request packet, it is determined that the fault has been recovered, the telephone network response stop release function is activated, and the disconnection request packet is sent to the host computer 2. The disconnection confirmation packet, which is a response thereto, is received, and the host recovery monitoring operation ends.

The telephone network response stop release function is activated when the host recovery monitoring function determines that the failure has been recovered.
The telephone network line control unit 14 is instructed to open (cancel incoming call prohibition) a telephone line port that has been closed (incoming call prohibition) by the telephone network response stop function. As a result, the response to the connection request from the public telephone network 3 to the telephone line port is restarted.

Incidentally, the correspondence relationship between each means 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 of the response control device 7 shown in FIG. 1 and each part of the packet assembling / disassembling device 13 shown in FIG. 2 will be clarified.
The response means 8 in FIG. 2 is the telephone network line controller 1 in FIG.
2 corresponds to a part of FIG. 4, and the failure detection means 9 in FIG.
X. The 25 packet controller 16 corresponds to the host failure detection mechanism 19, and the response stop means 10, the recovery monitoring means 11 and the response restart means 12 in FIG. 1 correspond to the failure recovery monitoring mechanism 18 in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation of the embodiment of the present invention. When the personal computer terminal 1 performs a predetermined call origination process, a call origination request is sent together with the dial number to the public telephone network 3 (ST1), and the public telephone network 3 issues an incoming call request to the telephone network line control unit 14 of the packet assembling / disassembling apparatus 13. It emits (ST2). The telephone network line control unit 14 responds to this (ST3), and the public telephone network 3 is connected to the personal computer terminal 1 OK.
Is notified (ST4). As a result, a communication path through the public telephone network 3 is established.

Next, when the address of the host computer 2 is input in the personal computer terminal 1 (ST5), the telephone network line control unit 14 which has received it inputs the host address,
X. 28 to the procedure control unit 15 (ST6), X. 28 procedure control unit 15 controls the X. 25 The connection request is issued to the procedure control unit 16 (ST7).

X. 25 procedure controller 16 sends a connection request packet (CR packet) to X.25. 25 to the host computer 2 via the line control unit 17 (ST
8), generating a communication control memory for the personal computer terminal 1, X. 25 Counting of data packets (DT packets) passing through the procedure controller 16 is started (ST9).

Here, assuming that a failure has occurred in the host computer 2 or the packet switching network 4, the host computer 2 or the packet switching device 5 sends a disconnection request packet (CQ packet) to the packet assembling / disassembling device 13 (ST10). ).

X. 25 procedure control unit 16 controls the X.25 procedure. 28, a disconnection request is issued to the procedure control unit 15 (ST11), and X. 28 The procedure control unit 15 notifies the personal computer terminal 1 that connection is impossible via the telephone network line control unit 14 (ST12, ST13). X. 25 The procedure control unit 16 sends a disconnection confirmation packet (CF packet) to the host computer 2 or the packet switch 5 (ST14),
Then, X. 25. The host failure detection mechanism 19 of the packet control unit 16 is activated.

The host failure detection mechanism 19 is the personal computer terminal 1
Is referred to (ST15), and it is determined whether the number of passed data packets is zero (S15).
If it is not zero in T16), it is determined that no communication failure has occurred, and the processing ends.

In this case, since the host computer 2 has a failure and the data packet is not being transmitted, the number of data packets passed through the communication control memory is zero. It is activated (ST17).

The fault recovery monitoring mechanism 18 instructs the telephone network line control unit 14 to close the line (inhibit incoming call) (ST.
18), the telephone network line control unit 14 sends a disconnection request to the public telephone network 3 (ST19), and the public telephone network 3 uses the personal computer terminal 1
~ Disconnects the communication path between the packet assembling / disassembling devices 13 (ST20).

The telephone network line control unit 14 of the packet assembling / disassembling apparatus 13 responds to an incoming request from the public telephone network 3 to the host computer 2 at the time when the failure recovery monitoring mechanism 18 gives a close instruction. Disappear. Therefore,
Call from the personal computer terminal 1 (ST21), public telephone network 3
Even if there is an incoming call request from the host computer 2 to the host computer 2 (ST22), it does not respond to this, a so-called ringing state is entered, and the user of the personal computer terminal 1 waits for a reasonable amount of time before the host It is determined that some failure has occurred in the computer 2, and disconnection processing is performed (ST23).

On the other hand, the failure recovery monitoring mechanism 18 of the packet assembling / disassembling apparatus 13 sends a connection request packet to the host computer 2 after instructing the telephone network line control unit 14 to close (ST24). When the failure of the host computer 2 has not been recovered, a disconnection request packet is returned from the host computer 2 or the packet switch 5 (ST25), and the failure recovery monitoring mechanism 18
Sends a disconnection confirmation packet to the host computer 2 or the packet switch 5 (ST26).

Since the disconnection request packet is returned to the connection request packet, the failure recovery monitoring mechanism 18 determines that the failure of the host computer 2 has not been recovered yet, and after a certain period of time, the failure recovery monitoring mechanism 18 restarts the operation. A connection request packet is sent to the host computer 2 (ST27). If the disconnection request packet is returned from the host computer 2 or the packet switch 5 (ST2
8), a disconnection confirmation packet is transmitted (ST29), and thereafter, ST24 to ST26 are repeated at a constant cycle.

The failure recovery monitoring mechanism 18 sends a connection request packet to the host computer 2 (ST30), and if a connection completion packet (CC packet) is returned from the host computer 2 (ST31), a failure occurs. The recovery monitoring mechanism 18 determines that the failure of the host computer 2 has been recovered, and instructs the telephone network line control unit 14 to open the line (cancel the incoming call prohibition) (ST3).
2).

As a result, the telephone network line controller 14 responds to the incoming call request from the public telephone network 3 to the host computer 2 thereafter. The failure recovery monitoring mechanism 18 sends a disconnection request packet to the host computer 2 (ST
33), the host computer 2 sends a disconnection confirmation packet to the failure recovery monitoring mechanism 18 (ST34).

According to this embodiment, the host computer 2
Regarding the personal computer terminal 1 that accessed the earliest after the occurrence of a failure, the usage fee of the public telephone network 3 will be collected, but thereafter, it is accommodated in the personal computer terminal 1 or the public telephone network 3. Even when the host computer 2 is accessed from another personal computer terminal, the packet assembling / disassembling device 13 does not respond to this, so that the usage fee of the public telephone network 3 is not collected and the user of the personal computer terminal is not charged. Economic burden can be reduced.

Further, the host failure detection mechanism 19 determines whether or not there is a failure by referring to the number of data packets transferred in the communication control memory, and the communication control memory is used for charging the packet switching network 4. Since it is usually provided in the packet assembling / disassembling apparatus, the host failure detection mechanism 19 can be easily realized.

Further, the host failure detection mechanism 19, the failure recovery monitoring mechanism 18, etc. can be realized by changing only the packet assembling / disassembling apparatus, and it is not necessary to change other parts of the personal computer communication system, and the existing Easy to install in personal computer communication system.

[0059]

Since the present invention is configured as described above in detail, even if the desired communication cannot be achieved due to the failure of the host computer or the packet switching network, the user of the personal computer terminal can access the public telephone network. It has the effect that the usage fee will not be collected and the economic burden will be greatly reduced, and it will contribute greatly to the spread of personal computer communications.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a principle configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a personal computer communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation of a general personal computer communication system when there is no failure.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a conventional operation when a failure occurs in the personal computer communication system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Personal Computer Terminal 2 Host Computer 3 Public Telephone Network 4 Packet Switching Network 7 Response Control Device 8 Response Means 9 Failure Detection Means 10 Response Stopping Means 11 Recovery Monitoring Means 12 Response Resuming Means

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A personal computer terminal (1) and a host computer.
In a personal computer communication system in which (2) communicates via the public telephone network (3) and the packet switching network (4), a response means (8) for responding to an incoming call request from the public telephone network (3). ), A failure detection means (9) for detecting the occurrence of a failure in the host computer (2), and a failure detection means (9) for the host computer (2) when a failure occurrence is detected by the failure detection means (9). Response stopping means (10) for stopping the response by the response means (8) to the incoming request
Recovery monitoring means (11) for detecting recovery from the failure, and response means (8) for an incoming request to the host computer (2) when recovery recovery means (11) detects recovery from the failure. ) Means to restart the response (12)
A response control device comprising: 2. The fault detecting means (9) counts the number of transferred data packets in the communication between the host computer (2) and the personal computer terminal (1), and the transferred data packets is zero. The response control device according to claim 1, wherein the response control device is a device that determines that a failure has occurred in the case of. 3. The recovery monitoring means (11) periodically sends a connection request packet to the host computer (2) after detecting a failure, until a connection completion packet for the connection request packet is received. 3. The response control device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the response control device is a unit that determines that the failure recovery is performed by receiving the connection completion packet.