JPH07107168A - Line selecting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a line selecting device connected automatically to a telephone line in a group, which can utilize most effectively a discount service with respect to an outgoing request from a user. CONSTITUTION:This device contains a free line searching means 220 for setting in advance plural telephone lines as one group, and searching a free telephone line which can utilize most effectively a discount service to a user who satisfies information related to a speech by retrieving a group information table 240 and a line selection rule 250, based on the information related to a speech obtained by a speech information acquiring means 210, and a connecting means 230 for connecting a terminal equipment to which an outgoing request is conducted, to a free telephone line.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a line selection device,
In particular, if you have multiple telephone lines that subscribe to the discount service,
The present invention relates to a line selection device which is treated as one group and automatically connects to a telephone line that can most effectively use a discount service for a user in response to a call request from a telephone line in the group.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is a discount service provided to users by conventional type 1 telecommunications carriers. These businesses have individual discount service systems, and provide a discount service, for example, by separately or in combination of distance, time zone, and frequency of use.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining a conventional discount service providing system. In the figure, discount service A is a time restriction condition, discount service B is a ground condition,
The discount service C provides a discount service according to the time restriction condition and the usage frequency condition. For these discount services, telephones a and b subscribe to discount services A and B, telephone c subscribes to discount services B and C, and facsimile subscribes to discount services A and C. In this way, when a plurality of terminal devices owned by a certain user subscribe to the discount service for each device, for example, the telephone a uses the discount service A or the discount service B.
You can use the discount service. At this time, the user selects the discount service that is considered to be the cheapest according to the features of each discount service and makes a call.

[0004]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the past,
When the user's terminal uses the discount service, the user who has subscribed to multiple discount services can efficiently receive the discount service because the call can be made only from the telephone line to which the terminal with the handset is subscribed. In order to do so, each user must be familiar with the time restrictions and ground restrictions regarding the discount service, which makes it difficult to effectively receive the discount service.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and solves the above-mentioned conventional problems and is most effective for a call request from a user when a user has a plurality of lines. It is an object of the present invention to provide a line selection device that automatically connects to a telephone line in a group that can use discount services.

[0006]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of the present invention. The line selection device 200 of the present invention is a telephone line switching device that handles a plurality of telephone lines, and a discount service in which each telephone line subscribes to a plurality of telephone lines grouped in advance and the contents of the discount service. And a group information table 240, a line selection rule 250 accumulating conditions for selecting the telephone line that can most effectively use the discount service for the user, and a call request from the terminal 100 that subscribes to the telephone line. When the call is received, the call information acquisition unit 210 that acquires information about the call, and the group information table 240 and the line selection rule 250 are searched based on the call information acquired by the call information acquisition unit 210. , A free phone that can most effectively use the discount service for users who satisfy the information about the call Including a vacant channel search unit 220 to locate the lines, and connection means 230 for connecting a terminal device of the outgoing request to the idle telephone line thus found by the free line searching unit 220 to the telephone line of the destination terminal 300.

[0007]

The present invention treats a plurality of telephone lines owned by a user as one group, and when a call request is made from the telephone lines in the group to the line selecting device, the line selecting device first makes a call. Acquire information on the status of (the other party's telephone number of the call, call start time, etc.). Next, the discount service for each telephone line belonging to the group is acquired from the group information table. And
By executing the rule in the line selection rule that has a condition part that satisfies the call status of the outgoing call request, the free telephone line that subscribes to the most effective discount service for the user is searched for and automatically selected. Then connect to the other party of the call. That is, according to the present invention, the discount service to which the user subscribes can be effectively used by making the call request to the line selection device to the call to the free telephone line that is most effective for the user.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows a basic configuration of a line selection device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The line selection device 6 shown in the figure comprises a call information acquisition unit 1, an available line search unit 2, a line connection unit 3, a group information table 4, and a line selection rule 5.

When a call request is made from the terminal device, the call information acquisition unit 1 acquires information about the call (callee telephone number, call start time, etc.). The idle line search unit 2 satisfies the information about the call by searching the line selection rule 5 based on the information about the call obtained by the call information acquisition unit 1, and the most effective discount for the user. Find a free telephone line (optimal telephone line) that can use the service. The line connection unit 3 connects the terminal device that has made a call request to the optimum telephone line obtained by the available line search unit 2.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the field structure of the group information table according to the embodiment of the present invention. One field 12 of the group information table is a group telephone line number 7 belonging to the group, a priority order 8 indicating the order of connection, and a subscription discount service to which the telephone number described in the telephone line number 7 subscribes. 9. A discount application condition 10 for applying a discount service (such as when the discount is valid during a time-limited discount), and a discount rate 11 for the discount service.

FIG. 4 shows a field configuration example of the line selection rule according to the embodiment of the present invention. One record of the line selection rule 5 is a rule number 1 for distinguishing rules.
3. A condition section 14 that describes the conditions for activating the rules, and an execution section 15 that describes what to do when the conditions are satisfied.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the operation of the line selection device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Step 1) In the communication information acquisition unit 1, when a call request is made from one terminal device such as a telephone or a facsimile device in a group, information about the call (call destination telephone number, call start time). Etc.) and sends the information to the free line search unit 2.

Step 2) The vacant line searching unit 2 searches the group information table 4 to obtain the telephone numbers belonging to the group and the information regarding each discount service subscribed.

Step 3) Further, the free line search unit 2 performs the optimum line determination process according to the procedure of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing the procedure of the optimum line determination process of the free line search unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Step 3-a) Set i = 1 to process the first rule.

Step 3-b) The rule with the rule number number i is acquired by searching the line selection rule 5.

Step 3-c) The processing is divided depending on whether the rule condition part 14 of the rule number i is satisfied. If satisfied, the process proceeds to step 3-d, and if not satisfied, the process proceeds to step 3-h.

Step 3-d) The processing is divided depending on whether or not the rule execution unit 15 of the rule number i is executable. If it is executable, the process proceeds to step 3-e, and if it is not executable, the process proceeds to step 3-h.

Step 3-e) Depending on whether or not the telephone line obtained by executing the rule execution unit 15 of the rule number i and collating with the contents of the group information table 5 obtained in Step 2 is uniquely determined Divide. If it is uniquely determined, the process proceeds to step 3-f, and if not, the process proceeds to step 3-g.

Step 3-f) The telephone line obtained by executing the rule execution unit 15 of the rule number i and collating the contents of the group information table 4 obtained in step 2 is set as the optimum telephone line.

Step 3-g) The group information table 4 of the plurality of telephone lines obtained by executing the rule execution unit 15 of the rule number i and collating the contents with the contents of the group information table 5 obtained in step 2 The telephone line with the highest priority of 8 is the optimal telephone line.

Step 3-h) Set i = i + 1 to process the next rule.

Step 3-i) The processing is divided depending on whether or not all the rules in the line selection rule 5 have been processed. When all the processing is completed, the process proceeds to step 4, and when there are still rules, the process proceeds to step 3-b.

Step 4) In the optimum line determination process of the free line search unit 2, the process is divided depending on whether or not the optimum telephone line is determined. If decided, go to Step 7,
If not decided, the process proceeds to step 5.

Step 5) It is checked whether or not the telephone lines belonging to the same group have a vacant telephone line. If there is a vacant telephone line, the process proceeds to step 6, and if there is no vacant telephone line, the process proceeds to step 8.

Step 6) Among the unused telephone lines, the telephone line having the highest priority 8 listed in the group information table 4 is set as the optimum telephone line.

Step 7) The line connection unit 3 connects the terminal device, which has made a call request, to the optimum telephone line determined in the above process.

Step 8) The line connection unit 3 informs the terminal device which has made a call request that there is no available telephone line even after checking the telephone lines in all the groups.

Next, the operation will be described using a specific example of this embodiment.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the contents of the group information table according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 shows an example of the contents of the line selection rule according to the embodiment of the present invention.

First, assume that the following elements are given as data.

-Telephone number of communication partner: 06-kkk-hhhh-Call start time: 7: 00-Telephone line belonging to group: All empty The communication information acquisition unit 1 provides information about a call for which a call is requested (call partner). The destination telephone number: 06-kkk-hhh, call start time: 7:00) is acquired and sent to the available line search unit 2 (FIG. 5, step 1).

The free line search unit 2 searches the group information table 4 and acquires all the information about the group (FIG. 5, step 2). As shown in FIG. 7, all information about groups in the group information table 4 is (first group) -Telephone number within group: 0468-99-xxxx-Priority: 1-Subscription discount service: time-limited discount Type 2 ・ Discount application condition: Time limit: 22: 00-24: 00,
0: 00-8: 00 Discount applied up to 800 frequencies-Discount rate: 10% (second group) -Group telephone line number: 0468-99-xxxy-Priority: 2-Subscription discount service: discount by land- Discount application conditions: Discount calls to specific destinations 06-kkk-hhhh, 06-kkk-hhhh-Discount rate: 11% (third group) -In-group telephone line number: 0468-99-xxxz-Priority: 3・ Subscription discount service: None (4th group) ・ Group telephone line number: 0468-98-nnnn ・ Priority: 4 ・ Subscription discount service: Time-limited discount type 1 ・ Discount application condition: Time limitation: 22: 00-24: 00,
0: 00-8: 00 Apply discount up to 500 times-Discount rate: 10%.

Next, the vacant line search unit 2 performs an optimum line determination process (FIG. 5, step 3). The rule of rule number 1 is acquired from the line selection rule 5 (FIG. 6, step 3).
-A, b). As shown in FIG. 9, in the line selection rule 5, the rule of rule number 1 is "if (the telephone number of the called party is designated as a specific destination of the discount according to the ground) the
n (the optimum telephone line is the telephone line number that subscribes to the discount according to the ground with the telephone number of the other party as the destination). Call destination telephone number: 06-kkk-hhhh
Is a telephone line belonging to a group 0468-99-xxx
Since it is specified as the specific ground of y, it satisfies the rule condition part of the rule of rule number 1 (Fig. 6, step 3-
c). Further, since 0468-99-xxxy is an empty line, the execution unit 15 of the line selection rule 5 can execute it (FIG. 6, step 3d). Also, the call destination telephone number: 06-kkk-hhhh is specified as the specific destination only in 0468-99-xxy, so the optimum telephone line = 0468-99-x according to the execution unit 15.
xxy (FIG. 6, steps 3-e, 3-f).

Since the optimum telephone line has been determined by the line connection unit 3 (FIG. 5, step 4), the terminal device that has made a call request is connected to the optimum telephone line = 0468-99-xxxy (FIG. 5, step 7). ).

Through the above processing, the terminal device that has made the call request is connected to the telephone line 0468-99-xxxy that allows the user to receive the discount service most effectively.

Next, a case where the following elements are given as other data will be described.

・ Call destination telephone number: 06-kkk-hhhh ・ Call start time: 7:00 ・ 0468-99-x of telephone lines belonging to the group
When xxy is blocked, the call information acquisition unit 1 acquires information (call destination telephone number: 06-kkk-hhh, call start time: 7:00) regarding a call for which a call is requested, and an available line search unit. 2 to step 2 (FIG. 5, step 1). The free line search unit 2 searches the group information table and acquires all information about the group (FIG. 5, step 2). A group information table 4 is defined as shown in FIG. Here, the free line search unit 2 performs the optimum line determination process (FIG. 5, step 3). The rule of rule number 1 is acquired from the line selection rule 5 (FIG. 5, steps 3-a and 3-b).

As shown in FIG. 8, the line selection rule 5 is
The rule of rule number 1 is "if (the telephone number of the call destination is designated as a specific destination of the discount according to the ground) then (the telephone line number that subscribes to the discount for the ground with the telephone number of the call destination as the specific ground) Is the optimal telephone line). "

Call destination telephone number: 06-kkk-hh
hh is the telephone line 0468-99-x that belongs to the group
Rule number 1 because it is specified as a specific ground of xxy
The condition part 14 of the rule is satisfied (FIG. 6, step 3-
c). Here, since 0468-99-xxxy is blocked, the execution unit 15 of the line selection rule 5 cannot execute (FIG. 5, step 3d). Therefore, the rule of the next rule, rule number 2, is acquired from the line selection rule 5 (FIG. 6, steps 3-h, 3-i, 3-b).

As shown in FIG. 8, the rule of the rule number 2 of the line selection rule 5 is "if (the telephone call start time is within the time limit and there is a telephone line that does not reach the discount limit) then (time limit A telephone line number that has subscribed to the type discount and has not reached the discount limit is the optimal telephone line). " The call start time: 7:00 satisfies the time restrictions: 22: 00-24: 00, 0: 00-8: 00 for both the time-limited discount type 1 and the time-limited discount type 2.

Here, it is assumed that the frequency for 0468-98-nnnn is 400, and the frequency for 0468-99-xxxx is 700. However, as a method of obtaining the call frequency, there are a method of obtaining from the exchange and a method of providing a function for calculating the frequency in this device.
This method is not limited. In this example, neither line has reached the discount limit. Also, 0468-9
The lines other than 9-xxxy are idle lines. Therefore, this call satisfies the condition part of the rule of rule number 2 (FIG. 6, step 3-c), and the execution part 15 of the line selection rule 5 is executed.
Can also be executed (FIG. 6, step 3-d).

As a result of the execution, the telephone line is 0468-98.
Since -nnnnn and 0468-99-xxxx are obtained, they cannot be uniquely determined (Fig. 6, step 3-e). Here, the free line search unit 2 refers to the priority order 8 described in the group information table 4 obtained in step 2. As shown in FIG. 7, in the group information table 4, the priority of 0468-98-nnnn is “4”, and the priority of 0468-99-xxxx is “1”.
To get Accordingly, the idle line searching unit 2 sets 0468-99-xxxx, which has the highest priority, among the telephone lines that satisfy the line selection rule 4 as the optimum telephone line (FIG. 6, step 3-g). The line connection unit 3 connects to the optimum telephone line = 0468-99-xxxx (FIG. 5, FIG.
Step 7).

Through the above processing, the terminal device that has made the call request is connected to the telephone line 0468-99-xxxx through which the user can most effectively receive the discount service.

As in the above embodiment, a plurality of telephone lines possessed by a certain user are treated as one group, and a call request from a terminal in the group is transmitted to the information such as the priority order of the group and the subscription discount service. It is possible to select the most effective line by using the group information table 4 and the line selection rule that it has.

The setting of the group information table 4 and the line selection rule 5 described above is arbitrary and can be variously changed depending on the purpose and service provision information.

[0050]

As described above, according to the line selection device of the present invention, it is possible to select among the telephone number groups pre-grouped without being aware of which telephone line subscribes to which discount service at the time of calling. Thus, it is possible to automatically connect to an available telephone line that allows the user to use the discount service most effectively.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a basic configuration diagram of a line selection device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a field configuration of a group information table according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a field configuration of a line selection rule according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation of the line selection device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the optimum line determination processing according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the contents of a group information table according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the contents of a line selection rule according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining a conventional discount service providing system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Call information acquisition unit 2 Unoccupied line search unit 3 Line connection unit 4 Group information table 5 Line selection rule 6 Line selection device 7 Group telephone line number 8 Priority 9 Subscription discount service 10 Discount application condition 11 Discount rate 12 Group information table Field information of 13 Rule number 14 Condition section 15 Execution section 16 Field information of line selection rule 100 Terminal 200 Line selection device 210 Call information acquisition means 220 Free line search means 230 Connection means 240 Group information table 250 Line selection rule 300 Destination terminal

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A telephone line switching device that handles a plurality of telephone lines, describes a discount service subscribed to by each of the plurality of telephone lines grouped in advance and the contents of the discount service. Group information table, line selection rules that store the conditions for selecting the telephone line that can most effectively use the discount service for the user, and when a call request is received from a terminal subscribed to the telephone line. , The communication information acquisition unit that acquires information about the call, and the information about the call by searching the group information table and the line selection rule based on the information about the call obtained by the communication information acquisition unit. Satisfied,
A free line searching means for finding a free telephone line that can most effectively use the discount service for the user, and a terminal device that has made a call request to the free telephone line found by the free line searching means, as the telephone line of the destination terminal. A line selecting device including a connecting means for connecting to the line.