JPH07336440A - Private branch exchange - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make the best use of the original function of a private branch exchange and to attain the batch management of incoming calls for an unattended telephone set by detecting the unattended telephone set by the private branch exchange itself to receive the incoming calls and then showing a message if confirmed on the display part of the telephone set together with the message display signal. CONSTITUTION:If a digital telephone set has an incoming call, the incoming call is received and a question 'Any message ?' is issued to check whether or not any message is needed although the digital telephone set is not attended. Then the presence or absence of a message is decided by the PB tone sent from an outgoing subscriber or the control signal of the digital telephone set. If no message is confirmed, the extension number of the outgoing side or the type/incoming time data are set to an unattended digital telephone set 21. Thus the telephone set 21 shows the received data at its display part 210. If a message is received from the outgoing side, the extension number of the outgoing side or the type, the incoming time and the message are sent to the telephone set 21 and shown at the part 210.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

This invention relates to a private branch exchange (PBX: Pr
ivate Branch Exchange), and more specifically, the multi-functionality of private branch exchanges.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a multifunctional digital private branch exchange. As shown in FIG.
Not only a circuit switching module for exchanging telephone lines,
Equipped with functional modules such as voice mail module, external network interface module, packet switching module, compound mail module, various telephones, facsimiles,
It is possible to connect workstations, etc. to public networks, dedicated networks, private networks, host computers, personal computers, etc., but general private branch exchanges have some of these functions. .

As shown in FIG. 9, although a conventional private branch exchange has various functional modules, the called party is not present near the telephone when the telephone is called. In this case (hereinafter referred to as an absent telephone), another person is answering the other telephone. Figure 10
[FIG. 6] is a diagram for explaining the operation when an incoming call is made to the above-mentioned absent telephone, in which 1 is a PBX and 2 and 3 are terminal telephones. For example, when the terminal telephone 3 is an absent telephone and there is an incoming call to this, another person generally receives the incoming call at the terminal telephone 2, notes the message to the absentee, and later leaves the absence. The method of giving this memo to a person is taken.

[0004]

In the conventional private branch exchange as described above, even if it is equipped with various functional modules, when a call is made to the absent telephone, another A method is adopted in which a person receives the message on another telephone and takes a note of a message. In this method, a person who receives an incoming call to an absent telephone by another telephone must interrupt its business. In addition, when the number of incoming calls to the absent telephone is concentrated, there is a possibility that not only the message but also the fact that there are incoming calls may be forgotten. Also, if you want to record a traditional call,
I am doing it individually with a telephone equipped with a call recording function, but sometimes I want to manage this collectively. In particular, it would be convenient if conference calls could be easily recorded, but this is not possible with conventional telephones equipped with a call recording function. Further, since the private branch exchange itself does not have a check function, there is a problem that when there is no incoming call, it is not known whether there is really an incoming call or whether the private branch exchange is out of order.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and makes maximum use of the function modules originally possessed by a private branch exchange for the treatment and self-diagnosis when an incoming call is made to an absent telephone. The purpose is to provide a private branch exchange performed by the exchange itself.

[0006]

A private branch exchange according to the present invention utilizes a function originally possessed by the private branch exchange in a private branch exchange to which a digital telephone is connected, and the private branch exchange itself when the digital telephone receives a call. If the called party is an absent telephone (hereinafter referred to as an absent telephone), means for detecting this, means for receiving the above-mentioned call and inquiring to the sender whether or not there is a message, and calling if there is a message Including the message display signal corresponding to the signal input from the original PB sound or the control signal of the digital telephone. If there is no message, the message display signal is not included, and the caller extension number or outside line A means for sending out the type display signal and the incoming time display signal to the digital telephone and displaying them on the display section of the digital telephone.

Further, in a private branch exchange in which a telephone and a printing means are connected, when the private branch exchange itself detects an incoming call to the telephone by utilizing the function originally possessed by the private branch exchange, the extension of the called destination A means for sending out the number, the type information indicating that it is the extension number or the outside line of the incoming call and the incoming call time information to the printing means, and printing and recording the information And

Further, a private branch exchange having a voice mail module to which a plurality of telephones are connected, a private branch exchange to which a plurality of telephones are connected to an external recording device, or a voice to which a plurality of telephones and an external recording device are connected In a private branch exchange having a mail module, the private branch exchange itself uses the functions that the private branch exchange has by itself, and the private branch exchange itself performs a call from each of the telephones at the same time by using the external recording device or the voice mail module. It is characterized in that it is provided with a means for recording and a means for making it possible to reproduce a telephone call recorded by the external recording device or the voice mail module by any of the telephones.

Further, the plurality of telephones are digital telephones, and when a recording request for a conference call is made, a means for recording / reproducing with the external recording device or the voice mail module using the means is provided. Characterize.

Further, the device itself periodically makes a call to the private branch exchange, the private branch exchange calls the call to the device, and the device connects a monitoring device for confirming the incoming call.
When the incoming call is not confirmed, the monitoring device is provided with means for determining that an abnormality has occurred in the private branch exchange and issuing an alarm.

[0011]

The private branch exchange of the present invention utilizes the function originally possessed by the private branch exchange in a private branch exchange to which a digital telephone is connected. The private branch exchange itself detects an absent telephone and receives an incoming call, and inquires about the presence or absence of a message. If there is a message, these can be displayed on the display unit of the telephone including the message display signal. Therefore, make the most of the functions originally possessed by the private branch exchange and add the above-mentioned functions. Therefore, it is not necessary to add a special function to the telephone or the like.

Further, by connecting the telephone and the printing means, the function originally possessed by the private branch exchange is utilized, and when the private branch exchange itself detects an incoming call to the telephone, the extension number of the called destination is used. By sending the type information indicating the extension number or the outside line of the incoming call and the incoming call time information to the printing means, and printing and recording these information,
Even if there are a lot of incoming calls to missed telephones, all incoming calls can be automatically recorded, and the risk of forgetting incoming calls can be prevented.

Further, by using the voice mail module or the external recording device, the private branch exchange itself records the calls in each telephone by the external recording device or the voice mail module by the operation from the respective telephones, and the respective telephones are collectively recorded. By making it possible to replay the calls recorded by the external recording device or the above voice mail module by the operation from, the important calls, the calls that should be left as evidence, and the calls that you want to hear again can be made from the terminal phone. You can record freely during a call and play it back from any terminal.

Further, when a plurality of telephones are digital telephones and a request for recording a conference call is made, recording / playback is performed by an external recording device or a voice mail module, and important calls including conference calls are left as evidence. Calls that you want to keep and calls that you want to hear again can be recorded at any time during the call from the terminal phone and can be played back from any terminal phone.

Further, the device itself periodically makes a call to the private branch exchange, the private branch exchange calls the call to the device, and the device connects a monitoring device for confirming the incoming call.
When the incoming call is not confirmed, it is determined that an abnormality has occurred in the private branch exchange, and the monitoring device issues an alarm, so that the private branch exchange itself can perform self-check.

As prior arts related to the present invention, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 4-83449 "Attendant number storage telephone", Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 4-4649 "Automatic voice recording system of automatic telephone exchange system", There are Kaihei 1-167752 "answering machine", etc., but these are different from the present invention in that they do not fully utilize the functional functions of the exchange itself, or require complicated configuration and operation. To do.

[0017]

【Example】

Example 1. Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a system using a private branch exchange according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In the figure, 10 is a private branch exchange (PBX), and 20 and 21 are terminal telephones. Of the terminal telephones, at least the terminal telephone 21 which is an absent telephone is a digital telephone having a display unit 210 formed of an LCD or the like, and the PBX 10 is connected with a facsimile or the like in addition to the telephone, and is not connected to the line network. In some cases, a private line or the like is connected, but these are not directly related to the present invention, so they are omitted in the drawings (the same applies to the following drawings).

Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described with reference to the chart of FIG. Private branch exchange 10 is step 2a
When an incoming call to the absentee terminal telephone 21 is detected in step S2, the telephone that receives the incoming call in step 2b is a digital telephone (D
-TEL) or not. This judgment can be easily made by the function module originally possessed by the private branch exchange. If the telephone is not a digital telephone, it does not have a signal read / display function, so the processing ends.

If the telephone receiving the incoming call is a digital telephone, the process proceeds to step 2c to make an incoming call and ask the caller whether the telephone is an absent telephone but the callee has a message. Message. Note that this message can also be sent easily by using the function module provided in the private branch exchange. Then, the presence or absence of a message is judged in the next step 2d by the PB sound from the caller or the control signal of the digital telephone. If there is no message, in the next step 2e, the data of the source extension number or the type / incoming time is transmitted to the absent digital telephone 21, and the digital telephone 21 which receives this data in the step 2f displays the display portion. This is displayed on 210. If the sender is from the public network, the type indicating that the line is an external line may be displayed instead of the extension number.

If there is a message from the caller, the process moves to step 2g, the message "please press the message PB" is played, and the caller inputs a PB tone or a control signal from the digital telephone, the private branch exchange 10 The message corresponding to the PB sound or control signal received in the next step 2h is searched. This is, for example, "TE" in the display unit 210 of FIG.
It is a message equivalent to "L Negau". In the next step 2i, the caller is asked whether or not the message is finished by voice,
If it is determined in the next step 2j that the message has ended, the caller extension number or type / calling time / message is sent to the absent digital telephone in a step 2k and displayed on the display unit 210 of the absent digital telephone in a step 2f.

Example 2. FIG. 3 is a block diagram for explaining the second embodiment of the present invention, in which 11 is a private branch exchange (PBX), 20 and 21 are terminal telephones,
22 is a printer device. However, in the case of the second embodiment, the absent terminal telephone (for example, the terminal telephone 21) does not have to be a digital telephone.

Next, the operation of the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the chart of FIG. When the private branch exchange 11 detects an incoming call to the absentee terminal telephone 21 in step 4a, it searches for the extension number or the type / incoming time in step 4b. Then, in step 4c, these data are attached to the destination extension numbers and sent to the printer device 22, and in step 4d, the printer device 22 prints these data. That is, in this second embodiment, when an incoming call is made to the absent telephone, the printer device 22 collectively prints the incoming calls to the absent telephone, and even if the incoming calls to the absent telephone are concentrated, all incoming calls are automatically transmitted. By recording the information, the risk of forgetting the incoming call itself is prevented. The printer device is not limited to the printer device as long as it is a typical example of a device capable of collectively recording data and outputting the data and performing the same operation.

Example 3. FIG. 5 is a block diagram for explaining the third embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 12 is a private branch exchange equipped with a voice mail module, 20 and 21 are extension terminal phones, and 23 is a recording tape or a recording medium on a storage medium. It is an external recording device that uses a recording memory. In the third embodiment, the conversation is not recorded by the conversation recording function built in the telephone, but the PBX 12 is used to record an important call, a call to be left as evidence, or a call to be heard again later. It makes it easy to manage all the calls that you want.

That is, any extension terminal telephone 20,
When 21 (in this case, the extension terminal telephone does not have to be a digital telephone) is in a call, the voice is always transmitted to the external recording device 23, and if the caller decides that he wants to record, By transmitting a recording start PB sound to the external recording device 23 by the extension terminal telephone during the call at the time of judgment, the external recording device 23 receiving the PB sound starts recording from that time. . In this case, the recorded call is recorded with the extension number of the terminal telephone as an address, and the recording from a plurality of terminal telephones can be collectively managed by the external recording device 23. Further, the external recording device 23 is configured to record in parallel even if recording requests from a plurality of terminal telephones overlap.

Then, the recording is stopped when the call ends (on-hook) or when the recording stop PB sound is transmitted. In the case of reproduction, a reproduction start PB sound is sent from any of the extension terminal phones 20 and 21, and the external recording device 23 is operated to perform reproduction. However, since the external recording device 23 manages them collectively, for example, a plurality of different It becomes possible to perform processing such as collectively reproducing the calls recorded from the terminal telephone.

If the terminal telephones 20 and 21 are digital telephones, a conference call can be performed by a one-touch operation. Therefore, in the third embodiment, the voice call module in the PBX 12 can be used to record the conference call. It is configured. That is, as shown in the chart of FIG. 6, when the PBX 12 detects a "conference request" signal in step 6a, it sets a conference call in the circuit switching module in step 6b, activates the voice mail module, and then in step 6c. Record the call. To end the conference call, press P on the digital telephone.
A "conference end" signal is sent to the BX 12, and the PBX 12 detects this and cancels the setting of the conference call, and at the same time ends the recording by voice mail. Alternatively, the voice mail recording is ended at the time of ending the call (on-hook).

Example 4. 7 is a block diagram for explaining a fourth embodiment of the present invention, in which 13 is a private branch exchange (PBX) and 24 is a monitoring device. For example, when the terminal telephone (not shown) has not received an incoming call for a long time, it is not known whether the incoming call is not actually received or the PBX 13 is out of order. In the fourth embodiment, the monitoring device 24 periodically repeats an automatic call, and the monitoring device 24 itself receives the call via the PBX 13, so that the PBX 13
It is configured to monitor the operating state of.

That is, step 8a in the chart of FIG.
As shown in FIG. 6, the monitoring device 24 sends a call signal directed to the monitoring device 24 itself to the PBX 13, and the monitoring device 24 itself monitors the incoming call signal via the PBX 13 in step 8b. If the incoming call is confirmed, the outgoing call is repeated again at a predetermined interval in step 8c. When the call sent to the PBX 13 on a regular basis does not arrive, it is determined that a failure has occurred in the PBX 13, the process proceeds from step 8b to step 8d, and an alarm signal is sent to detect an abnormality in the PBX 13. To warn.

[0029]

As described above, the private branch exchange of the present invention utilizes the function originally possessed by the private branch exchange, and the private branch exchange itself detects an absent telephone, receives an incoming call, inquires about the presence or absence of a message, and sends a message. If there is a message, these can be displayed on the display unit of the telephone including the message display signal, so the functions originally possessed by the private branch exchange can be fully utilized and the above-mentioned functions can be added. , It is not necessary to add a special function to a telephone or the like. In addition, since it is possible to collectively manage the incoming calls to the absent telephone, even if there are frequent incoming calls, it is possible to prevent omission of intermediary calls.

Further, by connecting the telephone and the printing means, the function originally possessed by the private branch exchange can be utilized, and when an incoming call is detected, various incoming call information is printed, so that the absence telephone can be called. All incoming calls can be automatically recorded even if they are concentrated, and the risk of forgetting incoming calls can be prevented.

Further, by utilizing the function originally possessed by the private branch exchange, the private branch exchange itself can collectively record with an external recording device or a voice mail module so that it can be reproduced from each telephone, so that important calls and evidences can be obtained. As a result, a call to be left or a call to be heard again can be arbitrarily recorded during a call from a terminal phone and can be played back from any terminal phone.

When a plurality of telephones are digital telephones and a recording request for a conference call is requested, recording / playback is performed by an external recording device or a voice mail module, and important calls including conference calls are left as evidence. Calls that you want to keep and calls that you want to hear again can be recorded at any time during the call from the terminal phone and can be played back from any terminal phone.

Furthermore, by making a call to the private branch exchange by the device itself, the private branch exchange itself can perform self-check, and it is possible to immediately detect a failure or the like and take immediate action. There is.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a chart diagram for explaining the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram for explaining a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a chart diagram for explaining the operation of the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram for explaining a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a chart diagram for explaining the operation of the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram for explaining a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a chart diagram for explaining the operation of the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing an example of a multi-function digital private branch exchange.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining the operation of a conventional private branch exchange.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 to 13 private branch exchange (PBX), 20 and 21 are terminal telephones, 22 printer device, 23 external recording device, 2
4 Monitoring device.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical indication H04M 3/50 B H04Q 3/58 101

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. In a private branch exchange to which a digital telephone is connected, the private branch exchange itself uses a function that the private branch exchange itself has, and the private branch exchange itself has a telephone with which the called party is absent when the digital telephone receives a call (hereinafter referred to as an absent telephone. In case of saying), means for detecting this, means for receiving the above-mentioned call and inquiring to the sender whether or not there is a message, and if there is a message, BP sound input from the sender or control of digital telephone The message display signal corresponding to the signal input by the signal is included, and if there is no message, the message display signal is not included, and the type display signal indicating the caller extension number or the outside line and the incoming time display signal are A private branch exchange comprising means for transmitting to a digital telephone and displaying them on the display unit of the digital telephone. 2. In a private branch exchange connecting a telephone and a printing means, when the private branch exchange itself detects an incoming call to the telephone by utilizing the function originally possessed by the private branch exchange, this called extension A means for sending the number, the type information indicating that the caller is the extension number or the outside line of the incoming call, and the incoming call time information to the printing means, and printing and recording the information is provided. Characteristic private branch exchange. 3. A private branch exchange having a voice mail module connecting a plurality of telephones, a private branch exchange connecting a plurality of telephones and an external recording device, or a voice connecting a plurality of telephones and an external recording device. In a private branch exchange having a mail module, the private branch exchange itself uses the functions originally possessed by the private branch exchange, and the private branch exchange itself makes calls from each of the telephones collectively by the external recording device or the voice mail module. A private branch exchange comprising: means for recording; means for allowing a telephone call recorded by the external recording device or the voice mail module to be reproduced by an operation from each of the telephones. 4. The plurality of telephones are digital telephones, and are provided with means for recording / reproducing with the external recording device or the voice mail module using the means when a recording request for a conference call is made. The private branch exchange according to claim 3, wherein 5. The device itself periodically makes a call to a private branch exchange, the private branch exchange calls the call to the device, and the device connects a monitoring device for confirming the incoming call and receives the call. A private branch exchange comprising: means for determining that an abnormality has occurred in the private branch exchange when the above is not confirmed, and for the monitoring device to give an alarm.