JPH08256177A - Method and device for mail broadcasting - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To reduce the traffic intensity of distribution result reports on a repeating line by storing and totalizing the distribution result reports received by each repeating station in the process of return of distribution result reports from respective destination stations to a reception station. CONSTITUTION: A main broadcasting device 60 is defined as a station, and plural devices 60 are mutually connected by a network. When the distribution result report is returned from each destination station of a small to the reception station, a distribution result report rotalizing means 61 of each device 60 on the distribution result report line totalizes distribution result reports received from terminals stored in the station itself or/and adjacent stations; and if the station itself is not the mail reception station, a distribution result report repeating means 62 sends totalized distribution result reports destined for the reception station to the adjacent station. Thus, distribution result reports from respective destination stations are collected into one while being relayed toward the reception station to efficiently use the repeating line.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mail broadcasting method applied to a mail broadcasting system for carrying out mail broadcasting by multistage relay between a plurality of networked stations, and a mail broadcasting used as a station of a network. Regarding the device.

In recent years, with a multimedia mail device capable of collectively processing various data such as voice, image, text and facsimile as a station, a plurality of stations are connected to each other via a network to realize a mail broadcasting service. Information system is now available. This e-mail broadcast system can be widely used because it can use existing transmission lines and terminals regardless of the company network or general public network, is inexpensive, is easy for users to operate, and has a large cost reduction effect by the introduction. I am doing it.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art In FIG. 8, a transmitting station broadcasts a mail to a plurality of terminals of a receiving station in a network, and the receiving station sends a delivery result (information such as whether delivery is normally completed) to the transmitting station. The example of the conventional method in the case of notifying is shown. FIG.
In the method (a), the receiving station individually returns the delivery result notification to the transmitting station when the delivery result of each destination terminal is known.
In the example of the figure, the receiving station B immediately sends the first delivery result notification of the terminal b1 to the transmitting station A. Also, FIG.
In the method of (b), the receiving station collectively returns the delivery result notification to the transmitting station when the delivery results of all the destination terminals are known. In the example of the figure, the receiving station B temporarily stores the delivery result notifications from the terminals b1 to b3 and collectively transmits them to the transmitting station A when all the delivery result notifications are received.

In the method of FIG. 8A, the transmitting station A can quickly know the delivery result of each destination terminal, but the returning operation of the delivery result notification from the receiving station to the transmitting station is repeated for each destination terminal. As a result, the amount of traffic on the transmission path increases, and on the other hand, in the method of FIG. 8B, the receiving station needs to wait until the delivery results of all the destination terminals are known.
If the number of destination terminals of the receiving station is large, it takes too long for the delivery result notification to arrive at the transmitting station, so both methods have advantages and disadvantages. As a publicly known example of a technique for solving such a problem, there is JP-A-2-192344.
In this publicly known example, the receiving station sequentially stores the delivery result notifications received from each destination terminal, but collectively returns the delivery result notifications accumulated within a predetermined time to the transmitting station, and returns all the delivery result notifications. It is said that it is possible to find a trade-off between the traffic amount on the transmission path and the delay time of notification of delivery result by adopting a method of repeating this process until it is set and appropriately setting this predetermined time.

[0005]

FIG. 9 shows a conventional mail broadcast system in which a multi-stage relay mail broadcast is performed between a transmitting station and a receiving station via one or more relay stations. In this case, an example of a delivery result notification method is shown. When each station receives all the delivery result notifications by the method of FIG. 8 (b), it collectively sends the delivery result notifications to the adjacent stations in the direction of the transmitting station. When distributed to a plurality of stations, there is a problem that the amount of traffic increases toward the transmitting station and congestion of the transmission path is likely to occur. Also, with this method, it takes time for the delivery result notification to arrive at the transmitting station, and if delivery delay occurs due to delivery retry or the like at the receiving station, the delay time of delivery result notification is further increased. Become.

Further, in the mail broadcasting system as shown in FIG. 9, each relay station also has a destination terminal, and each relay station relays the mail to the receiving station and also delivers the mail to its own destination terminal. In such a case, the relay station must receive the delivery result notification from both the adjacent station and the terminal of its own station. Therefore, conventionally, in such a case, the delivery result notification has not been performed.

The above-mentioned publicly known example defines the method of notifying the delivery result between the transmitting station and the receiving station (final destination station). When a relay station intervenes between them, each relay station receives a plurality of signals. Even if the delivery result notifications received from the station are for the same mail, since they are handled separately, the effect of reducing the traffic volume becomes weak.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and in a mail broadcast system for performing multistage relay of mail, even when each destination station of the mail broadcast can be a relay station, The purpose of the present invention is to reduce the amount of network traffic and prevent a large delay in delivery result notification.

[0009]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the mail broadcasting device 60 according to the present invention includes a delivery result notification tabulation means 61 for tabulating delivery result notifications received from a terminal accommodated in its own station and / or an adjacent station, and an own station. If the receiving station does not receive the mail broadcast request from the user, it is provided with a delivery result notification relay means 62 for sending the aggregated delivery result notifications to the adjacent station. .

Also, the mail broadcasting device 60 according to the present invention.
After sending an e-mail to the terminal accommodated in its own station or the adjacent station,
When the delivery result notification aggregating means 61 has completed the delivery result waiting time defined for each of the destinations, even if the delivery result notifications from all the destinations have not been received, the delivery result notifications have been received by then. The delivery result notifications are totaled, and the delivery result relay means 62 sends the totaled delivery result notifications to the receiving station of the mail to the adjacent station.

Further, the delivery result relaying means 62 of the mail broadcasting device 60 according to the present invention holds information about the bypass relay path leading to the adjacent station for each of the adjacent stations, and directly accesses the adjacent stations. When a failure occurs, the adjacent station is accessed through the bypass relay path.

[0012]

The mail broadcasting method according to the present invention is carried out by using the mail broadcasting device 60 as a station and connecting a plurality of stations to each other via a network to form a mail broadcasting system. When the delivery result notification is returned from each destination station of the mail to the reception station, in each mail broadcasting device 60 on the delivery result notification route, the delivery result notification aggregation means 61 causes the own terminal accommodation terminal or the adjacent station or both of them. The delivery result notifications received from
The delivery result notification relay means 62 sends the totaled delivery result notifications to the receiving station and transmits them to the adjacent station. As a result, the delivery result notifications from the destination stations are combined into one as they are relayed toward the reception station, so that the relay path is used efficiently.

Further, in each mail broadcasting device 60 on the mail delivery route, after the mail is sent to the terminal accommodated in the own station or the adjacent station, the delivery result notification totaling means 61 determines for each of the destinations. When the delivery result waiting time has expired, even if the delivery result notifications from all the destinations have not been received, the delivery result notifications received up to that point are totaled, and the delivery result relay means 62 performs the totalization. The delivery result notification is sent to the receiving station of the mail and sent to the adjacent station. As a result, even if there is a delivery result notification that is late in arrival, only the arrived delivery result notification can be transmitted every time a predetermined time elapses, so that the mail receiving station can know the delivery result earlier.

Further, since each mail broadcasting device 60 in the mail broadcasting system is connected to each other via a network, there should be two or more routes for accessing one mail broadcasting device from another mail broadcasting device. There is. In such a case, the delivery result relay means 62 of the mail broadcasting device 60 uses the bypass relay path that leads to the adjacent station so that the bypass relay path can be used if a failure occurs in the normally used relay path. If there is a failure in directly accessing the adjacent station by holding the information about the adjacent station, the adjacent station is accessed through the bypass relay path. Thereby, the reception office can know the delivery result more reliably.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 shows a network configuration example of a mail broadcasting system to which the mail broadcasting method of the present invention is applied. This mail broadcasting system consists of six stations A to F. A multimedia mail device is used as a station, and each multimedia mail device accommodates a plurality of input / output terminals such as a telephone, a facsimile, a personal computer and a word processor. ing. In addition, relay route 1 between A and B stations, relay route 2 between A and C stations, relay route 3 between B and C stations, relay route 4 between B and D stations, relay route between B and E stations 5, relay path 6, C between C and E stations
-A network is constructed in which the F stations are connected by the relay path 7.

A user delivers a mail to an arbitrary destination in the system by making a mail request for data of voice, video, text, facsimile, etc. from an arbitrary terminal of an arbitrary station in the system to make a broadcast request. can do. In the following description, the station that receives the mail broadcast request from the user and is the delivery source of the mail is the mail reception station, the station that sends the received mail to the destination terminal of the own station is the mail sending station,
A station that relays mail on the delivery route between the mail receiving station and the destination is called a mail relay station. An adjacent station that is directly connected to its own station via a relay path is called a connected station. For example, when mail is delivered from the terminal a0 to the terminals b0 and d0 in FIG. 2, station A is a mail receiving station, and stations B and C, which are its connecting stations, are mail sending stations and mail relay stations. .

FIG. 3 shows an example of a mail delivery path from a request source terminal for mail broadcast to each destination terminal and a delivery result notification path from each destination terminal to the request source terminal. From terminal a0 accommodated in station A of FIG. 2 to terminal a1,
This is an example of the case where a mail broadcast is carried out to b0, b1, c0, d0, e1, e2, f2. When the station A accepts the mail input from the terminal a0, the station A sends the destination information of the mail (destination station name, destination terminal name, etc.) to the station accommodating terminal and the adjacent station B or C. It is distributed to the relay request. In this case, the destination a1 will be the local station
The other destinations are distributed to either the B station or the C station according to the relay path through which they pass. That is, for station B, the destinations (b0 and b1) to the terminal accommodated in station B, and the destination (d) to the terminal accommodated in station D that is most efficient to go through station B (d
0) is distributed to the C station, while the destination to the C station accommodating terminal (c0) and the destination to the F station accommodating terminal that is most efficient to go through the C station (f2). And are distributed. Regarding the destinations (e1 and e2) to the terminal accommodated in the E station, there are the cases of passing through the relay path 1, the B station, and the relay path 5 and the cases of passing through the relay path 2, the C station, and the relay path 6. The transmission distance, transmission capacity, transmission speed of the relay path, the operating status of each relay station, etc. are compared and the one with the best line usage efficiency is selected. In this example, the destination of the terminal accommodated in the E station is assigned to the B station. Then, the station A is the destination terminal a accommodated by itself.
In addition to sending the mail to 1, the destination information that summarizes the sorted destinations is added to send a single mail to stations B and C, respectively.

Similarly, the station B and the station C distribute the destination of the mail received from the station A to the origination portion of the own station and the relay request portion to the connecting station, transmit the mail to the destination terminal accommodated in the own station and adjoin it. Send an email to the relay station. D, the final destination station
The station, the E station, and the F station send the received mail to each destination terminal accommodated in the own station.

Each destination terminal that has received the mail sends a notification notifying the delivery result to station A, which is the mail receiving station. These delivery result notifications are relayed in the reverse order of mail delivery and returned to station A. In this process, each relay station on the result notification path aggregates the delivery result notification received from the own terminal accommodation terminal and the delivery result notification relay-requested from the connecting station, Request further relay to the connecting station in the station direction. For example, the D station requests the B station to relay the delivery result notifications received from the terminal d0, and the E station collects the delivery result notifications received from the terminals e1 and e2 to collectively relay them to the B station. . The B station accumulates the delivery result notifications received from the terminals b0 and b1, the D station and the E station, further aggregates these if necessary, and sends them to the A station together. Station A receives the delivery result notification received from terminal a1, the delivery result notification received from Station B, F,
Similarly, the delivery results sent together by the station C are sent to the terminal a0. In this way, each relay station temporarily stores in its own station the delivery result notification returned from the terminal accommodated in its own station and the delivery result notification sent from the final destination station side of the result notification route, and the accumulated delivery result Send the notification to the connecting station on the mail receiving station side.

As described above, by summarizing a plurality of delivery result notifications accumulated at the relay station and consolidating them into one, it is possible to compress the data length of the mail by truncating duplicate information, and to Since the number of return operations is reduced as compared with the case where the delivery result notification is individually returned from the destination terminal to the A station, the traffic amount of the relay path between the stations is reduced and the line use efficiency is improved.

However, if each relay station relays after receiving all the delivery result notifications that should arrive at itself, it may not be possible to promptly notify the mail receiving station of the delivery results. For example, if delivery of a mail to the destination terminal is delayed due to a delivery retry occurring somewhere on the mail delivery route, the delivery of the delivery result notification from the destination terminal is also delayed, and the relay station upstream of the route delivers the delivery. It is necessary to wait for the arrival of the result notification, and it takes a considerable time for the delivery result notification to finally arrive at the mail reception station.

In order to deal with this problem, each station sets a result waiting time for each of the mail destinations (the destination terminal accommodating itself and the relay request destination station) from its own station, and all the destinations are set. If any result waiting time expires before the delivery result notification is received from, the delivery result notifications received / accumulated up to that time are totaled and put together into one mail, which is sent to the mail reception station. In other words, each station sends a mail to the destination terminal accommodated in its own station, activates a transmission result waiting timer for each destination terminal, and after relaying the mail to the connecting station, sends it to each station of the relay request destination. On the other hand, the relay result waiting timers are activated respectively. Each timer is restarted to wait for further delivery result notification if the result waiting time set for the corresponding destination elapses and then times out.
Also, if a delivery result notification from the destination arrives before the timeout, it is reset. For example, in station B of FIG. 3, after sending a mail to each destination (terminals b0, b1, D station, E station), a delivery result notification is received from terminal b0,
After that, if the transmission result waiting timer for the terminal b1 times out, the delivery result notification from the terminal b0 stored in the B station at that time is transmitted to the A station. Next, if a delivery result notification is received from the terminal b1 and then the relay wait result timer for station D times out,
At that time, the delivery result notifications of the terminals b0 and b1 accumulated in the B station are totaled and transmitted to the A station. Further, if the delivery result notifications subsequently arrive from the D and E stations before the timeout occurs, the delivery result notifications from the terminals b0, b1, D station, and E station at the time of receiving the final delivery result notification. Is summed up and sent to station A. As a result, the delivery result notification for the same mail is sent from station B to station A multiple times, so that the traffic volume of relay path 1 increases, but station A can sequentially know the delivery status.

Therefore, if the result waiting time is appropriately adjusted for each station in consideration of the specifications of relay paths, station devices and terminals, the operating state, etc., the amount of traffic on the relay path and the delay time of delivery result notification can be adjusted. You can find the trade-off with and set the system environment according to the actual condition of the network.

Further, in the present embodiment, as a means for surely transmitting the mail and the delivery result notification, the relay route is bypassed if necessary. For example, if the E station in FIG. 2 tries to return the delivery result notification to the B station, but if the B channel cannot be accessed due to some failure in the relay channel 5, the E station relays the relay channel 6 → the C station → the relay channel. 3 → Send a delivery result notification to station B, bypassing station B. More specifically, station E provides a response timer and a relay detour timer for each of stations B and C, which are connecting stations, and sends a delivery result notification to station B through relay path 5 and starts the response timer at the same time. Let
Then, if there is no response from the station B even after a lapse of a predetermined response waiting time (about several seconds) and the response timer times out, the relay detour timer is started. Then, until a relay detour timer times out after a lapse of a predetermined time (for example, 10 minutes), the E station retries transmission through the relay path 5 at regular intervals until a response from the B station is obtained. Even if the relay detour timer times out, if there is no response from the B station, then the E station accesses the B station through the detour relay path passing through the C station.

In the present embodiment, the method of bypassing the relay route at the time of returning the delivery result notification will be described, but this method can also be applied to the delivery of mail.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the configuration of a multimedia mail apparatus which is an embodiment of the mail broadcasting apparatus according to the present invention, in accordance with the embodiment of the mail broadcasting method described above. In the figure, 10 is a system definition unit that stores definition data such as the operating environment of the mail broadcasting system, 20 is a state management unit that stores data for managing the operation state of the multimedia mail device, and 30 is a mail delivery unit. A mail delivery processing unit for processing, 40 is a request / notification receiving unit for processing a relay request to a connecting station and reception of a delivery result notification, and 50 is a line control unit for controlling a line of a connected relay line.

The delivery result notification totaling means and the delivery result relaying means described in the claims are executed mainly by the request / notification receiving section 40 with reference to the system definition section 10 and the state management section 20.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the configuration of the system definition unit 10 and FIG. 6 shows an example of the configuration of the state management unit 20. Here, station B in the system configuration of FIG. 2 will be described as an example.

The system definition unit 10 is composed of a local station table 11, a remote station table 12 and a destination terminal table.
In the own station table 11, connection station names (A, C, D, E stations) for the own station (B station) are defined. Other station table 12
Defines information about other stations in the system. For example, the relay result waiting time set in the relay result waiting timer, the response waiting time set in the response timer, and the relay detour timer monitoring time set in the relay detour timer are defined for each of the connecting stations. These times can be set as appropriate in consideration of the operating status of each connection station, the transmission rate and traffic volume of the relay path, the data length of mail, and the like. For example, even when transmitting the same data, the transmission speed between the B and E stations is slower than between the B and A stations and between the B and C stations, and the transmission time between the B and D stations is further increased. If S is slow, as shown in the other station table 12 in FIG. 5, the above times are relatively short for stations A and C, longer for station E, and longer for station D. If the setting is made longer, it is possible to set the environment to suit the actual situation.

Further, the other station table 12 defines the priority order of the connected stations to be requested to relay when transmitting data to other stations in the system. For example, when the station B transmits data to the station C, the station C naturally first directly accesses the station C through the relay path 3. However, if the access fails due to some failure, the bypass relay path is used to access the station C via the station A. There are two detour relay paths that access station C via station E. By comparing the transmission rates and the traffic amounts of these two bypass relay paths, one bypass relay path is prioritized over the other bypass relay path. In the other station table 12 in FIG. 5, the priority order of the connecting stations for which relay request is made when accessing from the B station to the C station is C station, A station, and E station in this order.

In the destination terminal table 13, the terminal name, terminal type (telephone, facsimile, personal computer, word processor, etc.) of each terminal accommodated in its own station,
Data such as a call result waiting time and a call number to be set in the call result waiting timer are defined. Similar to the relay result wait time of the other station table 12, the call result wait time can be appropriately set according to the type, performance, etc. of each terminal.

The status management unit 20 uses the mail management table 21.
And the relay management table 22. The mail management table 21 is a table for managing mail sent from the own station. When sending a mail to the terminal accommodated in the own station or the connecting station, a mail management number is given to each mail and registered in the mail management table 21. Email management table 2
In 1, the delivery status of each registered mail, the destination, the delivery status of each destination, and the result waiting timer monitoring status are recorded. From the mail management table 21 in FIG. 5, for example, the destination of the mail with the mail management number A0000001 is D station, E
The station, the terminal b0, and the terminal b1 have received the delivery result notification from the E station, have finished mail delivery to the D station and the terminal b0, and are waiting for the delivery result notification, and send an email to the terminal b1. You can see that it is being delivered. Further, the relay result waiting timer for the E station is not activated because it was reset when the delivery result notification was received, and the relay result waiting timer for the D station and the outgoing result waiting timer for the terminal b0 are being monitored, and the outgoing call for the terminal b1 is made. You can also see that the result waiting timer is not started yet because mail is being delivered.

Station B receives and accumulates the returned delivery result notification for each of the sent mails, and either of the activated result waiting timers times out, or all delivery result notifications are received from all destinations. When this is done, the accumulated delivery result notifications are aggregated and sent together to the mail reception office. The mail delivery status recorded in the mail management table 21 indicates whether station B has already sent a delivery result notification to the mail receiving station. For example, regarding the mail with the mail management number A0000001, only the delivery result notification sent back from the E station is accumulated in the B station, and the result waiting timer has not timed out yet, so the B station delivers it to the mail receiving station. The result notification has never been sent. The mail delivery status at this time is "waiting for result". After that, if the relay result waiting timer for station D or the transmission result waiting timer for terminal b0 times out before receiving delivery result notifications from all the destinations, station B collects the accumulated delivery result notifications. Send to the mail reception office.

When the delivery result notification is transmitted once or more, the mail delivery status becomes "waiting for final result". For example, for the mail management number A0000002, station E and terminal b0
Since the delivery result notification from the e-mail has already been sent to the e-mail reception office, the e-mail delivery status is "waiting for final result".
The destination delivery status of the station and the terminal b0 is "delivery result notified". After that, when the relay result waiting timer for the D station times out, the summarized delivery result notification is sent to the mail receiving station, and at the same time, the relay result waiting timer restarts and waits for further delivery result notification. If the delivery result notification is received from the D station before the relay result waiting timer times out, the relay result waiting timer is reset,
The mail delivery status is set to "delivery completed" and the final delivery result notification is sent to the mail reception office. It should be noted that, when totaling the delivery result notifications, if the destination delivery status and the like are added to the delivery result notification, the mail receiving station can grasp the mail delivery status in more detail.

The relay management table 22 is a table for managing the switching of the relay path, and each connection station (A, C,
The relay detour flag and the relay detour timer monitoring status are recorded for each of the D and E stations. For example, station B is relayed through relay path 3 to C
When the delivery result notification is sent to the station, but there is no response from the station C even after 1 second of the response waiting time, C
Start the relay result wait timer for the station. At this time, the relay detour flag for station C in the relay management table 22 is O.
The FF is turned on, and the relay bypass timer monitoring status changes from "not activated" to "relay bypass timer monitoring". Then, during the relay result waiting time of 10 minutes, the delivery result notification is retried to the station C through the relay path 3 at regular intervals. If the retry is successful in the meantime, reset the relay detour timer,
Turn off the relay bypass flag and return the relay bypass timer monitoring status to "not activated". However, if the retry is not successful in the meantime, the priority order of the bypass relay path is checked by referring to the other station table 12 of the system definition unit 10, and thereafter, the B station → relay path 1 → A station → relay path 2 → The delivery result notification is transmitted to the C station via the bypass relay route of the C station.

The multimedia mail apparatus of this embodiment can flexibly meet the requirements of the user by providing various function options and appropriately changing the basic operation described above. The following describes some examples of function selection.

In the above embodiment, each multimedia mail device controls the return processing of the delivery result notification in detail by referring to the system definition section provided in its own station.
The mail reception station may instruct these control information. For example, when the mail receiving station wants to specifically instruct each relay station of the result waiting time, the priority order of the bypass relay path, etc., the information is added to the mail and transmitted. Each relay station on the mail delivery route takes out control information about the own station from the received mail and performs processing according to the instructions. Further, it is possible to select for each station whether to refer to the control information of the system definition unit in the own station or to follow the control information instructed by the mail receiving station.

In the above-described embodiment, each station sends a mail to each destination and then, when the result waiting timer for each destination times out or when the delivery result notification is received from all the destinations, the delivery result is sent. Notifications are totaled and sent to the mail reception office. However, if the mail reception office wants to know the delivery result as soon as possible, the above conditions are canceled by function selection, the delivery result notification is not accumulated and aggregated, and the delivery result notification is immediately received each time it is received from the destination. It may be returned to the mail reception office. On the contrary, if the mail receiving station does not particularly need to notify the delivery result, each relay station finishes the delivery process for the email by sending the email to the destination and notifies the delivery result from the destination. It may be possible to select not to send the delivery result notification from the own station without waiting. In addition, if delivery result notifications for emails are necessary, but if it does not matter how long it takes, each station does not activate the result waiting timer and collects delivery result notifications when all delivery result notifications from all destinations are received. Then, it may be possible to make a selection such that the message is sent to the mail reception office. By providing the above-mentioned function options, it becomes possible to set the environment according to the actual situation depending on which of the reduction of the traffic amount of the relay path and the promptness of the delivery result notification is prioritized, and the system design is easy. Become.

There may be a case where there is no bypass relay path because there is only one connection station for the own station, or there is a bypass relay path which cannot be used for some reason. In such a case, if the access fails through the relay route directly connected to the connecting station and the retry is not successful while monitoring the relay bypass timer, a predetermined time (for example, 1 hour) has passed after the relay bypass timer times out. , One of the measures is to retry the access to the connecting station through the same relay path again. If this process and the above-mentioned bypass relay process can be selected for each station, communication reliability during system operation can be improved.

FIG. 6 shows a more specific embodiment of the present invention. This is a facsimile mail system in which four offices A to E are connected by a leased line network so that facsimile mail can be relayed between the offices in multiple stages. In each office, a leased line is connected to the mail broadcasting device of the present invention via a TDM (time division multiplex device), and a plurality of facsimile terminals are connected to the mail broadcasting device via a private branch exchange. When a user requests a mail broadcast by inputting a facsimile manuscript to a facsimile terminal, the facsimile manuscript is delivered to the destination facsimile terminal of each destination office, and the facsimile manuscript delivery result notification returned from each destination facsimile terminal is delivered. It is sent to the original office and output to the requesting facsimile terminal. By applying the mail broadcasting method of the present invention to this system, it is possible to minimize the increase in the traffic volume of the leased line between the offices and the delay of the notification of the result of the facsimile original delivery.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In the process of sending delivery result notifications from each destination station of the e-mail broadcast to the receiving station, each relay station accumulates and aggregates the multiple delivery result notifications received, thereby compressing the data volume and reducing the number of returns. This makes it possible to prevent an increase in traffic on the relay path due to delivery result notification. Even if there is a delivery result notification that has arrived late, each relay station collects only the delivery result notifications that have already arrived when the predetermined time has passed and sends them to the reception station. The result can be notified sooner. Further, even if a failure occurs in the relay path connecting the stations, the bypass relay path can be automatically selected and switched. Further, by applying the present invention, the processing load for returning the delivery result notification is shared by each relay station, which greatly contributes to improvement in communication reliability during system operation.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a network configuration example of a mail broadcast system to which the mail broadcast method of the present invention is applied.

3 is a diagram showing an example of a mail delivery route and a delivery result notification route in the network of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a multimedia mail device as an embodiment of a mail broadcast device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration example of a system definition unit of a multimedia mail device.

FIG. 6 is a configuration example of a state management unit of the multimedia mail device.

FIG. 7 is another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional delivery result notification method.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a delivery result notification method of a conventional mail broadcast system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 system definition unit 11 own station table 12 other station table 13 destination terminal table 20 status management unit 21 mail management table 22 relay management table 30 mail delivery processing unit 40 request / notification receiving unit 50 line control unit 60 mail broadcasting device 61 delivery Result notification aggregation means 62 Delivery result notification relay means

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A mail broadcasting method applied to a mail broadcasting system in which a plurality of mail broadcasting devices are connected to each other as a station by a network, and mail broadcasting is carried out by multistage relaying via a plurality of stations. In the process of returning the delivery result notification from each destination station to the receiving station that received the mail broadcast request from the person, each station on the delivery result notification route received from the terminal accommodated in its own station or the adjacent station or both. A mail broadcasting method in which delivery result notifications are aggregated, and each station other than the reception station on the delivery result notification path sends the aggregated delivery result notifications to the reception station to an adjacent station. 2. Each station on the mail delivery route holds a delivery result waiting time defined for each of its own terminal or adjacent station as control information, and sends an email to its own terminal or adjacent station. Then, when the delivery result waiting time for each destination expires,
Even if the delivery result notifications from all the destinations have not been received, the delivery result notifications, which are aggregated of the delivery result notifications received up to that point, are sent to the receiving station of the mail and sent to the adjacent station. The mail broadcast method described in 2. 3. Each of the stations on the mail delivery route holds information about a detour relay path leading to the adjacent station for each of the adjacent stations, and if a direct access to the adjacent station fails, the detour relay path is used. 3. The mail broadcast method according to claim 1, wherein the adjacent station is accessed. 4. A mail broadcasting device used as a station of a mail broadcasting system for connecting a plurality of stations to each other via a network and carrying out a mail broadcast by multistage relaying via a plurality of stations, which is a terminal accommodated in its own station or The delivery result notification totaling means for totaling the delivery result notifications received from the adjacent station or both, and if the own station is not the receiving station that has received the mail broadcast request from the user, the received delivery result notification is accepted. An e-mail broadcasting device comprising a delivery result notification relay means for sending to an adjacent station addressed to the station. 5. After transmitting the mail to the terminal accommodated in the own station or the adjacent station, the delivery result notification aggregating means, when the delivery result waiting time defined for each of the destinations has expired, from all the destinations. Even if the delivery result notification has not been received, the delivery result notifications received up to that time are totaled, and the delivery result relay means sends the totalized delivery result notifications to the mail reception station The mail broadcast device according to claim 4, wherein the mail broadcast device is configured to transmit. 6. The delivery result relay means retains information on a bypass relay path leading to the adjacent station for each of the adjacent stations, and if there is a failure in directly accessing the adjacent station, the delivery result relay means uses the bypass relay path. The mail broadcast device according to claim 4, wherein the mail broadcast device is configured to access an adjacent station.