JPH0865416A - Communication control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a communication control system by which a network service being the cheapest in communication charge is automatically selected depending on a capacity for data communication even when the range of information quantity to be communicated is huge. CONSTITUTION: An attribute data detection section 31 discriminates a communication area distance from destination information and gives an information quantity to a network service selection section 34 and gives the discriminated communication area distance information to a communication charge management section 33. The communication charge management section 33 calculates the discriminated information quantity from a current date and time and gives the calculated quantity to a network service selection section 34. The network service selection section 34 compares the information quantity with the discrimination information quantity to select the network service minimizing the communication charge and the communication parameter as the comparison result and provides each selected condition to an information control section 35 and a protocol control section 36.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication control system, and more particularly to a communication control system capable of automatically selecting a communication service of a network with a minimum communication charge.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art ISDN (Integrated Service Digital Network), which has become increasingly standardized internationally, has entered the era of practical use, and commercial services have been started in Japan and have spread nationwide.

According to this ISDN, until now, the telephone network,
Various conventional communication information networks such as data communication network, facsimile communication network, etc. that have been independently served for each terminal type or media type are combined into one network called ISDN to realize more advanced and diverse communication services. To be done.

There is a basic interface as one of the ISDN user / network interfaces. The basic interface has two information channels (B channels) used for information communication between terminals and terminals and a control channel (D channel) for controlling transmission / reception between terminals and networks (exchanges). For this reason, the channel configuration of the basic interface is called 2B + D. The two B channels mentioned above each have a transmission rate of 64 kb / s, while the D channel has a transmission rate of 16 kb / s.

On the other hand, there are a circuit switching service and a packet switching service as a switching system provided by the network. Generally, these switching services are said to be suitable for large-capacity high-speed data communication and real-time communication, and packet switching suitable for low-speed data communication, from the viewpoint of line transmission speed and communication charges. ing.

In the past, the switching system provided by the network was different. That is, it has been common to use a circuit switching system for voice communication by telephone in a conventional telephone network and to use a packet switching by connecting to a packet network at a data terminal. As described above, the ISDN realizes a service that integrates various conventional communication networks, so that the same ISDN is used.
The network provides the circuit switching system and the packet switching service.

[0007] A terminal (user) connected to the ISDN communicates by using an exchange service suitable for each terminal. For example, low speed data terminals use packet switching,
Telephones and faxes use the circuit switching service.

In recent years, personal computers have become popular,
Data communication services using personal computers have been developed. In the communication mainly using this personal computer, for example, from the case of performing interactive communication by low-speed and sufficiently low-capacity data communication to the case of performing large-capacity file transfer requiring high-speed transmission speed. , The range of information to be communicated is becoming wider.

[0009] In addition, many types of communication terminals have been announced, from those that handle only data such as text to those that can handle a plurality of media with one terminal, and the range of the amount of information to be communicated is limited. It is becoming wider.

For example, as described above, when small-capacity data communication such as interactive communication is performed, the packet switching service is effective from the viewpoint of communication charge. On the other hand, for large-capacity data communication, using a circuit switching service can reduce communication charges.

However, in the conventional communication control system,
There are the following problems.

[0012] When one communication terminal subscribes to one type of switching service and performs from interactive communication mode to large-capacity data communication, subscribes to the circuit switching service for large-capacity data communication, If a small-capacity data communication application such as interactive communication is performed by using this circuit switching service, the circuit switching service will be charged for the time of connection, and the communication fee will be large and wasteful. .

On the other hand, the packet switching service is effective for small-capacity data communication, but if large-capacity data communication is carried out using the packet switching service, the number of packets to be transmitted increases and the communication charge is also circuit switched. There is a problem that the communication time is not only significantly higher than that of the above, but also communication time is required.

[0014]

As described above, the conventional communication control method has a problem that a network service having a low communication charge cannot be selected according to the capacity of data communication when the range of information to be communicated is wide.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a communication control system capable of automatically selecting a network service having a low communication charge according to the capacity of data communication even when the range of information to be communicated is wide. And

[0016]

In order to solve such a problem, the invention according to claim 1 subscribes to a network provided by at least one operator and utilizes at least one exchange service of the network, In a communication terminal that transmits and receives various information, at the time of communication of information, means for identifying attribute information related to communication, time zone information for communication, communication partner information,
And means for calculating the communication charge of information for the combination of the exchange service of the subscribed network and the communication parameter based on the amount of communication information, and the exchange service and communication of the network operator with the lowest calculated communication charge. Means for selecting parameters and performing communication. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned first aspect of the invention, the attribute information relating to communication is communication type information indicating interactive communication or continuous communication, and immediate communication or non-immediate communication, communication partner information, and communication. Including the amount of information to perform.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the control according to the first aspect is performed when communication is started or when a predetermined condition occurs during communication.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the predetermined condition according to the third aspect is that the communication form is changed from interactive communication to continuous communication or from continuous communication to interactive communication. The invention according to claim 5 is when the communication of each information is started when the predetermined condition according to claim 3 is to continuously communicate a plurality of information to the same destination.

[0019]

According to the present invention, the data communication is minimum based on the communication form and the amount of files to be communicated when performing data communication, the date and time, the distance to the other party, and the communication charge calculation table for each exchange service which is a network service. Automatically select the network service and communication parameters that can be provided with the communication charge. Therefore, a great effect can be exerted in reducing the communication cost for data communication.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, the first embodiment will be described. The first embodiment shows an example in which information communication is performed using a communication terminal mainly composed of a personal computer.

FIG. 1 shows a system configuration diagram of a communication terminal according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an existing personal computer unit (hereinafter abbreviated as PC unit).
Is composed of a CPU 11 for controlling the whole, a memory 12 for storing / executing an OS (operating system) and application software of a PC, a hard disk 13 for storing software and files, a floppy disk drive 14, a display unit 15, and a keyboard 16. Has been done.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 2 is a communication control unit (hereinafter abbreviated as COM unit) for realizing the present invention. The COM unit 2 includes a CPU 21 that executes the operation of the present invention, a software storage / execution memory 22, and a line control unit 23 that is a connection interface with a line.

The PC section 1 and the communication control section 2 exchange control information and file information via a system bus or the like.

Here, the PC section 1 and C shown in FIG.
The operation flow of the present invention in the OM unit 2 is shown in FIG.

1 and 2, first, the PC unit 1
Notifies the COM unit 2 of information on network services selectable in the COM unit (FIG. 2a). The COM unit stores the contents of this available network service in its own memory 22 as initial setting information (FIG. 2b).

When the user operating the PC wants to send a file, for example, he gives an instruction from the keyboard 16. In response to the file transfer start instruction from the keyboard, the PC unit recognizes the attribute data of the file to be transmitted from the file name instructed to be transmitted, and notifies the contents of the attribute data to the COM unit 2 (FIG. 2c). The attribute data includes the information amount of the file and the like. The PC unit 1 notifies the COM unit 2 of the subscriber identification number (destination number) of the connection destination together with the attribute data.

The COM unit 2 inputs the attribute data and the destination number notified from the PC unit 1 (FIG. 2d).
Based on the attribute data / destination information and the internally managed current date and time, the COM unit 2 sets the communication charge for transmitting the file, the content of the available network service and the communication charge set in advance. Calculation is performed by referring to the table, and the network service having the lowest communication charge for transmitting the file is selected (FIG. 2e). The details of the network service selection operation will be described later.

When the COM unit 2 notifies the PC unit 1 that the selection of the network service to be used has been completed, the PC unit 1 notifies the COM unit 2 of a call origination request (FIG. 2f). In response to the call origination request, the COM unit 2 executes the connection procedure according to the selected network service (FIG. 2g). When the confirmation of the connection to the other party is completed, the COM section 2 notifies the PC section 1 of the connection completion.
Upon receiving the connection completion notification from the COM unit 2, the PC unit 1 starts file transfer (FIG. 2h). File information is COM
In the form corresponding to the network service selected via the section 2,
It is delivered to the other party via the network (Fig. 2i).

When the transfer of the file is completed, the PC unit 1
Notifies the end of transfer to the COM unit 2 (FIG. 2j). COM
The unit 2 detects the end of the transfer, starts the disconnection process, and completes the series of communication by confirming the disconnection of the line (FIG. 2k).

The procedure of file transmission in the communication terminal shown in FIG. 2 has been described above.

Here, the function of the COM section for carrying out the operation of the present invention will be described in more detail.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the function of the COM unit 2 described in FIG. 1 in more detail.

In the figure, 31 is an attribute data detection unit,
Reference numeral 32 is a date / time management unit, 33 is a communication charge management unit, 34 is a network service selection unit, 35 is an information control unit, and 36 is a protocol control unit.

The attribute data detection unit 31 inputs attribute data such as the communication form and the amount of information of the transmission information from the PC unit 1 and the destination information, determines the communication area distance from the destination information, and determines the information amount. The communication area distance information thus determined is transferred to the network service selection unit 34 and transferred to the communication charge management unit 33. The date and time management unit 32 has a clock function and manages the current date and time, and passes the date and time information from the PC unit 1 at the time of starting transmission to the communication charge management unit 33. Communication charge management unit 33
Has a communication charge table corresponding to service conditions of available networks, and calculates a determination information amount described later from the communication area distance information from the attribute data detection unit 31 and the current date and time from the date and time management unit 32. And supplies it to the network service selection unit 34. The network service selection unit 34 includes the attribute data detection unit 3
The amount of information from 1 is compared with the amount of determination information from the communication charge management unit 33, and the network service and communication parameter (packet size when the packet switching service is selected) that results in the lowest communication charge are selected. Then, the selected conditions are provided to the information control unit 35 and the protocol control unit 36.
The information control unit 35 packetizes the transmission information from the PC unit 1 in a specified number of octets according to the selected condition and transmits it to the network via the protocol control unit 36. The protocol control unit 36 controls an outgoing / incoming protocol according to the selected condition.

Next, the relationship between the amount of information to be transmitted and the communication charge will be described in detail by taking a packet switching service and a circuit switching service as an example.

Generally, the circuit switching service is charged according to the time spent for communication. Further, the basic charge for calculating the communication charge differs depending on the date and time of use and the distance. For example, the communication charge per unit time varies depending on the distance between the weekday and Sunday / holiday, daytime and nighttime, and the destination. On the other hand, in the packet switching service, charges are charged for each packet for transmitting information. However, the charge for one packet varies depending on the amount of information (number of octets) in the packet. Unlike the circuit switching service, the packet switching service has a characteristic that the communication charge does not affect the time of connection. In the packet switching service, information from a minimum of 128 octets to a maximum of 4096 octets can be transmitted in one packet. Further, there is a feature that the charge per packet becomes cheaper as the packet length becomes longer (the amount of information in one packet increases).

Here, as an example, weekdays, daytime, and metropolitan area 4
Compare the communication charges within the 0km area. Here, a description will be given with reference to a charge for a general exchange service.

The basic charges for each exchange service referred to in this embodiment are shown below.

Packet switching service 128 octets ... 0.4
Yen Packet switching service 4096 octets ... 6.2
Yen Circuit switching service 30 seconds or less ... 10 yen As mentioned above, the circuit switching service has a system in which it is charged for time, so the calculation is performed by replacing it with the fee for the amount of information to be transmitted. The B channel used in the circuit switching service has a transmission rate of 64 kb / s in the case of ISDN. The PC unit 1 and the COM unit 2 described in FIG.
Information transfer capability determines how effectively the B channel can be used. Here, H on the B channel
In consideration of the efficiency of the addition of the redundant part for making the DLC frame and the protocol control and the information transfer capability, 64
It is assumed that 1/4 of kb / s, that is, 16 kb / s can be used. From the above charge system, the amount of information that can be transmitted in 30 seconds at 16 kb / s is 480 kilooctets, and this amount of information can be sent for 10 yen.

FIG. 4 shows a graph in which the horizontal axis represents the amount of information to be transmitted and the vertical axis represents the communication charge.

The solid line shows the change in communication charge when the information amount of one packet is transmitted in 128 octets in the packet switching service. The alternate long and short dash line shows the change in communication charge when the amount of information in one packet is 4096 octets in the packet switching service. Furthermore, the dotted line is
Indicates the charge for B-channel communication in the circuit switching service. As mentioned above, in the circuit switching service, up to 480 kilo octets can be sent for 10 yen, so the amount of information shown in FIG. In addition, although each fee for the amount of information, which is the point when using the packet switching service, is connected in a stepwise manner, in reality it is 128 octets or 40
It becomes a staircase of 96 octets.

From the figure, while the amount of information on the horizontal axis is 2 kilo octets or less, a small packet (1
Communication using 28 octets), communication using large packets (4096 octets) from the vicinity of more than 2 kilo octets, communication charge by circuit switching service from the vicinity of 8 kilo octets, when transmitting the same amount of information, compare with others And it will be lower.

By calculating 2 kilo octets which is the amount of information at the position shown in FIG. 6 and 8 kilo octets which is the amount of information at the position shown in FIG. It is possible to determine which exchange service is used to transmit the lowest communication fee.

That is, the CPU 21 of the COM unit 2 in FIG.
Determines the distance from the destination number to be transmitted transferred from the PC unit 1 and internally manages the current date and time, the distance,
From the table of the exchange service usage charges corresponding to these, the amount of information described above with reference to FIG. 4 is calculated.
Based on the comparison result between the information amount of the file to be transmitted and the calculated amount, the exchange service and the communication parameter that minimize the communication charge for transmitting the file are selected.

As an example, the figure shows communication charges within weekdays, daytime, and 40 km in the metropolitan area.
The position changes depending on the combination of date (weekdays / holidays), time (daytime / nighttime / midnight), and the distance to the destination.

Next, the second embodiment will be described.

In the conventional analog subscriber network that accommodates telephone lines, a plurality of network operators provide network services. The networks provided by each network operator are interconnected, and for example, when making a call to the same destination, a connection route for lowering the communication charge can be selected depending on the distance and time.

The second embodiment shows an example in which a plurality of network providers also provide network services in the ISDN network and the networks provided by the respective network providers are interconnected.

The operation of selecting network services of a plurality of carriers will be described below. In the second embodiment, at the time of communication to the same destination, it is operated to determine and select which network service of which business operator can use the communication at the lowest charge.

The apparatus configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment, but C
A communication charge calculation table held by the OM unit 2 is required for each of a plurality of networks.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the delivery route when a file is transmitted using the networks of two business operators.

In the figure, P in each network of the operators A and B
H indicates a packet handler, and a delivery route passing through PH indicates that a packet switching service is used, and a delivery route not passing through PH indicates that a circuit switching service is used. The delivery route aa ′ from the subscriber C is a delivery route using the packet switching service of the business operator A, and bb ′ is a delivery route using the circuit switching service of the business operator A. On the other hand, cc '
Is a delivery route using the packet switching service of the business operator B, and d-d 'is a delivery route using the circuit switching service of the business operator B. In the packet switching service, a communication parameter is determined whether a small packet or a large packet is used. The delivery route and communication conditions are determined as follows.

For example, when the communication terminal of the subscriber C tries to send a file as in the first embodiment, the COM unit 2 of the communication terminal of the subscriber C notifies the information amount of the file notified from the PC unit 1. From the partner numbers, it is determined which exchange service of the network services of a plurality of carriers and which communication parameter is used to minimize the communication charge. The determination method is such that the amount of information for each network, which is described with reference to FIG. 4, is calculated from the time zone determined from the current date and time internally managed, the distance, and the communication charge table for each network corresponding to these. Calculate to. When the business operator A calculated with the information amount of the file to be transmitted is used, the business operator B
When comparing the four types, the network of the carrier with the lowest communication charge for transmitting the same file, the exchange service (delivery route), and the communication parameters (the packet in the case of packet switching) are compared. Select (Size) and send the file.

Next, a third embodiment will be described.

In the first and second embodiments described above, the PC unit 1
The case of performing a communication operation at the time of requesting the start of communication of information from (in case of immediate communication) is shown.

In the third embodiment described below, information on whether the communication is immediate communication or non-immediate communication is further added to the attribute data relating to the communication transferred from the PC section 1. Based on this information, the COM unit 2 operates in the manner of the first and second embodiments using the current date and time in the case of immediate communication.

The non-instantaneous communication may be, for example, the file communication similar to those in the above-described embodiments, in which it is not necessary to transmit the file to the other party at the present time (immediately). In such a case, the communication cost can be further reduced by shifting the communication fee at a time when the communication fee is lower than the current communication fee. When the non-immediate communication is specified for the transmission of the file from the content of the attribute data, the COM unit 2 selects a time zone with a low communication fee from the communication fee table according to the current time zone. For example, if the current time is daytime, the communication charge calculation and the exchange service selection described in the first and second embodiments are performed for the nighttime charge table having a lower communication charge. The file information from the PC unit 1 is temporarily stored in the memory 22 of the COM unit 2 together with the selection result. The selected result includes time information for calculating the communication charge. At the time, the COM unit 2 reads the file information from the memory 22 and automatically transmits the file information. As a result, in the case of non-immediate communication, PC
The operation of accumulating from the section 1 in the COM section 2 in the daytime and actually transmitting at night when the communication charge is low is automatically performed.

The calculation of the communication charge and the selection of the exchange service may be performed at the time of retransmission. That is, the COM unit 2 only selects the time when the communication charge is lower than the current time, notifies the PC unit 1, and P is notified at the notified time.
The C unit 1 may be configured to retransmit. In this case, at the time of this re-transmission, the COM unit 2 executes the operation of the present invention described in the first and second embodiments, and sets the network service and the communication parameter for which the communication charge is the lowest for the file transfer. Even if the operation of selecting and communicating is performed, the effect is the same.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment.

For example, in the description of the file transmission procedure of the communication terminal using FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the PC section 1 and the COM section 2 are explained as independent control sections.
Each control operation of the present invention performed by the M unit 2 is performed by the CPU of the PC unit 1.
It may be configured such that all 11 perform. In this case,
The procedure of represents the internal operation of the software of the CPU 11 of the PC unit 1.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, only two types of packet size, that is, the minimum 128 octet and the maximum 4096 octet have been described, but in reality, the communication charges are finely classified according to the packet size. Therefore, it is possible to actually calculate and set the communication charge in detail even in the selection of the packet size which is the communication parameter, which does not depart from the gist of the present invention.

Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the communication terminal executes the operation at the time of starting the transmission of the file to the other party has been described. However, the operation of the present invention can be executed not only at the start of communication but also during communication.

For example, as a result of the interactive communication being performed by the communication terminal, continuous communication such as file transfer may be continued. Generally, if the communication attribute is an interactive communication mode, a packet switching service is selected and the communication is performed. Further, as a result of communicating with the subscriber of the partner terminal in an interactive manner, an application operation such as file transmission may be performed. In this case, if the packet switching service selected for the interactive mode is used as it is, if the file to be transmitted has a large capacity, file transfer may result in a significantly high communication charge.

Therefore, by re-executing the operation of the present invention described above at the time of switching from the interactive mode to the continuous communication such as file transfer as described above,
Select the network service and communication parameter with the lowest communication charge for the file transfer.

On the contrary, there may be a case where the interactive communication is started from the file transfer. In this case, for example, after the file transfer, after using the circuit switching service, when the interactive communication is started, the use of the circuit switching service is terminated and the packet switching service is used to continue the interactive communication with the same destination. By operating in this way, communication charges can be reduced. Next, a case of continuous file transmission in which the next file transfer is started from the file transfer will be described.
In this case, the present invention is carried out every time one file transfer is started. As a result, the network service with the lowest communication charge can be selected for each file.

As described above, when a plurality of files are continuously transmitted to the same destination, the control described in the present invention is performed every time the file transfer is started so that each file can be transmitted at the lowest communication charge, which is very effective. Is.

[0069]

As described above, according to the communication control system of the present invention, even if the range of the amount of information to be communicated is wide, it is possible to provide a network service whose communication fee is low according to the capacity of data communication. Can be selected automatically.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system configuration of a communication terminal for realizing a communication control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an operation flow of a communication control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a function of a communication control unit of the communication terminal shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing the relationship between the amount of files to be transmitted and communication charges in various exchange services.

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

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Personal computer part 2 ... Communication control part 21 ... CPU 22 ... Software storage / execution memory 23 ... Line control part 31 ... Attribute data detection part 32 ... Date / time management part 33 ... Communication charge management part 34 ... Network service selection part 35 ... information control unit 36 ... protocol control unit

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A communication terminal, which subscribes to a network provided by at least one business operator and transmits / receives various information using at least one exchange service of the network, at the time of information communication, attribute information related to communication. And a means for calculating the communication charge of information for the combination of the exchange service of the subscribed network and the communication parameter based on the time zone information for communication, communication partner information, and the amount of information for communication. And a means for performing communication by selecting a switching service and a communication parameter of a network operator for which the calculated communication charge is the lowest, and a communication control method. 2. A communication terminal that subscribes to a network provided by at least one operator and uses the at least one exchange service of the network to send and receive various types of information, in the case of interactive communication during information communication. Communication form information indicating continuous communication and immediate communication or non-immediate communication, communication partner information,
And means for identifying attribute information related to communication including the amount of information to be communicated, and communication and switching service of the subscribed network based on the time zone information to be communicated, communication partner information, and the amount of information to be communicated A communication control method comprising means for calculating a communication charge of information for a combination of parameters, and means for performing communication by selecting a switching service and a communication parameter of a network operator for which the calculated communication charge is the lowest. . 3. A communication terminal that subscribes to a network provided by at least one operator and uses the at least one exchange service of the network to send and receive various kinds of information. And a means for calculating the communication charge of information for the combination of the exchange service of the subscribed network and the communication parameter based on the time zone information for communication, communication partner information, and the amount of information for communication. And means for performing communication by selecting the exchange service and communication parameters of the network operator for which the calculated communication charge is the lowest, and means for controlling each of the means at the start of communication or when a predetermined condition occurs during communication. A communication control method comprising: 4. A communication terminal, which subscribes to a network provided by at least one operator and transmits / receives various information by using at least one exchange service of the network, at the time of communication of information, attribute information related to communication. And a communication charge of information for the combination of the switching service of the subscribed network and the communication parameter, based on the means for identifying the communication, time zone information for communication, communication partner information, and the amount of information for communication. Means, and means for performing communication by selecting the exchange service and communication parameters of the network operator for which the calculated communication charge is the lowest, and at the start of communication, or during communication, from interactive communication to continuous communication, or continuous communication To interactive communication, the communication control system is provided with a means for controlling each of the above means. 5. A communication terminal which subscribes to a network provided by at least one operator and transmits and receives various information by using at least one exchange service of the network. At the time of communicating information, attribute information related to communication. And a means for calculating the communication charge of information for the combination of the exchange service of the subscribed network and the communication parameter based on the time zone information for communication, communication partner information, and the amount of information for communication. And a means for performing communication by selecting the exchange service and communication parameters of the network operator with the lowest calculated communication charge, and during communication when starting communication or when continuously communicating multiple information to the same destination. And a means for controlling each of the means at the start of communication of each information.