JPH0946340A - Multi-address data communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain processing sutable for the transmission of data in accordance with priority, a communication distance and communication load in a multi- address communication system, SOLUTION: A server 2 processes data transmission corresponding to priority as follows. At first the server 2 executes communication connection with respective terminals 1A to 1C by a communication connection processing part 61. When a terminal sort is an important terminal, a value indicating high priority is stored in the priority information of multi-address communication information 500. Thereby the turn of transmission of the data is quickened. Consequently the data can quickly be transmitted to a person operating at the important terminal. When a connection request is outputted from a general terminal, a value indicating low priority is stored in the priority information of the information 500. A data transmission processing part 62 acquires these priority information from the information 500 so as to transmit data to respective terminal equipments 1A to 1C connected to a network. Then the data are transmitted from the priority information in the descending order of priority.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data broadcasting communication device in a video conference system or a video server system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a broadcast communication system in which data is transmitted to a plurality of terminal devices (a personal computer, a dedicated terminal, etc.) connected to a network and the same data is shared by the plurality of terminal devices. Examples of such a broadcast communication system include a video conference system and a video server system. The video conference system is a system for transmitting video / audio data of people participating in a conference to a plurality of terminal devices connected to a network. The video server system is a system for transmitting data stored in a file to a plurality of terminal devices connected to the network.

In such a video conference system and a video server system, since a plurality of terminal devices share the same data, a predetermined server transmits data to a plurality of terminal devices connected to the network. Such a server transmits data without considering conditions such as the distance to the destination, the priority order such as the terminal type, the amount of data that can be transmitted to the destination due to the load on the network, and the transmission interval. That is, according to the terminal information internally held by the server (for example, the order in which the server is connected), the data is transmitted with a fixed data amount and the same transmission interval.

[0004]

However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following problems. That is, in the video conference system, there may be a terminal device that plays a role such as a chairperson or a chairperson. Such a terminal device (important terminal) needs to receive data earlier than other terminal devices (general terminals). When the server transmits data to such important terminals and general terminals without considering the data transmission order, the arrival of data at the important terminals is delayed compared to the general terminals.

Further, in a system in which a plurality of terminal devices need to receive the same data at the same time, if the server transmits data without considering the transmission order, the data is transmitted to the terminal device far from the server. The arrival of data is delayed compared to the terminal device that is close to the server. Furthermore, when data is transmitted without considering the load of the network to which the server and each terminal device are connected, the arrival of data is delayed when the load is large compared to when the load is small.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a data broadcasting device of the present invention is a data communication system capable of broadcasting data from a server to a plurality of terminal devices. It is characterized by points. (1) 1. A priority order extraction processing unit that extracts the priority order of each terminal device from the broadcast communication information is provided. 2. A communication processing unit that transmits data according to the priority order extracted by the priority order extraction processing unit is provided.

(2) 1. A distance detection processing unit for detecting the distance between each terminal device and the server is provided. 2. A communication processing unit that preferentially transmits data to a terminal device that has a large distance detected by the distance detection processing unit is provided. (3) 1. A load detection processing unit that detects a load on the communication network between the terminal device and the server device is provided. 2. When the load detected by the load detection processing unit is relatively small, relatively large data is transmitted at a relatively wide transmission interval, and when the load is relatively large, relatively small data is transmitted at a relatively narrow transmission interval. The communication processing part which transmits is provided.

[0008]

[Action]

(1) The server transmits data according to the priority order as follows. First, communication connection processing with each terminal device is performed. At this time, if the terminal type is an important terminal, a value indicating a high priority is stored in the priority information of the broadcast communication information. As a result, the transmission order of the data is set forward.
As a result, it is possible to quickly send data to the person at the important terminal. On the other hand, when there is a connection request from the general terminal, a value indicating a low priority is stored in the priority information of the broadcast communication information. On the other hand, the communication processing unit acquires the priority order information from the broadcast communication information in order to transmit the data to each terminal device connected to the network. Then, the data is transmitted in descending order of priority from the acquired priority information.

(2) When performing the same broadcast communication as in (1),
The distance detection processing unit detects the distance between the server and each terminal device, and when the terminal device is at a long distance, the data transmission order is set to the front. On the other hand, if the terminal device is in close range,
Move the data transmission order backward. This shortens the difference in the data arrival times at the plurality of terminal devices. That is, by transmitting the data to the terminal devices in a long distance with high priority, it is possible to reduce the difference in the data arrival time depending on the distance between the terminal devices.

(3) When performing the same broadcast communication as in (1),
The load detection processing unit detects the load of the network to which each terminal device is connected. When the load is large, the amount of data to be transmitted is reduced and the transmission interval is narrowed. On the other hand, when the load on the network is small, the amount of data to be transmitted is increased and the transmission interval is increased. This allows
It is possible to reduce the delay of the data acquisition time in the terminal device having a high network load.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a data broadcast communication device of the present invention. The illustrated device includes a priority extraction processing unit 101, a communication processing unit 102, and a distance detection processing unit 1.
03, the load detection processing unit 104. In the illustrated system, a plurality of terminal devices 1A, 1B, 1C, etc., and a server 2 for transmitting data to these terminal devices are connected to a communication line 3
Connected by

The server 2 comprises a data storage processing unit 4, a data extraction processing unit 5, and a communication processing unit 102. The data extraction processing unit 5 includes a priority order extraction processing unit 10
1. The transmission information extraction processing unit 52. The priority extraction processing unit 101 uses the terminal devices 1A, 1B, 1C.
Each priority is extracted from the broadcast communication information 500 (see FIG. 5). Then, according to this priority, the communication processing unit 102 transmits data to each terminal device.

The communication processing unit 102 is a communication connection processing unit 6
1. The data transmission processing unit 62. The communication connection processing unit 61 establishes a connection by establishing a call between the terminal device 1 and the server 2 in response to a connection request from the terminal devices 1A, 1B and the like. The data transmission processing unit 62 uses the communication line 3
Detects whether or not there is an empty space, and transmits data to one of the terminal devices.

The data storage processing unit 4 is a distance detection processing unit 1.
03, the load detection processing unit 104. The distance detection processing unit 103 detects the distance between each terminal device 1A, 1B, etc. and the server 2. The communication processing unit 102 preferentially transmits data to terminal devices having different distances.
The load detection processing unit 104 detects the load on the communication network between each terminal device 1A, 1B, etc. and the server 2.
When the load is relatively small, the communication processing unit 102 transmits relatively large data at relatively wide transmission intervals.
On the contrary, when the load is relatively large, relatively small data is transmitted at relatively narrow transmission intervals.

Next, the operation of the above-mentioned device will be described. Three broadcast communication systems will be described with reference to FIGS. 2, 3, and 4. (1) Priority Communication Method by Terminal Type FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of priority communication. In FIG. 1, it is assumed that the terminal device 1A is a chairperson and the terminal devices 1B and 1C are general terminals. First, step S201
Then, the communication connection processing is performed. That is, the server 2 receives the connection request from the terminal devices 1A, 1B, etc., the communication processing unit 10
The communication connection processing unit 61 of No. 2 establishes a call between the terminal device 1A and the server 2 so that data can be transmitted and received between the two. At this time, in step S202, the terminal device 1
When there is a connection request from A (chairperson), the following data storage processing is performed. That is, a value indicating a high priority is stored in the priority information 510 of the broadcast communication information 500 of FIG.

On the other hand, in step S202, when there is a connection request from the terminal device 1B or the like, that is, a general terminal,
The following data storage processing is performed. That is, a value indicating a low priority is stored in the priority information 510 of the broadcast communication information 500 of FIG. On the other hand, in step S203, the data transmission processing unit 62 transmits the data to the terminal devices 1A and the like connected to the network so as to transmit the data.
Etc., the priority order information for the etc. is acquired from the priority order information 510 of the broadcast communication information 500. Then, step S204
Then, the data is transmitted in descending order of priority from the acquired priority information.

(2) Broadcast Communication System Based on Distance Next, a broadcast communication system based on the distance between the server 2 and the terminal device will be described. The server 2 sends the ICMP packet P1 to the terminal device 1A as shown in FIG. 6 in order to measure the distance to the terminal device 1A which has finished the call as described above.
Send to When this ICMP packet is transmitted, a fixed value (for example, 50) is stored in a field (hereinafter referred to as TTL field) indicating the packet lifetime and transmitted. The terminal device 1 stores a fixed value (for example, “50”) in the TTL field as a response to the ICMP packet from the server 2 and stores the ICMP response packet (hereinafter,
It is called a response packet) P2 is transmitted to the server 2.

First, in the distance detection process of step S301 of FIG. 3, the server 2 extracts the value stored in the TTL field of the response packet. And step S
In the data storage process of 302, the process starts from “50” in step S.
The value obtained by subtracting the value extracted by 301 is the broadcast communication information 50.
The distance information 520 of 0 is stored. This stored value is the number of hops, that is, the number of routers that are passed through to reach the destination when transmitting a packet. In this case, if the response packet is not sent from the terminal device 1A or the like after waiting for a certain time, "50" is stored in the distance information 520 of the broadcast communication information 500. The terminal device 1 that is fully connected to the above processing
Perform A, 1B, 1C, etc. In the distance information acquisition process of step S303, the distance information for the terminal devices 1A, 1B, etc. is acquired from the distance information 520 of the broadcast communication information 500. As a result, in the data transmission process of step S304, data is transmitted in the order of increasing distance.

(3) Broadcast Communication System Based on Network Load Next, a broadcast communication system based on network load will be described. First, in step S401 of FIG.
Sends the ICMP packet P1 shown in FIG. 6 to the terminal device 1A in order to measure the load on the network with the terminal device 1A.
Etc., and measures the time until a response packet (ICMP packet) for the ICMP packet is returned to the server 2. In the data storage process of step S402, the measured time is set to the time information 53 of the broadcast communication information 500.
Store in 0.

In the transmission information extraction process of step S403, the server 2 acquires the time information for the terminal devices 1A, 1B, etc. from the time information 530 of the broadcast communication information 500. Then, in the data transmission process of step S404,
When the acquired time is short, the network load is considered to be light, and therefore the data transmission order is set backward, and
As shown in (a), the transmission data size is increased and the transmission interval is widened to transmit the data. On the other hand, when the acquired time is long, it is considered that the network load is large, and therefore the data transmission order is set to the front, and
As shown in, the transmission data size is reduced, and the transmission interval is further reduced for transmission.

As described above, by determining the data transmission order according to the terminal type, the important terminal can receive the data earlier than other general terminals. Further, by sequentially transmitting data from terminal devices located at a long distance, it is possible to reduce the delay of data arrival time due to the distance between terminals. Furthermore, in a network with a heavy network load, the transmission interval is reduced with a small amount of data, and conversely,
In a network with a light load, by widening the transmission interval with a large amount of data, it is possible to reduce the delay in data acquisition time in a terminal device with a high network load. Furthermore, by taking the load of the network into consideration, it is possible to reduce the influence on other terminal devices connected to the network during data transmission and reception.

The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the server performs all the communication according to the priority order, the communication according to the distance, and the communication according to the load has been described, but any one or two may be performed. . Further, the present invention is a system for sharing video / audio data between remote places such as a video conference and a video server, a system for distributing the same data to a plurality of terminal devices, and a display between a plurality of terminal devices. It is also applicable to a system for sharing the contents, a system for sharing one application among a plurality of terminal devices and operating the application at the same time, and the like.

[0023]

As described above, according to the data broadcast communication apparatus of the present invention, the data is transmitted according to the priority order, the communication distance, and the communication load, so that the following effects can be obtained. . That is, in the video conference system, the important terminals such as the chairperson and the chairperson can receive the data earlier than the general terminals. Also, in a system that requires receiving the same data at the same time among a plurality of terminal devices, considering the transmission order according to the distance from the server,
It is possible to prevent the arrival of data at a terminal device that is far from the server from being delayed from that of a terminal device that is far from the server. Furthermore, considering the load on the network connecting the server and each terminal device, it is possible to prevent delay in data arrival even when the load is large.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a data broadcast communication device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of priority communication.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of broadcast communication according to a distance.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of broadcast communication according to a load.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a structure of broadcast communication information.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a distance detection processing procedure.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of broadcast communication due to network load.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 priority extraction processing unit 102 communication processing unit 103 distance detection processing unit 104 load detection processing unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. In a data communication system capable of broadcasting data from a server to a plurality of terminal devices, a priority order extraction processing unit for extracting the priority order of each terminal device from the broadcast communication information, A data broadcast communication device comprising: a communication processing unit that transmits data in accordance with the priority order extracted by the priority order extraction processing unit. 2. In a data communication system capable of broadcast transmission from a server to a plurality of terminal devices, a distance detection processing unit that detects a distance between each terminal device and the server, and a distance detection processing unit that detects the distance. A data broadcasting communication device, comprising: a communication processing unit that preferentially transmits data to a terminal device having a large distance. 3. A data communication system capable of broadcast transmission from a server to a plurality of terminal devices, and a load detection processing unit for detecting a load on the communication network between the terminal device and the server device, and the load. Communication processing that transmits relatively large data at relatively wide transmission intervals when the load detected by the detection processing unit is relatively small, and relatively small data at relatively narrow transmission intervals when the load is relatively large And a data broadcasting communication device.