JPH0983670A - Data communication terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To permit a receiving person to freely move to another terminal equipment by automatically relaying communication between a previously set destination device and an original calling device in the case of receiving person absence. SOLUTION: When a call comes from the original calling device 21 through a first transmission line L1 and nobody corresponds to it, a second interface part F2 automatically calls the registered destination device 22. When connection is executed with the destination device 22, the original calling device 21 and the destination device 22 are mutually and directly connected with the transmission lines L1 and L2, interface parts F1 and F2 and change-over parts C1 and C2. In case of communication completion, it is detected and a call is disconnected.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data communication terminal device capable of relay transfer when a receiver is absent when communicating via a high-speed digital transmission line such as a video conference and a videophone.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A digital transmission line for transmitting and receiving a large amount of information at high speed is used in a videophone, a videoconference, and various kinds of computer-to-computer communication. ISD for this
N (service integrated digital network) and the like are used.

[0003]

The data communication using such a high-speed digital data communication line has the following problems to be solved. For example, when a data communication terminal device makes a call to another data communication terminal device and the recipient is just absent, the recipient may desire to communicate at another location. is there. However, under the present circumstances, a procedure is required in which the receiver calls the caller again by using another data communication terminal device to reconnect. Moreover, the receiver may move to another data communication terminal device side without notice,
There has been a demand for a device that can be easily handled.

[0004]

The present invention adopts the following constitution in order to solve the above points. <Structure> The data communication terminal device of the present invention includes a first interface unit for detecting an incoming call from the original calling device through the first transmission line, and an incoming call process for a predetermined time or more after the incoming call is detected due to the absence of the receiver. If not, a device control unit that outputs a preset call command to the destination device of the recipient to the second interface unit, and the second interface unit calls the destination device through the second transmission line, A switching unit that directly connects the first interface unit and the second interface unit when recognizing an incoming call at the destination and establishes communication through the first transmission line and the second transmission line is provided.

<Explanation> The original calling device makes a call for the purpose of communicating with the recipient operating the data communication terminal device by digital data. When the recipient is not present at the place where the data communication terminal device is, the portion related to the invention of the data communication terminal device operates effectively.
The incoming call process is a process in which the receiver hooks up and starts receiving. The apparatus of the present invention is provided with at least two interface units, and any interface unit is used as the first or second interface unit. Directly connecting means connecting the original calling device connected to the first transmission line and the destination device connected to the second transmission line via the interface section of the data communication terminal device. At this time, the data communication terminal device monitors the communication state in order to disconnect the call at the end of communication.

<Structure> In the device control unit, after the first interface unit and the second interface unit are directly connected to establish communication through the first transmission line and the second transmission line, the original calling device and the destination When you receive the end notification from any of the devices,
The call on the first transmission line and the call on the second transmission line are disconnected. <Description> Since the original calling device and the destination device are relayed, when the communication is completed, the device control unit detects this and executes the call disconnection process.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to specific examples. <Specific Example 1> FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a data communication terminal device of the present invention. This device is, for example,
It is connected to a transmission line of two lines of 64 kdps of SDN, and is configured to perform video telephone and other high speed digital communication. These lines are composed of a first transmission line L1 and a second transmission line L2, as shown in the figure. The first interface F1 is connected to the first transmission line L1, and the second interface F2 is connected to the second transmission line L2. An input device 20 for transmission is connected to this device via a multiplexer 9. Also, an output device 3 for receiving
0 is connected to this device through a separating unit 10.

FIG. 2A shows a concrete block diagram of the input device 20 and the output device 30. The TV camera 1 is a part that receives a video image of a speaker as a moving image signal and outputs an analog image signal. This signal is encoded by the image data encoding unit 5 and input to the multiplexing unit 9 as transmission image encoded data. The microphone is a part that inputs voice and outputs this as an analog voice signal. The audio data encoding unit 6 is a unit that encodes the analog audio signal and outputs it as transmission audio encoded data to the multiplexing unit 9. It should be noted that this multiplexing unit 9 takes in outputs from various other media as encoded data, and
It is a part that receives the inter-transmission-terminal control signal from the communication protocol control section 12 shown in FIG. 1, performs the multiplexing processing according to the transmission frame information included in the control signal, and outputs the transmission multiplexed data.

The demultiplexing unit 10 demultiplexes the received multiplex data, contrary to the multiplex unit 9, and extracts the received image coded data, the received voice coded data and the like. Further, it is a part that operates so as to output a control signal between receiving terminals to the communication protocol control unit 12. The received image coded data is received by the image data decoding unit 7 and converted into an analog image signal, as shown in FIG. This is displayed as a received image on the display 3. Further, the received voice coded data is converted into an analog voice signal by the voice data decoding unit 8 and output as voice through the speaker 4.

The first interface unit F1 and the second interface unit F2 both have a call control function, and the device control unit 11 sends a call command in the case of a call and an end command in the case of an end. It is a part that receives from the call processing and executes the call processing and the termination processing. Further, the first and second interface units F1 and F2 are units that output an incoming call notification and an end notification to the device control unit 11 in the case of an incoming call. Furthermore, these first and second interface units F
1 and F2, when the device control unit 11 performs the incoming call process, accepts the incoming call command, performs the incoming call process, and outputs the transmission multiplex data to the first transmission line L1 and the second transmission line L2. , Has a function of receiving the received data and sending it to the separating unit 10 or the like. The switching unit C1 is composed of a switch or the like that receives the output of the multiplexing unit 9 and the output of the second interface unit F2 and performs switching so as to output either one of them to the first interface unit F1. When normal communication is performed by the switching unit C1, the multiplexing unit 9 and the first interface unit F1 are connected, and the signal input from the input device 20 is finally output to the first transmission line L1 side. . On the other hand, by switching the switching unit C1 as described later, the first interface unit F1 and the second interface unit F2 are directly connected.

The output of the first interface unit F1 is input to the switching unit C2, and the output of the switching unit C2 is output to the separating unit 10 and the second interface unit F2. Therefore, normally, the signal input from the first transmission line L1 is transferred to the separation unit 10 through the switching unit C2 and output by the output device 30. On the other hand, by switching the switching unit C2, the first interface unit F1 and the second interface unit F2 are directly connected. The communication protocol control unit 12 has a function of outputting a control signal between transmitting terminals, which indicates details of multiplexing of transmission multiplex data, to the multiplexing unit 9 and notifying the partner device and the frame configuration of the multiplex data. In this case, the inter-transmission-terminal control signal also includes information such as terminal capability input from the device control unit 11. Further, the communication protocol control unit 12 has a function of inputting a control signal between receiving terminals from the separation unit 10 and analyzing it to recognize the capability of the partner device. Further, the communication protocol control unit 12 has a function of sending a status indicating the state of image / voice multiplex communication to the device control unit 11 to control communication.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram specifically showing a command output from the operation unit 13, a command accepted by the display unit 14, and other contents. An operation unit 13 and a display unit 14 are connected to the device control unit 11. The operation unit 13 is composed of a keyboard and the like, and is also used when an operator inputs an incoming call command and an end command to the device control unit 11 or inputs a telephone number of an out-of-office device to implement the present invention. To be done.

The display unit 14 is composed of a display or the like for displaying the contents of operation by the operation unit 13 or for displaying various information. The device control unit 11 includes an operation unit 13
Has a function of receiving an incoming call command, an end command, a telephone number, etc., and outputting an outgoing call command, an incoming call command, an end command and the like to the first interface unit F1 and the second interface unit F2. Further, the device control unit 11 causes the display unit 14 to display and output various information that needs to be notified to the operator, and also outputs the terminal capability of this device to the communication protocol control unit 12, or the communication protocol control unit 1
It has the function of inputting the status from 2 and recognizing the state of image, voice, and multiplex communication. Further, the device control unit 11 has a function of receiving an incoming call notification, an end notification, and the like from the first interface unit F1 and the second interface unit F2, and performing a certain incoming call notification or end processing.

<Operation> The operation of the apparatus of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the calling side. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, an operation executed when the original calling device 21 calls the data communication terminal device of the present invention shown in the drawing through the first transmission line L1 will be described. . The operation performed when the recipient is absent at this time will be described with reference to FIG.
By the way, the original calling device 21, the data communication terminal device of the present invention on the receiving side, and the destination device 22 all have the same configuration. Therefore, although the operation flowchart of FIG. 3 describes the operation of the original calling device 21, the description will proceed with the data communication terminal device shown in FIG. 1 as the original calling device 21.

First, the operator uses the operation unit 13 to input the telephone number of the other party (step S1). Device control unit 11
Notifies the calling command to the first interface unit F1 in step S2. In response to this, the first interface unit F1 makes a call to the first transmission line L1. Then, the detection of the incoming call is started (step S4).

When there is an incoming call from the partner terminal, the first interface unit F1 notifies the device control unit 11 of the incoming call, and a predetermined incoming call process is performed (step S5). Then, the device control unit 11 notifies the communication protocol control unit 12 of the terminal capability of its own device, while knowing the communication capability of the partner device via the communication protocol control unit 12 (step S6), the data communication Is started (step S7). Data communication is performed by the multiplexing unit 9 and the demultiplexing unit 10.
At this time, the switching unit C1 connects the multiplexing unit 9 and the first interface unit F1 and the switching unit C2 connects the separation unit 10 and the first interface unit F1.
It is connected to the interface unit F1.

When the data communication is thus completed, the device control section 11 notifies the first interface section F1 of an end command in step S8. As a result, the first interface unit F1 disconnects the call to the first transmission line L1, and the predetermined communication ending process is completed in step S9.

Next, referring to FIG. 4, the operation of the called data communication terminal device according to the present invention will be described. First, in step S1, the first interface unit F1 recognizes an incoming call and notifies the device control unit 11 of a call from the original calling device 21. In step S2, the device control unit 11 determines whether the receiver operates the operation unit 13 to start reception. When the recipient is absent, such incoming call processing is not performed for a certain time or longer. in this case,
From step S2 to step S3, the device control unit 11
Reads the telephone number of the destination written in advance using the operation unit 13. Then, the call command is notified to the vacant interface section. That is, since the incoming call processing is performed via the first interface unit F1, the call command using the destination telephone number is sent to the vacant second interface unit F2. As a result, the second interface unit F2 makes a call to the destination device 22 via the second transmission line L2. Here, in step S5, it is detected whether the destination device 22 has performed the incoming call processing. Office device 2
When the receiver moves to 2, and the incoming call processing is performed by the destination device 22, in step S6, two interface units, that is, the first interface unit F1 and the second interface unit F2 are switched. Section C1 and switching section C2
Use to connect directly. In this way, the communication between the original calling device 21 and the destination device 22 is controlled by the first interface unit F1 and the second interface unit F2.
It is started via the interface unit F2.

Generally, when high-speed data communication such as a videophone is performed mutually, if the capacity of the transmission line connecting the two is not uniform, the real-time property is impaired and normal communication may not be performed. is there. However, for example, ISD
If two N lines of 64 kdps are connected and used as shown in this figure, both the first transmission line L1 and the second transmission line L2 have exactly the same function, and the original calling device 21 and the destination device The requirement to make the transmission path connected to 22 uniform. Therefore, even if the relay transfer process is performed in this way, it does not affect the communication quality.

When such data communication is completed, the device control unit 11 of the terminal device that has performed the relay transfer detects the end of the communication (step S7 in FIG. 4), and the first interface unit F1 and the second interface unit F1. The interface unit F2 is caused to perform call disconnection processing (step S8). As a result, the original calling device 21 and the destination device 22 can maintain high-quality data communication without being aware of the relayed terminal device. Therefore, even if the receiver does not notify the original calling device side of the telephone number of another destination device, the recipient device is automatically connected to the destination device side, and communication between the two can be easily performed. Therefore, the operator can freely move without being restricted by a specific data communication terminal device for a videophone, a videoconference, or the like.

Various communication terminals having two or more high-speed digital transmission lines by having the above functions,
Various communications can be performed using a personal computer, a workstation, or the like.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a specific example of a data communication terminal device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an essential part of the device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of a calling side.

FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart of a called side.

[Explanation of symbols]

 9 Multiplexing unit 10 Separation unit 11 Device control unit 12 Communication protocol control unit 20 Input device 21 Original calling device 22 Destination device 30 Output device C1, C2 Switching unit F1 First interface unit F2 Second interface unit L1 First transmission line L2 Second transmission line

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A first interface unit for detecting an incoming call from an original calling device through a first transmission line, and if the incoming call is not processed for a predetermined time after the incoming call is detected due to the absence of the receiver, A device control unit that outputs a call command to the destination device of the set recipient to the second interface unit; and the second interface unit calls the destination device through a second transmission line to receive the destination call. When recognized, the data communication is characterized by including a switching unit that directly connects the first interface unit and the second interface unit to establish communication through the first transmission line and the second transmission line. Terminal device. 2. The device control unit, after the first interface unit and the second interface unit are directly connected to each other and communication is established through the first transmission line and the second transmission line, 2. The data communication terminal device according to claim 1, wherein when the end notification is received from either the original calling device or the destination device, the call on the first transmission line and the call on the second transmission line are disconnected. .