JPH10164134A - Communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the delay of voices by securing a band for the voice communication data with higher priority than the band for the packet communication among the bands which are used for communication between a gate way and a terminal equipment. SOLUTION: The analog voice data are sent to a communication control part 33 of a sub-block voice communication corresponding part 30 of the gateway of the opposite party. Then the analog voice data are sent to an AD conversion part 32 from the part 33 to undergo the digitization. The digital voice data are sent to an encoding/decoding part 31 and encoded. The encoded data are sent to a signal distribution part 22 and then to a processing queue. A communication control part 23 controls the part 22 to process the voice data with higher priority than the IP packet that is earlier sent to the processing queue. Thus, the voice data are controlled with preference and sent to a DSU input/output part 21. Then the voice data are sent to a terminal equipment of the opposite party from the part 21 via a communication circuit set between the terminal equipment and the gateway and then decoded. The decoded voice data are sent to a telephone handset and then sent to a user of the opposite party side.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication system capable of utilizing both telephone communication and data communication between many terminal devices.

In the past, ordinary households used only media equivalent to telephones. However, in recent years, the use of Internet media in homes and businesses has exploded, and the use of media other than telephones has been increasing. Increasing. In the past, communication using the Internet was mainly data communication, but in recent years telephone or facsimile communication has become available via the Internet. Instead of using a user interface, the operations are performed simultaneously in a single user interface. FIG. 1 shows a conventional system in which the telephone and the data communication are processed simultaneously and in parallel through one user interface.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a terminal device, 2 denotes a gateway, and 3 denotes the Internet (packet switching network). The gateway 2 is connected to the Internet 3 via a router 4. The terminal device 1 is connected to the gateway 2 via a DSU 5 via a dedicated line. Terminal device 1
The communication protocol between the gateway 2 and the gateway 2 uses the TCP / IP protocol. Data communication such as WWW or electronic mail is performed between the terminal devices based on the TCP / IP protocol.

[0004] A telephone handset is connected to the terminal device, and voice spoken by a person is input to the terminal device as an analog signal from the telephone handset. The terminal device converts the analog signal into a digital signal, and compresses and encodes the information at regular time intervals. The information is carried in an IP packet and transmitted to the terminal device of the communication partner based on the TCP / IP protocol. Conversely, when receiving the information encoded in the IP packet and carried in the IP packet from the terminal device of the other party, the received terminal device decodes the encoded information, converts the digital signal into an analog signal, and converts Output to the handset so that it can be heard by ear.

[0005] As described above, information for telephone and information for data communication are simultaneously and concurrently communicated between the terminal device of the user and the gateway. This is because if the access interface to the user is provided separately for telephone and data communication, it becomes inconvenient and expensive for the user. It is desirable for users to be able to use both telephone and data communications with a single access interface because of its convenience and low cost.

[0006]

However, in the configuration described above, when data for voice communication is transmitted via the Internet, the data arrives at the partner terminal device with a considerable delay. The standard of the sound delay that can be heard by the human ear without being uncomfortable is generally about 300 ms, but it is known that when using the current Internet, the delay is about 700 to 800 ms.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a communication system in which voice communication can be performed comfortably without voice delay, and an access interface for a user can be shared between telephone and data communication.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, a communication system according to the present invention is connected to one or more terminal devices, a circuit switching network and a packet switching network, and to the terminal devices. A plurality of gateways, wherein the terminal device specifies connection destination information and inputs voice, means for compressing and encoding voice into encoded data and decoding the encoded data into voice, and Means for transmitting and receiving data between DSUs between
The gateway transmits / receives data to / from the terminal device via the DSU, passes voice communication data of the received data to the voice communication corresponding unit, and passes packet communication data to the data communication corresponding unit. The voice communication data transmitted from the terminal is transmitted to the connection destination via the circuit switching network, the voice communication data is received from the connection destination, and the voice communication data is transmitted to the terminal corresponding unit. A data communication support unit that transmits the data for packet communication to the packet switching network, receives the data for packet communication, and passes the data to the terminal support unit, and the terminal support unit is used for communication between the gateway and the terminal device. It is characterized in that it is configured to control so that a band for voice communication data is secured with higher priority than a band for packet communication among bands to be performed.

In such a configuration, there are various means for securing the band for voice communication data prior to the band for packet communication data. In one example,
When the signal distribution unit of the terminal corresponding unit receives the voice communication data from the voice communication corresponding unit, it sends the data to the transmission processing waiting queue for the terminal device, and receives the packet communication data from the data communication corresponding unit. Send to transmission queue. In a preferred example, the terminal corresponding unit controls the voice communication data to be processed preferentially even if the voice communication data is later than the packet communication data in the transmission processing waiting queue for the terminal device. The configuration has

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing this embodiment. The terminal device 10 has a configuration in which a handset 11 is added to a personal computer, and has a function of digitizing and compressing and encoding analog voice input from the handset 11, and a function of decoding the compressed and encoded digital information. It has a function of converting to analog voice and sending it to the handset 11. Further, it has a function of accessing a WWW page with a WWW browser and a function of designating and inputting a telephone number of a destination to be called on a personal computer screen.
The terminal device also has a function of transmitting and receiving data to and from an external device via the DSU 5.

In this embodiment, the terminal device 10 has a DS
It is connected to the gateway 2 via a communication line via U5. The gateway 2 is a packet switching network 3 and a circuit switching network.
13 respectively. The packet switching network 3 has W
The WW server 15 is connected. Another gateway 2 is connected to the circuit switching network 13, and the terminal device 10 is also connected to the gateway 2.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the gateway 2. The terminal support unit 20 is a sub-block that performs communication processing with the terminal device, the voice communication support unit 30 is a sub-block that passes telephone traffic to the circuit switching network 13 and processes the data, and the data communication support unit 40 is a data block. This is a sub-block for passing communication traffic to the packet switching network 3 via the router 4 for processing. The terminal support unit 20 includes the terminal device 10
Of the digital signals received from the telephone, the digital signal forming the telephone voice is passed to the voice communication supporting section 30, the digital signal forming the data for data communication is passed to the data communication supporting section 40, and the data communication with the voice communication supporting section 30 is performed. The digital signal received from the corresponding unit 40 is transmitted to the terminal device 10. The voice communication supporting unit 30 passes the telephone traffic data received from the circuit switching network 13 to the terminal corresponding unit 20, and the data communication supporting unit 40 passes the data communication traffic data received from the packet switching network 3 to the terminal corresponding unit 20. Note that a plurality of terminal corresponding units 20, voice communication corresponding units 30, and data communication corresponding units 40 may be provided.

First, the terminal corresponding unit 20 will be described. The terminal correspondence unit 20 includes a DSU input / output unit 21, a signal distribution unit 22, and a communication control unit 23. The DSU input / output unit 21 is connected to a communication line connecting the terminal device 10 and the gateway 2 via the DSU 5. The DSU input / output unit 21 inputs / outputs digital signals to / from the DSU 5, and the DSU 5 terminates a communication line. Digital signals input / output from the gateway 2 pass to the DSU 5 on the terminal device 10 side, and the DSU 5 Ten
From the DSU 5 to the terminal device 10.

The DSU input / output unit 21 transmits the DS
Digital signal receiving unit via U5
22 and receives a digital signal from the signal distribution unit 22 and transmits the signal to the terminal device through the communication line via the DSU 5.
Send to 10. The signal distribution unit 22 divides the digital signal received from the DSU input / output unit 21 into voice communication data and data communication data, and passes the voice communication data to the codec 31 of the voice communication support unit 30. The communication data is passed to the IP packet receiving unit 41 of the data communication corresponding unit 40. On the other hand, the data received from the codec 31 of the voice communication corresponding unit 30 and the data received from the IP packet receiving unit 41 of the data communication corresponding unit 40 are transferred to the DSU input / output unit 21 as one data stream.

The communication control unit 23 includes a signal distribution unit 22 for guaranteeing real-time voice communication of the voice communication data received from the codec 31 of the voice communication corresponding unit 30.
Controls the voice communication data to be sent to the terminal device 10 preferentially. An example of a specific method will be described. When receiving the data for voice communication from the voice communication corresponding unit 30, the signal sorting unit 22 of the terminal corresponding unit 20 sends the data to the transmission processing waiting queue for the terminal device, and receives the data for packet communication from the data communication corresponding unit 40 in the same manner. Send to the transmission queue for terminal device. The communication control unit 23 controls the signal distribution unit 22 to secure the band for voice communication data more preferentially than the band for packet communication data. In this case, even if the voice communication data is in the terminal device transmission processing waiting queue after the packet communication data, the communication control unit 23 causes the signal distribution unit 22 to process the voice communication data first. Control.

Next, the voice communication corresponding section 30 will be described.
The voice communication supporting unit 30 includes a codec 31, an AD converter 32, and a communication line controller 33. The codec 31 receives the voice communication data from the signal distribution unit 22 after the connection control. The data is data encoded by the terminal device 10. The codec 31 decodes this and passes it to the AD converter 32. AD
The conversion unit 32 converts the decoded digital data into analog data and transfers the analog data to the communication line control unit 33.

The communication line control unit 33 performs a communication path connection process with the other party's gateway 2 accommodating the other party's terminal device 10, and then establishes the analog voice received from the AD conversion unit 32 in the circuit switching network. To the communication path that has already been used. Also,
Conversely, when the communication line control unit 33 receives analog voice through a communication path in the circuit switching network, the analog voice is passed to the AD conversion unit 32, which converts the analog voice into digital data and converts the analog voice into digital data. The digital data is passed to the decoding unit 31, and the codec 31 encodes the digital data and sends it to the signal distribution unit 22 of the sub-block terminal corresponding unit 20.

Next, the data communication corresponding section 40 will be described. The data communication support unit 40 includes an IP packet reception unit 41 and a router input / output unit 42. The IP packet receiving unit 41
The IP packet is received from the signal distribution unit 22 and passed to the router input / output unit 42, and the IP packet received from the router input / output unit 42 is passed to the signal distribution unit 22. The router input / output unit 42 passes the IP packet received from the IP packet receiving unit 41 to the packet switching network 3 and passes the IP packet received from the packet switching network 3 to the IP packet receiving unit 41.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below. First, the user picks up the telephone handset 11 attached to the terminal device 10 and inputs the telephone number of the connection partner on the screen of the personal computer. The terminal device 10 connects to the gateway 2 using the existing procedure, and the gateway 2 connects to the circuit switching network 13 to connect to the partner gateway in which the partner terminal device is accommodated. The partner gateway performs connection processing to the partner terminal device according to the existing procedure.
When the user of the other terminal device picks up the telephone, a communication path is established between the two terminal devices 10. Using this communication path, a real-time voice call service is provided.

In the terminal device, an analog voice is obtained from the voice uttered by the user, and the analog voice is digitized and encoded, and is passed through a communication line between the terminal device and the gateway. Is passed to the DSU input / output unit 21. Further, the signal is passed to the codec 31 of the sub-block voice communication support unit 30 by the signal distribution unit 22 to be decoded, passed to the AD conversion unit 32, converted into an analog signal, and passed to the communication line control unit 33 for line switching. It is sent to a communication path on the network 13.

With this communication path, the analog voice data is transferred to the communication line control unit 33 of the sub-block voice communication support unit 30 of the partner gateway. From the communication line control unit 33 of the partner gateway, analog voice data is passed to the AD conversion unit 32, digitized, passed to the codec 31, encoded, sent to the signal distribution unit 22, and waits for processing. The packet is transferred to the queue, and the communication control unit 23 controls the signal distribution unit 22 so that the audio data is processed first in preference to the IP packets arranged in the waiting queue. The audio data is given priority control in this way and passed to the DSU input / output unit 21.
The data is passed from the DSU input / output unit 21 to the partner terminal via a communication line between the terminal and the gateway. The voice data passed to the partner terminal device is decoded, converted into an analog signal, sent to the telephone handset 11 attached to the terminal device 10, and reaches the ear of the partner user.

When the terminal device connects to the Internet to access a WWW page, data for the access is sent as an IP packet from the terminal device to the DSU input / output unit 21 of the gateway via a communication line. ,
The signal is passed to the IP packet receiving unit 41 by the signal distribution unit 22, is passed to the router input / output unit 42, is sent to a packet switching network (for example, the Internet), and is passed to the WWW server 15 and the like. Conversely, an IP packet from the WWW server 15 enters the router input / output unit 42, is sent to the IP packet accepting unit 41, is sent to the signal distribution unit 22, and waits from the audio data in the processing queue, and enters the DSU. Sent to the output unit 21,
It reaches the terminal device via the communication line between the terminal device and the gateway, and is displayed on the screen as a WWW page.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since voice communication data is prioritized over packet communication data between the terminal device and the gateway, and a circuit switching network is used between the gateways, voice delay is significantly reduced. Therefore, a voice call can be performed comfortably. Moreover, since the user access interface is used for both telephone and data communication, a convenient and inexpensive communication system for the user can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a conventional method for a system in which telephone and data communication are processed simultaneously and in parallel via one user interface.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system of the present invention in which telephone and data communications are processed concurrently through one user interface.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a gateway.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Terminal device 2 Gateway 3 Internet (packet switching network) 4 Router 5 DSU 10 Terminal device 11 Telephone handset 13 Circuit switching network 15 WWW server 20 Terminal corresponding unit 21 DSU input / output unit 22 Signal distribution unit 23 Communication control unit 30 Voice communication Corresponding unit 31 Codec 32 AD conversion unit 33 Communication line control unit 40 Data communication correspondence unit 41 IP packet receiving unit 42 Router input / output unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Shoji Takano 3-19-2 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A communication system comprising: one or a plurality of terminal devices; and a plurality of gateways connected to a circuit switching network and a packet switching network and connected to the terminal devices. Input means, means for compressing and encoding audio into encoded data and decoding the encoded data into audio, and means for transmitting and receiving data to and from the gateway via the DSU, the gateway comprising: Data is transmitted / received to / from the terminal device via the DSU, the voice communication data of the received data is passed to the voice communication correspondence unit, and the packet communication data is passed to the data communication correspondence unit. The voice communication data transmitted to the connection destination via the circuit switching network, receives the voice communication data from the connection destination, and passes the data to the terminal corresponding unit; and A data communication corresponding unit for transmitting the packet communication data passed from the terminal corresponding unit to the packet switching network and receiving the packet communication data from the packet switching network and passing the data to the terminal corresponding unit; Communication having a configuration in which, of the bands used for communication between the gateway and the terminal device, a band for voice communication data is controlled so as to be preferentially secured over a band for packet communication data. system. 2. A terminal corresponding unit controls to preferentially process voice communication data in a transmission processing waiting queue for a terminal device even if the voice communication data is after the packet communication data. The communication system according to claim 1, having a configuration.