JPS6315560A - Transmission controller for electronic conference system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain multi-point connection simply without providing other multi- point controllers by providing an interface means at least having two lines for data packet communication and a telephone set having at least two lines. CONSTITUTION:A switch 13 is changed over to the position of the conventional telephone mode or the position of the teleconference mode by a control signal MODE from a conference support section, and in case of the teleconference mode, the data of channels B1, B2 are sent to a packet composing/decomposing circuits (PAD) 703, 704, and after a header and an error detection code are eliminated, the result is sent to an electronic conference system internal bus via buffers (BUF) 707-710 and an interface (IF) 712. Thus, the teleconference of three parties is executed in the electronic conference system without any special provision of a multi-point control section at the network side.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Effects of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a transmission control device for an electronic conference system that performs multi-point connections.

(Prior Art) As a conventional electronic conference system, there is one shown in FIG. 6, for example. As shown in the figure, this electronic conference system includes a microphone 1, a speaker 2, a television camera 3 that displays an image of the conference room, a television camera 4 that displays a manuscript, a television monitor 5, a facsimile device 6, and a hard copy device as a printer. 7. An audio unit 8 that encodes and decodes audio signals from the microphone 1 and speaker 2; an image unit 9 that encodes and decodes image signals; a control unit 10 that controls the image units; It is comprised of an operation unit 11 for input, and a transmission unit 12 for transmitting and receiving audio signals and image signals.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In such conventional electronic conference systems, multipoint connections are sometimes made to conduct conferences between multiple points at the same time, and in this case, a separate multipoint control device is installed on the line. However, as the number of terminal devices increases, the multipoint control device becomes busy, requiring conference reservations, etc., and the problem is that multipoint connections cannot be established easily. there were.

The present invention was made to solve such problems,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a transmission control device for an electronic conference system that can easily perform multipoint connections without providing a separate multipoint control device on the line side.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides a transmission control device for an electronic conference system that controls the transmission of data sent and received between a plurality of conference unit systems connected via a line. an interface means having at least two lines for performing packet communication of data; a telephone device having at least two lines;
The telephone apparatus is characterized by comprising a switching means for switching between the interface means and the telephone device.

(Function) When conference unit system A and conference unit system B are making call settings, when conference unit system C makes call settings to conference unit systems A and B, it uses a line different from the line in use. Use this to set up a call. Also, when conference unit system A and conference unit system B are performing data packet communication and conference unit system C makes a call setting to conference unit systems A and B, a line different from the line in use is used. Use this to set up a call. A multipoint connection is made in this way.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a conference unit system according to an embodiment of the electronic conference system of the present invention.

The control device 900 is connected to drawing, still image, moving image, and audio input devices, and to the control device 900 is connected to soft copy, hard copy, and audio output devices. Signals from these input devices and signals to output devices are subjected to processing such as selection and multiplexing according to several control information signals, and are then transmitted.

Input devices include a plurality of drawing input devices 100 for inputting handwritten characters and figures, a still image input device 200 for inputting documents before or during the meeting, and a still image input device 200 for inputting documents for meeting participants and the background of the conference hall. Video input device 300 for inputting images and audio input device 400 for inputting audio
is connected.

In addition, the output devices include a plurality of flat display devices 150 and graphic display devices (1) 160 for displaying input information of the own terminal and transmitted drawing type and still image type, and graphic display device (1) 1.
A hard copy device 250 for making a copy of 60, a graphic display device (2>350) for displaying the own terminal and transmitted video input information, and an audio output device 450 for outputting transmitted audio input information are connected. has been done.

Further, the storage device 600 continuously records and outputs this input/output information. The transmission device 700 is connected to two remote conference unit systems.

The above input/output information is transmitted through signals from devices such as an operation input device 850, a state detection device 800 that detects whether conference attendees are sitting or leaving their seats, and a speaker identification device 510 that determines the speaker based on the voices of the conversation participants. The tip is controlled.

Next, the transmission control device 700 will be explained.

Frame information generated by each device in the electronic conference system is packetized by the transmission control device 700 as shown in FIG. 3, and transmitted to the remote electronic conference system. In addition, frames transmitted from other electronic conference systems are
It is received by this transmission control device 700 and distributed to each device in the system.

The electronic conference system of this embodiment is 2B+D (B:
64kbps, D; 16kbps>basic/)*7 access to connect to the 15DN network. That is, this transmission control device 700 has a 4-wire in-home bus interface, which is being standardized by CCITT, and can access the in-home bus through an information outlet.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of this transmission control device 700.

This transmission control device 700 includes a line termination device (NTI) 701 that is an interface with the 15DN network, a physical layer interface (INF) 702 that is an interface with the in-home bus, and a packet generation and decomposition circuit that performs packet component and decomposition ( PAD > 703, 704 and the telephone interface (position > 705) to which the handset is connected.
, a signaling control unit (SIG) that controls call connections, etc.
706 and input/output buffers (BUF) 707 to 7
10, a handset 711, an ink face (IF) 712 connected to a system bus, a switch 713 for switching modes, an OR circuit 714 for detecting buffer overflow, and a keyboard 715. Also, code 716 is l5DN network, code 717
．． 718 represents the T line and R line of the 4-line residential bus.

The part indicated by a broken line in the figure represents an interface means 750 for performing packet communication of data.

The 4-line residential bus consists of T lines 717 and 718.
I5DN network 7 via line termination equipment (NTI) 701
16.

In addition, the physical layer interface (INF) 702
A clock is extracted from the received signal on the R line 718, frame synchronization is established, and data on the B1, B2, and D channels is received. At the same time, transmission data to each channel of B1, B2, and D is input and sent to the T line 717.

The switch 713 will be turned on after the conference support section 991 is activated.
With the control signal MODE, normal telephone mode and
When switched to teleconference mode and in telephone mode, the B1.82 channel is connected to handset 711 via telephone interface 705 .

This phone has two rounds: B1, B2, #A,
Two phone numbers #B are assigned.

Then, the signaling control unit (SIG) 706 receives information such as normal telephone call setting and cancellation from the keyboard (KEY>715), and this information is transmitted via the D channel.
5DN11!716 is sent, and each channel of B1 and B2 is connected a number of times.

On the other hand, when the switch 713 is in teleconference mode, the data of each channel of B1 and B2 is sent to packet generation and decomposition circuits (PAD) 703 and 704, and after the header and error detection code are removed, the data of each channel B1 and B2 is sent to a buffer (BUF) 70.
7 to 710 and are sent to the electronic conference system internal bus via the interface (rF) 712.

Buffer output from the buffers 707 and 708 is prohibited when the output device in the electronic conference system is busy. When these buffers become full, the packet generation and disassembly circuit (PAD) 7 is activated by the control signals C1 and C3.
03.704, the packet generation and disassembly circuit (PA
D) 703 and 704 generate a management packet indicating that reception is not possible, send it to the terminal, and notify that the buffer is full.

On the other hand, if a packet that cannot be received is sent from the other party's terminal, the packet disassembly and generation circuit (PAD) 703.7
04 inhibits the output of buffers 709 and 710. This buff? When it becomes full, the control signal TBUSY is notified to the control device 900 via the OR circuit 714, and the control device 900 prohibits input to the input device in the electronic conference system based on this information. instruct.

Next, the state of call setting in this electronic conference system will be explained with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

In Figure 4, the dashed line is the normal PCM telephone line, and the solid line is the B1 line conducted in teleconference mode.
．． It is a packet communication line via 82 channel.

At the initial stage, as shown in FIG. 4(a), calls are set up between conference unit systems A and B using ordinary telephones using channel 81, respectively. Then, as shown in Figure 4(b) and (C), the new participating system C sets up a call with systems A and B using the same normal telephone (B2 channel), and then all systems are connected to the teleconference system. By switching to the mode (as shown in FIG. 4(d)), a teleconference using packet data is started.This switching is performed by exchanging a monitoring frame indicating the start of packet communication between the terminals.

Furthermore, termination of the teleconference mode is also performed by exchanging a supervisory frame indicating the termination of packet communication.

The procedure for setting up a call is shown in FIG. In this case, the same figure (a
), (b), between systems A18 and B
Assume that a teleconference using channel 1 has started. At this time, the new participating system C is A, B (
7) After making a regular call to the 82 channel telephone and setting up the line, a three-party teleconference is possible.

As described above, this electronic conference system can easily carry out a three-party teleconference without the need to prepare a multipoint control section on the network side.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above in detail, according to the present invention, multipoint connection can be easily performed without providing a separate multipoint control device on the line side.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a transmission identification control device, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an electronic conference system, FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a transmission packet, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are explanatory diagrams showing the state of call setup. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a conventional electronic conference system.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] In a transmission control device for an electronic conference system that controls the transmission of data sent and received between a plurality of conference unit systems connected via lines, at least two lines for performing packet communication of data. 1. A transmission control device for an electronic conference system, comprising: an interface means having the following: a telephone device having at least two lines; and a switching means for switching between the interface means and the telephone device.