WO1999028814A2

WO1999028814A2 - Arrangement for improving the utilisation of a network

Info

Publication number: WO1999028814A2
Application number: PCT/NO1998/000334
Authority: WO
Inventors: Do Van Thanh; Lam Viet Troung
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson
Priority date: 1997-11-28
Filing date: 1998-11-05
Publication date: 1999-06-10
Also published as: WO1999028814A3; NO975491D0; AU1695599A; NO975491L; NO312569B1

Abstract

The present invention relates to an arrangement for improving the utilisation of a network, especially in a company computer network comprising network facility and equipment, and for the purpose of utilising such facility and equipment in a more rational and user-friendly manner, it is according to the present invention suggested that the arrangement comprises the establishment of a specific communication channel (HotInPrint) which is arranged to co-operate/interact, on the one hand, with a Print Service System, and, on the other hand, with an arbitrary data/information system, and further comprises a Print Service System interface, a data/information system interface, as well as a user interface, said interfaces allowing selected data from said data/information system to be printed on the banner page of the printer(s) in question when print-out operation thereof is initiated.

Description

ARRANGEMENT FOR IMPROVING THE UTILISATION OF A NETWORK

Field of the invention

The present invention relates to an arrangement for improving the utilisation of a network, especially in a computer network comprising network facility and equipment .

More specifically the invention concerns an arrangement allowing the promotion and administration of specific communication and distribution channels primarily based on existing network facility and equipment, and even more specifically through printers which are already installed and accessible through the company computer network.

State of the art

With the progress in technology and the cut in hardware prices, PCs or workstations tend to be personal equipment allocated to each employee. Printers, however, will still remain as common resources belonging to a project, a section, a department or an office location (floor, build- ing, etc.). Several users (employees) share hence the same printer. In order to separate the printout belonging to different users and to prevent mixing, banner pages are used. Such a banner page contains usually information such as user name, user initial, date, printer name, printer option, server (source computer), etc. However, the only piece of information which is relevant to the user is the user name. After identifying, separating and removing his/her documents from the printout bunch, the user just throw away this banner page into the recycling bin. This is a huge waste.

The banner pages may, of course, be removed but then the risk of mixing up and loosing pages are increased. The present invention has been developed with a view to improve the utilisation of the related network, and then more specifically to use such banner pages as a print-out media for an information distribution channel called HotlnPrint, with which the company in a technical and electronic manner can distribute hot and latest information to its employee. The suggested technical solution will involve that the information distributed through such a channel can be of various types and can be decided and governed by the policy of the company.

According to applicant's knowledge, no such network solution including an additional information distribution channel has been used or proposed before.

US 5 316 279 (Corona et al . ) relates to copier/printer job stacking with discrete cover sheets with extending printed banners, in connection with an improved system for segregating and identifying separate job sets from a commonly stacked output of plural job sets of copy sheets sequentially generated by a printer and sequentially out- putted into a sheet stacker in which they may be superposed commonly stacked. A control system selects which standard size sheet supply tray of the printer will feed the copy sheets for a selected job set, and can automatically feed and print a cover sheet of a larger size or different orientation before or after the job set copy sheets are fed.

However, this publication is silent about suggesting an active way of extending a network to comprise a specific channel using banner sheets for communicating information, news or directives.

US 5 547 128 (Costello) relates to a shared user's printing system, comprising an electronic printer for printing print jobs of respective different plural users, with a printer mail box system for receiving the print jobs in multiple mail box bins of a limited sheet capacity, and to a sheet distribution system for automatically directing into different individual mail box bins assigned to different users their respective print jobs, with at least the initial sheets of a particular user directed to selected first mail box bin.

Also this publication is silent about suggesting an ar- rangement for improving the utilisation of a network, i.e. establishing a specific printer communication channel, so as to allow using banner sheets as a print-out means for communicating information, news or other important messages to any user of the network.

Objects of the invention

The main object of the present invention is to suggest an arrangement for improved utilisation of a network by es- tablishing a new information distribution channel based on existing network facility and equipment.

Another object of the present invention is more specifically to establish a new information distribution channel through printers which are already installed and accessible through any company computer network.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an information distribution channel, which can dis- tribute hot and latest information to any user or employee in a company network.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide such an information distribution channel which can be monitored by a plurality of parameters, or possibly by any policy of the associated company. Yet another object of the present invention is to establish a new network communication channel allowing the use of existing banner pages not only for informing separate different print jobs but also for communicating informa- tion of various priority and importance, depending on the individual users or/and group of users.

Brief summary of the invention

The above objects are achieved in an arrangement as stated in the preamble, which according to the present invention is characterised by the features as stated in the characterising clause of the enclosed patent claim 1.

By providing such an arrangement which comprises the necessary interfaces, it will be possible to cooperate/interact with any arbitrary data/information system, which may comprise a data base, a word processor, a desktop publishing system, a web editor, or similar.

Appropriately, the data/information interface may be adapted to read stored information or extractions therefrom in any appropriate format, such as word format, html, sql, etc.

The suggested Print Service System interface can be adapted to that arrangement comprises the establishment of a specific communication channel (HotlnPrint) which is arranged to co-operate/interact, on the one hand, with a Print Service System, and, on the other hand, with an arbitrary data/information system, and further comprises a Print Service System interface, a data/information system interface, as well as a user interface, said interfaces allowing selected data from said data/information system to be printed on the banner page of the printer (s) in question when print-out operation thereof is initiated. Consequently, the invention suggest that said hot information is added to any banner page in addition to already existing printout related information.

Further features and advantages of the present invention will appear from the following description taken in conjunction with the enclosed drawings, as well as from the appending patent claims.

Brief disclosure of the drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a prior art layout of a method for defining or modifying banner pages.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating how an embodiment of the present invention can be realized, i.e. using the present arrangement to configure and set up the con- tent of banner pages.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating the main components included in an embodiment of the arrangement according to the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a schematical diagram illustrating an example of a network configuration wherein the arrangement according to the present invention is implemented.

Fig. 5 illustrates a protocol stack in the interaction between the communication channel (HotlnPrint) according to the present invention and the associated print service system.

Detailed description of embodiments

Description of prior art solution With reference to Figure 1 there will now be given a brief description of the prior art situation related to defining or modifying banner pages.

As shown in Figure 1, printers can be connected directly to a company network which can be an LAN (Ethernet, Token Ring, Novell, ATM, etc.) or a WAN (FDDI, ISDN, B-ISDN) as in the case of printers A and B, or a printer C can be attached to a local host or server. The administration of printers is done through a Print Service System which is a software running on an arbitrary server. The Print Service System is uses to add and change printers, to remove printers from service, to define alerts for printer faults, etc. It can also be used to administer the format of the banner pages . The format of the banner pages are defined by files called forms containing information such as page length, page width, number of pages, line pitch, character pitch, character set choice, ribbon colour, comment, content type, content, etc.

The content type and content are especially relevant in the present context since it defines the information and its layout in the banner pages. However, the edition and modification of the content and its layout must be done by the system supervisor through the Print Service System which is not intended for frequent updating and is consequently not a user-friendly task.

Problems with known solutions

The banner pages are originally only intended to separate different print jobs and contains usually, besides the user ID and the request ID, quite static information such as company name and logo. Consequently, although the content can be modified by the printer administrator through existing printing service systems, more frequent modifications and fancy layout are not supported in current systems .

The information to be distributed through the present HotlnPrint channel must, however, be changed quite frequently because otherwise, the users will no longer pay attention on the header pages and will throw them right away without reading. Such a frequent updating creates some problems.

First, if the generation or supply of information to the channel requires too much additional work, it may not be acceptable for many companies. Somehow, it must be possi- ble to update the information in an easy way, with minimal or preferably without any extra work and as frequently as desired.

Second, a company may have a large number of printers distributed on different locations. The printers may also differ from each other concerning type (e.g matrix, laser, plotter, etc.), manufacturer, format (e.g postscript, pel, hpgl2 , etc.) . It is too cumbersome if the distribution of information must be done separately for each printer. The distribution of information to all the printers must be done remotely and automatically.

Third, the persons in charge of the administration and control of printers are usually from Operation and Main- tenance (0AM) department or Information Technology (IT) department. They have high technical expertise and are used to handle complex systems. They are, however, not the ones who are in charge the distribution of company information to employees.

The users of the suggested HotlnPrint should also be from the leadership, the strategy department, the information department, etc. and these are usually not technical peo- pie. Therefore, the generation and distribution of information to printers should be simple and easy to use. These processes must, preferably, be integrated or incorporated in the information systems currently used, such that no extra knowledge or training is required in order to use them. High level of user-friendliness and automatization must be offered.

Last, but not least, the access to the information dis- tribution channel must be secured, such that only authorised persons can distribute approved information on this channel .

Detailed description of the invention

Reference is made to fig. 2 which is a schematic diagram illustrating how an embodiment of the present invention can be realised, i.e. how the present arrangement can be configured in a very expedient and user-friendly manner.

The invention is based on the idea of making use of the available space on the banner pages to distribute information and the introduction of an arrangement which can be implemented by a software solution called HotlnPrint, which stands between and binds together the Print Service System and the banner page content sources as shown in Figure 2.

The banner page content sources can be any arbitrary in- formation system, a database, a word processor, a desktop publishing system, a Web editor, etc. depending upon the company policy. A company having an internal magazine may want to extract and distribute information form this magazine and hence wants to have the connection between its desktop publishing system. Another company may want to connect its Web pages to HotlnPrint. HotlnPrint performs the necessary format conversion, adaptation and addition which are necessary to transform the banner page content to the format required by the print service system. HotlnPrint interacts with the print service system and performs all actions which are necessary to inform the print service system about the new content and layout the banner pages .

HotlnPrint also offers a direct interface to the user, i.e. the information responsible, through which he/she can configure HotlnPrint as he/she likes. He/she can define and group printers according to project, department, building, etc. He/she can decide which information should be printed on which printer. Information distribution can be done according to the departments, buildings, or a specific employee (user), etc. The distribution can also be done according to time, day or week or other factors e.g. if the same user has several print jobs, the content of the banner pages can also be different for each jobs.

Now, with reference to figures 3-5 there will be described further details of an embodiment of the present arrangement, especially as regards the structure of the main components which are included in an appropriate em- bodiment of such an arrangement.

Structure of HotlnPrint

HotlnPrint can be an autono e software module (Software programme) that be can be installed and run on any computer system using any operating system such as Unix, Windows , etc .

HotlnPrint can be integrated into a web editor, a word processor, a desktop publisher, etc. or a print service system as a feature or function that can be invoked. HotlnPrint consists of the following components:

- User interface

- Interface with the information system such as a database, a word processor, a desktop publishing, a web editor, etc.

- Core functions

- Interface with a print service system

A schematic representation of HotlnPrint is given in figure 3

1. User interface

This component constitutes the interface with the user. It can be graphic oriented (i.e. select by mouse clicking) or text oriented. However, it offers a menu such that the user can select the wanted action. An example of such a menu can be as follows:

File submenu a. read file: to read a file in a certain format b. new banner file: to create a new banner file c. save file: to save to existing file d. save as: to save to a new file e. send to printers: to send this banner page to the printers that can be one printer, or a group of print- ers f . print: to print the file

Edit a. Insert picture: to insert different types of graphics from a file, library, etc. b. Insert text: to insert a text file c. Insert object: to insert an object d. Insert file: to insert file of different format Printers configuration menu a. Define printer: set up characteristics of printers

(e.g. format) b. Define group of printers

User configuration menu a. New user: to define new user b. New group: to define new group of users c. Change password: to change password d. Change authentication: to change level of authentication

Network configuration menu a. Network type: to set up the network used b. Print service system: to set the address of print service system

2. Interface with the information system

Since there are multiple information sources that store information data in different format, such as word format, html, sql , etc., and HotlnPrint must be capable to read all these format, an interface module is necessary.

3. Core functions The core functions consist of the following:

a. Authentication and access control

Security is an important issue of HotlnPrint since not everybody can be allowed to have access permission to HotlnPrint but only some entitled person.

The authentication function is responsible to ensure that a user really is the one whom he/she claims to be. Depending on the company policy, different authentication schemes varying from simple password to more advanced challenges-answer sequences can be offered.

The access function is the function ensuring that a user is only permitted to perform actions that are defined according the location of the user, the time of the day. For example, the user may only be permitted to access Hotlnprint from some pre-defined terminals or machines, or he may be permitted to use HotlnPrint during working hours (8.00 to 16.00). The limitation can also be on the printer side, i.e. which printer is allowed to have banner page with information.

b. Configuration and management The function permits:

To define HotlnPrint users and their access rights To configure group printers together according to project, department, building, etc such that the same information can be distributed on all printers belonging to the same group.

To define the time of distribution e.g. time, day, week To define how information can be distributed, e.g. repeated for a certain period, repeated for a certain number of print jobs (a user may have several print jobs and the information on the banner pages for each job is different) .

c. Format conversion

There exist also many types of printers that accept different formats such as HP format, Postscript format, etc HotlnPrint must be capable of generating different print formats . 4. Interface with print service system

There exist many print service systems depending on the used system environment, e.g. Unix environment, Window, etc. They offer different command set enabling the definition and control the banner pages of the printers. In some print service systems, definition must be done for each printer but in some other systems, definition can be done to a group of printers of the same type. HotlnPrint needs an interface for each type of Print Service system.

There exist also different types of underlying networks such as IP, Novell Netware, Decnet, etc. HotlnPrint should be able to communicate with the print service system via any of such underlying networks.

Example of interfacing HotlnPrint and a print service system

Suppose that Hotlnprint is running on a PC with MS win- dows (e.g. Windows 95 or Windows 96) and that the Print

Service System is running on a Unix server called ServerA. Both the workstation and the PC are connected to a TCP/IP based network.

The Print Service System is administrating a set of different printers, say PI, P2 , P3 , etc. which are also connected to the same TCP/IP network. The users using either PC or workstation may have access to all these printers to print out their jobs. It is worth mentioning that the chosen configuration is adopted and used very broadly.

The PCs function as the front-end machines having interfaces with the users while the Unix systems works as a server for file storage, database, printing service, etc. Such a configuration is, however, just an example since HotlnPrint can be also work with other configurations. The configuration is shown in figure 4.

The Print Service System may have the following commands : lpsystem - register remote systems with the print service lpadmin - configure the lp print service lpforms - administer forms used with the lp print service lp - print file lpg - list the print queue

While the two last commands are available to all users the first three are restricted only to allowed users.

Suppose now that an allowed user is using HotlnPrint and has already read a file of a certain format, say html. He has modified, e.g. added some text and some pictures. He saves the information in the file called Fl .

He is now activating the command "send to printers". He will be asked for the printers that will have the new information and also the users that will receive it. Suppose that he selects printers PI and P2 and user X.

After that he issues a carriage return, HotlnPrint will convert the fil2 Fl to the formats suitable for the printers PI and P2 say Fl_l and Fl_2. HotlnPrint will then establish a socket session with ServerA and issues the commands :

lpform - f Fl_l - to add the information to the banner forms defined for user X.

lpform - f Fl_2 - to add the information to the banner forms defined for user X. lpform -f Fl_l -A PI - to mount the information to printer Pi

lpform -f Fl_2 -A P2 - to mount the information to printer P2

When these commands are executed successfully, HotlnPrint will terminate the session and return an OK to the allowed user. If the commands are not sucessful then Hotln- Print may retry or return an error message to the allowed user .

The protocol stack used for the interaction between HotlnPrint and the Print Service system is depictecd in figure 5

When User X is printing on printer Pi or P2 , he will get a banner page with the new information that the allowed user has specified. However, if he is printing on printer P3 , the banner page will not contain this new information.

Broadening

1 ) Area of uses

HotlnPrint can be used in very diverse areas such as

- company headline news - advertisements

- greeting

- announcement

2) Compatibili ty HotlnPrint can be installed, deployed and used on any type of computer system, operating system, network, print system or printers.

Merits of invention

1) Very powerful and efficient information channel

HotlnPrint introduces a new and very powerful and efficient Information distribution channel. Although there may exist other information channels, they have limitations and need to be completed by HotlnPrint, e.g the user has to select (click) a web page in order to read the information and if he is busy or not interested to do that that, then the information will never reach him. The same applies for the internal magazine. HotlnPrint makes use of "dead times" of the users and does not operate in a disturbing way to the users. While standing in front of the printer and waiting for his printout, the user can occupy himself by reading the banner pages which may inform and refer him to more detailed information published in the company Web home pages or some internal magazine.

2) Environmental concern

HotlnPrint shows high environmental concerns since it promotes the use of resource which will be wasted anyway. 3) Low cost in development

HotlnPrint can be designed and implemented using existing technology and does not require much cost in development.

4 ) Low investment for companies

HotlnPrint do not require must investment to the using companies since most resources are already available. 5) High potential

Most medium-sized and large companies do have multiple printers and can be interested in using HotlnPrint as a new Information Distribution channel.

Claims

P a t e n t c l a i m s

1. Arrangement for improving the utilisation of a network, especially in a company computer network comprising network facility and equipment, c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n that arrangement comprises the establishment of a specific communication channel (HotlnPrint) which is arranged to cooperate/interact, on the one hand, with a Print Service System, and, on the other hand, with an arbitrary data/information system, and further comprises a Print Service System interface, a data/information system interface, as well as a user interface, said interfaces allowing selected data from said data/information system to be printed on the banner page of the printer (s) in question when print-out operation thereof is initiated.

2. Arrangement as claimed in claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n that the arbitrary/data information system may comprise a database, a word processor, a desktop publishing system, a web editor, or similar .

3. Arrangement as claims in claim 1 or 2 , c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n that said data/information system interface is adapted to read stored information or extractions from said data/information system in any appropriate format, such as word format, html, sql, etc.

4. Arrangement as claimed in any of the claims 1-3, c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n that the Print Service System interface is adapted to allow for format conversion to any type of printers, such as HP format, Post- script format, pel, hpg 12, etc.

5. Arrangement as claimed in claim 4, c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n that the Print Service System interface is adapted to interact with various type of printers, e.g. matrix, laser, plotter, etc.

6. Arrangement as claimed 4 or 5 , c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n that said stored information or extractions therefrom of said data/information system is allowed to be added to any banner page in addition to already existing print-out related information.

7. Arrangement as claimed in any of the preceding claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n that said stored information or extractions therefrom of a data/information system is added to any banner page in an attractive manner, e.g. by changing the layout and/or manner of presentation, through an appropriate user interface and related core functions .

8. Arrangement as claimed in claim 7, c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n that said user interface and core functions are adapted so that the administration of the distribution of said information is adapted to take place from any user terminal .

9. Arrangement as claimed claim 8, c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n that the user interface and the related core functions are adapted to allow any authorised and non-technical user to configure the re- spective banner pages and the distribution thereof according to any individual and/or group user selection.

10. Arrangement as claimed in any of the preceding claims , c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n that the user interfaces and the related core functions are adapted to allow the use of banner pages for additional print-out of said stored information according to the time of any day, day or week or other parameters e.g. if the same user as several print jobs, the contents of any banner page may differ according to the type of print job.

11. Arrangement as claimed in any of the preceding claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n that the arrangement is implemented in connection with any appropriate network, for example comprising an LAN (Ethernet, Token Ring, Novell, ATM) or a WAN (FDDI, ISDN, B-ISDN) , or similar.

12. Arrangement as claimed in any of the preceding claims, c h a r a c t e r i z e d i n that said user inter- faces and related core functions are adapted so as to allow access to the specific communication channel only by authorised persons, for distribution of approved information on such a specific communication channel.