JPH05207208A - Operating channel deciding system for data communication by plural lines - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily and efficiently decide plural channels used in an ultrahigh speed communication mode. CONSTITUTION:Upon the receipt of the instruction of the communication in the ultrahigh speed communication mode from an ultrahigh speed communication mode instructing section 11c, an operating channel instructing section 10c decides the number of channels for making a call based on any of (1) all channels of idle lines, (2) n-channels reserved in advance, (3) predetermined maximum channel number, (4) channel number instructed by manual entry and (5) channel number decided by using a current time as a parameter. Upon the receipt of the channel number, a call requesting section 13c makes the request of a call of the channel number to a line control section 20a. A calling result deciding section 13d decides whether or not the line is connected to a reception station by the call and a protocol start control section 10d instructs the operation start of protocol communication through the connected line.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a used channel determination method for data communication by a plurality of lines, and more particularly to a used channel determination method for determining a channel used when performing data communication using a plurality of lines.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when transmitting and receiving data between communication devices such as facsimile machines, since only one communication line can be used at the same time, one communication data is serially transmitted by one line. Therefore,
When transmitting image data having a large amount of information such as newspapers and magazines, there is a problem that the transmission time is extremely long.

However, in recent years, a comprehensive service digital network (hereinafter abbreviated as ISDN) for digital information has been constructed, and it has become possible to use a plurality of communication lines at the same time.

ISDN is an in-home line terminating device (DS).
U) A communication network that unifies information of various communication devices such as telephones, facsimile machines, telexes, etc. connected via a bus in digital format, and enables parallel communication by multiple lines between these communication devices. Is.

With the spread of ISDN, in recent years, a so-called ultra-high-speed communication system, which is a communication system for dividing communication data into a plurality of blocks and transmitting each divided block data in parallel from a plurality of communication lines, has been studied. Has been done.

[0006]

However, regarding the data communication system using a plurality of lines as described above, the communication system is disclosed only in an abstract manner, and the specific communication system is clear. It wasn't.

For example, when trying to transmit image data in the ultra-high speed communication mode, no consideration has been given to how to specifically determine a plurality of lines to be used, that is, a plurality of channels.

An object of the present invention is to provide a use channel determination method capable of easily and efficiently determining a plurality of channels to be used in an ultra high speed communication mode in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art. ..

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, according to the present invention, the number of channels to be used for use is set to (1) all channels of idle circuits, (2) n reserved in advance.
Channel, (3) The maximum number of channels determined in advance, (4) The number of channels manually input, and (5) The number of channels determined using the current time as a parameter. It is characterized by

[0010]

According to the present invention, a call is made to the channel determined by the above (1) to (5), and the receiving station responds to this and ultra-high-speed communication is executed using the matched line. Therefore, it is possible to easily and efficiently determine a plurality of channels to be used.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. First, a schematic configuration of a facsimile apparatus to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. 2 shows the configuration of the transmitting station, and FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the receiving station.
Usually, the transmitting station and the receiving station are housed in a single facsimile machine, and many components are shared at the time of transmission and at the time of reception. In addition, a subscript a is attached to the transmitting station and a subscript b is attached to the receiving station to distinguish them from each other.

In FIG. 2, the operation unit 11a has operation keys such as a numeric keypad and a function selection key, a display unit, etc., and the system control unit 1 receives information according to the contents of the operation by the operator.
Output to 0a. The system control unit 10a controls the entire facsimile device.

The image input unit 14a reads the document information on the document 1 and converts it into communication data of electric signals, and outputs this to the encoding unit 15a. The encoding unit 15a encodes the communication data and outputs it to the file storage unit 16a.

The file storage unit 16a stores the encoded communication data as an image file. The file division unit 17a divides the communication data stored in the file storage unit 16a into a plurality of block data and outputs the block data. As shown in FIG. 4, the divided block control unit 18a manages the divided block data such as document No., page No., block No., block data size, page size, and image quality. Is added and output.

The block delivery control unit 33a delivers each block data to each protocol control unit 21a-1 to 21a-n. Each protocol control unit 21a-1 to 21a-n
Transmits the delivered block data to the receiving station by a normal protocol process. Multiple communication controller 12a
Controls the protocol control units 21a-1 to 21a-n.

The line control units 20a-1 to 20a-n automatically dial and call the receiving station when there is a transmission instruction by one-touch dialing or speed dialing, and connect the line with the receiving station. To execute.

The line switching unit 19a is the system control unit 10
In response to an instruction from a, each protocol control unit 21a-1
21a-n and the line control units 20a-1 to 20a-n are appropriately connected. The multiple line control unit 13a controls each of the line control units 20a-1 to 20a-n.

On the other hand, referring to FIG.
b is a combination of a plurality of block data delivered from the divided block control unit 18b based on the management information,
Output to the file storage unit 16b. The decryption unit 31b
The communication data stored in the file storage unit 16b is decrypted. The image output unit 30b records the decrypted communication data and restores the original 1.

FIG. 1 shows a functional block diagram of essential parts of the present invention. Reference numeral 11c is an ultra-high speed communication mode instruction unit which is a function of the operation unit 11a, 10c is a use channel instruction unit which is a function of the system control unit 10a, and 13c is a call which is a function of the multiple line control unit 13a. It is a request section. Further, 20a (20a-1 to 20a-n) is a line control unit. Further, 13d is a call result determination unit which is a function of the multiple line control unit 13a, and 10d is a protocol activation control unit which is a function of the system control unit 10a.

When the ultra-high speed communication mode instructing section 11c issues an instruction to perform communication in the ultra-high speed communication mode, the use channel instructing section 10c issues an instruction to determine the channel used for communication to the call requesting section 13c. The call requesting unit 13c requests the line control units 20a-1 to 20a-n to make a call based on the instruction from the use channel instructing unit 10c. The line control units 20a-1 to 20a-n receiving the call request activate the call operation.

The result of this calling operation, that is, the result of whether or not the line is connected to the other party is judged by the calling result judgment unit 13d, and the protocol activation control unit 10d determines the protocol of the partner station to which the line is connected. Start communication.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to examples. A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 5 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of this embodiment.

In step S1-1, when the system control unit 10a receives an instruction from the operation unit 11a to perform communication in the ultra-high-speed communication mode, the system control unit 10a requests the call to all currently available lines. Instruct the line control unit 13a.

Upon receiving the call request, the plural line control unit 13a makes a call request to each line control unit 20a corresponding to the notified line in step S2. In this embodiment, a call request is made to all the currently vacant lines.
In step S3, the line control unit that has received the call request performs connection processing suitable for each line interface and returns the result to the multiple line control unit 13a. The multiple line control unit 1
3a performs an operation of returning this result to the system control unit 10a in step S4.

In step S5, the system controller 10a
Is the number of protocol control units 21 according to the connected line.
a is secured, the line switching unit 19a is controlled, and a process of connecting the protocol control unit 21a and the line control unit 20a is performed. Next, in step S6, the system control unit 10
The a requests the multi-communication control unit 12a to activate the protocol. In step S7, the plural communication control unit 1
2a makes a protocol activation request to each protocol control unit 21a secured in step S5.
Hereinafter, the protocol procedure is executed for each connected line, and if the communication conditions with the partner device match, image data communication by a plurality of lines is executed, but this operation is outside the scope of the present invention. The description is omitted.

As described above, according to this embodiment, image data can be transmitted by using all available lines, so that the communication channel can be used efficiently and the communication time can be shortened. be able to. Also, since it does not affect the currently used line,
Communication can be carried out in harmony with other communication.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. This embodiment is different from the first embodiment only in step S1-2, and the other steps are the same, so only the description of this step will be given.

In step S1-2, the system control unit 10a reserves n lines (n is an arbitrary integer) in advance for ultra-high speed communication, and instructs the operation unit 11a to perform communication in the ultra-high speed communication mode. When it receives the call, it makes a call request to the n line.

According to this embodiment, since n lines are always secured, there is an effect that ultra-high speed communication in an emergency can be guaranteed.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. This embodiment is different from the first embodiment only in step S1-3, and the other steps are the same, so only the description of this step will be given.

In step S1-3, the system controller 1
0a predetermines the maximum number of lines m (n is an arbitrary integer) to be used for ultra high-speed communication, and when receiving an instruction to perform communication in the ultra high speed communication mode from the operation unit 11a, the range of the number of lines m Make a call request within.

According to this embodiment, since the number of lines used for one ultra high speed communication is limited, it is possible to secure an empty line even during the ultra high speed communication, and when another communication request occurs. It is possible to communicate using the idle line. In addition, communication charges can be stopped.

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. This embodiment is different from the first embodiment in steps S1-4a to S1-4e, and since other steps are the same, only the description of the steps will be given and the description of the other steps will be omitted. ..

In step S1-4a, the operator instructs the number of channels to be used from the operation unit 11a and operates the transmission. In step S1-4b, the operation unit 11a instructs the system control unit 10a on the number of used channels. When the system control unit 10a receives the transmission instruction, the system control unit 10a issues a document scan start request to the image input unit 14a. In response to this, the image input unit 14a starts reading the document (step S1-4c).

In step S1-4d, the system control unit 10a issues an instruction to the encoding unit 15a to encode the read data. The encoded data is stored in the file storage unit 16a. Next, in step S1-4e, the system control unit 10a issues an instruction to the multiple line control unit 13a to make a call request to the lines corresponding to the number of used channels instructed by the operator.

According to this embodiment, the number of channels used can be freely determined by the intention of the operator. Therefore, the number of channels suitable for the amount of image data to be transmitted can be designated, and, for example, when the amount of data is small, many lines are used to cause troubles in other communications and waste of communication charges.

Next, a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. This embodiment is different from the first embodiment only in step S1-5, and the other steps are the same, so only the description of this step will be given.

In step S1-5, the system controller 1
0a determines the number of channels used for ultra-high speed communication according to the current time. For example, from 9 am to 5 pm on Monday to Friday, the number of channels used is reduced because the number of channels used is reduced, and the number of channels used is reduced during other hours. Make a decision to increase.

According to this embodiment, during communication congestion,
Since the number of channels secured for ultra-high-speed communication can be reduced, effective use of communication channels becomes possible.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily determine the number of communication channels to be used in ultra-high speed communication in which communication data is transmitted in parallel using a plurality of lines, and The ultra high speed communication can be performed in harmony with other communication.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a transmission unit of a facsimile apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a receiving unit of a facsimile apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing the structure of block data.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the fifth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Transmission original, 10a ... System control part, 11a ... Operation part, 12a ... Multiple communication control part, 13a ... Multiple line control part, 14a ... Image input part, 15 ... Encoding part, 16a ... File storage part, 17a ... File division unit, 18a ... Division block control unit, 19a ... Line switching unit, 20a ... Line control unit, 21a ... Protocol control unit, 30b ... Image output unit, 31b ... Decoding unit, 32b ... File combining unit, 33
a: Block delivery control unit

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yoshiaki Tezuka 3-7-1, Fuchu, Iwatsuki City, Saitama Prefecture Fuji Zerox Co., Ltd. Iwatsuki Plant (72) Inventor Takashi Sakayama 3-7-1, Fuchu, Iwatsuki City, Saitama Prefecture Issue Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. Iwatsuki Plant (72) Inventor Shinichiro Nagoshi 3-7-1, Fuchu, Iwatsuki City, Saitama Prefecture Fuji Zerox Ltd. Iwatsuki Plant (72) Inventor Hideo Kinami 3-7, Iwatsuki City, Saitama Prefecture No. 1 Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. Iwatsuki Plant (72) Inventor Kosuke Sakaki 3-7-1, Fuchu, Iwatsuki City, Saitama Prefecture Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. Iwatsuki Plant

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A communication station is provided with a function of transmitting and receiving with a plurality of communication lines, a transmitting station divides communication data into a plurality of pieces and transmits in parallel from the plurality of communication lines, and a receiving station has a plurality of communication lines. Use of data communication by multiple lines to synthesize the data sent from the device and restore it to the original communication data In the channel determination method, the transmitting station makes a call to all available lines at the start of data communication by multiple lines. The method for determining the channel to be used for data communication by a plurality of lines is characterized in that the plurality of lines that are connected to the receiving station and are consistent with each other are decided as the used channel. 2. Each communication station has a function of transmitting and receiving through a plurality of communication lines, a transmitting station divides communication data into a plurality of pieces and transmits in parallel from the plurality of communication lines, and a receiving station has a plurality of communication lines. In the channel selection method for data communication by multiple lines, which synthesizes the data sent from, and restores the original communication data, the transmitting station sets the n lines ( n is an arbitrary integer), and a plurality of lines that are connected to the receiving station and are matched are determined to be used channels. 3. Each communication station has a function of transmitting and receiving with a plurality of communication lines, a transmitting station divides communication data into a plurality of pieces and transmits them in parallel from the plurality of communication lines, and a receiving station has a plurality of communication lines. In the channel selection method for data communication by multiple lines that synthesizes the data sent from the device and restores it to the original communication data, when the data communication by the multiple lines starts, the transmitting station uses the predetermined maximum number of channels. A method for deciding a channel to be used for data communication by a plurality of lines, in which a plurality of lines that are connected to a receiving station and are matched are decided as a used channel by instructing the line to make a call. 4. Each communication station has a function of transmitting and receiving with a plurality of communication lines, a transmitting station divides communication data into a plurality of pieces and transmits them in parallel from the plurality of communication lines, and a receiving station has a plurality of communication lines. Used in data communication by multiple lines to combine the data sent from the device and restore it to the original communication data In the channel determination method, the transmitting station uses the number of channels manually input when starting data communication by multiple lines. A method for determining a channel to be used for data communication by a plurality of lines, in which a plurality of lines that are connected to a receiving station and are consistent with each other are determined to be used channels. 5. Each communication station has a function of transmitting and receiving on a plurality of communication lines, a transmitting station divides communication data into a plurality of pieces and transmits in parallel from the plurality of communication lines, and a receiving station has a plurality of communication lines. In the channel determination method used for data communication by multiple lines that synthesizes the data sent from the device and restores it to the original communication data, the transmitting station uses the current time as a parameter when the data communication by multiple lines starts. A method for deciding a channel to be used for data communication by multiple lines, in which a call is instructed to several lines and a plurality of lines connected to a receiving station and having a match are decided as a used channel.