JPH0888751A - Facsimile communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] It is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile communication device capable of performing more efficient communication by expanding the target of the line communication to the regional level divided by the area code or city code. . [Structure] An area information storage unit that stores area information indicating an area in which a line can be transmitted, a representative destination storage unit that stores a representative destination representing the area, and a transmission destination to which a file is to be transmitted is identified. A transmission destination identification unit, a determination unit that determines whether or not the identified transmission destination is included in the region in which the transmission is possible, and an area in which the identified transmission destination is in the transmission region If it is included in, the transmission destination holding unit that holds the corresponding transmission destination, the transmission start detection unit that detects that the predetermined transmission start condition is satisfied, and the transmission start condition is satisfied. In this case, a communication control unit for calling the representative destination, notifying the representative destination of the held transmission destination, and transmitting the file to be transmitted to the transmission destination in line Characteristic facsimile communication device.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile communication device such as a facsimile device or a facsimile storage / exchange device, and more particularly to communication control of these facsimile communication devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional facsimile apparatus, there is known a column communication function for continuously transmitting a plurality of image information files designated with the same destination in a single communication. By using this line communication function, it is possible to reduce communication costs as compared with the case where each image information file is transmitted individually, and it is possible to suppress unnecessary calling and improve the usage efficiency of the facsimile device. Yes, from the perspective of both communication costs and usage efficiency,
It is possible to improve communication efficiency. Further, in order to further improve the communication efficiency in the line connection function, for example, in the facsimile apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-268870, a certain file is newly sent to the same destination while waiting for the line connection. When additional transmission is designated, the transmission time of the file waiting for the transmission is delayed until the transmission time of the additionally designated file, and these files are transmitted together. Therefore, it is possible to batch send files that were individually sent at the specified time in the past,
It is possible to further improve the communication efficiency of the facsimile apparatus as compared with the above-described normal line communication. On the other hand, there has been known a facsimile storage / exchange apparatus which stores a plurality of extension lines and a plurality of outer lines, and which transmits an image information file to a designated destination in response to a request from a terminal connected to the extension line. A technique for performing line communication in a storage exchange device is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-218159. The facsimile storage / exchange apparatus described here can reliably identify the source of each file on the receiving side by collectively transmitting the identification number of each source to the destination before transmitting the image information. It was done.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned facsimile apparatus or facsimile storage / exchange apparatus, it is necessary that the same destination is set as a condition of the series connection, and the reception-side facsimile apparatus or the reception-side facsimile storage / exchange apparatus is required. Only when the telephone number was exactly the same as the subscriber number, the line was being communicated. Therefore, even if the destinations have the same area code, if the local area code is different, they will not be subject to the line communication. Similarly, even if the area code and the local area code match, the subscriber number If they are different from each other, there is a problem that they are not subject to the line communication and are processed as individual communication. Such a problem is caused by the condition of the line connection that "only to the same destination". However, it is clear that if this condition is unreasonably expanded, it will cause confusion and the communication efficiency will be deteriorated. Is.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and expands the object of line communication to the regional level divided by the area code, the city code, etc., to achieve more efficient communication. It is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile communication device that can perform the operations.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The first object is to store an area information storing section which stores area information indicating an area where communication is possible, and a representative destination storing section which stores a representative destination representative of the area. Unit, a transmission destination identification unit that identifies a transmission destination to which a file is to be transmitted, a determination unit that determines whether the identified transmission destination is included in the area in which communication is possible, When the identified transmission destination is included in the area where the transmission is possible, a transmission destination holding unit that holds the corresponding transmission destination and a transmission that detects that a predetermined transmission start condition is satisfied When the start detection unit and the connection start condition are satisfied, the representative destination is called, the held destination is notified to the representative destination, and a file to be transmitted to the destination is sent. It is characterized by having a communication control unit for transmitting in series It is achieved by the facsimile communication apparatus.

[0006]

In the facsimile communication apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, since the line communication is performed collectively for each area divided by the area code, the local area code, etc., the line communication with higher communication efficiency can be performed. it can.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings by taking a facsimile storage and exchange device as an example. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a facsimile storage / exchange apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

As shown in FIG. 1, the facsimile storage / exchange apparatus 1 accommodates a plurality of extension lines and a plurality of public lines which are public lines, and the extension terminals are connected with extension terminal devices 20a to 20m. On the other hand, an external device is connected to a partner device such as a facsimile device or a facsimile storage / exchange device via a public line network as needed. The facsimile storage / exchange apparatus 1 is connected to the plurality of external lines and internal lines described above, and a network control unit 2 that controls a line interface such as detection of a call signal arriving via the internal line or the external line, line closing, and line opening. A network control unit 2 and a circuit switching unit 3 for controlling circuit switching between communication control units 4a to 4n, which will be described later, and an extension terminal device connected via an extension line or a partner device connected via an external line. Communication control units 4a to 4n that control the protocol, a system control unit 5 that controls the entire facsimile storage / exchange device 1, an image information storage unit 6 that stores image information received from an extension terminal device or a partner device, and a facsimile storage The operation unit 7 allows the operator to input the parameters required for the system operation of the exchange apparatus 1 (for example, the number of re-calls when the transmission is undelivered or the call interval). It is. Although not shown in the figure, each unit in the facsimile storage / exchange apparatus 1 is connected to the system control unit 5 and exchanges various control signals with the system control unit 5 according to instructions from the system control unit 5. Operate.

When the facsimile storage / exchange apparatus 1 having the above-described configuration receives a transmission request from a certain extension terminal device, it operates as follows. When an extension terminal device calls the facsimile storage / exchange device 1, the network control unit 2 detects a calling signal and closes the line. Next, the line switching unit 3 connects the vacant (unused state) communication control unit (hereinafter, referred to as the communication control unit 4a for convenience of description) to the called extension, and the connected communication control unit 4a is connected. Starts the protocol with the extension terminal. In this protocol, the telephone number and communication mode of the other device to which the image information should be transmitted (for example, time-specified transmission that starts transmission at a specified time, broadcast transmission that transmits the same image information to multiple facsimile devices, etc.) The extension terminal device notifies the communication parameter including the above, and the system control unit 5 stores the necessary information among the communication parameters (in this case, the telephone number and the communication mode of the partner device) in a parameter memory (not shown). Subsequently, the image information transmitted from the extension terminal device is received and stored in the image information storage unit 6, and when the reception of the image information is completed, the network control unit 2 opens the line. The network control unit 2 calls the partner device according to the communication parameters stored in the parameter memory, and when the line is closed, the image information in the image information storage unit 6 is transmitted in the communication mode notified from the extension terminal device. Of course, also in this case, the network control unit 2, the circuit switching unit 3, and the communication control unit 4a execute the above-described operations.

Contrary to the case described above, the operation of each unit is basically the same even when the facsimile storage / exchange apparatus 1 receives image information from the partner device and sends it to the extension terminal device notified by the partner device. The same applies, except that the extension number of the extension terminal device is stored in the parameter memory as the communication parameter.

Next, the facsimile storage / exchange apparatus 1 of FIG.
Receives a transmission request from an extension terminal device (hereinafter referred to as a transmission request source), and passes through another facsimile storage / exchange device having the same configuration (hereinafter referred to as a representative destination) to a final reception terminal device (hereinafter referred to as transmission). The operation of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 2 by taking the case of transmitting image information to a partner) as an example. It should be noted that each step in the figure is executed by the system control unit 5 unless otherwise specified.

When there is an incoming call from the transmission request source (step 2
01 YES), the network control unit 2 detects this, closes the line, and notifies the system control unit 5 of the incoming call. Upon receiving the notification of the incoming call, the system control unit 5 issues an instruction to connect the vacant communication control unit 4a to the line switching unit 3 and the line switching unit 3 performs the connection process according to the instruction. To do. In this state, the transmission request source and the communication control unit 4a are connected and communication is possible. After that, the communication control unit 4a receives, for example, ITU-T (old CCITT) recommendation T.264. 30 is performed (step 202), the image information transmitted from the transmission request source is received according to the communication parameters determined by the protocol, and the received image information is sequentially stored in the image information storage unit 6. (Step 203). When the reception of the image information is completed (YES in step 204), the network control unit 2 disconnects the line (step 205), and the reception process from the transmission request source is completed. The image information stored in the image information storage unit 6 is handled as one file thereafter, and various processes are also performed in units of this file.

According to the present invention, in the above-mentioned protocol,
The connection processing is controlled based on the telephone number of the transmission destination notified from the transmission request source. The detailed configuration will be described below with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the system control unit 5 in more detail. In the figure, reference numeral 51 is a transmission destination number identification unit for identifying the transmission destination number notified from the transmission request source, and 52.
Is an area information storage unit that stores area information (for example, an area code, a city code, etc., hereinafter, the area code will be described as an example) indicating an area where the line communication according to the present invention is possible. The area code of the transmission destination number identified by the destination number identification unit 51 is compared with the area information stored in the area information storage unit 52, and the area code of the transmission destination number is stored in the area information storage unit 52. The determination unit for determining whether or not it is included in the area code, 54 writes necessary information in the communication management table 55 based on the determination result of the determination unit 53, and the information in the communication management table 55 as necessary. Is a table control unit for reading out. Further, reference numeral 55 is a communication management table in which information necessary for the series communication according to the present invention is stored, the details of which are shown in FIG.

As is clear from FIG. 4, the communication management table 55 is divided by area code, and the area code set in the communication management table 55 is stored in the area information storage unit 52 as area information. Matches the stored area code. Further, in association with each area code, a representative destination field that stores the telephone number of the representative destination to which the image information addressed to the area code is to be collectively transmitted, and the telephone number of the identified transmission destination are stored. The destination field is set. The representative destination column in FIG. 4 corresponds to the representative destination storage unit of the present invention, and the transmission destination column corresponds to the transmission destination holding unit.
Further, although FIG. 4 exemplifies the case where the area code is 4 and the transmission destination is a maximum of 3, the present invention is not limited to this, and the number of these stations may be increased or decreased as necessary. It is possible.

Returning to FIG. 2, the transmission destination number notified by the transmission request source in the protocol is identified by the transmission destination number identifying unit 51, and the area code of the identified transmission destination is stored in the area information storage unit 52. The determination unit 53 determines whether the area code is included (step 206). Then, the area code of the identified transmission destination is the area information storage unit 5
If it is not included in the area code stored in No. 2 (NO in step 206), the process exits from this flow, and as described above, image information is transmitted to the transmission destination according to the communication parameters as in the conventional case. . On the other hand, when the area code of the transmission destination is included in the area code stored in the area information storage unit 52 (step 206 YES), the table control unit 54 responds to the area code of the transmission destination. Then, the telephone number of the transmission destination is stored in the corresponding transmission destination column of the communication management table 55 (step 207), and the file is treated as a transmission standby. When the transmission request source inquires about the status of a file that is being processed for transmission, the facsimile storage / exchange apparatus 1 outputs a report or list to the transmission request source to inquire about the status. .

The above routine is repeated until the start condition of the line communication is satisfied (step 208 NO). When the line connection start condition is satisfied for a certain area code (step 208 YES), the table control unit 54 communicates. From the management table 55, the telephone number of the representative destination (facsimile storage and switching device in this embodiment) relating to the relevant area code is read out, and the network control unit 2 calls the representative destination (step 209).

Here, as a condition for starting the line communication, when a predetermined number of files to be transmitted to a certain area code are accumulated in the image information storage unit 6 or the earliest file relating to a certain area code is the image information. A case may be considered where a predetermined time has passed since the data was stored in the storage unit 6. In the case of the former, it is possible to transmit a plurality of files without fail by setting a predetermined number appropriately, and the number of files is counted by a parameter memory (not shown) provided in the system control unit 5. Etc. should be used. In the latter case, the time control may be performed using the timekeeping unit provided in the system control unit 5, and the image information can be prevented from staying in the image information storage unit 6 forever. Furthermore, both are combined, and when the predetermined number of files are accumulated, the line communication is started, while if the number of files is less than the predetermined number even after the predetermined time has elapsed since the earliest file was accumulated, compulsory It is also possible to start the line communication. In any case, the connection start conditions in the present invention are not limited to these, and there is no problem even if other conditions are set. Incidentally, step 208 in FIG.
The determination in (1) corresponds to the line connection start detection unit of the present invention.

When the representative destination responds to the call and the line is connected, the communication control unit 4a starts the protocol, and in the protocol, requests the representative destination to transfer the file to the transmission destination. The table control unit 54 notifies the telephone number of the transmission destination read from the communication management table 55 (step 210). After that, the transmission of the image information is started (step 211), and when the transmission of the image information for one file is completed (YES in step 212), there is another file to be transmitted to the representative destination currently connected to the line. It is determined whether or not (step 213). If another file exists (step 213 YE
S) In order to distinguish between the file that has been transmitted in step 212 and the file that will be transmitted in the next step, a file division signal is transmitted in the protocol exchanged between pages of image information (step 214), and step 2 is performed again.
Returning to step 11, transmission of image information for the subsequent file is started.

Here, the facsimile storage exchange apparatus 1 is
The notification order of the transmission destination in step 210 and the transmission order of the files are matched, and the representative destination requested to transfer the file is 1 based on the file division signal.
By identifying each file, the relationship between the transmission destination and the file to be actually transferred can be grasped. Incidentally, steps 209 to 214 in FIG.
The control of is equivalent to the communication control unit of the present invention.
Further, in the present invention, it is also possible to collectively notify the representative destination of the number of pages of each file and the destination of the transmission in the protocol after the line connection. It is not necessary to send the above-mentioned file division signal between the pages. In this case, the facsimile storage / exchange apparatus 1 may sequentially transmit the image information of each file to the representative destination according to the notification order of the transmission destination, and the representative destination actually transfers the image information to the transmission destination according to the notified page number. You can grasp the relationship with the file that should be.

In this way, the files are sequentially transmitted, and when the transmission of all the files to be transmitted to the representative destination currently connected to the line is completed (NO in step 213), the network control unit 2 disconnects the line (step 213). 215) Then, the transmitted image information is deleted from the image information storage unit 6, and the table control unit 54 deletes the transmitted transmission destination from the communication management table 55 (step 216). As a result, the line connection process for one area code is completed, and when the line connection start conditions are satisfied for other area code numbers, the processes in and after step 209 are sequentially started. As described above, in the present invention, when the transmission destination is included in a certain area, the transmission of the file is made to wait until the transmission start condition is satisfied, and when the transmission start condition is satisfied, the representative destination is reached. By transmitting the files collectively to, it becomes possible to perform more efficient string processing as compared with the conventional method.
Further, the representative destination requested to transfer the file in step 210 makes a call to each transmission destination based on the transmission destination telephone number also notified in step 210 and transmits the file to be transmitted to the transmission destination. To do. As a result, the final transmission of the file to the receiving terminal device ends.

In the above embodiment, the case in which the facsimile storage / exchange apparatus receives the transmission request from the extension terminal apparatus and performs the line communication processing to the other facsimile storage / exchange apparatus has been described as an example. However, the facsimile storage / exchange device, which receives a transmission request from the extension terminal device, performs a line transmission to the facsimile device set as the representative destination, and this facsimile device sends an individual file to each transmission destination. It is also applicable when sending a. Further, when the present invention is applied to a facsimile device, the transmission destination of the file read by the reading unit of the facsimile device and stored in the storage unit is identified, and the facsimile device or facsimile storage exchange set as the representative destination is performed. It is also possible to connect to the device.
In this case, the transmission destination number identification unit 51 in FIG. 3 may identify the transmission destination telephone number that the operator has operated and input from the operation unit of the facsimile apparatus, and perform the above-mentioned string processing. Furthermore, although the representative destination is set at the area code level in the above embodiment, the regional information storage unit 52 and the communication management table 5 are set.
If 5 is expanded at the local area code level, it is possible to set the representative destination at the local area code level. If the destination is an extension terminal device connected to the facsimile storing and switching device, the The present invention is applicable when the destination is an extension number.

[0022]

According to the first aspect of the invention, when the transmission destination is included in a certain area, the file transmission is made to wait until the transmission start condition is satisfied, and the transmission start condition is satisfied. Since files are sent collectively to the representative destination at this point, files that were conventionally processed as individual communications can be grouped by region and processed in line, further improving communication efficiency. Is possible. In particular, it has a remarkable effect in reducing communication costs.

According to the second aspect of the invention, when the number of files to be transmitted within a certain area reaches a predetermined number, a call is made to the representative destination. The line connection can be started at the time when is accumulated.

According to the third aspect of the invention, since the representative destination is called a predetermined time after the earliest file to be transmitted within a certain area is received, the image information is retained in the image information storage unit forever. Can be prevented

[0025]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram of a facsimile storage / exchange apparatus to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the system control unit according to the present invention in more detail.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a communication management table in the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 51 destination number identification unit 52 area information storage unit 53 determination unit 54 table control unit 55 communication management table

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An area information storage unit that stores area information indicating an area where communication is possible, a representative destination storage unit that stores a representative destination representing the area, and a transmission destination to which a file is to be transmitted. A transmission destination identification unit that identifies the transmission destination, a determination unit that determines whether or not the identified transmission destination is included in the region where the transmission is possible, and the identified transmission destination can perform the transmission. If it is included in a region, the destination holding unit that holds the corresponding destination, the column start detection unit that detects that the prescribed column start condition is satisfied, and the column start condition are satisfied. In this case, the communication destination includes a communication control unit for calling the representative destination, notifying the representative destination of the held transmission destination, and transmitting the file to be transmitted to the transmission destination by serial transmission. A facsimile communication device characterized in that 2. The facsimile communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the line connection start detection unit calls the representative destination when the number of files to be transmitted in a certain area reaches a predetermined number. 3. The facsimile communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the line connection start detection unit calls the representative destination a predetermined time after receiving the earliest file to be transmitted within a certain area.