JPH10187559A - Personal communication system using computer network - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To actualize a communication system on a compute network by portable terminals of simple hardware constitution by using a computer network which includes a 2nd server function having correspondence information on an opposite portable terminal name and the name of a server managing it. SOLUTION: A radio portable terminal 5 has its information registered in one server 6 on the system. The terminal 5 receive services such as a communication of voice and texts between terminals and retrieval from a data base on the network by communicating with the server 6 and provides the service for the user. At the same time, software needed for the services is downloaded from the server 6 when necessary. Further, a server is included which includes a 1st server function for managing a portable terminal receiving a mail communication or voice communication request from the server-6 portable terminal and a 2nd server function having correspondence information on the name of an opposite portable terminal of main communication or voice communication and the name of a server managing it.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication system, and more particularly, to a personal communication system using a computer network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional personal communication system, that is, a system such as a portable telephone or a PHS mainly performs a telephone call using a public telephone line and uses the dialing service. On the other hand, when similar communication is to be performed using an in-house LAN or the like, the system must naturally provide a function for supporting a dialing service and a mobile terminal, and a new system for performing such a function is required. .

[0003] Further, when performing data communication (such as e-mail) other than a telephone call, a conventional portable terminal performs it only with software on the terminal, but a considerable amount of processing power and memory are required for that purpose. You. In order to enable the minimum hardware configuration, a new system configuration including elements on the network side as well as terminals is required.

[0004]

According to the present invention, a computer network such as an in-house LAN by a portable terminal having a simple hardware configuration is introduced by introducing a client-server system and allocating the optimum functions to the system. An object of the present invention is to enable personal communication to be used. The present invention relates to a plurality of portable terminals having a mail communication function and a voice communication function, a network electrically connected to the plurality of portable terminals, and a server electrically connected to the network. A first server function for managing a predetermined mobile terminal that receives a mail communication or voice communication request from a predetermined device, and a name of a mobile terminal that is a destination of the mail communication or voice communication and a server name for managing the same; A personal communication system using a computer network including the server including a second server function having correspondence information is provided.

[0005] The present invention also provides a plurality of portable terminals having mail communication and voice communication functions, a network electrically connected to the plurality of portable terminals, and a server electrically connected to the network. A first server function for managing a predetermined mobile terminal that receives a login request from a predetermined one of the mobile terminals; and receiving a user authentication request from the first server function to perform authentication of the predetermined mobile terminal. A personal communication system using a computer network including the server including a second server function is provided. In the embodiment, the portable terminal serves as an interface with the user, displays a screen for the user, accepts input from the user, compresses and decompresses voice for voice communication, and wirelessly communicates with a server on the network. I do. The software to execute these can be downloaded from the server as needed,
Since the terminal does not need to hold all the software that may be needed in the memory, the required memory amount is greatly reduced.

The server provides a dialing service to the portable terminal (user), manages and supports the moving portable terminal, processes and provides information required by the terminal,
Provides a function as an interface with a computer network. The presence of the server enables establishment of communication between the moving terminals, and allows the terminal to remove most of the processing requiring a larger processing capacity and memory amount.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A personal communication system according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration example of a communication system to which the present invention is applied. The system 1 comprises wireless and wired computer networks 2 and 3 and wireless and wired networks 2 and 3 as communication media.
, A plurality of wireless mobile terminals 5 operating on the wireless network 2, a server 6 and a router 7 connected to the wired network 3, and server software operating on the server 6. The wired network 2 connects to the Internet 8.

[0008] The wireless portable terminal 5 registers its information in one of the servers 6 on the system. The server 6 exchanges the registration information, or unifies and aggregates the registration information, thereby obtaining a specific terminal 5.
It can know which server should send the request when accessing the server. On such a system, the terminal 5
Realizes services such as voice and text communication between terminals and database search on a network by communicating with the server 6, and provides the user thereof. At the same time, software necessary for executing the service is downloaded from the server 6 as needed.
Hereinafter, the function of the server 6, the function of the wireless portable terminal 5, the application, the server software configuration, and the configuration of the wireless portable terminal will be described in detail.

<Functions of Server 6> 1) Management of location information of wireless portable terminal 5. It has wireless terminal / server correspondence information such as "Which server should be accessed to access a wireless mobile terminal?" Also, the wireless portable terminal that it supports has specific position (address) information. This enables transmission of information to any mobile wireless terminal that moves. 2) Search for the position of the wireless portable terminal 5. In response to a request from the wireless portable terminal, the position (address, etc.) of the designated destination terminal is searched to establish communication. 3) Provision of a service to the wireless portable terminal 5. In response to a request from the wireless portable terminal, predetermined processing (such as access to a resource on a network such as a designated database) is performed, and the processing result is returned to the wireless portable terminal. It also plays a role of holding data delivered to the wireless portable terminal until the terminal retrieves the data. 4) Provision of a software library for the wireless portable terminal 5. Maintains and manages a library of applications running on wireless mobile terminals and provides them on demand. 5) Communication with other servers. It handles communication with other servers, such as exchange of location information and authentication information of wireless portable terminals, and transmission and reception of requests and responses when establishing a communication line. Since each server operates autonomously, the maintainability, maintainability, and efficiency of each can be improved. 6) Support for mobile wireless mobile terminals 5. When a moving wireless mobile terminal moves away from a predetermined server, a nearby server temporarily functions as a server of the terminal in order to improve the response speed and increase the efficiency of using a communication medium. 7) Authentication of the wireless portable terminal 5. In order to prevent unauthorized use of the system, a terminal accessing a server is authenticated by a password method or an encryption method using a secret key.

<Functions of Wireless Portable Terminal 5> 1) Communication function with server 6. Wireless and wired communication media (computer networks)
To send and receive information to and from the server using an appropriate protocol group. Most data processing (except for data compression and decompression) is performed by the server. 2) Data compression and decompression. When communication mainly by voice (real-time communication and non-real-time communication) is performed, data compression and decompression are performed on the terminal in order to reduce the load on the communication medium. 3) Providing an interface to the user. For various applications, processing of presenting information to the user and inputting information from the user is performed. 4) Software download. All or a part of the software for providing the above three functions is extracted from the library on the server as needed and executed on the terminal.

The operation at the time of starting the wireless portable terminal 5 will be described below. At the time of initialization, the portable terminal 5 holds only the minimum necessary software, that is, only a communication protocol, an OS, and a boot program on a memory. In order to perform an actual application, it is necessary to download an application program from a server. The application program is downloaded from the server as needed, but at the time of startup, it is necessary to download the minimum required application program. The operation at the time of starting the mobile terminal A under the management of the server A will be described below. (1) Startup (2) Self-determination (3) Initialization of data link layer and network layer (4) Send "login" request to server A (5) Server A processes the login request (including authentication)
If successful, the portable terminal A is notified of the version number of the application. (6) The mobile terminal A that has received the response compares the version number of the held program (if there is an application program held) with the received version number. If it is different (or if you do not have an application program),
A minimum required application (such as menu selection or basic application) program is downloaded from the server A. (7) Execute downloaded application. After that, the application program is downloaded from the library as needed, and the application is executed.

<Example of Application> The following applications are executed by the present system. 1) Real-time voice communication Real-time voice communication is performed between wireless portable terminals. The server establishes a communication path, searches for the position of the designated destination terminal, and the like, and the terminal performs compression and decompression of voice used for a call in real time. The operation when the user A performs real-time voice communication with the user B using the wireless portable terminal A will be described below. (1) User A presses a real-time voice communication request button of portable terminal A. (2) The mobile terminal A requests the user A to input a destination identifier (a destination mobile terminal address or a user name). (3) User A inputs the identifier of user B to portable terminal A. (4) The portable terminal A transmits a request for starting real-time voice communication with the user B to the server A via the nearest access point. At this time, the server A authenticates whether the requesting terminal is a legitimate terminal, and accepts the request only when the authentication is successful. (5) The server A issues a “server search request” to the server C having a database storing a set of a user and a server, and obtains an address of the server B that manages the user B. (6) Upon receiving the response, the server A sends a request for starting real-time communication with the user B to the server B. When the user B is within his / her own management, the user B operates as the server B without sending a request. (7) After confirming that the user B is under the management, the server B notifies the portable terminal B of the user B of the start of the real-time communication. (8) The portable terminal B that has received the notification notifies the user B of the start of communication using a buzzer, a liquid crystal display, or the like. (9) User B presses the response button on mobile terminal B. (10) Perform communication. (11) If the user B does not respond even after the preset time has elapsed, the server B notifies the server A of the communication start failure. Server A that was notified
Notifies the portable terminal A of the failure similarly. The portable terminal A notifies the user A of the failure.

2) Non-real-time data communication (e-mail,
Voice mail). The user inputs text or voice into the terminal. In the case of audio, compression is performed at that time. When the message is sent to the server with the destination specified, the server finds a server that supports the destination terminal and transfers the message to the server. The server receiving the data notifies the terminal of the arrival and holds the data until the terminal retrieves the data (mail). It is also possible to convert the transmitted text mail into voice mail by processing in the server.

The operation in the case where the user A transmits a text mail to the user B using the wireless portable terminal A, and the user B receives the text mail as a voice mail will be described below. (The basic transmission and reception of signals in this sequence are shown in FIG. 2.) (1) User A presses a mail transmission request button of portable terminal A. (2) The mobile terminal A requests the user A to input a destination identifier (a destination mobile terminal address or a user name) and mail contents. (3) The user A inputs the identifier of the user B and the content of the mail to be transmitted to the portable terminal A. (4) Upon receiving the input, the mobile terminal A transmits a mail sending request to the user B to the server A via the nearest access point. At this time, the server A authenticates whether the requesting terminal is a legitimate terminal, and accepts the request only when the authentication is successful. (5) The server A issues a “server search request” to the server C having a database storing a set of a user and a server, and obtains an address of the server B that manages the user B. (6) The server A receiving the response sends the user A to the server B.
Of the mail sent to the user B sent by the user. If the user B is in his / her own control, the server A operates as the server B by itself without sending a request. (7) After confirming that the user B is under the management, the server B stores the transferred mail content in the memory, and notifies the portable terminal B of the user B of the mail arrival. (8) Upon receiving the notification, the portable terminal B notifies the user B of the arrival of the mail using a buzzer or a liquid crystal display. (9A) When there is not enough room in the on-terminal memory of the portable terminal B, the fact that the mail addressed to the user B is held in the server B is presented to the user B using a liquid crystal display. (9B-1) If the on-terminal memory of the portable terminal B has room, a “mail delivery request” is issued to the server B.
At this time, the reception by voice mail is specified. (9B-2) Upon receiving the request, the server B transmits the held mail addressed to the user B to the server C that performs “text-to-speech conversion”. (9B-3) The server C converts the received text mail into a voice mail and returns it to the server B. (9B-4) The server B transmits the converted mail to the mobile terminal B. At this point, the mail information is deleted from server B. (9B-5) The portable terminal B that has received the mail transmission notifies the user B of the arrival of the mail using a buzzer or a liquid crystal display. (9B-6) User B presses the voice mail playback button and listens to the mail content.

3) Database processing. Access the database prepared in the server from the wireless portable terminal, and add, modify, delete and search information. A personal database such as an address book and a calendar, and a shared database such as a telephone directory and a dictionary can be used.
Since data is not stored on the terminal side, a plurality of large-scale databases can be used. Also, since the search software is also downloaded from the server, the change in the structure of the database has little effect.

The operation when the user A adds a new item to the personal address book in the server A using the wireless portable terminal A will be described below. (1) The user A activates the “add item to address book” program on the mobile terminal A. (2) The mobile terminal A requests the user A to input the content of the item to be added. (3) User A inputs the content of the item to be added. (4) The mobile terminal A sends a request for “adding an item to the user A's address book” to the server A with the input content attached. (5) The server A is an address book (database) in which the portable terminal A is a valid terminal or the user A is designated.
Authenticate if you have the right to add to and accept the request only if successful. (6) The server A performs an item addition process to the designated database, and notifies the portable terminal A of the processing result. (7) Upon receiving the notification, the portable terminal A displays the processing result on the liquid crystal display and presents it to the user A.

4) Cooperative processing by a plurality of terminals. A cooperative processing function such as a voting system using a plurality of wireless portable terminals located at a plurality of locations can be realized. The operation when the users B, C and D vote under the management of the user A will be described below. (1) The user A activates the voting management program of the mobile terminal A. (2) The mobile terminal A transmits a voting process start request to the server A. (3) Upon receiving the request, the server A authenticates whether the terminal A is a valid terminal, and then initializes and starts the voting process. (4) The user B activates the voting program of the mobile terminal B, and performs voting (permission / rejection or scoring). (5) The mobile terminal B transmits the contents of the vote of the user B to the server A. (6) The server A authenticates whether the mobile terminal B is a legitimate terminal, and records the contents of the vote. (7) The users C and D also execute the above steps (4) to (6). (8) The user A transmits a voting end request from the mobile terminal A to the server A. (9) Upon receiving the request, the server A ends the voting process, totals the voting results, and transmits the totaled result to the mobile terminal A. (10) The portable terminal A displays the notified tally result on the liquid crystal display and presents it to the user A.

<Server Software Configuration> In order to execute the above-described server functions and applications, the server communicates with other servers and provides services in cooperation. FIG. 3 shows a flow of signals transmitted and received between the wireless portable terminal 5 and the server 6 for terminal authentication. The server that has received the request to log in to the system from the terminal sends the authentication request to a server that has the authentication information of the user. After receiving the result, whether or not the login request is permitted is transmitted to the terminal. The server must process multiple connections at the same time. For this purpose, all servers perform multi-process processing in an event-driven (Event-Driven) format. FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of the server software for the part that performs the two processes of the above-described login request and mail transmission process. When an input from a terminal or another server arrives, a child process is started, and processing according to each request is performed. For example, when a login request is received, a user authentication request is transmitted to the authentication server, and a response is received. Subsequently, using the response, a login result notification is transmitted to the terminal. As described above, by the server effectively using communication with another server, processing in the wireless portable terminal and communication between the terminal and the server can be greatly simplified.

<Configuration of Wireless Portable Terminal> FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the internal configuration of the wireless portable terminal 5. The wireless portable terminal 5 is roughly divided into a wireless modulation / demodulation digital communication module (hereinafter abbreviated as an RF module) 51, a low-power microprocessor (hereinafter abbreviated as an MPU) 52, a digital signal processor (hereinafter abbreviated as a DSP) 53,
And a controller 54 for controlling these components.

Data communication between the terminal 5 and the node point antenna on the network is executed by the RF module 51. The RF module 51 executes the transfer when the data to be communicated is accumulated in a certain amount, but the transmission and the reception are asynchronous, and the communication is performed via the shared memory 55 of the terminal 5. MPU 52 manages the data format.
, Where the next communication data is stored in the shared memory 55 and the address from which the data is read in response to the request from the RF module 51 is centrally managed. In a typical operation, a plurality of data sets are managed in the shared memory 55 at the same time. Further, the end of the transfer is notified to the MPU 52 by an interrupt, and the MPU 52 receives the notification and sets the next transfer address. The MPU 52 realizes the central function of the terminal function, and all the internal RAM and control functions are mapped to the MPU address. The shared memory 55 in the terminal includes not only the MPU 52 but also the RF module 5
1. In order to realize asynchronous access by the DSP 53, the controller 54 also has a bus control function. DS
The P53 is connected to the MPU 52 so as to function as a child processor.
Is performed, the DSP 53 is held in a hold state (input / output pins have high impedance). In this state, the MPU 52 downloads the application software to the DSP 53 via the network.

Although the DSP 53 has high performance, it consumes a relatively large amount of power.
To perform hold control. The DSP 53 performs speech compression / decompression processing. For example, when performing compression,
The information data generated by the DSP 53 is temporarily stored in the shared memory 55 of the terminal, changed into communication data by the MPU 52, and further transferred to the RF module 51. The controller 54 is address-mapped to the MPU 52 to control signals for realizing all functions of the terminal 5, bus management, arbitration of shared memory access by the MPU 52, DSP 53 and RF module 51, and data transfer by the RF module 51. A series of processes, such as generation of an address, are performed. Although the embodiment has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this.

[0022]

According to the present invention, a communication system on a computer network can be realized by a portable terminal having a simple hardware configuration in order to optimally share functions between the server and the portable terminal.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a communication system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a signal flow diagram for text and voice mail transmission.

FIG. 3 is a signal flow diagram regarding terminal authentication.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of server software.

FIG. 5 is an internal configuration block diagram of the wireless portable terminal.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Personal communication system 2 Wireless network 3 Wired network 4 Access point 5 Wireless portable terminal 6 Server

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H04L 12/58 H04B 7/26 109M H04M 3/42 H04L 11/00 310B 3/50 11/20 101B 11/00 303

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of mobile terminals having a mail communication and voice communication function, a network electrically connected to the plurality of mobile terminals, and a server electrically connected to the network, wherein A first server function for managing a predetermined mobile terminal that receives a mail communication or voice communication request from a predetermined one, and a name of a mobile terminal that is a destination of mail communication or voice communication and a server name for managing the same A personal communication system using a computer network including the server including a second server function having correspondence information of the above. 2. A plurality of mobile terminals having mail communication and voice communication functions, a network electrically connected to the plurality of mobile terminals, and a server electrically connected to the network, wherein A first server function for managing the predetermined portable terminal receiving a login request from a predetermined one, and a second server function for receiving a user authentication request from the first server function and authenticating the predetermined portable terminal. A personal communication system using a computer network including the server including the above server function.