Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Special service
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-07
2002-07-16
Urban, Edward F. (Department: 2685)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Special service
C455S414200, C455S426100, C379S211020
Reexamination Certificate
active
06421536
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication system including an exchange and one or a plurality of telephones and one or a plurality of computers that are connected to the exchange by a telephone circuit network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, because of the development of computers and computer networks, the CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) technology that unites a telephone network and a computer network has made a great advance.
For example, the CSTA (Computer Supported Telecommunications Application) of ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association) is a well-known example of the CTI technology. The CSTA is provisions corresponding to the application layer of an OSI (open systems interconnection) reference model between a telephone network and a computer network.
On the other hand, in recent years, because of the spread of cellular telephones and other factors, the radio communications technology has also made great progress. As for the radio communications, not only the voice communication technology but also the data communication technology has advanced. And the technology to provide an easy-to-use environment to a user at an arbitrary location as also advanced. An example of the technology to provide an easy-to-use environment to a user is an exchange system that utilizes a scheme in which a user can respond to a call with a nearby extension telephone by utilizing a cordless paging-only child machine (refer to Japanese Unexamined UM Publication No. Hei. 5-88079, for example).
This conventional exchange system will be described below with reference to
FIG. 54
, which is a block diagram showing its configuration.
As shown in
FIG. 54
, a base station
3302
is connected to an exchange
3301
. A paging-only child machine
3303
performs a radio communication with the base station
3302
, and is capable of making a communication by faint radio waves. An extension telephone
3304
is connected to the exchange
3301
and communicates with the paging-only child machine
3303
by faint radio waves.
Reference numeral
3305
denotes a communication channel between the exchange
3301
and the base station
3302
. Reference numeral
3306
denotes a radio communication channel between the base station
3302
and the paging-only child machine
3303
. Reference numeral
3307
denotes a communication channel by faint radio waves between the paging-only child machine
3303
and the extension telephone
3304
. Reference numeral
3308
denotes a communication channel between the exchange
3301
and the extension telephone
3304
.
The operation of the above conventional exchange system will be described below.
In the conventional exchange system, when a call arrives at the paging-only child machine
3303
, a call-responsive signal is sent from the paging-only child machine
3303
to the extension telephone
3304
via the communication channel
3307
by faint radio waves. The extension telephone
3304
sends a transfer request to the exchange
3301
in accordance with the received call-responsive signal.
The exchange
3301
performs a control of converting the call to the paging-only child machine
3303
to a call to the extension telephone
3304
in accordance with the transfer request.
However, in the above exchange system based on the conventional radio communications technology, a simple process is executed in which the extension telephone
3304
is informed of call reception by the paging-only child machine
3303
and then sends a transfer request to the exchange
3301
. The exchange system executes only telephone-related processes and no means are provided that enables a communication between the exchange
3301
and a computer. There are problems that it is impossible to cause a computer to display the telephone number of a caller, and that it is impossible to cause a computer, rather than the extension telephone
3304
, to respond to a call. In particular, at present, because of the spread of various kinds of communication other than voice communication, such as data communication and image communication, a technique that allows a computer to respond to a call received by a cellular telephone is necessary. It is problematic that no means for allowing a communication between an exchange and a computer is available in the prior art.
The conventional CTI technology has a problem that the correspondence between telephones and computers are predetermined and no consideration is given to a scheme in which the user of a cellular telephone controls the cellular telephone from an arbitrary computer. That is, no combination of conventional techniques enables the user of a cellular telephone to have an arbitrary computer display the telephone number of a caller or have it respond to a call.
With the advancement of the CTI technology, a technique of performing a communication control between computers in accordance with a circuit switching state rather than simply controlling circuit switching by a computer, as exemplified by the technical concept disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei. 8-321889. This publication describes a method of setting a shared working space in doing a voice communication by telephone to perform cooperative work by using computers.
The above conventional communication system will be described below with reference to
FIG. 55
, which is a block diagram showing its configuration.
In
FIG. 55
, reference numeral
6201
denotes a wide area network;
6202
, a local area network;
6203
, a first server;
6204
, a first router;
6205
, a first computer;
6206
, an exchange; and
6207
, a first telephone connected to the exchange
6206
. Reference numeral
6208
denotes a local area network;
6209
, a second server;
6210
, a second router;
6211
, a second computer; and
6212
, a second telephone. That is, the conventional communication system is configured in such a manner that the computers, the servers, and the routers are connected to the local area networks and the routers allow the computers and the servers to communicate with each other via the wide area network.
The operation of the above conventional communication system will be described with reference to FIG.
56
.
In the conventional communication system, at step
6301
, when receiving a request for connecting the first telephone
6207
and the second telephone
6212
, the exchange
6206
connects the first telephone
6207
and the second telephone
6212
to each other.
Then, at step
6302
, the exchange
6206
informs the first server
6203
that it has connected the first telephone
6207
and the second telephone
6212
to each other.
The first server
6203
holds a corresponding relationship between the telephones and the computers. Therefore, upon reception of the notice of the connection between the first telephone
6207
and the second telephone
6212
from the exchange
6206
, at step
6303
the first server
6203
associates the first telephone
6207
and the second telephone
6212
with the addresses of the corresponding computers.
Then, at step
6304
, the first server
6203
executes a process of starting a session between the first computer
6205
and the second computer
6211
. As a result, a shared working space for cooperative work of the users of the first telephone
6207
and the second telephone
6212
is provided on the screens of the first computer
6205
and the second computer
6211
.
However, in the conventional communication system disclosed in the publication No. Hei. 8-321889, since a server starts a session between computers, the load on the server increases as the number of sessions increases. Further, since a server starts a session, to add a new function, for example, a function of enabling an image communication between computers, it is necessary to add a new sever function. This means a problem that the system extendability is low.
Further, in the technical concept of the publication No. Hei. 8-321889, a session between computers is started merely based on call control informa
Ishii Hidenori
Ogasawara Noritoshi
Takagi Kenji
Uranaka Hiroshi
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
Milord Marceau
Urban Edward F.
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