JP4335268B2 - Service control apparatus, exchange apparatus, and terminal management method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a service control apparatus, an exchange apparatus, and a terminal management method, and more particularly to a service control apparatus, an exchange apparatus, and a terminal management method that can be used when changing a contract of a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone.

Conventionally, for example, in order to transfer the same telephone number (user identification information) between different mobile terminals in order to change the model, it is necessary to perform one of the following operations.
(1) Bring two mobile terminals to a customer service window such as a communication service provider, and perform a telephone number transfer operation using a dedicated customer information management device.
(2) A (identical) SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) card is handed over between mobile terminals.
(3) A telephone number is handed over remotely by an operator using a dedicated customer information management device.

  On the other hand, techniques for sharing and using the same telephone number among a plurality of mobile terminals have been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1, Patent Document 2, or Patent Document 3). In such a technique, a mobile terminal that can be used at a certain point in time is determined by holding on the mobile communication system side the availability (or active) state of a mobile terminal assigned the same telephone number.

JP-A-11-234748 JP 2002-159072 A JP 2005-286555 A

  However, the method (1) of the above takeover techniques is not easy to bring into the customer service, such as a machine communication terminal incorporated in a vending machine and enabling communication with the headquarters. There is a problem that an unusable period occurs.

  In addition, the method (2) has a problem that two mobile terminals that take over the same telephone number (user identification information) need to replace the SIM card, so that they must work in the same place. There is a problem that a telephone number cannot be taken over between terminals of a mobile communication system that does not support the SIM card.

  Furthermore, the method (3) is difficult to carry out at midnight due to manual intervention in the takeover work, and it is practically applicable to a huge number of lines such as thousands or more in the first place. There is a problem that it is difficult.

  On the other hand, even if a technique for managing a plurality of terminals with the same telephone number is applied to the handover technique which is the subject of the present application, the following problems arise.

  That is, while the above prior art is a technique for continuously using a plurality of mobile terminals to which the same telephone number is assigned, the present invention takes over the same telephone number between different mobile terminals. Therefore, there is a technical problem of preventing the original mobile terminal from being used.

  In the prior art, a user (mobile terminal) needs to perform a special operation such as input of a personal identification number in order to select a mobile terminal to be used at a certain point in time (or switch an active state). In many cases, a terminal incorporated in a vending machine does not have a user interface, so that it is impossible to input a personal identification number.

  Furthermore, in order to transfer the same telephone number between different mobile terminals using the prior art, it is necessary to determine how to cancel the service of the mobile terminal that has been used so far.

  The present invention solves such a problem, and service control that automatically takes over the same telephone number used in different mobile terminals triggered by a call from a mobile terminal waiting for transition by newly purchasing or the like An object is to provide a device, an exchange device, and a terminal management method.

  It is another object of the present invention to provide a service control device, an exchange device, and a terminal management method in which an operator does not need any operation such as a special number dial or menu operation in order to take over a mobile terminal.

  In order to achieve such an object, the invention described in claim 1 is a service control device, and stores terminal identification information assigned to two terminals in association with one user identification information, stores 2 When a subscriber database having a status flag indicating which of the terminals specified by one terminal identification information is waiting for transition and a location registration request by the terminal from the switching device are received, the subscriber database is searched and received. When the terminal specified by the terminal identification information of the location registration request is waiting for transition, a transmission detection flag instruction means for transmitting a transmission detection flag setting instruction of the terminal of the terminal identification information to the exchange that has transmitted the location registration request; When there is a call from the terminal of the terminal identification information that requested registration, when receiving a call detection notification from the exchange device that a call request has been received from the terminal, Characterized in that a status flag setting means for setting the state flag of the migration waiting terminal migrated in subscriber database.

  The invention according to claim 2 is the service control device according to claim 1, wherein the switching device to which the terminal used before the transition is connected is searched and registered in the searched switching device. Terminal registration deletion means for requesting deletion of terminal identification information of the terminal is further provided, and the status flag setting means is used before the transition from the subscriber database when the status flag of the terminal waiting for transition is set to transition completed. The terminal identification information of the terminal being deleted is deleted.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the service control device according to the second aspect, the terminal registration deleting unit and the state flag setting unit are each a subscriber database update instruction from a subscriber information management device that manages subscriber information. The terminal identification information of the terminal used before the transition is requested to the switching apparatus to which the terminal used before the transition is connected, and is deleted. And

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the service control device according to the first, second, or third aspect, the status flag setting means receives a transmission detection notification for notifying that there has been a transmission request by the terminal from the switching device. When the terminal used before the transition is in communication, the connected switching device is searched and a request is made to disconnect the communication of the terminal registered in the searched switching device. Features.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the service control device according to the first, second, or third aspect, the status flag setting means receives a transmission detection notification for notifying that there has been a transmission request by the terminal from the switching device. When the terminal used before the transition is in communication, the switching device is requested not to accept the call origination request.

  The invention according to claim 6 is a switching device that stores the terminal identification information of the terminal and transmits the terminal identification information to the service control device when a location registration request including the terminal identification information is received from the terminal. When the registration request means and the call detection flag setting instruction for the terminal that has requested location registration from the service control device are received, the terminal is assumed to be a terminal waiting for transition among the two terminals associated with one user identification information. A transmission detection flag setting means for setting a transmission detection flag in association with the terminal identification information, and when there is a transmission request from the terminal, if the terminal identification information of the terminal is the terminal identification information of the transmission detection flag set, the service control The device is provided with a call detection means for transmitting a call detection notification for notifying that there is a call request from the terminal and releasing the set call detection flag. The features.

  A seventh aspect of the present invention is the exchange apparatus according to the sixth aspect of the present invention, which receives and stores the communication state of the terminal used before the transition among the two terminals associated with one user identification information. The terminal state receiving means before transition is further provided, and the transmission detecting means reads out the communication state of the terminal stored by the terminal state receiving means before transition and does not accept a transmission request when communication is in progress.

  The invention according to claim 8 is a terminal management method, and when receiving a location registration request including terminal identification information from a terminal, the terminal identification information of the terminal is stored and the terminal identification information is transmitted to the service control apparatus. When the location registration request step and the location registration request by the terminal from the exchange apparatus are received, the terminal identification information assigned to the two terminals is stored in association with one user identification information, and is specified by the two terminal identification information. A subscriber database having a status flag indicating which terminal is waiting for transition is searched, and when the terminal identified by the terminal identification information of the received position registration request is waiting for transition, a position registration request is transmitted. A transmission detection flag instruction step for transmitting a terminal detection flag setting instruction of the terminal of the terminal identification information to the exchange device, and a terminal requesting location registration from the service control apparatus Upon receiving an outgoing detection flag setting instruction, characterized in that the outgoing detection flag and a calling detection flag setting step of setting in association with the terminal identification information.

  The invention according to claim 9 is a terminal management method, and when there is a call origination request from a terminal, two terminals in which the terminal identification information of the terminal requests location registration are associated with one user identification information. If it is the terminal identification information of the call detection flag set as a terminal waiting for transition among the terminals, a call detection notification is sent to the service control device to notify that there was a call request from the terminal, and the set call When a call detection step that cancels the detection flag and a call from the terminal of the terminal identification information that requested the location registration is received, a call detection notification is sent from the switching device to notify that a call is requested by the terminal. Stores the user identification information assigned to two terminals in association with one user identification information, and indicates which of the terminals specified by the two terminal identification information is waiting for transition. Characterized in that a status flag setting step of setting a state flag of the migration waiting terminal migrated at the subscriber database having a status flag.

  According to the present invention, when a location registration request by a terminal is received from the switching device, a location registration request is made when the terminal specified by the terminal identification information of the location registration request received by searching the subscriber database is waiting for transition. If there is a transmission detection flag instruction means for transmitting the terminal transmission detection flag setting instruction of the terminal of the terminal identification information to the switching apparatus that has transmitted the terminal identification information requesting the location registration from the terminal, When a call detection notification is received to notify that a call request has been received from the mobile station, it is provided with status flag setting means for setting the status flag of the terminal waiting for transition in the subscriber database, It becomes possible to automatically take over the same telephone number used in different mobile terminals when triggered by the mobile terminal. In addition, since the telephone number is handed over between different mobile terminals, the information of the original mobile terminal can be deleted so that it is not used.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a network configuration in an embodiment of the present invention. There are mobile terminals 111 and 112 as mobile terminals that take over the same user identification information telephone number. In this embodiment, the mobile terminal 111 takes over the same telephone number from the mobile terminal 112. Furthermore, this system includes a switching apparatus 102 that manages the area where the mobile terminal 111 is located, a switching apparatus 103 that manages the area where the mobile terminal 112 is located, and a service control apparatus that manages contract information of the mobile terminals 111 and 112. 101, a customer information management device 104 that manages the information of the user who is the owner of the mobile terminals 111 and 112, and a detailed information management device 105 that manages the monthly usage fee and communication fee of the user. Absent.

  The overall configuration of this system is as described above, but the terminals and servers that constitute the individual systems of this embodiment must have at least the functions of a normal computer that can be connected to a network. Under such hardware conditions, the processing of the individual system of the present embodiment is executed by installing a software program on such hardware. Each software can be shown in a module configuration as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, for example, but this is merely an example, and the functions of each module can be divided into several modules or the functions of some modules. It goes without saying that it is possible to assume a module that integrates. The module configuration of each individual system will be described below, but these modules are executed in cooperation with each other, and the processing of this embodiment described later is achieved.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a module configuration of the service control apparatus 101 according to the present embodiment. The service control apparatus 101 includes a database 305 that stores a table 201 including a status flag, a transmission detection flag instruction unit 301 that instructs the exchange apparatus 103 to set a transmission detection flag in response to a location registration request, and a table 201 status flag. It includes a state flag setting unit 302 that sets to migrated, and a terminal registration deletion unit 304 that requests to delete terminal identification information of a terminal that has been used before.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a module configuration of the present embodiment. When receiving a location registration request, exchange apparatus 103 receives location registration request unit 401 that transmits the terminal identification information to service control device 101. When receiving a transmission detection flag setting instruction, switching device 103 sets a transmission detection flag. 402, when there is a transmission request from the terminal, if the terminal identification information of the transmission detection flag, the transmission detection unit 403 that transmits a transmission detection notification to notify the service control device 101 and cancels the transmission detection flag, before transition A pre-transition terminal state receiving unit 404 that receives and stores the communication state of the terminal used in the process, and a database 405 that stores various data.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an outline of the preparation process in the present embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a sequence of the preparation process in the present embodiment. Assuming that the user is in the state of using the mobile terminal 111 with the telephone number a, first, the customer information management device 104 inputs information of the mobile terminal 112 to the service control device 101 (S501). And the flag known in this technical field for detecting the transmission from the mobile terminal 112 at the time of the location registration (S504-504) of the mobile terminal 112 is downloaded to the exchange apparatus 103 (S507). In addition, the mobile terminal 112 is registered as waiting for migration in the management table 201 of the service control apparatus 101 at this time (S502).

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a first example of the outline of automatic telephone number takeover processing in one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a first sequence of automatic telephone number takeover processing in one embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the example of. When the mobile terminal 112 makes a call in the state where the preliminary preparation of FIG. 5 is completed (S701), the exchange apparatus 103 detects this and notifies the service control apparatus 101 that the mobile terminal 112 has sent (S702). Thereafter, the service control apparatus 101 transmits a communication disconnection instruction to the exchange apparatus 102 so that the communication can be disconnected when the mobile terminal 111 is communicating (S704). This is to prevent two mobile terminals assigned with the same telephone number from communicating simultaneously. After that, when the exchange device 103 transmits the detailed bill to the detailed information management device 105 after the communication of the mobile terminal 112 is completed (S706), the detailed information management device 105 transmits an opening notification to the customer information management device 104 (S707). Upon receiving the opening notification, the customer information management apparatus 104 transmits a management table update instruction to the service control apparatus 101 (S708), whereby the management table 201 of the service control apparatus 101 is updated as shown in FIG. S709).

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a second example of the automatic telephone number takeover processing outline in the present embodiment, and FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a second example of the automatic telephone number takeover sequence in the present embodiment. . The process up to (3) in FIG. 8 is the same as the example in FIG. 6, but the opening notification of the mobile terminal 112 to the customer information management apparatus 104 does not wait for the end of communication (S906) by the new mobile terminal 112 that has been transferred. In addition, the point transmitted from the service control apparatus 101 to the customer information management apparatus 104 is different from those in FIGS. The operations (S902 to S905) after the customer information management device 104 receives the opening notification (S901) are the same as steps S707 to S710 in FIG. 7, but in this example, the customer information management device 104 notifies the opening notification. 7 is different from the first example shown in FIG. 7 in that the subsequent processing is performed when the detailed information management apparatus 105 receives the detailed building.

(Second Embodiment)
In the first embodiment described above, when the mobile terminal 112 transmits while the mobile terminal 111 is communicating, the mobile terminal 111 is forcibly disconnected. However, in the present embodiment, the communication state of the mobile terminal 111 ( (Communication or non-communication) is managed by the switching device 103, and when the mobile terminal 111 is communicating, the communication from the mobile terminal 111 is forcibly disconnected by restricting the transmission from the mobile terminal 112. Is avoiding.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a sequence when notifying the exchange apparatus 103 of the communication state of the mobile terminal 111 according to the present embodiment. Referring to FIG. 10, the exchange apparatus 103 receives the communication state of the mobile terminal 111 being used in advance from the service control apparatus 101 (S1001, S1002) and stores it in the database 405, for example (S1003). In this situation, when the mobile terminal 112 waiting for transition transmits (S1004), the switching apparatus 103 determines whether or not to make a transmission control based on the terminal identification information of the transmitted mobile terminal so as not to transmit. (S1005). This determination is performed by a method known in the art, for example, based on a communication state in which the mobile terminal 112 retrieves the terminal identification information of the mobile terminal 111 based on the telephone number waiting for the transition and is held in the switching apparatus 103. It can also be determined, or it can be preliminarily stored in the communication state of the mobile terminal 111 with a telephone number or terminal identification information waiting to be transferred, so that it can be determined when a call is made. Not limited to.

It is a figure which shows the network structure in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the outline | summary of the process of prior preparation in this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the module structure of the service control apparatus of this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the module structure of the exchange apparatus of this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the sequence of the process of prior preparation in this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the 1st example of the outline | summary of the automatic telephone number takeover process in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the 1st example of the sequence of the automatic telephone number taking over process in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the 2nd example of the outline | summary of the automatic telephone number taking over process in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the 2nd example of the sequence of the automatic telephone number taking over process in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the sequence at the time of notifying the communication state of the mobile terminal of this embodiment to an exchange apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

101 Service control device 102, 103 Exchange device 104 Customer information management device 105 Detailed information management device 111, 112 Mobile terminal 201 Management table 301 Transmission detection flag instruction unit 302 Status flag setting unit 303 Transmission / reception unit 304 Terminal registration deletion unit 305 Database,
401 location registration request unit 402 transmission detection flag setting unit 403 transmission detection unit 404 pre-migration terminal state reception unit 405 database

Claims (9)

A subscriber having a status flag indicating which of the terminals identified by the two terminal identification information is waiting for transition is stored in association with the terminal identification information assigned to the two terminals in one user identification information A database,
When a location registration request by a terminal is received from an exchange device, if the terminal specified by the terminal identification information of the location registration request received by searching the subscriber database is waiting for transition, the exchange that transmitted the location registration request A transmission detection flag instruction means for transmitting a transmission detection flag setting instruction of the terminal of the terminal identification information to the device;
When there is a transmission from the terminal of the terminal identification information requesting the location registration, when a transmission detection notification is received from the switching device to notify that a transmission request has been received from the terminal, And a status flag setting means for setting the status flag of the terminal waiting for transition to transition completed.   A terminal registration deleting means for searching for a switching apparatus to which the terminal used before the migration is connected and requesting to delete the terminal identification information of the terminal registered in the searched switching apparatus; The state flag setting means deletes the terminal identification information of the terminal used before the transition from the subscriber database when the state flag of the terminal waiting for transition is set to transition completed. The service control apparatus according to claim 1.   The terminal registration deletion unit and the state flag setting unit each receive the subscriber database update instruction from the subscriber information management apparatus that manages the subscriber information, and then the terminal identification information of the terminal used before the transition 3. The service control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the service control apparatus requests the switching apparatus to which the terminal used before the transition is connected to delete it, and deletes it.   The status flag setting means is connected when the terminal used before the transition is in communication when receiving a call detection notification for notifying that there has been a call request by the terminal from the switching device. 4. The service control apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein a search is made for a switching apparatus being requested, and a request is made to disconnect communication of the terminal registered in the searched switching apparatus.   The status flag setting means receives the call detection notification from the switching device to notify that a call request has been made by the terminal, and when the terminal used before the transition is in communication, the exchange The service control apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the apparatus is requested not to accept a call origination request. When receiving a location registration request including terminal identification information from a terminal, location registration request means for storing the terminal identification information of the terminal and transmitting the terminal identification information to the service control device;
When receiving a call detection flag setting instruction for the terminal that has requested the location registration from the service control device, the terminal is assumed to be a terminal waiting for transition among the two terminals associated with one user identification information. A transmission detection flag setting means for setting a transmission detection flag in association with the identification information;
When there is a transmission request from the terminal, if the terminal identification information of the terminal is the terminal identification information of the set transmission detection flag, the transmission that notifies the service control device that there has been a transmission request from the terminal An exchange apparatus comprising: a transmission detection means for transmitting a detection notification and canceling the set transmission detection flag.   The terminal further includes a pre-transition terminal state receiving unit that receives and stores a communication state of a terminal used before the transition among the two terminals associated with the one user identification information, 7. The exchange apparatus according to claim 6, wherein when the communication status of the terminal stored by the pre-migration terminal status receiving means is read and communication is in progress, the call origination request is not accepted. Upon receiving a location registration request including terminal identification information from a terminal, a location registration request step of storing the terminal identification information of the terminal and transmitting the terminal identification information to a service control device;
When a location registration request by a terminal is received from an exchange device, terminal identification information assigned to two terminals is stored in association with one user identification information, and any of the terminals specified by the two terminal identification information When the terminal identified by the terminal identification information in the received location registration request is searched for a subscriber database having a status flag indicating whether it is waiting for migration, when the terminal is waiting for migration, the switching device that has transmitted the location registration request A transmission detection flag instruction step of transmitting a terminal transmission detection flag setting instruction of the terminal identification information;
A terminal having a call detection flag setting step of setting a call detection flag in association with the terminal identification information when receiving a call detection flag setting instruction for the terminal that has requested the location registration from the service control device; Management method. When there is a call origination request from a terminal, a call detection flag that is set so that the terminal whose terminal identification information has requested location registration is a terminal that is waiting for transition among two terminals associated with one user identification information Is a terminal detection information for transmitting a transmission detection notification for notifying that there has been a transmission request from the terminal to the service control device, and canceling the set transmission detection flag,
When there is a transmission from the terminal of the terminal identification information for which the location registration is requested, when a transmission detection notification for notifying that there is a transmission request by the terminal is received from the switching apparatus, one user identification information The terminal identification information assigned to the two terminals is stored in association with each other, and in the subscriber database having a status flag indicating which of the terminals specified by the two terminal identification information is waiting for the transition, A terminal management method, comprising: a state flag setting step for setting a terminal state flag to migrated.

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