JP3210926B2 - Communication service control system and method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention generally relates to various types of information such as user information such as communication traffic information, communication event history information, and subscriber information, and network configuration information for managing a network including maintenance and operation. A communication service control system for estimating a relationship between users on a network based on various viewpoints using network information, and providing an effective communication service for the user using the estimated information, and a communication service control system therefor. The present invention relates to a communication service control method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a communication system, various types of network information have been collected and managed. For example, charging management, fault management, congestion control, routing control, and the like have been performed for the main purpose of network maintenance, operation, and management. In recent years, a service for a user using network information has been provided as a communication service system. For example, by displaying the billing status, which changes from moment to moment during communication, on the communication device of the transmission so that the state of the current usage fee can be determined at a glance, or communication based on the transmission time and communication time. In some cases, a communication charge is calculated in consideration of conditions, and a switching network with the minimum communication charge is selected in advance. In addition, as a service for a user using network information, there are many communication services that provide a service using a degree of a relationship between a user and a terminal.
These are based on the physical relationship between terminals. For example, distance information derived from physical position information between terminals is calculated by calculating the communication fee from the amount of transfer information and time, etc. There is an apparatus which can use a low-cost communication line. Further, there is an example of a communication service that does not use the network information collected by the network but uses a mutual relationship by communication. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication
No. 69047, "Message delivery management device" records the frequency of user access to each message to be delivered, and automatically selects a message delivery method based on this access frequency. is there. That is, an appropriate delivery method is automatically selected, such as delivering all of the message to a user with a high access frequency and delivering only an index to a user with a small access frequency.

[0003]

By the way, information sources such as user terminals and information transmission sources which can be connected to a network and serve as communication end points are collectively referred to as "access points". There are numerous access points on the network. Therefore, although the user who owns the access point is not particularly conscious, it is basically possible to communicate within the network by the number of communication paths equal to the square of the number of access points, that is, the possibility of connecting between access points. Sex will exist. However, this is the number when communication is assumed to be one-to-one communication from an access point to another access point, and when one-to-n or n-to-n communication is assumed, the number of existing communication paths Will be enormous. This vast communication path should contain many things that are extremely valuable to the user without the user's knowledge. In many cases, a user communicates only with a limited number of communication partners within a limited range without actually being aware of its valuable existence. In order for the user to be able to determine a communication path having a high value, it is considered effective to make the user refer to the communication path regardless of whether the user knows it.
That is, it is important that the service provider refers to the relationship between the user and all other users or information sources, and the relevance between other users or information sources, or that the user refers directly to the service provider. However,
Conventionally, such an example has not been performed.
As described above, in the past, a service that automatically derives the relationship between a message and a user from the access frequency, manages it, and uses it to automatically select a delivery method has been provided. In this case, The information to be used is the access frequency to the message, which is measured by an application called message delivery. As described above, in the conventional communication service, objects to be treated as network information for the own communication service include information based on the specification of each service and a user who is recognized as a service provider, that is, a registered or contracted user. Was used. Therefore, the conventional communication service does not handle network information about all access points in the network, and realizes a communication service characterized by making a communication path on the network as described above visible to the user. Not something. An object of the present invention is to solve such a conventional problem and generate communication relationships between users or information sources on a network by using network information regarding access points in a network, and use the information to provide a user with the information. An object of the present invention is to provide a communication service control system and method capable of realizing a communication service.

[0004]

A communication service control system according to the present invention comprises a transmission line, an exchange connected to the transmission line,
In a communication service having a communication network including communication terminals connected to the transmission path, a plurality of network information collection devices for collecting network information of devices in the communication network, and network information required from the network information collection device At least one network information management device that collects, processes, edits, and stores / manages the information in an appropriate form; obtains necessary network information from the network information management device; And communication relation information that is a calculated value calculated based on the communication frequency between the information transmission sources, the communication time, and the amount of communication information, and one or more communication relation control devices that extract a group of users included in the same range. A communication service that provides a service using the communication-related information acquired from the communication-related control device. Comprising one or more for controlling the individual service control apparatus. The network information collection device includes a traffic measurement unit that measures communication traffic of each unit in the network, and various event histories such as an incoming / outgoing call history, a call loss history, and a terminal position movement history related to each communication performed on the network. Event history collection means for obtaining information, subscriber information management means for managing information on users using various communication services provided on the network, and information on the performance and capacity of each component of the network and their connection form. And a network configuration information management means for collecting. Further, the communication service control method of the present invention comprises:
In a communication service having a communication network including an exchange connected to the transmission path and a communication terminal connected to the transmission path, communication traffic, event history, subscriber information, network configuration information, and the like in one or more networks are provided. Collecting first network information periodically or when an event occurs, storing and managing the first network information, collecting and aggregating the first network information of the network,
Extracting necessary information from the first network information,
The extracted network information is processed and edited in a form suitable for storage and management, and further compressed to obtain second network information. From the second network information, the communication frequency, communication time, and communication information amount are calculated. It is characterized in that a user group whose communication-related information, which is a calculated value based on the same, is included in the same range is extracted, and execution control of a communication service for providing a service using the communication-related information is performed.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the present invention, first, a network information collecting device is used to record communication traffic, outgoing / incoming calls, call losses, terminal location movements and other event histories of each network, subscriber information concerning users, and components of each network. Various network information, such as configuration information such as performance, capacity, connection form, etc., is collected periodically or when an event occurs, and these are accumulated and managed. Next, the network information management device acquires the network information from the network information collection device, aggregates the information, extracts only necessary information from the information, processes the edited information into an appropriate form, edits it, and stores and manages it. Next, the communication-related control device estimates (calculates) the communication relationship between the user and the information source based on the network information obtained from time to time from the network information management device, and uses the estimated value (calculated value) as communication-related information. Store and manage. Next, the individual service control device executes and controls various application services focusing on the communication relationship between the user and the information source by using the communication relationship information acquired from the communication relationship control device as needed. As a result, without performing application-level information processing, the "communication relation", which is the communication relation between all users on the network, is estimated based on various viewpoints of the number of communication accesses, the communication time, and the amount of transfer information. Then, by using the “communication-related information” that is the estimated information, an effective service can be provided to the user.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a communication service control system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG.
Is a communication network having transmission lines, exchanges and terminals as basic elements, 102 is a communication terminal owned by each user, 103 is a network information collection device for collecting information on the network, and 108 is information collected by the network information collection device 103 Information management device for managing
Is a communication-related control device that performs control by receiving network information from the network information management device 108 and transmitting communication-related information to the individual service control device 110. Reference numeral 110 denotes an individual service control device.
In addition, each network information collection device 103 includes a traffic measurement function 104 for measuring communication traffic of each unit in the network, and various types of information such as an outgoing / incoming call history, a call loss history, and a terminal position movement history for each communication performed on the network. Event history collection function 10 for acquiring event history
5. Subscriber information management function 106 for managing information on users who use various communication services provided on the network, and network configuration information for collecting information on the performance and capacity of each component of the network and their connection form, etc. The processing function 107 is arranged. A communication service control system according to the present invention includes a communication network 101 having transmission lines, exchanges, and communication terminals 102 as basic elements.
In addition, one or more network information collection devices 103, network information management devices 108, communication-related control devices 10
9 and one or more individual service control devices 110 are connected and configured.

[0007] The network information collection device 103 includes communication histories of various parts in the network and various event histories related to individual communication performed on the network (for example,
Call history, call loss history, terminal location movement history, etc., information on users who have contractual usage rights for various communication services provided on the network (eg, terminal identifier /
Network information such as terminal address, subscriber name, etc.), performance data of each component of the network, and information on their connection form and the like. The network information management device 108 includes the network information collection device 103
The necessary network information is collected from, and processed and edited into a form (data structure) suitable for storing and managing it, and then storing and managing this. Further, the communication relation control device 109 obtains necessary network information from the network information management device 108, and uses the information to obtain a latent or actual communication relationship between users and information sources (information transmission sources). (Hereinafter referred to as a communication relationship) is estimated (calculated) based on some scales, and a function of providing the estimated value (calculated value) to the service application, and a specific common function based on the estimated value (calculated value). A user or a group of users having properties is extracted and provided to the individual service control device 110. The individual service control device 110
The execution control of various communication services is performed using the communication relation information on the communication relation acquired from the communication relation control device 109.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are operation flowcharts of a communication service control method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
First, the network information collection device 103 collects various network information in a measured state without processing as described above (step 201). Information such as communication event history collection, traffic information collection, subscriber information collection, and network configuration information collection will be collectively referred to as primitive data. Network information collection device 1
Reference numeral 03 corresponds to various information collection units arranged in an existing traffic management system or network information management system in a telephone network or a computer network, or various information collection units connected under the information collection units. The triggers for collecting the primitive data include, depending on the type of the primitive data, collection at regular intervals, collection at the time of occurrence of communication-related events such as at the time of outgoing / incoming calls or at the end of communication,
Alternatively, there is collection at the time of a request from the network information management device 108.

Next, the operation of the network information management device 108 will be described. The network information collection device 103 transmits necessary network information (NW information) (primitive data) in response to a request from the network information management device 108 (Step 202). The network information management device 108 receives it (step 20).
3) Extract and filter only necessary information from the information, such as information on the outgoing / incoming time (step 20).
4), the primitive data is processed and edited into an appropriate form (step 205). Then, the processed and edited data is stored in a memory as new network information such as a communication history list between users, and is managed (step 206). In this case, an enormous amount of primitive data collected from the plurality of network information collection devices 103 is stored and managed as network information, so that information compression is performed. Here, the term “information compression” includes both the meaning of compressing the data amount of information and the meaning of performing semantic interpretation of information and converting it into necessary and sufficient information. The necessary and sufficient information is, for example, information obtained by performing statistical processing and storing only an average value, or deleting a communication history that has caused a call loss. The network information management device 108 edits network information (NW information) in response to a request from the communication-related control device 109.
The required network information is searched and extracted from among the above, and sent out (step 207).

Next, the communication-related control device 109 acquires necessary network information such as the frequency of communication between users from the network information management device 108 (step 20).
8) Utilizing it, the "communication relation" corresponding to the depth of the relation of the network established between each user and other users or the information source is based on several measures. Estimate (calculate). At the same time, “communication relation information” capable of expressing the communication relation between many users and information sources scattered in the network based on the value is generated (step 209). Here, the communication-related information indicates, for example, how often each user accesses all other users, or conversely, how often each user communicates from all other users. It is a communicative relationship of whether access has been received. In addition, as the communication relationship, for example, the communication relationship between two access points (the number of times of transmission / reception) is larger (deeper) as the communication frequency is larger, and the communication relationship is larger (deeper) as the communication time (talk time) is longer. ), And a communication relationship in which the larger the amount of transfer information, the greater (deeper) the relationship. The communication-related control device 109 updates the communication-related information as needed each time new network information is received from the network information management device 108 (step 210). Further, the communication-related control device 109 receives a request from the individual service control device 110 (step 21).
1) In response to the request, the communication-related information is partially extracted (step 212), and the individual service control apparatus 110 of the request source is extracted.
(Step 213).

Next, after the communication service is started (step 214) after the communication service is started (step 215), the individual service control device 110 determines that communication-related information is necessary (step 215) (step 215). 216), a request is sent to the communication-related control device 109 (step 217), and necessary communication-related information is obtained by receiving (step 218). Individual service control device 11
Reference numeral 0 denotes execution control of various application services focusing on the communication relationship between the user and the information source by using the communication relationship information acquired as needed from the communication relationship control device 109.

FIG. 4 is a mapping diagram of an automatic advertisement distribution service showing an application example of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is an operation sequence chart in FIG. 4 and 5 show a communication service (automatic advertisement distribution service) using a communication service control system. That is, the present communication service is mapped on the image diagram of FIG. This communication service is an information distribution service in which a usage fee is charged according to the amount of transfer information, and automatically performs effective advertisement distribution using a specified usage fee. The users who frequently communicate with the advertisement distribution source and the users who communicate less frequently are defined as users having a large (deep) communication relationship and users having a small (shallow) communication relationship, respectively. And perform effective and economical distribution by changing the media type. If the content of the advertisement to be distributed is changed, the amount of information included in the advertisement changes, and the delivery fee changes accordingly.Therefore, the advertisement is delivered by selecting the advertisement content according to the other party, such as interest in the advertisement distribution source. Save money. Therefore, the degree of interest in the advertisement distribution source is estimated based on the communication relationship with the advertisement distribution source, and appropriate distribution control can be performed using only the network information.

Hereinafter, the operation of the automatic advertisement distribution service of FIG. 4 will be described with reference to FIG. First, each network information collection device 103 collects and collects various types of network information at all times.
Manages and sends the managed information to the network information management device 108 (step 30).
1). This includes the communication frequency between all users in the network. Next, the network information management device 108 aggregates and edits the network information (primitive data) sent from each network information collection device 103, and transmits it to the communication-related control device 109 as needed (step 302). This naturally includes the communication history between the users. On the other hand, store A, which is the advertisement distribution source,
Sends an automatic distribution request for an advertisement from the communication terminal 102 to the individual service control apparatus 110 that is performing the present communication service (step 303). Parameter 1 at this time
As a plurality of types of advertising information prepared by the store A in advance,
As the parameter 2, a maximum distribution fee that can be spent for advertisement distribution is notified to the individual service control device 110 together. Here, when the store A determines that a multimedia advertisement including all text, video, and audio is type 1, an advertisement including only text and audio is type 2, and an advertisement based on text that briefly describes only the main points is type 3, Assume that three types of advertisements are prepared.

The individual service control device 110 that has received the request requests the communication-related control device 109 for communication-related information about the store A (step 304). Upon receiving the request, the communication-related control device 109 extracts the communication-related information corresponding to the request (step 305) and returns it to the requesting individual service control device 110 (step 30).
6). Thereby, the individual service control device 110
Acquires a list of communication relations between the store A and all users existing in the network as communication relation information.
Here, the communication-related information is a value based on the frequency of communication from each user to the store A. The individual service control device 110 that has acquired the communication frequency uses the store A based on the communication-related information.
Is determined to be the most effective in the range of the maximum distribution fee specified in (1), and the communication relationship level for each type of transmission to be transmitted is determined (step 30).
7). Here, the communication relation level is, for example, the communication relation C
Is a level 1 when 0 ≦ C <X1, a level 2 when X1 ≦ C <X2, and a level 3 when X2 ≦ C. In addition, effective delivery means, for example, an advertisement that includes detailed information for a user with a large communication relationship (deep), and an advertisement that focuses only on the main points for a user with a small communication relationship (shallow). For example, only headings)
Is distributed. That is,
Despite a small number of users with high communication relationships,
If most of them are users with high distribution fees (for example, due to physically large distances), only distribution to those users is the budget of store A. The maximum distribution fee may be used up.
The optimum distribution pattern is determined in consideration of such a situation. Hereinafter, details of the processing of steps 305 and 307, that is, the processing of extracting communication-related information on the shop A and the processing of determining the communication-related level for transmitting each type of advertisement information will be described.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an image of a communication relationship level and a distribution pattern of the communication service control system according to the present invention. Here, it is assumed that only N users (terminals) are connected to the network (N terminals).
These are user # 1, user # 2,.
Let r # N. And the store A which is the advertisement distribution source and us
The communication relationship with er # i is Ci. That is, us
.., # 1 and # 2, the communication relationship with user #N is C1, C2, C3,... CN, respectively.
Here, the communication relationship is defined as an amount inversely proportional to the communication frequency (f) between the store A and the user #i, for example, Ci = 1 / f. As the communication relation level, 0 ≦ Ci <10 is level 1, 10 ≦ Ci <20 is level 2, and 20 ≦ Ci <
Let 30 be level 3, and let 30 ≦ Ci be level 4. As shown in the table of FIG.
It is assumed that M1, M2, M3, and M4 users respectively belong to .about.4. Then, all the users belong to any of the above communication levels 1 to 4. FIG. 6 shows users belonging to level 1 in the smallest circle among the four concentric circles, users belonging to level 2 in the next smallest circle, users belonging to level 3 in the largest circle, and the largest circle. Indicates that there is a user belonging to level 4 outside of. As shown by the corresponding broken lines, it can be seen that user # 1 and user #N belong to level 1, user # 3 belongs to level 2, and user # 2 belongs to level 3.

Now, it is assumed that the fee charged when the store A distributes the advertisement to each user depends on the length of the transmission path between the store A and the user and the amount of information included in the advertisement information. Let Li be the transmission path length from the store A to the user i. That is, from store A, user # 1, user # 2, ...
The transmission path lengths to user #N are L1, L2,
L3,..., LN. Further, the advertisement information types to be distributed are set as type 1, type 2, and type 3, and the information amounts included in each type are set as D1, D2, and D3, respectively. The distribution fee cost (user # i, t) required when the store A distributes the advertisement information type t to the user #i is: user # i, t = α × Dt × Li. (1) Here, α is a distribution fee coefficient and is a constant value. .., And N = 1, 2, 3,..., N. As described above, the distribution fee cost is proportional to the product of the transmission path length and the information amount. Numerous combinations are conceivable as patterns for distributing the three types of advertisement information.
A pattern a and a pattern b shown in FIG. 6 are examples of them. Pattern a is a case where the advertisement information of types 1, 2, and 3 is distributed to the communication relation levels 1, 2, and 3, respectively, and is not distributed to the communication relation level 4. In the pattern b, the type 1 advertisement information is transmitted to the communication relation levels 1 and 2.
In this case, type 2 is distributed to level 3 and type 3 is distributed to level 4.

When one of the distribution patterns is selected, the total distribution fee COST required for all the distributions is determined as follows. COST = COST (C1, t) + COST (C2, t) + COST (C3, t) + COST (C4, t) (2) COST (Ci, t) = ｛Distribution charge c for distributing advertisement information type t to each user belonging to communication relationship level Ci
sum of ost (user # j, t)） (3) The above calculation is executed for each pattern to extract a pattern that fits in the maximum distribution fee designated by store A, which is the advertisement distribution request source,
From among them, a pattern that can distribute advertisement information with a larger amount of information to more users is selected. For example, COST for distribution pattern a shown in FIG.
−a, and COST for distribution pattern b is COS
Assuming that Tb, the following is obtained. COST-a = COST (C1,1) + COST (C2,2) + COST (C3,3) (4) COST-b = COST (C1,1) + COST (C2,1) + COST (C3,2) + COST (C4,3) (5) )

In FIG. 5, the individual service control unit 11
0 determines the communication relationship level to which each type of advertisement information is transmitted as described above (step 307), and the communication relationship level corresponding to each advertisement type and the number of users included therein, that is, the distribution destination. The number is notified to the store A (step 308). At the same time, advertisement information of the corresponding type is distributed to all users included in each communication relationship level (step 309). In the above application example, the example in which the communication-related information is calculated from the communication frequency has been described. However, the communication time and the communication information amount can be calculated in the same manner.
It can be easily analogized. FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a process of determining a distribution pattern from a communication relationship level in the individual service control device. Individual service control device 110
First divides the communication-related information (C1, C2,... CN) received from the communication-related control device 109 into several communication-related levels (step 601). Next, the distribution fee for each user is obtained by the following equation (step 602). COST (user #i, t) = α × Dt × Li (where Dt is the amount of advertisement information at level t, and Li is the transmission path length to user i) Next, considering a plurality of distribution patterns, The total distribution charge COST of the distribution pattern is obtained (step 603). COST = ΣCOST (Ci, t) (where COST (Ci, t) is the advertisement information type t
Is the sum of the distribution costs cost (user # j, t) when each is distributed to each user belonging to the communication relationship level Ci). The user selects a distribution pattern capable of distributing advertisement information with a larger information amount to the user (step 604).

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Without executing application-level information processing, all users on the network can communicate with each other using various network information that has been collected and managed for the purpose of network management, maintenance, operation, etc. The communication relationship, which is a simple relationship, is defined as communication frequency, communication time,
It is possible to provide an effective communication service to the user by estimating based on the viewpoint such as the amount of transfer information and using the “communication-related information” that is the estimated information.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a communication service control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a part of an operation flowchart of the communication service control method in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is another part of the operation flowchart of the communication service control method.

FIG. 4 is an image diagram of an automatic advertisement distribution service showing an application example of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an operation sequence chart of the automatic advertisement distribution service in FIG. 4;

6 is an image diagram of a communication relationship level and a distribution pattern in the automatic advertisement distribution service of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a processing flowchart for determining a distribution pattern from a communication relation level by the individual service control device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 communication network, 102 communication terminal, 104
Traffic measurement function, 103: network information collection device, 105: event history collection function, 106: subscriber information management function, 107: network configuration information management function,
108: network information management device, 109: communication-related control device, 110: individual service control device.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Tatsuo Sawada Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, 1-6, Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04Q 3 / 545 H04M 3/22 H04M 3/42

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] And 1. A transmission line, your incoming and outgoing call history for the individual communication exchange connected to said transmission line and the user is performed on the communication network of the communication terminal that performs receive calls
Event history information including the
Users who use various communication services provided by the network
Based the subscriber information regarding The plurality of network information collection device for collecting various networks <br/> over click information including at least, the network <br/> click information gathered by the network information collecting apparatus, wherein Individually by the user
Communication frequency for each other user or for each of the various communication services
Degree and / or communication time and / or communication information volume
The communication access frequency and the communication time
And / or the amount of communication information
Depending on the one, between each user or various communication services
One or more communication-related control devices for classifying communication between services, and various communication services between the users or between the users.
Services provided for communications between
On the other hand , the level is classified by the communication-related control device.
Communication service controlling system characterized by having one or more and the individual service control unit for determining in response to Le. 2. The communication service control system according to claim 1,
The network collected by the network information collection device.
The call information includes the call history and the call loss history .
At least the event history information and the subscriber information.
That is, the communication-related control device is used for the level division.
Only network information that is
The network information is stored in the communication-related control device at the level.
One or more networks to be converted into information used for
Has a network information management apparatus, wherein the communication related control unit the network information management device
Communication service control system you and performs the sorted level based on the obtained conversion information in. 3. The management, maintenance, operation, etc. of the network
On the communication network being collected and managed
Incoming and outgoing call history and call loss for individual communications
Event history information, including
Regarding users who use various communication services provided
At least including various types of network information and subscriber information
Used by users on the network as appropriate.
Communication service control method for selecting and providing services.
Te, from the network information, event history information including the incoming and outgoing call history and the <br/> call loss history and with said subscriber information
Select a service that is at least included and is optimal for the user.
To obtain only the network information used to select
Selecting the service optimized for the user by using the network information acquired in the first step and the first step.
Second step of converting into information to be used when performing
And the information converted and accumulated in the second step,
Each user individually or by other users
Is the communication frequency and communication time for each of the various communication services and
At least one of the communication information amounts is obtained, and the obtained
Frequency of communication access, length of communication time and communication information
Depending on at least one of the amount of information
Of communication between users of the user or between various communication services
A third step of performing bell classification, and a communication between users or between various communication services.
At the time of communication, the service provided for the communication,
In the third step, the communication is classified into levels.
Communication service control method characterized by chromatic and a fourth step of obtaining in response to the level.