Presence management server and system

• US 20060189315A1
• Filed: 12/20/2005
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Matsubara, Daisuke, Miki, Kazuho
• Granted Patent: US 7,415,276 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/435.300
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

A scheme and a device for managing a user state and a plurality of terminal states on a presence server, and for automatically selecting an optimum terminal by using both the user state and the terminal states. Priority degrees which depend on the terminal states are set, then selecting a terminal whose priority degree is the highest of the plurality of terminals. In association therewith, a priority rank which is set depending on the user state is also taken into consideration, thereby selecting a final optimum terminal. The present scheme makes it possible to automatically perform a fine-grained selection of the optimum terminal in which both the terminal states and the user state are taken into consideration.

Claims

1. A presence management system comprising:

a plurality of terminals corresponding to one user ID,

another terminal corresponding to another user ID and connected to said plurality of terminals via a network, and

a presence management server connected to said plurality of terminals and another terminal, wherein

said presence management server includes

a reception unit for receiving data from said plurality of terminals, said data indicating respective terminal states of said plurality of terminals,

a selection unit for selecting an optimum terminal on the basis of said respective terminal states of said plurality of terminals, said optimum terminal being associated with said user ID, and

a transmission unit for notifying said optimum terminal to another terminal, said optimum terminal being selected by said selection unit.

2. The presence management system according to claim 1, wherein

said reception unit of said presence management server receives a user state of a user from at least any one of said plurality of terminals, said user having said user ID,

said selection unit selecting said optimum terminal on the basis of said respective terminal states and said user state.

3. The presence management system according to claim 2, wherein

said selection unit of said presence management server comprises a data storage device and a processor,

said data storage device storing therein

a user-state management table for storing said user state,

a terminal-state management table for storing said respective terminal states,

a priority-rank management table for managing a communications priority rank of said terminals which depends on said user state, and

a priority-degree management table for managing communications priority degrees of said terminals which depend on said respective terminal states,

said processor calculating said optimum terminal on the basis of said information stored in said respective tables.

4. The presence management system according to claim 3, wherein

said selection unit of said presence management server further comprises a default priority-rank management table for managing a default terminal priority rank.

5. The presence management system according to claim 1, wherein

said selection unit determines priority degrees of said respective terminals on the basis of said respective terminal states, said selection unit then selecting, as said optimum terminal, a terminal whose priority degree is the highest.

6. The presence management system according to claim 4, wherein,

if there exist a plurality of terminals whose priority degrees are the highest, said selection unit selects said optimum terminal on the basis of said default priority-rank management table.

7. The presence management system according to claim 2, wherein

said selection unit of said presence management server includes a data storage device, and,

if said data storage device stores therein a communications priority rank of said plurality of terminals which depends on said user state, said selection unit selects said optimum terminal on the basis of said communications priority rank regardless of said respective terminal states.

8. The presence management system according to claim 2, wherein

said selection unit of said presence management server includes a data storage device and a processor,

if there exist a plurality of terminals whose communications priority degrees are the highest, said communications priority degrees being determined on the basis of said respective terminal states, and if said data storage device stores therein a terminal priority rank which depends on said user state,

said processor selecting said optimum terminal on the basis of said terminal priority rank from among said terminals whose communications priority degrees are the highest.

9. A presence management server connected to a plurality of terminals and another terminal, said plurality of terminals corresponding to one user ID,

said presence management server comprising:

a transmission/reception unit for receiving data from said plurality of terminals, and receiving a user state of a user from at least any one of said plurality of terminals, said data indicating respective terminal states of said plurality of terminals, said user having said user ID, and

a processor for selecting a communications optimum terminal on the basis of said respective terminal states and said user state, said communications optimum terminal being associated with said user ID, wherein

said communications optimum terminal is notified to another terminal via said transmission/reception unit.

10. The presence management server according to claim 9, further comprising a data storage device,

said data storage device storing therein

a user-state management table for managing said user state,

a terminal-state management table for managing said respective terminal states,

a priority-rank management table for managing a communications priority rank of said terminals which depends on said user state, and

a priority-degree management table for managing communications priority degrees of said terminals which depend on said respective terminal states,

said processor calculating said optimum terminal on the basis of said information stored in said respective tables.