Communications system and communications method

• US 6,975,710 B2
• Filed: 12/29/1997
• Issued: 12/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Fujino, Nobutsugu, Chikuma, Satoru
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng, George
• Application Number:
  US08/999,308
• Publication Number:
  US 20010040945A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,906 Days
• Field of Search: 379/90.01, 379/93.01, 379 9308- 9309, 379/93.14, 379/93.35, 379/100.09, 37910015-10016, 379/110.01, 379/215.01, 379/215, 370462-463, 370/401, 370/469, 709217-219, 395/200.33, 39520047-20049, 395/200.57, 395/200.07, 395/200.7, 348/15
• US Class Current: 379/93.09
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6486 Signalling Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1096 Supplementary features, e.g. call forwarding or call holding systems providing special services or facilities to telephony subscribers H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2535 adapted for voice communication over an Internet Protocol [IP] network Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network equipment and services H04M7/006; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/203 composed of PSTN and data network, e.g. the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/206 composed of PSTN and wireless network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/20 with means for interrupting existing connections; with means for breaking-in on conversations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42187 Lines and connections with preferential service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/428 Arrangements for placing incoming calls on hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0057 Services where the data services network provides a telephone service in addition or as an alternative, e.g. for backup purposes, to the telephone service provided by the telephone services network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/122 where the PSTN/ISDN access is used as an access to networks other than PSTN/ISDN access arrangements to networks other than PSTN/ISDN H04M7/0066; access arrangements to public data networks H04L12/2856
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/19 Connection re-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/30 Connection release

Abstract

When voice communications are to be established using the telephone having the telephone number displayed on the application during the data communications, a temporary line disconnection unit disconnects a line being used for the data communications. The application is not notified of this, and the line is connected between the terminal and the telephone. The user on the mobile computer side can voice-communicate with the user of the telephone using the terminal. When the voice communications terminate, the temporary line disconnection unit connects the line between the fixed computer side and the mobile computer side to resume the data communications. Since the application is not notified of the temporary disconnection of the line, the session is set active and the data communications are not started from the very beginning.

Claims

1. A terminal communicating with a server through a communications network, comprising:

a temporary line disconnection unit, monitoring a content of received data from the server, and when specified data is received, disconnecting a line being used for data communications without issuing any disconnection notifications to an upper layer application of the terminal when said terminal voice communicates with a third party other than the server through said communication network during the data communications with the server, and automatically connecting the server to the terminal when the voice communications terminate;

an automatic data fetch unit automatically fetching data of web sites including information requested by a user from the server to the terminal, and wherein said automatic data fetch unit includes

means for fetching, from the server, data which is not being accessed by the upper layer application and which is linked from a website that the user is viewing, and for storing the obtained data during the data communications with the server, and

means for passing the stored data to the upper layer application during the voice communications with the third party when the user selects the link to the website corresponding to the stored data; and

a storage unit storing the data fetched by said automatic data fetch unit,

wherein a data communicating process is performed from a status at a point immediately before starting the voice communications when the server and the terminal resume the data communications.

2. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein

said terminal obtains a telephone number of the third party as information during the data communications.

3. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein

said temporary line disconnection unit temporarily disconnects a line between said server and said terminal when said terminal issue a voice communications request to the third party, connecting a telephone switch unit which is provided in the server to telephones of the third party and said terminal, connecting two calls on a server side, thereby realizing voice communications between said terminal and the third party.

4. The terminal according to claim 3, wherein

the server temporarily disconnects the line between said terminal and said server when said terminal issues a request for voice communications with third party to said server;

and

said server, a telephone of said third party, and said terminal enter a 3-point communications state base on a 3-point communications function of said telephone switch unit, thereby realizing the voice communications between said terminal and said third party.

5. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein

said temporary line disconnection unit temporarily disconnects the line when said terminal issues a request for voice communications with the third party to said server;

and

said terminal issues a voice communications call to the third party, thereby realizing the voice communications between said terminal and said third party.

6. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein

said temporary line disconnection unit temporarily disconnects a line between said terminal and said server according to an instruction from a first unit which is provided in the server and which manages personal information and communications status of each user, when said terminal issues a request for voice communications with the third party to said server;

said terminal issues a call through the voice communications to the third party, thereby realizing voice communications between said terminal and said third party,

wherein the server has an object which manages personal information, and the object communicates with other object which is in said terminal and also manages personal information, before communication by the user, thereby said terminal can receive a call.

7. The terminal according to claim 1, further comprising:

a unit receiving said automatic data fetch unit, wherein

said automatic data fetch unit is transmitted from a server side to the terminal side when the data communications start.

8. A terminal communicating with a server through a communications network, comprising:

a temporary line disconnection unit monitoring a content of received data from the server and from the terminal, and when specified data is received, disconnecting a line being used for data communications without issuing any disconnection notifications to an upper layer application of the terminal when said terminal voice communicates with a third party other than the server through said communications network during the data communications with the server, and automatically connecting the server to the terminal when the voice communications terminate,

means for fetching from the server data which is not being accessed by the upper layer application in the terminal and which is linked from a website that the user is viewing, and storing the fetched data during the data communications, and

means for passing the stored data to the upper layer application in the terminal during the voice communications with the third party when the user selects the link to the website corresponding to the stored data, wherein

a data communicating process performed from a status at a point immediately before starting the voice communications when the server and the terminal resume the data communications.

9. The terminal according to claim 8, wherein

said terminal obtains a telephone number of the third party as information during the data communications.

10. The terminal according to claim 8, wherein

said temporary line disconnection unit temporarily disconnects a line between said server and said terminal when said terminal issues a voice communications request to the third party, connecting a telephone switch unit which is provided in the server to telephones of the third party and said terminal, connecting two calls on a server side, thereby realizing voice communications between said terminal and the third party.

11. The terminal according to claim 10, wherein

the server temporarily disconnects the line between said terminal and said server when said terminal issues a request for voice communications with third party to said server;

and

said server, a telephone of said third party, and said terminal enter a 3-point communications state based on a 3-point communications function of said telephone switch unit, thereby realizing the voice communications between said terminal and said third party.

12. The terminal according to claim 8, wherein

said temporary line disconnection unit temporarily disconnects the line when said terminal issues a request for voice communications with the third party to said server;

and

said terminal issues a voice communications call to the third party, thereby realizing the voice communications between said terminal and said third party.

13. The terminal according to claim 8, wherein

said temporary line disconnection unit temporarily disconnects a line between said terminal and said server according to an instruction from a first unit which is provided in the server and which manages personal information and communications status of each user, when said terminal issues a request for voice communications with the third party to said server;

said terminal issues a call through the voice communications to the third party, thereby realizing voice communications between said terminal and said third party,

wherein the server has an object which manages personal information, and the object communicates with another object which is in said terminal and also manages personal information, before communication by the user, thereby said terminal can receive a call.

14. The terminal according to claim 8, further comprising:

a unit receiving said automatic data fetch unit, wherein

said automatic data fetch unit is transmitted from a server side to the terminal side when the data communications start.

15. A terminal communicating with a server through a communications network, comprising:

a temporary line disconnection unit, monitoring a content of received data from the server, and when specified data is received, disconnecting a line being used for data communications without issuing any disconnection notifications to an upper layer application of the terminal when said terminal voice communicates with a third party other than the server through said communication network during the data communications with the server, and automatically connecting the server to the terminal when the voice communications terminate;

an automatic data fetch unit automatically fetching data of web sites including information requested by a user from the server to the terminal; and

a storage unit storing the data fetched by said automatic data fetch unit,

wherein a data communicating process is performed from a status at a point immediately before starting the voice communications when the server and the terminal resume the data communications,

wherein said automatic data fetch unit fetches information including the telephone number of the third party from the server during data communication with the server for conducting the voice communications, and

wherein said automatic data fetch unit preliminarily fetches the data obtainable from the server which is not being accessed by the upper layer application and which is linked from a website that the user is viewing, and stores the data in said storage unit during the data communications, and accesses said storage unit during the voice communications when the user selects the link to the website corresponding to the stored data, so that the data in said storage unit is displayed during the voice communication, thereby realizing virtual data communications during the voice communications.

16. A terminal communicating with a server through a communications network, comprising:

a temporary line disconnection unit monitoring a content of received data from the server and from the terminal, and when specified data is received, disconnecting a line being used for data communications without issuing any disconnection notifications to an upper layer application of the terminal when said terminal voice communicates with a third party other than the server through said communications network during the data communications with the server, and automatically connecting the server to the terminal when the voice communications terminate,

an automatic data fetch unit automatically fetching data of web sites including information requested by a user from the server to the terminal;

a storage unit storing the data fetched by said automatic data fetch unit; and

means for obtaining information including a telephone number of the third party from the server during the data communications with the server for conducting the voice communications between the terminal and the third party, wherein a data communicating process is performed from a status at a point immediately before starting the voice communications when the server and the terminal resume the data communications;

wherein said automatic data fetch unit preliminarily fetches the data obtainable from the server which is not being accessed by the upper layer application and which is linked from a website that the user is viewing, and stores the data in said storage unit during the data communications, and accesses said storage unit during the voice communications when the user selects the link to the website corresponding to the stored data, so that the data in said storage unit is displayed during the voice communication, thereby realizing virtual data communications during the voice communications.