Emergency communication server device, emergency communication system, emergency communication method, and program

Abstract

To provide an emergency communication server device, an emergency communication system, an emergency communication method, and a program that can easily provide alternative communication means in an emergency at low cost.SOLUTION: An emergency communication server device and the like are provided that include a contact information acquisition unit that acquires contact information on a communication partner, an emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquisition unit that acquires an emergency communication service availability evaluation value, which is a value obtained by evaluating the availability of an emergency communication service, in an emergency when a failure occurs in an active communication service, and an emergency communication service unit that uses the contact information to provide the emergency communication service instead of the active communication service according to the emergency communication service availability evaluation value.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to an emergency communication server device, an emergency communication system, an emergency communication method, and a program that can provide an alternative communication means at low cost and easily in an emergency.

Background Art

[0002] In the operation of communication services, it is costly to prepare a backup communication server for emergencies such as earthquakes, fires, and power outages. Especially for large-scale communication services, since the number of accommodated users is large, a huge cost is required to operate an emergency service with the same number of users.

[0003] Patent Document 1 discloses the following data management system and the like. The document describes that "a server device having a database including data and a database engine for reading and writing the data, and a client device for reading and writing the data or replicated data of the data, the client device is communicably connected to the server device, and when connected to a storage function included in the cloud service, stores the replicated data in the storage function, and when a failure occurs that cannot communicate with the server device, disconnects the connection with the storage function, then connects to the storage function via a virtual machine function operating in the cloud service, reads and writes the replicated data stored in the storage function, and when the failure is resolved and communication with the server device is restored, disconnects the connection with the storage function via the virtual machine function, connects the client device to the storage function, generates difference data between the data and the replicated data, and transfers the difference data to the server device."

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0004]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0005] Note that the disclosure of the above prior art document is incorporated herein by reference. The following analysis is made by the present inventors.

[0006] As described above, in the invention disclosed in Patent Document 1, when a failure occurs, the connection destination of the client device is switched from the active server device to the storage function under the virtual machine operating in the cloud service. The replication data of the master data is stored in this storage function. After the failure is resolved, the difference data between the data respectively held by the storage function on the cloud service and the active server device is generated, and the difference data is transferred to the active server device.

[0007] The invention disclosed in Patent Document 1 realizes redundancy using a cloud service assuming a database service. However, due to the characteristics of a communication service that processes a large amount of traffic from a large number of users, when trying to realize the same service level as the active system in an emergency in a redundant configuration, it is required that the cloud service occupy a large-scale database and a CPU (Central Processing Unit) with high processing performance for a long time, and it is predicted that a huge cost will occur.

[0008] Therefore, an object of one aspect of the present invention is to provide an emergency communication server device, an emergency communication system, an emergency communication method, and a program that can provide an alternative communication means in an emergency at low cost and easily.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0009] According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an emergency communication server device including a contact acquisition unit that acquires a contact of a communication partner, an emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquisition unit that acquires an emergency communication service availability evaluation value which is a value obtained by evaluating the availability of an emergency communication service in an emergency where a failure has occurred in a current communication service, and an emergency communication service unit that provides an emergency communication service using the contact in place of the current communication service according to the emergency communication service availability evaluation value.

[0010] According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an emergency communication system including an emergency communication server device having a contact acquisition unit that acquires a contact of a communication partner, an emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquisition unit that acquires an emergency communication service availability evaluation value which is a value obtained by evaluating the availability of an emergency communication service in an emergency where a failure has occurred in a current communication service, and an emergency communication service unit that provides an emergency communication service using the contact in place of the current communication service according to the emergency communication service availability evaluation value, and an emergency communication unit that communicates with the communication partner via the emergency communication server device in an emergency.

[0011] According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an emergency communication method in which the following steps are executed by a computer: a step of acquiring a contact of a communication partner, a step of acquiring an emergency communication service availability evaluation value which is a value obtained by evaluating the availability of an emergency communication service in an emergency where a failure has occurred in a current communication service, and a step of providing an emergency communication service using the contact in place of the current communication service according to the emergency communication service availability evaluation value.

[0012] According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program for causing a computer to execute a process of acquiring a contact information of a communication partner, a process of acquiring a disaster-time communication service availability evaluation value which is a value obtained by evaluating the availability of a disaster-time communication service in the event of a failure occurring in a current communication service, and a process of switching to a disaster-time communication service using the contact information in place of the current communication service according to the disaster-time communication service availability evaluation value.

[0013] Note that this program can be recorded on a computer-readable storage medium. The storage medium can be a non-transient one such as a semiconductor memory, a hard disk, a magnetic recording medium, an optical recording medium, etc. The present invention can also be embodied as a computer program product.

Advantages of the Invention

[0014] According to each aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide a disaster-time communication server device, a disaster-time communication system, a disaster-time communication method, and a program that can provide an alternative communication means in a disaster at low cost and easily.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0015]

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Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[0016] First, the outline of one embodiment will be described. Note that the reference numerals in the drawings appended to this outline are appended to each element for convenience as an example to assist understanding, and the description of this outline is not intended to be limiting in any way. In the present disclosure, the drawings are associated with one or more embodiments.

[0017] [Configuration] Fig. 1 shows a block diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the emergency communication server device of the present disclosure. The emergency communication server device 10 of the present disclosure includes a contact acquisition unit 11, an emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquisition unit 12, and an emergency communication service unit 13.

[0018] The contact acquisition unit 11 acquires the contact information of the communication partner. The emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquisition unit 12 acquires an emergency communication service availability evaluation value, which is a value obtained by evaluating the availability of the emergency communication service in the event of a failure in the active communication service. The emergency communication service unit 13 provides an emergency communication service using the contact information in place of the active communication service according to the emergency communication service availability evaluation value.

[0019] As described above, the emergency communication server device of the present disclosure can acquire the contact information of the communication partner of the active service in an emergency such as when it is impossible to connect to the active communication server, and provide an emergency communication service according to the evaluation of the availability of the emergency communication service. Thereby, it is possible to provide an emergency communication service that can be provided at low cost and easily in terms of communication means.

[0020] [First Embodiment] [Overview of Processing] FIG. 2 is a diagram for showing an example of an outline of emergency communication processing in the emergency communication server device of the present disclosure. As shown in this figure, there exist an emergency communication server device 10, user terminals 21 to 24, and active user databases (hereinafter referred to as user DBs) 25 and 26. The emergency communication server device 10 is equipped with a service of Company A that provides an emergency communication service on an OS (Operating System) and containers of a service of Company B. In this way, the emergency communication server device 10 may be in a mode where a plurality of server instances or containers are started on the hardware of one computer. These plurality of server instances or containers may be in a mode of aggregating emergency communication services corresponding to a predetermined number of active communication services and providing them in the server device. Note that middleware for managing these containers may be installed and executed in the emergency communication server device 10. The user terminals 21 and 22 use the emergency communication service of Company A provided by the emergency communication server device 10. Also, the user terminals 23 and 24 use the emergency communication service of Company B provided by the same device. The user DB 25 is an active user DB of users using the emergency communication service of Company A. The user DB 26 is an active user DB of users using the emergency communication service of Company B.

[0021] The emergency communication server device 10 acquires the contact information of users of each company for use in the emergency communication service from the user DB 25 and the user DB 26 that respectively hold the contact information of each user related to the use of Company A and Company B. These user DBs may be those used in the active service.

[0022] [Configuration] The configuration of the emergency communication server device 10 according to the first embodiment has, as shown in FIG. 1 and similar to the configuration of one embodiment, a contact information acquisition unit 11, an emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquisition unit 12, and an emergency communication service unit 13.

[0023] The contact information acquisition unit 11 acquires the contact information of the communication partner. The "contact information" includes information necessary for a user to receive a communication service, such as a telephone number, an extension number, an email address, a user ID and password of the active system server, a user ID and password of the emergency communication server, etc. The "contact information" may include address information of a notification destination for push notification. "Acquisition" refers to receiving the contact information of the communication partner from a storage area such as a database in which the contact information is held. The acquisition may be performed at the time of starting the emergency communication server device, every predetermined time elapsed from the start, each time the contact information is updated, and the like.

[0024] The emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquisition unit 12 acquires an emergency communication service availability evaluation value, which is a value obtained by evaluating the availability of the emergency communication service in an emergency where a failure has occurred in the active system communication service. For example, in the case of a situation where it is impossible to connect to the active system communication server, it is verified and evaluated whether it is possible to connect to the emergency communication service, and if the connection is possible, how much response time the emergency communication service is available, etc., and the result is acquired as the emergency communication service availability evaluation value. Note that the "availability" may include an index based on the introduction cost and running cost of the emergency communication service.

[0025] The emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquisition unit 12 may acquire a plurality of emergency communication service availability evaluation values. That is, in the case where there are a plurality of communication services available in an emergency, the availability of each of the communication server devices that provide the plurality of communication services may be evaluated, and the evaluation values that are the results may be acquired and compared.

[0026] In the event of an emergency, the communication service unit 13 provides an emergency communication service using the obtained contacts in place of the active communication service according to the evaluation value of the availability of the emergency communication service. "According to the evaluation value of the availability of the emergency communication service" includes a process of determining whether the evaluation value of the availability of the emergency communication service (hereinafter referred to as the evaluation value) obtained by the emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquisition unit 12 satisfies a predetermined reference value. When a plurality of evaluation values are obtained, the process also includes, for example, selecting a service that indicates the evaluation value with the highest availability from among the plurality of evaluation values.

[0027] "Emergency communication service" refers to a service that is provided preliminarily when there is an obstacle to the provision of the active service. This service may provide the same service as the service provided by the active system by making the configuration of the active system redundant and switching it in the event of an emergency, or may be limited to providing only some services, providing a degraded service compared to the active system.

[0028] For example, while the active service executes a service that performs call control such as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), the emergency communication service may provide some communication services that perform call control via push notifications or the like. Although various methods can be adopted for the push communication service, for example, the methods provided by APNs (Apple (registered trademark) Push Notification Service) or FCM (Firebase (registered trademark) Cloud Messaging) may be adopted.

[0029] FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of another software configuration of the emergency communication server device 10 of the present disclosure. In FIG. 2, the OS operates on the emergency communication server device 10, and the services of Company A and Company B are implemented by containers operating on the OS. In contrast, in FIG. 3, server instances of virtual machines dedicated to each company operate on the host OS of the emergency communication server device 10, and the services are implemented on those virtual machines. As shown in this figure, a plurality of emergency communication services, namely, the service of Company A and the service of Company B, may be realized by separate virtualization server instances.

[0030] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of processing related to the emergency communication service availability evaluation value of the emergency communication server device 10 of the present disclosure. As shown in this figure, an emergency communication service of Company A, an emergency communication service of Company B, and a plurality of other emergency communication services operate on the emergency communication server device, and the availability evaluation value is calculated by the emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquisition unit 12. Here, the service of Company A has an evaluation value of x1, which is the highest evaluation value. As a result, the user selected Company A as the provider of the emergency service communication. In this way, the emergency communication service unit 13 may select a server instance or a container for providing the emergency communication service according to the emergency communication service availability evaluation value.

[0031] Referring to FIG. 2, in the evaluation in FIG. 4 above, the service of Company B, whose evaluation value is x2 and lower than x1, is selected as the provider of the emergency communication service. This is because the calculation method or evaluation criteria of the evaluation value are different for the users who use it. In this way, the emergency communication service unit 13 may calculate the emergency communication service availability evaluation value for each user who uses it.

[0032] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an outline of processing of the emergency communication server device in the case where a plurality of emergency communication server devices exist. As shown in this figure, assume that the emergency communication server devices 27 and 28 can be connected by a user. Here, if the availability evaluation values of both server devices are y1 and y2 respectively, they are calculated by the emergency communication service availability evaluation unit 12. Since it was found that the relationship is y1 > y2 when comparing y1 and y2, the user decided to select the emergency communication server device 27 when selecting the emergency communication service. In FIGS. 2 to 4, the processing in the case where a plurality of services are installed in one server device was described. However, as shown in FIG. 5, it is naturally conceivable to calculate the availability evaluation value with a plurality of server devices and select the server device according to the evaluation value. Further, after calculating the evaluation value between the server devices and selecting the server device, the evaluation value of a plurality of services provided in the selected server device may be calculated, and the service selection process may be performed.

[0033] [Description of Operation] FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining an example of the operation of the emergency communication server device 10 of the present disclosure. As shown in this figure, first, the device acquires the contact information of the communication partner (step S61). Next, in an emergency where a failure has occurred in the current communication service, it acquires the emergency communication service availability evaluation value, which is a value obtained by evaluating the availability of the emergency communication service (step S62). Next, according to the emergency communication service availability evaluation value, using the contact information, it provides the emergency communication service in place of the current communication service (step S63).

[0034] FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining an example of a more detailed operation of the emergency communication server device 10 of the present disclosure. As shown in this figure, when the device starts operating, it acquires the device ID of the notification destination from the acquired contact information (step S71). Next, it acquires the emergency communication service availability evaluation value obtained by evaluating the emergency communication service of a plurality of services (step S72). The evaluation value acquired here may be not only the availability evaluation value of the service provided by the emergency communication server device 10 itself but also the availability evaluation value of the service provided by other devices.

[0035] The device ID may identify not only a specific device ID but also an application on a specific device ID.

[0036] The selected server instance or container starts the service and waits to receive a notification request including the destination device ID and the notification content (step S75). When the request is received (step S75, Y), a push notification is sent to the destination device ID (step S76). "Sending" may be directly to the destination device, or may also include the mode of sending a request to the gateway of the upper push notification service. These processes are repeated until it is determined that the service ends (step S77, Y).

[0037] [Hardware Configuration] FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the emergency communication server device 10 according to the present disclosure. The emergency communication server device 10 can be configured by an information processing device (computer) and includes the configuration exemplified in FIG. 8. For example, the emergency communication server device 10 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 81, a memory 82, an input / output interface 83, and a NIC (Network Interface Card) 84 which is a communication means, respectively, and are mutually connected by an internal bus 85.

[0038] However, the configuration shown in FIG. 8 is not intended to limit the hardware configuration of the devices constituting the emergency communication server device 10. The emergency communication server device 10 may each include hardware not shown, or may not include the input / output interface 83 as necessary. Also, the number of CPUs and the like included in the emergency communication server device 10 is not intended to be limited to the example shown in FIG. 8. For example, a plurality of CPUs may be included in each device.

[0039] The memory 82 is a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), or an auxiliary storage device (such as a hard disk).

[0040] The input / output interface 83 is a means for interfacing with a display device and an input device (not shown). The display device is, for example, a liquid crystal display or the like. The input device is a device that receives user operations such as a keyboard and a mouse.

[0041] The functions of the emergency communication server device 10 are realized by a contact acquisition program, which is a processing module, an emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquisition program, and an emergency communication service program that includes a server instance and a container, which are software bases for providing the emergency communication service. Examples of the data used by the above modules include contact data acquired by the contact acquisition program and an emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquired by the emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquisition program.

[0042] The above processing modules are realized, for example, when the CPU 81 executes programs stored in the memory 82 respectively. Further, the programs can be downloaded via a network or updated using a storage medium storing the programs. The above processing modules may be realized by semiconductor chips. That is, any means for executing the functions performed by the above processing modules by some hardware and / or software may be sufficient.

[0043] [Operation of Hardware] When the emergency communication server device 10 starts operating, first, the contact acquisition program is called from the memory 82 to the CPU 81 and enters the execution state. The program connects to, for example, an active user database via the NIC 84, receives user data including at least the device ID of the notification destination as a contact, and stores it in the memory 82.

[0044] Next, the emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquisition program is called from the memory 82 and becomes in an execution state on the CPU 81. This program acquires the emergency communication service availability evaluation value for each service. The availability evaluation value may be calculated by the emergency communication server device 10 itself, or may be calculated by a terminal device or the like connectable to the emergency communication server device 10, and the emergency communication server device 10 may acquire this via the NIC 84 or the like.

[0045] As described above, for example, when a situation occurs where it is impossible to connect to the active communication server, the calculation of availability verifies and evaluates whether it is possible to connect to the emergency communication service, and if the connection is possible, how much response time the emergency communication service is available, etc., and acquires the result as the normal communication service availability evaluation value. For example, when it is determined that an abnormality has occurred in the active communication server and the connection is impossible, assume that the service of Company A has an RTT (Round Trip Time) of 0.15 sec and the service of Company B has an RTT of 0.3 sec. On the other hand, it is found that the service of Company A incurs a usage fee of 10 units within a predetermined period, and the service of Company B incurs a usage fee of 6 units in the same period. In this case, the evaluation value may be an index obtained by multiplying performance indicators such as RTT and cost indicators such as usage fees. Considering this way, for example, in the above, the evaluation value of Company A is 1.5 and that of Company B is 1.8. Here, the evaluation value of Company A is smaller, and Company A may be adopted (selected) as the emergency communication service.

[0046] As described above, the calculation of the emergency communication service availability evaluation value may be a value obtained by combining immediate indicators such as startup time and response time and time-dependent indicators such as introduction cost and running cost.

[0047] Next, the emergency communication service program is called from the memory 82 and becomes in an execution state on the CPU 81. This program starts an emergency communication service according to the calculated emergency communication service availability evaluation value. Specifically, the connection to the active system service is switched to an emergency communication service provided by a server instance or a container started by the emergency communication server device 10 or the like, and a predetermined service is provided. The predetermined service may be a push communication service using the user data of the active system acquired above. For example, when there is a message request specifying a user name from a certain device, the device ID of the user is acquired by referring to the user data, and a process for transmitting a message to the corresponding device is executed.

[0048] [Description of Effects] As described above, the emergency communication server device 10 of the present disclosure can acquire an emergency communication service availability evaluation value and provide an emergency communication service according to the evaluation value. Thereby, it is possible to provide an emergency communication server device, an emergency communication system, an emergency communication method, and a program that can provide an alternative communication means in an emergency at low cost and easily.

[0049] [Second Embodiment] [Outline of Processing] FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the processing of the emergency communication system of the present disclosure. As shown in this figure, an emergency communication server device 10 that performs an emergency communication service, a user database device 101 belonging to the active system, and terminals 102 and 103 are arranged. The emergency communication server device 10 connects to the user database device 101 of the active system and acquires user data. FIG. 9 shows an internal call being made from terminal 102 to terminal 103.

[0050] [Configuration of Device] FIG. 10 is a block diagram for showing an example of the configuration of the emergency communication system of the present disclosure. As shown in this figure, the emergency communication system of the present disclosure includes an emergency communication server device 10, a user database device 101, and a terminal 102. The emergency communication server device 10 includes a contact acquisition unit 11, an emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquisition unit 12, and an emergency communication service unit 13. The user database device 101 includes a contact holding unit 14. The terminal 102 includes an emergency communication unit 15.

[0051] The emergency communication server device 10 and its configuration have been described in the above embodiment, so the description is omitted. The feature of the emergency communication system in the present disclosure is that it has a user database device 101 and a terminal 102, and further, the user database device 101 has a contact holding unit 14, and the terminal 102 has an emergency communication unit 15. Note that the user database device 101 may be included in the active system, or may be a separate server that provides a user directory service.

[0052] The contact holding unit 14 in the user database device 101 holds, as the contact of the communication partner, at least the contact by the active system communication service and the push notification contact which is the contact by the push notification of each user. For example, it may hold an SIP address as the contact in the active system communication service and a device ID as the push notification contact.

[0053] The emergency communication unit 15 in the terminal 102 holds, for communicating with the communication partner via the emergency communication server device in an emergency, at least the transmission destination of one connection request. Although only one terminal is shown in FIG. 11, there may be a plurality of terminals as communication partners.

[0054] Note that the contact acquisition unit 11 of the emergency communication server device 10 may acquire the contact of the communication partner from the contact holding unit 14 of the user database device.

[0055] The user database device 101 may further include an update unit (not shown) that updates the push notification contact information held in the holding unit 14 according to changes in the terminals used. Since the push notification contact information includes the device ID, the emergency communication server device 10 can send push notifications to all of the devices used by the communication partner or to a single device in use. The devices used by the user may be registered in the contact information holding unit of the user database device, and if there are any changes, the update unit may perform a process of updating the contents of the contact information holding unit 14.

[0056] Regardless of the above description, the update unit may belong to the emergency communication server device 10 other than the user database device 101. It may also be independent as an update device.

[0057] With the above configuration, it is possible to perform a push notification, which is an emergency communication, to the device currently being used by the user, so that more reachable and effective emergency communication can be executed.

[0058] [Description of Operations] FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining an example of the operation of the emergency communication system of the present disclosure. As shown in this figure, when an outgoing operation of an internal call is performed on the terminal 102 and a connection request is transmitted to the emergency communication server device 10 after a failure to connect to the current communication server (step S1101), the emergency communication server device 10 acquires the push notification contact (step S1106). Before that, if there is a change in the terminal used by the user and a change in the connection account (FIG. 17(b)) of the current communication server, the user database device 101 updates the device ID (steps S1103, S1104), and the emergency communication server device 10 acquires this. Next, the emergency communication server device 10 acquires the emergency communication service availability evaluation value (step S1107). When the evaluation value is acquired, a server instance or container for providing the emergency communication service is selected according to the evaluation value (step S1108), and the emergency communication service is started (step S1109). When a message request (for example, an INVITE message) is transmitted from the terminal 102 (step S1110), the emergency communication server device 10 transmits a push notification to the request destination according to the request (step S1111). These operations are repeated until the failure is recovered (steps S1112, Y). Note that if there is no request for a certain period, the emergency communication server device 10 may stop the emergency communication service.

[0059] Regarding the process (1) of updating the device ID which is the contact when the terminal is changed, it may be executed at any timing. However, in this operation example, the change is reflected up to the update immediately before the process (step S1106) in which the emergency communication server device accesses the user database device 101 to acquire the push notification contact. However, an operation of executing a process such as executing an interrupt process to acquire the push notification contact at an arbitrary timing may be performed.

[0060] [Description of Effects] As described above, in the emergency communication system of the present disclosure, the emergency communication server device 10 acquires push notification destinations as contact information, and a server instance or container selected according to the emergency communication service availability evaluation value can use this to start an emergency communication service. By adopting communication that performs call control via push notifications, it is easy to introduce and the running cost can be kept low. In addition, it is possible to immediately start an emergency communication service from a state where the terminal belongs to the current communication server. Furthermore, even if the device such as the terminal used by the user changes, by registering this in the user database device, it is possible to perform push notifications to the terminal etc. after the change, and it is possible to execute effective emergency communication.

[0061] [Embodiment] Embodiments of the present invention are shown below. In the embodiments, an emergency communication service utilizing cloud services will be described.

[0062] [Configuration] FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the configuration of the invention in the present disclosure. The current communication server is a communication server operated within an organization (usually an on-premises communication server device).

[0063] The smart device is a company-owned or BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) smartphone terminal used by employees of the organization for communication. It has the functions of receiving Push, logging in with the server IP address, domain, connection destination authentication information, Push notification destination, and sending a connection request to the emergency communication server when it cannot connect to the current communication server.

[0064] The Push notification distribution service is a standard smart device Push notification distribution service such as APNs or FCM.

[0065] The cloud refers to PaaS (Platform as a Service) cloud services such as AWS (registered trademark).

[0066] The connection acceptance means always accepts connection requests from smart devices, calls the availability evaluation means described later, and checks the availability of the service. If the availability is cleared, it starts the emergency communication server and returns the connection destination information to the smart device.

[0067] The availability evaluation means is normally not in operation, accepts calls from the connection acceptance means, measures the connection availability, connection time to the emergency communication server and the database, and evaluates the availability.

[0068] The emergency communication server is normally not in operation, is started by a request from the connection acceptance means, and provides emergency communication services (especially call services). As a preferred operation, it is desirable that the emergency communication server be installed in a different region from the cloud and the current communication server.

[0069] The database is a database service that is always in operation, spans multiple regions, and stores connection destination accounts accommodated by the current communication server of the organization.

[0070] [Description of Operations] Figures 13 and 14 are diagrams showing the outline of the operations of the embodiments in the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 14, during normal times, the current communication servers of each company provide call services, and each time the contact account is changed, the database of the contact accounts of the emergency communication server is updated.

[0071] As shown in FIG. 14, when the smart device cannot connect to the active communication server, the smart device sends a connection request to the connection acceptance means. When the connection acceptance means responds to the connection request and determines that the connection is possible by the availability evaluation means, it returns the IP address of the emergency communication server.

[0072] FIGS. 15 and 16 are sequence diagrams showing an example of the operation of an embodiment of the present disclosure. Examples of the connection accounts of the active communication server and the database in the present disclosure are shown in FIGS. 17(a) and 17(b).

[0073] As shown in FIG. 16, the smart device user A belonging to the active communication server tried to make a call to the smart device user B and failed to connect to the active communication server due to a power outage. The smart device user A requests connection destination information from the connection acceptance means, and after logging in, can make a call to the smart device user B using the emergency communication server.

[0074] Some or all of the above disclosure may be described as follows, but are not limited thereto. [Appendix 1] It is as described in the emergency communication server device according to the first aspect above. [Appendix 2] The emergency communication service unit provides a communication service by a service that performs call control via push notification, preferably the emergency communication server device of Appendix 1. [Appendix 3] The emergency communication service unit selects a server instance or container for providing the emergency communication service according to the emergency communication service availability evaluation value, preferably the emergency communication server device of Appendix 1 or 2. [Appendix 4] The emergency communication server device preferably has a plurality of server instances or containers started on the hardware of one computer, and is any one of the emergency communication server devices of Appendix 1 to 3. [Appendix 5] A plurality of server instances or containers aggregate and provide an emergency communication service corresponding to a predetermined number of active communication services, preferably an emergency communication server device according to any one of Appendices 1 to 4. [Appendix 6] It is as in the emergency communication system according to the second perspective described above. [Appendix 7] A user database device having a contact information holding unit that holds, as contact information of a communication partner, at least contact information by an active communication service and a push notification contact information that is contact information by push notification of each user, and a contact information acquisition unit of the emergency communication server device preferably acquires the contact information of the communication partner from the user database device. The emergency communication system according to Appendix 6. [Appendix 8] The user database device further has an update unit that updates the push notification contact information held in the contact information holding unit according to a change in the terminal to be used. The emergency communication system according to Appendix 7. [Appendix 9] It is as in the emergency communication method according to the third perspective described above. [Appendix 10] It is as in the program according to the fourth perspective described above. Note that Appendices 9 and 10 can be expanded into Appendices 2 to 5 in the same manner as Appendix 1.

[0075] Each disclosure of the above-mentioned patent documents and the like cited is incorporated herein by reference. Within the scope of the entire disclosure of the present invention (including the claims), further changes and adjustments of the embodiments or examples can be made based on the basic technical idea. Also, within the scope of the entire disclosure of the present invention, various combinations or selections of various disclosure elements (including each element of each claim, each element of each embodiment or example, each element of each drawing, etc.) are possible. That is, the present invention naturally includes all kinds of variations and modifications that a person skilled in the art could make according to the entire disclosure including the claims and the technical idea. In particular, regarding the numerical ranges described in this document, any numerical value or small range included within the range should be construed as specifically described even without separate description.

Explanation of Symbols

[0076] 10: Emergency communication server device 11: Contact acquisition unit 12: Emergency communication service availability evaluation value acquisition unit 13: Emergency communication service unit 14: Contact storage unit 15: Emergency communication unit 21 - 24: User terminals 25, 26: User DB 27, 28: Emergency communication server devices 81: CPU 82: Memory 83: Input / output interface 84: NIC (Network Interface Card) 85: Internal bus 101: User database device 102, 103: Terminals

Claims

1. A contact acquisition unit that acquires the contact information of the communication partner, A non-normal communication service availability evaluation value acquisition unit that acquires a non-normal communication service availability evaluation value, which is a value obtained by evaluating the availability of the non-normal communication service, in the event of a failure in the current communication service, A non-normal communication service unit that provides a non-normal communication service using the contact information in place of the current communication service according to the non-normal communication service availability evaluation value, A non-normal communication server device having the above components.

2. The non-normal communication service unit of the non-normal communication server device according to Claim 1 provides a communication service by a service that performs call control via push notification.

3. The non-normal communication service unit of the non-normal communication server device according to Claim 1 or 2 selects a server instance or container for providing the non-normal communication service according to the non-normal communication service availability evaluation value.

4. In the non-normal communication server device according to Claim 3, a plurality of server instances or containers are started on the hardware of one computer.

5. The plurality of server instances or containers of the non-normal communication server device according to Claim 4 aggregate and provide non-normal communication services corresponding to a predetermined number of current communication services.

6. A contact acquisition unit that acquires the contact information of the communication partner, A non-normal communication service availability evaluation value acquisition unit that acquires a non-normal communication service availability evaluation value, which is a value obtained by evaluating the availability of the non-normal communication service, in the event of a failure in the current communication service, A non-normal communication service unit that provides a non-normal communication service using the contact information in place of the current communication service according to the non-normal communication service availability evaluation value, A non-normal communication server device having the above components, A non-normal communication unit that communicates with the communication partner via the non-normal communication server device in the event of a non-normal situation, A terminal having the above components, A non-normal communication system including the above components.

7. A user database device having a contact information holding unit that holds at least the contact information by the current communication service and the push notification contact information, which is the contact information by the push notification of each user, as the contact information of the communication partner, further having the above components, The contact acquisition unit of the non-normal communication server device acquires the contact information of the communication partner from the user database device. The non-normal communication system according to Claim 6.

8. The user database device further includes an update unit that updates the push notification contact stored in the contact storage unit according to a change in the terminal to be used, in the emergency communication system according to claim 7.

9. An emergency communication method for performing the following steps by a computer, a step of obtaining a contact of a communication partner; a step of obtaining an emergency communication service availability evaluation value, which is a value obtained by evaluating the availability of an emergency communication service, in an emergency where a failure has occurred in the current communication service; a step of providing an emergency communication service using the contact in place of the current communication service according to the emergency communication service availability evaluation value; The emergency communication method comprising the steps.

10. a process of obtaining a contact of a communication partner; a process of obtaining an emergency communication service availability evaluation value, which is a value obtained by evaluating the availability of an emergency communication service, in an emergency where a failure has occurred in the current communication service; a process of switching to an emergency communication service using the contact in place of the current communication service according to the emergency communication service availability evaluation value; A program for causing a computer to execute the process.

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