Voice communication system and voice communication method

Abstract

A voice communication system, which is connected to a LAN to which communication terminals are connected and to a public network to which telephones are connected, is provided with a communication server between the LAN and public network having different protocols from each other. The communication server enables a voice communication between a telephone on the public network and a communication terminal connected to the LAN by performing processing similar to that for a voice communication between two communication terminals connected to the LAN. The communication server determines whether an address of the other party inputted by a user is a communication terminal address or a telephone number, and transmits a voice communication request to a communication terminal of the other party when the address is a communication terminal address. When the address is a telephone number, the user acquires the communication terminal address of the communication server, and transmits a voice communication request to the communication server. Thereafter, the voice communication processing is performed through the communication server.

1 . A communication device connected, via a packet switching network, to a communication server performing a voice communication process with a telephone connected to a line employing a telephone number scheme, comprising:
 a communication controller connected to the packet switching network, a voice input unit inputting voice data,   a voice encoder encoding the voice data input by the voice input unit, a voice decoder decoding encoded data into voice data,   a voice output unit outputting voice data encoded by the voice decoder, a processor processing a voice communication process, and   a storage storing a communication address of the communication server.   
     
     
         2 . The communication device according to  claim 1 ,
 wherein the processor processes to transmit a voice communication request packet when destination information is input to the communication device, and wherein the voice communication request packet includes the destination information and a communication address of the communication device.   
     
     
         3 . The communication device according to  claim 1 ,
 wherein the processor processes to transmit a voice communication request packet when destination information is input to the communication device, and wherein the voice communication request packet includes the destination information, a communication address of the communication device and the communication address of the communication server.   
     
     
         4 . The communication device according to  claim 1 ,
 wherein the processor obtains the communication address of the communication server from the storage when a telephone number corresponding to the telephone is input to the communication device as destination information.   
     
     
         5 . The communication device according to  claim 4 ,
 wherein the processor processes to transmit the voice communication request packet, including the telephone number, the communication address of the communication device and the communication address of the communication server to the communication server.   
     
     
         6 . The communication device according to  claim 1 ,
 wherein the processor processes to transmit the voice communication request packet, including a communication address of another communication device as the destination information and the communication address of the communication device, to the other communication device when the destination address is not consisting of numeric characters.