JP2004206379A - Operation support system equipped with common nw resource db and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten a period of time required for developing a new service and facilitate addition of a commercially available application. <P>SOLUTION: An information managing mechanism 14 and an information matching mechanism 15 are newly installed in a common NW resource DB 10. When adding the new service, the information managing mechanism 14 only needs an addition of an application program 11, and dispenses with a change of a schema of a database 16. The information matching mechanism 15 enables a user to operate data peculiar to commercially available applications A and B, and data peculiar to an application developed by the user in the same way. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an operation support system such as SMS (Service Management System), NMS (Network Management System), and EMS (Element Management System) in the telecom field.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, mobile phones and the Internet have exploded in popularity. However, in order for carriers to provide these services, an operation support system for performing various settings on network devices is indispensable.
In the conventional operation support system, there are areas that are partially standardized and areas where de facto standards exist, but in reality, we are developing application programs and database schemas for each service and each network device. This is the actual situation.
[0003]
Recently, carrier companies have been building operation support systems using commercial products.However, a single commercial product cannot meet the carrier-level requirements, and multiple commercial products have been introduced. In many cases, commercial products are used in combination with application programs independently developed by carriers.
It manages the purchase and sale of SMS (Service Management System) that manages the status of services, NMS (Network Management System) that manages failures and performances for stably operating networks, and the management of parts and elements. In an EMS (Element Management System) or the like, an operation support system that supports optimal operation of the system plays an important role.
[0004]
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of addition of a new service in the related art.
FIG. 6A is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of an existing service in an operation support system constructed according to the related art.
The figure shows that the existing service application program 54 accesses the attributes A, B, and C in the database 50 via the information management mechanism 53 created for the application and provides the existing service. .
[0005]
FIG. 6B illustrates the addition of a new service with a database schema change in an operation support system constructed according to the related art. In the figure, a new service is provided using attributes A and D. A new service application program 58 has been added. Since the attribute A exists in the database 51 but the attribute D does not exist in the database 51, the database schema needs to be changed.
[0006]
Since the information management mechanism 55 for the existing service application program 56 is specialized for the existing service, the information management mechanism 57 for the new service also needs to be newly developed.
The short-term launch of an operation support system using commercially available products is becoming a common case, but since commercial products are not expected to be used in combination with other products or user-developed applications, the same or similar data should be input to each. Occurs. As a result, although the development cost has been reduced, there have been cases in which the operation cost for operating data input and maintaining the consistency have increased.
[0007]
FIG. 6C shows the addition of a new service in cooperation with a commercial product in the operation support system constructed by the conventional technology.
As shown in FIG. 6B, a new service is provided using the attributes A and D. Although the new service application program 63 is added, the difference is that the added part is an independent commercial product. This method does not require a change of the existing database schema, and thus does not cause a problem of data migration. However, double input of the attribute A occurs, and an operation for matching the contents with the existing database occurs.
[0008]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As described above, in a development mode in which an application program is developed each time a new service is added or a new network device is added, for a similar service, efficiency measures such as program diversion can be performed. However, the database schema is often recreated because it must be added to the data for the existing service. At least, it is inevitable that the normalization of the database is broken due to the addition of another table, and the access efficiency and the maintainability tend to be impaired with the addition of the new service.
The re-creation of the database schema, the new development of the information management mechanism, and the multiple management of data as described above are problems that occur not only when a new service is provided but also when a new network device is introduced.
[0009]
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an operation support system and method capable of solving these conventional problems, shortening the time required for new service development and improving the ease of adding a commercial application program. Is to do.
[0010]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, in the operation support system of the present invention, almost all kinds of resources required for providing various services on the network, both physically and logically, have been identified. Resources that may be needed can be estimated with considerable accuracy from various recommendations. In addition, network devices can be classified by function based on published information, and abstract attributes can be extracted.
An object of the present invention is to provide an operation support system that models such a network resource and converts it into a database, and implements a database schema applicable to various services and various network devices.
[0011]
In addition, for commercial application products that disclose the data structure or data access means, an information matching mechanism unit that provides mapping of necessary data for each product while maintaining consistency on a unified database schema. With this, duplicate input / duplicate management of the same data / similar data can be avoided.
That is, the operation support system of the present invention is characterized in that an information management mechanism and an information matching mechanism are newly provided in the common resource DB.
[0012]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an operation support system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 1, the operation support system of the present invention includes a common NW (network) resource DB (database) 10. In response to a request from the new application 11, the common NW resource DB 10 and the information management mechanism unit 14 that refers to the configuration information in the DB 10 and, when the commercial products A and B are added, for matching with them. It comprises an information matching mechanism unit 15 and a database unit 16 for registering and storing physical, logical and service objects of various attributes.
[0013]
The information management mechanism unit 14 provides a function of determining an attribute to be accessed by referring to configuration information of the common NW resource DB 10 from a service request.
The information matching mechanism unit 15 provides a function for synchronizing data in the database unit 16 with commercially available application products 12 and 13 that have disclosed data structures or data access means, and application-specific data developed by users. I do.
The database unit 16 is hierarchized, and physical NW configuration information is provided in the lowest layer, logical NW configuration information is provided thereon, and service configuration information is provided thereabove.
Here, objects of attributes A to D are registered in the database unit 16. It is also assumed that attributes C, D, and attribute D are registered in the database units 19, 20 of the added commercially available products A, B.
[0014]
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the database unit in FIG.
The application program 11 of the operation support system of the present invention can be created using an API (Application Programming Interface) abstracted to the level of service or function as shown in FIG.
Here, a VPN (Virtual Private Network) 25, that is, a service (virtual private network) that can use a public network as a dedicated network is stored as the VPN service configuration information 21 of the uppermost layer, and the MPLS (MPLS) of the next intermediate layer is stored. The MPLS-VR (MPLS Virtual Router object) 26, the MPLS-PE (MPLS Provider Edge Router object) 27, the MPLS-RR (MPLS Route MPL-Rout object) ) 29 are registered. The physical NW configuration information 23 of the lowest layer includes Ph-Node (physical node object) 30, Ph-Link (physical link object) 31, Ph-Port (physical port object) 32, and Ph-PE (physical provider edge). router object) 33 is registered. Each piece of configuration information is connected by a pointer associated with an arrow.
[0015]
FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart showing an outline of the operation of the information management mechanism unit in the present invention.
Upon receiving the service request from the new application 11, the information management mechanism unit 14 accesses the database unit 16 first, refers to the service configuration information 21 therein, and assigns the logical function element corresponding to the service configuration information 21 thereto. Decompose (step 101). Next, for each of the logical functional elements, the logical functional element corresponding to the real network is extracted by referring to the logical NW configuration information 22 in the database unit 16. Decomposition into corresponding physical function elements (step 102). Finally, a physical function element is extracted, and an attribute group to be accessed is specified by referring to the physical NW configuration information 23 in the database unit 16 (step 103). As a result, the access attribute is returned to the application 11.
[0016]
FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart showing an outline of the operation of the information matching mechanism unit in the present invention.
The specific operation principle of the information matching mechanism unit 15 will be described with reference to FIG. The information matching mechanism unit 15 operates at the time of rewriting an attribute value. Upon receiving the rewrite request for the attribute X, the information reconciliation unit 15 calls a rewrite method of the individual DB that needs to be synchronized, which is known by the information matching mechanism unit 15 itself (step 202), and determines whether the rewrite has been completed normally. (Step 203). If OK, the process returns to step 201 again, and the operations of steps 202 to 204 are repeated until all the operations are completed (step 201). If the rewriting fails in the middle, abnormal termination such as rollback is performed and the process is terminated (step 204). When the rewriting is completed, the process ends.
[0017]
By providing the information matching mechanism section 15 as described above, the operation support system according to the present invention can flexibly respond to addition of an application or addition of a new network device. In particular, there is a great advantage that no schema change occurs from the viewpoint of the application.
[0018]
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a case of adding a new service according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5A shows an embodiment of an existing service in the operation support system including the common NW resource DB 30 of the present invention. The figure shows that the existing service application program 36 accesses the attributes A, B, and C in the database 32 via the information management mechanism 34 and provides the existing service. The attribute D exists on the database schema, but is not used in the service.
[0019]
FIG. 5-2 shows an embodiment in which a new service is added by an application program developed by a user in an operation support system including the common NW resource DB 31 of the present invention. The new service application program developed by the user provides a new service using the attributes A and D. In this case, since the information management mechanism unit 38 has means for accessing the attribute D, the addition of the new service is completed by simply adding the new service application program 41.
[0020]
The operation principle in FIG. 5-2 is the same as the operation described in FIG. That is, when the information management mechanism unit 38 receives a request from the new service application program 41, the information management unit 38 first refers to the service configuration information 21 of the database unit 37 (16 in FIG. 2) shown in FIG. Prescribe the necessary logical functional elements. Next, with respect to each of the logical functional elements, the logical functional element corresponding to the real network is extracted by referring to the logical NW configuration information 22 and finally the logical NW configuration information is extracted. By referring to 23, an attribute group to be accessed is specified.
In this case, a new service is provided using the attributes A and D.
[0021]
FIG. 5-3 shows an embodiment of the operation support system including the common NW resource DB 43 according to the present invention, in which a new service is added by introducing a commercially available product. The commercial product provides a new service using the attribute A and the attribute D in the database 47 of its own, but the information matching mechanism unit 45 uses the attribute A and the attribute D in the common NW resource DB 43 and the internal service in the commercial product. Attribute A and attribute D are synchronized, so that dosing attribute A twice is unnecessary.
In addition, it is also possible to connect the application-specific data developed by the user to the information matching mechanism unit 45. In this case, the data unique to the commercially available application product and the application-specific data developed by the user can be operated without division. It is possible to do.
[0022]
As described above, according to the present invention, by providing the information management mechanism unit and the information coordination mechanism unit in the common NW resource DB of the operation support system, it is possible to shorten the development of a new service and to add a commercial application. Can be easily performed. In other words, when adding a new service by an application program developed by the user, even when the new service uses an attribute that only exists on the database schema but is not used by the service, information on the means of accessing the attribute is used. Since the management mechanism unit is provided, a required attribute can be immediately extracted from the database upon request from the new service application program to the information management mechanism unit.
[0023]
Also, when a commercial product is introduced and a new service is added, it is only necessary to connect the commercial product database to the information matching mechanism. That is, when a new service is provided using an attribute in the database of a commercial product, the information matching mechanism synchronizes the attribute in the commercial product with the same attribute in the common NW resource DB. Commercial products can be easily added.
[0024]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, there is an effect that development of a new service can be shortened, and a new service using a commercially available application can be easily added.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a common NW resource DB according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a database unit in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation outline of an information management mechanism unit in FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation outline of an information matching mechanism unit in FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an additional embodiment of a new service showing one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional form of adding a new service.
[Explanation of symbols]
10: common NW resource DB, 11: new application program,
12, 13 ... commercial products A, B, 14 ... information management mechanism,
15: information matching mechanism section, 16: database section, 17, 18: rewriting function,
19, 20: Commercial database, 16: Database part,
21: VPN service configuration information, 22: MPLS configuration information,
23 ... physical NW configuration information, 25 ... VPN object,
26 ... MPLS-VR object, 27 ... MPLS-PE object,
28 MPLS-RR object,
29 ... MPLS-Port object,
30 ... Ph-Node object, 31 ... Ph-Link object,
32 ... Ph-Port object, 33 ... Ph-PE object.

Claims (4)

In an operation support system with a common NW resource DB,
A database that models the entire network resource,
An application program that is loaded when a new service is added,
Based on the contents of the service request from the application program, the physical attribute to be accessed is specified, and when a new service is added, it is interposed between the added application program and the database, without changing the schema of the database. An operation support system having a common NW resource DB, wherein an information management mechanism for accessing the physical attribute is provided. In an operation support system with a common NW resource DB,
In the common NW resource DB, there is provided an information matching mechanism unit for synchronizing data in the database with data of a commercial application product that discloses a data structure or data access means or application-specific data developed by a user. An operation support system provided with a common NW resource DB, characterized in that: In the operation method of the operation support system including the common NW resource DB,
The information management mechanism unit receives a service request from the application program, specifies a logical function element required for providing the service by referring to service configuration information registered in the database, and Identify the attribute group to be accessed by referring to the logical NW configuration information, extracting the physical function elements corresponding to the real network, and referring to the physical NW configuration information of the database. An operation support system operation method characterized by the following. In the operation method of the operation support system including the common NW resource DB,
At the time of rewriting the attribute value, the information coordination mechanism receives a rewrite request for the attribute value from the application program, and completes the rewriting of the individual database that needs to be synchronized with the attribute value and that is known by the information coordination mechanism itself. The operation support system is characterized in that the operation is repeated until the rewriting fails, and if the rewriting fails in the middle, an abnormal termination including a rollback is performed to terminate the processing.

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