JP2991559B2 - Redundant system for interface panel - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a redundant system for an interface board interposed between a transmission line and a transmission device processing main body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Between a transmission line and a transmission device processing body,
An interface unit for performing these interfaces (for example, speed conversion) actually exists as an interface board. Such an interface board is inserted and accommodated in a connection slot provided side by side on the motherboard of the housing unit. In practice, in order to increase mounting efficiency, one unit has more than ten boards. Interface board is implemented.

By the way, in order to improve the reliability at the time of transmission,
Some transmissions employ redundancy, and accordingly the interface panel also employs a redundant configuration. FIG. 2 shows a conventional redundant configuration of the interface board. The configuration shown in FIG. 2 realizes a redundant configuration by a dual configuration that operates alternatively.

In FIG. 2, the same signal can be transmitted as 0
The system transmission line and the system 1 transmission line are connected to the system 0 interface board 1 and the system 1 interface board 2, respectively.
Each of the interface boards 1 and 2 is connected to a switching section 3, and through this switching section 3, the interface boards 1 or 2 are connected.
One of them is capable of transmitting and receiving signals to and from a transmission device processing main body (not shown). That is, one interface board 1 (or 2) becomes an operation system, and the other interface board 2 (or 1) becomes a standby system. The switching unit 3 switches the interface board 1 or 2 connected to the transmission device processing main body in accordance with a switching signal given from the switching control unit 4, and the switching control unit 4 switches from the interface board 1 or 2 of the operation system. When a switching trigger signal is received, a switching signal is sent to the switching unit 3.

For example, when a failure occurs in the interface board 1 in a state where the interface board 1 is in the operation system and the interface board 2 is in the standby system, a failure detection unit in the interface board 1 supplies a switching trigger signal to the switching control unit 4. At this time, the switching control unit 4 supplies a switching signal for switching the operation system and the standby system to the switching unit 3, and the switching unit 3 performs a switching operation in accordance with the switching signal.
Thereafter, the interface board 2 functions as an operation system, and performs an interface between the transmission path and the transmission device processing main body.

As described above, the two slots in which the pair of interface boards 1 and 2 constituting the redundant system are mounted are provided so as to be practically adjacent to each other in order to simplify the configuration of the switching section 3. Have been. In addition, the motherboard is configured to have only a plurality of pairs of slots for such redundancy in practice.

[0007]

However, the conventional redundant configuration of the interface board has the following disadvantages.

Since the slot position of the interface board constituting the duplex configuration is fixed, when mounting the interface board without the duplex configuration, only one slot is used. Therefore, one of the slots becomes empty, and the mounting efficiency is degraded. In order to avoid such inconveniences, the slots of the interface board adopting the duplex configuration and the slots of the interface board not adopting the duplex configuration may be provided on the motherboard in a mixed manner. However, in reality, the number of interface boards having a duplex configuration and the number of interface boards not having a duplex configuration are different for each housing unit, and it is impossible to standardize and produce such a mixed type of motherboard. Therefore, as described above, the motherboard having only the slot pair corresponding to the duplex configuration is applied, and the above-described problem cannot be avoided.

Further, some interface boards have a large thickness due to an increase in the number of discrete components to be mounted due to an increase in circuit scale. When such an interface board is mounted in a slot with a fixed interval, the interface board may not be mounted in an adjacent slot. Therefore, a redundant configuration cannot be realized for an interface board having a large thickness.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and has as its object to provide a redundant system of interface boards that can efficiently mount more interface boards on a motherboard.

[0011]

According to the present invention, there is provided, in accordance with the present invention, group information storage means for storing group information of interface boards constituting a redundant system among interface boards mounted on a motherboard; Switching control means for switching between the interface board of the active system and the interface board of the standby system based on the set information from the set information storage means when a failure occurs in one interface board of the redundant system in the operating state.

[0012]

In the present invention, the set information of the interface boards constituting the redundant system among the interface boards mounted on the motherboard is preset and stored in the set information storage means. If a failure occurs in one of the interface boards of the redundant system which is now in operation, the switching control means switches the interface board between the active system and the standby system based on the set information from the set information storage means. .

Thus, a redundant system can be constituted by two interface boards mounted at an arbitrary position mounted on the motherboard. Conversely, there is no restriction on the mounting position of the interface board, and the mounting can be performed efficiently.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. Here, FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of this embodiment, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of storage in the group information storage circuit.

A plurality (even number) of interface boards 11-1n shown in FIG. 1 interposed between the transmission path and the transmission device processing main body.
Is an interface board according to a redundant configuration among interface boards mounted on the same motherboard of the housing unit. Each such interface board 1
1,... 1n can be mounted in slots irrespective of the slot position with respect to the interface board of the mating partner. The interface board 11 according to this embodiment
.About.1n perform an interface for bidirectional signals transmitted and received between the transmission path and the transmission device processing main body.

Each of the interface boards 11,..., 1n has a built-in fault detecting unit 21,..., 2n for detecting a fault that has occurred while operating as an operation system. 2n gives a switching trigger signal to the switching control unit 50 as significant when a failure is detected. The failure detection units 21,..., 2n provide the switching control unit 50 with an insignificant switching trigger signal when no failure is detected.

Each of the interface boards 11,..., 1n
Are respectively a connection control element 31 composed of a tri-state buffer element at an output stage toward the transmission device processing main body,
, 3n, and a connection control element 41 composed of a tri-state buffer element at an output stage toward a transmission line, for example.
.., 4n are provided. These connection control elements 31, ..., 3
, 4n are controlled to be in a passing state after an output control signal instructing passage (operation system) from the switching control unit 50, and instructing non-passing (standby system) from the switching control unit 50. After the output control signal is given, the state is controlled to the non-passing state.

The switching control unit 50 includes a group information storage circuit 51, a first selection circuit 52, a switching circuit 53, and a second selection circuit 54, as shown in detail in FIG.

The set information storage circuit 51 stores the set information of two interface boards constituting a redundant system (set) for a plurality of sets, and repeatedly outputs the stored set information cyclically at a predetermined cycle. Is what you do. For example, the group information is set by the position number of the slot specifying the interface board. It should be noted that such set information can be arbitrarily set by the operator via input means (not shown), and can be changed or deleted.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a storage configuration of the group information storage circuit 51. For one set of interface boards,
One is stored in the 0-system interface board area, and the other is stored in the 1-system interface board area. It should be noted that the 0 system and 1 system do not mean the operating system and the standby system, but are for distinguishing one set of interface boards.

The first selection circuit 52 includes a group information storage circuit 5
According to the current set information given from 1, regardless of whether the switch trigger information indicates failure detection, the switch trigger information from the interface board of the 0 system of the set is transmitted via the 0 system line 520. The switching trigger information is given to the switching circuit 53 and switching trigger information from the interface board of the first system is sent to the first system line 521.
To the switching circuit 53 via

The switching circuit 53 forms an output control signal for instructing a passing state or a non-passing state based on the presence or absence of a failure instruction in the switching trigger information provided for each set. When the switching trigger information via the 0-system line 520 indicates failure detection, the switching circuit 53 sends an output control signal indicating a passing state to the second selection circuit 54 via the 1-system line 531. And an output control signal instructing the non-passing state through the 0-system line 530.
Give to. When the switching trigger information via the first system line 521 indicates failure detection, the switching circuit 53 outputs an output control signal indicating a passing state to the zero system line 53.
The output control signal is supplied to the second selection circuit 54 through the 0 line and an output control signal indicating a non-passing state is supplied to the second selection circuit 54 through the 1-system line 531. When both the switching trigger information indicate that there is no failure, the switching circuit 53 outputs the same output control signal indicating the passing state and the non-passing state as before to the 0-system line 530 and the 1-system line. 53
1 to the second selection circuit 54.

The second selection circuit 54 has a 0-system line 530
The output terminal (corresponding to the interface board) corresponding to the 0-system interface board information provided from the group information storage circuit 51 regardless of whether the output control signal provided from the PDP is in a pass state or a non-pass state. ). The second selection circuit 54 receives the output control signal supplied from the first system line 531 regardless of whether the output control signal indicates a passing state or a non-passing state. Output to the output terminal corresponding to the information (corresponding to the interface board).

Next, the operation for mounting the interface board will be described. The operator attaches an interface board constituting a redundant system to an arbitrary slot of a motherboard (not shown) and, if there is a single interface board not constituting a redundant system, also attaches it to an arbitrary slot. The interface boards constituting the redundant system are connected to the transmission lines constituting the redundant system, and the interface boards not constituting the redundant system are connected to the transmission lines not constituting the redundant system. After that, only the group information of the interface boards constituting the redundant system is set in the group information storage circuit 51. Then, the operation state is entered.

In this operating state, if there is a connection request from the transmission line side or if there is a connection request from the transmission device processing main unit, the redundant interface board is also connected to the transmission line and the transmission device processing main unit by normal processing. After connecting
Performs transmission signal interface processing. The interface board is a connection control element (3
1,..., 3n, 41,..., 4n), a connection control element according to a normal processing configuration is provided, so that the transmission path and the transmission apparatus processing main body can be connected only via any interface board. The route is set up. Here, regarding the redundant system interface board, the route between the transmission path and the transmission device processing main body is established at that time when the connection control element (3
1, ..., 3 (n-1) or 3n, 41, ..., 4 (n-
Only 1) or 4n) is the interface board of the operation system controlled to the passing state.

Now, it is assumed that, as shown in FIG. 3, of the two interface boards 11 and 1n constituting the redundant system, the 0-system interface board 11 is executing an interface operation as an operating system. When a failure occurs in this operation state, the failure detection unit 21 provides a switching trigger signal for instructing the switching control unit 50 to detect a failure.

In such a state, when the group information relating to this group is output from the group information storage circuit 51, the first selection circuit 52 sets the switching trigger information of the failure detection state from the 0-system interface board 11 to 0. The switching trigger information is supplied to the switching circuit 53 via the system line 520, and the switching trigger information from the system interface board 1n is switched via the system line 521.
Give to 3.

The switching circuit 53 receives the switching trigger information of the failure detection state via the 0-system line 520, and outputs an output control signal indicating the passing state to the second selection circuit 54 via the 1-system line 531. And an output control signal indicating a non-passing state is provided to the second selection circuit 54 via the 0-system line 530.

The second selection circuit 54 has a 0-system line 530
Output control signal indicating the non-passing state given by
Output to the interface board 11 according to the 0-system interface board information (11) given from the set information storage circuit 51. Further, the second selection circuit 54 outputs the output control signal indicating the passing state given from the first system line 531 to the interface board according to the first system interface board information (1n) given from the group information storage circuit 51. 1n.

As a result, the connection control elements 31 and 41 of the interface board 11 are in the non-passing state, while the connection control elements 3n and 4n of the interface board 1n are in the passing state. Therefore, thereafter, the interface panel 1n performs the interface operation as the operation system, and the interface panel 11 becomes the standby system. In practice, a failure of the interface board 11 is reported or recognized by a periodic inspection or the like, and repair or the like is executed in a standby system state.

Therefore, according to the above-described embodiment, a redundant system can be constituted by two interface boards mounted at arbitrary slot positions. Therefore, the following effects can be obtained.

Not only a redundant interface board but also a single interface board can be installed in any slot. That is, unlike the related art, it is not necessary to mount the single interface board using only one of the slots in the set, and the interface board can be efficiently mounted.

Some interface boards have a large thickness due to an increase in circuit size and an increase in the number of discrete components to be mounted. According to this embodiment, even if a thin interface board is mounted next to such a thick interface board, a redundant system can be constituted by the thick interface boards, and from this point, the interface board can be efficiently mounted.

Although the above embodiment has been described with reference to an interface board for performing a two-way transmission interface, the present invention is also applicable to an interface board for performing a one-way transmission interface. Can be applied.

In the above-described embodiment, one switching control unit is provided for one motherboard. However, two or more switching control units may be provided for one motherboard. Conversely, one switching control unit may be provided for two or more motherboards. That is, the switching control may be performed by dividing the slots (interface boards) of the motherboard into a plurality of groups, and a redundant system of the interface boards may be configured among the plurality of motherboards.

Further, the interface function of the interface board to which the present invention is applied is not limited.
Therefore, it can be applied to interface boards of various devices.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, the set information of the interface boards constituting the redundant system is stored, and the active and standby interface boards are switched using this set information. Therefore, the mounting slot of the interface board is not fixedly determined, and more interface boards can be efficiently mounted on the motherboard.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a conventional configuration.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a storage example of a group information storage circuit 50 according to the embodiment;

[Explanation of symbols]

11 to 1n... Interface boards constituting a redundant system, 21
.About.2n: Failure detection unit, 31-3n, 41-4n: Connection control element, 50: Switching control unit, 51: Set information storage circuit, 5
2 ... Switching trigger information selection circuit, 53 ... Switching circuit, 54
... Output control signal selection circuit.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A set information storage means for storing set information of an interface board constituting a redundant system among interface boards mounted on a motherboard, and a failure occurs in one of the interface boards of the active redundant system. A switching control unit for switching between an operation system and a standby system panel based on the group information from the group information storage unit.