JP5272849B2 - COMMUNICATION DEVICE AND COMMUNICATION DEVICE CONTROL METHOD - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance the power efficiency of a communication device. <P>SOLUTION: This communication device has: an interface part which has a plurality of ports which can be activated or non-activated, receives a serial signal, activates the ports of a number corresponding to a transfer rate of data on the serial signal of the plurality of ports, divides the data into a plurality of division data to distribute them into the activated port, and transfers the division data in the device by a parallel format through the activated port; and a switching means for switching the division data transferred in the device from the interface part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for controlling a power supply of an internal circuit of a communication device.

  A communication network includes a plurality of interfaces, and a communication device such as a switch that transmits a signal received by a receiving side interface through a predetermined transmitting side interface. In this type of communication device, the signal received by the receiving side interface is transferred to the cross-connect destination sending side interface in the device. Hereinafter, this transfer within the apparatus is referred to as “intra-apparatus transfer”.

  An example of the switch is disclosed in Patent Document 1. The switch disclosed in Patent Document 1 employs a system in which a plurality of ports are provided for one interface, and a plurality of packets are transferred in the apparatus in parallel using the plurality of ports.

JP 2005-52537 Gazette

  However, the switch described in Patent Document 1 may not have good power efficiency for the following reason.

  Generally, the value of the transfer rate of a signal received by a communication device such as a switch is not always the maximum value, but varies depending on the period and time. Nevertheless, the switch described in Patent Document 1 always turns on the power of the transfer circuits of all output ports during operation, regardless of the value of the transfer rate.

  For this reason, even when the transfer rate is low, the power consumption of the transfer circuit is the same as when the transfer rate is high, and there is a problem that power efficiency is not good.

  It is an object of the present invention to improve the power efficiency of a communication device that performs signal transfer in the device in parallel using a plurality of ports.

  In order to achieve the above object, a communication apparatus of the present invention has a plurality of ports that can be activated or deactivated, receives a serial signal, and among the plurality of ports, on the serial signal The number of ports corresponding to the data transfer rate is activated, the data is divided into a plurality of divided data and distributed to the activated ports, and the divided data is sent in parallel in the apparatus through the activated ports. An interface unit for transferring, and switch means for performing switching processing on the divided data transferred from the interface unit in the apparatus.

  According to the communication device control method of the present invention, among a plurality of ports that can be activated or deactivated, a number of ports corresponding to a transfer rate of data on a received serial signal are activated, and the data is Control of a communication device that distributes the divided data into a plurality of divided data and distributes the divided data in the device in parallel format through the activated port, and processes the divided data transferred in the device Is the method.

  According to the present invention, the communication device activates the number of ports corresponding to the index value based on the internal transfer rate of the serial signal and internally transfers through the port, so that all the ports are always activated. In comparison, the power efficiency of the communication device is improved.

It is a block diagram which shows one structural example of the communication apparatus of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows one structural example of the interface of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the example of 1 structure of the SERDES part of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. (A) It is a figure which shows the example of 1 structure of the packet of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. (B) It is a figure which shows the example of 1 structure of the division | segmentation packet of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a table | surface which shows the correspondence of the received data amount of 1st Embodiment of this invention, and flow volume information. It is the table | surface which put together the content as described in the determination table of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the output control part of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the operation result of the communication apparatus of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the operation result of the communication apparatus of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows one structural example of the interface of the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the output control part of the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows one structural example of the interface of the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of 1 structure of the packet in the apparatus of the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a table | surface which shows the correspondence of the number of pass channels of 3rd Embodiment of this invention, and flow volume information.

(First embodiment)
A first embodiment for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the communication device 1. The communication device 1 is a communication device having a function of transferring packet data to a destination, and is, for example, an L2 (Layer 2) switch or an L (Layer 3) 3 switch. The communication device 1 is connected to the network management device 2.

  The communication device 1 includes interfaces 10 to 17, a switch unit 20, and a device management unit 30. A cable for transmitting the main signal is connected to each of the interfaces 10 to 17. Here, the main signal is a signal transferred in a serial format and includes packet data.

  Each of the interfaces 10 to 17 divides the data on the main signal for each packet or a predetermined number of bytes, adds information indicating a transfer destination to each of the divided data, and switches in a parallel format. To the department. A plurality of signals (divided data) transferred in parallel format are defined as parallel signals.

  The switch unit 20 refers to information added to the divided data and transfers a packet from any one of the interfaces 10 to 17 to another interface.

  The device management unit 30 sets a cross-connect method between the interfaces 10 to 13 and the interfaces 10 to 13 according to the control of the network management device 2. For example, the device management unit 30 sets the cross connection method based on a table indicating the correspondence between the header information of the packet and the physical address of the transfer destination interface.

  The device management unit 30 controls the transfer operation of each interface (11-17) based on the cross-connect setting.

  The network management device 2 manages a plurality of communication devices such as the communication device 1 and controls these devices.

  By configuring a network using a plurality of communication devices such as the communication device 1, the communication system can transfer packet data from the transmission source to the transmission destination using the network.

  Next, the configuration of the interfaces 10 to 17 shown in FIG. 1 will be described. Since the interfaces 10 to 17 have the same configuration, the configurations of the interface 10 and the interface 14 will be described in detail here, and detailed descriptions of other interfaces will be omitted.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a part of the configuration of the interfaces 10 and 14. This figure describes the configuration of each interface when the interface 10 receives a main signal from the outside and the interface 14 transmits the main signal to the outside.

  The configuration of each interface when the interface 10 is the transmission side and the interface 14 is the reception side is a configuration that is symmetrical to the configuration shown in FIG. In the figure, the configuration when the interface 10 is the transmission side and the interface 14 is the reception side is omitted.

  The interface 10 includes a reception unit 101, a packet reception processing unit 103, a SERDES unit 105, a flow rate monitoring unit 107, and an output control unit 109.

  The receiving unit 101 receives a main signal from an external communication device, and transfers the main signal to the packet reception processing unit 103.

  The packet reception processing unit 103 includes a data holding memory 1031 and a flow rate monitoring memory 1032 and temporarily holds a packet included in the main signal in these memories.

  The packet held in the data holding memory 1031 is read at a speed corresponding to the number of ports that are turned on, and the read packet is transferred to the SERDES unit 105.

  The packets held in the flow monitoring memory 1032 are read by the flow monitoring unit 107 at a predetermined cycle regardless of the number of ports that are turned on, and the read packets are discarded.

  The packet reception processing unit 103 refers to the header information of the packet, determines which of the interfaces 15 to 18 should be forwarded, and adds destination information indicating the forwarding destination interface. The interface to be transferred is determined by the cross-connect setting in the device management unit 30.

  If the number of bytes of the packet is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, the packet reception processing unit 103 divides the packet into predetermined bytes. Then, the packet reception processing unit 103 adds destination information and order information to each divided packet (hereinafter referred to as “divided packet”).

  The order information is information indicating the transfer order of the divided packets and is added to recombine the divided packets on the receiving side.

  The packet reception processing unit 103 transfers the packet to which the destination information is added or the divided packet to which the destination information and the order information are added to the SERDES unit 105 within the apparatus.

  The SERDES unit 105 transmits the main signal transferred from the packet reception processing unit 103 in the apparatus to the switch unit 20 in a parallel format through a plurality of signal lines.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the SERDES unit 105. Referring to the figure, the SERDES unit 105 includes a plurality of transfer circuits such as a conversion circuit 1051 and a transfer circuit 1052, a plurality of ports such as a port 1056 provided in association with the transfer circuit, and a control unit 1060. . In the present embodiment, the number of transfer circuits and ports is four.

  The conversion circuit 1051 converts the serial signal received from the packet reception processing unit 103 into a parallel signal.

  Specifically, the conversion circuit 1051 distributes each packet or divided packet from the packet processing unit 103 to an active port among a plurality of ports, and transfers the packets in a parallel format to a transfer circuit corresponding to the port. To do.

  Each of the transfer circuits 1052 to 1055 is provided for each port, and is connected to the conversion circuit 1051 by one signal line. The transfer circuit transfers the packet data from the conversion circuit 1051 to the switch unit 20 through the corresponding port.

  Each of the ports 1056 to 1059 is connected to the switch 20 through a signal line. The port corresponding to the operating transfer circuit is activated (ON), and the port corresponding to the stopped transfer circuit is inactivated (OFF).

  The control unit 1060 controls the serial-parallel conversion operation of the conversion circuit 1051 and the power source of each transfer circuit 1052 and the like according to the control of the output control unit 109.

  Returning to FIG. 2, the flow rate monitoring unit 107 monitors the data flow rate of the main signal, that is, the index value that is an index of the in-device transfer rate.

  For example, the flow rate monitoring unit 107 reads a packet from the memory of the flow rate monitoring memory 1032 at a predetermined cycle, and acquires the memory usage (the amount of received data in each cycle) as an index value. A value obtained by dividing the received data amount by the read cycle is the intra-device transfer rate.

  The flow rate monitoring unit 107 compares a preset threshold value with the received data amount, and creates flow rate information 1071 indicating a comparison result. The flow rate monitoring unit 107 transmits the flow rate information 1071 to the output control unit 109. Details of the flow rate information 1071 will be described later.

  The output control unit 109 has a determination table 1091. In the determination table 1091, a comparison result between the threshold value and the index value, that is, a numerical range to which the received data amount belongs and the number of ports to be activated for transferring the parallel signal are described in association with each other. Details of the determination table 1091 will be described later with reference to FIG.

  The output control unit 109 acquires the number of ports corresponding to the flow rate information 1071 from the determination table 1091. The output control unit 109 controls the power supply of each transfer circuit so that the number of transfer circuits (1052 and the like) necessary for activating only the acquired number of ports are turned on.

  Next, the switch unit 20 shown in FIG. 2 will be described. The switch unit 20 refers to the destination information added to each packet transferred in parallel, and transfers the packet or the divided packet to the interface indicated by the destination information.

  Next, the configuration of the transmission-side interface 14 will be described with reference to FIG. The interface 14 includes a SERDES unit 141, a packet transmission processing unit 143, and a transmission unit 145.

  The SERDES unit 141 bundles the parallel signals from the switch unit 20, converts them into serial signals, and transfers them to the packet transmission processing unit 143.

  When the order information is added to the divided packet, the SERDES unit 141 removes the order information and arranges the divided packets in the order indicated by the order information and recombines them.

  The packet transmission processing unit 143 removes the destination information added by the packet reception processing unit 103 from the packet included in the serial signal from the SERDES unit 141 and transfers it to the transmission unit 145.

  The transmission unit 145 transmits the main signal from the packet transmission processing unit 143 to the destination indicated by the header information.

  4A and 4B are diagrams illustrating an example of a packet configuration in the present embodiment. FIG. 3A is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a packet received by the reception unit 101. As illustrated in FIG. 3A, a header portion is added to the information portion of the packet.

  FIG. 4B is a diagram showing the configuration of the divided packet transmitted by the packet reception processing unit 103. As shown in FIG. 4B, the packet reception processing unit 103 divides the received packet into a plurality of divided packets. The destination information and the order information are added to each divided packet.

  FIG. 5 is a table showing the relationship between the received data amount and the flow rate information 1071. Three threshold values, threshold value 1, threshold value 2, and threshold value 3, are preset in the memory usage rate. As these threshold values, values that do not cause packet loss are set if the memory usage rate is equal to or higher than the threshold value.

  When the received data amount is greater than or equal to the threshold 3, the flow rate monitoring unit 107 creates flow rate information 1071 indicating “state 4”.

  When the amount of received data is less than threshold 3 and greater than or equal to threshold 2, flow information 1071 indicating “state 3” is created. When the memory usage rate is less than threshold 2 and greater than or equal to threshold 1, “state 2” is created. The flow rate information 1071 indicating “state 1” is generated when the received flow rate information 1071 is generated and the received data amount is less than the threshold value 1.

  FIG. 6 is a table summarizing the contents described in the determination table 1091 when the number of ports per interface is four. As shown in the figure, the determination table 1091 describes the correspondence between the content indicated by the flow rate information 1071, that is, the numerical range to which the memory usage rate belongs, and the “number of required ports”. The “necessary port number” is the number of ports to be activated in order to transfer parallel signals.

  The determination table 1091 describes the correspondence so that the required port count increases as the memory usage rate increases.

  For example, when the flow rate information 1071 indicates “state 1” (threshold value 3 or more), the required number of ports is “4”. When the flow rate information 1071 indicates “state 2” (less than threshold 3 and threshold 2 or more), the required number of ports is “3”, and the flow information 1071 indicates “state 3” (less than threshold 2 and greater than or equal to threshold 1). In this case, the required number of ports is “2”. When the flow rate information 1071 indicates “state 1” (less than threshold 1), the required number of ports is “1”.

  The operation of the output control unit 109 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the output control unit 109. This operation starts when the communication device 1 is powered on. Referring to the figure, the output control unit 109 acquires flow rate information 1071 from the flow rate monitoring unit 107 (step S1).

  The output control unit 109 refers to the determination table 1091 to obtain the “necessary number of ports” corresponding to the content indicated by the flow rate information 1071 (step S2). The output control unit 109 determines whether or not the number of ports that are currently on (activated) and the number of necessary ports are equal (step S3).

  If the current port number is equal to the required port number (step S3: YES), the output control unit 109 returns to step S1. If the current port number is not equal to the required port number (step S3: NO), the output control unit 109 determines whether or not the current port number is larger than the required port number (step S4).

  If the current number of ports is larger than the required number of ports (step S4: YES), the output control unit 109 turns off the number of ports corresponding to the difference between the current number of ports and the required number of ports (inactive state). Thus, the power supply of the transfer circuit (1052 etc.) is controlled (step S5).

  If the current number of ports is not larger than the required number of ports (step S4: NO), the output control unit 109 performs transfer so as to turn on the number of ports corresponding to the difference between the current number of ports and the required number of ports. The power supply of the circuit (1052 etc.) is controlled (step S6). After step S5 or S6, the output control unit 109 returns to step S1.

  An example of the operation result of the communication device 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the communication apparatus 1 when all the ports (P1 to P4) are turned on.

  When the interface 10 receives the packets “A” and “B” from the outside, the packet “A” is divided into the divided packets “A-1”, “A-2”, “A-3”, and “A-4”. The packet “B” is divided into divided packets “B-1” and “B-2”. When the interface 11 receives the packets “a” and “b” from the outside, the interface 11 divides the packet “a” into divided packets “a−1”, “a-2”, and “a-3”. b ”is divided into divided packets of“ b-1 ”,“ b-2 ”, and“ b-3 ”.

  From the cross-connect setting, the divided packets of “A-1,” “A-2,” “A-3,” “A-4,” “a-1,” “a-2,” “a-3” The transfer destination interface is the interface 14. The interface to which the divided packets of “B-1”, “B-2”, “b-1”, “b-2”, and “b-3” are transferred is the interface 15.

  The receiving-side interface 10 receives the divided packets “A-1,” “A-2,” “A-3,” and “A-4” in the order of reception “1”, “2”, “3”. , Order information indicating “4” and destination information indicating the transfer destination are added. The same applies to the divided packets “B-1” and “B-2”. Similarly, the interface 11 adds order information and destination information to each divided packet.

  The interfaces 10 and 11 distribute these divided packets to four ports and transfer them in parallel form through each port.

  For example, the interface 10 transfers the divided packets “A-1”, “A-2”, “A-3”, and “A-4” to the switch unit 20 via the ports P1 to P4, respectively. Next, the divided packets “B-1” and “B-2” are transferred to the switch unit 20 through the ports P1 and P2. Further, the interface 11 transfers the divided packets “a-1”, “a-2”, “a-3”, and “b-1” to the switch unit 20 through the ports P1 to P4, respectively. Next, the divided packets “b-2” and “b-3” are transferred to the switch unit 20 through the ports P1 and P2.

  The switch unit 20 refers to the destination information of each divided packet and transfers it to the interface indicated by the information. The packets “A-1”, “A-2”, “A-3”, “A-4”, “a-1”, “a-2”, “a-3” are transferred to the interface 14. , “B-1”, “B-2”, “b-1”, “b-2”, and “b-3” are transferred to the interface 15.

  The interfaces 14 and 15 on the receiving side refer to the order information of the packets transferred by the parallel method, and recombine the divided packets in the order indicated by the information. The interfaces 14 and 15 transmit the recombined packets “A”, “B”, “a”, and “b” to an external device based on the header information.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the communication device 1 when the operation of some ports is off. Consider a case in which the internal transfer rate is reduced and one port is turned off in the interfaces 10 and 11.

  In FIG. 9, when the same packet data as in FIG. 8 is received, the interfaces 10 and 11 distribute the divided packets to the three activated ports and transfer them in parallel form through the ports.

  For example, the interface 10 transfers the divided packets “A-1”, “A-2”, and “A-3” to the switch unit 20 through the ports P1 to P3, respectively, ”,“ B-1 ”, and“ B-2 ”are transferred to the switch unit 20 through the ports P1 to P3. Further, the interface 11 transfers the divided packets “a−1”, “a-2”, and “a-3” to the switch unit 20 through the ports P1 to P3, respectively, ”,“ B-2 ”, and“ b-3 ”are transferred to the switch unit 20 through the ports P1 to P3.

  In the present embodiment, the number of ports provided in each interface is four. However, the number of ports is not limited to four as long as it is plural. The number of thresholds is not limited to three.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the communication device 1 acquires the memory usage rate as an index value of the intra-device transfer rate of the main signal, but if the value varies depending on the intra-device transfer rate value, Other values may be acquired as index values.

  In this embodiment, the communication apparatus 1 determines the number of ports to be activated by referring to the determination table 1091. However, the number of ports is calculated by using a predetermined arithmetic expression without using the table. You can also

  In the present embodiment, the communication device 1 changes the number of ports in the activated state by turning on and off the power supply of each transfer circuit. However, in some cases, power consumption can be reduced by stopping only the transfer operation while turning on the power of the transfer circuit. In this case, the communication device 1 may change the number of ports in the activated state by controlling only the transfer operation.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the communication device 1 activates the number of ports corresponding to the transfer rate of the main signal (serial signal) and internally transfers through the ports. Compared with the configuration in which the port is activated, the power efficiency of the communication device is improved.

  Further, the output control unit 109 has a determination table 1091 in which a plurality of setting ranges for the received data amount and the number of ports to be activated (“number of necessary ports”) are described in association with each other, so refer to this table. Thus, the necessary number of ports can be easily determined without performing complicated calculations.

(Second Embodiment)
A second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the communication device 1a according to the present embodiment. Referring to the figure, in the communication device 1a, the flow rate monitoring unit 107 does not have the flow rate monitoring memory 1032 and instead of the flow rate information 1071, the memory usage rate information 1071a indicating the value of the memory usage rate of the data holding memory 1031 is displayed. This is different from the first embodiment in that the output control unit 109 does not have the determination table 1091.

  The memory usage rate is a value serving as an index of the intra-device transfer rate. This is because the memory usage rate varies depending on the difference between the received data flow rate and the data flow rate transferred in the apparatus. That is, when the received data flow rate is higher than the in-device transfer data flow rate, the memory usage rate is increased. When the received data flow rate is smaller than the in-device transfer data flow rate, the memory usage rate becomes small. If the received data flow rate is below a predetermined threshold, it is desirable to reduce the number of ports to be turned on.

  The output control unit 109 compares the memory usage rate with preset thresholds A and B (A> B). The thresholds A and B are an upper limit value and a lower limit value of the memory usage rate in a range in which the number of ports to be activated is increased or decreased. The output control unit 109 increases the number of ports to be activated if the memory usage rate is equal to or greater than the threshold A, and decreases the number of ports to be activated if the memory usage rate is equal to or less than the threshold B.

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the operation of the output control unit 109 of this embodiment. Referring to the figure, the output control unit 109 acquires memory usage rate information 1071a (step S1a).

  The output control unit 109 determines whether the memory usage rate indicated by the memory usage rate information 1071a is equal to or greater than the threshold A (step S3a).

  If the memory usage rate is less than the threshold value A (step S3a: NO), the output control unit 109 determines whether the memory usage rate is equal to or less than the threshold value B (step S4a). If the memory usage rate is greater than the threshold value B (step S4a: NO), the output control unit 109 returns to step S1a.

If the memory usage rate is equal to or less than the threshold value B (step S4a: YES), the output control unit 109 controls the power supply of the transfer circuit 1052 and the like so that the number of ports to be activated is decreased by 1 (step S5a). .

If the memory usage rate is equal to or higher than the threshold A (step S3a: YES), the output control unit 109 controls the power supply of the transfer circuit 1052 and the like so that the number of ports to be activated increases by 1 (step S6a). . After step S5a or S6a, the output control unit 109 returns to step S1a.

  Note that part of the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 7 and 11 can also be realized by executing a computer program.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the communication device 1a controls the transfer circuit so that the memory usage rate becomes a value within the predetermined setting range, so that the internal transfer is improved while improving the power efficiency. Rate fluctuations can be suppressed.

(Third embodiment)
A third embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the interface 10b of this embodiment. Referring to the figure, the interface 10b differs from the interface of the first embodiment in that it has an SDH signal termination processing unit 102 and an in-device packet generation unit 103b instead of the packet reception processing unit 103.

  In the present embodiment, the main signal is an SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) frame.

  In the case of an interface that receives an STM-64 signal, a maximum of 192 channels can be assigned to each interface in terms of VC3 path conversion.

  In the cross-connect setting in the device management unit 30, a maximum of 192 channels of logical lines are allocated to each interface, and the channel corresponding to the cross-connect destination interface is designated in the in-device packet generation unit 103b.

  The SDH signal termination processing unit 102 terminates the SDH frame from the reception unit 101, and transfers the path signal accommodated in the SDH frame to the in-device packet generation unit 103b.

  As shown in FIG. 13, the in-device packet generator 103b divides the path signal into fixed lengths, sets each part as an information part (payload), and adds a header part to the information part for the channel to which the connection destination is specified. Generated in-device packet.

  The in-device packet generation unit 103 b stores destination information indicating the connection destination in the header of the generated in-device packet and transfers the destination information to the SERDES unit 105.

  In this way, since the intra-device packet is generated for the channel for which the cross-connect destination is designated, the number of intra-device packets generated varies depending on the number of channels.

  Further, since the SDH signal is a CBR (Continuous Bit-Rate) signal, the amount of data received can be predicted from the number of channels specified as the connection destination.

  Therefore, as shown in FIG. 14, the flow rate monitoring unit 107 compares the number of channels specified as the connection destination with each threshold value in the in-device packet generation unit 103b as an index value.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the communication apparatus can improve the power efficiency even when the SDH signal is transferred and a plurality of logical lines are set.

1, 1a, 1b Communication device 2 Network management device 10-17 Interface 20 Switch unit 30 Device management unit 101 Receiving unit 102 SDH signal termination processing unit 103 Packet reception processing unit 103b In-device packet generation unit 105, 141 SERDES unit 107 Flow rate monitoring Unit 109 output control unit 143 packet transmission processing unit 143b in-device packet termination unit 144 SDH signal generation unit 145 transmission unit 1031 data holding memory 1032 flow monitoring memory 1051 conversion circuit 1052 to 1055 transfer circuit 1056 to 1059 port 1060 control unit 1071 flow rate Information 1071 Memory usage rate information 1091, 1091b Determination table S1 to S6, S1a to S6a Steps

Claims (11)

It has a plurality of ports that can be activated or deactivated, receives a serial signal, and activates a number of ports according to the data transfer rate on the serial signal among the plurality of ports, An interface unit that divides the data into a plurality of divided data and distributes the divided data to the activated port, and transfers the divided data in the apparatus in parallel through the activated port;
Switch means for switching the divided data transferred in the apparatus from the interface unit;
A communication device. The interface unit is
A plurality of transfer circuits connected to each of the ports and transferring the divided data output by the conversion means through the ports in the apparatus;
Index value acquisition means for acquiring an index value as an index of the transfer rate;
By determining the number of ports to be activated according to the index value acquired by the index value acquisition means, and controlling the plurality of transfer circuits so that only the determined number of the transfer circuits operate, Control means for activating a determined number of ports;
Signal processing means for dividing the data on the serial signal into the plurality of divided data;
Conversion means for distributing each of the divided data to the transfer circuit connected to the port activated by the control means;
The communication device according to claim 1, comprising: The data is data including a packet,
The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the signal processing unit divides the data into the divided data for each packet or for each predetermined byte. The serial signal is an SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) frame,
The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the signal processing unit divides data on the SDH frame and generates an in-device packet as the divided data.   The communication apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the index value acquisition unit acquires, as the index value, the number of channels for which a transfer destination of the switch unit is designated in the interface unit. The signal processing means has a flow rate monitoring memory that temporarily stores the data and is read out at a predetermined cycle,
5. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein the index value acquisition unit acquires a data amount read from the flow rate monitoring memory in each cycle as an index value. 6.   The control unit stores a plurality of setting ranges for the index value in association with the number of ports to be activated, and corresponds to the setting range to which the index value acquired by the index value acquiring unit belongs The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the number to be set is the number of ports to be activated. The signal processing means temporarily stores the data, and has a temporary storage memory that is read at a timing according to the number of activated ports,
The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the transfer rate acquisition unit acquires a usage rate of the temporary storage memory as the index value. If the index value is equal to or less than a predetermined lower limit value, the control means decreases the number of ports to be activated by a predetermined value until the index value becomes larger than the lower limit value, and the index value is equal to the predetermined upper limit value. The communication device according to claim 8, wherein the number of ports to be activated is increased by a predetermined value until the index value becomes less than the upper limit value.   The communication according to any one of claims 2 to 9, wherein the control means supplies power to a transfer circuit corresponding to a port to be activated and does not supply power to a transfer circuit corresponding to a port to be deactivated. apparatus. Among a plurality of ports that can be activated or deactivated, activate a number of ports according to the data transfer rate on the received serial signal,
The data is divided into a plurality of divided data and allocated to the activated port, and the divided data is transferred in the device in parallel format through the activated port,
A method for controlling a communication apparatus, which processes the divided data transferred in the apparatus.

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