JPH05153244A - Remote maintenance system for remote terminal in exchange network - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate maintenance and to reduce the processing burden of an exchange in an exchange network provided with a remote terminal (RT). CONSTITUTION:A subscriber terminal 1 is stored in an exchange 3A through plural RT 2A, 2B and 2C. A maintenance center 5 for maintaining RT 2A, 2B and 2C is stored in an exchange 3B. Mintenance protocols adopted with the maintenance center 5 and respective RT 2A, 2B and 2C are different, and the protocols required to be converted for their communication. Thus, protocol conversion devices 6A, 6B and 6C for mutually converting so as to be compatible with maintenance protocols of the maintenance center 5 and respective RT 2A, 2B and 2C so that they are stored in an exchange 3C. When the maintenance center 5 communicates with RT 2A, for example, they communicate through the protocol conversion device 6A.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a switching network, and more particularly to a remote maintenance system for a remote terminal in a switching network having a maintenance center for remotely maintaining the remote terminal.

In recent years, with the diversification of the switching network and the diversification of various processing devices constituting the switching network, maintenance engineers and maintenance costs are reduced, and recovery time in the event of a failure is shortened. A maintenance center is provided to centrally manage a plurality of maintenance target devices at one place. The maintenance center
It is a device for communicating with an exchange or other auxiliary devices regularly or as needed to transfer or collect data necessary for maintenance.

By the way, among the exchanges constituting the exchange network, those having a comparatively large jurisdiction have IDLs.
A remote terminal (RT), which is a type of C (Integrated Digital Subscriber Line Carrier), is installed. The remote terminal is a device used when the subscriber terminals to be accommodated in the exchange are scattered in a relatively remote place from the exchange, and by accommodating a plurality of subscriber terminals in the exchange via the remote terminals, This is a device for improving efficiency by reducing communication links.

Since a plurality of such remote terminals are installed in a relatively remote place as described above, maintenance is not easy, and it is a device particularly required to be centrally managed at a maintenance center.

However, there are a plurality of vendors (providers) of remote terminals, and each of them currently uses a different maintenance protocol. Ideally, there will be no problem if each vendor adopts a unified maintenance protocol, but in the current situation where remote terminals that use different maintenance protocols are already in operation, this will be dealt with efficiently. In addition, it is necessary to smoothly support the integration of future maintenance protocols.

[0006]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional remote maintenance system. In the figure, 11A, 11B, 11C and 11D are exchanges forming an exchange network.
The remote terminals 12A and 12B are connected to the remote terminal 12A and 12B by a communication link.
Is connected to a plurality of subscriber terminals.

13A and 13B are maintenance centers, and the maintenance centers 13A and 13B are connected to the exchanges 11A and 11B. The remote terminals 12A and 12B are provided by different vendors, and the maintenance protocols adopted by them are different. The maintenance centers 13A, 13B are provided by different vendors from the remote terminals 12A, 12B, and the maintenance protocols adopted by them are different.

The exchange 11A accommodating the remote terminal 12A has a function of mutually converting so that the maintenance protocol adopted by the maintenance center 13A or 13B and the maintenance protocol adopted by the remote terminal 12A are mutually converted. The exchange 11B accommodating 12B has a protocol conversion function for performing mutual conversion so that the maintenance protocol adopted by the maintenance center 13A or 13B and the maintenance protocol adopted by the remote terminal 12B are matched with each other. Differences in maintenance protocols are absorbed by the functions, and the data required for maintenance is transferred and collected.

FIG. 7 shows an ideal system which will be adopted in the future. Maintenance center 13
No matter which vendor the A, 13B and remote terminals 12A, 12B are provided with, the maintenance protocols are all uniform, and therefore the exchanges 11A, 11B are
It is not necessary to provide the protocol conversion function in B.

This system will eventually be adopted, and all the problems described below will be solved, but the existing remote terminals and maintenance centers will all be replaced with those that adopt a unified maintenance protocol. It is expected that it will take a considerably long period of time to be realized, and under the present circumstances, the method as shown in FIG. 6 has to be adopted.

[0011]

As described above, in order to absorb the difference in the maintenance protocol between the maintenance center and the remote terminal, conventionally, the exchange which accommodates the remote terminal is provided with the protocol conversion function. , The maintenance protocol is converted.

Therefore, the protocol conversion function must correspond to the type of maintenance protocol adopted by the vendor of the remote terminal housed in the exchange, and when the remote terminal is newly installed or relocated, There is a problem in that the protocol conversion function may also have to be changed, and this work is complicated. Further, since the maintenance protocol is converted in the exchange, there is a problem that the processing load on the exchange is heavy.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to facilitate maintenance, reduce the load on the exchange, and further integrate a maintenance protocol in the future. It is to be able to respond smoothly when is adopted.

[0014]

A means for solving the problems will be described with reference to FIG. A plurality of exchanges 3A, 3B, 3C including an exchange 3A accommodating the subscriber terminal 1 through a plurality of remote terminals 2A, 2B, 2C adopting different maintenance protocols are connected by a line 4, and the remote terminals 2A, 2B are connected. , 2
In a switching network in which a maintenance center 5 for maintaining C at a remote place is accommodated in any of the exchanges 3A, 3B, 3C, the maintenance protocol adopted by the maintenance center 5 and the remote terminal 2A, When the maintenance protocols adopted by 2B and 2C are different, the protocol conversion devices 6A, 6B and 6 which perform mutual conversion so as to match each other.
C is accommodated in any of the exchanges 3A, 3B, 3C corresponding to each type of maintenance protocol to be converted, and the maintenance center 5 and the maintenance target remote terminal (for example, 2A) correspond to these. It is configured to communicate via a protocol conversion device (for example, 6A).

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the principle, and the present invention is not limited to the configuration shown in FIG. Further, as used in the specification of the present application, "to accommodate" means to connect to an exchange so that communication can be performed via the exchange network.

[0016]

According to the present invention, since the protocol conversion device is housed in any of the exchanges forming the exchange network and the communication is performed via this, it is different from the maintenance protocol adopted by the existing remote terminal. When a new remote terminal adopting the maintenance protocol is newly installed, it can be handled by additionally accommodating a protocol conversion device corresponding to this to the exchange, and the same maintenance protocol as the existing remote terminal is used. When installing a new remote terminal or when relocating the remote terminal, it is possible to deal with it without any special work, and it is necessary to change the function of the exchange. , Maintenance work due to new installation of remote terminal becomes easy.

Further, since the protocol conversion processing is carried out by the protocol conversion device independent of the exchange, the load on the exchange can be reduced. Furthermore, when the maintenance protocol is integrated in the future and a remote terminal that adopts the integrated maintenance protocol is installed,
The maintenance center may communicate directly with the remote terminal without going through the protocol conversion device, which facilitates the transition to the integration of maintenance protocols.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A case where the present invention is applied to a packet switching network will be described with reference to the explanatory view of the first embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG.

In the figure, reference numeral 21 denotes an exchange, and the exchange 21 has a plurality of subscriber terminals connected to the remote terminal 2.
2. It is accommodated via other remote terminals (not shown). The remote terminal 22 is provided by vendor A, the other remote terminals are provided by vendors (B, C, ...) Other than vendor A,
It is assumed that each employs a different maintenance protocol.

A maintenance operation network 23 is connected to the exchange 21 to be maintained and other exchanges (not shown), and the maintenance operation network 23 has a maintenance center 24A,
A plurality of protocol conversion devices including 24B and the protocol conversion device 25 are accommodated as one terminal device, respectively.

The maintenance centers 24A and 24B are devices for carrying out tests of the remote terminal 22 and the like, data management, fault monitoring, collection of traffic data, etc. on a regular basis or when necessary.

Each protocol conversion device including the protocol conversion device 25 is physically arranged in one place to form a protocol conversion center 26, and each protocol conversion device is a vendor of the remote terminal to be maintained (each vendor is It is provided corresponding to each of the types of maintenance protocols used), and the maintenance center 24A,
It is a device that performs mutual conversion so that the maintenance protocol adopted by 24B matches the maintenance protocol adopted by each remote terminal. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the maintenance centers 24A and 24B use the same maintenance protocol. However, when different maintenance protocols are used, the types of maintenance protocol of the remote terminal and the maintenance protocol of the maintenance center are used. The number of protocol converters is required to be the product of the types of

When carrying out maintenance of the remote terminal, the maintenance center 24A or 24B is the remote terminal to be maintained (referred to as the remote terminal 22).
The maintenance operation request message is transmitted to the network address assigned to the protocol conversion device (referred to as the protocol conversion device 25) corresponding to the vendor A, which is the vendor. The maintenance operation request message also includes information for specifying the target remote terminal 22.

This maintenance operation request message is sent to the protocol conversion device 25 via the maintenance operation network 23, and the protocol conversion device 25 targets the remote terminal 2.
The information specifying 2 is extracted, the maintenance operation request message is converted so as to match the maintenance protocol adopted by the vendor A, and the target remote terminal 22
The converted maintenance operation request message is transmitted to the.

This maintenance operation request message arrives at the remote terminal 22 via the maintenance operation network 23 and the exchange 21, and the communication path is set by this, and thereafter, the protocol conversion device between the maintenance center 24A or 24B and the remote terminal 22. The desired maintenance work is performed by communicating via 25.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of the second embodiment of the present invention.
In the first embodiment described above, the communication path is set by sending a call from the maintenance center to the protocol converter, and then the protocol converter sending to the remote terminal. The communication route is set by directly calling from the maintenance center to the remote terminal.

That is, the exchange 21 receives the maintenance operation request message from the maintenance center 24A or 24B,
This is a request to the remote terminal (referred to as the remote terminal 22), and it is recognized that protocol conversion is required, and the maintenance center 24A or 2
4B and a function 27 for detecting the network address of the protocol conversion device 25 corresponding to the maintenance protocol adopted by the remote terminal 22 to be maintained. This maintenance operation request message is not received by the remote terminal 22, The data is transferred to the corresponding protocol conversion device 25.

The protocol converter 25 converts the maintenance operation request message into a protocol and sends it to the remote terminal 22. This maintenance operation request message arrives at the remote terminal 22 via the exchange 21,
As a result, the communication path is set, and thereafter the maintenance center 24A
Alternatively, the desired maintenance work is carried out by communicating between 24B and the remote terminal 22 via the protocol conversion device 25. The exchange 21 recognizes that the maintenance operation request message from the protocol converter 25 does not require protocol conversion. In this case, normal call connection processing is performed.

Although the processing load on the exchange 21 is slightly increased as compared with the first embodiment, the protocol converter 25 is used in the maintenance centers 24A and 24B.
This is effective in that it is not necessary to recognize the network address and so on.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of the third embodiment of the present invention.
The maintenance center 31 is connected to each of the protocol conversion devices 33A, 33B, 33C via the maintenance operation network 32, and the exchange 35 to which the remote terminals 34A, 34B, 34C are connected to the protocol conversion devices 33A, 33B, 3C.
Each of them is connected to the maintenance and operation network 32 via 3C.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of the fourth embodiment of the present invention.
In the fourth embodiment described above, the maintenance and operation network and the exchange are connected via a protocol conversion device arranged in parallel, whereas in this embodiment, the protocol conversion device is provided between the maintenance and operation network 32 and the exchange 35. 33A, 33B and 33C are serially interposed.

Each protocol converter 33A, 33B, 3
The 3C recognizes the maintenance protocol of the remote terminal (for example, the remote terminal 34B) that is the request destination of the maintenance operation request message from the maintenance center 31 and the type of the maintenance protocol of the maintenance center 31, and if applicable (in the protocol conversion device 33B). In this case, the protocol conversion is performed only in the case), and when it is not applicable (in the case of the protocol conversion device 33A or 33C), the protocol is directly passed. It has an advantage over the third embodiment that the number of communication links (lines) can be reduced.

According to the above-mentioned first to fourth embodiments, since the protocol converter is provided independently of the exchange, it corresponds to the kind of maintenance protocol adopted by the maintenance center and the kind of maintenance protocol of the remote terminal. It suffices to provide a number of protocol conversion devices, which is very efficient as compared with the conventional one in which each exchange has a protocol conversion function. By centralizing each protocol conversion device in one place, maintenance work such as new installation or relocation of the remote terminal is very easy. Furthermore, the burden on the exchange is less than in the past, and the exchange can concentrate on the original processing.

According to the first and second embodiments described above,
If maintenance protocols are integrated in the future and a remote terminal that adopts the integrated maintenance protocol is installed, it is only necessary to set the communication path directly to the remote terminal without going through the protocol conversion device. Well, there are few changes accompanying migration, and it is possible to cope smoothly when the maintenance protocol is integrated.

[0035]

Since the present invention is configured as described above in detail, it is possible to facilitate the maintenance work associated with the new installation of the remote terminal and reduce the processing load on the exchange.

In addition, when the maintenance protocols are integrated in the future, there is an effect that this can be dealt with smoothly.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional technique.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an ideal maintenance remote system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Subscriber terminal 2A, 2B, 2C Remote terminal 3A, 3B, 3C Switch 5 Maintenance center 6A, 6B, 6C Protocol converter

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of exchanges (3A, 3B, 3C) including a exchange (3A) accommodating a subscriber terminal (1) through a plurality of remote terminals (2A, 2B, 2C) via a line (4). In a switching network in which a maintenance center (5) for connecting and maintaining the remote terminals (2A, 2B, 2C) at a remote place is housed in any of the exchanges (3A, 3B, 3C), When the maintenance protocol adopted by the maintenance center (5) and the maintenance protocol adopted by the remote terminal (2A, 2B, 2C) are different, a protocol conversion device (6A, 6B, 6C) corresponding to each type of maintenance protocol to be converted.
A, 3B, 3C), so that the maintenance center (5) and the maintenance target remote terminal (2A) communicate via the protocol converter (6A) corresponding to them. Remote maintenance method for remote terminals. 2. A remote terminal remote maintenance system according to claim 1, wherein said maintenance center (5) converts protocol corresponding to a maintenance protocol adopted by said maintenance center (5) and maintenance target remote terminal (2A). The communication path is set by calling the device (6A) and then the protocol conversion device (6A) calling the maintenance target remote terminal (2A). Remote maintenance method for remote terminals. 3. The remote maintenance system for remote terminals according to claim 1, wherein when the maintenance center (5) makes a call to a maintenance target remote terminal, an exchange () accommodating the maintenance target remote terminal (2A). 3A) recognizes that it is communicating with the maintenance center (5), and the maintenance center (5)
And the call is transferred to the protocol conversion device (6A) corresponding to the maintenance protocol adopted by the maintenance target remote terminal (2A), and then the protocol conversion device (6A) issues a call to the maintenance target remote terminal (2A). A remote maintenance method for remote terminals, characterized in that the communication path is set by calling.