JPH06188918A - Packet switchboard - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a packet switchboard which easily verifies a switching operation in the switchboard without requiring an special external test device and specifies a path where a fault occurs. CONSTITUTION:A prescribed test packet is assembled based on test packet assembling information from a main control part 13 by a test packet information setting and generating means 24, and switch control information is outputted, and this test packet us inserted between communication packets by a test packet multiplexing means 26 and is inputted to a switching part 3. The test packet switched and outputted through the switching part 3 controlled by this switch control information is extracted by a test packet extracting means 27, and it is discriminated whether the switching operation test is satisfactory or not by the main control part in accordance with test packet reception information generated by disasembling in a test packet disassembling and transmission means 25.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a packet switch, and more particularly to a packet switch equipped with means for testing the switching operation of a switch section of the packet switch.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a packet switch for converting communication information into a predetermined packet and exchanging the packet. The packet 30 shown in FIG. 3 is exchanged at a high speed. The packet 30 shown in FIG. 3 is a fixed-length packet, and is composed of a header section 35 for storing various control information and a data section 36 for storing communication information. Further, the header section 35 indicates a destination of the packet 30 It is composed of a sender address 31, a sender's own subscriber address 32 indicating the sender of the packet 30, a sequence number 33 indicating the order of a series of transmitted packets, and a packet identifier 34 for identifying the function of the packet 30. ing.

In FIG. 4, reference numeral 43 is a main control unit for controlling the entire exchange, and reference numerals 1 and 2 are for accommodating subscribers and for extracting / inserting call control signaling information and packets 30 for subscriber line signals. Subscriber circuit for processing, 5
Is configured to decompose the signaling information output from the subscriber circuits 1 and 2 and output the decomposed signaling information to the main control unit 43 and the main control unit 4
3 is a signaling control unit that assembles signaling information based on the setting information from 3.

Further, 3 is a switch unit for switching a packet input from an arbitrary input port and outputting it to an arbitrary output port, and 4 is a switch control unit for controlling the switch unit 3 based on the switch control information. Reference numerals 41 and 42 extract the destination subscriber address 31 from the header portion 35 of the packet 30 received by the subscriber circuits 1 and 2, and the main control portion 4
Is a header conversion unit that calculates the physical address of the input / output port of the switch unit 3 based on the conversion parameter set by the switch unit 3 and outputs the physical address as switch control information in parallel with the received packet to the switch control unit 4. In the unit 3, they are fixedly accommodated in the input / output ports to which the physical addresses are individually assigned.

Further, FIG. 5 shows a conventional header converter 41, 4
2 is a block diagram showing No. 2, in which 51 denotes a header portion 35 of the packet 30 received by the subscriber circuits 1 and 2.
An in-header address extractor for extracting the other party subscriber address 31 from 52, and 52 the extracted other party subscriber address 3
Address conversion for converting 1 into the physical address of the output port of the switch unit 3 in which the header conversion units 41 and 42 corresponding to the counterpart subscriber circuits 1 and 2 are accommodated based on the conversion parameter from the main control unit 43, and outputting the physical address. And 53, the physical address of the output port corresponding to the other subscriber from the address conversion unit 52, the physical address of the input port of the switch unit 3 in which the own header conversion units 41 and 42 are stored, and the like.
The switch control unit 4 is assembled as necessary switch control information, and the switch control unit 4 is assembled at a predetermined timing.
It is a switch control information sending unit for outputting to.

Therefore, when the subscriber accommodated in the subscriber circuit 1 transmits a packet to the subscriber accommodated in the subscriber circuit 2, the packet is received by the subscriber circuit 1 and the header is converted. The destination subscriber address 31 is extracted from the header portion 35 by the in-header address extracting portion 51, and the destination subscriber address 31 is output from the switch portion 3 by the conversion parameter. After being converted to the physical address of
It is output as switch control information to the switch control unit 4 via the switch control information transmission unit 53.

Further, the switch unit 3 is controlled via the switch control unit 4 by this switch control information running in parallel with the received packet, and the received packet input to the switch unit 3 is based on the physical address in the switch control information. The data is exchange-outputted to the output port and transmitted to the destination subscriber indicated by the destination subscriber address 31 of the header portion 35, that is, the header conversion portion 42 corresponding to the subscriber circuit 2, and further to the target subscriber via the subscriber circuit 2. To be done.

As a switching operation test of the switch unit 3 in such a packet switch, conventionally, a test device connected to a subscriber circuit instead of the subscriber terminal and a test device connected to a subscriber circuit different from this are tested. A general method is to test the switching operation by an opposite test performed between the device or the self-test device. That is, this test device is connected to an arbitrary subscriber circuit, a predetermined test packet is generated and transmitted, and is connected to another subscriber circuit via the subscriber circuit, the header conversion unit and the switch unit. The subscriber terminal or the self-test device receives this, and the received test packet is analyzed by the test device.

[0009]

Therefore, according to such a conventional switching operation test method in a packet switch, an external test device for carrying out a face-to-face test or a subscriber having an equivalent function is used. Since this is an offline test in which a circuit must be prepared and the test equipment is connected instead of the subscriber terminal and the subscriber circuit is occupied for the test, normal packet communication is performed by this subscriber circuit during the test execution. There was a drawback that I could not.

Further, the manufacturer may not be provided with detailed connection information inside the packet switch, that is, the connection information between the physical address of the input / output port of the switch section and each subscriber (header conversion section) to the packet switch administrator. In most cases, there is a problem that the test conducted in such a case does not correspond to the input / output port of the switch section, and it is difficult to determine the failure occurrence point by the test and take appropriate corrective action. . The present invention is intended to solve such a problem, does not require a special external test device at the time of testing, can easily verify the switching operation in the switch, and can specify the failure path. Is intended to provide.

[0011]

In order to achieve such an object, the packet switch according to the present invention, as a header conversion unit, a predetermined test packet based on test packet assembly information designating at least an output port of a switch unit. And a test packet information setting / generating means for generating switch control information corresponding to the test packet, a test packet multiplexing means for inserting the test packet between communication packets and inputting to the switch section, and exchange from the switch section. A test packet extracting means for extracting only a test packet from the various output packets; and a test packet disassembling / transmitting means for disassembling the test packet extracted by the test packet extracting means and outputting test packet reception information, Set test packet information for any header converter in the main controller The test packet assembly information is output to the generator, and the pass / fail of the switching operation test between arbitrary input / output ports of the switch is determined based on the test packet reception information output from the test packet disassembly / transmission means. It is a thing.

[0012]

Therefore, according to the test packet assembly information output from the main control unit, the test packet setting / generating means outputs a predetermined test packet and the switch control information corresponding to this test packet is generated. The test packet is inserted between the communication packets by the test packet multiplexing means and input to the switch unit, and is exchanged and output via the switch unit controlled based on the switch control information. Further, this test packet is extracted by the test packet extracting means and converted into the test packet receiving information by the test packet disassembling / transmitting means, and based on this, the main controller determines whether the switching operation test is successful or not.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a packet switch according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 13 is a main control unit for controlling the entire packet switch, 1 and 2 are for accommodating subscribers and signaling information for call control and packets 30 (see FIG. 3) for subscriber line signals. A subscriber circuit 5 that performs extraction / insertion decomposes the signaling information output from the subscriber circuits 1 and 2 and outputs it to the main control unit 13, and also assembles the signaling information according to the setting information from the main control unit 13. It is a control unit.

Further, 11 and 12 extract the destination address information from the header section 35 of the packet 30 received by the subscriber circuits 1 and 2, and calculate the physical address based on the conversion parameter set by the main control section 13, A header conversion unit 4 which outputs this as switch control information in parallel with the received packet and outputs the switch packet is a switch control unit which controls the switch unit 3 based on the physical address information from the header conversion units 11 and 12. Further, 3 is a switch unit for switching and outputting the received packets from the header conversion units 11 and 12 to arbitrary header conversion units 11 and 12 under the control of the switch control unit 4. A physical address is assigned.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the header converters 11 and 12 which is an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 21 is an in-header address extraction unit that extracts the destination subscriber address 31 from the header unit 35 of the packet 30 received by the subscriber circuits 1 and 2, and 22 is a switch unit based on the conversion parameters from the main control unit 13. An address conversion unit for converting the physical address of the output port 3 of the reference numeral 3, and 23 an address conversion unit 2
It is a switch control information sending unit that assembles the output from 2 into the switch control information necessary for the switch control unit 4 and outputs it.

As a configuration for controlling the test packet, reference numeral 24 is a test for outputting a predetermined test packet based on the test packet assembly information from the main control unit 13 and a physical address of the input / output port of the switch unit 3 tested by this packet. A packet information setting / generating unit 26 is a test for inserting the test packet output from the test packet information setting / generating unit 24 between communication packets for the received packets from the subscriber circuits 1 and 2 and inputting the packet to the switch unit 3. It is a packet multiplexer.

Further, 27 is a test packet extracting unit for extracting only the test packet by inspecting the packet identifier 34 stored in the header unit 35 of various packets exchange-outputted by the switch unit 3, Packets other than those are output as they are to the subscriber circuits 1 and 2, and in the case of a test packet, this is extracted and an identifier indicating an idle packet is reset so that the terminal receiving this packet immediately discards it and the subscriber is reset. Output to circuits 1 and 2. Reference numeral 25 is a test packet information disassembling / transmitting unit that decomposes the header portion 35 and the data portion 36 of the test packet extracted by the test packet extracting unit 27 and outputs the result as test packet reception information to the main control unit 13.

Therefore, during normal packet communication, when a subscriber accommodated in the subscriber circuit 1 transmits a packet to a subscriber accommodated in the subscriber circuit 2, this packet is the subscriber circuit 1. Received by the header converter 1
1, the destination address 31 of the packet 30 is extracted by the in-header address extraction unit 21 from the header unit 35 of the packet 30, and the destination subscriber address 31 of the switch unit 3 is converted by the conversion parameter of the destination address 31 in the subsequent address conversion unit 22. After being converted into the physical address of the output port, it is output as switch control information to the switch control unit 4 via the switch control information sending unit 23.

Furthermore, the switch unit 3 is controlled via the switch control unit 4 by this switch control information that runs in parallel with the received packet, and the received packet input to the switch unit 3 is based on the physical address in the switch control information. The data is exchange-outputted to the output port and transmitted to the destination subscriber indicated by the destination subscriber address 31 of the header portion 35, that is, the header conversion portion 12 corresponding to the subscriber circuit 2, and further to the target subscriber via the subscriber circuit 2. To be done.

Next, the switching test operation by the test packet in the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. A case of testing the path from the header conversion unit 11 to the header conversion unit 12 in FIG. 1 will be described as a test for the switch unit 3. First, from the main control unit 13 to the test packet information setting / generation unit 24 of the header conversion unit 11, the switch unit 3 in which the header conversion unit 12 is housed as the physical address information of the destination of the test packet is transmitted.
Physical address of the output port of the
Are stored in the data part 36 of the packet 30. The physical address of the input port of the switch part 3 in which the packet is stored, the sequence number of each identical party (physical address) indicating the order of the test packet, the packet identifier indicating the test packet, Test packet assembly information including arbitrary communication information is output.

The test packet information setting / generating unit 24 generates a test packet according to the test packet assembly information and outputs it to the test packet multiplexing unit 26, and at the same time, outputs the physical address of the output port of the switch unit 3 from the address converting unit 22. The data is output to the switch control information transmission unit 23 according to the output format. The test packet multiplexing unit 26 inserts the input test packet between the communication packets from the subscriber circuit 1 and inputs the test packet to the switch unit 3 and outputs a phase difference (timing) for outputting switch control information corresponding to a normal communication packet. ), The switch control information sending unit 23 runs in parallel with this test packet, and the physical address of the input port of the switch unit 3 in which the header conversion unit 11 is accommodated and the header conversion unit 12 are accommodated. The switch control information including the physical address of the output port of the switch unit 3 is output.

Under the control of the switch control section 4 based on this, the test packet input from the header conversion section 11 is exchange-processed by the switch section 3 and is output to the header conversion section 12 via the designated output port. Then, the test packet extracting unit 27 of the header converting unit 12 extracts the test packet and outputs it to the test packet information disassembling / transmitting unit 25. Furthermore, the test packet information decomposition / transmission unit 25
, The destination subscriber address 31, the source subscriber address 32, the sequence number 33, the packet identifier 34 stored in the header section 35 of the input test packet, and the communication information stored in the data section 36. The test packet reception information is disassembled to generate the test packet reception information, and the test packet reception information is sequentially transmitted to the main control unit 13 corresponding to the received test packet.

The main control unit 13 compares the test packet reception information from each test packet information decomposing / transmitting unit 25 with the setting contents at the time of setting the test packet, and whether the corresponding switching operation is normal or not according to the result of the comparison. Determine whether or not. In other words, whether or not the packet is received by the predetermined header converters 11 and 12 according to the destination physical address information at the time of setting the test packet, whether the order of the received test packet matches the sequence number set at the time of transmission, or at the time of transmission. It is checked whether or not the set communication information of the data section 36 matches the communication information stored in the data section of the received test packet. It is determined that the switching operation between the input / output ports of the switch unit 3 corresponding to the address is abnormal.

In the above embodiment, the test method for judging the switching operation between any one set of input / output ports of the switch section 3 has been described. However, the main control section 13 is set to the automatic test mode and the output to be tested is set. By providing a mode for automatically scanning and outputting as the physical address of the port, or a mode for outputting the test packet assembly information to each header conversion unit 11 and 12 in order while keeping the output port side physical address constant, a specific input or output All switching activity associated with the port can be automatically tested. It is also possible to automatically test all the switching operations of the switch section 3 by scanning the physical addresses of both the input and output ports by combining these two modes, and these automatic test modes enable switching in the packet switch. The time and labor required for the motion test are significantly improved.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, the header conversion section of the packet switch is provided with means for setting a predetermined input / output port of the switch section to transmit / receive a test packet to test the switching operation. As a result, it is possible to judge the presence or absence of failure for each path of the switch part,
Further, since the means for inserting / extracting the test packet without interfering with the normal communication packet is provided, the switching operation test can be performed without interrupting the communication by the communication packet. Therefore, in the packet switch, it is possible to accurately grasp the faulty part of the switch part, which makes it possible to take appropriate measures. On the other hand, it has an exceptional effect that it can respond promptly.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a packet switch according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a header conversion unit in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the internal information structure of a packet.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a conventional packet switch.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a header exchange unit in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2 Subscriber circuit 3 Switch section 4 Switch control section 11, 12 Header conversion section 21 Header address extraction section 22 Address conversion section 23 Switch control information transmission section 24 Test packet information setting / generation section 25 Test packet information disassembly / transmission Part 26 Test packet multiplexer 27 Test packet extractor

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of subscriber circuits for accommodating subscriber terminals, and input / output ports corresponding to each subscriber circuit are provided to form a path between the input / output ports and a communication packet from the subscriber circuit is predetermined. Of the packet input from the subscriber circuit, as a means for generating information for controlling the switch unit, and a main control unit for controlling the entire switch. After extracting the destination subscriber information indicating the destination, the output port of the switch unit to which the corresponding destination subscriber circuit is connected is calculated based on the setting contents from the main control unit, and the input port to which the packet is input. By providing a header conversion unit that generates and outputs switch control information based on this output port between each subscriber circuit and the switch unit, packet communication is performed between each subscriber terminal. In the packet switch that realizes the above, the header conversion unit outputs a predetermined test packet based on at least the test packet assembly information that specifies the output port of the switch unit, and the test packet that generates the switch control information corresponding to this test packet. Information setting / generating means, test packet multiplexing means for inserting the test packet between communication packets and inputting to the switch section, and test packet for extracting only the test packet from various packets exchange-output from the switch section. The main control unit includes an extracting unit and a test packet disassembling / transmitting unit that decomposes the test packet extracted by the test packet extracting unit and outputs test packet reception information. A test packet for the packet information setting / generation unit. The assembly information is output, and whether the switching operation test between arbitrary input / output ports of the switch unit is pass / fail is determined based on the test packet reception information output from the test packet disassembly / transmission means. Packet switch.