WO2012081838A1

WO2012081838A1 - System and method for network equipment monitoring and recovering

Info

Publication number: WO2012081838A1
Application number: PCT/KR2011/008708
Authority: WO
Inventors: 송영훈; 박문태; 샤프글렌; 에스. 코스타마리오
Original assignee: Song Young Hoon; Park Moon Tae; Schaff Glen; Costa Mario S
Priority date: 2010-12-13
Filing date: 2011-11-15
Publication date: 2012-06-21
Also published as: KR101248158B1; KR20120065891A

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for network equipment monitoring and recovering. The monitoring and recovering system includes: a server for providing a control command to network equipment via a network; and a monitoring device for providing power to the network equipment and for receiving a digital pulse from the network equipment. The digital pulse is generated on the basis of the control command through the network equipment. The monitoring device determines whether the network equipment is in an error state on the basis of the digital pulse, cuts off power to the network equipment if the network equipment is in the error state on the basis of the determination result, and resumes power supply to restart the network equipment when a predetermined time elapses after cutting off the power.

Description

Network equipment monitoring and recovery system and method

The present invention relates to a system and method for monitoring and restoring network equipment, and more specifically, to monitoring and restoring network equipment that automatically detects and recovers when a network equipment is in an error state due to internal or external factors. And to a method.

In general, digital equipment can suddenly stop working due to various internal or external causes, such as electrostatic discharge, abnormal state of hardware, user error, equipment incompatibility, severe environmental conditions, network fault And SEU (Single Event Upset). In the past, when digital equipment fell into such an error condition, the engineer could visit again and take appropriate action to resume operation, and thus was not recognized as a serious problem.

However, network systems of various local area networks and wide area networks, which are composed of complex digital equipment such as SCADA (remote automatic control system) and smart grid (Intelligent Power Distribution Network), must always transmit and exchange information in real time. As it began to be applied, the above-mentioned operational error states for each digital device began to be a big problem. Specifically, when a remote server detects a communication failure with a target network device, the server disconnects communication with the network device in order to block an unstable operation or risk of the entire network system. The network equipment had a problem such as maintaining the error state or disconnection until the engineer in charge later visited and took some action. However, various network equipments used in complex network systems such as SCADA (remote automatic control system) and smart grid (intelligent electric power distribution network) are in error state such as operation error and operation lockup. In this case, it is not easy to determine which equipment has failed due to various and complicated network systems, and because of the physical accessibility problem of the equipment, disconnection of communication to the corresponding network equipment by the remote server and the The passive problem such as restitution by action could not fundamentally solve the above problems.

Accordingly, an aspect of the present invention is to provide a system and method for monitoring and recovering network equipment that automatically detects and recovers when a network equipment is in an error state due to internal or external factors.

In order to achieve the above technical problem, a network equipment monitoring and recovery system according to an aspect of the present invention includes a server for providing a control command to the network equipment through the network; And a monitoring device for supplying power to the network equipment and receiving digital pulses from the network equipment, wherein the digital pulses are generated based on the control command by the network equipment. Determine whether the network equipment is in an error state, and if it is determined that the network equipment is in an error state, cut off the supply of power to the network equipment, Resume power supply to restart network equipment.

In the present invention, the digital pulse is preferably any one of the control command, a communication response generated by the network equipment in response to the control command, and a unique drive signal of the network equipment. It is desirable to determine that the network equipment is in an error state when Δ does not match a series of expected expected waveforms or sequences.

In the present invention, a relay element for transmitting power from the power source to the network equipment; And a controller for controlling the relay element based on the digital pulses, wherein the controller determines that the network equipment is in an error state if the digital pulses do not match a series of expected expected waveforms or sequences. It is preferable to activate the relay element.

In the present invention, the relay element is normally closed in a normal state, and when activated by the controller, the relay element remains open for a preset time necessary for complete power off or discharge of the network equipment. It is characterized in that the closing again, the relay element is preferably an analog element.

In the present invention, it is preferable that the monitoring apparatus transmits statistical information about the operation of the network equipment to the server, and the server determines whether an error state of the network equipment is based on the statistical information.

In the present invention, if the error condition of the network equipment continues, the monitoring apparatus performs the reception of the digital pulse and the interruption of the supply of power to the network equipment over a predetermined number of times, the power of the power over the predetermined number of times. If the error condition continues after the supply is cut off, the monitoring device preferably determines that the network equipment is in a continuous error state.

In addition, the method for monitoring and recovering network equipment according to another aspect of the present invention includes the steps of a server providing a control command to the network equipment over a network; Receiving a digital pulse from the network equipment by a monitoring device for supplying power to the network equipment; Determining, by the monitoring apparatus, whether the network equipment is in an error state based on the digital pulse, and when the network equipment is determined to be in an error state, interrupting supply of power to the network equipment; And resuming the power supply to restart the network equipment when a certain time elapses after the shutdown, wherein the digital pulse is generated based on the control command by the network equipment. It is done.

The monitoring device employed in the present invention is a monitoring and recovery device for detecting and solving instantaneous lockups, jamming or operation errors generated in each digital device constituting various types or types of networks. The network equipment may become instantaneous due to a variety of causes and may not work at all. The monitoring device is designed to monitor a digital pulse supplied from each network device in real time, to immediately detect a locking phenomenon or an operation error of the network device and to restart the network device. The monitoring device may be installed inside the network device or attached to the outside of the network device. The monitoring device may detect and restart all of the failures caused by the noisy or operational error of the network communication or the local software / hardware noisy phenomenon. have.

The monitoring device may work in conjunction with a communication flow from a server at a remote location. If the monitoring device detects that the communication between the server and the corresponding network device is lost, the monitoring device may turn off the power supply to the network device and then supply it again. In addition, the monitoring device may support a warning means to sound an alarm to notify that a network device is locked, jammed or malfunctioned.

The monitoring device switches to failure mode when the network device does not respond to the scheduled series of communication from the remote server. If the monitoring device continues, the monitoring device determines that the network device is locked or jammed. By shutting off the power supply and restarting the power supply after a certain time, the network equipment can be restarted or rebooted.

The monitoring device can be located outside or inside the network equipment. In particular, when the monitoring equipment is located outside the network equipment, power from the transformer is supplied to the downstream equipment through the monitoring equipment so that a separate device for each network equipment is provided. No transformer required

Communication failure between the server and each network device is detected using the external I / O port of the network device. If a predetermined or required input / output sequence is not detected at the external I / O port of the network device, the monitoring device may enter a failure mode to stop and resupply power to the network device. If communication is not reopened, the monitoring device may give a periodic beep. In addition, a plurality of input / output ports may be installed in the monitoring apparatus connected to the outside, in which case one server may control many output terminals using commands from a remote device including input / output terminal addresses and information. The plurality of output terminals may be physical input / output terminals, or may be individual wireless communication terminals supported by the X10 wireless protocol.

The system and method for monitoring and restoring network equipment according to the present invention automatically detects and recovers when a network equipment is in an error state due to internal or external factors, thereby securing operational stability of each network equipment and accordingly The reliability of the network system can be guaranteed.

1 is a block diagram of a system for monitoring and restoring network equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 shows the configuration of the monitoring apparatus used in the present embodiment.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to Examples. These examples are only for illustrating the present invention, and the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited by these examples.

Figure 1 shows the configuration of the monitoring and recovery system of the network equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 shows the configuration of the monitoring device used in this embodiment, with reference to this the present invention The explanation is as follows.

As shown in Figure 1 and 2, the network equipment monitoring and recovery system according to the present embodiment includes a server 400 for providing a control command to the network equipment 200 through a network; And a monitoring device 100 for supplying power to the network equipment 200 and receiving a digital pulse from the network equipment 200. Here, the digital pulse (dpulse) is generated based on the control command by the network equipment 200, the monitoring device 100 determines whether or not the error state of the network equipment 200 based on the digital pulse (dpulse) If it is determined that the network device 200 is in an error state, the supply of power to the network device 200 is cut off, and the network device 200 is restarted when a certain time elapses after the blocking. Resume power supply. The monitoring device 100 includes a relay element 120 for transmitting power from the power source 300 to the network equipment 200; And a controller 110 that controls the relay element 120 based on the digital pulse.

Referring to the operation and operation of the present embodiment configured as described above in detail.

Referring to FIG. 1, a server 400 located at a remote location performs data communication with each network device 200 disposed in a network, and provides a control command to the network device 200 as a networked command. The network equipment 200 generates a digital pulse based on the control command and provides the digital pulse to the monitoring apparatus 100. Here, the digital pulse may be the control command which is a networked command executed by the remote server 400 and transmitted, or may be a communication response generated by the network equipment 200 in response to the control command. It may be a unique driving signal when the network equipment 200 operates according to the control command. This digital pulse is provided to the monitoring apparatus 100 through the output terminal or the transmission port of the network equipment 200.

The monitoring apparatus 100 supplying power to the network equipment 200 determines whether the network equipment 200 is in an error state based on the digital pulse received from the network equipment 200. If the network equipment 200 is in a locked state (lockup), a jam state or an operation error state by the above-described internal or external factors, the network equipment 200 detects the digital pulse (dpulse) 100 Will not be exported normally. That is, when the network equipment 200 is in the above-described error state, the digital pulses may not be output from the network equipment 200 or may not match a series of expected expected waveforms or sequences. If the digital pulse does not match a series of predetermined expected waveforms or sequences, such as when the input of the digital pulse is disconnected, the monitoring apparatus 100 determines that the network equipment 200 is in an error state. To cut off the supply of power to the network equipment 200.

When the network equipment 200 is in the normal state, the monitoring apparatus 100 receives power from the power source 300 and normally provides the network equipment 200 to the network equipment 200. However, when the monitoring apparatus 100 determines that the network equipment 200 is in an error state as described above, the monitoring apparatus 100 cuts off the supply of power to the network equipment 200. It may have a configuration as shown in FIG. The monitoring device 100 includes a relay element 120 for transmitting power from the power source 300 to the network equipment 200; And a controller 110 that controls the relay element 120 based on the digital pulse.

The controller 110 determines that the network equipment 200 is in an error state and activates the relay element 120 when the digital pulse does not match a series of expected expected waveforms or sequences such as the input is disconnected. . The relay element 120 used here normally supplies power to the network equipment 200 by being normally closed, but is opened when activated by the controller 110 to cut off the power supply to the network equipment 200. After that, the power supply to the network equipment 200 can be resumed while being closed again after maintaining the open state for a preset time. At this time, the preset time for the relay element 120 to maintain an open state is a time required for complete power cutoff or discharge of the network equipment 200, and is set as a kind of operation characteristic value of the relay element 120 itself. . Of course, in some embodiments, the controller 110 may be configured to control the preset time. Here, the reason for shutting off the power supply to the network equipment 200 for the predetermined time is to prevent sudden voltage rise or glitch, etc., when the power supply is restarted immediately after the power supply is cut off. That is, when the power supply is resumed immediately after the power supply to the network equipment 200 is cut off, the sudden power supply in the network equipment 200 may be suddenly caused by various causes such as a synergistic effect with the residual potential or the charge in the network equipment 200. A voltage increase may occur because this may adversely affect not only the corresponding network equipment 200 but also the entire network system to which the network equipment 200 belongs. On the other hand, as shown in Figure 2, the relay element 120 preferably cuts off the power supply to the monitoring device 100, including the controller 110, etc., this also monitors the power supply when the restart of power supply 100 To ensure the stability of the.

When the relay device 120 maintains its open state for the preset time and closes again, and the power supply to the network device 200 is resumed, the network device 200 is supplied with power again to automatically restart or reboot. Will be Then, the network device 200 can completely solve the error state through the re-activation or reboot process to perform the normal operation on the network again.

On the other hand, the monitoring device 100 may be configured not to resume the power supply to the network equipment 200 until the activation command is input from the outside by supporting its own deactivation mode, which is for the network equipment 200 This is to ensure that the network equipment 200 can be restarted after various anxiety factors or system anxiety factors are completely removed.

In addition, when the error state of the corresponding network equipment 200 continues, the monitoring apparatus 100 determines in advance a series of processes described above, that is, supplying power to the network equipment 200, shutting off the power supply, and restarting the supply. Performance over a number of times, and if the error condition continues despite the performance over the predetermined number of times, the network equipment 200 determines that it is in a continuous error state. And, if it is determined that the network equipment 200 is in a continuous error state, the monitoring device 100 activates a warning means such as a warning sound generator so that the system personnel and the like can know.

In addition, the monitoring apparatus 100 transmits statistical information about the operation of the network equipment 200 accumulated in its own internal memory to the remote server 400, so that the server 400 based on the statistical information on the network equipment 200. ) Can be used to determine the error status.

On the other hand, various digital network equipment may occur due to external factors, such as SEU (Single Event Upset), the operation stops or locks up. SEU is a unique phenomenon caused by high-energy particles generated by collisions with Earth's atoms as cosmic rays from space pass through the Earth's atmosphere.SEUs are the ones and zeros of highly integrated circuits embedded in digital equipment using semiconductors. It is a situation that causes the phenomenon of being locked or eaten in the digital device by changing the bit. SEU originally occurred primarily in the upper layers of the atmosphere and rarely on the ground. However, as semiconductors shrink in size, their capacities increase rapidly, and they use very low operating voltages, causing them to occur frequently on the ground. Now, the world's leading companies, including NASA, have had a huge cost to their SEU products and equipment. You can control the impact. SEU does not cause permanent damage to semiconductor equipment, but causes malfunctions or stops working instantaneously, and is suspected of causing recent car accidents.

In this embodiment, each of the network equipment 200 disposed on the network is also a digital device itself, it can not exclude the possibility of being affected by the above-described SEU. Therefore, even when the network equipment 200 is in an error state due to the SEU, the monitoring device 100 should be able to completely block the effect of the SEU in order to restart or reboot it. Of course, the monitoring device 100 of the present embodiment itself is relatively simple in configuration and is not greatly influenced by the SEU. However, in the present embodiment, the relay element 120 may be composed of an analog element whose operating mechanism and configuration are analogous elements, so that the relay element 120 is not affected by external factors such as a single event upset (SEU). For sake. In addition, in order to completely block the influence from the SEU, the monitoring device 100 may be configured to have a structure in which the exterior is shielded by a shielding material including lead or metal.

If the system and method according to the present embodiment is used in a system that requires effective control of each network equipment at a remote location including a smart grid system, its utility value will be further increased.

The monitoring device 100 in the present embodiment may be used to be attached and fixed to the network equipment 200 or may be mounted and used inside the network equipment 200.

The monitoring device 100 may have an optional power detection circuit (not shown) to detect partial power failure. To this end, the monitoring device 100 needs an internal battery so as to give a warning even during a power failure.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1, only one network device 200 is illustrated, but one monitoring device 100 may be configured to monitor and recover a plurality of network devices 200. 100 may include multiple input or output stages for power supply and input of digital pulses.

Network equipment 200 in this embodiment represents a modem, router or other various network equipment that itself must always remain active or reboot on the network. In addition, the monitoring apparatus 100 may receive power from AC / DC power or PoE (Power over Ethernet). When the power is supplied from the AC / DC power supply, the monitoring device 100 internally adjusts the power passing through the monitoring device 100 appropriately so that various low voltage (5-24 VDC / VA) downstream equipment, that is, the Various network equipment 200 is supported.

Surveillance device 100 using PoE is designed for the network equipment to obtain power and communication through the Ethernet cable. The monitoring device 100 using PoE has both input and output PoE ports. In a manner similar to the supervisor 100 using AC / DC, the supervisor 100 using PoE supplies power to network equipment through its output PoE port.

For a network device 200 having no distinction between input and output and only a serial communication port, an equipment-to-device (M2M) communication sensing cable should be supplied with each monitoring device 100. The communication sensing cable connects the network equipment 200 to the monitoring apparatus 100 to read the digital pulses injected.

The supervisor 100 does not need its own power source, nor does it need a unique IP address, nor does it need a separate Ethernet port to function. This simplicity can prevent security problems in the network. In addition, the monitoring device 100 does not have to use a significant amount of bandwidth. The remote software of the monitoring device 100 may also reboot the network devices based on a pre-programmed schedule. In network devices, the processor can tie up resources over time, which can slow down overall network bandwidth, and rebooting devices under normal schedules can solve these network device malfunctions.

Mechanism of the monitoring device 100 requires a minimum power in the normal operating environment and the relay device 120 is designed not to be activated, the relay device 120 is the monitoring device 100 is network equipment 200 It is only active when it detects an outage. This method may be implemented by a relay device having a function of normally closed (NC), time delayed (TD), and time latching (TL).

As described above, the relay element 120 of the monitoring apparatus 100 may be located at an upper portion of the power supply terminal to supply power to both the monitoring apparatus 100 and the network equipment 200. If all the network equipment 200 monitored by the monitoring device 100 operates normally, the relay element 120 of the monitoring device 100 is not activated, and thus the power supply is not affected. Even if the monitoring device 100 itself is disconnected from the power source, or if the power is lost or damaged, the relay element 120 is still closed and does not affect the network equipment 200 which is a downstream device. When the monitoring device 100 detects an abnormality of the network devices 200, the digital pulse doctor immediately activates a relay to stop the power supply to the monitoring device 100 and all the network devices 200.

The weakest point in a network of digital devices is that each digital device is often inoperable, including internal device hardware errors, algorithm errors, and inability to communicate. Therefore, the network composed of digital equipment should be able to automatically detect the problems that occur in the digital equipment to warn the user and solve the problems automatically. The monitoring device 100 is designed to detect both communication failures, blackouts of software, and hardware and power failures by using an external input / output terminal of the network equipment 200 which is a downstream device to provide such a solution. The monitoring apparatus 100 may monitor the communication status of the downstream equipment by using the input / output terminals of the network equipment 200 in accordance with a predetermined duty cycle (activation state maintenance period). In this case, the monitoring device 100 may be connected to the output terminal of the network device 200. If the monitoring device 100 does not detect the scheduled duty cycle, the monitoring device 100 cycles the power of the network device 200 and then reboots the device. This architecture works for both hard-wired connections such as CAT-5 cables and wireless connections such as 802.11 x.

The system of this embodiment includes equipment that receives and forwards encrypted control commands from a wired source that steer and monitor external radios. Wired sources connect directly to the instrument. Control commands can be received and forwarded using wired media or wireless media, including but not limited to RF or Infra-red. The received control command can be matched to a predetermined password or a particular output toggle or tailored to a particular ecology. The monitoring device 100 may have a plurality of input terminals. The monitoring device 100 may have a universal power input terminal to receive power from a wide range of power sources. Connection connectors with a power source should be capable of continuously supplying power to the source connected to the monitoring device 100.

100: monitoring device

110: controller 120: relay

200: network equipment

300: power

400: server

Claims

As a monitoring and recovery system of network equipment,

A server providing a control command to the network equipment through a network; And

A monitoring device for supplying power to the network equipment and receiving digital pulses from the network equipment,

The digital pulse is generated based on the control command by the network equipment,

The monitoring apparatus determines whether the network equipment is in an error state based on the digital pulse, and when it is determined that the network equipment is in an error state, cuts off the supply of power to the network equipment, and cuts off. And after a predetermined time has elapsed, restarting the power supply to restart the network equipment.
The method of claim 1,

The digital pulse is any one of the control command, a communication response generated by the network equipment in response to the control command, and a unique drive signal of the network equipment.
The method of claim 1,

The monitoring device determines that the network equipment is in an error state when the digital pulse does not match a series of expected expected waveforms or sequences.
The method of claim 3, wherein

And the monitoring device determines that the network equipment is in an error state when the input of the digital pulse is disconnected.
The method of claim 1,

The monitoring device

A relay element for transmitting power from the power source to the network equipment; And

And a controller to control the relay element based on the digital pulses.
The method of claim 5,

The controller determines that the network equipment is in an error state when the digital pulse does not match a series of expected expected waveforms or sequences to activate the relay element.
The method of claim 6,

The relay element is normally closed in a normal state,

And when activated by the controller, the relay element remains open for a predetermined time required for complete power off or discharge of the network equipment and then closes again.
The method of claim 7, wherein

Wherein said relay element is an analog element.
The method of claim 6,

And if the network equipment is determined to be in an error state, the relay element also shuts off power supply to the monitoring device.
The method of claim 1,

The monitoring device supports its own deactivation mode and does not resume power supply to the network device until an activation command is input from the outside.
The method of claim 1,

The monitoring device transmits statistical information about the operation of the network equipment to the server,

And the server determines whether an error state of the network equipment is based on the statistical information.
The method of claim 1,

If the error condition of the network equipment continues, the monitoring apparatus performs the reception of the digital pulse and the interruption of the supply of power to the network equipment over a predetermined number of times,

And the monitoring device determines that the network equipment is in a continuous error state if the error condition continues even after interrupting the supply of power over the predetermined number of times.
The method of claim 12,

If it is determined that the network equipment is in a continuous error state, the monitoring device activates an alerting means.
The method of claim 1,

Monitoring and recovery system for network equipment, used in smart grid systems.
The method of claim 1,

The monitoring device is attached to the network equipment and fixed or mounted inside the network equipment.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 15,

The monitoring device has a structure in which the exterior is shielded, the network equipment monitoring and recovery system.
As a method of monitoring and recovering network equipment,

Providing, by a server, a control command to the network equipment via a network;

Receiving a digital pulse from the network equipment by a monitoring device for supplying power to the network equipment;

Determining, by the monitoring apparatus, whether the network equipment is in an error state based on the digital pulse, and when the network equipment is determined to be in an error state, interrupting supply of power to the network equipment; And

If a certain time elapses after the interruption, the monitoring device includes the step of restarting the power supply to restart the network equipment,

The digital pulse is generated by the network equipment based on the control command.
The method of claim 17,

The digital pulse is any one of the control command, a communication response generated by the network device in response to the control command, and a unique drive signal of the network device.
The method of claim 17,

And the monitoring device determines that the network equipment is in an error state when the digital pulse does not match a series of predetermined expected waveforms or sequences.
The method of claim 19,

And the monitoring device determines that the network equipment is in an error state when the input of the digital pulse is disconnected.
The method of claim 17,

The monitoring device

A relay element for transmitting power from the power source to the network equipment; And

And a controller for controlling the relay element based on the digital pulses.
The method of claim 21,

And the controller determines that the network equipment is in an error state when the digital pulse does not match a series of predetermined expected waveforms or sequences to activate the relay element.
The method of claim 22,

The relay element is normally closed in a normal state,

When activated by the controller, the relay element remains open for a predetermined time required for complete power off or discharge of the network equipment and then closes again.
The method of claim 23, wherein

And the relay element is an analog element.
The method of claim 22,

And if the network equipment is determined to be in an error state, the relay element also shuts off the power supply to the monitoring device.
The method of claim 17,

The monitoring apparatus supports its own deactivation mode and does not resume power supply to the network equipment until an activation command is input from the outside.
The method of claim 17,

Transmitting, by the monitoring apparatus, statistical information about the operation of the network equipment to the server; And

And determining, by the server, whether an error state of the network equipment is based on the statistical information.
The method of claim 17,

If the error condition of the network equipment continues, performing the control command providing step, the digital pulse receiving step, the interruption of the power supply, and the resume of the power supply over a predetermined number of times; And

If the error condition continues after the control command providing step, the digital pulse receiving step, the power supply blocking step, and the power supply resuming step have been performed for a predetermined number of times, the monitoring device indicates that the network equipment continues to error. And further comprising determining that the device is in a state.
The method of claim 28,

And if it is determined that the network equipment is in a continuous error state, the monitoring device activates an alerting means.
The method of claim 17,

Monitoring and recovery of network equipment used in smart grid systems.
The method of claim 17,

The monitoring device is attached to the network equipment fixed or mounted inside the network equipment, the monitoring and recovery method of the network equipment.
The method of any one of claims 17 to 31,

The monitoring device has a structure in which the exterior is shielded, the network equipment monitoring and recovery method.