CA1094209A - System for monitoring the operational ability of data processing equipment - Google Patents
System for monitoring the operational ability of data processing equipmentInfo
- Publication number
- CA1094209A CA1094209A CA273,125A CA273125A CA1094209A CA 1094209 A CA1094209 A CA 1094209A CA 273125 A CA273125 A CA 273125A CA 1094209 A CA1094209 A CA 1094209A
- Authority
- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- unit
- data
- units
- programme
- equipment according
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Expired
Links
Classifications
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
- G06F11/07—Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
- G06F11/16—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware
- G06F11/20—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements
- G06F11/2002—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements where interconnections or communication control functionality are redundant
- G06F11/2007—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements where interconnections or communication control functionality are redundant using redundant communication media
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
- G06F11/07—Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
- G06F11/0703—Error or fault processing not based on redundancy, i.e. by taking additional measures to deal with the error or fault not making use of redundancy in operation, in hardware, or in data representation
- G06F11/0751—Error or fault detection not based on redundancy
- G06F11/0754—Error or fault detection not based on redundancy by exceeding limits
- G06F11/0757—Error or fault detection not based on redundancy by exceeding limits by exceeding a time limit, i.e. time-out, e.g. watchdogs
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
- G06F11/07—Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
- G06F11/16—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware
- G06F11/20—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements
- G06F11/202—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements where processing functionality is redundant
- G06F11/2023—Failover techniques
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
- G06F11/30—Monitoring
- G06F11/34—Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
- G06F11/3466—Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
- G06F11/3495—Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring for systems
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M15/00—Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
- H04M15/04—Recording calls, or communications in printed, perforated or other permanent form
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04M—TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION
- H04M3/00—Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
- H04M3/22—Arrangements for supervision, monitoring or testing
- H04M3/24—Arrangements for supervision, monitoring or testing with provision for checking the normal operation
- H04M3/241—Arrangements for supervision, monitoring or testing with provision for checking the normal operation for stored program controlled exchanges
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04Q—SELECTING
- H04Q3/00—Selecting arrangements
- H04Q3/42—Circuit arrangements for indirect selecting controlled by common circuits, e.g. register controller, marker
- H04Q3/54—Circuit arrangements for indirect selecting controlled by common circuits, e.g. register controller, marker in which the logic circuitry controlling the exchange is centralised
- H04Q3/545—Circuit arrangements for indirect selecting controlled by common circuits, e.g. register controller, marker in which the logic circuitry controlling the exchange is centralised using a stored programme
- H04Q3/54575—Software application
- H04Q3/54591—Supervision, e.g. fault localisation, traffic measurements, avoiding errors, failure recovery, monitoring, statistical analysis
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
- G06F11/07—Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance
- G06F11/16—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware
- G06F11/20—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements
- G06F11/202—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements where processing functionality is redundant
- G06F11/2035—Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements where processing functionality is redundant without idle spare hardware
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
- G06F11/22—Detection or location of defective computer hardware by testing during standby operation or during idle time, e.g. start-up testing
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
- G06F11/22—Detection or location of defective computer hardware by testing during standby operation or during idle time, e.g. start-up testing
- G06F11/2205—Detection or location of defective computer hardware by testing during standby operation or during idle time, e.g. start-up testing using arrangements specific to the hardware being tested
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F11/00—Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring
- G06F11/22—Detection or location of defective computer hardware by testing during standby operation or during idle time, e.g. start-up testing
- G06F11/26—Functional testing
- G06F11/273—Tester hardware, i.e. output processing circuits
- G06F11/2736—Tester hardware, i.e. output processing circuits using a dedicated service processor for test
Landscapes
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
- General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Quality & Reliability (AREA)
- Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
- Signal Processing (AREA)
- Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
- Meter Arrangements (AREA)
- Monitoring And Testing Of Exchanges (AREA)
- Financial Or Insurance-Related Operations Such As Payment And Settlement (AREA)
- Debugging And Monitoring (AREA)
Abstract
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
Data processing equipment suitable for recording details of manually connected telephone calls has a plurality of operator stations with keyboards and visible display units (VDU's) connected in groups to operator's control units which respond to keyed instructions to obtain data from peripheral units storing such data and for recording on magnetic tape cartridges the details of the calls. The control units and peripheral units each include micro-processors for controlling their functions and are arranged to execute tests to determine the operational states of the units and produce signals indicating those states. A monitor unit is connected to all of the units to receive signals indicating the operational states of the units. Each unit may include a watch-dog timer having a counter which is regularly incremented and periodically reset to zero in response to a software instruction so that if a central processing unit gets into a software loop the counter exceeds a threshold value and produces a signal indicating the presence of such a loop. The watch-dog timer may be used to reset the central processing unit to a datum position, erasing all data recorded up to the time as a result of programme execution. A diagnostic unit may be provided enabling an engineer to try out test routines on the units to ensure their correct functioning.
Data processing equipment suitable for recording details of manually connected telephone calls has a plurality of operator stations with keyboards and visible display units (VDU's) connected in groups to operator's control units which respond to keyed instructions to obtain data from peripheral units storing such data and for recording on magnetic tape cartridges the details of the calls. The control units and peripheral units each include micro-processors for controlling their functions and are arranged to execute tests to determine the operational states of the units and produce signals indicating those states. A monitor unit is connected to all of the units to receive signals indicating the operational states of the units. Each unit may include a watch-dog timer having a counter which is regularly incremented and periodically reset to zero in response to a software instruction so that if a central processing unit gets into a software loop the counter exceeds a threshold value and produces a signal indicating the presence of such a loop. The watch-dog timer may be used to reset the central processing unit to a datum position, erasing all data recorded up to the time as a result of programme execution. A diagnostic unit may be provided enabling an engineer to try out test routines on the units to ensure their correct functioning.
Description
10~420~
Thls invention relates to data processlng equipment and i9 particularly useful ior, but not limited in its application to, automatic call recording equipme~t ~or recording details of telephone calls to enable the charge for the call to be passed to the correct 6ubscriber's account by an operator.
~t present the detsils for a telephone call connected by an operator are written on a card or slip oi paper which is passed - to an accounte department ior analysis and entry of the charge aBainst the eubscriber~e account. Clearly the time taken to write the necessary iniormation on the card to enable the charge to be assessed correctly and set against the correct account occupies a substantial proportion of the operator's time and ¢onsequently reduces the number oi call~ with which the operator ¢an deal. Moreover, the entry of the call details by hand is liable to error and incorrect calculation of the charge or even its lncorrect allocation. ~ny mistake oi this type results in a lose o~ goodwill by the Post Oii~ice or other body operating the telephone service and could result in a lose of revenue.
- It is thereiore desirable to provide some iorm of data processing iacility to enable the operator rapldly to enter the details o~ the call, but the system provided must be extremely reliable because it will be extremely expensive to retain the alternative handwritten system at present employed in addition to providing the data processing iacility. It is moreover essential at present to check a~ far as possible that the operator has entered the correct inrormatlon into the data
Thls invention relates to data processlng equipment and i9 particularly useful ior, but not limited in its application to, automatic call recording equipme~t ~or recording details of telephone calls to enable the charge for the call to be passed to the correct 6ubscriber's account by an operator.
~t present the detsils for a telephone call connected by an operator are written on a card or slip oi paper which is passed - to an accounte department ior analysis and entry of the charge aBainst the eubscriber~e account. Clearly the time taken to write the necessary iniormation on the card to enable the charge to be assessed correctly and set against the correct account occupies a substantial proportion of the operator's time and ¢onsequently reduces the number oi call~ with which the operator ¢an deal. Moreover, the entry of the call details by hand is liable to error and incorrect calculation of the charge or even its lncorrect allocation. ~ny mistake oi this type results in a lose o~ goodwill by the Post Oii~ice or other body operating the telephone service and could result in a lose of revenue.
- It is thereiore desirable to provide some iorm of data processing iacility to enable the operator rapldly to enter the details o~ the call, but the system provided must be extremely reliable because it will be extremely expensive to retain the alternative handwritten system at present employed in addition to providing the data processing iacility. It is moreover essential at present to check a~ far as possible that the operator has entered the correct inrormatlon into the data
- 2 - ~
10'~4209 processing system, and it is therefore desirable that the system could incorporate some kind of feedback display and any other check to which the information is susceptible.
It is an object of the present invention therefore to provide a data processing system suitable for recording details of telephone calls connected by an operator in which the above requirements have been taken into consideration.
According to the present invention there is provided data processing equipment having a plurality of independently operating on-line stations and a plurality of data handling units, the equipment including at each station data entry means, data utilization means and control means, the control means including storage means for recording in response to the data entry means details of a required data processing operation, and being capable of selectively generating in response to the recorded details interrogation signals and instruction signals for transmission to the data handling units, receiving data from certain of the data handling units in response to the interrogation and instruction signals and recording the data, and applying signals to the utilization means, the equipment further including monitoring means connected to all of the data handling units and the control means, wherein each of the control means and the data handling units includes a central processing unit, a read-only-memory defining at least one recurrent programme of instructions performed by the central processing unit and a monitor message transmission unit, the programme including functional tests on the operations performed . . . ~ , :, .
by the unit and the periodic initiation of the transmission of a monitor message by the monitor message transmission unit, the monitor message specifying any fault detected in the operation of the unit, the monitoring means being connected to receive the monitor messages from the control means and the data handling units and having means for c~unting separately the reports of malfunctions for each unit of the equipment included in the messages.
Each station may be operated by an operator and the utilization means may include display means for the operator.
The equipment may be for ~ecording details of manually connected telephone calls and the data handling and/or storage units may include a telephone call recording store to which the details of a call are applied for storage by the control means on completion of the call.
The data handling and/or storage units and the control means may include a central processing unit arranged to perform at least one recurring programme of instructions which includes generation~of a signal indicating that the processing unit is operating satisfactorily. The central processing unit may include a watchdog timer to detect malfunction having a counter which is incremented regularly and reset by an instruction from the programme so that if the rccurrence of the programmes is interrupted the count in the counter will exceed a threshold value and produce an output indicating malfunction. A
respective data storage means may be associated with each central processing unit and the central processing unit may ~ _ ~09~209 respond to the respective output indicating malfunction to erase all data from the data storage means and cause the programme to be restarted. The equipment may include a plurality of control means each associated with a group of data entry and utilisation means having access to all of the data handling and/or storage units.
In the monitoring means a store may be provided for recording reports of faults and breakdowns referring to the particular unit concerned~and the type of breakdown or fault reported. A threshold may be provided associated with each category of failure and an output produced only if the number of failures exceed the threshold.
A diagonistic unit may be provided coupled to the monitoring means to enable a wide range of tests to be performed by an engineer. The programme information and any other data required for the test may be recorded on, for example, a magnetic tape cartridge insertable in the diagnostic unit. The diagnostic unit may include a hot stand-by unit for providing tested spare sub-units.
In order that the invention may be fully understood and readily carried into effect an embodiment in the form of manually connected telephone call recording equipment will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:-FIGURE 1 shows in block diagrammatic form the telephone call recording equipment, FIGURE 2 shows in block diagrammatic form the circuit of an operator's control unit (OCU), ~094Z09 FIGURE 6 shows the circuit of a monitor unit;
FI~URE 7 shows the coupling of CPU monitor units to a monitor unit, and FIGURE 8 shows details of the ~CU switchover circuits.
As shown in Figure 1, the call recording equipment includes a plurality of operator's position equipment (OPE) 11 to 18, 21 to 28, 31 to 38, etc., each for an operator and which are connected to operator control units (OCU) 10, 20, 30, etc. Each OCU is arranged to receive information from and return information to eight OPE's divided into two groups of four OPE's. Each OCU has connections to two highways "A" and ~B", having references 1 and 2, which highways are each connected to three pairs of peripheral units 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, 5A and 5B, which consist of magnetic cartridge recording units, tariff and credit card verification units and charge step and national to local code translation units, which are respectively connected to the two highways. In addition each OCU 10, 20, 30, etc. is connected to a monitor unit 6 and the monitor unit 6 is also connected to the peripheral units to receive signals from them to indicate their functional state. The monitor ~nit has facilities for printing out details of any abnormalities in the operation of the equipment which it discovers during the periodical scanning of the outputs of the OCU's and peripheral units. There is also provided a diagnostic unit 7 which is connected to receive the information recorded in the monitor unit and to operate a diagnostic interface unit 8 for applying test signals via 6 -- - ~
~' ' ' .
10~1~20~
a diagnositic highway 9 to the OCU's and peripheral units and for receiving reply signals over the same highway for the purpose of assisting an engineer to discover the reason for any faults which occur.
The components which form the OPE's need not all be located at the operator's switchboard, but will include key pads for operation by the operator and a visual dispaly unit (VDU) for providing information in visual form for the operator. The necessary logic and interface circuitry may be provided at the operator's position or in the corresponding OCU. The key pads may be entirely separate from the keys and switches provided for control of the telephone network by the operator but preferably there will be some interconnection between these components to ~nsure that the exact time from the connection of a call to its disconnection are fed to the OCU, - 6a -10~4Z09 possibly together with detail~ o~ the number to be called and the iacilit~ required by the sub~criber. The operator control untt iB constructed to transmit the information required by the operator to the vi6ual di~play unit, po~sibly also to ~lluminate certain of the keys to provide ~ome oi the iniormation required or ior promptlng the operation of certain keys and al~o to check the correct operation oi the components o~ the OP~.
Ae mentlone~ above, each OC~ i8 connected to control ei~ht O~E~B, but the OCU'e are constructed to be capable of handling iniormation irom and ieeding lniormation into twelve OP~'s; each OCU having two ~roupa oi four bu~fer stores, each bufier ~tore being available ior the information irom and to a re~pective OP~, and two stand-by units each for handling the inpu~ of four other `
O~E'e or ior transferring a group o~ four OP~'s to an ad~acent 0¢~. In the e~ent o-f a breakdown o~ an OC~ when discovered b~
teets periormed internally by each OCU, the eight OPEIB allocated - to that OCU are divided into two groups of iour and trans~erred to t~o ad~acent O¢U's. Eaoh OCU containe a m~oroprocessor which, in the partlcular e~ample o~ the invention being con~idered is an INTBL 8080~ or a compatible de~lce, and ress~bles a small computer in which the required data proce~eing 1B e~fected by a ~ingle integrated circuit. It will be apparent that other types oi microprocessor could be used, provlded that the facilities re~uired by the OC~ are available. There are a~sociated with each microprocessor the necessary power supplies, clock pulse generators, data and programme stores and buiier stores.
_ 7 _ 10~4Z09 A~ can be ~een from Figure 1, each of the periphoral unlts 1~ provided in duplicate, and each unit lncludes a micro-proce~sor ~imllar to that used in the OGU'e. The tariff and credit card verification units 4A and 4~ store the in~ormati.on about the tari~f rate~ of the di*ferent telephone connections possible or other iacilitle~ ~uch as, for example, provision of peraon~ call, etc. As the tariff rate will depend upon the time o~ day at which the call iB made, these units will al80 include independent clocks dri~en by so-called watch-dog timers and supplying thls time 80 that the correct tariff rate ~or the call i8 provided and is transierred to the oou. Facilities are provided ~or resettlng the clocks under engineer control. ~5 certain sub3cribers require the facility for charging telephone calle to a credit card account, it i5 nece3~ary for the operator to be able to check the validity og the credit card number gi~en by the caller, and for this purpo~e the tariff and credit card verification units are able to check the number and indicate to the operator whether the number given i~ valld or invalid-~hese units may also provlde other in~ormation such as, for example, when a particular account ha~ been discontinued.
Another facility provlded by the peripheral units i6 ~ound in units 5A and 5~ and is the charge step data and national to looal code tr~lslation information which are u~ed for providine iniormatlon to the operator with regard to dialling codes to be emplo~.ed for particular operat1ons or conne~ions, and tells the OCU the distance factor in the conne~ion being made so that the appropriate charge rate i8 used.
~0 94 ZO9 In addit~on to providlng tarif~ data ~nd the credlt card ~eriilcation, each of the units 4A ~nd 4~ includes a clock giving the time of day, thi~ in~o~ation being requlred because the call .- tariff depends on the time at which the call is made. The clocks in the two units are lndependent but are checXed against each other every 30 minutes and i~ the error is greater than 30 seconds a signAl indicating this is sent to the monitor unit 6 for reporting to the engineer. On receiving the report the engineer u~es the diagnostic l~n;t 7 to reset both clocks to 10 - the time provided by a reference clock.
The most importa~t ta~k of the peripheral unlts is iulfille~ by the magnetic cartridge recording unit~ ~A and 3B
whi~h record ln dupllcate on two separate magnetic tape cartrldge~
deta~ls of the oalls handled by the operator, together with the 15 . subsoriber's identiiication either by way o~ hi~ telephone nwmber or credit card number, ior example. On to the cartridge ~ are also recorded the length o~ the call, the time of day, the tari~i unit and any other details such as i~ the call is a personal call. When a magnetic cartridge has been filled or at the end of a particular period the cartridge is repla~ed and the full cartridge ie passed to a central acco~ting department where the charges ior the calls are calculated and set against the subscribers' account~.
All of the peripheral units are duplicated as are the highways 1 and 2 coupling them to the OC~'s 80 as to en~ure that a sinele iault cannot disable any part of the system~ Moreover, _ g _ 1()94209 it i8 poe~ible ~or a faulty unit to be tes~ed and repalred without interrupting the effectivene~s of the system as far as the operator~ are concerned. To enable the engineers rapidly to locate and repair ~aults in any part o~ the ~ystem, there is provided the monitor unit 6 which is connected to each oou and each per~pheraJ unit via a ~ystem o~ independent highways which enable the per~ormance of each unit to be aY~essed in re~ponse to relevant parameters such as, for e~ample, the state of ~ill oi buifer stores provided in the units. In addition, the micro- i proces~ors in the unit~ are programmcd to assess their o~n functioning and to transmit a message that all is weil or that there is a ~ault with the particular unit periodically to the ~onitor unit. In one e~ample reporting mes~ages are applied to - the monitor unit irom each oi the OCU'8 and peripheral units every four ~econds; ~he monitor unit provide~ a printed output by means o~ a teleprinter 6A, which ou~put will enable the over-~11 periormance of the system to be checked and will also provide statistical information which will enable deci~ion~ to be made as to the neces~ity for iurther operator~ or other peripheral unita to be provided or not.
W~en the monltor unit 6 is not able to identi~y precisely the ~aulty equipment, a maintenance engineer iB able to use a diagnostic unit 7 whloh includes a ~urther microprocessor and has a large repertoire of diagnostic instructions avai~a~le on test cartridges wbich can be inserted in the unit 7 at 7A. The diagnostic unit 7 i~ designed to diagnose ard localise ~aults .
~03420~
in any o~ the unlts and i~ arranged to do thia in such a way that it can be utilised by non-speciPlist staff who have no knowledge oi the data processing equipment in~ uded in the system. In order to per~orm the diagnosis the unit 7 initiates a test signal which i~ applied over a diagnosis highway system q via an interiace 8 either to the operator control units or to the peripheral unlts and appropriate output signals are returned to the diagnostic unit 7 over the same highway system 9 and interiace 8. ~he teleprinter 6A enables the engineer to enter lnstructions and data via its keyboard and prints out the re~ults. The teleprinter 6A is connected to the monitor unit 6 via a V24 link, a second such link connectlng the unit 6 to the diagnostic unlt 7. .
. Another iunction o~ the diagno~tic unit 7 i8 to enable 15 . data to be entered into the tarlii and credit card veri~ication ' units 4~ and 4B, since it is likely that the credit card data at lea~t will.be changed irequently. .
The CP~18 may break down in service and thereiore are programmed to carry out periodic checks to supervise their 1.
operational condition and that of the units which they control.
~o achie~e this each unit includes a watch-dog timer ~hich ¢on~lsts of a counter to whlch pulse~ are applied having repe-tltion ~requency oi 1 kXz. ~he programmes oi the microprocessor inoluded ln the unit are arranged to access the counter at interrals not gr~ater than a quarter oi a second ~nd to reset lt to a count oi 0. Ii the counter i~ not aocessed during this .
tlme, for e~Rmple by reason of a ~ailure of the programme to e~tricate the microprocessor from the loop oi instructions or as a result Or hardware iailure in the mlcroproce~sor, the counter, when not accessed, ~tarts a "time out" to allow a further period of time for the counter to be accessed. Failure to access the counter within thi~ further period oi time results in the programme~ oi the microproces~or being interrupted and being reset to a datum position in th~ programme sequence and the associated data store being cleared. A flag is set when the programme interruption occurs and signals are sent to the monitor unit to cause it to record t~e details of the failure.
A second failure to access the counter within the quarter second time interval results in the unit being recorded as having broken down, and at this time if the unit is an OCU
a switch over of the OPE inputs to adjacent two OCU's is effected.
AB deeoribed above eaoh OCU recei~e~ inputs ~rom eight OPE'~ but are ¢apable o~ receiving ~nputs irom twelve OP$'~.
Consequently on the breaXdown oi an oo~ the OPE'e normal}y assooiated with lt are traneferred as two groups of iour to reepeotlve other OoU~B BO ae to make thelr complement~ up to twelve.
~ he lnputs ~rom the OPE's to the OoU~s are ied ln groups oi iour to respective "flrst ln ilrst out" buiier stores included in 0~ common unlts. I~ elther of these buffer ' ` 25 store~ become~ iillea lt ie as~umea that for some reason the oou has bro~en ~own ana iB unable to handle the inputs. In the same ~ay as described above a breakdown is indicated snd 18 also dealt with by tran~er o~ the OPE's to adjscent OCU~8. As beiore an indication is sent to the monitor unit 6 to record -the ialiure of the OF~.
The entire system i~ con~tructed 80 that every part i~
at lea~t duplicated with the result that signals can be re-routed to other units in the event oi a breakdown. As described above the OCU's are arranged ~o that their iunc~ion~ can be taken over by other OC~'s in the event of i~ailure and the peri-p~eral l~n~ ts are al80 duplicated 80 that ii one unit iails the duplicate i~ able to continue per~orming the required iunction.
Bach OCU ie programmed to receive a response over each oi the highways "A" and "B" irom the units to which it has sènt an en~uiry, one response coming irom the unit connected to hignway "A" and one irom its duplicate connected to highway ll~n, ~he OCU then compares the re~ponses and takes the decision as to whlch slgnal 1B correct, lf they diifer. The sig~al~ include simple check lniormation such as one or more parity digit~ to enable a ~alldlty te~t to be made on the data so that obviously ln~alld data can be discovered without dliilculty. On the other hand ir an OC~ receive~ re6ponses whlch dlifer but both oi whlch appear to be valld it produce~ a ~lgnal ior the operator ooncerned lndlcating that lt oannot a¢cept the data because it cannot deoide which 18 correct. Under theee conditions the operator must re~ert to the u~ual reierence book~ ior ascer-tQlning the lnrormation required. Any failu~e of this kind i9 109~Z09 automatically reported to the monitor unit ~nd tha e~ineer ls then able to carry out tests to a~oertain ~hlch part of the ~y~tem has ~ailed and to re~tore it to ~ull operation agaln.
In addition the magne~ic recording cartridge units ~A
and ~B which are al80 provided in duplicate Pnd connected respectively to the highways "A" and '`B", have a checking unit connected in their inputs to ensure that the data recorded on the cartridges are as iar as possible correct. In the input ~o each unit there i9 provided a "~ir~t in iirst out" (FIFO) bui~er and the data stored ~n these buifers are compared. If the data are identical in both buffers then the recording unit8 are arran~ed to record the data. If the data in the two buffers dlifer then each i8 tested for validity on the basis o~ a ~imple check, for e~ample a parity check, and ii one ~et ~ i data is wrong then the ~alid data 2re recorded ln both un~ts.
On the other hand, if the data differ but both ~ets of data appear to be ~alid then each recording unit is arranged to record the data stored in its own bu~fer and an indication i~
eant to the monltor unit to indicate that the two sets oi data diiier. It is al80 possible that a mark oi some kind be entQred on the records at this point to indioate that the data immediately precediDg the mark or immediately following it are suspect.
Figure 2 shows the construction o~ an operator's control unit (oo~) and lts connection to eight OP~'s and to two ad~acent OCU's ior the purpose o~ handing o~er the OPE's in .
~o9~zo9 two block~ cf ~our to the adj2cent OC~'s in the ev~llt of a breakdo~m. The s~me interconnection between thc OCU's is used for the handing over by one of the ad3acent OCU'9 0~ a block of i'our OPE's, should the particular ad~acent OC~ break down. The dotted rectangle lOG encloses the components constituting an OCU number N, part of oau number ~1 being ~hown partly enclosed b7 dotted line 101, and a connection to OC~ N-l being lndicated at 102. In addition to the components shown or indicated, each O~U includes power supplies and a pulse generator which supplies the 8i~nal9 requirad by the microprocessor.
The eight OPE 1 9 allocated to the OCU ~N" are indicated as 103 to 110 and are connected to respective data control units 111 to 118 in the oo~. ~he data control units have some buifer storage and other functions such a~ checking the validity oi the signals reoeived irom the OP~9 and performing some code conversion~, ior e~ample. ~he data control units are connected in ~roups oi ~our to OPE common units 119 and 120 by m~ans oi whioh the signal~ irom the OPE's are multiplexed for application to a bu~ highway 121 which forms the main communication link between the microproces~or and its associated unlts. Each OP~
common unit lnoludes a "~irst ln, iirst out" (~I~O) bu~ier store (see ~igure 8) ior receiving data and inst~otions irom the OPE e~ enabling them to be retimed ior processing by the mlcroprocessor ln the OCU, The microprocessor itself i~ contained in a central proces~ing unit (CPU) 122 and i~ co~nected oy means of the 10'?4209 highway 121 to a random access memory (RAM) 12~, a pro~rammable read-only memory (PROM) 124, a C~U monitor 125, and t~o peri-pheral unit selector8 (PS) 126 and 127. In addition, facilities are provided for plugging ln a printed circu~t board "te~t access" 128 for coupling the d~agnostic unit into the O~U. The CP~ monitor 125 i8 connected directly to the monitor unit ~Fig.l) and the peripheral l~n~t selectors 126 snd 127 are connected re8pecti~ely to the highways "A" and "~ ig.l).
Stand-by units 129 and 1~0 are connected respecti~ely to the OP~ common units 119 and 120 and al80 to the bus highway 121. ~nit 129 is connected via connection 102 to oo~ "N-ln and the unit 120 is connected to oo~ "N~
As80ciated with the CP~ 122 and possibly incorporated in the mioroproces80r-(but shown separately from the CPU for clarity is a watch-dog timer 131, and in the RAM 123 by software time-out queues 132 and a peripheral request queue 133, the _ functions of which will be described later. Engineer's keys 134 are provided connected to the bus highway 121 for enabling an engineer to have direct control of the OCU shou&d he require it.
A power supply unit and a pulse gererator, neither of which are shown, would be provided to drive and energize the components of the OCU.
The CPU 122 performs the processings of the signals from the OPE' 8, transferring enquiries to the various peripheral units as required in the following way. The operations of the CPU are divided into 16 multiplexed time slots of which 12 are allocated to the 12 OPE's (the eight OPE's normally handled by 10~4Z09 the OCU plus th~ 4 e~tra OP~'s taken over i* the adjacent O~U
iall~), one is allocated to the watch-do~ timer and thæ time-outs (indications th~t speci~lc time intervals have elapsed), two are allocated to the peripheral selector~ and one is allocated to the engineer's keys via which the engineer can enter data or special instructions into the OCU. It uill be appreciated that buiier stores must be employed with a processor operati~g in this way because the actual time o~ making use oi or producing any particular item oi data depends on the time slot to which it relates. If a signal irom an OPE is held in ~ne oi the buiiers in the OPE common nnits 119 and 120, the CPU 122 at the appropriate time slot responds to the ~ignal to record the data or start processing in a conventional manner, that i8 to ~ay UBing storage registers in the ~AM 123 allocated lS to the particular time slot to store the data ~nd initial and interm~diate results of calculations in response to instruction~
deri~ed irom the PRO~ 124. A typical signal from an OPE would be a request ~or data from one of the peripheral unit~, and-the CP~ would respond to such a signal by attempting to pass on a request ior the data to the peripheral unit concerned.
Probably the peripheral unit would not be acces~ible at the particulsr instant and therefore the request would be placed at the end oi the queue stored in the peripheral request queue store 133, and when the request reaches the head of the queue the details are selected by the CPU 122 irom the RAM 123 and passed via the selectors 126 and 127 to the peripheral UDit 109~209 concerned. Th~ dsta received from the peripheral unit would be routed by the CP~ 122 into the RAM 123 ready for return to the OPE. Each OCU is able to handle 84 call~ at a time, i.e~ 7 - calls ~rom each OPE, and the data ~tored in the peripheral reque~t queue takes the form of a call tag, that i~ to say a number between 1 and 84, by which the call concerned is known to the OC~.
The timing of operations is controlled by a pulse generator, not shown, from which pulse~ are applied to the watch-dog timer 131~ which in turn applies ~ignal~ to the time-out queues storsd in the unit 132. ~he ~unction of the time-out queues is to produce signals after particular inte~als of time, such as, ~or e~ample, 3 minutes ior the call time from a i public call box, which interv~l ~orm~ the unit o~ time ~or a pre-paid call. As described above, the watch-dog timer 1~1 include6 a counter which is reset to zero every time the timer iB aocessed, so that in the event of a breakdown of the normal sequence of instructions o~ the CP~ 122 which results in the timer 1~1 not being access~d, the counter would reach a value higher t~an lt would reach in normal operation, thus providing an indication of the breakdown and in response to which the programmes o~ the CPU 122 are reRet to a datum po~ition and restarted.
In addition to monitoring the satisfactory ~unctioning o~ the OC~ by means of the watch-dog timer, the monitor 6 i8 arranged to receive from the O~U periodic ~ignals produced ~094209 during progra~me e~ecution indicatin~ its satlsfactory operation and also statistical data relating to the calls which it has handled. Items o~ statistical data are applied by the CP~ 122 to the buf~er in the unit 125 during the time ~lot allocated to the CPU monitor, so that during the operation o~ the e~change the statistical data i~ built up in the monitor unit 6.
The si~teenth time slot i9 available ior the engineer'~
keys 134 in the event of a breakdown oi the OCU, thus enabling the engineer to instruct the CP~ 122 directly and diagnose the cause oi any iaults or failures in the OC~.
Among~t other storage iacilities provided by the RAM 123 i8 a call store having 84 addresses, one ior each call, in which details of the calls are recorded as they are entered by the operator. When the call is completed the relevant details are ~ent by the CPU to the magnetic cartridge units 3A and 3 ior charging and to the monitor unit 6 ~or ~tati~tical purposes.
An operator's position store is al~o included ~hich relates the switches at the operator's position to the call tag or number.
In the event oi breakdown oi the OF~ "N", detected either by the watch-dog timer or by the iilling of one or more oi the input FIFO bufiers in the data control units, the CPU
monitor 125 ~ends signals to the stand-by units 129 and 130 causing them to route the outputs oi the OPE common units 119 and 120 to the stand-~y u~its in ~he adjacent OoUt8. The CPU's in the OC~'~ are progra~med to test the stand-by unit~ in each -- 19 ~
' 109;-~209 multiple~ cycle to a~certain whether signals from four e~tr~
OPE's are being applied to the OCU or not. If the ~our e~tra OP~'s are allocated to a particular OCU then its CP~ will address the extra OPE's in the same way as the original eight OP~'s allocated to the oo~ 80 that the op~rations required by the e~tra OPE's are ~itted into the schedule oi work periormed by the OC~. .
Figure 8 shows further details of the mechani~m in an OC~ to provide ~or the changeover of groups o~ OPE's to adjacent OCU'e. Two groups of iour OPE's are connected via two ~IFO
.
- common bui~ers 701 and 702 respectively to storage bu~fers "~
and "B" having the reierence~ 70~ and 704. The bu~fers 703 and 704 each have two outputs o~ which one is connected to CP~
700 belonging to the OCU in question, and oi which the other 18 connected to a re~pective stand-by CP~ belonging to an ad~aoent OCU. A CPU monitor unit 705 contains an OR-gate 706 having input3 from the FIFO bu~ers 701 and 702 if these become iull, an lnput irom a ~ second time-out unit 707 included in the CP~ monitor 705 and an input ~rom a pul~e generator 708 which supplies energizlng pulses to the C~ 700 indicating that one or more sequences of pulses has failed. A
iurther input 709 i9 provided to enable an engineer to chec~
the switch-over operation manually. The output of the gate 706 i9 connected to the bu~fers 703 and 704 to e~iect the switch-over control o~ these bu~iers to or from the stand-by CP~
~0~42(~
~lgure ~ shows the detail~ oi the diaeno~tic unit (~ig.l) ~rom -~hich lt can be seen that the unit consi~ts o~ an active part termed a test control unit and iormed by units below the bro~en line which are co~nected to a bus highway 200 and a passive part termed a hot ~tand-by unit and iormed by the unlts above the broken line and co~nected to a bus high~ay 220. The units ~o~min$ the passive part are on "hot stand-by that iB to say they are in operation r~peatedly undergoing~ a sequence of tests under the command of the CPU18 201 and 212, ~o that an engineer can extract one of the unit~ for use in the oquipment ~ollowing a breakdown ~ecure in the knowledge that the unit he has taken i~ iully operational, whereas a unit idle on a sheli may have a fault.
~nits CP~ 201, RAM 202, PROMs 203~. and 203B, and CP~
monitor 204 constitute a data proces~ing unit, such as iQ use~
in many units ln the system, controlling the tests perioImed by - the diagnostlc unit, and these units are interconnected by the bus highway 200. Al~o connected to the bus highway 2~0 are a V24 unit 208 the function of which will be described in detail later, an interzone channel ~O9 which is connected to the tarif~ and credit card veriiicatio~ units 4A ana 4~ ~or the purpose oi entering specliic data into those units, and a Qecond V24 unit 210 which connects the test control unit directly to the monitor unit 6 for the purpose of receiving in~tructions --~rom that unit as mentioned above. A Qpecial maintenanoe hlgh-way ~rom ~he monitor unit 6 ig connected throu~h a monitor unit 223 to the bu~ highway 2~0, and ma~netic +ape cartridge units 225A and 225B are provided to e~able an engineer to enter quickly epeclal lnstruction~ or data for diagnostic test procedures.
~'he blockc 226, 227 and 228 indicate po~sible positions ior other PROMs ior diagnostic test programmes. ~ iurther V24 unlt lncluded within the dotted rectangle 211 i8 also oonnected to the bus highway 200 and together with the V24 unit 208 provide~ the double interconnection oi the hot stand-by unit wlth the te~t control unit, the two V24 units being respectively connected to the bus highway 220 by means oi V24 units 218 and that inoluded in diagnostic interiace 222. The interiace 222 can be detached irom the highway 220 and connected to the bus highway oi any other unit in the systam, the connection being indioated on the dlagram~ oi these unitS as test acce~s 90 as to enabIe the test cont~ol unit to have access to the components o~
the partioular unit to enable diagno~itic test procedurea to be ~ oarried out.
The hot stand-by unit, a~ explalned above, contains a number oi oompon0ntc, ~or example, ln the form of printed circult boarde, which are continually e~ercl~ed ~ndcr 'he control of a CP~ 212, a R~M 213 and a PROM 214, all of which are connected to the highway 220. ~he oomponente them~elves are a peripheral selector 206, an OPE common unit 207, a perlpheral input-output unit 216, an oPæ teet unit 217, two data controller~ 224A and 224B, an interzone channel 219, an OP~ bu~fer 221, and a monitor input unit 205 connected to a CP~ monitor un~t 215.
10~4Z09 In order to permit the~e units to interact in the ~anner in which they are con~tructed to do when in service, apart from the connection o~ the 0PU monitor 215 to the monitor input unit 205 mentioned above, the peripheral ~elector 206 is connected to the periphsral input-output unit 216, the OPE test unit 217 ie conn~cted to the data controller~ 224A and 224B, the interzone ohannel 219 ha8 it~ outputs interconnected a~ are the outputs of the 0P~ bu~fer 221 which i9 controlled by the CPU monitor 215 to ef~ect the e~itch-over o~ thls bufrer as de~cribed with referance to the buffers 703 and 704 of Figure 8.
Power supply units 230 and 232 and p~lse generators 231 and 233 are provided respectively for the te~t control unit and the hot stand-by unit, which two units are constructed o~ k s~milar ¢omponents eo as to standardise their a~sembly.
~he diagno~tio unlt provides the following ~ac~litie~:-1. Storage ~or range o~ detail diagnostic programmes. -~ 2. ~ iacility to keep a stand-by including one o~
all basi¢ ~ystem card~ in hot proven ~tate, with alarm if a failure occurs in one of the ~tand-by cards.
10'~4209 processing system, and it is therefore desirable that the system could incorporate some kind of feedback display and any other check to which the information is susceptible.
It is an object of the present invention therefore to provide a data processing system suitable for recording details of telephone calls connected by an operator in which the above requirements have been taken into consideration.
According to the present invention there is provided data processing equipment having a plurality of independently operating on-line stations and a plurality of data handling units, the equipment including at each station data entry means, data utilization means and control means, the control means including storage means for recording in response to the data entry means details of a required data processing operation, and being capable of selectively generating in response to the recorded details interrogation signals and instruction signals for transmission to the data handling units, receiving data from certain of the data handling units in response to the interrogation and instruction signals and recording the data, and applying signals to the utilization means, the equipment further including monitoring means connected to all of the data handling units and the control means, wherein each of the control means and the data handling units includes a central processing unit, a read-only-memory defining at least one recurrent programme of instructions performed by the central processing unit and a monitor message transmission unit, the programme including functional tests on the operations performed . . . ~ , :, .
by the unit and the periodic initiation of the transmission of a monitor message by the monitor message transmission unit, the monitor message specifying any fault detected in the operation of the unit, the monitoring means being connected to receive the monitor messages from the control means and the data handling units and having means for c~unting separately the reports of malfunctions for each unit of the equipment included in the messages.
Each station may be operated by an operator and the utilization means may include display means for the operator.
The equipment may be for ~ecording details of manually connected telephone calls and the data handling and/or storage units may include a telephone call recording store to which the details of a call are applied for storage by the control means on completion of the call.
The data handling and/or storage units and the control means may include a central processing unit arranged to perform at least one recurring programme of instructions which includes generation~of a signal indicating that the processing unit is operating satisfactorily. The central processing unit may include a watchdog timer to detect malfunction having a counter which is incremented regularly and reset by an instruction from the programme so that if the rccurrence of the programmes is interrupted the count in the counter will exceed a threshold value and produce an output indicating malfunction. A
respective data storage means may be associated with each central processing unit and the central processing unit may ~ _ ~09~209 respond to the respective output indicating malfunction to erase all data from the data storage means and cause the programme to be restarted. The equipment may include a plurality of control means each associated with a group of data entry and utilisation means having access to all of the data handling and/or storage units.
In the monitoring means a store may be provided for recording reports of faults and breakdowns referring to the particular unit concerned~and the type of breakdown or fault reported. A threshold may be provided associated with each category of failure and an output produced only if the number of failures exceed the threshold.
A diagonistic unit may be provided coupled to the monitoring means to enable a wide range of tests to be performed by an engineer. The programme information and any other data required for the test may be recorded on, for example, a magnetic tape cartridge insertable in the diagnostic unit. The diagnostic unit may include a hot stand-by unit for providing tested spare sub-units.
In order that the invention may be fully understood and readily carried into effect an embodiment in the form of manually connected telephone call recording equipment will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:-FIGURE 1 shows in block diagrammatic form the telephone call recording equipment, FIGURE 2 shows in block diagrammatic form the circuit of an operator's control unit (OCU), ~094Z09 FIGURE 6 shows the circuit of a monitor unit;
FI~URE 7 shows the coupling of CPU monitor units to a monitor unit, and FIGURE 8 shows details of the ~CU switchover circuits.
As shown in Figure 1, the call recording equipment includes a plurality of operator's position equipment (OPE) 11 to 18, 21 to 28, 31 to 38, etc., each for an operator and which are connected to operator control units (OCU) 10, 20, 30, etc. Each OCU is arranged to receive information from and return information to eight OPE's divided into two groups of four OPE's. Each OCU has connections to two highways "A" and ~B", having references 1 and 2, which highways are each connected to three pairs of peripheral units 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, 5A and 5B, which consist of magnetic cartridge recording units, tariff and credit card verification units and charge step and national to local code translation units, which are respectively connected to the two highways. In addition each OCU 10, 20, 30, etc. is connected to a monitor unit 6 and the monitor unit 6 is also connected to the peripheral units to receive signals from them to indicate their functional state. The monitor ~nit has facilities for printing out details of any abnormalities in the operation of the equipment which it discovers during the periodical scanning of the outputs of the OCU's and peripheral units. There is also provided a diagnostic unit 7 which is connected to receive the information recorded in the monitor unit and to operate a diagnostic interface unit 8 for applying test signals via 6 -- - ~
~' ' ' .
10~1~20~
a diagnositic highway 9 to the OCU's and peripheral units and for receiving reply signals over the same highway for the purpose of assisting an engineer to discover the reason for any faults which occur.
The components which form the OPE's need not all be located at the operator's switchboard, but will include key pads for operation by the operator and a visual dispaly unit (VDU) for providing information in visual form for the operator. The necessary logic and interface circuitry may be provided at the operator's position or in the corresponding OCU. The key pads may be entirely separate from the keys and switches provided for control of the telephone network by the operator but preferably there will be some interconnection between these components to ~nsure that the exact time from the connection of a call to its disconnection are fed to the OCU, - 6a -10~4Z09 possibly together with detail~ o~ the number to be called and the iacilit~ required by the sub~criber. The operator control untt iB constructed to transmit the information required by the operator to the vi6ual di~play unit, po~sibly also to ~lluminate certain of the keys to provide ~ome oi the iniormation required or ior promptlng the operation of certain keys and al~o to check the correct operation oi the components o~ the OP~.
Ae mentlone~ above, each OC~ i8 connected to control ei~ht O~E~B, but the OCU'e are constructed to be capable of handling iniormation irom and ieeding lniormation into twelve OP~'s; each OCU having two ~roupa oi four bu~fer stores, each bufier ~tore being available ior the information irom and to a re~pective OP~, and two stand-by units each for handling the inpu~ of four other `
O~E'e or ior transferring a group o~ four OP~'s to an ad~acent 0¢~. In the e~ent o-f a breakdown o~ an OC~ when discovered b~
teets periormed internally by each OCU, the eight OPEIB allocated - to that OCU are divided into two groups of iour and trans~erred to t~o ad~acent O¢U's. Eaoh OCU containe a m~oroprocessor which, in the partlcular e~ample o~ the invention being con~idered is an INTBL 8080~ or a compatible de~lce, and ress~bles a small computer in which the required data proce~eing 1B e~fected by a ~ingle integrated circuit. It will be apparent that other types oi microprocessor could be used, provlded that the facilities re~uired by the OC~ are available. There are a~sociated with each microprocessor the necessary power supplies, clock pulse generators, data and programme stores and buiier stores.
_ 7 _ 10~4Z09 A~ can be ~een from Figure 1, each of the periphoral unlts 1~ provided in duplicate, and each unit lncludes a micro-proce~sor ~imllar to that used in the OGU'e. The tariff and credit card verification units 4A and 4~ store the in~ormati.on about the tari~f rate~ of the di*ferent telephone connections possible or other iacilitle~ ~uch as, for example, provision of peraon~ call, etc. As the tariff rate will depend upon the time o~ day at which the call iB made, these units will al80 include independent clocks dri~en by so-called watch-dog timers and supplying thls time 80 that the correct tariff rate ~or the call i8 provided and is transierred to the oou. Facilities are provided ~or resettlng the clocks under engineer control. ~5 certain sub3cribers require the facility for charging telephone calle to a credit card account, it i5 nece3~ary for the operator to be able to check the validity og the credit card number gi~en by the caller, and for this purpo~e the tariff and credit card verification units are able to check the number and indicate to the operator whether the number given i~ valld or invalid-~hese units may also provlde other in~ormation such as, for example, when a particular account ha~ been discontinued.
Another facility provlded by the peripheral units i6 ~ound in units 5A and 5~ and is the charge step data and national to looal code tr~lslation information which are u~ed for providine iniormatlon to the operator with regard to dialling codes to be emplo~.ed for particular operat1ons or conne~ions, and tells the OCU the distance factor in the conne~ion being made so that the appropriate charge rate i8 used.
~0 94 ZO9 In addit~on to providlng tarif~ data ~nd the credlt card ~eriilcation, each of the units 4A ~nd 4~ includes a clock giving the time of day, thi~ in~o~ation being requlred because the call .- tariff depends on the time at which the call is made. The clocks in the two units are lndependent but are checXed against each other every 30 minutes and i~ the error is greater than 30 seconds a signAl indicating this is sent to the monitor unit 6 for reporting to the engineer. On receiving the report the engineer u~es the diagnostic l~n;t 7 to reset both clocks to 10 - the time provided by a reference clock.
The most importa~t ta~k of the peripheral unlts is iulfille~ by the magnetic cartridge recording unit~ ~A and 3B
whi~h record ln dupllcate on two separate magnetic tape cartrldge~
deta~ls of the oalls handled by the operator, together with the 15 . subsoriber's identiiication either by way o~ hi~ telephone nwmber or credit card number, ior example. On to the cartridge ~ are also recorded the length o~ the call, the time of day, the tari~i unit and any other details such as i~ the call is a personal call. When a magnetic cartridge has been filled or at the end of a particular period the cartridge is repla~ed and the full cartridge ie passed to a central acco~ting department where the charges ior the calls are calculated and set against the subscribers' account~.
All of the peripheral units are duplicated as are the highways 1 and 2 coupling them to the OC~'s 80 as to en~ure that a sinele iault cannot disable any part of the system~ Moreover, _ g _ 1()94209 it i8 poe~ible ~or a faulty unit to be tes~ed and repalred without interrupting the effectivene~s of the system as far as the operator~ are concerned. To enable the engineers rapidly to locate and repair ~aults in any part o~ the ~ystem, there is provided the monitor unit 6 which is connected to each oou and each per~pheraJ unit via a ~ystem o~ independent highways which enable the per~ormance of each unit to be aY~essed in re~ponse to relevant parameters such as, for e~ample, the state of ~ill oi buifer stores provided in the units. In addition, the micro- i proces~ors in the unit~ are programmcd to assess their o~n functioning and to transmit a message that all is weil or that there is a ~ault with the particular unit periodically to the ~onitor unit. In one e~ample reporting mes~ages are applied to - the monitor unit irom each oi the OCU'8 and peripheral units every four ~econds; ~he monitor unit provide~ a printed output by means o~ a teleprinter 6A, which ou~put will enable the over-~11 periormance of the system to be checked and will also provide statistical information which will enable deci~ion~ to be made as to the neces~ity for iurther operator~ or other peripheral unita to be provided or not.
W~en the monltor unit 6 is not able to identi~y precisely the ~aulty equipment, a maintenance engineer iB able to use a diagnostic unit 7 whloh includes a ~urther microprocessor and has a large repertoire of diagnostic instructions avai~a~le on test cartridges wbich can be inserted in the unit 7 at 7A. The diagnostic unit 7 i~ designed to diagnose ard localise ~aults .
~03420~
in any o~ the unlts and i~ arranged to do thia in such a way that it can be utilised by non-speciPlist staff who have no knowledge oi the data processing equipment in~ uded in the system. In order to per~orm the diagnosis the unit 7 initiates a test signal which i~ applied over a diagnosis highway system q via an interiace 8 either to the operator control units or to the peripheral unlts and appropriate output signals are returned to the diagnostic unit 7 over the same highway system 9 and interiace 8. ~he teleprinter 6A enables the engineer to enter lnstructions and data via its keyboard and prints out the re~ults. The teleprinter 6A is connected to the monitor unit 6 via a V24 link, a second such link connectlng the unit 6 to the diagnostic unlt 7. .
. Another iunction o~ the diagno~tic unit 7 i8 to enable 15 . data to be entered into the tarlii and credit card veri~ication ' units 4~ and 4B, since it is likely that the credit card data at lea~t will.be changed irequently. .
The CP~18 may break down in service and thereiore are programmed to carry out periodic checks to supervise their 1.
operational condition and that of the units which they control.
~o achie~e this each unit includes a watch-dog timer ~hich ¢on~lsts of a counter to whlch pulse~ are applied having repe-tltion ~requency oi 1 kXz. ~he programmes oi the microprocessor inoluded ln the unit are arranged to access the counter at interrals not gr~ater than a quarter oi a second ~nd to reset lt to a count oi 0. Ii the counter i~ not aocessed during this .
tlme, for e~Rmple by reason of a ~ailure of the programme to e~tricate the microprocessor from the loop oi instructions or as a result Or hardware iailure in the mlcroproce~sor, the counter, when not accessed, ~tarts a "time out" to allow a further period of time for the counter to be accessed. Failure to access the counter within thi~ further period oi time results in the programme~ oi the microproces~or being interrupted and being reset to a datum position in th~ programme sequence and the associated data store being cleared. A flag is set when the programme interruption occurs and signals are sent to the monitor unit to cause it to record t~e details of the failure.
A second failure to access the counter within the quarter second time interval results in the unit being recorded as having broken down, and at this time if the unit is an OCU
a switch over of the OPE inputs to adjacent two OCU's is effected.
AB deeoribed above eaoh OCU recei~e~ inputs ~rom eight OPE'~ but are ¢apable o~ receiving ~nputs irom twelve OP$'~.
Consequently on the breaXdown oi an oo~ the OPE'e normal}y assooiated with lt are traneferred as two groups of iour to reepeotlve other OoU~B BO ae to make thelr complement~ up to twelve.
~ he lnputs ~rom the OPE's to the OoU~s are ied ln groups oi iour to respective "flrst ln ilrst out" buiier stores included in 0~ common unlts. I~ elther of these buffer ' ` 25 store~ become~ iillea lt ie as~umea that for some reason the oou has bro~en ~own ana iB unable to handle the inputs. In the same ~ay as described above a breakdown is indicated snd 18 also dealt with by tran~er o~ the OPE's to adjscent OCU~8. As beiore an indication is sent to the monitor unit 6 to record -the ialiure of the OF~.
The entire system i~ con~tructed 80 that every part i~
at lea~t duplicated with the result that signals can be re-routed to other units in the event oi a breakdown. As described above the OCU's are arranged ~o that their iunc~ion~ can be taken over by other OC~'s in the event of i~ailure and the peri-p~eral l~n~ ts are al80 duplicated 80 that ii one unit iails the duplicate i~ able to continue per~orming the required iunction.
Bach OCU ie programmed to receive a response over each oi the highways "A" and "B" irom the units to which it has sènt an en~uiry, one response coming irom the unit connected to hignway "A" and one irom its duplicate connected to highway ll~n, ~he OCU then compares the re~ponses and takes the decision as to whlch slgnal 1B correct, lf they diifer. The sig~al~ include simple check lniormation such as one or more parity digit~ to enable a ~alldlty te~t to be made on the data so that obviously ln~alld data can be discovered without dliilculty. On the other hand ir an OC~ receive~ re6ponses whlch dlifer but both oi whlch appear to be valld it produce~ a ~lgnal ior the operator ooncerned lndlcating that lt oannot a¢cept the data because it cannot deoide which 18 correct. Under theee conditions the operator must re~ert to the u~ual reierence book~ ior ascer-tQlning the lnrormation required. Any failu~e of this kind i9 109~Z09 automatically reported to the monitor unit ~nd tha e~ineer ls then able to carry out tests to a~oertain ~hlch part of the ~y~tem has ~ailed and to re~tore it to ~ull operation agaln.
In addition the magne~ic recording cartridge units ~A
and ~B which are al80 provided in duplicate Pnd connected respectively to the highways "A" and '`B", have a checking unit connected in their inputs to ensure that the data recorded on the cartridges are as iar as possible correct. In the input ~o each unit there i9 provided a "~ir~t in iirst out" (FIFO) bui~er and the data stored ~n these buifers are compared. If the data are identical in both buffers then the recording unit8 are arran~ed to record the data. If the data in the two buffers dlifer then each i8 tested for validity on the basis o~ a ~imple check, for e~ample a parity check, and ii one ~et ~ i data is wrong then the ~alid data 2re recorded ln both un~ts.
On the other hand, if the data differ but both ~ets of data appear to be ~alid then each recording unit is arranged to record the data stored in its own bu~fer and an indication i~
eant to the monltor unit to indicate that the two sets oi data diiier. It is al80 possible that a mark oi some kind be entQred on the records at this point to indioate that the data immediately precediDg the mark or immediately following it are suspect.
Figure 2 shows the construction o~ an operator's control unit (oo~) and lts connection to eight OP~'s and to two ad~acent OCU's ior the purpose o~ handing o~er the OPE's in .
~o9~zo9 two block~ cf ~our to the adj2cent OC~'s in the ev~llt of a breakdo~m. The s~me interconnection between thc OCU's is used for the handing over by one of the ad3acent OCU'9 0~ a block of i'our OPE's, should the particular ad~acent OC~ break down. The dotted rectangle lOG encloses the components constituting an OCU number N, part of oau number ~1 being ~hown partly enclosed b7 dotted line 101, and a connection to OC~ N-l being lndicated at 102. In addition to the components shown or indicated, each O~U includes power supplies and a pulse generator which supplies the 8i~nal9 requirad by the microprocessor.
The eight OPE 1 9 allocated to the OCU ~N" are indicated as 103 to 110 and are connected to respective data control units 111 to 118 in the oo~. ~he data control units have some buifer storage and other functions such a~ checking the validity oi the signals reoeived irom the OP~9 and performing some code conversion~, ior e~ample. ~he data control units are connected in ~roups oi ~our to OPE common units 119 and 120 by m~ans oi whioh the signal~ irom the OPE's are multiplexed for application to a bu~ highway 121 which forms the main communication link between the microproces~or and its associated unlts. Each OP~
common unit lnoludes a "~irst ln, iirst out" (~I~O) bu~ier store (see ~igure 8) ior receiving data and inst~otions irom the OPE e~ enabling them to be retimed ior processing by the mlcroprocessor ln the OCU, The microprocessor itself i~ contained in a central proces~ing unit (CPU) 122 and i~ co~nected oy means of the 10'?4209 highway 121 to a random access memory (RAM) 12~, a pro~rammable read-only memory (PROM) 124, a C~U monitor 125, and t~o peri-pheral unit selector8 (PS) 126 and 127. In addition, facilities are provided for plugging ln a printed circu~t board "te~t access" 128 for coupling the d~agnostic unit into the O~U. The CP~ monitor 125 i8 connected directly to the monitor unit ~Fig.l) and the peripheral l~n~t selectors 126 snd 127 are connected re8pecti~ely to the highways "A" and "~ ig.l).
Stand-by units 129 and 1~0 are connected respecti~ely to the OP~ common units 119 and 120 and al80 to the bus highway 121. ~nit 129 is connected via connection 102 to oo~ "N-ln and the unit 120 is connected to oo~ "N~
As80ciated with the CP~ 122 and possibly incorporated in the mioroproces80r-(but shown separately from the CPU for clarity is a watch-dog timer 131, and in the RAM 123 by software time-out queues 132 and a peripheral request queue 133, the _ functions of which will be described later. Engineer's keys 134 are provided connected to the bus highway 121 for enabling an engineer to have direct control of the OCU shou&d he require it.
A power supply unit and a pulse gererator, neither of which are shown, would be provided to drive and energize the components of the OCU.
The CPU 122 performs the processings of the signals from the OPE' 8, transferring enquiries to the various peripheral units as required in the following way. The operations of the CPU are divided into 16 multiplexed time slots of which 12 are allocated to the 12 OPE's (the eight OPE's normally handled by 10~4Z09 the OCU plus th~ 4 e~tra OP~'s taken over i* the adjacent O~U
iall~), one is allocated to the watch-do~ timer and thæ time-outs (indications th~t speci~lc time intervals have elapsed), two are allocated to the peripheral selector~ and one is allocated to the engineer's keys via which the engineer can enter data or special instructions into the OCU. It uill be appreciated that buiier stores must be employed with a processor operati~g in this way because the actual time o~ making use oi or producing any particular item oi data depends on the time slot to which it relates. If a signal irom an OPE is held in ~ne oi the buiiers in the OPE common nnits 119 and 120, the CPU 122 at the appropriate time slot responds to the ~ignal to record the data or start processing in a conventional manner, that i8 to ~ay UBing storage registers in the ~AM 123 allocated lS to the particular time slot to store the data ~nd initial and interm~diate results of calculations in response to instruction~
deri~ed irom the PRO~ 124. A typical signal from an OPE would be a request ~or data from one of the peripheral unit~, and-the CP~ would respond to such a signal by attempting to pass on a request ior the data to the peripheral unit concerned.
Probably the peripheral unit would not be acces~ible at the particulsr instant and therefore the request would be placed at the end oi the queue stored in the peripheral request queue store 133, and when the request reaches the head of the queue the details are selected by the CPU 122 irom the RAM 123 and passed via the selectors 126 and 127 to the peripheral UDit 109~209 concerned. Th~ dsta received from the peripheral unit would be routed by the CP~ 122 into the RAM 123 ready for return to the OPE. Each OCU is able to handle 84 call~ at a time, i.e~ 7 - calls ~rom each OPE, and the data ~tored in the peripheral reque~t queue takes the form of a call tag, that i~ to say a number between 1 and 84, by which the call concerned is known to the OC~.
The timing of operations is controlled by a pulse generator, not shown, from which pulse~ are applied to the watch-dog timer 131~ which in turn applies ~ignal~ to the time-out queues storsd in the unit 132. ~he ~unction of the time-out queues is to produce signals after particular inte~als of time, such as, ~or e~ample, 3 minutes ior the call time from a i public call box, which interv~l ~orm~ the unit o~ time ~or a pre-paid call. As described above, the watch-dog timer 1~1 include6 a counter which is reset to zero every time the timer iB aocessed, so that in the event of a breakdown of the normal sequence of instructions o~ the CP~ 122 which results in the timer 1~1 not being access~d, the counter would reach a value higher t~an lt would reach in normal operation, thus providing an indication of the breakdown and in response to which the programmes o~ the CPU 122 are reRet to a datum po~ition and restarted.
In addition to monitoring the satisfactory ~unctioning o~ the OC~ by means of the watch-dog timer, the monitor 6 i8 arranged to receive from the O~U periodic ~ignals produced ~094209 during progra~me e~ecution indicatin~ its satlsfactory operation and also statistical data relating to the calls which it has handled. Items o~ statistical data are applied by the CP~ 122 to the buf~er in the unit 125 during the time ~lot allocated to the CPU monitor, so that during the operation o~ the e~change the statistical data i~ built up in the monitor unit 6.
The si~teenth time slot i9 available ior the engineer'~
keys 134 in the event of a breakdown oi the OCU, thus enabling the engineer to instruct the CP~ 122 directly and diagnose the cause oi any iaults or failures in the OC~.
Among~t other storage iacilities provided by the RAM 123 i8 a call store having 84 addresses, one ior each call, in which details of the calls are recorded as they are entered by the operator. When the call is completed the relevant details are ~ent by the CPU to the magnetic cartridge units 3A and 3 ior charging and to the monitor unit 6 ~or ~tati~tical purposes.
An operator's position store is al~o included ~hich relates the switches at the operator's position to the call tag or number.
In the event oi breakdown oi the OF~ "N", detected either by the watch-dog timer or by the iilling of one or more oi the input FIFO bufiers in the data control units, the CPU
monitor 125 ~ends signals to the stand-by units 129 and 130 causing them to route the outputs oi the OPE common units 119 and 120 to the stand-~y u~its in ~he adjacent OoUt8. The CPU's in the OC~'~ are progra~med to test the stand-by unit~ in each -- 19 ~
' 109;-~209 multiple~ cycle to a~certain whether signals from four e~tr~
OPE's are being applied to the OCU or not. If the ~our e~tra OP~'s are allocated to a particular OCU then its CP~ will address the extra OPE's in the same way as the original eight OP~'s allocated to the oo~ 80 that the op~rations required by the e~tra OPE's are ~itted into the schedule oi work periormed by the OC~. .
Figure 8 shows further details of the mechani~m in an OC~ to provide ~or the changeover of groups o~ OPE's to adjacent OCU'e. Two groups of iour OPE's are connected via two ~IFO
.
- common bui~ers 701 and 702 respectively to storage bu~fers "~
and "B" having the reierence~ 70~ and 704. The bu~fers 703 and 704 each have two outputs o~ which one is connected to CP~
700 belonging to the OCU in question, and oi which the other 18 connected to a re~pective stand-by CP~ belonging to an ad~aoent OCU. A CPU monitor unit 705 contains an OR-gate 706 having input3 from the FIFO bu~ers 701 and 702 if these become iull, an lnput irom a ~ second time-out unit 707 included in the CP~ monitor 705 and an input ~rom a pul~e generator 708 which supplies energizlng pulses to the C~ 700 indicating that one or more sequences of pulses has failed. A
iurther input 709 i9 provided to enable an engineer to chec~
the switch-over operation manually. The output of the gate 706 i9 connected to the bu~fers 703 and 704 to e~iect the switch-over control o~ these bu~iers to or from the stand-by CP~
~0~42(~
~lgure ~ shows the detail~ oi the diaeno~tic unit (~ig.l) ~rom -~hich lt can be seen that the unit consi~ts o~ an active part termed a test control unit and iormed by units below the bro~en line which are co~nected to a bus highway 200 and a passive part termed a hot ~tand-by unit and iormed by the unlts above the broken line and co~nected to a bus high~ay 220. The units ~o~min$ the passive part are on "hot stand-by that iB to say they are in operation r~peatedly undergoing~ a sequence of tests under the command of the CPU18 201 and 212, ~o that an engineer can extract one of the unit~ for use in the oquipment ~ollowing a breakdown ~ecure in the knowledge that the unit he has taken i~ iully operational, whereas a unit idle on a sheli may have a fault.
~nits CP~ 201, RAM 202, PROMs 203~. and 203B, and CP~
monitor 204 constitute a data proces~ing unit, such as iQ use~
in many units ln the system, controlling the tests perioImed by - the diagnostlc unit, and these units are interconnected by the bus highway 200. Al~o connected to the bus highway 2~0 are a V24 unit 208 the function of which will be described in detail later, an interzone channel ~O9 which is connected to the tarif~ and credit card veriiicatio~ units 4A ana 4~ ~or the purpose oi entering specliic data into those units, and a Qecond V24 unit 210 which connects the test control unit directly to the monitor unit 6 for the purpose of receiving in~tructions --~rom that unit as mentioned above. A Qpecial maintenanoe hlgh-way ~rom ~he monitor unit 6 ig connected throu~h a monitor unit 223 to the bu~ highway 2~0, and ma~netic +ape cartridge units 225A and 225B are provided to e~able an engineer to enter quickly epeclal lnstruction~ or data for diagnostic test procedures.
~'he blockc 226, 227 and 228 indicate po~sible positions ior other PROMs ior diagnostic test programmes. ~ iurther V24 unlt lncluded within the dotted rectangle 211 i8 also oonnected to the bus highway 200 and together with the V24 unit 208 provide~ the double interconnection oi the hot stand-by unit wlth the te~t control unit, the two V24 units being respectively connected to the bus highway 220 by means oi V24 units 218 and that inoluded in diagnostic interiace 222. The interiace 222 can be detached irom the highway 220 and connected to the bus highway oi any other unit in the systam, the connection being indioated on the dlagram~ oi these unitS as test acce~s 90 as to enabIe the test cont~ol unit to have access to the components o~
the partioular unit to enable diagno~itic test procedurea to be ~ oarried out.
The hot stand-by unit, a~ explalned above, contains a number oi oompon0ntc, ~or example, ln the form of printed circult boarde, which are continually e~ercl~ed ~ndcr 'he control of a CP~ 212, a R~M 213 and a PROM 214, all of which are connected to the highway 220. ~he oomponente them~elves are a peripheral selector 206, an OPE common unit 207, a perlpheral input-output unit 216, an oPæ teet unit 217, two data controller~ 224A and 224B, an interzone channel 219, an OP~ bu~fer 221, and a monitor input unit 205 connected to a CP~ monitor un~t 215.
10~4Z09 In order to permit the~e units to interact in the ~anner in which they are con~tructed to do when in service, apart from the connection o~ the 0PU monitor 215 to the monitor input unit 205 mentioned above, the peripheral ~elector 206 is connected to the periphsral input-output unit 216, the OPE test unit 217 ie conn~cted to the data controller~ 224A and 224B, the interzone ohannel 219 ha8 it~ outputs interconnected a~ are the outputs of the 0P~ bu~fer 221 which i9 controlled by the CPU monitor 215 to ef~ect the e~itch-over o~ thls bufrer as de~cribed with referance to the buffers 703 and 704 of Figure 8.
Power supply units 230 and 232 and p~lse generators 231 and 233 are provided respectively for the te~t control unit and the hot stand-by unit, which two units are constructed o~ k s~milar ¢omponents eo as to standardise their a~sembly.
~he diagno~tio unlt provides the following ~ac~litie~:-1. Storage ~or range o~ detail diagnostic programmes. -~ 2. ~ iacility to keep a stand-by including one o~
all basi¢ ~ystem card~ in hot proven ~tate, with alarm if a failure occurs in one of the ~tand-by cards.
3. Engineer access to ¢ontrol diagnostic programmes and produce as an output the re~ults of tho~e programmes. This access is vla the teleprinter 6A
on the monitor unit through a V24 link between the monitor unit and the diagnostic unit.
109~209
on the monitor unit through a V24 link between the monitor unit and the diagnostic unit.
109~209
4. h fa~ ity ior inpu~ting and oading secured data ~ableZ~Zl~ e.g. tariif data, translation data and credit card Ztop liZZt.
5. A facility to resy~chronlse the 2 reZ~l time clock~ZZ
in the tariff peripheral equipments.
The diagno~tic interiace unit 8 provides the iollowing iacilities:-1. hn ability to interrupt the programmeZ oi an addre~E!Zed CPU to run a teZZt programme derived from a PROM included in the unit 8.
2. Running the P~OM programme to test out basic CP~, pulse generator and RAM combination of an addreZl~ed unit.
3. Provide acceEZZs for the addresZZed CP~ to read programmes irom the diagnostic unit.
When a fault occur1 the monitor unit 6 will indicate at least ~ which unit, i.e. OC~, peripheral zone, has failed or at best which card has iailed. The diagnoZltic interiace will then be plugged into the iaulty unit. The interrupt is then operated Z
to start the CPU reading the diagno~tic PROM programme b~
engineer control at the teleprinter 6~. If this fails to identiiy the iault then one oi the iollowing card~ ba9Z failed.
- 1. the power supply, separately alarmed hence such a iailure will be self evident.
2. ~he pulse generator - there is an alarm on the slowest clock pulZZle iZs.a iailure will normally aiiect the sloweZZt clock pul~e and hence indicate the failure by alarming.
- ~4 -~' ~
~0~4209 . the R~M card - norm~lly 2 RAM cards are u~ed hence by testing with the other RAM card a good test can be run, i~-the ~ault ia in the RAM card.
4. thc CP~.
From this in~ormation a ~ault that i~ not already evident or can be cleared by attempting to run the other RAM card, will normally be in the CP~. By using the hot stand-by CEU fro~ the diagnostic unit, the test can be re-run. Another failure may be caused by the pul~e generator, otherwise it is a ~ery unusual fault consisting oi a continuous corruption on the bus highway.
This can be proved by plaoing the suspec~ed faulty CP~ in the hot stand-by position to see ii it runs successfully~ If ~t runs correctly then it is a highway fault. Once a good CPU, pul~e generator, power supply and R~M have been establi~hed tests can be run to te~t the~ROM, CPU monitor and input/output devlces. In this way the fault can very eæ~ be reduced to _ a single card. Several cards may have to be removed and replaced li the ~ault is in the pulse generator or power supply and doea not generate the alarms on these cards, or there is a fault interfering with the bua highway, w~ich may require a number of cards to be disconnected to clear peraistent inter-ference then by test1ng aa the cards are reconnected the faulty card can be isolsted.
Figure 4 shows the circuit of sny of the peripheral units, except the magnetic cartridge recorder. ~he periphera~
units differ only in the progr~mming of the read-only memorie~.
' ., ' ~ . ' 10~34;~)9 AB can be seen the construction sho~n in Figure 4 i~ ~imilar to that o~ other unit~, such ~e th~ ope~tor control units and the diagno~tic unit, as far ~8 the dRtP process~ng p~rt o~ t~le circuit, formed by CP~ ~07, RAM 306, PROM 305 and CPU monitor 304, i~ concerned but di~ers in the provl~ion of three peri-pheral I/O control unit~ 301 to 303 connected to the bus highway 300. Bach peripheral I/O control unit i9 connected to group3 - o~ the OC~'~ (Fig.l).
~he circuit o~ the magnetic cartridge recorder is s~own in Figure 5 and iB similar to that ~hown in Figure 4 with the additlon of an tnterzone channel unit 401 and magnetic tape to CPU and magneti~ tape cartridge interfaceæ 402 and 403 and a dual tape cartridge unit 404. ~ power supply for the cartridge unit is provided by unit 415. The units 401 and 402 are connected to the bus highway 400. Al~o connected ~o the bus highway 400 are three peripheral I/O control units 410, 411 and 412, CPU 406, RAM 407, PROM 408 and CPU monitor unit 405. As was explained earlier the data applied via highways "A" and "B" to the magnetic tape cartridge units are compared, and this is the function of the interzone ch~nnel unit 401 together with a similar unit in the other magnetic cartridge unit (the peripheral units are referred as belonging to zone ~A" or zone "B" depending on the highway to which they are connected). The unit 404 is a dual cartridge unit to permit the magnetic cartridge to be changed without interfering with recording. A power supply 413 and a pulse generator 414 are provided to energize the circuits.
..
109~209 The monitor unit is shown in Figure 6 and again utili~es the ~ame data processor construction, wi'h a ~P~ 508, a RAM 509 ~nd a PROM 510 connected to a bus highway 500, but in this unit four monitor input units 501 to 504 are provided connected to the bus highway 500, the monitor input units having direct co~nections to the rest of the equipment ~hown in Figure 1 for the purpose o~ receiving the signals ~rom the CP~ monitor units.
I~ addition two dual V24 code interface units 506 and 507 are provided ior connecting the monitor unit to a teletype printer a paper tape punch and the diagno~tic unit.
A power supply 512 and a pulse generator 513 are provided.
The monitor unit 6 receive~ data from OC~'s and peri-pherals which can be divided into two types. These are statlstic~ and difficulty lniormation ~rom OCU's and iault reports from OC~' 8 and peripherals.
_ The unit 6 produces statistics and di~ficulty information a8 both print-out and punched tape in~ormatlon. Depending on the ~ize oi the installation the print-out will be on the printer 6A or on a ~eparate dedicated printer (not shown). If - a separate printer i# used the eng~neer will need to key a epecif1c instruction to de~ine this. The main bulk o~ statistics i8 not required regularly and will only be provided when a marker i# #et by an engineer request via the maintenance printer.
The information required at all time includes:
,_ . ~
` ~ ~ ` - `
10~2 ~
the total number of stati~tics me~3age~ recei~ed from O~U~t ~or every 15 minute period, the percentage of cælls answered in 15 seconds (accurate to one decimal place) for every 15 minute period as obtained irom Q COUNT circuits, and ~he average ~umber o~ poEtitionEI stæ~fed ~or each 15 ~inute period. When each operator start~ work on a switchboard a "~æADSET I~" signal iB sent to the OFU ana when sh~ leaves the ~itc~board a "HEADS~T O~T" signal i~ sent. The OCU sends the monitor unit a mes~age every 16 seconds which includes 'he switchboards in serYice. The monitor unit marks a pointer ~or each po~ition on receipt of this in~ormation and averages the number of in u~e positions over a 15 minute period.
- ~hi~ stati~tical iniormation i~ generated and stored in a "~tats Output Bu~ier" every 15 minute~ and once every 4 hours all the data in the buffer is printed out with appropriate ~-statements to e~plain the meaning of the data.
Part o~ the maintenance control provided by the monitor unit 6 i8 a check on the tari~f unit6 4~ and 4B to ensure the two real time clocks are in ~ync. ~he tariif units send messagee to the monitor unit~ every ~ hour containing a num~er in the range 0 to 95 identi~ying the pa~t ~ hour in a 24 hour period, and the date.
~8 well as the print-out, all the information i~ punched on paper tape. A tape punch will be provided at every in~tal-lation but a dedicated printer ior~the print-out will only be , ~9 42 ~9 . .
provided on larger insta~lation~. Confl~ct ~y occur betw~en the mainten~nce and statistical u~es o~ the ~onitor tlnit 6 and al80 0~ the di~gno~tic unit 7 and a routine could be devi~ed *or ~eali~g with these.
Dif~iculty messages are received ~rom the OCU when the operator wi~he~ to record either a subscriber's or her own dif~iculty in setting up calls in the telephone network. This information i~ useful to maintenance sta~ lor d~tecting ~aults in the network. A message is received ~rom the OC~ ~or each report and this i3 stored by the monitor unit 6 ready to print-out. A cyclic buf~er o~ 4~ bytes i~ used and a print-out made ~hen the buffer is ~ ~ull, a statistical print-out is made or by engineer request. To aid engineer interpretation of this ', data, the time to the nearest ~ hour will be recorded for each di~flculty call indicating the time when it was received by the monitor unit 6. Po~sible conflict may be dealt ~ith in ~ the same way as for statl~tical in~ormation. I~
Fault report~ are generated by 0~18 and peripherals when a malfunction occur~. The monitor unit 6 i designed to e~pe¢t a maximum o~ 128 message type~ frcm the OC~ and 128 types ~rom the peripherals identiiying the fault~. The ~ault reports are used to increment 8 bit counts in an array of count~. Two arrays are used, one array of OCU identity on one axis and message type on the other and the other array of peripheral j .
identity on one axis and message type on the other. Each row and column will have associated with it threshold counts defi-ning at what count a fault report ought to be recorded and .
10~4Z09 brought to the maintenance engineer'~ notice. Normally the threshold counts will be ~l~ed values, i.e. part of the programme.
~owever to provide ~lexibility the eng~neer will be able to set -variable thre~hold levels when required. Thus two sets of thresholds per array will be used, i~ the variable threshold is not in u~e the fixed threshold is used. ~o enable spurious signals to be regularly cleared, at midnight the two working arrays will be cleared and the counts trans~erred to the "~istory Filo". The engineer can control, via the teleprinter, the action taken when upaating the History File at midnight.
~y instruction the programme will not simply overwrlte the ~lstory File, but add the last 24 hour period to the exi~ting History File counts enabling a set o~ counts over a number of days to be accu~ulated. The engineer can reque~t a print-out of the e~isting History ~ile at a~y time. To simplify reference to the two working arrays the engineer re~ers to a "device number" which defines a particular OCU or peripheral unit and a "message type". The first 128 types will be allocated to 0 W's and the second 128 for peripherals. It can be useful for the engineer to acces~ and control counts in "groups". These eroups are defined by the device they relate to, e.g. rows of OCU file relating to a particular peripheral unit and the message irom that peripheral unit (i.e. column in peripheral wor~ing ~ile). Message counts can be printed, cleared and threshold set o~ a group basi~ in the same way as on a per row or column basis.
-- ~0 --10'~4209 To pro~ide further engi~eer control of thre~holds a time controlled thre~hold facility is also provided, which enables the engineer to speci~y a threshold cou~t o~er a timed period.
In certain situations the engineer will req~ure to 3et speclfic count thresholds, e.g. a particular me~sage report ~rom a particular OCU. ~his threshold setting oi single counte i8 provided in a limited way by using a separate li~t ~rom the main working arrays.
Ii a threshold i8 reached the total count ior the row or colum~ i~ checked to see if other reports are being received from the oou or peripheral (column check) or the same mes~age type ~rom di~ierent OC~'s or peripherals (row check). lf the row/column total count ha~ reached double the threshold ~alue, the appropriate fault report is generated.
Reports o~ sstisfactory operation are received from each _ OCU and peripheral unit every 4 seconds. An 8 second time-out is set by the so~tware and if the time-out e~pires before the ne~t satisiactory report is received the appropriate message count is incremented. A threshold is set in exactly the same way as ordinary maintenance reports received from OC~8 or peripherals.
When a iault report is generated the appropriate row or column is marked to indicate that a report has been generated.
~his ensures that if a iurther count in that row reaches the threshold another report is not generated.
~0.~ 20~ .
~ault reports are recorded in a cyclic buffer in ~lich the row or column number and the appropriate a~ray (OCU or periphera~) i9 recorded. The bufier i3 larg~ enough to ensure that generally it does not overilow. If the queue i~ full then the row or column iB not m~rked to indicate a report has been generated, 80 that next time a report is received the threshold will once again be seen to have been broken and another attempt made to include the iault report in the c~clic buf~er etc.
Each report in the queue is allocated an appropriate re~erence number. ~his enables easy reierence by the engineer. When a new ~ault report i8 included in the queue an alarm is set o~.
Depending on which row or column is being reported ~ither a prompt or deferred alaxm is ~enerated. When the enginesr reque3ts the iault report list the alarms are ~emoved.
Every ~ hour the monitor un~t 6 receives reports fro= 'i both tarifi peripheral equipment specifying the ~ hour (number in range 0.95) and the date (day, month, year). Ii either message received is in error (parity check) or the two reports are more than 1 minute apart a iault report i8 gene~ated in the same way as ior threshold counts.
Some details oi the connectio~ oi the CP~ monitor units, such a~ 125 o~ ~igure 2, 204 of Figure 3, 304 oi ~lgure 4 and 405 oi Figure 5, to the monitor unit 6 are shown in Figure 7, irom which it can be seen that the outputs irom the CPU monitor units are stored in respective FIFO (fir t in, iirst out~
buffer~ 601 to 606 which are read by ~can ~ignals from a - ~2 -10~4Z09 monitor in~ut unit 611. ~he moni~or input unit~ 611 to 616 oach ino~ude a CP~ interiace 611A to 616 A for pre~entln~
the data received to the data processor of the monitor unit 6.
The operations oi the CP~8 in the peripheral units are ~imilar to that of the CP~ in an O~U as described above with re~eren~e to Figure 2, in that they are divided into a number of time elots ~hich are allocated respectively to ports providing or requiring data. In the use of the peripheral UnitB the port8 include the input/output unit~, the watch-dog timer and the engineer'~ ~eys. The operations of the magnetic cartridge recording units ali30 include the transfer of dats to the magnetic recording unit~ and the checking of the data to be recorded in each unit by reference to the data to be i`
recorded in the other unit. ~ecause the data rate which magnetic recording units can handle is relatively low compared with the speed of operation o~ the CP~, it is arranged that .- when the magnetic recording units are ready to receive data they interrupt the operation of the CPU and cause it to transfer the data selected to the magnetic reco~ding units.
A typical routine ior a telephone switchboard operator operating the equipment described above is as follows.
The method oi call arrival to the switchboard operator will be unchanged and the operator will ani3wer the call as she does at present. On accepting the call the operator will have the "Ordinary" clas~ of service di6played, if the call has originated from a coinbox line the operator is able to change - 3~ -lO9~Z()9 the class of service to "Coinbo~" by operation of a "coin box"
key. On operation of a "destination exchange/number~ key the ~DU in the OPE automatically displays the call tarifi period in *orce. The "destination number" is keyed in national signlficant number format and displayed on the YD~. On operation of a "set destination" key a "stop time" key is automatically operated and the required number i8 sent into the network. The operator then records the originating e~change/
number, again in natiollal significant number format, and thi~
0 iB also displayed on the VDU. When the originating exchange/
number i8 recorded the call char~e step is automatically displayed on the VDU. As soon a~ the operator has verified that the call has been routed satisfactor~ly the "stop time" ~-key i8 restored and an "automatic account" key may then be operated prior to the operator leaving the connect circuit.
When the required number subsequently answer~, timin~ is started automatically. At the end of the call, when both parties clear, the connections are automatically released from the switchboard and the call data, required to bring the call to account, iB transferred to the magnetic tape cartridge leav~ng the connect circuit free to accept a new call.
The tarifi period, charge step and originating line class of service are di~played in ~eparate fields o~ the VD~
but the originating and destination numbers are displayed in a common as~igned field. The control of the assigned field is ~hared by a number of key~ and a mnemonic iB displayed in 1094Z(~9 the first space of that field to indicate which key has control.
When there are no keys operated, the assigned field displays the destination number if such has been recorded. The equipment can cater for an unlimited number of call procedures. Typical examples are Freefone calls (i.e. calls charged automatically to the recipient), credit card, transfer charge, personal, advise duration and charge, and third party paying calls.
A substantial saving is envisaged in the operator handling time on calls as the average delay between the operation of keys and the display of data on the VDU is a fraction of a second. Call details, once recorded, are used for both routing and call recording purposes and can be used to make unlimited repeat attempts in setting up connections on either side of the connect circuit. The charging information, tariff rate and charge step, is derived automatically from the originating and destination ex-change national codes. Routing to the required exchange is achieved where necessary by an automatic translation of the appropriate exchange code.
Although the operator has the overall control of call timing, in the majority of calls this will be undertaken automati-cally. For most calls, when both parties have replaced their hand-sets the equipment automatically performs its accounting function, and releases the connections leaving the connect circuit free to handle a new call. Normally once the operator has recorded all the call details and set up to the destination exchange she need have no further involvement in the call.
X
lO~Z()~
Although the invention has been described with reference to a specific embodiment used for recording details of manually connected telephone calls, it will be appreciated that it can equally well be embodied in data processing equipment for other purposes, such as, for example, airline seat reservations, banking and insurance use and stockbroking transactions.
Other features of the embodiment described herein form the subject of co-pending Canadian patent applications Nos.
273,123, 273,126 and 273,085 all filed on March 3, 1977. It will be understood that the invention claimed in this application can be used on its own or in conjunction with any of the inventions of the above mentioned co-pending applications.
Other peripheral units than those described in the particular embodiment may be added to or substituted for those mentioned above. It will be appreciated that the number of units and lengths of time intervals given are by way of example only and these can be varied in any suitable manner.
- ~ - , '~
,
in the tariff peripheral equipments.
The diagno~tic interiace unit 8 provides the iollowing iacilities:-1. hn ability to interrupt the programmeZ oi an addre~E!Zed CPU to run a teZZt programme derived from a PROM included in the unit 8.
2. Running the P~OM programme to test out basic CP~, pulse generator and RAM combination of an addreZl~ed unit.
3. Provide acceEZZs for the addresZZed CP~ to read programmes irom the diagnostic unit.
When a fault occur1 the monitor unit 6 will indicate at least ~ which unit, i.e. OC~, peripheral zone, has failed or at best which card has iailed. The diagnoZltic interiace will then be plugged into the iaulty unit. The interrupt is then operated Z
to start the CPU reading the diagno~tic PROM programme b~
engineer control at the teleprinter 6~. If this fails to identiiy the iault then one oi the iollowing card~ ba9Z failed.
- 1. the power supply, separately alarmed hence such a iailure will be self evident.
2. ~he pulse generator - there is an alarm on the slowest clock pulZZle iZs.a iailure will normally aiiect the sloweZZt clock pul~e and hence indicate the failure by alarming.
- ~4 -~' ~
~0~4209 . the R~M card - norm~lly 2 RAM cards are u~ed hence by testing with the other RAM card a good test can be run, i~-the ~ault ia in the RAM card.
4. thc CP~.
From this in~ormation a ~ault that i~ not already evident or can be cleared by attempting to run the other RAM card, will normally be in the CP~. By using the hot stand-by CEU fro~ the diagnostic unit, the test can be re-run. Another failure may be caused by the pul~e generator, otherwise it is a ~ery unusual fault consisting oi a continuous corruption on the bus highway.
This can be proved by plaoing the suspec~ed faulty CP~ in the hot stand-by position to see ii it runs successfully~ If ~t runs correctly then it is a highway fault. Once a good CPU, pul~e generator, power supply and R~M have been establi~hed tests can be run to te~t the~ROM, CPU monitor and input/output devlces. In this way the fault can very eæ~ be reduced to _ a single card. Several cards may have to be removed and replaced li the ~ault is in the pulse generator or power supply and doea not generate the alarms on these cards, or there is a fault interfering with the bua highway, w~ich may require a number of cards to be disconnected to clear peraistent inter-ference then by test1ng aa the cards are reconnected the faulty card can be isolsted.
Figure 4 shows the circuit of sny of the peripheral units, except the magnetic cartridge recorder. ~he periphera~
units differ only in the progr~mming of the read-only memorie~.
' ., ' ~ . ' 10~34;~)9 AB can be seen the construction sho~n in Figure 4 i~ ~imilar to that o~ other unit~, such ~e th~ ope~tor control units and the diagno~tic unit, as far ~8 the dRtP process~ng p~rt o~ t~le circuit, formed by CP~ ~07, RAM 306, PROM 305 and CPU monitor 304, i~ concerned but di~ers in the provl~ion of three peri-pheral I/O control unit~ 301 to 303 connected to the bus highway 300. Bach peripheral I/O control unit i9 connected to group3 - o~ the OC~'~ (Fig.l).
~he circuit o~ the magnetic cartridge recorder is s~own in Figure 5 and iB similar to that ~hown in Figure 4 with the additlon of an tnterzone channel unit 401 and magnetic tape to CPU and magneti~ tape cartridge interfaceæ 402 and 403 and a dual tape cartridge unit 404. ~ power supply for the cartridge unit is provided by unit 415. The units 401 and 402 are connected to the bus highway 400. Al~o connected ~o the bus highway 400 are three peripheral I/O control units 410, 411 and 412, CPU 406, RAM 407, PROM 408 and CPU monitor unit 405. As was explained earlier the data applied via highways "A" and "B" to the magnetic tape cartridge units are compared, and this is the function of the interzone ch~nnel unit 401 together with a similar unit in the other magnetic cartridge unit (the peripheral units are referred as belonging to zone ~A" or zone "B" depending on the highway to which they are connected). The unit 404 is a dual cartridge unit to permit the magnetic cartridge to be changed without interfering with recording. A power supply 413 and a pulse generator 414 are provided to energize the circuits.
..
109~209 The monitor unit is shown in Figure 6 and again utili~es the ~ame data processor construction, wi'h a ~P~ 508, a RAM 509 ~nd a PROM 510 connected to a bus highway 500, but in this unit four monitor input units 501 to 504 are provided connected to the bus highway 500, the monitor input units having direct co~nections to the rest of the equipment ~hown in Figure 1 for the purpose o~ receiving the signals ~rom the CP~ monitor units.
I~ addition two dual V24 code interface units 506 and 507 are provided ior connecting the monitor unit to a teletype printer a paper tape punch and the diagno~tic unit.
A power supply 512 and a pulse generator 513 are provided.
The monitor unit 6 receive~ data from OC~'s and peri-pherals which can be divided into two types. These are statlstic~ and difficulty lniormation ~rom OCU's and iault reports from OC~' 8 and peripherals.
_ The unit 6 produces statistics and di~ficulty information a8 both print-out and punched tape in~ormatlon. Depending on the ~ize oi the installation the print-out will be on the printer 6A or on a ~eparate dedicated printer (not shown). If - a separate printer i# used the eng~neer will need to key a epecif1c instruction to de~ine this. The main bulk o~ statistics i8 not required regularly and will only be provided when a marker i# #et by an engineer request via the maintenance printer.
The information required at all time includes:
,_ . ~
` ~ ~ ` - `
10~2 ~
the total number of stati~tics me~3age~ recei~ed from O~U~t ~or every 15 minute period, the percentage of cælls answered in 15 seconds (accurate to one decimal place) for every 15 minute period as obtained irom Q COUNT circuits, and ~he average ~umber o~ poEtitionEI stæ~fed ~or each 15 ~inute period. When each operator start~ work on a switchboard a "~æADSET I~" signal iB sent to the OFU ana when sh~ leaves the ~itc~board a "HEADS~T O~T" signal i~ sent. The OCU sends the monitor unit a mes~age every 16 seconds which includes 'he switchboards in serYice. The monitor unit marks a pointer ~or each po~ition on receipt of this in~ormation and averages the number of in u~e positions over a 15 minute period.
- ~hi~ stati~tical iniormation i~ generated and stored in a "~tats Output Bu~ier" every 15 minute~ and once every 4 hours all the data in the buffer is printed out with appropriate ~-statements to e~plain the meaning of the data.
Part o~ the maintenance control provided by the monitor unit 6 i8 a check on the tari~f unit6 4~ and 4B to ensure the two real time clocks are in ~ync. ~he tariif units send messagee to the monitor unit~ every ~ hour containing a num~er in the range 0 to 95 identi~ying the pa~t ~ hour in a 24 hour period, and the date.
~8 well as the print-out, all the information i~ punched on paper tape. A tape punch will be provided at every in~tal-lation but a dedicated printer ior~the print-out will only be , ~9 42 ~9 . .
provided on larger insta~lation~. Confl~ct ~y occur betw~en the mainten~nce and statistical u~es o~ the ~onitor tlnit 6 and al80 0~ the di~gno~tic unit 7 and a routine could be devi~ed *or ~eali~g with these.
Dif~iculty messages are received ~rom the OCU when the operator wi~he~ to record either a subscriber's or her own dif~iculty in setting up calls in the telephone network. This information i~ useful to maintenance sta~ lor d~tecting ~aults in the network. A message is received ~rom the OC~ ~or each report and this i3 stored by the monitor unit 6 ready to print-out. A cyclic buf~er o~ 4~ bytes i~ used and a print-out made ~hen the buffer is ~ ~ull, a statistical print-out is made or by engineer request. To aid engineer interpretation of this ', data, the time to the nearest ~ hour will be recorded for each di~flculty call indicating the time when it was received by the monitor unit 6. Po~sible conflict may be dealt ~ith in ~ the same way as for statl~tical in~ormation. I~
Fault report~ are generated by 0~18 and peripherals when a malfunction occur~. The monitor unit 6 i designed to e~pe¢t a maximum o~ 128 message type~ frcm the OC~ and 128 types ~rom the peripherals identiiying the fault~. The ~ault reports are used to increment 8 bit counts in an array of count~. Two arrays are used, one array of OCU identity on one axis and message type on the other and the other array of peripheral j .
identity on one axis and message type on the other. Each row and column will have associated with it threshold counts defi-ning at what count a fault report ought to be recorded and .
10~4Z09 brought to the maintenance engineer'~ notice. Normally the threshold counts will be ~l~ed values, i.e. part of the programme.
~owever to provide ~lexibility the eng~neer will be able to set -variable thre~hold levels when required. Thus two sets of thresholds per array will be used, i~ the variable threshold is not in u~e the fixed threshold is used. ~o enable spurious signals to be regularly cleared, at midnight the two working arrays will be cleared and the counts trans~erred to the "~istory Filo". The engineer can control, via the teleprinter, the action taken when upaating the History File at midnight.
~y instruction the programme will not simply overwrlte the ~lstory File, but add the last 24 hour period to the exi~ting History File counts enabling a set o~ counts over a number of days to be accu~ulated. The engineer can reque~t a print-out of the e~isting History ~ile at a~y time. To simplify reference to the two working arrays the engineer re~ers to a "device number" which defines a particular OCU or peripheral unit and a "message type". The first 128 types will be allocated to 0 W's and the second 128 for peripherals. It can be useful for the engineer to acces~ and control counts in "groups". These eroups are defined by the device they relate to, e.g. rows of OCU file relating to a particular peripheral unit and the message irom that peripheral unit (i.e. column in peripheral wor~ing ~ile). Message counts can be printed, cleared and threshold set o~ a group basi~ in the same way as on a per row or column basis.
-- ~0 --10'~4209 To pro~ide further engi~eer control of thre~holds a time controlled thre~hold facility is also provided, which enables the engineer to speci~y a threshold cou~t o~er a timed period.
In certain situations the engineer will req~ure to 3et speclfic count thresholds, e.g. a particular me~sage report ~rom a particular OCU. ~his threshold setting oi single counte i8 provided in a limited way by using a separate li~t ~rom the main working arrays.
Ii a threshold i8 reached the total count ior the row or colum~ i~ checked to see if other reports are being received from the oou or peripheral (column check) or the same mes~age type ~rom di~ierent OC~'s or peripherals (row check). lf the row/column total count ha~ reached double the threshold ~alue, the appropriate fault report is generated.
Reports o~ sstisfactory operation are received from each _ OCU and peripheral unit every 4 seconds. An 8 second time-out is set by the so~tware and if the time-out e~pires before the ne~t satisiactory report is received the appropriate message count is incremented. A threshold is set in exactly the same way as ordinary maintenance reports received from OC~8 or peripherals.
When a iault report is generated the appropriate row or column is marked to indicate that a report has been generated.
~his ensures that if a iurther count in that row reaches the threshold another report is not generated.
~0.~ 20~ .
~ault reports are recorded in a cyclic buffer in ~lich the row or column number and the appropriate a~ray (OCU or periphera~) i9 recorded. The bufier i3 larg~ enough to ensure that generally it does not overilow. If the queue i~ full then the row or column iB not m~rked to indicate a report has been generated, 80 that next time a report is received the threshold will once again be seen to have been broken and another attempt made to include the iault report in the c~clic buf~er etc.
Each report in the queue is allocated an appropriate re~erence number. ~his enables easy reierence by the engineer. When a new ~ault report i8 included in the queue an alarm is set o~.
Depending on which row or column is being reported ~ither a prompt or deferred alaxm is ~enerated. When the enginesr reque3ts the iault report list the alarms are ~emoved.
Every ~ hour the monitor un~t 6 receives reports fro= 'i both tarifi peripheral equipment specifying the ~ hour (number in range 0.95) and the date (day, month, year). Ii either message received is in error (parity check) or the two reports are more than 1 minute apart a iault report i8 gene~ated in the same way as ior threshold counts.
Some details oi the connectio~ oi the CP~ monitor units, such a~ 125 o~ ~igure 2, 204 of Figure 3, 304 oi ~lgure 4 and 405 oi Figure 5, to the monitor unit 6 are shown in Figure 7, irom which it can be seen that the outputs irom the CPU monitor units are stored in respective FIFO (fir t in, iirst out~
buffer~ 601 to 606 which are read by ~can ~ignals from a - ~2 -10~4Z09 monitor in~ut unit 611. ~he moni~or input unit~ 611 to 616 oach ino~ude a CP~ interiace 611A to 616 A for pre~entln~
the data received to the data processor of the monitor unit 6.
The operations oi the CP~8 in the peripheral units are ~imilar to that of the CP~ in an O~U as described above with re~eren~e to Figure 2, in that they are divided into a number of time elots ~hich are allocated respectively to ports providing or requiring data. In the use of the peripheral UnitB the port8 include the input/output unit~, the watch-dog timer and the engineer'~ ~eys. The operations of the magnetic cartridge recording units ali30 include the transfer of dats to the magnetic recording unit~ and the checking of the data to be recorded in each unit by reference to the data to be i`
recorded in the other unit. ~ecause the data rate which magnetic recording units can handle is relatively low compared with the speed of operation o~ the CP~, it is arranged that .- when the magnetic recording units are ready to receive data they interrupt the operation of the CPU and cause it to transfer the data selected to the magnetic reco~ding units.
A typical routine ior a telephone switchboard operator operating the equipment described above is as follows.
The method oi call arrival to the switchboard operator will be unchanged and the operator will ani3wer the call as she does at present. On accepting the call the operator will have the "Ordinary" clas~ of service di6played, if the call has originated from a coinbox line the operator is able to change - 3~ -lO9~Z()9 the class of service to "Coinbo~" by operation of a "coin box"
key. On operation of a "destination exchange/number~ key the ~DU in the OPE automatically displays the call tarifi period in *orce. The "destination number" is keyed in national signlficant number format and displayed on the YD~. On operation of a "set destination" key a "stop time" key is automatically operated and the required number i8 sent into the network. The operator then records the originating e~change/
number, again in natiollal significant number format, and thi~
0 iB also displayed on the VDU. When the originating exchange/
number i8 recorded the call char~e step is automatically displayed on the VDU. As soon a~ the operator has verified that the call has been routed satisfactor~ly the "stop time" ~-key i8 restored and an "automatic account" key may then be operated prior to the operator leaving the connect circuit.
When the required number subsequently answer~, timin~ is started automatically. At the end of the call, when both parties clear, the connections are automatically released from the switchboard and the call data, required to bring the call to account, iB transferred to the magnetic tape cartridge leav~ng the connect circuit free to accept a new call.
The tarifi period, charge step and originating line class of service are di~played in ~eparate fields o~ the VD~
but the originating and destination numbers are displayed in a common as~igned field. The control of the assigned field is ~hared by a number of key~ and a mnemonic iB displayed in 1094Z(~9 the first space of that field to indicate which key has control.
When there are no keys operated, the assigned field displays the destination number if such has been recorded. The equipment can cater for an unlimited number of call procedures. Typical examples are Freefone calls (i.e. calls charged automatically to the recipient), credit card, transfer charge, personal, advise duration and charge, and third party paying calls.
A substantial saving is envisaged in the operator handling time on calls as the average delay between the operation of keys and the display of data on the VDU is a fraction of a second. Call details, once recorded, are used for both routing and call recording purposes and can be used to make unlimited repeat attempts in setting up connections on either side of the connect circuit. The charging information, tariff rate and charge step, is derived automatically from the originating and destination ex-change national codes. Routing to the required exchange is achieved where necessary by an automatic translation of the appropriate exchange code.
Although the operator has the overall control of call timing, in the majority of calls this will be undertaken automati-cally. For most calls, when both parties have replaced their hand-sets the equipment automatically performs its accounting function, and releases the connections leaving the connect circuit free to handle a new call. Normally once the operator has recorded all the call details and set up to the destination exchange she need have no further involvement in the call.
X
lO~Z()~
Although the invention has been described with reference to a specific embodiment used for recording details of manually connected telephone calls, it will be appreciated that it can equally well be embodied in data processing equipment for other purposes, such as, for example, airline seat reservations, banking and insurance use and stockbroking transactions.
Other features of the embodiment described herein form the subject of co-pending Canadian patent applications Nos.
273,123, 273,126 and 273,085 all filed on March 3, 1977. It will be understood that the invention claimed in this application can be used on its own or in conjunction with any of the inventions of the above mentioned co-pending applications.
Other peripheral units than those described in the particular embodiment may be added to or substituted for those mentioned above. It will be appreciated that the number of units and lengths of time intervals given are by way of example only and these can be varied in any suitable manner.
- ~ - , '~
,
Claims (11)
1. Data processing equipment having a plurality of independ-ently operating on-line stations and a plurality of data handling units, the equipment including at each station data entry means, data utilization means and control means, the control means including storage means for recording in response to the data entry means details of a required data processing operation, and being capable of selectively generating in response to the recorded details interrogation signals and instruction signals for transmission to the data handling units, receiving data from certain of the data handling units in response to the interrogation and instruction signals and recording the data, and applying signals to the utilization means, the equipment further including monitoring means connected to all of the data handling units and the control means, wherein each of the control means and the data handling units includes a central processing unit, a read-only-memory defining at least one recurrent programme of instructions performed by the central processing unit and a monitor message transmission unit, the programme including functional tests on the operations performed by the unit and the periodic initiation of the transmission of a monitor message by the monitor message transmission unit, the monitor message specifying any fault detected in the operation of the unit, the monitoring means being connected to receive the monitor messages from the control means and the data handling units and having means for counting separately the reports of malfunctions for each unit of the equipment included in the messages.
2. Equipment according to claim 1 wherein the programme of instructions includes the selective periodic generation of a first signal indicating that the central processing unit is operating satisfactorily, the first signal being applied to the monitoring means.
3. Equipment according to claim 1 wherein each central processing unit has associated with it a respective data storage means and includes a watch-dog timer having a counter which is incremented at regular intervals of time and is reset to a datum value at a particular instruction of the at least one recurrent programme of instructions, the watch-dog timer including means responsive to the value in the counter exceeding a threshold value to produce a second signal, the central processing unit being responsive to the second signal to return the programme to an initial position to erase all data from the respective data storage means and restart the programme.
4. Equipment according to claim 1, 2 or 3 including a plurality of control means each having storage means and being associated with a group of data entry and utilization means, the data handling units being accessible to all of the control means.
5. Equipment according to claim 1 wherein the monitoring means includes storage means for the fault reports from the data handling units and the control means to store separate indications of the numbers of faults of each type concerning each unit.
6. Equipment according to claim 5 wherein the monitoring means includes threshold means providing individual thresholds for the different indications, the monitoring means being arranged to produce an output when an indication exceeds its threshold.
7. Equipment according to claim 6 wherein the monitoring means includes threshold means providing a threshold for the total of the fault number indications for each unit, the monitoring means being arranged to produce an output when one of the totals exceeds its threshold.
8. Equipment according to claim 1 further including a diagnostic unit connected to the monitoring means, the diagnostic unit having a diagnostic interface connectable to a selected one of the data handling units and the control means to enable the diagnostic unit to run a test programme on the selected unit.
9. Equipment according to claim 8 wherein the diagnostic unit includes means for receiving a record of diagnostic test information for enabling the diagnostic unit to perform particular tests.
10. Equipment according to claim 9 wherein the record is a magnetic tape cartridge.
11. Equipment according to claim 1, 2 or 3 having a hot stand-by unit including a central processing unit and other sub-units utilised in the control units and data handling units interconnected and programmed to undergo continuous testing routines independent of the normal functioning of the equipment.
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB8669/76 | 1976-03-04 | ||
| GB8669/76A GB1572892A (en) | 1976-03-04 | 1976-03-04 | Data processing equipment |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1094209A true CA1094209A (en) | 1981-01-20 |
Family
ID=9856951
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA273,125A Expired CA1094209A (en) | 1976-03-04 | 1977-03-03 | System for monitoring the operational ability of data processing equipment |
Country Status (13)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| JP (1) | JPS52122014A (en) |
| AU (1) | AU512449B2 (en) |
| CA (1) | CA1094209A (en) |
| CH (1) | CH623948A5 (en) |
| DE (1) | DE2708983A1 (en) |
| DK (1) | DK93077A (en) |
| ES (1) | ES456515A1 (en) |
| FR (1) | FR2343379A1 (en) |
| GB (1) | GB1572892A (en) |
| IT (1) | IT1080010B (en) |
| NL (1) | NL7702371A (en) |
| NO (1) | NO147853C (en) |
| SE (1) | SE7702325L (en) |
Families Citing this family (8)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB1572895A (en) * | 1976-03-04 | 1980-08-06 | Post Office | Data processing equipment |
| GB1572894A (en) * | 1976-03-04 | 1980-08-06 | Post Office | Data processing equipment |
| GB1572893A (en) * | 1976-03-04 | 1980-08-06 | Post Office | Data processing equipment |
| DE2964624D1 (en) * | 1978-10-23 | 1983-03-03 | Ibm | Data processing system with channel error logging |
| FR2440032A1 (en) * | 1978-10-25 | 1980-05-23 | Standard Telephones Cables Ltd | Master and slaverocessor system - has monitoring and test routines and carries out addition processes on words from memory to be checked in cyclic order by control |
| IT8003504A0 (en) * | 1980-09-05 | 1980-09-05 | Sits Soc It Telecom Siemens | EQUIPMENT FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF AUXILIARY INFORMATION RELEVANT TO A CENTRAL CONTROL OF A PLURALITY OF PERIPHERAL USERS AND FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF THE SAME CENTRAL CONTROL |
| FR2490842A1 (en) * | 1980-09-23 | 1982-03-26 | Renix Electronique Sa | ELECTRONIC ADAPTER DEVICE OF A DIAGNOSTIC SOCKET WITH INFORMATION PROVIDED BY AN ELECTRONIC CONTROL CIRCUIT |
| FR2606184B1 (en) * | 1986-10-31 | 1991-11-29 | Thomson Csf | RECONFIGURABLE CALCULATION DEVICE |
Family Cites Families (3)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL6704309A (en) * | 1966-03-25 | 1967-09-26 | ||
| US3882455A (en) * | 1973-09-14 | 1975-05-06 | Gte Automatic Electric Lab Inc | Configuration control circuit for control and maintenance complex of digital communications system |
| US3921141A (en) * | 1973-09-14 | 1975-11-18 | Gte Automatic Electric Lab Inc | Malfunction monitor control circuitry for central data processor of digital communication system |
-
1976
- 1976-03-04 GB GB8669/76A patent/GB1572892A/en not_active Expired
-
1977
- 1977-02-28 AU AU22751/77A patent/AU512449B2/en not_active Expired
- 1977-03-02 DE DE19772708983 patent/DE2708983A1/en not_active Withdrawn
- 1977-03-02 SE SE7702325A patent/SE7702325L/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 1977-03-03 IT IT4829977A patent/IT1080010B/en active
- 1977-03-03 NO NO77770729A patent/NO147853C/en unknown
- 1977-03-03 DK DK93077A patent/DK93077A/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 1977-03-03 CA CA273,125A patent/CA1094209A/en not_active Expired
- 1977-03-04 NL NL7702371A patent/NL7702371A/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 1977-03-04 CH CH274277A patent/CH623948A5/en not_active IP Right Cessation
- 1977-03-04 ES ES77456515A patent/ES456515A1/en not_active Expired
- 1977-03-04 JP JP2372777A patent/JPS52122014A/en active Pending
- 1977-03-04 FR FR7706459A patent/FR2343379A1/en not_active Withdrawn
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| DK93077A (en) | 1977-09-05 |
| JPS52122014A (en) | 1977-10-13 |
| NO147853B (en) | 1983-03-14 |
| GB1572892A (en) | 1980-08-06 |
| IT1080010B (en) | 1985-05-16 |
| NL7702371A (en) | 1977-09-06 |
| DE2708983A1 (en) | 1977-09-08 |
| ES456515A1 (en) | 1978-02-16 |
| FR2343379A1 (en) | 1977-09-30 |
| AU512449B2 (en) | 1980-10-09 |
| AU2275177A (en) | 1978-09-07 |
| NO770729L (en) | 1977-09-06 |
| NO147853C (en) | 1983-06-22 |
| CH623948A5 (en) | 1981-06-30 |
| SE7702325L (en) | 1977-09-05 |
Similar Documents
| Publication | Publication Date | Title |
|---|---|---|
| US4442502A (en) | Digital information switching system | |
| EP0310785B1 (en) | Expert system for processing errors in a multiplex communication system | |
| US4873687A (en) | Failing resource manager in a multiplex communication system | |
| CA1094209A (en) | System for monitoring the operational ability of data processing equipment | |
| CA1148637A (en) | Control system for telephone switching system | |
| US3991406A (en) | Program controlled data processing system | |
| CA1043909A (en) | Event monitoring transceiver | |
| CA1080335A (en) | Input/output security system for data processing equipment | |
| US4118790A (en) | Data processing equipment | |
| Beuscher et al. | Administration and maintenance plan | |
| IE53855B1 (en) | A security system for a distributed control exchange | |
| GB1572893A (en) | Data processing equipment | |
| US3937894A (en) | Addressable ticketing scanner | |
| US3939309A (en) | Communication switching system data retrieval and loading arrangement | |
| Barney et al. | No. 1 ESS ADF: System testing and early field operation experience | |
| Rodriguez | Transaction network, telephones, and terminals: Transaction network operational programs | |
| Ewin et al. | No. 1 ESS ADF: System organization and objectives | |
| Dougherty et al. | No. 1 ESS master control center | |
| Beaumont et al. | Transaction network, telephones, and terminals: Maintenance and administration | |
| CA1166728A (en) | Fault monitoring and diagnostic system for telephony switching system | |
| GB1570113A (en) | Telecommunication switching systems | |
| Wolff | No. 1 EAX Diagnostic Software | |
| Jallits et al. | Maintainability aspects of the overseas AUTOVON switching system | |
| CA1244539A (en) | Dtmf receiver sense and control maintenance arrangement | |
| Cohen et al. | Automatic intercept system: Operational programs |
Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| MKEX | Expiry |