DE2315285C3 - Arrangement for controlling the scanning in switching systems - Google Patents

Description

In real-time computer-controlled switching systems, the various characteristic states, which are taken by the individual organs during operation are known to the computer (s) be who control the system. It is particularly important when this .. Changes in state are based on processes that are not controlled by the computer, such as lifting the handset by a participant, who wants to start a conversation.

It is therefore necessary to the various organs

of the system with checkpoints to monitor the various states of the organs in general convert binary information, which can then be transmitted to the computers.

The collection of data is usually carried out by means of a scanner in order to avoid an uneconomical overloading of the computer. These scanners are asynchronous peripheral units in relation to the computers, but they are not autonomous if the work steps to be carried out are simple. This is the case, for example, with the samplers for subscriber lines.
In a known manner, a scanner contains an interrogation device with which the test points can be selectively activated that are to be scanned and, on the other hand, a reading arrangement for collecting the information received, which if necessary analyzes the information in order to correspond to the computer.

to be able to inform accordingly, and to bring the data into a form that can be used by the computer

These scanners have particularly important functions and, on the one hand, it is necessary that they have a large one Have reliability and, on the other hand, monitor that they are working correctly while they are working will. If possible, additional elements should not be used, as these are the Reduce the reliability of the arrangement again.

When the number of test points is large, it is generally not possible to double these points, how it would be necessary to obtain a high level of safety for the function. Such a doubling the cost would increase significantly and a lot more space would also be required. However, it is well known also possible to double the organs whose task is to maintain a sufficient quality are particularly important to the way of working, such as the computers and the scanners that are dependent on them.

If this measure is to be effective, it must be supplemented by arrangements with which errors such that this duplication can be used when there is is appropriate.

A complete detection of errors at the outputs of a scanner is generally critical and sometimes even impossible. Such errors can namely also from one of the interrogation or reading devices be evoked. A quick detection of errors is necessary, however, as it does this it is possible to reduce the mean time for repairs and thus the probability that a second scanner fails when the first scanner fails.

It is known that errors in a reading arrangement are not always immediately detectable because the received Information are subject to a random distribution and since errors generated by the arrangement itself can correspond to such an information signal, the occurrence of which is possible per se. In known arrangements therefore a test option for the reading arrangements is provided in which a real The reading process is carried out with known information, the order and type of which are selected in such a way that that the various organs of the reading arrangements can be selectively examined in order to possibly to be able to determine defective element.

On the other hand, however, errors in the interrogation devices can be recognized immediately, since the

Information and the destination are known. It is therefore interesting to note these errors on the outputs of this To determine the arrangement, especially if these errors result in an uncontrolled activation of Checkpoints and possibly even a series of such errors.

Known interrogation devices contain an addressing system, the inputs of which with a computer are connected, as well as activating organs for one or more connected to each individual organ Checkpoints. Each activation organ gives upon receipt of a marking signal from the individual The output of the addressing system to which it is connected emits a signal whose value and form are as follows are selected so that it can be processed in the connected group of test points.

In known systems, each activation organ is constructed so that it has a fixed characteristic Can generate signal. The organ is therefore complex and expensive.

If an activation organ continues to work after an error, this error can be a consequence of Cause errors in the operation of the scanner as well as the operation of the duplicated scanner can disturb.

The invention is based on the object of an arrangement for controlling the query in a Sampling circuit for test points in real-time computer-controlled switching systems, in which one Addressing system controlled individual activation organs generate an activation signal through which Test points assigned to the respective organ are released for scanning, to create the safer works and has a simpler structure. This is achieved according to the invention in that a common Activation organ is provided, which is controlled simultaneously with an individual activation organ is that the common activation organ generates the activation signal and to all individual Activating organs creates that the individual activating organs are designed in such a way that the pending activation signal is only switched through if at the same time an activation of the Addressing system is present and that each of an individual activation organ to the test points The leading output line is also led to an input of a test facility in which it is determined whether none, one or two or more input lines carry a signal and none or two and more signals emits an error signal. This results in the advantage that for the interrogation circuit everyone Time a review is possible and that the overall effort is reduced despite the additional resources because the individual activating organs can now be structured more simply.

A development of the invention consists in that an additional activation organ is provided which can also be controlled by the addressing system and also that of the common activation organ generated activation signal receives that the output of this organ only with an input of the test device is connected and that means are provided in the addressing system through the addition of the connection of the test facility either the common, the additional and an individual activation organ or only an individual activation organ or no activation organ can be controlled. It turns out to be me this has the further advantage that the test device itself can be monitored with it.

Another development of the invention is that when the test points are divided into several Assemblies for each assembly a common Aktivbrungsorgan and an additional activation organ and a test device are provided. This has the advantage that in the event of a malfunction central device in an assembly, the other assemblies can safely continue to work.

There is another further development of the invention in that a common clock is provided that the addressing systems and the common Activation organs of all assemblies controls and that by a given by a test device Error signal the clock is blocked. This results in the further advantage that there is sufficient time to Is available to localize an error that has occurred.

The invention will now be explained in more detail with reference to the exemplary embodiment shown in the drawings explained. It shows

F i g. 1 is a block diagram of a scanner incorporating an interrogator according to the invention, and FIG
F i g. 2 shows an application example for an interrogation device according to the invention in a subscriber scanner for a telephone system with central control.

1 shows a scanner 1 which is connected to a computer 2 and is intended to collect information that is offered by a certain number of non-illustrated organs of a system 3 via groups of test points 4a, 4b, Ac ... 4m. To simplify the description below, it is assumed that each group contains only one checkpoint.

In a schematic way, a test point is a circuit that has an activation input, e.g. 5a for contains the test point 4a, a read output 6a and an information input 7a. This information input is at least with in a manner not shown connected to a point of the monitored organ.

When a test point is actuated via its activation input, it delivers in a known manner on its Read output information that is a function of the state of the point of the organ with which it is connected is.

The scanner 1 contains an interrogation device 8 and a reading device 9, which are connected to the computer 2.
The interrogation device 8 receives the information from the computer 2 via a generally multi-core connection that is necessary for addressing and thus also for activating a certain number of test points.

The reading arrangement 9 receives information originating from the activated test points. These Information is analyzed and brought into such a form that it can be read out by the computer and who will be informed when necessary.

The interrogation device 8 contains an addressing system 10 which is connected to the computer 2 and enables the test points to be addressed selectively. Each output of the addressing system 10, which is individually addressable, is only connected to a single test point in this example. For example, the output Ma is connected to the activation input 5a of the test point 4a.

In a known way, an individual activation

organ between each output of the addressing system 10 and the activation input of the corresponding one Checkpoint inserted. For example, the organ 12a lies between the output Ua and the input 5a of the Checkpoints4a.

Each individual activation organ, such as 12a, YIb ... \ 2m, has the task of generating a characteristic activation signal for the test point that it is supposed to activate when it is activated by a signal from the output of the addressing system 10 to which it is connected will.

For this purpose, each individual activation organ has a control input, e.g. 13a for organ 12a, which is connected to the corresponding output 1 la of the system 10.

Each individual activation organ is via a second input, the signal input 15a with the Output of a common activation organ 14 connected, which has the task of generating the activation signals to bring into the prescribed form for all individual activating organs.

This common activation organ 14 is connected to the addressing system 10, for example via a timer circuit (not shown) a signal of a predetermined duration for each activation of an output 11 gives away. The common organ 14, which can for example be a kind of amplifier, supplies an input signal, the is applied, an output signal that has the specific characteristic to the various test points activate.

Each individual organ 12 provides the transmission of the signal received at the signal input to the activation input of the associated test point if it has been activated via its control input. This The individual organ can also be an amplifier, but it is simpler than the amplifier of the common organ, since it only has to transmit signals and does not have to generate them.

The common activation organ 14 has for itself and for the individual activation organs 12 Protective measures in relation to faults in the connection lines between this body and the Organ 12 as well as between the organs 12 and the test points 4 to be carried out. This protection for the complex circuits of known type are necessary is only possible because the organ 14 alone for one Group of individual organs 12 is present. The use of individual organs together Having a common organ increases the safety of the working method, since only the simultaneous occurrence an error in the common organ and in an individual organ can lead to errors and which Probability of the simultaneous occurrence of errors in both organs is decidedly lower than the likelihood of a defect occurring in an organ.

The outputs of the individual organs are each with a corresponding input of a checking device 18 connected, the output of which is connected to the computer 2 that this in the case of The occurrence of an error can be informed accordingly.

An additional input of the checking device 18 is connected to the output of an additional Activating organ 19 connected, which is not connected to any test point

In the selected exemplary embodiment, this checking device gives 3 different output signals if none, one or more of its inputs are activated at the same time.

The scanning device operates in a known manner. The computer sends information to the addressing system of the interrogator, which successively the Checkpoints activated after a specified cycle. These transmit the information that the ascertained States correspond to a reading device, which analyzes them and the computer 2 in certain, pre-determined cases requests.

Normally, the addressing system only activates one of the outputs 11 at a time, which the Control of only one organ 12 corresponds. This organ 12 transmits the impulse it receives from the common organ 14 receives activation input 5 of a test point 4. At the same time, the organ 12 activates an input of the test device 18, whereby an immediate control is possible.

If an individual or the common activating organ does not work, this is carried over by the lack of an activation of a test point and an input of the checking device 18. This reports the error to the computer.

If an individual activation organ is activated in an uncontrolled manner, one receives a corresponding one Way an activation of two individual organs during the same work step. So it will be two checkpoints activated and also two corresponding inputs of the checking device 18. This « detects the error and the result of the corresponding reading can be suppressed.

A first additional work step, which is preferably carried out at the beginning of a scanning cycle consists in that neither organ 12 nor organ 14 is activated. It can be checked with it, oh the checking device 18 determines the absence of signals at the inputs.

A second additional work step, which is preferably following the first additional work step consists in the fact that only one individual: Activation organ 12 is actuated and not organ 14. It can thus be determined whether the common organ 14 is blocked in the mode of operation.

The normal interrogation steps during a scanning cycle enable the operation of the common to be monitored at the same time as each work step Organ 14, the operation of an individual organ and the work of the addressing system, there As already described above, every response from two individual organs also causes an error signal like the failure of an organ 12 or 14.

A third additional work step is that at the same time an individual organ 12, there! common organ 14 and the additional organ Ii are activated. You will then receive an activation before two inputs of the checking device 18 to can so the work of the additional organ 19 and dei Checking device 18 for the case that there is an error because two inputs at the same time are activated.

One can easily see from the above that every error of an organ during the following " Cycle is determined if it has an influence on the interrogator, and, since one is the occurrence of a: Error by the checking device can determine that it is possible that the error to this The associated reading is not transmitted and that the address of the test point concerned is also required!

and thus also knows the organs that can be faulty.

In a known manner, it is also possible to simultaneously use a group of ρ test points 4 via a single one addressable output 11 of the addressing system 10 and thus also via a single individual Activating organ 12 to activate. The reading device must then be constructed accordingly.

This enables a shorter scanning cycle to be achieved, since the number of scanning steps is per se would be necessary, can now be divided by ρ, i.e. by the number of points that are addressed at the same time could be.

This is shown in FIG. 2 shown for a subscriber line scanner, which is connected to a computer of a telephone exchange is connected to the central control.

In a known manner, each subscriber line is in the associated exchange connected to an individual subscriber circuit, such as 21, 22, 23 or 24. Each of these subscriber circuits contains a certain number of test points that determine the status of the Specify line at the point in time at which it is activated by the interrogator of the scanner will.

In the exemplary embodiment, three test points per subscriber circuit, e.g. 25, 26 and 27, can create five possible states of a line can be displayed.

Each individual activation organ of group 12 is connected to ρ test points, which are divided into ρ / 3 different subscriber circuits. These ρ test points are activated at the same time if their individual activation organ is addressed in the group and if the common activation organ is also activated.

In the exemplary embodiment, the η groups of ρ points, which are activated simultaneously and are interrogated by the scanning device, are divided into Q assemblies, each of which contains r groups with ρ points. The r groups of ρ points of an assembly are activated via an activation element 14 common to the assembly. Each group of ρ points has an individual activation element 12, such as 12a for the test points 25 to 30.

Each assembly contains a checking device 18 and an additional activation element 19. A Decoder 37 provides the addressing of the individual activation organs 12 and the additional activation organ 19 sure.

The control input for each individual, common or additional activation organ controls the working method so that the signals applied to the signal input are only processed further if the associated control input is activated

The computer 2 sends the information for a scan via a register 56 to an addressing device 38, which is responsible for all these processes for the η groups of points, and consequently also connects to each module decoder 37.

A time base 39, which is controlled by the computer 2, synchronizes the decoding processes safe and in particular feeds the common activating member 14 and the additional activating member 19 of each assembly when this via the Decoder 37 of their assembly are addressed.

The interrogation and the readout takes place in each assembly in a matrix-compatible manner. The rp test points of an assembly are arranged in the form of a matrix of r rows and ρ columns, and the reading circuits such as 40 are common for all r points of a column. Such an arrangement is possible because normally only a single point per column can be activated at a given point in time.

The ρ reading circuits of a module, such as 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45 are e.g. amplifiers with which the signals received at the test points are reshaped.

The outputs of the reading circuits of the same rank in the various modules are over exclusive OR circuits such as 47 to 52 are applied to a pulse shaping and analyzing circuit 46. the Exclusive OR circuits prevent test points from different assemblies from being carried out at the same time can be read.

The analysis circuit 46 transmits the necessary information to a register 53, which this Holds information for the computer 2 ready for retrieval. Any verification facility such as 18 for the Module / is connected to an error register 55 via an exclusive OR circuit 54. In this The error information received is stored in registers so that it can be evaluated by the computer 2 can be.

The mode of operation of this arrangement corresponds to that of the arrangement according to FIG. 1, which has already been described with the exception that each time a group of ρ test points is checked at the same time.

During normal operation, computer 2 transfers a number of binary information to register 56, which corresponds to a first group of points to be addressed simultaneously. Before that is still a peripheral unit selected in a known manner. Controlled by the time base 39, the register transmits 56 this information to the decoder 38, which determines the desired assembly from it, e.g. / and to this Assembly transmits the binary information that identifies the group of test points to be activated This information is provided by the decoder of the assembly, e.g. decoder 37 for the assembly / receive. The decoder then activates the common activation element 14 of the assembly / and the individual activation organ of the desired assembly of points, e.g. 12a

The common activation element 14 transmits an activation signal in pulse form to all activation elements 12 of the assembly, only the activation element 12a transmits this signal to the test points 25 to 30, since it is also activated via the control input became. These checkpoints are distributed among the subscriber circuits 21 to 22 and each checkpoint is there After activation, it emits an output signal that corresponds to the state that was detected. These Output signals are then applied to sense amplifiers 40-45

The sense amplifiers feed the pulse shaping and analyzing circuit 46 in parallel via exclusive OR circuits 47 to 52, to each of the reading circuits of the same rank from the different Assemblies are switched on. The analyzing circuit 46 analyzes the received binary Information in such a way that only the important information is stored, which makes it possible to use the Number of information to be transmitted, which is brought into a different but also binary form to decrease. The result is then available in register 53 for retrieval from computer 2. Register 53 can

be part of a register that contains all information pertaining to a scanner.

The signal transmitted to the individual activation organs 12 during a scanning step is at the same time applied to an input of the checking device 18, which has a first characteristic Emits output signal when this input is activated alone. This signal is via an exclusive OR circuit 54 is transmitted to the time base 39 and there controls the sampling of a second step decoder 38 based on information previously received from register 56. This can e.g. can be achieved in that the in the register 56

10

stored address is increased by one unit.

However, if the checking device 18 emits a second characteristic output signal which no activation of the associated inputs indicates, or a third signal that has a simultaneous If two or more inputs are activated, the exclusive OR circuit blocks the time base 39. Error register 54 contains an indication of the error detected. The computer 2, which is operated by the If the interruption of the scanning is informed, the necessary conclusions can be drawn from the errors in the error register 54 and pull information stored in the input register 56 in a manner known per se.

For this purpose 2 sheets of drawings

Claims (4)

Patent claims: 1. Arrangement for controlling the query in a scanning circuit for test points in echitime computer-controlled Switching systems, in which an addressing system controls individual Activation organs generate an activation signal through which the respective organ is assigned Test points are released for scanning, characterized in that a common Activation organ (14) is provided, which simultaneously with an individual Aktivienmgsorgan (12) is controlled so that the common activation element (14) generates the activation signal and applies to all individual activating organs (12) that the individual activating organs are designed in such a way that the applied activation signal (15) is only switched through if at the same time there is a control (13) from the addressing system (10) and that each of an individual activation organ leading to the test points output line (16) in addition is fed to an input of a test device (18), in which it is determined whether none, a or two or more input lines carry a signal and those with none or two and more Signals an error signal 2. Arrangement according to claim 1, characterized in that an additional activating member (19) is provided, which can also be controlled by the addressing system (10) and also receives the activation signal generated by the common activation organ (14) that the Output of this organ is only connected to one input of the test device (18) and that in the Addressing system (10) means are provided through which, in addition to the connection of the test device (18) either the common (14), the additional (19) and an individual (12) activation organ or only an individual activating organ (12) or no activating organ is activated will. 3. Arrangement according to claim 2, characterized in that when the test points are divided into several assemblies (I, II, Q) for each assembly a common activation element (14) and an additional activation element (19) and a test device (18) are provided. 4. Arrangement according to claim 3, characterized in that a common clock generator (39) is provided, the addressing systems (38) and the common activation organs (14) of all Controls assemblies and that by an error signal emitted by a test device (18, 54) the clock is blocked.