JP2000076160A - Communication monitoring device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication monitoring device capable of easily installing and uninstalling monitoring software to/from a client terminal even when a contact condition or the like is changed. SOLUTION: Contract data 16 include contract contents, the kind of already mounted monitoring software and the kind of the client terminal 20, etc. An end user information part 12 registers and changes the contract data 16. An autonomous mounting judgement part 13 detects the change of the contract contents, obtains the kind of appropriate monitoring software, compares it with the kind of the already mounted monitoring software and decides the necessity/unnecessity of the monitoring software. A monitoring software code part 14 generates an appropriate monitoring software code from the kind of the appropriate monitoring software and the kind of the client terminal 20. A monitoring software mounting part 15 transmits the appropriate monitoring software code and an uninstalling message to a contract changed client terminal 20 corresponding to the necessity/unnecessity, and the client terminal 20 mounts or eliminates the monitoring software.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication monitoring apparatus for monitoring data communication performed between computers connected to a communication network. More specifically, the present invention relates to a communication monitoring device that centrally manages monitoring software executed by a client terminal installed on an end user side by a server installed on a service provider side.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A communication monitoring device is installed at one or a plurality of locations on a communication network, and collects and analyzes communication data passing through the communication network at the installation location. Through such analysis, it is possible to grasp the performance of the communication network, such as the operation rate, traffic, and response time, thereby preventing the failure of the communication network beforehand, and optimizing the scale and communication capacity of the devices constituting the communication network. It can also be used for planning and operation.

A local area network (hereinafter referred to as "LA")
N "), the communication monitoring device installed in the
MP (Simple Network Management Protocol), RMO
Management methods such as N (Remote network MONitoring) are often used. In such a method, communication data is collected by a relay device or terminal such as a router, or
A data collection device called a probe is installed at an appropriate place through which a large amount of communication data passes to collect communication data. The communication monitoring device has a function of analyzing collected data, in addition to simple functions such as a data amount and traffic calculation process, a process of calculating traffic by classifying data types, transmission / reception addresses, time zones, and the like. It also has complicated functions such as processing for grasping the progress of the protocol.

[0004] The time period during which the communication monitoring device operates the monitoring function is, for example, a problem in which the monitoring function is always operated for traffic to collect data and newly start using a specific protocol. When the occurrence is expected or when the purpose can be achieved by the sampling check, the monitoring function is operated intermittently as necessary. The above-described relay device, terminal, and probe as data collection devices implement software having an analysis function on a computer constituting these devices, or implement protocol analysis software for analyzing a specific protocol. Or

On the other hand, when the analysis processing scale is large,
In order to maintain the proper relationship between the processing capacity of the computer and the processing scale, the data collection equipment collects data and performs simple analysis processing as necessary, and is installed at another place on the communication network. In some cases, the collected data and the analysis result obtained are sent to the analysis device, and a complicated analysis process is performed by the analysis device. In the case of centrally managing a communication network in which a large number of terminals and relay devices are installed, data from a large number of data collection devices and analysis devices are sent to a central management device having a large processing capacity, and the central management device is connected to the central management device. In some cases, complicated analysis processing may be performed collectively. In addition, as a communication monitoring device used for a configuration in which a plurality of networks are interconnected, Japanese Patent Application No. 9-784 filed by the present applicant.
No. 86 and others.

On the other hand, as described above, a form in which a communication monitoring device is configured by a client terminal installed on the end user side and a server installed on the service provider side is also conceivable. Here, it is assumed that the communication network to be monitored newly starts a service using a protocol with a large processing scale. A typical example of such a service is a video communication service. A service provider that provides moving image communication services is provided with a server that transmits moving images, and an end user is provided with a client terminal that receives and displays moving images. The service provider understands the performance of the video communication and works to optimize the video quality to provide video of the appropriate quality to the end user, while on the end user side, the client terminal uses the video protocol To analyze. Since the moving image communication service handles a large amount of data, has a complicated protocol, and has a large analysis processing scale, it is necessary that the server and the client terminal have complicated functions related to moving images. For this reason, the service provider and the end user prepare computers having sufficient processing scale and performance as computers constituting the server and the client terminal at their own responsibility.

[0007]

By the way, in the communication network just described, in addition to the change of the service content itself provided by the service provider, the contract of the communication service enjoyed by the end user is canceled, resumed, It is conceivable that the contract status of the communication service frequently changes, for example, by changing it. For this reason, when monitoring software having a large analysis processing scale is always installed in the client terminal on the end user side, there is a high possibility that the software is wasted due to a contract change or the like.

[0008] In addition, a mode is conceivable in which the data analysis function can be used intermittently without the need for constant monitoring. In such a case, even if the monitoring software with a large analysis processing scale is resident on the client terminal, the storage area occupied by the monitoring software is only consumed unnecessarily, although the frequency of use is low, and it is unnecessary for the end user. Is a burden. Furthermore, the installation of the conventional monitoring software is complicated, and it is not easy for ordinary people who have no knowledge of the software to perform such installation. In addition, having to perform a complicated installation operation every time it is used places a heavy burden on the end user.

[0009] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide an end-user's hand even if there is a change in the contents of a service provided by a service provider or a contract status with an end user. An object of the present invention is to provide a communication monitoring device in which a server installed in a service provider can easily install and uninstall monitoring software on a client terminal of a contract end user without bothering.

[0010]

According to an aspect of the present invention, a monitoring software on a client terminal collects and analyzes communication data and sends the obtained data to a server via a network. In a communication monitoring device that transmits and the server monitors communication on the network based on the data, the server includes a storage unit configured to store a type of monitoring software installed on the client terminal; Detecting a change in the contract terms with the terminal, determining the type of monitoring software appropriate for the client terminal according to the change, and updating the storage content of the storage means with the appropriate type of monitoring software. The determining means determines that the type of monitoring software on the client terminal is the appropriate type of monitoring software. Wherein comprising an instruction means for instructing the client terminal as the client terminal in accordance with an instruction from the server, it is characterized by comprising a mounting means for updating the monitoring software that is implemented.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the instruction means does not exist in the type of the installed monitoring software among the types of the appropriate monitoring software. , And generates monitoring software corresponding to the detected type of monitoring software and transmits the generated monitoring software to the client terminal. The implementation unit installs the monitoring software transmitted from the instruction unit. . According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the invention, the instructing means determines a type of the installed monitoring software that does not exist in the proper type of the monitoring software. Detecting, instructing the client terminal to delete the monitoring software corresponding to the detected type of the monitoring software, and the mounting unit uninstalls the monitoring software instructed to delete by the instruction unit. I have. The invention according to claim 4 is the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the mounting means is a mobile agent.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The present embodiment is applicable to a case where an end user having a client terminal equipped with an agent system newly subscribes to a service involving the use of a protocol having a large processing scale, or cancels, resumes, or changes the content. The server installed on the communication service provider side installs and uninstalls monitoring software having a data collection function and an analysis function on the client terminal without performing complicated work.

Therefore, the above-described agent system will be described first. The agent system is a driving environment for specific software, and is an operating system (hereinafter referred to as “OS”).
Is middleware positioned between the application and the application program. Among agent systems, there is a technology called "mobile agent" in which software moves to another computer by itself through a network and executes the software. That is, in a form in which a plurality of computers implementing software called an agent system or an agent platform are connected to a network, mobile agents having a specific function are sequentially moved from one computer to another computer, and the mobile agent carries the mobile agents. The software will be executed on the destination computer.

As such an agent system,
IBM (International Business Machines)
Http: //www.trl.ibm.co.j as “Aglets” (Uniform Resource Locator (hereinafter referred to as “URL”))
p / aglets / about-j.html). IBM has proposed a travel ticket reservation application “Tabari Can” as an application example of the agent system. Traditionally, customers book tours and air tickets by visiting multiple travel agencies, calling multiple travel agencies, or accessing multiple travel agencies' Internet search servers. It is necessary, but such a procedure puts a heavy burden on the customer. On the other hand, when an agent system is used, a mobile agent searches information necessary for a reservation while moving through a database on a communication network related to travel, and obtains the obtained search result from a client of a client who is a request source. It is also possible to notify the terminal by e-mail.

Most of the mobile agent technologies are in the research stage, and there are few effective applications using them. There are no examples of using mobile agent technology to implement monitoring software with data collection and analysis functions on client terminals for the purpose of monitoring communication networks. However, mobile agent technology has the advantage of reducing the load on communication networks and end users, and reducing this load will be an issue in the future information network society. Is highly expected. In such a situation, an end user who wants to newly enjoy a service involving the use of a protocol with a large processing scale can easily obtain a computer on which an agent system is already mounted.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a communication system having a communication monitoring device according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, a server 10 is a computer installed in a communication service provider, and a client terminal 20 is a computer operated by an end user.
Is connected to the server 10 and the client terminal 20 in common. It should be noted that a large number of client terminals are actually connected to the communication network 30, but for simplicity, only one client terminal is shown in FIG.

The server 10 includes a communication service unit 11, an end user information unit 12, an implementation autonomous determination unit 13, a monitoring software code unit 14, a monitoring software implementation unit 15, a memory for storing contract data 16, a communication monitoring analysis unit 17,
It comprises a network I / F (interface) 18. Among them, the communication service unit 11 is a functional block for realizing various services provided by a general communication service provider, and therefore, the details thereof are not described here.

The end user information section 12 registers, changes, and deletes contract data 16 exchanged with the end user, and sends the name of the end user to be registered, changed, and deleted to the mounting autonomous determination section 13. Notice. Contract data 1
2 is provided for each end user. As shown in FIG. 2, the end user name 160, the contract content 161 with the end user, the computer address 162 of the client terminal 20 held by the end user, the computer type 163,
It is composed of data of the type 164 of the installed monitoring software and the presence / absence 165 of the installed monitoring software.

Here, the contract contents 161 are a moving image communication service, a voice telephone service, an electronic mail service, and the like, and an arbitrary number of services are selected from services provided by a communication service provider. The computer address 162 is a destination for sending the monitoring software 21 described later to the client terminal 20.
(Internet Protocol) address, URL, host name, and the like. The computer type 163 is the monitoring software 21
For checking the traveling environment of the client terminal 20, the name and version number of the agent system mounted on the client terminal 20, the type and memory size of the CPU (central processing unit) constituting the client terminal 20, the client terminal 20 is the name and version number of the OS running on the OS 20. The type 164 of the installed monitoring software includes data such as the version number of the monitoring software in addition to the type of the monitoring software.
The presence / absence of the monitoring software 165 indicates whether or not the installed monitoring software exists on each client terminal.
It shall take any value of "absence".

Next, referring to FIG.
The functions of the will be described. The mounting autonomous determination unit 13
A contract-monitoring software correspondence table 130 in which data such as a proper monitoring software type, name, and version number (hereinafter, referred to as a proper monitoring software type) is stored in advance as a list for each contract content.
have. This is because, for example, the monitoring scale cannot be shared because the processing scale and the protocol are significantly different between the video communication service and the e-mail service, and dedicated monitoring software is required to monitor each service. . For the sake of convenience, the terms and conditions for which the type of appropriate monitoring software changes due to changes in the contents, such as the contract contents referred to here, are referred to as “contract conditions”.
I will call it.

The autonomous implementation judging unit 13 recognizes that the contract data 16 has been registered, changed or deleted by the notification of the end user name from the end user information unit 12,
The contract contents 161 and the type 164 of the installed monitoring software corresponding to the notified end user name (the end user name 131 whose contract has been changed shown in FIG. 3) are acquired from the contract data 16 respectively, and shown in FIG. The contract content 132 after the change and the type 133 of the installed monitoring software are obtained.

In addition, the implementation autonomous determination unit 13 acquires an appropriate monitoring software type 134 corresponding to the changed contract content 132 from the contract-monitoring software correspondence table 130, and obtains the installed monitoring software type. Type 1
33 and the appropriate monitoring software type 134 are compared for each service included in the contract contents. As a result, the implementation autonomous determination unit 13 detects a situation in which the implementation of the monitoring software in the client terminal 20 is inappropriate. Such situations include situations where monitoring software for a particular service is not installed on the client terminal 20 and needs to be newly implemented,
There is a case where the monitoring software for the service is revised due to a change in the service content of the communication service provider or the like, and the monitoring software installed on the client terminal 20 needs to be updated to the latest version. .

In order to detect such a situation, if the proper monitoring software type 134 does not exist in the installed monitoring software type 133, the mounting autonomous determination unit 13 needs to install the monitoring software. Is output. At this time, the mounting autonomous determination unit 13 does not exist (that is, should be installed).
Outputs the type of monitoring software. If the presence / absence 165 of the monitoring software is set to “absent”, the mounting autonomous determination unit 13 determines that the appropriate monitoring software type 134 is
It is assumed that none of them exists in S.33.

In addition, the implementation autonomous determination unit 13 determines the type of monitoring software 133 that does not match any of the appropriate types 134 of monitoring software.
Checks for the presence in. By doing this,
The implementation autonomous determination unit 13 determines whether monitoring software installed for a specific service already exists in the client terminal 20 (in other words, whether monitoring software that is not the latest version exists in the client terminal 20). If the monitoring software is present, the mounting autonomous determination unit 13 outputs a message to the effect that the monitoring software needs to be uninstalled, and additionally, the monitoring software that already exists (that is, should be uninstalled). Output the type. When the presence / absence 165 of the monitoring software is “absent”, the mounting autonomous determination unit 13 does not perform the above-described inspection and does not output a message indicating that uninstallation is necessary.

In contrast to the above, the type 133 of the installed monitoring software and the type 1 of the appropriate monitoring software
If 34 completely matches, this means that the monitoring software is properly implemented in the client terminal 20. Therefore, in this case, the mounting autonomous determination unit 13 outputs a message to the effect that it is not necessary to add or change the monitoring software to the client terminal 20 (the above-described suitability / unsuitability and uninstallation determination 135 shown in FIG. 3).

Next, the functions of the monitoring software code section 14 will be described with reference to FIG. The monitoring software code unit 14 executes the following processing when receiving a message indicating that the monitoring software needs to be installed from the mounting autonomous determination unit 13. That is, the monitoring software code unit 14 acquires the end user name 131 whose contract has been changed from the implementation autonomous determination unit 13, and acquires the computer type 163 corresponding to the end user name 131 whose contract has been changed from the contract data 16. Thus, a computer type 140 shown in FIG. 4 is obtained.

Further, the monitoring software code section 14 acquires the proper monitoring software type 134 generated by the mounting autonomous determination section 13. Then, the monitoring software code unit 14 determines the appropriate monitoring software type 13
4 and the computer type 140, an appropriate monitoring software code 141 relating to the type of monitoring software to be installed is generated. In this case, all types of monitoring software codes that may exist in the monitoring software code unit 14 are stored, and an appropriate monitoring software type 134 and a computer type
It may be configured to search for an appropriate monitoring software code 141 in accordance with 0.

Next, the functions of the monitoring software mounting unit 15 will be described with reference to FIG. The monitoring software implementation unit 15 acquires the end user name 131 whose contract has been changed from the implementation autonomous determination unit 13, extracts the computer address 162 corresponding to the end user name 131 from the contract data 16, and obtains the computer address 150. Then, when receiving a message indicating that uninstallation is necessary from the implementation autonomous determination unit 13, the monitoring software implementation unit 15 sends an uninstallation message 151 addressed to the client terminal 20 having the computer address 150 to the network I / F 18 and the network. Transmit via 30. At this time, the monitoring software implementation unit 15 receives the type of the monitoring software to be uninstalled from the implementation autonomy determination unit 13 and includes the type in the message (the uninstall determination 152 illustrated in FIG. 5). When receiving a message indicating that installation is necessary from the mounting autonomous determination unit 13, the monitoring software mounting unit 15 obtains an appropriate monitoring software code 141 from the monitoring software code unit 14, and obtains a client terminal having the computer address 150. 20 (the above is the mounting failure 153 shown in FIG. 5).

On the other hand, in FIG.
0 receives an appropriate monitoring software code 141 from the monitoring software implementation unit 15 via the network 30 and internally implements this as the monitoring software 21. The client terminal 20 has, for example, the above-described agent system as such mounting means. In addition, the client terminal 20 receives the uninstall message 151 from the monitoring software implementation unit 15 via the network 30, and deletes the monitoring software corresponding to the monitoring software type specified in the message. The client terminal 20 has, for example, the above-described agent system as such erasing means.

Here, the functions of the monitoring software 21 will be described. The monitoring software 21 has a data collection function (capture 210 shown in FIG. 1) for capturing data received from the network 30, and also performs analysis based on the captured data (analysis 2 shown in FIG. 1).
Perform 11). This analysis function includes a data amount and traffic calculation function, a transmission / reception address and a host name identification function, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), HTTP (Hy
perText Transfer Protocol), SNMP and other protocol type identification functions, MPEG (Moving Picture Exper
ts Group). Further, the monitoring software 21 transmits the captured data or the analysis result obtained by the analysis function to the network 30.
(Sending 212 and Asynchronous Messaging 213 shown in FIG. 1).

The functions of the communication monitoring / analyzing unit 17 will be described below. The communication monitoring analysis unit 17 receives the capture data and the analysis result transmitted from the monitoring software 21 and analyzes the traffic and operation rate associated with the communication service, and the traffic and operation rate for each protocol and each terminal, or specifies The data according to the above protocol is analyzed, and these are used as quality data for optimizing the quality of the communication service. For example, the communication monitoring / analyzing unit 17 sets the
It has a function of evaluating a difference in moving image quality due to a difference in moving image coding mode and supporting selection of an optimum moving image coding mode. Regarding this point, Japanese Patent Application No.
-216814 and Japanese Patent Application No. 10-52531. On the other hand, the network I / F 1 shown in FIG.
8, a network I / F 22 is an interface circuit for controlling communication between the server 10, the client terminal 20 and the network 30, respectively.

Next, the installation and uninstallation operation of the monitoring software performed by the communication monitoring apparatus having the above configuration will be described. In the following description, it is assumed that the contract data relating to the end user who operates the client terminal 20 has not been registered in the contract data 16 yet, and will be newly registered.

[Case 1] First, as described above, it is assumed that an end user newly contracts with a communication service provider as described above. The communication service provider makes an agreement with the server 10 according to the application from the end user (ie, the end user name 16
Given the information 0, the contract contents 161, the computer address 162, and the computer type 163), the end user information unit 12 registers the contract contents in the contract data 16 as contract data relating to the end user. At this time, the end user information unit 12 initializes the type 164 of the installed monitoring software to a predetermined value that does not match any type of the monitoring software, and sets the presence / absence 165 of the monitoring software to “none”. initialize. Next, the end user information unit 12 notifies the implementation autonomous determination unit 13 of the end user name 160. In applying for the contract contents, the end user operates the client terminal 20 to transfer the contract data via the network 30 to the server 1.
0 may be notified. In this case, the communication service provider checks the sent contract contents and then registers the contract data 16 on the server 10 as described above.

On the other hand, the mounting autonomous judgment unit 13 recognizes that the contract data 16 has been registered when the end user name 131 whose contract has been changed is notified as the end user name, and Corresponding contract contents 161 and type 16 of installed monitoring software
4 are obtained from the contract data 16 and are respectively set as the changed contract contents 132 and the installed monitoring software type 133. At this time, the mounting autonomous determination unit 13 outputs the changed end user name 131 to the monitoring software code unit 14 and the monitoring software mounting unit 15. Next, the mounting autonomous determination unit 13 acquires an appropriate monitoring software type 134 corresponding to the changed contract content 132 from the contract-monitoring software correspondence table 130, and outputs this to the monitoring software code unit 14.

Next, the mounting autonomous judgment unit 13 checks whether or not the proper monitoring software type 134 is included in the installed monitoring software type 133.
In this case, the monitoring software 2 is connected to the client terminal 20.
No. 1 is not implemented at all, and the presence / absence 165 of the monitoring software included in the contract data 16 is “absent”. Therefore, the mounting autonomous determination unit 13 sends a message indicating the necessity of installing the monitoring software. Output to the monitoring software code unit 14 and the monitoring software implementation unit 15. In addition, the mounting autonomous determination unit 13 does not output a message indicating that uninstallation is necessary because the presence / absence 165 of the monitoring software is “none”. Thereafter, the implementation autonomous determination unit 13 sets the contract data 1
6, the content of the installed monitoring software type 164 is replaced with an appropriate monitoring software type 134, and the presence / absence 165 of the installed monitoring software is updated to “Yes”.

On the other hand, the monitoring software code unit 14
When a message indicating that installation is necessary is received from the mounting autonomous determination unit 13, the computer type 163 corresponding to the end user name 131 whose contract has been changed is extracted from the contract data 16 and set as the computer type 140. next,
The monitoring software code unit 14 generates an appropriate monitoring software code 141 for the type of monitoring software to be installed, based on the computer type 140 and the appropriate monitoring software type 134 sent from the mounting autonomous determination unit 13. This is output to the monitoring software mounting unit 15.

On the other hand, when the monitoring software mounting unit 15 receives a message indicating that the installation is necessary from the mounting autonomous judgment unit 13, the monitoring software mounting unit 15 converts the computer address 162 corresponding to the end user name 131 whose contract has been changed from the contract data 16. Obtain and obtain the computer address 150. Then, when the appropriate monitoring software code 141 is transmitted from the monitoring software code unit 14, the monitoring software implementation unit 15 instructs the network I / F 18 to make the appropriate monitoring software code 141 correspond to the computer address 150. The data is transmitted to the client terminal 20 via the network 30. As a result, the client terminal 20 receives the appropriate monitoring software code 141 sent from the monitoring software implementation unit 15 using the agent system, and implements this internally as the monitoring software 21.

Thereafter, each time a new service is added as a contract content, the server 10 sets the appropriate monitoring software code 141 corresponding to the newly added service according to the same procedure as described above. Is generated and transmitted to the client terminal 20, and the client terminal 20 receives and implements this.

[Case 2] Next, a case where the computer address of the client terminal 20 is changed after [Case 1] assuming that the contract data is changed but neither installation nor uninstallation is performed is described. In this case, the client terminal 20 notifies the server 10 via the network 30 of a message indicating the change of the computer address together with its own end user name and the computer address to be changed. Then, the end user information section 12
Analyzes the sent message and enters the contract data 16
After updating the computer address 162 of the end user included in the above to the computer address to be changed, the implementation autonomous determination unit 13 is notified of the name of the end user whose contract is to be changed.

Based on this notification, the mounting autonomous judgment unit 13 recognizes that the contract data 16 has been changed, and the end user name 131 whose contract has been changed, the contract contents 132 after the change,
The type 133 of the installed monitoring software is acquired. Next, the implementation autonomous determination unit 13 determines from the contract-monitoring software correspondence table 130 the changed contract content 132
Is obtained, and the appropriate monitoring software type 134 is acquired and compared with the installed monitoring software type 133. In this case, since the contract contents 161 included in the contract data 16 have not been changed, the type 133 of the installed monitoring software and the type 134 of the appropriate monitoring software completely match. Therefore, unlike the case of [Case 1], the mounting autonomous determination unit 13 does not output a message indicating the necessity of installation, and a message indicating that uninstallation is necessary as in [Case 1]. No output. Therefore, the monitoring software code unit 14 and the monitoring software implementation unit 1
In No. 5, no operation is performed, and after all, only the contract data 16 is changed.

[Case 3] Next, as a case where uninstallation is performed, a case where the end user cancels a part of the contract contents after [Case 2] will be described. For example,
If the end user has subscribed to the video communication service, voice telephone service, and e-mail service by repeating the procedure described in [Case 1],
It is possible to cancel the e-mail service contract. In this case, the end user is the client terminal 2
By operating “0”, the server 10 notifies the server 10 of a message including a service to be canceled and data to the effect of canceling, together with its own end user name. In the server 10, the end user information unit 12 analyzes the transmitted message, deletes the e-mail service from the contract content 161 included in the contract data 16, and then sends the end user to the implementation autonomy determination unit 13. Advertise first name.

Thus, the implementation autonomous determination unit 13 recognizes that the contract data 16 has been changed, and recognizes the end user name 131 whose contract has been changed, the contract content 132 after the change, and the type of monitoring software installed. 133, the end user name 131 whose contract was changed after each acquisition
Is output to the monitoring software code unit 14 and the monitoring software implementation unit 15. Next, the mounting autonomy determination unit 13
Appropriate monitoring software type 1 corresponding to contract content 132 after change from contract-monitoring software correspondence table 130
34, and outputs it to the monitoring software code unit 14. In addition, since there may be a case where no service is included in the contract content 132 after the change, in such a case, the mounting autonomous determination unit 13 sets the appropriate monitoring software type 134 as an appropriate monitoring software type. Generate a predetermined value (described above) that does not match.

Next, the mounting autonomous judgment section 13 checks whether or not the proper monitoring software type 134 is included in the installed monitoring software type 133.
In this case, since there is no change in the contract contents for services other than the e-mail service to be canceled, it is assumed that the appropriate monitoring software type 134 is all included in the installed monitoring software type 133. Become. Therefore, the mounting autonomous determination unit 13 does not output a message indicating that monitoring software needs to be installed. For this reason, the monitoring software code unit 14 does not perform any operation.

On the other hand, as a result of the change of the contract contents 161, the type 133 of the installed monitoring software and the type 134 of the appropriate monitoring software do not completely match, and the type 134 of the appropriate monitoring software is There is a surveillance software type 133 in which surveillance software not included (ie, surveillance software for email service) is implemented. For these reasons,
The mounting autonomous determination unit 13 outputs a message to the effect that uninstallation is necessary to the monitoring software mounting unit 15 together with the type of monitoring software to be uninstalled (that is, an e-mail service).

Thereafter, the implementation autonomous judgment unit 13 determines the type 164 of the implemented monitoring software in the contract data 16.
Is replaced with the appropriate monitoring software type 134. It is also possible to cancel the last service under contract, and in this case, the proper monitoring software type 134 does not include any monitoring software type. In such a case, the mounting autonomous determination unit 13 sets the type 164 of the installed monitoring software to a predetermined value that does not match any type of monitoring software (described above), and sets the presence / absence 165 of the monitoring software to To ".

On the other hand, when receiving a message indicating that uninstallation is necessary from the mounting autonomous determination unit 13, the monitoring software mounting unit 15 obtains the computer address 150 from the contract data 16, and then obtains the network I / F 1.
8, the type of the monitoring software corresponding to the e-mail service is included in the uninstall message 151, and then transmitted to the client terminal 20 having the computer address 150 via the network 30 (the uninstall determination shown in FIG. 5). 152). As a result, the client terminal 20 uses the agent system to delete the monitoring software for the electronic mail service specified by the uninstall message 151.

[Case 4] Next, as a case where installation and uninstallation are performed, a case where the service content relating to a specific service on the communication service provider side is changed after [Case 3] will be described. In this case, the monitoring software related to the service is revised and the version number is changed in accordance with the change of the service content. Therefore, the server 10 updates the appropriate monitoring software type 134 included in the contract-monitoring software correspondence table 130 with the new service content for the service whose service content has been changed. The server 10 updates the function of the monitoring software code unit 14 so that the monitoring software code unit 14 generates an appropriate monitoring software code 141 corresponding to the new service content. Next, the server 10 sequentially performs the processing described below for all the end user names 160 included in the contract data 16.

The end user information section 12 detects that the service content has been changed, selects one end user name from all end user names, and notifies the end user name to the mounting autonomous judgment section 13. . Then, the implementation autonomous determination unit 13 acquires the end user name 131 whose contract has been changed, the changed contract content 132, and the type 133 of the installed monitoring software according to the case where the contents of the contract data 16 have been changed. Then, the end user name 131 whose contract has been changed is output to the monitoring software code unit 14 and the monitoring software implementation unit 15. That is, when the service content is changed, each end user is treated in the same manner as when the contract data 16 is changed. Next, the implementation autonomous determination unit 13 performs a contract-monitoring software correspondence table 13
An appropriate monitoring software type 134 corresponding to the contract content 132 changed from 0 is obtained and output to the monitoring software code unit 14. Note that the appropriate monitoring software type 134 output at this time corresponds to a change in service content.

Next, the mounting autonomous judgment unit 13 checks whether or not the proper monitoring software type 134 is included in the installed monitoring software type 133.
In this case, the monitoring software updated in response to the change in the service content has not yet been installed in the client terminal 20. Therefore, the appropriate monitoring software type 134 related to the service in which the service content has been changed is installed. It does not exist in the monitoring software type 133. For this reason, the implementation autonomous determination unit 13 outputs a message indicating the necessity of installing the monitoring software to the monitoring software code unit 14 and the monitoring software implementation unit 15.

In addition to the above, among the implemented monitoring software types 133, the monitoring software before the revision that does not correspond to the change of the service content does not exist in the appropriate monitoring software type 134. For this reason, the implementation autonomous determination unit 13 sends the message indicating that the uninstallation is necessary together with the type of the monitoring software to be uninstalled (that is, the type of the monitoring software for the service whose service content has been changed). Output to the unit 15. After this, the implementation autonomous determination unit 13 determines the type 1 of the implemented monitoring software.
64 is replaced with the appropriate monitoring software type 134.

On the other hand, when receiving the message indicating that the uninstallation is necessary, the monitoring software mounting unit 15 receives the message indicating that the type of the monitoring software corresponding to the service whose service content has been changed, as in [Case 3]. Is included in the uninstall message 151 and then transmitted to the client terminal 20 having the computer address 150. As a result, the client terminal 20 deletes the monitoring software 21 corresponding to the type of the monitoring software specified by the uninstall message 151. As described above, the monitoring software before the revision is first uninstalled from the client terminal 20.

On the other hand, the monitoring software code unit 14 receives the message indicating that the
As in the case of [Case 1], an appropriate monitoring software code 141 is generated for the type of monitoring software corresponding to the service whose service content has been changed, and then output to the monitoring software implementation unit 15. In addition, the monitoring software implementation unit 15 receives the message indicating that the installation is necessary, and performs the appropriate monitoring software code 14 in the same manner as in [Case 1].
1 is sent from the monitoring software code unit 14, the client terminal 20 having the computer address 150
Send to Thereby, the client terminal 20 implements the transmitted appropriate monitoring software code 141 therein. As described above, the client terminal 20
The updated monitoring software is installed for

In the above-described embodiment, the contract content 1
With 61 as the “contract condition”, an appropriate monitoring software type 134 is prepared for each contract content 161. However, it is conceivable that the type of the monitoring software is changed by changing the type 163 of the computer. Therefore, the type 163 of the computer is added to the “contract conditions”, and the type of the monitoring software appropriate for each type 163 of the computer is added. The contract-monitoring software correspondence table 130 may be configured so as to prepare 134.

[0054]

As described above, according to the present invention, the server stores the type of the monitoring software installed on the client terminal, and when the contract conditions are changed, the appropriate The type of the monitoring software is determined and reflected in the storage means, and an instruction is given to the client terminal so that the type of the monitoring software on the client terminal is appropriate. Then, the client terminal installs (claims 2) or uninstalls (claims 3) the monitoring software according to the instruction and updates the installed monitoring software. As a result, even when the contract conditions frequently change due to the end user owning the client terminal canceling, resuming, or changing the contents of the communication service contract, the client terminal can be mounted on the client terminal under the management of the server. The contract software to be used becomes appropriate according to the contract conditions, and the problem that the monitoring software wastes the storage area although the frequency of use is low is eliminated. In addition, since it is not necessary for the end user to perform complicated procedures such as mounting monitoring software on the client terminal, there is no need to put unnecessary burden on the end user. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since the mounting means is a mobile agent, the load on the network and the client terminal can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a communication system having a communication monitoring device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing various data included in contract data 16 in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing functions of an implementation autonomous determination unit 13 in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating functions of a monitoring software code unit according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing functions of a monitoring software mounting unit 15 in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Server, 11 ... Communication service part, 12 ... End user information part, 13 ... Implementation autonomy determination part, 14 ... Monitoring software code part, 15 ... Monitoring software implementation part, 16
... contract data, 17 ... communication monitoring analysis unit, 18, 22 ... network I / F, 20 ... client terminal, 21 ... monitoring software, 30 ... network, 130 ... contract-
Monitoring software correspondence table, 131: End user name whose contract was changed, 132: Contract contents after change, 133, 1
64 ... the type of monitoring software installed, 134
... appropriate monitoring software type, 135 ... suitable for implementation /
No and uninstall judgment, 140, 163: computer type, 141: proper monitoring software code, 15
0, 162: computer address, 151: uninstall message, 152: uninstall judgment, 153
… Not implemented, 160… End user name, 161… Contract details, 165… Monitor software installed

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) GB05 HA01 HA02

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. Communication monitoring wherein monitoring software on a client terminal collects and analyzes communication data and transmits the data to a server via a network, and the server monitors communication on the network based on the data. In the device, the server stores a type of monitoring software installed on the client terminal, and detects a change in a contract condition between the client terminal and the client terminal according to the change. Determining means for determining an appropriate type of monitoring software and updating the storage content of the storage means with the appropriate type of monitoring software; and determining whether the type of monitoring software on the client terminal is appropriate for the type of monitoring software. Instruction means for instructing the client terminal so that Client terminal in accordance with an instruction from the server, the communication monitoring apparatus characterized by comprising a mounting means for updating the monitoring software that is implemented. 2. The monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the instruction unit detects a type of the appropriate monitoring software that is not present in the type of the installed monitoring software, and performs monitoring corresponding to the detected type of the monitoring software. 2. The software according to claim 1, wherein the software is generated and transmitted to the client terminal, and the mounting unit installs the monitoring software transmitted from the instruction unit.
A communication monitoring device according to claim 1. 3. The monitoring device according to claim 2, wherein the instruction unit detects a type of the monitoring software that is not included in the type of the appropriate monitoring software, and performs monitoring corresponding to the detected type of the monitoring software. The communication monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the client terminal is instructed to delete software, and the mounting unit uninstalls the monitoring software instructed to delete by the instruction unit. 4. The communication monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein said mounting means is a mobile agent.