JP2000209241A - Method and device for managing network resources - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce mistakes in re-obtaining resources, after a bus reset which occurs during isochronous transmission by means of equipment which is connected to a 1394 network by classifying network resources which is usable in a bus into the transmission resources which come before the others and the non-preferred transmission resources. SOLUTION: All resources which are usable in the 1394 bus are initialized and a bus reset detecting means 1002 monitors the existence of bus reset occurrence. A resource-obtaining request detecting means 1004 checks whether or not the request for obtaining the resources exists. If it is detected, the means 1004 reports the amount of the requested resources, transmission equipment for requesting the obtaining of the resources and reception equipment for receiving data to a resource amount comparing means 1006 and a preferential transmission determining means 1008. The remaining amount of the usable resources is notified from a network resource amount managing part 1010 to the means 1006.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network resource management method and a network resource management apparatus suitable for an audio / video device or the like networked by an IEEE1394 digital interface capable of isochronous transmission of a plurality of signals to a plurality of devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Unlike computer data, image data must be transmitted in real time at a constant period. As a system capable of such transmission, Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 8-3
09656, Japanese Patent Application No. 7-342842, Japanese Patent Application No. 7-342
No. 81548 (IEEE: The Institute of Electrical and Electronics En
gineers, Inc.) 1394 Isochrono
us) Transmission is drawing attention.

In such isochronous transmission, when a new transmitting device and / or receiving device is connected to a network during isochronous transmission, a bus reset occurs. In order to continue transmission even after the bus reset, each transmission must reacquire an amount of resources (band) required for each transmission.

[0004] However, if the remaining resource amount before the bus reset is smaller than the resource amount required by the newly added transmission, any transmission after the bus reset cannot reacquire the resource. . If reacquisition of resources fails, transmission must be interrupted, for example, recording of a program is interrupted.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has been described in view of the fact that a device or the like connected to a 1394 network performs a resource reset after a bus reset occurred during isochronous transmission. An object of the present invention is to provide a network resource management method and a network resource management device for preventing reacquisition of (band) from failing.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a network resource management method according to the present invention comprises the steps of: assigning a network resource available on a bus to a priority transmission resource and a non-priority transmission resource. It is characterized in that resources are managed separately.

[0007] In the network resource reacquisition phase after the bus reset, the remaining resources obtained by subtracting the resources used by the transmission prior to the bus reset from the total available resources are replaced by the resources before the bus reset. It is preferable to assign to transmissions that have not been prioritized. That is, the resources used for the priority transmission before the bus reset are used for the priority transmission even after the bus reset. Thus, in the resource reacquisition phase, transmission that has been prioritized before the bus reset can reliably acquire the resource again after the bus reset. on the other hand,
Transmission that has been made non-priority before the bus reset may fail to reacquire resources after the bus reset.

Further, the network resource management device of the present invention includes a resource acquisition request detecting means for detecting a resource acquisition request, and a priority availability inquiry means for inquiring whether to prioritize the transmission requesting the resource acquisition. And priority instructing means for instructing priority.

As the inquiry means, an inquiry means by voice, an inquiry means by video displayed on a screen, or the like can be employed. As the instruction means, an instruction means using voice, an instruction means for moving a cursor to a specific location on the screen using a pointing device such as a mouse, and clicking on the specific location may be employed. By using such an inquiry means and an instruction means, it is possible to distinguish whether the transmission requesting the acquisition of the resource is the priority transmission or the non-priority transmission.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1A, a television (hereinafter, referred to as TV) 101, a first video cassette recorder (hereinafter, referred to as VCR1) 102, a digital video disk player (hereinafter, referred to as DVD). 103, a network in which a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as PC) 104 is connected by a 1394 bus, a set-top box (hereinafter, referred to as STB) 105, a second video cassette recorder (hereinafter, VCR2) 106) is 13
It is assumed that a network connected by a 94 bus exists. As shown by arrows in the figure, TV 101 to V
Isochronous data transmission is performed to CR1-102, and similarly, STB10 is transmitted from DVD103 to PC104.
5 to the VCR 2-106.

In the 1394 bus, each transmission shares a limited network resource (transmission band) for each network to enable multi-transmission. In FIG. 1A, available resources are 100 Mbps, and TV1
01 to VCR 1-102 is 35Mbps,
It is assumed that the transmission from the DVD 103 to the PC 104 uses 35 Mbps. Similarly, STB105 and VCR2-
In the network of 106, transmission from the STB 105 to the VCR 2-106 uses 35 Mbps among the 100 Mbps resources.

Here, as shown in FIG.
And the VCR 2-106 are connected by a 1394 bus, so that the whole becomes one network. In the 1394 bus, a bus reset occurs when such a new device is connected. At this time, each device that had been transmitting before the occurrence of the reset has a resource (bandwidth) within one second after the reset.
Must be reacquired to continue the transmission.

As shown in FIG. 2, for one second after the reset,
Each device (such as the TV 101) attempts to reacquire the resource while continuing the transmission before the reset, regardless of whether the resource can be acquired again.

In the resource reacquisition phase, the device that has acquired the resource can continue transmission using the reacquired resource. However, devices that have failed to reacquire resources must stop transmission immediately after the end of the resource reacquisition phase.

The total amount of resources used by the three transmissions in FIG. 1A is 105 Mbps.
Since the maximum available transmission resource amount of one network in (b) is 100 Mbps, resources are insufficient to continue all three transmissions. For this reason, some devices have to stop transmission. For example, TV1
In some cases, transmission from 01 to VCR 1-102 must be stopped. If the transmission is a recording of a program, there is a problem that the recording is stopped.

A resource management method for solving this problem will be described. As shown in FIG. 3, the total amount of resources that can be used on the 1394 bus is managed separately for resources used by prioritized transmission and resources used for other transmissions. A method of determining which transmission has priority will be described later.

In the resource reacquisition phase after the bus reset, when all the resources available on the 1394 bus are redistributed, the remaining resources are subtracted from the resources used by the prioritized transmission before the reset to remove the remaining resources. , Resources that can be acquired by non-priority transmission in the resource reacquisition phase.

As described above, the priority transmission resource and the non-priority transmission resource are separately managed, and in the resource reacquisition phase, the priority transmission resource is first reserved, and then the remaining resources are allocated to the non-priority transmission. Accordingly, the priority transmission can always reacquire the resource.

Next, a method of designating which transmission has priority will be described. To start a transmission, the resources required for the transmission must first be obtained. As a means for instructing the start of transmission, for example, as shown in FIG. 4A, a case where the user instructs the start of data transmission for video recording from the TV screen 401 is considered. When the user instructs to start data transmission for recording as shown in FIG.
The user is requested to input whether or not to prioritize the data transmission. If the user wishes to use priority transmission, "Yes" as shown in FIG.
Select If "yes" is selected, the transmission device (TV) and the reception device (VCR1) for this transmission and the amount of resources used (35 Mbps) are stored. This resource amount is managed as the amount of resources used by the prioritized transmission.

As shown in FIG. 4B, two examples of processing when a user desires to give priority to an inquiry as to whether or not to give priority, but there is already a priority transmission. Is described.

The first example is a method of making it impossible to give priority to a new transmission when there is already a prioritized transmission. In this case, as shown in FIG. 5, the user is warned that there is already a priority transmission,
Further, the user is requested to input whether or not to continue the processing.

The second example is a method for making a plurality of transmissions a priority transmission. In this case, FIG.
As shown in the figure, DVD has already
Notify the user that there is data transmission to C. Then, as if there were no prioritized transmissions,
Transmitter (TV) and receiver (VCR1) used for new priority transmission, resource used (35 Mbps)
Is stored, and this resource amount is also managed as the amount of resources used by the prioritized transmission.

That is, the sum of resources used for two transmissions, that is, data transmission from the DVD to the PC and data transmission from the TV to the VCR 1 is managed as a priority transmission resource.

In this case, in the resource reacquisition phase after the bus reset, the transmission from the DVD to the PC and the TV
The resources are allocated preferentially to the transmission from VCR1 to VCR1. However, with regard to how to assign priorities among a plurality of prioritized transmissions, for example, the order of priority designation may be performed, or a specific transmission may be prioritized regardless of the designation order. It goes without saying that there are other methods.

Next, the flow of the overall processing performed by the resource management device will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the resource management device.

First, all resources available on the 1394 bus are initialized (process 701). Further, the bus reset detecting means 1002 monitors whether or not a bus reset has occurred (process 702). The flow of processing in the resource reacquisition phase when a bus reset occurs will be described later with reference to FIG.

The resource acquisition request detecting means 1004 checks whether a resource acquisition request has been received (step 703). When a resource acquisition request is detected, the resource acquisition request detection unit 1004 compares the requested resource amount, the transmitting device that requests the resource acquisition, and the receiving device that receives data from the transmitting device with the resource amount comparing unit. 1006 and priority transmission determination means 10
08 is notified. Also, the resource amount comparing means 1006
Is notified of the currently available resource remaining amount from the network resource amount management unit 1010. Then, the resource amount comparison unit 1006 compares the requested resource amount with the currently available resource remaining amount (process 704).

If the requested resource amount is larger than the currently available resource remaining amount, it is impossible to allocate resources, and in this case, the request is rejected (process 705).

If the requested resource amount is smaller than the currently available resource remaining amount, the resource amount comparing means 1
006, the display device control unit 1012 is instructed to execute the priority inquiry, and the display device control unit 1
Under the control of 012, a screen for inquiring whether or not the transmission requesting the resource acquisition is to be the priority transmission (FIG. 4)
(B)) is displayed on the display device 1014 (processing 71).
0).

When the user inputs an instruction on whether or not to perform priority transmission from the instruction device 1016, the instruction detecting means 1018 detects the instruction. If an instruction to give priority is input (YES in step 711),
The storage unit 1020 stores the requested resource amount as the priority transmission resource amount (process 712), adds the new priority transmission resource amount to the total amount of the prioritized transmission resources, and stores (process 713). The transmitting device and the receiving device used for priority transmission are stored (process 714).

The storage in this case is performed, for example, by creating a table as shown in FIG. This table indicates that transmission using a TV as a transmission device and VCR1 as a reception device uses a 35 Mbps resource as priority transmission, and transmission using a DVD as a transmission device and a PC as a reception device also as priority transmission.
Mbps resources are used, and the sum of the resources used for these priority transmissions is 70 Mbps.

After the processing 714 or when an instruction for non-priority transmission is input from the instruction device 1016 (processing 71
1 (NO), the instruction detecting unit 1018 instructs the network resource amount management unit 1010 to update the remaining resource amount. When the instruction to update the remaining resource amount is issued, the network resource amount management unit 1010 subtracts the newly requested resource amount from the remaining resource amount (process 715). By setting the value obtained by subtraction as the new resource remaining amount, the resource remaining amount is updated.
For example, if the resource remaining amount is 65 Mbps,
When the acquisition of the 5 Mbps resource is requested, the remaining resource amount is updated to 30 Mbps.

The above resource acquisition request handling process (process 7)
04), the process returns to the processing loop of the processes 702 and 703, and the monitoring of the occurrence of the bus reset and the resource acquisition request is continued. If a bus reset is detected in the process 702 during execution of the process loop of the processes 702 and 703, the process transits to the resource reacquisition phase and the resource reacquisition process is performed.

Next, the flow of processing in the resource reacquisition phase will be described with reference to FIGS. When the bus reset detecting means 1002 detects a bus reset (YES in the process 702 in FIG. 7), the total amount of resources available on the 1394 bus is initialized (process 80).
1). By this initialization, the amount of resources available on the 1394 bus returns to the initial value. This resource amount is redistributed during the resource reacquisition phase. At that time, a transmission resource with a higher priority is first secured, and the remaining resources are redistributed to transmissions other than the transmission with the higher priority. That is, the amount of resources used by the prioritized transmission before the bus reset is subtracted from the total amount of resources available on the 1394 bus (process 802), and the remaining resources are redistributed to non-priority transmissions. The state before the reset is stored in the table as shown in FIG.

The end of the resource reacquisition phase is monitored (step 803), and the occurrence of a resource acquisition request is checked (step 804). Upon detecting the resource acquisition request, the resource acquisition request detection unit 1004 notifies the transmission determination unit 1008, which has prioritized, the transmission device, the reception device, and the requested resource amount of the requested transmission. Judgment means 1
Step 008 is to compare with the data related to the priority transmission stored in the storage unit 1020 to determine whether the transmission requesting the resource acquisition was the priority transmission before the bus reset (process 805). If it is determined that the transmission is prioritized (YES in step 805), the necessary resources are secured in step 802, so that the resources can always be acquired again. That is,
The prioritized transmission does not fail to reacquire resources.

For example, when data composed of the table shown in FIG. 9 is stored in the storage unit 1020 as data relating to priority transmission, transmission requesting acquisition of a resource is transmission from the TV to the VCR 1. Or DVD to P
In the case of transmission to C, it is determined that the transmission is a priority transmission, and a 35 Mbps resource is allocated to each of the 70 Mbps resources reserved for the priority transmission.

If the determining means 1008 determines that the transmission requesting the resource acquisition is a non-priority transmission (NO in step 805), the resource amount comparing means 1
Step 006 compares the requested resource amount with the resource amount left for non-priority transmission (step 806). If the requested resource amount is larger than the remaining resource amount for non-priority transmission (step 80
6 (NO), the resource cannot be acquired (process 807).

For example, when data constituting the table shown in FIG. 9 is stored in the storage unit 1020 as data relating to priority transmission, transmission requesting acquisition of a resource is transmission from the STB to the VCR 2. In some cases, resources required for this transmission (35 Mbps) are changed from all resources (100 Mbps) to resources for priority transmission (70 Mbps).
ps), the resource acquisition request is rejected because there are more resources remaining than the remaining resources (30 Mbps).

On the other hand, if the requested resource amount is smaller than the remaining resource amount for non-priority transmission (YES in step 806)
), The resource can be acquired, and the requested resource amount is subtracted from the remaining amount of the non-priority transmission resource (process 808). Then, the value after the subtraction becomes the new resource remaining amount, and the network resource amount management unit 1010 is instructed to update the resource remaining amount.

For example, if the remaining resource is 30 Mbps,
If the requested resource amount is 20 Mbps, a resource of 20 Mbps is allocated to the new transmission, and the remaining resource amount is updated to 10 Mbps.

The above process is continued only during the resource reacquisition phase shown in FIG. 2, and after one second elapses after the reset, and when the resource reacquisition phase ends, the process returns to the process 702 in FIG.

In the above embodiment, the transmission means is an IE.
Although the digital interface of the EE1394 system has been described, it is apparent that the present invention may be applied to another digital interface capable of isochronous data transmission.

[0043]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In the resource reacquisition phase after the bus reset, the device to be prioritized can preferentially reacquire the resource,
Failure to reacquire resources will not occur. For this reason, there is an effect that important transmission such as recording is not interrupted even if a bus reset occurs.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a network configuration diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view for explaining states before and after a bus reset in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary view for explaining a resource management method according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary view for explaining a priority transmission designation method according to the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen when another priority transmission already exists when priority transmission is designated in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a view showing another example of a display screen when another priority transmission already exists when priority transmission is designated in the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an overall process performed by the resource management device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in a resource reacquisition phase in the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a view showing an example of a table for storing data relating to priority transmission in the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a resource management device according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1002: Bus reset detecting means, 1004: Resource acquisition request detecting means, 1006: Resource amount comparing means, 1
008: priority transmission determination means, 1010: network resource amount management unit, 1014: display device (priority permission inquiry means), 1016 ... instruction device (priority permission / inhibition means), 1020: storage unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A network resource management method, wherein a network resource available on a bus is managed separately for a transmission resource with priority and a transmission resource for non-priority. 2. In the network resource reacquisition phase after the bus reset, the remaining resources obtained by subtracting the resources used by the transmission prior to the bus reset from the total available resources are replaced with the resources before the bus reset. 2. The network resource management method according to claim 1, wherein the transmission that is not prioritized is a resource that can be acquired. 3. A resource acquisition request detecting means for detecting a resource acquisition request, a priority availability inquiry means for inquiring whether to prioritize a transmission requesting resource acquisition, and a priority availability instruction for instructing priority availability. And a network resource management device.