JP2002078128A - Route reservation apparatus for communication path - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reserve and manage a communication path between arbitrary two points in core-wire units in a communication network, in which core-wires of multicore-structure communication cables constitute a network. SOLUTION: In a route reservation system of communication path for a communication network in which core-wires of multicore-structure communication cables constitute a network, a cable network table 22, which manages connection of communication cables, and a core-wire network table 23, which manages connection of core-wires of communication cables, are provided separately. The cable network table 22 manages connection points of communication cables. The core-wire network table 23 manages connection change points and ends of communication cables. With this method, communication paths in a complicated network are easily reserved and managed, and a concentration of reservations for a particular communication cable is avoided, thereby improving system efficiency.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical fiber cable having a large number of cores of several tens to several hundreds, which is used by a cable owner who owns the core of the optical fiber cable after laying the same in an urban area or the like. A management device used for managing lending to another person or use permission, or a CAD device used for obtaining design data for laying an optical fiber cable, in particular, route reservation management is easy, and a specific route is used. The present invention relates to a route reservation device for a communication route suitable for performing route management while performing load distribution so that a load is not concentrated on a route.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a plurality of users use one physical communication path, such as a public telephone line or a local area network, these communication paths constructed in a mesh form are
For example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-303932, a method of dividing by a band is known. As a method of specifying a route between two points from a plurality of route candidates, a method of searching for the shortest route in consideration of traffic congestion information, for example, as described in JP-A-11-325937 is known.

Another conventional example is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-124.
There are 540. This conventional example relates to an apparatus for creating a connection diagram when devices are connected by an electric circuit diagram, and specifically discloses an example in which a control panel and a power supply are connected. The cable used for connection has several core wires, and automatic generation and labor saving of how to connect each one are described.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
The prior art described in Japanese Patent No. 303932 is a technique for physically using one route by a plurality of users, and is used for physically occupying one core wire in a multi-core structure such as an optical cable. Cannot be used as is. Similarly, when the route search method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-325937 is applied to the route search for each optical fiber core, when a plurality of cores are reserved for a specific two points, As long as there is a vacant core line, core lines on the same route are candidates. In other words, the design route is concentrated on a specific optical fiber cable, and if optical communication is performed as designed, the usage rate of only the optical fiber of the specific route becomes extremely high, causing a bias in the usage rate of the optical fiber. There is.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-124540 deals with the core wire of a cable, but it is a cable as an electric wire, and there is no description of an optical fiber cable. Further, there is no description of the laying of the optical fiber cable or the management after the laying.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to facilitate route search, route design and route management of a core wire constituting a communication route between two points in a communication network of a multi-core optical fiber cable which is becoming complicated, and to use a communication route to be used. It is an object of the present invention to provide a route reservation device for a communication route that enables route design and route management while performing load distribution so that the cable is not concentrated on a specific cable.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a route reservation apparatus for a communication path in which core wires of a communication cable having a multi-core structure are connected in a mesh pattern, and a cable network management means for managing a connection form of the communication cable. And a core network management means for managing the connection state of the cores constituting the communication cable.

In the above, preferably, the cable network management means manages connection points of communication cables,
The core network management means manages only the core connection points at the connection change points and end points of the communication cable.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a communication path route reservation device in a communication network in which a plurality of communication cables having a multi-core structure are connected, and the cores of the communication cables are connected in a mesh to form a communication path. Means for reserving the route of the communication path connecting
Achieved.

In the above, preferably, the reserving means preferentially sets a core of a communication cable including a large number of air cores as a reservation target, and when reserving a route connecting two points in units of a core, The route having the shortest value obtained by correcting the candidate route length by the [reserved number of core wires / total number of core wires] of the communication cable constituting the route is reserved, and furthermore, the route on the communication network displayed on the screen is displayed. And means for highlighting the route to be reserved.

When a communication network is constructed using a communication cable having a multi-core structure, for example, an optical fiber cable, if the connection form of the communication cable, which is a physical communication optical fiber laying unit, is managed on a core line basis, the management object Therefore, the cable network management means and the core wire network management means for managing the connection state of the core wires constituting the communication cable are separately managed. This facilitates management and facilitates route reservation design for each core line. Furthermore, if the cable network management means manages the connection points of the communication cables, and the core wire network management means manages only the connection change points and the end points of the communication cables, the number of objects to be managed can be greatly reduced.

As described above, the reservation status of each core line can be managed by the core network management means, and the core line reservation status of each cable can be managed by the cable network management means. A management method for distributing a communication load by preferentially allocating a communication cable having a short cable length and a large number of air-core wires to a route connecting two communication points using the route reservation status by the two management means. Can be performed.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, how the route reservation device of the present invention is used and how useful it is will be described. In the IT revolution, mesh-like laying of optical fiber cables as infrastructure is indispensable. An optical fiber cable has several tens to several tens within one cable.
There are zero cores, and these cables are stretched around each other to form a communication network infrastructure. In this communication network, core level connection management such as connection between a core line of a certain cable and a core line of another cable is required. Number of core wires is several tens to several tens
Since the number of core wires is reduced to zero, connection between core wires is managed by a computer.

[0014] Connection management is indispensable as design data in the construction design stage of an optical fiber network.
It is indispensable even after the installation of the optical fiber network. An example of this latter is as follows. For example, the installation of an optical fiber network is performed by a national or local government, a private company (a power company, a gas company, a communication company such as NTT, etc.). After the installation, connection management is performed (for example, in the case of a local government, it is performed by a water bureau). There is a connection management for own use and a connection management for lending to others for use. in this case,
Which core wire should be connected to which other core wire,
It is necessary to efficiently, surely, and quickly know whether there is an empty core line, which two points are designated, and which core line route connects the two points.

The route reservation apparatus of the present invention is used for such connection management, particularly for determining and reserving a core route between two points.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a route reservation device for an optical fiber communication path to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. This route reservation device includes a central processing unit (CPU) 1
A main memory (main storage) 2, a file device 3,
It comprises a display device (CRT) 4, a mouse 5, which is a pointing device, a keyboard 6, a drawing reading device 7, a drawing output device 8, and a bus 9 interconnecting these. The communication route reservation function of the route design device is based on software read from the file device 3 into the main memory 2 based on the central processing unit (CPU) 1.
Is realized by the processing of.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a main part for realizing a communication path reservation function. In FIG. 1, general arithmetic functions and control functions of the CPU 1 are not shown. The file device 3 includes a drawing file 31, a cable network file 32, and a core wire network file 3.
3 is stored. The drawing file 31 stores line graphic data, character graphic data, and symbol graphic data displayed in the drawing. Further, image data of the drawing input from the reading device 7 is also stored. The laying position information of the optical fiber cable is also stored in the drawing file 31 as line graphic data.

The cable network file 32 includes:
As the information of the optical fiber cable, the connection information of the cable, the length, the surplus length at the connection point, the number of accommodated core wires, and the like are stored, but the information of the management unit of the actually laid cable is stored. Core network file 3
Reference numeral 3 stores core wire connection information, length, reservation status, and the like. These pieces of information are handled as logical one cable when the core included in the cable is connected one-to-one with the core of the cable to be connected, and are managed in units of branching and merging. The cable network and the core network have a structure in which information is handled by nodes that are network information.

The reservation file 34 stores the names of customers to be reserved, reservation periods, reservation route information, and the like. The information managed by the reservation file 34 has different settings for detailed items in the target system. Mouse 5 is a CRT
4 is used for inputting an operator's instruction in
Is used for data input or the like by an operator. The main memory 2 is a means for temporarily storing the contents of all or a part of each file stored in the file device 3 so as to be referred to or created by the CPU 1, and includes a drawing table 21, a cable network table 22, and a core wire. It has a network table 23.

Next, the configuration and operation of the communication path reservation function will be described. The operation input unit 12 operates the file calling unit 13 by an operation from the mouse 5 or the keyboard 6. The file calling unit 13 includes a drawing calling unit 131, a cable network calling unit 132, and a core wire network calling unit 133, which read the contents of the corresponding files from the file device 3 and store the contents of the corresponding files in the corresponding tables of the main memory 2. Store according to each format. The reservation calling unit 134 manages information of the reservation file in cooperation with the route reservation unit.

The operation input unit 12 is operated by an operator.
Operates the reservation processing unit 15. The reservation processing unit 15
It comprises a reservation route search unit 151 for searching for a route to be reserved and a route reservation unit 152. The reservation processing unit 15 operates the route search unit 16 and extracts the information required for the reservation by the shortest route search unit 161 and the cable / core wire search unit 162. The reservation processing unit 15 activates the route display unit 14,
The route reserved by the route display unit 141 is displayed on the drawing, and the route list display unit 142 displays the route information in a table format.

Next, the structure of the network table used in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
When making a reservation for a core wire, the operator indicates a cable or a cable connection point on a map, but in order to search for a route of the core wire, it is necessary to manage the relationship between the cable and the core wire.
The correspondence between cables and core wires can be managed by managing all the information on the cable connections and corresponding core wires.However, since the number of core wires in the cable is from tens to hundreds, the amount of information is large and management is difficult. Become.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, for the cable, all connection relationships are managed, and for the core wire, only the portion where the cable connection changes, such as when the cable is branched or at the end point, is managed and managed. Reduce the amount of information.

As shown in FIG. 6, the cable network table 22 for managing cable connection information includes the "number of information" of the entire table, the "node number", the "number of connection cables" connected to the corresponding node, and The "cable number" of the connection destination, the "connection destination node" which is the next connection point, the "number of core wires" accommodated in the corresponding cable, and the "reserved number of core wires" in the corresponding cable are stored. The information to be stored is the same for the cable network file 32, and is managed on the main memory to speed up the processing.

As described above, the core wire network table 23 for managing the connection information of the core wires in the cable stores only the connection information for the end points of the cables and the locations where the connections change such as branching and merging of the cable connections. Store. That is, the connection for extending the cable is not managed. For example, the connection point 2 shown in FIG. 5 is managed as a cable network but is not registered in a core network. This is because the connection between the cable 2 and the cable 3 is one-to-one with respect to the core wire, so that it can be determined from the core wire connection information of the connection point 1 and the end point 2. That is,
It is assumed that the cables 2 and 3 in FIG. 5 are virtually treated as one continuous cable.

FIG. 6 shows the core wire network table 23.
As shown in, the “number of information” of the entire table, the “node number”, the “number of cores” to be connected to the corresponding node, the “cable number” of the connection destination core, the “core number in the cable”,
The “connection destination node” which is the next connection point of the connection core and the “reservation status” of the corresponding core are stored. The information to be stored is the same for the core wire network file 33, and is managed on the main memory to speed up the processing.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the management targets of the cable network and the core network, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the contents of the cable network table and the core network table. Hereinafter, the communication route reservation function will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the reservation route search unit 151 (FIG. 1), and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a situation where optical fiber cables and core wires are laid. FIG. 4A shows the cable laying positions and connection points on the drawing, and it is assumed that an optical cable is laid as shown by a thick line. Thin lines represent roads that are terrain information. In actual application, in addition to roads, feature information such as a house and a place name that can visually identify a cable laying position is also represented. (B) of FIG.
(A) shows the path to which the core wire in the cable in the figure is connected, where the tubular figure represents the cable, and the thin wire represents the core wire accommodated in the cable. In this case, it is assumed that a route connecting the two points P1 and P2 designated by the operator is reserved.

In FIG. 4A, the route connecting the two points P1 and P2 is "C1" when traced by connecting cables.
Only, a route connecting “C2-C4-C5”, and a route connecting “C2-C3-C5”. When viewed as a core wire, in the example of FIG.
There are six core routes connecting P2 and P2. In this example, the lengths of the three routes of the cable are described as C1 <C2-C4-C5 <C2-C3-C5. The length of the core wire accommodated in each cable is the same as that of the cable.

The reservation rate is also added to the cable as information. The reservation rate is expressed as a ratio between the total number of core wires in the cable and the number of reserved core wires. If a cable is composed of 100 cores and 20 of them are reserved, the reservation rate of this cable is: reservation rate = reserved number (20) 総 total number of cores (100) = 20 %.

In order to search for a route between two points, a cable length and a reservation rate are used. The reason why the reservation rate is used is to distribute the communication load. A method for finding the shortest route is used for the route search, and the route length is obtained by weighting the cable length and the reservation rate respectively. The weight is changed depending on the user depending on whether the cable length or the reservation rate is weighted. Thus, the length of the route used in the route search is: route length = cable length × cable length weight + reservation rate × reservation rate weight. This equation is changed for each application system depending on the way of weighting. This route length is for the inner core of the optical fiber cable, and a route search is performed using this route length as shown in the processing procedure of FIG.

First, the drawing position information is input to the operation input unit 2.
And retrieves the corresponding cable from the cable network table 22 (S101). Here, in the target optical fiber network, when an arbitrary position on the cable is cut and pulled into the user's house, the cable is virtually cut at positions corresponding to the points P1 and P2, respectively, and Corresponding core wire network table 23
(S102).

When the target network system does not cut the cable arbitrarily and pulls the cable from the existing cable connection point to the user's house, the points P1 and P2 are
Of the both ends on the specified cable, P1 and P2 are replaced with the cable end points closer to the specified point, and the search is performed. As described above, the points P1 and P2 indicate the search section and become the reservation range for the user's house, and require processing corresponding to the network management method to be applied.

Next, in the core line network table 23, a route connecting the points P1 and P2 is obtained by the shortest route search (S103). At this time, the route length for search is calculated as “cable length × cable length weight + reservation rate × reservation rate weight” as described above.

Next, a cable route corresponding to the searched core wire is searched from the cable network table 22 (S104), and the route list display portion 142 of the route display portion 14 (FIG. 1) is activated to display the searched cable. It is displayed on the device 4. In this way, when the display result is inquired of the operator and the reservation is confirmed, the reservation flag and the recalculated reservation rate are registered in the core line network table 23 (S105).

In the communication route shown in FIG. 4A, in the case of the first reservation, the reservation rate is zero for all the core wires. Therefore, according to the processing procedure of FIG. 3, each route length is C1.times.cable length weight (C2- C4-C5) x cable length weight (C2-C3-C5) x cable length weight. Each cable length has a relationship of C1 <C2-C4-C5 <C2-C3-C5. The shortest route in the cable length is reserved. In this case, the core wire in the cable C1 is to be reserved.

Thus, one core wire of C1 is reserved in the processing of S104 and S105 in FIG. In FIG. 4B, it is assumed that the core C1-F1 of the optical cable C1 is reserved. As a result, since the optical cable C1 has a total number of core wires of two, the reservation rate of C1 is C1 reservation rate = 1 本 2 → 50%. Therefore, the new reservation rate is changed to C1-F1 and C1
-Set to F2.

When making a reservation for the second route, the cable C1
Since 50% of the reservation rate is added and corrected, each route length is: C1 × Cable length weight + Reservation rate (50%) × Reservation rate weight (C2-C4-C5) × Cable length weight (C2-C3- C5) × Cable length weight. In this case, assuming that the route length of C2-C4-C5 is the shortest, the core in the route of the cable C2-C4-C5 is the next reservation target. Similar calculations are repeated for subsequent reservations.

If the shortest route is searched for using only the actual cable length, the first reservation reserves the core C1-F1 of the optical cable C1, but the second reservation similarly reserves the core C1-F1. F2 becomes a reservation target.
In this case, the cable C1 is immediately full of reservations, and the reservation route is concentrated, so that the communication load cannot be distributed.

However, as described above, in this embodiment,
Since the route is reserved in consideration of the reservation rate, after the core wire of the optical cable C1 is reserved in the first reservation, another cable is preferentially reserved, and the distribution of the reserved route is facilitated. For this reason, reservations do not concentrate on a specific cable, the use of optical cables can be averaged, and the facility can be effectively used.

Next, an application example of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The operation results of the operator are displayed on the display screen of the display 4 shown in FIG. In this example, a window W141 for displaying the searched route and a window W142 for displaying a list of searched routes are displayed on the screen.

The operator designates two points P1 and P2 to be communicated with the mouse cursor in the cable graphic on the window W141. The result of the search for the air core line is displayed on the route display W141 and the route list W142. The search results are rearranged according to the cable distance or the number of air core wires according to the operator's instruction.

In the window W141, the searched route is highlighted (for example, blinked). When one route on the window W142 is designated by the operator, the corresponding route on the window W141 is further highlighted (for example, displayed in red) to notify the operator of the correspondence with the window W142.

The operator operates both windows W141 and W141.
When the route for reserving the core wire is determined from the display of 142, the reservation confirmation operation is performed with the confirmation button on the window W142, and the customer name,
Additional information such as a period is also input from the reservation setting screen W144. The information set on the screen changes according to the applicable system.

In the reservation confirmation operation, the number of reserved cores is added to the number of reserved cores of the corresponding cable in the cable network table 22 (FIG. 6), and the reservation rate is determined from the number of cores and the number of reserved cores. Further, the reservation status of the corresponding core line in the core line network table 23 is set to “reserved”, and the reservation rate obtained above is set in the reservation rate column. After setting information in each table in this way, the cable network table 22 is stored in the cable network file 32, and the core network table 23 is stored in the core network file 33.

At the same time, as shown in FIG. 6, a "customer number" and a "customer name" are stored in the reservation file 34 based on the information input from the reservation setting screen W144 and the information to be reserved.
And "reserved route number" and "starting cable node number"
, "End cable node number", "reservation period",
The “core number in the route” and the “core number” are stored. Here, new information is added to the existing information for customers who have made a reservation in the past, and stored so that the number of reserved cores is added. In the case of a new customer, the “number of customers” is added, and the information is stored in the added array. The core wire number is a core wire number corresponding to the core wire of all cables through which the corresponding route passes.

When canceling the reservation, as shown in FIG.
The name of the customer to be released is input from the release screen W143, and displayed on the search result route list window W142. When the operator points to a certain line in the route list with the mouse cursor, the corresponding route is displayed in the route display window W141.
Highlighted above.

The reservation is released by the operator instructing the release check box for the route to be released and performing the confirming operation. Then, the reserved core number is subtracted from the numerical value of the reserved core number column of the cable in the cable network table 22, and the reservation rate is recalculated from the core number and the reserved core number. Further, the reservation status of the corresponding core line in the core line network table 23 is set to “no reservation”, and the reservation rate recalculated above is set in the reservation rate column.

After setting the information in the table, the cable network table 22 is stored in the cable network file 3.
2 and the core network table 23 is stored in the core network file 33. At the same time, the corresponding customer information and route information in the reservation file 34 are deleted.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a case where a switching device is introduced as a component in the middle of a communication path. The switching device can select an arbitrary combination path for all communication lines to be connected.
When such a switching device is used, the reservation function as described above can be realized by describing all the connection states of the core wires in the switching device. As shown in FIG. 10, when each of the four core wires of the four cables 1 to 4 is connected to the switching device, a certain core wire can communicate with all the core wires other than itself.

Therefore, as this switching device, 16 × 15 = 80 different routes can be selected. The 80 kinds of connection information are stored in the core wire network table 23.
Is stored in However, since only one reservation can be made for one core wire, if a route that passes through a pair of a certain core wire and another core wire is reserved, all other combinations related to the two core wires cannot be reserved. Non-reservation is realized by deleting the corresponding information from the core network table, setting a reserved status, or adding management information that is separately unavailable.

According to the present embodiment, when searching for a core unit path connecting two points in an optical fiber cable network, the usage rate of the entire network is averaged,
It is possible to prevent the load from being concentrated on a specific cable and setting a new route for the route passing through the cable cannot be prevented. In this way, by distributing the load on the communication route, the utilization efficiency of the network equipment can be averaged. In addition, the overall usage rate can be increased and excessive capital investment can be reduced.

Further, by using the cable reservation rate as a calculation parameter, a reservation rate corresponding to the number of lines for which the number of lines required in an emergency is to be secured in advance is given to the calculation processing, so that for emergency communication, etc. A line can be secured.

[0053]

According to the present invention, route search and route design of a core wire constituting a communication path between two points in a complicated communication network are facilitated, and a communication path to be used is not concentrated on a specific cable. Load distribution.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a main part of a route reservation device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an optical fiber communication path reservation device to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a communication route search method.

FIG. 4 is a diagram supplementing an actual example of communication path reservation.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating management targets of a cable network and a core network.

FIG. 6 is an information configuration diagram of a cable network and a core network.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of information setting of a cable network and a core network.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a display of an air core line search result and a reservation operation.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display of a skeleton search result for canceling a reservation and an operation of canceling a reservation.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a network connected by a switching device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Central processing unit (CPU) 2 Main memory 3 File device (CRT) 4 Display device (CRT) 5 Mouse 6 Keyboard 11 Drawing display unit 12 Operation input unit 13 File call unit 14 Route display unit 15 Reservation processing unit 16 Route search unit 21 drawing table 22 cable network table 23 core line network table 31 drawing file 32 cable network file 33 core line network file 34 reservation file 131 drawing call unit 132 cable network call unit 133 core line network call unit 134 reservation call unit 141 route display unit 142 route list Display unit 151 Reserved route search unit 152 Route reservation unit 161 Shortest route search unit 162 Cable / core wire search unit.

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (Reference) H04L 12/24 12/26 (72) Inventor Kazuo Tsutsui 5-2-1 Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture Hitachi, Ltd. F-term in Hitachi Information & Control Systems Division (Reference) 5B046 AA01 CA04 DA01 FA10 GA01 HA04 HA05 KA06 5G369 AA19 BA01 BA04 BA05 EA04 5K002 BA06 DA10 FA01 5K030 GA13 JL03 KX30 LB05

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A route reservation device for a communication path in which core wires of a communication cable having a multi-core structure are connected in a mesh pattern.
A route reservation device for a communication path, comprising: a cable network management unit that manages a connection mode of the communication cable; and a core line network management unit that manages a connection state of core lines constituting the communication cable. 2. A communication system according to claim 1, wherein said cable network management means manages connection points of communication cables, and said core wire network management means manages only connection points of communication cables at connection change points and end points. A route reservation device for a communication path to be used. 3. A route reservation device for a communication path in a communication network in which a plurality of communication cables having a multi-core structure are connected, and the cores of the communication cables are connected in a mesh form to form a communication path. A route reservation device for a communication route, comprising: means for reserving a route of a communication route for each core line. 4. The communication route reserving apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said reservation means preferentially sets a core wire of a communication cable including a large number of air core wires as a reservation target. 5. The communication cable according to claim 3, wherein the reserving means determines a route length that is a candidate for the route when the route connecting the two points is reserved for each core line. [Reserved number of cores / Total number of cores]
A route reservation device for a communication route, which reserves a route having the shortest value corrected in step (1). 6. The communication route reservation device according to claim 1, further comprising: means for highlighting a route to be reserved on the communication network displayed on the screen.