JP2002300206A - Network design system, network design method, and program therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To limitedly collect needed network operating condition information at the time of feeding back network operating condition information and utilizing the network operating condition information for network design. SOLUTION: A network designing part 15 allocates network resources after performing multiplexing in response to a demand request from users via a user interface. When the resources allocated by the network designing part 15 surpass a predetermined specified value, a network information collection deciding part 12 instructs a network information collecting part 13 to collect network operating condition information about the corresponding resources. The network designing part 15 uses the network operating condition information collected by the network information collecting part 13 as an index in proposing to change a multiple rate set as an initial value and the distribution of preallocated network resources or in proposing to expand new equipment.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network design system and a network design method for proposing a change in network operation method, a change in configuration, an increase in equipment, etc., based on the configuration and operation state of the network, and a program therefor. The present invention relates to a method for collecting network information and a method for utilizing the collected network information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An example of this type of network design system is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 05-268245 and 11-68.
No. 750 discloses this.

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram showing one configuration example of a conventional network design system.

[0006] As shown in FIG. 6, in the conventional example, a user interface 61 and a network information collecting unit 6 are provided.
3, a network design unit 65, a network database 66, and a network information setting unit 67 are connected to a real network 64.

[0005] The network information collecting unit 63 collects and collects network information such as network configuration information indicating the configuration status of the network equipment constituting the real network 64 and network operation status information indicating the operation status of the real network 14. The network information is stored in the network database 66.

[0006] The user interface 61 receives a demand request from a user.

[0007] The network design unit 65 proposes a design or a design change of the real network 64 to satisfy the demand request from the user based on the network information stored in the network database 66.

[0008] The network information setting section 67 sets or changes the setting of the real network 64 based on the design proposal or design change proposal proposed by the network design section 65.

In the network design system configured as described above, the network information collection unit 63 collects network configuration information and network operation state information from the real network 64, and the network design unit 65 collects the network information collection unit 63. Is performed on the collected network information, and a design or a design change such as the number of path lines is proposed based on the result. Real network 6 sequentially and online based on the proposed design change
4 or setting change. As a result, adaptability to traffic fluctuation can be improved.

[0010] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-115365 discloses a network information collection system using an event notification system. In this method, the processor occupancy of the network device is used as the network operation state information to be controlled, and the current processor occupancy is compared with the set value on an instantaneous basis, and the network is determined based on whether or not the average expected load is exceeded. By performing the setting or the setting change online, the adaptability to traffic fluctuation is improved.

[0011]

However, the prior art as described above has the following problems.

The first problem is that when the design target is a large-scale network, the amount of network operation state information to be collected increases and management becomes impossible.

If the range of the design target is the entire network, the necessary network operation state information is also spread over the entire network, so that the load on the management network increases. Furthermore, if the number of items required to obtain detailed information on the network device is increased or the frequency of acquisition is increased, the load on the network device itself increases, and in the worst case, the data communication function may be adversely affected. There is. On the other hand, in the method in which the network design system does not collect the network operation status information, but causes the network device having the network operation status to exceed the reference value to report the network operation status information to the network design system, the report packet is transmitted during transmission. There is a problem that a means for acquiring network information is lost when the information is lost, or that information cannot be collected about time fluctuations of the network operation state.

The second problem is that it is not appropriate to use the processor occupancy as network operation state information.

This is because, in the case of a network device that forwards a packet by hardware processing, the processor occupancy, which represents the load added by the processor executing the software processing, is not necessarily the load of the network device due to the network traffic situation. It is not a representation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and has been made in consideration of the network operation necessary for network design when the network operation state information is fed back and used for network design. An object of the present invention is to provide a network design system and a network design method capable of collecting limited state information, and a program therefor.

[0017]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a network design system having a network design device, wherein the network design device inputs a quality required for the network as a demand request. A user interface unit, a network configuration information indicating a configuration state of a network device configuring the network, and a network information collection unit collecting network operation state information indicating an operation state of the network; Based on the demand request and the network configuration information collected by the network information collection unit, based on a network design unit that designs the network, and based on a design result of the network in the network design unit. A network information setting unit for setting the network, and determining the network operation state information to be collected by the network information collection unit based on a result of designing the network in the network design unit; and collecting the network operation state information. A network information collection determining unit that issues an instruction to the network information collection unit, wherein the network design unit determines whether the current network is based on the network operation state information collected by the network information collection unit. It is determined whether or not the demand request input to the user interface unit is satisfied.If the demand request is not satisfied, the design of the network is changed. Network And performing setting change of the network based on the design changes.

Here, the network configuration information is information including the capacity of network devices forming a network, connection relationships between network devices, the capacity of links connecting network devices, and the like. Information is the amount of traffic added to the network,
And information including the nature of traffic and the like.

Further, the network information collection deciding unit, when instructing the network information collection unit to collect the network operation state information, based on the demand request and the network configuration information in the network design unit. Based on a design result of the designed network, while specifying a collection point on the network to collect the network operation state information,
An item of the network operation state information is designated.

According to the present invention, the network configuration information and the network operation state information can be collected more accurately than in the case where the network configuration information and the network operation state information are input from a human or from another file.

Further, by automatically designating the collection point of the network operation state information in the network information collection determination unit, it becomes possible to design a network according to the fluctuating network traffic situation.

Further, since the collection point for collecting the network operation state information can be limited to only a part necessary for the network design, the collection is performed in comparison with the case where the network operation state information is uniformly collected from the entire network. The amount of information is reduced. This speeds up the input and output of the network design equipment during network design,
More efficient and high-quality network operation becomes possible.

[0023]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of a network system design system according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, in this embodiment,
A user interface 11, a network information collection determination unit 12, a network information collection unit 13, a network design unit 15, a network database 16,
A network design device 18 including a network information setting unit 17 is connected to the real network 14. The network design device 18 is a computer that stores a program for controlling the operation of the network design system, and performs a specific process according to an instruction of the program.

The network information collecting unit 13 collects and collects network information such as network configuration information indicating the configuration status of the network devices constituting the real network 14 and network operation status information indicating the operation status of the real network 14. Network information is stored in the network database 16. Here, the network configuration information is information including the capacity of the network devices forming the real network 14, the connection relationship between the network devices, the capacity of the link connecting the network devices, and the like. Is information including the amount of communication added to the real network 14, the nature of traffic, and the like.

The network information collection unit 13 collects network operation state information based on a collection instruction from the network information collection determination unit 12.

The user interface 11 receives a demand request from a user. Here, demand is
Service class (quality required for real network),
The information includes information such as an edge router serving as a connection point and a band used for communication with the edge router.

The network designing unit 15 designs the real network 14 based on the demand request from the user and the network configuration information stored in the network database 16, and stores the designed network information in the network database 16. . Specifically, when designing the real network 14, the real network 1
Centralized management of resource allocation to No. 4. Here, the resource refers to a band used by a link of the real network 14 and a packet buffer set inside a network device that constructs the real network 14.

The network information setting section 17 sets the real network 14 based on the network information designed by the network designing section 15 and stored in the network database 16.

When a new resource is allocated in the network design unit 15, the network information collection determination unit 12 checks whether the resource exceeds a specific value. For resources exceeding the specific value, the network information collection unit 13 is instructed to collect the network operation state information after designating the items of the network operation state information and the collection location on the real network 14. Here, as for the specific value, when the used bandwidth of the link is used as the resource managed by the network design device 18, the used bandwidth declared by the demand demanded by the user is expressed as an absolute value, It can be expressed as a ratio of a set bandwidth to a resource, and when a packet buffer set inside a network device is used as a resource, it can be expressed as the number of packets or the number of bytes passing through the packet buffer. .

The network design unit 15 determines whether or not the demand request from the user is satisfied based on the network operation state information stored in the network database 16, and does not satisfy the demand request. In this case, a change in the configuration of the real network 14, a change in the operation method, an increase in equipment, and the like are proposed, and the proposed information is stored in the network database 16. When the network design unit 15 proposes a configuration change / operation method change of the real network 14, the network information setting unit 17 changes the configuration / operation method of the real network 14.

Next, a description will be given of the connection state and the internal configuration of the network devices constituting the real network 14.

FIG. 2 shows the real network 14 shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a connection state and an internal configuration of a network device that constructs a network.

As shown in FIG. 2, the real network 24 in the present embodiment has the edge node 21 as a network device.
And a core node 22. The edge node 21 and the core node 22 are connected to each other by a link 23.

The edge node 21 is connected to the real network 24
The traffic flow 25 is identified based on the header information of the packet that has flowed into and the interface information of the edge node 21 and assigned a specific priority.

The core node 22 transfers a packet at high speed to a destination according to the priority assigned by the edge node 21.

The edge node 21 and the core node 2
2 manages a plurality of independent packet buffers 26 and 27 for each priority. For this reason, it is possible to guarantee the quality of service when performing end-to-end communication. In FIG. 2, the edge node 21 and the core node 22 are provided with two packet buffers 26 and 27 therein.
In practice, the configuration is not limited to two, but may be a configuration in which three or more packet buffers are provided inside.

The operation of the network design system configured as described above will be described below.

First, the operation in the case where the network information collection determining unit 12 instructs the network information collecting unit 13 to collect network operation state information will be described.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation when the network information collection determining unit 12 shown in FIG. 1 instructs the network information collecting unit 13 to collect network operating state information. Note that the network information collection determination unit 12 performs the processes in steps S33 and S34 surrounded by a dotted line.

When the network design unit 15 receives a demand request from a user via the user interface unit 11 (step S31), a plurality of demand requests are multiplexed for the purpose of effective use of resources, and the priority of the traffic situation is determined. In consideration of this, resources are allocated to the multiplexed demand requests (step S32).
At the time of setting a demand, a request for a demand request is accepted with the communication band as the maximum band. However, it is rare that a plurality of demand requests require the maximum band at the same time. Therefore, it is possible to save resources by multiplexing a plurality of demand requests and then allocating resources. The resource information allocated by the network design unit 15 is stored in the network information collection determination unit 1.
Handed over to 2.

In the network information collection determining unit 12, a specific value is set in advance for resource allocation. This specific value is used as a threshold (threshold) for determining the start / end of the collection of the network operation state information.

If the resources managed by the network design unit 18 are link bands, the network information collection and determination unit 12
When a demand request is assigned in step S3, a new demand bandwidth is added to all demand bandwidths accommodated up to that time, and the demand bandwidth is compared with a specific value (step S3).
3). As the specific value in this case, as described above, the used bandwidth declared by the demand requested by the user is expressed as an absolute value, or expressed as the ratio of the set bandwidth to the resources available to the network device. can do.

As a result, when there is a resource exceeding a specific value, the network information collection determining unit 12 determines a monitoring point (collection location) on the real network 14 for collecting network operation state information for the resource. Then, a monitoring request is issued to the network information collecting unit 13 so as to activate the monitoring process at the monitoring point (step S34).

Thereafter, the network information collecting unit 13 collects network operation state information by activating a monitoring process at a corresponding monitoring point (step S35).

Next, the operation when the network design unit 15 proposes a change in the configuration of the real network 14, a change in the operation method, and an increase in equipment will be described.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation when the network design unit 15 shown in FIG. 1 proposes a change in the configuration of the real network 14, a change in the operation method, and an increase in the number of facilities. In the network setting unit 15, the processes in steps S43 to S45 surrounded by a dotted line are performed.

In the network information collecting unit 13,
When the monitoring process is started (step S41), periodic collection of the network operation state information of the corresponding monitoring point is started (step S42). The network operation state information collected by the network information collection unit 13 is stored in the network database 16 as network trend information.

The network design unit 15 reads the network trend information stored in the network database 16 (step S 43), and determines whether the resource has exceeded the specified value by the network information collection determination unit 12. Then, it is confirmed how much traffic is actually flowing through the real network 14 (step S44). Then, using the information confirmed in step S44 as an index, a proposal for a redesign for changing the multiplexing rate used in the initial design, the distribution of the already allocated resources, and the like, and a proposal for a new facility expansion are made (step S4).
5). It should be noted that the proposal for the extension of the equipment
It is to propose to add a network device and a link to a position where the load distribution can be achieved.

Here, the network design device 18 is shown in FIG.
In the case of applying to the network shown in (1), packet buffers 26 and 27 to which packets are assigned for each priority are used as resources managed by the network design device 18. Further, the network information collection determination unit 12 includes:
A specific value is provided for the number of packets and the number of bytes passing through the packet buffer.

In the network information collection determining unit 12, when a plurality of demand requests are multiplexed and the number of packets passing through the packet buffer exceeds a specific value,
Specify the relevant packet buffer as the collection point of network operation status information, specify the number of packets and bytes passing through this packet buffer as items of network operation status information, and then periodically It instructs the network information collection unit 13 to collect.

The network design unit 15 uses the network operation state information collected by the network information collection unit 13 as feedback to determine whether the current real network 14 satisfies the demand request from the user. Judgment is made, and if the demand requirement is not satisfied, a proposal of redesign to change the multiplexing rate and the allocation of resources and a proposal of new equipment expansion are made.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the network operating state information collected directly from the network is used for the part where the demand requests are concentrated, so that the current operation state of the real network 14 is used for the network design. For example, the multiplexing rate can be set optimally.

Further, since the collection point for collecting the network operation state information is limited to the part where the demand requests are concentrated, the load on the network device itself and the network is reduced as compared with the case where the information is always collected from all the networks. can do.

Here, an example in which the used bandwidth (or the utilization rate of the link) of the link forming the real network 14 is used as the resource managed by the network design device 18 will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another example of the internal configuration of the network device constructing the network 14 shown in FIG.

The edge node 51 and the core node 52 shown in FIG. 5 are different from the edge node 21 and the core node 22 shown in FIG. It has a simplified internal structure. In FIG. 5, the point that the left end edge node 51 identifies the traffic flow 55 based on the header information of the incoming packet is the same as in FIG. 2, and the connection state of the edge node 51 and the core node 52 is also the same as in FIG. The same is true.

In this example, a specific value for a band (or usage rate) to which a demand request is allocated to a link (or an interface of a network device) is provided in the network information collection determining unit 12.

In the network information collection deciding unit 12, when a plurality of demand requests are multiplexed and the link bandwidth set in the multiplexed demand request exceeds a specific value, the corresponding link is set to the network operation. The network information collection unit specifies the number of packets and bytes passing through this link as an item of network operation status information, and specifies the number of packets and bytes passing through this link, and collects this network operation status information periodically. 13 is instructed.

The network design unit 15 determines whether or not the demand request from the user is satisfied by using the network operation state information collected by the network information collection unit 13 as feedback.
If the demand requirement is not satisfied, a proposal for redesign or additional equipment is made.

In this example, since the bandwidth used by the link is used instead of the packet buffer as the resource to be managed, a network device having a simplified internal structure in which a packet buffer is not assigned for each priority is also used. In addition, the internal structure of a network device can be handled as a black box.

[0063]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects.

As a first effect, network operation state information to be collected by the network information collection unit is determined based on a network design result in the network design unit, and an instruction to collect the network operation state information is sent to the network information collection unit. In this configuration, the network information collection determination unit is provided, so that only the required network operation state information can be limitedly collected.

As a result, compared to a case where network operation state information is uniformly collected from the entire network,
The load applied to the network and the network device can be reduced. Further, since the amount of information to be collected can be reduced, it is possible to speed up the input and output of the network design device at the time of network design, and to operate a more efficient and high quality network. .

As a second effect, a packet buffer is provided for each priority in the network device itself constructing the network, the packet buffer allocation is centrally managed by the network design unit, and the number of packets passing through the packet buffer is controlled by the operation status. By collecting and monitoring by the network information collection unit, the network operation status information can be directly fed back to the design target and used, so that the communication service quality for each priority can be guaranteed end-to-end. Is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of a network design system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a connection state and an internal configuration of a network device that constructs the real network illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an operation when the network information collection determination unit shown in FIG. 1 issues a network operation state information collection instruction to the network information collection unit;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining an operation when the network design unit shown in FIG. 1 proposes a configuration change / operation method change / equipment addition of an actual network.

5 is a diagram illustrating another example of the internal configuration of the network device that constructs the real network illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional network design system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 User interface part 12 Network information collection determination part 13 Network information collection part 14, 24 Network 15 Network design part 16 Network database 17 Network information setting part 18 Network design device 21, 51 Edge node 22, 52 Core node 23 Link 25, 55 Traffic Flow 26, 27, 56 Packet buffer

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5K019 AA08 BB01 BB21 5K030 GA13 HA08 HC01 KA05 KA13 MA04 MB02 MB09 MB16 MC08 MD07 MD08

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. A network design system having a network design device connected to a network and designing the network, the network design device comprising: a user interface configured to input a quality required for the network as a demand request A network information collection unit that collects network configuration information indicating a configuration state of a network device that constructs the network, and network operation state information that indicates an operation state of the network; and a demand request input to the user interface unit. A network design unit that designs the network based on the network configuration information collected by the network information collection unit; and a network design unit based on the network design result. A network information setting unit for setting the network by determining the network operation state information to be collected by the network information collection unit based on the network design result in the network design unit; A network information collection determination unit that issues a collection instruction to the network information collection unit, wherein the network design unit is configured to execute a current network operation based on the network operation state information collected by the network information collection unit. It is determined whether or not the demand request input to the user interface unit is satisfied. If the demand request is not satisfied, the design of the network is changed. The network Network design system and performs a setting change of the network based on the design change resulting from work. 2. The network information collection determination unit, when instructing the network information collection unit to collect the network operation state information, based on the demand request and the network configuration information in the network design unit. The method according to claim 1, wherein, based on a design result of the designed network, a collection point on the network for collecting the network operation state information is specified, and an item of the network operation state information is specified. The described network design system. 3. The network device identifies a traffic situation of the network based on header information of a packet flowing into the network, and assigns a specific priority among a plurality of packet transfer priorities to the packet. An edge node that forwards the packet, and a core node that forwards a packet forwarded from the edge node to a destination according to a priority assigned by the edge node. A packet buffer is provided independently for each of the priorities,
The network design system according to claim 2, wherein the network design system is interconnected by a link. 4. The network designing unit, when designing the network based on the demand request and the network configuration information, multiplexes the demand request and takes into account the priority of the traffic situation of the network. Allocating the packet buffer to the multiplexed demand request, the network information collection determination unit, when instructing the network information collection unit to collect the network operation state information, the network design unit When the number of packets or the number of bytes of the packets passing through the packet buffer reaches a certain value or more due to the multiplexing of the request, the corresponding packet buffer is designated as the collection point of the network operation state information, and the corresponding packet buffer is designated. Passing packets Network design system according to claim 3, characterized in specifying the number of number of packets or bytes as items of the network operating state information. 5. The network device identifies a traffic situation of the network based on header information of a packet flowing into the network, transmits an edge node that forwards the packet, and transmits a packet that is forwarded from the edge node. A core node that forwards the data, and the edge node and the core node have 1
3. The packet buffer according to claim 2, wherein the packet buffers are centralized and interconnected by a link.
The network design system according to 1. 6. The network design unit, when designing the network based on the demand request and the network configuration information, multiplexes the demand request and takes into account the priority of the traffic situation of the network. Allocating the used bandwidth of the link to the multiplexed demand request, the network information collection determination unit, when instructing the network information collection unit to collect the network operation state information, the network design unit When the bandwidth used for the link has reached a certain value or more due to the multiplexing of the demand request, the corresponding link is designated as a collection point of the network operation state information, and the number of packets or bytes of packets passing through the corresponding link And the number of the network operation status information. Network design system according to claim 5, characterized in that the specified Te. 7. A network design method for designing a network, comprising: a demand request required as a quality of the network; and network configuration information indicating a configuration state of a network device that constructs the network. A process of designing a network; a process of setting the network based on the design result of the network; and a network operation state information indicating an operation state of the network based on the design result of the network. A process of determining network operation state information and collecting the determined network operation state information; determining whether the current network satisfies the demand request based on the network operation state information; If not Network design method characterized in that it comprises a process of changing the design of the network, and processing for changing the setting of the network based on the design change result of the network in the network design unit. 8. When determining network operation state information to be collected from the network operation state information, the network operation is performed based on a design result of the network designed based on the demand request and the network configuration information. 8. The network design method according to claim 7, wherein a collection point on the network for collecting state information is determined, and an item of the network operation state information is determined. 9. A packet buffer is provided inside the network device independently for each priority of packet transfer, and when the network devices are connected to each other by a link, the demand request and the network configuration information Multiplexing the demand request when designing the network based on the network, and allocating the packet buffer to the multiplexed demand request in consideration of the priority of the traffic situation of the network; and When determining the network operation state information to be collected from the information, when the number of packets or the number of bytes of the packets passing through the packet buffer reaches a certain value or more due to the multiplexing of the demand request, the corresponding packet buffer is Collection of the network operation status information Network design method according to claim 8, and determines, characterized by having a process of determining the number of packets number or byte packets passing through the corresponding packet buffer as item of the network operating status information as. 10. In a case where a centralized packet buffer is provided inside the network device and the network devices are interconnected by a link, the packet buffer is based on the demand request and the network configuration information. When designing a network, multiplexing the demand request, taking into account the priority of the traffic situation of the network, and allocating the use bandwidth of the link to the multiplexed demand request; and When determining the network operation state information to be collected, when the used bandwidth of the link reaches a certain value or more due to the multiplexing of the demand request, the corresponding link is determined as a collection point of the network operation state information. And packets that pass through the link Or the network design method according to claim 8, characterized in that it comprises a process of determining the number of bytes as an item of the network operating state information. 11. A program connected to a network and executed by a computer that designs the network, the program comprising: a demand request required as the quality of the network; and a configuration state of a network device that constructs the network. A process of designing the network based on the network configuration information shown; a process of setting the network based on the design result of the network; a network indicating an operation state of the network based on the design result of the network A process of determining network operation state information to be collected from the operation state information, and collecting the determined network operation state information; and, based on the network operation state information, whether or not the current network satisfies the demand request. Or And executing, on the computer, a process of changing the design of the network when the demand request is not satisfied, and a process of changing the setting of the network based on a result of the design change of the network in the network designing unit. A program characterized by causing 12. When deciding network operation state information to be collected from the network operation state information,
Based on the demand request and the network design result designed based on the network configuration information,
The program according to claim 11, further comprising: determining a collection point on the network for collecting the network operation state information, and causing the computer to execute a process of determining an item of the network operation state information. 13. In the case where a packet buffer is provided independently for each priority of packet transfer inside the network device and the network devices are interconnected by a link, the demand request and the network configuration information Multiplexing the demand request when designing the network based on the network, and allocating the packet buffer to the multiplexed demand request, taking into account the priority of the traffic situation of the network; and When determining the network operation state information to be collected from the information, when the number of packets or the number of bytes of the packets passing through the packet buffer reaches a certain value or more due to the multiplexing of the demand request, the corresponding packet buffer is Collection of the network operation state information 13. The computer according to claim 12, further comprising: executing a process of determining the number of packets or bytes of a packet passing through a corresponding packet buffer as an item of the network operation state information. program. 14. In a case where a centralized packet buffer is provided inside the network device and the network devices are interconnected by a link, the packet buffer is based on the demand request and the network configuration information. When designing a network, multiplexing the demand request, taking into account the priority of the traffic situation of the network, and allocating the use bandwidth of the link to the multiplexed demand request; and When determining the network operation state information to be collected, when the used bandwidth of the link reaches a certain value or more due to the multiplexing of the demand request, the corresponding link is determined as a collection point of the network operation state information. And packets that pass through the link Or program according to the process of determining the number of bytes as an item of the network operation state information to Claim 12, characterized in that for causing the computer to execute.