JP2003169082A - Network service system and its repeater - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve network services which facilitate function enhancement such as addition of maintenance and function services as for a network service system and its repeating device which actualize network services provided by a line trader. <P>SOLUTION: A repeater A adds a tag including an identifier of a virtual local area network comprising networks at bases P1 to P4 such as business offices as management units, to a transmission data frame and sends it to an operating center via a tag transmission type network line. A repeater B of the operating center receives the transmission data frame to which the tag is added, generates an IP network address according to the identifier of the virtual local network included in the tag, and performs routing processing among a plurality of virtual local area networks. A host device C calculates the network service charge according to the number of routes corresponding to the number of the virtual local area networks. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network service system that implements a network service provided by a network operator and a relay device for the network service system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A line carrier provides a leased line, ISDN, frame relay, Ethernet (registered trademark), etc., and a customer borrows a line from a line carrier and a DSU (Digital Service Unit: Digital) installed by the line carrier. A router or the like was connected to a home device such as a line termination device) to build a network such as a corporate network.

FIG. 9 shows an example of the configuration of a conventional network system such as a corporate network. In the figure, base P
1 to P4 represent bases of business activities such as branches and sales offices,
Routers R1 to R4, etc. are installed at each base, and the routers R1 to R4 are installed.
A plurality of communication terminal devices (not shown) are connected to R4, and the routers R1 to R4 and a line termination device DS provided by a line carrier.
The communication terminal devices of the plurality of bases P1 to P4 are mutually connectable via the U and the dedicated line or the ISDN line, etc., and an information network system or the like extending over the plurality of bases P1 to P4 is arbitrarily constructed.

[0004]

In the case of the network system having such a connection form, the customer who uses the network system maintains the own network system individually constructed by the customer himself and enhances the function of the device. There is a need. For example, it is necessary for the customer to perform various operations such as various settings of router equipment, IP address management, maintenance and troubleshooting, and maintenance costs, technician training costs, router equipment function upgrades, replacement work, etc. It cost a lot.

Therefore, there is a tendency that the number of services such as maintenance, etc., outsourced to a specialized service provider (hereinafter referred to as maintenance service service provider) is increasing. But,
In the conventional system configuration, high-performance equipment such as router equipment is installed at each customer's base, so when a trouble occurs, the time until the maintenance service engineer's technician goes to that base, or alternative equipment arrives You have to wait a long time to do so, and because it is a highly functional device, it takes a long time to identify the cause of trouble.
There was a problem that it took a long time to deal with the trouble.

[0006] In addition, it is a great labor cost for a maintenance service provider to arrange a technician who is familiar with various types of router equipment different for each customer and its substitute equipment to manage and operate the maintenance service. Therefore, the maintenance service providing price becomes expensive, and as a result, the cost borne by the customer becomes expensive. Furthermore, it is expected that the tendency of these higher outsourcing costs will become stronger as the network technology develops, as these devices will become more complicated and sophisticated and the types will continue to increase.

According to the present invention, a customer network system is constructed without installing a high-performance device such as a router at each customer's site, and a network service is realized in which functions such as maintenance and service addition can be easily enhanced. An object of the present invention is to provide a network service system and a relay device for the network service system.

[0008]

The network service system of the present invention comprises: (1) a plurality of means having means for attaching a tag including a virtual network identifier whose management unit is a network of each base to a transmission data frame and transmitting the frame. Connected to the first relay device via the network line, receives the transmission data frame to which the tag is added, and determines a plurality of virtual network identifiers based on the virtual network identifier included in the tag. And a second relay device having means for performing a routing process between the respective virtual networks.

(2) The second relay device may charge a network service charge based on the number of virtual networks recognized by the reception of the tagged transmission data frame or the number of routes in a routing table for the virtual network. It has a means for calculating.

(3) The second relay device has means for generating an IP address used for communication of the virtual network from the identifier of the virtual network, and a parameter for dynamically distributing the address. It has a means for generating and a means for generating a routing table for the virtual network, and has a routing function between virtual networks and an address distribution function for IP nodes of the virtual network.

Further, the relay apparatus of the present invention includes (4) means for embedding a network identifier of a management unit in a part of a transmission data frame, transmitting the transmission data frame to an operating center, and the network identifier. And IP address generating means for generating an IP address of the network.

Further, the relay apparatus of the network service system operating center of the present invention receives (5) the transmission data frame in which the network identifier of the management unit is embedded from the relay apparatus of each base and extracts the network identifier. Means and an IP address generating means for generating an IP address of the network based on the identifier of each network.

[0013]

FIG. 1 shows an example of the network service system configuration of the present invention. This system is a layer 2 relay device A installed in activity bases P1 to P4 such as offices.
A relay device B installed in the operating center and having a transfer processing function up to at least layer 3, a host device C also installed in the operating center and having functions such as accounting processing, and a relay device at each of the locations P1 to P4. A network connecting A and the relay device B of the operating center.

Each layer 2 installed at each base P1 to P4
The relay device A is a virtual local area network (hereinafter referred to as V
It is called LAN. ) Identifier (VLAN-ID) (see FIG. 2; hereinafter referred to as a VLAN tag) is added to the transmission data frame, and is transmitted to the relay device B of the operating center through the VLAN tag transparent network of the carrier. Send. Each layer 2 relay apparatus A may be a bridge or a switching hub that bridges Ethernet (registered trademark) frames at layer 2.

The relay device B of the operating center is
The relay device A receives the transmission data frame, recognizes the VLAN tag attached to the transmission data frame and logically connects, and also attaches the VLAN tag by itself and includes at least layer 3 including routing processing. Transfer process up to. The relay device B may be a router or a layer 3 switch that routes Ethernet (registered trademark) frames at layer 3.

The relay device B will be described in more detail. The relay device B has an automatic IP address distribution function, and for example, IEEE 802 for exchanging correspondence information between a VLAN-ID and a port between bridges (LAN switches). .1
GVRP (GARP V which is a standard protocol defined by Q
LAN registration protocol) to obtain VLAN tag information from the relay device A, and the VLAN tag VLAN
-Automatically generates an IP address that is uniquely determined based on the ID, routes between each VLAN, and DHCP (Dynami
c It has a function of assigning an IP address by using the Host Configuration Protocol.

The network of the line operator that connects the relay device A and the relay device B is a VLAN tag transparent network that transparently transmits the VLAN tag provided by the relay device A or the like. FIG. 2 shows the structure of a transmission data frame with a VLAN tag according to IEEE802.1Q. (A) of the figure shows an Ethernet (registered trademark) frame, and (b) of the figure shows a frame with a VLAN tag.

In the frame with a VLAN tag, “8100” indicating that the frame is tagged with a VLAN and TCI, which indicates that the frame has a VLAN tag, are inserted after the destination address DA and the source address SA of the Ethernet (registered trademark) frame. V
In the LAN tag TCI, the frame priority PRI, the format format identifier CFI, the VLAN identifier VLAN
Includes ID (12 bits).

The operating center accommodates the relay device B and its associated system, and has a host device C having a charging processing function and a function of providing an internet connection service via the firewall FW. The higher-level device C automatically calculates an appropriate charge according to the scale of the network system, based on the number of VLANs, which is a management unit of the network service managed by the relay device B, or the size of the routing table. The upper device C is
It may be an SNMP monitoring system network-connected to the relay device B.

As described above, conventionally, a high-performance device having a routing function such as a router installed at each base is installed in one relay device B such as an operating center.
Since the device management cost is reduced and the operation cost is reduced by automating the address operation and the billing process, the network service can be provided at a low cost.

Further, since a high-performance device such as a router is integrated in the relay device B of the operating center, it becomes easy to arrange an alternative device or a technician for the trouble occurrence,
Trouble response capability can be improved and the quality of maintenance service can be improved.

Next, a specific example of the network service of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In this regular example, first and second relay devices A1 for assigning / deleting a VLAN tag to / from a transmission data frame at first and second bases P1, P2 of a customer who receives a network service.
A2 are installed respectively, and they are connected to the relay device B of the operating center by a VLAN tag transparent type network line.

The first relay device A1 relays the data frame from the first site P1 to the relay device B by using the VLA.
When the data frame is relayed from the relay device B into the first base P1, the VLAN tag having the N-ID set to, for example, “10” is relayed.
The VLAN tag with LAN-ID “10” is deleted and relayed.

The first relay device A1 has a VLAN-I
D is statically set to "10". Second relay device A
A unique value different from other VLAN-IDs, for example, “20” is set in advance as the VLAN-ID. The second relay device A2 performs a VLAN tag addition / deletion process similarly to the first relay device A1.

The relay device B of the operating center is
The VLAN-ID statically set in the relay devices A1 and A2 of the bases P1 and P2 is recognized by the GVRP protocol defined by IEEE802.1Q, and the VLAN-I is recognized.
A VLAN is generated based on D, and a VLAN tag addition / deletion process is performed when transmitting / receiving a transmission data frame.

Further, the relay device B recognizes the VLAN-I.
Based on D, the IP network address corresponding to the VLAN and the IP address of the relay device B itself for communicating with the VLAN are generated as in the example shown in Table 1 of FIG. 4 is generated as in the example shown in Table 2 and the routing table is generated as in the example shown in Table 3 in FIG.

In Table 1 of FIG. 4, the class A IP network address "10.0.0.0" is divided into subnets with a 20-bit subnet mask, and the subnet number is V.
An example is shown in which a subnet address is automatically generated from a VLAN-ID by applying a LAN-ID.

A method for automatically generating a subnet address from a VLAN-ID is shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, (i) indicates the class A IP network address “10.0.0.0” with a 20-bit subnet mask.
(i) represents the IP network address in binary and underlines the subnet number part, and (iii) shows the VLAN-ID generated by embedding the VLAN-ID value “10” in the subnet number part. It represents a subnet address of "10", and (iv) represents a decimal notation of the subnet address.

In this way, VLAN-ID "10"
Based on the subnet address “10.0.
160.0 "is automatically generated. Similarly, VLAN-ID
Subnet address "1" of the VLAN based on "20"
0.1.64.0 "is automatically generated. When the class A IP address is divided into 20-bit subnets, the subnet number and VLAN-ID both have a 12-bit area. It will be used without waste.

Further, by assigning the maximum value of the available host addresses to the relay device B, for example, the host address corresponding to each subnet, that is, the IP address of the VLAN of the relay device B itself is automatically generated. can do. That is, as shown in Table 1 of FIG.
For the LAN-ID “10”, the IP address “10.0.175.254” of the relay device B is generated, and the VLAN
-For the ID "20", the IP address "10.179.254" of the relay device B is generated.

Further, the IP address of each relay device A can be generated and assigned as a value smaller than the IP address of the relay device B by one, for example. Thus, FIG.
As shown in Table 1 for the VLAN-ID “10”, the IP address “10.0.175.
253 ”is generated, and for the VLAN-ID“ 20 ”,
The IP address of the relay device A2 is "10.179.25.
3 ″ can be generated.

Table 2 shows the area of the distribution address according to the DHCP protocol which is automatically distributed to each subnet based on Table 1, the subnet mask, and the default gateway (of the relay device B, which is an optional parameter at the time of address distribution). (IP address). Table 3 shows
The routing table to each subnet seen from the relay device B automatically generated based on Table 1 is shown.

The relay device B generates the tables 2 and 3 based on the table 1 to perform the DHCP address distribution process based on the DHCP parameters of the table 2 and the routing process based on the routing table of the table 3. To do. With these functions, an IP node such as a customer's personal computer connected to the relay devices A1 and A2 at each of the bases P1 and P2 automatically obtains its own IP address and the address of the default gateway, and establishes a connection with the default gateway. At the same time as the connection, it becomes possible to perform IP communication with an IP node at another base via the default gateway.

The host device C1 provided in the operating center is obtained from the relay device B as shown in Table 3 of FIG.
A charging table as shown in Table 4 of FIG. 4 is generated based on the routing table of FIG. 4, and charging processing is performed based on the charging table. This billing table generates a network service charge by calculating the number of routes corresponding to the number of subnets from the routing table and multiplying the number of routes by the unit price.

By determining the network service charge based on the number of subnets, the load of the routing function and the load of the DHCP address distribution function provided by the relay device B can be collectively reflected in the network service charge. In addition, by using the routing table, even for an optional system configuration in which the customer himself / herself installs a router at each base, the relay device B obtains the route information of the router to automatically perform the network service. It can be reflected in the price.

FIG. 6 shows a processing flow in the operating center. The operating center receives a frame with a VLAN tag by the GVRP protocol from the relay device A at each base (step S1), recognizes the VLAN-ID from the VLAN tag, and generates a VLAN for the VLAN-ID (step S2).

A subnet address of the VLAN is generated based on the VLAN-ID (step S3), an IP address of the relay device B itself in the operating center is generated (step S4), and DHCP address distribution processing parameters are generated based on them. Is generated (step S5), and a routing table is generated (step S6).

Then, the network service charge is calculated based on the routing table (step S7), the routing process based on the routing table is activated (step S8), and the DHCP address distribution process is activated based on the DHCP parameter. (Step S
9).

FIG. 7 shows the configuration of the relay device A at each base and the relay device B at the operating center according to the present invention. The relay device A installed in each base has a transmitter 11 and a receiver 12 that transmit and receive data to and from an IP node such as a personal computer in the base, a VLAN-ID storage 13 that statically holds a VLAN-ID, and a MAC. As shown in Table 1 of FIG. 4 based on the address table 14 and the VLAN-ID, the own address generation unit 15 that generates the IP address of the own relay device A, the VLAN tag processing unit 16, and the layer 2 switch processing unit 17 , Operating center relay device B
And a transmission unit 18 and a reception unit 19 for transmitting and receiving data with a VLAN tag.

Further, the relay device B installed in the operating center has a transmitting unit 21 and a receiving unit 22 for transmitting / receiving the VLAN tagged data to / from the relay device A at each base, and the VLA.
N tag processing unit 23, layer 2 and layer 3 switch processing unit 24, VLAN table 25, MAC address table 26, routing table 27, GVRP processing unit 2
8, VLAN generation unit 29, address generation unit 30 that generates various addresses shown in Table 1 of FIG. 4, DHCP processing unit 3
1. SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)
The processing unit 32, the transmission unit 33 that transmits and receives data to and from the host device C.
And a receiver 34.

The host device C installed in the operating center transmits and receives data to and from the relay device B.
5 and a receiving unit 36, an SNMP processing unit 37, a routing table 38, and a charge calculation processing unit 39 that calculates a network service charge based on the routing table.

The IP addresses shown in Table 1 and the like of FIG. 4 are IPv4 (Internet Protocol) consisting of 32 bits.
The generation of an IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) IP address consisting of 128 bits (col version 4) will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 8 shows the IPv6 IP address space. The 48-bit prefix portion of FP, TLAID, and NLAID shown in the figure is a fixed area of the public topology acquired from the Internet service provider (ISP), and the VLAN-ID is added to the upper 12 bits of the subsequent 16-bit site topology SLAID. By embedding, the IP network address can be generated.

Therefore, a 60-bit fixed prefix is generated by the 48-bit prefix part and the 12-bit VLAN-ID. The generated fixed prefix is published by the router in its router notification message.

FIG. 8 shows a 16-bit site topology S
The underlined upper 12 bits of LAID are VL
An example in which AN-ID “10” is embedded is shown, and the VLAN
-Site topology SLAI with ID "10" embedded
D becomes "00A0 (hexadecimal number)". Here, for example, the 48-bit prefix acquired from the Internet service provider (ISP) is “3FFF:
2111: 0: ”, VLAN-ID“ 10 ”
The subnet prefix for is "3FFF: 2
It becomes 111: 00: 00A0 ".

[0046]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Layer 2 relay device A installed at each customer's base,
By constructing a network service system by connecting a repeater installed at the operating center and having a routing function up to at least Layer 3 through the network line of a line carrier, the router can be deleted from each base of each customer. To provide low-cost network services by consolidating high-performance functions such as routing functions in the relay device of the operating center, and collectively managing and automating the IP address design, address distribution, network service charge calculation, etc. at the operating center. It becomes possible.

Further, by adding functions or performing maintenance only to the devices such as the relay devices installed in the operating center, it is possible to add services or to connect to the Internet without changing the network of the customer base. It becomes possible to deal with additions and troubles immediately and easily.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a network service system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a structure of a transmission data frame with a VLAN tag.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a specific example of a network service of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an IP network address or the like generated based on a VLAN-ID.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a method of automatically generating a subnet address from a VLAN-ID.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a processing flow in an operating center.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing configurations of a relay device A at each base and a relay device B at an operating center.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a method of generating an IPv6 IP address from a VLAN-ID.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a network system such as a conventional corporate network.

[Explanation of symbols]

P1 to P4 Business sites and other activity bases A relay equipment installed at each base B Relay device installed in the operating center C host device FW firewall

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of first relay devices having means for assigning a tag including a virtual network identifier whose management unit is a network of each base to a transmission data frame and transmitting the same, and the first relay device. A second means which is connected through a network line and has means for receiving the transmission data frame to which the tag is added and performing a routing process between each of the plurality of virtual networks based on the identifier of the virtual network included in the tag; And a relay device of the network service system. 2. The second relay device calculates a network service charge based on the number of virtual networks recognized by receiving the tagged transmission data frame or the number of routes in a routing table for the virtual network. The network service system according to claim 1, further comprising: 3. The second relay device, based on an identifier of the virtual network, means for generating an IP address used in communication of the virtual network, and means for generating a parameter for dynamically distributing the address. And a means for generating a routing table for the virtual network, and having a routing function between the virtual networks and an address distribution function for the IP nodes of the virtual network. Network service system. 4. A means for embedding a management unit network identifier in a part of a transmission data frame, transmitting the transmission data frame to an operating center, and an IP for generating an IP address of the network based on the network identifier. A relay device for a network service system, comprising: an address generating unit. 5. A means for receiving a transmission data frame in which a network identifier of a management unit is embedded from a relay device at each base and extracting the network identifier, and an IP address of the network based on the identifier of each network. A relay device of an operating center of a network service system, characterized by comprising an IP address generating means for generating.