JP2006166297A - Communication band control apparatus, communication band control method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system capable of controlling bandwidth to be used for the unit of a "virtual site" to be constructed on a server. <P>SOLUTION: A band control section 213 reads out band setting information stored in a band setting information storage section 222 and secures, for the unit of a "virtual site", a communication link of set bottom guarantee bandwidth. Excessive communication bands are shared in all "virtual sites". In such a case, however, the band control section 213 does not allocate the excessive communication bands more than maximum provision bandwidth set to the "virtual sites". <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication band control device, a communication band control method, and a program, and more particularly, to a communication band control device, a communication band control method, and a program for setting an upper limit and a lower limit for a use bandwidth of a communication network.

  In recent years, a communication provider has built a large-scale server system, and a hosting service for lending a storage area and a communication band in the server system to a user has been provided. In the hosting service, a plurality of virtual sites (WWW (World Wide Web) server, ASP (Application Service Provider) server, etc.) are constructed on one server device.

On the other hand, bandwidth-guaranteed data communication services have been put into practical use. For example, in the data relay service disclosed in Patent Document 1, when a network is congested, a subscriber accommodating router transmits a control frame called a PAUSE frame to the subscriber router, and a bandwidth determined in advance for the subscriber router. Do not allow communication exceeding the width. Here, the bandwidth determined in advance can be performed by network communication.
JP 2001-223714 A (pages 15-17, FIGS. 34, 37)

  In the data relay service described in Patent Document 1, the unit to be controlled is a communication line unit. For this reason, when the data relay service described in Patent Document 1 is applied to a hosting system, even if a communication line is wasted in communication of a certain virtual site, the used bandwidth is kept within a certain range as a whole communication line. In other words, there is a problem that bandwidth guarantees are not always provided for communication at other virtual sites.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a communication band control device, a communication band control method, and a program capable of setting an upper limit and a lower limit on a use bandwidth of a communication line in a virtual site unit. The purpose is to provide.

The communication band control device according to the first aspect of the present invention is:
A communication band control device in which a terminal device is connected via a communication line,
Storage means for storing bandwidth setting information indicating a range of a used bandwidth of the communication line;
Desired bandwidth receiving means for receiving bandwidth setting information from the terminal device via a communication line;
Band setting means for storing and updating the band setting information received by the desired band receiving means in the storage means;
Band control means for controlling the bandwidth used for data transmitted and received on the communication line within a range according to the band setting information stored in the storage means;
It is characterized by comprising.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to set an upper limit and a lower limit for the use band of the communication line, and to control the use band of data transmitted and received within this range.

The communication bandwidth control method according to the second aspect of the present invention is:
A communication bandwidth control method for controlling a bandwidth of a communication line used by an information processing apparatus connected to a communication line in a host unit virtually constructed in the information processing apparatus,
Desired bandwidth acceptance step for accepting bandwidth setting information indicating the range of bandwidth used for the communication line in the virtual host unit;
A bandwidth control step for controlling a bandwidth used for data transmitted and received in the communication line in units of virtual hosts within a range according to the bandwidth setting information received in the desired bandwidth reception step;
Is provided.

The program according to the third aspect of the present invention is:
A computer device connected to a communication line
Accepting bandwidth setting information indicating the range of the used bandwidth of the communication line for each virtual host constructed on the computer device,
Controls the bandwidth used for data transmitted and received on the communication line in the virtual host unit within a range according to the received bandwidth setting information.
It functions as a communication band control device.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to perform data communication in which an upper limit and a lower limit are set for the use bandwidth of a communication line in units of virtual hosts.

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

  As shown in FIG. 1, a hosting system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention is installed by an operator X, and includes a management server 100, a Web server 200, and a router connected to these via a communication network L. 30. PCs 400, 5A, 5B, and 5C are connected to the router 30 via the communication network C.

  The business operator X lends the right to use the storage area of the Web server 200 and the communication line of the communication network L to the member, and is calculated based on the size of the lent storage area and the bandwidth of the communication line to be used. Collect fees from members.

  The communication networks C and L are communication networks based on a communication protocol such as TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol). Note that the communication bandwidth usable in the communication network L is narrower than the communication bandwidth usable in the communication network C.

  The management server 100 is configured by a computer device such as a mainframe or a server, and is mainly operated by a person in charge of the business entity X. The management server 100 manages the overall operation of the hosting system 1 and executes billing processing for members of the hosting system 1, maintenance of the Web server 200, and the like. In addition, the management server 100 receives a setting request for the bandwidth used for the communication line for the member and data constituting the member's home page from the PC 400 and transmits the processing result to the Web server 200. A configuration of such a management server 100 is shown in FIG. As illustrated, the management server 100 includes a control unit 110, a storage unit 120, an input control unit 130, an output control unit 140, and a communication control unit 150.

  The control unit 110 includes, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a storage device serving as a work area (for example, a RAM (Random Access Memory)). Based on the operation program stored in the storage unit 120, the control unit 110 executes a band setting process described later while controlling each unit.

  The storage unit 120 includes a rewritable storage device such as a hard disk device, for example, and various operation programs executed by the control unit 110 and member information for the business entity X to manage members of the hosting system 1. Accumulate etc.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of member information. As shown in the figure, “Member Code”, “Member Name”, “Attribute Information”, “Bandwidth Information”, “Server Information”, and the like are included.

  Here, the “member code” is identification information assigned to each member. “Member name” is information indicating the name of the member. The “attribute information” is various information indicating attributes related to the member, such as the address of the member, the name of the person in charge of the hosting system 1, contact information, account information, and the like. Here, the “contact information” is recorded, for example, an address or facsimile number when sending a document, a telephone number for contacting by telephone, and an e-mail address to which an e-mail is sent. Is done. In the present embodiment, an email address that can be received by the PC 400 used by the member is recorded as the email address. In the “account information”, information (account number or the like) for collecting the usage fee from the member is recorded. In the “used bandwidth information”, bandwidth setting information that is information on a communication bandwidth that can be used for a homepage established by a member is recorded. In the present hosting system 1, there are an upper limit and a lower limit for the communication bandwidth that can be used, and the upper limit value (referred to as the maximum provided bandwidth) is the maximum bandwidth value that can be used. Further, even if the communication network L is congested, the lower limit value (referred to as the “guaranteed guaranteed bandwidth”) is the minimum bandwidth value provided for communication of this homepage (hereinafter referred to as “virtual site”). It is. Of course, if there is no communication, the used bandwidth may be lower. “Server information” includes the site name of the “virtual site” that stores data constituting the homepage established by the member, the directory name of the highest hierarchy among the directories where the data that constitutes the homepage is stored, etc. To be recorded.

  Returning to FIG. 2, the input control unit 130 connects the input device 13 such as a keyboard and a pointing device, receives an instruction to the control unit 110 input from the input device 13, and transmits the instruction to the control unit 110. To do.

  For example, the output control unit 140 connects the output device 14 such as a display device or a printer, and outputs the processing result of the control unit 110 to the output device 14 as necessary.

  The communication control unit 150 includes a communication device such as a NIC (Network Interface Card) or a router, for example, and connects the management server 100 and the communication network L to communicate with the Web server 200 and the PC 400.

  The Web server 200 receives a web page request from the PCs 5A, 5B, 5C, and transmits the requested web page data to the requesting PC. Since a “virtual site” of a plurality of members is constructed on the Web server 200, a plurality of site names are assigned corresponding to the “virtual sites” of the members. The configuration of such a Web server 200 is shown in FIG. As illustrated, the Web server 200 includes a central control unit 210, a storage unit 220, an input unit 230, an output unit 240, and a communication control unit 250.

  The central control unit 210 includes, for example, a CPU, a storage device serving as a work area, a timer, and the like. Based on the operation program stored in the storage unit 220, the central control unit 210 controls each unit and executes later-described bandwidth setting processing, bandwidth control processing, and the like.

  The central control unit 210 implements a Web processing unit 211, a band setting unit 212, a band control unit 213, and the like as illustrated in FIG. 5 by reading and executing an operation program or the like.

  The web processing unit 211 receives a web page request from the PCs 5A, 5B, 5C, and the like via the bandwidth control unit 213. Then, the web page data stored in the storage unit 220 is transmitted to the requesting PCs 5A, 5B, and 5C via the bandwidth control unit 213.

  The bandwidth setting unit 212 stores the bandwidth request information transmitted from the management server 100 in the bandwidth setting information storage unit 222.

  The bandwidth control unit 213 minimizes communication data (such as HTTP (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol) packets) passing through the communication network L in units of “virtual sites” so that a predetermined bandwidth is used for each “virtual site”. The guaranteed bandwidth is secured by a known method (for example, RSVP (resource ReSerVation Protocol)). In addition, for the communication exceeding the guaranteed minimum bandwidth, for example, the bandwidth is allocated with first-come-first-served basis. However, the bandwidth allocated for each “virtual site” is less than the maximum provided bandwidth set for the “virtual site”.

  For example, the storage unit 220 includes a storage device (RAM, hard disk, etc.). The storage unit 220 can be used to access the virtual site, a web page storage unit 221 that stores data such as an operation program of the central control unit 210, a web page that constitutes a member's home page ("virtual site"), and the like. A bandwidth setting information storage unit 222 for storing bandwidth setting information in which a wide bandwidth is recorded.

As shown in FIG. 6, the bandwidth setting information stored in the bandwidth setting information storage unit 222 includes “host identifier”, “minimum guaranteed bandwidth”, “maximum provided bandwidth”, and the like.
Here, the “host device identifier” is identification information that identifies a virtual site built on the Web server 200. “Minimum guaranteed bandwidth (width)” is a bandwidth value that is provided at least for communication of a virtual site even if the communication network L is congested. The “maximum provided bandwidth” is a maximum bandwidth value that can be used by the virtual site.

  Returning to FIG. 4, the input unit 230 includes, for example, a keyboard, and receives an instruction to the central control unit 210 that is input and transmits the received instruction to the central control unit 210.

  The output unit 240 includes, for example, a display device, an LED (Light Emitting Diode) element, and the like, and outputs a processing result of the central control unit 210 as necessary.

  The communication control unit 250 is composed of a communication device such as a NIC, for example, and controls communication between the Web server 200 and the PCs 5A, 5B, and 5C via the communication networks C and L in cooperation with the central control unit 210. To do.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the router 30 is a communication processing apparatus installed at the boundary between the communication networks C and L, and relays communication between the management server 100 and the Web server 200 and the PCs 400, 5A, 5B, and 5C. To do.

  The PC 400 is a terminal device that is used by a member who establishes a home page by borrowing the storage area of the Web server 200, and is configured by a normal personal computer or the like. In particular, a web browser program specific to this embodiment is stored.

  As illustrated in FIG. 7, the PC 400 includes a control unit 410, a storage unit 420, an input control unit 430, an output control unit 440, and a communication control unit 450.

  The control unit 410 includes, for example, a CPU and a predetermined storage device (for example, a RAM) serving as a work area. The control unit 410 controls each unit of the PC 400 and is described later based on a predetermined operation program stored in the storage unit 420. Execute each process.

  The storage unit 420 is composed of a rewritable storage device such as a hard disk device, for example. The storage unit 420 stores an OS and a web browser program that is a program for accessing a web page established in the management server 100.

  For example, the input control unit 430 connects the input device 23 such as a keyboard or a pointing device, receives an instruction to the control unit 410 input from the input device 43, and transmits the instruction to the control unit 410.

  The output control unit 440 connects the output device 44 such as a display device, for example, and outputs the processing result of the control unit 410 to the output device 44 as necessary.

  The communication control unit 450 includes a communication device such as a NIC or a router, for example, and connects the PC 400 and the communication network C to communicate with the management server 100.

  Returning to FIG. 1 again, the PCs 5A, 5B, and 5C are terminal devices used by general users, and are composed of ordinary personal computers or the like. In particular, a web browser program specific to this embodiment is stored.

  Next, the band setting process will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the bandwidth setting process. 9 and 10 show examples of screens displayed on the output device 44 in the bandwidth setting process. In the following description, unless otherwise required, individual operations of the control units 110 and 410 and the like will be described as operations of the management server 100 and the PC 400 as a whole.

  The bandwidth setting process according to the present embodiment is started when the PC 400 issues a “band setting page” display request for bandwidth setting to the management server 100.

  The control unit 110 of the management server 100 executes a “web server program” stored in the storage unit 120 to provide a “band setting page” that can be accessed only by the member. Access to the “band setting page” is restricted to members, and user authentication is performed via the “member authentication page” shown in FIG.

  More specifically, when the communication control unit 150 of the management server 100 receives a “band setting page” display request from the PC 400 via the communication networks L and C, the member information is read from the storage unit 120 and a predetermined number By arranging in the place, the control unit 110 creates a “band setting page” as shown in FIG. 10 and transmits it to the requesting PC 400. Here, since access to the “band setting page” is restricted to the member, for example, user authentication is performed via the “member authentication page” as shown in FIG. Here, the requesting member is required to enter the member code and password. When the member inputs these from the PC 400 and transmits them to the management server 100, the management server 100 performs authentication. If the member is a valid member, the management server 100 creates a “bandwidth setting page” as shown in FIG. 10 and transmits it to the requesting PC 400. The PC 400 that has received the “band setting page” outputs it to the output device 44 (FIG. 8: step S101).

  Note that in various pages shown in the description of the embodiment and the referenced drawings, portions not directly related to the description of the present invention are simplified or omitted for convenience of description. However, it goes without saying that these display screens appropriately have a GUI (Graphical User Interface) provided in a computer normally used in the PC 400.

  The “band setting page” shown in FIG. 10 includes an input area for allowing a member to input information of a desired bandwidth, a “send” button for transmitting input to the input area to the management server 100, and the like. Is arranged. The items input here correspond to the member information in the storage unit 120 and “band setting information” recorded in the band setting information storage unit 222.

  When the member inputs predetermined information and clicks the “Send” button, the input content (hereinafter referred to as “bandwidth request information”) is transmitted to the management server 100 via the communication networks C and L ( Step S102).

  Then, the control unit 110 adds the value described in the minimum bandwidth information set by each member (excluding the member who is currently setting the used bandwidth) from the used bandwidth information included in the member information and “desired The value entered in the “minimum bandwidth used” field is added up to determine whether or not the bandwidth that can be used in the communication network L is exceeded (step S103). It is determined whether or not width communication is possible.

  When it is determined that communication with the requested bandwidth is possible (step S103: YES), the control unit 110 records the band setting information in the member information (step S104) and ends the band setting process. Further, the control unit 110 transmits bandwidth request information to the Web server 200. The bandwidth setting unit 212 of the Web server 200 that has received the bandwidth request information records this in the bandwidth setting information storage unit 222. If it is determined that communication with the requested bandwidth is impossible (step S103: NO), the control unit 110 transmits an error message indicating that the request cannot be made to the requesting PC 400 (step S105), and a bandwidth setting process. Exit.

  Next, the bandwidth control process will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, the bandwidth control unit 213 of the Web server 200 reads the bandwidth setting information from the bandwidth setting information storage unit 222 (step S201). In the read bandwidth setting information, the bandwidth described in the value of the minimum guaranteed bandwidth associated with each host identifier is secured in units of “virtual sites” (step S202).

  Next, the bandwidth control unit 213 has a minimum guaranteed bandwidth in which the bandwidth used for communication between the “virtual site” and the outside of the hosting system 1 is set for this “virtual site” in units of “virtual sites”. It is determined whether or not the width is exceeded (step S203). When it is determined that there is a “virtual site” that performs communication exceeding the minimum guaranteed bandwidth (step S203: YES), the “virtual site” is determined in units of a predetermined bandwidth (for example, 64 kbps) from the unallocated bandwidth. Allocation for communication of “virtual site” (step S204). However, no bandwidth is allocated beyond the maximum provided bandwidth set for this “virtual site”. On the other hand, if it is determined that there is no “virtual site” that performs communication exceeding the minimum guaranteed bandwidth (step S203: NO), the process directly proceeds to step S205.

  Next, the bandwidth control unit 213 determines whether or not an instruction to reload the bandwidth setting information is given (step S205). The re-reading instruction may be triggered by the person in charge of the operator X instructing re-reading from the input device 13, when the timer of the control unit 210 measures a predetermined time in advance, or the bandwidth setting information storage unit When the bandwidth setting information stored in 222 is updated, the bandwidth control unit 213 transmits the information. If it is determined that an instruction to reload the band setting information is given (step S205: YES), the band control unit 213 once ends the band control process and starts executing the band control process again. If it is determined that the bandwidth setting information has not been instructed to be read again (step S205: NO), the bandwidth controller 213 returns the processing to step S203 and continues the bandwidth control processing.

  As described above, according to the hosting system 1 according to the present embodiment, each “virtual site” can communicate within the set usable bandwidth range. In addition, the member can set the use band of the “virtual site” assigned to him / her on the communication network at any time. For this reason, when demand can be expected in the short term, it becomes possible to increase the contract bandwidth for that period.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, A various deformation | transformation and application are possible.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, the web server 200 is described as being one unit, but the number of units may be any number. In this case, the bandwidth used for each “virtual site” constructed on the Web server is controlled for each Web server.

  In the above embodiment, the management server 100 and the Web server 200 exist as separate devices, but the hosting service may be provided by a server device in which the functions of these two devices are integrated. .

  In the above embodiment, the communication bandwidth usable in the communication network L is narrower than the communication bandwidth usable in the communication network C. However, the present invention can also be applied when the communication bandwidth usable in the communication network L is wider than the communication bandwidth usable in the communication network C. In this case, the management server 100 adds the value entered in the minimum bandwidth information set by each member from the used bandwidth information included in the member information and the value input in the “desired maximum used bandwidth” column. Then, by determining whether or not the hosting system 1 exceeds the usable bandwidth in the communication network C, it is determined whether or not communication with the bandwidth requested by the member is possible.

  In the above embodiment, the member can have only one site, but can have a plurality of sites. In this case, the member can set an upper limit and a lower limit of the used bandwidth for each site.

  Note that the management server 100 and the Web server 200 in the above-described embodiment can be realized using a normal computer system, not a dedicated system. For example, a program for executing the above operation is stored in a computer-readable recording medium (FD, CD-ROM, DVD, etc.) and distributed, and the program is installed in the computer to execute the above processing. The management server 100 and the Web server 200 may be configured. Alternatively, it may be stored in a disk device of a server device on a network such as the Internet and downloaded to a computer, for example.

  Further, when the above-described function is realized by sharing between the OS and the application or by cooperation between the OS and the application, only the part other than the OS may be stored in the medium.

  It is also possible to superimpose a program on a carrier wave and distribute it via a communication network. For example, the program may be posted on a bulletin board (BBS, Bulletin Board System) on a communication network and distributed through the network. Then, the above-described processing may be executed by starting this program and executing it under the control of the OS in the same manner as other application programs.

1 is a block diagram of a hosting system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram of the management server of FIG. It is an example of the member information recorded on the memory | storage part of FIG. It is a block diagram of the Web server of FIG. It is a logic block diagram of the central control part of FIG. 4, and a memory | storage part. It is a figure which shows the example of the band setting information stored in the memory | storage part of FIG. It is a block diagram of PC of FIG. It is a flowchart of the band setting process concerning embodiment of this invention. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a member authentication page output to a PC display device when a user sets a communication band in the band setting process according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a bandwidth setting page output to a PC display device when a user sets a communication bandwidth in the bandwidth setting processing according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart of the band control process concerning embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

100 management server 110, 410 control unit 120, 220, 420 storage unit 130, 430 input control unit 13, 43 input device 140, 440 output control unit 14, 44 output device 150, 250, 450 communication control unit 200 Web server 210 center Control unit 211 Web processing unit 212 Band setting unit 213 Band control unit 221 Web page storage unit 222 Band setting information storage unit 230 Input unit 240 Input unit 30 Router 400, 5A, 5B, 5C PC

Claims (3)

A communication band control device in which a terminal device is connected via a communication line,
Storage means for storing bandwidth setting information indicating a range of a used bandwidth of the communication line;
Desired bandwidth receiving means for receiving bandwidth setting information from the terminal device via a communication line;
Band setting means for storing and updating the band setting information received by the desired band receiving means in the storage means;
Band control means for controlling the bandwidth used for data transmitted and received on the communication line within a range according to the band setting information stored in the storage means;
A communication band control device comprising: A communication bandwidth control method for controlling a bandwidth of a communication line used by an information processing apparatus connected to a communication line in a host unit virtually constructed in the information processing apparatus,
Desired bandwidth acceptance step for accepting bandwidth setting information indicating the range of bandwidth used for the communication line in the virtual host unit;
A bandwidth control step for controlling a bandwidth used for data transmitted and received in the communication line in units of virtual hosts within a range according to the bandwidth setting information received in the desired bandwidth reception step;
A communication bandwidth control method comprising: A computer device connected to a communication line
Accepting bandwidth setting information indicating the range of the used bandwidth of the communication line for each virtual host constructed on the computer device,
Controls the bandwidth used for data transmitted and received on the communication line in the virtual host unit within a range according to the received bandwidth setting information.
A program that functions as a communication band control device.

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