JP2006304190A - Attribute communication path controller and attribute communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an attribute communication path controller and attribute communication system which can perform communication by designating a communication target device by an attribute of the communication target device in a communication network. <P>SOLUTION: The attribute communication path controller for setting a communication path to the communication target device on the basis of an attribute type and an attribute value, has a path information control part for storing an attribute value and communication path information for each attribute type while associating them with each other, and a path information retrieving part for retrieving the communication path information from the path information control part on the basis of at least one of attribute types and the attribute value. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an attribute communication path control apparatus and an attribute communication system, and more particularly to an attribute communication path control apparatus and an attribute communication system that enable communication by designating attributes of communication target devices.

(Existing Internet method)
In a communication network such as the Internet, it is necessary to explicitly specify a communication target device by an identifier. For example, when browsing a web page, the user inputs the host name of the web server by some method. The host name is converted into an IP address by DNS (Domain Name System), and a browsing request packet is transmitted to the communication target device using this IP address as an end point address.

  There is a case where it is desired to specify a communication target device not by an identifier but by an attribute (for example, temperature) of the communication target device. In the current Internet, in order to communicate with a node having a certain attribute, a function for obtaining an identifier having that attribute by some method is required. Although it is not impossible to realize such a function on the current Internet, it is expected that the efficiency will be significantly lowered.

(Existing non-identifier route control method)
JP-A-2002-94561 (Patent Document 1) is given as a prior art of a mechanism for determining a route based on information other than an identifier. In this prior art system, event information including semantic information required by the data recipient's confidence is registered in the network, and when the event sent by the sender matches the registered event, it "fires" and is sent. The event sent by the recipient reaches the recipient. In this system, a mechanism for determining a route based on semantic information is proposed.

  This system employs a so-called event transfer method. That is, the receiver registers the event he / she wants to receive as a filter in the network. The sender sends events and data to the network. A filter that matches the event and semantic information is found in some way in the network, and data is transmitted to the recipient who registered the filter.

  In this event transfer method, it is difficult to communicate from the transmission side based on the reception side attribute, and it is also impossible to perform return communication from the reception side to the transmission side. In addition, since the subject defining the semantic information cannot be described, the attributes cannot be used flexibly according to the usage status of each subject. Furthermore, since the filter is an AND of all attribute values, it lacks the flexibility to specify the communication target device.

Other prior arts include JP 2000-165449 and 2005-27328 (Patent Documents 2 and 3). In this prior art, queries from information requesters are routed to relevant information sources, and content from information providers is delivered to destinations interested in the information. However, the ontology tree systematization and routing information exchange means are not clear. Therefore, there are problems in terms of interoperability and expandability.
JP 2002-94561 A JP 2000-165449 A JP-A-2005-27328

  The current communication network consists of dedicated routers and computers. However, in the future, when a device with a CPU that does not necessarily have a high processing capacity such as home appliances, a device that only transmits observed data such as a sensor, or a radio wave such as a passive tag is irradiated Many devices with various processing capabilities, such as those that only return ID information, will be connected to the network. In such a network, it is considered that it does not make sense to specify a communication target device by an identifier (a character string host name for a user, an IP address for a network layer) as in the current Internet. . For example, when a large number of sensors are connected to the network, it is more convenient to specify an attribute called information obtained by the sensor and communicate with the sensor than to specify the identifier and communicate with the target sensor. For example, it is convenient to designate a communication target device such as “a temperature sensor indicating a temperature of 20 ° C. or higher” and communicate with a sensor corresponding to the condition. For this purpose, a technique for communicating by designating a node having a specific attribute as a communication target device is required.

  The present invention has been made in view of the actual situation of the prior art as described above, and by specifying the communication target device in the communication network by the attribute of the communication target device instead of specifying it by an identifier such as an address. An object is to provide an attribute communication path control device and an attribute communication system that enable communication.

  The object of the present invention is an attribute communication path control device that sets a communication path to a communication target device based on at least an attribute type and an attribute value, and includes an attribute value and communication path information for each attribute type. An attribute communication route control device comprising: a route information control unit that stores the information in association; and a route information search unit that searches for communication route information from the route information control unit based on at least one of the attribute types and an attribute value. , Can be solved.

  With this attribute communication path control device, it is possible to communicate by designating a communication target device by an attribute.

  The attribute communication path control device sets a communication path based on at least an attribute type, an attribute value, and an attribute value modification, and the path information search unit includes at least one of the attribute types, an attribute value, and an attribute value. The communication path information may be searched based on the modification.

  By this attribute communication path control device, it is possible to perform communication by designating a communication device target with an attribute using attribute modification.

  The attribute communication path control device sets a communication path based at least on an attribute type, an attribute value, and a logical operator, and the path information search unit is based on at least one of the attribute types and an attribute value. The communication path information may be searched by performing a logical operation on the communication path information stored in the path information control unit using the logical operator.

  With this attribute communication path control device, it is possible to perform communication by designating a communication device target by an attribute logical operation.

  The attribute communication path control device sets a communication path based on at least an attribute type, an attribute value, an attribute value modification, and a logical operator, and the path information search unit includes at least one of the attribute types and an attribute value. The communication route information may be searched by performing a logical operation on the communication route information stored in the route information control unit using the logical operator based on the modification of the attribute value.

  With this attribute communication path control device, it is possible to communicate by designating a communication device target with an attribute logically calculated using attribute value modification.

  The attribute communication route control device may further include a route information exchange unit that exchanges communication route information for each attribute type with an adjacent communication target device and an attribute communication route control device.

  The path information control unit may include a path table that stores attribute values, communication path information, and metrics in association with each attribute type.

  The exchanged communication route information has an attribute type, an attribute value, and a metric, and the route information exchange unit performs a predetermined operation on the metric included in the exchanged communication route information. The metric may be modified, and the route table may be updated based on the relationship between the modified metric and a predetermined threshold.

  With this attribute communication path control device, communication path information based on attributes can be dynamically exchanged.

  The attribute type may include a network address of a communication target device.

  As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, communication can be performed by specifying the attribute of the communication target device.

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

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an attribute communication system 101 to which the present invention is applied. The attribute communication system 101 includes an attribute communication network 103 having a plurality of routers 105, a transmission side device connected to the attribute communication network 103, and communication target devices 109 a to 109 d connected to the attribute communication network 103. Is done.

  When the communication target devices 109 a to 109 d are connected to the attribute communication network 103, the attributes of the communication target devices are exchanged between the routers 105, and path information to the communication target devices 109 a to 109 d is stored in the router 105. The configuration of the router 105 and the exchange of route information will be described in detail below.

  In the attribute communication system 101 configured as described above, the transmission-side apparatus 107 does not specify the communication target device with an identifier such as an address, but rather “temperature sensor indicating a temperature of 20 ° C. or higher”. Can be specified by attribute. This attribute is processed in the router 105, and the transmission-side apparatus 107 can communicate with the communication target devices A and B (109a and 109b) having a temperature of 20 ° C. or higher.

  As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, by specifying attributes (position, temperature, owner, etc.) of a communication target device in a network to which a large number of nodes having various processing capabilities are connected, Communication is possible without knowing the identifier of the communication target device. Further, it is not necessary to convert the designated attribute into an identifier such as an IP address.

(Configuration of attribute communication path control device)
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the attribute communication path control apparatus 201 according to the embodiment of the present invention. This attribute communication path control device 201 corresponds to the router 105 in FIG.

  The attribute communication route control device 201 includes a route information search unit 203, a route information control unit 205, a route information exchange unit 207, a CPU 209, a memory 211, a bus 213, a network interface control device 215, and a network interface 217. It consists of.

  The route information control unit 205 has a route table 219 for each attribute type, and associates attributes with communication route information and stores them in the route table 219. The route information 219 stored in this way is exchanged between adjacent attribute communication route control apparatuses 201 using the route information exchange unit 207.

  The route information search unit 203 searches the route table 219 of the communication route information control unit 205 for communication route information based on the attribute. At this time, the communication path information may be searched by performing a logical operation on the attribute. Since the routing table includes the attribute and the next router, the packet can be transferred to the next router corresponding to the designated attribute.

  The CPU 209 executes the program stored in the memory 211, performs packet relay processing, and causes the route information search unit 203, the route information control unit 205, and the route information exchange unit 207 to execute the above-described operation. A bus 213 connects each component. The network interface control device 215 and the network interface 217 perform packet transmission / reception processing.

  In the attribute communication path control apparatus 201 configured as described above, a procedure for performing communication based on attributes will be described below.

(Packet format configuration)
First, the packet format used in the embodiment of the present invention will be described.

  FIG. 3 shows a packet header format used in the embodiment of the present invention. The meaning of each field is as follows.

  -Version: Indicates the protocol version.

  Rsvd: Currently unused.

  • Priority: Indicates the priority of the packet.

  Packet size: Indicates the size of the packet including the header.

  Next header: Indicates the type of header following this header.

  Hop limit: Indicates how many times this packet is relayed by the router.

  -Start point attribute number: Indicates the number of attributes indicating the start point node.

  End point attribute number: Indicates the number of attributes indicating the end point node.

  -Start point attribute: An attribute indicating the start point node. It is also possible to specify a logical operation expression for multiple attributes.

  End point attribute: An attribute indicating an end point node. It is also possible to specify a logical operation expression for multiple attributes.

  FIG. 4 shows an attribute format indicating the start point node and the end point node. The meaning of each field is as follows.

  Authority: A numerical value representing an organization that defines this attribute. For example, it is a numerical value representing JIS or IEEE. This Authority can be used when an attribute is specified by an arbitrary organization. Therefore, the administrator does not have to define the attribute as in the conventional address.

  Attribute type length: Indicates the length of the field indicating the attribute type.

  Attribute value modification: Indicates a numerical value representing a modifier for the attribute value. For example, it is a numerical value representing “above”, “below” or the like.

  Attribute value length: Indicates the length of the field representing the attribute value.

  Attribute type: Indicates a numerical value indicating an attribute type such as “temperature”.

  Attribute value: Indicates an attribute value such as “20 ° C.”.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing examples of attributes. The attribute in this example indicates that the value is “20 ° C. or higher” for the attribute type “temperature” defined by “JIS”. The attribute type length and the attribute value length are 2 bytes, and “more” is designated by the modification of the attribute value.

  It is also possible to specify a node that is a communication target device by performing a logical operation on an attribute using a logical operator. FIG. 6 shows examples of logical operators. In the case of a logical operator, a predetermined numerical value indicating a “logical operator” is stored in the Authority field, not a numerical value indicating an organization that defines an attribute. In this example, the logical operator “AND” is shown.

  In this specification and claims, the term “logical operation” refers to not only logical product / sum of a plurality of conditions but also a single attribute search (for example, logical operation as a logical product with the whole set). Is also included. In the routing based on addresses and identifiers in the prior art, there is a one-to-one correspondence between addresses and communication target devices. However, by using the logical operation in this way, in the attribute communication path control according to the present invention, the attribute and the communication target device can correspond not only one-to-one but also one-to-many or many-to-many.

  FIG. 7 shows an example of an attribute logical operation expression. Logical expressions can be written in reverse Polish notation. In this example, there is an attribute expression “temperature is 20 ° C. or more” first, an attribute expression “precipitation is 10 mm or more”, and finally a logical operator “AND”. Further, in the present invention, a network address that uniquely identifies a node can be considered as one of the attributes. As an example, FIG. 8 shows an attribute expression when an IPv4 address is regarded as one attribute. The attributes in this example indicate an attribute type “IPv4” defined by IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) and its value.

(Route selection and exchange of route information)
Using the packet format configured as described above, route selection and route information exchange will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 9 shows a state in which the router X is connected to four routers (routers A to D).

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a route table held by the router X. In order to implement attribute communication in the present invention, the router has a routing table for each attribute type. Each entry in the routing table is composed of three sets of “attribute value”, “next router”, and “metric”. The metric is an evaluation value of the entry, and the number of hops is used.

  In this example, the router X has two routing tables, a routing table related to “attribute type 1” and a routing table related to “attribute type 2”. For example, when “attribute type 1 = attribute value A” is designated as the end point node of the packet, the router X relays the packet to both the router A and the router C. When “attribute type 1 = attribute value A”, “attribute type 2 = attribute value N”, and “AND” are designated as end point nodes, router A and router C are selected from “attribute type 1 = attribute value A”. Router A and Router B are selected from “Attribute Type 2 = Attribute Value N”. By taking these ANDs, this packet is finally relayed to the router A.

  Next, the exchange of route information will be described. The route information may be written as static information, but is preferably exchanged dynamically especially when a large number of communication target devices belong to the attribute communication network. When dynamically exchanging route information, each router updates its own route table by exchanging route information for each attribute type between adjacent routers.

  In FIG. 9, it is assumed that the router X holds the routing table shown in FIG. At this time, the router X transmits the route information shown in FIG. 11 to the routers A to D at regular intervals. The router X has two routes related to the attribute value A in the route table of the attribute type 1, but uses the smaller metric for sending route information. The same applies to the metrics related to the attribute value N in the attribute type 2 routing table.

  On the other hand, it is assumed that route information as shown in FIG. At this time, the route table related to the attribute type 1 of the router X is updated as shown in FIG. In FIG. 13, an entry of attribute value D is added, and 4 is obtained by adding 1 to 3 which is the metric indicated by the received route information (this addition of 1 means that the number of hops is 1 for example) Means increase). The attribute value E is not added to the route table because the value (= 10) obtained by adding 1 to the metric indicated by the received route information reaches or exceeds a predetermined threshold value (here, assumed to be 10).

  In this way, route information is exchanged throughout the attribute communication network, and route information based on the attribute is constructed.

(Processing procedure of attribute communication path control device)
FIG. 14 shows a flowchart of a processing procedure in the router configured as the attribute communication path control device.

  When the router receives the packet (S101), it analyzes the header and extracts the end point attribute (S103). Then, the following processing is repeated for all end point attributes (S105).

  First, it is determined whether the target end point attribute is a logical operator or a normal attribute (S107). In the case of a normal attribute, a route table relating to the attribute type is searched (S109). As a result of the search, it is determined whether there is a matching route (S111). If a route is found, the result is temporarily stored (S113), and the processing returns to the remaining end point attribute processing (S105). If no matching route is found, the packet is discarded (S115), and the process returns to the packet reception process (S101). If the end point attribute of interest is a logical operator, a logical operation is performed on the stored search result, and the result is temporarily stored again (S113).

  When all the end point attributes have been processed, the router determines whether the received packet is a route update packet addressed to itself (S119). If it is a route update packet, the corresponding route table is updated (S121), and the process returns to the packet reception process (S101).

  If it is a normal packet, the stored route information is taken out and the output network interface is determined (S123). When there are a plurality of output network interfaces (S125), the packet to be relayed is duplicated (S127). Thereafter, a packet transmission process is performed (S129), and the process returns to the packet reception process (S101).

  In addition, this invention is not limited to said Example, A various change and application are possible within a claim.

The figure which shows the structural example of the attribute communication system to which this invention is applied. The block diagram of the attribute communication path control apparatus by the Example of this invention Packet header format used in embodiments of the present invention Attribute format used in embodiments of the present invention Diagram showing example attributes Diagram showing examples of logical operators Diagram showing an example of a logical operation expression of attributes The figure which shows the attribute of the IPv4 address Diagram showing router connections The figure which shows the example of the routing table which the router X hold | maintains The figure which shows the example of the routing information which the router X transmits The figure which shows the example of the routing information transmitted to the router X The figure which shows the example of the route table after the update of the router X Flow chart showing the processing procedure in the router

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Attribute communication system 103 Attribute communication network 105 Router 107 Transmission side apparatus 109 Communication object apparatus 201 Attribute communication path control apparatus 203 Path information search part 205 Path information control part 207 Path information exchange part 209 CPU
211 Memory 213 Bus 215 Network interface controller 217 Network interface

Claims (13)

An attribute communication path control device that sets a communication path to a communication target device based on at least an attribute type and an attribute value,
A path information control unit that stores attribute values and communication path information in association with each attribute type;
A route information search unit for searching communication route information from the route information control unit based on at least one of the attribute types and an attribute value;
An attribute communication path control device. The attribute communication path control device sets a communication path based on at least an attribute type, an attribute value, and a modification of the attribute value,
2. The attribute communication path control device according to claim 1, wherein the path information search unit searches for communication path information based on at least one of the attribute types, an attribute value, and modification of the attribute value. The attribute communication path control device sets a communication path based on at least an attribute type, an attribute value, and a logical operator,
The route information search unit performs a logical operation on communication route information stored in the route information control unit using the logical operator based on at least one of the attribute types and an attribute value. 2. The attribute communication path control device according to claim 1, wherein communication path information is searched. The attribute communication path control device sets a communication path based on at least an attribute type, an attribute value, a modification of the attribute value, and a logical operator,
The route information search unit is configured to logically calculate communication route information stored in the route information control unit using the logical operator based on at least one of the attribute types, an attribute value, and modification of the attribute value. The attribute communication path control device according to claim 1, wherein the communication path information is searched by calculation.   5. The attribute communication path control device according to claim 1, further comprising a path information exchanging unit configured to exchange communication path information for each attribute type with an adjacent communication target device and attribute communication path control apparatus.   6. The attribute communication path control device according to claim 5, wherein the path information control unit includes a path table that stores attribute values, communication path information, and metrics in association with each attribute type. The exchanged communication path information has an attribute type, an attribute value, and a metric.
The path information exchanging unit performs a predetermined operation on a metric included in the exchanged communication path information to correct the metric, and based on a relationship between the corrected metric and a predetermined threshold value. The attribute communication route control device according to claim 6, wherein the route table is updated.   The attribute communication path control device according to claim 1, wherein the attribute type includes a network address of a communication target device. An attribute communication system that communicates from a transmission-side device to a communication target device via an attribute communication route control device that sets a communication route based on an attribute,
The transmitting device specifies at least the attribute type and the attribute value to specify the communication target device;
The attribute communication path control device having a routing table in which attribute values and communication path information are associated with each attribute type, searches for communication path information based on at least one of the attribute types and an attribute value;
An attribute communication system in which the attribute communication path control device transmits a packet from the transmission side device to the communication target device according to the retrieved communication path information. The transmission side device specifies the communication target device by specifying at least an attribute type, an attribute value, and a modification of the attribute value,
The attribute communication system according to claim 9, wherein the attribute communication path control device searches for communication path information based on at least one of the attribute types, an attribute value, and modification of the attribute value. The transmission side device specifies the communication target device by specifying at least an attribute type, an attribute value, and a logical operator,
The attribute communication path control device performs a logical operation on communication path information stored in the path table using the logical operator based on at least one of the attribute types and an attribute value. The attribute communication system according to claim 9, wherein route information is searched. The transmission side device specifies the communication target device by specifying at least an attribute type, an attribute value, a modification of the attribute value, and a logical operator,
The attribute communication path control device performs a logical operation on the communication path information stored in the path table using the logical operator based on at least one of the attribute types, an attribute value, and modification of the attribute value. The attribute communication system according to claim 9, wherein communication path information is searched by performing the search.   13. The attribute communication system according to claim 9, wherein the transmission side apparatus further specifies Authority information defining an attribute to specify the communication target device.

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