JP2012222611A - Media converter and relay system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a media converter and a relay system which even when a failure occurs in a part of a physical lane, gives management information to another media converter.SOLUTION: A distribution/control block insertion part 64 cyclically distributes data blocks 0 to 7 and inserts a control block 76 to plural PCS lanes 1 to 4 to generate plural block sequences respectively including the data blocks 0 to 7 and the control block 76. Then, when inserting the control block 76, the distribution/control block insertion part 64 inserts management information 84 as a part of the control block 76.

Description

  The present invention relates to a media converter and a relay system.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, prior art for inserting a monitoring / control signal for monitoring and controlling a communication state into a transmission frame transmission interval (Inter Frame Gap: IFG) when transmitting and receiving a frame in a wide area network is known. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).
The relay device disclosed in Patent Document 1 has an Insert / Drop function unit, and the Insert / Drop function unit inserts a monitoring / control signal into the IFG when the relay device transmits a frame. The Insert / Drop function unit extracts a monitoring / control signal when the relay device receives a frame, and notifies the monitoring device of the monitoring / control signal.

  According to the above prior art, by inserting the monitoring / control signal into the IFG, the communication state can be monitored using the monitoring / control signal without affecting the bandwidth of the transmission frame including the user data.

JP 2009-232193 A

However, the following problems are assumed for the prior art described above.
For example, in the communication standard using 40 Gbps / 100 Gbps range standardized by IEEE (Institut of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.3ba, an electric signal has a plurality of PCS (Physical Coder). Distributed to. The data of the plurality of PCS lanes are distributed to the plurality of physical lanes and transferred.

  When this communication standard is adopted, as an example, it is assumed that an optical transceiver is disposed in each physical lane in the relay apparatus. In each physical lane, the optical transceiver converts data from an electrical signal to an optical signal. Optical signals output from a plurality of optical transceivers are transmitted to a connected relay device through one optical fiber when multiplexed by a wavelength filter, and through a plurality of optical fibers otherwise.

  Here, when a failure occurs in any one of the optical transceivers in one repeater, an optical signal is output from the normal optical transceiver, but no optical signal is output from the optical transceiver in which the failure has occurred. Alternatively, when communication is performed through a plurality of optical fibers, even if the optical transceiver is normal, if any optical fiber fails, the optical signal is cut off.

  In these cases, the opposing relay apparatus cannot receive a part of the optical signal that should be received, and receives the monitoring / control signal in a state where a part thereof is lost. For this reason, the opposing relay device cannot read the monitoring / control signal by the Insert / Drop function unit. As a result, the two relay apparatuses cannot monitor the communication state with each other by the monitoring / control signal.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a media converter and a relay system that notify management information to other media converters even when a failure occurs in a part of a physical lane.

  In order to solve the above problems, as one aspect of the present invention, when a user frame is transmitted / received in a network, an encoding process and a scramble process are performed on the user frame in a media converter that transmits / receives a plurality of transmission signals in parallel. Encoding means for forming a plurality of data blocks, and cyclically distributing the data blocks to the plurality of PCS lanes, and a control block including alignment information indicating the order of the data blocks in each PCS lane. Distribution means for forming a plurality of block sequences, each including a data block and a control block, management information generation means for generating management information for network operation, and control blocks for all block sequences In the area other than the alignment information, the management information generating means Media converter comprising: a management information inclusion means the inclusion of identical management information in parallel, is provided.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, in a relay system including at least two media converters arranged in a network and transmitting / receiving a plurality of transmission signals in parallel when transmitting / receiving user frames to / from each other, the media converter is a user Encoding means that performs encoding processing and scrambling processing on the frame to form a plurality of data blocks, and data blocks are cyclically distributed to a plurality of PCS lanes, and includes alignment information that indicates the order of the data blocks A distribution unit that periodically inserts a control block into each PCS lane to form a plurality of block arrays each including a data block and a control block, and a management information generation unit that generates management information for network operation And the control block in all block rows In a region other than Imento information, the relay system and a management information inclusion means the inclusion of identical management information generated by the management information generating unit in parallel is provided.

  According to the present invention, there are provided a media converter and a relay system that notify management information to other media converters even when a failure occurs in a part of a physical lane.

It is a figure showing roughly the example of composition of the relay system of a 1st embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the media converter in FIG. 1 hierarchically using an OSI reference model. It is a block diagram which shows roughly the functional structure of the media converter in FIG. In the media converter of FIG. 1, it is a figure which shows roughly the structure of the control block in the block row | line | column which propagates between media converters with the structure of the alignment marker based on the communication standard of IEEE802.3ba. FIG. 4 is a schematic data flow diagram for explaining a transfer process at the time of data transmission in a long-distance side encoding unit and a distribution / control block insertion unit in FIG. 3. FIG. 4 is a schematic data flow diagram for explaining transfer processing at the time of data reception in the long-distance side decoding unit and reproduction / control block acquisition unit in FIG. 3. It is a block diagram which shows roughly the functional structure of the media converter of 2nd Embodiment. FIG. 8 is a schematic data flow diagram for explaining transfer processing at the time of data transmission in the distribution / control block insertion unit and the management information insertion unit in FIG. 7.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[First Embodiment]
FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of a network 10 according to the first embodiment. The network 10 connects a plurality of terminals 12a and 12b. The terminals 12a and 12b are formed of an information processing apparatus such as a PC (personal computer) or a server, for example. When the terminals 12a and 12b need to communicate with each other, the terminals 12a and 12b generate the user frame 14 and transmit it to the other party.

  The terminals 12a and 12b are connected to network repeaters 18a and 18b constituting a part of the network 10 via communication cables 16a and 16b, respectively. The network repeaters 18a and 18b are configured by a switching hub such as a layer 2 switch or a layer 3 switch, for example.

The network repeaters 18a and 18b relay the user frame 14 transmitted from the terminals 12a and 12b toward the destination, and transmit the user frame 14 whose destination is the terminals 12a and 12b toward the terminals 12a and 12b.
In FIG. 1, an arrow drawn with a solid line in the vicinity of the user frame 14 indicates the transfer direction of the user frame 14.

[Relay system]
The network repeaters 18 a and 18 b are connected to each other via a relay system 20 that constitutes a part of the network 10. The relay system 20 is responsible for transferring the user frame 14 between the network repeaters 18a and 18b.

  Specifically, the relay system 20 includes at least two media converters 22a and 22b, and the network relays 18a and 18b are connected to the media converters 22a and 22b via the communication cables 24a and 24b, respectively. . The media converters 22a and 22b are connected to each other via an optical fiber cable 26.

  The media converters 22a and 22b comply with, for example, a communication standard in the 40 Gbps / 100 Gbps range standardized by IEEE 802.3ba. The media converters 22 a and 22 b can communicate with each other over a long distance section of, for example, 100 km or more via the optical fiber cable 26. Further, if a SONET / SDH transmission facility is installed between the media converters 22a and 22b, the media converters 22a and 22b can communicate with each other over a long distance section of about several thousand km.

  In the present embodiment, the monitoring device 28 is connected to the media converter 22a. The monitoring device 28 is configured by, for example, a PC (personal computer). The monitoring device 28 acquires management information used for the operation of the network 10 such as the communication state of the media converters 22a and 22b through the media converter 22a, while providing the management information to the media converters 22a and 22b.

[Media Converter]
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the schematic configuration of the media converters 22a and 22b in a hierarchical manner using an OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) reference model.
According to the OSI reference model, the media converters 22a and 22b are composed of a PMD (Physical Medium Dependent) layer / PMA (Physical Medium Attachment) layer 30, a PCS (Physical Coding Sublayer) layer 32, and an MII (Medide Media Layer) layer 32. (Reconciliation Sublayer) layer 36 and MAC (Media Access Control) layer 38.

  The PMD layer / PMA layer 30 transmits transmission signals (optical signals) for propagating the communication cables 24a and 24b and the optical fiber cable 26 as transmission media based on a transmission code (electrical signal) described later received from the PCS layer 32. It has the function of generating (converting) and transmitting. The PMD layer / PMA layer 30 also has a function of generating (converting) a transmission code (to be described later) to be transmitted to the PCS layer 32 based on a transmission signal received through the transmission medium, and transmitting the code.

  The MII layer 34 is an interface that connects the RS layer 36 and the PCS layer 32. For example, the MII layer 34 divides the transmission data received from the RS layer 36 every 8 bits and passes the data to the PCS layer 32 in units of 8 octets (64 bits). At this time, transmission data in 64-bit units is delivered as a parallel bit array.

The RS layer 36 transmits the transmission data received from the MAC layer 38, that is, the interval between the user frames 14 (hereinafter referred to as “IFG”) when transmitting the user frame 14 toward the PCS layer 32. adjust.
The MAC layer 38 transmits the transmission data received from the RS layer 36 toward the RS layer 36. At this time, for example, the MAC layer 38 transmits the transmission signal received from the network repeater 18a to the opposite media converter 22b, and conversely, the transmission signal received from the opposite media converter 22b is sent to the network repeater 18a. For example, transmission data is transferred from the first group to the second group and from the second group to the first group.

  The PCS layer 32 has a function of performing processing such as encoding processing on the transmission data received from the MII layer 34 to convert it to a transmission code, and transmitting the obtained transmission code toward the PMD layer / PMA layer 30. The PCS layer 32 has a function of performing a decoding process on the transmission code received from the PMD layer / PMA layer 30 to convert the transmission code into transmission data, and transmitting the transmission data to the MII layer 34.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram schematically showing a functional configuration of the media converter 22a. Since the configuration of the media converter 22b is the same as the configuration of the media converter 22a, the configuration of the media converter 22b is omitted in FIG. Note that the media converter 22a shown in FIG. 3 conforms to the IEEE 802.3ba 40 Gbps standard.

The media converters 22a and 22b have a frame processing unit 49 as one of the components. The frame processing unit 49 is mainly responsible for the function of the MAC layer 38. The frame processing unit 49 transmits the transmission signal received from the network repeaters 18a and 18b to the opposite media converters 22b and 22a, and transmits the transmission signal received from the opposite media converters 22b and 22a to the network relays 18a and 18b. Transfer processing of the user frame 14 is performed so as to transmit the packet to the destination.
The frame processing unit 49 is configured by an integrated circuit such as an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) or an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit).

  The other components of the media converters 22a and 22b can be roughly divided into two groups with the frame processing unit 49 as a boundary. The first group includes components for transmitting and receiving the user frame 14 in a short-distance transmission section with the network repeater 18a. The second group includes components for transmitting and receiving the user frame 14 in the long distance transmission section between the other media converters 22b and 22a.

[First group / short distance side]
More specifically, the first group includes a user port (short distance side port) 40, a photoelectric conversion module (O / E) 42, and an electro-optical conversion module (E / O) that are responsible for the functions of the PMD layer / PMA layer 30. ) 44, and a short-distance side decoding unit 46 and a short-distance side encoding unit 48 which are responsible for the function of the PCS layer 32 belong.

  The user port 40 is a port to which the communication cable 24 a is connected, and is connected to the photoelectric conversion module 42 and the electro-optical conversion module 44. The electro-optical conversion module 44 receives the electric signal transmitted by the short-distance side encoding unit 48, converts it into an optical signal, and transmits it. The optical signal transmitted by the electro-optic conversion module 44 propagates to the network repeater 18a through the user port 40 and the communication cable 24a.

On the other hand, the optical signal transmitted by the network repeater 18a propagates to the photoelectric conversion module 42 through the communication cable 24a and the user port 40. The photoelectric conversion module 42 converts the received optical signal into an electrical signal, and transmits the electrical signal to the short distance side decoding unit 46.
Note that the photoelectric conversion module 42, the electro-optical conversion module 44, and the user port 40 may be configured by an integrated optical transceiver.

The short distance side decoding unit 46 decodes the transmission code of the electrical signal transmitted by the photoelectric conversion module 42 to convert it into transmission data, and the obtained transmission data, that is, the user frame 14 is sent to the frame processing unit 49. Send.
The frame processing unit 49 receives the user frame 14 transmitted by the short distance side decoding unit 46 and transmits it to the second group.

  On the other hand, the short distance side encoding unit 48 receives the user frame 14 transmitted by the frame processing unit 49, encodes the user frame 14 by, for example, the 64B / 66B encoding method, and transmits the obtained transmission code to the electro-optical conversion module 44. Send to. The electro-optical conversion module 44 converts the transmission code from an electric signal to an optical signal, and the optical signal propagates to the network relay device 18a through the user port 40 and the communication cable 24a.

[Second group / Long distance side]
On the other hand, the second group includes a network port (long-distance side port) 50, a photoelectric conversion module (O / E) 52, and an electro-optical conversion module (E / O) that are responsible for the functions of the PMD layer / PMA layer 30. 54, a demultiplexer 56, and a multiplexer 58 belong.

In the second group, the long-distance side encoding unit 60 and the long-distance side decoding unit 62 that are responsible for a part of the functions of the PCS layer 32 belong.
The network port 50 is a port to which the optical fiber cable 26 is connected. A duplexer 56 and a multiplexer 58 are connected to the network port 50. The multiplexer 58 multiplexes a plurality of optical signals having different wavelengths received from the plurality of electro-optical conversion modules 54 and transmits the multiplexed signals to the network port 50.

On the other hand, the duplexer 56 divides the multiplexed optical signal received through the network port 50 into a plurality of optical signals, and transmits them to the plurality of photoelectric conversion modules 52.
Instead of multiplexing a plurality of optical signals and transmitting them through a single optical fiber cable 26, a plurality of optical signals may be transmitted separately through a plurality of optical fiber cables.

  The electro-optical conversion module 54 receives the electrical signal transmitted by the long-distance side encoding unit 60, converts it into an optical signal, and transmits it. The optical signal transmitted by the electro-optic conversion module 54 propagates to the opposing media converter 22b through the multiplexer 58, the network port 50, and the optical fiber cable 26.

On the other hand, the optical signal transmitted by the facing media converter 22 b propagates to the photoelectric conversion module 52 through the optical fiber cable 26, the network port 50, and the duplexer 56. The photoelectric conversion module 52 converts the received optical signal into an electrical signal, and transmits the electrical signal to the long distance side decoding unit 62.
Note that the photoelectric conversion module 52 and the electro-optical conversion module 54 may be configured by an integrated optical transceiver.

  The long distance side encoding unit 60 encodes the user frame 14 received from the frame processing unit 49 and converts it into a transmission code (encoding process). In the present embodiment, the 64B / 66B encoding method is adopted as the encoding method.

  According to the 64B / 66B encoding method, transmission data as the user frame 14 is encoded every 64 bits. The encoded transmission data is scrambled in units of 64 bits (scramble processing), and 2-bit header information is added to each block of the obtained scrambled signal. That is, the transmission code is composed of a set of 66-bit blocks (hereinafter referred to as data blocks).

  The long distance side decoding unit 62 performs descrambling processing and decoding processing on the received transmission code. Transmission data obtained by the decoding process, that is, the user frame 14 is transferred to the frame processing unit 49. The frame processing unit 49 transmits the user frame 14 to the short-distance side encoding unit 48 of the first group.

  Further, the second group includes a distribution / control block insertion unit 64 as a distribution unit, a control block extraction unit, and a reproduction / control block acquisition unit as an alignment information specifying unit, which are responsible for a part of the functions of the PCS layer 32. 66 belongs.

  The distribution / control block insertion unit 64 cyclically distributes the data block of the transmission code received from the long-distance side encoding unit 60 into four logical PCS lanes in units of blocks, and each PCS lane For example, control blocks are periodically inserted at intervals of 16383 blocks so as to be positioned between data blocks. As a result, each PCS lane is formed with a block sequence including data blocks and control blocks. A plurality of block sequences corresponding to the number of PCS lanes are transmitted in parallel to the electro-optical conversion module 54 provided in each physical lane through four physical lanes.

  In the IEEE 802.3ba 100 Gbps standard, the distribution / control block insertion unit 64 allocates data blocks to 20 PCS lanes, and 20 block columns are provided in each physical lane through 10 or 4 physical lanes. Are transmitted in parallel to the electro-optic conversion module 54.

  The reproduction / control block acquisition unit 66 receives a plurality of block sequences from the plurality of photoelectric conversion modules 52. The reproduction / control block acquisition unit 66 corrects the delay between the block strings, rearranges the data blocks in the block string, and reproduces the transmission code. Then, the reproduction / control block acquisition unit 66 transmits the reproduced transmission code to the long distance side decoding unit 62.

  More specifically, in order to correct the delay, the control block in the block sequence includes alignment information (AI). The alignment information is information indicating the order relationship of the data blocks between the block strings. The reproduction / control block acquisition unit 66 specifies the alignment information based on the period of the alignment information in each block row, and corrects the delay based on the alignment information of all the block rows.

On the other hand, the media converters 22a and 22b have components belonging to the third group separately from the first group and the second group. The components of the third group have a function for transmitting / receiving management information used for the operation of the network 10.
Specifically, the media converters 22a and 22b include a management information generation unit 70 as a management information generation unit, a management information extraction unit 72 as a management information extraction unit, and a management information generation unit 70 and a management information extraction unit 72. It has a management information control unit 74 for controlling.

  The management information control unit 74 is configured by, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), controls the management information generation unit 70, and causes the management information generation unit 70 to generate management information. The management information control unit 74 can cause the management information generation unit 70 to generate management information based on an instruction from the autonomous and monitoring device 28.

  The management information is information provided for the operation of the network 10 and includes an OS (operating system) update command for the media converters 22a and 22b, in addition to the communication status of the media converters 22a and 22b. Specifically, the management information includes information such as R-INN (power failure), AIS (Alarm Indication Signal), RDI (Remote Defect Indication), and the like.

The management information generated by the management information generation unit 70 is included in the control blocks of all the block strings arranged in the PCS lane by the distribution / control block insertion unit 64. That is, the distribution / control block insertion unit 64 constitutes management information inclusion means for including management information in the control blocks of the block sequence.
Management information is included in an area other than the alignment information of the control block by the management information inclusion means. Further, the same management information is included in parallel in the control blocks of all the block rows.

  The management information extraction unit 72 specifies management information included in the control block and reads the management information in synchronization with the timing when the reproduction / control block acquisition unit 66 specifies the alignment information. The read management information is sent to the monitoring device 28 connected to the media converter 22a via the management information control unit 74, for example. Thereby, the operator who manages the network 10 can monitor the communication state between the media converters 22a and 22b.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the configuration of the control block. The upper part is a control block 76 including alignment information and management information, and the lower part is a control block 78 including alignment information and error information. The lower control block 78 is specifically the same as the alignment marker (AM) 78 conforming to the communication standard of IEEE802.3ba. That is, in this specification, the “control block” is used as a term including an alignment marker (AM) conforming to the communication standard of IEEE802.3ba.

The alignment marker 78 shown in the lower part of FIG. 4 has a size of 66 bits as a whole. The alignment marker 78 is composed of a plurality of areas. Specifically, the header area 78a, M0 area 78b, M1 area 78c, M2 area 78d, BIP3 area 78e, M4 area 78f, M5 area 78g, and M6 area 78h are sequentially arranged from the top. , And a BIP7 area 78i.
The information stored in the M4 area 78f, M5 area 78g, M6 area 78h, and BIP7 area 78i is the bit inversion information of the information stored in the M0 area 78b, M1 area 78c, M2 area 78d, and BIP3 area 78e, respectively. It is.

  The control block 76 shown in the upper part of FIG. 4 has a size of 66 bits as a whole like the alignment marker 78. The control block 76 includes header information 80, alignment information (AI) 82, management information 84, and bit inversion information 86. Among these, the header information 80 and the alignment information 82 are the alignment marker 78. This information is defined in the same way as.

  That is, the alignment information 82 is the same as the information stored in the M0 area 78b, M1 area 78c, and M2 area 78d of the alignment marker 78. Therefore, the alignment information 82 is a fixed value of 24 bits (3 bytes) assigned to each PCS lane.

  The bit inversion information 86 is information obtained by inverting the alignment information 82 and the management information 84. That is, the bit inversion information 86 includes the same information stored in the M4 area 78f, M5 area 78g, and M6 area 78h of the alignment marker 78, and information obtained by inverting the management information 84. The presence of the bit inversion information 86 adjusts the DC balance of the entire control block 76.

  Note that error information, specifically, 1-byte parity for detecting a bit error is stored in the BIP3 area 78e of the alignment marker 78 defined in IEEE 802.3ba.

The data flow in the long-distance side encoding unit 60 and the distribution / control block insertion unit 64 when the user converter 14 is transmitted to the media converters 22b and 22a opposed to the media converters 22a and 22b will be described with reference to FIG. To explain.
Note that the numbers (0) to (7) shown in FIG. 5 indicate the order of data blocks of transmission codes.

The long distance side encoding unit 60 converts the transmission data received from the frame processing unit 49 into 66-bit unit data blocks (0) to (7).
The distribution / control block insertion unit 64 cyclically distributes the data blocks (0) to (7) received from the long-distance side encoding unit 60 to the PCS lanes 1 to 4. Further, the distribution / control block insertion unit 64 inserts the control block 76 into the PCS lanes 1 to 4. At this time, the control block 76 is inserted in parallel into the PCS lanes 1 to 4 at the same timing.

As a result, in each PCS lane 1 to 4, a block row composed of the data blocks (0) to (7) and the control block 76 is formed. In each block row, the control block 76 is periodically arranged every 16383 blocks.
When the control block 76 is inserted into the PCS lane, management information 84 is inserted together with the alignment information (AI) 82 as part of the control block 76.

  Next, FIG. 6 shows a data flow in the long distance side decoding unit 62 and the reproduction / control block acquisition unit 66 when the media converters 22b and 22a receive the user frame 14 from the opposing media converters 22a and 22b. The description will be given with reference.

  The reproduction / control block acquisition unit 66 receives a block sequence for each of the PCS lanes 1 to 4 and identifies the alignment information 82 from the block sequence based on the periodicity of the alignment information 82. Then, the reproduction / control block acquisition unit 66 corrects the delay between the block strings based on the contents of the alignment information 82. Thereafter, the reproduction / control block acquisition unit 66 arranges the data blocks included in the plurality of block sequences in a row and transmits the data blocks to the long distance side decoding unit 62.

The long distance side decoding unit 62 performs descrambling processing and decoding processing on the received data block, and transmits the obtained transmission data to the frame processing unit 49.
On the other hand, the management information extraction unit 72 specifies and extracts the management information 84 in synchronization with the timing when the reproduction / control block acquisition unit 66 specifies the alignment information 82. That is, the storage area of the management information 84 in the control block 76 is known, and if the alignment information 82 is specified, the management information 84 is specified.

  In the network 10 of the first embodiment described above, a plurality of block sequences are transmitted in parallel from the media converters 22a and 22b to the opposing media converters 22b and 22a, and the control block 76 of each block sequence to be transmitted is transmitted. Includes the same management information 84.

For this reason, even if a failure occurs in a part of the plurality of physical lanes from the media converter 22a to the media converter 22b due to a failure of the electro-optic conversion module 54 or the photoelectric conversion module 52, disconnection of the optical fiber cable 26, etc., the failure The management information 84 is notified to the opposing media converters 22b and 22a through the physical lane in which no occurrence occurs.
Therefore, the administrator of the network 10 can accurately manage the network 10 based on the management information 84.

  In the network 10 of the first embodiment described above, when the distribution / control block insertion unit 64 of the media converters 22a and 22b inserts the control block 76 in the PCS lane, the management information 84 is included as a part of the control block 76. Therefore, the management information 84 is easily inserted.

  Furthermore, in the network 10 of the first embodiment described above, if the reproduction / control block acquisition unit 66 of the media converters 22a and 22b specifies the alignment information 82 in the control block 76 from the block sequence, the alignment information 82 and Management information 84 can be specified easily and reliably based on the relative positional relationship between the two.

  In addition, in the media converters 22a and 22b of the network 10 of the first embodiment described above, the control block 76 includes management information 84 instead of error information (BIP), as compared with the alignment marker 78 conforming to IEEE 802.3ba. The only difference is that Therefore, if a part of the circuit for inserting the alignment marker 78 is changed to insert the management information 84 in place of the BIP, the circuit of the distribution / control block insertion unit 64 is realized with a small change. For this reason, the media converters 22a and 22b are provided at low cost.

[Second Embodiment]
Hereinafter, the media converters 100a and 100b according to the second embodiment will be described.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram schematically showing a functional configuration of the media converters 100a and 100b. Apart from the distribution / control block insertion unit 102, the media converters 100a and 100b are provided with a management information insertion unit 104 as management information inclusion means. The management information insertion unit 104 is disposed between the distribution / control block insertion unit 102 and the electro-optic conversion module 54.

  FIG. 8 shows a data flow in the distribution / control block insertion unit 102 and the management information insertion unit 104 when the user converter 14 is transmitted to the media converters 100b and 100a opposed to the media converters 100a and 100b. .

  As shown in FIG. 8, the distribution / control block insertion unit 102 inserts an alignment marker (AM) 78 conforming to IEEE 802.3ba into the PCS lane. Then, the management information insertion unit 104 replaces the error information (BIP) 106 included in the control block 76 in the block sequence with the management information 84. For example, the management information insertion unit 104 can replace the error information 106 with the management information 84 by synchronizing the timing of replacement with the management information 84 with the timing of inserting the control block 76.

In the media converters 100a and 100b of the second embodiment described above, the management information 84 is stored after the control block 76 is inserted into each of the block rows of the PCS lanes 1 to 4. Even in this case, a failure occurs in part of the plurality of physical lanes from the media converter 100a to the media converter 100b due to the failure of the electro-optical conversion module 54 or the photoelectric conversion module 52, the disconnection of the optical fiber cable 26, or the like. However, the management information 84 is notified to the opposing media converters 100b and 100a through the physical lane in which no failure has occurred.
Therefore, the administrator of the network 10 can accurately manage the network 10 based on the management information 84.

  Further, the media converters 100a and 100b of the second embodiment described above can be easily obtained by adding a circuit for replacing the error information 106 with the management information 84 to the conventional media converter using the alignment marker 78 conforming to IEEE 802.3ba. Realized. For this reason, the media converters 100a and 100b are provided at low cost.

  Finally, the present invention is not limited to the first embodiment and the second embodiment described above, and includes forms obtained by changing the first embodiment and the second embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Network 14 User frame 18a, 18b Network repeater 20 Relay system 22a, 22b Media converter 26 Optical fiber cable 60 Long distance side encoding part (encoding means)
62 Long-distance side decoding unit 64 Distribution / control block insertion unit (distribution means, management information inclusion means)
66 Reproduction / control block acquisition unit (control block extraction means, alignment information identification means)
70 Management information generation unit (management information generation means)
72 Management Information Extraction Unit (Management Information Identification Unit)
76 Control block 82 Alignment information (AI)
84 Management information

Claims (8)

In a media converter that transmits and receives multiple transmission signals in parallel when transmitting and receiving user frames in a network,
Encoding means for performing encoding processing and scrambling processing on the user frame to form a plurality of data blocks;
The data block is cyclically distributed to a plurality of PCS lanes, and a control block including alignment information indicating an ordering relationship of the data blocks is periodically inserted into each of the PCS lanes. Each including a distribution means for forming a plurality of block rows;
Management information generating means for generating management information for operation of the network;
A media converter comprising management information inclusion means for including, in parallel, the same management information generated by the management information generation means in an area other than the alignment information in the control blocks of all the block sequences. The media converter of claim 1, wherein
The management information inclusion means includes
Including the management information in the control block inserted by the distribution means;
Media converter. The media converter of claim 1, wherein
The distributing means includes
Inserting the control block including the alignment information and error information into the PCS lane;
The management information inclusion means includes
Replacing the error information contained in the control block with the management information;
Media converter. The media converter according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
From the received block sequence,
A media converter comprising management information specifying means for specifying the management information based on the alignment information. In a relay system including at least two media converters arranged in a network and transmitting / receiving a plurality of transmission signals in parallel when transmitting / receiving user frames to / from each other,
The media converter is
Encoding means for performing encoding processing and scrambling processing on the user frame to form a plurality of data blocks;
The data block is cyclically distributed to a plurality of PCS lanes, and a control block including alignment information indicating an ordering relationship of the data blocks is periodically inserted into each of the PCS lanes. Each including a distribution means for forming a plurality of block rows;
Management information generating means for generating management information for operation of the network;
A relay system comprising management information inclusion means for including, in parallel, the same management information generated by the management information generation means in an area other than the alignment information in the control blocks of all the block sequences. In the relay system according to claim 5,
The management information inclusion means includes
Including the management information in the control block inserted by the distribution means;
Relay system. In the relay system according to claim 5,
The distributing means includes
Inserting the control block including the alignment information and error information into the PCS lane;
The management information inclusion means includes
Replacing the error information contained in the control block with the management information;
Relay system. The relay system according to any one of claims 5 to 7,
The media converter is
From the received block sequence,
A relay system comprising management information specifying means for specifying the management information based on the alignment information.

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