JP2013175837A - Communication device, failure determination method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technology for making it possible to detect a failure in a communication device without adding special hardware.SOLUTION: A communication device for performing packet communication comprises: a first function unit for transmitting packets; a second function unit for receiving the packets transmitted from the first function unit; statistical information collection means for collecting statistical information on the number of the packets transmitted from the first function unit and statistical information on the number of the packets received by the second function unit in a predetermined period; statistical information comparison means for determining whether abnormality has occurred or not by comparing the statistical information on the first function unit and the statistical information on the second function unit collected by the statistical information collection means; and failure determination means for determining whether or not a device failure has occurred between the first and second function units, on the basis of the number of times of determining abnormality continuously in the predetermined period.

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for detecting a failure in a communication device.

  Conventionally, for example, a method using a frame check sequence (FCS) is used as a method for detecting a failure between interfaces (IFs) or in an IF in a communication apparatus for configuring a packet switching network or an ATM network. .

  In this method, the checksum of each frame is calculated on the data transmission side, transmitted as the FCS information together with the data body, and the checksum of the frame is calculated using the same algorithm as that used on the transmission side on the reception side. By comparing the received FCS information with the calculation result, it is possible to detect whether or not there is a loss in the frame data. A failure can be detected by detecting that the data has been lost.

  As another method for detecting a failure between interfaces (IF) in a communication apparatus or in an IF, for example, a parity or ECC (error correction code) is added and a parity or ECC is checked. There is a method for detecting an error and detecting a failure.

JP 09-247160 A

  However, in the case of FCS, since a failure is detected by detecting a frame to which FCS information is added, it is assumed that the frame is communicated. For this reason, when there is no communication between frames, a failure could not be found. In addition, in the state where the path for frame transmission is not set, naturally, there is no communication of the frame, so that a failure cannot be found.

  Furthermore, in both cases of FCS and memory parity, it is necessary to add hardware with a dedicated detection function, which leads to an increase in cost and the increase in failure rate due to the addition of new hardware. In addition, there is a problem of causing false detection (failure of the detection function itself).

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique that can detect a failure in a communication device without adding special hardware.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a communication device that performs packet communication, and includes a first function unit that transmits a packet and a second function that receives a packet transmitted from the first function unit. Functional part of
Statistical information collecting means for collecting statistical information on the number of packets transmitted from the first functional unit and statistical information on the number of packets received by the second functional unit at a predetermined period;
Statistical information comparing means for determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred by comparing the statistical information of the first functional part collected by the statistical information collecting means with the statistical information of the second functional part When,
Failure determination means for determining whether a device failure has occurred between the first function unit and the second function unit based on the number of times determined to be abnormal continuously in the predetermined cycle And a communication device characterized by comprising:

  The communication apparatus further includes rate determination means for determining whether a transmission rate of the packet is a high rate or a low rate based on statistical information collected from the first functional unit, and the failure determination The means may be configured to change the number of times according to the rate determined by the rate determination means.

  The failure determination unit may reduce the number of times when the rate determination unit determines that the rate is high than the number of times when the rate determination unit determines that the rate is low. .

  The apparatus may further comprise means for transmitting a test packet as the packet from the first functional unit to the second functional unit. Further, the statistical information may be the number of packets in the period of the predetermined period, or may be a value obtained by accumulating the number of packets in the period of the predetermined period over a predetermined period.

  Each of the first functional unit and the second functional unit is a chip in the interface unit of the communication device, and the statistical information collection unit, the statistical information comparison unit, and the failure determination unit are included in the interface unit. It may be realized by a program executed by the IF control unit, and each of the first functional unit and the second functional unit is an interface unit of the communication device, the statistical information collecting unit, The statistical information comparison unit and the failure determination unit may be realized by a program executed by a device control unit in the communication device.

  The communication device may be an interface card used by being mounted on a packet transmission device.

In addition, the present invention is a failure determination method in a communication device including a first functional unit that transmits a packet and a second functional unit that receives a packet transmitted from the first functional unit,
A statistical information collecting step for collecting statistical information on the number of packets transmitted from the first functional unit and statistical information on the number of packets received by the second functional unit at a predetermined period;
Statistical information comparison step of determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred by comparing the statistical information of the first functional unit and the statistical information of the second functional unit collected by the statistical information collecting step When,
A failure determination step for determining whether or not a device failure has occurred between the first function unit and the second function unit based on the number of times determined to be abnormal continuously in the predetermined cycle. And a failure determination method characterized by comprising:

Furthermore, the present invention provides a computer in a communication apparatus comprising a first functional unit that transmits a packet and a second functional unit that receives a packet transmitted from the first functional unit.
Statistical information collecting means for collecting statistical information on the number of packets transmitted from the first functional unit and statistical information on the number of packets received by the second functional unit at a predetermined period;
Statistical information comparing means for determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred by comparing the statistical information of the first functional part collected by the statistical information collecting means with the statistical information of the second functional part ,
Failure determination means for determining whether a device failure has occurred between the first function unit and the second function unit based on the number of times determined to be abnormal continuously in the predetermined cycle The program may be configured to function as:

  According to the present invention, it becomes possible to detect a failure only by statistical information relating to the number of packets, so that a special failure detection function is not required, and there is no need to add special hardware.

  In addition, since the failure determination logic can be changed according to the packet rate, it is possible to avoid failure determination errors caused by asynchronous operations.

  In addition, since test frames can flow between functional units (for example, between chips and IF), failure detection is possible without communication of user signals, and failure detection is possible even when no path is set. Is possible.

It is a system configuration figure in an embodiment of the invention. It is a figure which shows the structure which concerns on the failure detection in an interface part. It is a figure which shows the structure which concerns on the failure detection between interface parts. It is a function block diagram of IF control part. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of a failure detection. It is a figure for demonstrating the example of a state transition. It is a figure for demonstrating the example of a state transition and failure determination. It is a figure for demonstrating the example of a state transition and failure determination. It is a figure for demonstrating the example of the failure detection in a redundant structure.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The embodiment described below is only an example, and the embodiment to which the present invention is applied is not limited to the following embodiment.

(System configuration)
FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication system according to the present embodiment has a configuration in which a communication device 10 is connected to an operation system 30 (also referred to as an operation monitoring device) via an operation monitoring network 20. .

  The communication device 10 according to the present embodiment includes a plurality of interface units 11 connected to a transmission path, a switch unit 12 that performs packet switching (selection of a packet output route), and a device control unit 13 that controls the communication device 10. Have Such a configuration is a common configuration commonly used by packet transmission apparatuses (routers, switches, etc.) that are currently popular. In the present specification and claims, the term “packet” is used in a broad sense including “frame” and “cell”.

  In practice, a plurality of communication devices 10 are connected via a transmission path to configure a communication network for transmitting user signals. FIG. 1 shows only one communication device 10.

  Each interface unit 11 in the communication apparatus 10 is a communication apparatus also called an interface card or the like, and is configured to include a plurality of chips (IC chips) corresponding to a communication protocol layer, for example. Taking the interface unit 11 that performs Ethernet communication as an example, the interface unit 11 includes, for example, a MAC chip that performs generation of an Ethernet frame, a PHY chip that performs processing of a physical layer, and the like.

  Each interface unit 11 includes an IF control unit 14 that performs failure monitoring and various controls. As an example, the IF control unit 14 has a computer configuration including a CPU and a memory, and exhibits its function when a program (firmware) is executed. However, the IF control unit 14 is not limited to this configuration, and the function may be realized by a hardware logic circuit.

  The device control unit 13 in the communication device 10 is a functional unit that performs failure monitoring (including a function of notifying the operation system 30 of failure information of each unit in the device) and various controls of the communication device 10 as a whole. Further, as an example, the computer has a configuration including a CPU and a memory, and the function is exhibited by executing a program (firmware). However, the device control unit 13 is not limited to this configuration, and the function may be realized by a hardware logic circuit.

  The above-described IF control unit 14 and device control unit 13 execute a failure detection process according to the present invention. 2A and 2B are diagrams showing the configuration related to the failure detection process in more detail. FIG. 2A shows a case where a failure in the interface unit 11 (specifically, between chips) is detected. One interface unit 11 is shown as a representative, and the switch unit 12 is not shown. FIG. 2B shows a case where a failure between the interface units is detected, and two interface units (interface unit A and interface unit B) involved in the failure detection are shown.

  As shown in FIG. 2A, in the case of failure detection in the interface unit 10, statistical information is collected from two chips (chip A and chip B), and failure determination is performed based on these statistical information. As shown in FIG. 2B, in the case of failure detection between interface units, statistical information is collected from two interface units (interface unit A and interface unit B), and failure determination is performed based on these statistical information. In the case of FIGS. 2A and 2B, the processing contents of the failure determination itself are basically the same. Therefore, in the following, the failure determination in the interface unit shown in FIG. 2A will be described in detail as an example.

  In FIG. 2A, two chips to be collected for statistical information are predetermined. It may be possible to change between which chips the failure determination is performed by an external setting. Further, failure detection may be performed for each of a plurality of groups (a group including two chips). FIG. 2A shows failure detection for one set (chip A and chip B) as an example.

  Of the two chips, one is upstream in the direction of packet flow and the other is downstream. That is, a packet is transmitted from one chip, and the other receives the packet. The one that sends a packet is called a start point (chip A in FIG. 2A), and the one that receives a packet is called an end point (chip B in FIG. 2A).

  FIG. 3 shows a functional configuration diagram of the IF control unit 14. The device control unit 13 also has this configuration. As shown in FIG. 3, the IF control unit 14 includes a statistical information collection unit 141, a rate determination unit 142, a statistical information comparison unit 143, a failure determination unit 144, a failure notification unit 145, a test packet transmission instruction unit 146, and a data storage unit. 147.

  The statistical information collection unit 141 is a functional unit that collects statistical information from each chip. The statistical information in the present embodiment is the number of packets (packet count value) that have passed through the chip during a predetermined time. That is, the number of packets transmitted from the chip during a predetermined time at the start point chip, and the number of packets received from the start point during the predetermined time at the end point chip.

  In this embodiment, each chip has a function of counting the number of packets that have passed, and the statistical information collection unit 141 obtains statistical information from the chip every predetermined time, thereby obtaining a predetermined time. Each time, the number of packets that have passed through the chip during a predetermined time can be obtained. Alternatively, the IF control unit 14 may count the number of packets that have passed through the chip during a predetermined time by monitoring packets input and output from each chip, and obtain the statistical information.

  The predetermined time is a predetermined time. This time may be a time obtained from a predetermined monitoring cycle. Alternatively, a predetermined time may be set as a time during which a predetermined number of packets (for example, 100) pass under a predetermined transmission rate.

  The rate determination unit 142 is a functional unit that determines whether the packet transmission rate is a high rate or a low rate based on statistical information (number of packets) at the start point at a predetermined time. In the present embodiment, the low rate is a case where the number of packets passing (transmitting) within the monitoring period (that is, the predetermined time) is 1 or less, for example. The high rate is a case other than a low rate, for example, a case where the number of packets passing during the monitoring period is more than one.

  More specifically, for example, when the monitoring cycle is 1.0 second, the state where the number of packets at the starting point is 1 packet / second or less (less than 2 packets in one monitoring cycle) is a low rate state. It is. The other state is a high rate state.

  The statistical information comparison unit 143 is a functional unit that determines whether an abnormality has occurred by comparing the statistical information of the start point and the end point collected by the statistical information collection unit 141. In the present embodiment, the statistical information comparison unit 143 compares the two statistical information of the start point and the end point, and determines that there is an abnormality if they do not match.

  For example, in FIG. 2A, when the statistical information a (start point counter value) in the chip A is 1 or more and the statistical information b (end point counter) in the chip B is 0, it is determined as abnormal. In the case of FIG. 2B, when the statistical information c (start point counter value) of the interface unit A is 1 or more and the statistical information d (end point counter value) of the interface unit B is 0, it is determined as abnormal.

  However, in the case of a high rate, the start side statistical information and the end side statistical information may not completely match the number of frames even in a normal state due to a time lag. Therefore, the statistical information comparison unit 143 may execute one of the following two types of determination.

  (1) When there is a start point packet, it is determined whether there is an abnormality based on the presence or absence of the end point packet. That is, it is determined as abnormal when the number of start point packets is 1 or more and the number of end point packets is 0. Thereby, it is determined that the communication is disconnected.

  (2) The number of start point packets and the number of end point packets are integrated (that is, accumulated), and it is determined whether the difference is within a certain range. For example, for each of the number of start point packets and the number of end point packets, if the sum of the statistical information for a predetermined number of times up to the present time and the value obtained by subtracting the sum at the end point from the sum at the start point is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold It is determined to be abnormal, and if it is less than the threshold, it is determined to be normal. Thereby, in addition to “communication disconnection”, “signal degradation” can be determined. These are all “abnormal”.

  For example, the abnormality (1) may be detected uniformly for both the low rate and the high rate, and the abnormality (2) is uniformly detected for both the low rate and the high rate. It is good as well.

  The failure determination unit 144 determines that the device has failed when the abnormality determination is continuously detected a predetermined number of times as a result of the abnormality determination by the statistical information comparison unit 143. At this time, the determination condition (the number of consecutive times) is changed according to the rate determined by the rate determination unit 142. The detection logic (determination condition) for determining that the apparatus is faulty will be described in detail later.

  The failure notification unit 145 is a functional unit that notifies the device control unit 13 of failure information when the failure determination unit 144 determines that a failure has occurred. The device control unit 13 that has received the failure information notifies the operation system 30 of the failure information.

  The test packet transmission instructing unit 146 performs a test packet between chips in order to make a failure determination by flowing a packet when a packet (user signal) does not flow through each chip or when a communication path is not set. Is a functional unit that instructs each chip to transmit / receive. In the present embodiment, each chip is assumed to have a function of setting a test packet transmission path and transmitting / receiving a test packet according to an instruction from the IF control unit 14 or the like. Alternatively, a function for generating and transmitting a test packet is provided in the interface unit 11 or the communication device 10 outside the interface unit, and according to an instruction from the IF control unit 14 or the device control unit 13 according to the function, Alternatively, the test packet may be transmitted / received via a desired path between the interface units.

  The data storage unit 147 is a storage unit such as a memory, and stores information necessary for processing in advance, and stores processing target information (statistical information and the like) in each processing. Each functional unit executes processing while referring to the data storage unit 147.

  As described above, the IF control unit 14 can be realized by causing a computer (a configuration including a CPU and a memory) to execute a program describing the processing contents described in the present embodiment. That is, the function of each unit of the IF control unit 14 executes a program corresponding to the processing executed by each unit using hardware resources such as a CPU and a memory built in the computer constituting the IF control unit 14. Can be realized. Further, the program can be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium (portable memory or the like), stored, or distributed. It is also possible to provide the program through a network such as the Internet or electronic mail. The same applies to the device controller 13.

(Failure judgment operation)
Next, processing operations relating to failure determination will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  Step 1) The statistical information collection unit 141 of the IF control unit 14 collects statistical information of the start point and the end point every monitoring period (in other words, every time a predetermined time elapses).

  Step 2) Next, the rate determination unit 142 of the IF control unit 14 determines whether the current rate is a high rate or a low rate according to the statistical information (number of packets) at the starting point.

  Step 3) Next, the statistical information comparison unit 143 of the IF control unit 14 compares the number of packets at the start point and the number of packets at the end point.

  Step 4) Then, the statistical information comparison unit 143 of the IF control unit 14 determines whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the statistical information based on the comparison result in Step 3. More specifically, as described above, it is determined whether communication disconnection or signal degradation has occurred according to the determination method.

  Step 5) Next, the failure determination unit 144 of the IF control unit 14 uses a detection logic different between the high rate and the low rate based on the result of the rate determination in Step 2 and the result of the abnormality determination in Step 4. Then, it is determined whether or not there is a failure in the device (in the interface unit, between the interface units, etc.).

  In the case of a low rate, the number of packets passing through at a predetermined time is small, and therefore failure determination cannot be made accurately unless a certain amount of time (repetition of a plurality of monitoring cycles) is monitored. Therefore, it is necessary to use different detection logics for the high rate and the low rate for determining the failure, and the detection logic (determination condition) is switched according to the rate. Details of the detection logic (determination condition) will be described later in detail with reference to FIGS.

  Step 6) When a failure is detected, the failure notification unit 145 of the IF control unit 14 notifies the device control unit 13 of the failure information. As a result, the apparatus control unit 13 detects failure information in the interface unit 11. The failure information here includes, for example, identification information for identifying the interface unit 11. Further, identification information of two chips monitored in the interface unit 11 may be included in the failure information.

  Step 7) The apparatus control unit 13 notifies the operation system 30 of failure information. The failure information here includes, for example, identification information of the communication device 10 and identification information of the interface unit 11. Thereby, the system administrator etc. who use the operation system 30 can grasp | ascertain which interface unit of which communication apparatus has failed. The failure information here may further include identification information of two chips monitored in the interface unit 11.

(About state transition and judgment logic switching at the time of failure judgment)
Hereinafter, the state transition at the time of failure determination in the failure determination unit 144 of the IF control unit 14 and switching of the determination logic will be described.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the statistical information comparison unit 143 compares two pieces of statistical information of the start point and the end point and satisfies a predetermined condition (for example, the number of start point packets is 1 or more, the number of end point packets) Is determined to be abnormal with respect to the number of times of the monitoring cycle.

  In this example, as a general rule, the judgment condition in the high-rate state is that a device failure is judged when the result of judgment by comparing the number of packets as statistical information of the start point and the end point is three consecutive abnormalities. It is. The device is restored from the device failure state to the device normal state by normal operation three times. The state information is stored in the data storage unit 147 by the failure determination unit 144 and used for failure determination.

  On the other hand, in order to avoid erroneous detection, the determination condition in the low rate state is, as a general rule, when the result determined by comparing the number of packets as statistical information of the start point and the end point is 10 consecutive abnormalities. It is determined that there is a failure. In addition, for example, recovery is performed in the case of normal three times.

  In the high rate state, when it is determined that the rate is low for two consecutive cycles, the state transitions to the low rate state in the second cycle. In the low rate state, when it is determined that the rate is high even in one cycle, the state transitions to the high rate state at that time.

  The determination condition for the device failure is changed to “10 consecutive failures” when transitioning from the high rate state to the low rate state. When transitioning from the low-rate state to the high-rate state, it is changed to “three consecutive failures”. However, in the low rate state, when the abnormality is being determined, the determination condition is not changed. That is, for example, even when the second and subsequent times when the abnormality determination is performed twice in the low rate state is a high rate, as long as the abnormality continues, the determination condition of the low rate state is applied. A failure is determined when an abnormality is determined for 8 consecutive times (10 consecutive times in total).

  Hereinafter, specific examples of state transition and failure determination will be described with reference to FIGS. 5, 6, and 7.

  FIG. 5A shows a transition from the high rate state to the low rate state. In FIG. 5A, ● indicates a period determined as a high rate (that is, a time point determined as a high rate based on statistical information obtained in one period), and ▲ indicates a period determined as a low rate. Indicates. The same applies to FIG. 5B, FIG. 6, and FIG.

  In FIG. 5 (a), first, since it is in a high rate state and has entered a low rate state for two consecutive cycles, it transitions to the low rate state in the second cycle. FIG. 5A shows that the determination condition is also switched to the low rate state.

  FIG. 5B shows a transition from the low rate state to the high rate state. In FIG. 5B, first, the state is in the low rate state, and transitions to the high rate state when it is determined that the rate is high. However, as described above, when the abnormality determination is being performed in the low rate state, the determination condition is not changed.

  FIG. 6A shows a first example of state transition during abnormality detection at a high rate. In FIGS. 6 and 7, the shaded portion indicates a period in which it is determined that there is an abnormality. As shown in FIG. 6 (a), even if the statistical information of the third period during the abnormality determination at a high rate is low rate, if there is an abnormality, it is a three-cycle continuous abnormality before the low-rate transition, so that the device failure (In the figure, it is described as Fail determination).

  FIG. 6B shows a second example of state transition during abnormality detection at a high rate. As shown in FIG. 6 (b), when the statistical information of the first period and the second period during abnormality determination at a high rate is low, the low rate state is determined for two consecutive periods, so the low rate state is determined. Change the condition to 10 consecutive abnormalities. In FIG. 6B, since the abnormal state is recovered at less than 10, it is not determined that the apparatus is faulty.

  FIG. 6C shows a third example of state transition during abnormality detection at a high rate. As shown in FIG. 6 (c), since the low-rate state is in the second cycle of the first cycle and the second cycle during the abnormality determination at the high rate, the low-rate state determination condition is changed to 10 continuous abnormalities, Since the abnormality continued in the low rate state from the 3rd cycle to the 10th cycle, it is determined that the apparatus has failed.

  FIG. 7A shows a first example of state transition during abnormality detection at a low rate. As shown in FIG. 7 (a), it is a case where the third and subsequent periods during the abnormality detection at the low rate change to the high rate state. However, since the abnormality continues, the determination condition for the low rate state is continued. It is determined that the device has failed in the 10th cycle.

  FIG. 7B shows a second example of state transition during abnormality detection at a low rate. As shown in FIG. 7B, when the abnormality is detected after the third cycle during the abnormality detection at the low rate, the abnormality is recovered in less than 10 cycles, so the state immediately transitions to the high rate state and is determined. Change the condition to 3 consecutive abnormalities.

  FIG. 7C shows a third example of state transition during low-rate abnormality detection. The third and subsequent cycles during the low-rate abnormality detection change to the high-rate state, and the abnormality is recovered in less than 10 cycles. Therefore, the judgment condition is immediately changed to the high-rate state three-continuous abnormality, and three-continuous abnormality is detected Therefore, it is determined that the device is faulty.

(About failure detection between interface parts)
As described above, the failure detection in the interface unit shown in FIG. 2A has been described in detail. However, the failure detection process between the interface units shown in FIG. This is the same as failure detection in the interface section.

  In the case of FIG. 2B, the apparatus control unit 13 has the same functional configuration as that of the IF control unit 14 shown in FIG. In the case of FIG. 2B, the device control unit 13 collects statistical information from each of the two interface units (specifically, chips in the interface unit) serving as a start point and an end point, and performs failure determination using the logic described so far. Do. From which chip in the two interface units the statistical information can be acquired can be determined in advance.

  When acquiring statistical information from each interface unit, for example, a statistical information acquisition command may be issued to the IF control unit 14 of each interface unit to acquire statistical information from each IF control unit 14 or directly. Statistical information may be acquired from the chip.

  Similarly to the IF control unit 14, the device control unit 13 can issue an instruction to transmit / receive a test packet to the chip or switch unit 12 of each interface unit to be monitored. As a result, even when there is no user signal or the path is not set, the test packet can flow between desired interface units (that is, between chips of the interface unit), and failure determination based on statistical information can be performed. .

  FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the inter-IF failure detection when the interface unit (card) is redundant. In the example illustrated in FIG. 8, among the cards # 0 to # 3, the card # 1 is in a non-selection system, and no user signal is flowing through the card # 1. User signals are not communicated between the non-selected card and the adjacent card.

  Therefore, in this example, a test packet for failure detection is transmitted from the card # 1 as indicated by the dotted line in FIG. 8, so that the card # 1 and the card # 3 and the card # 1 and the card # 3 Fault detection can be performed during the interval. In addition, it is possible to perform failure determination in the card # 1 by transmitting and receiving test packets between predetermined chips in the card # 1.

  That is, according to the present embodiment, a failure can be detected even if a path is not set by ATM or the like. Even when a path is not set, a failure can be detected even when there is no communication of user signals by flowing a test frame between chips or between interface units. As a result, it is possible to detect a failure that has not been known until user communication is performed after setting a path.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, embodiment described is only an example. For example, in the above example, the statistical information (the number of passing packets) is acquired from the chip, but the source for acquiring the statistical information may not be the chip. In other words, any functional unit other than a chip may be used as long as it is a functional unit that transmits packets and a functional unit that receives all packets transmitted from the functional unit and can acquire statistical information. It is good also as a source which acquires statistical information.

  In the above example, in the case of failure determination between chips in the interface unit, the IF control unit 14 in the interface unit performs failure determination. However, even in the case of failure determination between chips in the interface unit, device control is performed. The device control unit 13 may determine the failure by collecting the statistical information from each chip or from the IF control unit 14 by the unit 13.

  In addition, the present embodiment can be applied to any type regardless of the type of the interface unit. Furthermore, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to specify the direction of communication influence due to a failure. For example, failure determination 1 by flowing a packet from the function unit A to the function unit B and failure determination 2 by flowing a packet from the function unit B to the function unit A are performed, and the failure determination 1 does not detect a failure. When a failure is detected in failure determination 2, it can be seen that communication from the function unit B to the function unit A is affected. Here, the functional unit may be a chip, an interface unit, or another functional unit that can acquire statistical information.

(Summary of the embodiment, effects)
As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, instead of adding hardware with a detection function, by providing a new detection logic that can be operated on the firmware of the interface unit, It is possible to detect a failure between the interface units in the communication device 10 or within the interface unit. The specific features are summarized as follows.

  First, a failure is detected using statistical information obtained by measuring the number of packets. Conventionally, in order to display the status of the interface unit, the number of packets passing through has been measured by the firmware of the interface unit. However, the statistical information obtained by measuring the number of packets has not been used for failure detection. Also, it was not possible to detect a failure by simply measuring the number of packets. In the present embodiment, it is possible to detect a failure using statistical information by providing a new detection logic.

  Second, the failure determination logic is changed according to the packet rate. By changing the failure determination logic between a high rate and a low rate, a failure determination error caused by an asynchronous operation can be avoided and a correct failure determination can be made.

  As described above, as described above, as described above, when there is a transmission packet but the reception packet is zero, it is determined to be abnormal, or the number of transmission packets and the number of reception packets are integrated for a certain period of time, and the difference is determined. There is. Further, the number of consecutive abnormalities for failure determination is changed between the high rate and the low rate.

  Third, when a path is not set, a test packet is sent between chips or between interface units. As a result, it is possible to detect a failure even when there is no communication of user signals. It is possible. Fourth, it is possible to detect a non-selection card failure in a card redundant configuration. That is, even in a non-selected card, a failure can be detected by flowing a test frame between chips or between IFs.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications and applications are possible within the scope of the claims.

10 communication device 20 network 30 operation system 11 interface unit 12 switch unit 13 device control unit 14 IF control unit 141 statistical information collection unit 142 rate determination unit 143 statistical information comparison unit 144 failure determination unit 145 failure notification unit 146 test packet transmission instruction unit 147 Data storage unit

Claims (11)

A communication device that performs packet communication,
A first functional unit for sending packets;
A second functional unit for receiving a packet sent from the first functional unit;
Statistical information collecting means for collecting statistical information on the number of packets transmitted from the first functional unit and statistical information on the number of packets received by the second functional unit at a predetermined period;
Statistical information comparing means for determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred by comparing the statistical information of the first functional part collected by the statistical information collecting means with the statistical information of the second functional part When,
Failure determination means for determining whether a device failure has occurred between the first function unit and the second function unit based on the number of times determined to be abnormal continuously in the predetermined cycle A communication apparatus comprising: The communication apparatus further includes rate determination means for determining whether the transmission rate of the packet is a high rate or a low rate based on statistical information collected from the first functional unit,
The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the failure determination unit changes the number of times in accordance with the rate determined by the rate determination unit. The failure determination means is characterized in that the number of times when the rate determination means determines that the rate is high is less than the number of times when the rate determination means determines that the rate is low. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 or 2.   4. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for transmitting a test packet as the packet from the first functional unit to the second functional unit. .   The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the statistical information is the number of packets in the period of the predetermined period.   5. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the statistical information is a value obtained by accumulating the number of packets in the period of the predetermined period over a predetermined period. Each of the first functional unit and the second functional unit is a chip in the interface unit of the communication device, and the statistical information collection unit, the statistical information comparison unit, and the failure determination unit are included in the interface unit. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication apparatus is realized by a program executed by an IF control unit. Each of the first function unit and the second function unit is an interface unit of the communication device, and the statistical information collection unit, the statistical information comparison unit, and the failure determination unit are devices in the communication device. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication apparatus is realized by a program executed by the control unit.   The communication apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the communication apparatus is an interface card used by being mounted on a packet transmission apparatus. A failure determination method in a communication device including a first functional unit that transmits a packet and a second functional unit that receives a packet transmitted from the first functional unit,
A statistical information collecting step for collecting statistical information on the number of packets transmitted from the first functional unit and statistical information on the number of packets received by the second functional unit at a predetermined period;
Statistical information comparison step of determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred by comparing the statistical information of the first functional unit and the statistical information of the second functional unit collected by the statistical information collecting step When,
A failure determination step for determining whether or not a device failure has occurred between the first function unit and the second function unit based on the number of times determined to be abnormal continuously in the predetermined cycle. A failure determination method comprising: and. A computer in a communication device, comprising: a first functional unit that transmits a packet; and a second functional unit that receives a packet transmitted from the first functional unit.
Statistical information collecting means for collecting statistical information on the number of packets transmitted from the first functional unit and statistical information on the number of packets received by the second functional unit at a predetermined period;
Statistical information comparing means for determining whether or not an abnormality has occurred by comparing the statistical information of the first functional part collected by the statistical information collecting means with the statistical information of the second functional part ,
Failure determination means for determining whether a device failure has occurred between the first function unit and the second function unit based on the number of times determined to be abnormal continuously in the predetermined cycle ,
Program to function as.

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