JP2014183363A - Frame transmission device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve response when the screen of a remote device is displayed via an in-band circuit.SOLUTION: An item holding unit 22 holds a fixed item whose display content is previously fixed and a varying item whose display content varies on the screen of a remote device 12. When the screen of the remote device 12 is requested by a control terminal 14, a remote access unit 42 transmits a command to the remote device 12 via an in-band circuit, and acquires, from the remote device 12 via the in-band circuit, information to be displayed using the variable item. A screen generation unit 36 generates the screen of the remote device 12 having disposed thereon the fixed item in which the information previously possessed by the item holding unit 22 is set and the varying item in which the information acquired by the remote access unit 42 is set. A screen provision unit 40 transmits the screen of the remote device 12 to the control terminal 14 via an out-band circuit.

Description

  The present invention relates to data communication technology, and more particularly to a frame transmission apparatus.

  In maintenance work in a communication system with multiple transmission devices connected, the local device and remote device are connected using a part of the line provided between these devices, and login from the local device to the remote device is executed. There are things to do. At that time, if the operation line for transmitting the main signal is used, the line capacity of the communication system is affected. Therefore, connection may be made using an empty line such as an interframe gap. Such an unused logical line for main signal transmission is hereinafter referred to as an “in-band line”.

JP 2007-189476 A

  FIG. 1 shows the bandwidth of an in-band line. For example, as shown in Item No. 1, even in the case of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (registered trademark), the band of the in-band line is about 2720 Kbps. As described above, the in-band line has a relatively small line capacity, and it takes time to transfer screen data including an image or the like configured by the remote apparatus, and the response for displaying the screen of the remote apparatus may be deteriorated. Also, when connecting from a local device to a plurality of remote devices, the amount of data transferred on the in-band line further increases, and the screen display response may be further deteriorated. As a result, the operability of the screen of the remote device is lowered, and an operation error may be induced.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and its main object is to provide a technique for improving the response when displaying a screen of a remote device via an in-band line.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, a frame transmission device according to an aspect of the present invention is arranged on a screen provided by an external device, and a fixed item whose display content is fixed in advance as a plurality of items for displaying information, and a display An item holding unit for holding a variable item whose contents fluctuate, a command holding unit for holding a command for requesting provision of information to be displayed in the variable item, and a request receiving unit for receiving a request for providing a screen of an external device from a user terminal If the requested screen contains a variable item, send a command to the external device via the in-band line and obtain information to be displayed with the variable item from the external device via the in-band line. A fixed item in which information previously stored in the item storage unit is set, and a variable item in which information acquired by the information acquisition unit is set. Comprising a screen generating unit that generates a screen of the external device arranged to arm, and a screen providing unit that transmits the screen display generating unit to the user terminal is generated through the outbound line.

  It should be noted that any combination of the above-described constituent elements, and the expression of the present invention converted between a method, a system, a program, a recording medium storing the program, and the like are also effective as an aspect of the present invention.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the response at the time of displaying the screen of a remote apparatus via an in-band line can be improved.

It is a figure which shows the zone | band of an in-band line | wire. It is a figure which shows the structure of the frame transmission system of embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the local apparatus of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a remote screen. It is a figure which shows the command information which a command holding part hold | maintains. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of a local apparatus.

  FIG. 2 shows a configuration of the frame transmission system according to the embodiment. In the frame transmission system 100, a plurality of frame transmission apparatuses are connected via a transmission path. The frame transmission system 100 may be an Ethernet network, for example, and the transmission apparatus may be a layer 2 switch, for example. Each of the plurality of transmission apparatuses is a screen that displays information on the operation state and setting state of the own apparatus, and provides a GUI screen for the maintenance person to change the information as appropriate.

  The plurality of transmission apparatuses in FIG. 2 transmit and receive main signals to and from each other. The main signal is, for example, a user frame transmitted / received between bases of end users. The line for transmitting the main signal is also called “main signal line”. The band of the in-band line shown in FIG. 1 can be said to be obtained by subtracting the maximum transmission capacity indicated by the speed of the main signal from the total band of the transmission path.

  In-band is the name of a network that transmits a device monitoring / control signal between devices using a band such as a gap (gap between frames) that is not used as a main signal, or a part of the main signal. It is. A line constituting the in-band, in other words, a line used in the in-band is referred to as an “in-band line”. The in-band line may be provided as a logical line on a physical transmission line for main signal transmission. Outband is the name of a network (typically a LAN) that connects a control terminal and a device and transmits a signal for monitoring and controlling the device. A line constituting an out-band, in other words, a line used in the out-band is referred to as an “out-band line”.

  The control terminal 14 is an information processing terminal operated by an administrator or maintenance person of the frame transmission system 100. The control terminal 14 displays the screen of each of the plurality of transmission apparatuses, in other words, it can be said to be a console terminal that displays a screen for an administrator or a maintenance person to operate each frame transmission apparatus.

  Hereinafter, a transmission device directly connected to the control terminal 14 is referred to as a “local device”, and a transmission device indirectly connected to the control terminal 14 via the local device is referred to as a “remote device”. In addition, the remote device 12a, the remote device 12b, the remote device 12c, and the remote device 12d in FIG. Screen data, which is information displayed on the screen of each transmission device, is transferred between the control terminal 14 and the local device 10 through an out-band line. On the other hand, the local device 10 to the remote device 12 and between the remote devices 12 are transferred via an in-band line so as not to affect the transmission of the main signal.

  When the local device 10 of the embodiment is to provide the screen of the remote device 12 (hereinafter referred to as “remote screen”) to the control terminal 14, an item whose display content is fixed is held in advance in the own device. Set the information. On the other hand, the information dynamically acquired from the remote device 12 is set to the item whose display content varies through the in-band line. The change in display content includes a change in information held by the remote device 12 for screen display and a change in the processing result of the remote device 12 to be displayed as an item. According to the configuration of the embodiment, the load on the in-band line is reduced and the response of the remote screen display is improved.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the local device 10 of FIG. Each block shown in the block diagram of the present specification can be realized in hardware by an element such as a CPU and memory of a computer, a mechanical device, and an electronic circuit, and in software by a computer program or the like. However, here, functional blocks realized by their cooperation are depicted. Therefore, those skilled in the art will understand that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by a combination of hardware and software.

  The configuration shown in FIG. 3 also applies to the configuration of the remote device 12. That is, the local device 10 and the remote device 12 in FIG. 2 are determined by which transmission device the control terminal 14 is directly connected to, in other words, which transmission device is connected by an out-band line. It has the same function.

  Although not shown in FIG. 3, the local device 10 and the remote device 12 also include a command execution unit. The command execution unit receives a control frame transmitted from an external device via an in-band line or an out-band line, executes a process according to the command indicated by the control frame, and returns the execution result to the transmission source. . The command may be a command such as CLI (Command Line Interface) or SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). Typically, the command execution unit responds with text-based information as an execution result of the received command.

  The local device 10 includes a control unit 30 that executes various data processing, and a data holding unit 20 that is an area for storing setting information for data processing by the control unit. The data holding unit 20 includes an item holding unit 22, a command holding unit 24, and a correspondence relationship holding unit 26.

  The item holding unit 22 holds data of a plurality of items displayed on the remote screen. The plurality of items are a plurality of GUI objects indicating a plurality of information items. The items of the embodiment include a fixed item for displaying information whose contents do not change, a variable item for displaying information whose contents change, and an input item for a maintenance person to input information. The item holding unit 22 holds the fixed item, variable item, and input item data to be arranged on the screen in association with the ID of the remote screen, and the arrangement mode (position, order, etc.) of each item on the screen Is further held.

  Here, for the fixed item, both the image data of the item itself (for example, an image showing the frame of the item) and the content to be displayed by the item (for example, character and image data) are held. On the other hand, for the variable item and the input item, only the image data of the item itself is retained. As will be described later, the content to be displayed as the variable item is dynamically acquired from the remote device 12 when the screen is generated.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of a remote screen. Specifically, a system information screen showing the latest setting information in a certain remote device 12 is shown. The remote screen 50 of FIG. 4 includes 16 items indicated by items 51 to 80. Among these items, items 51 to 58 display fixed text (such as titles of information items) and are fixed items whose contents do not change. Item 60, item 68, item 74, and item 80 are button objects, and these are also fixed items whose contents do not change.

  Item 62, item 64, item 70, and item 76 are text fields that display the latest setting information in the remote device 12, and are variable items whose contents fluctuate. Item 66, item 72, and item 78 are text fields in which the maintenance person inputs information to be set in the remote device 12, and are input items. When a still image or a moving image whose content does not change is displayed on the remote screen 50, the image data is also stored in the item holding unit 22 in advance.

  In relation to FIG. 5 described later, the name of the item 60 is “ReadInfoButton001”, and the name of the item 62 is “DevClassDispBox001”. The name of the item 64 is “SysNameDispBox001”, the name of the item 66 is “SysNameInputBox001”, and the name of the item 68 is “SysNameSetButton001”. The name of the item 70 is “SysLocationDispBox001”, the name of the item 72 is “SysLocationInputBox001”, and the name of the item 74 is “SysLocationSetButton001”. The name of the item 76 is “SysContactDispBox001”, the name of the item 78 is “SysContactInputBox001”, and the name of the item 80 is “SysContactSetButton001”.

  Returning to FIG. 3, the command holding unit 24 holds command information regarding variable items and input items arranged on each screen for a plurality of remote screens 50 corresponding to the plurality of remote devices 12. Specifically, the command holding unit 24 holds a specific command in association with each device, each screen, and each operation of the maintenance person, in other words, holds a command corresponding to each combination of device, screen, and operation. To do.

  In the command information of the embodiment, a CLI command predetermined in the remote device 12 is set. As a modification, a command (Get, GetNext, GetBulk, Set, etc.) defined by SNMP may be set. The same applies to commands transmitted from the local device 10 to the remote device 12, and various control commands for instructing the remote device 12 to provide information and register information may be used.

  FIG. 5 shows command information held by the command holding unit 24. The screen ID is identification information that identifies one screen among a plurality of screens provided by the plurality of remote devices 12. For example, one remote device 12 can be specified from among a plurality of remote devices 12, and one screen (for example, the system information screen in FIG. 4) from among a plurality of screens provided by the one remote device 12 is displayed. It is an identifiable ID. In the command information, an operation and a CLI command are associated with each variable item and input item arranged on the screen. In FIG. 5, reference commands indicated by “show...” And update / registration commands indicated by “set.

  In the command information of the embodiment, parameters and directions are defined for each CLI command. The parameter is used for extracting necessary information from the acquired information in the case of a reference command. In the case of an update-type command, information to be transmitted to the remote device 12 together with the command is specified. As a modification, even if it is a command of a reference system, information to be transmitted to the remote device 12 may be defined together with the command. The direction mainly defines processing after command transmission. For example, it specifies that only transmission is executed, and sets the acquired information to an item.

  Returning to FIG. 3, the correspondence relationship holding unit 26 holds the ID of the remote screen in association with the address of the remote device 12. For example, the correspondence relationship holding unit 26 holds the IP address of the remote device 12a in association with the ID of the system information screen provided by the remote device 12a, and remotely associates it with the ID of the system information screen provided by the remote device 12b. Holds the IP address of the device 12b. Of course, other types of addresses such as MAC addresses may be held instead of IP addresses.

  The control unit 30 includes a main signal relay unit 32, a request reception unit 34, a screen generation unit 36, a screen provision unit 40, and a remote access unit 42. The screen generation unit 36 includes a command specifying unit 38. The remote access unit 42 includes a remote information acquisition unit 44 and a remote information registration unit 46.

  The main signal relay unit 32 receives a main signal frame transmitted from a remote device 12 (for example, the remote device 12d in FIG. 2) via a main signal line. The main signal relay unit 32 transfers the received main signal frame to another remote device 12 (for example, the remote device 12a in FIG. 2) via the main signal line.

  The request reception unit 34 receives from the control terminal 14 a remote screen provision request in which remote screen identification information desired by the maintenance person (for example, a combination of the name of the remote device 12 and the screen name) is designated. In this provision request, operation details such as screen opening and button pressing are also specified.

  The screen generator 36 generates a remote screen requested from the control terminal 14. Specifically, the item holding unit 22 is referred to, and a fixed item, a variable item, and an input item associated with the screen ID specified by the request message are specified. Then, remote screen data in which those items are arranged according to the layout information is set. At that time, content data stored in advance in the item storage unit 22 is set for the fixed item. For example, in the remote screen 50 of FIG. 4, the image of the label object held in the item holding unit 22 and the text “device type” are set for the item 52 which is a fixed item.

  When the requested remote screen includes a variable item, the command specifying unit 38 refers to the command information in the command holding unit 24 and specifies the command, parameter, and direction associated with the variable item and the operation. Similarly, when an information input operation for an input item is detected, the command specifying unit 38 specifies a command, a parameter, and a direction associated with the input item and the operation. The screen generation unit 36 passes a remote access instruction including a screen ID and a command to the remote access unit 42. Parameters are added to the remote access instruction as appropriate according to the type of command.

  The screen generation unit 36 acquires information indicating the access result to the remote device 12 (a “remote access result” described later) from the remote access unit 42, and completes the remote screen by setting the information as the content of the variable item. Let The screen providing unit 40 displays the remote screen desired by the maintenance person on the control terminal 14 by transmitting the remote screen data generated by the screen generating unit 36 to the control terminal 14 via the out-band line.

  The remote access unit 42 accesses the remote device 12 according to the remote access instruction from the screen generation unit 36. When the remote access instruction specifies a reference command, in other words, a command related to information acquisition from the remote device 12, the remote information acquisition unit 44 remotely transmits a control frame including the command via the in-band line. It is transmitted to the apparatus 12 and executed. In FIG. 5, the command of the reference system is indicated by “show.

  The remote information acquisition unit 44 refers to the correspondence holding unit 26 and refers to the IP address of the remote device 12 (referred to herein as “specific remote device”) associated with the screen ID specified in the remote access instruction. Identify. Then, a Telnet protocol IP packet (which may be a layer 2 frame including the IP packet) specifying the IP address as the destination address is output to the in-band line. In this IP packet, a command specified in the remote access instruction is set, and parameters are set as appropriate according to the type of command.

  The remote information acquisition unit 44 receives an IP packet including a command execution result in the specific remote device (may be an Ethernet frame including the IP address) from the specific remote device via the in-band line. The remote information acquisition unit 44 refers to the correspondence relationship holding unit 26 and identifies the screen ID associated with the IP address set as the transmission source address in the IP packet. Then, the remote access result including the command transmitted to the remote device 12, a flag indicating a response, and the command execution result acquired from the remote device 12 is passed to the screen generation unit 36.

  The screen generation unit 36 refers to the command information, identifies the variable item associated with the command indicated by the remote access result, and sets the command execution result indicated by the remote access result as the content to be displayed with the variable item. .

  Note that the command execution result acquired by the remote information acquisition unit 44 may be a command execution result displayed on the CUI provided by the remote device 12. For example, it may be character information displayed on a terminal emulator screen when a CUI terminal emulator is used to remotely log in to the remote device 12 using Telnet and execute a command. That is, the command execution result acquired by the remote information acquisition unit 44 is preferably text data to be set in the variable item. In order to reduce the amount of data transferred through the in-band line, it is preferable to exclude data having a relatively large size such as image data.

  The remote information registration unit 46 transmits an update-type command, in other words, a command related to information registration to the remote device 12 in the remote access instruction, to the specific remote device via the in-band line. To do. Thereby, an information registration process, for example, a setting change process is executed in the specific remote device. In FIG. 5, the update commands are indicated by “set...”. The processing of the remote information registration unit 46 is the same as that of the remote information acquisition unit 44. Even when an update-type command is executed, a command execution result indicating that the execution has succeeded or failed is acquired from the specific remote device.

  The operation of the frame transmission system 100 configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Although not shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6, the local device 10 always executes processing for transmitting and receiving a main signal to and from the remote device 12 via the main signal line.

First, a remote screen open (initial display) operation will be described as an operation at the time of information acquisition.
A maintenance person of the frame transmission system 100 inputs to the control terminal 14 identification information of a remote screen desired to be displayed on the control terminal 14, in other words, identification information (device name, etc.) of the remote device 12 to be remotely logged in. The control terminal 14 transmits a remote screen provision request specifying the remote screen identification information to the local device 10.

  When the request reception unit 34 of the local device 10 receives the remote screen provision request (Y of S10), the screen generation unit 36 displays the fixed item, the variable item, and the input item associated with the requested remote screen as layout information. By setting according to the above, data of the remote screen is set (S12). When a variable item is included in the requested remote screen (Y in S14), the command specifying unit 38 specifies a command associated with the variable item (S16). Here, since it is a screen opening operation, as shown in FIG. 4, the “show system” command associated with the item 62, the item 64, the item 70, and the item 76 is specified.

  The remote information acquisition unit 44 acquires information to be displayed as a variable item from the remote device 12 via the in-band line. Specifically, the IP address of the remote device 12 is specified based on the ID of the remote screen, and a Telnet session with the remote device 12 is generated using the IP address (S18). Then, a command (here, “show system”) corresponding to each variable item is transmitted to the remote device 12 via the Telnet session, and information to be displayed in each variable item (hereinafter referred to as “variable item information”). .) Is acquired (S20). The remote information acquisition unit 44 passes the variable item information to the screen generation unit 36 in association with the screen ID specified by the IP address of the providing remote device 12.

  The screen generation unit 36 sets the variable item information to the variable item on the remote screen specified by the screen ID acquired from the remote information acquisition unit 44 (S22). Specifically, information associated with the parameter character string defined as the application parameter of each variable item in the command information is extracted from the variable item information. Then, the extracted information is set as display data for each variable item according to the direction corresponding to each variable item. For example, for the item 62 (DevClassDispBox001) in FIG. 4, information on the “sysDescr” parameter in the variable item information acquired by the remote information acquisition unit 44 is set.

  The screen providing unit 40 provides the remote screen data generated by the screen generating unit 36 to the control terminal 14 via the out-band line (S24). The control terminal 14 displays the remote screen provided from the local device 10 on the display. If the variable item is not included in the remote screen (N in S14), S16 to S22 are skipped, and the screen generation unit 36 generates a remote screen using the content held in advance by the item holding unit 22. If a request for providing a remote screen is not accepted (N in S10), S12 and the subsequent steps are skipped, and the flow of FIG.

Next, the operation when information is updated (information registration) will be described.
The maintenance person checks the remote screen displayed on the control terminal 14, inputs data for a desired input item, and inputs a selection operation for the setting button. In the following example, the operation when the device name is input to the item 66 (SysNameInputBox001) using the keyboard of the control terminal 14 and the item 68 (SysNameSetButton001) is clicked with the mouse of the control terminal 14 will be described. The control terminal 14 transmits a remote screen update request specifying the remote screen identification information, the input target item, and the input character string to the local device 10.

  When the request receiving unit 34 of the local device 10 receives the remote screen update request, the command specifying unit 38 commands (hereinafter referred to as “registered command”) associated with the input target item on the specified remote screen. Is identified. Here, “set sysname” is specified as a registration command, and an input character string is specified as a parameter. The remote information registration unit 46 specifies the IP address of the remote device 12 based on the ID of the remote screen, and generates a Telnet session with the remote device 12 using the IP address. Then, using the Telnet session, the registration command and parameters specified by the command specifying unit 38 are transmitted to the remote device 12 via the in-band line.

  The remote device 12 executes the registration command and returns the execution result to the local device 10 via the in-band line. The remote information registration unit 46 of the local device 10 passes the registration command execution result to the screen generation unit 36. When the execution result indicates success, the screen generation unit 36 determines that the update display condition of the item 64 in the command information (FIG. 5, item number 2, third in the operation column) is satisfied. Thereafter, the same operation as when the remote screen is opened is executed, that is, a “show system” command is issued to the remote device 12. Then, the latest information of the item 64 is acquired and extracted, and the display content of the item 64 on the remote screen is updated.

  According to the frame transmission system 100 of the present embodiment, in the situation where the control frame between the local device 10 and the remote device 12 is transmitted and received using an in-band line, the local device is used for the fixed items among the components of the remote screen. 10 sets information that is statically held, and dynamically acquires only the content of the variable item. As a result, the amount of data transferred through the in-band line is reduced, the response in the screen display is improved, and the smooth operation of the screen and the reduction of operation errors are supported.

  Further, an information registration operation for the remote device 12 and a screen update after the operation can be realized with a small amount of transfer data. In addition, by maintaining the correspondence between the remote screen and the address of the remote device 12, the screen display of a plurality of remote devices 12 is also supported, and an in-band line can be used even when connecting simultaneously with a plurality of remote devices 12. Increase of the load can be suppressed.

  The present invention has been described based on the embodiments. It is understood by those skilled in the art that these embodiments are exemplifications, and that various modifications are possible depending on combinations of the respective constituent elements and processing processes, and such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. By the way.

  Any combination of the above-described embodiments and modifications is also useful as an embodiment of the present invention. The new embodiment generated by the combination has the effects of the combined embodiment and the modified examples. In addition, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the functions to be fulfilled by the constituent elements described in the claims are realized by the individual constituent elements shown in the embodiments and the modified examples or by their cooperation. .

  10 local device, 12 remote device, 22 item holding unit, 24 command holding unit, 26 correspondence holding unit, 34 request receiving unit, 36 screen generating unit, 38 command specifying unit, 40 screen providing unit, 44 remote information acquiring unit, 46 Remote information registration unit, 100 frame transmission system.

Claims (3)

As a plurality of items that are arranged on a screen provided by an external device and display information, a fixed item whose display content is fixed in advance, an item holding unit that holds a variable item whose display content varies,
A command holding unit for holding a command for requesting provision of information to be displayed in the variable item;
A request receiving unit that receives a request for providing the screen of the external device from a user terminal;
When the requested item includes the variable item, the command is transmitted to the external device via an in-band line, and information to be displayed with the variable item from the external device via the in-band line is displayed. An information acquisition unit to acquire;
A fixed item that sets information held in advance in the item holding unit, and a screen generation unit that generates a screen of the external device in which a variable item that sets information acquired by the information acquisition unit is arranged;
A screen providing unit that transmits the screen generated by the screen generating unit to the user terminal via an out-band line;
A frame transmission apparatus comprising: An information registration unit,
The item holding unit further holds an input item for allowing a user to input information to be registered in the external device,
The command holding unit further holds a registration command for requesting registration of information input to the input item,
The information registration unit registers the input information in the external device by transmitting the registration command and input information to the input item to the external device via the in-band line. Item 4. The frame transmission device according to Item 1. It further includes a correspondence holding unit that holds the correspondence between the screens provided by each of the plurality of external devices and the address of each device,
The screen generation unit generates a plurality of screens corresponding to the plurality of external devices, and when the information acquisition unit receives a frame including item information to be displayed in the variable item, the screen generation unit 3. The frame transmission device according to claim 1, wherein item information included in the frame is set for a variable item on a screen associated with a transmission source address of the frame.

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