JP2015156562A - communication device, system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem that, in the confirmation of connectivity between communication devices, it is not possible to designate a detailed unit, such as a package and a module in a communication device, as a loopback point.

SOLUTION: A loopback message including the description of a loopback point, which is at least one predetermined module in the communication device, is generated and transmitted to the communication device. The content of a loopback response, which includes the description of a loopback confirmation result and is received in response to the loopback message, is output.

COPYRIGHT: (C)2015,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication apparatus, system, and method.

  There is MPLS-TP as a technique suitable for accommodating line-type traffic and packet-type traffic in an IP (Internet Protocol) communication network. MPLS-TP is an abbreviation for Multi-Protocol Label Switching Transport-Profile. This includes functions such as OAM (Operation Administration and Maintenance), which is maintenance operation, and APS (Automatic Protection Switching), which is protection, in order to ensure the reliability of communication lacking in packet network technology.

  The functions of the OAM are divided into functions such as fault detection, fault location identification, and network performance measurement. In a dedicated line service or telephone service that requires a high operating rate, an OAM function that identifies a failure point is necessary in order to reduce a communication disconnection time due to a failure involving replacement or repair of a device. Examples of the OAM function for identifying a fault location include LB (Loop Back), LT (Link Trace), and PT (Path Trace), which are loopback connectivity tests at nodes along the route in the network. However, since MPLS is a protocol that basically designates a route in the network, in the MPLS-TP OAM function, a turning point for specifying a fault location in the network is not designated in a detailed unit in the apparatus. .

  Techniques relating to the solution of such a problem are described in Patent Documents 1 and 2.

  The communication system described in Patent Literature 1 includes a plurality of communication devices, and transfers packets between the plurality of communication devices via a communication path. One communication device of the plurality of communication devices uses a first communication device to designate a communication device that returns a packet when the communication path is returned by any of the communication devices on the communication path to check the connectivity of the communication path. Information is stored in the first area of the header information of the packet. The communication device further stores the second information related to the turning point in the designated communication device in the second area in the header information of the packet, and the first information and the second information are added. Send the packet. Note that the turning point in the communication device specified by the second information is a detailed unit in the device such as Ingress or Egress.

  The technique described in Patent Document 2 sets termination devices connected to a line that accommodates a user frame as a subordinate relationship, and includes an upper side (center side) termination device and a plurality of lower side (base side) termination devices. Clarification of fault detection section is realized by monitoring connectivity between the two. In the implementation of the connectivity monitoring, in order to uniquely identify each termination device for each VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network), a unit ID (Identification) uniquely set for each termination device is used. That is, each terminal device is uniquely identified for each VLAN by the unit ID.

International Publication No. 2011/064484 JP 2012-182760 A

  In the technique described in Patent Document 1, the turning point in the communication device specified by the second information is Ingress, Egress, etc., but more detailed units such as packages and modules in the communication device are used as the turning points. not specified.

  In the technique described in Patent Document 2, each terminal device is uniquely identified for each VLAN by a unit ID, but a detailed unit in the device is not identified.

  That is, in confirming connectivity between communication devices, it is a problem that a detailed unit such as a package or a module in the communication device cannot be specified as a turning point.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a communication device, a system and a method for solving this problem.

  The communication device of the present invention creates a loopback message in which a turn-back point, which is at least one predetermined module of another communication device, is described, transmits the message to the communication device, and receives the loopback message in response to the loopback message The content of the loopback response in which the result of the return confirmation is described is output.

  According to the communication method of the present invention, a loopback message in which a turn-back point that is at least one predetermined module of a communication device is described is created and transmitted to the communication device, and the loopback message is received corresponding to the loopback message. The content of the loopback response in which the result of the loopback confirmation is described is output.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to designate a detailed unit such as a package or a module in a communication device as a turning point in checking connectivity between the communication devices.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the communication system in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the communication apparatus in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a table | surface which shows the structural example of the communication apparatus in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the remote loopback message in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the remote loopback response in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the communication system in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the communication apparatus in the 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

  A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of a communication system in the present embodiment. The communication system includes communication devices 10, 20, and 30. The communication devices 10, 20, and 30 are linearly connected to each other.

  The communication device 10 is compatible with MPLS and includes a plurality of modules such as a transmission / reception unit 11 and a control plane 12 as shown in FIG.

  Each unit of the communication device 10 will be described.

  The transmission / reception unit 11 transmits and receives packets to and from other communication devices.

  The control plane 12 creates a loopback message and a loopback response and controls the loopback.

  The configuration of the communication devices 20 and 30 is the same as that of the communication device 10.

  Next, the operation of the communication system in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the communication system in the present embodiment.

  First, it is assumed that the module IDs and mounting states of the communication devices 10, 20, and 30 in FIG. 1 are as shown in FIG. 3, for example. In each communication device, the module ID and the mounting state information are managed by the control plane.

  The user performs a loopback start operation on the communication device 10 and designates, for example, the module c of the communication device 30 (see FIG. 3 as well) as the turning point. In response to the loopback start operation, the control plane 12 (module b) generates the loopback message (LBM) shown in FIG. The ID value 3 uniquely associated with the module c designated in the communication device 30 is described in the ID field of the loopback message (S1). Also, 0 is written in the flags field of the loopback message. Further, a label for making the designated communication device 30 a destination is created, and the loopback message is attached with the label and transmitted from the transmission / reception unit 11 East (module a) (S2).

  The following fields in the loopback message of FIG. 4 are well known, but an example of setting in this embodiment is shown.

  MEL: MEG (Maintenance Entity Group) Level, one integer from 0 to 7 is set by the user.

  Version: Set to 0.

  OpCode: Set to 2 for LBM and 3 for loopback response (LBR).

  flags: Set to 1 for reception (wrapping) and 0 for transmission (transfer).

  TLV (Type Length Value) Offset: Set to 4.

  Transaction ID / Sequence Number: The set value is appropriately set by the apparatus.

  Type: Set to 3 (Data TLV).

  Length: Data TLV size is set.

  In the communication device 20, the loopback message is received by the transmission / reception unit 21 West (module a), and since the destination is the communication device 30, it is transferred from the transmission / reception unit 21 East (module a) to the communication device 30 (S3).

  In the communication device 30, the loopback message is received by the transmission / reception unit 31 West (module a) and transferred to the control plane 32 (module b). Since the destination of the loopback message is the own device, the control plane 32 determines that the return is the own device. The control plane 32 changes the flag value of the loopback message from 0 to 1, and transfers the loopback message to a plurality of modules c (FIG. 3 communication device 30 Slots 4, 5, and 6) uniquely associated with the ID value. (S4). The module c returns the loopback message to the control plane 32 because the flags value of the loopback message is 1 (S5). The control plane 32 creates the loopback response of FIG. 5 depending on whether the looped back message received within a predetermined time. That is, a discriminator indicating the reception state of the loopback message in the control plane 32 is described in the slot field and the Result field of the loopback response, and 0 is described in the flags field. Further, a label whose destination is the transmission source communication device 10 is created, and the loopback response is attached with the label and transmitted from the transmission / reception unit 31 West (S6).

  The Slot field is expressed in, for example, a 16-bit binary number, and represents a slot with a natural number that increases from 1 in order from the least significant bit. In the Slot field, 1 is written in the bit corresponding to the slot number when the loopback message from the module mounted in the slot of a certain number is received, and 0 is written when it is not received. In the example of the loopback response in FIG. 5, when a loopback message from the module c of Slots 4, 5, and 6 is received, “0000000000111000” is described in the Slot field. In the Result field, 1 is written when a loopback message from all modules with a certain ID is received, and 0 is written when it is not received. Further, in the Inventory field, the mounting state of the module managed by the control plane is described in the same way as the Slot field, and 1 is described when a module with a certain ID is mounted, and it is not mounted 0 is described in

  In the communication device 20, the loopback response is received by the transmission / reception unit 21 East (module a), and since the destination is the communication device 10, it is transferred from the transmission / reception unit 21 West (module a) to the communication device 10 (S7).

  In the communication device 10, the loopback response is received by the transmission / reception unit 11 East (module a) and transferred to the control plane 12 (module b) (S8). The control plane 11 outputs the contents of the Slot field, Result field, and Inventory field of the loopback response (S9). Thereby, the user can confirm the mounting state of the specified module by the Inventory field, and can confirm the loopback result by the Slot field and the Result field. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, by uniquely associating one ID with a plurality of modules in the communication apparatus, as described above, the loopback message is sent from the control plane to the plurality of modules in the communication apparatus that is the destination of the loopback message. Is transferred. For this reason, it is possible to confirm a plurality of turning points at a time.

  The communication devices 10, 20, and 30 may be communication devices having a function for performing a loopback test, such as an Ethernet (registered trademark) OAM function. Further, the connection form of the communication devices 10, 20, and 30 is not limited to linear, and may be a ring or the like.

  As described above, in confirming connectivity between communication devices, it is possible to designate a detailed unit such as a package or a module in the communication device as a turning point.

  Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 7 shows a configuration example of the communication apparatus according to this embodiment. The communication device 40 transmits / receives a packet to / from another communication device, creates a loopback message, and controls loopback.

  Next, the operation of the communication apparatus in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  When a user designates a predetermined module of another communication device as a turning point, the communication device 40 creates a loopback message in which the designated turning point is described and transmits it to the communication device. (The communication device performs loopback confirmation for at least one module.) The communication device 40 outputs the content of the received loopback response in response to the loopback message.

  As described above, in confirming connectivity between communication apparatuses, it is possible to designate a detailed unit such as a package or a module in the communication apparatus as a turning point.

  The present invention can be used in communication apparatuses, systems, and methods.

10, 20, 30, 40 Communication device 11, 21, 31 Transmitter / receiver 12, 22, 32 Control plane

Claims (10)

  A loopback message in which a turn-back point that is at least one predetermined module of another communication device is described is created and transmitted to the communication device, and the result of the turn-back confirmation received in response to the loopback message is A communication apparatus that outputs the contents of the loopback response described.   Performs loopback confirmation on the module that is the loopback point described in the loopback message addressed to the own device received from another communication device, creates a loopback response describing the result of the loopback check, and transmits it to the communication device A communication device characterized by:   The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein when there are a plurality of modules, each module performs a return confirmation, and the result of the return confirmation is for each module.   The communication apparatus according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the loopback response describes a slot in which the module is mounted.   A communication system according to claim 1, wherein the communication apparatus according to claim 2 communicates with the communication apparatus according to claim 2, 3 or 4, and the transmission and the reception are performed.   A loopback message in which a turn-back point that is at least one predetermined module of the communication device is described is created and transmitted to the communication device, and the result of the turn-back confirmation received in response to the loopback message is described A communication method characterized by outputting the contents of the loopback response made.   Performing loopback confirmation on a module that is a loopback point described in a loopback message received from a communication apparatus, creating a loopback response in which the loopback result is described, and transmitting the loopback response to the communication apparatus. Communication method.   8. The communication method according to claim 7, wherein when there are a plurality of modules, each module performs a return confirmation, and the result of the return confirmation is for each module.   9. The communication method according to claim 7, wherein a slot in which the module is mounted is described in the loopback response.   The communication method according to claim 6, wherein the transmission and the reception of the communication method according to claim 6 correspond to the reception and the transmission of the communication method according to claim 7, 8 or 9, respectively.

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