JP2765614B2 - Network construction support method and device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network construction support method and apparatus for supporting the construction of a test system required for a network system having a multi-path configuration arranged in a hierarchical manner, and more particularly to a network for a test system. The present invention relates to a network construction support method and apparatus that minimizes and facilitates construction.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, in order to construct a network system of this kind on a large scale, a sufficient test is required so as not to leave a problem in the system. That is, for this test, it is necessary to construct a test system equivalent to the network system to be constructed.

Conventionally, in this type of network construction support system, as shown in FIG. 5, a switching device using physical devices provided in each of nodes 61 to 63 is replaced by a bus A to a physical device such as a cable. C, a network based on the first physical layer in the OSI (Open System Interconnection) basic reference model is constructed, and traffic based on various test conditions is supplied from the test apparatus 60 to this network and transmitted to the upper layer. A test of the network system is executed.

As shown, each of nodes 61-63
Has a control unit that receives a test command or message from the test apparatus 60 and controls the connection unit according to a program and data. Each node 61-63
Regarding the bus connection in the physical layer between them, the bus A connects the node 61 and the node 62, and similarly, the node 6
A bus B connects between nodes 1 and 63, and a bus C connects between nodes 62 and 63, respectively.

[0005] In the data link layer of the second layer, a command from the test apparatus, for example, as shown in FIG.
A link connection is formed by forming links a through c using .about.C. Of course, also in the third network layer, the path of the message is set using the formed link.

In such a system construction method using physical devices, devices to be actually used, cables, and the like are prepared and connected, and a test is performed by flowing an actual message through a connection path such as a bus, a link, or a path. It is implemented by. For this reason, when actually changing the configuration of the system or the configuration of the test system, it is necessary to replace physical devices, change the connection of cables, and the like.

[0007]

In the conventional network construction support system described above, actual physical devices are provided,
It is connected. With this configuration, a network is constructed by determining a corresponding connection path for each layer of the multilayer structure. For this reason, there is a problem in that a large number of physical devices, connection cables, and labor for connecting these devices are required to construct a test system for a large-scale network system.

Further, when changing the connection relationship between nodes on the network, it is necessary to change the connection of physical devices.
That is, since the change of the connection of a large-scale network system is complicated, a large number of man-hours are required. Further, transmission / reception of data on the network is performed by actually sending a message to each connection path. For this reason, there is a problem that it is difficult to realize in a special test such as a failure test and a load test, and it is difficult to reproduce exactly the same situation.

An object of the present invention is to construct a test system, change this configuration, and further facilitate a special test by constructing a network system logically and virtually, and a network construction support method and apparatus. It is to provide.

[0010]

In the network construction support system according to the present invention, in order to support the construction of a network system having a multi-path configuration constructed for each hierarchy, a configuration for each hierarchy for managing the status of connection paths for each hierarchy is provided. And a table for constructing a logical test environment of the network system by managing the connection information between the connection paths, and a command for controlling messages flowing through the connection paths, fault information, and load information. The network system or the network construction support device includes control means for inputting the command according to a predetermined inspection procedure, and event executing means for receiving the command and executing a predetermined event according to the information recorded in the table.

Here, the table includes a layer-by-layer configuration table for assigning an identification code to each connection path for each layer and managing the connection path, and a path connection table for managing the connection state of the connection path. And the hierarchy-specific configuration table includes:
It is composed of a physical line table and a logical line table, and the logical line table is composed of a data link table and a network table.

The control means includes a command input unit for inputting a command for controlling a message, fault information, and load information flowing through the connection path, and for checking the validity of the input command. And a command management table.

[0013]

Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory view showing an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the nodes 11, 12,... Of the network system are connected to the first physical layer 1, the second data link layer 2, and the third network layer 3 according to the OSI basic reference model. In this embodiment, a case where the network system shown in FIG. 1 is supported will be described. The configuration information of the connection path formed in each hierarchy is stored in the hierarchy-specific configuration information table 20 for each hierarchy. The hierarchical configuration information table 20 includes a physical line table 21 storing configuration information of the physical layer 1, a data link table 22 storing configuration information of the data link layer 2, and a network table storing configuration information of the network layer 3. 23
And Also, a physical line table 21, a data link table 22, and a network table 23
Is stored in the path connection table 24.

When a message is sent to a connection path connecting the nodes 11 and 12, a command management table 31 and a command input unit 32 of the message control means 30 are operated.
The command management table 31 stores a command name, parameters, a transmission message amount, and the like, and the validity of the command input by the command management table 31 is checked. The command input unit 32 is, for example, a terminal and inputs a command to a network virtually formed inside the computer. The command can specify a connection bus from the node 11 to the node 12, for example, and transmit a predetermined message to the network.

Next, referring to FIG. 2, the connection path of each layer will be described more specifically. FIG. 2 shows a network system to be virtualized in the form of a physical system.
3 and 15, while the physical device 42 has nodes 12, 1
4 and 16. The physical layer 1 that physically connects the physical devices 41 and 42 has two buses A and B as connection paths.
Is connected.

Nodes 11, 13, 15 and nodes 12, 1
A data link a is connected using a bus A to the data link layer 2 that logically connects the nodes 4 and 16 as a connection path between the nodes 11 and 12. Further, a data link b is connected using a bus A as a connection path between the nodes 13 and 14. Also, as a connection path between the node 15 and the node 16,
Two data links c and d are connected using a bus B.

Each of these data links a to d has two communication paths aa, ab, to da, and db, respectively.
This is set as a connection path of the network layer 3.

Next, referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 and FIG. 3, a physical line table 21, a data link table 22, a network table 23, and a path connection included in the hierarchical configuration information table 20 will be described. The details of the table 24 will be described. In order to change the static environment of the table and simplify the creation of the command input pattern, the configuration relation expressing the configuration of the connection path in each layer, the connection path of the lower layer, and the connection path of the upper layer are included. It is assumed that the relation, that is, the mutual relation and the command input history are expressed by a simple language that describes the relation information.

In the case of a connection path configuration as shown in FIG.
In the physical line table 21 for managing physical lines, identification codes (ID) B1 and B2 are assigned to bus names A and B. The data link table 22, which is a logical line table and manages data links, has an identification code (I
D) L1 to L4 are assigned to data link names a to d, respectively. In the network table 23 which is a session management table and manages communication paths, identification codes (ID) S1 to S8 are assigned to communication path names aa, ab, ba, bb, ca, cb, da, db, respectively. Have been. In the path connection table 24,
Each of the identification codes (ID) B1, B2, L1,..., S8 assigned to the connection path in the hierarchical configuration information table 20,
The node identification codes of the networks located at both ends of each connection path are stored. If necessary, the connection state is further stored.

Next, with reference to FIG. 4, an outline of an execution procedure at the time of performing various types of connection, test, and other events using the various tables shown in FIG. 3 will be described. Here, the result of the event is a GUI (Graphical U
The user interface is displayed on the screen by a user interface (Ser Interface), and designation and change on the screen are performed by the GUI.

First, in the message control means 30, a command is input to the command management table 31 from the command input section 32 (for example, a terminal), and the validity of the command is checked in the command management table 31. As a result of the inspection, if there is no problem, the message control unit 30 determines the target resource from the hierarchical configuration information table 20 for managing the configuration information and the path connection table 24 for managing the connection information. Next, the message control unit 30 sends a message to the target resource (the nodes 11 and 12 in the illustrated example) (the connection path aa in the illustrated example).
), And instructs the event execution means 50 to execute an event such as failure / recovery of the target resource. The event execution means 50 described above is specifically configured by a computer.

In the above description, the large-scale network system based on the basic configuration of the communication protocol provided in the ISDN has been described as an example. However, another hierarchy may be set and the logical configuration may be adopted.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a layer-by-layer configuration information table for managing the configuration of connection paths for each layer, and a path connection table for managing the connection status of connection paths between layers. The control means inputs a message for controlling the message flowing through the connection path, the failure information, and the load information to the event execution means according to a predetermined inspection procedure, and executes a predetermined event according to the information recorded in the table. I have. With this configuration, it is possible to minimize the construction of the network system by the physical devices and realize the configuration logically, thereby constructing the network system logically and virtually. As a result, it is possible to obtain a network construction support system and apparatus that can easily construct a test system, change this configuration, and perform a special test.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory view showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a connection path configuration diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing one embodiment of a configuration information table in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 physical layer 2 data link layer 3 network layer 11 to 16 node 20 hierarchical configuration information table 21 physical line table 22 data link table 23 network table 24 path connection table 30 message control means 31 command management table 32 command input sections 41, 42 Physical device 50 Event execution means

Continuation of the front page (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) H04L 12/26 H04L 12/24 G06F 13/00 351 G06F 15/00 310 H04L 12/437 H04L 29/14

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A network construction supporting method for supporting construction of a network system having a multipath configuration constituted by layers, wherein a layer-by-layer structure for managing the status of connection paths by said layers, connection information between said connection paths, and Means for preparing a table for constructing a logical test environment of the network system, a message flowing through the connection path, fault information, and
The network system includes means for inputting a command for controlling load information according to a predetermined inspection procedure, and means for receiving the command and executing a predetermined event according to information recorded in the table. Characteristic network construction support method. 2. The hierarchical configuration table according to claim 1, wherein the table includes a layer-by-layer configuration table that manages each layer by assigning an identification code to each layer, and a path connection table that manages the connection state of the path. A network construction support method characterized by comprising: 3. The network construction support method according to claim 2, wherein the hierarchical configuration table comprises a physical line table and a logical line table. 4. The network construction support method according to claim 3, wherein said logical line table is constituted by a data link table and a network table. 5. A network construction supporting apparatus for supporting construction of a network system having a multi-path configuration constituted by layers, wherein: a layer-by-layer configuration for managing the status of connection paths by said layers; and connection information between said connection paths. And a control for inputting a command for controlling a message flowing through the connection path, fault information, and load information according to a predetermined inspection procedure. A network construction support apparatus comprising: means for receiving the command; and an event executing means for executing a predetermined event in accordance with information recorded in the table. 6. The command input unit according to claim 5, wherein the control unit inputs a command for controlling a message flowing through the connection path, fault information, and load information, and And a command management table for examining the performance.