JP2889888B2 - Communication processing device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Summary] The present invention relates to a communication processing device that monitors the status of a line on a network, and aims to start communication immediately when a system failure occurs and communication returns to normal. Communication means for communicating with at least one device;
Transmission control means for controlling transmission of information to the device via the communication means, information to be transmitted, and line monitoring means for monitoring a connection state of communication in the communication means in a specific time unit; When the monitoring unit detects the rotation abnormality, the communication control of the transmission control unit is stopped, and it is determined whether or not the communication is restored in a specific time unit.When the communication is restored, the communication control unit restarts the communication. A communication management means for instructing is provided.

[Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to a communication system in which a plurality of, for example, computer systems communicate with each other via a network, and more particularly, to a communication processing apparatus for monitoring a state of a line on a network.

[Conventional technology]

CAD and CAM using computer systems were developed,
It is operating in various areas. In such CAD and CAM, it is rare that one computer operates in a closed state due to the development of communication technology, and a plurality of computers are connected on a network, and information required by each computer system via the network. Is transmitted. For example, in a CAM system, information is exchanged between multiple systems, such as transmitting manufacturing instructions to the manufacturing department and parts related to manufacturing to the material department.Each department receives the information and performs various processing. Is going.

FIG. 6 is a system configuration diagram of a conventional system. In the figure, two nodes of the network are represented in a one-to-one correspondence. When transmission information DX is generated in the computer system 10 on the node A side and is transmitted to a file (for example, an inbox) of the computer system 15 of the node B, the file 11 is transmitted by the transmission function of the computer system 10 constituting the node A. The above-mentioned transmission information DX in (1) is fetched (I), packetized, for example, by the communication software TRPA, and transmitted to the communication network line 14 via the communication control device 13.
To send to. The computer system 15 on the node B side is almost the same system as the computer system 10 on the node A side. The transmission information DX transmitted via the above-mentioned line 14 is added to the communication control unit 16, and the communication control unit 16 (The information that has become the level corresponding to the line) is converted to a logic level, and the communication software TRPB of the computer system 15 is used.
To capture and decrypt. Since the transmission information DX is transmitted by, for example, a packet as described above, the communication software TRPB extracts only the transmission information DX from the packet, further converts the transmission information DX into information to be obtained by the transmission function program TRKB, and stores the information in the inbox file 17. . In addition, the communication software TRPB also performs, for example, protocol control. Just as information generated by the node A is stored in the file 17 of the computer system 15 constituting the node B via such a line 14, necessary data can be transmitted by communication between a plurality of computers. Can be processed by computers owned by the respective departments.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

The data transmission in the plurality of computer systems described above is performed independently, so that the processing capability is improved. For example, the communication control device 13 on the computer system 10 side and the computer system
Communication software TRPA of the system that constitutes 10, and furthermore the line 14
For example, when an abnormality occurs, the communication is stopped. In most cases, communication failures caused by the occurrence of this abnormal condition are caused by hardware problems. To solve this problem, even if an abnormality always occurs due to multiple lines or multiple computers, it is necessary to deal with it We need to be able to do it.

However, in such a system, the cost increases. In general office work, if the hardware such as communication goes down, the abnormal state is first reported (II), the processing is stopped, and the system is restored. After that, a normal state is notified to perform it.

Recovery of the aforementioned abnormalities is achieved by human work. For this reason, it is unknown when recovery will occur, and in computer systems 10 and 15, if the system is down during transmission of data and cannot be transmitted,
In order to transmit the following data, the operation manager must confirm the restoration of the system, for example, by seeing a message displayed on the display device, and then give an instruction to transmit the following data. When data to be transmitted occurs in each computer system during the down time, temporarily suspend the data transmission request,
After recovering from the abnormal state, the data is transmitted by the operation manager after the data becomes normal.

The above-described conventional system has a problem in that, when an error occurs in communication and the communication system goes down, it is necessary to manually instruct the start of data transmission. In addition, even if it is restored, the restoration cannot be immediately recognized and the transmission start is instructed by seeing the restoration message (II) displayed on the display device etc. when receiving a notification from the CE etc. There is a problem that the transmission is not always watched by the user and a transmission delay occurs due to the system down.

The problem is that in CAD and CAM systems, the data cannot be received and the previous processing cannot be performed.
There has been a serious problem that further delays occur in the entire system.

It is an object of the present invention to be able to immediately start communication when a system failure occurs and communication returns to normal.

[Means for solving the problem]

 FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of the present invention.

The present invention provides a communication unit 1 for communicating with at least one device, and a transmission control unit 2 for adding information to be transmitted and controlling the transmission of information to the device via the communication unit 1.
In a network system comprising:
The transmission control means 2 includes a line monitoring means 3 and a communication management means 4.

The line monitoring unit 3 monitors the connection state of the communication in the communication unit 1 in a specific time unit.

When the line monitoring unit 3 detects an abnormality in the communication connection state, the communication management unit 4 stops the transmission control of the transmission control unit 2 and determines whether the communication connection state has been restored in a specific time unit. Then, when it is determined that the connection state of the communication has been restored, the transmission control unit 2 is instructed to restart the transmission.

[Action]

When the communication line or the like goes down and communication cannot be performed, the line monitoring unit 3 transmits information from the communication unit 1 (connection state information).
Detect more abnormalities. This detection is, for example, monitoring in units of a plurality of minutes.

When the line monitoring unit 3 detects an abnormality in the communication connection state due to a line abnormality or the like, the communication management unit 4 stops the communication control of the transmission control unit 2. For example, if the communication is being performed, the communication is suspended during the communication. If a transmission request is issued while the system is down, the transmission is suspended. Further, the communication management means 4 determines whether or not the communication has been restored in a specific time unit, and instructs the transmission control means 2 to restart the communication when the communication is restored. In response to this instruction, the communication control means 2 resumes the transmission which has been held up to now, and if the transmission is in progress, transmits the subsequent data. Further, for example, if the data is a data for which a transmission request has occurred during a line down, the data is transmitted to the request transmission destination.

When the system goes down due to an abnormality in the connection state of the communication due to a line abnormality or the like, the communication management means 4 always manages the system, and when the system is restored, a restart instruction is issued to restart the transmission again. can do.

〔Example〕

 Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

 FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram of the present invention.

Node A in the computer system 20 is communication software TR
PA ', transmission function program TRKA', and network management program NKPA. Note that the computer system has other application programs, an OS, and the like, but only the programs related to the present invention are shown in the embodiments. In addition, the computer system 21
The same applies to the node B of the communication software TRPB ′,
It consists of a transmission function program TRKB 'and a network management program NKPB. Although the system configuration in the embodiment of FIG. 2 is not shown, it has a communication control device as in FIG. 6, the communication software TRPA ', the transmission function program
The TRPB's communicate with each other via the communication control device.

When data is transmitted to the computer system of the node B by the processing of the computer system 20, the transmission function program TRKA 'transmits data corresponding to the generated request when the line is opened (transmittable) via the communication software TRPA'. Transmit to B side. Then, the data is fetched by the communication software TRPB 'on the node B side, and the data requested by the transmission function program TRKB' is reproduced and stored in a file or the like (not shown). Then, the computer system 21 creates, for example, a manufacturing process instruction and the like using the data. The transmission function programs TRKA 'and TRKB' provide a means for determining whether or not the line is always normal in addition to the transmission from the node A to the node B as described above, and similarly, the transmission from the node B to the node A. Have. This discriminating means always monitors at time intervals set in advance by a timer or the like, and performs monitoring once every two to three minutes, for example. If the data is normal, the data is transmitted (received) when a request is added.

On the other hand, when it is determined by the determination means that the line is normal, the transmission function program TR is determined to be abnormal.
KA 'and TRKB' are network management programs NKPA and NKPB
Delegation of execution rights to That is, the system is in a standby state until transmission becomes possible.

The network management programs NKPA and NKPB have status tables for storing network status. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a status table according to the embodiment. The network management programs NKPA and NKPB of each of the nodes A and B have a status table shown in FIG. 3 for each node to which each node is to be connected. For example, if the communication status is the communication status of the nodes A and B, the own node status SA corresponds to the node A, and the other node status SB corresponds to the node B, and is constituted by the information SST in their communication control authority. That is, in the case of the table of the node A, the own node status SA is a status representing the state of the node A, and the other node status SB is a status corresponding to the node B.
And the status of own node status is ON (open), OFF
(Closed), ERROR (abnormal). Similarly, the status of other nodes is the same. The information SST is a status indicating whether communication is possible via a communication control unit by a network, that is, communication software, and the transmission function programs TRKA ′ and TRKB ′ indicate a communication disabled status when communication is disabled. The network management programs NKPA and NKPB store a communication enabled status when communication becomes possible when a line is established. The transmission function programs TRKA 'and TRKB' and the network management programs NKPA and NKPB transfer execution rights according to these statuses.

As mentioned above, the network management programs NKPA, NK
If the execution right is transferred to PB, the network management program
NKPA and NKPB monitor the line in a specific time unit similarly to the transmission function programs TRKA 'and TRKB'.

As described above, when a communication line is opened according to the instruction of the operation manager, the network management program NKPA always determines whether communication with the node B is possible via the communication software TRPA 'and the communication control device, The execution right is transferred to the transmission function program TRKA '.

If the system is closed by the operation administrator or closed due to abnormalities, the network management program NKP
A, NKPB manages (determines) the next establishment.

That is, the network management programs NKPA and NKPB are activated, and when an opening instruction is added from a node operator, that is, an operation manager, an opening message is transmitted to the requesting node. If the establishment of the network management program of the partner node is instructed, the status is returned as "ON". At this time, if there is an error in the transmission path or node, "ERROR" is set, and that fact is set in the status table. Thereafter, the establishment message is resent at regular intervals until the partner node operates normally. The transmission of this message is stopped when a closing instruction is issued from the node operator of the own station or when a closing message according to the closing instruction is received from the partner node operator.

On the other hand, if an error occurs during information transmission, the communication control right is transferred from the transmission function programs TRKA 'and TRKB' to the network management programs NKPA and NKPB, where transmission is continued until the opening monitoring sequence is restored. In other words, it continues to determine whether the establishment is possible. Upon normal recovery, the communication control right is returned to the transmission function programs TRKA 'and TRKB'. Further, when the own node is abnormally stopped, the state of information transmission (queue) is restarted after receiving the opening message after the own node operates. The above-described operation is performed between each node.

FIG. 4 is an operation processing flowchart of the embodiment. For example, the network management program NKP is turned on when the power is turned on.
When A starts execution, it sets its own node status to "ON". That is, the own node status in the status table in FIG. 3 is set to "ON" (S1). “ON” in this status indicates that the own node can communicate. For example, when a request is added from another node B, communication can be performed immediately. After the process S1, it is determined whether or not an opening instruction has been added from the operation manager, that is, whether or not the opening instruction M1 has been added is determined S2. When the opening instruction is not added, the processing S1 and the determination processing S2 are sequentially repeated.

On the other hand, when the establishment instruction is input (Y), an establishment message is subsequently transmitted (S3). This establishment message is transmitted to the node B. There is a case where another node does not respond even though the establishment message is transmitted. For example, this is a case where both nodes simultaneously transmit an open message response. For this reason, it is determined whether there is an opening response message following the opening message transmission process S3 (S4). When there is no establishment response message (N), the status of the other node, that is, the status of the other node in the status table corresponding to the node B is indicated by an error (ERRO).
R). Then, the process is executed again from the opening message transmission process S3. At the same time as the determination S4, a determination S5 of whether or not the establishment message has been received is also performed. When the establishment message is received (Y), an establishment response message is transmitted (S5).
7). Then, the node status other than the network status is set to ON (S6). Further, the processing S6 is similarly performed when the determination is S4 (Y) and the determination S5 is (Y).

On the other hand, also in the node B, the establishment message sending process S3
When the establishment message is transmitted by the process S4 and the establishment response message is received by the process S4, the statuses of the own node and the other nodes are similarly set to "ON" in the status table of the node B.

After the process S6, a network monitoring process S9, a determination S10 as to whether there is a closing instruction, and a determination S11 as to whether there is a closing reception are performed. The discrimination S10 is a detection of the closing input by the operation manager. When the closing instruction is issued from the operation management input (Y), a closing message is transmitted to the node B (S12), and then the closing is performed. The setting response message is received (S13), and the process S15 described later is executed. In step S13, the received message is not limited to the reception of the closing response message, but may be another instruction.

When it is determined in the processing S11 that a closing message has been received, a closing response message is transmitted (S14). When a closing message is received from the node B, a closing instruction is further input from the operation manager, and similarly, when a closing response message is added from the node B, the status of the other node is set to off. Execute At this time, the own node status is also turned off. Then, the above-described process S2 is executed, and an instruction to set the node status to “ON” is awaited. Note that the processes S1 and S2 may be reversed. That is, it may be determined that the process S2 is to be executed, and the process S1 may be executed when there is an opening instruction.

On the other hand, in the determination process S9, when it is determined that the monitoring is the network monitoring (in the embodiment of the present invention, the network is constantly monitored, and is activated by, for example, a timer), a monitoring message transmission process S16 is executed. Subsequently, it is simultaneously determined whether the transmission is in progress or a response message (monitoring response message) is present (S17), a transmission error or no response message is present (S18), and furthermore, a monitoring message is received (S19). If it is determined that a transmission operation is being performed or a response message is received (S17), or if a response message is received (Y), a three-minute waiting process S20 of a timer is executed. Then, after waiting for the process S20, the process shifts to the process S26. Incidentally, in FIG. 4 are connectors between the drawings. On the other hand, when it is determined in the determination processing S18 that there is no transmission error or no response message (Y), the processing is executed from the processing S22 described later. When the monitoring message is received (S19), the monitoring response message transmission process S21 is performed on the other nodes, and then the determinations S17 to S19 are repeated again.

In the activation described above, the transmission of the opening message of the opening message transmission S3 is paired with the presence of an opening response message from another node (S4), and the determination S4 determines the response to the transmission of the opening message. For example, when the status of the other node is set to error in the establishment message transmission S3, and the other node does not respond (when the establishment response message is not received), the establishment message transmission S3 is sequentially repeated.

Further, in response to the closing message transmission S12, it is determined in the determination S11 in the other node that the closing message has been received, and similarly, the closing response message transmission S14 of the other node is detected in the closing response message reception S13.

On the other hand, when it is determined in the above-described determination S18 that there is no transmission error or no response message (Y), the status of the other node is subsequently set to error (S22). That is, since there is a transmission error or an error occurs in some state when there is no response message, it is determined that there is no response from the node B (it is an error between the nodes B) and the status of the other node is set to error. I do. Subsequently, it is determined from the transmission function program whether there is an abnormal state notification (S23) or whether the network has been stopped for a long period of time, for example, 30 minutes S2.
4 When it is determined from the transmission function program that there is an abnormal state notification (Y), the processing of the monitoring sequence program shown in FIG. 4B is executed (S25), and the other node status “ON” is set following the processing S25, Subsequently, the transmission function program ID is set to the communication control right (S27). Then, the process is executed again from the determination process S9. These setting processes S26 and S27 are all processes for the network status (status table in FIG. 3).

On the other hand, whether the network has been stopped for a long time S2
When it is determined in step 4 that the operation is in the stopped state, an error notification S28 is displayed to the operation manager. For example, this is a display for an operation manager such as a CRT. Then, the processing is executed again from the determination processing S9.

The network management programs NKPA and NKPB are executed by the above operations.

Further, when the transmission function program of the node A is activated, first, it is determined whether or not the node A is in the opened state (S30). Further, it is determined whether there is a closing instruction (S31). If it is not in the closed state (N), a timer wait (S32) is executed, and the determination S is performed again.
Execute 30, S31. If there is a closing instruction in determination S31 (Y), it is determined again whether or not it is in the open state (S30). In the opened state, and when there is no closing instruction, it is determined whether there is a transmission request S33. This determines the transmission request (queue). If there is no transmission request, wait for timer (3 minutes)
The step S34 is executed, and the judgment S33 of the transmission request is executed again.
That is, the processes S33 and S34 are repeatedly executed until a transmission request is generated or a closing instruction is added.
At the same time as the determination S33, it is determined whether or not there is a closing instruction S35, and when there is a closing instruction (Y), the processes S30 and S31 are executed again,
It is determined whether it is in the open state or instructed to close.

If there is a transmission request, execute transmission processing S36,
For example, the data to be transmitted stored in the node A is transmitted, and the node B correspondingly receives the data and stores the information in the mailbox. Subsequently, it is determined whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the transmission processing S36 (S37).
If there is no transmission error (N), the process is started from the determination process (S33), and it is determined again whether there is another execution request, and the same operation is repeated.

On the other hand, when an error occurs in the transmission, first, processing (S38) for setting an error (ERROR) in the status of the other node is performed, and then processing S39 for setting the communication control right to the network management program is executed. Since the processing after step S38 is an error, the transmission function program cannot be executed, and the processing for setting the communication control right to the network management program is executed, that is, the setting wait state is set. In the setting waiting state, it is determined in step S40 whether or not the network has been restored.
The minute timer waiting process S41 is executed, and the same determination S40 is repeated again. Here, when the recovery is performed (Y), the processing is executed from the processing S36. For example, when the process S36 is completed, if it is determined that there is no transmission error in the transmission error determination process S37, it is determined from the determination S33 whether a transmission request has been issued.
At this time, if a closing instruction is added in S33 and S35, it means that there is a closing instruction, and the processing is executed from step S30.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing states of the network management program and the transmission function program. In the initial state, the network management program is running, and always manages the state of the network. When a transmission request is issued, the transmission function program is executed to execute transmission of data to be transmitted. At the point X during transmission, the partner node abnormally stops,
Alternatively, when an abnormality occurs due to a transmission failure or the like, the transmission is stopped, and the network management program starts managing the transmission state. Then, in this management, if the other node has been moved or the transmission has been restored, the transmission is restarted. Upon completion, the communication control right is transferred to the network management program again. When an abnormality occurs, the user is notified of the abnormality to the operation manager by displaying, for example, a CRT or the like. Further, at the time of recovery from the movement of the partner node or the transmission failure, it also notifies that it has been recovered. Further, when the data transfer is resumed and the data transfer is completed, the completion is notified.

As described above, in the network management program, the communication state is always managed, and when a failure occurs, the network management program immediately detects the recovery from the failure and restarts the transmission again using the transmission function program. The transmission can be resumed even if there is no resumption instruction by the operator, so that the work of the operator can be reduced, the network management man-hour can be reduced, and the transmission time can be shortened.

In the above-described embodiment of the present invention, the data transmission between the node A and the node B has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the same applies to a plurality of nodes.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the communication state is notified, so that the communication state (operating state of the node, state of the transmission path) with all the nodes connected to a certain node can be unified and grasped. Since the operation can be performed regardless of the difference in the operation time zone of each node, the number of network management steps can be reduced. In addition, the user does not need to perform retransmission operations, etc.
Tracking the communication status becomes easy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

Fig. 1 is a functional block diagram of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sequence configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 3 is a status table diagram of the embodiment of the present invention, Figs. 4a, b, c, d are FIG. 5 is a sequence explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a system configuration diagram of a conventional system. 1 ... communication means, 2 ... transmission control means, 3 ... line monitoring means, 4 ... communication management means.

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] Communication means for communicating with at least one device, transmission control means for adding information to be transmitted, and controlling transmission of information to said device via said communication means; A line monitoring means for monitoring the connection state of the communication in a specific time unit, and when the line monitoring means detects an abnormality in the connection state of the communication, instructs the transmission control means to stop transmission, and in a specific time unit. A communication management unit that determines whether or not the connection state of the communication is restored, and instructs the transmission control unit to restart transmission when it is determined that the connection state of the communication is restored. Communication processing device. 2. When the communication management means detects the abnormality and recovery of the communication state, the communication management means notifies the user of the line of the abnormality and recovery of the communication state, and the transmission by the transmission control means is resumed and terminated. 2. The communication processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a notification unit that notifies a user of the line of the restart and end of the transmission when the transmission is performed.