JP2917977B2 - Switch device for computer network system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a switch device (multi-input multi-output transfer path switching device) for a computer network system, and more particularly, to a network in which the priority of routing information is automatically changed based on the bias of routing. The present invention relates to a switch device of a computer network system capable of distributing a load.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a switch device of this type incorporated in a computer network system to which a plurality of computers are connected, statistical information such as the number of rejected connections, the number of successful connections, the number of data transfers, and the number of packet transfers are provided for each port. In addition, interface failure information such as a data parity error and a connection request error, and HW failure information inside the switch are managed and held in each switch device.

In the prior art, such statistical information is collected by a system administrator as information for grasping the network load and the operation state of the apparatus. If there is a path where the network load is concentrated, the system information is collected. A method has been adopted in which the administrator changes the setting of the routing information of the switch every time to distribute the load, thereby avoiding the degradation of the network performance.

In a switching network system such as an ATM disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-130542, transfer to a regular transfer path is suppressed according to the frequency of occurrence of congestion, and is set in routing information in advance. A technique for performing load balancing by switching to an alternative transfer path has been proposed. In this system, the priorities of the normal route and the alternative route are not immediately updated to reflect the current state of the network. For this reason,
Although the load is temporarily distributed to the network, the congestion similarly occurs and does not provide a fundamental solution unless the usage form of the network changes.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-170270 discloses a traffic control method limited to ATM in the same manner. The purpose of this is to efficiently control data transfer classified according to QOS, which has recently been taken up in the ATM world, and presupposes data transfer already classified according to QOS. The meaning of the priority is different from the priority control of the switch device of the present invention. That is,
The traffic control means that received data is already classified according to the quality of the data, how to allocate resources according to the priority of the class in the exchange system switch, and that priority is given to high quality data of the priority. it is how those involved in or to control the traffic of low data and abnormal data priority for processing. Therefore, the control target is different from the present invention relating to the routing priority control of the traffic in the physical layer.

[0006]

However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following problems.

The first problem is that, in the conventional method, since the setting change of the routing information depends on humans, unless the system administrator carefully analyzes the statistical information, the concentration of the load cannot be clarified and the routing of the switch cannot be performed. This means that the network is operated without changing the information. Also, in systems where information is not collected frequently, load distribution may not be immediately resolved, and load concentration may continue, leading to early operation problems such as poor network performance. There was a disadvantage that it could not be solved.

[0008] The second problem is that it is difficult to change the network once it has been operated, even if a problem due to traffic concentration is known. The reason is that, when performing control involving a change in the setting of routing information, it is usually necessary to take the input port side of the switch device offline in consideration of the effect on the network when a setting error is made. For,
If the traffic is frequent or the switch device is located at the center of the network system, the setting cannot be easily changed. For this reason, a dilemma that cannot be improved while recognizing the problem due to the concentration of traffic occurs.

[0009] The third problem is that the usage of the network generally has characteristics depending on the user, and a fixed bias tends to occur in the data flow. In other words, software transfers data without being aware of the physical connection of hardware, but actual data depends on the usability of the software.
They tend to follow the same route almost fixedly. For this reason, when the software is switched, there is a high possibility that the route that is frequently used is also switched. However, since the switch device located in the middle of the network supports only a fixed priority, inefficient routing is forced.

[0010] An object of the present invention is to automatically improve a biased network load at any time, to enable switching in accordance with an actual traffic amount based on a physical network connection configuration, and to efficiently operate a network. It is an object of the present invention to provide a switch device of a computer network system which can perform the switching.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a switch device of a computer network system which automatically optimizes the priority of routing without manual intervention.

A third object of the present invention is to provide a switch device of a computer network system capable of changing the priority of routing information in response to a bias of data flow generated by a user and realizing efficient routing.

[0013]

According to the present invention, which achieves the above object, in a switch incorporated in a computer network system, a connection request destination address set as routing information and a connection request destination address assigned to each connection request destination address are assigned. For a plurality of output port numbers, holding means for holding priority information with priority assigned to each input port number, switching means for performing switching based on the routing information and priority information, and for each of the input port numbers In addition to maintaining and managing statistical information including the number of times of rejection of connection to the output port in the own device and the number of times of rejection of connection from a lower connection device, the priority information is optimized by the frequency of occurrence of the number of connection rejections from the lower connection device Information management means for instructing The instruction from the serial information management means, characterized in that it comprises an optimization means for optimizing process of the priority information.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the information processing apparatus further comprises means for setting information indicating whether the priority information can be optimized for each of the input port numbers.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the information management means compares the number of times of rejection of connection of the output port for each of the input port numbers from the lower-level connection device with a preset prescribed value. When the number of connection rejections exceeds the specified value, the priority information is instructed to be optimized.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the information management means determines the number of times of rejection of connection to a specific output port from the lower level connection device by the number of times of rejection of connection from the lower level connection device of another output port number. In comparison, when the difference between the number of connection rejections exceeds a predetermined value, optimization of priority information is instructed.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the optimizing means sets the input port number to be capable of optimizing the priority information of the input port when receiving an instruction to optimize the priority information for the input port number. It is characterized in that the priority information is optimized by replacing the priority of the output port number if the optimization is possible.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a switch device incorporated in a computer network system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The switch device according to the present embodiment includes a processor unit 10 for controlling the operation of the entire switch, a ROM unit 20 for storing firmware and the like, and a RAM unit for storing firmware control information including routing information for the entire switch. 30, a routing table management unit 40 that manages routing information manually set through the local interface 100 such as RS232C or the like under the control of the processor unit 10 and its priority information. Connection device connection rejection count, connection success count, data transfer count,
A statistic information management unit 50 that manages statistic information such as the number of packet transfers and urges the routing table management unit 40 to update the priority when a predetermined value or more is set under the control of the processor unit 10 in advance; A header analysis unit 70 for performing header analysis of the header analysis unit 70 and a routing table management unit 40
The routing control unit 60 that transfers the switching information of the matrix 90 and instructs the switching to the matrix control unit 80 based on the routing information held by the
And a matrix control unit 80 for setting a matrix 90 based on the received switching information, a matrix 90 for switching output ports, an input port 110, an output port 120, and a local interface 100 such as RS232C. ing.

Further, in particular, the routing table management unit 40 automatically optimizes the priority based on the idle time of the routing based on the notification from the statistical information management unit 50, and executes the optimization. Whether or not to perform
No). Also, as an opportunity for the statistical information management unit 50 to promote the optimization of the priority,
A method of notifying priority optimization when the number of rejections of lower-level connection device connection exceeds a prescribed value is exemplified.
Also, by comparing with the number of rejected connections of other output ports set to the same connection destination address, when the difference of the number of rejected connections exceeds a specified value, it may be configured to notify priority optimization. It is possible.

The statistical information management section 50 has counters for counting the number of times of rejection of connection in the own device, the number of times of rejection of lower-level connection device, the number of times of successful connection, the number of data transfers, and the number of packet transfers.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a network system incorporating the switch device according to the present embodiment.

This network system includes a plurality of computers (hereinafter referred to as host computers) 200A.
200B, storage devices 201 and 202, and a gateway 203 (such as a router) to an external network are connected by switch devices S1, S2, S3, and S4 connected in multiple stages.

First, when constructing the network system shown in FIG. 2, each local interface 100 (RS232C) is connected to each of the switch devices S1, S2, S3 and S4.
Etc.), the routing information is set so that routing to the transfer request destination is possible. Although a local interface is used in this example, a local network port may be provided for switch maintenance.

FIG. 3 shows an example of setting routing information of each switch device held in the routing table management unit 40.
Shown in In this setting example, the host computer 2
When the host computer 200B is accessed from 00A, the port numbers 2 and 3 of the output port 120 are set as a route for accessing the host computer 200B (address BBB) via the switch device S1. Output port 12 as a route to access the host computer 200B
This shows a case where port numbers 1 and 4 of 0 are set.

In order to simplify the description in this example, FIGS. 4 and 5 show only examples of the priority setting at the input port required in the following description. FIG. 4 shows that when a request is made from the input port 110 number 1 of the switch device S1, the switching priority of the port number 2 of the output port 120 is set higher than that of the port number 3. Similarly, priorities are assigned to a plurality of port numbers of the output port 120 assigned to each address for each port number of the input port 110 of each switch device, and the setting information is provided for each input port of each switch. Are managed by the routing table management unit 40.

The priority optimization function held by the routing table management unit 40 is such that priority optimization cannot be performed for all port numbers of the input ports 110 to which other switch devices are connected. , Other host computers 200A, 200
B, it is assumed that the port numbers of the input ports 110 to which the storage devices 201 and 202 and the gateway 203 are connected are all set such that the priority can be optimized.
The setting for enabling / disabling the priority optimization needs to be set so that the optimization works effectively in consideration of the network system configuration.

In the above setting state, the host computer 2
A case where data is transferred from 00A to the host computer 200B will be described below.

The host computer 200A first issues a connection request to the switch device S1. As shown in FIG. 4, the switch device S1 has a host computer 200 for a connection request received at the port number 1 of the input port 110.
Port numbers 2 and 3 of the output port 120 are defined in descending order of priority as routing information to B (address BBB). Similarly, the switch device S
2, the routing information to the host computer 200B is also defined in each of the switching devices S3 and S4.

Upon receiving the connection request, the switch device S1 issues a connection request to the switch device S3 from the port number 2 (level 1) having the highest priority of the output port 120.

At this time, the output port 1 of the switch device S3
Since port number 2 of 20 is in use from the external network through the gateway 203 and the switch device S4,
It is assumed that a connection request from the output port number 2 of the switch device S1 is rejected by the switch device S3.

In this case, the switch device S3 increments its own connection rejection counter for the input port number 1 in the statistical information management unit 50, and the switch device S1 sets the address of the input port number 1 in the statistical information management unit 50. B
The lower-level device connection rejection counter for the BB output port number 2 is incremented. Then, the switch device S1
Establishes a connection from the lower priority output port number 3 (level 2) to the host computer 200B through the switch device S2 and the switch device S4 as an alternative path.

As described above, in the switch device of the present invention, a plurality of output port numbers are set for a target connection request destination address, and priorities are assigned to the output port numbers, thereby replacing the output ports in accordance with the priorities. Switch paths.

Next, an example showing the features of the present switch device will be described. Here, in the above-described example, a case is considered where the busy rate of the output port number 2 of the switch device S3 is extremely high because the external network frequently accesses and the number of transfer packets is large. For this reason, lower-level device connection rejection for a connection request from the host computer 200A to the host computer 200B frequently occurs as in the above-described example.

In such a situation, as for the input port number 1 of the switch device S1, the lower-level device connection rejection counter for the output port number 2 of the address BBB is frequently incremented, so that the lower-level device connection rejection count exceeds the specified value. Suppose you did.

In this case, a request to optimize the routing priority for the input port number 1 is issued from the statistical information management unit 50 of the switch device S1 to the routing table management unit 40 in the same port.

Upon receiving the optimization request, the routing table management unit 40 enables the optimization function for the input port number 1.
Check the settings that are not allowed. In this case, since the input port number 1 is set to be enabled for optimization, the process of raising the output port number 3 to level 1 and lowering the output port number 2 to level 2 with respect to the priority of the output port 120 with respect to the address BBB is performed. Do. As a result, the switching device S1
Of the priority setting for the input port number 1 is changed as shown in parentheses in FIG.

Thus, the next host computer 2
When a connection request to the host computer 200B at the address BBB comes from 00A via the input port number 1 of the switch device S1, the switch device S1 changes the output port number 3 having the highest priority and the possibility of establishing a connection. The connection process is performed with priority. As a result, it is possible to suppress the waste of the retry process due to the connection rejection caused by the connection from the output port number 2, and to realize the load distribution of the network.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and may be variously modified and implemented within the scope of the technical idea. it can.

For example, in the above description, the address BBB
Has been described, when the lower-level device connection rejection count of the lower-level device connection rejection counter for the output port number 2 exceeds the specified value, the notification of priority optimization is performed. Number of lower-level device connection rejections for number 2 and address BBB
, The number of lower-level device connection rejections with respect to the output port number 3 may be compared, and if the difference exceeds a specified value, notification of priority optimization may be made.

[0041]

As described above, according to the switch device of the present invention, first, the load on the biased network is automatically improved at any time, and the actual load based on the physical network connection configuration is improved. Switching according to the traffic amount becomes possible, and the network can be operated efficiently. The reason is that the priority of the routing information can be automatically and immediately changed by automatically detecting the bias of the routing due to the concentration of the load or the failure by the switching device based on the statistical information.

Second, it is possible to reduce the number of steps required for the system administrator or maintenance staff to go to the installation location of the switch device and reset the routing. The reason is that the priority of the routing is optimized automatically by the switch device without manual intervention.

Third, since the priority of the routing information can be changed automatically and immediately by automatically detecting the bias of the routing by the switch device based on the statistical information, the bias of the data flow generated by the user is provided. , The priority of the routing information can be changed, and efficient routing can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a switch device of a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a computer network system incorporating the switch device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a setting example of routing information of each switch device held in a routing table management unit;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of priority setting at an input port in the switch device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another example of the priority setting at the input port in the switch device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 S1, S2, S3, S4 Switch device 10 Processor unit 20 ROM unit 30 RAM unit 40 Routing table management unit 50 Statistical information management unit 60 Routing control unit 70 Header analysis unit 80 Matrix control unit 90 Matrix 100 Local interface 110 Input port 120 output port 200A, 200B host computer 201, 202 storage device 203 gateway

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A switch device incorporated in a computer network system, wherein a connection request destination address set as routing information and a plurality of output port numbers assigned to each connection request destination address are input port numbers. Holding means for holding priority information separately given priority; switching means for performing switching based on the routing information and priority information; rejection of connection within the own device to the output port for each of the input port numbers Information management means for maintaining and managing statistical information including the number of times and the number of times of rejection of connection from the lower connection device, and instructing the optimization of the priority information by the frequency of occurrence of the number of times of connection rejection from the lower connection device; and By instructions from the means Switching devices of the computer network system characterized in that it comprises an optimization means for optimizing process priority information. 2. The switching device according to claim 1, further comprising means for setting information indicating whether the priority information can be optimized for each of the input port numbers. . 3. The information management means compares the number of times of rejection of connection from the lower-level connection device to the output port for each of the input port numbers with a preset prescribed value, and the number of times of rejection of connection is determined by the prescribed value. 2. The switch device according to claim 1, wherein an instruction to optimize the priority information is issued when the value exceeds the value. 4. The information management means compares the number of times of rejection of connection to a specific output port from the lower-level connection device with the number of times of rejection of connection from the lower-level connection device having another output port number. 2. The switching device according to claim 1, wherein when the difference exceeds a predetermined value, optimization of the priority information is instructed. 5. The optimizing means, when receiving an instruction to optimize the priority information for the input port number, checks whether the priority information of the input port is set to be optimizable. 3. The switching device according to claim 2, wherein the priority information is optimized by replacing the priority of the output port number, if possible.