JP3147037B2 - Network monitoring equipment - 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 monitoring device, and more particularly to a network monitoring device capable of displaying a connection state of a communication device on a monitored network on a screen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, various networks have been constructed to enable mutual communication of information. Along with this,
Various network monitoring devices for performing maintenance and inspection of the network have been proposed.

[0003] The result of monitoring by a conventional network monitoring device is generally displayed on a screen such as a display. FIG. 6 shows a display screen of a network monitoring result by this conventional network monitoring device.

In FIG. 6, reference numerals 701 to 705 denote communication devices connected to the same network, and reference numerals 711 to 720 denote connection lines between the communication devices. When a failure (for example, interruption) occurs in any of the connection lines 711 to 720, the connection line in which the failure has occurred among the connection lines 711 to 720 out of the displayed connection lines 711 to 720. In general, a color different from the color of the other connection lines is assigned as a color, and the assigned color represents the content of the fault condition.

Therefore, according to this conventional network monitoring apparatus, it is possible to confirm on the display screen where and what kind of failure has occurred in the network.

Further, as another conventional network monitoring device, the content of a fault condition is not represented by a color,
In some cases, notification of a failure is made by a pop-up message window or the like every time a failure occurs. In this case, the network monitor can check the network failure state in more detail.

[0007]

However, according to the above-mentioned conventional method of displaying the monitoring result by the network monitoring device, as shown in FIG. 6, all the communications monitored by the network monitoring device are displayed on the screen. Displaying devices and connection lines between them increases the number of communication devices and connection lines monitored by the network monitoring device, which makes the display screen complicated and very difficult to see.As a result, network monitoring can be performed accurately. There is a problem that it becomes difficult.

Here, on the screen showing the result of monitoring the network, it is conceivable that a process for minimizing the connection lines between the communication devices as much as possible is performed to reduce the above-mentioned difficulty in viewing. ing. But,
In this case, there is a problem that the number of communication devices that can be displayed on a single display screen by the conventional network monitoring device decreases, and thus it becomes difficult to quickly monitor the entire network.

On the other hand, in a network monitoring device in which the content of the fault status is displayed by a pop-up message window or the like every time a fault occurs, the content of the fault can be accurately confirmed. There is a confirmation button, and the pop-up message window cannot be deleted from the screen unless the observer clicks the button with a user interface such as a mouse. The problem is that it becomes troublesome.

[0010] The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances,
An object of the present invention is to provide a network monitoring device capable of quickly and accurately monitoring communication devices connected to a network.

[0011]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
In a network monitoring device that monitors the status of communication devices connected on the same network and the connection status thereof and displays the monitored result on a screen, only the communication devices connected to the network are excluded from the connection line. network monitoring apparatus characterized by having a screen control means for controlling the screen to be displayed on the screen Te.

Therefore, according to the present invention, only the communication devices connected to the network are displayed on the screen. Therefore, even if the connection lines of the communication devices are many and complicated, the screen becomes complicated. In addition, since the connection line of each communication device is not displayed on the screen, a large number of communication devices can be displayed on the screen, and the entire network can be easily monitored.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the network monitoring device outputs a status message indicating a connection status of the communication device output from a communication device connected to the same network. A signal monitoring unit that receives a signal, monitors whether or not the connection state of the communication device is in a failure state, and outputs a message monitoring signal, wherein the screen control unit outputs the message monitoring signal. A predetermined color representing the content of the fault condition is given based on the message monitoring signal, and the connection line of the communication device in the fault condition is displayed on the screen.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the operation of the invention described in claim 1 can be obtained, and when there is a failure in the connection state of the communication device, the communication device is displayed on the connection line in the failure state. On the screen, and furthermore, the connection line is displayed with a predetermined color indicating the content of the failure state, so that the network monitor can confirm the failure location and the connection state of the communication device on the network. Monitoring of the contents of the failure state can be performed easily and quickly.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, the network monitoring device periodically monitors whether or not the connection state of the communication device is in a failure state and generates a monitoring signal. It has a period monitoring means for outputting.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the effect of the invention described in claim 2 can be obtained, and the failure state of the communication device is periodically monitored. Even if it is not possible to transmit the fault state of the connection line to which it is connected, by periodically monitoring whether the connection state of the communication device is in the fault state and outputting a monitoring signal, The connection status of communication devices on the network can be accurately monitored.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect of the present invention, the screen control means determines whether a message monitoring signal output from the message monitoring means and a monitoring signal output from the cycle monitoring means are different. A predetermined color representing the content of the failure state is given based on at least one of the signals, and the connection line of the communication device in the failure state is displayed on the screen.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the operation of the invention described in claim 3 can be obtained, and the monitoring signal output from the message monitoring means and the monitoring signal output from the period monitoring means can be selected from the following. Based on at least one of the signals, it is determined whether or not there is a failure in the connection state of the communication device.If it is determined that there is a failure in the connection state, only the communication device displays the connection line in the failure state. On the screen, and the connection line displayed on the screen is displayed with a predetermined color indicating the content of the failure state, so that the network monitor can easily and quickly monitor the network. The presence / absence of a failure in the connection status of the above communication device can be monitored.

[0019]

Next, an embodiment of a network monitoring apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of the network monitoring device according to the present invention.

The network monitoring device shown in FIG. 1 comprises a screen 10 for displaying the status of communication equipment (not shown) connected to a network 16 and a control device 15. 16 are connected.

The control device 15 controls the display of the screen 10 based on the information from the period monitoring function 12 or the message monitoring function 13 so as to display the line in which the failure has occurred and to give a predetermined color to the displayed line. Screen control function 11, a period monitoring function 12 for periodically monitoring the state of the communication device connected to the network 16, and a communication device based on the connection state signal transmitted from each communication device connected to the network 16. And a communication control function 14 for processing a signal transmitted from the network 16.

Next, FIG. 2 shows an example of an actual connection state between the network monitoring device shown in FIG. 1 and communication devices on the network. As shown in FIG. 2, according to the present embodiment, the network monitoring device 301 and the respective communication devices 311 to 321 are connected to the connection lines 302 to 306.
Connected through. Here, the internal configuration of the network monitoring device 301 may be the same as the block diagram shown in FIG.

Next, the operation of the network monitoring apparatus according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The period monitoring function 12 transmits a state check signal to each communication device connected to the network 16 periodically, that is, at a certain time interval. The communication device that has received the status check signal returns status information indicating its own connection status to the network monitoring device.

The screen control function 11 checks the status of each communication device based on the returned signal, and if it determines that a failure has occurred in any of the connection lines, transmits the fact to the screen control function 11. The screen control function 11, which has received this signal, displays the connection line of the fault location on the screen with a predetermined color indicating the content of the fault.

The message monitoring function 13 receives a status change notification transmitted from a communication device connected to the network. Then, the presence / absence of a failure in the connection state and the contents of the failure state are notified to the screen control function 11. At this time, the screen control function 11 that has received the notification checks the received state, and if it determines that a failure has occurred, the screen control function 1
Send to 1. The screen control function 11 displays the line of the fault location on the screen with a color indicating the content of the fault.

Here, FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a communication device monitored by the network monitoring device shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the communication device monitored by the network monitoring device returns a signal in response to the periodic status check from the network monitoring device, or
An input / output processing unit 51 for notifying the network monitoring device of a change in state such as occurrence of a failure in its own connection state;
It is desirable that the communication apparatus be composed of a state notification processing section 52 for processing the connection state of the own device and a connection information storage section 53 for storing the connection state on the own network.

Next, the operation when the network is monitored by the network monitoring apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2, 3 and 4. First, as shown in FIG. 3, the screen showing the monitoring result of the network includes symbols 201 to 305 representing the communication devices 302 to 306 unless a line failure has occurred in the connection state of the communication devices connected to the network. The screen 206 is displayed.

Next, consider a case where a line failure occurs in a connection circuit of a communication device. Communication device 30 shown in FIG. 2 as an example
Assume that line 318 between lines 4 and 306 is disconnected. At this time, a status change notification signal is output from the communication functions 304 and 306 to the network monitoring device 301.

The network monitoring apparatus 301 receives the status change notification signal, and as shown in FIG. 4, the symbols 205 and 203 of the communication devices 304 and 306 displayed on the screen.
And the line symbol 407 is displayed. In addition, since this failure state is disconnection of the connection line, "communication line disconnection"
Is added and displayed. However, this color is not limited to red, and can be arbitrarily set by the observer.

As described above, after displaying the network failure status on the screen, the cause of the line disconnection is resolved, and when the line is restored, the communication devices 304 and 306 transmit a state change notification signal indicating that the line has been restored. This is transmitted to the network monitoring device 301. Upon receiving this, the network monitoring device 301 returns the screen to the display as shown in FIG.

On the other hand, there is a case where the connection line between the networks is disconnected and the network monitoring device cannot receive the status change notification signal from the communication devices 302 to 306. Even in this case, the network monitoring device periodically checks the status of each of the communication devices 302 to 306. In this state check, the communication devices 302 to 30
Even when the line failure of No. 6 is detected, a failure line colored with the content of the failure is displayed on the screen. When recovery is detected, the line symbol display is deleted.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, since only the communication devices connected to the network are displayed on the screen, it is possible to provide a network monitoring apparatus capable of simplifying the screen configuration and making it easy to see.

If no failure has occurred in the connection status of the communication device monitored by the network monitoring device, only the communication device is displayed on the screen. If a failure has occurred, the connection line on which the failure has occurred is displayed. Is displayed on the screen with a color indicating the content of the failure.
It is possible to easily and accurately monitor the state of the network.

Further, the state of the network does not depend only on the state signal output from the communication device,
Since the network monitoring device periodically checks the status and displays the check result on the screen, even if the communication device cannot transmit its status to the network monitoring device, it accurately monitors the network. be able to.

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the period monitoring function and the message monitoring function are provided to monitor the connection state of the communication device connected to the network, but the state of the connection line of the network is not particularly monitored. in case of,
These two functions may not be provided. In this case, the cost of the network monitoring device can be reduced, and only the communication devices constituting the network are displayed on the screen.

Further, in this embodiment, the network monitoring device is provided with the period monitoring function and the message monitoring function in consideration of the case where the network monitoring device cannot receive the status change notification signal. It is sufficient for at least one of these two functions to be provided as a function of monitoring the connection state of a communication device. Even in such a case, the network monitor can easily and accurately monitor the connection status of the communication devices connected to the network via the screen.

[0037]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, only the communication devices are displayed on the display screen of the network configuration as long as there is no failure or abnormality in the connection line. If a connection line is not displayed and, on the other hand, a failure or the like occurs, the connection line where the failure has occurred is displayed with a predetermined color indicating the failure state, and a display screen showing the network state is displayed. Since it is simple and easy to understand, it is possible to provide a network monitoring device that allows a network monitor to easily and accurately monitor the network.

Also, since the connection line between the communication devices is not usually displayed on the display screen for displaying the network status,
Since the number of communication devices that can be displayed on one screen can be increased, it is possible to provide a network monitoring device capable of easily monitoring a large-scale network.

Further, since the network monitoring device itself periodically monitors the state of the network, even if a communication device connected to the network cannot transmit its own status to the network monitoring device, the communication device checks the connection status. A network monitoring device capable of accurately monitoring can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a physical connection state of a network monitored by the network monitoring device illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a network monitoring result displayed on a screen by the network monitoring device shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a network monitoring result displayed on a screen by the network monitoring device shown in FIG. 1;

5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an embodiment of a communication device connected to a network monitored by the network monitoring device illustrated in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a network monitoring result displayed on a screen by a conventional network monitoring device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 screen 11 screen control function 12 cycle monitoring function 13 message monitoring function 14 communication control function 15 controller 16 network 201 to 205 communication device symbol 301 network monitoring device 302 to 306 communication device 311 to 321 connection line 407 communication line symbol

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04L 12/24-12/26 G06F 11/32 G06F 13/00 351 G06F 3/00 652 G06F 3/14 320

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A network monitoring apparatus for monitoring the status of communication devices connected on the same network and the connection status thereof and displaying the monitored result on a screen, wherein only the communication devices connected on the network are monitored. A screen control means for controlling the screen so that the screen is displayed on the screen except for the connection line. 2. The network monitoring device receives a status message signal, which is output from a communication device connected to the same network and indicates the connection status of the communication device, and determines that the connection status of the communication device is in a failure state. And a message monitoring unit that outputs a message monitoring signal by monitoring whether or not the message is present, wherein the screen control unit is configured to determine a content of the failure state based on the message monitoring signal output from the message monitoring unit. 2. The network monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the connection line of the communication device in the failure state is displayed on the screen by giving a color of "." 3. The network monitoring device according to claim 2, further comprising a period monitoring unit that periodically monitors whether a connection state of the communication device is in a failure state and outputs a monitoring signal. A network monitoring device according to claim 1. 4. The screen control means, based on at least one of a message monitoring signal output from the message monitoring means and a monitoring signal output from the cycle monitoring means, displays the content of the failure state. 4. The network monitoring apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a predetermined line is provided to display the connection line of the communication device in the failure state on the screen.