JP3166839B2 - Data transfer device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a data transfer device for transferring data stored in a plurality of disk devices to an external device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An on-demand type multimedia data (multimedia information) data supply device includes a plurality of disk devices and a data transfer device for transferring data stored in the plurality of disk devices to an external device. Have. The data supply device is typically a moving image data supply device called a video server device.

Generally, transfer data of a moving image data supply device includes moving image data and audio data. These moving image data and audio data are compressed and stored in a plurality of disk devices in the moving image data supply device. The data transfer device in the moving image data supply device controls the order of the data read in parallel from the plurality of disk devices and then sends the data to an external interface such as a network at a fixed transfer rate.

Referring to FIG. 3, a series of data (n +
1), (n + 2), (n + 3), (n + 4),.
The disks are sequentially assigned to the first to fourth (# 1 to # 4) disk devices 900. Hereinafter, this series of data flows is referred to as stream data. The technique of storing stream data in a plurality of different disk devices 900 for each data unit and reading the stream data in parallel from the plurality of disk devices 900 at the time of reading is generally called a striping technology. .

Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown a video server device having a plurality of the above-described disk devices 900 and a conventional data transfer device 20 ′ connected to the plurality of disk devices 900.

[0006] The data transfer device 20 'includes an input / output bus 31.
0 and a system bus 510. A plurality of disk controllers 200 corresponding to a plurality of disk devices 900 are connected to the input / output bus 310. An input / output bus 310 connects the stream data to an external device (not shown).
Is also connected. In addition, a central processing unit (processor) 520 and a main storage unit 530 are connected to the system bus 510. The input / output bus 310 and the system bus 51 are connected via a bus control unit 350.

The data read in parallel from the plurality of disk devices 900 by the plurality of disk controllers 200 are streamed to the main memory 530 via the bus controller 350 under the control of the central processing unit (processor) 520. Once stored as data. Then, the main storage unit 53
The stream data stored in “0” is again transferred to the external device by the communication control unit 300 via the bus control unit 350.

In this series of processing, the input / output bus 3
10 and the system bus 510 must be used twice. At this time, there is a possibility that contention between stream data may occur in the input / output bus 310 and the sysnum bus 510.

Therefore, the performance of the input / output bus 310 requires a transfer speed sufficiently higher than the transfer speed of the interface with the disk device 900.

Further, since the system bus 510 is also used for executing the central processing unit (processor) 520, the system bus 510 is required to be faster than the input / output bus 310.

The conventional data transfer device 20 'shown in FIG.
In the case of the configuration described above, as described above, all data read from the disk device 900 is stored as stream data in the main storage unit 530 via the input / output bus 310 and the bus control unit 350. Then, the central processing unit (processor) 520 reads the stream data stored in the main storage unit 530 via the system bus 510, and sends the stream data to the communication control unit 600 again via the bus control unit 350 and the input / output bus 310. Forward. Therefore, it takes a lot of time to generate stream data, and the system bus 510, the bus control unit 350, and the input / output bus 3
Because of the heavy load of 10, the throughput performance when sending stream data to an external device also decreases.

As a means for solving this, the internal structure of the data transfer device 20 'shown in FIG. 4 is changed to efficiently read data from the disk device 900 and send data to the external network interface. (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-3)
05498).

In the data transfer device having this specialized internal structure, a disk bus and a communication bus are used instead of the input / output bus 310 and the system bus 510, respectively. The data transfer device connects a plurality of disk devices to a disk bus via a plurality of disk control units, connects a plurality of stream generation control circuits between the disk bus and the communication bus, and connects the communication control unit to the communication bus. Are connected. Data read from a plurality of disk devices by a plurality of disk control units is held as stream data in a storage circuit in a specific stream generation control circuit among the plurality of stream generation control circuits. This stream data is sent to an external device via the communication control unit. In this way, in the flow of stream data from the disk device 900 to the external device, the usage rate of the above-described disk bus and communication bus is reduced, and a larger number of stream data can be transmitted to the external device. .

[0014]

However, in the data transfer device having this specialized internal structure, since a bus is used internally, the data transfer amount exceeds the transfer performance limit of the bus. Has the disadvantage that it cannot be increased.

An object of the present invention is to provide a data transfer device capable of increasing the data transfer capability.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a data supply device having a data transfer device capable of increasing data transfer capability.

[0017]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the first and second disk devices are connected to the first and second disk devices, respectively, and the first and second disk devices are respectively stored in the first and second disk devices. In a data transfer device for transferring second stored data to an external device, the data transfer device is connected to the first and second disk devices, respectively, and receives the first and second data from the first and second disk devices. First and second disk controllers for reading stored data as first and second read data, respectively, and the first and second read data connected to the first and second disk controllers; And a transmission unit connected to the switching device and transmitting the switching output signal as a transmission signal to the external device. Data transfer device is obtained characterized by.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the first to Nth disk devices are connected to the first to Nth (N is an integer of 2 or more) disk devices and stored in the first to Nth disk devices, respectively. In a data transfer device for transferring the first to Nth storage data to an external device, the data transfer device is connected to the first to Nth disk devices, respectively, and is connected to the first to Nth disk devices from the first to Nth disk devices. N stored data in the first
To the first to Nth read data.
A switching mechanism connected to the Nth to Nth disk control units, the first to Nth disk control units, and sequentially outputting the first to Nth read data as switching output signals; and a switching mechanism. And a transmission unit for transmitting the switching output signal as a transmission signal to the external device.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, first and second disk devices for storing first and second storage data, respectively, are connected to the first and second disk devices, A data transfer device for transferring the first and second storage data to an external device, wherein the data transfer device includes the first and second storage data.
First and second disk controllers respectively connected to the first and second disk devices and reading the first and second storage data from the first and second disk devices as first and second read data, respectively. A switching device that is connected to the first and second disk control units and sequentially switches the first and second read data and outputs them as an output signal; and a first and a second device that are connected to the switching device. A second transmission unit, wherein the data supply device further includes a transfer management device connected to the switching device, wherein the transfer management device sends the switching output signal to the switching device to the first device. And the one of the second transmitters causes the one of the first and second transmitters to transmit the switching output signal as a transmission signal to the external device. Data supply device is obtained, characterized in that the at it.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the above-mentioned third aspect is provided.
In the data supply device according to the aspect, the external device is an external network, and the data supply device is
Further, a data supply device having an internal network connecting the transfer management device and the switching device is obtained.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the first to Nth disk devices for storing the first to Nth storage data, respectively, are connected to the first to Nth disk devices, A data transfer device that transfers the first to the N-th storage data to an external device, wherein the data transfer device includes the first to the N-th data.
First to N-th disk control units connected to the first to N-th disk devices and respectively reading the first to N-th storage data from the first to N-th disk devices as first to N-th read data A switching mechanism connected to the first to N-th disk control units and sequentially switching the first to N-th read data as a switching output signal; and a first to N-th connected to the switching mechanism. An Nth transmission unit, wherein the data supply device further includes a transfer management device connected to the switching mechanism, and the transfer management device sends the switching output signal to the switching mechanism to the first switching device. To the one of the N-th transmission units, and the one of the first to N-th transmission units transmits the switching output signal to the external device as a transmission signal. Data supply device is obtained, characterized in that the at it.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the above-described fifth aspect
In the data supply device according to the aspect, the external device is an external network, and the data supply device is
Further, a data supply device having an internal network connecting the transfer management device to the switching mechanism is obtained.

[0023]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1, first to fourth (# 1 to # 4) disk devices 900 and a data transfer device connected to the first to fourth disk devices 900 according to an embodiment of the present invention. A video server device (moving image data supply device) having a transfer management device 30 connected to the data transfer device 20 is shown.

The data transfer device 20 according to this embodiment
Connected to the first to fourth (# 1 to # 4) disk devices 900, respectively, the first to fourth disk devices 900
, And first to fourth (# 1 to # 4) disk control units 200 for reading out the first to fourth stored data as first to fourth read data, respectively. The data transfer device 20 further includes first to third (# 1 to #
3) the network relay device 400 and the first to fourth networks
(# 1 to # 4).

The first (# 1) network relay device 40
0 is a first switching device that is connected to the first and second (# 1 and # 2) disk control units 200 and sequentially outputs the first and second read data as a first switching output signal. Works. The second (# 2) network relay device 400 is connected to the second and third (# 2 and # 3) disk control units 200, and sequentially switches the second and third read data to a second switching output. It acts as a second switching device that outputs as a signal. The third (# 3) network relay device 400 is connected to the third and fourth (# 3 and # 4) disk control units 200, and sequentially switches the third and fourth read data to a third switching output. It acts as a third switching device that outputs as a signal.

The first (# 1) communication control unit 300 of the first to fourth (# 1 to # 4) communication control units 300 has the first
When transferring the first to fourth storage data from the fourth to fourth disk devices 900, for example, the first switching output signal of the first (# 1) network relay device 400 is directly transmitted to the first (# 1) 1), and sends the third switching output signal of the third (# 3) network relay device 400 to the second and first (# 2 and # 1) network relay devices 400. Through the first (#
It is sent to the communication control unit 300 of 1). First to fourth (#
The first to fourth disk devices 900 are assigned to the second (# 2) communication control unit 300 of the 1 to # 4) communication control units 300.
When the first to fourth storage data are transferred from the first (# 1) network relay device 400, for example, the first switching output signal is directly transferred to the second (# 2) communication control unit 300. And the third switching output signal of the third (# 3) network relay device 400 via the second (# 2) network relay device 400 to the second (# 2) communication control unit. Send to 300. The third (#) of the first to fourth (# 1 to # 4) communication control units 300
When transferring the first to fourth storage data from the first to fourth disk devices 900 to the communication control unit 300 of 3), for example, the first (# 1) network relay device 40
0 to the third (# 3) communication control unit 300 via the second (# 2) network relay device 400 and the third (# 3) network. The third switching output signal of the relay device 400 is sent directly to the third (# 3) communication control unit 300. The fourth to fourth (# 4) communication control units 300 of the first to fourth (# 1 to # 4) communication control units 300 are provided with the first to fourth storage data from the first to fourth disk devices 900. Is transferred, for example, the first switching output signal of the first (# 1) network relay device 400 is transmitted to the second and third switching devices.
(# 2 and # 3) to the fourth (# 4) communication control unit 300 via the network relay device 400, and the third (# 3) network relay device 400 outputs the third switching output. The signal is sent directly to the fourth (# 4) communication control unit 300. Further, when transferring the first and second storage data from the first and second disk devices 900 to the first or second (# 1 or # 2) communication control unit 300, the first (# 1) The first switching output signal of the network switching device 400 is directly transmitted to the first or second (# 1
Alternatively, it is sent to the communication control unit 300 of # 2). Similarly,
Second or third (# 2 or # 3) communication control unit 300
Second and third disk devices 900
When the stored data is transferred, the second switching output signal of the second (# 2) network relay device 400 is directly transmitted to the second or third (# 2 or # 3) communication control unit 3.
Send to 00. The third or fourth (# 3 or # 4) communication control unit 300 is provided with the third and fourth disk devices 900.
When transferring the third and fourth storage data from the
The third switching output signal of the network relay device 400 of (# 3) is directly transmitted to the third or fourth (# 3 or # 3).
The data is sent to the communication control unit 300 of 4).

As described above, the first through third (# 1 through # 1)
The combination of the network relay device 400 of 3) operates as a network switch mechanism (switching mechanism) S having a 6-port interface, and one port is a bidirectional path for performing input and output.

The transfer management device 30 is a normal information processing device provided outside the data transfer device 20. That is, similarly to the data transfer device 20 'including the information processing device shown in FIG. 4, the transfer management device 30 includes a system bus, an input / output bus (I / O bus), and a central processing unit connected to the system bus. Device (CPU) or processor 5
20 ′ and a main storage unit (MEM) 530 ′, a bus control unit 350 ′ connected between a system bus and an input / output bus (I / O bus), and an input / output bus (I / O bus). An input / output unit 31. The input / output unit 31 is connected to the first to third (# 1 to # 3) network switching devices 400 of the network switch S by an internal network (internal network interface signal line) 50.

In the video server device (moving image data supply device) shown in FIG. 1, the stream data is striped and stored in each disk device 900 as described above. Each disk control unit 200 is connected to the disk device 9
Reading from 00 is performed in parallel. In this case, the reading instruction for each stream data is sent to the communication control unit 30.
The process is executed by performing the process of 0 for each disk control unit 200. Each of the communication control units 300 has a central processing unit (CPU) or a processor and a main storage unit. A central processing unit (CPU) or a processor of the communication control unit 300 issues a reading instruction for each stream data to each disk control unit 200. The communication control unit 300 stores one stream data read from the disk control unit 200 in a main storage unit therein. At this time, the stream data is arranged for each read data. Each communication control unit 300 is configured to be able to store a plurality of stream data in its main storage unit. Which communication control unit 300 corresponds to which stream data is controlled by the transfer management device 30 connected by the internal network 50.

Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown a video distribution system including the video server device (moving image data supply device) shown in FIG. This video distribution system uses a data transfer device 20 via a local area network (LAN) 40 (or a wide area network (WAN)).
Display terminals 10 that are connected to
Having. The display terminal 10 informs the transfer management device 30 of the video server device (moving image data supply device) of the distribution of the desired moving image data (content) via the LAN 40.
The transfer management device 30 starts a process of outputting specific stream data to each display terminal 10. Transfer management device 30
Monitors the state of each communication control unit 300, selects one of the communication control devices 300 based on a criterion described later, and instructs to generate a stream.

The communication control device 300 instructed to generate the stream instructs each disk control unit 200 to read data via the network relay device 400. On the other hand, each disk control unit 200
Reads the designated stream data from the corresponding disk device 900 for each unit, and
00 to the above one.

The communication control unit 300 includes:
A specific address of the internal main storage unit is assigned to the unit of the transferred stream data, and each disk control unit 2
The unit of the stream data sent from 00 is stored. It is assumed that the specified stream data is striped and stored in each disk device 900 as described above. As described above, the communication control unit 300
Issues a read request to each disk control unit 200 at the same time, each of the read stream data units is transferred to the main storage unit of the communication control unit 300 that made the request.

Here, since the response time from issuing a request to the disk device 900 until data is returned differs depending on the state of the disk device 900, the unit of each stream data is the unit of stream reproduction of the disk control unit 200. Are not always input to the communication control unit 300 in order. In order to align the units of the stream data, the area of the main storage unit in the communication control unit 300 is fixed for each disk control device 200, so that the alignment processing is performed inside the main storage unit.

As described above, each of the communication control units 300 has a central processing unit (CPU) or processor and a main storage unit, and performs all of network protocol processing for transmitting stream data to the external network 40. Perform processing. As described above, the transfer management device 30 generates the requested stream data by the communication control unit 3.
This is performed by selecting and instructing one of 00's. At the time of the selection, the communication control unit that processes the least number of stream data should be selected. This is because if a load is concentrated on a specific communication control unit 300, congestion occurs in that portion, which is a major cause of performance degradation. The transfer management device 30 determines the stream assignment to the communication control units 300 and holds the number of existing streams in all the communication control units 300. Thereby, the transfer management device 30
Can determine the allocation of a newly generated stream according to the algorithm of “determining the communication control unit 300 with the smallest number of streams”. Therefore,
If the number of streams processed by one communication control unit 300 is smaller than that of another communication control unit 300, the transfer management device 30 selects the communication control unit 300 and instructs to generate a stream. The instructed communication control unit 300 instructs each disk control unit 200 to read data in the disk device 900, and generates stream data.
When the communication control unit 300 sends the stream data to the external network 40, the stream data includes
The protocol transfer information of the external network 40 is added.

The above is the flow of the transfer process from the disk device 900 to each display terminal 10 when the stream data is single. When there are a plurality of stream data, the transfer processing of the single stream is executed in parallel. At this time, the transfer management device 30 always holds status information of the number of streams being processed by each communication control unit 300, and determines which communication control unit 300 is processing the minimum number of streams. This is because the transfer management device 30 makes a stream generation request to the communication control unit 300. Therefore, the plurality of stream generation requests are distributed to each communication control unit 300 on average. Each transfer control path 300 is independently controlled by the disk control unit 200 without interference of the other communication control units 300.
Is instructed to read the corresponding stream data.

As described above, according to the present invention, since the disk control unit 200 and the communication control unit 300 are independently connected to the transfer management device 30 as the instruction main unit by the internal network relay device 400, the network By increasing the number of relay devices 400, the number of connected disk devices 900 and communication control units 300 can be increased according to the scale of the system, and the number of simultaneous distribution streams possessed by the entire system can be increased.

When a failure occurs in the communication control unit 300, the communication control unit 300 is disconnected from the communication control unit 300 and the processing stream is allocated to another communication control unit 300.
Stream distribution can be continued without stopping the transfer operation of the system.

In addition, even if a failure occurs in the disk device 900 and the disk control unit 200, the same data unit of the stream data is redundantly allocated to a plurality of disk devices 900 and stored. Even in the event of a failure of the control unit 200, by allocating the reading of the stream data fragments assigned to the disk device 900 and the disk control unit 200 to another disk device 900 or the disk control unit 200, the system can be stopped without interruption. The operation can be continued. Further, since each disk control unit 200 and each communication control unit 300 hold multiple internal network interfaces and have redundant interfaces, it is impossible to use even internal network failures due to failure factors. By switching the data transfer operation on the network interface to the redundant side, the system can be continued without interruption even if an internal network failure occurs.

[0040]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, a disk control unit and a communication control unit are connected by an internal network relay device, and an instruction main unit (transfer management device) for issuing a stream generation instruction is provided. By generating stream data and transferring the data without passing through,
By increasing the number of disk controllers and communication controllers together with the internal network relay device, it is possible to increase the stream data transfer processing capacity without being affected by the data transfer amount limit of the instruction main unit (transfer management device). .
This is because the data flow is instructed by the main unit (transfer management device).
Means that it is possible to increase the data transfer capability inside the data transfer device without being concerned with the data transfer capability of the instruction main unit (transfer management device). Further, since the disk control unit and the communication control unit are connected by a network relay device having a switching function, data interference can be significantly reduced as compared with the connection using a bus configuration. Further, since the communication is performed via the network relay device, it is possible to allocate the stream generation to another communication control unit in the event of a failure in the communication control unit, and the system can be stopped without interruption even if the communication control unit fails. Operation can be continued. In addition, the same data unit of the stream data is redundantly allocated to a plurality of disk devices and stored in the case of a failure of the disk device and the disk control unit. By allocating the reading of the stream data fragments assigned to the disk device and the disk control unit to another disk device or disk control unit, the operation of the system can be continued without interruption. Furthermore,
Each disk control unit and each communication control unit hold multiple internal network interfaces and have redundant interfaces. By switching the data transfer operation to the redundant side interface, it is possible to continue the system without interruption even if an internal network failure occurs.

As described above, according to the present invention, a data transfer device capable of increasing the data transfer capability can be obtained.

Further, according to the present invention, a data supply device having a data transfer device capable of increasing the data transfer capability can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a video server device (moving image data supply device) including a data transfer device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a video distribution system including the video server device (moving image data supply device) of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a striping technique in which each data unit of single stream data is stored across a plurality of disk devices.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a video server device (moving image data supply device) including a conventional data transfer device.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 10 display terminal 20 data transfer device 30 transfer management device 31 input / output unit 40 local area network 50 internal network (internal network interface signal line) 200 disk control unit 300 communication control unit 310 input / output bus 350 bus control unit 350 'bus control unit 400 Network relay device (switching device) 510 System bus 520 Central processing unit (processor) 520 ′ Central processing unit (processor) 530 Main storage unit 530 ′ Main storage unit 900 Disk device S Network switch mechanism (switching mechanism)

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A data transfer device connected to first and second disk devices for transferring first and second storage data stored in the first and second disk devices to an external device, respectively. The first and second disk devices are connected to the first and second disk devices, respectively.
A first and a second disk control unit for reading the second storage data as first and second read data, respectively, and a first and a second disk control unit connected to the first and the second disk control units; Data comprising: a switching device that sequentially outputs second read data as a switching output signal; and a transmission unit connected to the switching device and transmitting the switching output signal to the external device as a transmission signal. Transfer device. 2. The first to Nth disk data connected to first to Nth (N is an integer of 2 or more) disk devices and stored in the first to Nth disk devices, respectively. In the data transfer device for transferring data to a device, the data transfer device is connected to each of the first to Nth disk devices, and is connected to the first to Nth disk devices.
A first to an N-th disk control unit that reads the N-th storage data as first to N-th read data, respectively; and the first to the N-th disk control units. A switching mechanism for sequentially outputting the N-th read data as a switching output signal; and a transmission unit connected to the switching mechanism and transmitting the switching output signal to the external device as a transmission signal. Transfer device. 3. The first and second disk devices for storing first and second storage data, respectively, and the first and second storage devices connected to the first and second disk devices. In a data supply device having a data transfer device for transferring data to an external device, the data transfer device is connected to the first and second disk devices, respectively, and is connected to the first and second disk devices. The first
A first and a second disk control unit for reading the second storage data as first and second read data, respectively, and a first and a second disk control unit connected to the first and the second disk control units; A switching device for sequentially outputting the second read data as a switching output signal; and a first and a second transmission unit connected to the switching device, wherein the data supply device is connected to the switching device. The transfer management device, wherein the transfer management device causes the switching device to send the switching output signal to one of the first and second transmission units, and the first and second transmissions The data supply device, wherein the one of the units transmits the switching output signal to the external device as a transmission signal. 4. The data supply device according to claim 3, wherein the external device is an external network, and the data supply device further has an internal network connecting the transfer management device and the switching device. A data supply device, characterized in that: 5. A first to Nth disk device for storing first to Nth storage data, respectively, and said first to Nth storage devices connected to said first to Nth disk devices. In a data supply device having a data transfer device for transferring data to an external device, the data transfer device is connected to each of the first to Nth disk devices, and is connected to the first to Nth disk devices. The first
A first to an N-th disk control unit that reads the N-th storage data as first to N-th read data, respectively; and the first to the N-th disk control units. A switching mechanism for sequentially outputting the N-th read data as a switching output signal; and a first to an N-th transmitting unit connected to the switching mechanism. The data supply device is connected to the switching mechanism. Further comprising a transfer management device, wherein the transfer management device causes the switching mechanism to transmit the switching output signal to one of the first to Nth transmission units, and the first to Nth transmission units. The data supply device, wherein the one of the transmission units transmits the switching output signal to the external device as a transmission signal. 6. The data supply device according to claim 5, wherein the external device is an external network, and the data supply device further has an internal network connecting between the transfer management device and the switching mechanism. A data supply device, characterized in that: