JP3385222B2 - Network control system design method - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to various communication devices (network element: N) that constitute a network.
The present invention relates to a method for designing a network control system for maintaining, operating, and managing E), particularly a method for designing a network control system using component orientation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Software is changing from the time of making from scratch to the time of combining (Mikio Aoyama: "Software Big Bang", Information Processing, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 3).
38-341, 1998). In the communication network management system,
Prepare plug-and-play type software components (componentware) that can be used as they are without compiling,
If you can build a system with that combination,
Both development period and cost can be reduced. Tel
SMAR at eManagement Forum
T TMN (TeleManagement Foru
m SMARTTMN Work Project, ht
(tp: //www.tmforum.org/pages/smart.html), etc. is also aiming for that direction, but there are still many issues that must be technically solved before reaching codinglessness.

CORBA (OMG IDL Ver.
2.2 Feb-1998), DCOM (Kazuo Furuyama "D
COM Guidebook ", Ohmsha, 1997), Ja
vaBeans (JavaBeans ^™ API sp
certification 1.01 SUN Micr
ossystems, 24-Jul-1997) and other powerful frameworks have become industry standards, and specification acquisition functions such as interface repositories and introspection have become available, but components made by different organizations have been combined. Also, the division of labor between tool makers and component makers is becoming possible.

The network control system (OpS) maintains, operates and manages various communication devices that make up a communication network. As a method of designing this OpS, a method of using componentware is Ikuo Yoda / Koji Yada “Component Oriented Communication Network Management System” (1998 IEICE Society Conference Proceedings B-14-18,
pp. 565, The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, 1998.
9.7), Taichi Kawabata, Ikuo Yoda, "Design and Implementation of Communication Network Management System Data Conversion Components" (1998 IEICE Society Conference Proceedings B-14-19, p.
p. 566, The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, 1998.9.
7), Hiroyuki Maedaido, Tetsuaki Goto, and Masahisa Tago "Design and Implementation of Protocol Components for Communication Network Management Systems" (1998)
IEICE Society Conference Proceedings B-14-
20, pp. 567, The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, 199
8.9.7), Taichi Kawabata, Koji Yada, "Prototype of component-oriented 0pS" (1998 IEICE Society Conference Proceedings B-14-21, pp.
568, published by The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, 1998.9.7).

FIG. 1 shows an outline of a typical configuration of OpS. FIG. 1 (a) shows a hierarchical system and FIG. 1 (b) shows a component type system.

In designing a component type system,
Parts called componentware (CW) are used.

FIG. 2 shows a flow of designing a conventional component type OpS. Plural kinds of general-purpose componentware (components) are preliminarily set on the pallet 1.
2 are prepared, and of these, the component 2 necessary for actually creating the OpS is selected, the selected component 2 is appropriately customized, and the components are connected by connecting them.

This method also solves the problem of protocol diversification by making protocol differences into components.

FIG. 3 shows the manner of setting data in the above-described OpS design. For setting various data in the component 2, a setting area called a property sheet 3 is opened, and there is an expression method specific to each data. It is done by describing the value. Further, although data exchanged between the components 2 can be displayed and monitored (4), this display is also performed by a representation method unique to each data.

In such OpS, the user 5 operates the network element (NE) 7 via the application 6 as shown in FIG. The application 6 that manages the network element 7 is configured by connecting a number of components 2, and the user operates the GUI component by the button 8 and the graph display 9 (GUI operation).

Events from the network element 7 are processed by being exchanged between the components 2 in the application 6 and transmitted to the user through the graphic display 9, and the user's instruction is transmitted to the network element 7 through the button 8.

[0012]

(A) Unified interface to structured data exchanged between components Traditional management protocols such as CMIP and SNMP, CO
In addition to distributed frameworks such as RBA, HTML + Apple
Protocols handled by OpS are diversified, such as user interfaces based on t. Further, in network devices such as routers, detailed settings are often done using HTML and via a browser. These are convenient for managing them individually, but many network devices are managed centrally. In order to do so, it is necessary to consider HTTP as a new management protocol and perform machine processing.

In the case of handling these various management protocols, it has hitherto been necessary to produce a program while being aware of the structure of the protocol data unit (PDU) of each management protocol. For example, in CMIP and SNMP, ASN. 1, data is described using IDL in CORBA, and the encoding method and the mapping to the computer language are different. Providing dedicated component groups for each of these protocols not only requires designing a large number of components, but also requires developers to handle many components with different ideas, which increases the burden. .

When implementing the management protocol in a computer language, it is common sense that the structure of the PDU and the data structure in the computer language are mapped so that the management protocol can be processed most efficiently. Should respect the data structures used in the existing ProcorStack. In order to share components with different protocols,
If the data passed between the components is easily converted into a common data structure, in some cases, the information essential for the processing of the protocol may be lost and communication may become impossible.

In the method of designing a network control system aiming at componentware, debugging, inputting values, and setting values in the component property sheet were very troublesome, so it was recognized that it was necessary to improve them.

(B) Utilization of GUI Interface of Managed Device in Centralized Network Management In the future, it is expected that inexpensive http + applet will become the mainstream for user interfaces used in network management, rather than applications that require high development costs. Further, the device to be managed also provides a management method by http. Therefore, even if a large number of network devices are collectively managed by the conventional method, it is desirable to utilize the management method provided by those devices to the maximum when managing the individual devices.

(C) One of the reasons that makes it difficult to reuse the data type and the guidance software component is the inconsistency of the data type passed between the components (G).
ordon S.M. Novak Jr. "Softwar
e Reuse by Specialization
of Generic Procedures th
rough Views ", IEEE Trans on
Software Engineering, vo
l. 23, No. 7, pp. 401-417, Jul
y, 1997).

On the other hand, strong typing that is checked by a compiler or the like is a powerful means for properly guiding the developer and preventing program errors (NMF040, 4).
1, 42, 43 TMN / C ++ API, 1997). In many cases, the data structure of the protocol handled in communication network management becomes complicated, and such guidance is essential.

However, this data type is generally different for each information definition, and when designing a general-purpose component that can be arbitrarily combined, it is necessary to eliminate typing and to abstract the data type. In this case, the developer will have to check whether or not the data can be passed at the time of execution, and the burden on the developer will increase more and more. Therefore, a guiding mechanism instead of typing is essential.

(D) Scanning of data exchanged between components In the prior art, the data exchanged between components are collectively passed. Therefore, HTML data and CMIP Linked Re
ply, ASN. As in the case of 1 set of etc., it is one data as a whole, but when it is desired to decompose it into individual elements and process them individually, it is difficult to deal with them by the conventional method.

(E) Problems in constructing a 1: n relationship with components on the network As one of the advantages of the conventional component technology, the components are assembled by tools and dynamically executed to check the operation. It is possible. However, if we try to apply this technology to OpS construction, in the 1: n relationship such as manager agent or server client that often appears in OpS, an unspecified number of states of n appear. . Therefore, it was difficult to dynamically simulate such a relationship on the tool.

[0022]

[Means for Solving the Problems] (a) Unified interface to structured data exchanged between components Various data actually exchanged between components (various data structures such as ASN.1 and XML) ), And defined a unified tree-structured interface for structured data exchanged between components. This makes it possible to access the data with a unified tree-type data access interface even though the data itself is different. For example, it becomes possible to perform various settings of CW used in the management system with a tree structure menu, and when monitoring the data exchanged between components, it is possible to view the data in a unified format for easy understanding. I can do it now.

(B) Use of GUI interface of managed device in centralized network management When individual network devices are connected, the device
The HTML file output by the p-server is captured as management data by the system that manages the device. This data is subjected to processing such as partial modification or addition of initial setting values from the beginning in light of the current connection / setting state of the device. After the processing, the data is converted into HTML again and transferred to the browser for the administrator of the network system.

(C) Data Type and Guidance In order to properly guide the connection between components, a constraint is introduced on the data that can be exchanged by the component, and based on this constraint, whether or not the component can be connected (guided) ) Will be decided. There are the following two methods for guiding this connection.

(1) In addition to the type information of output / input data, information (constraint information) about possible values of the type is acquired from each component. Then, the component is guided so as to allow the connection only when the output constraint condition of the data output side component is the same as or more severe than the input constraint condition of the data input side component.

(2) The constraint information can be acquired not only for the component but also for the data input / output from the component. In this case, the constraint condition of the data output from the output side component is unknown until the component actually moves. For this reason, while assembling the components with the tool, the data is actually sent to the component that actually outputs the data. The output data of the component itself is made more strict according to the constraint condition of the flowing data so that the component can be connected to the input side component. That is, this method is meaningless unless it can be "simulated while assembling".

Further, in the case of determining the connection between components, the output constraint condition of the data output component is too strict as compared with the input constraint condition of the data input component, so that it actually flows even though it is not connected. The data may be more stringent than the output constraints of the output component itself. At this time, although it seems impossible to connect the components to each other, it is possible to actually connect the components to each other. Here, in order to actually connect the components themselves, it is necessary to obtain the output constraint information not only from the output component but also the output data flowing from the output component. .

(D) Scanning of data exchanged between components A component that scans huge data as a plurality of finer data is adopted. At that time, a component that reflects the result of processing by some component on the individual data that is scanned and sent back to the original huge data, a component that does not, and the like are prepared.

(E) Problems in constructing a 1: n relationship with components on the network: An instance of a component block on the n side from the demarcation point is defined as the demarcation point with the component at the demarcation point of 1: n as a boundary. Create and initialize a large number of components when they are simulated. Further, the demarcation point component also performs processing for appropriately distributing data on the server or manager side to the client or agent side, and vice versa. In this way it is possible to properly simulate the 1: n relationship of the network on the tool as well.

[0030]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0031]

Embodiment 1 When the problems to be solved by the inventions described in claims 1 and 2 are summarized, in advancing the componentization of software in the application domain of communication network management, data exchange between components is performed. You need the following:

1) Design of an abstract data structure that can include the PDU structure of a newer management protocol that will appear in the future 2) Creation of a new developer-guided mechanism to replace typing lost by abstraction 3) Protocol-specific Respect for implementation The present embodiment is premised on targeting fine-grained components that do not have a distribution function. That is, each component operates within the same process, and data exchange between components is passed as an argument of a procedure call.

The data exchanged between the components connected in the same process can be an object (event object) having a certain function. In order to satisfy the above conditions, the event object holds the data structure specific to each management protocol as it is and has an access interface that does not depend on the protocol implemented.

FIG. 5 shows an outline of the access interface of the present invention, which is unique data 11 specific to the protocol.
Access interface 12 independent of protocol
Is implemented to configure the event object 13, so that the components 14 and 15 can be exchanged while retaining the protocol-specific data structure.

Hereinafter, an example of the design and implementation of the access interface of the present invention will be described. 1. Access interface 1.1. Organization of PDU data structure GDMO is an information definition method used in communication network management.
/ ASN. 1 (CMIP), MIB / ASN. 1 (SN
MP), IDL (CORBA), DTD: Docume
nt type Declaration (HTML,
SGML, XML << Extensible Marku
p Language (XML) 1.0W3C Re
c. 10-Feb-1998. http://www.w3.org/TR/R
EC-xml >>, SQL (RDBMS), etc. are considered. The interface of the event object must be able to operate all the data structures that can be expressed using these methods. It is also desirable to be as simple as possible.

First, the data structure can be roughly classified into a basic type and a composite type in which the basic type is combined. The basic type is a type that can be represented by an ordinary computer language atomic type such as an integer type or a character string type. There is not much difference between the basic types in the definition method of each protocol. Since the basic type can be expressed directly in a computer language, it is sufficient to prepare a method that changes for each atomic type and a method that acquires it as an access interface.

On the other hand, in the complex type, different expression methods are used in each protocol. In the present invention, Co, which represents a set of objects in object-oriented design,
reflection (Dennis de Champe
aux, Douglas Lea, and Penel
ope Faure, "Object-Oriente
d System Development ", Add
Ion Weslsy, 1993) is adopted for classification.

FIG. 6 shows the types of Collection.
As shown in, a set that allows / does not allow the same element (Bag / Set), an ordered set (Sequence) as a type of Bag, and a k as a type of Set.
A set (Ma that has a set of ey and value as elements)
p) etc.

In the present invention, the composite type in which different types are arranged is M
A complex type that classifies as ap and arranges the same type is Sequence.
We propose a method to classify into e. Those classified into Map will be referred to as structural types, and those classified into Sequence will be referred to as array types.

Besides this, there are data types characteristic of the protocol that cannot be applied to the concept of Collection. This is the ASN. ANY in 1 (Ope
nType), any in IDL, and the like, which are types determined at the time of execution. This type requires a runtime type information acquisition / setting interface, and this type is called the ANY type.

By summarizing the above, there are four types in Table 1.

[0042]

[Table 1]

1.2. If we abstract the constraint data structure as a set of objects,
It will not be possible to guide the developer by the type that was in the conventional API. Introduce constraints as an alternative. Constraints are information indicating conditions such as the type of each data, possible values, number of elements, existence of elements, etc., and are acquired from the event object.

The application range of the constraint is further expanded, and a part of the data structure is represented by the constraint. For example, ASN. CH of 1
OICE and IDL union are complex types in which one of a plurality of type candidates is selected and used.
Interpret these types as a constrained type, with the constraint that only one of the elements is present. That is, S
EQUENCE and CHOICE, struct and uni
For on, the structure is the same interface,
Differences in meaning are expressed by constraints. In this way, the types of interfaces can be reduced by interpreting the differences conventionally classified as structures as the differences in constraints.

1.3. Guidance information / metadata information definition does not include data such as type name, name of structural type element, name given to numerical value, etc., but it contains a lot of information that helps developers understand. Has been. In order to properly guide the developer using the tool, it is necessary for the tool to be able to take out this information together with the constraint information from the event object itself.

On the other hand, the event object is usually a temporary object generated at the time of execution, and it is considered that no instance exists when the components are combined. Therefore, the information about the interface is collected as metadata in one object,
It is necessary to be able to search the metadata by the name of the data structure. 2. Interface definition An example in which the skeleton of an access interface based on the above concept is defined in Java (JDK1.2) is shown below. Col is a core API of JDK1.2.
section has been introduced and is recommended as a common interface that does not depend on the application. JD
In K1.2, Sequence is called List. An important point of the JDK collection is that the interface and the implementation are clearly separated, and the interface of the present invention can be used without distinction from the general-purpose library prepared in the Core API.

In addition, the same Java Virtual M
There is Info Bus () as an interface for exchanging data in the machine, and this is used for acquisition / setting of atom type. The Info Bus defines the Collection API as one of the exchange data APIs, and the interface of the present invention is Info Bu.
It satisfies the specifications of s.

2.1. Data Interface Table 2 shows the interface used for data access. What is newly defined is Pdu Dat
a, Pdu Any Data only, respectively,
It shows in Table 3 and Table 4.

[0049]

[Table 2]

[0050]

[Table 3]

[0051]

[Table 4]

2.2. The metadata interface type information is a type of constraint, but since the type is a basic structure related to object creation and deletion, it is separated from constraint information and incorporated in metadata. Tables 5 and 6 show interfaces for accessing the metadata.

[0053]

[Table 5]

[0054]

[Table 6]

2.3. There are infinite types of constraints given to the constraint / guidance information data, and there is no general description method. ASN. Subtype 1 and X
Table 7 is a summary of the constraints with the goal of being able to fully express the constraints that can be expressed by the DTD of ML. In this table,
The constraint information is represented by Map, and the key means the value.
Represents the value. Table 8 shows information for guidance.

[0056]

[Table 7]

[0057]

[Table 8]

3. Implementation and Evaluation Regarding the access interface of the present invention, ASN.
An example of Java implementation for 1 and XML is shown. ASN. The expression power of 1 and XML is similar, and 1
Standards for ASN. It may be described in both 1 and SGML which is the predecessor of XML. However, since a completely different API is used in a normal implementation, this is an optimal example for testing the effect of the access interface.

ASN. For 1, the access interface is put on the original implementation built on Java. For XML, DOM (Document Object Model) being advanced by W3C as an access interface for XML and HTML.
(Document Object Model (DO
M) Level 1 Specification V
er. 1.0 W3C Rec, 1-Oct-199
8. http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DOM-Level-1) on top of the implementation of access interface.

Table 9 shows the ASN. Table 10 shows the correspondence between the type 1 and the interface of the present invention, and Table 10 shows the correspondence between the elements of XML.

[0061]

[Table 9]

[0062]

[Table 10]

ASN. In No. 1, the data structure is rigorously defined in advance, whereas in XML, D representing the text structure is used.
It is necessary to handle this as a well-formed document without knowledge of TD. In DOM, the structure is represented by a tree in which document elements (elements, attributes, texts, etc.) are used as nodes, but one node has unique information (element tag names, etc.) and subordinate nodes, In addition, since any type of node can be set as a subordinate node so as not to depend on DTD, one node is set to three access interfaces (structure type indicating node unique information, subordinate Array type that represents the node group of, and a structural type that represents the type of the subordinate nodes).

FIG. 8 shows how data is set according to the present invention. Various settings for each component 2 are made by the tree-structured menu 22 via the common interface 21 based on the access interface described above.

Further, a data editing component is produced, and ASN. We confirmed that both 1 and XML can be edited with the same component. At this time, it was found that the user can be guided to some extent by appropriately displaying the constraint information. ASN. 9 and 10 show examples of the edit screens 1 and XML, respectively. 4. Utilization of constraint for guidance on a tool The OpS design method according to the present invention described in claims 1 and 2 ,
11 and 12 respectively.

Conventionally, only the type was used for checking the connection between two components placed on the editor as shown in FIG. However, the connection between the components is required to have the semantic validity on top of the syntax validity, and the constraint information of the component itself includes a considerable part, if not complete, of the semantic. There is.

Therefore, in FIG. 11, when connecting two components, the mutual constraint conditions are confirmed. If the output-side constraint conditions are stricter than the input-side constraint conditions, connection processing is performed. On the other hand, if not, the connection between those components is rejected.

Further, in FIG. 12, even if the constraint condition of the output component itself is loose, if the constraint condition of the data flowing therethrough is severe, the connection is allowed.

As described above, by inserting the procedure described with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12 into the conventional tool for connecting components, it is possible to eliminate a bug caused by a contradiction of data exchanged between components at the design stage of OpS. .

[0070]

Second Embodiment The following embodiment relates to the present application.
It is a reference example. This relates to the setting of devices (network element / NE) when individual network devices are connected. Here, the device (NE) to be managed by the network is controlled by http, and the
l (or XML, etc.) treats the output as management system management protocol data, have rows modifications necessary portion by scanning it, the user of the result management system htm
by sending as l, use an operation method of each managed device is provided maximally.

[0071] Figure 14 shows one example of the embodiment uses these proposed method, 31 network, 32 network element (NE), 33 the http devices to be managed in network management system A means for the device management system to trap the HTML file output by the server and the trapped HTML
An HTML processing unit that performs processing such as partially modifying the L file or adding an initial setting value from the beginning according to the current connection / setting state of the device, and the HTML after processing.
To a browser for the administrator of the network system, a manager 34, and a GUI operated by the user, for example, a PWW equipped with a WWW browser.
It is C.

The network 31 is constructed by connecting a plurality of network elements 32, and the network control system (OpS) manages these devices. Here, each network element 32 to be managed
Has an http server. These network elements 32 can be collectively managed by a general network management protocol such as SNMP. Further, regarding individual devices, the GUI 34 is utilized by the HTTP protocol to manage those devices. The best form, that is, the GU that these devices offer
It is also possible to manage the device in a manner that respects the I interface.

Here, it is assumed that the user of the network management system wants to set each network device by using the http protocol. Then, the user
The p request is sent to each device via the manager 33. Then, in this case, the manager 33
While maximally respecting the content of the http sent by each managed device, the manager 33 sets the setting items related to the entire network system among them in such a manner that the user can use the http or the like. It is desirable to send similar data. Therefore, the html data sent once is processed in the system as management data, and necessary parts of the data are processed such as data setting by a predetermined method. The resulting data is converted into html data again and sent to the user.

In this way, the user is presented with the setting items in the form set in advance from the beginning for the part relating to the entire network system among the many setting items that will be sent from each device. This simplifies the setting of network equipment, reduces the burden of setting, and prevents the entire network from being damaged by incorrect settings .

[0075] Next, the means to achieve this within the framework of component-oriented.

As shown in FIG . 15, when a notification of an event is transmitted by a huge data object 41, it is a component 43 for performing a process of scanning it in units of a plurality of smaller data objects 42.

From the left side of FIG. 15, the object 41 is transmitted as an event to the next component. With this event notification, the component 43 that scans the data into a plurality of smaller parts outputs the input huge data object 41 as a smaller data object 42. By subdividing, the components in the next stage can be processed in small data object units. The processing result can be reflected to the original if necessary.

It should be noted here that it has been assumed that all conventional communication protocol data can be contained in one PDU. However, HTML structured data and CMI
P Linked Reply, ASN. 1 set
It is difficult to apply such a conventional method as it is when it is desired to operate individual elements such as of by components. Therefore, it is important to consider and prepare a component that can process data object data in some form, such as employing a component that divides into a plurality of data objects described in FIG.

Here, the method described above with reference to FIG.
Specifically described how to realize. First, N
From E51, as a response to the HTTP protocol request, the HTML protocol response
Consider the data returned to the manager 52. At this time, the HTTP receiving component 53 in the manager 52 converts the HTML data into structure data on a tree in a form of being exchanged between the components, like the data of other communication protocols, and outputs it to the output destination component. Send to. Here, the HTTP receiving component 53 to output data, and passed as input to the data scanning component 54.

The data scanning component 54 individually scans (decomposes) the passed tree-structured data,
As individual data, for example, HTML is checked and passed to a component that sets necessary setting items as appropriate.
The FORM setting processing component 55 sequentially checks each input data that is sent in pieces,
If it is FORM data of the type specified in the customizer, change it as necessary. In this way, it is possible to process each part of large structured data.

The data scanning component 54 sends the thus processed data to the HTTP (transmission) component 56 for the user operating the manager 52. The HTTP component 56 converts the received structural type data into HTML again, and the user's GUI 5
Send to 7.

By doing this, the user
It is possible to use the GUI provided by the NE 51 as it is, except for the portion of the data sent from the device that the manager 52 has modified as necessary.

[0083]

Third Embodiment Op by conventional component technology
In the S construction method, at the time of designing, such as a server / client or a manager / agent, at the time of operation 1:
Even in the connection relation of the components which has a dynamic relation of n, they were statically connected at 1: 1. However,
In reality, the connection between these managers and agents is not always a 1: 1 static relationship as originally designed, but in some cases, a 1: n relationship. This includes
Addition of agents (adding new agents by connecting to the same manager), or conversely removing some (disconnecting agents that were running from the manager) is also included. The same dynamic connection / disconnection relationship can occur between the server and the client.

The component-oriented feature was that once the connection was made with the tool, the connection could be immediately executed and simulated. However, such a 1: n relationship has been difficult to simulate on a tool. As a solution to this problem, a component that is a demarcation point of 1: n can generate an instance on the n side by itself according to the customizer settings, or can appropriately send it to the destination. Simulate a relationship.

This mechanism is the Op of the invention according to claim 3.
In the S design method, as shown in FIG. 17, the component is separated into two components that extend between the manager and the agent. On the OpS design tool 60, components 61 to 65 are connected. Of these, the component 61 is a client and 65 is an NE from the beginning of the OpS design. Further, the components 62 and 64 are components indicating communication on the network.

When the actual OpS is operated, the manager (or server) 66 is provided with components 62, 6
3, 64 have been moved and their components 62,
64 is separated (62 ', 64') and transferred to the client and the agent.

This makes it possible to deal with the case where the client side or the agent side is changed or a plurality of clients or agents are connected to the server or the manager. FIG. 18 shows a connection relationship after dynamically registering NEs.

According to the present invention, the 1: n relationship on the network during operation is virtually increased by the components 62 and 64 to increase the instances of the components 61 and 65 at the time of designing. Shows that this situation can be properly simulated by properly allocating the data from the component 63 and vice versa.

Various management protocols are used in multimedia networks handling various main signals. The present invention proposes that a communication network management system is manufactured in a component-oriented manner, and shows an access interface for handling different kinds of protocol data by the same component. In addition, an interface that does not depend on the protocol type is defined using the concept of Collection and constraint information, and ASN. It has been shown that for data of different protocols such as 1 and XML, a general-purpose component can maintain data processing while maintaining their structure. The interface of the present invention can be applied to both having completely different protocol-specific APIs, and both can be operated with the same data editing component.

The embodiment has described the interface for exchanging protocol data between components, which is necessary when the communication network management system according to the present invention is manufactured in a component-oriented manner. Collect
Ion and the constraint information are used to define an interface that does not depend on the protocol type. 1 and XM
Implementation is actually performed for L using Java. Although the APIs specific to both protocols are completely different, the interface of the present invention is applicable to both. The GUI component that edits data via the interface of the present invention can be applied to both, and can operate the data without depending on the protocol.

[0091]

As described above, according to the inventions of claims 1 and 2 , the connection between the components is properly guided.
Data that the component can exchange in order to
And introduce constraints, and based on these constraints, components
Whether to connect (guide) between the two Do this
With, OpS design can eliminate erroneous connections and eliminate design mistakes.
Can be reduced.

[0092]

Furthermore, according to the invention of claim 3,
For example, with the component at the demarcation point of 1: n as the boundary
The component block on the n side from the demarcation point.
Show the demarcation point protocol when simulating a closet
Many components are created and initialized.

A demarcation point component is suitable for them.
The data flow is sorted out.

By doing this, on the tool
Also properly simulates 1: n relationships in networks
Made it possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a typical configuration diagram of a network control system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a design flow of a conventional component type network control system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing how data is set in OpS design.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an operation state of a network element.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an outline of an access interface of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a Collec used as a composite data structure.
diagram showing the types of action

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing correspondence between a DOM and an access interface.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing how data is set according to the present invention.

FIG. 9: ASN. The figure which shows an example of the edit screen of 1 data

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of an XML data edit screen.

FIG. 11 is a processing flow of connection between components corresponding to claim 1;

FIG. 12 is a processing flow of connection between components corresponding to claim 2;

FIG. 13: Processing flow of connection between conventional components

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of an embodiment related to a reference example of the present application .

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing how a huge data object is processed.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of processing according to a reference embodiment of the present application .

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a dynamic registration state of an NE according to an example of an embodiment corresponding to claim 3;

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a connection relationship after registration according to an example of an embodiment corresponding to claim 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

2, 14 and 15: Component, 11: Unique data, 12: Access interface, 13: Event object, 21: Common interface.

Continued Front Page (56) References 1998 IEICE Communications Society Conference B-14-19, September 7, 1998 Keizo Sugiyama et al., “Applying WWW Technology to TMN-based Network Management” Proposal and Implementation of GDMO / HTML Conversion Software ”, Information Processing Society of Japan, Research Report, Information Processing Society of Japan, April 24, 1998, Vol. 98, No. 31, pp. 7-12, 98-DPS-88 -2 Yoda Ikuo et al., Construction method of communication network management system considering heterogeneous management protocol, IEICE Technical Report SSE98-130, November 19, 1998 (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04L 12/24-12/28 H04L 12/56-12/58 H04L 29/06 G06F 9/06 G06F 13/00

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A network management system, wherein componentware, which is a functional element for controlling a communication device of a network, is prepared and selected, and the function of the selected componentware is customized according to the purpose of use. In a network control system design method that designs by connecting multiple componentwares that have been set as described above, when operating to connect two componentwares, the output constraint condition of the componentware that outputs data is , A method of designing a network control system characterized by inducing componentware to permit connection if the constraint condition on the input side is the same or severe, and rejecting connection between those componentware otherwise . 2. A network management system, wherein componentware, which is a functional element for controlling a communication device of a network, is prepared and selected, and the function of the selected componentware is customized according to the purpose of use. In the network control system design method that designs by connecting a number of componentwares that have been set as described above, when connecting two componentwares at the time of designing,
Data is exchanged experimentally between componentware, constraint information is acquired for the data output from the componentware on the data output side, and the output of the componentware on the data output side itself is obtained according to the constraint conditions of this acquired data. A method for designing a network control system, characterized in that a tool was prepared to make the constraint information more strict and to connect to the target componentware. 3. A demarcation point componentware, which is a demarcation point between a componentware group having only one instance and a componentware group having a plurality of instances in operation, among the componentware groups connected at design time, When simulating time, the demarcation point componentware itself creates and initializes a large number of instances of the demarcation point component block, and the demarcation point componentware is appropriately distributed to multiple sides. The method for designing a network control system according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein a tool for allocating a data flow and simulating a 1: n relationship in a network is prepared.