JP4937968B2 - Communication control device and message generation method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a data processing technique, and more particularly, to a method for generating a message to be notified to a user, and a communication control device for generating a message indicating the result of setting communication control contents using the generation method.

A data processing apparatus that executes data processing according to data transmitted from an external terminal may transmit a message indicating the result of the data processing to the external terminal. In Patent Document 1 below, an error processing method has been proposed in which an error message is acquired from a database using an error code as a key to reduce the program amount.
JP 04-043333 A

  In setting communication control contents in the communication control apparatus, there are usually various setting items such as an IP address and a subnet mask. Therefore, there are various setting data transmitted from the external terminal for the setting, and there are also various messages to be notified to the external terminal as a processing result according to the setting data. When the message identification information and the message are directly associated with each other and stored in the database, the amount of data to be stored may be enormous.

  The present invention has been made in view of these problems, and a main object thereof is to provide a technique for realizing generation of various messages while suppressing the amount of data to be stored.

  In order to solve the above problems, a communication control device according to an aspect of the present invention provides an element character string that is a character string that can be set for each element for each of a plurality of elements included in a message to be notified to an external terminal; In accordance with the message table that stores the character string ID for identifying the element character string in association with each other, the receiving unit that receives the setting data for setting the content of communication control from the external terminal, and the received setting data A data processing unit that executes predetermined data processing and outputs an ID string including a character string ID for each of a plurality of elements as data indicating the result of the data processing, and each character string ID of the output ID string Therefore, a message generation unit that identifies each element character string associated with each other in the message table and generates a message including each element character string; Comprising a transmission unit for transmitting the generated message to the external terminal.

  The “message to be notified to the external terminal” in this aspect is data indicating the result of the data processing by the setting data received from the external terminal, and may be plain text data or data of a specific file format. Good. Further, “a plurality of elements included in the message” means a plurality of character strings constituting the message, and may be a plurality of phrases, clauses, or words existing in the message. Further, in a message indicating the setting result of the communication control content, a unit such as a phrase that is normally used may be used as an element.

  According to this aspect, an ID string including a plurality of character string IDs is temporarily output instead of an ID for identifying the message itself to be notified to the external terminal, and a message is generated according to the ID string. As a result, even when a wide variety of messages are generated, the amount of data to be stored is about the amount of data in which the element character string and the character string ID are associated with each other, and the increase in the data amount is suppressed. In other words, since it is not necessary to store a wide variety of messages themselves, that is, character strings in which element character strings are variously combined, the amount of storage area occupied can be suppressed.

  The data processing unit outputs an ID string in which the character string ID for each of the plurality of elements is set in an order according to a predetermined natural language grammar, and the message generating unit sets the character string ID in the ID string in the order of setting. Therefore, a message may be generated by combining each element character string.

  The “order according to the grammar of natural language” in this aspect indicates the order of elements normally used in a predetermined natural language. For example, in the case of Japanese, the order of “body words + particles + words” or the order of “body words + particles + body words + particles + words + auxiliary verbs” may be used. For example, in the case of English, the order of “S + V + C” may be used. Further, the order of elements normally used in the message indicating the setting result of the communication control content may be used.

  According to this aspect, by combining the element character strings specified according to each of the plurality of character string IDs according to the setting order of the character string IDs in the ID string, a message that is easy to understand for the user on the external terminal side can be generated. . In other words, the message generation unit can generate a message that can be easily understood by the user who sets the control content of the communication control device by simple processing.

  The multiple elements that make up the message include the setting items specified in the setting data, attributes related to the setting items, setting item attributes related to the success or failure of the data processing, and settings for indicating the success or failure of the data processing And at least the state of the item attribute.

  The “setting item” in this aspect is data designated for setting the control content of the communication control device, and may be, for example, “IP address” or “subnet mask”. The “setting item attribute” is data that is a factor that determines the success or failure of data processing, and may be, for example, “setting range”, “format”, and “input character”. The “status of the setting item attribute” may be, for example, “success”, “failure”, and “illegal”.

  According to this aspect, information necessary for the user who sets the control content of the communication control apparatus can be notified to the user. That is, when the data processing is successful in the communication control device and when an error occurs in the data processing, the setting item attribute and the error content that caused the error can be notified without shortage.

  The data processing unit is a data verification unit that centrally determines whether or not the format of the received setting data is normal, and a plurality of control settings for setting the content of communication control according to the normal format setting data And may have a part. The data verification unit sends out the setting data in the normal format to the control setting unit to be processed, and outputs the ID string indicating the abnormality for the setting data in the abnormal format. May output an ID string indicating the abnormality of the setting data in which the abnormality is detected in the setting of the content of communication control.

  The “plurality of control setting units” in this aspect may be provided for each category of communication control content. For example, a first control setting unit that sets a routing table, a second control setting unit that sets priority in packet transmission, a third control setting unit that sets bandwidth limitation in packet transmission, an IP address of the own device, etc. A fourth control setting unit for setting the network environment of the own apparatus may be included.

  According to this aspect, verification of whether the setting data is in a normal format is centrally executed in the data verification unit. As a result, the control setting unit only needs to execute the process on the setting data in the normal format, so that development is made more efficient, for example, the program code for exception processing is reduced and the amount of code is reduced. In addition, since the setting data verification function is provided in an integrated manner, it becomes easy to unify the configuration of the ID string indicating the format data format abnormality. Thereby, since the structure of the message generated based on the ID string is easily unified, the convenience of the user who refers to the message can be improved. In particular, since there are various types of setting data format anomalies, the user convenience is greatly improved by unifying the message structure. That is, this aspect is a preferred aspect of the present invention.

  Another aspect of the present invention is a message generation method. This method is a method of generating a message segmented by a plurality of elements, and is not an ID for identifying the message itself to be generated, but an element character string that is a character string that can be set in each element of the message Each character string ID of the ID string with reference to a table in which an element string and a string ID for each of a plurality of elements are associated with each other. Identifying element character strings associated with each of the element character strings, and generating a message including each element character string.

  According to this aspect, even when a wide variety of messages are generated, the amount of data to be stored is about the amount of data in which the element character string and the character string ID are associated with each other, and the increase in the data amount is suppressed. In other words, since it is not necessary to store a wide variety of messages themselves, that is, character strings in which element character strings are variously combined, the amount of storage area occupied can be suppressed.

  It should be noted that any combination of the above-described constituent elements and a representation of the present invention converted between an apparatus, a method, a system, a program, a recording medium storing the program, etc. are also effective as an aspect of the present invention.

  According to the present invention, an increase in the amount of data to be stored can be easily suppressed even when a variety of messages need to be generated.

  FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a communication control system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The communication control system 100 includes a user terminal 10 and a communication control device 20. The user terminal 10 and the communication control device 20 are connected via a known communication network such as a LAN (Local Area Network), a WAN (Wide Area Network), and the Internet.

  The communication control device 20 is a device that executes communication control of a computer network. The communication control device 20 may be, for example, a router, a layer 2 switch, or a layer 3 switch. Also, a CWDM (coarse wavelength division multiplexing) device or a WWDM (wide passband wavelength division multiplexing) device may be used. Further, the communication control may be executed by hardware or may be executed by software. Since the communication control in the present embodiment is a known technique, a detailed description thereof will be omitted below.

  The user terminal 10 is a terminal operated by a user who sets the communication control content of the communication control device 20. The user terminal 10 may be a dedicated terminal specialized for control of the communication control device 20 or a general PC terminal. The user terminal 10 may be installed with a dedicated application for setting the communication control content of the communication control device 20, and communication with the communication control device 20 is executed by the application, and communication of the communication control device 20 is performed. The user may set the control content. When the communication control device 20 has a web server function, HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) communication is executed with the web browser installed in the user terminal 10, and the communication control content of the communication control device 20 is changed. It may be set by the user.

  In the communication control system 100, data for setting communication control content of the communication control device 20 (hereinafter also referred to as “setting data” as appropriate) is transmitted from the user terminal 10 to the communication control device 20. The communication control device 20 executes a communication control content setting process in accordance with the setting data, and transmits data indicating the result of the setting process (hereinafter also referred to as “message” as appropriate) to the user terminal 10. The user terminal 10 displays the message on the display device and notifies the user. The user grasps the success or failure of the setting of the communication control content and the cause of the setting error by the notified message.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the communication control apparatus 20 of FIG. The communication control device 20 includes a message table 22, a reception unit 24, a data processing unit 26, a message generation unit 32, and a transmission unit 34.

  Each block shown in the block diagram of the present specification can be realized in terms of hardware by an element such as a CPU of a computer or a mechanical device, and in terms of software, it can be realized by a computer program or the like. The functional block realized by those cooperation is drawn. Therefore, it is understood by those skilled in the art that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by a combination of hardware and software, and is not limited to any of these.

  The message table 22 is a data storage area in a predetermined storage device. The message table 22 includes, for each of a plurality of elements included in a message to be notified to the user terminal, an element ID for identifying each element, an element character string that is a character string that can be set for each element, and an element character A character string ID for identifying the column is stored in association with each other.

  3A and 3B show the data structure of the message table 22 in FIG. In the element ID column 40, the character string ID column 42, and the element character string column 44 in the same figure, an element ID, an element character string, and a character string ID are stored. The element character string of “element ID = 1” is a “setting item” specified by setting data such as an IP address. The element character string of “element ID = 3” is an attribute relating to the setting item, and is a “setting item attribute” that is a factor that determines whether data processing is successful in the communication control device 20. The element character string of “element ID = 5” is a setting item attribute state (hereinafter also referred to as “attribute state” as appropriate) for indicating success or failure of data processing. The element character string of “element ID = 6” is a character string for combining the attribute state to indicate the success or failure of data processing and to complete the message. The element character strings of “element ID = 2” and “element ID 4” are character strings for connecting the setting item and the setting item attribute to the setting item attribute and the attribute state, respectively. By appropriately combining element character strings from “element ID = 1” to “element ID = 6” in ascending order of element IDs, a message according to the Japanese grammar, in particular, a setting result of communication control content is shown here. The message table 22 is configured to be a message. Returning to FIG.

  The receiving unit 24 receives the setting data transmitted from the user terminal 10 and sends it to the data processing unit 26, and causes the data processing unit 26 to perform predetermined data processing on the setting data. The transmission unit 34 transmits the message generated by the message generation unit 32 to the user terminal 10.

  The data processing unit 26 sets communication control contents according to the setting data. The data processing unit 26 includes a data verification unit 28, a first control setting unit 30a, a second control setting unit 30b, and a third control setting unit 30c, which are collectively referred to as a control setting unit 30. As will be described later, each control setting unit 30 corresponds to each category of communication control content. That is, the data processing unit 26 has a functional block for setting communication control content for each category of communication control content.

  The data verification unit 28 determines whether or not the setting data format is normal regardless of the category of the communication control content set by the setting data. For example, it is determined whether or not the format of the IP address is correct, whether or not the subnet mask setting range is correct, whether or not the input characters of the device name are allowable characters, and the like.

  The data verification unit 28 converts the setting data having the normal format into the first control setting unit 30a, the second control setting unit 30b, and the third control according to the category of the communication control content set by the setting data. It transmits to one of the setting parts 30c.

  On the other hand, when the data verification unit 28 detects a format abnormality in the setting data, the data verification unit 28 outputs an ID string in which the character string IDs shown in FIGS. Is sent to. Here, one character string ID is selected for each element ID and combined in the ascending order of the element IDs to output an ID string indicating a format abnormality. For example, when the IP address setting range is invalid, the character string ID of “element ID = 1” is “1”, the character string ID of “element ID = 2” is “1”, and “element ID = 3” The character string ID of “2”, the character string ID of “element ID = 4” is “1”, the character string ID of “element ID = 5” is “2”, and the character string ID of “element ID = 6” “2” is selected, and an ID string “112122” is finally output. In order to realize such a function of the data processing unit 26, the developer sets the program code of the data processing unit 26 so that the ID string “112122” is output when an illegal IP address setting range is detected. May be set.

  The first control setting unit 30a, the second control setting unit 30b, and the third control setting unit 30c execute the setting of the routing table, the priority of packet transmission, and the bandwidth limit of packet transmission according to the setting data, respectively. . Since the functions described below are common to all of the first control setting unit 30a, the second control setting unit 30b, and the third control setting unit 30c, the generic term “control setting unit 30” is used. explain.

  When the communication control content is set according to the setting data, the control setting unit 30 outputs an ID string indicating the result in the same manner as the data processing unit 26 described above, and sends it to the message generation unit 32. When the communication setting details are successfully set, the control setting unit 30 outputs an ID string indicating the success, for example, “111111”. On the other hand, if the communication control content setting fails, an ID string indicating the failure, for example, “111131” is output.

  When the message generation unit 32 receives the ID string from the data processing unit 26, that is, the data verification unit 28 or the control setting unit 30, the message generation unit 32 refers to the message table 22 and determines the element character string of each character string ID included in the ID string. Identify. Specifically, here, since the order of the character string IDs included in the ID string is the ascending order of the element IDs, the message generating unit 32 selects the first character string ID in the ID string (hereinafter referred to as “first character string ID” as appropriate). Is also specified as a character string ID of “element ID = 1”. Next, the element character string associated with the first character string ID among the element character strings of “element ID = 1” in the message table 22 is specified. The element character strings are similarly specified for the second character string ID (hereinafter, also referred to as “second character string ID” as appropriate) in the ID string.

  The message generation unit 32 generates a message by combining the element character strings in accordance with the order of the character string IDs included in the ID string. That is, the element character string specified according to the first character string ID, the element character string specified according to the second character string ID, and so on are combined in this order to form a message.

  FIG. 4 shows the correspondence between ID strings and messages. An ID column column 50 in the figure shows an ID column output from the data verification unit 28 or the control setting unit 30. The message column 52 indicates a message generated in the message generation unit 32 according to each ID column in the ID column column 50. For example, when the message generation unit 32 receives the ID string “112122” output from the data verification unit 28, the element character strings “IP address”, “no”, “setting”, and “ga” of the respective character string IDs are received. , “Success”, “I did”. The message generator 32 combines the element character strings in accordance with the order of the character string IDs in the ID string, and generates a message “IP address has been successfully set.”

The operation of the above configuration will be described below.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the communication control apparatus 20 of FIG. The receiving unit 24 receives the setting data transmitted from the user terminal 10 (S10). The data verification unit 28 verifies the format of the setting data. When the format of the setting data is abnormal (N in S12), the data verification unit 28 outputs an ID string indicating the format abnormality in the setting data (S20). When the setting data format is normal (Y in S12), the control setting unit 30 sets the communication control content according to the setting data. When the setting is successful (Y in S14), the control setting unit 30 outputs an ID string indicating the successful setting (S16). When the setting fails (N in S14), the control setting unit 30 outputs an ID string indicating the setting failure (S18). The message generation unit 32 refers to the message table 22 and generates a message according to the ID string output from the data verification unit 28 or the control setting unit 30 (S22). The transmitter 34 transmits the message generated by the message generator 32 to the user terminal 10 (S24).

  According to the communication control apparatus 20 of the present embodiment, since the element character strings are centrally managed in the message table 22, the format of the message notified to the user terminal 10 can be unified. In addition, since a large variety of messages themselves are not stored, the occupation amount of the storage area can be suppressed. On the other hand, a variety of messages can be generated based on an ID string by combining character string IDs. Even if the number of messages increases, an increase in the amount of data to be stored can be suppressed.

  Here, the storage area in the communication control apparatus (hereinafter also referred to as “conventional communication control apparatus” as appropriate) in which the ID for identifying the message itself and the message are directly associated with each other, and the communication control apparatus 20 of the present embodiment. The occupancy is considered below. Here, there are 10 types of element character strings of “element ID = 1”, and the length of each element character string is 10 bytes. Also, there are five types of element character strings of “element ID = 2”, and the length of each element character string is 2 bytes. Also, there are 10 types of element character strings of “element ID = 3”, and the length of each element character string is 10 bytes. Also, there are five types of element character strings of “element ID = 4”, and the length of each element character string is 2 bytes. Also, there are 10 types of element character strings of “element ID = 5”, and the length of each element character string is 10 bytes. Also, there are five types of element character strings of “element ID = 6”, and the length of each element character string is 6 bytes. In this case, the character string length of the message is 40 bytes.

  Since the message is a combination of each element character string of each element ID, the maximum number of messages is 125,000. The character string length of the message is 40 bytes. If the ID is 6 bytes for each element ID, the occupation amount of the storage area in the conventional communication control device is about 5.7 MB. On the other hand, since it is not necessary to combine the element character strings in the communication control apparatus 20 of the present embodiment, considering the ID as 2 bytes, “element ID = 1” is 10 types × 12 bytes. Similarly, when the necessary amount for each element ID is calculated and summed up, the occupied amount of the storage area is about 440 bytes, which is greatly reduced. In particular, in the case of a device that requires high-speed processing, such as a communication control device, this information is often expanded in a memory, but the amount of memory that can be installed is limited, so the amount of storage space occupied The merit that can be suppressed is great. In addition, the cost of the communication control device can be reduced by reducing the necessary memory amount.

  Further, the communication control device 20 according to the present embodiment facilitates maintenance of messages to be generated as compared with the conventional communication control device. For example, consider changing “priority”, which is an element character string of “element ID = 1”, to “priority”. In this case, the communication control device 20 may change one place of the element character string in “element ID = 1” and “character string ID = 5”. On the other hand, the conventional communication control apparatus needs to correct a maximum of 12,500 places in the above example, in combination with element character strings in other element IDs. Thus, according to the communication control apparatus 20, the burden on the administrator can be reduced and mistakes in maintenance work can be reduced.

  The present invention has been described based on the embodiments. This embodiment is an exemplification, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to combinations of the respective constituent elements and processing processes, and such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. is there.

  It should also be understood by those skilled in the art that the functions to be fulfilled by the constituent elements described in the claims are realized by the individual functional blocks shown in the embodiments and the modifications or by their cooperation.

  A first modification will be described. Although the character string ID in the embodiment described above is one digit, it is needless to say that the number of digits may be larger. Thereby, element character strings can be diversified, and as a result, messages can be diversified more. For example, regarding a specific element ID, the number of element character strings in the element ID can be increased to 100 by setting the character string ID to two digits. For the element ID, the message generation unit 32 acquires a two-digit character string ID from the ID string, and specifies the element character string associated with the message table 22.

  A second modification will be described. The ID string output by the data processing unit 26 may be dynamically set instead of a fixed order. In this case, order information indicating each element ID may be added to each character string ID of the ID string. When the message generation unit 32 acquires the first character string ID of the ID string, the message generation unit 32 does not specify “element ID = 1” fixedly, but specifies the element ID according to the order information. For example, it is assumed that order information “123434456” is added to the ID string “11222322”. The message generation unit 32 specifies the element character string “format” by specifying that the element ID is “3” for the fifth character string ID in the ID string. The finally generated message is “IP address setting range and format is invalid”. Thus, according to this modification, a plurality of element IDs can be flexibly combined, and a wider variety of messages can be generated.

  You may combine the 1st and 2nd modification mentioned above. The element character string itself can be diversified according to the first modification, and the combination of the element character strings can be diversified according to the second modification. Therefore, by combining these, a wider variety of messages can be generated.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the communication control system which is embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the communication control apparatus of FIG. It is a figure which shows the data structure of the message table of FIG. It is a figure which shows the data structure of the message table of FIG. It is a figure which shows a response | compatibility with an ID column and a message. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the communication control apparatus of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  10 user terminal, 20 communication control device, 22 message table, 24 reception unit, 26 data processing unit, 28 data verification unit, 30 control setting unit, 30a first control setting unit, 30b second control setting unit, 30c second 3 control setting unit, 32 message generation unit, 34 transmission unit, 40 element ID column, 42 character string ID column, 44 element string column, 50 ID column column, 52 message column, 100 communication control system.

Claims (4)

For each of a plurality of elements included in a message to be notified to an external terminal, a message in which an element character string that is a character string that can be set in each element is associated with a character string ID for identifying the element character string Table,
A receiving unit for receiving setting data for setting the content of communication control from an external terminal;
A data processing unit that executes predetermined data processing in accordance with the received setting data, and outputs an ID string composed only of a character string ID for each of the plurality of elements as data indicating a result of the data processing;
A message generation unit that identifies each element character string associated in the message table according to each character string ID of the output ID string, and generates a message including each element character string;
A transmission unit for transmitting the generated message to an external terminal;
Equipped with a,
The data processing unit outputs an ID string in which character string IDs for each of the plurality of elements are set in an order according to a predetermined natural language grammar,
The message generation unit, according to the setting order of the strings ID in ID column, by combining each element string, a communication control device, wherein that you generate a message conforming to the grammar of the given natural language . The plurality of elements constituting the message include a setting item specified by the setting data, attributes relating to the setting item, setting item attributes related to success or failure of the data processing, and success or failure of the data processing. The communication control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least a setting item attribute state for indicating is included. The data processing unit
A data verification unit for centrally determining whether the format of the received setting data is normal;
A plurality of control setting units for setting the contents of communication control in accordance with normal format setting data;
Have
The data verification unit sends out the setting data in the normal format to the control setting unit to process, and outputs the ID string indicating the abnormality of the setting data in the abnormal format.
3. The communication control device according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of control setting units outputs an ID string indicating an abnormality of setting data in which an abnormality is detected in setting communication control content. 4. . For each of a plurality of elements included in a message to be notified to an external terminal, a message in which an element character string that is a character string that can be set in each element is associated with a character string ID for identifying the element character string a table, a receiver, a data processing unit, and a message generating unit, a method that will be executed by the communication control device and a transmission section,
Receiving the setting data for setting the content of communication control from an external terminal;
The data processing unit executes predetermined data processing according to the received setting data, and outputs an ID string composed only of a character string ID for each of the plurality of elements as data indicating a result of the data processing And steps to
The message generation unit identifying each element character string associated in the message table according to each character string ID of the output ID string, and generating a message including each element character string;
The transmitting unit transmitting the generated message to an external terminal;
Equipped with a,
The step of outputting the ID string outputs an ID string in which character string IDs for each of the plurality of elements are set in an order according to a predetermined natural language grammar,
Wherein generating the message according to the setting order of the strings ID in ID column, by combining each element string, a message which is characterized that you generate a message conforming to the grammar of the given natural language Generation method.

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