JP5566965B2 - Network management apparatus, network management method, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a network management technique for autonomously managing a network.

  The network management system is a system that manages management information such as configuration, performance, failure, billing, and security on the network. Currently, representative network management systems include HP OpenView (registered trademark) (see Non-Patent Document 1) sold by Hewlett-Packard, or OpenNMS (OSS) provided as open source software (OSS). Non-Patent Document 2). In the most advanced academic field, research on autonomous network management technology (see Non-Patent Document 3) is being conducted.

HP OpenView Manual: http: // h50146. www5. hp. com / doc / manual / openview / nnm. html OpenNMS document: http: // www. opennms. org / wiki / Docu-overview Simon Dobson, Spyros Denazis “A survey of autonomous communications,” ACM Transactions on Autonomous Systems and Adaptive Systems (TAAS), Volume 2 (TAAS1), Volume 2

  At present, business management costs (OPEX) of telecommunications carriers are rapidly increasing, and management of networks directly related thereto is regarded as a problem. Therefore, it is expected that research and development activities on network management technology will become more active in the future. Along with this, it is considered necessary to introduce new technologies that are free to existing network management systems.

  On the other hand, since the existing network management system is designed for a specific network form, there is a problem that a new network management system that can manage the network when switching to a new network must be developed.

  An object of the present invention is to make it possible to dynamically and freely construct a network management system without developing a new network management system when introducing a new technology or updating a network.

The network management device according to the present invention includes an external request receiving unit that receives an external request related to a business provided by a connected network, a module pool that stores functional modules necessary for constructing various businesses, and the network Based on the monitoring result of the external environment monitoring unit that monitors the operating environment of the management server that operates the management device, the business and function modules necessary to cope with the change of the operating environment and the business using the functional module A business calculation unit that calculates a method for constructing a business and a business that constructs a business calculated by the business calculation unit according to a method for constructing a business calculated by the business calculation unit using a function module calculated by the business calculation unit A system construction unit.

The network management apparatus of the present invention, each pre-Symbol business calculator calculated business of the management information abstraction unit that generates abstracted abstract data at least one of equipment attributes in topology or the network of the network The functional module may further manage the network based on the abstract data .

  The network management device according to the present invention further comprises an external communication unit capable of communicating with the outside of the network management device, and the module pool is calculated from the remote module pool different from the module pool through the external communication unit. The functional module calculated by the unit may be acquired.

The network management method of the present invention is based on the monitoring result of the external environment monitoring unit that monitors the operating environment of the management server that operates the management device of the network when receiving an external request related to a business provided by the connected network. , Referring to a business calculation procedure for calculating a business and a function module necessary to cope with a change in the operating environment and a method for constructing the business using the functional module, and a module pool storing the functional module, A business system construction procedure for constructing a business calculated by the business calculation procedure in accordance with a method for constructing a business calculated by the business calculation procedure using the function module calculated by the business calculation procedure.

In the network management method of the present invention, in the business calculation procedure, for each calculated business , abstract data that abstracts at least one of the topology of the network or the attribute of the facility in the network is generated, and the business system is constructed. in steps, in accordance with the abstract data may be constructed business calculated by the operational calculation procedure.

  The network management program of the present invention is a program for causing a computer to execute a business calculation procedure and a business system construction procedure in the network management method of the present invention.

  The above inventions can be combined as much as possible.

    A network management apparatus, a network management method, and a network management program according to the present invention include a required business, a functional module necessary for constructing the business, and a method of constructing the business with the functional module based on an external request By calculating, a function module can be added, changed, and deleted dynamically and freely according to an external request. Thereby, the network management apparatus, the network management method, and the network management program according to the present invention can dynamically and freely implement a network management system without developing a new network management system when introducing a new technology or updating a network. Can be made configurable.

An example of the autonomous network management system which concerns on Embodiment 1 before business construction is shown. An example of the autonomous network management system which concerns on Embodiment 1 after business construction is shown. An example of the autonomous network management system which concerns on Embodiment 1 after business reconstruction is shown. An example of the autonomous network management system which concerns on Embodiment 2 is shown. An example of the abstract data which concerns on Embodiment 2 is shown.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The embodiments described below are examples of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments. In the present specification and drawings, the same reference numerals denote the same components.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 shows an example of an autonomous network management system according to the present embodiment before business construction. The autonomous network management system according to the present embodiment includes a network management device 101 and a network 100 that is a management target of the network management device 101. In the present embodiment, a case where the network 100 is an IP network will be described.

The network management apparatus 101 modularizes functions, calculates necessary information and functions based on external requests and external environments, and combines and functions them to autonomously construct an optimal network management system.
Specifically, the network management apparatus 101 includes an external request reception unit 11, a business calculation unit 12, a module pool 13, a business system construction unit 14, an external communication unit 15, and an external environment monitoring unit 17. Prepare.
Specifically, the network management method sequentially includes a task calculation procedure and a task system construction procedure.

In the business calculation procedure, the network management apparatus 101 operates as follows.
The external request receiving unit 11 receives an external request related to a business provided by the connected network 100. The external request defines a user's request for a business provided by the network 100. The external request receiving unit 11 receives an external request from a network operator who uses the autonomous network management system to execute a task of monitoring IP level connections and a task of managing IP facilities in the network 100 to be managed. To do. Here, an external request is received from the network operator. In this embodiment, the user of the present autonomous network management system is not limited to a normal network operator, but is an application that uses an end user or a network to be managed. There is a possibility.

  Based on the received external request, the business calculation unit 12 includes a business necessary for satisfying the external request, a functional module necessary for constructing the business, a method for constructing the business using the functional module, , Is calculated. The business calculation unit 12 receives an external request from the external request reception unit 11 and performs a monitoring business composed of a connection monitoring function module and an inventory management business composed of a facility management function module in order to satisfy the external request. Calculate as necessary. Further, the business calculation unit 12 sends an instruction to the module pool 13 to copy the two function modules of connection monitoring and facility management to the business system construction unit 14. Further, the business calculation unit 12 sends an instruction to the business system construction unit 14 to construct a monitoring business and an inventory management business using the connection monitoring module and the facility management function module.

  The module pool 13 stores and manages functional modules. The function module is a module necessary for constructing various business operations. In the present embodiment, as an example, it is assumed that two function modules of connection monitoring and facility management are stored and managed. However, it is possible to freely add, change, and delete function modules in the module pool 13. The module pool 13 duplicates two functional modules of connection monitoring and facility management in the business system construction unit 14 in accordance with an instruction from the business calculation unit 12. Further, the module pool 13 can transfer or duplicate the functional modules in the module pool 13 to other functional units such as the business system construction unit 14 of the autonomous management system.

In the business system construction procedure, the network management apparatus 101 operates as follows.
The business system construction unit 14 uses the functional module calculated by the business calculation unit 12 to construct the business calculated by the business calculation unit 12 in accordance with the method for constructing the business calculated by the business calculation unit 12. The business system construction unit 14 constructs a monitoring business and an inventory management business for each using connection monitoring and facility management in accordance with instructions from the business calculation unit 12. As a result, as shown in FIG. 2, the business system construction unit 14 constructs a monitoring business and an inventory management business.

Hereinafter, an example of the operation when the performance of the management server is reduced will be described.
The external environment monitoring unit 17 monitors the external environment and transmits the monitored result to the job calculation unit 12. The external environment is the operating environment of the management server that operates the network management apparatus 101, and may be the operating environment of the network 100 that is the management target of the network management apparatus 101. However, the external environment is not limited to that. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the external environment monitoring unit 17 observes a decrease in performance of the management server that operates the autonomous network management system.

  The business calculation unit 12 determines whether it is necessary to reconstruct a business in the business system based on the received monitoring result. Then, based on the monitoring result of the external environment, a necessary business and function module corresponding to a change in the external environment and a method of constructing the business using the functional module are calculated. In the present embodiment, the business calculation unit 12 determines to temporarily stop an inventory management business with a low priority in order to cope with a change in the external environment. Then, the business calculation unit 12 sends an instruction to delete the facility management function module as a component to the business system construction unit 14. As a result, the business system construction unit 14 deletes the inventory management business.

Hereinafter, an example of an operation when the network quality of the network 100 is deteriorated will be described.
The external environment monitoring unit 17 observes a decrease in the quality of the network 100 that is the management target. Then, in order to cope with a change in the external environment, the business calculation unit 12 determines that a more advanced management policy is necessary so that the cause of the quality deterioration can be clarified more quickly. Then, the business calculation unit 12 calculates that the management policy function module is added to the monitoring business, and sends the management policy function module to the module pool 13 to be copied to the business system construction unit 14.

  In the present embodiment, it is determined that the module pool 13 does not store the monitoring policy function module, and the remote communication pool 16 is inquired about the monitoring policy function module through the external communication unit 15. The remote module pool 16 is a database different from the module pool 13, and the business calculation unit 12 selects a functional module necessary for the business from a list of functional modules stored in the module pool 13 or the remote module pool 16. The remote module pool 16 does not necessarily store more functional modules than the module pool 13. The remote module pool 16 may store functional modules that are necessary for business and are not currently in the module pool 13.

  The external communication unit 15 communicates with the remote module pool 16. The remote module pool 16 returns the policy function module to the external communication unit 15, and the module pool 13 acquires the policy function module from the remote module pool 16. As a result, the monitoring policy module is added to the monitoring work in the business system construction unit 14.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of the autonomous network management system according to the first embodiment after business reconstruction. The network management apparatus 101 and the network management method according to the present embodiment include a necessary business, a functional module necessary for constructing the business, and a method for constructing the business with the functional module based on an external request or an external environment. By calculating, it is possible to dynamically add / change / delete functional modules dynamically according to an external request or an external environment.

  In addition, the network management apparatus 101 and the network management method according to the present embodiment can obtain necessary function modules from the remote module pool even if the management server fails by using the remote module pool that stores and manages the function modules. It becomes possible and the network management system can be quickly reconstructed. This improves the reliability of the network management system.

  Note that the network management apparatus 101 according to the present embodiment can be realized by a computer and a program, and the program can be recorded on a recording medium or provided through a network.

  The functional modules are not limited to the two functional modules of connection monitoring and facility management, and various functional modules such as information processing and network protocol can be exemplified. For example, the routing business includes route calculation, traffic engineering, and access control policy creation. By making this module function, external network devices can be controlled. As described above, in this embodiment, the management functions in the network management system such as route calculation and monitoring policy creation are modularized, and the modules can be managed uniformly by the unified definition of the module interface.

(Embodiment 2)
FIG. 4 shows an example of the autonomous network management system according to the present embodiment. The network 100 of the present embodiment assumes a case where an IP network and an MPLS-TP network are mixed. However, it does not depend on their network form. This autonomous network management system can manage multiple different networks in a unified manner.

  The autonomous network management system according to the present embodiment includes a network management device 102 instead of the network management device 101 in the first embodiment. The network management apparatus 102 standardizes management information, that is, abstracts and modularizes functions, calculates necessary information and functions based on external requirements and external environment, combines them, and functions them, thereby optimizing the network. Build a management system autonomously.

  In the present embodiment, the functional module manages the network 100 based on the abstract data of the network 100. Accordingly, the network management apparatus 102 further includes a management information abstracting unit 21, and includes a business calculation unit 22 and a business system construction unit 24 instead of the business calculation unit 12 and the business system construction unit 14 in the first embodiment. Hereinafter, differences from the first embodiment will be described.

  In the present embodiment, a case will be described in which the external request receiving unit 11 receives an external request for performing IP routing and MPLS-TP routing in the network 100. In this case, the task calculation unit 22 manages an IP routing task composed of the shortest path calculation function module, an MPLS-TP routing task composed of the same shortest path calculation function module, and all communication devices in the IP network. It is determined that an inventory management operation composed of the facility management function unit is necessary. Since the operation of the functional module is the same as that of the first embodiment, the details are omitted.

  In the present embodiment, the business calculation unit 22 further calculates abstract data necessary for constructing a business necessary to satisfy an external request. In the present embodiment, IP abstract data is calculated for IP routing work, MPLS-TP abstract data is calculated for MPLS-TP routing work, and equipment abstract data is calculated for equipment management work. Then, the task calculation unit 22 sends an instruction to the management information abstraction unit 21 so as to extract IP abstract data, MPLS-TP abstract data, and facility abstract data.

  The management information abstraction unit 21 abstracts the network 100 to be managed in accordance with an instruction from the job calculation unit 22 and generates abstract data. The management information abstracting unit 21 can transfer or copy the generated abstract data to each business in the business system construction unit 24.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of abstract data according to the present embodiment. The IP abstract data defines the IP layer topology in the network 100. The MPLS-TP abstract data defines the topology of the MPLS-TP network in the network 100. The equipment abstract data defines attributes of all equipment in the network 100.

  In this embodiment, since it is used for calculation of the shortest path of the IP network executed by the shortest path calculation function module, information other than topology and information about MPLS-TP are not required. For this reason, in this embodiment, the management information abstraction unit 21 deletes information other than topology and information about MPLS-TP from the IP abstract data. Since the equipment abstract data is used for management of equipment executed by the equipment management function module, information on the network topology or the like is not necessary. For this reason, in this embodiment, the management information abstraction unit 21 deletes information about the network topology and the like from the equipment abstract data. Thus, in this embodiment, since the management information abstraction unit 21 is provided, a plurality of different networks can be managed in a unified manner.

  The business system construction unit 24 constructs the business calculated by the business calculation unit 22 according to the method of constructing the business calculated by the business calculation unit 22 and the abstract data generated by the management information abstraction unit 21. In this embodiment, the shortest path is calculated according to the IP abstract data to construct an IP routing operation. The shortest path is calculated according to the MPLS-TP abstract data to construct an MPLS-TP routing service. Build inventory management work according to the equipment abstract data. In this embodiment, the management information abstraction unit 21 newly generates abstract data according to the instruction from the job calculation unit 22, but the management information abstraction unit 21 generates abstract data in advance and generates it according to the instruction from the job calculation unit 22. Abstract data may be selected.

  In this embodiment, the shortest path calculation function module in the IP routing service and the MPLS-TP routing service is a common function module copied from the module pool 13. By using IP abstract data in the IP routing business and using MPLS-TP abstract data in the MPLS-TP routing business, an appropriate business according to the abstract data can be constructed. In this way, by incorporating the necessary module and the necessary abstract data into each business, it becomes possible to quickly change the function of the network management system and reuse the module.

  As described above, the network management apparatus 102 and the network management method according to this embodiment share the management information of each network form by having the management information abstraction unit 21 that abstracts the network and generates abstract data. It is possible to manage different networks in a unified manner.

  Furthermore, the network management apparatus 102 according to the present embodiment may include the external environment monitoring unit 17 and the external communication unit 15 described in the first embodiment, and by further providing these, an operator request, a server load, a network Depending on the situation, the business calculation unit 22 autonomously calculates the business, function module, abstract data, and business construction method for dealing with these situations, and reconstructs the business according to the calculation result. Also good.

  Note that the network management apparatus 102 according to the present embodiment can be realized by a computer and a program, and the program can be recorded on a recording medium or provided through a network.

  The present invention can be applied to the information communication industry.

11: External request reception unit 12, 22: Business calculation unit 13, 23: Module pool 14, 24: Business system construction unit 15: External communication unit 16: Remote module pool 17: External environment monitoring unit 21: Management information abstraction unit 100 : Network 101, 102: Network management device

Claims (6)

An external request receiving unit for receiving external requests related to work provided by the connected network;
A module pool for storing functional modules necessary for constructing various operations;
Based on the monitoring result of the external environment monitoring unit that monitors the operating environment of the management server that operates the network management device, the business and function modules necessary to cope with the change in the operating environment and the function module are used. A business calculation unit that calculates a method of constructing the business;
A business system construction unit that constructs the business calculated by the business calculation unit according to a method of constructing the business calculated by the business calculation unit, using the functional module calculated by the business calculation unit;
A network management device comprising: For each calculated business before Symbol business calculator, further comprising a management information abstraction unit that generates abstracted abstract data at least one of equipment attributes in topology or the network of the network,
The network management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the functional module manages the network based on the abstract data . An external communication unit capable of communicating with the outside of the network management device;
The module pool, the through external communication unit, the different remote modules pools and module pool, the network management device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that to obtain the functional modules the operational calculator is calculated . When an external request related to a business provided by a connected network is received, the change in the operating environment is handled based on the monitoring result of the external environment monitoring unit that monitors the operating environment of the management server that operates the management device of the network. A business calculation procedure for calculating a business and a function module necessary for performing, and a method for constructing the business using the functional module;
A business that refers to a module pool that stores the functional module, uses the functional module calculated in the business calculation procedure, and constructs a business calculated in the business calculation procedure according to a method of constructing a business calculated in the business calculation procedure System construction procedure,
A network management method comprising: In the task calculation procedure, for each calculated task , generate abstract data that abstracts at least one of the topology of the network or the attribute of the facility in the network ,
In the business system construction procedure, in accordance with the abstract data, network management method according to claim 4, characterized in that to construct a business calculated by the operational calculation procedure. A network management program for causing a computer to execute the business calculation procedure and the business system construction procedure according to claim 4 or 5 .

Images