JP6211257B2 - Communications system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication system.

  In recent years, in a communication network such as the Internet (hereinafter also simply referred to as “network”), transfer target information (hereinafter referred to as “communication”) that is distinguished from other transfer targets by a transmission / reception pair or an application to be used. There is a communication system in which priority is given to “flow” and a communication flow is transferred in an order corresponding to the given priority. For example, according to RFC 791, a TOS (Type Of Service) field exists in an IP packet, the priority is set by the 0th to 2nd bits of the TOS field, the delay amount is set by the 3rd bit, and the transfer amount is set by the 4th bit. , The fifth bit can indicate a request for reliability (for example, see Non-Patent Document 1).

  Also, in DiffServ shown in RFC 2474, the above TOS field is redefined and used as PHB (Per Hop Behavior), EF (Expected Forwarding = virtual leased line service that guarantees bandwidth), AF (Assured Forwarding = minimum guaranteed bandwidth) The packet is given the desired hop-by-hop behavior of the router according to the purpose, such as DF (Default Forwarding = Best Effort) and CS (Class Selector = IP forwarding by Cisco). (For example, refer nonpatent literature 2).

  With this technology, for example, when the network is congested, the router can identify a packet to be preferentially transferred and a packet to be discarded when transfer is not possible, and transfer or discard the packet.

RFC791 RFC2474

  However, a technique for assigning a priority at the time of transfer to a communication flow according to the required quality of an application as in the conventional technique has the following problems.

  The first problem is that everyone has a desire to prioritize their communication. If everyone puts the highest priority flag on their packet, priority control will not work. In order to prevent this, it is necessary to take measures such as (a) charging a high-priority packet for a pay-as-you-go charge and (b) giving an upper limit to the amount of traffic that can flow with high priority, which may impair convenience. .

  The second problem is that even if each user has a spirit of concession, or there is a pay-as-you-go system and priority control functions, it is necessary to change the flag to be given according to the state of the network That's what it means. For example, if pay-as-you-go is charged for priority packets, the user may set a priority flag if the network is busy. There is hope.

  As another example, there may be a case where different priorities need to be given to packets in the same service even when communication is performed without charging. This example will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a problem of the conventional technique. As shown in FIG. 4, there are subscriber side devices 921 to 925 corresponding to each subscriber, there are terminals 911 and 912 of a company k1 corresponding to the subscriber side device 921, and subscriber side devices 922 to 925. There are terminals 913 to 916 corresponding to the respective terminals. For example, the terminals 911 and 912 of the company k1 are connected to the carrier side accommodation device 941 through the subscriber side device 921 and the access network 931. The access network 931 has a bandwidth of 1 Gb / s.

  Here, for example, the terminals 911 and 912 of the company k1 have 300 Mb / s when the traffic of the terminals 913 to 916 of other subscribers is low (for example, the bandwidth used by each of the terminals 913 to 916 is 100 Mb / s). It is possible to use the band by s (left side in FIG. 4). On the other hand, when the traffic of the terminals 913 to 916 of other subscribers is large and the requested traffic of each subscriber is larger than “total bandwidth / number of subscribers” (for example, the bandwidth used by each of the terminals 913 to 916 is 200 Mb / s In the case of FIG. 4), equal bandwidth allocation is performed for each subscriber from the viewpoint of fairness (right side in FIG. 4).

  More precisely, if the sum of the bandwidth requirements of each subscriber exceeds the total bandwidth of the access network 931, the subscriber who requests a bandwidth that does not exceed the “total bandwidth / number of subscribers” is allowed all of them, Fairness can be achieved by allocating the remaining bandwidth equally to subscribers with insufficient bandwidth and, even if there is still bandwidth remaining, allocating the remaining bandwidth equally to subscribers with insufficient bandwidth. Such a bandwidth allocation method is referred to as “policy 1”.

  As in this example, when the allocation of the bandwidth to the company k1 is small (for example, when only a bandwidth of 200 Mb / s is allocated to the company k1), the multipoints are respectively set in the terminals 911 and 912 of the company k1. If a high-definition TV conference service is received, the provision of these TV conference services may be annihilated due to insufficient bandwidth. As a solution to this problem, for example, an important communication flow may be protected by raising the priority only for a specific terminal and sacrificing other quality.

  The third problem is that the subscriber may want to attach a priority flag according to the network section. This problem will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a problem of the conventional technique. As shown in FIG. 5, there are subscriber-side devices 921 to 927 corresponding to each subscriber, there are terminals 911 and 912 of a company k1 (head office) corresponding to the subscriber-side device 921, and subscriber-side devices. There is a terminal 916 of a company k1 (branch) corresponding to 925, and a terminal 917 of a company k2 (other company) corresponding to the subscriber side device 926. There are also terminals 913 to 915 and 918 corresponding to the subscriber side devices 922 to 924 and 927, respectively.

  As shown in FIG. 5, there are access networks 931 to 934, carrier side accommodation devices 941 to 944, regional networks 951 to 953, GW devices 961 to 963, ISP networks 971 to 975, and servers 981 and 982.

  Here, the user of the terminal 912 of the company k1 (head office) is connected to the terminal of the company k1 (branch office) via the access network 931, the regional network 951, the ISP network 972, the ISP network 973, the regional network 952, and the access network 933. Assume that the user is communicating with 916 users. A user (a president of the company k1) of the terminal 911 of the company k1 (head office) passes through the access network 931, the regional network 951, the ISP network 971, the ISP network 975, the ISP network 974, the regional network 953, and the access network 934. It is assumed that communication is being made with a user (terminal of the company k2) of the terminal 917 of the company k2 as an important customer. Each communication requires real-time properties and is a video conference communication that should be given high priority, but the latter priority is relatively higher than the former priority.

  Further, it is assumed that terminals 913 to 915 of other users are receiving virtual desktop services from the server 981 via the access network 931, the regional network 951, the ISP network 972, and the ISP network 975. Since this service is also required to be real-time, high priority traffic flows on this route. It is assumed that the above policy 1 is used.

  Here, the access network 931 or the local network 951 (including traffic discarded when entering the local network 951 from the access network 931) is somewhat congested (example: packet loss rate 10E-4 to 10E-5). ), It is assumed that congestion close to congestion (eg, packet loss rate 10E-2 to 10E-3) occurs in the ISP network 972, and delay and packet loss are likely to occur. In such a situation, it is assumed that the maximum value of traffic that each subscriber can flow from the access network 931 or the access network 931 to the regional network 951 is constant.

  At this time, in the communication between the terminal 911 and the terminal 917 and the communication between the terminal 912 and the terminal 916, there is a problem as to what should be done when quality degradation has occurred. As one of the solutions, the priority in communication between the terminal 912 and the terminal 916 is made lower than the priority in the terminal 911 and the terminal 917, thereby giving priority to the communication between the important customer and the president and realizing this. It is conceivable to set a priority for this purpose.

  In this case, the quality of communication between the terminal 911 and the terminal 917 is improved at least in the access network 931, but the quality of communication between the terminal 912 and the terminal 916 is not only deteriorated in the access network 931 but also the ISP network 972. Further deterioration occurs. A packet in communication between the terminal 911 and the terminal 917 has a priority flag that is inevitably dropped to protect the president's communication in the access network 931. For this reason, in the ISP network 972, the communication between the terminal 911 and the terminal 917 loses the high-priority communication from the terminals 913 to 915 of other subscribers in the case of router output contention, and the packet The loss rate is worse than the average loss rate of all packets, and the communication quality is expected to be inferior.

  In the above description, for simplification, the case where the traffic output from the company k1 is two TV conferences has been described. However, it is mainly assumed that there are more high-priority and low-priority traffic including a large number of burst traffic, and exceed the upper limit of the maximum usable bandwidth of one subscriber with a probability that it can be said to be congestion. In order to solve such a problem, it is considered that the priority of a packet can be changed according to the state of a network through which the packet passes, but there is no technology for realizing this.

  Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to change the priority of a communication flow according to the state of the network through which the communication flow passes. To provide technology.

  In order to solve the above problem, according to one aspect of the present invention, an acquisition unit that acquires network information indicating a state of a communication network, and communication states of each of a plurality of communication flows in the communication network based on the network information And an changing unit that changes the priority of each of the plurality of communication flows when the communication status of each of the plurality of communication flows satisfies a predetermined condition. A communication system is provided.

  The changing unit changes a priority of each of the some communication flows in a part of the communication network, and each of the part of the communication flows in a part other than the part of the communication network. It is not necessary to change the priority of.

  When a plurality of tunnels having different communication flow transfer priorities are constructed in a part of the communication network, the changing unit transfers each of the part of the communication flows between the plurality of tunnels. The priority of each of the partial communication flows may be changed by changing the tunnel used.

  When there is a predetermined tag that is added to the communication flow when entering the partial section and removed from the communication flow when exiting from the partial section, the changing unit sets the priority after the change The priority of each of the partial communication flows may be changed by setting the predetermined tag of each of the partial communication flows.

  The acquisition unit may acquire the network information by acquiring the network information from another device or by detecting the state of the communication network by itself.

  When there is a communication flow with a relatively low priority among the plurality of communication flows, the changing unit may reduce the priority of the communication flow with a relatively low priority.

  When there is a communication flow having a relatively high priority among the plurality of communication flows, the changing unit may improve the priority of the communication flow having a relatively high priority.

The communication system is:
A determination unit that determines the effectiveness of the communication network based on the network information; and a route selection unit that selects a route for each of a plurality of communication flows in the communication network based on a determination result by the determination unit. You may prepare.

  The changing unit may change the priority of each of the partial communication flows by using a function of SDN (Software Defined Network).

  As described above, according to the present invention, the priority of a communication flow can be changed according to the state of the network through which the communication flow passes.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the communication system which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the example of the implementation for maintaining service quality at low cost. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the communication system which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the subject of the prior art. It is a figure for demonstrating the subject of the prior art.

  Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the present specification and drawings, components having substantially the same functional configuration are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.

  In the present specification and drawings, a plurality of constituent elements having substantially the same functional configuration may be distinguished by attaching different alphabets after the same reference numeral. However, when it is not necessary to particularly distinguish each of a plurality of constituent elements having substantially the same functional configuration, only the same reference numerals are given.

[First Embodiment]
[Description of configuration]
First, a configuration example of the communication system 1A according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a communication system 1A according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication system 1A includes terminals 11 to 15, subscriber side devices 21 to 24, subscriber common transmission media 31, 32, a carrier side accommodation device 41, a core IP carrier network 51, 52. The core IP carrier networks 51 and 52 are communication networks configured by a regional network, an ISP network, or the like.

  The subscriber side device 21 mainly has an EGW (Enterprise GW) function 240 that performs a GW function for terminals 11 and 12 connected to a LAN (Local Area Network) as a part through which traffic from the subscriber flows, and is common to all subscribers. A termination function 250 that communicates with the carrier-side accommodation apparatus 41 via the transmission medium 31.

  Further, the subscriber-side device 21 includes a network information acquisition function 210, a transmission / reception timing control function 220, and an assignment priority optimization function 230 as control system functions. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the function of the control system is provided in the subscriber side device 21, but may be provided in a device other than the subscriber side device 21.

  The EGW function 240 includes an L3 priority information L2 mapping function 241. The termination function 250 includes queues q <b> 1 to q <b> 3, SW 251, transmission function 252, reception function 253, and filtering function 254. The subscriber side devices 22 to 24 may also have the same function as that of the subscriber side device 21.

  Here, the number of terminals, the number of subscriber side devices, the number of common subscriber transmission media, the number of carrier side accommodation devices, the number of core IP carrier networks, the number of functional blocks in each device, etc. are shown in FIG. It is not limited to the example shown. Further, the connection destinations of the terminal, the subscriber side device, the subscriber common transmission medium, the carrier side accommodation device, the core IP carrier network, and the functional blocks in each device are not limited to the example shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 1, subscriber terminals 11 and 12 are connected to a subscriber side device 21, and the subscriber side device 21 is connected to the carrier side via a subscriber common transmission medium 31 shared by a plurality of subscribers. Connected to the storage device 41. The subscriber common transmission medium 31 may be an optical fiber or a radio frequency band. The carrier side accommodation device 41 is connected to the core IP carrier networks 51 and 52.

  The network information acquisition function 210 corresponds to an example of an acquisition unit that acquires network information indicating a network state. The method by which the network information acquisition function 210 acquires network information is not particularly limited. For example, the network information acquisition function 210 may acquire network information from the carrier side accommodation device 41. In such a case, for example, the network information acquired from the carrier-side accommodation device 41 may be a traffic band that can flow to the access network or the regional network, or information related to congestion managed by the carrier-side accommodation device 41. May be.

  Further, in an access network in which a band is shared by a plurality of subscribers by a technology such as PON (Passive Optical Network), a transmission possible band in the access network (from the access network to the regional network) is transferred from the carrier side accommodation device 41 to the subscriber side device 21. (Including traffic discarded at the exit). Therefore, the network information acquired from the carrier-side accommodation apparatus 41 may be the transmittable bandwidth of the access network that is notified in this way.

  The network information acquisition function 210 may acquire network information from other than the carrier side accommodation device 41. For example, the network information acquisition function 210 may acquire network information by detecting the state of the network. The network status may be detected by measuring communication traffic passing through the network, for example, from when a status detection packet is transmitted until a response packet returned by a predetermined device is received. It may be done by measuring time. That is, the network information acquisition function 210 may acquire network information by acquiring network information from another device or by detecting the network status itself.

  The transmission / reception timing control function 220 has a function of controlling transmission / reception timing corresponding to the communication timing by the termination function 250.

  The per-flow communication quality estimation function 232 corresponds to an example of an estimation unit that estimates the communication status of each of a plurality of communication flows via a network based on network information. The communication flow corresponds to, for example, information (for example, a packet) transferred in units of applications executed by the terminal. In the above-described example, the information transferred by executing the video conference application and the information transferred by executing the virtual desktop application correspond to the communication flow. The communication status may be communication quality, for example.

  The assignment priority calculation function 231 corresponds to an example of a changing unit that changes the priority of each of a plurality of communication flows when the communication status of each of the plurality of communication flows satisfies a predetermined condition. . The predetermined condition is not particularly limited, but may be a condition that the communication quality is worse than the predetermined communication quality, for example. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the grant priority calculation function 231 is provided in the subscriber side device 21, but may be provided in the carrier side accommodation device 41 or provided in the GW device of the regional network. It may be provided in an ISP network communication device.

  Various methods are also assumed as a method of changing the priority. For example, when there is a communication flow with a relatively low priority among a plurality of communication flows, the assignment priority calculation function 231 may reduce the priority of the communication flow with a relatively low priority. According to such a change in priority, for example, with respect to services that normally flow with high priority, it is possible to lower priority for some communication flows during congestion and protect other communication flows.

  Note that the relative priority order may be determined from the priority order associated with the transmission source IP address of the communication flow, for example, when the transmission source IP address is associated with the priority order. Alternatively, the priority may be determined from the manually set priority order for the communication flow.

  Alternatively, when there is a communication flow with a relatively high priority among a plurality of communication flows, the assignment priority calculation function 231 may improve the priority of the communication flow with a relatively high priority. According to such a change in priority, for example, with respect to a service that is normally flowed at a low priority without paying a metered amount, it is possible to prioritize some communication flows during congestion and protect the communication flows.

  The assignment priority calculation function 231 may change the priority of each of the partial communication flows in all sections in the network, but the priority change is not limited to this example. For example, the assigned priority calculation function 231 changes the priority of each part of the communication flow in a part of the network, and the part of the communication flow in a part other than the part of the part of the network. It is not necessary to change each priority. By changing the priority for each section, the communication status can be adjusted in more detail.

  The priority for each section may be changed in any way. For example, a tunnel may be set in a specific section, and different priorities may be provided for sections that are not tunnels or for each tunnel. In other words, when a plurality of tunnels having different communication flow transfer priorities are constructed in some sections of the network, the assigned priority calculation function 231 has each of the some communication flows between the plurality of tunnels. The priority of each of the partial communication flows may be changed by changing the tunnel used for the transfer.

  Further, for example, when there is a predetermined tag that is added to the communication flow when entering the partial section and removed from the communication flow when exiting the partial section, The priority of each of the partial communication flows may be changed by setting the changed priority to the predetermined tag of each of the partial communication flows.

  Here, the predetermined tag may be a VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) tag, for example, as will be described later. Thereby, for example, different priority is given to the communication flow between layer 2 and layer 3, and the communication flow is transferred with different priority between the division transferred at layer 2 and the division transferred at layer 3 it can. Other tags may be used.

  Note that, in the above, the assignment priority calculation function 231 changes the priority of each of some of the plurality of communication flows when the communication status of each of the plurality of communication flows satisfies a predetermined condition. did. However, the assigned priority calculation function 231 estimates the communication status when the priority of each of the partial communication flows is changed, and determines that a communication flow that can maintain the predetermined communication status is generated by the change in priority. In some cases, the priority of each of the partial communication flows may be changed.

  The carrier-side accommodation device 41 includes a termination function 410 that handles communication with the subscriber-side devices 21 and 22, a termination function 440 that handles communication with the subscriber-side devices 23 and 24, and termination functions 410 and 440, respectively. An aggregation switch 420 that bundles incoming traffic and an accommodating router 430 that performs layer 3 processing such as billing are provided.

  The configuration example of the communication system 1A according to the first embodiment of the present invention has been described above.

[Description of operation]
Then, the example of the flow of operation | movement of the communication system 1A which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention is demonstrated. In the communication system 1 </ b> A shown in FIG. 1, subscriber data (communication flow) transmitted from the subscriber terminal 11 is sent to the subscriber side device 21. In the subscriber side device 21, the data is terminated at the layer 3, and the subscriber side device 21 performs the required communication based on the priority flag (or the layer 4 protocol number) of the IP address (which is the layer 3). The quality is grasped, and control related to the priority in layer 2 suitable for achieving the communication quality is performed.

  In order to perform such control, for example, a method of assigning VLAN-ID to data for each application executed in the terminal 11 can be considered. A priority is set for the VLAN-ID, and the VLAN-ID is allocated and written to the class-specific queues (queues q1 to q3 in the example shown in FIG. 1) according to the priority.

  In the termination function 250, the Ethernet frames are read to the switch (SW 251) in the order corresponding to the priority of the queue, and therefore the carrier side sequentially passes through the subscriber common transmission medium 31 from the Ethernet frame written in the queue with the highest priority. It is transmitted to the accommodation device 41.

  In the carrier-side accommodation device 41, the subscriber data is input to the aggregation SW 420 after being physically terminated from the subscriber common transmission medium 31 by the termination function 410. In the aggregation SW 420, contention between subscriber data from the termination function 410 and subscriber data from other termination functions (for example, termination function 440) occurs, and high priority data is first sent to the accommodating router 430. Sent. On the other hand, low-priority data is accumulated in an internal queue buffer and overflows as the amount of data accumulated in the queue buffer increases, causing packet loss.

  In the accommodating router 430, a core IP carrier network (for example, the core IP carrier network 51, the core IP carrier network 52, etc.) to be output is selected according to the destination IP address, and transmitted toward the selected core IP carrier network. Is done. Further, between the subscriber side device 21 and the carrier side accommodation device 41, a VLAN tag is assigned for each service, and a priority is set for each VLAN. The mapping of the IP packet to the VLAN can be identified by, for example, a layer 4 port number.

  The remaining problem of the above series of operations is how to determine the priority in the section from the terminal 11 to the accommodating router 430, and how to make the priority different from the priority outside this section. Is a point. Here, among the above-described examples, a technique for assigning different priorities to the communication flow between the layer 2 and the layer 3 by the assignment priority calculation function 231 will be described in more detail.

  In the first embodiment of the present invention, the carrier-side accommodation device 41 notifies the subscriber-side devices 21 and 22 of the communication time using the subscriber common transmission medium 31, and the subscriber-side devices 21 and 22. Uses the common subscriber transmission medium 31 at the communication time to transmit the subscriber data to the carrier-side accommodation device 41 to prevent a collision.

  The network information acquisition function 210 of the subscriber side device 21 receives information necessary for grasping the network status from the transmission / reception timing control function 220 (for example, transmission queue information and communication time allowed from the subscriber side device 21). Information). This information is sent to the assignment priority optimization function 230, and the communication quality when the mapping of layer 2 priority control corresponding to the default layer 3 service requirement quality is performed is estimated by the flow-specific communication quality estimation function 232. The

  As a result of estimation, if there is a lot of large-capacity low-latency traffic such as a TV conference, and if any TV conference flow cannot be expected to have a sufficient quality as it is, the assigned priority calculation function 231 may perform relative For a communication flow with a low priority, a lower priority is assigned to the VPN tag instead of the default priority. For example, the relative priority order for the communication flow may be grasped from the source IP address (for example, if the terminal is a boardroom in a boardroom, it is a relatively high priority order) or set manually. Also good.

  Thus, even for the same service, a flow having a relatively low priority is transferred with a lower priority. However, according to such a method, the section in which the priority is lowered is limited to the range of the layer 2 where the VLAN is effective, and the VLAN tag is peeled off by the accommodating router 430 where the layer 2 termination is performed, When it is transmitted to the IP carrier network, it is restored and transmitted as a packet that is not different from other data of the same service.

  In the description so far, the method of using information from the transmission / reception timing control function 220 has been shown as a method for grasping the network state. However, the method for grasping the network state is not limited to this example. For example, the network information acquisition function 210 accesses the MIB (Management Information Base) of the aggregation SW 420 (or the accommodation router 430) of the carrier side accommodation device 41, and obtains the packet loss information for each class in these devices. Information on the state of the network can be acquired. Alternatively, the network information acquisition function 210 can be grasped by referring to the quality information of the application of the terminal 11 such as RTCP-XR.

  In order to operate the first embodiment of the present invention more suitably, even if the services have different priorities with respect to the carrier fairness policy when the network is congested, “to which subscribers It is effective to provide a service that gives the same bandwidth, or a service that gives a difference in priority within the same subscriber but does not give a difference from other subscribers.

  Here, with regard to the mechanism for changing the priority and the route as described above, as a specific means, if a technique called a node called Software Defined Network or a function that can freely define the function of OAM (Operation Administration and Maintenance) is used, This is preferable because not only mounting is facilitated but also improvement and the like are facilitated.

  Next, an example of implementation for maintaining service quality at a low cost will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the carrier c1 provides data communication between the head office and the branch office of the company k1. The carrier c1 has only an undercarriage, and the core system uses the resources of a high-quality carrier c2 by pay-per-use and the best-effort carrier c3 of the flat rate system.

  Here, the carrier c1 acquires the state of the network, determines the degree of network congestion based on the acquired result, and preferentially uses the carrier c3 if the fixed-rate carrier c3 is available. On the other hand, the carrier c1 can realize high-quality communication at a low cost by transferring a high-priority packet to the pay-per-use carrier c2 when the network is congested and the quality is insufficient.

  The example of the operation flow of the communication system 1A according to the first embodiment of the present invention has been described above.

[Description of effects]
According to the first embodiment of the present invention, the priority of a communication flow can be changed according to the state of the network through which the communication flow passes. Furthermore, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the state of a network in a specific section is grasped, and the priority of some communication flows is changed even in the same service according to the state of the network in the specific section. Thus, the quality of a specific communication flow can be protected. In addition, the communication flow with the changed priority is communicated with the normal priority except in this section. Therefore, the possibility that the priority of the communication flow is inferior to the priority of the packet of another subscriber and the transfer of the communication flow becomes disadvantageous can be reduced.

  Subsequently, a communication system 1B according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

[Second Embodiment]
In the first embodiment of the present invention, the priority at the time of transferring a subscriber data packet can be changed only by the subscriber side device 21 or only by the subscriber side device 21A and the carrier side accommodation device 41A. An example was given. This is because it is considered that this is a technique that can be realized only by replacing a device in a company or changing a carrier that provides an Internet connection service. In the second embodiment of the present invention, in addition to these cases, the case where the priority can be changed also at the node on the core side is shown.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a communication system 1B according to the second embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the configuration of the communication system 1B according to the second embodiment of the present invention conforms to the configuration of the communication system 1A according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In addition, the network information acquisition function 210 and the assignment priority / path optimization function 260 are configured to allow information exchange and control with each carrier's OpS (Operation System).

  The assigned priority route calculation function 261 is configured to change the priority of each communication flow among the plurality of communication flows when the communication status of each of the plurality of communication flows satisfies a predetermined condition. Calculate the priority. The assignment priority route calculation function 261 corresponds to an example of a determination unit that determines the effectiveness of the network based on the network information acquired by the network information acquisition function 210. The assignment priority route calculation function 261 corresponds to an example of a route selection unit that selects a route for each of a plurality of communication flows in the network based on the determination result.

  The core node device n has a priority changing function 450 and a route switching function 460. The priority change function 450 changes the priority of the communication flow to the priority calculated by the assigned priority route calculation function 261. Here, the priority can be changed for each communication flow by an operation such as changing the priority flag of the packet or changing the priority for each VLAN. The priority changing function 450 can also change the priority of each of the partial communication flows using, for example, a function of SDN (Software Defined Network).

  The route switching function 460 switches the route according to the route selected by the assigned priority route calculation function 261. For example, the route switching function 460 has a function of outputting packets by priority or destination.

  Heretofore, the functional configuration example of the communication system 1B according to the second embodiment of the present invention has been described.

[Description of operation]
Then, the example of the flow of operation | movement of the communication system 1B which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention is demonstrated. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the network information acquisition function 210 communicates with OpS of each carrier network to acquire information on the communication quality of each of the subscriber side device 21A, the carrier side accommodation device 41A, and the core node device n.

  For example, if the OpS transmits an SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) message to the MIB of the device, information regarding the communication quality can be obtained as a response. As another method for obtaining information on communication quality, a method in which a terminal measures a delay time between networks using Ping or Trace-route, or a method for referring to information such as RTCP-XR can be employed.

  Based on these pieces of information, the grant priority / path optimization function 260 determines the optimum priority and method to be given to the packet when the subscriber side device 21A, the carrier side accommodation device 41A, and the core node device n output. The path is calculated, and OpS is requested to perform communication according to the path. The OpS instructs the subscriber side device 21A, the carrier side accommodation device 41A, and the core node device n to operate as such. The node technology in which the priority is changed and set in each node includes the above-described SDN technology.

  Further, as a specific implementation method of SDN, there is Open Flow by Open Network Foundation. The Open Flow node uses the layer 2 to layer 4 header of the packet as a flow identifier, and can operate each identifier according to the flow rule. Each node inquires and obtains a flow rule from the controller for the identifier that is input for the first time, and can process the packet accordingly.

  In the case of the second embodiment of the present invention, as a specific mounting method, an Open Flow is mounted on the node of the subscriber side device 21A, the carrier side accommodation device 41A, and the core node device n, and a controller is arranged in the OpS portion. Techniques can be employed.

  Alternatively, it is possible to install a controller in the assignment priority / route optimization function 260 and inquire flow rules there, but each carrier is given the authority to move according to the instructions of the external controller to its own node. Seems to be cautious. Therefore, when a request is made to deploy a controller in the OpS part of each company and the information is changed, each carrier checks whether the request is within the allowable range for the request. It may be preferable to input information to the controller. Of course, all these operations can be performed automatically.

[Description of effects]
According to the second embodiment of the present invention, in addition to the effects exhibited by the first embodiment of the present invention, the communication system 1B realizes communication with an optimum route and priority in the network end to end. Is possible.

[Description of modification]
The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to such examples. It is obvious that a person having ordinary knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention pertains can come up with various changes or modifications within the scope of the technical idea described in the claims. Of course, it is understood that these also belong to the technical scope of the present invention.

  Each functional block constituting the communication system 1 includes, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a RAM (Random Access Memory), and the like, and a program stored in a storage unit (not shown) is expanded on the RAM and executed by the CPU. By doing so, the function can be realized. Or these functional blocks may be comprised by the hardware for exclusive use, and may be comprised by the combination of several hardware.

1 (1A, 1B) Communication system 11-16 Terminals 21-24, 24A Subscriber side device 41, 41A Carrier side accommodation device 51, 52 Core IP carrier network 250 Termination function 210 Network information acquisition function (acquisition unit)
220 Transmission / reception timing control function 230 Grant priority optimization function 231 Grant priority calculation function (change unit)
232 Communication quality estimation function by flow (estimator)
240 EGW function 252 Transmission function 253 Reception function 254 Filtering function 260 Grant priority / route optimization function 261 Grant priority route calculation function (determination unit, route selection unit)
450 Priority change function (change part)
460 Route switching function

Claims (7)

An acquisition unit for acquiring network information indicating a state of the communication network;
An estimation unit that estimates a communication status of each of a plurality of communication flows in the communication network based on the network information;
When the communication status of each of the plurality of communication flows satisfies a predetermined condition, a changing unit that changes the priority of each of the plurality of communication flows,
With
The changing unit changes the priority of each of the part of communication flows in a part of the communication network,
When changing the priority, among the plurality of communication flows,
Communication flow with relatively low priority,
A communication flow that minimizes the number of communication flows that lower the priority and protects the quality of other communication flows.
Communication flow with the largest or smallest bandwidth,
The communication flow with the earliest or latest start time, and
Any one or more communication flows selected at random,
Reduce the priority of any of the
Do not change the priority of each of the partial communication flows in a section other than the partial section in the communication network,
Communications system. An acquisition unit for acquiring network information indicating a state of the communication network;
An estimation unit that estimates a communication status of each of a plurality of communication flows in the communication network based on the network information;
When the communication status of each of the plurality of communication flows satisfies a predetermined condition, a changing unit that changes the priority of each of the plurality of communication flows,
With
The changing unit changes the priority of each of the part of communication flows in a part of the communication network,
When changing the priority, among the plurality of communication flows,
Communication flow with a relatively high priority,
A communication flow that minimizes the number of communication flows that raise the priority and protects the quality of other communication flows.
Communication flow with the largest or smallest bandwidth,
The communication flow with the earliest or latest start time, and
Any one or more communication flows selected at random,
Increase the priority of any of the
Do not change the priority of each of the partial communication flows in a section other than the partial section in the communication network,
Communications system. When a plurality of tunnels having different communication flow transfer priorities are constructed in a part of the communication network, the changing unit transfers each of the part of the communication flows between the plurality of tunnels. Changing the priority of each of the partial communication flows by changing the tunnel used;
The communication system according to claim 1 or 2 . When there is a predetermined tag that is added to the communication flow when entering the partial section and removed from the communication flow when exiting from the partial section, the changing unit sets the priority after the change Changing the priority of each of the partial communication flows by setting the predetermined tag of each of the partial communication flows;
The communication system according to claim 1 or 2 . The acquisition unit acquires the network information by acquiring the network information from another device or by detecting the state of the communication network by itself.
The communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 4 . The communication system is:
A determination unit that determines the effectiveness of the communication network based on the network information;
A route selection unit that selects a route for each of a plurality of communication flows in the communication network based on a determination result by the determination unit;
Further comprising, a communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 5. The changing unit changes a priority of each of the partial communication flows using a function of SDN (Software Defined Network).
The communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 6 .

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