JPH0199396A - Electronic exchange system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently operate an entire system by allowing a slave system to process a fault recovery without informing a fault caused in the slave system to a main system. CONSTITUTION:Two processors 1a, 1b functioning respectively the master system and the slave system are provided with the same processing function and the same programs N, T, S, E including the program for fault processing are provided and a fault processing program is started without informing the fault to the other system at fault detection and the slave system itself executes the fault processing. Thus, the occurrence of fault in the slave system does not give effect on the master system and the processing function of the processor of the master system is not separated to cope with the occurrence of fault in the slave system. As a result, the processing load of the processor of the master system is relieved to contrive to operate the entire system efficiently.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an electronic switching system in which two processing systems, a main system and a slave system, are constructed using processors with the same configuration, and in particular, Concerning failure handling methods in slave systems.

(Prior art) In an electronic switching system, two processors with the same configuration are used, one of which functions as a main system (ACT system) that executes the main operation of the switching system, and the other processing system serves as a complement to the main system. Alternatively, it is made to function as a slave system (SBY system) used as an alternative to improve the reliability of its processing operation. Such a system configuration is called a dual system, and is employed in various systems that require operational reliability.

By the way, in this type of conventional electronic switching system, the emergency operation program for dealing with the occurrence of a failure is generally provided only in the main system processor, and when a failure occurs in the main system that executes the main operation of the switching system, In addition to switching the processor that executes the above main operation to the slave system,
The main system operates the emergency operation program to deal with the failure. When the failure is recovered, the processor that executes the above-mentioned operations is switched to the main system again.

However, if a failure is detected in a slave processor that is in standby mode, this slave processor does not have an emergency operation program, so in conventional systems, the slave processor only sends messages to the master processor. The system notifies you of the occurrence of a failure, and handles the failure based on the judgment of the main processor. As a result, the following problems occurred.

That is, since the slave processor cannot handle the occurrence of a failure by itself, the response to the failure is delayed. Furthermore, in order to respond to a failure notified from the slave system, the main processor needs to perform not only failure processing in the main system but also failure processing in the slave system. For this reason, the complexity of software and hardware cannot be denied.

Furthermore, since fault notifications are sent to the main system from the slave system while the main operation of the switching system is being performed, even if the fault occurs only in the slave system, the fault will spread to the main system. It turns out. For this reason, there is a risk that the processing functions of the main system will be impaired.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In the conventional dual electronic switching system, fault countermeasures are left to the main processor, so it is difficult to effectively deal with faults that occur in the slave system. There was a problem in that the failure could not be dealt with and the occurrence of the failure would spread to the main system.

The present invention was made in consideration of these circumstances, and its purpose is to effectively deal with failures that occur in the slave system, prevent the failure from spreading to the main system, and improve the overall system. An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic switching system that employs a fault handling method that enables efficient operation of the electronic switching system.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention functions as one of two processing systems consisting of processors of the same configuration with the same processing functions as a main system that executes the main operations of the switching system. In an electronic switching system in which the other processing system functions as a slave system used as a complement or substitute for the main system, each of the two processors is provided with a program for troubleshooting and functions as a slave system. When the processing system detects a fault, the system operates the initialization processing program of the slave system to deal with the fault without notifying the processing system functioning as the main system of the fault information. It is something to do.

(Operation) According to the present invention, two processors each functioning as a main system and a slave system have the same processing function, and are equipped with the same program including a fault processing program, so that when a fault is detected, other processors Since the system starts up the fault handling program and performs all fault processing on its own without notifying the system of the fault, a fault in the slave system will not spread to the main system, and a fault in the slave system will not be affected. The processing functions of the main processor will no longer be disrupted in order to deal with the occurrence. As a result, it becomes possible to reduce the processing load on the main processor and achieve efficient operation of the entire system.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a program structure in an electronic switching system according to the present invention, where A shows a program built in a main processor, and B shows a program built in a slave processor. These main system and slave system processors have the same processing functions and the same configuration.

These two processors La and Lb are connected to each other via a communication path 2 as shown in FIG. 2, and a plurality of terminals 3a to 3n are connected in common to form an electronic switching system. The changeover switch 4 is connected to the processor la.
. The processor 1a (lb) set as the main system by this changeover switch 4 executes a series of processing of the switching system such as line connection (call processing) between the terminals 3a to 3n, etc., and is set as the slave system. The processor 1b (la) that has been installed backs up the main system. In this way two processors la.

A dual switching system using tb is constructed.

Returning to FIG. 1, programs A and B built in the respective processors la and lb have the same configuration and are connected to each other via a communication program T. That is, the above programs A and B are roughly divided into a main program M, a failure detection program S, and an emergency operation program E.
, an initialization processing program (2), and the communication program T, and normally executes the main operations of the switching system according to the main program M. Then, the main program M starts a failure detection program S at a predetermined timing, for example, and checks whether or not a failure has occurred in the system. Furthermore, the failure detection program S
may be executed and driven in parallel with the main program M, and may interrupt the main program M when a failure is detected.

When the occurrence of a failure is detected by the failure detection program S, the emergency operation program E is activated to perform failure countermeasure processing, and then the initialization processing program (2) is activated. After troubleshooting and subsequent initialization processing are performed, the processing operations by the main program M are executed again.

If a failure occurs in the main system, the failure detection program S of the processor functioning as the main system starts the emergency operation program E as described above and provides the main program M with the failure detection information. Then, the main program M notifies the main program M of the other system via the communication program T of the occurrence of the failure. In response to this notification of the occurrence of a fault, the changeover switch 4 performs switching control between the main system and the slave system, and the main program M of the other processor continues the switching processing operation. Take over and execute the processing operation. In this way, during the period when the processing operation of the main program M of the main system is taken over and executed by the main program M of the slave system, the fault countermeasure processing by the emergency operation program E is executed and fault recovery is performed. Then, when the failure is recovered, the initialization process is performed, and by restarting the main program M, the processor of the system where the failure occurred is now assigned the function of a slave system, and as described above, the switch The processor of the system that has taken over the processing operation will be assigned the function of the main system.

On the other hand, if a failure occurs in the slave system, the main program M of the processor in the slave system executes failure countermeasure processing without notifying the main program M of the master system that the failure has occurred. ing.

That is, the processing procedure of the slave system is performed while checking for the occurrence of a failure in the system using the failure detection program S as shown in FIG. 3, for example (step a). Then, it is determined whether or not the occurrence of a failure is detected (step b), and if there is no failure, the main program M performs standby processing for the main system (step C).

When the occurrence of a fault is detected, the fault detection program S first notifies the main program M of the fault occurrence (step d). When the main program M receives the notification of the occurrence of the failure, it refers to a failure strategy table as shown in FIG. 4, for example, and issues an emergency initialization signal to the emergency processing program E (step e). In response to this emergency initialization signal, the emergency operation program E is started, and the initialization processing program I is also started.

Here, the above failure strategy table stores information indicating the form of recovery processing for the failure depending on the type of failure, including information on the processing form when the processor is functioning as the main system, and information on the form of processing when the processor is functioning as the slave system. Information on the processing mode when it is functioning is stored separately. Furthermore, the fourth
In the figure, (EMA) indicates emergency recovery processing. By referring to such a failure strategy table, appropriate recovery processing can be performed according to the failure described in (a).

Thus, according to the present system that adopts this form of fault handling, the processors that are functionally divided as the main system and the slave system each have the function of executing fault processing, and when the processors are functioning as the slave system, the system When a failure occurs in the main system, the failure is dealt with by its own processing function without notifying the main system of the failure occurrence information, so the failure can be dealt with promptly. Moreover, the main system is not notified of failures that occur in the slave system each time.
Furthermore, since there is no need to perform fault recovery on the slave system, it is possible to significantly reduce the processing load. In particular, since the processing operations of the main system are not hindered by the occurrence of a fault in the slave system, the processor of the main system can concentrate on the main processing operations of the switching system. The slave system can perform failure recovery processing independently of the main system, and can always establish a function as a standby system for the main system.
It becomes possible to maintain high reliability as a slave system.

Therefore, great practical effects can be achieved, such as increasing the efficiency of the processing operations of the entire system and making it possible to effectively deal with the occurrence of various failures.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. Although the electronic switching system has been described here, the technical concept of fault handling can be extended and applied to other systems. Moreover, it is also possible to prepare not only one system but multiple systems as a slave system. others,
The present invention can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the gist thereof.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, when a fault occurs in a subordinate system, the fault recovery process is performed in the subordinate system without notifying the main system, so that the main system is involuntarily This has great practical effects, such as making it possible to operate the entire system efficiently without increasing the processing load on the system.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The figures show one embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the structure of a program adopted in the embodiment system, Fig. 2 is an overall schematic configuration diagram of the electronic exchange system, and Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of a program adopted in the embodiment system. FIG. 4, which is a diagram showing the flow of failure handling procedures in the slave system, is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a failure strategy table. la, lb...processor, 2...communication path, 3a
, ~3n...terminal, 4...changeover switch, M...
・Main program, S...fault detection program, E
...Emergency operation program, ■...Initialization processing program, T...Communication program. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] One of two processing systems consisting of processors with the same processing function and the same configuration is made to function as a main system that executes the main operation of the exchange system, and the other processing system is complementary to the main system. Alternatively, in an electronic switching system that functions as a slave system that is used as an alternative, the processing system that functions as the slave system performs the initialization of the slave system without notifying the failure information to the processing system that functions as the main system when a failure is detected. An electronic switching system characterized in that the above-mentioned failure is dealt with by operating a conversion processing program.