JPH04103245A - Diagnostic system for local area network - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the down-time from the occurrence of a fault till its restoration and to relieve the load of a maintenance personnel by allowing a loop supervisory equipment to recognize a fault of a loop interface device of a supervised station via a transmission line of a local area network, to diagnose and display the contents of the fault. CONSTITUTION:A diagnostic section 14 detects a fault occurred in a logic section 13 of a loop interface device 1 and a changeover section 15 selects a standby system optical package 12 to inform the fault to a loop supervisory section 2. A diagnostic program is started and sent to a standby system (b) of the local area network. The standby system optical package 12 of the loop interface device 1 checks its own diagnostic data and sends the diagnostic data to the diagnostic section 14 via the changeover section 15. The diagnostic section 14 checks the logic section 13 based on the diagnostic data from the loop supervisory equipment 2 and sends the result of diagnosis to the loop supervisory equipment 2. Thus, the time from the occurrence of the fault till its restoration is reduced and an external system 3 to be connected is prevented from being not available for a long time.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a diagnostic method for a local area network, and more particularly, to a diagnostic method for a local area network that handles failures occurring in terminals connected to loop transmission of data communications. .

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in this type of local area network diagnostic method, the loop interface device of each terminal that detects the occurrence of a failure automatically disconnects the own terminal station from the loop transmission path. Maintenance personnel check the terminal station where the failure occurred using a loop monitoring device, and
Maintenance personnel go to the site and perform a diagnosis to identify the faulty part.

After that, they arranged for the defective parts and repaired them after obtaining them.

One way to prevent this is when maintenance personnel go to the site,
It may be possible to bring along the parts and formula of the device in which the fault occurred, but this would place a burden on maintenance personnel.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the conventional local area network diagnosis method described above, arrangements for the failed part can only be made after waiting for the diagnosis results from maintenance personnel, so it takes a long time from the occurrence of the failure to recovery, and it is difficult to repair the failed loop interface device. This had the disadvantage that the external system (computer terminal) connected to the system could not be used for a long time.

[Means to solve the problem]

The local area network diagnosis method of the present invention includes a loop transmission path having an active system and a standby system for data communication;
An interface device for a plurality of monitored stations connected to this transmission path and transmitting failure information to the standby loop transmission path when a failure occurs, and an interface device for a plurality of monitored stations connected to the loop transmission path and transmitting failure information from the monitored station It has a monitoring device that displays and outputs the analyzed failure details.

〔Example〕 Next, the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of the loop interface device of this embodiment.

In this embodiment, a loop interface device 1. LA, LB, and a loop monitoring device 2 that manages information on local area network operation control and error detection.
and an external system 3 connected to the local area network via the loop interface device 1゜1a,
3a, and optical cables X for an active system a and a standby system that connect the loop interface devices in a ring configuration.

In addition, the loop interface device 1. la.

1b is an optical package 11゜11a, 11b that converts the optical signal of the active system a into an electrical signal and converts the electrical signal into an optical signal, and converts the optical signal of the standby system into an electrical signal and converts the electrical signal into an optical signal. converting optical package 12, 12a, 12
b, and a logic unit 13 that performs a data transfer function and a failure handling function.
．． 13a and 13b, a diagnostic section 14 that diagnoses the details of a fault, and a switching section 15 that connects the diagnostic section 14 to the standby system when a fault occurs.

Next, to explain the normal operation of transferring data from the external system 3 to the external system 3a, data output from the external system 3 is transferred to the logic section 1 of the loop interface device 1.
The data is output according to a predetermined protocol. The logic unit 13 causes the optical package 11, which is the active system, to wait for data transfer. Within the local area network, a leading command called a TOKEN is generated at regular intervals, and when this TOKEN arrives, data from the operational optical package 11 that has been placed on standby is added after the TOKEN to initiate the operation within the local area network. It is sent to system a and made to make one round in the local area. - When looping, the data to be transferred to the external system 3a is taken into the operational optical package 11a of the loop interface device 1a, and checked to see if it is the own address. If the check result is its own address, the data is taken in and sent to the logic section 13a. The logic unit 13a sends data to the external system 3a according to a predetermined protocol.

Next, to explain the operation when a failure occurs in the loop interface device 1, when a failure occurs in the logic unit 13, the optical package 11 detects the occurrence of the failure and automatically switches to bypass state B (as shown in FIG. 1). (broken line), and disconnects the loop interface device 1 in which the fault has occurred from the local area network to prevent the fault from spreading to other devices. or,
When the optical package 11 receives a TOKEN indicating that a failure has occurred, it sends it to the active system a in the local area network, is taken into the active system optical package 11b of the loop interface device 1b, and is sent to the loop monitoring device 2. Ru. The loop monitoring device 2 displays a failure in the loop interface device 1 on the CRT and notifies the operator.

Next, an overview of the operation of the diagnostic section of this embodiment will be explained. The diagnostic unit 14 detects the occurrence of a failure in the logic unit 13 of the loop interface device 1, and the switching unit 15 switches the standby optical package 1
2, and the loop monitoring device 2 is notified of the failure in the logic unit 13. The operator of the loop monitoring device 2 (Ill) starts a diagnostic program for the loop interface device 1. The execution of the diagnostic program is sent to the standby system of the local area network. The standby optical package 12 of the loop interface device 1 The data is checked to see if it is the own diagnosis data, and is sent to the diagnosis unit 14 via the switching unit 15.
Send diagnostic data to. The diagnostic section 14 checks the logic section 13 based on the diagnostic data from the loop monitoring device 2, and sends the executed diagnostic results to the loop monitoring device 2 through the reverse route.

Next, the detailed operation of the diagnostic section will be explained with reference to FIG.

The diagnostic unit 14 includes an error detection circuit 21 that detects errors in the logic unit 13, a switching instruction circuit 22 that instructs the standby system to switch in order to send diagnostic data to the standby system, and a loop monitoring device 2 to a command reception circuit 23 that recognizes the start of diagnosis; a diagnostic data reception circuit 24 that accepts diagnostic data; a diagnostic data conversion circuit 25 that converts the diagnostic data into preset data; It has a result storage circuit 26 and a diagnostic result analysis circuit 27 that analyzes the error content of the diagnostic result and sends it to the loop monitoring device 2.

When the logic section 13 is normal, the switching instruction circuit 22 switches to the active system a.
The optical packages 11 and 12 of the standby system and the standby system are operated. When a failure occurs in the logic unit 13, the error detection circuit 21 detects the failure and sends a notification to the switching instruction circuit 2 that an error has occurred.
2, and the switching instruction circuit 22 makes the optical package 11 of the active system a inoperable (bypass state B). After that, when a diagnosis start command is sent from the loop monitoring device 2,
The command reception circuit 23 recognizes the start of diagnosis, and the diagnosis section 14 notifies the loop monitoring device 2 that it is a diagnosis section, but also notifies the diagnostic data reception circuit 24 . Next, when diagnostic data is sent, the diagnostic data reception circuit 24 takes in the data and sends it to the diagnostic data conversion circuit 25. The diagnostic data conversion circuit 25 is a preset logic section 1.
The diagnostic data is sent based on the diagnostic sequence in step 3. The diagnosis result of the logic section 13 is stored in the diagnosis result storage circuit 26. The stored diagnostic results are stored in the diagnostic data analysis circuit 27.
The contents of the error are analyzed, converted into a predetermined error code, and sent to the standby optical package 12 via the switching section 15.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention allows a loop monitoring device to recognize a fault in a loop interface device of a monitored station installed in a remote location via a transmission path of a local area network, diagnose and display the details of the fault. As a result, it is possible to know which part of the loop interface device has failed, which has the effect of shortening the down time from the occurrence of a failure until recovery, and reducing the burden on maintenance personnel.

Furthermore, since the diagnostic data is performed using the standby system, it also has the effect of preventing disturbances in the active system.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of a diagnostic section of this embodiment. 11 1at lb...Loop interface device, 2...Loop monitoring device, 3...External system, 1
1゜11a, 11b...Operation optical package, 12゜12a, 12b...Standby optical package, 13゜13
a, 13b...Logic section, 14...Diagnosis section, 15...
- Switching unit, 21...Error detection circuit, 22...Switching instruction circuit, 23...Command reception circuit, 24...Diagnostic data reception circuit, 26...Diagnostic data conversion circuit, 26
...Diagnostic result storage circuit, 27...Diagnostic data analysis circuit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A loop transmission line having an active system and a standby system for data communication, and a plurality of loop transmission lines connected to this transmission line and transmitting failure information to the standby system loop transmission line when a failure occurs. A diagnostic method for a local area network, comprising: an interface device for a monitored station; and a monitoring device connected to the loop transmission path and displaying and outputting fault details analyzed based on fault information from the monitored station. 2. When the fault occurs, the interface device includes a switching circuit that connects a diagnostic unit for diagnosing the details of the fault to the standby loop transmission path, and a command receiving circuit that receives a diagnostic command issued from the monitoring device. , a diagnostic data conversion circuit that converts the fault content into predetermined diagnostic data; a diagnostic result storage circuit that stores the diagnostic result after the diagnosis is completed; and a diagnostic result storage circuit that analyzes errors in the diagnostic result and sends the diagnostic result to the monitoring device. 2. The local area network diagnostic method according to claim 1, further comprising a diagnostic result analysis circuit.