JPH04137945A - Protocol analyzer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain diagnosis while checking the state of upper and lower layers simultaneously by displaying the state of a layer and the state of upper and lower layers simultaneously. CONSTITUTION:Slant lines 111,113,115,117 between a DTE and a DCE represent a protocol sequence of a layer 2. As an indication form of a packet having a significance in a host layer, as represented by the slant lines 111,115, while the other slant lines 113,117 are thin lines, the lines 111,115 are thick lines, which signifies the representation form. A longitudinal line 121 of the DTE and a longitudinal line 123 of the DCE represent a layer 1, that is, the presence of a momentary interruption in the physical level. Even when the state of a subordinate layer is represented, it is possible to provide a distinguished indication similarly to the case with the host layer. Thus, the efficiency of diagnosis of a fault is improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a protocol analyzer, and more particularly to a protocol analyzer characterized by the format of display of collected data.

Prior Art and its Problems Conventional protocol analyzers often display one layer of a protocol. That is, in current protocol analyzers, the observation target layer is fixed to one, so it is not possible to view the upper and lower layers at the same time. Therefore, even if an abnormal sequence occurs, if it is caused by a lower layer, it is difficult to determine the cause. Furthermore, even if the cause of an abnormality is in the currently observed layer, the abnormality typically appears as a phenomenon or symptom.
Because it is often the next layer up, if you only look at the current layer, you may wonder if there is a cause behind what you are currently seeing, and if so, what is the cause? It was not intuitively clear whether the diagnosis was accurate or not, and there was still a problem in making a quick diagnosis.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention solves the problems of the prior art described above, and provides a protocol/protocol that allows diagnosis to be performed intuitively and efficiently.
The purpose is to provide an analyzer.

[Summary of the Invention J According to one embodiment of the present invention, a protocol analyzer is provided that simultaneously displays the status of a layer and its upper and lower layers. With this configuration, diagnosis can be performed while simultaneously checking the states of the upper and lower layers.

[Example] Fig. 1 shows an example in which the protocol analyzer of the present invention is used to analyze layer 2 of the This is an example in which three layers, ie, Layer 3 and Layer 1, which is one layer below, are displayed simultaneously. In addition, X
, 25 protocols themselves are well known to those skilled in the art, and therefore will not be discussed in detail herein. Also, even if you use other protocols, its a pro!・An explanation of the col itself is probably unnecessary.

In FIG. 1, the diagonal line 111S113.115.117 between DTE and DCE basically represents the layer 2 protocol sequence. If a packet at level 2 represented by this diagonal line has meaning in layer 3 above it, such a diagonal line is displayed in a form that looks different from other diagonal lines. Moreover, a symbol representing the type of packet corresponding to the diagonal line is added to the layer 3 above the diagonal line. (DT of diagonal line 111, R of diagonal line 115
R indicates that the corresponding packets at level 3 are DT packets and RR packets, respectively. In addition,
Although the symbol RR is also added to the diagonal lines 113 and 117, it should be noted that this represents the type of packet corresponding to level 2, and is different from the RR of the diagonal line 115. ) Packets that have meaning in the upper layer are:
In the layer under consideration (layer 2 in this example), it appears as a data packet. On the other hand, among the layer 2 packets, the control packet for layer 2 control has no meaning at layer 3, and therefore, from the perspective of layer 3, there is no corresponding packet. Therefore, diagonal lines representing such packets are displayed in a distinguishable manner as shown in FIG.

In this embodiment, the display form of packets that have meaning in the upper layer is a thick line, as represented by diagonal lines 111.115, whereas other diagonal lines 113.117 are thin lines. A display format that says ``is'' is given. Of course, the difference in display format referred to in this application is
The difference is not limited to thin lines and thick lines, but just as long as they look different in some way. For example, a display format may be used in which line types (for example, solid lines, broken lines, dashed-dotted lines, smooth lines and jagged lines, etc.) are distinguished by various attributes such as color and brightness.

In FIG. 1, displays related to a further lower layer 1 are also given at the same time. Vertical line 121 on the DTE side in the diagram
, some of the vertical lines 123 on the DCE side are displayed thicker,
This shows the state of layer 1. Specifically, during the period corresponding to the part displayed with this thick line,
This indicates that there was an instantaneous interruption at layer 1, that is, at the physical level. For example, a period in which the vertical line 121 on the DTE side is thick indicates that data could not be physically sent from the DCE to the DTE. The same applies to the vertical lines on the DCE side, but the explanation will be omitted.

Note that when indicating the status of a lower layer, as with the upper layer, it is possible to select any attribute from various attributes other than the thick line to provide a distinguishable display.

When the present invention is actually applied to a protocol analyzer, it is possible to display many states other than those shown in the above embodiment. Here, in order to avoid complexity and to make the essence of the invention easier to understand, the display of such other states is omitted.

The present invention is not limited to layers 1.2.3, but can be applied to any layer. Figure 2 shows layer N
An example of a screen in which layer N-1 and layer N+1 are also displayed at the same time is shown.

In FIG. 2, a thick diagonal line indicates that a corresponding packet is also present in layer N+1. Furthermore, thick vertical lines indicate that communication is being performed at layer N-1 during the period corresponding thereto. Thereby, activity in layer N-1 can be observed at the same time as layer N. As a result, for example, if a retransmission or data transfer interruption occurs in a certain layer, it is possible to easily determine where the situation is occurring.

Note that the layer on which the measurement results are displayed can be set each time from the input section of the protocol analyzer, or if the layer to be centered is determined from the beginning, it can be set as the center. It is also possible to keep the layers fixed.

FIG. 3 shows an outline of the operation of the protocol analyzer according to the embodiment of the present invention when displaying a sequence diagram centered on layer N, and FIG. 4 shows a schematic block diagram of this protocol analyzer. .

The individual steps shown in FIG. 3 can themselves be implemented directly or very easily from the prior art, so that no further detailed explanation will be necessary for those skilled in the art.

As for FIG. 4, the components themselves are substantially the same as those used in conventional single-layer protocol analyzers, so a detailed explanation will not be given here. To help understand Figure 4, the position calculation block calculates where in the sequence diagram the corresponding event (for example, the momentary interruption event in Figure 1) should be displayed, and also uses the position link The slope calculation block calculates the display position of the link between the DTE and DCE in FIGS. 1 and 2 and its slope (which may be associated with the duration of the communication corresponding to this link, for example). The character conversion block converts control binary information such as logical channel numbers and transmission/reception sequence numbers in packets into character codes so that they can be displayed.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained in detail above, according to the present invention, a protocol analyzer that simultaneously displays not only one layer but also the layers above and below it is provided, so that the intuition of the graphic type is improved. This can further improve performance and greatly improve the efficiency of diagnosing disorders.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of displaying a protocol sequence in an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of displaying a protocol sequence in another embodiment of the invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of displaying a protocol sequence in another embodiment of the invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an outline of the operation of the protocol analyzer according to the embodiment of the present invention when displaying a sequence diagram. FIG. FIG. 11 l 1 211. 121. 123. 113, 115, 117. 213.215.217: Diagonal line 221: Vertical line on DTE side 223: Vertical line on DCE side

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A protocol analyzer that graphically displays a protocol sequence of a given layer, characterized in that it simultaneously provides displays related to layers above and below the layer. (2) The protocol analyzer according to claim 1, wherein the display related to the upper layer and the lower layer is performed by changing the display form of a graphic for displaying the protocol sequence of the given layer. .