JPH04312046A - Local area network - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatically collect and investigate the status information of a device connected to a LAN where a fault occurs without requiring any manual work by receiving faulty status information from the radio communication mechanism of the device connected to the LAN, and displaying it. CONSTITUTION:This system is constituted so that the status information to show the operating state of a network control part 53 to control the communication transmission of a LAN communication protocol is radio-communicated at the time of the occurrence of the fault of the ring type LAN from the radio communication mechanism 55 installed as being coupled with the network control part 53 and a status display part 54. Accordingly, the ring type LAN faulty status information detected by the network control part 53 can be surely received by a LAN control device 30.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a local area network connection device, and more particularly to a local area network connection device for wirelessly communicating network monitoring status information of a ring type local area network.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional local area network system. In Figure 3, the conventional local area network (LAN) system is LAN
It is composed of a transmission line 10, a plurality of LAN connection devices 20, and a LAN management device 30, and the LAN management device 30
It is connected to the N connection device 20 and performs network management of the local area network system.

Generally, in a ring type LAN system, the LAN
A duplex transmission line configuration is adopted in which the transmission line consists of two transmission lines, a main transmission line and a slave transmission line. The reason for configuring the transmission path in this way is to prevent the LAN system from stopping due to a failure in the LAN transmission path or LAN connection device. The contents will be explained below. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a conventional LAN system for explaining a method for avoiding system stoppage of a local area network system using a loopback control method in a duplex transmission line configuration. In Figure 4, LA
The N transmission line 10 is composed of a main transmission line 11 and a slave transmission line 12, and the LAN transmission line 10 includes a LAN connection device 21,
22 and 23 are connected. A LAN management device 30 is connected to the LAN connection device 21 . In the local area network system shown in FIG. 4, the transmission signal direction is counterclockwise as shown.

Next, the operation of the conventional local area network system configured as described above will be explained below. Now, assuming that a failure occurs in the LAN connection device 23, the LAN connection device 23 will detect the occurrence of the failure by connecting it to another LAN.
A beacon message is transmitted to notify the connection devices 21 and 22 and the LAN management device 30. That is, Figure 4
(a) is a block diagram of the local area network system in this state, in which the LAN connection device 2
3, the ring type LAN transmission signal becomes unable to be transmitted and a beacon message 40 is transmitted, and the beacon message 40 is transmitted as shown in the figure.

[0005] Then, the LAN connection device 2 where the failure occurred
The LAN connection device 22 located downstream in the direction of the LAN transmission signal of No. 3 receives the beacon message 40 and transmits the LAN transmission signal.
When a transmission abnormality in the connecting device 23 is recognized, a beacon message is sent further downstream. The beacon message is notified to the LAN management device 30 via the LAN connection device 21.

[0006] The LAN management device 30 is the LAN connection device 21
When a beacon message is received from
Displays on the display screen that a failure has occurred in the ring-type LAN, and notifies the system administrator of the ring-type LAN abnormality. On the other hand, in this state, the LAN management device 30 transmits a loopback instruction message using a loopback control method so that the main transmission line 11 and the slave transmission line 12 form a closed loop.

That is, as shown in FIG. 4(b),
When the LAN management device 30 sends a loopback instruction message from the slave transmission path 12 to the main transmission path 11 to the LAN connection device 22, the LAN connection device 22 internally loops back to the main transmission path 11. A closed loop is formed by the slave transmission line 12, and the ring type transmission line is looped back. Next, similarly to the above, the LAN management device 30 connects the LAN connection device 21.
, a loopback instruction message is sent from the main transmission line 11 to the slave transmission line 12, so the LAN connection device 21 internally connects the main transmission line 11 and the slave transmission line 12.
A closed loop is formed by looping back the transmission path. As a result, a new ring-type LAN closed loop is constructed, and the operation of the local area network system can be resumed.

[0008]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As explained above, in the conventional local area network system,
When the LAN management device receives a beacon message sent from a LAN connection device that has detected a failure, it displays the LAN abnormality on the display screen and also sends a loopback instruction message to form a new closed loop of the ring-type LAN using the loopback control method. The fault occurred L
It is sent to the LAN connection devices located before and after the AN connection device.

[0009] Therefore, when a new closed loop of the ring-type LAN is formed using the loopback control method, the LAN connection device in which the fault has occurred is disconnected from the local area network system, and its error status information is transferred to the LAN in which the fault has occurred. It remains in the connected device and cannot be known from other LAN connected devices or LAN management devices.

[0010] Conventionally, therefore, a LAN administrator or the like had to go to the installation location of the LAN connection device where the abnormality occurred and collect and investigate the status information manually, making it impossible to respond quickly to the failure. was there.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and provides a local area network system that can automatically collect and investigate the status information of a faulty LAN connection device without manual intervention. The purpose is to obtain.

0012

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, a local area network system according to the present invention includes a plurality of local area network connection devices, a ring-type transmission path, and a plurality of local area network connection devices that are connected to each other in advance. It consists of a local area network management device that is connected to a designated local area network connection device and performs network management of the local area network system, and the local area network connection device is a network control device that performs communication control of the local area network. means, status display means for displaying status information such as the state of a ring-type transmission path, and a wireless communication mechanism for performing wireless communication with other local area network connection devices, and the local area network management device comprises: The information on the failure status that has occurred in the ring-type transmission path detected by the network control means is received from the wireless communication mechanism of the local area network connection device, and is displayed on the display screen of the local area network management device. It is something.

[0013]

[Operation] Therefore, according to the local area network system of the present invention, the status information, which is the operating state of the network control unit that controls the communication transmission of the LAN communication protocol, is transmitted to the wireless network provided by combining the network control unit and the status display unit. Since the information can be transmitted from the communication mechanism, the ring-type LAN failure status information can be reliably received by the LAN management device.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a local area network system that constitutes a local area network connection device of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the local area network system of the present invention includes a LAN transmission line 10 and a LAN transmission line 10.
It is composed of connection devices 50, 51, and 52 and a LAN management device 30, and the LAN transmission line 10 has a duplex configuration and is composed of a main transmission line 11 and a slave transmission line 12.

Furthermore, each of the LAN connection devices 50, 51, and 52 has a network control section 53 that performs ring type LAN transmission control and communication protocol control, and displays status information of other LAN connection devices and status information of its own device. A wireless communication mechanism 55 wirelessly communicates status information with other LAN connection devices.

Furthermore, the LAN management device 30 is connected to the LAN connection device 51 and performs network management of the local area network system. Also, ring type LA
The direction of the N transmission signal is counterclockwise as shown by the arrow on the main transmission line 11 in FIG. Then, the LAN management device 30
is connected to the LAN connection device 51, but its connection interface is connected to the network control unit 53 and the wireless communication mechanism 55.
There are two locations.

Next, the operation will be explained. In the local area network system configured as described above, the transmission signal direction of the ring type LAN is as shown in Figure 1.
It rotates counterclockwise on the main transmission line 11 as shown by the arrow. The communication transmission control on this ring type LAN, for example, the communication transmission control when information is transmitted from the LAN connection device 51 to the LAN connection device 52, is as follows.

First, the communication transmission control of the ring type LAN is
Although it will be transmitted based on the AN communication protocol,
Communication transmission control of this LAN communication protocol is performed by the network control unit 53 of each LAN connection device. Now, LAN
From the network control unit 53 of the connection device 51 to the ring type L
When communication data is sent to the main transmission line 11 of the AN, this communication data is transmitted to the LAN connection device 50 on the ring type LAN.
It is relayed by and reaches the LAN connection device 52. LAN
The network control unit 53 of the connection device 52 determines whether the destination address of this communication data is that of its own station, and if the communication data is addressed to the address of its own station, reception processing is performed.

Next, the same applies to the case of controlling communication transmission of communication data from the LAN connection device 52 to the LAN connection device 51, but in this case, since both LAN connection devices are adjacent to each other, relaying by another LAN connection device is performed. There is no

Further, the status display section 54 displays the execution status of the communication transmission control operation of the network control section 53 according to instructions from the network control section 53. The wireless communication mechanism 55 uses the LA according to instructions from the network control unit 53.
Status information is wirelessly communicated to the same wireless communication mechanism of the LAN connection device 51 to which the N management device 30 is connected. The network control unit 53 requests and instructs the wireless communication mechanism 55 to wirelessly communicate status information when a failure in the ring type LAN is detected.

In the conventional local area network system, when a failure occurs in the LAN connection device 50, a beacon message is transmitted from the LAN connection device 50, and the LAN connection device 52 located downstream in the direction of the LAN transmission signal transmits the beacon message. It receives the message and sends a beacon message further downstream. The beacon message is sent to the LAN management device 3 via the LAN connection device 51.
0, and the LAN management device 30 displayed on the display screen that it had received the beacon message, and notified the system administrator of the abnormality. In this way, in the conventional local area network system, the LAN management device 3
0 displays a LAN abnormality on the display screen by a beacon message sent from the LAN connection device 50 that detected the failure, and sends a loopback instruction message to other LANs in order to form a closed loop using a loopback control method.
Send to connected device. Therefore, the failed LAN connection device becomes disconnected from the local area network system, and its error status information remains in the abnormal LAN connection device and cannot be known from the LAN management device 30.

However, in the local area network system of the present invention, status information indicating the operating state of the network control unit 53 that controls communication transmission of the LAN communication protocol is transmitted to the network control unit 53 and the status display unit when a failure occurs in the ring type LAN. 54, the ring-type LAN detected by the network control unit 53
It can be seen that the failure status information can be reliably received by the LAN management device 30.

Furthermore, the wireless communication mechanism is not limited to the configuration of the wireless communication mechanism 55 of the LAN connection device shown in FIG.
The local area network system of the present invention may be configured as shown in FIG. 2, which shows another example of the configuration. In the local area network system shown in FIG. 2, the LAN connection device 51 to which the LAN management device 30 is connected does not have a wireless communication mechanism, and the wireless communication mechanism 56 is provided within the LAN management device 30. In this case, the status information from the LAN connection devices 50 and 52 can be directly received by the wireless communication mechanism 56 of the LAN management device 30, which is more reliable and convenient.

Further, the interface between the wireless communication mechanism 55 and the network control section 53 and the status display section 54, or the interface between the wireless communication mechanism 55 and the LAN management device 30, each uses a standard interface such as an RS232C serial interface. You can also do that.

[0025] Furthermore, there are no special conditions for the wireless communication system as long as it has a frequency, band, and modulation system that can be used in the area within the premises where the ring-type LAN is installed.

[0026] Furthermore, as a LAN communication protocol for a ring type LAN, a token ring method according to the ISO-8802-3 standard and an FD according to the ISO/IEC DIS9314 standard are used.
There are DI methods, etc., but there are no restrictions on the LAN communication protocol. Furthermore, although the transmission direction in FIG. 1 has been described as being clockwise, it may also be clockwise.

[0027]

As described above, according to the local area network system of the present invention, status information indicating the operating state of the network control unit that controls communication transmission of the LAN communication protocol is transmitted to the network when a failure occurs in the ring type LAN. Since the configuration is configured such that the information is transmitted from a wireless communication mechanism provided in combination with the control unit and the status display unit, the ring type LAN failure status information detected by the network control unit can be reliably received by the LAN management device, and the ring This has the effect of providing highly accurate fault isolation means for a type LAN.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a local area network system showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a local area network system showing another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional local area network system.

[Fig. 4] Conventional L for explaining a method for avoiding system stoppage of a local area network system using a loopback control method in a redundant transmission line configuration.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an AN system.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 LAN transmission line 11 Main transmission line 12 Slave transmission line 20, 21 to 23, 50 to 52 LAN connection device 30
LAN management device 40 Beacon message 51 Network control section 52 Status display sections 53, 56 Wireless communication mechanism

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: Connecting to a plurality of local area network connecting devices, a ring-type transmission line, and a pre-specified local area network connecting device among the local area network connecting devices to perform network management of a local area network system. In a ring-type local area network comprising a local area network management device, the local area network connection device includes a network control means for controlling communication of the local area network, and a status display device for displaying status information such as the status of the ring-type transmission path. The local area network management device includes a display means and a wireless communication mechanism for performing wireless communication with other local area network connection devices, and the local area network management device displays the status of a failure occurring in the ring type transmission path detected by the network control device. A local area network characterized in that information is received from a wireless communication mechanism of the local area network connection device and displayed on a display screen of a local area network management device.