JPH04361440A - Fault message processing control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To minimize the effect onto an exchange network even when an important fault takes place in the exchange network by finding out early the important fault so as to allow the maintenance personnel to cope with the fault early. CONSTITUTION:A monitor object device being a component of an exchange network 1 outputs a signal including fault level information representing the content of a fault and the importance of the fault as a fault message when a fault takes place. A message reception processing section 4 of a network management system 2 receives a message sent from the monitor object device and identifies and classifies whether the message if a fault message or other message. In the case of the fault message, it is saved in a queue storing fault messages with priority indicated by LVL1Q-LVL3Q depending on the importance. An important fault message priority processing section 5 is started periodically and extracts the fault message with higher priority from the queue sequentially and allows a terminal equipment 3 to indicate it.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a failure message processing control method for a network management system that is connected to a switching network and monitors equipment to be monitored such as switching equipment, transmission control equipment, terminals, etc. that constitute the switching network.

0002

[Prior Art] Conventionally, in this type of fault message processing control system, fault messages are processed in the order in which they arrive at the network management system from the monitored device. Even if a failure occurred, the major failure message was processed after the first general failure message that arrived was processed.

0003

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As mentioned above, in the fault message processing control method of the conventional network management system, fault messages are processed in the order in which they arrive, regardless of the importance of the fault. In a system, when a large number of low-priority general fault messages are occurring, even if a critical fault message that requires urgent action is generated from a certain device, the network management system may not be able to finish processing the general fault messages. Without it, there is a drawback that important failure messages cannot be processed and immediate action cannot be taken.

0004

[Means for Solving the Problems] The fault message processing control method of the present invention provides fault message processing control in a network management system that connects to a plurality of monitored devices constituting a switching network and monitors the operational status of the monitored devices. In this method, when a fault occurs, the monitored device outputs a signal including fault content information and fault level information indicating the importance of the fault as a fault message, and the network management system outputs a signal that includes fault content information and fault level information indicating the severity of the fault, and the network management system outputs a signal that includes the fault message sent from the monitored device. is received, identifies and classifies whether it is the fault message or another message, and after identification, if it is a fault message, refers to the fault level information included in this message, and identifies this fault message. The configuration is such that failure messages are loaded into a queue whose processing order is determined according to level information, and failure messages are sequentially taken out and processed from the queue with a higher priority in the processing order.

[0005]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be explained below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network management system for explaining an embodiment of the failure message processing control method of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a switching network 1 made up of a plurality of monitored devices (not shown) is connected to a network management system 2 made up of a minicomputer system etc. that monitors the operational status of the monitored devices, and The management system 2 is connected to a terminal 3 for displaying fault information.

Messages generated in the switching network 1 are classified by the message reception processing unit 4 of the network management system 2 into fault messages that convey fault information of the switching equipment and other messages. LVL displayed as LVL1Q to LVL3Q according to
The failure messages are stacked in a queue for storing priority messages in the order of 1Q>LVL2Q>LVL3Q. Messages other than failure messages are processed by the general message processing unit 6. The important failure message priority processing unit 5 is activated periodically, takes out failure messages from a queue with a high priority, and performs a process of notifying failure occurrence information to the terminal 3 that monitors and displays the switching network 1.

Next, a specific example of the operation of the message reception processing section 4 and the important failure message priority processing section 5 will be explained using FIGS. 2 and 3. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific example of a failure message sent from a monitored device of the switching network 1 to the network management system 2. At the beginning of the data, there is a header (H) section that contains the destination of the message, etc.
Next, the identification (ID) section contains information indicating whether this message is a failure message or another message. The level (LVL) part contains information indicating the degree of the failure level, and the most important failures are in the order of LVL1>LVL2>LVL3, and the additional (ADD) part contains additional information about this message. ing.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the passage of time and operations of the message reception processing section 4 and the important fault message priority processing section 5 in FIG. 1. In FIG. 3, time passes from top to bottom, SPn is the timing at which activation is required in a cycle, and EPn is the timing at which the important failure message priority processing unit 5 completes its operation. That is, the important failure message priority processing unit 5 operates only between SPn and EPn, and if there is no failure message in the queue at the time of SPn, the operation ends at EPn and is suspended until the next SPn+1.

In addition, in FIG. 3, to simplify the explanation, only the case of receiving a failure message will be considered. 1a to 6a shown in the figure indicate failure messages received by the message reception processing unit 4 after the operation of SP1 and their order. Also, LVL1 to LVL3 associated with this
represents the LVL in FIG. 2, which is determined in the message reception processing section 4.

[0011] Now, the important failure message priority processing unit 5
When the operation in P1 is finished and the pause starts from EP1,
The message reception processing section 4 receives the failure messages 1a to 6a, and performs a process of stacking them in a queue appropriate for the level of each failure message. Next, in SP2, the important failure message priority processing unit 5 starts up and searches the queues. Since there is a message to be processed, processing is performed from the upper level queue, and the failure message is processed as the failure occurrence information of 1b to 6b. They are sent in a different order than the order in which they arrived.

[0012] The numbers in the failure occurrence information at this time indicate the order in which they arrive at the message reception processing unit 4. For example, failure message 3a, which arrived third at the message reception processing unit 4, is given priority processing for important failure messages. It is processed first by the processing of section 5 and sent as failure occurrence information of section 3b. The important failure message priority processing unit 5 finishes its operation after processing all the failure messages in the queue, and takes a break from EP2 to SP3 until the next activation.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts showing the processing flow of the message reception processing section 4 and the important failure message priority processing section 5, respectively. The message reception processing section 4 operates upon receipt of a message, identifies and classifies the message as a failure message or something else, and in the case of a failure message, performs a process of stacking the message in a queue suitable for each failure level. The important fault message priority processing section 5 is activated periodically, searches for queues containing messages from the upper level, and sequentially sends fault occurrence information notifications.

As described above, the network management system is provided with the message reception processing section 4 and the important failure message priority processing section 5, and processes important failures preferentially.

[0015]

As explained above, according to the present invention, each monitored device constituting a switching network outputs a signal containing fault level information indicating the importance of the fault as a fault message when a fault occurs, and the network management system receives and classifies messages sent from monitored devices, and if it is a fault message, refers to the fault level information included in this message, places it in a queue that determines the processing order according to this fault level information, and prioritizes processing. Since the configuration is configured to retrieve and process faulty messages sequentially from the queue with the highest level of failure, important faults can be detected early and maintenance personnel can take early action, so even if a serious fault occurs within the switching network, it will not be affected by the switching network. It is possible to provide a network management system that can minimize the impact.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a network management system for explaining an embodiment of a fault message processing control method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific example of a message sent from a monitored device of a switched network to a network management system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the operations of a message reception processing section and an important failure message priority processing section in FIG. 1 on a time axis.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing by a message reception processing section.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing by an important failure message priority processing unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Switched network 2 Network management system 3 Terminal 4 Message reception processing unit 5 Important failure message priority processing unit 6 General message processing unit LVL1 to LVL3 Failure levels 1a to 6a
Fault messages 1b to 6b Fault occurrence information SPn Start timing of important fault message priority processing section EPn Stop timing of important fault message priority processing section

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1. In a fault message processing control method in a network management system that connects to a plurality of monitored devices constituting a switching network and monitors the operating status of the monitored devices, the monitored device is configured to detect failure details when a fault occurs. The network management system outputs a signal including information and failure level information indicating the importance of the failure as a failure message, and the network management system receives the message sent from the monitored device, and outputs a signal including failure level information indicating the importance of the failure, and receives the message sent from the monitored device and outputs a signal including failure level information indicating the importance of the failure. After identification, if it is a fault message, the fault level information included in this message is referred to, and the processing order is determined according to this fault level information. A failure message processing control method characterized in that failure messages are sequentially retrieved and processed from a queue with a high priority.