JPH05167582A - Line network control method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain a high speed of performing a fault retrieval and a countermeasure decision for it and to prevent the unproper countermeasure decision by supporting the relations of fault data to be a fault cause of a network. CONSTITUTION:In a line exchange network composed of a line and an exchange, a data collation means 1m arranges the control information of an exchange detected from a common line 1g by a data detection means 1k by a call unit and registers the information in a data base 1n in real time. A feature amount calculation means 1u performs a statistic processing for this and a display control means 1g displays the number of cases utilized according to routes and the load amount (traffic amount) for its equipment on a display device 1s. Further, when a display and selection instruction is performed from an input device 1r for this, the route selection status and the load distribution for an arbitrary originating and incoming point are shown. Thus, the influence of a fault or the relation between routing and load is made to be recognized at a glance by an operator and proper route selection and decision become possible.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the operation and management of a circuit switching network, and more particularly to a circuit network management method and apparatus for assisting in the search for a failure and the support for the failure.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In conventional network management, in order to deal with a failure warning and a complaint from a user, JP-A-2-270 is used.
As described in Japanese Patent No. 433, information on load factors and more detailed usage conditions for each device is collected, and the operator can
Using the information about the equipment, these data are associated and the cause is searched. In addition, in this association, since the selection branch is narrowed, the operator selects a device and checks the state thereof as necessary. Also,
There is also an example in which devices related to a failure are narrowed down based on a call route and then indexed, as in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-60257. Further, the measures for it are also decided after the examination based on the knowledge and experience of the operator or the operation manual. It should be noted that there are two types of failures, one is due to equipment failure and the other is due to equipment overload. The measures against the former are to change the routing method including disconnection of the standby system to disconnect the affected part from the network and restore the service.
It is the repair of the obstacle equipment that follows. On the other hand, the treatment for the latter is changing the routing method. Here, the routing means connection and regulation of the line, which is automatically performed by the exchange for each call, but the operator can also change the connection method and the regulation rate. Therefore, among these measures, the routing method is changed by a command to the device. On the other hand, the repair of the faulty equipment is performed by the workers' on-site treatment. Therefore, the action taken by the operator for the failure is an instruction to the former and the worker.

[0003]

In the search for a failure, it takes a certain amount of time to find the cause because the operator associates the failure data of many devices with the method described in the conventional example. Similarly, when the routing or the regulation is changed as a measure against the failure, it takes some time to make the determination. Reducing these times is a very important issue in network management. Furthermore, if the data is not properly associated, improper measures will be taken and the failure will not be effectively collected. It is an object of the present invention to speed up the search for the cause of a network failure and the action to be taken against it, and to prevent the inappropriate action from being decided.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a data detecting means for detecting a control signal given to each exchange associated with each call and outputting necessary data, and the data detecting means. Data collating means for collating the output data and collecting the data for each call, and feature amount calculating means for summarizing the data for each call for each route and statistically processing them to calculate the route usage status, Display control means for displaying the usage status, routing means for sending out the operator's measures to each exchange, an input device for the operator's input, a display device for displaying the usage status of each route, and necessary for the display This is achieved by the configuration consisting of a database that stores various data.

[0005]

The data detecting means detects the call number, the calling station number, and the called station number from the communication signals transmitted to the associated exchange for each call for the control, and further controls the control. The information generation time and processing time are measured and output as detection data. The data collating unit collates the detection data output by the data detecting unit, collects the call unit data for each call number, and further creates a call unit data including a call origination time, a connection time, an end time, and a route for the call number. Store as data in the database. The feature amount calculating means collectively collects the call connection data for each route, obtains the occurrence rate, the average service time, and the average waiting time, and stores them as route characteristic data in the database.
The display control means, based on the route characteristic data, the display route selection made by the operator via the input device, the network topology data stored in the database in advance, and the link characteristic data, the relation between the route and the load state of the network. Is displayed on the display device. The display control means receives the display route selection at any time. As a result, the relationship between failures or the relationship between routing and load can be understood at a glance. Also, the routing means converts the operator's action into a command for switching the associated exchanges, and sends the command. In this way, by supporting the association of fault data that causes a fault in the network, it is possible to shorten the time required for the fault search of the network and its measures, and perform appropriate routing.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a circuit switching network management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The circuit switching network includes user terminals 1a,
Subscriber line exchanges (LS) 1c and 1d connecting 1b,
A local exchange (D70) 1e, 1f, a long-distance exchange (D60) 1i, 1j, a call line 1h for communicating with a plurality of users via a transmission line, and transmitting information from the users It is constructed by a common signal line 1g for transmitting and receiving a dedicated signal different from the line 1h. Further, in this circuit switching network, a control signal given to each exchange associated with each call is detected, and the data output means 1k for outputting necessary data is collated with the data output by the data detection means. The data collating means 1m for collecting data for each call is connected by the information transmitting means. Also,
Required data is selected from the data collating means 1m, the feature amount calculating means 1u that collects the data for each call for each route, and statistically processes them to calculate the route usage status, and the display data indicating the usage status. The display control means 1q that calculates the link characteristic data by using, manages and displays the control information from the operator, and the routing means 1p that performs the routing in response to the instruction from the operator are respectively transmitted to the database 1n via the information transmission means. Once connected, the database 1n stores, retrieves or updates the data of each of these means in real time. An input device 1r is connected to the routing means 1p and the display control means 1q,
The input device 1r always receives control information from the operator. Further, the display device 1s is connected to the display control means 1q, and the display device 1s displays the traffic state of the switched network.

Before describing the constituent elements of FIG. 1 in detail, the relationship between the control information (common line signal) of the exchange and the connection order of the relay exchanges will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 2a is a calling user terminal, 2b is a receiving user terminal, 2c, 2d, 2h and 2i are exchanges, 2e and 2f are common signal lines, and 2g is a communication signal line. In circuit switching,
When trying to communicate from the calling user terminal 2a to the receiving user terminal 2b, it is necessary to establish one path. The exchange 2c responds to the connection request from the originating user terminal 2a.
Determines whether to connect to the exchange 2h, to the exchange 2i, or to connect to the exchange 2d by communication between the exchanges. For example, when the exchange 2c connects to the exchange 2h, the exchange 2h determines whether to connect to the exchange 2i or to the exchange 2d in the same manner as the connection sequence of the exchange 2c. The exchange 2i is also connected in the same sequence. In this way, one path is set from the calling user terminal 2a to the receiving user terminal 2b. Here, in the connection sequence of the exchange,
The exchanges communicate with each other to determine the connection of the exchanges, and the lines through which this information flows are the common lines 2e and 2f, which are connected to each exchange. The signal flowing on that line is called the common line signal. Further, FIG. 2 shows the “configuration of common line signal” used in the present invention. The common line signal is a "call line number" 3a indicating which transmission line the call has passed, and a "calling station number" 3b indicating which exchange has received the call.
, "Calling station number" 3c indicating from which exchange the call was sent, "call number" 3d, and "calling time" 3e indicating when the call occurred. The common line signal is expressed by a bit string so that the type and capacity of the signal can be added, and a wide variety of signal types can be defined.

In order to facilitate the explanation, the relationship between the communication signal line and the exchange (station) will be described below in detail as shown in FIG.
1, 2, 3, and 4 are exchanges (stations), and in particular,
1 is an originating user station and 2 is an incoming user station. n, p,
s is a call number, n is a communication signal line formed through each 1-2-3-4 exchange (station), and p is 1-3
Communication signal line is formed through each exchange (station)
Further, s indicates that a communication signal line is formed through each of the 1-2-4 exchanges (stations).

<Data Detection Means 1k> Next, the data and functions detected by the data detection means 1k will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is an example of a model of "detection data" detected by the data detection means 1k by extracting the common line signal from the common line. The data detection means 1k is a toll switch (D6
0) The illustrated detection data "source station", "terminating station", "call number", "source time", "end time", etc. are created from the common line signals of 1i and 1j. Here, 1, 2, 3, 4 of "source station" and "terminating station" and n, p, s of "call number"
3 correspond to FIG. 3, respectively, and “calling time” and “end time” are measured and added at the time when the data detecting means 1k detects the common line signal. This detection data is transmitted to the data collating means 1m. Note that this detection data can also be created by a common line signal repeater (STP) (not shown) that controls the exchange.

<Data collating means 1m> Next, the data collating means 1m will be described. The data collating means 1m collates the call unit data transmitted from the large number of data detecting means 1k by the call number, and as shown in FIG. 5, "call unit data".
, The call number n, the call number p, and the call number s are distributed for each call. The call unit data obtained by selecting each route in this way is updated at regular time intervals or after being accumulated at a constant amount. Furthermore, FIG. 6 shows "call connection data" in which call unit data is collected for each call number. In the call connection data, “connection time” is a call unit number having the same call number, and the attribute is “good continuity test” (not shown).
It is obtained from the end time of the call unit data having the latest time.
Furthermore, the end time of the call unit data having the latest time from the call unit data having the same call number and having the attribute "response" (not shown) and the attribute "end call" (not shown). The call time is calculated from the call origination time of the call unit data having the earliest time, and is used as the “end time” of the call connection data. The "route" to be connected is call unit data, and the originating station and the terminating station are taken out from the attributes of "good continuity test". The data collating means 1m is
The call connection data thus obtained is stored in the database 1n in real time.

<Characteristic amount calculation means 1u> Here, a detailed implementation method of the characteristic amount calculation means 1u will be described with reference to FIG.
The feature amount calculation means 1u periodically repeats the creation of the route characteristic data at regular intervals. "Route characteristic data"
An example is shown in FIG. First, after deleting the current route characteristic data (7a), the "route" column of the call connection data is searched and one route is selected (7b). Next, a call having the same route is searched from the call connection data (FIG. 6) and the data is read (7c). The connection time and the service time of the feature amount related to this call are obtained by the following calculation (7d).

[Equation 1]

[Equation 2] The above is repeated until all calls having the same route are completed (7e). When the calculation of all calls is completed, the calls concerning these same routes are totaled (7f). The feature amount regarding the same route is obtained as follows.

[Equation 3]

[Equation 4]

[Equation 5] The above processing is carried out for all the routes included in the call connection data (7g), and after completion, it is written as route characteristic data (7h). As an example of the “route characteristic data” in FIG. 12, the items include “route”, “occurrence rate”, “average service time”, and “average connection waiting time”.

<Display Control Means 1q> Here, a detailed implementation method of the display control means 1q will be described with reference to FIG. First, the operator is started up via the input device 1r, and a pair or route of a transmission point and a reception point is input from the input device 1r (8a). At this time, it is also possible to input "all routes". After that, related route characteristic data is created as route data relating to the route connecting the designated origination point and the designated destination point or the route designated directly (8
b). An example of "related route characteristic data" is shown in FIG.
This data has the same format as the route characteristic data, but only the records for the related routes are extracted. Next, the characteristic data of the link on the network is created (8c) and displayed (8d). FIG. 14 shows an example of “link characteristic data”. Further, the details of the related route characteristic data creation unit (8b) will be described with reference to FIG. First, the current related route characteristic data is deleted (9
a). Next, for the instruction by the pair of the originating point and the terminating point, all the records of all the routes with the originating point as the starting point and the terminating point as the ending point are all extracted. Withdraw (9b). Finally, the extracted records are collected and used as related route characteristic data (9c). As an example of the “related route characteristic data” in FIG. 13, the data of the transmission point 1 and the reception point 4 are shown. Furthermore, FIG.
The details of the link characteristic data creation unit (8c) will be described using 0. First, the current link characteristic data is deleted (10a). Next, one link in the network is selected (10b), all routes including this link as a part of the route are selected from the related route characteristic data, and the route characteristic data is read (10c). For these data, the traffic density of the link is calculated by the following calculation (10d).

[Equation 6]

[Equation 7]

[Equation 8] Here, the capacity is a unique quantity for the link, and is usually represented by the number of lines. Enter this number in the capacity column in advance. Next, the average connection wait time per link is calculated as follows from the value of the average connection wait time and the value of the call volume of the related route characteristic data.

[Equation 9] The traffic density and the average connection waiting time obtained as a result of the above are written in the link characteristic data (10g), the above calculation processing is performed for all the links, and then the processing is terminated (10h).
As an example of the “link characteristic data” in FIG. 14, the items include “link”, “capacity”, “traffic density”, and “average connection waiting time”. Further, the data display portion (8d) will be described in detail with reference to FIG. First, read the network topology data regarding the arrangement of nodes and links stored in advance in the database 1n,
Graphic display is performed on the display device 1s (11a). Next, the display reflecting the numerical value in the traffic density column of the link characteristic data is superimposed on the position of each link of this figure. FIG. 15 is an example of such a display. A plurality of circles are drawn on the straight line representing the link, and the density of the circles is proportional to the traffic density. That is, when the traffic density is low, the intervals of the circles are sparse, and when the traffic density is high, the intervals of the circles are close. It should be noted that a display reflecting the numerical value in the capacity column of the link characteristic data may be performed together. At this time, the size of the circle is changed to reflect the capacity, or the color of the circle is changed. Also, for example, even if the link connects between the nodes ab, the link from the node a to the node b and the link from the node b to the node a are different. 1 display device 1s. Further, in order to reflect the average connection waiting time of the link connection data, the circle mark can be moved in the direction of the link at a speed proportional to the numerical value in this column. In addition to the graphic display as described above, the link characteristic data may be directly displayed in a tabular format.

<Routing Means 1p> Here, an embodiment of the routing means 1p will be described in detail. One of the embodiments is to perform routing in response to an operator's instruction, and the routing means 1p receives a routing instruction from the operator via the input device 1r. Here, the routing instruction is an instruction to which adjacent node a call for a certain arriving point that reaches a certain node is transferred. When this instruction is received, the exchange number of the corresponding node and the protocol of the control command message received by the exchange are read from the database, converted into a message equivalent to the routing instruction, and then transmitted. As yet another embodiment, the routing is performed automatically, and the routing means 1p is
By its own judgment, it searches for a route including a link with excessive traffic, and transfers the call at the destination point of the route to a link with relatively little traffic.

The following is a description of how the operator 1t searches for the cause of the failure and takes measures by using the circuit switching network management device shown in FIG. Here, the target network is, for example, a network including six stations. FIG. 16 is a display screen when “all routes” is input from the input device 1r. In addition, stations 16a to 16
Take, as an example, the search for the cause of a failure for a complaint that a call to b is difficult to connect and measures for it. In response to such complaints, the operator 1t first asks the problematic station 16
Suppose you want to see how much traffic there is from a to station 16b. In this case, the operator 1t uses the input device 1r as a pair of the originating point and the terminating point to select the station 16a.
And the station 16b. On the other hand, the display control means 1g
Creates and displays relevant data. FIG. 17 shows the display screen at this time. It can be determined from this figure that the problematic traffic itself does not squeeze the line because the density of the circles is sparse, and the cause is other traffic. Next, in the first screen shown in FIG. 16, remembering that the lines between the stations 16a and 16c were evenly crowded, only traffic having the stations 16a and 16c as a pair of the originating and terminating points was viewed. Suppose you decide to try. At this time, the operator 1t inputs the stations 16a and 16c as a pair of the origination point and the destination point from the input device 1r. On the other hand, the display control means 1g creates and displays related data. FIG. 18 shows the display screen at this time. From this figure, it is possible to judge that the traffic flowing through the stations 16a and 16c via the station 16b is very large, and the cause of the problem is that these traffics press the line between the stations 16a and 16b. Therefore, as a measure against this, the stations 16a and 16
It turns out that only the traffic with c has to go through another route. Therefore, the operator 1t inputs "all routes" again and views FIG. 16 in order to determine to what route this traffic should be detoured. As a result, in this case, it can be judged that even if some distribution is made to the route passing through the station 16d, the traffic having the station 16a and the station 16d and the station 16c and the station 16d in the pair of the origination point and the termination point is not adversely affected. .. Therefore, the operator 1t
Input is made from the input device 1r so as to increase the rate of connection through the station 16d for traffic having 6a and the station 16c as a pair of originating and terminating points. On the other hand, the routing control means 1p outputs the change of the connection ratio to the station whose connection method should be changed as the protocol of the control command message accepted by the exchange. In this case, station 16a and station 16
A new command message will be sent only to switch c. FIG. 19 shows the state of traffic on all routes after such measures.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By assisting in associating faulty data that causes network faults, that is, data that has information about the time when a call originates and ends, and the route that consists of the originating point, the terminating point, and the relay station is detected from the common line signal. On the other hand, since these data are created in real time, statistical processing is performed at a certain time interval using the route as a key, and the number of uses by route or that is displayed as the load amount (traffic amount) on the device, the cause of the failure and its The relationship between the impact or the routing and the load can be seen at a glance, and the time for failure search and its measures can be significantly shortened.
At the same time, it is possible to prevent inappropriate measures from being decided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a circuit switching network management device showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram of control information (common line signal) of the exchange, a connection sequence of the exchange, and a configuration diagram of the common line signal.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a relationship between a communication signal line and an exchange (station).

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing detection data extracted by a data detection means.

FIG. 5 is call unit data in which call unit data is selected for each route by a data collating unit.

FIG. 6 is call connection data in which data is distributed by route based on call connection data.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for creating route characteristic data.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing details of display control means.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing details of creating related route characteristic data.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart for creating link characteristic data.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing details of a data display unit.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing route characteristic data.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing related route characteristic data in which only relevant routes are extracted from the route characteristic data.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing link characteristic data.

FIG. 15: At the position of each link indicated by the topology data,
The figure which displayed the numerical value of the traffic density column.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a display screen when “all routes” is input from the input device.

FIG. 17 is a station 16a and a station 1 as a pair of an origination point and a destination point.
The figure which shows a display screen when 6b is selected.

FIG. 18 shows a station 16a and a station 1 as a pair of a source and a destination.
The figure which shows a display screen when 6c is selected.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a display screen showing the state of traffic on all routes after the measures.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a, 1b User terminal 1c, 1d Subscriber line exchange (LS) 1e, 1f Local exchange (D70) 1i, 1j Toll exchange (D60) 1g Common signal line 1h Telephone line 1k Data detecting means 1m Data collating means 1u Feature amount calculation means 1g Display control means 1p Routing means 1r Input device 1s Display device 1n Database

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Yutaro Hori Inventor Yutaro Hori 5-2-1 Omika-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Hitachi Ltd. Omika Plant (72) Inventor Kunihiko Kodai Totsuka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Address 216, Hitachi, Ltd., Information & Communication Division (72) Inventor, Yoshihiro Kondo, Totsuka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 216 Address, Hitachi, Ltd., Information & Communication Division

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. In a circuit switching network consisting of a circuit and a switching system, a call origination point, a termination point and a sequence of switching systems to be relayed (hereinafter referred to as a relay route) are extracted from control information of the switching system, and the extracted information is extracted. Based on the above, display the relay route of a group of calls from an arbitrarily specified source point to the destination point, the number of call occurrences per unit time on each route, the service time, and the average connection waiting time. A network management method characterized by. 2. A circuit switching network composed of a line and a switch detects a control signal given to each switch associated with each call, outputs necessary data, and collates these data for each call. The data for each call is summarized for each route and statistically processed to calculate the average number of calls, service time and connection waiting time per unit time on each route. A line network management method characterized by displaying the route usage status from the calculation result. 3. The use condition of each route according to claim 1 or 2, so that the average number of calls generated per unit time on each route, the service time, and the average value of connection waiting time become appropriate values. A line network management method characterized by changing call distribution for each route based on a display. 4. The traffic density on each route of a group of calls from a source point to a destination point according to claim 1 or 2, and the exchange is controlled so as to transfer a route having a high traffic density to a route having a low traffic density. A circuit network management method characterized by the above. 5. A circuit switching network comprising a line and a switch, wherein the data detecting means for detecting a control signal given to each switch associated with each call and outputting necessary data, and the data detecting means. Data collating means for collating the output data and collecting the data for each call, and feature amount calculating means for summarizing the data for each call for each route and statistically processing them to calculate the route usage status, A line network management device comprising: display control means for displaying the usage status, and displaying the usage status of each route. 6. The routing device according to claim 5, wherein routing means for sending to each exchange is provided, and the routing means changes call distribution for each route according to a command from an input device based on a display of a usage status of each route. A line network management device characterized by the above. 7. The control signal given to each exchange associated with each call according to claim 5, from a common line signal between exchanges connected by a common line, or relaying the common line signal. A circuit network management device characterized by collecting from a signal relay station. 8. The call group according to claim 5, wherein a group of calls from a particular origination point to a reception point of the circuit-switched network is generated by a relay route and a unit time for each route. A line network management device having a database capable of searching the average value of the number of cases, service time and connection waiting time.