JPH05175965A - Multi-port repeater and network management station - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To manage the configuration of network segments and to detect station addresses in duplicate through the use of the multiport repeater. CONSTITUTION:Multi-port repeaters 101-103 store all addresses of sender stations for frames reached to each input port within a definite time and a final arrival time of a frame from each sender station to a memory and the information is sent to a network management station 121 according to a prescribed protocol. The network management station 121 collects the information from all the multi-port repeaters in a network segment and obtains the configuration information of the network segments in details through inference and detects station addresses in duplicate.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multiport relay device which is a constituent device of a network and a network management system using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art "IEEE802.3K Layer Management for Hub" is a standard for management information in multi-port relay devices.
"Devices" is widely known. In this standard, the information that should be held in each multi-port relay device is the source MAC address (last source address) of the last readable frame received by each port. :
Last Source Address). In addition, as ancillary information about this information, the number of times the value of the last source address has changed (source address changes: So
urce Address Changes).

The network work management station is
In order to obtain these pieces of information, an inquiry is made to the multiport relay device.

[0004]

However, the network management system based on the IEEE802.3K standard, which has the characteristics described above, has the following problems.

(1) Since each port of the multi-port relay device holds only the source address of the last received frame, a network segment including a plurality of terminal stations is provided at the end of the port instead of a specific terminal station. When connecting, it is not possible to hold all the addresses of the source stations of the terminal stations connected to this network segment, and it is possible for the network management station to obtain the addresses of all the source stations of the frame that arrived at the port. Can not. Therefore, the network management station cannot manage the network segment configuration.

(2) The connecting device used for connecting the station to the network is normally given a unique address which is unique in the world. However, in reality, a connecting device with a duplicate station address may be manufactured, and if such a connecting device exists in the network segment, the station corresponding to the station address cannot be identified, and the correct Cannot transmit. At present, there is no means to detect this duplicate address.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to use a multiport relay device to manage the configuration of a network segment, and further to use the multiport relay device to manage the configuration of a network segment and detect duplication of station addresses. Is to provide a means of doing.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the multi-port relay apparatus of the present invention uses all the addresses of the source station and the source station of the frame that has arrived at each input port within a finite time. Means for holding the final arrival time of the frame and the means for transmitting this information to the network management station according to a certain protocol (claim 1).

Further, the network management station of the present invention comprises means for inferring a more detailed network configuration in the network segment based on information obtained from a plurality of the multiport relay devices (claim 2). Further, the network management station further comprises means for detecting duplication of station addresses (claim 3).

[0010]

In the multiport relay device, all the source station addresses of the frames arriving at the respective input ports and the final arrival time of the frames from the respective source stations are held.
The network management station collects the above information from all the multiport relay devices in the network segment, and obtains more detailed network segment configuration information by inference based on these information. That is, the network management station collects these pieces of information held by the multi-port relay device in the network segment as necessary, and arrives at each input port of each multi-port relay device at the network management station. The source station address of the frame and the final arrival time of these frames can be obtained, and the network configuration in the network segment can be inferred based on this, and duplicate station addresses are detected. It is possible.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the description of this embodiment, IEEE802.3Typ
e A hub that complies with the 10BASE-T standard is used as an example of a multiport relay device.

FIG. 1 shows a basic configuration example of a system in which the present invention is used. In this system, 10BASE-T hubs 101, 102, and 103 having four input ports are connected in a cascade manner, and terminal stations 111, 112, 113 configured by personal computers, workstations, etc., at ports not used for the cascade connection. , 114, 115, 11
6, 117 and the network management station 121 are connected to form one network segment.

For the sake of explanation, the port numbers of the hub will be called the first port, the second port, the third port, and the fourth port from the left. In addition, terminal stations 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 1 connected to the hub
The 17 MAC addresses are A, B, C, D, E,
F and G, and M of the network management station 121
AC address is H, 10BASE-T hub 101, 102, 10
Let MAC addresses of 3 be I, J, and K, respectively.

The 10BASE-T hubs 101, 102 and 103 are
A means for holding all the addresses of the source station of the frame that arrived at each input port within a finite time and the final arrival time of the frame from each source station, and network management of this information according to a certain protocol It has a microprocessor and memory as means for transmitting to the station. That is, 10BASE-T hubs 101, 102, 103
The microprocessor and the memory work to read the source station MAC address of the frame arriving at each input port, store this address in the memory, and compare it with the address stored in the memory. be able to. Here, it is assumed that these hubs hold the source station MAC address of the frame arriving at each input port as an entry having a configuration such as {input port number, source station MAC address, last arrival time}.

In FIG. 2, 10BASE-T hubs 101, 102, 1 are shown.
10 shows a flowchart of an entry management operation example of No. 03. When a frame arrives at an arbitrary input port, the arrived frame transmission source station MAC address is read (step 20 in FIG. 2).
2, 203). For the entry of the same input port, the transmission source station MAC address is compared (step 20 in the figure)
4) If there is an entry with the same source station MAC address, the arrival time of this entry is updated (step 206 in the figure). If no entry with the same source station MAC address exists, a new entry is created (step 207 in the figure).

The 10BASE-T hubs 101, 10 as described above
By the functions of 2, 103, the terminal stations 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 11 in the network segment
6, 117, network management station 121 and
As a result of communication of 10BASE-T hubs 101, 102, 103, 10
The BASE-T hubs 101, 102 and 103 respectively obtain the following entries {input port number, source station MAC address, final arrival time}.

[In case of hub 101] {1, A, t1}, {2, B, t2}, {3, C, t3},
{4, D, t4}, {4, E, t5}, {4, F, t6},
{4, G, t7}, {4, H, t8}, {4, J, t10},
{4, K, t11} [In case of hub 102] {1, A, t1}, {1, B, t2}, {1, C, t3},
{1, I, t9}, {2, D, t4}, {3, E, t5},
{4, F, t6}, {4, G, t7}, {4, H, t8},
{4, K, t11} [In case of hub 103] {1, A, t1}, {1, B, t2}, {1, C, t3},
{1, D, t4}, {1, E, t5}, {1, I, t9},
{1, J, t10}, {2, F, t6}, {3, G, t7},
The {4, H, t8} network management station 121 has means for inferring a more detailed network configuration in the network segment based on the information obtained from the 10BASE-T hub which is a plurality of multiport relay devices. That is, the network management station 121 is the 10BASE-T hub 101, 10
2, 103 is communicated with via a network to collect entries. Then, the network configuration is inferred based on these entries.

In this example, the 10BASE-T hub 101 has 10BASE of the MAC addresses J, K, ahead of the fourth port, from the entry of {4, J, t10}, {4, K, t11}.
-It can be estimated that the T hubs 102 and 103 are connected. Similarly, {1, I, t in the 10BASE-T hub 102
9}, {4, K, t11} entry, 10BASE-T hub 1
The 10BASE-T hub 101 with the MAC address I is connected to the first port of 02 and the 10BA of the MAC address K is connected to the fourth port.
It can be estimated that the SE-T hub 103 is connected, and 10BA
{1, I, t9}, {1, J, t in the SE-T hub 103
From the entry of 10}, the 10BASE-T hub 101, 1 of the MAC address I, J is added to the first port of the 10BASE-T hub 103.
It can be inferred that 03 is connected.

By combining these estimations, 10BA
The relationship between SE-Ts 101, 102, 103 can be estimated as shown in FIG. Further, the other entry of each 10BASE-T hub can estimate the configuration of the terminal station connected to each hub.

Further, when the connection configuration of the terminal station changes and there is an entry including the same source station MAC address in one 10BASE-T hub, it is inferred based on the entry having the latest final arrival time. By doing so, the latest network segment configuration can be estimated.

Next, FIG. 4 shows a configuration example in the case where the station addresses are duplicated in the system using the present invention.
Here, the network management station 421 has means for inferring the network configuration in the network segment based on the information obtained from the plurality of 10BASE-T hubs 401, 402, 403 similar to the above, and further, the station address Means for detecting duplicates are provided.

In FIG. 4, the MAC addresses of the terminal stations 412 and 416 of the terminal stations 411 to 417 are both B, and the station addresses are duplicated. In this case, 10
The BASE-T hubs 401, 402, 403 obtain the following entries.

[In the case of hub 401] {1, A, t1}, {2, B, t2}, {3, C, t3},
{4, D, t4}, {4, E, t5}, {4, B, t6},
{4, G, t7}, {4, H, t8}, {4, J, t10},
{4, K, t11} [In case of hub 402] {1, A, t1}, {1, B, t2}, {1, C, t3},
{1, I, t9}, {2, D, t4}, {3, E, t5},
{4, B, t6}, {4, G, t7}, {4, H, t8},
{4, K, t11} [In case of hub 403] {1, A, t1}, {1, B, t2}, {1, C, t3},
{1, D, t4}, {1, E, t5}, {1, I, t9},
{1, J, t10}, {2, B, t6}, {3, G, t7},
{4, H, t8} Duplicate MAC addresses are detected from the above entries. If there is no overlap, the same address is not included in any hub entry, so it is checked whether or not there is an overlap of the same MAC address in each hub entry. In this example, for example, the hub 401 has Ms of {2, B, t2}, {4, B, t6}.
The presence of the entry with the duplicated AC address makes it possible to detect the duplicated MAC address. In this way, if there is a duplicate MAC address, a warning can be issued immediately to the network administrator.

[0025]

In summary, by using the multi-port relay device and the network management station of the present invention, the network management station can estimate the configuration in the network segment and can easily manage the network configuration. Become. Further, it becomes possible to detect duplicate station addresses in the network segment.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a network in which the present invention is used.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of a process performed by each multiport relay device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of estimation of a network configuration obtained at a network management station according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a network when there is an overlap in which the present invention is used.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 to 103, 401 to 403 10BASE-T hub (multi-port relay device) 111 to 117, 411 to 417 terminal station 121, 421 network management station A to G terminal station MAC address I, J, K 10BASE-T hub MAC address

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of input ports and output ports paired with the input ports, all source station addresses of frames arriving at each input port within a limited time, and from each source station. The multiport relay apparatus comprising: means for holding the last arrival time of the frame, and means for transmitting the information to the network management station according to a certain protocol. 2. A network management station comprising means for inferring a more detailed network configuration in a network segment based on information obtained from a plurality of multiport relay apparatuses according to claim 1. 3. A means for inferring a more detailed network configuration in a network segment and a means for detecting duplication of station addresses based on information obtained from a plurality of multiport relay apparatuses according to claim 1. A network management station characterized in that