JPH05260093A - Terminal adaptor for packet communication - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent such a case where a public packet network is uselessly used for maintenance by transmitting no state data with the small defects and then transmitting the stored state data only in a specific case where an instruction is received from a control center, etc. CONSTITUTION:The sate data needed for maintenance of a terminal adaptor TA is properly selected based on the selection data SD and stored in a memory part 23 together with the time data TD every time the state data is generated. Thus the data stored in the part 23 can be sent to a network control center via a monitor part 15 with a command given from the network control center if a fault occured. That is, the data showing a defective operating state is obtained is not immediately sent to the network control center and stored in a data storing part 20 together with the data TD. Thus these data stored in the part 20 can be sent to the network control center only when they are needed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a packet communication terminal adapter, and more specifically to a terminal adapter having a packet assembling / disassembling function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, various packet switching networks for packet communication are provided to meet the demand for high-speed and high-quality data transmission. A common method is to connect a packet-type terminal and a non-packet-type terminal to a required packet-switching network by dedicated lines, respectively. In recent years, with the development of an integrated services digital network (ISDN), each terminal and the required packet-switching network By using the ISDN packet switching service, it has become possible to establish a cheap connection between the two.

When connecting a packet switching network and a terminal by a public packet network such as INS-P, it is necessary that the terminal has an ISDN protocol. However, there are very few existing terminals that have the ISDN protocol. Therefore, in order to connect the terminal to a required packet switching network via the public packet network, the terminal side needs to be connected to the terminal. The adapter must be installed.

[0004]

As can be seen from the above description, in a system in which a non-packet terminal is connected to a desired packet switching network via a public packet network, a packet is placed near the non-packet terminal. Assembly / disassembly (PA
D) Since the terminal adapter with the function will be set, when the maintenance and inspection of the terminal adapter are going to be performed from the network control center installed in the packet switching network, communication between the two for maintenance and inspection Is carried out via a public packet network, and there is a problem that the billing resulting from this increases the cost for maintenance and inspection. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a terminal adapter for packet communication that can solve the above-mentioned problems that occur when a non-packet terminal is connected to a required packet switching network via a public packet network. ..

[0005]

A feature of the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems is to provide a terminal adapter for packet communication having a packet assembling / disassembling means for the maintenance obtained during the operation of the terminal adapter. A point is provided with a data storage means for storing necessary predetermined state data in association with time data indicating the occurrence time when the state data was obtained. The state data referred to here is, for example, data indicating a state in which a communication procedure with a terminal or a public packet network is violated, data indicating a state in which a facility for communication cannot establish a communication path, a configuration. Data indicating a state in which an operation that seems to be an error has occurred, data indicating a state in which a defective operation related to security has occurred, data indicating a state of line quality, data indicating a load state of memory or CPU, and an operation The data includes data indicating that the control information in the system has an error, data indicating an abnormal state obtained in the self-diagnosis operation executed at the time of starting the system, and the like.

[0006]

When predetermined status data is output during the operation of the terminal adapter, this status data is stored in the data storage means in association with the time data indicating the generation time of the data, and when necessary, these status data are stored. The data can be retrieved by an instruction from the network control center, for example.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a terminal adapter according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a packet communication system in which the terminal adapter shown in FIG. 1 is used.

The terminal adapter TA shown in FIG. 1 has a packet assembling / disassembling (PAD) function, and as shown in FIG. 2, the public packet network 2 and the non-packet terminal connected to the packet switching network 1 are connected. It is provided between 3 and. The transmission data from the non-packet mode terminal 3 is packetized by the PAD function of the terminal adapter TA and sent out to the public packet network 2 according to the ISDN protocol, for example, the host computer 4 which is a packet terminal connected to the packet switching network 1. It is configured to be able to perform packet communication with. In addition to the terminal 3 and the host computer 4, a large number of various terminal devices are connected to the packet switching network 1 via the public packet network 2 or directly. In FIG. 2, these terminal devices are connected. Is omitted.

Reference numeral 5 indicates a packet switching network 1.
Is a network control center for monitoring the operating state of each terminal that performs packet communication using the network, and controlling its operation. This network control center 5 is via the packet switching network 1 or the packet switching network 1 Also, it is possible to communicate with any terminal via the public packet network 2.

Next, the terminal adapter TA will be described in detail with reference to FIG. Terminal adapter T
A is a packet assembling / disassembling (PAD) unit 11 having a packet assembling / disassembling function connected to the terminal 3, and an ISDN module 12 connected to the public packet network 2.
And have.

The ISDN module 12 has a predetermined ISD.
It is a module having necessary functions such as establishing and disconnecting a communication path for packet communication between the terminal adapter TA and the public packet network 2 according to the N protocol, and its basic configuration is known. The detailed description thereof is omitted here.

The PAD section 11 is provided with a rewritable program memory 13 into which a required packet assembling / disassembling program is loaded as described later in detail. Packets are assembled and disassembled according to the disassembly program. That is, the user data packet UP input from the public packet network 2 and accepted by the ISDN module 12 is sent to the PAD unit 11, where the packet is decomposed, and the data obtained by the decomposition is sent to the terminal 3. Be done. On the other hand, the data from the terminal 3 to be sent to the virtual circuit established by the ISDN module 12 according to the call request is packetized by the PAD unit 11 and sent to the public packet network 2 via the ISDN module 12.

The packet assembling / disassembling program to be stored in the program memory 13 must conform to the specifications of the terminal 3 connected to the PAD unit 11,
Therefore, when the specifications of the terminal 3 are different, such as when the user changes the terminal to a different model, it is necessary to change the packet assembling / disassembling program to a program suitable for this.

In order to change the packet assembling / disassembling program in response to a command from the network control center 5, this terminal adapter TA
Has a loading section 14. When there is a request for changing the packet assembling / disassembling program from the network control center 5, this request command is given to the monitor unit 15 for analysis, and the monitor unit 15 gives the loading unit 14 a program load instruction command PL. The loading unit 14 responds to the load instruction command PL and returns I
The SDN module 12 can be used to establish a virtual circuit with the network control center 5, and the required packet assembly / disassembly program can be loaded into the program memory 13 via this established virtual circuit. ..

The request to load this program is
Keyboard 1 provided on the terminal adapter TA
It is also possible to directly perform from 6 to the monitor unit 15. Therefore, the operator of the terminal 3 can load an arbitrary packet assembling / disassembling program into the program memory 13 regardless of the instruction from the network control center 5. If the program loading function from the network control center 5 described above is used, the terminal 3
Since it is possible to change the required packet assembly / disassembly program arbitrarily without bothering the operator of
It is very convenient.

Reference numeral 17 is a system monitor unit having a function of monitoring the control state of the entire terminal adapter TA. The system monitor unit 17 is provided with a self-diagnosis unit 18 for checking the operating state of each unit immediately after the power of the terminal adapter TA is turned on, and the data indicating the malfunction state obtained by the self-diagnosis unit 18 is provided. , And data indicating an abnormal state regarding the information for control obtained by the subsequent monitor,
The status data DA required for maintenance from 7 is output and sent to the alarm transmitter 19 and the data accumulator 20. The state data DA also includes data indicating a state in which the CPU, memory, etc. in the terminal adapter TA have exceeded a predetermined load state.

When predetermined data is generated in the PAD section 11 as data indicating a malfunction of the PAD section 11 during its operation, this data is used as a status data DB necessary for maintenance. A status check function for sending from the PAD unit 11 to the alarm transmission unit 19 and the data storage unit 20 is provided.

The ISDN module 12 is also provided with a similar check function. The ISDN module 12 outputs status data DC of the same purpose necessary for maintenance, and the alarm transmission section 19 and the data storage section 20. Sent to.

The state data DB includes various state data indicating a violation of a communication procedure with the terminal 3 and data indicating various states when a communication path cannot be established with the terminal 3. On the other hand, the state data DC is data indicating various states indicating a violation of a communication procedure with the public packet network 2, data indicating various states in which a communication path cannot be established with the public packet network 2, and a configuration. It includes data indicating a fault condition due to an error in the application and data indicating a fault condition related to security such as an incorrect connection state.

The ISDN module 12 is provided with a counter 21 for counting the number of times a packet is resent and a resend request is made.
The content of the counter 21 is read in response to the read request command RC output from the system monitor unit 17 at constant time intervals, and this data is output as state data DC. The number of retransmissions and retransmission requests is related to the quality condition of the line at that time, and the number of retransmissions and retransmission requests increases as the line quality decreases. Therefore, the contents of the counter 21 indicate the quality of the line at that time.

The data storage section 20 stores status data DA, D.
A selection unit 22 for selecting only data relating to a predetermined item by selection data SD input from the keyboard 16 out of a large number of data input as B and DC is selected by the selection unit 22. Only the generated data AD is given to the memory unit 23. The data storage unit 20 is provided with a clock unit 24 that outputs time data TD indicating the time at that time, and the data AD input to the memory unit 23 is sequentially stored together with the time data TD indicating the generation time. ..

As described above, the data required for the maintenance of the terminal adapter TA is appropriately selected according to the selection data SD, and the memory unit 2 together with the time data TD.
3 is stored each time it occurs, and when a failure occurs, the data stored in the memory section 23 is sent to the network control center 5 via the monitor section 15 according to a command from the network control center 5. Is configured to be able to.

In this terminal adapter TA,
As described above, even if data indicating a defective operating state is obtained, it is necessary to store the data in the data storage unit 20 together with the time data TD instead of immediately sending the data to the network control center 5. In this case, the packet communication is sent only to the network control center 5 only in a case where the public packet network is not wastefully used for maintenance, the charge for the public packet network can be minimized, and the packet communication is extremely economical. The system can be configured.

The alarm transmission unit 19 has a state data DA,
Of various data indicated by DB and DC, it is determined whether or not status data that has been predetermined as a highly urgent one that requires notification to the network control center 5 has occurred as soon as possible. Therefore, it is constantly checked whether or not various input data are predetermined status data requiring an emergency call, and the alarm data packet AL is transmitted when the predetermined status data is input to the alarm transmission unit 19. It is configured to do.

The alarm data packet AL has an ISDN
An alarm that is sent to the network control center 5 via the module 12 and that at least one of one or more predetermined status data has occurred, that is, an alarm that requires immediate assistance from the network control center 5. The network control center 5 is notified that a condition has occurred.

When this alarm state occurs, a monitor command packet is sent from the network control center 5 and the monitor section 15 is sent via the ISDN module 12.
Receives this monitor command packet. The monitor command packet includes necessary command data for checking the content of the memory of each part of the terminal adapter TA. Depending on the command content of the monitor command packet, the monitor command packet may be stored in the memory unit 23 or the PAD unit 11, for example. R in
The contents of a required memory among the AM 25, the RAM 26 in the system monitor unit 17, the RAM 27 in the loading unit 14, and the RAM 28 in the ISDN module 12 are searched, and the search result is sent to the network control center 5. At the network control center 5, the cause of the alarm state is investigated by analyzing the retrieved data,
Necessary measures will be taken.

In this way, if any failure occurs in the terminal adapter TA, the operating state of the terminal adapter TA can be checked from the network control center 5 in order to cope with this failure, so that the failure can be quickly recovered. It can be done easily.

[0028]

According to the present invention, when a defect occurs in the terminal adapter, the state data indicating the state of the defect is accumulated in an appropriate storage medium in association with the time data. In the case of a failure, the state data is not transmitted, but a part or all of the accumulated state data can be transmitted only in a specific case such as by an instruction from the control center. Therefore, it is possible to minimize the use of the public packet network for maintenance and inspection, and it is possible to obtain an economical advantage that the charge due to the use of the public packet network can be remarkably suppressed as compared with the conventional case. ..

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a terminal adapter according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a packet communication system in which the terminal adapter shown in FIG. 1 is used.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 packet switching network 2 public packet network 3 non-packet mode terminal 5 network control center 11 packet assembly / disassembly (PAD) unit 12 ISDN module 20 data storage unit DA, DB, DC status data TA terminal adapter TD time data

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A packet communication terminal adapter having a packet assembling / disassembling means, wherein predetermined status data necessary for maintenance obtained during operation of the terminal adapter is generated, and time of occurrence at which the status data is obtained. A terminal adapter for packet communication, comprising: a data storage means for storing the time data in association with the time data.