JPH06141036A - Fault managing system for ring type lan of plural waves - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To quickly perform backup processing for a ring in which a fault occurs by making the ring other than a faulty ring transmit/receive data when the faulty ring is detected. CONSTITUTION:A master station 3 transmits a monitoring frame to each station via the rings 1-4 periodically, and notifies the faulty ring, when it is detected, to a centralized managing computer 1. The computer 1 sets a new operation mode to make another ring perform the processing of the faulty ring in a packet, and transmits it to a station via the master station 3. The station. when receiving the packet in which the new operation mode is set, transmits the packet to the master station 3 via the ring instructed by the operation mode. Therefore, the backup processing can be quickly performed, and the throughput of a system can be prevented from being lowered.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a station connected to a LAN and a fault management system of a multi-wave ring LAN for managing faults of the ring by connecting the stations to a plurality of rings. More particularly, the present invention relates to a fault management system for a multiple-wave ring LAN that can quickly perform backup processing for a ring in which a fault has occurred and prevent a reduction in the data transmission processing capability of the system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, there are various types of local area networks (hereinafter referred to as LANs) depending on the number of computers and terminals.

Among the above-mentioned LANs, computers and terminals which connect each station (node) in a ring shape by a transmission line serving as a trunk line and are connected to the stations have a ring type capable of communicating between arbitrary stations. Conventionally, this ring type is a single ring type, and in recent years, a ring type LAN based on a plurality of waves has been developed in which rings are connected in a double or triple ring between stations. In this multi-wave ring LAN, each ring has a specific bit pattern of an Ethernet address, for example, ring 1 when the value indicated by arbitrary 2 bits is "00", ring 2 when "01",
In the case of "10", Ethernet packets are distributed and transmitted via the ring 3 and in the case of "11" via the ring 4.

[0004]

However, the ring-type LAN based on a plurality of waves discards the packet transmitted to the ring 1 when a failure occurs in any one of the plurality of rings, for example, ring 1. However, there is a problem that the data of the packet is not transmitted and the processing capability of data transmission of the ring LAN of a plurality of waves is deteriorated.

The present invention has been made in view of such a conventional problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a system in which a failure of a ring is surely detected and the backup processing of the ring in which the failure is detected is promptly performed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a fault management system for a ring-type LAN having a plurality of waves, which prevents a reduction in data transmission processing capability.

[0006]

To achieve the above object, a first invention according to claim 1 is to connect a station connected to a LAN and a plurality of rings between the stations to the ring. In a fault management system for a multi-wave ring LAN that manages faults of the above, a supervisory frame is transmitted to the station, and when there is no response from the station, it is detected that the fault of the ring has occurred, and for each of the plurality of rings. A failure detection unit that determines that a ring with a small number of normally operating boards in a connected station has failed, and data transmitted and received through the ring that has been determined to be a failure by this failure detection unit. It is a gist to provide a backup means for transmitting and receiving the data to and from a ring other than the ring determined to be the failure.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a station connected to a LAN and a failure of a multi-wave ring LAN that manages failures of the ring by connecting the stations to a plurality of rings. In the management system, a supervisory frame is transmitted to the station, and when there is no response from the station, it is detected that a failure has occurred in the ring, and the stations connected to each of the plurality of rings are operating normally. Failure detection means that determines that a ring with a small number of boards has failed, and transmission of the master clock that is sent to the ring that has been determined to be a failure by this failure detection means is stopped to notify the communication disconnection of the ring. The gist is that it is provided with a synchronization disconnection notification means.

[0008]

With the above-mentioned structure, the first aspect of the present invention
According to the invention, the monitoring frame is transmitted to the station connected to the LAN a certain number of times, and when there is no response from the station, it is detected that the ring has failed. When it is detected that a failure has occurred, the failure detection means determines that a failure has occurred in a ring with a small number of normally operating boards in the stations connected to each of the plurality of rings. When the failure ring is detected, the backup means instructs each station the operation mode in which the data transmitted / received via the ring determined to be the failure is transmitted / received to / from the ring other than the ring determined to be the failure. The backup process of the failed ring can be speeded up.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the fault detecting means transmits a supervisory frame to a station connected to the LAN, and when there is no response from the station, it is detected that the ring has a fault. Then, it is determined that a failure has occurred in the ring with a small number of boards operating normally in the station connected to each of the plurality of rings. When a faulty ring is detected, the master clock transmission to the ring judged to be faulty by the sync loss notification means is stopped and the synchronization loss of the communication of the ring is notified, so that the faulty ring can be stopped quickly. You can

[0010]

DETAILED 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 showing the configuration of an embodiment of a fault management system for a multi-wave ring LAN according to the present invention.

In the fault management system for a ring LAN having a plurality of waves, the master station 3 is connected to the centralized management computer 1, and the master station 3, the station 11 and the station 19 are connected from the ring 1 to the ring n.
Is connected in a ring shape.

The centralized management computer 1 detects a failure of the ring 1 to ring n by the notification from the master station 3 and centrally manages the communication status of the ring 1 to ring n. In addition, the central management computer 1
Is for monitoring the execution of a backup process that causes another ring to process the process of the failed ring and the operation of each station.

The master station 3 includes a basic control unit 5 and a bus control unit 7, recognizes a command from the centralized management computer 1, and notifies each station connected to the rings 1 to n of the command. Also, master station 1
Controls output or stop of the master clock of the bit pattern required to establish communication synchronization for each ring. Further, the master station 3 is the station 1
When a monitor frame is transmitted to the stations 1 and 19 and a response is received from the stations 11 and 19, it is determined that the ring connected to the station is normal, and if the response is not received, the ring is connected to the station. Judge that the ring has failed. The basic control unit 5 includes firmware (FW), manages communication on the rings 1 to n, and detects a failure on the rings 1 to n. The bus control unit 7 is an interface between a ring LAN and a bus LAN described later. Data is transmitted and received between the bus control unit 7 and the basic control unit 5 by an internal bus 9.

The station 11 is provided with a basic control unit 13a and a bus control unit 15a, and transmits data received from the ring 1 through the ring n to workstations 19 and 21 connected to a bus LAN described later. The data from the workstation 19 or the like is transmitted to the ring 1 or the like. The basic control unit 13a includes firmware (FW) and controls communication on the ring, failure management, and the like. The bus control unit 15a includes rings 1 to 1
It is an interface between the ring n and the workstation 21 or the like connected to the bus LAN. The station 11 is connected to a bus type LAN and is connected to the bus type L.
It is connected to the workstations 21 and 23 connected to the AN. Workstation 21,23
Transmits and receives data via the bus LAN. Further, the station 11 includes a board connected for each ring and controls transmission / reception of ring data.

Like the station 11, the station 19 is provided with a basic control unit 13b and a bus control unit 15b, and controls communication between the rings 1 to n and the bus-type LAN and fault management of the ring. The station 19 is connected to a workstation (not shown) via a bus LAN. Further, the station 19 includes a board connected for each ring and controls transmission / reception of ring data.

A schematic diagram of the fault management system for the plurality of ring LANs is shown in FIG. Of the rings 1 to n connected between the stations, if a failure occurs in the ring 1 shown by the dotted line in the figure, the central control computer 1
A backup process is performed in which the ring 2 is in charge of transmitting and receiving the data of the ring 1.

The backup process will be described with reference to FIG.

First, in the case of detecting a failure in the ring, the master station 3 transmits a supervisory frame to the stations 1 to 4 periodically (depending on the system). If the monitoring frame is transmitted a fixed number of times, for example, about three times, and there is no response from the station 1, of the stations 1 to 4, for example, the master station 3
The basic control unit 5 checks the board provided in each station. The basic control unit 5 checks the board that is operating normally among the boards connected to the ring of each station in a one-to-one relationship. The basic control unit 5 determines that the ring with the smallest number of normally operating boards is the ring in which the failure has occurred, in this case, ring 1, and notifies the central management computer 11 of this. Upon receiving the notification of the failure of the ring 1, the central management computer 1 executes the processing of the ring 1 to the ring 2
In order to take charge of the master station 3, the logical sum “0011” of the operation patterns “0001” and “0010” of the ring 1 and the ring 2 in Table 27 is set as a new operation mode in a packet and transmitted to the master station 3, After being recognized by station 3, it is transmitted to station 11 via ring 2. Upon receiving the packet in which the new operation mode is set, the station 11 receives the bus LAN
When a packet is received from the workstation connected to the master station and the operation pattern set in the packet is "0001" indicating the ring 1, the packet is transmitted to the master station 3 via the ring 2.

The means for detecting the failure of the ring 1 and prohibiting the use of the ring 1 may be software or hardware, but any means may be used.

When the ring 1 is restored after the failure of the ring 1 is detected, the centralized management computer 1 recognizes that the ring 1 is restored by the operation of the operator. After that, the central control computer 1 sets the new operation mode to "0001" in the packet and notifies the master station 3 of it. The master station 3 recognizes the return of the ring 1 and transmits the transmitted packet to the station 11. Upon reception of the packet, the station 11 transmits the packet via the ring 1 when indicating the operation mode of the packet from the workstation of the bus LAN or the like.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, after the system is activated, the centralized management computer 1 commands the master station 3 to monitor the ring in order to execute the subroutine shown in FIG. 5 for monitoring each ring. The master station 3 transmits a monitor frame to each station, and when receiving a response from each station, determines that the ring connected to the station is operating normally. On the other hand, if there is no response from the station, the process proceeds to step 106 (steps 100 to 104). When the process proceeds to step 106, the master station 3 determines that a ring failure has occurred when the number of transmissions of the supervisory frame exceeds a certain number of times, and returns. On the other hand, step 1
When the responses are received from the stations at 04 and further the responses are received from all the stations, it is judged that all the rings are operating normally and the process returns (steps 106 to 110).

Upon receipt of the ring failure notification from the master station 3, the central control computer 1 checks the normally operating boards in each station for each ring, and when all the rings are checked, the central control computer 1 makes a step. Proceed to 160 (steps 120-150).

At step 160, the centralized management computer 1 judges that a ring with a small number of boards operating normally, for example, the ring 1 has failed. When it is determined that the failure has occurred in the ring 1, the centralized management computer 1 instructs the master station 3 to stop the data transfer to the ring 1. Master station 3 is ring 1
In order to make the ring 2 take charge of the packet, the operation mode of the ring 1 and the ring 2 is set to "000" in the packet operation mode.
"0011" which is the logical sum of "1" and "0010" is set and transmitted to all stations and step 100
(Steps 160-180).

After the backup processing in which the ring 2 in which the failure has occurred is assigned to the ring 2, each station receives the packet transmitted via the ring 1 and transmits the packet from the ring 2.

As a result, when a failure of the ring 1 is detected, a backup process in which a packet transmitted via the ring 1 is assigned to another ring is promptly performed. It is possible to prevent the discarding of packets and prevent the deterioration of the data transmission / reception processing capability of the system.

Next, a plurality of ring LANs according to the present invention
Another embodiment of the failure management system will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The master station 3 always sends a master clock for each ring in order to maintain communication synchronization. When the ring fault, for example, the fault of the ring 1 is detected in the ring monitoring subroutine of step 100 of FIG. 4 and steps 102 to 110 of FIG. 5, the master station 3 stops the output of the master clock flowing to the ring 1. The master clock is controlled by the firmware of the basic control unit 5 of the master station 3 (step 190). When the output of the master clock is stopped, the basic control units 15a, 15b and the like of each station confirm that the ring 1 is out of synchronization and determine that a failure of the ring 1 has occurred (step 20).
0).

After the output of the master clock is stopped, the master station 3 notifies the centralized management computer 1 to execute the backup process shown in FIG.

As a result, after the failure of the ring is detected,
The master station 3 broadcasts a stop command to all stations and confirms that all stations have stopped. It takes about 20 times per station until the stop command is confirmed after issuing a stop command to all stations.
Since it takes 0 msec, for example, when 64 stations are connected to the ring, it takes about 13 seconds to confirm the stop of all 64 stations. On the other hand, in another embodiment, regardless of the number of stations connected to the ring, the master station 3 takes only about 1 second from the stop of the output of the master clock to the confirmation of the stop of all the stations. Since it is unnecessary, the stop of the failed ring can be stopped at high speed to improve the processing speed of the system.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, a faulty ring is detected and data transmitted / received through the detected ring is transmitted / received to / from a ring other than the faulty ring. Therefore, it is possible to surely detect the failure of the ring and quickly perform the backup processing of the ring in which the failure is detected, and prevent the reduction of the data transmission processing capability of the system.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration according to an embodiment of a multi-wave ring LAN of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a backup process of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Central Management Computer 3 Master Station 5, 13a, 13b Basic Control Unit 7, 15a, 15b Bus Control Unit 11, 19 Stations

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A fault management system for a multi-wave ring LAN, comprising a station connected to a LAN and a plurality of rings connected between the stations to manage faults in the ring. When there is no response from the relevant station, it is detected that the ring has failed, and a failure occurs in the ring with a small number of boards operating normally in the station connected to each of the multiple rings. And a backup means for transmitting / receiving the data transmitted / received via the ring determined to be faulty by the fault detection means to / from the ring other than the ring determined to be faulty. A multi-wave ring LAN fault management system characterized by the following. 2. A fault management system for a multi-wave ring LAN, wherein a station connected to a LAN and a plurality of rings are connected between the stations to manage faults in the ring. When there is no response from the relevant station, it is detected that the ring has failed, and a failure occurs in the ring with a small number of boards operating normally in the station connected to each of the multiple rings. A failure detecting means for judging that the ring has been determined to be a failure, and a synchronization disconnection notifying means for stopping the transmission of the master clock transmitted to the ring determined to be a failure by the failure detecting means and notifying the communication synchronization of the ring. A multi-wave ring LAN fault management system characterized by the following.