JPH06149709A - Network system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To transmit data without depending upon the location of a computer system for a transmission destination process and spoiling the reliability. CONSTITUTION:Plural computer systems 20-50, connected to a communication medium 10 are equipped with communication setting information data bases 23-53 in which process identifiers of processes put in operation on their computer systems and information relating to the processes are stored corresponding to each other, communication function parts 21-51 which decide whether or not receiving computer systems can be specified from communication data obtained from other computer system through the communication medium 10 and including process identifiers indicating reception destination processes, and communication switchers 22-52 which find information relating to the reception destination processes from the communication setting information data bases by using the process identifiers included in the communication data as keys and pass data to the reception destination processes according to the information when the communication function parts 21-51 decide that the computer systems can not be specified.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to communication between processes, and more particularly to a network system composed of a plurality of computer systems connected via any communication medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in communication between processes in a network system in which a plurality of computer systems are connected via an arbitrary communication medium, a process of a data transmitting side is a process of a data receiving side of a specific machine of a network. Must be specified as a process.

If the sending process sends data without being aware of the location of the computer system where the receiving process is located, an error will occur unless the process is actually running on the system. That is, in the conventional network system, the data transmission is performed under the condition that the information about the partner process is known.

[0004]

As described above, in the prior art,
It is necessary for the process side that initiates communication to manage all information regarding processes to be communicated, such as which process is running on which computer system.

If the network system is small,
It is not so difficult for the sender to manage the information,
It is possible to manage all at once. However, as the network system grows in size, it becomes difficult for the sender to manage all the information.

Therefore, if the data can be transmitted without depending on the location of the receiving side process in the computer system, information on the destination side process becomes unnecessary and the processing of the transmitting side process can be reduced. In other words, by transmitting data to processes of all computer systems by broadcast communication, it is not necessary to consider location. However, there is a problem in terms of reliability, such as an error occurring on a computer system in which the receiving process has not started. Therefore, the conventional network system cannot transmit the data without depending on the location of the computer system of the receiving process.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and a communication method in a network system capable of transmitting data without impairing reliability without depending on the location of the computer system of the destination process. Regarding

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a network system having a distributed environment in which a plurality of computer systems are connected via a communication medium, and transmitting / receiving data between processes operating on the computer system. The computer system includes a communication setting information storage unit for storing a process identifier indicating a process operating in the own computer system and information about a process indicated by the process identifier in association with each other, and other information obtained via the communication medium. Discriminating means for discriminating whether or not the computer system which should receive the communication data can be identified from the communication data including a process identifier indicating at least a receiving process for receiving the data from the computer system; Cannot be identified When determined, the communication setting information storage means is searched using the process identifier included in the communication data, and if the corresponding process identifier exists, the reception is performed based on the information about the process corresponding to the process identifier. It is characterized by comprising a communication control means for passing data to the process, and performing data transmission under a situation where the data transmission side process cannot specify which computer system the data reception side process operates on.

[0009]

According to such a configuration, in communication between processes through a network, data can be simultaneously sent to a specific process on a plurality of computers regardless of the location of computer systems on the network.

[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 the network system according to this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of computer systems are connected via a communication medium 10. FIG. 1 shows a state in which four computer systems 20, 30, 40, 50 are connected to the communication medium 10.

The computer system 20 is composed of a communication function unit 21, a communication switcher 22, and a communication setting information database 23, and an application process 24 that operates on it is provided. The application process 24 includes a plurality of processes including the process A25.

The communication function unit 21 is an interface for communicating with (a process of) another computer system via the communication medium 10, and transmits / receives data on the network.

The communication switcher 22 is a process for temporarily receiving the data transmitted via the communication medium 10 when the information regarding the receiving process is not completely given.

The communication setting information database 23 stores a process identifier indicating a process operating in each computer system, a program (process) name corresponding to the process identifier, communication setting data for the process, information about options, and the like. It is stored.

Computer system 30, 40, 50
Also has the same form as the computer system 20. It is assumed that the process B exists in the application processes 34 and 44 of the computer systems 30 and 40. Detailed description of other parts will be omitted.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG. In this embodiment, under the network system environment as shown in FIG.
The procedure for transmitting data to a specific process that does not depend on the location of the computer system will be described by taking the case where the process A operating on the computer system 20 transmits data to the process B operating on the computer systems 30 and 40. . Usually the sending process
Transmission data including an identifier designating a destination computer system and a process is transmitted (steps S1 to S).
3).

In this embodiment, the computer system 20
Cannot identify the location of the destination computer system on which process B runs. in this case,
The process A of the computer system 20 transmits the transmission data to the process B to all the computer systems 30, 40, 50, that is, the transmission data in which only the process identifier is designated (step S1).

The communication function unit 21 determines whether only the process identifier is specified in the transmission data from the process A.
Data is transmitted via the communication medium 10 to the communication switchers of all computer systems (step S4).

That is, like the location, the communication setting of the process B on the destination computer system is unknown to the process A, and therefore the data cannot be directly transmitted to the process B. Therefore, process B is run through a communication switcher that operates with the same communication settings on all computer systems.
Use a route to pass data to. That is, the communication switcher sends data to process B.

At this time, for example, data (on the communication medium 10) having a structure as shown in FIG.
From the communication function unit 21 to another computer system 3
It is sent to 0, 40, 50. This request data is sent out by the broadcast communication that all computer systems receive.

In the data structure shown in FIG. 2, the portion (a) is data used by the communication function unit of the receiving side computer system. This field includes information such as which computer system, which process, communication process, and communication settings are to be transmitted.

When data is transmitted to the communication switchers of all computer systems, the data is transmitted with the setting that the transmission data is "to all computer systems" and the received data is "to the communication switchers". .

The portion of the transmission data (b) shown in FIG. 2 is the data passed to the communication switcher of the receiving computer system. This includes a "process identifier" that specifies the process that transmits the transmission data, "transmission data" that indicates the transmission content, and, if necessary, control information.

The communication function unit of the receiving computer system determines whether the transmission data from the communication medium 10 is addressed to the communication switcher (step S5). When the data is normal transmission data and is addressed to a predetermined process, the communication function unit passes the data to the corresponding process. The process receives the data (step S9). On the other hand, when the communication function unit determines that the received data is addressed to the communication switcher, the data is passed to the communication switcher.

The communication switcher receiving the data is
A process identifier representing a process to be transmitted is extracted from the data. The communication switcher searches the communication setting information database based on the extracted process identifier (step S6).

FIG. 4 shows a record format of data registered in the process communication setting database of each computer system. As shown in FIG. 4, it includes data indicating a process identifier, a communication setting, a program name, and an option.

In this case, the communication switcher searches the communication setting information database based on the process identifier indicating the process B, and obtains the process communication setting data corresponding to the process B.

For example, the computer systems 30, 4
It is assumed that records as shown in FIG. 5 are described in the communication setting database of 0 and 50. Since the process B exists in the computer systems 30 and 40,
Each of the communication setting information databases 33 and 43 contains
Data on process B is registered. No data relating to the process B is registered in the communication setting information database 54 of the computer system 50.

Since the communication switcher 32 of the computer system 30 retrieves the process (process identifier) from the communication setting information database 33 (step S
7), according to the registered contents, the program 3-
Send data to one process. Similarly, the communication switcher 42 of the computer system 40 retrieves the process (process identifier) from the communication setting information database 43 (step S7). Therefore, the program 4-1 of the program 4-1 is set according to the registered content. Send data to the process. In the computer systems 30 and 40,
Process B receives data from computer system 20 (step S9).

On the other hand, in the computer system 50, since the process identifier of the process B is not registered in the communication setting information database 53 (step S7), the data sent via the communication medium 10 is rejected by the communication switcher 52. (Step S8).

In this way, the process A of the computer system 20 on the transmitting side is the communication switchers 32, 42, 52 of the other computer systems 30, 40, 50.
It is not necessary to manage the information on the processes (for example, the processes B and C) on the respective computer systems 30, 40 and 50 if only the information on the processes is known. That is, the sending computer system need only register the process identification name indicating the process of the sending destination in the data and send the data without specifying the receiving computer system. The communication switcher of each receiving computer system searches the communication setting information database using the process identifier as a key, and sends the data to the specific process according to the communication setting according to the process of the transmission destination. Therefore, it is not necessary to manage information about all processes on the transmitting side, and the processing load is reduced. On the receiving side, the processing for received data is executed by the communication switcher, so errors are prevented and reliability is maintained. can do.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, the data transmission side process does not need to have the information as to which computer system the data reception side process is operating, thus reducing the burden on the data transmission side. Can be reduced. In addition, since the receiving side process does not depend on the network location of the computer system in which it operates, the degree of freedom of the network process is increased, and the process arrangement can be changed easily. Furthermore, the ability to transmit data to multiple processes at the same time enables multicast communication.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure from transmission of data to reception of data.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a data structure on a communication medium.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a record format stored in a communication setting information database.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a record described in a communication setting information database of a receiving computer system.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Communication medium, 20, 30, 40, 50 ... Computer system 21, 31, 41, 51 ... Communication function section (discriminating means), 22, 32, 42, 52 ... Communication switcher (communication control means), 23, 33, 43, 53 ... Communication setting information database (communication setting information storage means), 24, 3
4, 44, 54 ... Application process.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Internal reference number FI technical display location H04L 29/10

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A network system having a distributed environment in which a plurality of computer systems are connected via a communication medium, and transmitting and receiving data between processes operating on the computer system, wherein the computer system is its own computer system. At least data from a communication setting information storage unit for storing the process identifier indicating the operating process and the process information indicated by the process identifier in association with each other, and at least data from another computer system obtained via the communication medium. Determining means for determining whether or not the computer system that should receive the communication data can be identified from the communication data including the process identifier indicating the receiving process to be received; and when the determining means determines that the computer system cannot be identified. In the above Communication control that searches the communication setting information storage means using a process identifier included in the received data and passes data to the receiving process based on information about the process corresponding to the process identifier when the corresponding process identifier exists A network system characterized in that the data transmission side process transmits data without having information indicating which computer system the data reception side process is operating on.