JPH06188885A - Network equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the maintainability of a network equipment by managing a line connection state by a software. CONSTITUTION:The network equipment 4 connectable to the optional one of plural different kinds of transmission lines is provided with interface parts 45 and 46 provided corresponding to the respective plural transmission lines, a selecting means (CPU 41) for selecting one of the interface parts 45 and 46, a judging means (CPU 41) for judging whether or not a falut is present in the selected interface part and a transmission path including the corresponding transmission line and a control means (CPU 41) for making the selecting means select the other interface part in response to a fact that the judging means judges that the falut is present.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network device connected to a network such as Ethernet (registered trademark), and particularly solves the maintenance complexity caused by the network cable having a plurality of forms. Network device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional network device, selection of a cable to be connected to a network is fixed.
When a network device having one cable connection form is selected, by selecting the one cable, a network device equipped with a plurality of cable connection forms (for example, in the case of Ethernet (registered trademark) network, (3 types are thick wire, thin wire, and twisted pair) are selected, a plurality of cables are switched by a switch in the device.

However, when a failure occurs in a cable connected to the network due to some cause and a failure such as a failure in data communication occurs, a network device is replaced, a switch is changed, or a cable is reconnected. It is necessary, and conventional network devices have never been highly maintainable.

This is an ordinary Ethernet (registered trademark)
This will be described below with reference to FIG. 5 showing an example of connection of network devices in the network connection form. The network of FIG. 5 uses three types of Ethernet (registered trademark) cables, a thick wire cable 1, a thin wire cable 2, and a twisted pair cable 3, and the network device 1 uses the thick wire cable 1 and the network device 2 as the network device 2. Connects the thin wire cable 2 to the network device 3
Are connected by selecting the twisted pair cables 3 respectively. Thus, when connecting each network device to the network, it is necessary to select any one of the above-mentioned three types of cables. The line type converter is a network device that performs physical and electrical conversion, and the HUB is a concentrator that also functions as a line type converter.

Therefore, for example, the network device 3 is set to the HU.
When the twisted pair cable 3 connected to B has connection failure or disconnection and normal data communication becomes impossible, the maintenance work such as checking and replacement of the twisted pair cable 3 is artificially performed. There is a need. During the maintenance work, the network device c is unusable,
If the network device 3 is a printer server that controls a shared device called a printer, the entire network will be damaged.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional network device, and has a plurality of transmission lines and can be easily adapted to different forms of network cables. It is an object of the present invention to provide a network device having a function of automatically determining and switching a connection line so that the network device can be connected.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is a network device which can be connected to any one of a plurality of different types of transmission lines. Interface unit provided corresponding to each of the transmission lines, selection means for selecting one of the interface units, and whether there is a fault in the transmission line including the selected interface unit and the transmission line corresponding thereto A network device comprising: a determining unit that determines whether or not there is a fault; and a control unit that causes the selecting unit to select another interface unit in response to the determination that the determining unit has a fault. provide.

[0008]

In the network device according to the present invention,
When an interface section in a network device is duplicated so that it can be connected to a plurality of transmission lines used in a network and a failure occurs in a transmission path including one interface section and a transmission line corresponding to the interface section, the failure occurs. Occurrence is automatically discriminated, and it is automatically switched to another transmission line. This minimizes human maintenance and minimizes network outages.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The configuration and operation when a network device according to the present invention is realized as a printer server will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a network configuration in which a printer server according to the present invention is connected so as to share a printer in an Ethernet network that uses three different cable types, thick wire, thin wire, and twisted pair. It is a figure which shows schematically. In the figure, the printer server 4 is connected to the thin wire cable 2 and the twisted pair cable 3, and is also connected to the printer 5 via an arbitrary connection line. The printer server 4 has a function of automatically determining the state of the line and switching the line based on it.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the electrical configuration of the printer server 4 of FIG. In FIG. 2, the control CPU 41 is the printer server 4
The control unit controls the printer 5 by executing command analysis of received data sent from the LAN controller 44 and operation according to the command. It also builds communication data when sending data to the network. The software storage ROM 42 stores the program code executed by the control CPU 41. The data storage RAM 43 is the control CPU 4
1 stores data necessary for processing and data sent from the LAN controller 44. The LAN controller 44 has a function of converting data to be transmitted and received on the line, and a function of executing an interface with the control CPU 41. Further, the thin wire interface unit 45 and the twisted pair interface unit 46 are interface units provided with two systems for interfacing with a thin wire cable and a twisted pair cable, which are line connection lines of an Ethernet (registered trademark) network, respectively. is there.

Next, the processing procedure when the printer server 4 automatically determines and switches the line status will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

First, the operation when the power of the printer server 4 is turned on will be described. In step 10, when the control CPU 41 constructs data requesting a response,
In step 11, the interface units 45 and 46
One of the prioritized interface units is selected. If, for example, a twisted pair cable is selected, in step 12, the twisted pair cable is selected.
The interface unit 46 requests the LAN controller 44 to transmit the response request data constructed in step 10 toward the network. In response to this, in step 13, the LAN controller 44 transmits the response request data via the twisted pair interface unit 46.

Then, in step 14, it is judged whether or not the response to the response request data is received. If the response is received, there is no obstacle in the data communication in the transmission line including the twisted pair interface section 46 and the twisted pair cable. Then, in step 15, the connection state with the twisted pair cable is initialized.

On the other hand, if no response is received in response to the transmitted response request data in step 14, the same response request data is transmitted a prescribed number of times and the presence or absence of a response is monitored. Whether or not this has been performed a prescribed number of times is monitored in step 16, and if there is no response within the prescribed number of transmission periods, it is determined that there is some trouble in the twisted pair interface unit 46 or the twisted pair cable and step 17 Go to. Control CPU 41 here
Builds the response request data again and selects the thin wire interface unit 45. Next, in step 18, the LAN controller 44 is requested to transmit the response request data, and in step 19, the response request data is transmitted to the network via the thin wire interface unit 45. As a result, when the response is received in step 20, the thin wire interface unit 45
It is determined that there is no fault in the communication on the transmission path including the thin wire cable, and the connection state with the thin wire cable is initialized in step 21. However, if no response is received in step 21, the response request data is transmitted a prescribed number of times, and if there is no response by the time it is determined in step 22 that the prescribed number of transmissions has been completed, error processing is performed in step 23. .

After the power is turned on, the printer server 4 performs data communication via a twisted pair interface section 46 corresponding to an initialized network cable, for example, a twisted pair cable. In such an operation, the control CPU 41 transmits the response request data to the network at a constant cycle by the same procedure as described above, and the twisted pair interface unit 4
6. Monitor the twisted pair cable for failures. If no fault has occurred in this state, the connection state is continued, but if a fault is detected in the transmission line on the twisted pair cable side, the thin wire cable is selected and the thin wire interface unit 45 and When it is confirmed that the transmission line including the thin wire cable has no failure, the connection state with the thin wire cable is set, and the cable switching is completed. However, if it is determined that there is also a failure in the transmission path on the thin wire / cable side, the control CPU 41 determines that there is no means for performing data communication, and requests the printer 5 connected to the printer server 4 to do so. A status message is output and the printer 5 is put into an idle state.

As described above, when the cable connected to the network fails for some reason and the data communication becomes impossible, the replacement of the network device, the change of the switch and the reconnection of the cable are minimized. Therefore, the maintainability of the network device can be significantly improved.

[0018]

As is apparent from the above description of the present invention in detail with reference to an embodiment thereof, the present invention manages the line connection state by software, and always uses a line with no failure for data Because you can communicate,
It is possible to avoid a situation where data communication is disabled, and it is possible to omit artificial repairs and restorations, thereby significantly improving maintainability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a connection example of network devices in an Ethernet network when the network device according to the present invention is realized as a printer server.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing an example of an electrical configuration of the printer server of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an operation procedure of the printer server of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure of the printer server in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a connection example of network devices in a conventional Ethernet network.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Thick wire cable, 2: Thin wire cable, 3: Twisted pair cable, 4: Printer server

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Masaaki Mimura, 3-429-1, Miyahara-cho, Omiya-shi, Saitama Shimizu Building Advance Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Shinichi Kawasaki, 3-429-1, Miyahara-cho, Omiya-shi, Saitama Shimizu Building Advance Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A network device capable of being connected to any one of a plurality of different types of transmission lines, the interface unit being provided corresponding to each of the plurality of transmission lines, Selecting means for selecting one of the interface parts; judging means for judging whether or not there is a failure in the transmission path including the selected interface part and the corresponding transmission line; and the judging means for judging that there is a failure In response to the request, the control unit for causing the selection unit to select another interface unit, the network device.