JPH0629960A - Fault point location method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the reliability of an equipment and to make the maintenance efficient by improving the precision of a fault point location through the addition of simple configuration as only a changeover circuit with respect to the method locating a fault point through the use of a monitor pattern, especially the fault point location method in duplicate equipments. CONSTITUTION:A 0 system transmission section 1 and a 1 system transmission section 2 in the method locating a fault point between the 0 and 1 system transmission sections 1, 2 in duplicate configuration and a reception section are provided respectively with circuits 10, 20 inserting a prescribed monitor pattern to a transmission signal. The reception is provided with a changeover circuit 32 receiving the inserted prescribed monitor pattern selectively from the 0 and 1 systems and a circuit 30 discriminating the prescribed monitor pattern received by each of the 0 and 1 systems and discriminates it to be a fault of the reception section when both the received prescribed monitor patterns of the 0 and 1 systems are in error.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for evaluating a failure point using a monitoring pattern, and more particularly to a method for evaluating a failure point in a duplexer.

The demand for communication lines is increasing more and more, as represented by the popularization of high-speed digital lines. Therefore, higher reliability is required for the line. For this reason, the line is duplicated and a failure point evaluation function is provided.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a method of evaluating a failure point in a conventional duplex transmission device. Transmission line L
1 shows a configuration in which the transmission unit 1 is provided on the transmission line L2, the transmission unit 2 is provided on the transmission line L2, the same data is transmitted, and the reception unit 3 transmits the switching data to any one of the transmission lines to the next stage.

Further, in the example of FIG. 4, the transmitting unit 1 and the transmitting unit 2
Has a function of relaying data from the previous stage. A buffer circuit (not shown) is provided in the transmission unit 1 and the transmission unit 2. That is, it has a function of writing the data from the previous stage to the buffer circuit, and further reading it at a predetermined speed and sending it to the receiving unit 3.

The buffer circuit is composed of a semiconductor device such as a RAM (random access memory). The failure rate of the RAM and the like is higher than that of other parts, and it is necessary to judge the failure.

In the transmitters 1 and 2, insertion circuits 01 and 11 of a predetermined monitoring pattern are provided to evaluate the failure of RAM or the like.
Is provided. The insertion circuits 01 and 11 have a pattern generator for a predetermined monitoring pattern, such as a path pattern / parity check pattern.

A predetermined monitoring pattern from this pattern generator is inserted into an empty area of the RAM in the transmission units 1 and 2, and passes through the transmission circuit to pass through the pattern inspection circuit 02 in the transmission units 1 and 2. Received at 12.

If there is no error in the predetermined monitoring pattern received by the pattern inspection circuits 02 and 12, the buffer circuits of the transmission units 1 and 2 are determined to be normal.
If there is an error, the fact can be recognized by the maintenance person by a display device such as an LED (not shown).

Further, if necessary, an error in the transmitters 1 and 2 is notified via the control bus / monitoring bus, and the receiver 3
Is collected by a processor (not shown) in the transmission unit 1,
It is displayed so that it can be recognized by the maintenance person in the same manner as in 2.

On the other hand, the transmission units 1 and 2 are provided with insertion circuits 03 and 13 for a predetermined monitoring pattern. The insertion circuits 03 and 13 have a circuit for generating and inserting a predetermined monitoring pattern, like the insertion circuits 01 and 11 described above.

The predetermined monitoring patterns inserted by the insertion circuits 03 and 13 are transmitted along with the data on the transmission line L.
1 and L2 to the receiving unit 3. In the receiving unit 3,
Inspection circuits 04 and 14 for the received pattern are provided.

The inspection circuits 04 and 14 determine the received predetermined monitoring pattern. When it is determined that there is an error, the occurrence point of the error is either the transmission circuit of the transmission units 1 and 2, the transmission lines L1 and L2, or the reception circuit of the reception unit 3.

In such a case, according to the conventional failure point evaluation method,
It is difficult to identify the location of the above error. Due to empirical judgment that the failure rate (FIT number) in the transmitters 1 and 2 is large due to the large number of parts and the like, it is determined that the transmitters 1 and 2 have failed.

Reference numeral 31 is a selection switch, which is used for the inspection circuit 0.
If one of the transmission line L1 system (0 system) and the transmission line L2 system (1 system) has a failure based on the determination results of 4 and 14, the system is instantaneously switched from the working system to the standby system.

[0015]

On the other hand, in the case where most of the circuits are implemented as LSIs at present, the probability of failure is considered to be approximately the same on both the transmitting side and the receiving side. However, as described above, in the conventional fault point evaluation method, the transmission side abnormality is simply determined based on the error detection in the inspection circuits 04 and 14 of the reception unit 3.

If there is a cause of failure on the receiving unit 3 side,
On the contrary, in the conventional method, it takes a lot of trouble to recover the failure.
As a result, there is a problem that the service is deteriorated. It is an object of the present invention to provide a failure point evaluation method that solves the problems of the conventional method by simply adding a simple configuration.

[0017]

FIG. 1 shows the principle of the present invention. Reference numerals 1 and 2 are transmitters of the 0-system and 1-system duplexers, respectively. 0 system transmitter 1 and 1 system transmitter 2
Are provided with circuits 10 and 20 for inserting a predetermined monitoring pattern.

The receiving section has a switching circuit 32 for switching the received predetermined monitoring pattern between the 0-system and the 1-system and receiving it. Further, it has a circuit 30 for judging a predetermined monitoring pattern which is received by switching to 0 system and 1 system.

Reference numeral 31 is a line switch, which has a function of switching between the 0-system and the 1-system so that when the working line fails, it can be instantaneously switched to the protection line.

[0020]

The present invention is characterized in that the switching circuit 32 is provided, and the received predetermined monitoring pattern is switched between the 0 system and the 1 system for reception. The predetermined monitoring pattern received by switching is judged by the judging circuit 30.

As a result of the judgment, if both the 0-system and the 1-system are erroneous, it is judged that the receiving section is out of order. Since the probability that the 0-system and 1-system transmitters 1 and 2 are in failure simultaneously is small, it is appropriate to determine that the receiver is in failure as described above. If there is an error in only one of the systems, it is determined that the transmitter of the system is in error as in the conventional method.

[0022]

FIG. 2 shows a first embodiment to which the failure point evaluation method according to the present invention is applied. In the drawings, the same or similar components are denoted by the same reference numerals throughout the principle diagram of FIG. 1 and the explanatory diagram of the conventional device of FIG.

In the embodiment of FIG. 2, the switching circuits 32, 33.
It has a feature in that is added. Two switching circuits 32 and 33 are provided for duplication. Since the functions are exactly the same, the switching circuit 32 and the inspection circuit 0
Only 4 may be provided.

Therefore, the operation of the present invention will be described below by taking only the switching circuit 32. Predetermined monitoring patterns are transmitted from the insertion circuits 03 and 13 of the transmission units 1 and 2 respectively to the transmission line L.
1, insert in L2. The inserted monitoring patterns are sequentially switched by the switching circuit 32 and guided to the inspection circuit 04.

The inspection circuit 04 inspects a predetermined monitoring pattern sent via the transmission line L1 and a predetermined monitoring pattern sent via the transmission line L2. Therefore, there are the following four results of the inspection.

When the switching circuit 32 is switched to the transmission line L1: (1) There is an error in the received predetermined monitoring pattern. (2) The received predetermined monitoring pattern is normal.

When the switching circuit 32 is switched to the transmission line L2: (3) There is an error in the received predetermined monitoring pattern. (4) The received predetermined monitoring pattern is normal.

Here, in the cases of the above (1) and (3), it is determined that the device on the receiving side has a failure. In other cases, namely (1) and (4), (2) and (3)
In the case, it is determined that there is a failure in the transmission side device of the transmission line L1 system in the former case and a failure in the transmission side device of the transmission line L2 system in the latter case.

As described above, in the conventional method, (1)
Even in the cases of (3) and (3), it was determined that there was a failure on the transmitting side. On the other hand, in the present invention, by performing the determination as described above, an accurate failure score can be obtained, the system reliability is improved, and the time until failure recovery can be shortened.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining another application example of the present invention. Specifically, this is an example in which the present invention is applied to the interface package circuit 4 in the transmission line duplication,
This is a circuit that multiplexes the data on the transmission lines L1 and L2 and sends it out.

The transmission line L1 and the transmission line L2 pass through interface packages (IF-P) 41 and 42, respectively, and are duplicated 0-system and 1-system multiplexing circuits (MUX).
Be led to.

Attention is paid to the portions surrounded by broken lines, the interface packages (IF-P) 41 and 42, and the multiplexing circuit (MUX) 43. That is, when compared with the first embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 2, the transmission unit 1 in which the interface package (IF-P) 41 is connected to the transmission line L1 and the transmission line L in the interface package (IF-P) 42 are connected.
It can be assumed that it corresponds to the transmission unit 2 connected to 2.

Furthermore, the multiplexing circuit (MUX) 43 can be assumed to be the receiving unit 3. Therefore, the insertion circuit 03 of the predetermined monitoring pattern is added to the interface package (IF-P) 41 and the interface package (IF-P).
P) 42 is provided with the insertion circuit 13, and the multiplexing circuit (MUX)
By providing the inspection circuit 04 in 43, the failure point evaluation method of the present invention can be applied between the interface packages (IF-P) 41 and 42 and the multiplexing circuit (MUX) 43.

In the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to the duplicated transmission device, but the present invention is not limited to the case where it is applied to such a communication device. The invention can be widely applied according to the technical idea of the present invention even when the failure monitoring is performed in the device having the duplex configuration.

[0035]

According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the accuracy of failure point evaluation by adding a simple configuration including only a switching circuit. As a result, the reliability of the device can be improved and the maintenance work can be made more efficient.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a principle diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows another application example of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows an explanatory view of a conventional device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 0 system transmitter 2 1 system transmitter 10, 01, 03 0 system monitoring pattern insertion circuit 20, 11, 13 1 system monitoring pattern insertion circuit 32, 33 switching circuit 30, 04, 14 monitoring pattern inspection circuit 31 line switching device

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A method for evaluating a failure point between a transmitter (1, 2) and a receiver of a 0-system and 1-system duplexer, comprising a 0-system transmitter (1) and a 1-system transmitter (2). ) Includes circuits (10) and (20) for inserting a predetermined monitoring pattern, respectively, and the receiving unit sets the inserted predetermined monitoring pattern to 0 system and 1 system.
It has a switching circuit (32) for switching and receiving to the system and a circuit (30) for judging a predetermined monitoring pattern received for each of the 0 system and the 1 system, and the received predetermined monitoring pattern is the 0 system. A failure point evaluation method, characterized in that when there is an error in both systems, it is determined that the receiving unit has failed. 2. The transmitting unit (1, 2) according to claim 1.
Is a duplexed transmission line interface package (41, 42), and the receiving unit is a multiplexing circuit (43) for multiplexing the outputs of the interface packages (41, 42). And the failure point evaluation method.