JPH07203029A - Fault monitor system for switchboard - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the burden of a worker by providing a storage part, a fault detecting part and a time deciding part and by disusing the faulty terminal circuit when the occurrence of a fault is decided at a point in time between the start time and the final time of the end of the business hours. CONSTITUTION:When a fault detecting part 5 detects a circuit fault of a terminal 1, a deciding part 6 decides whether the fault occurred at a point in time between the start time and the final time of the end of the business hours stored in a 1st storage part 4. When decided so, it is supposed that a power supply is turned off according to the end of business of the terminal 1. Thus a test, etc., followed by occurrence of the fault are not carried out. When not decided so, the fault of the terminal, the disconnection of a circuit, the fault of a circuit storing part 2 and the fault of a MEDEM 7 are supposed. These supposed faults are notified a loop test part 9 for execution of a loop test. The part 9 extracts a return point for the terminal 1 and transmits the prescribed signals to the part 2 and the means 7. Then the part 9 roughly specifies the fault part based on reception or non-reception of answers of the part 2 and the means 7 respectively.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fault monitoring system in an exchange. In a network configured by further connecting electronic exchanges accommodating a plurality of terminals by lines, it is generally a terminal line (a line connecting terminals and an exchange, and a line of a modem or an exchange interposed between them). The failure monitoring method is used to detect a failure in the housing (including the housing section) by downing the signal line. In a network accommodating a large number of terminals, terminal line failures frequently occur, so it is necessary to take care not to overload the exchange or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a switching system automatically detects the occurrence of a failure in a line or a modem connecting a terminal and the switching system by monitoring the state of a predetermined signal line. When an error occurs, it is displayed on the maintenance console of its own or is notified to the network management device of the network (device that manages and maintains the occurrence of failures in the entire network). Then, in the maintenance console or the network management device, the maintenance person carries out a test for identifying the faulty part and a work such as restoration thereof.

A loop test is known as a test in such a case. In the loop test, a predetermined signal is transmitted to the line accommodation unit of the exchange or the modem interposed between the exchange and the terminal, and the line accommodation unit or modem that receives the signal returns the signal as it is, or the signal is transmitted. In this test, the line accommodating unit and the modem send back a predetermined response signal, and the rough position of the fault location is estimated based on the presence or absence of the reply.

Conventionally, the loop test is conventionally performed manually by a maintenance person by designating a return point (identification of a line accommodation section or a modem which is a signal destination of the loop test). is there.

[0005]

By the way, in general, the network itself is operated for 24 hours, whereas the terminal is often turned off at the end of business (sales) and the operation is terminated. When the power is turned off,
The terminal line becomes a signal line down, and this is detected as a failure by the exchange, and is notified to the maintenance console or the network management device.

Therefore, in a large-scale network, the number of terminals is in the range of several thousand to tens of thousands. Therefore, when the power is turned off all together at the end of business, the switching equipment and the network management equipment are overloaded, and the usual There is a problem that the exchange operation may not be possible.

Further, since the work such as the loop test after the fault is detected is a manual work, it takes a long time to specify the fault location and the fault cause when the faults are concentrated as described above. However, there is a problem that it takes a long time to restore and the burden on the maintenance person is heavy.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to prevent an overload even when the power of a terminal is intensively turned off. It is to be able to perform normal exchange operation without any trouble. Another object of the present invention is to reduce the work load on the maintenance person when a failure occurs.

[0009]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle configuration of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a terminal, and 3 is a line accommodation unit 2 to which the terminal 1 is connected via a line.
Is an exchange having a. The exchange 3 includes a first storage unit 4 in which a business end start time and a business end end time are stored in advance, a failure detection unit 5 that detects whether or not a terminal line failure has occurred, and a failure occurrence time is the first storage unit. The determination unit 6 that determines whether the time is from the business end start time to the business end end time of 4 and the line of the terminal 1 corresponding to the identification of the terminal 1 (subscriber number, line accommodation position number, etc.). When the modem unit 7 is interposed between the accommodation unit 2 and the terminal 1 and the line accommodation unit 2, the second storage unit 8 in which the return point indicating the identification of the modem unit 7 is preset, and the second storage unit. A loop test section 9 for sequentially performing a loop test in accordance with the turning points 8 is provided.

When the judgment unit 6 judges that the failure occurrence time is within the business end start time and the business end last time, the terminal line failure is discarded and the failure occurrence time is the business end start time and the business end. When it is determined that it is not within the final time, the terminal 1 in which the failure is detected in the second storage unit 8
For each turn-back point, a loop test is performed.

Note that the business end start time and the business end time are the start time and the end time of a time zone in which the power of the terminal is likely to be turned off due to the business end, and are constituted by this exchange. It is determined in advance according to the nature of the user of the network. Generally, it is estimated to be around 17:00 to 18:00.

[0012]

When the fault detecting unit 5 detects a fault in the terminal line of the terminal 1, the determining unit 6 determines that the fault occurrence time is within the business closing end time from the business closing start time of the first storage unit 4. It is determined whether or not there is, and if it is within the time, it is estimated that the power supply is turned off due to the end of business of the terminal 1, and the terminal line fault is discarded. That is, in this case, no work such as a test associated with the occurrence of a failure is performed.

If the time is not within the time, the terminal is out of order,
It is presumed that the line is disconnected, the line accommodating unit 2 is out of order, or the modem unit 7 is out of order, and the loop test unit 9 is notified to perform a loop test.

The loop test section 9 extracts a loopback point for the terminal 1 from the second storage section 8, sends a predetermined signal to the line accommodation section 2 and the modem means 7, and returns the signal or the signal. The failure location is roughly specified based on the presence or absence of a response to. That is, when the loop test fails (when there is no signal return, etc.), the failed return point is regarded as a failure point, and when all the loop tests are normally completed (when there is a signal return etc.), The terminal 1 is regarded as a failure and the information is attached to the maintenance console or the network management device to notify the terminal failure or the terminal line failure.

According to the present invention, a time period in which the probability that the power of the terminal is turned off is relatively high is determined in advance, and if a fault is detected within this time period, it is not treated as a fault. Since it is set to 0,
Even if it is set to FF, the exchange and the network management device are less likely to be overloaded, and the normal exchange operation and the like can be performed without any trouble.

Further, the loop test can be automatically performed, and information specifying the failure point to some extent can be sent to the maintenance control unit or the network management apparatus, and the work load on the maintenance person can be greatly reduced.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the packet switching network of the embodiment of the present invention. This packet-switched network consists of a single switch or a plurality of switches connected to each other by lines.
It is composed of a plurality of hosts (computers) 12, a plurality of terminals 13, and a network management device 14 which are connected to the exchange through lines.

There are various forms of connection between the exchange and the terminal, such as the form shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3A, the exchange 11 that constitutes the packet switching network has a line accommodation unit 15, and the terminal 13 is connected to the line accommodation unit 15 via a line. . Further, as shown in FIG. 2B, the exchange 11 has a modem 16 in addition to the line accommodating section 15, and the terminal 13 uses this modem 16 via another modem (remote modem) 17. Are connected by a line. Further, as shown in FIG.
The line 3 is connected to the line accommodation unit 15 of the exchange 11 via a plurality of modems (a local modem 18 and a remote modem 17). Note that these are examples,
There are various other connection forms.

FIG. 4A is a diagram showing the structure of the time data stored in the first storage unit 4 of FIG. As shown in the figure, this data consists of the business end start time and the business end time, and the start time and the end time of the time zone when the power of the terminal is likely to be turned off due to the business end. And is determined in advance according to the nature of the user of the network configured by this exchange. In this example, it is set to 17:00 to 18:00.

FIG. 4B is a diagram showing the structure of the return point data stored in the second storage section 8 of FIG. This data corresponds to the subscriber number of the terminal 13 and the line accommodating section 15 for the terminal 13 and the modems 16, 17, 18 and the like between the terminal 13 and the line accommodating section 15 are used for the modem. The turn-back point indicating identification is preset data. In this example, the return point is set corresponding to the subscriber number, but it may be a number or code that can identify the terminal such as a line accommodation position number of the terminal.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are flowcharts showing the processing by the exchange 11, and FIGS. 7 to 11 show the exchange 11.
It is the figure which showed the process by. First, the outline of the configuration of the exchange 11 will be described with reference to FIG. 7. In addition to the line accommodation unit 15, the exchange 11 includes an input / output processing unit 21,
A command processing unit 22, a message processing unit 23, a device status management unit 24, and a storage device 25 are provided. The device state management unit 24 realizes the functions of the failure detection unit 5, the determination unit 6, and the loop test unit 9 in FIG. In the storage device 25,
The time data 26 shown in FIG. 4A and the turnback point data 27 shown in FIG. 4B are registered. Also,
The exchange 11 is provided with a maintenance console 28 for displaying a message from the exchange 11 or for a maintenance person to make a predetermined input. In addition, in the line accommodation unit 15,
As described above, the terminal 13 is connected via the plurality of modems 17 and 18 and the line.

An input process of various data will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 5A, when the maintenance person inputs the business end start time and the business end end time from the maintenance console 28 (ST1), it is stored via the input / output processing unit 21 and the command processing unit 22. The time data 26 is registered in the device 25 (ST2).

Further, as shown in FIG. 5 (b),
When the maintenance person inputs the subscriber number of the target terminal 13 from the maintenance console 28 (ST1) and specifies the necessary number of loopback points (ST2, 3), the input / output processing unit 2
These are registered as the return point data 27 in the storage device 25 via 1 and the command processing unit 22 (ST4). It should be noted that these operations and processes are performed in advance.

Next, the processing performed by the exchange 11 when a failure occurs will be described. First, as shown in FIGS. 6A and 8, when a failure or the like occurs in the terminal 13 or the terminal line and a predetermined signal line of the terminal 13 goes down, the device state management unit 24 causes the storage device 25 to store data. The time data 26 is extracted, and it is determined whether or not the time when the failure occurrence is detected is within the business end end time from the business end start time of the time data 26 (ST1). The terminal line failure is discarded (ignored) (ST2). If it is not within the time, the loop test shown in FIG. 6B is performed (ST
3).

In the loop test, as shown in FIGS. 6 (b) and 9, first, it is judged whether all the loop tests are completed (ST1), and if not completed,
The loopback point data 27 in the storage device 25 is searched for the subscriber number of the terminal in which the fault has occurred, the loopback point is extracted, and a loop test is performed on the loopback point (ST2). Note that normally, the first turnaround point is the line accommodation unit 15.

Then, it is judged whether or not the loop test for the folding point is normally completed (ST3),
When the process is not completed normally, that is, when the transmitted signal is not returned or there is no response, information on the failed return point is sent to the message processing unit 23 as shown in FIG. It is attached and notified that the terminal line is in trouble (ST4). The message processing unit 23 notifies the network management apparatus 14 via the input / output processing unit 21 of the cause of the failure in the terminal line failure message (for example,
In this example, the remote modem 17 attaches and transmits the cause of failure.

In ST3, if the process is normally completed, the process returns to ST1 to sequentially execute the loop test for other folding points of the folding point data (ST1,
2, 3). In ST1, when it is determined that the loop test for all the turning points is completed,
As shown in FIG. 11, the message processing unit 23 is notified that the terminal has a failure (ST5). The message processing unit 23 sends a terminal failure message to the network management device 14 via the input / output processing unit 21.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the down of the signal line for the terminal 13 is detected, whether or not the failure occurrence time is within the business end final time from the business end start time of the time data 26. If it is within the time, the power is turned off when the terminal 13 is closed.
It is presumed that the terminal line failure is discarded. That is, in this case, no work such as a test for failure occurrence is performed.

Therefore, by predetermining a time period in which the probability that the power of the terminal 13 is turned off is relatively high and registering this in the storage device 25 as the time data 26, the power of the terminal is concentrated. Even when it is turned off, the exchange 11 and the network management device 14 are less likely to be overloaded, and normal exchange operation and the like can be performed without any trouble.

The fault occurrence time is the time data 26.
If it is not within the end time of business end from the business end start time of, the loop test is automatically performed to the corresponding return point of the return point data 27, and the terminal line failure message (the cause of failure is attached) A terminal failure message is sent to the network management device 14. Therefore, the maintenance person does not need to carry out a test or the like for identifying the faulty part as the work involved in the occurrence of the trouble, or the work can be performed more efficiently, and the work load on the maintenance person is greatly increased. Can be reduced.

[0031]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, even when the power source of the terminal is intensively turned off, the overload is less likely to occur and the normal exchange operation can be performed without any trouble. It has the effect that Further, there is an effect that it is possible to significantly reduce the work load on the maintenance person when a failure occurs.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a principle configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a form of connection between an exchange and terminals according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing configurations of time data and turnaround point data according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process at the time of data input according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a process when a failure occurs according to the embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram schematically showing a process of inputting data according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram schematically showing a process when a failure occurs according to the embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram schematically showing processing during a loop test according to an example of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically showing the processing when the loop test ends abnormally according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram schematically showing the processing when the loop test ends normally in the example of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 terminal 2 line accommodation unit 3 exchange 4 first storage unit 5 failure detection unit 6 determination unit 7 modem means 8 second storage unit 9 loop test unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An exchange (3) comprising a line accommodation section (2) in which a plurality of terminals (1) are connected via a line, in which a business end start time and a business end end time are stored in advance. Storage unit (4) and failure detection unit (5) that detects the occurrence of terminal line failure
And a judgment unit (6) for judging whether or not the failure occurrence time is within the business closing end time from the business closing start time of the first storage unit, and the failure occurrence time is from the business closing start time to the business closing time. A fault monitoring system characterized in that if it is determined that the time is within the final time, the fault on the terminal line is discarded. 2. A failure detection unit (5) for detecting the occurrence of a terminal line failure in an exchange (3) having a line accommodation unit (2) in which a plurality of terminals (1) are connected via a line.
Corresponding to the identification of the terminal, a line accommodating portion for the terminal and a return point indicating the identification of the modem means when the modem means (7) is interposed between the terminal and the line accommodating portion. A preset second storage unit (8) and a loop test unit (9) for sequentially performing a loop test in accordance with the loopback points of the second storage unit. A fault monitoring method characterized by extracting a loopback point for a terminal in which a fault has been detected and performing a loop test at each loopback point. 3. A switching system (3) comprising a line accommodating section (2) in which a plurality of terminals (1) are connected via a line, wherein a first business end time and a last business end time are stored in advance. Storage unit (4) and failure detection unit (5) that detects the occurrence of terminal line failure
And a judgment unit (6) for judging whether or not the failure occurrence time is within the business closing end time from the business closing start time of the first storage unit.
Corresponding to the identification of the terminal, a line accommodating portion for the terminal and a return point indicating the identification of the modem means when the modem means (7) is interposed between the terminal and the line accommodating portion. Is equipped with a preset second storage unit (8) and a loop test unit (9) that sequentially performs a loop test according to the return point of the second storage unit, and the failure occurrence time is from the business end start time to the business end If it is determined to be within the final time, the terminal line fault is discarded, and if it is determined that the fault occurrence time is not within the business end final time from the business end start time, the fault in the second storage unit is discarded. The fault monitoring method is characterized in that a loopback point is extracted for a terminal in which is detected and a loop test is performed for each loopback point.