JPH08195769A - Line concentrator with network management function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To find out where an equipment having a MAC address is in based on the MAC address by discriminating a port to be a port to which an equip ment is connected when a transmitter source MAC address is coincident with a registered MAC address. CONSTITUTION: A network manager 200 uses a function of TCP/IP and SNMP to send a frame used to request registration of a MAC address to be detected into a detection MAC address MIB with respect to a line concentrator 100 with network management function. A frame transmission reception section 103 receives the frame. A CPU 101 analyzes the frame to discriminate a request from the merger 200 and to register a MAC address to be detected to the detection MAC address MIB. On the other hand, when each port receives a frame, detection sections 1042-1045 acquire the transmission source address and it is informed to the CPU 101. The CPU 101 references the transmission source MAC address and compares it with a content of the address MIB and when they are coincident, an ID number of the port is registered in the port MIB.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a concentrator having a network management function, which is connected to a plurality of networks, and more particularly to a network management which can find where a device having the MAC address is from the MAC address. The present invention relates to a concentrator with a function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Ethernet or IEEE802.
In the type called 10Base-T of LAN (Local Area Network) called 3, a concentrator called a hub is used as a device for connecting a device to the LAN. 10Ba
A hub for se-T is generally a main network (10B
ase-5,10Base-2) and multiple ports for connecting 10Base-T cables. Since the transmission signal input to one port of the hub is repeated to the other port of the hub, the transmission signal input to one port can be received by all the devices connected to the hub. The main role of the hub is to provide a function of joining the device to the network by connecting the device to the hub. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the main network connection port 2 of the hub 1 is connected to the main cable 7, and the 10Base-T cable is connected to the connection port 3.
1 to 3 through 10Base-T cables 51 to 53 to device 4
By connecting 1 to 43, the device can be connected to the network. 6 is a transceiver.

Some hubs have a network management function. That is, TCP / IP (Transmission Control)
l A hub equipped with a communication function called Protocol / Internet Protocol) and a communication function for network management called an agent of SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). As shown in FIG. 3, the hubs 111 and 112 with the network management function are
Information called "Management Information Base" is contained in the hub, and SNMP and TC are sent in response to a request from the network manager 10 having the SNMP server function.
MIB information can be exchanged with the network manager 10 via the P / IP function. 141
~ 145 is a device, 151 ~ 156 are 10Base-T cables,
161 and 162 are transceivers, and 17 is a trunk cable.

[0004]

One of the problems in the management of a network that performs communication based on TCP / IP is the problem of duplication of IP addresses. MAC is used as the address of the device used in the network.
Although there are an address and an IP address, the MAC address is rarely duplicated at the time of use because the manufacturer of the device usually sets a unique address for each device. On the other hand, since the IP address is usually set by the user of the device, there is a high possibility of duplication compared to the MAC address. If the IP address is duplicated.
A device having the duplicate IP address cannot communicate with TCP / IP, and in some cases, communication with the network cannot be performed. Therefore, I
When a P address duplication is found, it is necessary to identify the device as soon as possible and remove the device from the network or change the IP address so that the IP address does not overlap.

Whether or not IP addresses are duplicated is
This can be known by observing a frame on the network and detecting a frame having the same IP address but different MAC address. However, in this case, only the MAC address of the device having the overlapping IP address is known, and it is generally troublesome to determine which device of the network has the overlapping IP address, as shown below. .

That is, (a) In order to check the device having the MAC address from the MAC address, it is necessary to check and manage the MAC address, the device name, the installation place, etc. of the device connected to the network in advance. However, this management work is troublesome. Further, in the case where a person other than the administrator who is performing this management connects the new device to the network and the IP addresses thereof are duplicated, the administrator does not know the information of the device.

(B) When the correspondence between the device connected to the network and the MAC address is not managed as in (a), in order to check the device having the MAC address from the MAC address, the device connected to the network is connected. It is necessary to use a method such as removing the existing devices one by one, which is particularly troublesome when the network scale is large or the number of connected devices is large.

(C) A part of the MAC address contains a code indicating the manufacturer who made the device. However, in an environment where many devices of the same manufacturer are connected in the same network, the MAC address is used. It takes a lot of time to find the equipment you have.

The above problems are the same in the conventional hub having a network management function.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and to provide a concentrator with a network management function which can find out where a device having the MAC address is from the MAC address.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has a plurality of ports connected to a network or a device, and detects which port a device having a certain MAC address is connected to. A concentrator having a network management function for registering the MAC address to be detected, and a transmission source MA for obtaining a transmission source MAC address of a communication frame received at a port.
The C address acquisition means and the port discrimination means for discriminating the port as the connected port of the device when the source MAC address matches the registered MAC address.

The MAC address to be detected is registered in response to a request from the network manager connected to one of the ports, the connected port of the device having the MAC address is discriminated, and the inquiry is made from the network manager. The information on the determined port may be returned to the network manager.

It has TCP / IP and SNMP functions,
The MAC address to be detected and the information on the determined port may be held as an MIB.

A keyboard for inputting the MAC address to be detected and a display for displaying the information on the determined port may be provided.

[0015]

With the above configuration, the MAC address of the device being searched for is registered as the MAC address to be detected,
On the other hand, from the communication frame received by the port to the source MA
Get C address. If the source MAC address matches the registered MAC address, there is a device looking for that port.

When the network manager exists, the MAC address to be detected is registered by the request from the network manager, and the information of the port determined by the inquiry is returned. Therefore, the network manager can know which port of the concentrator with the network management function of the present invention has the device that is being searched for.

In the case of having the functions of TCP / IP and SNMP, the MAC address to be detected and the information of the determined port are held as an MIB so that the SNMP
It becomes easy to exchange such information with the network manager that has the server function of.

By inputting the MAC address to be detected from the keyboard and displaying the information of the determined port on the display, the operator of the concentrator with the network management function of the present invention can connect the device to the connection port of the device having any MAC address. You can know.

[0019]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, a concentrator 100 with a network management function of the present invention has a trunk network connection port 105 and 10Base-T cable connection ports 1061 to 1064, and each port has a trunk network or Devices that connect to the network can be connected. The frame input to the trunk network connection port 105 is the 10Base-T cable connection port 1
It is repeated from 061 to 1064. Similarly, 10Base-T
The frame input to any of the cable connection ports 1061 to 1064 is repeated to the trunk network connection port 105 and other 10Base-T cable connection ports.

Concentrator 100 with network management function
Has a CPU 101, a memory unit 102, and a frame transmitting / receiving unit 103 inside. TCP / I is stored in the memory unit 102.
Program and MIB for realizing P and SNMP functions
Information on the memory unit 10 is stored.
By executing the program in 2 and transmitting / receiving the frame using the frame transmitting / receiving unit 103, TCP / I
Communication by P and SNMP is performed. Among the information related to the MIB stored in the memory unit 102, the MA to be detected.
It holds a MIB in which a C address can be registered (hereinafter, referred to as a detected MAC address MIB) and a position of a port that receives a frame having the MAC address as a transmission source MAC address (for example, it is identified by an ID number of the port). MIB (hereinafter, MAC address detection port MIB
Be described). 10Base-T cable connection port 106 of concentrator 100 with network management function
1 to 1064 are provided with reception MAC address detection units 1041 to 1045 that detect and hold the transmission source MAC address of each received frame.

The memory unit 102 is a registration means for registering the MAC address to be detected, and the reception MAC address detection units 1041 to 1045 are transmission source MACs for acquiring the transmission source MAC addresses of the communication frames received by the ports.
The CPU 101 is an address acquisition unit
It is a port discriminating means for discriminating the port as the connected port of the device when the C address matches the registered MAC address.

In this embodiment, the network manager device 200 capable of communicating with the concentrator 100 with the network management function is a 10Base-T cable connection port 1061.
It is connected to the.

Next, the operation of the embodiment will be described.

The network manager device 200 has a T
Using the CP / IP and SNMP functions, a frame requesting registration of a MAC address to be detected in the detected MAC address MIB is transmitted to the line concentrator 100 with the network management function. This frame is received by the frame transmitting / receiving unit 103. The CPU 101 determines the request from the network manager device 200 by analyzing the received frame, and registers the MAC address to be detected in the detected MAC address MIB.

On the other hand, when a frame is received at each port, the reception MAC address detection units 1041 to 1045
Acquires the source MAC address of the received frame and notifies the CPU 101 via the internal bus 107 that the frame has been received. Upon receiving the reception notification of the frame, the CPU 101 refers to the source MAC address held by the reception MAC address detection unit of the corresponding port and compares it with the content of the detected MAC address MIB. When the source MAC address held by the reception MAC address detection unit matches the content of the detected MAC address MIB, for example, the ID number of that port is registered in the MAC address detection port MIB. In this embodiment, I of each port
As the D number, the ID number of the trunk network connection port 105 is 1, and the 10Base-T cable connection port 1061
The ID numbers of 1064 are set to 2 to 5 in order. Now receive M
When the AC address detection unit 1045 detects the corresponding MAC address, the ID number 5 of the corresponding port is registered in the MAC address detection port MIB.

The network manager device 200 is
Using the CP / IP and SNMP functions, a frame for inquiring about the contents of the MAC address detection port MIB is transmitted to the line concentrator 100 with the network management function.
This frame is received by the frame transmitting / receiving unit 103.
The CPU 101 determines the request from the network manager device 200 by analyzing the received frame, reads the contents of the MAC address detection port MIB, and uses the TCP / IP and SNMP functions to make the network from the frame transmitting / receiving unit 103. Manager device 2
00, a frame including the contents of the MAC address detection port MIB is returned. By analyzing this frame, the network manager device 200 can know which port of the network concentrator 100 with which the device having the MAC address registered in the network concentrator 100 is connected. . The inquiry of the contents of the MAC address detection port MIB from the network manager device 200 to the network management function-equipped concentrator 100 is periodically performed until, for example, a detection result is obtained.

Next, another embodiment will be described.

In the above embodiment, the MAC address detection port MIB of the concentrator with network management function 100 is registered and the MAC address detection port MIB is read from the network manager device 200. The 100 is equipped with an external input / output device, and the input / output device provides MAC
The address detection port MIB may be registered and the MAC address detection port MIB may be read.
A keyboard, a display, an LED, etc. can be considered as the input / output device at that time. For example, if the LED corresponding to each port is equipped and the LED corresponding to the detected port is turned on together with the contents of the MAC address detection port MIB, the device having the MAC address to be detected is connected to which port. It can be displayed in an easy-to-understand manner.

In the above embodiment, 10Base-T is used as the type of port, but this is not
For example, 10Base-5 or 10Base-2 is fine. Also, the number of ports does not have to be as in the embodiment.

Next, an application example of overlapping IP addresses will be described.

When the IP addresses are duplicated, the frame on the network is observed by a known means, and the frames having the same IP address but different source MAC addresses are detected. The MAC address of a device having a duplicate IP address can be known relatively easily.
Knowing where the device with this MAC address is on the actual network is very effective in solving the IP address duplication problem. The concentrator 100 with a network management function of the present invention registers the MAC address of a device having a duplicate IP address, and knows to which port the device having the corresponding MAC address is connected. This is very effective for identifying devices having duplicate IP addresses.

When the concentrator with the network management function of the present invention is used in combination with the network manager, for example, when an IP address is duplicated, the network manager uses the MIB information of the concentrator with the network management function. Then, from the MAC address of the device having the duplicate IP address, it is possible to know which port the device is connected to. Therefore, in the network manager device, for example, if this information is displayed in the network configuration diagram, it is effective to find a device having a duplicate IP address.

If it is assumed that only one device is connected to each port of the concentrator with the network management function, the network manager device should display the position of the device on the network configuration diagram. You can Also, even if multiple devices are connected due to the concentrators being cascade-connected to each port of the concentrator with the network management function, the network manager device indicates the range of the devices on the network configuration diagram. Can be displayed. Furthermore, if a plurality of concentrators with a network management function of the present invention are used on a network, the range on the network configuration diagram can be further narrowed.

Since the concentrator with network management function of the present invention provides the function of knowing the port to which the device having a specific MAC address is connected, TCP / IP
It is effective not only for solving the IP address duplication problem of the network using, but also for solving the network address duplication problem in the network using the same MAC address, for example, the network having the OSI communication protocol.

As described above, by using the concentrator with the network management function of the present invention, it is possible to know to which port of the concentrator the device having the registered MAC address is connected. Therefore, it becomes easy to identify the position where a device having a certain MAC address actually exists on the network, which is very troublesome in the past. Therefore, when the IP addresses are duplicated, the trouble of finding the device is reduced. When the concentrator with the network management function has a configuration in which only one device is connected to each port, the position of the device having the MAC address can be determined, so that the specific M
In order to make it easy to find a device having an AC address, it is preferable to connect one device to each port. If multiple concentrators are connected under the port due to the concentrators being cascaded under each port of the concentrator with network management function, etc., specify the range in which the device exists. Therefore, the trouble of finding the device is reduced. In this case, if a plurality of concentrators with a network management function of the present invention are used on the network, the range can be further narrowed.

[0037]

The present invention exhibits the following excellent effects.

(1) Since the location of the device having the MAC address can be found from the MAC address, the position of the device can be easily specified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a concentrator with a network management function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a network using a concentrator with a network management function.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a network using a concentrator with a network management function and a network manager.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 CPU (port discrimination means) 102 Memory section (registration means) 1041 to 1045 Reception MAC address detection section (source MAC address acquisition means)

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Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A concentrator with a network management function for detecting to which port a device having a certain MAC address is connected, the concentrator having a plurality of ports connected to a network or a device. MAC
Registration means for registering an address, and a transmission source M for obtaining a transmission source MAC address of a communication frame received at a port
A network management function comprising: an AC address acquisition unit; and a port determination unit that determines the port as a connected port of the device when the source MAC address matches the registered MAC address. Concentrator with 2. The MAC to be detected according to a request from a network manager connected to any port.
2. The network according to claim 1, wherein after registering the address and determining the connected port of the device having the MAC address, the information of the determined port is returned to the network manager by an inquiry from the network manager. Concentrator with management function. 3. The network management function according to claim 1, which has TCP / IP and SNMP functions, and holds the MAC address to be detected and the information of the determined port as an MIB. Concentrator. 4. A keyboard for inputting the MAC address to be detected and a display for displaying the information of the determined port.
Concentrator with network management function described.