JPH08279837A - Communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To conceal a network protocol with respect to an application program. CONSTITUTION: When an application program 3a sends data, a network common communication control program 6a conducts network protocol processing realizing the connection to a node 1b in response to a transmission request of the program 3a and sends data to a network 2. A program 6b of the node 1b selects an objective application based on the user class included in the received data and transfers the user data to the program. A common application is in use in a system with a different network by concealing the network protocol.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication system for communicating between nodes connected via a common line network, a packet network, or a UNIX network, for example.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, communication between other nodes using a UNIX network is based on a protocol such as a transmission control protocol (hereinafter referred to as TCP) / internet protocol (hereinafter referred to as IP). Has individually realized the communication interface with the intended other user on the other node. Current,
By introducing UNIX as a switching technology, it becomes possible to use the UNIX network for each application program, and each application program unit realizes each maintenance operation service such as billing processing for the other node, subscriber data management, failure notification, etc. It is now used as an interface with other nodes.

When incorporating such an application program into a communication system utilizing another network such as a common line network or a packet network, it is desirable that the number of man-hours for modifying the program is as small as possible. However, as described above, each application program
When the interface with the network is individually realized, a part related to the network protocol exists inside the application program. Therefore, when the application program is incorporated in another communication system, the part relating to the protocol must be modified to adapt to this network.

[0004]

As described above, in the conventional communication system, when an application program is incorporated in a communication system using another network,
Network for each application program
There was a problem that the modification man-hours of the part related to the protocol occurred. In addition, there is a problem that only a creator who has knowledge about network protocols can modify the program. The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a communication system capable of hiding a network protocol for each application program and easily incorporating the application program. And

[0005]

The communication system of the present invention performs processing of a network protocol in each node for network connection between nodes and communication with an application program of this node. It has a common communication control means for performing, on the transmitting side, the user data from the application program is converted into data conforming to the protocol and transmitted to the network, and on the receiving side, via the network. The user data is extracted from the received data according to the protocol and is passed to the application program.

Further, the common communication control means handles a user type for identifying the type of the application program and performs a protocol process in a layer higher than the network protocol, and the transmitting side adds the user type to the user data. After that, the data is converted into data that conforms to the network protocol, the receiving side extracts the user type from the received data according to the network protocol, and passes the user data to the application program corresponding to this user type. Also, the common communication control means handles a delimiter having a fixed pattern for guaranteeing the normality of the data, performs protocol processing in a layer higher than the network protocol, and at the transmitting side, after adding the delimiter to the user data, The data is converted into data conforming to the network protocol, the receiving side extracts the delimiter from the received data according to the network protocol, and determines whether the user data is normal or not based on this delimiter.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the common communication control means converts the user data from the application program into data conforming to the network protocol on the transmitting side, and the receiving side converts the user data from the received data according to the protocol on the receiving side. By extracting and passing it to the application program, each application program does not need to be aware of the network protocol. Further, the common communication control means adds the user type to the user data on the transmitting side, extracts the user type from the receiving data according to the network protocol on the receiving side, and stores the user data in the application program corresponding to this user type. give. Further, the common communication control means adds a delimiter to the user data on the transmitting side, extracts the delimiter from the received data on the receiving side according to the network protocol, and determines whether the user data is normal based on the delimiter. .

[0008]

1 is a block diagram of a communication system showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing protocol processing in this communication system. In FIG. 1, 1a and 1b are nodes such as computers, 2 is a network such as a common line network, a packet network, or a UNIX network, and 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b, 5a, and 5b are billing processing for a partner node and a subscriber. Maintenance operation system application programs for realizing functions such as data management and failure notification, and 6a and 6b perform network protocol processing for network connection between nodes, and also with the application program of this node. It is a network common communication control program serving as a common communication control means for performing communication.

In FIG. 2, APL is an application layer, APL1 that handles functions related to various maintenance and operation services.
Are application programs 3a, 3b, 4a, 4
Application layer that realizes the functions of b, 5a, 5b,
The APL2 is an application layer that defines a function of adding control information to be described later to the user data passed from the application layer APL1 or extracting user data from data from a transport layer to be described later and passing the user data to the application layer APL1. Is.

Further, TL is a transport layer, NL, which plays a role of realizing reliable communication between nodes by TCP.
Is a network layer for realizing network connection between nodes by IP, and DL is a data link layer for establishing a physical communication path. It should be noted that although there is a physical layer that deals with the regulation regarding the physical medium in the lower layer of the data link layer DL, it is omitted in this embodiment.

Then, the network common communication control programs 6a and 6b perform protocol processing relating to the layers (APL2, TL, NL, DL) below the application layer APL2, and the application programs 3a and 3b.
b, 4a, 4b, 5a and 5b are application layer APs
Only the processing regarding L1 is performed.

Next, the operation of such a communication system will be described. FIG. 3 shows a network common communication control program 6
It is a figure which shows the structure of the internal signal used in a and 6b. Reference numeral 10 is control information created and analyzed by the network common communication control programs 6a and 6b by the function of the application layer APL2, and 11 is user data created and analyzed by each application program.

Further, 12 is 2 called "FEFE", for example.
A delimiter for guaranteeing the normality of data having a fixed pattern of bytes, 13 is a user type for identifying the type of application program such as billing processing such as billing of call charges, subscriber data management, failure notification, etc. , 14
Is a signal type for identifying the purpose (use) of data transmission used individually in each application program, 15 is a data size indicating the size of application data created by each application program,
Reference numeral 16 is application data.

As described above, the network common communication control programs 6a and 6b are the application layer A.
Since the protocol processing for the layers below PL2 is performed, the contents of the user data 11 are not recognized. In the present embodiment, the structure of the user data 11 is defined as shown in FIG. 3, but this is in accordance with the format defined with the other user (application program) on the other node. It does not have to be a structure.

Next, as an operation of this communication system, an operation when data is transmitted from the node 1a to the node 1b will be described. For example, when data is transmitted from the application program 3a, the program 3a
Adds the destination information corresponding to the user type 13 to the created user data 11 and sends it to the network common communication control program 6a.

Network common communication control program 6 which received data from the application program 3a
The a sends this data to the network 2 as follows. FIG. 4 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the network common communication control program 6a.

Network common communication control program 6a
Constantly waits for a data transmission request from the application programs 3a to 5a (step 100).
Then, when data is received from the application programs 3a to 5a, it is recognized that there is a data transmission request, the control information 10 including the delimiter 12 and the user type 13 is added to the head of the received user data 11, and the data shown in FIG. Create data with such a structure (Step 10)
1).

Next, the network common communication control program 6a includes a transport layer TL and a network layer N.
By the function of L and the data link layer DL, this data is converted into a data format that can be transmitted on the network 2 and sent to the network 2 (step 102). That is,
The program 6a uses the data having the structure shown in FIG. 3 as TCP data, adds a TCP header to this head, and further
Data consisting of a header and TCP data is used as IP data, and an IP header is added to the beginning of this data.

Then, by the function of the data link layer DL, for example, a destination address, a source address, etc. are added to the data composed of the IP header and the IP data, and the data is sent to the network 2. At this time, what type of data is created depends on the type of network 2.
The network common communication control program 6a includes
Information of the partner node corresponding to each user type 13 is registered, and the program 6a uses the above-mentioned correspondence relationship and the information of its own node 1a to set the TCP header, IP header, destination address, and source address. And so on.

In this way, the program 6a performs the network protocol processing (TL, NL, DL) for connection with the corresponding node in response to the data transmission request of the application program 3a, and the designated partner node 1
Send data to b.

If the program 6a detects an abnormality during such data transmission (step 10).
3) Immediately, the network interface for the relevant node is reconstructed (step 104). Furthermore, in parallel with waiting for a data transmission request from the application programs 3a to 5a, a signal for confirming the normality of the network (hereinafter referred to as a health check signal) is transmitted at regular intervals (step 105). ).

Next, the network common communication control program 6b of the node 1b which has received the data via the network 2 delivers the user data 11 to the application programs 3b-5b as follows. FIG. 5 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the network common communication control program 6b.

Network common communication control program 6b
Constantly waits for data from the network 2 (for example, a packet if the network 2 is a packet network) (step 200). When the data is received, the data link layer DL, the network layer NL, and the transport layer TL have the functions of the data, that is, a portion corresponding to TCP data, that is, the control information 10 and the user data 1.
Extract 1.

Subsequently, the program 6b has the control information 10
It is judged whether the received data is normal or not based on the delimiter 12 (step 201), and if it is normal, the user type 13 is analyzed and it is judged whether there is a corresponding application program (step 202). Then, if there is a corresponding application program, the user data 11 is delivered to this program together with the information of the transmission source node (step 203). The application program which has received the user data 11 analyzes this data and performs a predetermined process.

For example, when the data including the user type 13 indicating the billing process is received, the program 6b passes the user data 11 to the application program in charge of the billing process. The signal type 14 is analyzed to recognize that the billing data (application data 16) has been sent. Then, a bill is created based on this billing data.

Further, the network common communication control program 6b receives the health check signal sent from the program 6a of the node 1a. Therefore, at least every certain signal is received, but if no signal is received within the certain time (step 204) or if the delimiter 12 of the predetermined pattern cannot be confirmed in step 201, the network It is considered as a failure and the network
The interface is reconstructed (step 205).

If the corresponding application program does not exist in step 202, it is recognized that the abnormal user type 13 has been received (step 206), and the transmission source network common communication control program 6a The reception of the abnormal user type 13 is notified (step 207).

In this way, the program 6b selects the target application program based on the user type 13 included in the received data, and the user data 1
1 is transferred to the corresponding application program. In this embodiment, the case where the data is transmitted from the node 1a to the node 1b has been described.
The same applies when sending to a.

As described above, the application programs 3a to 5a and 3b to 5b are related to the network protocol (TCP based on the transport layer TL).
Header, IP header by network layer NL, destination address and source address by data link layer DL, etc.)
Does not need to be aware of network protocols. In this way, the network protocol hiding by the network common communication control programs 6a and 6b can be realized for each application program.

Thus, when an application program is incorporated in a communication system that uses another network, it suffices to provide a network common communication control program for that network. -There is no need to modify the part related to the protocol, and the number of modification steps can be minimized. In addition, in the present embodiment, communication is performed between two nodes, but it goes without saying that communication may be performed between a plurality of nodes.

[0031]

According to the present invention, the common communication control means on the transmitting side converts user data into data conforming to the network protocol, and the common communication control means on the receiving side extracts the user data from the received data. application·
By passing it to the program, each application program does not need to be aware of the network protocol, so that a common application program can be used in communication systems with different networks, and the number of development steps can be greatly reduced. Also, when embedding an application program in a communication system with a different network, it is not necessary to modify the part related to the network protocol for each application program, and even an author who has no knowledge of the network protocol can create a program. Can be done easily.

Further, the common communication control means on the transmitting side adds the user type to the user data, and the common communication control means on the receiving side passes the user data to the application program corresponding to the user type, so that the application programs Communication can be easily realized.

Further, the common communication control means on the transmission side adds a delimiter to the user data, and the common communication control means on the reception side determines whether or not the data is normal based on the delimiter, so that the upper layer above the network protocol. The normality of the data can be confirmed at the level of, and higher reliability can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication system showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a protocol process in the communication system of FIG.

3 is a diagram showing a structure of an internal signal used in the network common communication control program of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of a network common communication control program on the transmitting side.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of a network common communication control program on the receiving side.

[Explanation of symbols]

1a, 1b ... nodes, 2 ... network, 3a, 3b,
4a, 4b, 5a, 5b ... Application program, 6a, 6b ... Network common communication control program, 10 ... Control information, 11 ... User data, 12 ... Delimiter, 13 ... User type, 14 ... Signal type, 15 ... Data size , 16 ... Application data.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. In a communication system for communicating between nodes connected via a network, each node performs processing of a network protocol for network connection between nodes and an application program of this node. And a common communication control means for communicating with each other. The common communication control means, on the transmitting side, converts user data from an application program into data conforming to the protocol, sends the data to the network, and receives the data. The communication system is characterized in that, on the side, user data is extracted from data received via a network in accordance with the protocol and is passed to an application program. 2. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the common communication control means performs a protocol process of a higher layer than the network protocol, which handles a user type for identifying a type of an application program, and transmits. On the side, the user type is added to the user data and then converted into data compatible with the network protocol, and on the receiving side, the user type is extracted from the received data according to the network protocol, and the application program corresponding to this user type is extracted. A communication system characterized by passing user data to a user. 3. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the common communication control means performs protocol processing of a higher layer than the network protocol, which handles a delimiter having a fixed pattern for guaranteeing data normality. The transmitting side adds a delimiter to the user data and then converts it into data compatible with the network protocol, and the receiving side extracts the delimiter from the received data according to the network protocol, and the user data is converted based on this delimiter. A communication system characterized by determining whether it is normal.