JPH08307454A - Packet priority processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To process at higher priority the packets having higher priority levels in a network system that includes the packets of both higher and lower priority levels. CONSTITUTION: A packet priority processor is provided with a request processing potocol decision part which is connected to a packet switching type network and detects the request processing protocol of the transmitting destination out of the received packet, and the buffers 12 and 13 which are used for the packets of both higher and lower priority levels based on the protocol decision results. Thus the processor starts its processing at the receiving packets of higher priority levels. Furthermore, the request processing protocol decision part serves as a port number decision part 11 which decides the port number of TPC included in every received packet.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus which is connected to a packet switching network and performs priority processing according to the content of request processing of received packets.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A LAN (Local Area Network) is widely used as communication between computers. Most of these are packet communication methods in which a message is decomposed into small units called packets, and a destination and a source address are added to each unit for communication. In addition, with the spread of LAN, as a transport layer and a network layer (Tra
nsmission Control Protocol
l) TCP / IP (Internet Protco
Protocols such as l) are widely used.

As an example of a conventional communication system using this TCP / IP protocol, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-180425
FIG. 9 shows the system disclosed in the publication. Here, the terminals T to T5 are connected by Ethernet, and each of the terminals T1 to T5 includes a network interface that receives and processes packets from a plurality of processes, and a processor that processes a higher-level protocol. Figure 10
FIG. 3 is a diagram specifically showing a configuration of each of the terminals T1 to T5.
In the figure, in the communication interface board 1,
The Ethernet protocol processing by the rnet controller 2 and the TCP / IP protocol processing by the IP controller 3 and the TCP controller 4 are performed. The IP address determination filter processing 9 is located between the Ethernet controller 2 and the IP controller 3 and is the source I
The priority is determined based on the P address. In the upper layers above the session layer, the CPU 5 performs software processing. TC
The interface between the P / IP and the host is, for example, UNIX.
In the OS, it is called a socket interface. In FIG. 10, 6 is a transceiver, 7 is a coaxial cable,
Reference numeral 8 is a memory. FIG. 11 is an operation block diagram showing the operation of the reception processing in this conventional communication system.
In the figure, the IP address determination filter processing unit 9
It is composed of a P address determination circuit 31, a priority processing buffer 32, and a normal processing buffer 33. FIG. 12 shows TCP /
The details of the format of data transmitted and received on the IP protocol and the IP header therein are shown.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIGS. Consider a case where data is received from another terminal in this configuration. First, the signal from the coaxial cable 7 is received by the transceiver 6, and the Ethernet controller 2
Does frame analysis. In the analysis of this frame, first, the destination address of the frame is taken out, it is judged whether or not the frame is addressed to itself, and if it is addressed to itself, it is taken into a buffer inside the controller. At this time, data error detection is performed at the same time, and if there is no error, the IP address determination filter processing 9 is notified of data reception. The IP address determination filter processing unit 9 designates a terminal to be preferentially processed by the CPU 5 of the upper layer, and determines the IP address of the designated terminal and the transmission source in the IP header shown in FIG. I
The P address is compared. If the received packet is a packet to be preferentially processed, it is sent to the priority processing buffer 32, and if not, it is sent to the normal processing buffer 33. The timing of specifying the above-mentioned priority from the CPU 4 to the IP address determination filter processing unit 9 is the timing of specifying the partner terminal ID or the network ID after the session with the partner terminal is established.

When the IP controller 3 receives notification of data reception from the IP address determination filter processing unit 9,
If there is a packet in the priority processing buffer 12, if there is no packet, check the normal processing buffer 13 and if there is a packet, check the IP address of the packet to check if it is addressed to itself.
IP protocol processing defined by the CP / IP protocol is performed, and data is transmitted to the TCP controller 4. The TCP controller 4 checks the port number of the packet to determine which higher-order software to send, and sends the data to the port corresponding to the corresponding software. Such an Ethernet controller 2, IP controller 3, TCP controller 4, IP
The flow of processing by the address determination filter processing unit 9 is shown in the flowchart of FIG. Further, FIG. 14 shows an example of the order of processing the packets coming from each terminal in this conventional embodiment. For example, as shown in FIG. 14, it can be determined that all the packets coming from the transmission source 1 have a low priority, but the packets coming from the transmission sources 2 and 3 have different priorities depending on the contents of the packets. However, they are processed in the order of reception. Therefore, even if there is a difference in the processing priority of the packet from the terminal, it cannot be dealt with.

[0006]

Since the conventional communication system is configured as described above, it is possible to prioritize and process each transmission source terminal, but each terminal having the same priority is processed. Packets received from are processed in the order of arrival. Therefore, there is a problem in that it is not possible to deal with a case where it is desired to process a packet having a high priority requesting a specific process among the packets coming from the source terminal having the same priority.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and packet priority is given to preferentially process only the packets requesting specific processing contents among the packets sent from the terminals of each transmission source. The purpose is to obtain a processing device.

[0008]

A packet priority processing apparatus according to the present invention is connected to a packet-switching network, and a request processing protocol determining section for detecting a request processing protocol of a destination in a received packet, and this protocol determination. As a result, a buffer for a packet with a high priority and a buffer for a packet with a low priority are provided, and processing is performed from a received packet with a high priority.

Furthermore, the request processing protocol determination unit is
The port number determination unit determines the port number in the received packet.

Furthermore, the priorities are divided into three or more levels, and the priority buffers are divided into corresponding groups of three or more,
The processing is performed in order of the received packets with higher priority.

[0011]

In the packet priority processing apparatus according to the present invention, the request processing protocol of the transmission destination in the received packet is determined, and the processing is performed from the received packet having a high priority.

Furthermore, the priority is determined by the port number in the received packet and the received packet is processed.

Furthermore, the received packet is processed by determining the priority in three or more levels.

[0014]

【Example】

Example 1. A packet priority processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a priority processing device which constitutes each terminal in a packet switching network. The packet priority processing apparatus according to the first embodiment uses the Ethernet illustrated in FIG.
Equivalent to 5. In FIG. 1, the communication interface board 1 includes an Ethernet controller 2, an IP controller 3, a TCP controller 4, and an IP address determination filter processing unit 9. These functions and operations are shown in FIG.
The same as the conventional example shown in FIG. Further, in this embodiment, as a new element, the port number determination filter processing unit 10 is provided between the IP controller 3 and the TCP controller 4, and the port number determination filter processing is performed before the TCP controller 4 processes the packet. The filtering process of the unit 10 is performed. FIG. 2 is an operation block diagram showing the receiving process in this embodiment. Boat number determination filter processing unit 10
Is a port number determination circuit 11, a priority processing buffer 12,
It is composed of a normal processing buffer 13. Figure 3 shows TCP
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing details of a format of data transmitted / received on the IP / IP protocol and a TCP header therein.
(B) is a diagram showing a data portion that can be referred to in each layer of the TCP / IP protocol.

Next, the operation will be described. In this embodiment, when receiving data from another terminal, the transceiver 6 receives a signal from the coaxial cable 7 and notifies the IP controller 3 of the data reception in the same manner as in the conventional example. At this time, the IP address determination filter processing unit 9
Since it is in front of the IP controller 3, only the contents of the IP header part can be examined. Therefore, the priority of the received packet is determined by looking at the IP address of the transmission source in the IP header. When receiving the notification of the data reception, the IP controller 3 transfers the result to the port number determination filter processing unit 10. Port number determination filter processing unit 10
Is designated by the upper-layer CPU 5 as a port number to be preferentially processed. The port number determination filter processing unit 10 is located in the middle of the IP controller 3 and the TCP controller 4 in order to refer to the TCP header portion that cannot be referred to by the conventional IP address determination filter processing unit 9. It is configured. With such a configuration, the port number determination filter processing unit 10 can investigate the contents of the TCP header part. Then, the port number designated by the CPU 5 of the upper layer and the TCP of the received packet shown in FIG.
The port number of the destination in the header is compared, and if it is a priority packet, it is transmitted to the priority processing buffer 12, and otherwise, it is transmitted to the normal processing buffer 13. In this way, it is possible to perform processing according to the priority of request processing in a layer close to the application level of the upper layer.

If there is a packet in the priority processing buffer 12, the TCP controller 4 sends the packet to the designated port, and if it does not exist, it checks the normal processing buffer 13 and sends the packet to the designated port. In the past, messages from terminals with the same priority were processed in the order of arrival, but by doing this, as shown in FIG. 5, data from terminals with the same priority are given priority among them. It can be processed with care. In addition, CP
The timing of designating the above priority from the U4 to the port number determination filter processing unit 10 is the timing of designating the partner process ID or the network ID after the session with the partner process is established. Such Eth
Internet controller 2, IP controller 3, TC
P controller 4, port number determination filter processing unit 10
The flow of processing by and is shown in the flowchart of FIG. Further, FIG. 5 is different from the conventional FIG. 14 when the packets of A to F have the processing priority shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the order in which processing is performed. It should be noted that the sender terminal may be given priority only with respect to the request process without giving priority. In this case, the IP address determination filter processing unit becomes unnecessary.

Example 2. In the first embodiment, TCP-
Although the embodiment of the IP protocol has been described, TCP
-UDP-IP (User Datagram Pr) which performs connectionless communication unlike the IP protocol
(autocol-Internet Protocol)
The same applies to the protocol. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the packet priority processing apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. UDP instead of the TCP-IP protocol of FIG.
-It is using the IP protocol. Regarding the operation, the same operation as that of the first embodiment is performed except that the TCP-IP protocol processing of FIG. 2, FIG. 3, and FIG. 4 in the first embodiment is changed to the UDP-IP protocol processing.

Example 3. In the first and second embodiments, the buffers in the filter processing are classified into two types, that is, the priority processing and the normal processing, but it is possible to perform more detailed priority processing by having three or more buffers. . FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the packet priority processing apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention. Here, it is characterized in that it has three or more (n) processing buffers which had two types in the first embodiment.

Next, the operation will be described. In this embodiment, when data is received from another terminal, the process is the same as that of the first embodiment until the data is transferred to the port number determination filter processing unit 10. Port number determination filter processing unit 10
Is assigned a priority order corresponding to each port number from the upper layer CPU 5, compares the designated port number with the IP address, determines the priority order of the received packet, and corresponds to the priority order. Send to processing buffer. TCP controller 4 has priority 1 buffer 22-1
If there is a packet, the packet is transmitted to the designated port. If there is no packet, the next priority 2 buffer 22-2 is checked and the same processing is performed. This process is executed by the priority n buffer 22-
Repeat until n is investigated. The timing at which the above-mentioned priority is designated from the CPU 4 to the port number determination filter processing unit 10 is the same as in the first embodiment of the present invention. The flow of processing by the Ethernet controller 2, the IP controller 3, the TCP controller 4, and the port number determination filter processing unit 10 is shown in the flowchart of FIG.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the request processing protocol determination unit and the buffer for the packet having the higher priority according to the determination result are provided, and the processing is performed from the received packet having the higher priority. The effect is that high-priority packets can be processed at high speed depending on the request processing content, not just the data from the transmission source of the physical connection number.

Furthermore, since the priority is determined by the port number in the received packet, the packet having a high priority is not based on the data from the transmission source of the physical connection number but on the port number indicating the request processing content. Has the effect of processing at high speed.

Furthermore, there is an effect that the priority is divided into three levels or more and the received packets of high priority corresponding to the level can be processed at high speed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of a packet priority processing device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation block diagram of a reception process in the packet priority processing device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a structure of transmission / reception data in the packet priority processing apparatus according to the first embodiment, and correspondence between layers and header portions.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing in the packet priority processing device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data arrival state in the packet priority processing device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a configuration block diagram of a packet priority processing device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an operation block diagram of a reception process in the packet priority processing device according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing in a packet priority processing device according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a network system.

FIG. 10 is a configuration block diagram of a conventional communication processing device.

FIG. 11 is an operation block diagram of a reception process in a conventional communication processing device.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a structure of transmission / reception data.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing in a conventional communication processing device.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a data arrival state in a conventional communication processing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 communication interface board, 2 Ethernet controller, 3 IP controller, 4 TCP controller, 5 CPU, 6 transceiver, 7 coaxial cable, 8 memory, 9 IP address determination filter processing unit, 10 port number determination filter processing unit, 11 port number determination Circuit, 12 priority processing buffer, 13 normal processing buffer, 21 UDP controller, 22-1, 2
2-n priority-based buffer, 31 IP address determination circuit, 32 priority processing buffer, 33 normal processing buffer.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A request processing protocol determination unit that is connected to a packet-switched network and detects a request processing protocol of a destination in a received packet, and a packet for which a priority is high in the protocol determination result, A packet priority processing apparatus that includes a buffer for a packet having a low priority and processes a received packet having a high priority. 2. The packet priority processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the request processing protocol determination unit is a port number determination unit that determines a port number in the received packet. 3. The priority level is divided into three or more levels, the priority buffers are divided into corresponding groups of three or more, and processing is sequentially performed from a received packet having a higher priority level. Packet priority processor.