JPH09102783A - Atm terminal equipment and communication channel determining method in atm terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize an ATM terminal equipment capable of mounting plural ATM interfaces and a communication channel determining method capable of determining easily a communication channel even in the case where plural ATM interfaces are mounted. SOLUTION: The ATM terminal equipment 10 is provided with ATM cards 12, 14 connected to ATM networks 2, 6 respectively, a connection information DB 16 to store the ATM address of a communication opposite party terminal 4 and the identification symbol of the ATM card connected to the communication opposite party terminal 4 as connection information, and an ATM card control part 18 to determine the communication channel with the communication opposite party terminal 4 through the ATM card specified on the basis of the connection information in response to the call originating request of an application. Then, in the case where the connection information about the communication opposite party terminal equipment 4 is not registered, trial call origination is sent from all the ATM cards, and it is judged that the communication opposite party terminal equipment 4 is being connected to the destination of the ATM card whose response is received, and the connection information is generated automatically.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a terminal device (hereinafter referred to as "ATM terminal device") that constitutes an ATM network system, and particularly a communication interface (hereinafter referred to as "ATM interface") for connecting to an ATM network.
The present invention relates to a configuration of an ATM terminal device when a plurality of ATMs are installed and a method of determining a communication path with a communication partner in an ATM terminal device equipped with a plurality of ATM interfaces.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art ATM (Asynchronous T) is a basic technology for building multimedia applications.
A transfer mode network can connect a wide variety of media. The terminal device connected to the ATM network can perform high-speed transmission by using the ATM. However, there is a limit of 155 Mbps per line, so if you want to pursue even higher speed, you can use multiple ATMs in the ATM terminal device.
It would be proposed to realize even higher speed by mounting interfaces, connecting them to the same ATM network to which communication partners are connected, and performing data communication in parallel at the same time.

Further, when it is desired to simultaneously communicate with terminals connected to different ATM networks, a plurality of ATM interfaces are mounted on an ATM terminal device and each ATM interface is connected to a different ATM network. It would be suggested to do so.

[0004]

However, in the prior art, although it is possible to conceptually propose mounting a plurality of ATM interfaces on an ATM terminal device, a specific configuration has not been shown yet. Absent.

The present invention provides an ATM terminal device capable of mounting a plurality of ATM interfaces.
An object of the present invention is to provide a communication path determination method that can easily determine a communication path even when a plurality of TM interfaces are installed.

[0006]

To achieve the above object, an ATM terminal device connected to an ATM network according to the present invention comprises a plurality of ATs connected to the ATM network.
M interface, ATM address of the communication partner and AT connected to the ATM network to which the communication partner is connected
A connection information database that stores connection information including information about the M interface; and a communication path determination unit that determines a communication path with a communication partner via the ATM interface specified based on the connection information. To do.

Further, in the above configuration, the connection destination network recognizing means for further recognizing the ATM network to which the communication partner is connected and the A obtained by the connection destination network recognizing means are tried.
And a connection information registration means for registering the connection information created by specifying the ATM interface connected to the TM network in the connection information database.

In the above ATM terminal device, the ATM
In a communication path determining method for determining a communication path with a communication partner connected to a network, the ATM terminal device transmits a trial call to a communication partner via the ATM interface; The ATM interface specifying step for specifying the ATM interface that has received the response from the communication partner to the trial call, and the ATM address of the communication partner and the ATM interface specified by the ATM interface specifying step are associated and registered as connection information. And a communication path is determined based on connection information that is automatically created in advance by trying a call.

In the ATM interface specifying step, if there are a plurality of ATM interfaces that have received a response from the communication partner to the trial call,
It is characterized in that only one ATM interface is selected from the ATM interfaces according to a predetermined condition.

Further, the trial call sending step is characterized in that the trial call is sent simultaneously from the ATM interface. Further, in this method, the ATM interface specifying step is the first A which receives the response.
It is characterized by selecting a TM interface. Only one ATM interface is selected by complying with this condition.

Further, the trial call transmission step is characterized in that trial calls are sequentially transmitted from different ATM interfaces. By following this condition, only A
Select TM interface.

The above-mentioned A connected to each ATM network
It is characterized by having the same ATM network grouping step for grouping the TM interfaces. This same ATM network grouping step is characterized in that a trial call is made from each of the ATM interfaces to be judged by designating an ATM address of another ATM interface. In the trial call sending step in this method, when the same ATM network grouping step determines that a plurality of ATM interfaces are connected to the same ATM network, only one ATM selected from the ATM interfaces is selected. A feature is that a trial call is sent from the interface. As a result, trial calls are not sent from a plurality of ATM interfaces to the same ATM network, and unnecessary sending is avoided.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall configuration of an ATM network system for explaining the present embodiment of an ATM terminal device according to the present invention. A in the present embodiment
The TM terminal device 10 has two ATM cards 1 as an ATM interface for connecting this device to the ATM network 2.
2 and 14, a connection information database (DB) 16 for storing connection information, and communication with the communication partner terminal 4 via the ATM card 12 or 14 specified based on the connection information stored in the connection information database 16. An ATM card control unit 18 as a communication path determination unit that determines a path, an application execution unit 20 that executes an application program that communicates with the communication partner terminal 4 through the determined communication path, and an identical ATM network group database 22 described later. It is equipped with and. The ATM card control unit 18 is a connection destination network recognition means for recognizing the ATM network to which the communication terminal 4 is connected by trial, and a connection created by specifying the ATM card connected to the ATM network obtained by trial. It is a connection information registration means for registering information in the connection information database 16. The ATM terminal device 10 in the present embodiment can be realized by a general personal computer, and in this case, the application execution unit 20 is realized by a CPU and an application program that operates on the CPU. Also, AT
The M card controller 18 is a CPU and an AT that operates on the CPU.
It is realized by the driver of the M card.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the overall configuration of another ATM network system for explaining the present embodiment. Each ATM card 12, 14 is a different ATM
It is the same as FIG. 1 except that it is connected to the networks 2 and 6.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the contents of the connection information database 16. The connection information stored here is composed of the ATM address of the communication partner terminal 4 and information about the ATM card connected to the ATM network to which the communication partner terminal 4 is connected. AT in the present embodiment
For information on the M card, refer to the ATM card symbol "A",
It is represented by "B". Of course, not only the symbols but also the address A
Any information that can identify the TM card may be used.

By the way, when it is desired to communicate with a terminal connected to the ATM network, the application program operating in the ATM terminal device needs to specify the ATM address of the communication partner to make a call. However, in addition to the ATM address of the communication partner, the application program that operates in an ATM terminal device equipped with a plurality of ATM interfaces also determines which AT
It must be specified whether it is connected to the M network.
In other words, in the application program, which one of the plurality of communication interfaces is used to connect the ATM
You must specify whether the communication partner is connected to the end of the network. As described above, the application program in the ATM terminal device equipped with a plurality of ATM interfaces communicates only by specifying the ATM address of the communication partner and the ATM network to which the communication partner is connected, and thus the ATM interface connected to the ATM network. Since it is possible to communicate with the other party, it is necessary to know the ATM address and ATM interface in advance.

The feature of this embodiment is that a plurality of ATs are provided by providing the connection information database 16.
Even when the M cards 12 and 14 are mounted, as long as the ATM address of the communication partner terminal 4 is specified in the application program as in the case where one ATM card is mounted, the communication partner terminal 4 is connected. That is, it is possible to determine a communication path without knowing the established ATM network. Furthermore, it is possible to automatically create the connection information database 16 by performing a trial with the above configuration.

The ATM address is a net prefix for identifying a switch of the ATM network to which the ATM terminal device is connected, a terminal number for identifying the ATM terminal device, and A.
It is formed of the identification number of the application program that actually communicates in the TM terminal device. Therefore, it is possible to accurately specify the application program for communication by designating the ATM address. However, in the present embodiment, the AT of each ATM terminal device is specified.
Since it is only necessary to confirm the connection form to the M network, that is, the communication path to the communication partner terminal 4, the communication partner specified by designating the ATM address is the communication partner terminal 4.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the communication path determination processing in this embodiment. Next, the operation in this embodiment will be explained based on this drawing.

When the ATM card control section 18 receives a call request from the application program executed by the application execution section 20 (step S101),
The connection information database 16 is searched based on the ATM address of the communication partner terminal 4 included in the call request (step S102). If applicable data exists, AT
It is possible to specify the M address and the ATM card connected to the ATM network to which the communication partner terminal 4 is connected. Note that this connection state will be simply referred to as "ATM card connected to the communication partner terminal 4" hereinafter. Therefore, AT
The M card control unit 18 can determine the communication path to the communication partner terminal 4 through the ATM network via the ATM card designated by the application program (step S105). If the corresponding data does not exist in the connection information database 16, an AT that can form a communication path with the communication partner terminal 4 by the connection information registration process.
Since the M card can be specified (step S10
4) The communication path to the communication partner terminal 4 can be determined using this connection information (step S105). This connection information registration processing will be described later.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the AT
Since the connection information in which the M address and the information about the ATM card are associated with each other is registered in the connection information database 16 in advance, the application program only has the ATM address as in the case where one ATM card is mounted. If is specified, a communication path can be formed with the communication partner terminal 4. The registration of the connection information in the connection information database 16 may be performed manually.

Next, the above-mentioned connection information registration process will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. It should be noted that the system configuration here is the same for all ATs as shown in FIG.
ATM networks 2 and 6 with different M cards 12 and 14, respectively
It is assumed that it is connected to the. In the connection information registration processing of the present embodiment, the ATM card control unit 18 performs a trial by sending a trial call to identify the ATM card connected to the ATM network to which the communication partner terminal 4 is connected. It is characterized in that connection information is automatically created and registered in the connection information database 16.

First, the ATM card control unit 18 is
A trial call is sent to the communication partner terminal 4 via the M cards 12 and 14 (step S201). In this trial call, the ATM address of the communication partner terminal 4 is designated. At this point in time, it is not known to which ATM network the communication partner terminal 4 is connected, so that all the mounted ATM cards 12 and 14 send trial calls. When one of the ATM cards receives the response from the communication partner terminal 4 to the trial call (step S20)
2), the ATM card controller 18 receives the received ATM
The card is specified (step S203). This allows
The ATM card connected to the communication partner terminal 4 is identified. In the example shown in FIG. 2, since the communication partner terminal 4 is connected to the ATM network 2, it is specified by the ATM card 12. Then, the ATM address of the communication partner terminal 4 and step S20
It is registered in the connection information database 16 as connection information in association with the ATM card specified in step 3 (step S2).
04).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, even when a call request specifying an ATM address not registered in the connection information database 16 is received from the application program, communication is performed by the above connection information registration processing. Since the ATM card connected to the partner terminal 4 can be recognized, the connection information can be automatically created. After this, ATM learned by trying
By using the connection information about the address,
For the communication partner terminal 4 having the TM address, the communication path can be determined without performing the connection information registration process. This automatic creation function is very effective because it is highly likely that a wide variety of terminals will be connected in an ATM network system suitable for multimedia.

Although there is no problem if the ATM terminal device 10 is a personal computer or the like, a terminal having no display device is also provided with a display as a display means to display the contents of the connection information database 16 created in the above process. You may do it. Further, a means is provided for sending the contents to an application program or another terminal for reference. These means are not specifically shown. Thereby, the contents of the connection information database 16 can be referred to by a person or an application program, and maintenance or the like can be facilitated.

In the above embodiment, two ATMs are used.
Although the card has been described as an example, three or more cards may be used. Further, the ATM interface has been described as one card, but in the case of a card in which a plurality of ports are mounted, each port becomes an ATM interface.

Embodiment 2 In the connection information registration processing in the first embodiment, the case of the system form shown in FIG. 2 has been described. As shown in FIG. 1, the system configuration of this embodiment is such that a plurality of ATM cards 1
A case in which 2 and 14 are connected to the same ATM network 2 will be described. FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of the connection information registration processing in the present embodiment, and this processing will be described using this figure.

First, the ATM card control unit 18 sends out a trial call (step S301), and until one of the ATM cards receives a response from the communication partner terminal 4 to this trial call (step S302). The same as in Embodiment 1 above. Here, in the case of the present embodiment, A
Since the TM card control unit 18 should recognize that the plurality of ATM cards 12, 14 have received the response from the communication partner terminal 4, only one ATM card among the plurality of ATM cards 12, 14 is subject to a predetermined condition. You need to pick a card. If only one ATM card receives the response from the communication partner terminal 4, the same processing as in the above-described embodiment is performed (step S304).

Here, the predetermined condition in the process (step S305) for identifying only one ATM card from the plurality of ATM cards 12 and 14 will be described.

First, it is considered that there is some variation in the time required from the sending of a trial call until a response is received due to the length of the path with the communication terminal 4 and the load. Therefore, it is conceivable that all the ATM cards 12 and 14 simultaneously send out trial calls and select the ATM card that received the response first. Thereby, the ATM card connected to the communication partner terminal 4 can be immediately specified.

Considering the load of trial, it is conceivable that trial calls are sequentially transmitted from the ATM card, and when the response from the communication partner terminal 4 is received, the ATM card is selected.

If only one ATM card can be specified based on any of the above conditions, the ATM address of the communication partner terminal 4 and step S304 or S30.
It is registered in the connection information database 16 as connection information in association with the ATM card specified in step 5 (step S3).
06).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, only one ATM card can be specified even when a plurality of ATM cards 12 and 14 are connected to the same ATM network 2. Therefore, in response to the call request from the application program, the ATM card control unit 18
The communication path via the ATM card specified by the above method will be determined.

Embodiment 3 FIG . In order to make a call to the communication partner terminal 4, first, as described above, it is necessary to know in advance which ATM network the ATM cards 12 and 14 mounted in the own ATM terminal device are connected to. There is.
Each of the above-described embodiments is a case in which the ATM network to which each of the ATM cards 12 and 14 is connected is known in advance. In this embodiment, a process for recognizing to which ATM network each of the ATM cards 12 and 14 of the ATM terminal device is connected by trial calling will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

In the ATM terminal device 10, the ATM itself
The number of ATM cards 12 and 14 installed in the terminal device and the ATM address of each ATM card 12 and 14 are known in advance. Here, an ATM card, for example, another ATM mounted from the ATM card 12 as a determination target
A trial call is sent by designating the ATM address of the card 14 (step S401). AT for this trial call
If there is a response from the M card 14, the ATM card 12 and A
It can be determined that the TM card 14 is connected to the same ATM network (step S403). That is, it can be seen that the system form is that shown in FIG. In this case, ATM
It is assumed that the card 12 and the ATM card 14 belong to the same ATM network group. On the other hand, if there is no response, it can be determined that the ATM card is connected to a different ATM network, and the ATM card 1
2 and the ATM card 14 can be determined not to belong to the same ATM network group (step S404). That is, it can be seen that the system form is that shown in FIG.

When three or more ATM cards are mounted, the trial call is transmitted to all the combinations of ATM cards to connect the ATM networks connected to each ATM card and each ATM network. The same ATM network group for is identified. Of course, for example, the ATM card X and the ATM card Y are in the same ATM network group by the trial from the judgment target ATM card X, and the ATM cards Y and A are the trial by the judgment target ATM card Y.
If the TM cards Z are in the same ATM network group, the ATM card X and the ATM card Z always belong to the same ATM network group. In such a case, the ATM card Z makes a trial call to the ATM card X. No need. This trial calling process can be easily realized by an application. In this way, the above processing is performed for all the ATM cards (step S405), and the ATM cards 12 and 14 connected to each ATM network are grouped. The result is stored in the same ATM network group database 22.

Since the ATM address includes the above-mentioned data, each ATM card 12, 14
It is possible to know which switch of which ATM network each of the ATM cards 12 and 14 is connected to by referring to the content of the ATM address of the above. By this, the ATM cards having the same net prefix can use the same ATM.
It can be easily recognized that it belongs to the network group.

As described above, if the ATM network to which the ATM cards 12 and 14 in the ATM terminal device 10 are connected can be known and the same ATM network group database 22 can be created, this same ATM network can be created. By using the group database 22, the connection information registration process can be performed more efficiently. The processing will be described below.

In step S301 of FIG. 6, as described above, the trial calling is sent to the plurality of ATM cards simultaneously or sequentially. That is, all the ATM cards to which the trial call is sent are installed in the ATM terminal device 10. However, when the same ATM network group as shown in FIG. 8 is formed in the same ATM network group database 22, for example, one of the ATM cards o, p, q and r connected to the ATM network A is used. Sending a trial call from the card is sufficient to know whether the correspondent terminal 4 is connected to the ATM network A. Therefore, when a trial call is sent in step S301, one of the ATM cards o, p, q, and r
Since only the TM card needs to be the target of the trial calling to the communication partner terminal 4, it is not necessary to make unnecessary trial calling from the other ATM cards.

In order to create optimum connection information by setting conditions for actually selecting which ATM card from the same ATM network group, firstly, the connection information database 16 shown in FIG. Since the number of terminals that each ATM card handles can be totaled by the registration data to,
The totaled number can be regarded as the load on each ATM card, and the ATM card having the smallest number of terminals can be selected from the same ATM network group.
This makes it possible to easily distribute the load. Further, a means for measuring the actual load may be provided instead of the number registered in the connection information database 16. The term "load" as used herein refers to a general term such as the load on the performance of each ATM card. Alternatively, a fee or the like may be used as the selection condition.

Further, in the above embodiment, each AT
Although only one data was registered in the M address, in the case of the connection form forming the same ATM network group, information such as the priority order to be used is added and a plurality of data is registered in each ATM address as the connection information. You may do it.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the same ATM network group database 22 can be created,
By using this same ATM network group database 22, the connection information registration process can be performed more efficiently.

In each of the above-described embodiments, the ATM
The description has been given separately for the case where the ATM cards 12 and 14 installed in the terminal device 12 are connected to the same or different ATM networks, but more ATM cards are installed and the connection forms of these ATM networks are mixed. Even in this case, the communication path can be determined by combining the processes described above.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a first embodiment of an ATM terminal device according to the present invention.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall configuration of an ATM network system for explaining the above.

FIG. 2 is a first embodiment of an ATM terminal device according to the present invention.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall configuration of an ATM network system for explaining the above.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the contents of a connection information database according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a communication path determination process in the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a connection information registration process according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a second embodiment of an ATM terminal device according to the present invention.
5 is a flowchart showing a connection information registration process in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a second embodiment of an ATM terminal device according to the present invention.
3 is a flowchart showing a process for recognizing an ATM network to which an ATM card is connected.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the contents of the same ATM network group database according to the third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

2,6 ATM network, 4 communication partner terminal, 10 ATM terminal device, 12,14 ATM card, 16 connection information database (DB), 18 ATM card control unit, 20
Application execution unit, 22 Same ATM network group database (DB).

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An ATM connected to an ATM network
In a terminal device, a plurality of ATM interfaces connected to an ATM network, a connection information database storing connection information including ATM addresses of communication partners and information on ATM interfaces connected to the ATM network to which the communication partners are connected. An ATM terminal device, comprising: a communication path determining unit that determines a communication path with a communication partner via an ATM interface specified based on the connection information. 2. The ATM terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising: a connection destination network recognizing unit that recognizes an ATM network to which a communication partner is connected by trial, and an ATM network obtained by a trial of the connection destination network recognizing unit. An ATM terminal device, comprising: connection information registration means for registering the connection information created by specifying the connected ATM interface in the connection information database. 3. The ATM terminal device according to claim 2 is an ATM
In a communication path determining method for determining a communication path with a communication partner connected to a network, the ATM terminal device transmits a trial call to a communication partner via the ATM interface; A who received the response from the communication partner to the trial call
An ATM interface specifying step of specifying a TM interface, and a registration step of registering as connection information by associating the ATM address of the communication partner with the ATM interface specified by the ATM interface specifying step, and make a call attempt. A communication path determining method in an ATM terminal device, characterized in that the communication path is determined based on the connection information that is automatically created in advance. 4. The method for determining a communication path in an ATM terminal device according to claim 3, wherein in the ATM interface specifying step, when there are a plurality of the ATM interfaces that have received a response to the trial call from the communication partner, A method for determining a communication path in an ATM terminal device, characterized in that only one ATM interface is selected from the ATM interfaces according to a predetermined condition. 5. The method for determining a communication path in an ATM terminal device according to claim 4, wherein the trial call sending step sends the trial call simultaneously from the ATM interface.
A method for determining a communication path in an M terminal device. 6. The method for determining a communication path in an ATM terminal device according to claim 5, wherein the ATM interface specifying step selects the ATM interface that received the response first. How to decide. 7. The method of determining a communication path in an ATM terminal device according to claim 4, wherein the trial call transmission step is different from the trial call transmission step.
A method for determining a communication path in an ATM terminal device, which is characterized in that data is sequentially transmitted from a TM interface. 8. A method for determining a communication path in an ATM terminal device according to claim 3, further comprising the same ATM network grouping step for grouping the ATM interfaces connected to each ATM network. A method for determining a communication path in a device. 9. The method for determining a communication path in an ATM terminal device according to claim 8, wherein the same ATM network grouping step specifies an ATM address of another ATM interface from each of the ATM interfaces to be judged. A method of deciding a communication path in an ATM terminal device, characterized in that a trial call is made. 10. The method for determining a communication path in an ATM terminal device according to claim 8, wherein in the trial call sending step, a plurality of the ATM interfaces are connected to the same ATM network in the same ATM network grouping step. If it is determined that there is one, a trial call is transmitted from only one of the ATM interfaces selected from the above, and a communication path determination method in an ATM terminal device.