JPH09233072A - Network performance management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce traffic of management communication data by measuring and logging new performance management information of each agent at all times even when the number of the agents is increased or the number of sets of the performance management information of each agent is increased. SOLUTION: The system is made up of a manager 1 and plural agents 2-1-2-n. In the case of measuring and logging performance management information of the agents 2-1-2-n, the manager 1 informs the address of other agents to send data to its own agent and addresses of the other agents to send data of its own agent to the agents 2-1-2-n and collects the data from the agents 2-1-2-n.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network performance management system in which a network management device (manager) measures and aggregates performance management information of all managed devices (agents) in the network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a network, when a manager measures and collects agent performance management information and performs statistical processing, conventionally, the following two methods (A) and (B) have been used.

In the (A) polling method, the manager sequentially sends a response request to each agent at regular intervals. The agent receiving the information returns the performance management information desired by the manager to the manager. Then, the manager statistically processes all performance management information collected from each agent. In CMIP, which is a protocol used for OSI management, the manager can also request required performance management information from a required agent using a scope or a filter.

(B) In the remote monitoring method, a monitoring device (monitor) is installed in the network in addition to the agent, and network performance management information is collected.

[0005]

In the case of the above polling method, the following two problems occur when the number of agents to be managed increases.

First, since the number of management communication data (response request and its response) flowing in the network increases, the traffic load of the network increases, and the communication quality of the original communication data of the network (for example, response time). Etc.) may be affected.
The problem is that when the number of performance management information collected from one agent increases and the number of management communication data increases,
The same happens.

Secondly, since there is a limit to the minimum processing time of each transmission / reception processing of the time when the manager transmits the response request and the time when the manager receives the response from the agent, there is a limit to the same agent. The problem is that the time interval for the manager to send a response request becomes longer in proportion to the number of agents and it becomes impossible to obtain new performance management information for the agents.

The remote monitor method is an Ethernet LAN
In a shared media type media transmission system network like the one described above, performance management information in the entire network segment can be monitored and used by connecting to an arbitrary point in the network segment.
In a switched medium type medium transmission system network such as TM-LAN, there is a problem that a monitoring device (monitor) can use only what flows through a physically connected line for monitoring.

The present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems on a network. Even if the network scale, that is, the number of agents increases, the number of agent performance management information increases. Even so, it is possible to constantly measure and aggregate new performance management information of agents, and to reduce the traffic of management communication data flowing through the network. It also aims to collect agent performance management information without depending on the medium transmission method of the network.

[0010]

A network performance management system of the present invention comprises a plurality of agents connected by a network and a manager. For the sake of convenience, reference numerals shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 to be described later will be described in parentheses.

The manager (1) determines a logical closed-loop configuration of an agent for management communication, and instructs a configuration instructing section (3) to each agent, and performance management data (performance information of each agent) to be measured by each agent. A management data instruction unit (4) for instructing the type, the type of statistical processing, the required parameters, the time to start the measurement, the management data ID for identifying the collected performance management data, and the performance management data measured by the agent. It has a data receiving section (5).

The agent (2) has an instruction recognition unit (6) that recognizes an instruction from the manager, a management data measurement unit (7) that measures its own performance management data according to the instruction, and a specified management data ID. Is added to the measured management data, and the management data storage unit (8) temporarily stores the management data until the management data is collected, and the management data I when the management data is collected.
It has a statistical processing unit (9) for calling the management data designated by D and performing statistical processing of the management data, and a data transmission unit (10) for transmitting its own performance management data to the other party designated by the manager.

The type of performance management data targeted by the management data instruction unit (4) of the manager (1) may be performance management data of an ATM network, Ethernet, etc., as will be shown in an embodiment introduced later. Alternatively, the number of pieces of data normally transmitted may be the number of pieces of data discarded due to an error, and the type thereof may be other than that shown in each embodiment. Anyway, any performance management data can be processed by the agent (2).

The type of statistical processing targeted by the statistical processing unit (9) of the agent (2) is the maximum of performance management data.
All types of statistical processing that can be processed by the agent (2), such as minimum, rank, average, and variance.

First, the configuration instructing section (3) of the manager (1) determines a logical loop of the agent (2) for management communication by a known method, and the agent (2) is set in the loop. The address of the previous agent (the sender from which the performance management processing instruction or the like should be received) and the address of the next agent (the destination to which the user's performance management information should be transferred) are specified.

Instruction recognition unit (6) of each agent (2)
However, by recognizing the instruction, a logical loop for collecting performance management information is formed. Next, the management data instruction unit (4) of the manager (1) instructs the first agent (2) in the logical loop about the content of the performance management data to be measured / totalized by the agent (2).

The instruction recognition unit (6) of the first agent (2) in the logic loop recognizes the instruction content, and according to the instruction, the management data measurement unit (7) of its own performance management information.
At the same time, the process of storing the data in the management data storage unit (8) is started, and the instruction from the manager (1) is transferred to the agent (2) next to the logical loop.

By repeating this, the instruction from the manager (1) is transmitted once, and the instruction is transferred to all the agents (2). Then, in order to collect the performance management data measured and tabulated by the agent (2), the management data instruction unit (4) of the manager (1)
Send the management data collection cell to the first agent (2) in the logic loop.

Instruction recognition unit (6) of the agent (2)
Recognizes the content of the instruction, overwrites the necessary information in the management data collection cell according to the instruction, and transfers it to the next agent (2).

Similar to the measurement / aggregation instruction from the manager (1), the performance management data is collected once from the manager (1) to collect the performance management data of all agents (2). To do.

[0021]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiment 1 Embodiment 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment. Reference numeral 1 in the figure represents a manager, and 2-i represents an agent. The network shown in FIG.
The TM (asynchronous transfer mode) network is composed of a manager 1 and an agent 2-i.

2 and 3 are block diagrams of functions required for the manager and the agent of the present invention, respectively. Reference numerals 1 and 2-i in the figure correspond to those in FIG. 1, 3 is a configuration instructing unit, 4 is a management data instructing unit, 5 is a data receiving unit, 6 is an instruction recognizing unit, 7 is a management data measuring unit, Reference numeral 8 represents a management data storage unit, 9 represents a statistical processing unit, and 10 represents a data transmission unit.

FIG. 4 shows a processing flow of the manager, and FIG. 5 shows a processing flow of the agent. Further, FIG.
Indicates a communication sequence. FIG. 7 shows a management data storage method, and FIG. 8 shows a management data collection cell.

The agent (2) is an ATM-SLT (Subscr) if the network is ATM-WAN.
iber line terminater) equipment and ATM-XC (Cross-Co
nnect) device or network is ATM
-For LAN, it is ATM-SW (SWitch). The manager (1) is an ATM network management device.
The specific performance management data includes the number of transmission cells,
Number of received cells, cell transfer delay CTD (Cell Transfer Dela
y) and its variation CDV (Cell Delay Variation), cell loss rate CLR (Cell Loss Rate), and the like.

An embodiment in which the network is an ATM-LAN will be described below. The ATM network management device (manager) uses a known method to initialize each ATM-
Understand the SW (agent) status. Based on the information, the configuration instructing unit (3) determines an appropriate logical closed loop for management communication (step M1 in FIG. 4). Then, an ATM-SW (agent) to which a management data collection cell should be transmitted in order to form a logical closed loop for management communication
Address and ATM that should receive management data collection cell
A configuration instruction notification having the address of -SW (agent) is sent to each ATM-SW (agent) (step M2 in FIG. 4). For example, referring to FIG. 1, for the agent 2-2, the ATM-SW (agent) to which the management data of the agent 2-2 should be transmitted is the agent 2-3, and the AT to receive the management data.
The M-SW (agent) is the agent 2-1.

In each ATM-SW (agent) that has received the notification, the instruction recognition unit 6 recognizes the content of the notification (steps A1 and A2 in FIG. 5). Next, the management data instruction unit 4 of the ATM network management device (manager) causes each ATM-S
Each of five pieces of information, that is, the type of performance management data to be measured by the W (agent), the time to start measurement, the type of statistical processing, statistical processing information, and the management data ID for identifying the collected performance management data Notify the ATM-SW (agent) (steps M3 and M4 in FIG. 4).

In each ATM-SW (agent) that has received the notification, the instruction recognition unit 6 recognizes the content of the notification (steps A3 and A4 in FIG. 5). In each ATM-SW (agent), an ATM network management device (manager)
When the measurement start time instructed by the management data instructing section 4 comes, the management data measuring section 7 measures its own performance management data (steps A5 and A6 in FIG. 5). Then, as shown in FIG. 7, the management data ID instructed by the management data instruction unit 4 of the ATM network management device (manager) is attached to the measurement data and stored in the management data storage unit 8 (step A7 in FIG. 5).

Next, when the ATM network management device (manager) collects the performance management data, the management data collection cell shown in FIG. 8 is set to the first ATM-SW in the logical loop.
(Agent), for example, Agent 2 shown in FIG.
-1 (step M5 in FIG. 4). The instruction recognition unit 6 of the ATM-SW (agent) that collects first is
The management data ID designated by the management data collection cell, for example, management data having management data ID = 001 shown in FIG. 6 is called, and the statistical processing unit 9 performs statistical processing of the management data to rewrite the management data collection cell ( FIG. 5, steps A8-A11).

Next, the management data collection cell is transmitted to the ATM-SW (agent) next to the logic loop. For example, the data transmission unit 10 of the agent 2-1 shown in FIG.
Sends a management data collection cell to the agent 2-2 (steps A12, A13, A14 in FIG. 5).

Here, the management data collection cell is for collecting the performance management data desired by the manager from the agent, the performance management data can be written, and the data amount is always constant. An example of the management data collection cell is shown in FIG.

All the ATM-SWs (agents) in the logical loop repeat the above process, and the last ATM-SW (agent) in the logical loop sends a management data collection cell to the ATM network management device (manager). , Performance management data is collected. Similarly, A
The management data instruction unit 4 of the TM network management device (manager) starts collecting performance management data having the next management data ID, for example, management data ID = 002 shown in FIG.

According to the first embodiment, the ATM network management device (manager) of the management communication data is used.
Since it is not necessary to send a response request to each ATM-SW (agent), the traffic becomes about 1/2 as compared with the conventional polling method. The other necessary management communication data is only the initialization data notified to each agent at the time of initialization.

Second Embodiment In the second embodiment, the network is Ethernet, and the manager and the agents (2-1) A1 to (2-n) An.
It is composed of Here, the agent 2 may be a router, an Ethernet switch, or the like. The management data collection method is the same as that in the first embodiment. However, as an effect, although the performance management data has been collected by the remote monitoring method so far, the present invention eliminates the need for using the remote monitoring method.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, of the management communication data, the manager does not have to send a response request to each agent, so that the traffic is less compared to the conventional polling method. It becomes about 1/2. The other necessary management communication data is only the management communication data notified to each agent at the time of initialization.

The present invention is also applicable to a shared media type medium transmission system network such as an Ethernet LAN.
Even in a switched media type medium transmission system network such as an ATM-LAN, performance management data can be collected without depending on the medium transmission system.

The performance management data to be collected is statistically processed by the statistical processing unit in the agent, so that it can be collected with a small amount of information and the load of the statistical processing process on the manager can be reduced. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a manager according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an agent configuration diagram of an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a processing flowchart (manager) of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a processing flowchart (agent) of the embodiment.
It is.

FIG. 6 shows a communication sequence of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 shows a method of storing management data according to an embodiment.

FIG. 8 shows a management data collection cell of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 manager 2 agent 3 configuration instruction unit 4 management data instruction unit 5 data reception unit 6 instruction recognition unit 7 management data measurement unit 8 management data storage unit 9 statistical processing unit 10 data transmission unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A manager for collecting performance management information,
In a network performance management system applied to a medium transmission method consisting of an agent for measuring and totalizing performance management information, a configuration instructing means for deciding a logical closed loop configuration of an agent for management communication and instructing each agent, From the manager, a manager comprising management data instruction means for instructing collection of performance management data or performance management data to be measured by each agent, and data reception means for receiving performance management data measured by each agent Instruction recognition means for recognizing the instruction, management data measuring means for measuring the performance management data according to the instruction, and management data for temporarily storing the measured performance management data until the collection instruction is received from the manager. Storage means, when receiving a collection instruction from the manager, An agent comprising a statistical processing means for calling the measured performance management data and performing statistical processing of the performance management data, and an agent designated by the manager or a data transmission means for transmitting the performance management data to the manager. Characteristic network performance management system. 2. The performance management data to be measured by each agent is a management data ID for identifying the performance management data.
The network performance management system according to claim 1, further comprising: a type of performance management data, a type of statistical processing, a time to start measurement, and statistical processing information. 3. The instruction for collecting the performance management data is issued by sending a management data collection cell including a management data ID and a statistical value corresponding to each agent to an agent or a manager. 1
Alternatively, the network performance management system described in 2.