JPH1023107A - Communication simulator and communication simulating method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication simulator and its method in which communication protocol adaptability is verified in a similar timing to that of an actual device by adding a timing control function. SOLUTION: In the case of executing communication data of each device by a communication monitor means 13, reception time data are acquired and stored in the case of receiving the communication data and when a communication simulator means 15 executes the communication simulation, the transmission time of the communication data is decided from stored reception time data. The communication data are sent to a verification object device 2 in the timing so as to execute communication protocol simulation including timewise factors similar to those of the actual device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a communication simulator and a communication method, and more particularly to a communication simulation method having a timing control function.

[0001]

2. Description of the Related Art In an apparatus for communicating with another apparatus,
In order to verify the connectivity of the communication between the devices, it is necessary to verify the processing of the received communication data and the processing of the transmission data under the same environment as the actual partner device. However, if it is difficult to use the actual device, use a communication simulator (or communication protocol monitor device) instead to collect communication data between the actual devices, and then communicate from the communication simulator according to a predefined procedure. Techniques for transmitting data have been implemented.

For example, JP-A-3-155245 discloses the following protocol analyzer (communication simulating device).

[0003] First, a protocol analyzer described in this publication includes a monitor for monitoring a communication procedure between a plurality of devices, a storage for storing communication procedure data monitored by the monitor, and a storage for storing data in the storage. And a communication procedure reproducing means for simulating the operation of each device based on the communication procedure and reproducing the monitored communication procedure.

When monitoring communication data, a protocol analyzer having the above means is connected between a group of devices and a device to be verified. When the monitor unit receives communication data between a plurality of devices, the communication unit stores the communication direction, the reception time, the data length, and the procedure data as a set in the storage unit.
The above procedure is repeated until there is a monitor termination instruction.

When simulating communication data for a device to be verified, first, a protocol analyzer device and a device to be verified are connected and both are activated. Next, the information stored by the monitor is read from the storage. When the information of the communication direction among the read information indicates data from the device to be verified, the device waits for reception of communication data from the device to be verified, and after receiving the data, compares it with the procedure data in the storage unit. . When the information on the communication direction indicates data to the verification target device, the communication data is transmitted. The above is repeated for the data stored in the storage means.

[0006]

However, in the communication processing between the devices, for example, after transmitting the communication data to the communication partner device, the timer time defined as the no-response timer value is set to a maximum, and the communication time from the partner device is increased. It is indispensable to realize a communication process including a time element, such as waiting for a response and determining that retransmission is necessary if there is no response from the partner device even after the elapse of the timer time, and performing retransmission.

[0007] Further, due to the complexity of the communication protocol and the increase in the number of communication partners, most of the verification of the compatibility of the communication protocol is the verification of the processing in consideration of the time factor.

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, it was not possible to verify the compatibility of the communication protocol including the time element. The reason is that communication data can be transmitted / received to the verification target device in the monitoring order,
Since the communication data is transmitted only to the verification target device by looking at the communication direction, the processing time and various timer times required when the device that is the communication partner of the verification target device actually communicates This is because it was not possible to simulate in consideration of such factors.

An object of the present invention is to provide a communication simulator and a communication method which can verify the compatibility of a communication protocol at the same timing as an actual device by adding a timing control function.

[0010]

A communication simulator according to the present invention comprises a communication monitor for monitoring communication between devices or between a device and a network, and a storage for storing communication data monitored by the communication monitor. And communication simulation means for simulating communication based on the communication data, and further includes means for calculating transmission time to the target device.

Further, according to the communication simulation method of the present invention, when monitoring the communication data of each device, the reception time data is obtained and held, and when the communication simulation is executed, the reception time held is held. The transmission time of the communication data is calculated from the data, and the communication data is transmitted to the verification target device at that timing.

According to the present invention, a simulation is performed at the same timing as that of an actual device by calculating a transmission time for transmitting data from the simulator from the monitored reception time and setting a timing at the time of the simulation. it can.

[0013]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, an example of the configuration of a communication simulation apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 shows a network 3 to which a plurality of communication devices can be connected, and a communication device 2 which is a device to be verified for protocol compatibility, and monitors and communicates communication data between the network 3 and the communication device 2. 1 shows a communication simulator 1 that executes a communication simulation for a device 2.

The communication simulator 1 includes a communication transmitting / receiving unit 11 having an interface function with the communication device 2, a communication monitoring unit 13 for monitoring communication between the communication device 2 and the network 3, and a time management unit for managing a current time. Means 1
2, a monitor information storage area 14 in which information monitored by the communication monitor means 13 is written, a communication simulator means 15, a simulator information storage area 16 for storing information created by the communication simulator means 15, and a transmission time calculation means 17 And an input device 18 and an output device 19.

The communication transmission / reception means 11 includes the communication monitoring means 1
3 or the instruction from the simulator operation execution means procedure 152 to start receiving communication data between the communication device 2 and the network 3 and pass the communication data and the communication data length to the communication monitoring means 13. Further, the communication data designated by the simulator operation execution means 152 is transmitted to the communication device 2.

The time management means 12 manages the current time and notifies the communication monitoring means 13 of the current time. Also,
After the time specified by the communication simulator means 15 in advance, the communication simulator means 15 is notified that the specified time has elapsed.

The communication monitoring means 13 includes the communication transmitting / receiving means 1
The following steps are performed each time communication data and communication data length are received from 1.

The current time obtained from the time management means 12 is written in the reception time data 141 of the monitor information storage area 14. In addition, a communication source address and a communication destination address are specified based on the passed communication data, and written to the communication source address 142 and the communication destination address 143 of the communication monitor information storage area 14. The communication data and the communication data length that have been passed are written to the communication data length 144 and the communication data 145 in the monitor information storage area 14.

The above steps are continued until the input device 18 gives a termination instruction. Further, the communication monitoring means 13
Reads out the monitor information storage area 14 in response to an instruction from the input device 18 and outputs it to the output device 19.

As shown in FIG. 2, the monitor information storage area 14 includes reception time data 141 for storing a reception time, a communication source address 142 indicating a communication source address of the received communication data, and a communication destination of the received communication data. A combination of the communication destination address 143 indicating the address, the communication data length 144 indicating the data length of the received communication data, and the communication data 145 indicating the received communication data is configured as one record, and is written in time series from the communication information monitoring means 13. It is. In addition, as long as all records are configured in the same order, the order of each data in one record of the monitor information storage area 14 is not particularly limited in the present invention.

The communication simulator means 15 includes simulator information creation means 151 and simulator operation execution means 1
52, and a simulator result confirming means 153.

A device to be verified is designated from the input device 18 to the simulator information creating means 151. In the present embodiment, as the device to be verified from the input device 18,
The communication device 2 is specified. In order to enable partial simulator information to be created from the monitor information storage area 14 by input from the input device 18, a read start address (read pointer) and a read end address of the monitor information storage area 14 are designated. Is done.

The simulator information creating means 151 determines from the information of all records read from the read start address to the read end address in the monitor information storage area 14 that the communication source address 142 and the communication destination address 143 are the communication device 2 to be verified. Is extracted, and information of the extracted record is written in the simulator information storage area 16. That is, the reception time data 141 is used as the reception time data 161, the communication source address 142 is used as the communication source address 162, and the communication destination address 143 is used as the communication destination address 16
3, the communication data length 144 is written to the communication data length 166, and the communication data 145 is written to the communication data 167.

Further, the simulator information creating means 151
Is the communication source address 1 of the simulator information storage area 16
62: Determine the distinction between the transmission and reception operations of the simulator from the communication destination address 163, and write information indicating transmission and reception to the transmission / reception distinction data 164. At this time, the case where data is transmitted from the simulator to the communication device 2 is referred to as transmission, and the case where the simulator receives data from the communication device 2 is referred to as reception.

Further, the simulator information creating means 151
Is a record of which the transmission / reception discrimination data 164 indicates transmission (from the network 3 to the device 2) out of all the records in the simulator information storage area 16 and a record in the simulator information storage area 16 which is the immediately preceding record. The reception time data 161 indicating the respective reception times (time received by the communication monitoring means 13 during monitoring) is notified to the transmission time calculation means 17. After that, the transmission time data calculated by the transmission time calculation means 17 is received and written in the transmission time data 165 of the simulator information storage area 16. The transmission time calculation by the transmission time calculation means 17 is obtained from the difference between the reception time of the corresponding record and the reception time of the immediately preceding record in the simulator information storage area 16.
That is, in the present embodiment, the transmission time corresponds to the time from when the communication device 2 sends out data to when the data is transmitted from the network 3 to the communication device 2.

The simulator operation execution means 152 performs the following processing for each record of the simulator information storage area 16 according to the data type of the transmission / reception distinction data 164.

The transmission / reception distinction data 164 is received (the communication device 2
In the case where the communication data is received from the communication transmission / reception unit 11, the reception data is written into the reception result data 168. If the transmission / reception distinction data 164 indicates transmission (from the network 3 to the communication device 2), the simulator information storage area 16
The transmission time data 165 of the corresponding record is read, the transmission time data is passed to the time management means 12, and the transmission waits until a transmission trigger is received from the time management means 12.
When receiving a trigger for transmission, the simulator operation execution unit 152 transmits data to the communication transmission / reception unit 11, and the data is transmitted to the communication device 2.

The simulator operation execution means 152
Receives the instruction to start and end the simulation from the input device 18, starts and stops the simulation operation,
The start and stop messages of the simulation operation are output to the output device 19.

The simulator result confirming means 153 compares the communication data 167 with the reception result data 168 for the record in which the transmission / reception distinction data 164 in the simulation information storage area 16 is received, and sends the result to the output device 19. . If the comparison result shows that the communication data 167 and the reception result data 168 are different, the data is also output to the output device 19.

As shown in FIG. 3, the simulator information storage area 16 stores the reception time data 161 and the communication source address 16.
2, communication destination address 163, transmission / reception distinction data 164, transmission time data 165, data length 166, communication data 16
7 are formed as one record, and are written in time series from the simulator information creating means 152. In addition,
The order of each data in one record of the simulator information storage area 16 is not particularly limited in the present invention as long as all records are configured in the same order. Although the reception result data 168 is also displayed in FIG. 3, it is not always necessary to store the reception result data 168 in the simulator information storage area 16.

The transmission time calculation means 17 calculates the transmission time from the reception time of the transmission data passed from the simulator information generation means 151 and the reception time data of the immediately preceding reception data, and sends the transmission time to the simulator information generation means 151. Pass the transmission time data.

The above configuration comprises a CPU, a RAM, a ROM,
It can be composed of a timer and the like.

The input device 18 is a keyboard, a mouse, or the like, and instructs the communication monitor unit 13 to start and stop a monitor operation, designates a device to be verified to the simulator information creation unit 151, and performs a simulator operation to the simulator information operation execution unit 152. Start, stop, etc.

The output device 19 is a CRT, a printer, or the like. The output device 19 outputs the contents of the monitor information storage area 14 written by the communication monitoring means 13, the comparison result between the communication data 167 of the simulator result confirmation means 153 and the reception result data 168, and the like. I do.

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described.
This will be described with reference to FIGS. 4, 5, 6, and 7.

FIG. 4 shows an example of an operation flow when monitoring is performed.

The communication transmitting / receiving means 11 determines the start of monitoring (S401), and when the monitoring is started, the communication monitoring means initializes a write pointer in a monitor information writing area (S402). Upon receiving the communication data and the communication data length from the communication transmission / reception unit 11 (S403), the communication monitoring unit 13 acquires the current time from the time management unit 12 and writes the current time into the reception time data 141 in the monitor information storage area 14 (S404). ). Further, the source address and the destination address are specified based on the passed communication data (S40).
5), communication source address 1 of the communication monitor information storage area 14
42, writing to the communication destination address 143 (S406).
Further, the communication data and the communication data length that have been passed are stored in the monitor information storage area 14 as the communication data length 144 and the communication data 14.
5 (S406).

While updating the write pointer for each record (S407), the above writing is performed by the input device 18.
And continue until there is an end instruction (S408). afterwards,
When instructed from the input device 18 (S409), the monitor information storage area 14 is read and output to the output device 19 (S410).

FIG. 5 is an operation flow when creating simulator information.

In order to limit the simulator information to be created to that of the device to be verified, the device to be verified is specified and input from the input device 18 (S501). Further, a read start address and a read end address of the monitor information storage area 14 are also input (S501). This makes it possible to create partial simulator information. The input data is passed to the simulator information creating means 151 (S50).
1).

The simulator information creating means 151 initializes a write pointer in the simulator information storage area 16 and sets a read pointer (S502).
Subsequently, the simulator information creation unit 151 reads one record from the monitor information storage area 14 (S50).
4) A record in which the communication source address 142 and the communication destination address 143 indicate the communication device 2 to be verified is extracted (S505, S506).

The information of the extracted records is written in the simulator information storage area 16 as follows. That is, the reception time data 141 is replaced with the reception time data 161.
And the communication source address 142 as the communication source address 162,
The communication destination address 143 is set to the communication destination address 163, the communication data length 144 is set to the communication data length 166, and the communication data 1
45 in the communication data 167 (S50).
7).

From the communication source address 162 and the communication destination address 163 of the simulator information storage area 16, it is determined whether the simulator is transmitting or receiving (S 508), and information indicating transmission and reception is written to the transmission / reception distinction data 164 (S 509). ). If the information is transmitted (S510),
The transmission time calculation means 17 is notified of the corresponding record and the reception time data 161 of the record immediately before it in the simulator information storage area 16.

The transmission time calculation means 17 calculates the transmission time (S511), and the simulator information creation means 151 receives this transmission time data and writes it in the transmission time data 165 of the simulator information storage area 16 (S512).
This procedure is performed for all records from the input read start address to the read end address while updating the read pointer and the write pointer (S513).

FIG. 6 shows an example of an operation flow when the simulator operation is performed.

The simulator operation execution means 152 initializes the read pointer and the write pointer of the simulator information storage area 16 (S601), and executes the following processing for each record according to the data type of the transmission / reception distinction data 164.

When the transmission / reception distinction data 164 indicates reception (S603), the process waits for reception of communication transmission / reception data (S603).
607), the received data received from the communication transmitting / receiving means 11 is stored in the reception result data 16 in the simulator information storage area 16.
8 (S609). Thereafter, the read pointer and the write pointer are updated (S610).

When the transmission / reception distinction data 164 indicates transmission, the transmission time data 165 of the corresponding record in the simulator information storage area 16 is read, and the transmission time data is passed to the time management means 12, and the transmission trigger data is transmitted from the time management means 12. (S604). When a transmission trigger is received, it is transmitted to the communication transmitting / receiving means 11 (S
605). Thereafter, the read pointer and the write pointer are updated (S606).

When the end of the simulation is instructed from the input device 18 or all the records to be simulated are executed, the operation is stopped. Further, the output of the simulation operation stop message is output to the output device 19.
(S611).

FIG. 7 is an example of an operation flow for confirming the result of the simulator operation.

The simulator result confirming means 153 initializes a read pointer (S701), determines whether or not the reading is completed (S702), and reads out transmission / reception distinction data in the simulator information storage area 16 (S703).

The simulator result confirming means 153 determines whether the transmission / reception distinction data 164 in the simulation information storage area 16 is a reception, and compares the communication data 165 with the reception result data 168 for the record that has been received ( S
705) If the comparison results match, a normal message is output to the output device 19. (S707) If the result of comparison is abnormal, communication data and reception result data are output to the output device 19 together (S709).

[0054]

As described above, once the communication data and the reception time between the communication devices are once stored in the communication information storage area, the communication connectivity including the transmission / reception timing can be verified thereafter. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a communication simulator of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a monitor information storage area.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a simulator information storage area.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an operation flow when monitoring is performed.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a flow when creating simulator information.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a flow when a simulator operation is performed.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a flow when a simulator result is confirmed.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Communication simulator 2 Communication device 3 Network 11 Communication transmitting / receiving means 12 Time management means 13 Communication monitoring means 14 Monitor information storage area 15 Communication simulator means 151 Simulator information creation means 152 Simulator operation execution means 153 Simulator result confirmation means 16 Simulator information storage area 17 Transmission time calculation means 18 Input device 19 Output device

Claims (7)

[Claims] A communication monitor for monitoring communication between devices or between a device and a network, a storage for storing communication data monitored by the communication monitor, and simulating communication based on the communication data. What is claimed is: 1. A communication simulator, comprising: a communication simulator; and a transmission simulator for calculating a transmission time to a target device. 2. The communication simulator according to claim 1, further comprising simulator information storage means for storing simulator information created by the communication simulation means based on the monitored communication data. 3. The communication simulator according to claim 1, further comprising time management means for managing a current time and sending data to the communication monitoring means and the communication simulator means. 4. The communication simulator according to claim 1, further comprising transmission time calculation means for calculating a transmission time of communication data from reception time data. 5. When monitoring communication data of an apparatus, obtains and holds reception time data of communication data, and determines a transmission time of communication data from the reception time data held when simulating communication. A communication simulation method comprising calculating and transmitting communication data to a device to be verified at that timing. 6. The communication simulation method according to claim 5, wherein the transmission time of the communication data is calculated from a record indicating transmission in the simulator information storage means and reception time data of a record immediately before the record. 7. When the record in the simulator information storage means is a record indicating reception, data is received and held from the target device. When the record indicates transmission, the transmission time of the record is read from the simulator information storage means. 7. The communication simulation method according to claim 5, wherein the data is transmitted to the target device after a time corresponding to the transmission time.