JPH10247956A - Communication controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication controller in which required information is surely acquired in a required timing without intervention of an operation such as entry of commands in the case of acquiring internal information and transfer to a host device. SOLUTION: When data acquisition information in a control table 11a of a buffer 11 indicates availability of data acquisition, a control circuit 1 of a communication controller 1 acquires the designated information and edit the information. The control circuit 1 uses the edited control information or the like for a transmission frame and a transmission reception circuit 15 sends the frame to an idle channel 104. Since the idle channel 104 forms a closed loop, the transmission frame is received as a reception frame by the transmission reception circuit 15 and transferred to an information processing unit 2 as reception data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication control device, and more particularly, to a communication control device which is disposed between an information processing device for performing data processing and each terminal device connected via a communication line. The present invention relates to a communication control device that controls data transmission and reception for realizing data transfer between the communication control device and the communication control device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of communication control apparatus controls data transmission / reception via a communication line connecting an information processing apparatus and each terminal apparatus, so that a data communication between the information processing apparatus and each terminal apparatus is performed. Transfer has been realized.

In this case, when a failure occurs on the communication path between the information processing device and each terminal device, internal information of the communication control device, that is, information in the communication control device, is used to identify the location of the failure. Control information and operation history information (trace information) are collected, and the collected information is analyzed.

When the internal information is collected from the communication control device, a command for collecting the internal information and transferring the internal information is issued from the information processing device to the communication control device. When the internal information of the communication control device changes sequentially, the command issuance timing is changed in accordance with the change.

Here, as a method of tracing internal information, there is a method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-53880. That is, in the tracing method described in the publication, a higher-level device is provided with time information notification means, and a lower-level communication control device is provided with trace data writing means, free-run timer processing means, interval timer processing means, and time information notification request means. And a trace data transfer means, and a trace area.

In the above configuration, the time information notifying means in the higher-level device communicates time information immediately before issuing a trace start request from the higher-level device to the communication control device and at the time of receiving the time information notification request from the communication control device. Notify the control device. The trace data writing means in the communication control device writes the time information event and the trace event in the trace area based on the time information notified from the time information notification means.

The free-run timer processing means initializes the free-run timer when the time information is notified from the time information notifying means, and the interval timer processing means activates the interval timer when notifying the time information from the time information notifying means, and The interval timer is stopped when a trace stop request is received from the device.

The time information notification requesting means issues a time information notification request to the higher-level device when a predetermined time counted by the interval timer has elapsed, and the trace data transfer means responds to the trace data transfer request from the higher-level device. The trace data in the trace area is transferred to the host device.

In the tracing method described in the publication, by operating as described above, synchronization of the collection time of the trace data collected by the host device and the trace data collected by the communication control device is achieved, and the trace data is collected. Easy analysis.

[0010]

The above-mentioned conventional communication control device requires an operation such as a command input to collect control information and operation history information in the device.
In addition, a command must be input so as to match the timing of starting and ending the processing of the collection target. Also,
The tracing method described in the publication also requires operations such as command input for collecting internal information in the communication control device and the host device.

Further, the internal information collected by the communication control device must be transferred as trace data from the communication control device to the higher-level device, and the transfer also requires operations such as command input.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to eliminate the need for intervening operations such as command input in collecting internal information and transferring it to a higher-level device.
An object of the present invention is to provide a communication control device capable of reliably collecting necessary information at a required timing.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A communication control device according to the present invention is a communication control device for controlling data transmission and reception between a plurality of communication lines and a higher-level device. A communication control device comprising: storage means for storing data collection information indicating the presence or absence of data collection; and collection means for collecting the internal information based on the data collection information stored in the storage means. Have.

In another communication control apparatus according to the present invention, in addition to the above configuration, the internal information collected by the collection means is transmitted to the higher-level device as reception data by using an empty line among the plurality of communication lines. The communication control device according to claim 1, further comprising a transmission unit.

According to the communication control apparatus of the present invention, information necessary for collecting information in the apparatus is set in advance, and the collected information in the apparatus is transmitted to the information processing apparatus using an unused line. Is transferred as received data from This eliminates the necessity of intervening operations that are usually required when collecting information in the device, and makes it possible to reliably collect necessary information on the device.

That is, in order to obtain device internal information such as control information and operation history information (trace information) in the device, data necessary for this information collection is set in advance from a higher-level information processing device. Also, by setting the unused lines on the device in a closed loop, the collected information can be handled in the same manner as the received data, so that there is no need to intervene an operation for collecting control information, and necessary information on the device can be obtained. Can be reliably collected.

[0017]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a data transfer system according to one embodiment of the present invention.
In the figure, an information processing device 2 is connected to each terminal device (not shown) via a communication control device 1 and lines 101 to 103, and is configured to transfer data to and from each terminal device.

The communication control device 1 comprises a control circuit 10, a buffer 11, and transmission / reception circuits 12 to 15. The communication control device simultaneously connects the four lines 101 to 104 to HDLC (High level Data Link).
It has means (not shown) for realizing transmission and reception according to a Control Procedure procedure. In the communication control apparatus 1, three lines 101 to 103 are actually used for communication with a partner terminal device, and circuits 12 to 14 are transmission / reception circuits of the respective lines 101 to 103. The remaining line 104 is a free line,
The line 104 is turned back immediately after exiting the transmission / reception circuit 15 and forms a closed loop. Therefore, the transmission data output from the transmission data line of the transmission / reception circuit 15 is input to the reception data line of the transmission / reception circuit 15, so that the HD
It is received as received data regardless of the value of the address part of the LC frame.

Here, since the data to be transmitted to the line 104 is control information and the like used for performing communication on the lines 101 to 103, the line 104 is transmitted from the communication control device 1 to the information processing device 2 As will be used to transfer.

The control circuit 10 performs an upper interface process with the information processing apparatus 2 and a buffer 11 for transmission / reception data.
Transfer processing, addition / check / deletion processing of an address part and a control part of a frame, and procedure control processing in accordance with the HDLC procedure in transmission / reception between the transmission / reception circuit 12 to the transmission / reception circuits 12 to 15. Perform by using. On the buffer 11, there is a control table 11a for holding information and the like necessary for the control circuit 10 to control transmission and reception processing for each line, and temporarily stores transmission and reception data and the like in a data storage area 11b. This control circuit 1
0 and the buffer 11 are shared by the lines 101 to 104 in order to realize communication on the lines 101 to 104.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an HDLC frame (I frame). In the figure, an HDLC frame a has a flag a1, an address part (one byte) a2, a control part (one byte) a3, an information part (undefined length) a4, a frame inspection part (two bytes) a5, and a flag a6. It is composed of

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration example of data collection information according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, data collection information includes line numbers b1 to bm, information collection element tables c1 to cm corresponding to the line numbers b1 to bm, and collection timing (interval) d corresponding to the line numbers b1 to bm, respectively.
1 to dm.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a data collecting process according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a conventional module process. The operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

Before starting transmission / reception, the communication control device 1 sends a line SG (System) from the information processing device 2 such as line type information serving as a basis of a line open method and data link level transmission / reception parameters such as retransmission intervals and retransmission lines.
Each piece of information is given as Generation information. The communication control device 1 is provided with data collection information in addition to the above information.

Here, the data collection information is transmitted to a plurality of lines 10
Line numbers b1 to bm for designating which line information is to be collected from 1 to 104; a collection information element table c1 to cm in which a collection control information element for specifying which information is to be collected; Control information collection timings d1 to dm that specify whether to collect information at a timing (for example, at the time of startup, before processing, or after processing).
In the collection information element tables c1 to cm, the flag positions on the tables correspond to the internal information elements of the apparatus, and specify whether or not to collect the data by turning on / off the corresponding flag.

In this embodiment, the line number b from which data is collected
Sampling information element tables c1 to cm designated to collect only state transition information at the data link level as sampling information elements 1 to bm are provided as data collection information. First, line numbers b1 to
When bm is given, the control circuit 10 turns on the control information collection flag on the control table 11a corresponding to the designated line, and gives the provided collection information element tables c1 to cm.
Is stored on the control table 11a as it is.

After the control circuit 10 completes the setting of the data collection information on the control table 11a, the control circuit 10
The transmission / reception circuits 12 to 15 corresponding to 04 are activated, and transmission / reception processing is started.

In the communication control device 1, each of the lines 101 to 104
Is realized by successively executing processing routines (hereinafter, referred to as modules) subdivided for each processing unit.

The transmission processing is performed by the control circuit 10 by the information processing apparatus 2.
, The transmission data from the information processing device 2 specified on the instruction is temporarily stored in the buffer 11, and the transmission / reception circuit 12 is activated. The transmission / reception circuit 12 adds the calculated check sequence data to the end of the designated transmission data, and transmits the frame to the line 101.

At the time of frame reception, the transmission / reception circuit 12 temporarily stores received data in the buffer 11 according to the buffer address given from the control circuit 10. At this time, it is checked whether there is any data transmission error due to the check sequence data. The control circuit 10 checks the control unit of the received data on the buffer 11 and determines whether or not the data is correctly received from the communication partner station. When the control circuit 10 determines that the data is received correctly, the control circuit 10 sends a reception instruction to the information processing apparatus 2
From the information processing device 2 specified on the command
The received data is transferred to the address in the box. That is,
It is necessary that the information processing device 2 always issues a reception command.

As described above, the communication control apparatus 1 realizes the transmission / reception processing of each of the lines 101 to 104 by sequentially executing the module of the processing unit. Each module processing (step S1 in FIG. 4) After the I frame transmission process (step S2 in FIG. 4) is completed, the control information collection flag on the control table 11a corresponding to the line being processed is checked (step S3 in FIG. 4). The module processing ends because it is not necessary to collect the data. On the other hand, if the flag is on, the initial address of the collection information element tables c1 to cm is set as a pointer (step S4 in FIG. 4),
The information collection element flags are sequentially checked (step S5 in FIG. 4). If the information collection element flag is off, the pointer is updated (step S7 in FIG. 4), and the process proceeds to check the next information collection element flag (steps S8 and S5 in FIG. 4).

On the other hand, if the information collection element flag is on, the necessary information is read, the information is written into the editing area of the buffer 11 (step S6 in FIG. 4), and it is checked whether there is any other element. When the editing is completed after all the elements have been checked (step S8 in FIG. 4), the transmission / reception circuit 15 is activated using the control information of the editing area as a transmission frame (step S9 in FIG. 4). Since the transmission frame transmitted from the transmission / reception circuit 15 has a closed loop on the line 104,
The transmission / reception circuit 15 immediately receives the received frame. The receiving process in this case is exactly the same as the normal receiving process, and the received frame is subjected to data check and unnecessary data deletion, and stored in the buffer 11. Here, the received data, that is, the collected control information, is transferred to the information processing device 2 as requested by the reception command.

Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 5, only the module processing (step S11 in FIG. 5) and the I-frame transmission processing (step S12 in FIG. 5) are performed by the communication control device.

In the above-described information collection process, the internal information to be collected can be easily changed by changing the information collection element tables c1 to cm specifying the information collection elements as the data collection information or adding the collection timings d1 to dm. It is possible to change.

As described above, the information processing apparatus 2 can obtain the internal control information and the like of the communication control apparatus 1 in the same manner as the data received from the lines 101 to 104. Normally, in order to obtain trace information of transmission / reception processing, the information processing apparatus 2 sequentially retains contents of transmission / reception data and uses the contents as trace information. In this embodiment, since the trace information can include control information in the communication control device 1 in synchronization with the transmission / reception data, analysis of the trace data at the time of occurrence of a failure can be facilitated.

If data on the closed loop line of the line 104 is monitored, control information in the communication control device 1 can be traced, and trouble occurs in the upper information processing device 2 and the interface between the information processing devices. In this case, the trace data can be analyzed, which is effective for failure analysis.

[0037]

As described above, according to the communication control apparatus of the present invention, data collection information indicating whether or not the internal information of the own apparatus is collected is stored in advance, and the internal information is stored based on the stored contents. By collecting the information, there is an effect that necessary information can be reliably collected at a required timing without intervening an operation such as a command input in collecting and transferring internal information to a higher-level device.

According to another communication control apparatus of the present invention, the above-mentioned collection information is transmitted as reception data to a higher-level device using an empty line, so that the internal information is included in the trace information of the transmission / reception data. It can be included in a sequence, and there is an effect that analysis of trace information can be facilitated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a data transfer system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of an HDLC frame.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration example of data collection information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a data collection process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a conventional module process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Communication control apparatus 2 Information processing apparatus 10 Control circuit 11 Buffer 11a Control table 11b Data storage area 12-15 Transmission / reception circuit 101-104 Line

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A communication control device for controlling transmission and reception of data between a plurality of communication lines and a host device, and stores data collection information which is set in advance and indicates whether internal information of the own device is collected. A communication control device comprising: a storage unit; and a collection unit that collects the internal information based on the data collection information stored in the storage unit. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for transmitting the internal information collected by the collection means to the host device as reception data using an empty line among the plurality of communication lines. Communication control device. 3. The communication control device according to claim 2, wherein the idle line is a closed loop, and the internal information transmitted to the idle line is looped back in the closed loop and received as received data. 4. The data collection information according to claim 1, wherein at least information specifying the collection timing of the internal information and information specifying which information of the internal information is to be collected are included. The communication control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.