JPH11187070A - System for setting communication priority for communication control part management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To set high communication priority to the data of truly high priority by judging it from the side of a communication system without requesting the knowledge of a communication program of a user. SOLUTION: Inside communication equipment for transmitting/receiving an AP, a communication control part 104 is provided for managing a program separately from a communication control part 102 for transmitting/receiving the data of the AP, and this control part 104 is provided with an attribute request analysis means 104a for detecting an attribute request related to a communication priority issued from other part to the communication control part 104, a priority selecting means 104b for determining an attribute corresponding to the communication priority predetermined by a system from this attribute request, and an attribute setting means 104c for setting the attribute corresponding to the determined communication priority to a communication processing part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention inhibits communication processing in a communication using a shared media communication medium by controlling and processing the communication by defining a communication priority attribute on the system side. The present invention relates to setting of a communication priority which avoids congestion of communication data on a network as a factor and guarantees high reliability and high speed of communication.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In communication using a shared media communication medium, usually, communication processing is performed under the same conditions for any communication data without considering the importance of the communication data. Therefore, when a large number of communication processes occur, a collision of communication data occurs on a communication medium, and a problem occurs in that a communication process having a low importance actually hinders a communication process having a high importance. . In order to improve this, communication priority is given to communication data according to the importance of the communication data, and based on that, communication processing is controlled by a network connection device such as a switching device, and communication between different communication priorities is performed. There has been proposed a method of avoiding data collision and performing communication processing with higher priority on communication data with high importance.

A description will be given of a first prior art of the above-described communication priority setting and a communication operation based thereon. FIG. 75 shows “PA
CE Technology-Making Multimedia and Real-Time Netw
orks Possible Today (PACE Technology White Paper,
Kai Chang, 3Com Inc. )) 'S "How PACE Class of
The concept of the PACE mechanism shown in "Service Technology Is Impremented" is shown in a diagram.

[0004] In the communication device 1 (hereinafter also including a computer) in FIG. 75, the user application 2 judges the importance of the communication data, and sets the communication priority determined in advance by the importance of the communication data to the communication data. And a part 3 (usually also called a communication control unit, which has a function of executing communication constituted by an operating system inside the communication device 1 and network connection communication hardware), but the invention relates to the present invention. Therefore, the program interface unit 3a in the communication processing unit is used as a unit for simply transferring data between application networks based on a predetermined protocol. And send it out. The transmitted communication data is processed as a packet used for communication by the communication protocol unit 3b in the communication processing unit. Thereafter, the device driver unit 3c in the communication processing unit
Data is passed to. At that time, the device driver unit 3c
Then, the communication priority is set in the created communication frame based on the attribute of the communication priority determined in advance according to the importance of the communication data specified by the user application 2, and the communication as the network connection communication hardware is performed. The data is transmitted to the network connection device 4 from the network interface unit 3d in the processing unit. In the network connection device 4, a technology for determining the attribute of the communication priority already assigned to the communication frame is known therein, and a device having a higher communication priority is preferentially processed, and another communication device 1 is processed. To transfer the communication frame. The transfer of the communication frame to which the low communication priority is assigned is not performed until the transfer processing of the communication frame to which the high communication priority is assigned is completed in the network connection device 4, and the communication frame is kept waiting.

[0005] In the PACE mechanism, two types of communication priority are set, high and low, and the communication priority is statically assigned in advance for each virtual port when the user application 2 performs communication. When the user application 2 performs communication, communication is performed using a communication priority that is statically assigned in advance by a virtual port to be used. The network connection device 4 is designed in advance so as to be able to perform priority processing in accordance with two kinds of high and low communication priorities, and communicates communication data to which two kinds of high and low communication priorities are given by the communication device 1. It has a function of delivering to other communication devices 1 based on the priority.

According to the first prior art, by giving a communication priority to communication data, communication according to the communication priority can be realized, but there are the following problems. That is, first, since the user application 2 assigns a communication priority to communication data, a communication priority assignment method depending on the network interface unit 3d in the communication processing unit at the stage of designing the user application 2 Therefore, it is necessary to implement it in the application. Second, since the user applications 2 independently determine the importance of communication data and determine communication priorities, it is difficult to arbitrate communication priorities between different user applications 2. Third, since there is no method for determining and controlling a common communication priority between different communication devices 1, it is difficult to arbitrate communication priorities between different communication devices 1. Fourth, since the user application 2 determines the communication priority assigned to the communication data, the communication device 1
Management cannot be implemented within the operating system that runs on Windows. Therefore, early detection of communication equipment abnormalities and network system abnormalities due to disorderly use of communication priorities becomes impossible. Fifth, for communications having different communication priorities, congestion due to collision of communication data in the network system can be avoided, but for a plurality of communications using the same communication priority, congestion due to collision of communication data can be avoided. Since it is impossible, once the collision of communication data occurs, the congestion recovery processing is performed with priority. For this reason, normal communication processing is temporarily stopped, which hinders communication requiring high speed, or hinders data communication with arrival time restriction, and can only perform communication processing without reliability. .

The second prior art will be described. FIG. 76 shows a configuration diagram of the distributed heterogeneous network communication disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-506571. The model of the computer 10 in FIG. 76 is arbitrary, and a plurality of models are connected on the same local area network 12. It is also connected on the wide area network 13. Each computer 10 has a communication manager (hereinafter referred to as CM) 11. One computer 10 has the CM
11 via the local area network 12 and the wide area network 13
Assume that communication with M11 is performed. The CM 11 provides a virtual network protocol to an application running on the computer 10. By communicating with the CM 11 using a virtual network protocol, the application can set the priority without considering the following restrictions. That is, the type of communication medium used in the local area network 12 to which the computer is actually connected, the type of communication medium used in the wide area network 13, and the type of connected equipment used to connect to the network Restrictions such as a type, a type of an actual communication protocol used by the computer for communication with another computer 10 via the local area network 12 or the wide area network 13, and a network address for identifying the computer 10 existing on the network. Can communicate without being aware of Note that the CM 11 is constructed as a user application that runs on the computer 10, and the C
8 as priority for delivery of communication data from M11
The priority of the stage is defined, and when transmitting communication data from the inside of the CM 11 to the actual communication protocol processing unit on the computer 10, the data is transferred in the order defined by the communication priority.

According to the second prior art, the computer 10
The user application that runs on the above implements communication using the virtual protocol with the CM 11 to enable inter-model communication and to reduce the development cost required when developing the user application. There is. That is, first, since the CM 11 is constructed as a user application, the execution time (time quantum) is divided from other user applications operating on the computer 10. If a sufficient execution time is not given to the execution of the CM 11, communication data is accumulated on the CM 11, and the computer 10 cannot smoothly transmit the communication data to the network. Second, CM11
Is required to convert between a virtual protocol and a real communication protocol used by the computer 10 for communication with the outside inside the device, and the conversion process takes a long time. Therefore, it is applied to a network that requires high-speed communication. Is difficult. Third
In the case where the computer 10 performs communication using the new communication medium and the new real communication protocol, not only the addition of the new communication medium processing unit and the new real communication protocol processing unit to the computer 10 but also the protocol conversion inside the CM 11 is performed. Part and C
It is necessary to additionally create another network control unit inside the M11, and the development cost for the CM11 is increased.

The third prior art will be described. FIG. 77 shows a configuration diagram of a cooperative work workstation disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-503569. In the figure, an application program 20 includes an application programming interface 22 (hereinafter referred to as A).
Through the use of a PI, it is possible to request a communication-related service such as transmission of communication data and acquisition of a communication state of the system. Device driver interface 3
0 (hereinafter, referred to as DDI), the system causes the token ring device driver 31 and the ISDN device driver 3
2. External communication can be supported via the RS232C device driver 33, other device drivers 34, and the like. When the application program 20 communicates with the outside, a logical channel to be used is allocated by the logical channel manager 27, and communication is performed using the logical channel. A token is created by the token manager 26, and characteristics such as communication parameters of a logical channel are given to the token by the data communication manager 28. The network manager 29 converts the token into actual protocol data for communication by the device driver. Then D
The data is transmitted to the outside through the DI 30 using the device driver. The resources 23 represent printers, secondary storage devices, and the like installed in the workstations, and are implemented by the resource management when the resources are shared on the network and the shared set manager 25. When resources are shared on a network, the resources are presented to the outside as a logical device 24 to facilitate access from outside. The call manager 21 receives a communication request from the outside and executes an event such as activation of the corresponding application program 20.

According to the third prior art, the application program 20 can communicate with a common interface irrespective of a lower-level physical device, and uses a kind of virtual protocol called a token. This enables application development without being aware of the form of the physical communication device to be used. In addition, since resource sharing, logical device management, and the like are performed without the intervention of the application program 20, it can be used without being affected by a complicated device control method. However, when this method is used, the following problems occur. First, by using a kind of virtual protocol called a token,
Because protocol conversion occurs between the physical communication device used for communication, the overhead of the conversion process increases,
Execution speed may be reduced. Second, since the user controls characteristic control such as communication quality for a virtual channel used for communication in communication units, high importance communication may be disturbed by low importance communication in view of importance of communication. There is. Third, since there is no method for sharing the characteristics of a virtual channel on a network using a common medium, there is no way for individual workstations to know the characteristics used by communications performed by other workstations. Therefore, common management of bandwidth on the network becomes impossible, and the cause of communication delay such as congestion due to collision of communication data on the network cannot be reduced.

[0011]

As described above, the conventional communication priority setting is based on priority information from an application. There has been a problem that arbitration cannot determine an appropriate priority as a communication system, and that appropriate congestion management cannot be performed.
Another problem is that an appropriate communication priority cannot be specified unless the user understands a communication program. In addition, there is another problem that a processing time for converting a virtual protocol is required for decoding the priority and a substantial communication processing time is increased. Further, there is another problem that the designation of the priority is fixed, and it is not possible to flexibly cope with a change in the surrounding environment such as an increase in programs to be communicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and does not require a user to have knowledge of a communication program, but can determine a higher priority for data having a really high priority as judged by the communication system. It is an object of the present invention to set a communication priority and to obtain a communication priority setting system capable of flexibly changing the priority in response to an environmental change.

[0013]

A communication control unit management system communication priority setting system according to the present invention includes an application program (A) for communicating with another network connection device.
A communication control unit for managing a program is provided in a communication device for transmitting and receiving data of P), separately from a communication processing unit for transmitting and receiving data of the AP, and an attribute request related to communication priority sent from the communication control unit to the communication control unit. Attribute request analysis means for detecting
A communication device including a priority selection unit that determines an attribute equivalent to a communication priority predetermined by the system from the attribute request, and an attribute setting unit that sets an attribute equivalent to the determined communication priority in the communication processing unit. Connected to the network.

Further, the attribute setting corresponding to the communication priority in the communication processing unit is performed at the time of initialization when the operating system (OS) of the communication control unit is started.

Furthermore, the detection of the attribute request related to the communication priority detects the communication protocol used by the AP for communication, and the selection of the attribute corresponding to the communication priority in the system is determined based on the communication protocol. I did it.

Further, the communication priority related attribute request is detected by detecting a plurality of pieces of information, such as a connection form used by the AP for communication and connection information requested by the AP, as an attribute request, and performing communication priority in the system. The selection of the attribute corresponding to the degree is determined based on a combination of the plurality of attribute requests.

Further, the detection of the attribute request related to the communication priority is also performed during the transmission / reception of the AP. Changed the settings dynamically.

Further, when the attribute request related to the communication priority is detected by analyzing the connection request from the AP,
Is detected only in the case of an AP for which a request is allowed in advance by the system.

Furthermore, a communication priority equivalent setting file is provided in the communication control unit, and a plurality of communication priority equivalent attributes are stored. When the OS is started, the communication priority equivalent file is referred to and transmitted to the communication processing unit. Has made setting of attributes corresponding to a plurality of communication priorities.

Further, the selection of the attribute corresponding to the priority based on the attribute request is determined by the attribute request in the communication device of the transmission source.

Still further, the selection of the attribute corresponding to the priority based on the attribute request is determined by the attribute request in the communication device of the transmission source of one AP, and the setting attribute in the other transmission and reception communication devices is this 1 It follows that the selection of the attribute of the transmission source of one AP was followed.

Further, the selection of the attribute corresponding to the priority based on the attribute request is determined by the attribute request in the communication device of the receiving destination, and the result of the selection of the attribute is returned to the communication device of the transmission source. .

Still further, the selection of the attribute corresponding to the priority is A
The attribute of the execution priority of P is determined, and the execution priority of the determined AP is notified to the communication device of the transmitting and receiving sides to set the attribute.

Further, the selection of the attribute corresponding to the priority is performed by detecting that the execution priority of the AP on the transmitting side is an attribute request,
The execution priority of the AP is determined based on the attribute request of the transmitting AP.

Further, when detecting a plurality of attribute requests from one AP, a plurality of setting attributes and connection paths are set, and the communication processing unit identifies different attribute requests. Communication is performed using a connection path corresponding to the identifier.

Further, identifiers representing different attribute requests from one AP are grouped into a predetermined group to set a plurality of connection paths, and the communication processing unit performs communication using the connection paths corresponding to the identifiers. I made it.

Further, a statistics management means for performing statistical management based on an attribute corresponding to the communication priority is provided in the communication control unit, so that management information on an attribute which can be referred to from outside is obtained.

[0028]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 The basic part of the present invention is that the communication priority is not determined on the application side but the communication priority is determined by the system side from a comprehensive point of view. -The setting function has been transferred to the system (OS) side. That is, the conventional communication processing unit is divided into two parts: a communication control unit having a user interface unit, a middleware unit, and a built-in OS unit, and a communication processing unit that exchanges data including a protocol. The communication control unit does not depend on the type of communication processing unit, has a user interface that is separate from the communication processing unit, and data issued from the user application has a unified format regardless of the type of communication processing unit. It was originally handled. Regarding the setting of communication priority, it receives communication priority attribute requests, communication rate values and many other attribute requests input from user applications and other communication devices connected to the network, and performs communication control on attribute requests. The unit arbitrates as a system and sets the determined communication priority attribute in the information processing unit. Thereafter, the communication processing unit performs communication based on the communication priority attribute set by the communication control unit.

In the present embodiment, a description will be given of the basic configuration and operation related to the communication priority of the communication control unit, and the case where the AP requests the attribute of the communication priority and sets the attribute based on the request. FIG. 1 shows a network system according to the present embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 100 denotes a communication device including a communication computer provided with a communication control unit disposed in a network system (hereinafter, referred to as a communication device). Reference numeral 101 denotes a user application including input / output processing with the communication control unit (hereinafter, referred to as AP). Reference numeral 102 denotes a communication processing unit including input / output processing with the communication control unit (hereinafter, referred to as a communication processing unit). Less than,
Based on a predetermined protocol, only a part that exchanges data between the AP and the network is extracted and called a communication processing unit. Reference numeral 102a denotes a program interface unit in the communication processing unit including input / output processing with the communication control unit (hereinafter, referred to as a program interface unit).
Processing I / F unit). Reference numeral 102b denotes a communication protocol processing unit in the communication processing unit including input / output processing with the communication control unit (hereinafter, referred to as a protocol unit). 102c
Is a device driver unit of the communication processing unit including input / output processing with the communication control unit (hereinafter, referred to as a driver unit). Reference numeral 102d denotes a network interface unit in the communication processing unit including input / output processing with the communication control unit (hereinafter, referred to as NIC). Reference numeral 103 denotes a network connection device capable of connecting a plurality of communication devices in a network system and performing communication priority processing based on a plurality of communication priorities assigned to communication data as attributes (hereinafter, SWs). Described).

Reference numeral 104 denotes a communication control unit disposed in the communication device 100, which is an important component related to the present invention (hereinafter, referred to as a communication control unit). Reference numeral 104a denotes a program interface unit in the communication control unit 104 (hereinafter, referred to as a control I / F unit). Reference numeral 104b denotes a middleware configuration unit in the communication control unit 104 (hereinafter referred to as control M /
W part). Reference numeral 104c denotes a built-in operating system (hereinafter referred to as an OS) in the communication control unit 104 (hereinafter referred to as a control built-in unit). Reference numeral 105 denotes a statistics management unit in the OS arranged in the communication device 100 (hereinafter, referred to as a management unit). FIG. 1B illustrates an operation in which the OS built-in unit 104c of the communication control unit analyzes the attribute request in cooperation with the control I / F unit 104a to determine the communication priority as the system, and then sets the communication priority in the system. It is a flowchart which shows.

The attributes of the communication priority include the request of the communication priority from the AP, the communication rate value, the execution priority of the AP, the theoretical / actual delay on the system, the jitter, and the possibility of compressing the communication data. And information obtained from information such as encryption information of communication data, and is a parameter indicating communication priority when communicating through a network system, and is paired with an identifier for identifying this attribute.

First, the detailed configuration and function of each unit of the communication device 100 having the configuration shown in FIG. 1 will be described. The AP 101 issues a communication priority attribute request to the communication control unit 104. Also, communication data is input and output between the AP 101 and the communication processing unit 102. In the communication control unit 104, the AP 101
Alternatively, an attribute request with the communication processing unit 102 or the management unit 105 and setting of an attribute relating to the selected communication priority are performed, and the attribute currently selected in the communication control unit 104 is managed. The attributes managed by the communication control unit 104 may be internally managed in a table format, may be managed in a list format, or may be managed in another format.

The communication control unit 104 includes a control I / F unit 104
a, a control M / W unit 104b, and a control built-in unit 104c. However, in some cases, the control M / W unit 1 includes only the control I / F unit 104a and the control built-in unit 104c.
In some cases, the control M / W unit 104b does not exist.
The presence or absence of is defined by the configuration of the communication device 100 and the type of communication. The control I / F unit 104a includes the communication processing unit 1
02 is independent of the type of the communication processing unit 102, and a uniform user interface can be provided to the AP 101 regardless of the communication processing unit 102. Also, the control I / F unit 104
The data issued from the AP 101 using “a” is not related to the processing of the communication processing unit 102 and can be handled in a unified format. The communication control unit 104 internally performs an individual process optimal for the process of the communication processing unit 102 by a system predetermined in the system, and gives the communication processing unit 102 a communication priority based on a selection logic by the system. Set attributes.
In the present embodiment, the setting of the above-described attribute from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102 is performed in the form of a table, a list, or another format during the initialization process when the communication device 100 starts the OS. Is statically set as an attribute managed by.

The communication processing unit 102 performs input / output of communication data with the AP 101 or the SW 103, and also receives and transmits the above-mentioned attributes with the communication control unit 104 and the SW 103. Processing I / F unit 102a and protocol unit 10
2b, the driver unit 102c, and the NIC unit 102c input from the AP 101 or the SW 103 in order to perform communication based on the attribute by setting a corresponding attribute element among the attributes input from the communication control unit 104. A mechanism for processing and processing the communication data obtained. Further, when a command to transfer the above-described attribute is received from the communication control unit 104, the attribute information is transmitted to the SW 103, and a mechanism for transferring the attribute received from the SW 103 to the communication control unit 104 is also provided.

The SW 103 transmits and receives communication data and attributes to and from the communication processing unit 102 of each communication device 100. In addition, when performing transmission / reception processing of communication data and attributes, there is a mechanism for performing communication priority processing based on the plurality of communication priority attributes set above.

The management unit 105 similarly obtains the above-described attributes managed by the communication control unit 104, and presents it to other components in the OS as statistical information. This management unit 105 may not exist in some cases.
Not a required component.

The basic operation of the above components will be described.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation of the communication processing unit 102 when transmitting communication data. The process flow will be described with reference to FIGS. When the communication data is passed from the AP 101 to the communication processing unit 102, first, at step 10
In step 00a, the processing I / F unit 102a receives the communication data passed from the AP 101. Next, step 1000
b, the communication control unit 104 in the communication processing unit 102
The communication data is processed based on the attribute specified by. After that, the communication data is sent to the SW 103 in step 1000c.

Next, FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the communication processing unit 102 when receiving communication data.
The process flow will be described with reference to FIG. SW103
When the communication data is passed from the communication processing unit 102 to the communication processing unit 102, first, in step 1001a, the NIC 102d
03 receives the communication data passed therefrom. Next, in step 1001b, the type of communication data received in the communication processing unit 102 is determined. Here, if the received communication data is data for which attribute information has been received, the process proceeds to step 1001e. In step 1001e, the attribute information is sent from the communication processing unit 102 to the communication control unit 104, and the process ends. If it is determined that the communication data received in step 1001b is not attribute information but normal communication data, the process proceeds to step 1001c. Step 1
In step 001c, the communication data received is processed using the communication priority attribute specified in advance by the communication control unit 104. Here, if the attribute specified by the communication control unit 104 is an attribute that uses the attribute information added to the communication data as it is,
The communication processing unit 102 processes the communication data by using the attribute given to the communication data as it is. Next, in step 1001d, the communication data processed by the communication processing unit 102 is sent to the AP 101, and the process ends.

Next, the SW 103 is connected to the source communication device 10.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing operation from receiving communication data from 0 to passing communication data to the destination communication device 100, and a flow of the processing will be described with reference to FIGS. When communication data is received by the SW 103 from the communication device 100 of the transmission source, first, in step 1002a,
The communication data is taken into the SW 103. The communication data received from the communication device 100 of the transmission source may be attribute information in addition to the normal communication data. Next, communication processing is performed inside the SW 103 based on the attribute set in the communication data in step 1002b. Next, in step 1002c, the communication data is transmitted to the destination communication device 100, and the process ends.

Next, the AP 101 or the communication processing unit 10
The processing operation of the communication control unit 104 in the case where the communication priority attribute request is received from No. 2 is shown as a flowchart in FIG.

If an attribute request of the communication priority is input from the AP 101 or another communication device via the communication processing unit 102 during the initialization process when the communication device 100 starts the OS, the communication control unit 104 is executed in step 1003a. Receives the entered attribute request. Next, step 1003
Based on b, it is determined whether there is no error or the like in the received attribute request and the attribute request can be accepted inside the information control unit 104. If not, step 10
By 03e, the acceptance is rejected, an error is returned, and the process ends. If the attribute request received in step 1003b can be accepted inside the information control unit 104, the priority is selected inside the communication control unit 104 in step 1003c. Then, in step 1003c,
The selected attribute is set for the communication control unit 102, and the process ends.

Next, the communication control unit 1 for transmitting an attribute
FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of the processing operation of Step 04, and the flow of the processing will be described with reference to FIGS. First, in step 1004a, a corresponding part is searched from the attributes selected and recorded in the communication control unit 104. When transmitting all the attributes, step 1004a transmits all the attributes in the communication control unit 104. Next, in step 1004b, the attribute transmission command and the attribute data are sent from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102, and the process ends. The communication processing unit 102 transmits the received attribute to the destination communication device 100 by performing the same transmission processing as that of normal communication data, as described above.

Next, the communication control unit 1 is controlled by the management unit 105.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing operation of acquiring an attribute of a communication priority selected and recorded inside the OS 04 and posting the attribute as statistical information to other components inside the OS. The process flow will be described with reference to FIG. First, in step 1005a, an attribute selected and recorded in the communication control unit 104 is acquired. Next, step 1
In 005b, statistical information is created based on the above attributes acquired from the communication control unit 104. Next, step 100
In step 5c, the created statistical information is disclosed to other components in the OS, and the process ends. Other components in the OS are:
For example, a state analysis routine or the like in the OS may be used to indicate to the user as state analysis information in the communication device 100 based on the disclosed statistical information or to detect an abnormality occurring in the communication device 100. Or use it.

A communication example based on the above-described operation concept will be described. FIG. 8 shows that the communication control unit 104
2, the communication priority attribute 106 is set, and the AP 101
This shows a case where a communication request is issued from, and the communication request corresponds to low-priority communication. First, the communication device 100
At the time of initialization when the OS is started, the selected attribute information is set from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102.
In this example, three types of high-priority communication, medium-priority communication, and low-priority communication are defined as attributes 106. The communication processing unit 102 has a function of controlling each priority when communication corresponding to the three types of communication priority attributes 106 set by the communication control unit 104 occurs. The SW 103 has a function of internally executing a priority process based on the communication priority attribute 106 given to the communication data by the communication processing unit 102. In this example, the Cl communication 11 corresponding to the low priority communication from the AP 101
6, and the communication processing unit 102 only assigns a low priority attribute to these communication data.
There is no need for priority processing. The SW 103 interprets the low priority attribute assigned to the communication data,
As priority processing with communication data of another application communicating using W103, for example, the processing time allocation is internally changed to a valid value based on the priority attribute assigned to the communication data. . Further, the management unit 105 obtains the current communication state from the communication processing unit 102 through the communication control unit 104, and indicates this to the information collecting AP 115 as communication statistical information 114.

FIG. 9 shows the state of the AP 101 in the state of FIG.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an operation when a Ch communication 118 and a medium priority communication 117 corresponding to high-priority communication occur.
In this case, based on the attribute 106 set from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102 when the OS is started, the communication processing unit 102 sets the Cl communication 116 in a waiting state and sets the time allocated to the processing of the Cm communication 117. Suppress, Ch communication 1
The operation is performed so as to increase the time allocated to the processing of No. 18. At this time, the management unit 105 obtains the current communication state from the communication processing unit 102 through the communication control unit 104, and indicates this to the information collection AP 115 as communication statistical information 114.

FIG. 10 shows the state of the AP 10 in the state of FIG.
FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining an operation at a stage when Ch communication 118 generated from No. 1 is completed. In this case, based on the attribute 106 set from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102 when the OS is started, the time allocated to the processing of the Cl communication 116 is suppressed, and the time allocated to the processing of the Cm communication 117 is increased. Works like that.

In the communication example described above, the types of communication that occur are limited to three types, that is, the Ch communication 118, the Cm communication 117, and the Cl communication 116. However, the same operation is apparently performed even if the number of generated communication increases. It is. Also, the attribute 106 of the present example
When the Ch communication 118 occurs, the Cm communication is set to the suppression communication, and the Cl communication is waited. When the Ch communication 118 does not exist and the Cm communication 117 occurs, the Cl communication 116 is set. Although it is defined as suppressed communication, when a plurality of types of communication occur, depending on the definition of the attribute 106, it is possible to cope with the problem by gradually reducing the time allotted to low priority communication, or to set the highest communication priority. It is also possible to spend all the processing time for one communication and wait for other priority communication. Further, for example,
A Ch communication 118 is a communication for performing control of a plant monitoring device or the like and handles the most important communication. The system may be stopped in the middle of transfer communication or the like, but when restarted, the system determines in advance that communication that can be continuously transmitted and received from the state before the stop will be handled.

Next, FIG. 11 shows that the attribute 106 set by the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102 indicates that the attribute request as a trigger is the bandwidth occupation ratio occupied by the own communication with respect to the entire bandwidth of the communication medium. It is a figure showing the case where there is. In the figure, the communication request from the AP 101 has a bandwidth occupancy of 70%.
In the case of the communication of FIG. As an operation in this case, first, at the time of initialization when the OS of the communication device 100 is started, the priority attribute previously selected as a static configuration parameter of the OS is transmitted from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 1.
Set to 02. In this example, as the priority attribute 106,
Three types of communication are defined: communication with a bandwidth occupancy of 70%, communication with a bandwidth occupancy of 40%, and communication with a bandwidth occupancy of 20%. The communication processing unit 102 has a function of controlling a bandwidth for each communication when communication corresponding to the set attribute 106 occurs. The SW 103 also stores the attribute 1 of the band occupancy ratio given to the communication data by the communication processing unit 102.
06, a function for internally implementing bandwidth control is provided. In this example, the bandwidth occupancy rate 7
Only Cw communication 119 corresponding to 0% communication has occurred, and communication data has
% Of the attribute, and allocate the communication band to use 70% of the bandwidth of the transmission medium. The SW 103 interprets the attribute 106 of the bandwidth occupancy of 70% assigned to the communication data, and performs the bandwidth occupancy of the communication data as a bandwidth occupation process with the communication data using the SW 103. Change the value internally to a valid value based on the attribute. The management unit 105 obtains the current communication state from the communication processing unit 102 via the communication control unit 104, and indicates the current communication state to the information collection AP 115 as communication statistical information 114.

FIG. 12 shows the state of AP1 in the state of FIG.
Ct communication 12 corresponding to communication with a bandwidth occupancy of 20% from 01
0 and Cn communication 121 corresponding to communication with a bandwidth occupation rate of 40%
FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining an operation when the error occurs. in this case,
70% of the total bandwidth of the transmission medium is allocated to the Cw communication 119, and 2% of the total bandwidth of the transmission medium is allocated to the Ct communication 120.
0% is allocated, and the Cn communication 121 is initially set to allocate 10% of the total bandwidth of the communication medium as the remaining bandwidth other than the bandwidth used by the Cw communication 119 and the Ct communication 120. FIG. 13 shows that A in the state of FIG.
It is a figure explaining operation at the stage where Cw communication 119 which occurred from P101 ended. In this case, the communication processing unit 102 allocates 20% of the total bandwidth of the transmission medium to the Ct communication 120 and the communication It operates to allocate 40% of the total bandwidth of the medium.

In the above description, the communication that occurs is represented by C
Although limited to three types of w communication 119, Ct communication 120, and Cn communication 121, it is apparent that the same operation is performed even if the number of generated communication increases. Also, the attribute 106 of this example is defined as allocating a band preferentially to a communication having a bandwidth occupation ratio that can be accommodated by the remaining bandwidth of the transfer medium at the time of communication. Occurs, depending on the definition of the attribute 106, a method of preferentially allocating a band to a certain communication, or a method of uniformly allocating the remaining bandwidth of the transfer medium to a communication that occurs simultaneously. If the requested bandwidth cannot be obtained, it is possible to deal with such a method that communication is not performed as an error. Further, for example, Cw communication 11
9 handles communication involving transmission of a large amount of communication data such as images and voices, and Cn communication 121 handles communication involving transmission of a medium communication data amount for sending character text such as e-mail to a large number of destinations. The system determines in advance that the Ct communication 120 involves transmission of a small amount of communication data such as a remote terminal connection operation. In the communication examples from FIG. 8 to FIG. 13, the attribute 106 indicates the communication priority and the bandwidth occupancy, respectively. However, the attribute 106 can be controlled by other factors such as communication delay time and jitter.

Embodiment 2 Various variations other than the case where the communication priority related attribute request is a communication priority attribute request from a single application will be described.
First, a communication operation when the communication device 100 simultaneously transmits and receives a plurality of applications will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, an attribute 106 is set from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102, and an attribute a106 and an attribute b1 are set.
06 is transmitted from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102 in advance.
Represents attributes of different communication priorities selected and registered for each application. In FIG. 14, there are two application programs, AP-a101 and AP-b101, and AP-a101 has an attribute a10
6, the AP-b101 communicates using the attribute b106. Next, an operation of setting an attribute in communication data when communication data is transmitted from the AP 101 using the above-described attribute in application program units set for the communication processing unit 102 will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step 1100a, the communication data transmitted by the AP 101 is processed by the processing I / F unit 102.
The analysis is performed in step (a) to obtain an identifier for identifying the application that is the transmission source of the communication data. Where the identifier is
It may be the name of the AP 101, or may be a serial number or key number defined separately. Next, in step 1100b, it is determined whether or not the attribute of the communication priority with the obtained identifier is set in the communication processing unit 102. Here, if the attribute with the acquired identifier is not set in the communication processing unit 102, in step 1100e, the other predetermined communication values (attributes used by default in the system) are set in advance. The attribute is set in the communication data by using the command, and the communication process is started in step 1100d. If the attribute with the acquired identifier is set in the communication processing unit 102, the attribute is set in the communication data using various conditions for communication in the attribute in step 1100c.
At 00d, the communication process starts.

In FIG. 14, for simplicity of explanation, the applications AP-a101 and AP-b
101, and attributes a106 and b as attributes set by the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102.
Although the description has been given of the case of two types 106, the AP 101 and the attributes 106 can be operated in the same manner even if there are an arbitrary number. In addition, other parts of the network system are the same as those in the first embodiment, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Further, a communication example as the above specific example will be described. 16 and 17 show that the communication priority attribute 106 set by the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102 is A
The communication from the P-a 101 is performed using the attribute a 106 and the AP-
This is a case where the communication from b101 is communication using the attribute b106. First, at the time of initialization when the OS of the communication device 100 is started, the above-described attribute information previously incorporated as a static configuration parameter of the OS is set in the communication processing unit 102 from the communication control unit 104. That is, in this example, the setting attribute 1
In an area 06, all the communication for the AP-a 101 is low-priority communication, and the communication for the AP-b 101 is high-priority communication. In this state, when communication from the AP occurs, the communication processing unit 102 has a function for controlling the priority. Also, the SW 103 is provided with a mechanism capable of performing the same communication priority processing as in the first embodiment. In FIG. 16, two Ca communications 122 that perform low-priority communication using the attribute a106 from the AP-a101 have occurred, and the communication processing unit 102 assigns a low-priority attribute to communication data, The time allocated to the communication process for the two Ca communications 122 is made equal. The SW 103 knows the low priority attribute assigned to the communication data, and allocates a processing time corresponding to the low priority in consideration of the balance of the priority processing with the other SW 103 communication data. Further, the management unit 105 obtains the current communication state from the communication processing unit 102 via the communication control unit 104, and indicates this as communication statistical information 114 to the information collection AP 115.

FIG. 17 shows the state of AP- in the state of FIG.
b101 is generated, and the attribute b106 is generated from the AP-b101.
FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining an operation when a Cb communication 123 that performs high-priority communication using a cookie occurs. In this case, the OS
Based on the attribute b106 set for the communication processing unit 102 from the communication control unit 104 at the time of startup, the communication control unit 102
The time allocated to the processing of the Cb communication 123 is increased,
This is an operation of suppressing the time allocated to the processing of one Ca communication 122. At this time, the management unit 105 sets the communication statistical information 11
4 and the operation shown in the information collection AP 115 is also performed. In this example, the AP 101 requesting the communication process is referred to as an AP-101.
Although the two types are limited to a101 and AP-b101, it is clear that the same operation is performed even if the number of AP101 requesting communication processing increases. Further, in the attribute 106 of the present example, when the Cb communication 123 using the attribute b106 occurs, the two Ca communication 122 using the attribute a106 are defined as the suppression communication. However, communication from a plurality of APs 101 has occurred. In some cases, depending on the definition of the attribute 106, the time allocated to low-priority communication can be reduced in a stepwise manner, or the processing time can be completely spent on the highest-priority communication, and other priority levels can be used. Communication can be made to wait. Furthermore, Cb generated from AP-b101
The communication 123 is a communication for executing control of a plant monitoring device or the like and handles the most important communication.
Ca communication 122 generated from 22 may be stopped in the middle such as file transfer communication, but when it is resumed, communication that can be continuously transmitted and received from the state before the stop is handled.
It is determined in advance by the system.

Next, FIGS. 18 and 19 show the communication control unit 10.
4 is a diagram illustrating a case where a setting attribute 106 from No. 4 to the communication processing unit 102 is set as a bandwidth occupation ratio occupied by the own communication with respect to the entire bandwidth of the communication medium as the communication priority. First, at the time of initialization when the OS of the communication device 100 is started, the above-described attribute information is set in the communication processing unit 102 from the communication control unit 104. That is, in this example, as the setting attribute 106, all the communication from the AP-a 101
The attribute a106 and the attribute b106 are set such that the communication of 5% and the communication from the AP-b101 are all communication with a bandwidth occupancy of 60%. The communication processing unit 102 sets the setting attribute 106
Is provided with a function capable of controlling the bandwidth for each communication when a communication corresponding to. SW10
3 has a similar mechanism. In the present example, two Ca communications 122 that perform communication using the attribute a106 from the AP-a 101 using the bandwidth occupation rate of 25% occur, and the communication processing unit 102 occupies the bandwidth for individual communication data. An attribute with a rate of 25% is assigned, and the communication band is allocated so as to use the bandwidth of 25% of the communication medium. In this example, since two Ca communications 122 occur, the actually occupied bandwidth is 50% of the total bandwidth of the transfer medium. In the SW 103, the bandwidth occupancy 25
% Attribute a106, and considering the balance of bandwidth occupation processing with other SW103 communication data, this Ca communication 1
Allocate a communication band for 22.

FIG. 19 shows the state of AP-
FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an operation when a Cb communication 123 using an attribute b106 having a band occupancy of 60% occurs from b123. In this case, based on the setting attribute b106 described above, the communication processing unit 102 allocates a bandwidth of 25% of the entire bandwidth of the transmission medium to each Ca communication 122, and
23 is allocated 50% of the total bandwidth of the communication medium as the remaining bandwidth other than the bandwidth used by the two Ca communications 122.

In this example, the AP requesting the communication process
Although 101 is limited to two types, AP-a101 and AP-b101, it is clear that the same operation is performed even if the number of APs 101 requesting communication processing increases. Attribute 1 of this example
06 defines that the bandwidth is allocated preferentially to the communication having the bandwidth occupation rate that can be accommodated by the remaining bandwidth of the transfer medium at the time of the communication, but if a plurality of types of communication occur, the attribute is assigned. Depending on the definition of 106, it is possible to cope with a method of preferentially allocating to a certain communication, to cope with simultaneously occurring communication by a method of equally allocating the remaining bandwidth of the transfer medium, If it cannot be obtained, it is possible to deal with it as a method of not performing communication as an error. Further, for example, the Ca communication 12
2 handles communication involving transmission of a small amount of communication data such as a remote terminal connection operation, and the system determines in advance that Cb communication 123 is communication involving transmission of a large amount of communication data such as images and sounds. . In the communication examples of FIGS. 16 to 19, the communication generated from each AP 101 is the AP 1
Although the communication priority and the bandwidth occupancy are used as the setting attributes 106 corresponding to 01, the setting attribute 106 can be controlled by other factors such as communication delay time and jitter corresponding to other communication priorities. is there.

Embodiment 3 A further variation of the communication priority related attribute request will be described. A case where the attribute request is based on the virtual port in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 107 denotes a virtual port used by the AP 101 during communication. In this case, an attribute request based on these virtual ports A and B is sent to the communication control unit 10.
4 is detected in advance by the attribute request analysis means S1, that is, the use of the virtual ports A and B is detected, and based on this, the priority selection means S2, as will be described in detail later, for example, has a low priority. The selected attribute “a” and attribute “b” are set to the communication processing unit 102 such as “high” and “high priority”. In the example of FIG. 20, the setting attribute a and the setting attribute b correspond to the virtual ports A and B used for communication by the AP 101, respectively. Then, one AP 101 communicates using both port A 107 and port B 107 as two virtual ports.

First, the communication data transmitted from the AP 101 via the virtual port 107 includes step 1200a.
Then, an identifier for identifying the virtual port 107 through which the communication data passes is given by the processing I / F unit 102a. Here, the identifier may be, for example, the port number of the virtual port 107 or a virtual port name or a key number defined separately. Next, in step 1200b, it is determined whether or not an attribute with the assigned identifier is set in the communication processing unit 102. Here, if the attribute with the acquired identifier is not set in the communication processing unit 102, the process proceeds to step 1200e.
Then, the attribute is set in the communication data using other predetermined values for communication (attributes used by default in the system), and the communication process is started in step 1200d. If the attribute with the acquired identifier is set in the communication processing unit 102, various conditions for communication within the corresponding attribute are obtained and used in step 1200c, and the attribute is set in the communication data. The communication process starts at 1200d.

In FIG. 20, for simplicity of explanation, only the AP 101 is used as an application, and two types of virtual ports A 107 and B 107 are used as virtual ports used for communication.
The description has been given of the case where two types of attributes are set to the communication processing unit 102 from the attribute a and the attribute b106.
01, attributes 106, and virtual ports 107 can operate in the same manner even if there are many.

A communication example as the above specific example will be described. FIG. 22 shows that the communication control unit 104
Is the communication priority, and the AP 101
If the communication from is via the port A107, the attribute a106
Is a low-priority communication, and in the case of passing through the port B 107, a high-priority communication is performed with the attribute b106. First, at the time of initialization when the OS of the communication device 100 is started, the above-described attribute information previously incorporated as a static configuration parameter of the OS is set from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102. In this example, as the setting attribute 106, an attribute a and an attribute b106 are set such that all communication via the port A 107 is low priority communication and all communication via the port B 107 is high priority communication. In this state, if there is communication from the AP, the communication processing unit 102 has a function of performing priority control corresponding to the setting attribute, and the SW 103 can perform the communication priority processing similarly. Is the same as in the first embodiment. In FIG. 22, the port A 107
C that performs low-priority communication of the attribute a106
a Two communications 122 have occurred. In that case, the communication processing unit 102 assigns a low priority attribute to the communication data from the AP, and equalizes the time allocated to the communication processing for the two Ca communications 122. The SW 103 knows the low priority attribute assigned to the communication data,
In the priority processing with the communication data via the other SW 103, a processing time is allocated in advance in consideration of the balance.

FIG. 23 shows the state of AP1 in the state of FIG.
Cb communication 123 that performs high-priority communication with attribute b106 is generated from port 01 through port B107.
FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining an operation when the error occurs. in this case,
The time allocated to the process of the Cb communication 123 is increased in advance by the setting attribute
The operation for suppressing the time allocated to the processing of the communication 122 is performed. In this example, the port 107 for communication is limited to two types, the port A 107 and the port B 107, but the same operation is performed even if the number of ports 107 for communication increases. The same operation is performed even if the attribute 106 increases. Further, depending on the definition of the attribute 106, the time allocated to low-priority communication can be dealt with in a stepwise manner. Communication can be made to wait. Further, the way of passing through a port may be determined in advance by the system, as in the other embodiments.

Next, FIGS. 24 and 25 show the communication control unit 10.
4 is an operation explanatory diagram in the case where the setting attribute 106 from No. 4 to the communication processing unit 102 is set as the bandwidth occupancy occupied by the own communication with respect to the entire bandwidth of the communication medium as the communication priority. The attribute information at the time of starting the OS of the communication device 100 is set from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102 as the value shown in FIG. That is, the communication via the port A 107 has a bandwidth occupancy of 25%, and the communication via the port B 107 has a bandwidth occupancy of 60%. The subsequent operation including this setting is the same as the operation in FIG. 18 in the second embodiment, and a detailed description is omitted. FIG. 25 is a diagram illustrating an operation when a Cb communication 123 with a bandwidth occupancy of 60% attribute b106 is newly generated from the AP 101 via the port B107 in the state of FIG. The operation in this case is the same as the operation in FIG. 19 in the second embodiment, and the description is omitted.

Embodiment 4 A case will be described in which a communication priority-related attribute request is determined by a flow in which a transmitting AP and a virtual port of a receiving partner mutually establish. FIG.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a network system according to the present embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 108 denotes a flow defined between the virtual port 107 used by the transmitting AP 101 and the virtual port 107 used by the receiving AP 101. That is, the communication control unit 104 analyzes (detects) the connection state between the flow A and the flow B as an attribute request in advance and sets the priority according to the criteria determined by the system in advance. Select, AP-a1
The communication processing unit 1 uses the attribute 106 of the flow A used between the AP-c 101 and the AP-c 101 and the attribute 106 of the flow B 108 used between the AP-b 101 and the AP-c 101 as setting attributes.
Set to 02. Next, by using the above-described attribute for each flow 108 set for the communication processing unit 102, the AP
The operation of setting an attribute in communication data when communication data is transmitted from 101 will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

The communication data transmitted by the AP 101 using the flow 108 is firstly obtained in step 1300a.
An identifier that is analyzed by the processing I / F unit 102a and that identifies the flow 108 used for transmitting communication data is obtained.
Here, the identifier may be a port number that defines the flow 108, or may be a flow name or a key defined separately. Next, in step 1300b, it is determined whether or not the attribute with the obtained identifier is set in the communication processing unit 102. Here, if the attribute with the corresponding identifier is not set in the communication processing unit 102, in step 1300e, another predetermined value for communication (an attribute used by default in the system) is used. Then, the attribute is set to the communication data, and the communication process is started in step 1200d. If the attribute with the acquired identifier is set in the communication processing unit 102, step 1
Step 300c acquires and uses various conditions for communication inside the corresponding attribute, sets an attribute in communication data, and
The communication process starts at 300d.

In FIG. 26, for the sake of simplicity, AP-a101 and AP-a101 are used as applications.
b101 and AP-c101, and two types of flows used for communication, a flow A108 and a flow B108, and the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102
The description has been given of the case where there are two types of attributes, attribute a106 and attribute b106, as the attributes set for the AP 101 and the attribute 10.
6 or the flow 108 may be any other number.

A communication example as the above specific example will be described. FIG. 28 shows that the flow based on the combination of the virtual ports described above is analyzed as an attribute request, the system selects a high or low communication priority according to the selection criterion, and the communication control unit 104 gives the communication processing unit 102 the setting attribute 106 FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram in a case where is set as a communication priority. In this case, the flow A10 between the AP-a 101 and the AP-c 101
8 is a low-priority communication setting attribute a106, AP
The communication by the flow B108 between -b101 and the AP-c101 is set as the setting attribute b106 of the high-priority communication. These attributes 106 are set in the communication processing unit 102 from the communication control unit 104 when the communication device 100 is initialized during OS startup. In this example, the attribute a1 using the flow A108
Only the Ca communication 122 that performs the low-priority communication of No. 06 occurs, and the communication processing unit 102 only assigns the low-priority attribute to the communication data and does not need to perform the priority processing. The subsequent operation of the SW 103 is the same as the operation of FIG. 8 in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 29 shows the state of AP- in the state of FIG.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an operation when communication using flow B108 is generated between b101 and AP-c101, and Cb communication 123 that performs high-priority communication with attribute b106 occurs. In this case, the Cb communication 12
3 is an operation to increase the processing time and suppress the processing allocation time of the Ca communication 122. It should be noted that the same operation is performed even if the number of flows 108 increases, and various variations of the method of increasing or decreasing the process allocation time based on the attribute are also possible as in the other embodiments.

Next, FIG. 30 shows a case where the setting attribute 106 from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102 is the value shown in the figure as the bandwidth occupancy of the own communication with respect to the entire bandwidth of the communication medium as equivalent to the communication priority. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of the operation when the setting is performed. These setting attributes 106 are transmitted from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 1 when the communication device 100 is initialized during OS startup.
In this case, the attribute a and the attribute b106 are set such that the communication of the flow A108 is a communication with a bandwidth occupancy of 50% and the communication of the flow B108 is a communication with a bandwidth occupancy of 60%. In the state shown in the figure, the flow A10
8, Ca due to 50% bandwidth occupancy of attribute a106
Only the communication 122 occurs, and the communication processing unit 102 assigns an attribute of a bandwidth occupancy of 50% to the communication data and allocates a communication band so as to use a bandwidth of 50% of the communication medium. The SW 103 also performs the operation of allocating the communication band described in the other embodiments and transmits data.

FIG. 31 shows the state of FIG. 30 where Cb of the attribute b106 has a bandwidth occupancy of 60% by the flow B108.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an operation when a communication 123 occurs.
The operation based on this drawing is the same as, for example, the operation in FIG. 19 in the second embodiment, and thus detailed description is omitted.
As in the other embodiments, attributes other than the communication priority and the bandwidth occupancy, such as communication delay time and jitter, may be used as the setting attribute 106.

Embodiment 5 The case where the communication priority related attribute request is a protocol will be described. The protocol is usually determined at the time of kernel creation, and is closely related to the type of AP, and is also closely related to the transmission speed of communication data. Therefore, this protocol is analyzed (detected) and regarded as an attribute request. A case where the priority is selected based on the logic determined by the system will be described. FIG. 32 is a diagram showing a network system according to the present embodiment. In the figure,
Reference numeral 109 denotes a communication protocol used by the AP 101 for communication. That is, the communication control unit 104 detects the protocol A and the protocol B by the attribute request analysis unit S1, and selects the corresponding attribute a and attribute b by the selection unit S2,
A setting attribute is instructed to the communication processing unit 102 for each communication protocol A 109 unit and each communication protocol B 109 unit used by the AP 101.

FIG. 33 is a flowchart showing the subsequent operation of setting the attribute of each communication protocol 109 to the communication data when the communication data is transmitted from the AP 101. That is, the communication data according to the communication protocol 109 of the AP 101 is processed by the processing I / F in step 1400a.
The analysis by the unit 102a obtains the identifier of the communication protocol 109. Here, as the identifier, there are variations such as the name of the communication protocol 109 and a separately defined protocol number or key. Next, in step 1400b, it is determined whether the attribute of the acquired identifier has already been set in the communication processing unit 102. if,
If the attribute of the acquired identifier is not set in the communication processing unit 102, in step 1400e, an attribute is set to the communication data by using another predetermined value for communication (an attribute used by default in the system). Is set, and communication processing is started in step 1400d. If the attribute of the acquired identifier is set in the communication processing unit 102, various conditions for communication within the corresponding attribute are obtained and used in step 1400c, the attribute is set in the communication data, and the attribute is set in step 1400d. Start communication processing. FIG. 32 shows a case where only the AP 101 is used as an application, only two types of protocol A109 and protocol B109 are used as communication protocols used for communication, and two types of attributes a and b106 are used as setting attributes. May be another arbitrary number, as in the other embodiments.

A communication example as the above specific example will be described. FIG. 34 analyzes (detects) the above-described protocol form as an attribute request, selects a high or low communication priority according to a selection criterion in the system, and sets the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102 with the setting attribute 106. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram in the case where attributes are set as communication priorities. In this case, AP10
If the communication from 1 is a communication according to the protocol A109,
With the attribute a106, the communication becomes low priority, and the protocol B10
In the case of the communication according to No. 9, the attribute b106 indicates the high priority communication. At the time of initialization, attribute information is set in the communication processing unit 102 in advance as a static configuration parameter of the OS. That is, all communications of protocol A109 are low-priority communications,
In the communication of the protocol B109, an attribute "a" and an attribute "b106" which are all high-priority communication are set. In this example, AP1
From 01, two low-priority Ca communications 122 according to the protocol A109 have occurred. The communication processing unit 102 assigns a low priority attribute and allocates an equal time to the two Ca communications 122 to the communication process.

FIG. 35 shows the state of AP1 in the state of FIG.
01 generates a communication using protocol B109,
It is a figure explaining operation at the time of generating Cb communication 123 which performs high priority communication of attribute b106. In this case, an operation of increasing the processing allocation time of the Cb communication 123 and suppressing the processing allocation time of the two Ca communication 122 is performed by the setting attribute b106. It should be noted that the same operation is performed even if the type of the protocol 109 used for communication increases, and that various methods for increasing or decreasing the processing allocation time based on the attribute can be considered as in the other embodiments. .

Next, FIG. 36 shows a case where the setting attribute 106 from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102 is the value shown in the figure as the bandwidth occupancy of the own communication with respect to the entire bandwidth of the communication medium as equivalent to the communication priority. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of the operation when the setting is performed. These setting attributes 106 are transmitted from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 1 when the communication device 100 is initialized during OS startup.
02, the communication of protocol A109 is all communication with a bandwidth occupancy of 25%, and the communication of protocol B109 is all communication with a bandwidth occupancy of 60%.
It is 6. In this example, the Ca communication 122 with the bandwidth occupation rate of 25% with the attribute a106 by the protocol A109 is 2
The communication processing unit 102 assigns an attribute of a bandwidth occupation rate of 25% to communication data, and allocates a communication bandwidth so as to use a bandwidth of 25% of the communication medium.

FIG. 37 shows the state of AP1 in the state of FIG.
FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining an operation when a Cb communication 123 with a bandwidth occupancy of 60% occurs in an attribute b according to protocol B109 from 01. The operation of changing the band allocation shown in this figure is, for example, the same as the operation described in FIG. 19 in the second embodiment, and thus a detailed description is omitted.

Embodiment 6 FIG. A case will be described in which a communication priority-related attribute request is determined by a physical network interface (NIC) of a communication device that handles an AP. FIG. 38 is a diagram showing a network system according to the present embodiment. In the figure, NICa 102d and NI
In FIG. 38, Cb 102d is described as if it belongs to separate communication processing units 102, but is described as such for the sake of simplicity. Belongs to. Attribute a106 and attribute b106 are NICa102d, NICb
The connection use of the connection 102d is analyzed (detected) as an attribute request, selected according to the criteria determined by the system, and the communication control unit 104 sends the AP 101 to the communication processing unit 102 by attribute setting.
NICa102d unit and NICb102 for communication
This is a setting attribute for each d unit.

NI set for communication processing unit 102
An operation of setting an attribute in communication data when communication data is transmitted from the AP 101 using the above-described attribute in units of C102d will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG. First, the communication data from the AP 101 is stored in step 1
At step 500a, the identifier is received by the processing I / F unit 102a and analyzed by the processing I / F unit 102a to obtain an identifier for identifying the NIC 102d. Here, the identifier is NIC10
There may be a number assigned to 2d and other variations. Next, in step 1500b, it is determined whether or not the attribute with the acquired identifier is set in the communication processing unit 102. Here, if the attribute with the acquired identifier is not set in the communication control unit 102, in step 1500e, a predetermined value for other communication (an attribute used by default in the system) is set in advance. Set attributes to communication data using
NIC 102d assigned for other communications at
Use to start communication. If the attribute with the acquired identifier is set in the communication processing unit 102, various conditions for communication within the corresponding attribute are obtained and used in step 1500c, and the attribute is set in the communication data. The communication is started using the NIC 102d assigned to the communication specified in 1500d.

In the above description, two types of applications, AP-a101 and AP-b101,
Although two types of NICs, NICa 102d and NICb 102d, two types of setting attributes, attribute a and attribute b106, and a network configuration using only the SW 103 as the network connection device have been described, these may be another arbitrary number.

A communication example will be described as the above specific example. FIG. 40 shows that the above-mentioned NIC connection is analyzed as an attribute request, the communication request is selected based on the system criteria, and a high or low communication priority is set from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 10 as the attribute setting.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram when the number is set to 2; In this case, AP10
In the case of communication from NIC1 through NICa102d, attribute a1
06 indicates low-priority communication, and in the case of communication passing through the NICb 102d, attribute b106 indicates high-priority communication. These setting attributes 106 correspond to the OS of the communication device 100.
At the time of initialization during startup, the communication control unit 104 sets the communication processing unit 102. In this example, the AP 101 sends the NIC
C to perform low-priority communication of attribute a106 via a102d
a two communication 122 occur, the communication processing unit 102 assigns a low priority attribute to the communication data,
The time allocated to the communication process for the communication 122 is made equal. The subsequent description of the operation is the same as, for example, the operation of FIG.

FIG. 41 shows the state of AP1 in the state of FIG.
FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an operation when a communication is generated from 01 through the NICb 102d and a Cb communication 123 that performs high-priority communication with an attribute b106 occurs. In this case, NICa
Since the communication device 102d and the NICb 102d are independent on the communication device 100, the Ca communication 1 which is a low-priority communication is performed.
A different NIC 102d is used between the communication device 22 and the Cb communication 123 that is the high-priority communication. Therefore, priority control in the communication processing unit 102 does not occur. Accordingly, the communication data obtained by the Ca communication 122 and the Cb communication 123 are given low priority as the attribute a106 and high priority as the attribute b106, and are transmitted to the SW 103. The SW 103 detects the communication priority as the attribute 106 added to the communication data, performs priority control internally, and transfers the communication data to the destination communication device 100.

Note that the NICs are NICa 102d and NICa 102d.
b102d, but the NI used for communication
The same operation is performed even if the number of C102d increases. In this example, the SW 103 performs completely independent priority control on the communication data received from the individual NIC 102 d. However, the SW 103 performs other priority control as a matter of course. Is also good.

In FIG. 42, the setting attribute 106 from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102 is set as the communication priority corresponding to the illustrated value as the bandwidth occupancy of the own communication with respect to the entire bandwidth of the communication medium. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of the operation in the case. The description of the operation based on this diagram is different from the set value, but is the same as the operation of FIG.
Description is omitted. FIG. 42 is a diagram illustrating an operation when the Cb communication 123 with the attribute b106 occurs at the bandwidth occupancy of 60% from the AP 101 via the NICb 102d in the state of FIG. In this case, based on the attribute b106, 50% of the total bandwidth of the transmission medium connected to the NICa 102d is allocated to each Ca communication 122, and 60% of the transmission medium connected to the NICb 102d is allocated to the Cb communication 123. Allocate% bandwidth. SW10
At 3, the user learns the attribute 106 given to the communication data,
A bandwidth occupation process is performed in consideration of the balance with other communication data using W103, and a communication band is allocated.

It should be noted that even if there are variations in the number of NICs 102d used for communication and the control operation of the SW 103, it is clear that the configuration of the present invention can be applied and the same effect can be obtained.

Embodiment 7 In each of the above embodiments, a case has been described in which the attribute setting is performed at the time of initialization and is fixed thereafter. In the present embodiment, a case will be described in which the attribute setting is changed during operation of the system depending on the surrounding situation. FIG.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a network system according to the present embodiment. In the figure, in the state before (1), AP1
01 indicates that the attribute is b110 while the communication process is being performed with the AP 101 on another communication device 100.
At this time, from the AP 101 to the communication control unit 104 (1)
Of the attribute request is input. This may be the case where the communication processing unit 102 receives an attribute change for the communication process of the AP 101 and an attribute from another communication device 100 on the network system from an application other than the AP 101 during the communication process. In this state, the operation of dynamically setting the attribute from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102 based on the priority selection after (2) will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

In step 1600a, (1) in FIG.
Then, the communication control unit 104 performs a process of receiving the new attribute request 110 input to the communication control unit 104. Next, the priority selection unit S2 determines whether or not the attribute 110 received by the communication control unit 104 in step 1600b is acceptable. If the received attribute request 110 is not accepted by the communication control unit 104, step 1
After performing an error process to reject the acceptance at 600f, the process ends. If acceptable, the selected attribute 110 is recorded in the communication control unit 104 in step 1600c. Next, the attribute 110 selected and recorded in the communication control unit 104 in step 1600d is
In step 1600e, the communication processing unit 10 shown in FIG.
2 is set as a new setting attribute 106, and the operation ends.

In FIG. 44 (2), the processing of the communication processing unit 102 when the setting attribute 106 is changed from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102, that is, in FIG. 44 (3). The operation of the processing will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG. Setting attribute 10 from communication control unit 104
When the communication processing unit 102 receives the change notification of No. 6, the communication processing unit 102 temporarily stops the communication by the AP 101, which has been performed so far, in step 1601a. Next, in step 1601b, the setting attribute 106 used so far for the communication of the AP 101 is discarded, and in step 1601c, the new setting attribute 106 set from the communication control unit is accepted. Step 160
In 1d, the communication conditions of the new setting attribute 106 are used to attach the attribute a106 to the communication data of the AP 101,
In step 1601f, the communication processing of the AP 101 is restarted. Note that the operation of the network system other than the above-described portions is the same as that of each of the above embodiments, and thus the description is omitted.

A communication example as the above specific example will be described. FIG. 47 shows a case where, for example, the attribute request relating to the communication priority from the AP is of high and low priority for Cb and Cb communication, respectively, and is selected and set as a setting attribute. . That is, the setting attribute 106 is the communication priority, and one communication corresponding to the low priority communication and one communication corresponding to the high priority communication is generated from the AP 101. As for these setting attributes, at the time of initialization, setting attributes as static configuration parameters of the OS are set in the communication processing unit 102 in advance. In this example, in this state, one Ca communication 122 of high-priority communication and one Cb communication 123 of low-priority communication are generated from the AP 101. Communication processing unit 10 in this case
The operation of adjusting the time allocated to the second process is the same as that described in the previous embodiments.

FIG. 48 shows the state of AP1 in the state of FIG.
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an operation when a change of an attribute request is input from 01 to a communication control unit. AP
When the change of the attribute request 124 is input from the communication control unit 101 to the communication control unit 104, the communication control unit 104 deletes the setting attribute 106 in the communication up to that time if the change of the attribute request is appropriate. After recording as the new setting attribute 106, the communication processing unit 102 is notified of the new setting attribute 106. The communication processing unit 102, which has been notified of the new setting attribute 106, temporarily stops the communication that has been performed until then, changes the setting attribute 106, and then restarts the communication. In this example, the new setting attribute 106 received based on the change of the attribute request 124 changes the Ca communication 122, which has been implemented as the high-priority communication, to the low-priority communication, and is implemented as the low-priority communication. This is to change the existing Cb communication to the high priority communication. Therefore, the communication processing unit 102 changes the Ca communication 122 from the high-priority communication to the low-priority communication, and changes the Cb communication from the low-priority communication to the high-priority communication when the new setting attribute 106 is received. . The SW 103 performs a priority process in accordance with the communication priority of the setting attribute 106 assigned to the communication data. Therefore, the operation follows the change of the setting attribute as it is. Although the communication that occurs is limited to the two types of the Ca communication 122 and the Cb communication 123, the same operation is performed even if the number of generated communication increases, and a change in a plurality of setting attributes is also performed. Is conceivable as in the other embodiments.

FIG. 49 shows a case where the setting attribute 106 is the bandwidth occupancy of the communication with respect to the entire bandwidth of the communication medium.
This shows a case where the communication request from the AP 101 is a communication having a bandwidth occupancy of 30% and a communication having a bandwidth occupancy of 80%. In this case, the operation is the same as that described in the other embodiments even if the numerical values are different, and therefore, detailed description is omitted.

FIG. 50 shows the state of AP1 in the state of FIG.
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an operation when a change of an attribute request is input from 01 to a communication control unit. When a change in the attribute request 124 is input from the AP 101 to the communication control unit 104, the communication control unit 104 receives the change, and if it can select that it is appropriate as a system, the setting attribute 106 used in the communication so far. Removed and new setting attribute 1
After recording as 06, a new setting attribute 106 is notified to the communication processing unit 102. New setting attribute 106
, The communication processing unit 102 temporarily stops the communication that has been performed, changes the setting attribute 106, and then restarts the communication. In this example, the change received from the attribute request 124 indicates that the bandwidth occupancy of the Ca communication is 30%.
% To 10%, the communication processing unit 102
Changes the bandwidth used by the Ca communication 122 to the band occupancy ratio 3
The bandwidth occupancy is changed from 0% to 10%. Also, the Cb communication that had been communicating at the band occupancy of 70% is changed to the band occupancy of 80%. In the SW 103, the bandwidth occupancy process is performed in accordance with the bandwidth occupancy as the attribute 106 added to the communication data.

In each of the above embodiments, the attribute request is analyzed as one of an AP, a connection form, and the like, and is selected based on the attribute request. As described above, the attribute request may be a combination of a plurality of them, for example, a combination of both the priority request from the AP and the protocol, and an attribute selection criterion may be determined corresponding to the combination. By doing in this way, it is possible to finely set the attribute of the communication priority.

Embodiment 8 FIG. In the above embodiments, all the attribute requests are once transmitted to the OS unit of the communication control unit, and the selection is considered. However, depending on the system, the authority of the attribute request may be limited so that only an input from the AP 101 having a certain or more authority may be accepted. The system according to the present embodiment provides authority for this attribute request, and other connection forms are the same as those in FIG. 44 in the seventh embodiment. Here, the operation of setting the setting attribute 110 from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

In FIG. 51, in step 1700a, the attribute request 11
0 is received by the communication control unit 104. Next, step 1
At 700b, it is determined whether the authority of the AP 101 is authorized to input the attribute request 110 to the communication control unit 104. If it is determined that the right to input the attribute request 110 is not permitted to the AP 101, an error process is performed in step 1700g to deny acceptance, and the process ends. If it is determined that the above-mentioned authority is granted to the AP 101, the process proceeds to step 1700.
It is determined whether or not the attribute request 110 input in c can be selected as a system. If the selection is unacceptable and cannot be selected, error processing is performed to reject the acceptance in step 1700g, and then the processing ends.
If acceptable, the selected attribute 110 is recorded in the communication control unit 104 in step 1700d.
Next, in step 1700e, the selection attribute 110 recorded in the communication control unit 104 is set as the setting attribute 106 in the communication processing unit 102, and in step 1700f, the communication processing unit 102 is notified and the processing is terminated. I do. Note that the operation of the communication processing unit 102 when notified by the communication control unit 104 that the setting attribute 106 has been changed is the same as in the seventh embodiment, and a description thereof will not be repeated. The operation of the other parts of the network system is the same as that of the previous embodiment, and the description is omitted.

A communication example as the above specific example will be described. FIG. 52 shows that the communication control unit 104
FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining an operation when the setting attribute 106 is a communication priority, and in this case, one high-priority communication is generated from the AP-a 101. The settings of these setting attributes 106 are set at the time of initialization.
4 to the communication processing unit 102. In this example, the attribute a106 of the high-priority communication is set as the setting attribute 106. The communication processing unit 102 sets the setting attribute 106
, There is a function to control the priority. The same applies to the SW 103 as in the other embodiments. Here, the change of the attribute request 124 for changing the content of the attribute a106 used by the Ca communication 122 from the high-priority communication to the low-priority communication by the AP-b 101 to the communication control unit is, for example, as control data. I have entered. However, in this case, since the AP-b 101 does not have authority of a certain level or more necessary to change the communication attribute, the communication control unit 104 sets the AP-b 101
From the attribute request 124 is denied. For this reason, the AP-b 101 returns an error as a negative response to the change of the attribute request 124 from the communication control unit 104. Accordingly, in the Ca communication 122, since the setting attribute 106 does not change, communication using the setting attribute a106 as it is is continued.

In the above-described example, the description is made assuming that the change of the attribute request 124 is sent from the AP-b 101. Works the same. If the AP-b 101 has the authority to change the attribute request, the setting attribute up to that point is deleted, and instead, the new setting attribute 106 specified in the change of the attribute request 124 is changed.
Are set and used, but the details of the operation are the same as those described in the seventh embodiment, and thus description thereof will be omitted.

Embodiment 9 FIG. In each of the above embodiments, the case where the attribute request is analyzed (detected) prior to the actual communication, such as the AP and the connection form, has been described. Unless the attribute request is changed, the case where these are collectively set as attributes will be described. FIG. 53 is a diagram showing a network system according to the present embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 111 denotes a secondary storage device connected to the communication device 100. Reference numeral 112 denotes an attribute setting file stored in the secondary storage device. Reference numeral 113 denotes a plurality of setting attributes described in the attribute setting file. In the figure, when the OS of the communication device 100 starts, the secondary storage device 11
1 is read from the attribute setting file 112, and a plurality of storage setting attributes 113 described therein are read from the communication control unit 1.
The operation of recording the setting attribute 110 in the communication processing unit 102 and recording the setting attribute 106 in the communication processing unit 102 is shown in FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When the OS of the communication device 100 is started, the communication control unit 104 sets the secondary storage device 111 in step 1800a.
It is determined whether the attribute setting file 112 exists above.
If the attribute setting file 112 is stored on the secondary storage device 111,
If not, an error is returned in step 1800f and the process ends. If the attribute setting file 112 exists on the secondary storage device 111, the process proceeds to step 180.
At 0b, the storage setting attribute 113 described in the attribute setting file 112 is read. Next, step 1800c
Then, it is determined whether the storage setting attribute 113 read from the attribute setting file 112 is appropriate without any error or the like. If not, step 1800f
Returns an error and ends the process. If it is valid, the attribute setting file 112 is
The recording process of the setting attribute 110 is performed in the communication control unit 104 by the number of the storage setting attributes 113 read out from the. Next, the setting process is performed on the communication processing unit 102 as the setting attribute 106 by the number of the setting attributes 110 recorded in the communication control unit 104 in step 1800e, and the process ends.

Note that the secondary storage device 111 for the attribute setting file 112 may be stored in the secondary storage device 111 connected to another communication device 100 in a format such as a network file system. The description of the operations in FIG. 54 that perform the same operations as those in the above-described embodiment will be omitted. Specific communication examples
The description is omitted because it is equivalent to the first embodiment.

Embodiment 10 FIG. In each of the above embodiments, the attribute request is determined to be the attribute request by analyzing the communication priority request from the transmission-side AP or the connection form of the transmission-side. Here, a description will be given of means for selecting a priority attribute performed by a communication control unit that manages a communication program based on these attribute requests. Also, an operation will be described in which the setting attribute obtained as a result of the selection is transmitted to the communication device on the receiving side, and the communication processing unit on the receiving side performs attribute setting led by the transmitting side based on this. FIG. 55 is a diagram showing a network system according to the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, AP-a 101 on communication device A 100 is used as the transmitting side.
And AP-b101 of the communication device B100 as a receiving side are communicating. The setting attribute a106 is the transmission-side AP
A mapping of the execution priority of a101 to a communication priority using a certain mapping function, that is, a correspondence relationship of an attribute request from a transmitting AP by a predetermined conversion formula, or a conversion relationship based on a predetermined table reference. The selected setting attribute obtained by is set in the communication processing unit. The certain mapping function is an arbitrary function set in consideration of the characteristics of the network when a network system is constructed by the communication device A 100 and the communication device B 100 and the other communication device 100 and the SW 103, that is, a correspondence relationship. .

Here, the AP on the transmitting-side communication device 100
The execution priority of the communication device 101 is analyzed (detected) as an attribute request, and a communication priority is selected by using a predetermined mapping function based on the execution priority. It is set as a setting attribute 106 in the communication processing unit 102. At the same time, by communicating the setting attribute 106 to the communication device 100 on the receiving side, the communication device 10 on the receiving side is communicated.
The operation of setting the setting attribute 106 to 0 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

For example, when the execution priority of the AP is input from the AP-a 101 to the communication control unit 104 as an attribute request, the control I / F unit 104a receives the control priority in step 1900a. Next, in step 1900b, it is determined whether the input attribute request is valid. If the attribute request is not valid, an error is returned in step 1900i and the process ends. If the attribute request is valid, the control I / F unit 104a executes AP-a10 in step 1900c.
1 is accepted as an attribute request. Next, in step 1900d, a mapping function that maps to the communication priority of the setting attribute is selected from the execution priority as a predefined attribute request, and the necessary setting attribute is obtained. Step 19
00e, the mapped (selected) communication priority is assigned to the selection attribute 11
0 is recorded in the communication control unit 104. Next, in step 1900f, the recorded attribute is set as the setting attribute 106 in the communication processing unit 102. In step 1900g, the communication processing unit 102 transmits the setting attribute 106 to the communication device B100 on the receiving side. On the receiving side, according to a predetermined procedure, as shown in the concept of FIG. 55, it is assumed that this is a reference of the system, and that it is a setting attribute of a communication priority when receiving communication data from the AP-a. The communication control unit 104 of the device B is notified and set. Thereafter, the communication process is started in step 1900h.

In FIG. 55, the execution priority of the AP-a 101 is a, and the mapping function from the execution priority to the communication priority sets the execution priority of the AP-a 101 as the communication priority. Consider the case. First, the communication device A100
The upper AP-a 101 sends an attribute request 124 to the communication control unit 104. The communication control unit 104 that has received the attribute request 124
-Analyze the execution priority a of a101. If it is acceptable, the mapping using the mapping function from the execution priority to the communication priority. In the above case, the execution priority a of the AP-a 101 is directly converted to the communication priority a and selected. . The communication priority a mapped (converted and selected) is transmitted from the communication control unit 104 to the communication processing unit 102 as a setting attribute a106.
Set attributes for. At the same time, the communication device B10
The setting attribute a106 is transmitted to the communication processing unit 102 of No. 0.

The communication device B1 that has received the setting attribute a106 from the communication processing unit 102 of the communication device A100 via the line
After setting the setting attribute a106 in its own communication processing unit 102, the communication processing unit 102 notifies the communication control unit 104 of the setting attribute a106 and stores the setting attribute a106 in the communication control unit 104. . Hereinafter, AP-a101
From AP to AP-b101 and AP-b101
In the communication from the communication device to the AP-a 101, communication using the set attribute a106 is performed between the transmitting communication device A100 that has been activated first and the receiving communication device B100 that receives it.

In FIG. 55, for the sake of simplicity, the communication devices are two types of the communication device 100 on the transmitting side and the communication device 100 on the receiving side.
Although the description has been given of the case of two types, 101 and AP-b101, it is clear that the same operation is possible even if there are any numbers of these. In addition, FIG.
0e, step 1900f, step 1900g, and after the receiving communication device 100 receives the attribute 106, records the attribute 106 in the communication control unit 104 in the communication device.
Since the processing to be set to 02 is the same as that in the first embodiment, the description is omitted.

Embodiment 11 FIG. In the tenth embodiment, a case has been described in which the attribute request is obtained from the AP on the communication device side on the transmitting side to be activated or a connection form equivalent thereto.
Here, a case will be described in which, for example, the priority state attribute is selected on the assumption that the state of the AP, which is a receiving side that receives communication from the transmitting side that activates, is an attribute request relating to communication priority. FIG. 57 is a diagram showing a network system according to the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, the AP-a101 on the communication device A100 as the transmitting side and the AP-b101 of the communication device B100 as the receiving side perform communication processing. The setting attribute b106 is the receiving-side AP-b1
01 is mapped to the communication priority by using a predetermined mapping function.

Here, the AP on the receiving-side communication device 100
The execution priority of 101 is mapped to the communication priority using a certain mapping function and selected, and the selected communication priority is set to the communication processing unit 102 of the communication device 100 on the receiving side.
Set as 6. At the same time, by transmitting the setting attribute 106 to the communication device 100 on the transmitting side, the operation of setting the setting attribute 106 on the communication device 100 on the transmitting side is also described in FIG.
8 will be described. The operation according to the present embodiment is performed when the transmitting AP-a 101 temporarily receives the receiving AP-b.
101, the receiving AP-b 101 receives the notifying data, and the receiving AP-b 101 transmits the notifying data to the transmitting AP as a loopback process.
This is a process of returning setting confirmation data to -a101 to perform attribute setting.

The flow of FIG. 58 will be described. AP-b10
When the attribute request is input to the communication control unit 104 from Step 1, the control I / F unit 104a receives the attribute request in Step 2000a, and determines whether the input attribute request is appropriate in Step 2000b. If the attribute request is not valid, step 20
At 00i, an error is returned and the process is terminated. If the attribute request is valid, the control I / O is performed in step 2000c.
The execution priority of the AP-b 101 is accepted as an attribute request by the F unit 104a. Next, in step 2000d,
A mapping function that maps to the communication priority of the setting attribute is selected from the execution priority as a predefined attribute request, and a necessary setting attribute is obtained. In step 2000e, the communication control unit 10 sets the mapped (selected) communication priority as the attribute 110.
Record to 4. Next, in step 2000f, the recorded attribute is set in the communication processing unit 102 as the setting attribute 106. In step 2000g, the communication processing unit 10
2 transmits the setting attribute 106 to the communication device A100 on the transmission side. In response to this, the transmitting communication device sets the attributes by the same operation as described in the above embodiment. afterwards,
In step 2000h, the attribute of the communication data is set to the attribute b
The communication process changed to 106 is started.

In FIG. 57, the execution priority of AP-b101 is b, and the mapping function from the execution priority to the communication priority sets the execution priority of AP-b101 as the communication priority. Consider the case. Some notification data from AP-a101 is transmitted to AP-b101,
AP-b101 performs AP-a10 as the return processing.
When the setting confirmation data is returned to the communication device 1, first, the AP-b 101 on the communication device B 100 sends an attribute request 124 to the communication control unit 104. Upon receiving the attribute request 124, the communication control unit 104 analyzes the execution priority b of the AP-b101. If it is acceptable, a mapping using a mapping function from the execution priority to the communication priority is used. In the above case, the execution priority b of the AP-b 101 is directly converted into the communication priority b and selected. The communication priority b that has been mapped (conversion selected) is set as the setting attribute b106 in the communication control unit 10.
4 to the communication processing unit 102 to set attributes, and at the same time,
The setting attribute b106 is transmitted to the communication processing unit 102 of the communication device A100.

The communication device A1 that has received the setting attribute b106 from the communication processing unit 102 of the communication device B100 via the line
00, after setting the setting attribute b106 in its own communication processing unit 102, notifies the communication control unit 104 of the setting attribute b106, and stores the setting attribute b106 in the communication control unit 104. . Hereinafter, AP-b101
From AP to AP-a101, and AP-a101
In the communication from to the AP-b 101, communication using the setting attribute a106 is performed. The same operation is performed even if the number of communication devices and APs is arbitrary.

Embodiment 12 FIG. In each of the above embodiments,
It has been described that the communication priority between communication devices that transmit and receive data is focused on and the attribute setting of the communication priority is adjusted as a system to determine the setting attribute. Here, A also takes into account the processing time of the program between APs.
A case will be described in which the execution priority of P is adjusted, selected, and transmitted to the AP side. FIG. 59 is a conceptual diagram showing a network system in the present embodiment based on the above concept. In the present embodiment, A on communication device A100
The communication process is performed between the P-a 101 and the AP-b 101 of the communication device B 100. The setting attribute a106 is AP-a
The execution priority of the program processing 101 is mapped to the communication priority by using a predetermined mapping function. Also, the communication priority in the setting attribute a106 is mapped to the execution priority using a predetermined mapping function, and the execution priority of the AP-b 101 is changed using the mapped execution priority.

The operation based on the above concept is shown in the flowchart of FIG. That is, the execution priority of the AP 101 on one communication device 100 is mapped to the communication priority using a certain mapping function and selected, and the communication priority of the selection result is set as a setting attribute in the communication processing unit 102. . At the same time, the setting attribute 106 is notified to the communication device 100 of the communication partner. When an attribute request is input from the AP-a 101, the control I / F unit 104a receives the request at step 2100a, and then determines the validity of the input attribute request at step 2100b. If this is not valid,
In step 2100i, an error is returned and the process ends. If the attribute request is valid, step 21
At 00c, the control I / F unit 104a accepts the execution priority of the AP-a101. In step 2100d, AP-a
The execution priority of 101 is mapped to the communication priority and selected. The communication priority obtained in step 2100e is recorded as an attribute in the communication control unit 104 in step 2100f, and set as a setting attribute 106 in the communication processing unit 102. In step 2100g, the communication processing unit 102 sends the setting attribute 10
6 is transmitted to the communication device B100 of the other party. Thereafter, communication processing is started in step 2100h.

The setting attribute 106 received by the communication device 100 of the other party through the SW 103 is transmitted to the communication device 100.
The communication control unit 104 records the setting attribute 106 in the communication processing unit 102 from the communication control unit 104, and maps the communication priority included in the attribute to the execution priority using a certain mapping function, FIG. 61 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of setting the execution priority of the AP 101 operating on the communication device 100 using the mapped execution priority. Setting attribute 106 received from SW 103 through SW 103
Is input to the communication control unit 104 via the communication processing unit 102 of the communication device B100 in step 2101a, and is recorded as the attribute 110. Next, step 2101b
Then, it is set to the communication processing unit 102 as the setting attribute 106. In step 2101c, the communication control unit 10
The communication priority as the attribute 110 recorded in No. 4 is converted into the execution priority of the program using a predefined mapping function to the execution priority and is notified. Step 210
1d, the execution priority obtained by the AP is set to AP-b1
After performing the process of changing the execution priority to 01, the process ends.

In FIG. 59, the execution priority of the AP-a 101 is a, and the mapping function from the execution priority to the communication priority is such that the execution priority of the AP-a 101 is the communication priority. Also, consider a case where a mapping function from communication priority to execution priority maps communication priority to execution priority as it is. First, the AP on the communication device A100
-A101 indicates to the communication control unit 104 that AP-a10
An attribute request 124 represented by an execution priority a of 1 is transmitted. Upon receiving the attribute request 124, the communication control unit 104
After that, mapping is performed using a mapping function from the execution priority to the communication priority, and in this example, the execution priority a of the AP-a 101 is
And selects the communication priority a as it is. The selected communication priority a is set as the setting attribute a106 for the communication processing unit 102, and at the same time, the setting attribute a106 is transmitted to the communication processing unit 102 of the communication device B100. The setting attribute a from the communication processing unit 102 of the communication device A 100
The communication processing unit 10 of the communication device B100 that has received 106
After setting the setting attribute a106 in its own communication processing unit 102, the communication control unit 104 sets the setting attribute a10
Notify 6. The communication control unit 104 maps the communication priority as the received setting attribute 106 to the execution priority of the AP 101 using a mapping function. In this example, the setting attribute a10
6, the communication priority a, that is, AP-a101
To the execution priority of After that, the execution priority of the AP-b 101 which is the communication partner of the AP-a 101 is changed to the execution priority a by the mapping function. Hereinafter, AP-a101
From AP to AP-b101 and AP-b101
The communication from the AP to the AP-a101 is performed using the setting attribute a106, and the communication between the AP-a101 and the AP-b1 is performed.
The program execution priority of 01 is unified to the execution priority a used by the AP-a 101 from the beginning. Note that the number of communication devices and APs can be expanded to any number, and operations equivalent to those described above can be performed.

Embodiment 13 FIG. In the above-described embodiment, a case has been described where transmission and reception process one-to-one data communication. In some systems, a complex system in which a plurality of APs transmit and receive each other from a plurality of communication devices may be configured. The attribute setting of the priority in the communication by the plurality of APs or the plurality of communication devices will be described. FIG.
It is a conceptual diagram showing the above-mentioned concept network system in this embodiment. In the present embodiment, the communication device A100, the communication device B100, the communication device C100, and the communication device D100 exist on the same network via the SW 103. FIG. 62A shows a state of the initial stage, and the communication processing unit 10 of the communication device A100.
2 has a setting attribute a106, the communication processing unit 102 of the communication device B100 has a setting attribute b106, the communication processing unit 102 of the communication device C100 has a setting attribute c106, and the communication processing unit 102 of the communication device d100 has a setting attribute d106. By the way, it is assumed that some change has occurred in the setting attribute a106 in the communication processing unit 102 of the communication device A100. In that case, the communication control unit 104 of the communication device A100
Transmits a setting attribute a106 to another communication device 100 on the same network after setting a new setting attribute a106 in the communication processing unit 102. The other communication device 100 that has received the setting attribute a106 transmitted from the communication device A100 transmits the new setting attribute a106 to the communication device 1.
00 in the communication control unit 104 and the communication processing unit 1
Set to 02. As described above, the setting attribute 106 in a certain communication device 100 is changed or a new setting attribute 106 is set.
Each time is set, the new setting attribute 106 is transmitted to another communication device 100 existing on the same network, and the new setting attribute 106 is set to each other. As a result, as shown in FIG. The new setting attribute α106 is set and held as a common attribute on the communication device 100. The trigger for sending this setting attribute was
It may be a case where the setting attribute 106 of any of the communication devices 100 is newly set.

The operation of exchanging the above setting attributes between communication devices to obtain the same setting attributes will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. If a new setting or some change of the setting attribute 106 occurs in the communication device 100, step 220
0a, the communication control unit 104 first sends a new setting attribute 10
Record 6. In step 2200b, the communication processing unit 1
In the step 2200c for setting the setting attribute 106 as the setting attribute 106, an attribute transmission command and the setting attribute 106 are transmitted. Next, in step 2200d, the setting attribute 106 is transmitted from the communication processing unit 102 to another communication device 100, and the process ends.

A communication example as the above specific example will be described. FIG. 64 shows a communication device A1 in the network system.
The case where the Ca communication 122 of the setting attribute a106 occurs with high priority between 00 and the communication device B100. When the Ca communication 122 occurs, the communication device A
100 is another communication device B100, communication device C100,
The setting attribute a106 set in the communication processing unit 102 in the communication device A100 is transmitted to another communication device to the communication device D100. Communication device B100, communication device C
100 and communication device D100, communication device A
The setting attribute a100 received from the communication device 10
0, and is set as a setting attribute in the communication processing unit 102.
The notification is sent to the communication control unit 104 within 0 and stored.

Next, FIG. 65 shows the state of FIG.
A case where a low-priority Cb communication 123 occurs between the communication device C100 and the communication device D100 is shown. At the stage when the Cb communication 123 occurs, the other communication device A100, the communication device B100, and the communication device D1
00, the communication processing unit 102 in the communication device C100
Is transmitted to another communication device. After the communication device A100, the communication device B100, and the communication device D100 each receive the setting attribute b100 received from the communication device C100 by the communication processing unit 102 in the communication device 100 and set the setting attribute b100 as the setting attribute in the communication processing unit 102 , And notifies the communication control unit 104 in each of the communication devices 100 and saves it.

Next, FIG. 66 shows the state of FIG.
Setting attribute a106 from communication device A100 and communication device C
This shows a state in which each communication device has received the setting attribute b106 from 100. Communication device A100, communication device B10
0, the communication device C100 and the communication device D100
a High-priority setting attribute a10 used in communication 122
6 and the low-priority setting attribute b106 used in the Cb communication 123 are set. Thereafter, the Ca communication 122 and Cb
The communication classified into the communication 123 is any communication device 10
When the setting is performed from 0, each communication device performs communication processing using the setting attribute a106 and the setting attribute b106 that have already been set.

In this example, the types of communication that occur are limited to the two types of the Ca communication 122 and the Cb communication 123. Even if the number increases, the same operation is performed.

Embodiment 14 FIG. In each of the above embodiments,
The form in which each AP is connected to the system by one connection form has been described. In the present embodiment, a plurality of interfaces are used from one AP, for example, with different communication priorities,
The attribute setting relating to the priority when each data is communicated will be described. FIG. 67 is a diagram showing a network system according to the present embodiment. In the figure, the setting attribute 106 in the communication processing unit 102 in the communication device 100
When the communication priority is set, the NIC 102d of the communication processing unit 102 and the SW 103 are prepared for the number of priorities as setting attributes, for example, for high, medium, and low, three. . Then, when the OS startup in the communication device 100, advance decide to communicate any priority communication data in advance what NIC102d, communication priority in, for example,
When communication data having a high-priority attribute is transmitted from the AP 101, the high-priority NIC 102d and the high-priority SW 103 corresponding to the setting attributes, for example, corresponding to the high communication priority are selected and transmitted. In the case of FIG. 67, the communication priority defined in the communication device 100 is N, and there are N setting attributes 106 indicating the communication priority in the communication processing unit 102.
There are also N C102d. There are also N SWs 103 forming a network.

The AP 101 transmits communication data, adds a setting attribute corresponding to the communication data transmitted by the communication processing unit 102, and sets N corresponding to the communication priority of the assigned setting attribute.
The communication data is transferred to another communication device 1 using the IC 102d.
The operation of transmitting to 00 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the communication data is transmitted from the AP 101, the communication processing unit 102 receives the communication data and assigns the corresponding setting attribute 106 in step 2300a.
In step 2300b, the communication priority corresponding to the assigned setting attribute 106 is known. In step 2300c, with reference to the acquired communication priority, the corresponding NIC 102d is selected for each communication priority determined in advance at the time of OS startup or the like, and communication data is transferred. In step 2300d,
The communication data is switched to SW10 via the selected NIC 102d.
3 and the process ends. In FIG. 67,
For simplicity of explanation, the AP 10 performing communication processing
Although 1 is only one type, the number may be any number.

A communication example as the above specific example will be described. FIG. 69 is a diagram showing a communication mode in a case where communication priorities defined for use in communication are three types of low priority, medium priority, and high priority. There are three types of communication: Ch communication 118 as communication, Cm communication 117 as medium priority communication, and Cl communication 116 as low priority communication. In this case, the communication device 100 includes
NIC1, NIC2, and NIC3 are installed as the IC 102d, and NIC1 is used for high-priority communication and NI.
C2 handles medium priority communication, and NIC3 handles low priority communication.
Also, three SW 103 are installed, SW 1 handles high priority communication, SW 2 handles medium priority communication, and SW 3 handles low priority communication. Here, the Ch communication 118 from the AP 101
Is assigned a setting attribute 106 for high-priority communication, and
1 is transmitted through SW1 103 from 102d.
Also, the Cm communication 117 has the setting attribute 10 of the medium priority communication.
6 and SW2 103 from NIC2 103d.
Sent through. Further, the Cl communication 116 is provided with the setting attribute 106 of the low priority communication, and the NIC 3 103
d is transmitted through SW3 103. Also, AP
At 101, even when communication further occurs, or when communication occurs from another application, this 3
Since communication is performed using any of the communication priorities,
h communication 118 or Cm communication 117 or Cl communication 11
The communication data will be transmitted using any of the internal paths 6. The communication data passing through each path is divided into paths that pass according to the assigned communication priorities, so that the communication paths are independent from each other, do not have any influence on other communication, and do not have any effect. I also do not receive. Also, if a communication with the same priority as these communication occurs,
Only the time spent on individual communication processing is equally divided between communications of the same priority, and there is no effect on communications of other priorities. The specific contents of the communication of each priority are determined by the system as described in the above embodiment.

Embodiment 15 FIG. In the above-described fourteenth embodiment, a case has been described in which a route composed of an NIC and a SW is separated according to a difference in priority from an AP, and communication is performed with each set attribute being distinguished. In the present embodiment, a case will be described in which communication is performed by separating routes based on a difference in communication data instead of a communication priority. FIG. 70 is a diagram showing a network system according to the present embodiment. Communication processing unit 10
When the second setting attribute 106 is based on an attribute request based on the type of communication data, the number of the types of communication data used in the communication of the communication device 100 in advance is, for example, three for control code data, image image data, and audio data. If the type is three, the NIC 102d of the communication processing unit 102 and the SW 103
Be prepared. FIG. 71 is a flowchart showing the operation of the system in FIG. The details of the operation based on these figures are the same as the operation described in the above embodiment, and thus the description is omitted.

The communication example as the above specific example is the same as the system shown in FIG. 69 of the fourteenth embodiment. For example, the Ch communication 118 of high priority communication is the most important communication for control, The Cm communication 117 of the priority communication may be communication for multimedia, the Cl communication 116 of low priority communication may be communication for general information processing such as file transfer, and the setting attribute may be a corresponding attribute.

Embodiment 16 FIG. Embodiments 14 and 1 above
In the fifth example, a case is described in which separate NICs and SWs are prepared and communication is performed in accordance with the difference in communication priority and communication data from the AP. In the present embodiment, these are collectively adjusted so as to obtain an appropriate communication amount for each of the NIC and the SW.
A case where communication is performed by setting attributes will be described. FIG. 72 is a diagram showing a network system according to the present embodiment. When the setting attribute 106 in the communication processing unit 102 in the communication device 100 relates to the communication priority, a plurality of SW 103 and NICs 102 d in the network are prepared in advance, and the communication priority used for communication in the communication device 100 is determined. The total number is calculated by the following equation: (number of priorities that can be processed by SW 103) × (NI
C102d). Then, by dividing the communication priority defined by the communication device 100 by the total number of NICs to be arranged, a priority number corresponding to one NIC 102d is obtained,
Create communication priority groups for the number of NICs 102d,
One NIC 102d and one SW1 for each communication priority group
Assign 03. When communication data to which the setting attribute 106 is assigned with a predetermined communication priority is transmitted from the AP 101, the NIC 102d and the SW 103 which are in charge of communication of a communication priority group corresponding to the assigned communication priority are selected, and communication is performed. Send data. In the case of FIG. 72, S
With the priority allowed in W103 being m levels, the total number of NICs 102d to be arranged is N, and SW1 to be arranged is
Assuming that the total number of 03 is N, the number of communication priority groups n = N. Thus, the relationship between the communication priority group allocated to the NIC 102d and the communication priority used in the communication device 100 is as follows: NIC1 102d: communication priority group 1: 1, 2,..., M NIC2 102d: communication priority group 2: 2m-m + 1, 2m-m + 2, ..., 2m-m + m NIC3 102d: Communication priority group 3: 3m-m + 1, 3m-m + 2, ..., 3m-m + m NICN 102d: Communication priority Group n: nm-m + 1, nm-m + 2,..., Nm-m + m. FIG. 73 is a flowchart showing the operation of the system in FIG. The details of the operation based on FIGS. 72 and 73 are apparent from the description in the above embodiment, and therefore the description is omitted.

Embodiment 17 FIG. As a change of the sixteenth embodiment, instead of dividing the total number of priorities by the number of NICs in advance, NICs are sequentially allocated from a group of higher priority, and the influence of competition within the same priority is reduced. The case where the number is reduced will be described. FIG. 74 is a diagram showing a network system according to the present embodiment. Communication equipment 10
In the case where the setting attribute 106 in the communication processing unit 102 within “0” is related to the communication priority, a plurality of SW 103 and NIC 102 d in the network are prepared in advance, and the communication priority used for communication in the communication device 100 is determined. The total number is calculated by the following equation (the number of priorities that can be processed by the SW 103) × (NI to be arranged)
C102d). Then, a communication group is created in such a manner that the communication priority defined by the above equation defined in the communication device 100 is occupied by the NIC 102d to be arranged in order from the higher priority to another NIC 102d. One NIC 102d and one SW 103 are assigned. Thereafter, when the AP 101 transmits communication data to which the setting attribute 106 is assigned with a certain communication priority, the NIC of the communication priority group corresponding to the assigned communication priority is transmitted.
The communication data is transmitted by selecting 102d and SW103. In the case of FIG. 74, the priority allowable by the SW 103 is m
As a stage, when the total number of the arranged NICs 102d is N and the total number of the arranged SWs 103 is N, the number of communication priority groups n = N. Thus, NIC10
Communication priority group allocated to 2d and communication device 10
The relationship between the communication priorities used within 0 is as follows: NIC1 102d: Communication priority group 1: 1, n + 1,..., (M-1) n + 1 NIC2 102d: Communication priority group 2: 2, n + 2,. .., (M−1) n + 2 NIC3 102d: communication priority group 3: 3, n + 3,..., (M−1) n + 3 NICN 102d: communication priority group n: (m−m) n + n, (M− (m−1)) n + n,..., (M−1) n + n.

In FIG. 74, for the sake of simplicity, the description has been made assuming that only one type of AP 101 is performing the communication process. it is obvious. The processing in this embodiment is the same as that in the sixteenth embodiment, and a description thereof will not be repeated.

[0130]

As described above, according to the present invention, a communication control unit for managing a program is provided as a communication control unit OS separately from a communication processing unit for performing communication processing for data transmission and reception in a communication device. The system performs a predetermined selection on the basis of an attribute request relating to communication priority based on the AP or connection mode, sets attributes in the communication processing unit, and performs communication processing based on the set attributes. Even if the user does not understand the details of the control program, the system can select an appropriate communication priority from the system side for communication simply by designating the priority, thereby avoiding collision of communication data and controlling the quality of communication. That is, to solve the problem of the first prior art, the I / F of the communication control unit is changed to the network I / F.
It is possible to use a common I / F that does not depend on the F section, and it is possible to reduce the design overhead. In addition, attributes such as communication priority can be effectively determined in advance as a system at the time of building an OS, and arbitration of attributes between different APs becomes easy. Further, since attributes can be exchanged between different communication devices, attributes can be arbitrated mutually. In this way, since unified attribute management can be performed by the OS of the communication control unit from the beginning or during operation, it is possible to early detect a communication device abnormality and a network system abnormality. In addition, congestion due to data collision can be avoided.

[0131] Regarding the problem of the second prior art,
The communication control unit and the communication processing unit are installed inside the OS, so that they can be operated without dividing the execution time from the application on the communication device, so that data can be prevented from accumulating and the network can be smoothly connected. Can be sent to Further, since a protocol used for actual transmission / reception is used without using a virtual protocol, a conversion process between a virtual protocol and a real communication protocol is not required, and redundant processing time can be reduced. When constructing a new device driver for communication media, it is only necessary to additionally design the interface for attribute setting and attribute notification and the internal processing of the device driver related to the transfer of those attributes, and it is necessary to perform complicated protocol conversion work and network control unit. This has the effect of reducing development costs such as designing.

Regarding the problem of the third prior art,
Since the communication processing unit does not use a virtual protocol but uses a protocol used for actual transmission and reception, there is no need to perform a conversion process between a virtual protocol and a real communication protocol, and redundant processing time can be reduced. In addition, communication quality control is instructed from the communication control unit to the communication processing unit based on attributes held in the OS, and communication processing may be performed based on the set attributes. The specification and control of the communication quality can be prevented. In addition, since the setting attributes can be exchanged between communication devices connected to the network system, the attributes of communication performed by other communication devices can be understood, and coordination on the network can be performed using the setting attributes. There is an effect that communication can be performed.

Further, since the detection of the attribute request is performed by the protocol used for the communication, in addition to the above basic effects, the user can set the communication priority in the connection mode often used in many systems. This has the effect of reducing the extra burden and shortening the development time.

Further, since the selection of the setting attribute is determined by combining a plurality of attribute requests, in addition to the above-described effect, the various communication priority selection conditions from the system can be flexibly dealt with and individually selected. There is an effect that can be adjusted to the system requirements.

Further, the attribute setting is changed in response to the change of the attribute request during the operation of the system. In addition, it is possible to flexibly cope with the change of the surrounding conditions during the communication, and the user always desires. There is an effect that an optimal communication system can be constructed.

Furthermore, since the attribute request is restricted by the AP, it is also possible to prevent an unauthorized attribute setting by a user who is not assumed by the system, and to prevent a careless communication process in the communication device. It has the effect of maintaining a high quality network.

Further, since a setting file for setting a plurality of attributes is provided and attributes are collectively set, control in the communication device can be controlled and omission of attribute settings can be prevented. There is.

Further, since the attribute settings of the transmitting side and the communicating party are matched with each other, there is an effect that the system can perform balanced communication processing.

Further, since the attribute settings of the receiving side and the communication partner are matched, the communication processing can be performed as a user-led system on the receiving side.

Further, since the communication speed is specified up to the execution speed of the AP, there is also an effect that a system in which control is performed including the processing time of the application level can be constructed.

Further, since a physically different connection path is provided for each setting attribute or each group thereof,
Communication with different communication priorities can be handled independently, and there is an effect that flexibility and reliability of communication processing are maintained.

Furthermore, since a communication control unit is provided as an OS equivalent to the communication process to obtain the attribute management information, the management data relating to the attribute can be freely obtained without externally interfering with the communication process. There is. This also has the effect of enabling early detection of an abnormality related to communication processing and shortening the recovery of communication congestion.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a simplified network system configuration diagram in the present invention and a diagram showing the concept of the basic operation of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation flowchart when communication data is transmitted by a communication processing unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart when communication data is received by a communication processing unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart from communication data reception to communication data transmission performed by a switch according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart when an attribute request is input to a communication control unit in the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart when the communication control unit outputs a setting attribute in the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an operation flowchart when the statistics management unit discloses statistical information to other components in the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a communication system diagram when only low-priority communication is executed as a specific communication example in the first embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a communication system diagram at the time of executing low-priority, medium-priority, and high-priority communication as specific communication examples in the first embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a system diagram when a high-priority communication ends as a specific communication example in the first embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a communication system diagram when performing communication in a 70% band as a specific communication example in the first embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a communication system diagram when a 40% or 20% band communication occurs in a 70% band communication as a specific communication example in the first embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a communication system diagram when a 70% bandwidth communication is completed as a specific communication example in the first embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a network configuration according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of an operation of assigning attributes set in AP units to communication data in the second embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a communication system diagram when only low-priority communication is executed as a specific communication example in the second embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a communication system diagram when a high-priority communication occurs in a low-priority communication as a specific communication example in the second embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a communication system diagram when only 25% band communication is executed as a specific communication example in the second embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a communication system diagram when a 60% band communication occurs in a 25% band communication as a specific communication example in the second embodiment.

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating a network configuration according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart of an attribute assignment operation for communication data in virtual port units used by an AP in the third embodiment.

FIG. 22 is a communication system diagram when only low-priority communication is executed as a specific communication example in the third embodiment.

FIG. 23 is a communication system diagram when a high-priority communication occurs in a low-priority communication as a specific communication example in the third embodiment.

FIG. 24 is a communication system diagram when only a 25% band communication is executed as a specific communication example in the third embodiment.

FIG. 25 is a communication system diagram when a 60% bandwidth communication occurs in a 25% bandwidth communication as a specific communication example in the third embodiment.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating a network configuration according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 27 is an operation flowchart in which attribute assignment is performed based on a flow determined by a combination of virtual ports by the transmitting AP and the receiving AP in the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 28 is a communication system diagram when only low-priority communication is executed as a specific communication example in the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 29 is a communication system diagram when a high-priority communication occurs in a low-priority communication as a specific communication example in the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 30 is a communication system diagram when only communication in a 25% band is executed as a specific communication example in the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 31 is a communication system diagram when a 60% bandwidth communication occurs in a 25% bandwidth communication as a specific communication example in the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 32 is a diagram illustrating a network configuration according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 33 is an operation flowchart for assigning attributes to communication data based on a communication protocol unit used by the AP in the fifth embodiment.

FIG. 34 is a communication system diagram when only low-priority communication is executed as a specific communication example in the fifth embodiment.

FIG. 35 is a communication system diagram when a high-priority communication occurs in a low-priority communication as a specific communication example in the fifth embodiment.

FIG. 36 is a communication system diagram when only 25% band communication is executed as a specific communication example in the fifth embodiment.

FIG. 37 is a communication system diagram when a 60% band communication occurs in a 25% band communication as a specific communication example in the fifth embodiment.

FIG. 38 is a diagram illustrating a network configuration according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 39 is an operation flowchart for assigning attributes based on communication in NIC units according to the sixth embodiment.

FIG. 40 is a communication system diagram when only low-priority communication is executed as a specific communication example in the sixth embodiment.

FIG. 41 is a communication system diagram when a high-priority communication occurs in a low-priority communication as a specific communication example in the sixth embodiment.

FIG. 42 is a communication system diagram when only 25% band communication is executed as a specific communication example in the sixth embodiment.

FIG. 43 is a communication system diagram when a 60% band communication occurs in a 25% band communication as a specific communication example in the sixth embodiment.

FIG. 44 is a diagram illustrating a network configuration according to a seventh embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 45 is an operation flowchart for changing and setting an attribute dynamically input during AP communication in the seventh embodiment.

FIG. 46 is an operation flowchart of the communication control unit when an attribute change notification is received in the seventh embodiment.

FIG. 47 is a communication system diagram when low-priority communication and high-priority communication occur as specific communication examples in the seventh embodiment.

FIG. 48 is a communication system diagram when a communication attribute is changed as a specific communication example in the seventh embodiment.

FIG. 49 is a diagram of a communication system when communication in the 30% and 80% bands respectively occurs as a specific communication example in the seventh embodiment.

FIG. 50 is a communication system diagram when a communication attribute is changed as a specific communication example in the seventh embodiment.

FIG. 51 is an operation flowchart in which input of attributes is limited to an AP having predetermined authority according to the eighth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 52 is a system diagram showing a specific communication example in the eighth embodiment.

FIG. 53 is a diagram illustrating a network configuration according to a ninth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 54 is a flowchart of an attribute setting file reading operation and an attribute setting operation when the OS is started in the ninth embodiment.

FIG. 55 is a diagram showing a network configuration according to the tenth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 56 is a flowchart showing operations of attribute selection and attribute setting by mapping in the tenth embodiment.

FIG. 57 is a network configuration diagram according to Embodiment 11 of the present invention.

FIG. 58 is a flowchart showing operations of attribute selection and attribute setting by mapping in the eleventh embodiment.

FIG. 59 is a diagram illustrating a network configuration according to a twelfth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 60 is a flowchart showing operations of mapping selection and attribute setting based on the execution priority of the AP in the twelfth embodiment.

FIG. 61 is a flowchart of an attribute reception, attribute setting, conversion return, and execution priority change operation in the twelfth embodiment.

FIG. 62 is a network configuration diagram according to Embodiment 13 of the present invention.

FIG. 63 is a flowchart of an attribute change, a new attribute setting, and a setting attribute transmission operation in the thirteenth embodiment.

FIG. 64 is a diagram showing a form of attribute exchange when high-priority communication occurs as a specific example in the thirteenth embodiment.

FIG. 65 is a diagram illustrating a form of attribute exchange when low-priority communication occurs in high-priority communication as a specific example in the thirteenth embodiment.

FIG. 66 is a diagram illustrating a stage where attribute exchange is completed as a specific example in the thirteenth embodiment;

FIG. 67 is a diagram illustrating a network configuration according to Embodiment 14 of the present invention;

FIG. 68 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of transmitting an AP, assigning an attribute, and transmitting NIC use based on the assigned attribute in the fourteenth embodiment.

FIG. 69 is a specific example of the fourteenth embodiment.
It is a communication system figure at the time of performing the kind of priority communication.

FIG. 70 is a network configuration diagram according to Embodiment 15 of the present invention.

FIG. 71 is a flowchart of transmission of an AP, assignment of an attribute, and transmission using an NIC based on the assigned attribute in the fifteenth embodiment.

FIG. 72 is a diagram illustrating a network configuration according to Embodiment 16 of the present invention.

FIG. 73 is a flowchart of a transmission operation using an NIC based on AP transmission, attribute assignment, and corresponding communication priority in the sixteenth embodiment.

FIG. 74 is a diagram illustrating a network configuration according to a seventeenth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 75 is a conceptual diagram of communication using a PACE mechanism in the first conventional example.

FIG. 76 is a conceptual diagram of distributed heterogeneous network communication in the second conventional example.

FIG. 77 is a conceptual diagram of a cooperative work workstation in a third conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Communication equipment including communication computer, 2 user application, 3 communication processing unit, 3a program interface unit in communication processing unit, 3b communication protocol processing unit in communication processing unit, 3c device driver unit in communication processing unit, 3d communication processing unit in communication processing unit A network interface unit, 4 network connection devices, 10 a computer of any type for performing communication, 11 a communication manager (Communicat
ion Manager), 12 local area networks,
13 wide area network, 20 application programs, 21 call manager, 22 application programming interface, 23 resources,
24 logical units, 25 shared set manager, 26 token manager, 27 logical channel manager, 2
8 data communication manager, 29 network manager, 30 device driver interface, 31 token ring device driver, 32 ISDN device driver,
33 RS232C device driver, 34 Other device driver, 100 Communication device including communication computer provided with communication control unit, 101 User application including input / output process with communication control unit, 102 Input / output process with communication control unit A communication interface including a communication processing unit including input / output processing with a communication control unit; a communication protocol processing unit including a communication processing unit including input / output processing with a communication control unit;
A device driver section in the communication processing section including input / output processing with the communication control section, a network interface section in the communication processing section including input / output processing with the communication control section, communication of communication based on a plurality of communication priorities; Network connection device capable of executing priority processing, 104
Communication control unit, 104a Program interface unit of communication control unit, 104b Middleware configuration unit of communication control unit, 104c Operating system built-in unit of communication control unit, 105 Operating system in the operating system including input / output processing with communication control unit Other management units, 106
Setting attributes set in the communication processing unit by the communication control unit, 1
07 Virtual port used by AP for communication, 108 Flow defined by virtual port used by sending AP and receiving port by virtual port, 109 Communication protocol used by AP for communication, 110 Managed by communication control unit Selected / recorded attribute, 111 connected to communication equipment 2
Secondary storage device 112 Attribute setting file stored in the secondary storage device 113 Attribute described in the attribute setting file 114 Communication statistics information collected by another management unit in the operating system 115 An information collection user application for performing statistical management using communication statistical information collected by another management unit in the operating system, 116 low-priority communication, 117
Medium priority communication, 118 high priority communication, 119 communication with 70% bandwidth to total bandwidth of communication medium, 120 communication with 20% bandwidth to total bandwidth of communication medium, 121 communication with full bandwidth of communication medium 40% bandwidth communication, 122 attribute a
Is set, 123 is set with attribute b,
124 Attribute change request.

Claims (15)

[Claims] 1. A communication control unit for managing a program separately from a communication processing unit for transmitting and receiving data of an application program (AP) in a communication device for transmitting and receiving data of an application program (AP) to and from another network connection device. Attribute request analysis means for detecting a communication priority-related attribute request from the other sent to the communication control unit; and a priority for determining an attribute equivalent to a communication priority predetermined by the system from the attribute request. A communication device, comprising: an attribute selecting unit; and an attribute setting unit configured to set an attribute corresponding to the determined communication priority in the communication processing unit. Degree setting system. The attribute setting corresponding to the communication priority in the communication processing unit is performed by an operating system (O / O) of the communication control unit.
2. The communication priority setting system according to claim 1, wherein S) is performed at the time of initialization upon activation. 3. Detecting a communication priority related attribute request
2. The communication control unit according to claim 1, wherein P detects a communication protocol used for communication, and selects an attribute corresponding to communication priority in the system based on the communication protocol. System communication priority setting system. 4. Detecting communication priority related attribute request
The connection information used by P and the connection information requested by the AP are detected as attribute requests, and the attribute corresponding to the communication priority in the system is selected based on the combination of the attribute requests. 2. The communication priority setting system according to claim 1, wherein the communication priority is set by the communication control unit. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detection of the attribute request related to the communication priority is performed by A
The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of: during the transmission / reception of the P, when detecting a change in the content of the attribute request, dynamically changing a setting corresponding to the communication priority thereafter based on the change in the content of the attribute request. Item 2. The communication priority management system according to Item 1. 6. Detection of an attribute request related to communication priority is performed by A
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein when the connection request from the P is analyzed and performed, the AP is detected only when the AP is an AP to which a request is allowed in advance in the system.
The communication control unit management method communication priority setting system described in the above. 7. A communication priority equivalent setting file is provided in the communication control unit, and a plurality of communication priority equivalent attributes are stored. When the OS is started, the communication priority equivalent file is referred to the communication processing unit. 2. A communication priority management system according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of attributes corresponding to the communication priorities are set. 8. The communication priority setting method according to claim 1, wherein the selection of the attribute corresponding to the priority based on the attribute request is determined by the attribute request in the communication device of the transmission source. system. 9. The selection of an attribute corresponding to a priority based on an attribute request is determined by an attribute request in a communication device of a transmission source of one AP, and a setting attribute in another transmission and reception communication device is the one attribute described above. 9. The communication priority setting system according to claim 8, wherein the transmission source attribute of the AP is selected. 10. Selection of an attribute corresponding to a priority based on an attribute request is determined by an attribute request in a communication device of a receiving destination, and a result of the selection of the attribute is returned to a communication device of a transmission source. The communication priority setting system according to claim 1, wherein: 11. An attribute corresponding to a priority is selected by determining an attribute of an execution priority of an AP, and notifying the determined execution priority of the AP to a communication device between the transmitting and receiving sides to set the attribute. 2. The communication priority setting system according to claim 1, wherein the communication priority is set. 12. An attribute corresponding to a priority is selected such that an execution priority of an AP on the transmitting side is detected as an attribute request, and an execution priority of the AP is determined based on the attribute request of the transmitting AP. The communication priority setting system according to claim 11, wherein: 13. Detecting a communication priority related attribute request
When there are a plurality of attribute requests from one AP, a plurality of setting attributes and connection paths are set, and the communication processing unit performs communication using the plurality of connection paths corresponding to the identifiers for identifying the different attribute requests. 2. The communication priority setting system according to claim 1, wherein the communication priority is set. 14. A plurality of connection paths are set by grouping identifiers representing different attribute requests from one AP into a predetermined group, and the communication processing unit performs communication using the connection path corresponding to the identifier. 14. The communication priority setting system according to claim 13, wherein: 15. A communication control unit, wherein statistics management means for performing statistical management based on attributes corresponding to communication priorities is provided, and management information on the attributes which can be referred to from outside is obtained. The communication control unit management method communication priority setting system described in the above.