JPS61187444A - Method for diagnosing station - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain diagnosis of a diagnosed station (internal ST) independently of normality/abnormity of a standby system transmission line by forming a ring form transmission line (internal transmission line) including the internal ST in a line concentrator and diagnosing the internal ST through the internal transmission line. CONSTITUTION:Port disconnecting switches 4-1,...,4-3 disconnecting ports 3-1,...,3-3 from a transmission line 1 and internal ring forming switches 5-1, 5-2 to form a ring (internal ring) closed in the said line concentrator are controlled through a control signal line 6 from a main internal ST11. When the internal ring is formed, the diagnosed internal ST sends a diagnostic frame to supervise the reception. When a diagnostic frame is not normally received, it is diagnosed that the internal ring system including the own internal ST has a fault, a backup system is provided and replaced with the active system.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a station diagnosis method suitable for confirming the normality of a station (hereinafter referred to as an internal ST) that controls the configuration of a device.

[Background of the invention]

The conventional method, as described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 57-135545, is to transmit and receive diagnostic data addressed to the self-equipment (or self-stage) to the standby transmission line. The system was designed to diagnose the operation. However, no consideration was given to the diagnosis method in the case of a fault in the standby transmission line. Therefore, if there is an abnormality in the standby transmission line,
Even if the own station (or the station to be tested) can operate normally, there is a problem in that the own stage gastric tube cannot be diagnosed. The methods described in JP-A No. 57-135544 and JP-A No. 57-135546 do not take the above consideration and have similar problems.0 [Object of the Invention] The object of the present invention is to It is an object of the present invention to provide a method that enables diagnosis of a stage (the internal ST) regardless of whether the system transmission path is normal or abnormal.

[Summary of the invention]

A ring network is a single distributed system. In a distributed system, it is desirable to be able to isolate a failure point locally so that the failure of an individual device does not affect other devices. For this.

It is also necessary to have functions that can perform loopbacks, standby backups, etc. depending on the state of the transmission path.

When taking measures against these failures in a distributed system, it is necessary to have a function that allows each element that makes up the distributed system, that is, the stage four, to confirm (diagnose) its own normality.

The optimal fault countermeasure for the system is achieved by cooperative control of each station after confirming this normality and abnormality.
The present invention relates to a self-station diagnosis method here.

As a method of diagnosing the own stage 4 without using a transmission path connecting to other stations (or other line concentrators) and without losing the characteristics of the ring network, the present invention provides a method for diagnosing the station to be diagnosed (the above-mentioned A ring-shaped transmission path (internal transmission path) including the internal 8T was formed, and the internal 8T was diagnosed using this internal transmission path.

[Embodiments of the Invention] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system implementing the present invention. The closed communication ring (with main transmission line l and auxiliary transmission line) of the system shown in Figure 1 is composed of coaxial cables, etc., and is used to interconnect several rooms or buildings in a facility such as a factory, laboratory, etc. .

The ring includes a plurality of concentrators filo-1, . . . , 10
-5, the data terminal device 20-1. ..., 20-
15 can be connected. Each data terminal device includes a display device, a microcomputer, a data collection device,
It may include one or more telephone-type devices and the like.

The function of this system is to exchange or distribute data between these devices.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the line concentrator. In Figure 2, 1
1 is the main transmission line, a station that manages the status of the 1 side (hereinafter referred to as the main internal 8T), and 12 is a station that manages the status of the auxiliary transmission line 2 side (hereinafter referred to as the slave internal 8T) 03- 1. . . , 3-3 is a boat for connecting various data terminal devices to the communication ring. Regarding the method of connecting this boat and the line concentrator, etc., see 1, for example, JP-A-58-117750 or JP-A-57-160.
It is described in Publication No. 244. Since the present invention does not relate to this connection method, it will not be described further. Internal 5T
II and 12 are in charge of configuration control such as turning back the transmission line and bypassing a faulty port when the transmission line 1.2 is abnormal. In particular, the main internal 8T11 takes charge of failure countermeasures for the main transmission line l, and the secondary internal 5T1
2 is in charge of countermeasures against failures of the auxiliary transmission line 2. Troubleshooting procedures for bypassing abnormal boats, turning back transmission lines, etc.
Since this does not constitute the present invention, a description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the internal ST. The internal ST includes a ring connection mechanism 30. As shown in FIG. It consists of electronic circuitry that performs electrical signal conversion for the data (to be) sent to and received from the ring. Such signal conversion includes modulation and demodulation.

The ring connection mechanism 30 receives data (
(serial data) and sends the data to the ring output line 41. Furthermore, the ring connection mechanism 30 extracts a timing signal from the received ring data and uses it to synchronize the transmitted and received data.

Data received from ring input line 40 is sent to ring protocol manager 32 over signal line 42 . The signal line 43 is a clock line for sending the aforementioned timing signal and is used to synchronize data transfer. Signal line 44 carries data signals to be sent out to the transmission ring in a synchronized manner from ring protocol manager 32 to ring attachment mechanism 30 .

The ring protocol management mechanism 32 recognizes the communication frame destined for the mountain interior 8T, and copies it to the temporary storage mechanism 34 (
make a copy. Ring protocol management mechanism 32 is connected to temporary storage mechanism 34 via data signal lines 45, 47 and control signal lines 46. Control signal line 46 relates to control information such as read/write signals, address signals, timing signals, etc. The ring protocol management mechanism 32 sends the communication frames stored in the temporary storage mechanism 34ζ to the transmission ring.

Figure 4 shows the station according to the invention (main interior 5TII)
It is a block diagram of the line concentrator 10-1 when performing diagnosis.

'i In Figure 44, port 3-1.

. . , a boat disconnection switch 4-1 for disconnecting 3-3 from the transmission line l. ..., 4-3, and an internal ring forming switch 5-1, 5-2 for forming a closed ring (internal ring) within the concentrator are controlled by a control signal line 6 from the main internal 5TII. Ru.

Control signals for the switch may originate from the ring protocol manager 32 of the main internal STI 1.

FIG. 4 shows a configuration in which an internal ring for diagnosis of the main internal 5TII is formed.

FIG. 5 shows the basic structure of two communication frames. The operating status of a station can be diagnosed using communication frames. On the other hand, special data that is not a communication frame
Diagnosis can also be made based on the pattern. In this embodiment, communication frames are used. In FIG. 5, 51 indicates the start of the frame.
8D), 52 is Frame indicating the type of frame.
Coutrol (FC), 53 is DesNation Address (DA) indicating the destination address,
54 indicates the source address 5sourceAddress
s (SA), 55 is Information (I
).

56 is Frame Check 5equence (
PC8).

57 indicates the end of the frame.
r(ED). A diagnosis frame for stage diagnosis can be set, for example, as follows. If Fe12 is 1 byte of information, then Fe12:B@O1000011m (Diagnosis 7L/-m display) DA53: Own stage address 5A54: Own stage address 55: Diagnostic data Figure 6 shows the operation of station diagnosis. It is a flowchart showing a procedure. The internal ST to be diagnosed forms an internal ring in step 110, transmits the diagnostic frame in step 120, and monitors its reception in step 130. If the reception is successful, step 140 diagnoses that both the reception and transmission functions of the internal 8T are normal, and then one communication is made.

Starts cooperative operations with other stations (or internal STs) to form a network system. This operating procedure will not be described further because it does not constitute the present invention. On the other hand, if the diagnostic frame cannot be received normally, it is diagnosed in step 150 that there is an abnormality in the internal ring system including the own internal 8T. In this case, a backup system is installed or replaced in the internal ST. Alternatively, take countermeasures against the failure, such as stopping the operation (communication function) of the entire line concentrator.

Since this countermeasure procedure does not constitute the present invention, it will not be described further.

Figure 7 shows the line concentrator 10 when diagnosing the slave internal 8T12.
-1 is a configuration diagram. In this case, internal ring forming switches 5-3, 5-4 are used. In FIG. 7, the switch control line 6 in FIG. 4 is omitted. What is important in forming the inner ring?

All the ports 3-1, . . . , 3-3 are separated, and the other internal 8T (main internal 8Tll) is not included in the internal ring. This is to prevent the own internal ST from being unable to perform diagnosis due to a failure in the other internal ST or a failure in a port.

Further, the internal ring ζ includes a part of the main transmission line system and the auxiliary transmission line system (inside the concentrator). Although it is conceivable to install (provide) a separate internal ring without including these transmission path systems, this is not preferable from the standpoint of increasing the amount of material. On the other hand, in the case of an internal ring including the transmission line system, for example, the internal ring forming switches 5-3 and 5-4 may be replaced with a loop bar, which is already known as a countermeasure against failures in dual-system rings.
There is an advantage that the switch can be applied as is.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, the status of the station (or line concentrator) can be diagnosed regardless of whether the transmission line system (active or standby system) is normal or abnormal, so it is no longer possible to detect an abnormality in the station. This has the effect of building a highly reliable distributed network system.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

gt diagram is the overall configuration diagram of the system to which the present invention is applied, the second
Figure 3 is a configuration diagram of the concentrator, Figure 3 is a configuration diagram of the internal ST (stage four), Figure 4 is a configuration diagram when diagnosing the main internal ST, Figure 5 is a configuration diagram of the diagnostic frame, and Figure 6 is a configuration diagram of the diagnostic frame. The diagram shows the internal S
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the procedure for diagnosing the T. FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram when diagnosing the slave internal ST. Figure 1 Kuzu 3E Figure 4 Houki Yuzuku

Claims (1)

[Claims] A communication network system comprising a closed ring transmission path and a plurality of data stations that can be connected to the ring transmission path by a plurality of concentrator stations in the ring transmission path, wherein an internal ring transmission is provided within the concentrator station. A method for diagnosing a station, characterized in that the operating state of the concentrator station is diagnosed by forming an internal ring transmission line and transmitting diagnostic data to the internal ring transmission line.