JPS63280537A - Fault state reporting system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To quicken the detection of fault occurrence by providing a function generating a fault status report where an instantaneous failure status of each communication line and each node, a fault status based on the result of monitor within a prescribed time while being roughly classified depending on the fault status and a function sending the report to a network management center to each node. CONSTITUTION:Multiplexers 1,2 are connected to a ground high speed digital line 4 by a satellite line 7. The fault information at the instantaneous time and withinprescribed time collected by the multiplexer 1 is classified depending on the fault state and communicated to the center 11 in a form of a status word, for example. Moreover, the multiplexer 1 is provided with a function monitoring the state of the communication line and the multiplexer 1 itself at a sampling time interval, a function generating the fault status report comprising the result of monitor of a specified time and the instantaneous value at present in a form of status word, for example, aud a function returning the report in a form of the status word in response to the polling from the center 11. Thus, the time till the detection of fault occurrence is shortened.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a network management system, and particularly to a failure situation reporting system suitable for failure management.

[Conventional technology]

Traditionally, network management has mainly focused on modem networks, but as the use of high-speed digital lines increases, the management of networks consisting of multimedia multiplexing devices has become important. . Among the network management functions, Nikkei Communication (Nikkei Communication) particularly deals with failure management, which consists of failure detection9 diagnosis and repair functions when failures such as line failures occur.
Discussed in the July 7, 1986 issue, pages 101-103.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

Conventionally, two methods have been used to detect a fault, which is one of the fault management functions: (1) an interrupt method and (2) a polling method. In the interrupt method, when a multimedia multiplexer V device (hereinafter referred to as multiplexer) detects that a failure has occurred in the multiplexer itself or in the line connected to the multiplexer, an interrupt signal is used to asynchronously interrupt the multiplexer. This is a method of notifying the network management center (hereinafter abbreviated as "center") that manages the network.

This method has the advantage that it takes a short time for the center to recognize the occurrence of a fault in the network, but if interrupts occur frequently, it will not be possible to process all signals due to interrupt signal reception processing overhead. There is a disadvantage. Also, in the polling method, contrary to the interrupt method, the center queries each multiplexer in turn for the presence or absence of fault information, and although it takes time for the center to recognize the occurrence of a fault, This has the advantage that information collection can be easily controlled. However, with the polling method, the fault information obtained from the multiplexer is the instantaneous value at the time of polling, so it is difficult to judge whether a fault has really occurred or whether it is a temporary fault. The problem with this method is that it is necessary to poll the same multiplexing device several times, and in some cases it takes a very long time to detect the occurrence of a failure.

An object of the present invention is to shorten the time until the above-mentioned fault occurrence is detected in the polling method, and also to make it possible to deal with temporary faults and steady faults.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve the above object, the fault information collected by the multiplexing device both instantaneously and within a predetermined time is divided into classes according to the fault situation and is communicated to the center in the form of a status word, for example.

In addition, the multiplexing device has a function to monitor the status of the communication line and the multiplexing device itself at a certain sampling interval, and a failure situation report consisting of the monitoring results at a certain specified time and the instantaneous value at the current sampling time is sent, for example, as a status word. A function is provided to generate the report in the form of this status word, and a function to return the above report in the form of this status word as a response to polling from the center.

[Effect]

The fault information collected by the multiplexing device includes information regarding the multiplexing device itself and information regarding lines connected to the multiplexing device. Among these, the fault information regarding the multiplexing device main body includes information regarding the memory, CPU, highway, which is a data transmission path within the multiplexing device, and the like. Fault information related to lines includes information related to network faults and clock out-of-synchronization. These failure information are
The control system within the multiplexing device writes the error information to the fault information area in the memory using a hardware interrupt. The management function of the multiplexing device checks the fault information area at certain sampling intervals and counts the number of sampling times and the frequency of occurrence of each fault information. When a polling message is received from the center, the status is calculated from the above count value and the instantaneous value of each fault information at the time of receiving the polling message.
Create word. The status word is sent back to the multiplexer in response to the poll. When the multiplexer receives the status word, it checks whether the frequency of occurrence of each fault information exceeds the threshold, and if the frequency of occurrence of any one fault information exceeds the threshold, the instantaneous value of that fault information also becomes a fault. 6 However, in the case of a line failure, if the line condition is unstable and the acquired failure information changes over time, it is determined that a failure has occurred. It becomes difficult to determine.

Therefore, in order to deal with such cases, a class of failure conditions is provided, and if it is not possible to determine the occurrence of a failure, a warning flag is set in the status word. This makes it possible for the center to grasp the failure situation through one poll, thereby shortening the time required to recognize the occurrence of the failure. Furthermore, since fault diagnosis is performed based on both the occurrence frequency and instantaneous value of each fault information, it is also possible to deal with temporary faults.

[Example Go] Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. FIG. 1 shows an example of the basic configuration of a network composed of multiplexing devices. The multiplexers 1 and 2 are connected by a terrestrial high-speed digital line (hereinafter abbreviated as high-speed line) 4 and a satellite line 7.

Multiplexers 1 and 3 are connected by a terrestrial line 5. Multiplexers 2 and 3 are connected by a terrestrial line 6. Low-speed lines (e.g. subscriber lines) for each multiplexer
Computers etc. are connected to the side and communicate with each other. Further, the center 11 is connected to the multiplexing device 1.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the multiplexer 12. Data from the low-speed line is taken in via the low-speed interface 14, and transferred by the control unit 15 to the corresponding high-speed line via the high-speed interface 13.

Further, data from the high-speed line side is taken in via the high-speed side interface 13, and transferred by the control unit 15 to the corresponding low-speed line via the low-speed side interface 14. The status of the control unit 15 is monitored by the monitoring unit 16 periodically using signals sent from the control unit]5. The state of the high-speed line is checked by the control unit 15 monitoring data sent via the high-speed interface 13. When an abnormality is recognized in the control unit 15 or the high-speed line, the control unit 15 immediately switches to the standby system. In the case of a line failure, first, we count the frequency of network failures and clock out-of-synchronization by monitoring for a specified period of time, and if the value exceeds the threshold, it is determined that there is a line failure, and if it does not, then It is determined that the line condition is unstable.

When a polling message is received from the center 11, both the fault in the control section 15 and the line fault are set in the form of a status word 18 in the status word creation section 17. The status word 18 in FIG. 3 contains the multiplexer's network address 19. Fault information presence/absence display flag 20. Memory failure flag 21. , CPU failure flag 22
．． Highway Obstacle Flag 23. Other indicator lamp flag 24. High speed line number 25. Network failure flag 26. Out-of-synchronization flag for clocks, etc. 27. Fault class display flag 2
The number from line number 25 to display flag 28 is equal to the number of high-speed lines (four in this embodiment). The status word is set in memory, read out during polling from the center, and sent to the center. According to this embodiment, the multiplexer monitors the failure status and Classification also makes it possible to estimate the failure status and deal with temporary failures by polling - times.

In addition, areas 21 to 21 in the status word 18 above
As another example of allocation of 28, the number of sampling times 21. Number of network failures: 22. Number of occurrences of clock synchronization: 23. Number of frame out of synchronization occurrences 24, network failure, clock out of synchronization, instantaneous value at the time of polling of frame out of synchronization state 25, memory failure (control unit 15) flag 26
゜CPU failure (control unit 15) flag 27. It is also possible to use the fault flag 28 of the monitoring unit 16.

In this case as well, the items from the number of network fault occurrences 22 to the number of frame out-of-synchronization occurrences 25 exist for the maximum number of high-speed lines (4 lines) that can be connected to the multiplexing device.

The status word 18 is created based on the fault information written in the memory upon receiving a polling message from the center 11, and is returned to the center 11 as response data.

When the center 11 receives the status word 18, it first checks the fault information presence flag 20, and if the value is 0, it determines that there is no fault with the multiplexing device at the network address 19. On the other hand, if the value is 1, this means that failure information regarding the line or the multiplexer itself has been set, so the values from the sampling count 21 to the monitoring unit failure flag 28 are checked. Memory failure flag 2
6゜CPU failure flag 27. Monitoring unit failure flag 28 is O
If N, it means that a corresponding failure has occurred, and a failure message to that effect is displayed.

Regarding line faults, any of the ratios between the number of network fault occurrences 22 and the number of sampling times 21, the ratio between the number of clock out-of-synchronization occurrences 23 and the number of sampling times 21, and the ratio between the number of frame out-of-synchronization occurrences 24 and the number of sampling times 21 meet a certain threshold. Only when the value is exceeded and the corresponding instantaneous value 25 also indicates a failure, it is determined that a line failure has occurred. Thus, in the multiplexer, the polling cycle time (
The failure status is determined based on failure information checked at a certain sampling interval (the time from receiving a polling message from the center 11 to receiving the next polling message). , so-called temporary failures will not be mistakenly judged as permanent failures. In addition, since the instantaneous value at the time when the polling message is received is also used to determine the failure status, it is possible to more accurately determine whether there is a steady failure.

Through the above-described processing, the center 11 can quickly and reliably identify the location of the fault by polling once.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, compared to the conventional polling method, it is possible to detect the occurrence of a failure more quickly, and it is also possible to deal with temporary failures, so that line switching in the event of a failure can be carried out efficiently and quickly. .

In addition, the aggregated failure information of high-speed circuits and multiplexing equipment is
Since the information can be obtained by polling once, the time required to detect a failure is shortened, and temporary and steady failures can be correctly determined.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the basic configuration of a network consisting of a multimedia multiplexing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the multimedia multiplexing device, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a status word This is a format diagram.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an information network consisting of a network management center and a plurality of nodes and a plurality of communication lines managed by the center, each node is provided with information on the instantaneous failure status of each communication line and node and within a predetermined period of time. 1. A fault situation reporting system characterized by providing a function of creating a fault situation report that classifies fault situations based on monitoring results according to the fault situation, and a function of transmitting the report to the center. 2. The failure situation reporting method as set forth in item 1, wherein the predetermined time is determined on the node side. 3. The failure status reporting method as set forth in item 1, wherein the report is expressed by a status word. 4. In an information network consisting of a network management center and multiple nodes and multiple communication lines managed by the network management center, each node has a function to monitor the status of the communication lines and the node itself at predetermined sampling intervals, and network management. A failure situation characterized by having a function of creating a failure status report from monitoring results by polling within a predetermined time determined by the center and an instantaneous value at the time of polling, and a function of sending the report back to the center as a response to the polling. Reporting method. 5. The failure situation reporting method according to item 4, wherein the report is expressed by a status word.