KR100336499B1 - An interface apparatus and method between TMN agent and ATM switch - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an interface apparatus and method between a TMN management agent and an asynchronous transmission mode switch for a management agent of a Telecommunication System (TMN) system to collect management information from an exchange or to transmit a TMN management command to an exchange. It is about.

The present invention provides a gateway module which is connected to an exchange / operator interface of an exchange to transmit / receive messages of an exchange and a TMN system; A server and client for processing command requests from TMN management agents; An event processing server and an event processing client for processing a failure or operation status report of a server and a client for processing command processing results and an exchange; A CORBA object request broker responsible for remote communication between the servers and clients; And an automatic message interpreter that extracts the parameters necessary for the configuration of the CORBA Interface Definition Language (IDL) interface from the result of the command processing performed at the exchange. The network operator's physical or logical network is used to connect various types of exchanges and TMN management agents. Minimize change efforts and increase portability and interoperability.

Description

{A interface apparatus and method between TMN agent and ATM switch}

The present invention relates to an interface apparatus and method between a telecommunication management network (TMN) management agent and an asynchronous transmission mode switch.

The existing network management method is a method in which network operators operate and maintain network elements through operator interfaces provided by individual network elements locally. However, this management method provides only local and simple network management functions limited to one network element, and integrates and manages complex and complex modern communication networks as a whole or collects and analyzes management information collected from various network elements or communication networks. It was not possible to perform optimal network management functions. The necessity of a systematic, comprehensive and extensive network management system for such complex and diverse networks has led to the TMN as the solution.

The TMN system requires the exchange of online management information with any network element in the network to be managed in order to manage the network. This exchange of information is a function required for TMN management agents to directly manage network elements using managed objects. As such, the TMN management agent needs an interface for communication between the management agent and the communication network element in order to exchange management information with the communication network element to be managed.

Although the design of this interface has its own meaning in the absence of a TMN system for the current exchange, the conventional interface developed so far is that the management agent and each processor inside the exchange directly transmit / receive management information. It is a method of receiving or transmitting information output through the operator interface of the exchange using UDP (User Data Protocol) or TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). The structure of direct transmission / reception affects the performance of the exchange due to the presence of two interfaces for the TMN management agent and the exchange operator at the same time inside the exchange, and the exchange developer should also work on the two interfaces. This is inefficient. In addition, the existing method using UDP or TCP cannot be applied to other TMN systems other than the target system intended by the developer. When the type of the switch to be managed by the TMN system is changed, the interface according to the method must be newly developed or added. There is a problem.

The present invention is to solve the problems of the conventional interface technology described above, and to provide a high portability and interoperable interface to minimize the physical or logical change effort of the network operator in the connection of various types of exchanges and TMN management agent The purpose is to provide between the exchange and the TMN management agent.

1 is a block diagram of a TMN system and an asynchronous transmission mode switch to which the present invention is applied.

2 is a structural diagram of an TMN management agent and an asynchronous transmission mode exchange period interface according to the present invention;

3A and 3B are flowcharts of a TMN management agent and an asynchronous transmission mode exchange period interface operation processing procedure according to the present invention;

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

100: TMN system 110: TMN operator terminal

120: TMN Manager 140: TMN Managers

200: TMN management agent and asynchronous transmission mode exchange period interfaces

210a: command request client 210b: command result processing server

210c: event processing server

220: CORBA Object Request Broker

220a-220f: CORBA IDL Interface

230a: request command processing server 230b: command result processing client

230c: event handling client 240: gateway module

260: automatic message interpreter 300: asynchronous transfer mode exchangers

300a: Asynchronous Transfer Mode Operation / Maintenance (OAM) Processor

310: Interface between asynchronous transfer mode exchange and exchange operator

The interface method of the present invention for achieving the above object is operated in the Workstation operating the TMN management agent and is associated with the operator interface of the exchange during the function execution.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a TMN system and an asynchronous transmission mode switch (hereinafter referred to as a switch) to which the present invention is applied.

The TMN system 100 manages the TMN operator terminal 110 for inputting / outputting graphic or textual information through a graphical user interface (GUI) so that the network operator can monitor and control the state of the network. It is composed of the TMN manager 120 and several TMN management agents 140a to 140n in charge.

The TMN manager 120 transmits the management commands by the operator to the TMN management agents 140a to 140n, which are physically or logically divided, through the data communication network 130 by using the Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP). It performs a command for 300a to 300n, and collects and evaluates the results of the execution or status reports of the switches 300a to 300n to generate useful network management information.

The TMN management agents 140a to 140n manage the same shape and state information as the switches 300a to 300n by using managed objects modeled by the object-oriented models of the exchanges 300a to 300n to be managed. Doing.

In response to a request from the TMN manager 120, the TMN management agents 140a to 140n obtain information from a managed object managed by the TMN manager 120 or collect information directly from the exchanges 300a to 300n and transmit the information to the TMN manager 120. The type of management information managed by TMN management agents 140a to 140n for TMN is a message type based on CMIP, and the type of information reported or input by exchanges 300a to 300n is generally used by exchanges 300a to 300n. Since MML (Man-Machine Language) -based message types have different information types, an interface 200a to 200n for interconnecting the TMN management agents 140a to 140n and the switches 300a to 300n is required. . The present invention provides these interfaces 200a to 200n.

2 is a structural diagram of a TMN management agent and an exchange period interface device according to the present invention. The core of the present invention is the portability of non-standard Man Machine Interface provided by almost all exchanges to exchange operators for the operation, maintenance and repair of exchanges using CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) technology. The idea is to devise a high, interoperable interface.

As shown in FIG. 2, the interface device of the present invention is a TMN operator terminal 110 for inputting / outputting graphic or text information through a graphical user interface (GUI) so that a network operator can monitor and control the state of a network. In the TMN system 100 including the TMN manager 120 and several TMN management agents 140a to 140n that are in charge of actual network management, the exchange / operator interface 310 of the exchange 300 A gateway module 240 connected with the gateway 300 to transmit / receive messages of the exchange 300 and the TMN system 100; A server 230a and a client 210a that process command requests from the TMN management agent 140; A server 210b and a client 230b for processing command processing results, and an event processing server 210c and an event processing client 230c for processing a failure occurrence or operation status report of an exchange; A CORBA object request broker (220) for remote communication between the servers and clients; And an automatic message interpreter 260 that extracts parameters necessary for the configuration of the CORBA IDL interface from the command processing result performed in the exchange 300.

In such a configuration, the server and clients 210a, 210b, 210c, 230a, 230b, 230c using CORBA distributed object technology receive the CMIP from the main module 140a in the TMN management agent 140. It is responsible for converting TMN administrative commands in the form of distributed object operations using CORBA IDL and passing them on to the server or client. In addition, it is in charge of converting the output message from the exchange 300 into a distributed object operation using CORBA IDL, and delivering it to the corresponding server or client.

Specifically, the command request client 210a is a client that is called when the TMN management agent 140 receives any TMN management command from the TMN manager 120. The command request client 210a executes a TMN management command. After converting to the defined CORBA IDL interface, it is responsible for calling a CORBA operation of the request command processing server 230a corresponding to the corresponding TMN management command.

The command request processing server 230a, upon request of the command request processing client 210a, automatically activates a process to perform a request operation. In this case, the operation performed is changed to a command of the corresponding exchange 300 using the command parameters received through the CORBA IDL interface, and performs a series of procedures for transferring to the exchange 300 through the gateway module 240.

The command result processing client 240b is responsible for calling a corresponding operation of the corresponding command result processing server 210b after receiving the command processing result performed at the exchange 300 through the gateway module 240. At this time, the gateway module 240 extracts the parameters necessary for the configuration of the CORBA IDL interface using the automatic message interpreter 260 and delivers the result message to the command result processing client 240b.

The command result processing server 210b is responsible for reflecting the command execution result of the exchange 300 to the management object of the TMN management agent 140.

The event processing server 210c and the client 230c are responsible for reporting a failure and state change generated from the exchange 300.

The present invention implements servers 210b, 210c, 230a and clients 210a, 230b, 230c using CORBA distributed object technology between the TMN management agent 140 and the exchange / operator interface 310. Benefit from interoperability and portability between heterogeneous systems that CORBA technology is aiming for.

3A and 3B are flowcharts illustrating an interface operation procedure according to the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the TMN agency manager and the asynchronous transmission mode exchange period interface method of the present invention receives a CMIP-type TMN management command from the TMN manager, activates a command request client, assembles a CORBA IDL interface, and then processes the request command. Invoking the corresponding CORBA operation of the server, extracting management command information from the CORBA IDL received through the operation called by the request command processing server, and generating a corresponding exchange command and transmitting the generated exchange command to the exchange through the gateway module; When the result of an exchange management command performed or a failure or state change information occurring within the exchange itself is received by the gateway module through the OAM processor of the exchange and the exchange / operator interface, an automatic message interpreter is used to interpret the received exchange output message. Determining a message; If the message determined in the above step is the execution result for the command request, the message is sent to the command result processing client to assemble the CORBA IDL interface from the interpreted exchange output message, and the corresponding operation of the command result processing server is called to receive the CORBA IDL. Extracting the execution result information contained in the interface, reflecting the result in the management object of the TMN management agent, and finally reporting the execution result as a CMIP message to the TMN manager when a series of procedures is completed; And as a result of the determination in the message determining step, if the failure or status change report message is generated by the exchange itself, deliver the message to the event processing client to assemble the CORBA IDL interface from the output message, and call the corresponding operation of the event processing server, After extracting the execution result information contained in the received CORBA IDL interface, the result is reflected in the management object of the TMN management agent, and when the series of procedures is completed, the final result is reported to the TMN manager as a CMIP message.

Referring to this, first, the TMN agency manager 140 receives a TMIP management command in the CMIP form from the TMN manager 120 (S1).

The TMN management agent 140 activates the command request client 210a (S2). The activated command request client 210a assembles a CORBA IDL interface and then calls the corresponding CORBA operation of the request command processing server 230a (S3). The called CORBA operation activates the request command processing server 230a in charge of the corresponding exchange 300 through the object request broker 220 (S4).

The activated request command processing server 230a extracts management command information from CORBA IDL received through its called operation (S5), and generates a corresponding exchange 300 command (S6). The generated command is transmitted to the exchange 300 through the gateway module 240.

After receiving the command through the exchange / operator interface 310, the OAM processor 320 checks the command grammar (S6), and then transfers the command to the exchange process to be processed (S8).

The result of the management command or the failure and state change information generated in the switch 300 itself is received to the gateway module 240 through the OAM processor 320 and the exchange / operator interface 310 (S9).

The gateway module 240 interprets the received exchanger output message using the automatic message interpreter 260 (S10), and determines the message (S11).

As a result of the determination, if the message is the result of performing the command request, the message is delivered to the command result processing client 230b, and the command result processing client 230b receives the CORBA IDL interface from the exchanger output message interpreted through the automatic message interpreter 260. To assemble and call the corresponding operation of the command result processing server 210b (S12).

The command result processing server 210b is automatically activated at the call of the command result processing client 230b (S13), extracts the execution result information contained in the received CORBA IDL interface, and then attaches it to the managed object of the TMN management agent 140. The result is reflected (S14).

When the series of procedures is terminated, the TMN management agent main module 140a finally reports the result of the execution to the TMN manager 120 as a CMIP message (S15).

On the other hand, if the message is determined as a failure or state change report message in step S11, the message is delivered to the event processing client (230c). The event processing client 230c then assembles the CORBA IDL interface from the exchanger output message interpreted through the automatic message interpreter 260 and calls the corresponding operation of the event processing server 210b (S16).

The event processing server 210c is automatically activated at the call of the event processing client 230c (S17).

Thereafter, after performing steps S14 and S15 to extract performance result information contained in the received CORBA IDL interface, the result is reflected in the management object of the TMN management agent 140 (S18), and the TMN management agent main module 140a. When the series of procedures is completed, the TMN manager 120 finally reports the result as a CMIP message.

The technical spirit of the present invention has been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but this is by way of example only and not intended to limit the present invention. In addition, it is obvious that any person skilled in the art can make various modifications and imitations without departing from the scope of the technical idea of the present invention.

As described above, the interface of the present invention can be implemented without modification of the exchange itself because it is an interface applied to a TMN management agent structure existing in a computing environment outside the exchange, rather than an embedded agent existing in the exchange. Economic and time savings from the introduction of the new interface can be saved.

In addition, because it uses CORBA technology, if the TMN management agent needs to connect with other types of exchanges, the exchange can be easily connected by providing a new, standardized and generalized CORBA interface. On the contrary, even if an exchange equipped with an interface proposed by the present invention needs to connect with another type of TMN management agent, the management agent defines CORBA IDL and adds only a function of calling an operation of the corresponding server. Because of this, it can bring economic and time benefits to operators that install and operate various types of exchanges and network management systems.

Claims (4)

An apparatus for providing an interface of an asynchronous transmission mode exchange period with a TMN management agent of a TMN system that provides a method of collecting, distributing, and transmitting and storing information on operation and maintenance of a communication network. A gateway module connected to an exchange / operator interface in the exchange to transmit / receive messages of the exchange and the TMN system; A command request processing client for converting a TMN management command into a defined CORBA IDL interface for a command request of a TMN management agent, and then calling a CORBA operation of a request command processing server corresponding to the TMN management command; A request command processing server which, upon request of the command request processing client, automatically converts a process into a command of a corresponding exchange using command parameters received through a CORBA IDL interface and transmits the command to a switch through the gateway module; A command result processing client that receives a command processing result performed at an exchange through the gateway module and then calls a corresponding operation of a corresponding command result processing server; A command result processing server for reflecting the command execution result of the exchange to the management object of the TMN management agent; An event processing server and client for handling a failure occurrence or operation status report of the exchange; A CORBA object request broker responsible for remote communication between the servers and clients; And And an automatic message interpreter for extracting parameters required for the configuration of a CORBA IDL interface from the result of command processing performed at the exchange. In the interface method of the TMN management agent and the asynchronous transmission mode switching period of the TMN system, which provides a method of collecting, distributing, and transmitting and storing information on the operation and maintenance of the communication network, When the TMN manager agent receives a CMIP-type TMN management command from the TMN manager to activate the command request client, assembles the CORBA IDL interface, and calls the corresponding CORBA operation of the request command processing server, the request command processing server is called itself. Extracting the management command information from the CORBA IDL received through the operation of, and generating a corresponding exchange command and transmitting it to the exchange through the gateway module; When the result of an exchange management command performed or a failure or state change information that occurs within the exchange itself is received by the gateway module through the OAM processor and the exchange / operator interface of the exchange, an automatic message interpreter is used to interpret the received exchange output message. Determining a message; And If the message determined in the above step is the execution result for the command request, the message is sent to the command result processing client to assemble the CORBA IDL interface from the interpreted exchange output message, and the corresponding operation of the command result processing server is called to receive the CORBA IDL. TMN, after extracting the execution result information contained in the interface, reflects the result in the management object of the TMN management agent, and when the series of procedures is completed, the final result reported to the TMN manager as a CMIP message TMN Asynchronous transfer mode exchange period interface method with management agent. The method of claim 2, As a result of the determination in the message determining step, if the failure or status change report message is generated by the exchange itself, the message is delivered to the event processing client, the CORBA IDL interface is assembled from the output message, and the corresponding operation of the event processing server is called and received. Extracting the execution result information contained in a CORBA IDL interface, reflecting the result in the management object of the TMN management agent, and finally reporting the execution result as a CMIP message to the TMN manager when the series of procedures is completed. TMN management agent and asynchronous transmission mode switching period interface method. In a computer-readable recording medium recording a program providing an interface of asynchronous transmission mode switching period with a TMN management agent of a TMN system that provides a method of collecting, distributing, and storing information related to operation and maintenance of a communication network. , When the TMN agent manager receives a CMIP-type TMN management command from the TMN manager to activate the command request client, assembles the CORBA IDL interface, and calls the corresponding CORBA operation of the request command processing server, the request command processing server is called itself. Extracting the management command information from the CORBA IDL received through the operation of, and generating a corresponding exchange command and transmitting it to the exchange through the gateway module; When the result of an exchange management command performed or a failure or state change information that occurs within the exchange itself is received by the gateway module through the OAM processor of the exchange and the exchange / operator interface, an automatic message interpreter is used to interpret the received exchange output message. Determining a message; If the message determined in the above step is the execution result for the command request, the message is sent to the command result processing client to assemble the CORBA IDL interface from the interpreted exchange output message, and the corresponding operation of the command result processing server is called to receive the CORBA IDL. Extracting the execution result information contained in the interface, reflecting the result in the management object of the TMN management agent, and finally reporting the execution result as a CMIP message to the TMN manager when a series of procedures is completed; And As a result of the determination in the message determination step, if the failure or status change report message is generated by the exchange itself, the message is delivered to the event processing client, the CORBA IDL interface is assembled from the output message, and the corresponding operation of the event processing server is called and received. Extracting the execution result information contained in a CORBA IDL interface and reflecting the result in the management object of the TMN management agent, and finally reporting the execution result as a CMIP message to the TMN manager when the series of procedures is completed. A computer-readable recording medium that records a program that can be loaded.