KR20040016022A - Method Of Managing Of Ethernet Network Using Media Access Control Address - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method for managing an Ethernet network by using MAC addresses is provided to grant a MAC address to an Ethernet media converter in order to monitor the states of an Ethernet network and the Ethernet media converter and to measure a communication line state. CONSTITUTION: A subscriber network analyzes an Ethernet packet inputted to an Ethernet media converter(S61). The subscriber network judges whether the Ethernet type of the analyzed packet is correct(S62). In case that the Ethernet type is correct, the subscriber network checks the payload field of the packet to analyze a type field(S63). In case that the packet type is a discovery procedure, the subscriber network forms a discovery response packet(S64). The discovery response packet is transmitted to an Ethernet network manager so that the Ethernet network manager can recognize the mapping relationship between a specific port and the address of the Ethernet media convert of the port(S66). If the packet type is a loop test request packet, the subscriber network forms a loop test response packet(S65). The loop test response packet is transmitted to the Ethernet network manager. The Ethernet network manager catches the module status information of the subscriber network through the loop test response packet and checks the state of an optical line(S66).

Description

Method of Managing Of Ethernet Network Using Media Access Control Address

The present invention relates to an Ethernet network management method, and more particularly, to an Ethernet network management method using a medium access control address to efficiently monitor and manage the status of a subscriber network.

Due to the generalization of the Internet and the explosive increase in data traffic in the transport network, the existing 56Kbps modem has not satisfied the needs of subscribers as well as the provider's service area limitations. To address this, there have been advances in Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) or Very High-bit Rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL). This was a good way to solve to some extent the bottleneck on the macro network due to the low data rate of T1 / E1 when it was not suitable for use in subscriber networks because optical products were expensive. However, as the price of optical products has gradually decreased and the demand of subscribers for high-quality Internet services has increased, the implementation of an optical network of FTTH (Fiber To The Home) has been required. Ethernet networks that meet these needs are well suited for subscriber networks because they eliminate the bottlenecks of the macro area and are low cost. In case of foreign countries, 4 core single-mode fiber or low-cost plastic fiber is installed in the apartment building to the house, and 10/100 Mbps data transmission is performed to the subscriber house using Ethernet media converter. Fibers are being installed in apartments, corporations and PC rooms. Therefore, the newly launched ESP (Ethernet Service Provider) or CATV operators who are expanding their service area by using the existing network have expanded the service area as a provider by simply installing the module of Ethernet media converter and satisfy the needs of subscribers. As the size of the network increased, the necessity of monitoring and managing it occurred.

Therefore, the existing network management methods that can be applied to the Ethernet media converter are the loopback test method and the IP ping test method. The loopback test is a method for monitoring the condition of the line before installing the module in the subscriber network. However, this loopback test method has a problem in that the operation of a module to be managed is paused during the loopback test, and since the purpose of simply monitoring the state of a line is to obtain information on the state of a target to be monitored. In the case of the IP ping test, a ping test is used to assign an IP to manage a server from a subscriber to a PC, and in the case of managing expensive equipment with a large number of functions, it is widely applied to assign and use an IP. However, it is inappropriate to establish a separate database for assigning and managing expensive IP to the Ethernet media converter, which is a device of the subscriber end, which is very price sensitive.

As described above, the state of the art is applied to the state management and monitoring of the central or distribution station, which is a very important part of the network in terms of price and technical aspects, and the technology applied to the subscriber end is limited to some areas. It is being applied. However, as the demand of subscribers and the service increase, the portion of Ethernet network is gradually increasing and the need of subscriber management is increasing accordingly, but there is no specific method for status monitoring and line condition measurement. In addition, when monitoring the state there is a problem that the data communication between the communication is disconnected and the customer service is interrupted.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a media access control address (MAC Address) to the Ethernet media converter in order to monitor the status of the Ethernet network and the Ethernet media converter and to measure the communication line status, and to prevent communication disconnection of the media converter in operation. In order to prevent the problem, the present invention relates to an Ethernet network management method that can efficiently manage and monitor an operation state at a remote location using a specific protocol of in-band signals.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an Ethernet network divided into a central station and a subscriber end according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of one port of the collective Ethernet media converter of the central station shown in Fig. 1;

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a subscriber end standalone Ethernet media converter shown in FIG. 1; FIG.

FIG. 4 shows a switched Ethernet media converter at the subscriber end shown in FIG. 1; FIG.

5a to 5c are diagrams showing communication protocols used for Ethernet network management according to the present invention;

6 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for managing a network using the communication protocol illustrated in FIGS. 5A to 5C.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a media access control write / read procedure in which a media access control address is assigned to an EEPROM mounted in the Ethernet media converter shown in FIG.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for managing a network at a central station using the communication protocol shown in FIGS. 5A to 5C.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

2: Central station 4: L2 or L3 class switch

6,12,28,30,32: Ethernet Media Converter 8: Subscriber

10: optical fiber 14: network management server

16 microcontroller 18 switch controller

20: signal connection part 22: LED part

24a: first optical transceiver 24b: second optical transceiver

In order to achieve the above object, the Ethernet network management method according to the present invention comprises the steps of performing a discovery procedure for recognizing the media access control address of the Ethernet media converter of the subscriber end at the central station, and the status of the Ethernet media converter of the subscriber end. And executing a loop test procedure for recognizing the information at the central station, and assigning a media access control address to the Ethernet media converter at the subscriber end.

Other objects and features of the present invention in addition to the above objects will be apparent from the description of the embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a network of Ethernet according to the present invention.

1, a network according to the present invention includes a central office (2) and a subscriber network (8).

In the central station 2, a network management server (NMS) 14, a switch 4 and a collective media converter 12 are located. The network management server 14 plays a role of managing status information of the network to be managed or performing various management operations. The protocol mainly uses a simple network management protocol (SNMP). . As the switch 4 connected to the network management server 14, a manageable L2 or L3-class switch is used. The collective Ethernet media converter 12 connected to the switch 4 by a signal connection part 20 connected to an unshielded twisted pair cable and an RJ45 modular jack, etc., extends the transmission distance to several tens of kilometers by photoelectric conversion. In the collective media converter 12, a first optical transceiver for transmitting and receiving an RJ45 modular jack and an Ethernet media converter of a subscriber station located at a distance of several tens of kilometers for a connection with an L2 or L3-class switch is located. The collective Ethernet media converter 12 and the switch 4 may be integrally formed. The subscriber end type Ethernet media converter 6 is located in the home of the subscriber end 8. As the subscriber end type Ethernet media converter 6, a standalone type or a switched type Ethernet media converter is used. The subscriber end Ethernet media converter 6 has a second optical transceiver for transmission and reception with the central station and an RJ45 modular jack for connection with the terminal of the subscriber end. In order to connect the subscriber station 8 and the central station 2, a single mode or multiple mode optical fiber 10 is used. That is, the collective type Ethernet media converter 12 of the central station 2 and the subscriber type Ethernet media converter 6 of the subscriber end 8 are connected to the optical fiber 10.

Subscriber-type Ethernet media converter 6 according to the present invention is given a media access control address that is a unique number of the equipment. Alternatively, when the microcontroller of the subscriber-end Ethernet media converter 6 is equipped with an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) to receive a media access control address write request packet, the microcontroller requests media access to the EPROM. Write the control address directly. In the subscriber-end Ethernet media converter 6, a predetermined protocol for management is defined and an in-band signal is used so that an administrator can obtain information on the module state of the subscriber-end without disconnection of communication even when the subscriber uses it.

2 to 4 are diagrams illustrating the form of an Ethernet media converter.

The Ethernet media converters 28, 30, 32 shown in Figs. 2-4 are microcontrollers 16 for accepting and responding to requests for loop test protocols, and data format converters for converting electrical signals into optical signals. The switch controller 18 for exchanging the signal and the electrical Ethernet signal to the L2 or L3-class switch in the case of the central station, or to the subscriber end switch, hub or direct computer in the case of the subscriber end It includes a signal connection unit 20, an LED unit 22 for displaying the state of the Ethernet media converter, and optical transceivers 24a and 24b for long distance transmission to the central station and subscriber end.

The collective Ethernet media converter 28 shown in FIG. 2 is installed at the central station 2 stage, and is an interface for communication with a card for management as a physical slot card for one line of the collective Ethernet media converter. 26) further. The standalone Ethernet media converter 30 shown in FIG. 3 is mainly installed at the subscriber end. The switch type Ethernet media converter 32 shown in FIG. 4 receives data from the second optical transceiver 24b and switches data to signal connection units 201 to 20n of multiple ports to share bandwidth. The switched Ethernet media converter 32 is mainly installed in a company with multiple users, a PC room, or a home using multiple photos.

5A to 5C are diagrams illustrating protocols for managing an Ethernet media converter.

The packet format of the protocol shown in FIG. 5A uses an Ethernet frame format. The destination address field 34a of this protocol represents the address of the destination to which data is to be transmitted, the source address field 34b represents the source address of the Ethernet media converter, and the ether type field 34c is undefined in the Ethernet standard. A given value is given. In addition, the payload field 34d stores data information, and the error checksum field 34e confirms whether or not the transmitted data is in error. The payload field 34d containing data information among these fields follows the Ethernet payload format shown in FIG. 5B.

The version field 36a indicates the version of the loop test protocol. The type field 34b defines the packet type of the loop test protocol, the defined value of which is shown in FIG. 5C, which will be described later. The length field 36c indicates the length of the data field 36d and may have a value from 0 to 1496. If the data field 36d does not exist, it has a value of zero. The data field 36d includes detailed parameters of each packet. If a packet without detailed parameters does not have a data field 36d, the length field 36c is set to zero. The padding field 36e is a field for setting the Ethernet payload field to be at least 64 octets. If the length of the Ethernet payload is 64 or more, the padding field 36e does not exist. Have If this padding field 36e exists, it must be filled with a value of zero.

The configuration of the packet type data field shown in FIG. 5C includes items included in the type field 36b, such as a discovery request, a discovery response, a loop test request, and a loop test response. Response) has an identification field of 2 octets, which contains a predetermined value for distinguishing requests and responses for multiple packets. In the case of a loop test response, the status information of the Ethernet media converter is dataized.

The status information is converted into the data field part of the payload format. For example, bit 0 is information on the connection status. When 0x0, the LAN part is disconnected, and when 0x1, it is connected to the LAN. Information can be converted into data. Bit 1 contains information on the full duplex or half duplex communication mode, and data is unidirectional communication mode when 0x0 and bidirectional communication mode when 0x1.In bit 4, bit 2 is the connection speed and 0x0. Is 10Mbps, 0x1 is 100Mbps, 0X2 is 1Gbps, and bits 7 to 5 are reserved bits.

A medium access control address is assigned to a subscriber-side Ethernet media converter, which includes a media write control request (MAC write request), a media access control write response (MAC write response), a media access control read request (MAC read request), and media access. An identification field for identifying a MAC read response is formed. For example, a media access control write request packet has a 2-octet identification field followed by 6 octets of media access control address information. In addition, the medium access control read response packet has a media access control address of 6 octets after the identification field. As such, each Ethernet media converter is equipped with an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable ROM) to the microcontroller 16 to program a unique media access control address. Upon completion of the module, the MAC access request packet (MAC Write Request Packet) is transmitted during mass production to directly input the MAC address into the EEPROM through the microcontroller 16 embedded in the Ethernet media converter. The media access control read request packet is transmitted to confirm whether the media access control address has been properly assigned to the Ethernet media converter.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for network management using the protocol shown in FIGS. 5A to 5C.

Referring to FIG. 6, the subscriber station analyzes the Ethernet packet inputted to the Ethernet media converter (step S61). It is determined whether the Ethernet type of the analyzed packet is correct (for example, 0xA00A). If the Ether type is correct, the payload field of the packet is analyzed to analyze the type field 36b. (Step S63) If the packet type (eg, 0x01) is a discovery procedure, a discovery response packet is formed. Step S64) Referring to the process of forming the discovery response packet, the destination address of the received discovery response packet is set to the source address, and the source address is set to the medium access control address thereof. In addition, a discovery response packet is formed by inserting a predetermined value (0x02) into the type field 36b as an identification field. (Step S64) The discovery response packet is transmitted to the Ethernet network manager, and the Ethernet network manager transmits a specific port. The mapping relationship between the address and the address of the Ethernet media converter of the port can be known. (Step S66) If the packet type (e.g., 0x03) is a loop test request packet, a loop test response packet is formed (Step S65). Formation of sets the source address of the received loop test request packet to the destination address and its address to the source address. After setting a predetermined value (0x04) in the type field 36b of the received packet, the data field is looped by reflecting the information on the data path connection state, communication mode state, and data connection rate in the payload of the response packet. This loop test response packet is transmitted to the Ethernet network manager, and the Ethernet network manager can know the module status information of the subscriber end and check the state of the optical fiber (S66). step)

7 is a flowchart illustrating a MAC address program procedure using EPIROM.

Referring to FIG. 7, the Ethernet packet inputted to the Ethernet media converter is analyzed (step S71). The analyzed data determines whether the ether type is correct. (Step S72) If the ether type is correct (0xA00A), the packet type is determined. It is determined whether the request packet is a media access control write request packet or a media access control read request packet (step S73). If the received packet is a media access control write request packet, a media access control write response packet is formed. In step S76, if the received packet is a medium access control read request packet, a medium access control read response packet is formed (step S75) and transmitted to the Ethernet network manager. In step S76), the media access control write / read procedure is the same as the discovery procedure and the loop test procedure shown in FIG. On the other hand, the media access control write / read procedure has a different identification value for the type field in the Ethernet payload format. The data fields of the media access control write request packet and the media access control read response packet contain information of the media access control address to be written to and read from the EEPROM. In production, program the microcontroller to identify packets for this procedure and write directly to the EEPROM to bulk program the microcontroller at the same time. After that, the media access control address can be assigned using a read / write packet to facilitate mass production. In addition, the network manager may later assign a media access control address to the Ethernet media converter at the subscriber end, and may modify an already assigned media access control address.

8 is a flowchart in which a network administrator of a central station transmits a request packet and receives a response packet in order to know the status of the subscriber-side Ethernet media converter.

Referring to FIG. 8, the manager of the central station transmits a discovery / loop test request packet to determine a state of an Ethernet media converter at a subscriber end (step S81). The transmitted discovery / loop test request packet is analyzed (step S82). If the ether type of the analyzed packet is correct (e.g. 0xA00A), the packet type is analyzed in the payload format (step S84). If the analyzed request packet is a discovery response packet, it is accepted (step S85). The media access control address of the Ethernet media converter is recognized and the mapping is completed (step S86). If the analyzed request packet is a loop test response packet, it is accepted (step S87) and the status information data of the Ethernet media converter of the subscriber end is recognized. (Step S88)

The discovery request packet or the media access control write / read request packet use the broadcast media access control address as the destination address. Therefore, this procedure should be used only when the administrator port and the server are connected 1: 1.

As described above, in the network management method using the media access control address according to the present invention, the subscriber can give the media access control address to the Ethernet media converter so that the subscriber can easily obtain information on the subscriber's module state without interruption of communication. . In addition, there is no need to establish a database for managing the media access control address through the discovery procedure. As a result, the network can be efficiently managed at low cost. In addition, during the loop test procedure, information on the link and operation status of the Ethernet media converter can be obtained so that status monitoring can be performed without loss of communication data due to disconnection during communication on the optical communication line, an optical medium between the central station and the subscriber. Can be. That is, it is possible to efficiently manage the information on the subscriber end in the remote place.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. Therefore, the technical scope of the present invention should not be limited to the contents described in the detailed description of the specification but should be defined by the claims.

Claims (4)

Executing a discovery procedure for recognizing a medium access control address of the Ethernet media converter of the subscriber end in a central station connected to the subscriber end; Executing a loop test procedure for recognizing the state of the Ethernet media converter of the subscriber end in the central station; And assigning a media access control address to the Ethernet media converter of the subscriber end. The method of claim 1, Ethernet network management method using a media access control address, characterized in that the protocol using the Ethernet frame format is used to manage the Ethernet media converter of the subscriber end. The method of claim 1, The medium access control address is assigned to an eprom installed in the microcontroller of the Ethernet media converter of the subscriber end, and the eprom uses the medium access control address as a protocol for reading / writing the medium access control address. Ethernet network management method using. The method of claim 1, The discovery procedure includes; Transmitting the discovery request packet generated at the central station to an Ethernet media converter of a subscriber station to be tested; Transmitting to the central station a discovery response packet generated at the subscriber end Ethernet media converter, The loopback test procedure; Transmitting a loop test request packet to an Ethernet media converter of a subscriber station to be tested at the central station; And transmitting a loop test response packet including the state information of the Ethernet media converter of the subscriber end to the central station.