KR20040026934A - Apparatus and Method for Processing Obstacle of Switch - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A failure processing method and apparatus of an exchange are provided to report and process a failure occurring at a processor board according to an automatic procedure without intervention of an operator. CONSTITUTION: When a base station(110) detects a failure, it stores corresponding failure information and re-starts a processor. The base station(110) transmits failure history information to a control station(120). The control station(120) stores the failure history information by base stations and transmits the stored failure history information to a BSM(Base Station Manager)(130). The BSM(130) transmits the failure history information to a previously designated operator terminal(140) at certain periods or according to an operator's request. The operator analyzes a cause of the failure and quickly copes with the failure.

Description

Apparatus and Method for Processing Obstacle of Switch}

The present invention relates to a failure handling method and apparatus for an exchange that stores failure information of a corresponding board in a nonvolatile memory and transmits failure history information at the request of an operator when a failure occurs in a processor board applied in a mobile communication exchange system.

Unlike general computer systems, the exchange control system requires a high level of fault tolerance and real-time processing, and each exchange adopts a variety of structures depending on conditions.

However, despite these failures, the processor board mounted in the system may cause various failures in operation. The most problematic type of failure during operation is when the actual processor board has been restarted due to a failure, but the cause of the failure is unknown.

In this case, since it is difficult for the operator to accurately capture the point of failure, it is true that an effort such as monitoring the system for a long time is required to capture the point of failure.

It is also a reality that even when such a failure occurs on an unspecified number of processors, it is difficult for the operator to even try to monitor for this failure.

In particular, the mobile communication switch is composed of a control station and a base station. Among the base stations, most of them are located at a remote location which cannot be directly controlled by the operator. Therefore, the mobile communication exchange has a limitation in that the operator cannot easily monitor the actual moment of occurrence of the failure. Likewise, the fact that the processor is restarted only tells us that the failure occurred. In such a state, it is difficult to proactively respond to processor failures, and even the cause cannot be determined, which poses a critical risk to the stability of the entire system.

Hereinafter, a failure handling method and apparatus of a conventional exchange will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 is a block diagram schematically showing a failure handling apparatus of a conventional switch, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration of a failure processing unit.

1 and 2, the operator monitors the state of the exchange 100 by connecting a monitoring device 110 such as a computer to the exchange 100 by wire.

When the switch 100 detects a fault, the switch 100 transmits the fault information to the monitoring device 110 and restarts.

The switch 100 includes a processor 102 for controlling the system, a failure processing unit 104 for detecting a failure and generating failure detection alarm information, and a reset unit 106 for restarting when a failure is detected.

The failure processing unit 104 includes a failure detection unit 200 for detecting a failure and a failure report unit 210 for transmitting failure detection alarm information to the monitoring device 110.

That is, the switch 100 is restarted by the reset unit 106 when a problem that is fatal to normal operation occurs due to a hardware defect or a software defect.

Since all functions are re-initialized by restarting, the processor 102 temporarily removes the element of failure to operate normally.

However, if such a failure element is potentially implicated, the failure of the processor 102 is generally recurring, and there may be a time difference in occurrence of the failure. In this case, in order to take any action on the failure, it is necessary to distinguish between hardware handicap and software handicap and to find out whether a similar failure occurs in the system as a whole.

In most cases, these failures are usually relying on normal recovery by reinitialization obtained by restarting the processor, and more often they do not respond proactively. However, if such a failure occurs unevenly over the entire system at a time interval, it is necessary to identify the cause of the failure and respond to it.However, since the memory space of the processor is generally initialized by restarting, the operator cannot determine the cause of the failure. There is no way to do this, inefficient work to cope by guessing what caused the failure.

In the related art, there is a problem in that there is no way for an operator to cope with a failure after leaving a record of failure.

In addition, in the case of system-wide failures, it is common to show similar types of failures in general, but there is a problem in that a method of collecting and analyzing records of such failures by system unit is not provided.

In addition, it was difficult to analyze by type of failure, and there was an inconvenience in that the operator had to perform monitoring for a failure of the base station processor that is remotely located.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a failure handling method and apparatus of an exchange where failure reporting and processing is performed by an automatic procedure without operator intervention.

1 is a block diagram schematically showing a failure handling apparatus of a conventional exchange.

Figure 2 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of a conventional failure processing unit.

3 is a diagram illustrating a failure handling method in a mobile communication switching system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of the failure processing unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 illustrates a failure history database in accordance with one preferred embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a failure processing method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a failure processing method of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention.

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

100: switch 102: processor

104: failure processing unit 106: reset unit

110, 140: operator terminal 200, 400: failure detection unit

210, 430: failure reporting unit 110: base station

120: control station 130: BSM

410: failure management unit 420: failure storage unit

According to an aspect of the present invention to achieve the above objects, when a failure occurs in the base station, after classifying and storing the generated failure, and taking action according to the type of the classified failure control station / BSM And a fault history information transmitted from the base station at the control station / BSM is statistically transmitted to the operator.

The fault history information includes at least one of an IP address, a fault type, a fault occurrence time, a program counter, a register content, and a memory of a fault occurrence location of the corresponding base station in which the fault occurs.

If the generated failure is fatal, it is determined whether the transfer function of the failed processor is provided. If the transfer function of the failed processor is provided as a result of the determination, after the transfer is performed, the failure history information is stored. Send to BSM.

If it is determined that the transfer function of the failed processor is not provided, after restarting the processor, the failure history information is transmitted to the control station.

If the generated fault is not fatal, the fault handling routine is operated to handle the fault, and the fault history information is transmitted to the control station.

It is determined whether an error history information request command is received from an operator with respect to the statistically processed error history information. If the error history information request command is received from the operator as a result of the determination, the operator displays the statistical error history information that has been processed. Send to.

If the failure history information request command is not received from the operator as a result of the determination, the failure history information is transmitted to the operator at a predetermined period.

The failure history information transmitted to the operator is transmitted in at least one of an email, a text message, a voice message, and a file.

According to another aspect of the present invention, in the apparatus for handling the failure of the exchange,

A failure detection unit for detecting a failure occurrence, a failure management unit for classifying the generated failure to take action on the generated failure, a failure storage unit for storing failure information transmitted from the failure management unit, and the failure storage unit periodically Provided is a failure processing apparatus of an exchange comprising a failure report unit for transmitting stored failure history information.

The fault storage unit is a nonvolatile memory.

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

3 is a diagram illustrating a failure handling method in a mobile communication switching system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, when a failure occurs, the base station 110 stores the generated failure information and restarts the processor.

The base station 110 then transmits the failure history information to the control station 120.

Then, the control station 110 stores the failure history information transmitted from the base station 100 for each base station, and transmits the stored failure history information to the BSM 130.

The BSM 130 transmits the failure history information to a predetermined operator terminal 140 at a predetermined cycle or at the request of an operator. The failure history information transmitted to the operator is transmitted in the form of an email or a message.

In other words, if the BSM 130 is able to interwork with an external Internet network through a TCP / IP network, the BSM 130 directly provides the operator with error history information stored on the cause and type of the failure in an e-mail form.

Faults stored on SRAM or flash memory, which are treated as part of the file system in the processor's RTOS, can be treated as a kind of file, and most of the movements since 3G are connected to a network that supports the TCP / IP protocol. Since it is a form of communication system, the details of the failure are transmitted in the form of a file transfer or an e-mail to a hardware or software manager of the failed processor board in real time through interworking with the Internet network based on TCP / IP.

The operator can then quickly respond to the failure caused by the analysis of the cause of the failure.

4 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of a failure processing unit according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, the failure processing unit may include a failure detection unit 400 that detects a failure occurrence, a failure management unit 410 which classifies the generated failure, and takes action on a failure that occurs, and stores a history of the failure. The unit 420 includes a failure report unit 430 for reporting a failure history or a request of an operator periodically.

When failure detection information is received from the failure detection unit 400, the failure management unit 410 classifies the generated failure into critical, major, and minor.

Then, if the classified failure is critical, the failure management unit 410 determines whether the corresponding processor that has generated the failure provides a switching function.

As a result of the determination, when the processor in which the failure occurs is provided with a switching function, the failure management unit 410 performs a switching operation, and if the processor is not provided with the switching function, take a countermeasure such as hardware replacement.

If the categorized disorder is major or minor, the disorder managing unit 410 processes the disorder using a disorder processing routine.

The failure storage unit 420 stores failure information transmitted from the failure management unit 410 and may be a nonvolatile memory such as an SRAM or a flash memory.

Accordingly, the fault information stored in the fault storage unit 410 is not deleted even if the power is removed. The fault information stored in this way provides the operator with the ability to see the contents directly after a fault recovery.In the case of a base station processor, the fault history of the storage space of the processor is reported through the network at the request of the control station. Provide together.

Hereinafter, the operation of the failure processing unit configured as described above will be described.

When a failure is detected by the failure detection unit 400, the failure detection unit 400 transmits failure detection information to the failure management unit 410. The failure management unit 410 classifies the generated failure into critical, major, and minor.

Then, when the classified failure is critical, the failure management unit 410 determines whether the corresponding processor provides a switching function.

If the processor determines that the transfer function is provided, the failure management unit 410 performs the transfer operation, and if the transfer function is not provided by the processor, take a measure such as hardware replacement.

If the categorized disorder is major or minor, the disorder managing unit 410 processes the disorder using a disorder processing routine. Then, the failure management unit 410 transmits the failure information to the failure storage unit 420.

Then, after storing the transmitted failure information, the failure storage unit 420 transmits the failure history information to the failure report unit 430 through the failure management unit 410.

The failure report unit 430 transmits the failure history information transmitted from the failure storage unit 420 to the control station.

The failure history information stored in the failure storage unit 420 is described with reference to FIG. 5.

5 is a diagram illustrating a failure history database according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, the failure history database stores an IP address, a failure type, a failure time, a PC (Program Counter), register contents, and a memory of a failure location.

The IP address is a base station identification address indicating which base station has failed.

The failure type is expressed as critical, major, minor or bus error, system error, and the like.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a failure processing method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, when a failure is detected (S600), the base station stores the generated failure information (S602). Then, the base station restarts the processor (S604), and transmits the stored failure history information to the control station / BSM (S606).

The control station / BSM receives the failure history information transmitted from the base station and performs statistical processing of the failure history information (S608). That is, the control station / BSM performs statistical processing on the transmitted failure history information by time zone, failure history, and processor classification.

Then, the control station / BSM determines whether a failure history information request command is received from the operator (S610).

If the failure history information request command is received from the operator as a result of the determination in step 610, the control station / BSM transmits the failure history information to the operator (S612).

If the failure history information request command is not received from the operator as a result of the determination of step 610, the control station / BSM transmits the failure history information to the corresponding operator at a predetermined period (S614). The control station / BSM sends the fault history information to the operator in the form of an email or a message.

Then, the operator can respond to the failure by receiving the failure history information to more quickly maintain the failure (S616).

7 is a flowchart illustrating a failure processing method of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 7, when the occurrence of a failure is detected (S700), the base station classifies and stores the generated failure (S702). That is, the base station classifies the generated failure into critical, major, and minor.

Then, the base station determines whether the classified failure is critical (S704). If the generated fault is critical as a result of the determination of step 704, the base station determines whether the transfer function is provided in the processor in which the fault has occurred (S706). As a result of the determination in step 706, when the corresponding processor that has the failure is provided with the transfer function, the base station performs the transfer operation (S708), and transmits the failure history information to the control station (S710).

If it is determined in step 706 that the failing processor is not provided with a switching function, the processor is restarted by taking measures such as hardware replacement (S712). Then, the base station transmits the failure history information to the control station (S710).

If the classified failure is major or minor, the base station processes the failure using a failure processing routine (S714). Then, the base station transmits the failure history information to the control station (S710).

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and many variations are possible by those skilled in the art within the spirit of the present invention.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a failure handling method and apparatus of an exchange in which a failure reporting and coping is performed by an automatic procedure without operator intervention.

In addition, according to the present invention, not only the equipment classified as a processor group in a mobile communication switching system, but also a CPU and a nonvolatile memory device, and a failure handling method of all systems connected to a network using a TCP / IP protocol. It is possible to provide a method and apparatus for handling a failure of an exchange that can be applied to.

Claims (10)

When a failure occurs in the base station, classifying and storing the generated failure, and taking an action according to the classified failure type and transmitting failure history information to the control station / BSM; Statistically processing the error history information transmitted from the base station in the control station / BSM and transmitting the result to the operator Failure handling method of the exchange comprising a. The method of claim 1, The fault history information includes at least one of an IP address, a fault type, a fault occurrence time, a program counter, a register content, and a memory of a fault occurrence location of the corresponding base station in which the fault occurs. The method of claim 1, If the generated failure is fatal, determining whether a switching function of the failed processor is provided; And if the transfer function of the processor having a failure is provided as a result of the determination, after performing the transfer, transmitting the failure history information to the control station / BSM. The method of claim 3, And if the transfer function of the failed processor is not provided, restarting the processor and transmitting failure history information to the control station. The method of claim 1, If the generated failure is not fatal, operate a failure processing routine to handle the failure, and transmit failure history information to the control station. The method of claim 1, Determining whether a failure history information request command is received from an operator with respect to the statistically processed failure history information; If the failure history information request command is received from the operator as a result of the determination, transmitting the statistically processed failure history information to the operator. Failure handling method of the exchange comprising a. The method of claim 6, And if the failure history information request command is not received from the operator as a result of the determination, transmitting the failure history information to the operator at a predetermined predetermined cycle. The method according to claim 1 and 6 and 7, The fault history information transmitted to the operator is transmitted in at least one of an email, a text message, a voice message, and a file. In the apparatus for handling the failure of the exchange, A failure detecting unit detecting a failure occurrence; A failure management unit classifying the generated failure and taking action on the generated failure; A fault storage unit storing fault information transmitted from the fault management unit; and Failure reporting unit that periodically transmits failure history information stored in the failure storage unit Failure handling apparatus of the exchange comprising a. The method of claim 9, And the fault storage unit is a nonvolatile memory.