KR960016109B1 - Distributing system for catv - Google Patents

Abstract

(41 or 49) receiving data to switch it from a main top control processing part(22) in signal form to perform a channel-switching processing in a channel-switching control part(31) and transferring the data to the main top control processing part(22); (57 or 66) performing the function to collect the maintenance/management data in a maintenance/management data-collecting part(32) of a switch network part(21) and transferring it to the main top control-processing part(22); and (67 or 69) performing the path test as to a corresponding subscriber in a top level command-processing part(33) and transferring the result to the main top control-processing part(22).

Description

Switch Control Method in Broadband Distribution Subsystem for CATV

1 is a configuration diagram of an optical CATV system to which the present invention is applied;

2 is a structural diagram of a broadband distribution subsystem located in the distribution center of FIG.

3 is a software block diagram for switch control according to the present invention;

4 is a flowchart of the overall processing for the switch control method according to the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

1: Headend 2: Maintenance Center

3: distribution center 4: subscriber

5: broadband distribution system 6: subscriber matching unit

7: subscriber station 8: optical cable

9: 600M transmission system 10: TV and stereo audio

11: program provider 12: maintenance system

21: switch network unit 22: master controller control unit

22-1: subordinate control processor 23: switch control unit

24: subscriber control unit 25: processor communication unit

26,27,28: monitor 29: optical transmission device

According to the present invention, a subscriber of an optical cable integrated cable network (CATV) system controls a distribution switch network to provide a video distribution service to a subscriber according to channel information selected by a keypad or a remote controller in a subscriber premises. The present invention relates to a function of causing a channel to be switched, a function of collecting maintenance data containing an error occurring in a switch network block, and a method of controlling a switch in a broadband distribution sub system for an optical CATV that processes a high level command.

Optical CATV system has been developed by Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute since '89 in Korea. The optical CATV system based on FTTH (Fiber To The Home) is a high-speed bidirectional communication rather than a simple distribution using a digital synchronous transmission method rather than a conventional analog method. In addition to providing distribution services, it is also possible to provide current telecommunication services such as telephone, security / disaster prevention, and remote meter reading. In the broadband distribution system, which is one of the subsystems of the optical CATV system, there is a distribution switch to input a digital video signal and distribute the video signal to the subscriber's line termination according to the subscriber's program selection signal.

Switch network control in the conventional electronic switch (TDX-10) is the same basic function of the connection and disconnection of the switch, but in the implementation method of the switch network network and hardware of the switch network control method is different, There is a problem in that there is no need to access a call using a one-way path such as a recording guide service, and a large difference occurs in a data collection method and data contents for maintenance and operation management.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems in order to provide a video distribution service in the optical CATV system to perform the channel switching to purify according to the channel selection information of the subscriber, and to provide an efficient maintenance and operation management It is an object of the present invention to provide a switch control method in a broadband distribution subsystem for CATV.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a head end, a maintenance center, a distribution center, a broadband distribution system, a subscriber matching unit, a subscriber station apparatus, a program providing unit, and a maintenance system. Optical CATV including a switch network unit having a switching control unit, a maintenance data collection unit and a high level command processing unit, a main lower control processor unit divided into a switch control unit and a subscriber control unit, a main upper control processor unit, and a processor communication unit; In the method of operation of the system; The first step of receiving the data to be switched from the main upper control processor as a signal and performing channel switching in the channel switching controller to transmit to the upper control processor, collecting maintenance data informing the occurrence of alarms and errors in the maintenance data collection unit of the switch network. Performing a function to transmit the main upper control processor unit; when a test command request from the switch network unit is performed, the upper level command processing unit performs a path test on the subscriber and transmits the result to the main upper control processor unit. Characterized in three steps.

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

1 is a configuration diagram of an optical CATV system to which the present invention is applied, in which 1 is a head end, 2 is a maintenance center, 3 is a distribution center, 4 is a subscriber, 5 is a broadband distribution system, 6 is a subscriber access device, 7 8 denotes a subscriber station, 8 denotes an optical cable, 9 denotes a 600M transmission system, 10 denotes a TV and stereo audio, 11 denotes a program providing unit, and 12 denotes a maintenance system.

As shown in the figure, the optical CATV system is composed of a head end 1, a maintenance center 2 and a distribution center 3, and a subscriber 4, and one distribution center 3 can accommodate up to 1024 subscribers. Can be. The program 11 provided at the headend 1 is transmitted to the 600M transmission system 9 via the TV and the stereo encoder 10. The maintenance center 2 transmits the data to the 600M transmission system 9. The maintenance center 2 has a maintenance system 12 that is responsible for the overall maintenance and operation management of the 600M transmission system 9 and the optical CATV system.

In the distribution center 3, there is a 600M transmission system 9, a broadband distribution system 5, and a subscriber access device 6, and a subscriber station 7 in the subscriber 4 premises. One of the subsystems constituting the optical CATV system, the broadband distribution system 5 switches the channel desired by the subscriber among the maximum 32 TV channels transmitted from the headend 1, collects the billing data and manages the fault. Perform system maintenance and operation management functions.

2 is a structural diagram of a broadband distribution subsystem located in the distribution center of FIG. 1, in which 21 is a switch network unit, 22 is a main upper control processor unit, 22-1 is a main lower control processor unit, 23 is a switch control unit, 24 denotes a subscriber control unit, 25 denotes a processor communication unit, 26, 27 and 28 monitors and 29 an optical transmission device.

As shown in the figure, the broadband distribution subsystem is conceptually composed of a space switch network unit 21, a master control processor 22, a master control processor 22-1, and a processor communication unit 25. .

The main lower control processor 22-1 may be further divided into a switch controller 23 and a subscriber controller 24.

The spatial switch network unit 21 adopts a centralized structure for adapting the expansion according to the receiving subscriber and the efficiency of the maintenance of the switch network unit 21, and simultaneously distributes all video programs to all subscribers without closing. It is designed as a non-closed single space partition structure.

The control processor 20 has a two-layer structure of upper and lower.

The main upper control processor unit 22 manages the initialization, startup management, subscriber information, billing information, etc. of the distribution system 5, and also monitors the switch network unit 21, the control processor unit 20, and the like in the distribution system. It is responsible for reporting status to the center.

The lower control processor 22-1 is divided into a switch controller 23 for controlling the distribution switch network block 34 and a subscriber controller 24 for controlling the subscriber matching unit 6. The switch control software belongs to the switch control unit 23 and controls the distribution switch network block 34 to provide a video distribution service so that subscribers can watch a desired channel, and observe the occurrence of errors in the distribution switch network block 34. It is necessary for the central station 3 to process commands that came to the upper control processor 22 through the 600M transmission system 9 for maintenance and operation.

The channel selection information collected by the subscriber controller 24 is transmitted to the switch controller 23 by determining whether the subscriber block is blocked by the upper control processor 22. The switch controller 23 controls channel switching according to the channel selection information of the subscriber to distribute the video signal to the subscriber. In case of an error such as a switch path failure of the distribution switch network, a board hernia, or an abnormal power supply, when an error such as a cable hermetically connected to the switch control unit 23 occurs, normal switching cannot be performed. Data is collected and transmitted to the upper control processor 22 so that the cause may be known.

In addition, the central station may send a command through the upper control processor 22 to check an error or to observe the status of the distributed switch network block 34. In this case, the switch controller 23 processes the command. The higher level control processor 22 is notified of the result.

As such, a switch control method is required for the functions that must be performed through the broadband distribution switch network control in the broadband distribution subsystem for the video distribution service function, the system maintenance and operation management function of the optical CATV system.

In optical CATV systems, distribution centers for video distribution services to subscribers operate unattended, thus focusing on controlling the switch network more reliably but with fewer subscribers than the telephone station controlling the telephone subscriber.

In the channel switching function, the distribution switch network unit 34 is controlled according to the channel selection information of the subscriber received from the main upper control processor 22 to provide the image distribution service to the subscriber, which is a basic function of the optical CATV system. The channel selection information is analyzed to decode the subscriber number, the status of the TV requested by the subscriber, and the channel number. When a subscriber requests a channel change, first, a path test of the switch network unit 21 is performed on the subscriber and the channel number in order to confirm the abnormality in the switching path. After performing the path test, if channel switching is normally performed by writing channel data to the corresponding buffer of the switch network unit 21, read the corresponding buffer of the switch network unit 21 to reconfirm whether channel switching is correct. If there is an abnormality in the path test or the result after switching is abnormal, the main higher control processor 22 sets the most significant bit of the switching result data to be sent to the main upper control processor 22 to notify the error. Make sure that the error occurs when switching channels. This allows accurate and reliable channel switching as well as quick error detection.

Since the distribution center operated unattended does not reside in the operator, when an abnormality such as a failure or an error in the switching network 21 occurs, the accurate error content is transmitted in a reliable path so that the switch network unit ( 21) Accurately recognize the error content so that troubleshooters can be dispatched. In order to perform the collection function of the maintenance data informing of the contents of such an error, it is registered as a rearler time task and periodically observes the error of the switch network unit 21. The maintenance data of the distribution switch network section 34 is generated by hardware, and the switch network section 21 collects these maintenance data according to the maintenance scheme and notifies the main upper control processor section 22. At this time, when the hardware managing the maintenance system is dismounted and the power supply is interrupted, maintenance data cannot be collected. Therefore, the alarm port is read first to see if an alarm occurs.

When an alarm occurs, the maintenance data is meaningless because it is not transmitted correctly, and thus a signal informing the alarm occurrence is transmitted to the main upper control processor unit 22 once. If no alarm occurs, check whether an error has occurred according to the maintenance system of the switch network unit 21, and if so, find all causes of the error according to the maintenance system. The maintenance data collected according to the maintenance scheme is transmitted to the main upper control processor unit 22 as a signal indicative of maintenance data of the distribution switch network unit 34.

In addition, even if the system is operating normally in order to achieve a more reliable system, the operator of the central station can check the status of the distribution switch network section 34 in the distribution center, and errors in the distribution switch network section 34 in the distribution center may occur. After receiving a report that a has occurred, a command can be sent to reconfirm its contents so that it can be received and executed. Since the main upper control processor unit 22 is in charge of overall maintenance and operation management of the broadband distribution system, instructions for operation management and maintenance on the broadband secretion subsystem are transmitted from the central station to the main upper control processor unit 22. . Then, the main upper control processor 22 transmits the corresponding signal to the switch controller 23 or the subscriber controller 24 according to the command. The command to the switch control unit 23 is a switch network unit 21 path test command of a specific subscriber. The switch control block receives and executes such a command and transmits the result to the master control processor 22.

By doing so, it is possible to provide a video distribution service to subscribers with accurate and reliable channel switching, to transmit maintenance data to the central station, and to perform unattended operation by executing commands from the central station. The maintenance and operation management of the system can be performed efficiently.

3 is a block diagram of the control software block corresponding to the switch network unit. The channel switching control unit 31, the switching block maintenance data collection unit 32, and the high level command processing unit 33 are shown.

The channel switching control unit 31 controls the distribution switch network unit 34 to switch according to the channel selection information selected by the subscriber. Then, the channel switching result is sent to the main upper control processor 22 so that the main upper control processor 22 can modify the charging and subscriber status related databases. The maintenance data collection unit 32 of the switch network unit 21 recognizes an error occurring in the distribution switch network block 34 by polling, collects data containing the error content, and transmits the data to the master control processor unit 22. do.

The higher level command processor 33 executes a command received from the master control processor 22.

4 is a process flowchart of the switch control method according to the present invention.

The channel switching control section 31 starts the channel switching function by receiving data to be switched from the main upper control processor section 22 as a signal (41). When the signal is received, the following process is repeated for the subscriber to process the data block containing the subscriber number and channel data (48). First, the subscriber number, TV status, and channel number are analyzed (42). The TV states 1 and 2 indicate the selection and release of CATV1, so when 1, the channel is switched into channel data (43), and when 2, the current state is switched off (44). Similarly, TV states 3 and 4 mean select 45 and release 46 for CATV 2. In the channel switching, the path test 50 is performed first, and when the path test result is normal (51), the channel is switched by writing channel data to the buffer of the distribution switch network unit 34 (52), and the channel switching is performed. By reading the buffer of the switch network section 34, the switching result is checked 53 again. When the path test result is abnormal (51) and the switching result is abnormal (54), it is notified that an error has occurred by setting the most significant bit in the switching result data transmitted to the upper control processor 22 to 1 (55).

The TV states 5, 6, and 7 turn off the switching of all the TV1 and TV2 currently being viewed by the subscriber when an error occurs in the subscriber block (47). This is to prevent the subscriber from being charged by continuing to switch in the switch block even though the subscriber block 6, 7 has failed and is not in a normal state. The connection is transferred or forwarded or the result is sent to the upper control processor 22 (49). This data is used in the upper control processor 22 to modify the DB for billing data generation, collection and subscriber status management.

The block of the switching result data transmitted to the main upper control processor 22 through PIC (Processor Inter-Communication) shows the subscriber number and the result data in the monitor connected to the switch control unit 23, so that the contents thereof can be checked ( 28).

The maintenance data collection unit 32 of the switch network unit 21 registers as a real time task and periodically observes the data in order to perform a maintenance data collection function for notifying alarm and error occurrence of the switch network unit 21 (57). ). First, when the hardware managing the maintenance system is dismounted and the power supply is interrupted, maintenance data cannot be collected. Therefore, the alarm port is read to confirm whether or not such an alarm occurs (58). If an alarm has occurred, the alarm not only affects one subscriber but transmits a signal notifying the primary upper control processor 22 that the alarm has occurred in a critical situation that may affect all subscribers in the distribution center (66). If no alarm occurs, it is determined whether an error has occurred according to the maintenance system of the distribution switch network unit 21 (60). The maintenance system is the type of error and the location of the error. When an error occurs (61), for every error (62,63), data informing the content of the error is collected from the hardware managing the maintenance scheme and put in a buffer for PIC transmission (64). The collected maintenance data is transmitted to the main upper control processor 22 using a signal (65).

The contents of the maintenance data are displayed on the monitor connected to the switch control unit 23 of the block of the maintenance data transmitted to the main upper control processor unit 22 through the PIC, so that the contents can be confirmed.

The command requested at the higher level includes the test command 68 of the switch network unit 21. When the switch network unit 21 requests a test command, it performs a path test on the corresponding subscriber and transmits the result to the master host control processor 22 (69).

This command execution procedure can be checked in the monitor 28 connected to the switch control unit 23.

The effects of the present invention as described above are as follows.

1) In the subscriber network of the optical CATV system, the switch network of the broadband distribution system can be controlled quickly and accurately according to the channel selection information selected by the subscriber.

2) The maintenance data of the switch system block can be collected and transmitted to the upper control processor to transmit it to the optical CATV maintenance and operation management system.

3) Commands for maintenance and operation management of optical CATV system can be performed.

4) The transmission and reception of signals and the contents of data can be checked on the monitor screen.

Claims (3)

Headend (1), maintenance center (2), distribution center (3), broadband distribution system (5), subscriber matching unit (6), subscriber station (7), program provider (11), maintenance system (12), the broadband distribution subsystem includes a switch network unit (21) having a channel switching control unit (31), a maintenance data collection unit (32), and a high level command processing unit (33); 23. A method of operating an optical CATV system comprising a main lower control processor section 22-1, a main upper control processor section 22, and a processor communication section 25 divided into 23) and a subscriber control section 24; The first steps 41 to 49 and the switch network unit which receive the data to be switched from the main upper control processor 22 as a signal and transmit the channel switching process to the upper control processor 22 by the channel switching controller 31. The second stages 57 to 66 and the switch network unit 21 performing the maintenance data collection function notifying occurrence of an alarm and an error in the maintenance data collection unit 32 of the 21; In the case of requesting a test command of the step 3), the upper level command processing unit 33 includes a third step (67 to 69) of performing a path test on the corresponding subscriber and transmitting the result to the main upper control processor unit 22. A switch control method in a broadband distribution subsystem for a CATV. The method of claim 1, wherein the first steps (41, 49) are performed; The channel switching control unit 31 receives data to be switched from the main upper control processor unit 22 as a signal, and analyzes the subscriber number, the TV state, and the channel number. 42) After the execution, the second process (43 to 46) to switch the channel at the time of TV selection, and the current state is switched off when the release, after switching the second process (43 to 46), after switching the TV If the circuit is blocked, after the third test (50, 51) to check whether the path test result is abnormal after the path test, the channel is switched when the path test result is normal after the third process (50, 51) is performed. If the path test result is abnormal and the switching result is abnormal, the fourth process (52 to 55), the second process of notifying that the error has occurred in the switching result transmitted to the main upper control processor 22 (43 to 46) after the subscriber If an error occurs in the block, after the fifth process 47 that cuts off the switching of the subscriber's currently watching TV, the fourth and fifth processes are performed, it is checked whether the switching request data remains. A switch control method in a broadband distribution subsystem for a CATV, comprising a sixth process (48, 49) of returning and returning the last data to the main upper control processor unit (22). . The method of claim 1, wherein the second steps (57 to 66); After performing the first process (57 to 59), the first process (57 to 59) of the maintenance data collection unit 32 confirms the alarm occurrence of the alarm and error occurrence of the distribution switch network unit 21 For example, if an alarm has occurred, the alarm transmits a signal indicating that an alarm has occurred in the main upper control processor unit 22, and if the alarm has not occurred, the second process (60, 61) of checking whether an error has occurred according to a maintenance scheme. After performing the second process (60, 61), for all the errors occurred, the data informing the contents of the error is collected from the hardware managing the maintenance system and transmitted to the main upper control processor 22 through the PIC. A switch control method in a broadband distribution subsystem for a CATV, comprising terminating third processes (62 to 65).