JPS58173941A - Health check system of communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To confirm the normality of a communication device at an arbitrary point of time, by providing a communication device, with a means storing and managing its state, confirming the normality of the device itself with said means in receiving a health check command from a CPU for the purpos of response. CONSTITUTION:A central control section MPU 9 manages the entire communication device 8. In the confirmation of the normality of the reception section, when a CPU 6 transmits a reception command, a 1F control section 10 analyzes it and requests the signal transmission to the MPU 9. The MPU 9 confirms at a register 14 whether or not the reception is possible, and outputs a failure of reception section when impossible. When the reception is possible, the MPU 9 instructs the preparation of reception to a line control section 11, and the state is transferred to the reception standly state. In the confirmation of the normality of the transmission section, the signal transmission is requested to the MPU 9 with the transmission command of the CPU 6. The MPU 9 returns the failure of transmission section to the CPU 6 as the response of a command when the reception is impossible, the same as above mentioned. When it is discriminated that the reception is possible, the transmission is instructed to the 1F control section 10, the line control section 11 and a buffer control section 12. The CPU 6 discriminates the response of the said command and makes the health check of the device 8 possible.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Object of the Invention The present invention relates to a health check system for a communication device, and more particularly to a health check system for a communication device accommodating a data terminal in a store-and-forward network.

In the conventional technology store-and-forward method, it is possible to condense low-speed lines going in and out of terminals to speed up relay lines and create large bundles.
It becomes possible to make communication equipment more economical by increasing the number of lines.

A storage and forwarding machine consists of a central processing unit and a communication device.
Normally, a communication device connected to a terminal device or other storage/switching device cannot know whether there is a failure or not if there is no communication from the other party. Therefore, communication devices have conventionally performed health checks, that is, self-failure confirmation.

FIG. 1 shows a relay system of a store-and-forward network, and FIG. 2 shows an example of a conventional communication device health check system. - In the cylinder 1 diagram, l is the storage and exchange network (NETWORK) 2
A, 2B, and 20 are nodes (
N), 3A, 3B, 30 are data terminal devices (T) accommodated in each node, 4A, 4B, 40 are communication lines relaying between each node, 5A, 5B, 50 are each node and each data terminal device This is a subscriber line that connects the

FIG. 2 is a device configuration diagram focusing on node 2A.
7 is a central processing unit, 7 is an interoffice communication device for transmitting and receiving signals between nodes, and 8 is a communication device for transmitting and receiving signals between nodes and data terminal devices.

First, the health check method of the interoffice communication device 7 will be explained.

Between nodes (for example, 2 nodes and 7/- 2B)
, the central processing unit 6 of the node 2A periodically sends and receives a fill-in signal consisting of a specific pattern via the inter-office communication device 7 in order to confirm the normality of the node 2A and the communication line 4A, and the node 2B also sends and receives a fill-in signal consisting of a specific pattern. Similarly node 2A
A fill-in signal is periodically transmitted and received to confirm the normality of the communication line 4A. This signal is a significant signal of several bytes that is transmitted at intervals of, for example, one second, and the reception side confirms that there is no failure by correctly receiving the signal. Therefore, the central processing unit 6 uses the inter-office communication device 7 to check the normality of its own device when it transmits and receives fill-in signals and general signals, and if it detects an abnormality, it notifies the central processing device 6 to that effect. Even if the notification itself is disabled due to an abnormality in the inter-office communication device 7, the central processing unit
It is possible to check the health of the inter-office communication device 7 by detecting the reception timeout of the fill-in signal.

Next, the communication device 8 that accommodates the data terminal device 3A
The following describes the health check method.

Since the data terminal device 3A accommodated in the communication device 8 is a subscriber device, communication between the node 2A- and the data terminal device 3A can be started and ended at will of the subscriber. It is not possible for the communication device 8 to adopt the health check method of the inter-office communication device based on transmitting and receiving fill-in signals, which assumes that both stations are in operation 24 hours a day.

Generally, the central processing unit 6 and the communication device 8 are connected by an IO interface via a channel device, and have two channels for transmission and reception so that transmission and reception can be controlled independently.

In this way, the communication device 8 can start communication at will.
The central processing unit 6 sends a signal reception command via the reception channel to the three data terminal devices that are terminating so that they can receive signals at any time, and keeps the communication devices 8 in a signal reception ready state. are doing. Therefore, when a signal is received from the communication device 8 data terminal device 3A, the received signal is immediately transferred to the central processing unit 6 as a response to the command, thereby receiving the signal. However, if no response to the command is received from the communication device m8, the central processing unit 6 determines whether the cause is that the subscriber has no intention of communicating and no signal is coming from the data terminal device 3A. It is not possible to determine whether the failure is due to a failure in the device 5A or the subscriber line δA, or a failure in the communication device 8 itself. For this reason, the central processing unit 6 did not take any special measures to deal with the problem, assuming that the problem was due to some cause on the subscriber side. However, if the communication device 8 is normal, among the above factors, failures in the data terminal device δA and the subscriber line 5A will be notified from the transmission line side as a line failure. The problem is that failures cannot be detected until the cause is investigated through periodic diagnostic tests or complaints from subscribers.

However, as a store-and-forward network that operates 24 hours a day, the above-mentioned problems can be solved from the operational and network reliability perspectives by early detection of failures in the communication equipment 8 that has a direct interface with subscribers. There is a need to.

Purpose of the Invention The purpose of the present invention is, in order to solve such conventional problems, to make it possible to check the normality of a communication device at any time, to detect failures early, and to provide a special health check. To provide a communication device health check method that does not require the addition of a mechanism and does not affect the load.

In order to achieve the above object, the communication device health check system of the present invention accommodates a data terminal device as a pre-processing device of a central processing unit, and provides a communication device with separate transmission and reception channels for the central processing unit. The device stores and stores the normal and abnormal status of the entire device, including the transmission status and reception status.
When a health check command is sent via the transmission channel independently of the signal sent from the central processing unit to the data terminal device, the storage and management means automatically receives the command. Check the health of the device? 1
By notifying the central processing unit of the 1ii authentication result as a response to the above command via the transmission channel, the central processing unit interprets the response and determines the normality of the communication device.

Embodiment of the Invention FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of a communication device 8 showing an embodiment of the invention, and FIGS. 4 and 6 are flowcharts of the health check operation in FIG. 3. 9 is a central control unit, 10 is an interface control unit, 11 is a line control unit, 1
2 is a buffer control unit; 13 is a register for managing the transmission control state; 14 is a register for managing the reception control state; 15 is a register for managing the reception control state;
is a register that manages control states that are not subject to registers 13 and 14; 16 is a bus that connects each functional block within the communication device 8; and 17 is a channel bus that connects the central processing unit 6 and the interface control unit 10. be. However, the channel bus 17 logically has channels for transmission and reception.

In FIG. 3, the central control unit 9 manages the entire communication device 8 and also controls the transmission and reception of signals between the data terminal device t3A and the central processing unit 6 by controlling each functional block.

The interface control unit 10 performs data transfer with the channel device and command activation/termination operations based on the process interface. The line control unit 11 performs processing such as character assembly and disassembly of transmitted and received data depending on the transmitting side and receiving side for each line. The buffer control unit 12 has a memory corresponding to the line, and exchanges data with the line control unit 11 and the interface control unit 10.

First, the normality checking operation of the receiving section will be explained with reference to FIG.

The central processing unit 6 sends the signal reception command to the interface control unit 10 via the reception channel of the channel bus 17.
When the command is sent to (step 21), the interface control unit 10 analyzes the command and issues a signal reception request to the central control unit 9 (step 22). Central control unit 9 register register 1
Step 2: Check whether reception is possible using step 4.
3) If it is not possible, the interface control unit IO sends a message to the channel bus 17 indicating that the receiving unit is abnormal as a response to the command.
The received data is sent back to the central processing unit 6 via the receiving channel (step 24). On the other hand, if reception is possible, the central control unit 9 instructs the line control unit 11 to prepare for reception (step 2).
5) When the line control unit 11 receives signals from the three data terminal devices, it shifts to a reception ready state so that it can immediately receive the signals (step 26). However, the response to the command is not sent back to the central processing unit N6 until the signal is received.

If a signal comes from the data terminal device 13A in the reception ready state, the line control section 11 immediately starts receiving the signal and reports the reception to the central control section 9 (step 27).
). The central control unit 9 activates the buffer control unit 12 and the interface control unit 10 to control the transfer of received data to the central processing unit 6 in response to the signal reception command, and registers a series of status changes accompanying reception. 14 (steps 28.29).

Next, the normality checking operation of the transmitter will be explained with reference to FIG. The central processing unit 6 sends the signal transmission command to the interface unit 1 via the transmission channel of the channel bus 17.
0 (step 31), the interface control section 10 analyzes the command and issues a signal transmission request to the central control section 9 (Stella 7'32). The central control unit 9 checks whether the transmission is possible using the register 13 (step 33), and if not, the interface control unit 10 sends a message to the effect that the transmission unit is abnormal via the transmission channel of the channel bus 17 as a response to the command. and returns it to the central processing unit 6 (step 34). On the other hand, if it is determined that the state is ready for transmission, the central control section 9 controls the interface control section 10, the line control section 11 . Immediately instructs the buffer control unit 12 to transmit (step 3δ), transfers the transmission data from the central processing unit 6 via the transmission channel of the channel bus 17, and performs control to transmit signals to the three data terminal devices. At the same time (step 36), a series of state changes accompanying the transmission is momentarily held in the register 13 (step 37). Moreover, the central control unit 9 also keeps changes in the device state other than signal transmission/reception processing in the register 15 moment by moment (step 40).

In the present invention, as described above, the central control unit 9 includes the register 13,
Focusing on managing state changes of the entire communication device 8 using registers 14 and 15, a health check command is provided between the central processing unit 6 and the communication device 6, and the central processing unit 6 transmits the command to the channel bus. When the command is sent to the ink 7 process control unit 10 via the transmission channel 17, the interface control unit 10 analyzes the command and sends it to the central side? A health check request is made to the fl11 unit 9. The central control unit 9 checks each status using the register 13, register 14, and register 16 according to the request, and transmits the status of the communication device 8 from the interface control unit 10 to the center via the transmission channel of the channel bus 17 in response to the command. It is returned to the processing device 6. The central processing unit 6 can check the health of the communication device 8 by reading the response to the command.

Note that, as described above, the central processing unit 6 is in a state in which it has sent a signal reception command to the interface control unit 10 via the reception channel of the channel bus 17 so that the signal from the data terminal device 3A can be received at any time. If the health check command is sent again via the receiving channel, the command will be sent twice, and subsequent health check commands will be rejected due to command busy. Although signal reception depends on the data terminal device 3A, the signal transmission order, timing, etc. can be managed by the central processing unit 6, so in the end, in the present invention, all health check commands are transmitted. Sent over a trusted channel.

As described in detail, according to the present invention, it is possible to confirm the normality of a communication device at any time, and therefore, early detection of a failure is possible. Further, there is no need to add a special health check mechanism, and it is sufficient to use the empty memory area to hold transmission/reception and changes in the state of the device, making it easy to confirm the normality of the device itself. Since the central processing unit can arbitrarily send the health check command in the same manner as other general transmission/reception commands, the interface is well unified and has little effect on the load. On the other hand, even in communication devices, the interfaces are highly uniform, and there is almost no impact on the load.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a relay system diagram of a store-and-forward network, Fig. 2 is a block configuration diagram of a node (12) showing a health check system of a conventional communication device, and Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a communication device showing an embodiment of the present invention. 4 and 6 are flowcharts of the reception and transmission health check operations shown in FIG. 3, respectively. 1! Store and forward network, 2A, 2B, 20j node ■, 3A
, 3B, 30: 7'-1 terminal device ff1a')
, 4A. 4B, 40: Communication line, 5 A t 5 E t
50: subscriber line, 6: central processing unit, 7: interoffice communication device, 8: communication device, 9: central control unit, 10: interface control unit, 11: line control unit, 12: buffer control unit, 13 : Transmission control state management register, 14=Reception control state management register, 1δ: Device state management register,
16: Bus, 17: Channel bus O

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a communication device that accommodates a data terminal device as a pre-processing device for a central processing unit and is equipped with transmission and reception channels for the central processing unit, the normal/abnormal state of the entire device, including the transmission state and reception state. When a health check command is sent independently from the central processing unit to the data terminal device via the transmission channel, the storage and management means receives the command and stores and manages the data. By confirming the normality of the own device and notifying the central processing unit of the confirmation result via the transmission channel as a response to the above command, the central processing unit can decipher the above response and confirm the normality of the communication device. A communication device health check method characterized by: