JPH04180425A - Communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To process only a packet from a specific process with priority by deciding the order of packet processing between plural processes based on the result of discrimination of a network interface. CONSTITUTION:A filter processing section 10 is provided between an Ethernet controller CT 2 and a TCP/IP-CT 3 in a communication interface board 1. Then every time a transceiver 5 receives a signal from a coaxial cable 6, the result of protocol processing by the CT 2 is transferred to the processing section 10. Upon the designation of the process of a terminal equipment to be processed with priority from a CPU 4, a discrimination circuit 11 of the processing section 10 references a designated process and an IP address to discriminate the priority processing of the received packet, transfers the priority packet to a buffer 12 and transfers other packet to a buffer 13. When a packet exists in the buffer 12, the packet is transferred to the CT 3 and when not in existence, the buffer 13 is checked and when a packet exists in the buffer 13, the packet is transferred to the CT 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a communication system for communicating between computers, and particularly relates to an improvement in a packet communication method.

(Prior Art) LAN (Local Area Network) has become popular for communication between computers. Most of these are packet communication methods in which messages are broken down into smaller units called packets, and destination and source addresses are added to each unit for communication.

In addition, with the spread of LAN, TPC/
IP protocols are widely used.

Here, the TPC/IP protocol establishes a connection (logical connection) with the process on the other computer.
Data is transferred through the channel, and it is possible to communicate with multiple terminals (processes) at the same time.

A conventional communication system using this TPC/IP protocol is E thernet (C3
In a network system in which terminals T1 to T5 are connected by MA/CD), each terminal T1 to T5 has a network interface that receives and processes packets from multiple processes, and an upper protocol (such as FTP or Telnet). and a processor for processing.

Each of the terminals T1 to T5 specifically has a ninth terminal.
The communication interface board 1 is configured as shown in the figure, and the communication interface board 1 performs Ethernet protocol processing by an Ethernet controller 2 and TPC/IP protocol processing by a TPC/IP controller 3. The CPU 4 performs software processing at positions above the session layer. The interface between TPC/IP and the upper layer is called a socket interface in Unix (operating system). In addition, in Figure 9, 5
is a transceiver, 6 is a coaxial cable, 7 is a memory, 8 is a display controller, and 9 is a display.

In this configuration, when receiving data from another terminal, a signal from the coaxial cable 6 is received by the transceiver 5, and the Ethernet controller 2 analyzes the frame. To analyze this frame, first extract the destination address of the frame and determine whether the frame is intended for you. If you guessed correctly, import it into the controller's internal buffer.

At this time, data errors are detected at the same time, and if there are no errors, the TCP/IP controller is notified of data reception.

The TPC/IP controller 3 uses Ethernet
When receiving notification of data reception from 2, it checks the IP address of the packet and determines whether it is addressed to itself. This is because if the terminal has a routing function, the packet may not be addressed to the terminal itself.

As a result of this judgment, if it is addressed to you, TCP/I
Performs protocol processing specified by the P protocol.

E thernet controller 2 and TCP like this
The flow of processing by the /IP controller 3 is shown in the flowchart of FIG.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the case of this type of conventional communication system, communications from all processes are equal, and each of the terminals T1 to T5 processes packets in the order of arrival.

Therefore, if communication from another process occurs while a process that requires responsiveness is being executed, the process that requires responsiveness will be delayed due to the coexistence of those processes within one terminal. there were. This problem has become particularly noticeable in medical communication systems that handle large amounts of data such as medical images, and situations have often arisen in which the demand for immediacy cannot be satisfied.

The present invention has been made with attention to such circumstances, and its purpose is to provide a communication system that can preferentially process only packets from specific processes that are each terminal of a network system. There is a particular thing.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problem) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention constructs a network system in which a plurality of terminals are connected to one packet-switched network, and each of the terminals In a communication system comprising a network interface that receives and processes packets from multiple processes for each process, and a processor that processes an upper layer protocol, the network interface has means for determining which process a received packet is from. death,
The present invention is characterized in that the order of packet processing among the plurality of processes is determined based on the result of this determination.

(Function) If the communication system is configured according to the present invention, packets from processes that should be processed preferentially, such as "image requests from image display terminals," and packets from other processes, such as image registration requests from image generators, Since packets from other processes can be discriminated by the network interface, only the packets that are desired to be processed with priority can be processed with priority at this network interface, and the remaining packets can be processed after this priority processing is completed.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a communication processing device according to an embodiment, which constitutes each terminal in the communication system of the present invention.

The communication processing device of this embodiment connects each terminal T1 via Ethernet (C8MA/CD) as shown in FIG.
- T5 constitute the respective terminals T1 to T5 in the network system in which the terminals T1 to T5 are connected. Similarly to the terminal configuration shown in FIG. 9, the communication interface board 1 includes an E;hernet controller 2 and a TCP
/IP controller 3, and their functional operations are as explained in accordance with FIG.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, a filter processing section 10 is provided between the Ethernet controller 2 and the TCP/IP controller 3, and the filter processing section 10 performs filter processing before the TCP/IP controller 3 processes the packet. . In Fig. 1, parts indicated by the same symbols as in Fig. 9 indicate corresponding parts, 4 is a CPU, 5 is a transceiver, 6 is a coaxial cable, 7 is a memory, 8 is a display controller, and 9 is a It is a display.

That is, in this embodiment, each time the transceiver 5 receives a signal from the coaxial cable 6, the Ethernet controller 2 first performs Ethernet protocol processing, as shown in the functional block diagram of FIG.
This processing result is transferred to the filter processing section 10. The filter processing unit 10 includes a priority packet discrimination circuit 11, a priority processing buffer 12, and a normal processing buffer 13, and receives a terminal process to be processed preferentially by the upper layer CPU 4. Then, in the filter processing section 10,
The priority packet determination circuit 11 distinguishes between a designated process and an I
Correspondence with the P address is performed, it is determined whether the received packet is a packet that should be processed with priority, and the priority packet is transferred to the priority processing buffer 12, and other packets are transferred to the normal processing buffer 13. Furthermore, if there is a packet in the priority processing buffer 12, the packet is sent to the TC.
If there is no packet, the normal processing buffer 13 is checked and if there is a packet, the packet is transferred to the TCP/IP controller 3. In addition, C
The timing at which the above specification is made from the PU 4 to the filter processing unit 10 is the timing at which the process ID or network ID of the other party is specified after a session is established with the other party's process.

Then, the TPC/IP controller 3 performs packet selection, and then sequentially performs IP protocol processing and TCP protocol processing.

FIG. 3 shows the flow of processing by the Ethernet controller 2, filter processing section 10, and TCP/IP controller 3. According to this processing flow, only packets from a specific process can be processed preferentially.

As mentioned above, processing from a specific process is processed regardless of communication with other processes, resulting in communication that transfers a large amount of data (0.5MByte to 8MByte), such as in an image storage communication system in a hospital. This will have a significant effect on the system.

FIG. 4 is a system configuration diagram of a medical image archiving and communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the medical image storage and communication system of this embodiment, when the image database (DB) 14 is receiving a request for image data from the workstation (WS) 15 serving as an image display device, the image data generation bag [16 Even if there is an image registration request from a user, the image database 14 prioritizes the processing of packets from the workstation 15, so that a network system is constructed in which no one is operating the workstation 15. It is something.

That is, in the medical image archiving and communication system of this embodiment, the image database 14 has the functional configuration of the communication processing device described in accordance with FIGS. 1B to 3. In this case, image registration for the modality image indicated by the image data generation device 16 may be performed during the examination;
Immediacy is not required.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, even if the image database 14 encounters a request, the response to the operator (physician) of the workstation 15 can be made faster.

Furthermore, since data is processed in units of messages, the average waiting time when processing overlaps is shortened, as shown in FIG. 5.

However, the arrow in FIG. 5 indicates the communication processing time per packet.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5, if communication from two processes is performed in parallel, both processes become equally slow. However, according to the present invention, since a specific process is prioritized, the prioritized process is twice as fast as the conventional process, and other processes are completed in the same time as the conventional process.

Therefore, the initial value of communication time becomes smaller overall.

FIG. 6 specifically shows the processing situation in the medical image archiving and communication system according to one embodiment of the present invention. It shows the order in which packets arrive when there is a communication request and the processing order after filtering.

As can be seen from Figure 6, the order of packet arrival in the database is: 1st: WS1, 2nd: CT1
, 3rd + WS2, 4th: WS3, 5th: W
At S4, the processing order is as follows: 1st: WS1, 2nd: WS2, 3rd: WS3, 4th: WS4, 5th: 20T1, giving priority to the image request and registering the image. Processed after priority processing ends. At this time, the respective packet arrangements in the priority processing buffer and the normal processing buffer are as shown in FIG.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, only the packets to be processed with priority are processed, and the remaining packets are processed after this priority processing is completed, so that the packets to be processed with priority and other packets are This has the effect of avoiding parallel processing with the packets and speeding up the processing of packets that should be processed with priority.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a communication processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, which constitutes each terminal in the communication system of the present invention. FIG. , FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in a communication processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a system configuration diagram of a medical image archiving and communication system to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing packet processing. 6 is a diagram showing the relationship between the order in which packets arrive and their processing order, FIG. 7 is a diagram mechanically showing the contents of each processing buffer, and FIG. 8 is an example of a network system. The figure shown,
FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a terminal in a conventional communication system, and FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in a terminal in the conventional communication system. 1...Communication interface board 2 """ Ethernet:+Citrola 3...TCP/IP controller 4...CPU 5...Transceiver 6...
・Coaxial cable 7...Memory 8...Display controller 9...Display 10...Filter processing section 11...Priority packet discrimination circuit 12...Priority processing buffer 13...Normal processing buffer

Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) A network system is constructed in which multiple terminals are connected to one packet-switched network, and each terminal has a network interface that receives and processes packets from multiple processes, and a processor that processes upper-layer protocols. In the communication system, the network interface has means for determining from which process the received packet comes from;
A communication system characterized in that the order of packet processing among the plurality of processes is determined based on the result of this determination. (2) The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the determination means determines the packet based on a network address. (3) The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the network interface prioritizes processing of packets from a specific process based on the determination result. (4) The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the priority processing order of received packets from a plurality of processes is received based on an instruction from the processor. (5) The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the network system is an in-hospital image communication system.