JPH0832607A - Network configuration management method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To provide a network configuration management method capable of recognizing a connection configuration without giving an administrator and preventing communication failure due to management error. [Structure] A station or another concentrator is connected to each port of the concentrators 4a to 4d having a plurality of ports to form a network in which the plurality of concentrators 4a to 4d are connected in stages. The source network addresses of all past frames received at the respective ports are stored in the address management tables 2a to 2d as information of stations directly or indirectly connected to the ports, and management provided at the backbone of the network is performed. The station 1 collects the information of the stations stored in the address management table of each concentrator,
The stepwise connection configuration of the concentrator is estimated from the collected contents.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network configuration management method for managing a network connection configuration, and more particularly,
The present invention relates to a network configuration management method capable of recognizing a connection configuration without giving an administrator and preventing communication failure due to a management error.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art 10BASE-T defined by IEEE802.3 is known as a standard of a star type network (LAN) using a concentrator. A conventional technique for managing such a network will be described.

As shown in FIG. 4, the network is provided with concentrators 44a to 44d having a plurality of ports, and stations 5a to 5h or other concentrators are connected to the ports of these concentrators. . The connection configuration of this network is a configuration in which the concentrators 44a, 44b, 44c, 44d are connected in a stepwise manner (cascade connection). The stations 5a to 5h have network addresses (hereinafter simply referred to as addresses) set to A to H. Network address management tables (referred to as tables) 2e to 2h for managing the network addresses of stations are provided in each concentrator. As shown, each column in the table is associated with a port. A management station 4 that manages the network as the backbone of the network
1 is provided. A management frame 43 is exchanged between the management station 41 and each of the line concentrators 44a to 44d.

In FIG. 4, stations 5a-5h are line concentrators 4.
Frames are exchanged via 4a to 44d. Each concentrator relays the frame received at each port to all other ports, extracts the source address from the frame, and stores the address extracted from the last received frame in the table column corresponding to the port. . A frame that arrives at a port (cascade port) to which another concentrator is connected can be the source of multiple stations. Therefore, there are multiple types of source addresses extracted from the frame, but only the latest one is available. Will be stored in the table. For example, one of the addresses G and H of the stations 5g and 5h connected to the concentrator 4d is written in the column corresponding to the port # 3 of the concentrator 44c.

The network address of the concentrator and the like are previously input to the management station 41 by the administrator based on the connection configuration of FIG. Management station 41
Sends a management frame 43 requesting management information to each of the concentrators 44a to 44d in order to collect the information of the stations held by each concentrator in the table according to the information.
Each of the line concentrators 44a to 44d transmits a response management frame 43 to the management station 41. Through this exchange, the management station 41 recognizes the addresses A to H of the stations 5a to 5h connected to the line concentrators 44a to 44d, and uses them to detect an abnormality in the equipment of the station.

In the network shown in FIG. 5,
A plurality of concentrators 54a, 54a, via branch transmission lines 7a, 7b to the main transmission line 8 provided with the management station 51.
54b is connected, and the plurality of stations 5a to 5d are connected to the line concentrators 54a and 54b. The stations 5a to 5d exchange frames via the line concentrators 54a and 54b. The concentrators 54a and 54b relay the received frame to all ports. For example, when the station 5a transmits a frame to the station 5d, the frame passes through the transmission path 6a and is received by the concentrator 54a. The concentrator 54a relays this frame to the station 5b via the transmission line 6b, and the transmission line 7b.
It relays to the concentrator 54b via a, 8, and 7b. The concentrator 54b relays the frame to the stations 5c and 5d via the transmission lines 6c and 6d. The stations 5b and 5c discard the frame because this frame is not addressed to itself. Only station 5d will receive the frame. Concentrators 54a, 54b
In addition to the frame relay operation, collects and holds management information such as the number of times the frame has been relayed and the number of times an error has occurred.

At the management station 51, the network addresses of all the stations and all the concentrators are set by the administrator as shown in FIG.
Are input in advance based on the connection configuration of. The management station 51 makes an inquiry about management information to each station and each concentrator according to the information, and detects an abnormality in the network.

Next, in a network in which a station is connected to each port of a multi-port relay device having a plurality of ports, a management station provided in the network sends a frame such as a management information request frame to each station. I manage it. Although the frame always passes through the multiport relay device, the conventional multiport relay device does not have the function of recognizing the port at which the management information request frame arrived.

[0009]

In the configurations shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the management stations 41 and 51 have the concentrators 44.
It is possible to detect the occurrence of an abnormality by monitoring the operating states of the stations a to 44d, 54a, 54b and the stations 5a to 5h connected to each concentrator. However, if the connection order of these concentrators is changed, the connection configuration will change. Therefore, the administrator has to input the change contents of the connection configuration into the management stations 41 and 51, which requires time and labor. Requires. Similarly, moving a station requires time and effort. Since the change takes time, it becomes impossible to accurately detect the abnormality during that time.

In a network using a multi-port relay device that does not have a function of recognizing the port at which a management information request frame arrives, when managing the multi-port relay device from a remote location, which port is used by the management station or the like. Since there is no way for the administrator to know whether the management information request frame arrives, it is difficult to identify the port that caused the failure when a communication failure occurs between the management station and the multiport relay device. is there. Also, when the communication of unnecessary ports is disabled (deactivated), if the port on which the management information request frame from the management station arrives is deactivated by mistake, then the management station and the multiport relay device will be used. It becomes impossible to communicate with.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and provide a network configuration management method capable of recognizing a connection configuration without giving an administrator and preventing communication failure due to a management error.

[0012]

To achieve the above object, the present invention is to connect a station or another concentrator to each port of a concentrator having a plurality of ports, and to connect the plurality of concentrators stepwise. The congested network, each concentrator stores the source network addresses of all past frames received at the respective ports in the address management table as the information of the station directly or indirectly connected to the port, and The management station provided at the backbone of the network collects information about the stations stored in the address management table of each concentrator, and estimates the stepwise connection configuration of the concentrator from the collected information.

In the estimation of the above-mentioned connection configuration, it is determined that a port having information on a plurality of stations is a cascade port to which another concentrator is connected, and from the relationship of overlapping information of stations of the cascade ports of each concentrator, It may be estimated.

Also, a station is connected to each port of a concentrator having a plurality of ports to form a network in which a plurality of concentrators are connected, and the source of the latest frame received by each concentrator at each port. The network address is stored in the address management table as the information of the station connected to the port, the management station provided in the network has only the information of each concentrator in advance, and the address management table is periodically provided to each concentrator. Inquires and collects the information of the stations stored in, and recognizes the station connected to each concentrator from the collected contents.

Further, when a station is connected to each port of a multi-port relay device having a plurality of ports to form a network, and a frame from a management station provided in this network arrives at the port, the multi-port relay device Recognizes the port as the management port connected to the management station, and if the management information request frame from the management station requests the management port information after that, it may respond with the management port information by the above recognition. is there.

[0016]

With the above construction, each concentrator stores the source network addresses of all the past frames received at the respective ports in the address management table as the information of the stations directly or indirectly connected to the ports. When another concentrator (b) is connected to one port of the concentrator (a) and a station is connected to each port of the other concentrator, the frame that can be received by the port of the concentrator (a) Although there are multiple source network addresses, all past ones will be stored. When the management station collects the information of the stations stored in the address management table of each concentrator, the information of the stations connected to this network will be collected without exception. Also, since the information of the station collected from the cascade port of one concentrator (a) matches the information of the station collected from all the ports of the other concentrator (b) connected to that cascade port, It can be seen that the other concentrator (b) is connected to the cascade port of one concentrator (a).
In this way, the stepwise connection configuration of the concentrator can be estimated from the collected contents.

The station information at each port is stored at the time of frame reception, and the management station can collect the station information by communication, so that the connection configuration is automatically estimated and does not bother the administrator. . Of course, even when the connection configuration is changed, the connection configuration is automatically estimated.

In estimating the connection configuration, a port having information on a plurality of stations may be determined as a cascade port to which another concentrator is connected. On the contrary, the port having only the information of one station may be determined as the port to which the station is directly connected. When the cascade port of each concentrator is determined, it is possible to sequentially estimate the concentrator from the relationship of overlapping information of the stations of each cascade port.

When the management station has only the information of each concentrator in advance, it suffices to know the station connected to each concentrator. Therefore, each concentrator stores the source network address of the latest frame received at each port in the address management table as information of the station connected to that port. The management station periodically inquires of each concentrator about the information of the stations stored in the address management table, and recognizes the station connected to each concentrator from the collected contents. In this case, even if the connection configuration of the station is changed, it can be automatically recognized without the need for the administrator.

In a network using a multi-port relay device, when a frame from a management station arrives at a port, the management station may exist at least in the network directly or indirectly connected to the port. Recognize. Therefore, the multi-port relay device recognizes the port as the management port connected to the management station. After that, if the management information request frame from the management station requests the management port information, the management port information based on the above recognition is returned. As a result, the management station can know which port of the multi-port relay device is the management port, and can help identify the port that caused the failure and prohibit the deactivation of the port.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the network using the network configuration management method of the present invention is provided with concentrators 4a to 4d having a plurality of ports, and stations 5a to 5h are provided at the ports of these concentrators. Or another concentrator is connected. The connection configuration of this network is the same cascade connection as in FIG. The stations 5a to 5h have network addresses (addresses) set to A to H. A network address management table (table) that manages the network addresses of stations in each concentrator
2a to 2d are provided. As shown, each column in the table is associated with a port.
A management station 1 for managing the network is provided at the backbone of the network. A management frame 3 is exchanged between the management station 1 and each of the line concentrators 4a to 4d.

In the network of the present invention, in addition to the operation described in the prior art of FIG. 4, the concentrators 4a to 4d hold the source network addresses of all past frames arriving at the cascade ports in the tables 2a to 2d. .

The management station 1 includes the line concentrators 4a to 4a.
4d collects the station information held in the tables 2a to 2d using the management frame 3. Management station 1
Estimates the stepwise connection configuration of the concentrator. Specifically, it is determined that a port having information about a plurality of stations is a cascade port to which other concentrators are connected, and it is sequentially estimated from the relationship of overlapping station information of the cascade ports of each concentrator. For example, port # of table 2c of concentrator 4c
Since the addresses G and H are held in 3, the port is a cascade port. On the other hand, since the port # 1 of the table 2d of the concentrator 4d holds only the address G and the port # 2 holds only the address H, the stations 5g and 5h are directly connected to the concentrator 4d, respectively. It can be seen that the concentrator is not connected. At the same time, it can be seen that the concentrator 4d connecting the stations 5g and 5h is connected to the cascade port of the concentrator 4c.
Next, the addresses held in correspondence with the cascade ports of the concentrator 4b are E, F, G, H, and the station 5 which is already known to be connected to the concentrator 4d.
Excluding the addresses G and H of g and 5h, it can be seen that the concentrator 4c connecting the stations 5e and 5f is connected to the cascade port of the concentrator 4b. According to the same estimation, the stations 5c,
It can be seen that the concentrator 4b connecting 5d is connected.

In FIG. 1, when the connection configuration is changed, each concentrator 4a-4d extracts an address and creates a table each time a frame arrives. On the other hand, since the management station 1 periodically makes inquiries to the line concentrators 4a to 4d, it is possible to estimate the stepwise connection configuration of the line concentrator changed from the collected station information. The management station 1 may create a network configuration diagram from the estimated connection configuration, and the administrator can easily grasp the connection configuration by dynamically changing the network configuration diagram according to the change of the connection configuration. can do.

Next, another embodiment will be described.

As shown in FIG. 2, in the network using the network configuration management method of the present invention, the concentrator 24a is connected to the backbone transmission line 8 provided with the management station 21 via the branch transmission line 7a. Concentrator 24
A plurality of stations 5a and 5b are connected to a. This configuration corresponds to a part of the configuration of FIG. 5, and the frame relay operation between stations is the same. The concentrator 24a is provided with a table 22a for holding the network address of the station connected to this concentrator.

In FIG. 2, port # of the concentrator 24a
When the station 5a connected to 1 transmits a frame, the frame passes through the transmission path 6a and is received by the concentrator 24a.
The concentrator 24a relays this frame to the station 5b and the transmission line 7a via the transmission line 6b and recognizes the source address A in the frame. The address A is stored in the table 22a in association with the port # 1. Concentrator 24
The same operation is performed when the station 5b connected to the port # 2 of a transmits a frame, and the address B is assigned to the port # 2.
And stored in the table 22a. If the connection of these stations is changed thereafter, the table 22a is updated each time by the same operation.

The management station 21 is set with only the information of the concentrator 24a at the time of initialization and holds this information. Using this information, the management station 21 periodically inquires of the concentrator 24a about the contents of the table by using the frame 23 using the network management protocol. When the concentrator 24a responds, the management station 21 obtains the connection information of the concentrator 24a. In this way, the management station 21 automatically recognizes the stations 5a and 5b connected to the concentrator 24a.

The management station 21 may create a network configuration diagram from the connection information, and the administrator can easily change the network configuration diagram according to the change of the connection station so that the administrator can easily obtain the latest configuration. Can be grasped.

Next, another embodiment will be described.

As shown in FIG. 3, the multiport relay device with the network management function has a plurality of ports 31.
a, 31b, an arrival port detection means 32 for detecting a port at which a frame has arrived, a relay processing unit 33 mainly for relaying a frame between ports, and a management processing unit 34 for managing the number of the port at which the frame has arrived. Is equipped with.

When the frame arrives at any of the ports, the arrival port detection means 32 detects the port number (# 1, # 2) of the arrived port regardless of the type of the frame,
The arrival frame is passed to the relay processing unit 33 and the port number is notified to the management processing unit 34. The relay processing unit 34 sends the arrival frame to another port to perform a relay operation, and
This arrival frame is passed to the management processing unit 34 regardless of the type of frame.

The management processing unit 34 associates the arrival frame received from the relay processing unit 33 with the port number received from the arrival port detection means 32, and recognizes the arrival port numbers of all the frames. Management processing unit 34
Checks the type of arrival frame, and if this arrival frame is a management information request frame received from a management station (not shown), recognizes the port with the corresponding port number as the management port to which the management station is connected, Holds the port number as management information. Furthermore, when the management information request frame is for requesting the management port number, the management port number is immediately returned.

By this, the management station knows which port of the multi-port relay device is the management port,
This can be used to identify the cause port of the failure and prohibit the inactivation of the management port.

[0036]

The present invention exhibits the following excellent effects.

(1) Since the administrator can recognize the connection configuration without giving it, it is possible to automatically respond to the change of the configuration, and the troublesome input work by the administrator is saved.

(2) Since the multi-port relay device recognizes the management port and informs it to the management station, it is possible to identify the port causing the failure and prohibit the inactivation of the management port.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a network showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a network showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a multi-port relay device showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a conventional network.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a conventional network.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Management Stations 2a-2d Network Address Management Tables 4a-4d Concentrators 5a-5h Stations

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Office reference number FI technical display location H04L 12/24 12/26 9466-5K H04L 11/08

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A station or another concentrator is connected to each port of a concentrator having a plurality of ports to form a network in which the plurality of concentrators are connected in stages, and each concentrator is connected to each port. The source network addresses of all received frames are stored in the address management table as the information of the station directly or indirectly connected to the port, and the management station provided at the backbone of the network stores the address of each concentrator. A network configuration management method comprising collecting station information stored in a management table and estimating a stepwise connection configuration of a concentrator from the collected information. 2. The estimation of the above connection configuration judges that a port having information of a plurality of stations is a cascade port to which another concentrator is connected, and from the relation of duplication of information of stations of the cascade port of each concentrator. The network configuration management method according to claim 1, wherein the estimation is sequentially performed. 3. A source of the latest frame received by each concentrator at each port by connecting a station to each port of the concentrator having a plurality of ports to form a network in which the plurality of concentrators are connected. The network address is stored in the address management table as the information of the station connected to the port, the management station provided in the network has only the information of each concentrator in advance, and the address management table is periodically provided to each concentrator. A network configuration management method characterized by inquiring and collecting information of stations stored in, and recognizing the stations connected to each concentrator from the collected contents. 4. A network is constructed by connecting a station to each port of a multiport relay device having a plurality of ports,
When the frame from the management station provided in this network arrives at the port, the multi-port relay device recognizes the port as the management port connected to the management station, and then the management information request frame from the management station is managed. A network configuration management method characterized in that if the information on the port is requested, the information on the management port based on the recognition is returned.