CN1309212C - Method for automatic configurating terminal apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a method for automatically configuring a terminal device. The terminal device connects a user to a network. The method is as follows: the terminal device reports the first identifier representing the current configuration to the terminal management unit; the terminal management unit saves the The second identification of the first identification is compared with the first identification, and if the two identifications are inconsistent, the terminal management unit sends the configuration information to the terminal device; the terminal device completes the configuration according to the configuration information, and obtains the first identification representing the current configuration again; The terminal management unit updates the first identifier to the second identifier.

Description

A method for automatically configuring terminal equipment

technical field

The invention relates to the access technology in the communication network, in particular to a method for automatically configuring terminal equipment.

Background technique

The continuous development of communication technology has profoundly affected our daily life and social life, especially the emergence of various broadband access technologies, so that more and more people can enjoy the convenience of work, life and entertainment brought by broadband. Current mainstream broadband access technologies include: xDSL (Digital Subscriber Line) access based on ordinary telephone lines, HFC access based on cable television coaxial cables, and LAN access based on Ethernet technology; in addition, NGN (Next Generation Network) broadband access technology is also becoming more and more mature. The above broadband technologies have one commonality, that is, a terminal device needs to be deployed on the user side to connect the user's computer to the operator's network. For example, in the ADSL access mode, ATU_R needs to be installed on the user side. In the HFC access mode, a Cable Modem needs to be installed on the user side, and in an NGN-based network, an IAD (Integrated Access Device) needs to be deployed on the user side.

Taking ADSL access technology as an example, its network application model is shown in Figure 1. At the central office (CO) end, the digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM equipment) provides a twisted pair interface, and the terminal equipment - an asymmetrical digital subscriber loop remote transceiver unit (ATU_R) is placed on the user side. Realize broadband access function. As a part of the broadband access solution, user-side terminal equipment implements specific functions. How to effectively maintain and manage these huge and widely distributed terminal equipment is a challenge that operators must face.

For the activation of broadband services, corresponding configurations need to be performed on the user terminal equipment. These configurations should be coordinated with the central office configurations to ensure the normal provision of services. Terminal configurations generally include service information configurations, device information settings, etc.

At present, the commonly used configuration method is to manually configure the terminal online through the terminal management unit (such as a network management system or an independent terminal management system), that is, the terminal maintenance and management personnel input configuration information through a graphical or command-based human-computer interaction interface. And the terminal management unit directly sends it to the device to complete the configuration operation. This manual configuration method has the following disadvantages:

(1) Only when the terminal device is online, it can be configured. Online means that the device is powered on and has an accessible information channel with the management tool. Since the terminal device is on the user side, the operator's terminal maintenance personnel cannot control when it is online, so it is impossible to complete the configuration of the terminal through manual online mode in some cases.

(2) Low management efficiency and high operation and maintenance costs. To manually configure a large number of user terminal devices one by one, not only the workload is heavy, the efficiency is low, but also error-prone.

(3) The plug and play of the terminal equipment cannot be realized. The activation of user services depends on whether the configuration information of the terminal equipment is correct, and manual online configuration is used. Due to the need for manual intervention, it cannot meet the requirements of terminal plug-and-play.

In view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of manual online configuration, an automatic configuration scheme for terminal equipment has appeared in the prior art: this scheme saves the configuration information of the terminal in the form of a file on the server, and the terminal automatically uploads and downloads the configuration file to the designated server when it is started. Complete the relevant configuration. Although this solution solves some shortcomings of manual online configuration, it has the following disadvantages:

(1) The terminal must re-download the configuration file every time it is powered on and started, which is inefficient.

(2) The configuration files of all terminals are the same and cannot be customized according to needs.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for automatically configuring terminal equipment, so as to solve the problem of low efficiency in terminal configuration management in the prior art, and further, to solve the disadvantage of inability to perform individual configuration in the prior art.

Realize the technical scheme of the present invention:

A method for automatically configuring a terminal device that connects a user to a network, the method comprising the steps of:

A. The terminal device reports the first identifier representing the current configuration to the terminal management unit;

B. The terminal management unit compares the stored second identifier with the first identifier, and if the two identifiers are inconsistent, the terminal management unit sends the configuration information to the terminal device;

C. The terminal device completes the configuration according to the configuration information, and obtains the first identifier representing the current configuration again;

D. The terminal management unit updates the first identifier with the second identifier.

in:

In step B, the configuration information is stored in a configuration template corresponding to the terminal device.

According to user classification, each type of user corresponds to the same configuration template.

In the present invention, the terminal device reports the current configuration identifier, and the terminal management unit judges whether to re-send configuration information for configuration according to the identifier and the saved identifier, thus having the following beneficial effects:

(1) It can automatically complete the configuration of terminal equipment, greatly improving the management efficiency of terminal equipment and reducing operation and maintenance costs;

(2) Realize the plug and play of terminal equipment;

(3) Avoid failures caused by users modifying the configuration information of terminal equipment without authorization;

(4) Formulate a personalized configuration scheme according to the type of terminal equipment.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is ADSL broadband access network application model;

Fig. 2 is a system block diagram of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a flowchart of the present invention.

Detailed ways

Referring to Fig. 2, the central office equipment and the terminal equipment cooperate to realize the broadband access function, and the terminal management unit manages and configures the central office equipment and the terminal equipment. The terminal management unit can be part of the network management system or an independent management system.

The terminal management unit identifies the terminal device through the identifier of the terminal device, such as one or more sets of address, name, and device ID. After the terminal device on the user side is configured, the user is connected to the network through the central office device, and the configuration information of the terminal device is issued by the terminal management unit.

The present invention saves the second identification representing the configuration of the terminal device on the terminal management unit. After the terminal device is powered on or reset, the first identification representing the current configuration is obtained through calculation and reported to the terminal management unit. The terminal management unit compares the two Compare; if the two are inconsistent, it means that the configuration information needs to be sent to reconfigure the terminal device; otherwise, no configuration is performed.

Referring to Figure 3, the specific process is as follows:

Step 10: After the terminal device is powered on or reset, actively report the first identifier representing the current configuration of the terminal to the terminal management unit.

The first identifier is obtained by the terminal device by performing some calculation on the current configuration information, and is a value. For example, the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) calculation may be performed on the configuration information of the terminal, and the check value may be used as the first identifier, or it may be calculated by other similar methods.

Step 20: The terminal management unit compares the saved second identifier with the first identifier reported by the terminal device. If the two identifiers are inconsistent, the terminal management unit sends configuration information corresponding to the terminal device to the terminal device (step 201); if the two identifiers are consistent, confirm that the configuration information is correct (step 202).

Configuration information can be sent to terminal devices through configuration files, or through batch commands.

Step 30: The terminal device completes the configuration according to the configuration information, and recalculates the first identifier representing the current configuration according to the latest configuration information.

After the terminal device regains the first identifier, it can actively report to the terminal management unit; the terminal management unit can also obtain the first identifier through active inquiry.

Step 40: The terminal management unit updates the second identifier with the first identifier retrieved by the terminal device.

In order to realize the management of users of different terminal devices and meet their business needs, the users of terminal devices are classified, such as ordinary users, Internet cafe users, company users...etc. The classification method can be flexibly determined according to needs. Each type of terminal equipment adopts the same configuration information, so that a series of configuration templates can be established. The configuration templates store the configuration information required for terminal equipment to open services. The configuration templates are saved in the form of files or databases in the terminal management unit. The running physical entity may also be stored in other physical entities accessible by the terminal management unit.

After the configuration template is established, specify the corresponding configuration template for each terminal device, that is, establish the corresponding relationship between the terminal device and the configuration template. This correspondence can be represented by a mapping from an identifier of a terminal device, such as an address, name or/and ID, to an identifier of a configuration template. Mapping relationships can be stored in files or in databases.

In step 20 of FIG. 3, when the terminal management unit finds that the saved second identifier is inconsistent with the first identifier reported by the terminal device, it finds the corresponding configuration template according to the identifier of the terminal device, and then uses the configuration template in the configuration template The information is sent to the terminal device, and the terminal device reconfigures; the rest of the steps are the same.

Claims (10)

1, a kind of method of automatic configurating terminal device, described terminal equipment is linked into the user in the network, it is characterized in that the method comprising the steps of:

A, report first sign that characterizes current configuration to the terminal management unit by terminal equipment;

Second sign that B, terminal management unit will be preserved compares with described first sign, if this two sign is inconsistent, the terminal management unit is issued to terminal equipment with configuration information;

C, terminal equipment are finished configuration according to configuration information, and obtain characterizing first sign of current configuration again;

D, terminal management unit are with described second sign of this first identification renewal.

2, the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, in the steps A, initiatively reports described first sign after terminal equipment powers on or resets.

3, the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, among the step B, described configuration information is kept at terminal equipment to have in the configuration template of corresponding relation.

4, method as claimed in claim 3 is characterized in that, according to user's classification, and the corresponding same configuration template of each class user.

5, method as claimed in claim 3 is characterized in that, sets up corresponding relation by Terminal Equipment Identifier to the mapping of described configuration template sign.

6, method as claimed in claim 4 is characterized in that, described configuration template is preserved with file or database mode.

7, method as claimed in claim 5 is characterized in that, described Terminal Equipment Identifier is or multinomial combination in terminal equipment address, terminal equipment title and the terminal equipment identifier.

8, the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, among the step B, configuration information issues terminal equipment by configuration file or batch command mode.

9, the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that, terminal equipment obtains again characterizing and initiatively reports the terminal management unit after first of current configuration identifies, or obtains first sign that terminal equipment obtains again by the terminal management unit by the active inquiry mode.

10, the method for claim 1 is characterized in that, among the step B, if first sign is consistent with second sign, confirms that then the configuration information of terminal equipment is correct.

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