JP2001069532A - Catv fault management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an efficient CATV fault management system. SOLUTION: This fault management system manages the fault of each device, such as a repeater and a terminal in a CATV system. A modem 16 is connected to a central unit 14 of a CATV station 10 and a telephone line 5 and portable telephone 60 of a manager in a city are used to constitute a two-way data communication system. On the occurrence of the fault, the central unit 14 transmits the occurrence of the fault to the portable telephone 60 of the manager via the modem 16 in terms of character data. The manager uses the portable telephone 60, to transmit a transfer command of device data to the central unit 14 and obtains the device data having the fault via the central unit. The manager specifies the fault location and the kind of the fault on the basis of the device data in the city. Furthermore, the manager uses the mobile phone 60 to transmit a control command and to control the device having the fault.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fault management system for managing a fault in a relay device, a terminal device, or the like in a CATV system. In particular, transmitting and receiving data to and from the central unit using a mobile phone, specifying the location and type of failure,
The present invention relates to a CATV failure management system for efficiently repairing a failure.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a CATV system, there is a system in which a central unit manages a fault state of a plurality of relay devices or a plurality of terminal devices. It is a management system based on a so-called polling method in which addresses are assigned to respective devices such as the above-mentioned relay device or terminal device, and the addresses are sequentially designated from a central device to collect and manage device data of each device. The device data is data such as supply voltage data, supply current data, and pilot signal level from the CATV station side of each device. The central unit manages the entire system by managing the data. For example, when a failure occurs in a relay device installed in a city, a TV signal or a data signal sent downstream therefrom is affected. These can be detected by managing the device data. In that case, for example, the central device first turns off the faulty device and turns on the bypass circuit of the device. As a result, it is possible to prevent the transmission of a fault to a repeater or a terminal device downstream of the device. Next, the administrator specifies the type of the failure from the management data, and restores the failed device.

[0003]

However, in the conventional polling method, the central unit sends a command as described above,
Each connected device responds to it, and the administrator must always be resident at the central device or a terminal device connected to the central device. In the case where the manager is not present, the central device needs to notify the manager of the occurrence of the failure and recover the failure. For this reason, for example, an administrator in the city carries a one-way receiver such as a so-called pager, and when a failure occurs, the administrator is made aware of it. However, in this case as well, the administrator goes to the terminal device connected to the central device, reads the device data, and specifies the fault location and the fault type to deal with it. Therefore, it was not a system for efficiently recovering from a failure.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and employs a portable telephone capable of two-way communication in the above-mentioned system, so that a central unit and an administrator in the city can use the portable telephone. The purpose is to bidirectionally communicate data relating to the occurrence of a failure, efficiently identify a failure location and a failure type, and recover the failure. In addition, depending on the type of obstacle, the device is controlled by a command from a mobile phone, thereby immediately removing the obstacle.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a CATV fault management system.
The central unit monitors the status of each device on the CATV transmission line.
An ATV fault management system, wherein the central device includes a modem device connected to a telephone line and bidirectional data communication means for bidirectional data communication with a mobile phone via the telephone line. It is characterized by two-way data communication with a mobile phone and giving detailed device data to an administrator.

The status of each device can be monitored by a polling method in which a central device transmits a monitor signal to each device and each device returns device data indicating the current status to the central device by receiving the monitor signal. it can. But,
Monitoring of the status of each device is not limited to the polling method.
The central device transmits the monitor signal in accordance with, for example, the order of addresses assigned to each device. Each device that has received the monitor signal returns device data such as supply voltage data, supply current data, and pilot signal level from the CATV station side to the central unit in order to notify the status of each device. That is, the central device receives device data indicating the current operating state from each device by a so-called polling method.

When the central device detects an abnormality in the received device data, the central device sends, for example, a fault occurrence to the modem device as character data or voice data by the bidirectional data communication means. The modem device converts the data into a modulated signal and transmits the modulated signal to a mobile phone of an administrator in the city via an existing telephone line. At this time, the abnormality includes no response from each device. The administrator who has received the data on the occurrence of the failure confirms via the mobile phone or transmits new command data such as data transfer to the central device via the telephone line. Then, the central device newly receives the command data by the modem device and the bidirectional data communication means, and transmits detailed device data of the failed device in response to the command. In such a procedure,
Device data is transmitted repeatedly interactively. As a result, the administrator can grasp, for example, the location of the fault and the type of the fault in the city more quickly than before. Therefore, the administrator can respond to the occurrence of the failure more quickly without going to the terminal device connected to the central device. In addition, the administrator can obtain, for example, detailed failure data on the spot while dealing with the failed device. Therefore, it is possible to appropriately deal with the failure. The telephone line connected to the modem device of the central device includes both wired and wireless.

A CATV fault management system according to a second aspect is characterized in that the central unit includes system control means for controlling each device, and controls the faulty device based on command data from a mobile phone. And The mobile phone transmits command data input from the administrator to the central device via the telephone line. The bidirectional data communication means of the central device receives the command data, and the system control means controls the faulty device based on the command data. The control is performed by, for example, the OF of a failed device.
F and its bypass circuit are ON. As a result, the propagation of the obstacle downstream is avoided. Therefore, it is possible to quickly and efficiently deal with the failure and recover it.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the CATV fault management system, the mobile phone is connected to a portable computer device.
The device data and the command data are transmitted and received by a portable computer device. Since the mobile phone according to the present invention includes a portable computer, a large amount of data can be instantaneously captured. Therefore, the state of the device can be quickly grasped. The command data in the above claims is based on a simple operation by pressing a button of a mobile phone, for example. Therefore, it is difficult to make a complicated command. Since the portable telephone according to the present invention is connected to a portable computer, a complicated command can be easily and instantly transmitted. For example, if the failure is a destruction of a program of the device, the repair program can be easily transmitted. Therefore, a highly convenient CATV failure management system that can easily and quickly perform complicated restoration is provided.

[0010] The CATV fault management system according to a fourth aspect is characterized in that the telephone line is connected to the Internet, and device data and command data are transmitted and received via the Internet. The mobile phone connects to the nearest Internet service provider via a telephone line and transmits and receives data to and from the central device via the Internet. Thereby, the billing of the mobile phone is reduced. That is, it is possible to recover at a low cost even a failure at a remote place. Further, the Internet system can transmit large-capacity data such as image data and audio data used for failure diagnosis at low cost. Therefore, the communication cost can be further reduced and the above-mentioned failure can be repaired efficiently.
It becomes an ATV failure management system.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the following examples. (First Embodiment) FIG. 1 shows a CATV fault management system according to the present invention. The figure is a system configuration diagram. C of the present invention
The ATV fault management system includes a telephone office 4, a telephone line 5,
Central unit 14, central unit 14 provided in the ATV station 10.
Communication device 1 which is a two-way communication means provided in
5, a modem device 16, a system control device 17 as system control means, an optical fiber cable 20 laid from the central device 14, a plurality of relay devices 30 provided in the middle of the optical fiber cable 20, and connected to the relay device 30. The terminal device 55 is directly connected to the local network 50 and the coaxial cable 40 laid from the relay device 30, and a mobile phone 60 carried by the administrator. The local net 50 is composed of the coaxial cable 40 laid in a net shape and a plurality of terminal devices 55 connected thereto.

The function of each element will be described with reference to the flowchart at the time of occurrence of a failure in the central unit 14 shown in FIGS. The central device 14 first updates the address assigned to each device in step S1. Then, the address is transmitted via the optical fiber cable 20 as a monitor signal, for example. One of the devices, for example, the relay device 30 reads the address and, if the addresses match, reads the current device data according to a predetermined program into the central device 14.
Send to

In step S2, the central device receives the device data transmitted from each device. Here, the device data is, for example, a supply voltage supplied to the relay device 30,
This is data such as a supply current or a pilot signal level from the CATV station 10 side. That is, the central device 14 grasps the current state from each device by a so-called polling method.

In step S3, the central device 14 compares the received device data with predetermined reference data, and if the difference is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, detects that the device is abnormal. Also, when there is no reply from each device, it is determined that there is an abnormality. If there is no abnormality,
Returning to step S1, the address of the next device is updated.

If there is an abnormality in the device data, step S4
Then, the two-way communication device 15 sends, for example, failure occurrence data (character data) to the modem device 16. The modem device 16 converts the fault occurrence data into a modulated signal, and sends out the data as character data to the mobile phone 60 of an administrator in the city via the existing telephone line 5. Then, step S5
Move to

Then, in step S5, a data transfer command from the administrator is waited for to confirm the recognition of the administrator. If there is no data transfer command from the administrator, step S is performed again.
4 and repeat the transmission of the fault occurrence data. If there is a data transfer command, the process proceeds to step S6.

In step S6, the administrator's mobile phone 60
And transfers the detailed device data of the failed device to the mobile phone 60 in response to the command. Next, the process proceeds to step S7 and waits for the next command.

In step S7, the next command is read and if it is a new device data transfer command, the process returns to step S6 and repeats the same routine. If it is not a data transfer command, the process proceeds to step S8.

In step S8, it is determined whether the command is a control command or a termination command. If it is a control command, step S
The process proceeds to step 10, where a control signal is transmitted to the faulty device to control the device. This control is, for example, OFF of the faulty device and ON of its bypass circuit. Further, for example, if the failure is a drop in the supply voltage, the main power is off and the sub-power is on. As a result, it is possible to prevent the influence of the trouble, such as deterioration of the video signal, from spreading downstream. Next, the process proceeds to step S9 and waits for the next command.

In step S9, the next command is decoded.
It is determined whether an end command has been issued. If it is the end command, the process ends. If not, it is determined that the command is a new device data transfer command or a new control command for confirming restoration, and the process returns to step S7. Then, the device data transfer routine or a new control command routine is repeated.

In such a procedure, the transfer of the device data and the transmission of the control command are repeatedly performed interactively. Therefore, the manager can grasp the trouble location, the trouble type, and the like more quickly than before in the city and restore it. Further, while dealing with a device in which a failure has occurred, specific device data can be obtained on the spot, and the failure can be dealt with accurately.

(Second Embodiment) The administrator's command in the first embodiment is a command by pressing a switch button of a mobile phone,
Or, it was a command based on a combination thereof. There is a problem that a complicated command cannot be easily transmitted with the command by pressing the switch button. The second embodiment solves such a problem. FIG. 4 shows a CATV fault management system according to the second embodiment. The CATV fault management system according to the present embodiment is characterized by including a mobile phone 60 and a portable computer 70. The portable computer 70 enables control based on a large amount of device data and complicated command data. Here, the elements common to the first embodiment are:
Some have been omitted.

The operation of the portable computer 70 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
Here, steps equivalent to those of the first embodiment are omitted, and modified points are described. The difference from the flowchart of the first embodiment is that step S4 is replaced with step S4a and step S6 is replaced with step S6a. The feature of step S4a is that the occurrence of a failure is transmitted by character data and image data. In step S6a,
A feature is that a failure location is transferred as image data (drawings) as device data. Portable computers can quickly capture large amounts of data. Therefore, reception of the image data is facilitated. Thus, for example, the first
In addition to the above character data in the embodiment, a drawing (image data) such as a failure location can be added. This allows
The administrator can quickly grasp the type of the failure and the location of the failure.

Another difference is that step S10a is inserted before step S10. Step S
10a is a reading of a control command (program) from the portable computer 70. Because, the portable computer 70 facilitates transmission of a large amount of the control command.
Therefore, for example, when the cause of the failure is the destruction of the program of the device, the recovery program can be easily transmitted from the portable computer. Therefore, if the control program from the portable computer 70 is read in step S10a, complicated restoration can be easily and promptly performed.

(Third Embodiment) The charging fee for a mobile phone is different depending on the region. For example, transmission from a remote location to the central unit of the CATV station 10 increases costs. This embodiment is effective in such a case. FIG. 7 shows a CATV fault management system according to the third embodiment. A feature of the third embodiment is that device data, control commands, data transfer commands, and the like are transmitted and received via the Internet. Thereby, the communication cost required for the recovery of the second embodiment is reduced. The CATV fault management system according to the present embodiment includes, in addition to the systems according to the first and second embodiments, a telephone line 6,
Internet line 100 and Internet line 10
0 and a telephone line. Even with such a system, the same recovery work as in the second embodiment can be performed. The flowchart when a failure occurs in the central unit 14 is the same as that in the second embodiment.

Briefly, in this embodiment, first, C
The central device 14 of the ATV station 10 transmits failure occurrence data (character data) to the administrator's mobile phone 60 via the telephone lines 5 and 6. The administrator then proceeds to the portable computer.
Data 70 and the mobile phone 60, and
0 and two-way data communication with the central unit 14. For example, character data and image data transmitted from the central device are read, and conversely, as in the second embodiment, a control command program is transmitted. At this time, the portable computer 70 communicates with the nearest Internet distribution device 11 via the cellular phone 60.
Connect to 0. Thereby, the billing of the mobile phone is reduced. In other words, even if it is an obstacle in a remote place, it can communicate at low cost,
As a result, the failure can be restored at a low cost.

(Modifications) Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, various other modifications are possible. For example, in the first embodiment, the character data is transferred to the mobile phone 6 of the administrator.
Although the data is transmitted to 0, voice data using voice synthesis may be transmitted. Further, voice data and character data may be transmitted simultaneously. Thus, the administrator's attention can be raised.

In the first embodiment and the second embodiment,
The central device 14 is connected to a wired telephone line, but may be connected to a wireless telephone line in the same manner as a mobile phone. A similar system can be configured, and similar effects can be obtained.

Also, depending on the state of the radio wave, the mobile phone
It may be difficult to receive. In this case, the central device temporarily stops at a specific location (eg, NTT Short Mail Center).
The administrator may receive the transfer from the specific location after the character data is stored and the radio wave is recovered.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a CATV fault management system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the central device according to the first embodiment when a failure occurs.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the central device according to the first embodiment when a failure occurs.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a CATV failure management system according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the central device according to the second embodiment when a failure occurs.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the central device according to the second embodiment when a failure occurs.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a CATV failure management system according to a third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 4 telephone station 5, 6 telephone line 10 CATV station 14 central device 15 two-way data communication device 16 modem device 17 system control device 20 optical fiber cable 30 relay device 40 coaxial cable 50 local network 55 terminal device 60 mobile phone 70 portable computer Reference Signs List 100 Internet line 110 Internet distribution device

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Katsuya Tsunefuka, Inventor 1-20 Himegaoka, Kani City, Gifu Prefecture Aichi Denki Co., Ltd. F term in Kani factory (reference) 5C061 BB13 BB18 5C064 BB05 BB06 BC16 BD16

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A CATV fault management system in which a central device monitors the status of each device on a CATV transmission line. The central device bidirectionally communicates with a modem device connected to a telephone line and a mobile phone via the telephone line. A CATV fault management system, comprising: a bidirectional data communication means for performing data communication with the administrator, and in the event of a fault, performing bidirectional data communication with a manager's mobile phone to provide the manager with more detailed device data. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the central device includes system control means for controlling each of the devices, and controls each of the devices based on command data from the mobile phone. CATV fault management system. 3. The CATV fault management according to claim 1, wherein the portable telephone is connected to a portable computer, and the device data and the command data are transmitted and received by the portable computer. system. 4. The telephone line is connected to the Internet,
The CATV fault management system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the device data and the command data are transmitted and received via the Internet.