JPH06188888A - Network interconnection equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To provide a network interconnection device that facilitates collection of terminal number information of terminals connected to a network and facilitates information exchange between network interconnection devices. [Structure] When newly joining a network, a connection device search frame for searching for other network interconnection devices 101 to 103 is transmitted, and the network interconnection devices have already been collected by the other network interconnection devices 101 to 103 found. And a means for responding to a connection device search frame and a request frame from another network interconnection device.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network interconnection device for relaying frames between networks,
In particular, the present invention relates to a network interconnection device that facilitates collection of terminal number information of terminals connected to a network and facilitates information exchange between network interconnection devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to connect networks having a large number of terminals, a network interconnection device for relaying frames between the networks is provided between the networks. The conventional network interconnection device does not collect information on the terminal number of the terminal connected in the network at the time of startup, but is connected in the network by checking the source column in the frame when relaying the frame. Learn the terminal number of the terminal. In addition, when the frame is relayed, the destination column in the frame is checked to relay the frame only to the network to which the destination terminal belongs based on the terminal number information obtained by the learning. If the terminal number information of the frame destination is not yet learned, the frame is relayed to all networks.

There is also a network interconnection device which operates according to the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.1d standard. In this network interconnection device, there is no terminal number acquisition means for allowing another network interconnection device to respond with the terminal number of the network interconnection device in response to a terminal number acquisition request from a network interconnection device. Here, the terminal number is, for example, MAC in IEEE802.3CSMA / CD.
Indicates an address. Therefore, in order for one network interconnection device to communicate with another network interconnection device, the terminal number of the communication destination network interconnection device must be
Set for each network interconnection device that communicates. Also, when this network interconnection device is used as a network management information collection device that collects and stores network management information when performing network management, the initial settings for fulfilling the function of the network management information collection device are all networks. This is done by setting parameters from the network management station that manages the. However, in order to perform this setting, it is premised that the network administrator who grasps the network configuration directly sets the address of the network management station in each network interconnection device in advance.

[0004]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION In the prior art,
Frames addressed to unknown terminal numbers are relayed to all networks, but since the network interconnection device does not have information on the terminal numbers of terminals connected in the network at startup, all frames are relayed.
Also, many frames are relayed to the network that does not require relaying during the period from the activation of the network interconnection device until the network interconnection device collects sufficient terminal number information. For this reason, many frames are sent to the entire network to which the network interconnection device is connected, and an extra load is applied to the network.

Further, in the conventional network interconnection device, when performing network configuration management such that the network configuration is automatically recognized in network management or collecting information from other network interconnection devices, There is an inconvenience that it is necessary for the network administrator to set the address information etc. for the network interconnection device in advance, and the network configuration management and the information collection cannot be executed without this setting. . Therefore, when performing network management,
After adding a means for collecting and accumulating management information such as addresses and network numbers to the network interconnection device, an administrator who understands the network configuration can configure the device and connect to each network interconnection device. It is very complicated because it is necessary to set the network configuration information such as the network number of the existing network.

[0006] In order to collect information such as addresses and network numbers from other network interconnection devices, a network administrator who understands the network configuration is responsible for all network interconnection devices. It was necessary to set the address information of other network interconnection devices that exchange information with the network interconnection device. Therefore, the burden on the network administrator is large, and there is no means to collect statistical information that can be used by other network interconnection devices stored in one network interconnection device. This has to be done for each network interconnection device, and there has been a waste of duplicated setting work.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a network interconnection device which solves the above problems, facilitates collection of terminal number information of terminals connected to a network, and facilitates information exchange between network interconnection devices. To provide.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the first structure of the present invention transmits a connection device search frame for searching for another network interconnection device at the time of newly joining the network, and is searched. And a connection device search frame from another network interconnection device, comprising means for transmitting to another network interconnection device a request frame for requesting transmission of terminal number information already collected by the network interconnection device. It is provided with means for responding to the request frame.

The second configuration is a means for transmitting a connection device search frame including an identifier indicating that another network interconnection device is being searched for when newly joining the network and its own terminal number. It further comprises means for transmitting a response frame with an identifier indicating that it is a response and a terminal number of itself when receiving a connection device search frame from another network interconnection device.

[0010]

With the above structure, when another network interconnection device is added to the network to which the other network interconnection device having the first configuration of the present invention is already connected, this network interconnection device is connected to the network. A connection device search frame is transmitted on the above, and the other network interconnection device which received the frame responds. The joined network interconnection device has searched for another network interconnection device because of this response. Next, the joined network interconnection device transmits a request frame to another network interconnection device. The other network interconnection device transmits the already collected terminal number information. In this way, the network interconnection device newly joined is collected even though the terminal number of the terminal connected to the network has not been learned yet. Subsequent frame relay will be performed only on the network to which the destination terminal belongs, and does not impose an extra load on the network.

If another network interconnection device is added to a network to which another network interconnection device having the second configuration of the present invention is already connected, this network interconnection device will be added to the network. The connection device search frame is transmitted. Since this connection device search frame includes an identifier indicating that another network interconnection device is being searched and its own terminal number, another network interconnection device that has received this new It recognizes that there is a network interconnection device that has joined and is performing a search, and recognizes its terminal number. Then, the response frame is transmitted to the subscribed network interconnection device. Since this response frame includes an identifier indicating that it is a response and its own terminal number, the subscribed network interconnection device recognizes that there is another network interconnection device connected to the network. Recognize the terminal number. In this way, since the newly added network interconnection device and the already joined network interconnection device recognize the terminal numbers from each other, it is possible to exchange information between the network interconnection devices thereafter.

[0012]

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

FIG. 1 shows a number of networks and a number of network interconnection devices interconnecting them. In the figure, 122 to 126 are networks having network numbers 122 to 126, and 100 to 103
Is a network interconnection device that interconnects these. Of these, 101 to 103 are already operating network interconnection devices, and 100 is a network interconnection device newly added to this network. 112
˜121 are terminals connected to each network.

Any network interconnection device 100
Numerals 103 to 103 are also according to the present invention, and when a new network is newly joined, a connection device search frame for searching for another network interconnection device is transmitted, and the other network interconnection device found already has the network interconnection device. It is provided with means for transmitting a request frame requesting transmission of the collected terminal number information, and means for responding to a connection device search frame and a request frame from another network interconnection device.

Further, the network interconnection devices 100-
103 has a plurality of ports for connecting to a network, and can associate one port with one network and collect terminal number information of the network and its network number in association with this port. 104 to 111 are terminal numbers of the respective ports, and terminal number information on the network to which the port is connected and the network number are collected for each port. This is shown in Table 1.

[0016]

[Table 1]

As shown in Table 1, since the ports 104 and 105 of the network interconnection device 100 have not yet collected the terminal number information, the terminal number column is blank. In each of the ports 106 to 111 of the other network interconnection devices 101 to 103, all terminal numbers on the network to which the port is connected have already been collected.

Next, the operation of the embodiment will be described.

The newly connected network interconnection device 100 transmits a connection device search frame on the networks 124 and 125. The connection device search frame is relayed to each network. Receiving this, the other network interconnection devices 101 to 103 return their own terminal numbers to the network interconnection device 100 which is the transmission source of the frame. Network interconnection device 100
If no reply is received, considers that there is no other network interconnection device in this network and starts operation without terminal number information. When the reply is received, the network interconnection device 100 has searched for the other network interconnection devices 101 to 103 because of this response.

Next, the network interconnection device 100.
Sends a request frame to the other network interconnection devices 101-103. In response to this request, the other network interconnection devices 101 to 103 transmit the already collected terminal number information and the corresponding network number. If there is no response to this request frame, the operation is started without the terminal number information. In this way, the network interconnection device 100 has collected the terminal number information from each of the network interconnection devices 101 to 103.

Here, when a plurality of terminal number information is returned for one port, the network interconnection device 1
00 does not take in the terminal number information in which the network numbers included in the response overlap, from the second and subsequent times. For example, in FIG.
Table 1 shows information returned from the network interconnection devices 101 and 102 to the network interconnection device 100.
However, since the network numbers of the port terminal numbers 107 and 109 are duplicated at 124, only the information that arrives first is collected. That is, the port terminal number 104 collects the information of the port terminal numbers 106, 108 and 107 or 109 which has been returned first. Information from the port terminal numbers 110 and 111 is stored in the port terminal number 105. If the terminal number collection area is exhausted here, no further information is collected.

After such an information collecting operation, the network interconnection device 100 starts a normal operation. It means that the network interconnection apparatus 100 collects the terminal numbers at the same time as the operation starts, although the terminal numbers of the terminals connected to the network have not been learned yet. Subsequent frame relay will be performed only on the network to which the destination terminal belongs, and does not impose an extra load on the network.

Next, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 shows a number of networks and a number of network interconnection devices interconnecting them. In the figure, 203 to 206 are networks, and 200 to 2
Reference numeral 02 is a network interconnection device. Any of the network interconnection devices 200 to 203 is according to the present invention, and a connection device search including an identifier indicating that it is searching for another network interconnection device when newly joining the network and its own terminal number A means for transmitting a frame is provided, and a means for transmitting a response frame with an identifier indicating a response when receiving a connection device search frame from another network interconnection device and its own terminal number .

It is assumed that the network interconnection device 200 is newly added to this network. The network interconnection device 200 includes networks 203 and 205.
Connected device search frame is transmitted to the above. As shown in FIG. 3, this connection device search frame has a plurality of interconnection device numbers 301, a source terminal number 302, and a search frame identifier 303 indicating that this connection device search frame is a search frame. Has been. Here, since the search frame identifier 303 and the terminal number of the network interconnection device 200 are included in the connection device search frame, the other network interconnection device 2 that has received the search frame identifier 303 and the terminal number of the network interconnection device 200.
01 and 202 recognize that the newly added network interconnection device 200 exists and is searching. Therefore, the network interconnection devices 201, 20
2 transmits a response frame to the network interconnection device 200. In this response frame, in the connection device search frame of FIG. 3, the destination and the source are replaced with appropriate ones, and the search frame identifier 303 is replaced with a response frame identifier indicating a response.

Since there is no other network interconnection device for the connection device search frame directed to the network 203, no response is returned, and for the connection device search frame directed to the network 205, the network interconnection device 201, A response will be returned from 202.

Further, the network interconnection device that has received the connection device search frame does not relay the connection device search frame to another network, but discards the connection device search frame in the network interconnection device. Therefore, even if the network 204 or 206 has a network interconnection device, the connection device search frame does not arrive and the response frame is returned to the network interconnection device 200 by the network interconnection device directly connected to the network 205. It means only 201 and 202.

In this way, the network interconnection device 200 recognizes the existence of the other network interconnection devices 201 and 202 connected to the network 205 and their terminal numbers. Further, since the other network interconnection devices 201 and 202 also recognize the existence of the network interconnection device 200 and its terminal number by the connection device search frame, each network interconnection device 20.
0-202 will mutually recognize a terminal number.
After that, information can be exchanged between the network interconnection devices.

Further, since the search / response operation as described above is performed by all the network interconnection devices, each network interconnection device can recognize the network interconnection devices directly connected by the same network.

[0030]

The present invention exhibits the following excellent effects.

(1) Since the terminal number information is collected from the network interconnection device that is already operating, the frame is relayed to all networks for some time after the start of the operation of the network interconnection device due to the unknown terminal number. The number of can be significantly reduced.

(2) Since the network interconnection devices can mutually recognize the terminal numbers, it becomes possible to mutually exchange the terminal number information on the network and the statistical information, and the network manager's The burden is drastically reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

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

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a connection device search frame (response frame).

[Explanation of symbols]

 100-103 Network interconnection device 122-126 network

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A network interconnection device, which is provided for interconnection between a plurality of networks having a large number of terminals, performs frame relay between the networks and collects terminal number information at the time of frame relay, and newly joins a network. Sometimes a connection device search frame for searching for another network interconnection device is transmitted, and a request frame for requesting the transmission of the terminal number information already collected by that network interconnection device to the other network interconnection device found. A network interconnection device comprising means for transmitting, and means for responding to a connection device search frame and a request frame from another network interconnection device. 2. A network interconnection device which is provided for interconnection between a plurality of networks having a large number of terminals, which relays frames between the networks and collects terminal number information, when other members newly join the network. A means for transmitting a connection device search frame with an identifier indicating that it is searching for a network interconnection device and its own terminal number, and when receiving a connection device search frame from another network interconnection device A network interconnection device comprising means for transmitting a response frame with an identifier indicating a response and its own terminal number.