JP3452001B2 - Bus management method, recording medium for bus control program, and bus management device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a bus management method for managing connection establishment for transferring data on a communication network using a bus conforming to the specification of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 1394 standard. A recording medium and a bus management device, and in particular, a bus management method for establishing or rejecting a connection established when transferring real-time data based on the priority of the connection, a recording medium of the bus control program, and a bus. Regarding management equipment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art S100 (100 megabits per second), S
200 (200 Mbit / s), S400 (40 / s)
IEEE 1394 standard (hereinafter referred to as 13) which is a high-performance serial bus standard having a high-speed transfer capability of 0 Mbit.
94 standard) does not guarantee low-delay characteristics, but supports the asynchronous transfer mode that guarantees the transfer band in addition to the asynchronous transfer mode that can confirm the success or failure of the transfer. It is attracting attention as an interface. Therefore, it is expected to be standardly installed in digital broadcast receiving terminals, digital video recording devices, etc., which are expected to spread rapidly in the future.

An isochronous stream packet (hereinafter referred to as a stream packet) transferred in the isochronous transfer mode described above is a packet identified by a channel number described in a header. In the isochronous transfer mode, stream packets are packets that are continuously transferred, and the stream of the stream packets is called a stream. In this isochronous transfer mode, a connection-oriented type that establishes a connection between the transmission node and the reception node by combining both the correspondence between the transmission node and the stream and the correspondence between the reception node and the stream. Data transfer is performed. This connection may be a one-to-one connection established between one transmitting node and one receiving node, or a one-to-N connection established between a plurality of receiving nodes.

The method for establishing or releasing the connection between the above nodes is not defined in the 1394 standard and is defined depending on the application using the 1394 bus. Generally, it is necessary for stream transfer. The connection is established by executing the process of acquiring the bus resource, the process of setting the transmission of the transmitting device, and the process of setting the reception of the receiving device.

The procedure for establishing a connection will be briefly described below by taking the IEC61883 standard as an example. IEC
According to the 61883 standard, bro, which is a broadcast type connection, is used.
Two types are defined: an adcast connection and a point-to-point connection established between two AV devices. Furthermore, as a method of managing these connections, CMP (Connection Managem
ent Procedures) are specified.

In CMP, "e" for establishing a connection
The procedures of "stabilizing", "overlaying" for adding a new connection to a device to which a connection has already been established, and "breaking" for releasing the established connection are defined. Hereinafter, a procedure of "establishing" of the point-to-point connection, that is, a procedure of establishing a connection between one transmitting node and one receiving node will be described with reference to FIG.

First, in step SD1, bus resources are acquired. The bus resources consist of a bus band required for stream transfer and a channel number, and these bus resources are managed by an IRM (isochronous resource manager). Any node may acquire this bus resource from the IRM. That is,
It may be acquired by the transmitting node or the receiving node, or may be acquired by a third-party node having a function of controlling the connection.

When the bus resources necessary for stream transfer are successfully acquired, the register (oPCR) in which the transmitting device has information such as the acquired channel number / band and transmission speed.
And in the register (iPCR) of the receiving device (steps SD3 to SD4). The value of the counter indicating the number of point-to-point connections established by the corresponding register is also set from 0 to 1 (step SD5). These oPCR and iPC
When both changes in R succeed (step SD7),
The connection establishment procedure ends. On the other hand, if the change of at least one of the PCRs (oPCR or iPCR) fails, the procedure ends after the processing shown in steps SD8 to SD9.

[0009]

As described above, 1394
When establishing a connection between devices via a stream transferred on a bus and performing communication between devices, it is necessary to acquire bus resources and set up a transmitting / receiving device. Since the bus resources and the register capacity of the transceiver are originally limited, desired communication becomes impossible when there is a need for data transfer exceeding the upper limit of the bus resources.

Therefore, even if communication that should be preferentially performed is not possible, if necessary bus resources cannot be acquired, or
Alternatively, there is a problem that communication cannot be performed when the register for transmitting / receiving setting of the transmitting / receiving device cannot be set because it is already used for another purpose.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and when connection-oriented communication is performed on the 1394 bus, it is ensured that the user thinks that the user wants to surely give priority to other connection-oriented communication. An object is to provide a bus management method to be performed, a recording medium of the bus control program, and a bus management device.

[0012]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention manages connection-type communication via a stream on a network composed of one or more high-speed serial buses, and When a request for establishing a new connection is made, based on the remaining connection resources at the present time, the connection resources further required for establishing the new connection, the priority of the existing connection, and the priority of the new connection. A bus management method for validating or invalidating the establishment of the new connection, wherein when the existing connection and the new connection partially or entirely overlap each connection establishment time zone, the bus is duplicated. The existing connection and the new connection are Priority is enabled to establish the connection at high connection, in non-overlapping time periods, provides bus management method characterized by the effective establishment of both connections. The invention according to claim 2 manages connection-type communication via a stream on a network configured by one or more high-speed serial buses, and when a request for establishing a new connection is made, Validate or invalidate the establishment of the new connection based on the remaining connection resources at the present time, the connection resources further required for establishing the new connection, the priority of the existing connection, and the priority of the new connection. It is a bus management method that determines whether or not to invalidate the connection establishment of either a new or existing collection as a result of a request to establish a new connection. Presents the connection to the requester of the new connection and establishes the connection. Whether to execute to provide a bus management method for causing determined the requester. The invention according to claim 3 manages connection-type communication via a stream on a network configured by one or more high-speed serial buses, and when a request for establishing a new connection is made, Validate or invalidate the establishment of the new connection based on the remaining connection resources at the present time, the connection resources further required for establishing the new connection, the priority of the existing connection, and the priority of the new connection. In the bus management method, the request for establishing a new connection also includes a request for establishing a reserved connection by designating a time point at which the transmission of the stream is started,
The existing connection is a connection established or reserved at a time earlier than the request for the new connection, and at a predetermined time before the start of the transmission of the stream corresponding to the reserved connection, A bus management method is provided, characterized in that the connection is already established. Further, the invention according to claim 4 manages connection-type communication via a stream on a network configured by one or a plurality of high-speed serial buses, and when a request for establishing a new connection is made, Validate or invalidate the establishment of the new connection based on the remaining connection resources at the present time, the connection resources further required for establishing the new connection, the priority of the existing connection, and the priority of the new connection. A bus management method, wherein the new connection establishment request includes a connection establishment request reserved by designating a time point at which the transmission of the stream is started, and from the time point when the connection establishment request is reserved. , Required for the new connection before the connection is established If the connection resource being is detected to be obtainable, provides bus management method characterized by immediately acquire the connection resource. The invention according to claim 5 manages connection-type communication via a stream on a network composed of one or more high-speed serial buses, and when a request for establishing a new connection is made, Validate or invalidate the establishment of the new connection based on the remaining connection resources at the present time, the connection resources further required for establishing the new connection, the priority of the existing connection, and the priority of the new connection. A bus management method, wherein the priority of the connection is set according to a requester who has issued a request to establish the connection. The invention according to claim 6 manages connection-type communication via a stream on a network configured by one or more high-speed serial buses, and when a request for establishing a new connection is made, Validate or invalidate the establishment of the new connection based on the remaining connection resources at the present time, the connection resources further required for establishing the new connection, the priority of the existing connection, and the priority of the new connection. A bus management method, wherein the priority of the connection is set according to a combination of functions of the transmission device and the reception device, which are associated with each other by the connection. To do. Further, in the invention described in claim 7, in a time period after the bus is activated and before the connection establishment request described in claims 1 to 6 is received, a predetermined device on the network is Provided is a bus management method characterized by acquiring a part or all of a band. Further, the invention according to claim 8 is after the bus is activated, and
6 to 6, a predetermined device on the network acquires a part or all of the bus band and a channel number resource for broadcasting in a time period before receiving the connection establishment request. The bus management method is provided. Further, the invention according to claim 9 is the bus management method according to claim 8, wherein the channel number resource for broadcasting is a channel number 63. According to a tenth aspect of the invention, in the bus management method according to any one of the first to ninth aspects, the high-speed serial bus is I
The serial bus conforms to the EEE1394 standard. According to an eleventh aspect of the invention, there is provided a recording medium having a bus control program recorded thereon, which causes a computer to execute each procedure of the bus management method according to any one of the first to tenth aspects. provide. Further, the invention according to claim 12 determines a request for establishing a new connection in a bus management device that manages connection-type communication via a stream on a network configured by one or more high-speed serial buses. A judgment unit, a recording unit for recording the use status and priority of the connection resource, and a recording unit for referring to the recording unit at the time when the existence of a request for establishing a new connection is judged by the judgment unit. Connection resources and the connection resources needed to establish a new connection,
There is provided a bus management device having a control unit for validating or invalidating the establishment of the new connection based on the priority of the existing connection and the priority of the new connection. Further, the invention according to claim 13 is
13. The bus management device according to claim 12, wherein the priority of the connection is set according to a combination of functions of the transmission device and the reception device, which are associated with each other by the connection. The invention described in claim 14 is the bus management device according to claim 12 or claim 13, wherein the high-speed serial bus is a serial bus compliant with the IEEE 1394 standard.

[0013]

[0014]

[0015]

[0016]

[0017]

[0018]

[0019]

[0020]

[0021]

[0022]

[0023]

[0024]

[0025]

[0026]

[0027]

[0028]

[0029]

[0030]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the 1394 network according to the first embodiment of this invention. Reference numeral 10a is an AV controller that is an embedded device, and 20a to 20f are AV devices. And this network is based on the 1394 bus 30a.
1 AV controller 10a and 6 AV devices 2
0a to 20f are connected and configured. The AV devices 20a to 20f described above are all devices conforming to the IEC61883 standard.

Next, in the network as shown in FIG. 2, the establishment of the connection performed when starting the communication will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a state transition diagram showing the processing state until the connection is established, and all the processing is executed by the software installed in the AV controller 10a.

First, when the AV controller 10a is activated, the AV controller 10a performs bus initialization, tree identification, and self identification in status S1 of FIG. As a result of these processes, the AV devices 20a-2
Physical ID (Ph
y_ID) is assigned. In FIG. 2, Phy_ID described in each of the AV devices 20a to 20f
Indicates the physical ID assigned to each device. Further, for example, if the number of connected nodes is N (N is a natural number), an integer value of 0 or more and less than N is assigned to each node without omission.

All the equipment shown in FIG.
An isochronous resource manager (hereinafter, IR) that manages bus resources required to transfer a stream on the 394 bus, that is, channel numbers and bus bandwidths.
(Also referred to as M) and the ability to operate as a cycle master that sends a cycle start packet indicating the start of a cycle. Therefore, in the 1394 network according to this embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the physical ID value A is the largest.
The device 20f, which is a V device, operates as an IRM and a cycle master.

Next, when the bus configuration is completed in the status S1, the status shifts to the status S2. Status S
In 2, the AV controller 10a performs a process of securing bus resources from the IRM. Specifically, the AV controller 10a operates to acquire from the IRM all the bus bands remaining at the time of the status S2 and the channel number 63.

It should be noted that the 1394 standard stipulates that only the devices that have secured the bus resources described above can release the resources that they have acquired from these acquired resources. For example, a bus resource secured by a device other than the AV controller 10a becomes a band outside the control of the AV controller 10a.

The channel number 63, which the AV controller 10a tries to secure, is a channel number that is widely used by devices conforming to the IEC61883 standard when transferring data by a broadcast connection. For example, in a digital camcorder device conforming to the IEC61883 standard, when the camera mode is used or when the play button is pressed in the video mode, the bus resource, that is, the bus band and the channel number is voluntarily secured. There are some that start data transmission. In such a case, the channel number must be 63
The number is secured. That is, if the channel number 63 cannot be acquired, it is possible to avoid the above-mentioned spontaneous data transfer that is not under the control of the controller 10a. Therefore, the AV controller 10a
By acquiring the channel number 63 in advance, it becomes possible to avoid data transfer that is not under the control of the user.

In the case of digital image data transfer, the bus resource is tight in the band resource, and the channel number is not so tight as compared with the band resource. For the above-mentioned reason, in the present embodiment, the AV controller 10a
In order to keep as many bus resources as possible under its own control, secures channel number 63, which is generally used when transferring data with all remaining bandwidth resources and broadcast connections. It works as expected. The procedure for acquiring bus resources will be described below.

First, IRM consists of two registers, CHAN.
NELS_AVAILABLE register and BANDW
It has an IDTH_AVAILABLE register,
The remaining amount of channel number resources on the 1394 serial bus 30a is stored in the CHANNELS_AVAILABLE register, and the remaining amount of band resources on the 1394 serial bus 30a is stored in BANDWIDTH_AVAILABLE.
Stored in registers respectively.

A device that needs to acquire a new bus resource acquires a new bus resource by executing a compare swap on the above-mentioned register of the IRM by a lock transaction. This lock transaction is the address and arg of the target register.
_Value and data_value are stored in the lock request packet transferred from the request node to the response node, and a lock response packet stored in old_value is transferred from the response node to the request node Processing. In the case of compare swap, the responding node receiving the lock request packet checks whether the current value of the target register and the value of arg_value are equal. If these values are equal, set the register value to da.
Replaced with the value of ta_value, and this data
Lock with the value of _value as old_value
Send a response packet. On the other hand, if the current value of the target register and the value of arg_value are not equal, the value of the register is not changed and a lock response packet in which the current value of the register is old_value is transmitted. The requesting node uses the old_value value of the received lock response packet,
Dat of lock request packet sent by itself
By comparing with the value of a_value, the lock
You can know whether the transaction was successful.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the state S
In 2, the AV controller 10a acquires the bus resource by executing the lock transaction to the IRM, that is, the AV device 20f. The procedure of the AV controller 10a acquiring bus resources in the status S2 of the present embodiment will be specifically described below.

First, the AV controller 10a acquires arg_value in order to acquire all the remaining bandwidth resources.
The value of the currently remaining bus bandwidth is described in, and da
In ta_value, a lock request packet in which a value of the remaining bus band obtained by subtracting the value of the required bus band from the value of the currently remaining bus band, that is, “0” is written to the AV device 20f which is the IRM. To send.

IRM is BANDWIDTH_AVAI
When the value written in the LABEL register is equal to the arg_value of the lock request packet, the value stored in this register is set to the data_value written in the lock request packet.
Value, that is, "0". By carrying out such a procedure, the AV controller 10a acquires all the existing bus bands. In addition, the same procedure is followed by C
The channel number 63 is also acquired by executing the HANNNELS_AVAILABLE register.

When the bus resource is acquired in the status S2, the status shifts to the status S3, and the AV controller 10a
Is AV equipment 20a-20f connected on the network
Create a device information list for. Specifically, the device information indicating the function of the AV device is collected from the AV devices 20a to 20f connected on the bus, and a list is created based on the collected device information. Hereinafter, regarding the processing of collecting device information from the AV devices 20a to 20f,
This will be described with reference to FIG.

First, in step SB1, self I
The self ID packet (self-ID packet) transmitted from each node on the bus during the D process is stored in the memory (RAM) in the AV controller 10a. The physical ID assigned to each node is described in the self-ID packet transmitted from each AV device. Therefore, by receiving the self-ID packet, the AV controller 10a can recognize the range of physical IDs used on the 1394 bus, that is, the number of nodes connected to the bus 30a.

Next, at step SB2, the AV controller 10a causes all of the AV equipments 20a to 20a on the bus 30a.
The maximum value of the physical ID described in the self-ID packet received from 20f is the variable "max_ in the memory.
PHY_ID ”, and subsequently, in step SB3, the“ target ”also stored in the memory.
The value of “_ID” is set to 0. This "target_I
“D” is a variable provided to count the number of nodes for which the device information read processing has been completed. "Ta
When the value of "rget_ID" is set to 0, the device information of each node is subsequently read. First, step S
In B4, the above-mentioned target_ID and max_
Compare with phy_ID. At this time, target_
If ID> max_phy_ID, it is recognized that the device information has been acquired for all AV devices, and the device information acquisition processing ends.

On the other hand, target_ID ≦ max_ph
If y_ID, it is determined that information has not been acquired for all the nodes, and the process proceeds to step SB5, where the physical I
The device information of the node having the smallest D value is read. Then, when the process of reading the device information for one node is completed, the target_ID is set in step SB6.
Is incremented by 1, the process returns to step SB4, and the above process is repeated.

In this way, the information is read from all the AV devices in the order of the nodes having the smallest physical ID values. Note that the above-described device information read processing is target_ID> max_phy_ in step SB4.
When it becomes ID, step S is performed until a bus reset occurs.
Stay on B7. When a bus reset is detected in step SB7, the process proceeds to step SB8,
At this time, the device information read out is discarded and the processing from step SB1 is repeated again.

Next, the above-mentioned device information will be concretely described. The device information transmitted from each node is information about the configuration ROM provided in each node,
It is composed of register information that specifies the function of each device. The configuration ROM is a read-only memory that stores the functions and identifiers of each device as a 1394 node and the higher-level applications supported by the device.

In FIG. 5, the AV devices 20a to 20f, that is, I
The format of the configuration ROM provided in the device conforming to the EC61883 standard is shown. As shown in FIG. 5, the configuration ROM is Bus_info in which functions and identifiers provided as 1394 nodes are described.
_Block (bus information block), Root_director indicating directory structure, etc.
y (root directory), Unit_direc in which information of applications included in the device is written
node_uniq in which the tory (unit directory) and the identifier assigned to this node are described
ue_id leaf (node unique ID leaf).

More specifically, Bus_info_bl
The identifiers described in ock and Node_unique_id leaf are both EUI-64 (Extended).
edUnique Identifier, 64bit
s) or GUID (Global Unique I)
The same value called dentifier). This E
The UI-64 is a 64-bit ID uniquely assigned to all 1394 devices, and is a 24-bit node_vendor_id that is an identifier of the device manufacturer.
And a 48-bit chip_id (chip_id_h) uniquely assigned to each device manufactured by the device manufacturer.
i and a combination of chip_id_lo).

The Unit_directory contains, for example, IEC as upper application information.
Units that comply with the 61883 standard are Unit_dir
24-bit unit_spec_i in directory
Set the value of the d field to 00A02D (hexadecimal), 24
It is stipulated that the upper 8 bits of the unit_sw_version field of bits are set to 01 (hexadecimal number, the lower 16 bits are reserved for future standard extension, and at present, 0000 (hexadecimal number)). . Then, by reading the values of these fields, it is possible to determine whether or not the device is a device conforming to the IEC61883 standard.

Next, the information of the register that specifies the function of the device, which is another device information read by the AV controller, will be described. As this register, a plug control register (hereinafter, referred to as PCR) for controlling connection establishment / release will be described as an example. PCR is OUTPUT_MASTER_PLUG
Register (hereinafter referred to as oMPR) and OUTPUT
T_PLUG_CONTROL register (hereinafter, oPC
R), INPUT_MASTER_PLUG
Register (hereinafter referred to as iMPR), INPUT_
It is a generic term for four types of registers including a PLUG_CONTROL register (hereinafter, referred to as iPCR).

The format of this PCR is shown in FIG.
Among these four registers, oMPR (see (a) in FIG. 6) and iMPR (see (b) in FIG. 6) are registers in which the transmission capability and the reception capability of the AV stream included in each device are described. , Transfer rate capability (Data rat
e capability) and the number of oPCRs implemented (Number o
foutput plugs; corresponding to the number of streams that can be transmitted at the same time) and the number of iPCRs (Number of input plugs; corresponding to the number of streams that can be received at the same time) are described.

On the other hand, oPCR (see (c) of FIG. 6) and i
The PCR (see (d) of FIG. 6) is a register used to control the stream transmission / reception operation of the device in stream units, and is a channel number (Channel number) or band (Data rate Ove
rhead ID, calculated from Payload), number of connections established with other devices (Broadcast connecti
on counter and Point-to-point connection counter)
Is stored. The contents of these registers can be rewritten by a lock transaction.

When the collection of the device information as described above is completed, the AV controller 10a creates a list of controlled AV devices. The AV controller 10a shown in FIG.
3 shows an example of a list of control target AV devices created by. The list shown in FIG. 7 relates to the AV devices 20a to 20f connected to the bus 30a, and the physical ID, GUID, transfer rate capability, and oPCR of the node of each device.
And the number of iPCRs are listed respectively. The GUID is a 64-bit value as described above, but here, for simplicity, it will be represented by using alphabets A to F. In this way, the AV controller 10a determines that the AV device 2 on the bus 30a has the status S3 of FIG.
When the list for 0a to 20f is created, the status transits to status S4 and the connection control request waiting state is entered.

When the connection establishment request is accepted in status S4, the AV controller 10a transits to status S5.

First, before explaining the establishment of a connection, the management table shown in FIG. 8 will be described. The establishment of the connection is managed based on the management table shown in FIG. In this management table, for each connection identified by the management number, the priority and the GUID of the transmitting device, the GUID of the receiving device, the transfer rate, the bandwidth of the stream packet, the channel number of the stream packet, and the transmitting device are used. And the iPCR number used by the receiving device.

Here, the item written as Active is
It indicates whether or not the connection described in the management number has been established and is in operation, and if this value is 1, it indicates that the connection is in operation. The band described here is the IRM BANDWIDTH_AVA.
Bw_rema stored in the ILABLE register
bandwidth a as in the ining field
The unit is the location unit, and this 1 bandwidth allocation unit
Is the time required to transfer 32-bit data at a transfer rate of S1600 (a transfer rate that will be defined in a future extended standard, 1600 megabits per second),
This corresponds to about 20 nS.

Further, the priority listed in the management table defines the priority of the connection, and three levels of priority of 0, 1, 2 are set, and the higher this value, the higher the priority. Is high. For example, when comparing the two operating connections described in the management table of FIG. 8, the connection with the management number 0 has the priority 1 and the connection with the management number 1 has the priority 0. It can be said that the priority is higher than the connection with the management number 0.

The priority is set corresponding to the user, and the connection set by a certain user is always 2, and the connection set by another user is always 1, for example. There is. continue,
The connection establishment performed in the status S5 will be described. First, a connection establishment request is made by the user inputting a connection to be controlled to the AV controller 10a.

First, the user inputs his / her name into the AV controller 10a from the terminal device. If the input name is registered in the storage unit of the AV controller 10a in advance, the screen of the terminal device changes to the connection control input screen. At the same time, the input name is associated with the predetermined priority. The user then requests the connection he wants to establish. Hereinafter, description will be given with reference to FIG.

First, in step SP1, the user specifies the transmitting device and the receiving device from the terminal device of the AV controller 10a. Note that the user specifies only these two, and the subsequent procedure is executed by the software stored in the storage unit of the AV controller 10a. Next, in step SP2, it is determined whether or not an unused iPCR exists in the receiving device designated by the user. Specifically, by referring to the number of iPCRs in the AV device list shown in FIG. 7 and the existing connections listed in the management table shown in FIG. 8, the unused device is not used for the receiving device designated by the user. It is determined whether or not the iPCR is present.

As a result, when there is no unused iPCR, it means that there is an existing connection using the iPCR of the receiving device, and therefore, step SP
3, the priority of the existing connection is compared with that of the new connection, and if the priority of the new connection is high, the process proceeds to step SP4 to cancel the existing connection, and the new connection replaces the iPCR.
To be able to use.

On the other hand, when the priority of the existing connection is higher in step SP3, step SP
It is assumed that the establishment of the requested new connection has failed and the message indicating the failure of connection establishment is displayed on the display unit (not shown) of the terminal device of the AV controller 10a, and the process ends. Also, step SP2
If there is an unused iPCR in the receiving device designated by the user in step 1, the process proceeds to step SP6 and the required band is calculated from oPCR. Specifically, oPC
The overhead ID field and p described in R
The required bandwidth is calculated from these values with reference to the values written in the ayload field.

After the required bandwidth is calculated in step SP6, the process proceeds to step SP7 and it is determined whether or not the calculated bandwidth can be secured. This is performed by comparing the value obtained by subtracting the band used in the existing connection from the bus band secured by the AV controller 10a in status S2 in FIG. 3 with the required band of the new connection. As a result, when the bandwidth is insufficient, that is, when the status S2 in FIG.
If the value obtained by subtracting the bandwidth used by the existing connection from the bus bandwidth secured by the V controller 10a is smaller than the required bandwidth of the new connection, the process proceeds to step SP8 and the existing connection is newly created. Search for one with a lower priority than the connection.

As a result, if the existing connection has a priority lower than that of the new connection, the bandwidth necessary for establishing the new connection cannot be obtained, and the establishment of the new connection fails. The process moves to SP5, and the process ends. On the other hand, step S
In P8, if the existing connection has a lower priority than the new connection, the process proceeds to step SP9, and the existing connection with a lower priority is canceled. As a result, in step SP10, the band required for a new connection can be secured. When the allocation of the band necessary for establishing a new connection is completed in this way, the channel number is secured from the IRM in step SP11, and the oP is established in step SP12.
CR and iPCR are set, and as a result, a new connection is established, the management table is updated in step SP13, and the processing ends.

Next, the above-mentioned connection establishment will be briefly described with a specific example. First, it is assumed that the user requests the establishment of a new connection between the transmitting device B and the receiving device F in the situation where the existing connection as shown in FIG. 8 exists. Now, while the required bandwidth of this new connection is 1800, the remaining bandwidth is 10
If the priority is 1, the connection with the management number 1 is canceled to secure the bandwidth, and a new connection is established. On the other hand, the priority of the new connection is 0
If this is the case, the establishment of this new connection will fail.

When a bus reset occurs in all the statuses shown in FIG. 3, that is, in statuses S1 to S5, all the information up to now is discarded and the processing is restarted from status S1. In the present embodiment, the priority is set corresponding to the user, but the present invention is not limited to this. As another example, the priority may be set according to the combination of the functions of each of the transmission / reception devices that establish a connection.

For example, a combination of a broadcast receiving device or a recording device and a digital television, which indicates viewing of a video signal, has a priority of 0, a connection between the recording devices showing dubbing of the recorded video signal has a priority of 1, and a broadcast program. In the combination of the broadcast receiving device and the recording device indicating the recording of, the priority is set to three levels such as the highest priority of 2. However, when the connected device has a plurality of functions, the priority is set according to the functions.
For example, if a recording device can perform an operation without a recording operation only by decoding and playing the received video, the recording device is regarded as a device having a function equivalent to that of a digital television. . In this way, even when the recording devices are connected to each other, the priority of the connection is 0 when the recording operation is not set on the receiving side.

Further, in the present embodiment, the AV controller 10a eliminates either a new connection or an existing connection due to the competition of bus resources, but instead of this, the following processing can be used. First, when a bus resource conflict occurs, the user is presented with information about the connection in a competitive relationship and information about the connection that is about to be eliminated as a result of the comparison of priorities. And
The user is made to judge whether or not the resolution procedure can be executed. Such a specification is effective when it is necessary to further give priority to a plurality of connections having the same priority.

Next, FIG. 1 shows a system configuration example for realizing the AV controller of the present invention. In this figure, a host bus 30 to which the CPU 8 is connected has two types of ROMs, which are a main ROM (Main ROM) 1 and a configuration ROM (Configuration ROM) 2.
And three types of RAs including a bus resource remaining amount storage memory 3, a device information list memory 4, and a connection management memory 5.
M, a total of 5 types of memories are connected. Specifically, the main ROM 1 stores the program executed by the AV controller, and
The ROM 2 stores the device list received from each node as shown in FIG. The bus resource remaining amount storage memory 3 is a RAM in which the remaining amount of bus resources acquired by this AV controller is stored, and the device information list memory 4 is stored in each AV device as shown in FIG. The connection management memory 5 is a RAM that stores a list in which device information is described, and the connection management memory 5 is a RAM that stores the connection management table shown in FIG. Also, 1394L
INK6 and 1394PHY7 are 1394 respectively
There are a physical layer LSI and a link layer LSI for use.

The main ROM 1 and the configuration ROM 2 described above may be realized by a single chip, and the bus resource remaining amount storage memory 3, the device information list memory 4, and the connection management memory 5 are provided. Kind of R
The AM may be realized by two or one chip.
Further, although the AV controller having the above-mentioned configuration is an embedded device, it may be realized by a personal computer or the like.

Next, a second embodiment according to the present invention will be described. The second embodiment is performed in the 1394 network shown in FIG. 2 similarly to the first embodiment, whereas the first embodiment manages the connection based on the management table shown in FIG. In the second embodiment, the connection is managed based on the management table shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 10, the management table in the second embodiment includes the management item of the management table shown in FIG. 8 used in the first embodiment as the date (101) and the time (( 102) and the date (103) and time (104) at which it ends are added. Then, by using these, it becomes possible to reserve in advance the establishment of a connection in a certain time zone in the future.

It should be noted that the connection establishment start time can be set so that the connection establishment is immediately requested, or the end time can be set as undecided. The connection with the management number 1 in FIG. 10 represents the notation of the management table when the time for ending the connection establishment is undecided. Next, FIG. 11 is a summary of management specifications when a bus resource for a new connection cannot be acquired because an existing connection exists when the establishment or reservation of the new connection is requested. The management specifications will be described below.

Conditions 1 to 5 shown in the figure represent parameters for determining the management specifications, and a or b shown in the table represent the meanings shown below the margins in the figure. . A horizontal bar (-) in the column indicates that the management specification indicated by the specification number does not depend on the condition. Also, in this figure, 1
Seven management specifications are shown. The basic idea is that in the time zone when the existing connection and the new connection overlap, the selection is performed according to the priority, and in the non-overlapping time zone, both requests should be accepted as much as possible, and the end time is fixed. Regarding the request, the two points are to perform control according to the priority even in non-overlapping time zones.

For example, in a situation where an existing connection having a priority higher than that of a new connection is reserved, a request for immediately establishing a new connection is made, and when the end time of the new connection is undecided, Whether such processing is performed will be described with reference to FIG.

First, with respect to the condition 1 "high or low priority", the new connection to be established has a lower priority than the reserved existing connection.
Condition 1 is “a”. Next, with respect to the condition 2 “start status of existing connection”, since the existing connection is not reserved and the connection is not established, the condition 2 becomes “b”. Subsequently, with respect to the condition 3 “start time of new connection”, since a request to immediately establish a new connection is made, condition 3 becomes “a”. The condition 4 “end point of existing connection” is “b” because it is undecided. Finally, for the condition 5 "end of new connection",
Condition 5 is “b” because the end time of the new connection is undecided.

As a result, when a specification number in which condition 1 is "a", condition 2 is "b", condition 3 is "a", condition 4 is "b", and condition 5 is "b" is searched, the specification number is searched. 5 applies. The management specification of specification number 5 states that "new establishment is established. If a new one exists at an existing start time, the new release is forcibly released." Then, the AV controller 10a manages the reserved existing connection and the new connection based on this specification. That is, a new connection is immediately established, and if the new connection is still established at the time when the existing connection should be established, the new connection with a lower priority is forcibly released and then the existing connection is established. To do.

As described above, in this embodiment, the connection is established and released based on the management table shown in FIG. 10 and the management specifications shown in FIG. In addition,
In the second embodiment, the management table stores a point one minute earlier than the point in time when the connection establishment start requested by the user. This is set to 1 at the request time so that the connection is surely completed in the time zone requested by the user.
This is because the process of establishing a connection is executed from a minute before.

On the other hand, the operation of acquiring the bus resource is started immediately after the reservation for establishing the connection is made,
The resource may be continuously acquired from the time when the bus resource can be acquired until the end time of the connection. Note that the priority setting in the second embodiment may be set by the user as in the first embodiment, and the priority setting may be performed according to the combination of the functions of each transmitting / receiving device that establishes a connection. The degree may be set.

Then, when there are a plurality of competing connections, only the dubbing operation of the connection with the lower priority is changed to a time zone in which it does not conflict with other connections, or another transfer method in which the band is not compensated. It is also possible to switch and transfer data. Other transfer methods in which this band is not compensated include asynchronous stream transfer and asynchronous packet transfer.

A specific example of a method of transferring a connection having a low priority by using the asynchronous stream transfer will be described below. Prior to the description of this specific example, the format of an isochronous stream packet when transferring an AV stream specified by the IEC61883 standard will be briefly described with reference to FIG.

The isochronous stream packet is, as shown in FIG. 12, a CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Chec) of 1 quadlet (1 quadlet is 32 bits).
2 quadlet headers including k) and 0 quadlet or more data fields (Data field),
It is composed of a data CRC (Data_CRC). When the AV stream is transferred, a 2-quadlet CIP header (Common Isochronous Packet header) is inserted at the beginning of the data field of this isochronous stream packet. This CIP header is composed of various fields, and there is a SYT field for storing a time stamp therein.

The time stamp stores time information (hereinafter referred to as decoding time) at which the packet should be input to the decoder at the stream receiving node. This time stamp is used in order to prevent the time when the packet is input to the decoder from varying due to the actual situation occurring in the 1394 bus. The received packet is stored in the reception buffer, and at the decoding time, it is moved from the buffer to the decoder. That is, the decoding time is a future time in which a time sufficient for absorbing the jitter (hereinafter referred to as a difference time) is added to the current time.

In the dubbing operation, it is necessary to convert the time stamp value of the isochronous stream packet when transferring the AV stream originally supposed to be transferred by the isochronous stream packet by the asynchronous stream transfer. Becomes First, in the dubbing operation, the device that transfers the AV stream converts the time stamp value from the decoding time to the difference time when the device itself records the stream.
The recorded stream is isochronous as usual.
When transferring in a stream, the time stamp value is converted back to the decoding time and then transmitted.

On the other hand, when transferring by the asynchronous stream, the time stamp is not converted and the difference time is transmitted as it is. The receiving device that receives this stream records the stream on its own recording medium without modifying the time stamp in which the differential time is stored. When reproducing it, the decoding time may be calculated by adding the current time to the difference time. By using the method as described above, it is possible to transfer the information originally transferred by the isochronous stream by the asynchronous stream only for the use such as the dubbing operation where the real-time property is not required.

Next, a third embodiment according to the present invention will be described. This embodiment is performed in the 1394 network shown in FIG. This is 1394 bus 3
0a and 1394 bus 30b are interconnected by a 1394 bridge 40, and
Bus IDs 0 and 1 are assigned to the 394 buses 30a and 30b, respectively. A for the bus 30a
The V devices 20a and 20b, the AV controller 10a, and the bus 30b are connected to the AV devices 20c and 20d and the AV controller 10b, respectively, and the physical IDs shown in FIG. 13 are assigned to the respective devices.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. First, in the status ST1, each bus is configured by the tree ID process and the self ID process after the bus reset. Furthermore, each bus has a bus I
D (bus_ID) is assigned. When these procedures are completed, the status transits to ST2. On the other hand, when the bus reset occurs in all other statuses, the status transits to the status SA1 again.

The above bus ID allocation procedure is 13
This is performed only once when the power of the 94 bridge 40 is turned on, and the bus ID allocation procedure is not performed when a bus reset occurs after that and the status changes to this status ST1 again. Subsequently, in status ST2, bus resources are acquired. Here, the AV controllers 10a and 10
b and the IRMs of the buses to which they are respectively connected, execute processing for acquiring bus resources, that is, band resources and channel numbers. Specifically, the AV controller 10a operates to acquire all the remaining band resources and the channel number 63 in the bus whose bus ID is 0,
The AV controller 10b performs the same operation for the bus whose bus ID is 1.

Subsequently, in status ST3, the AV controllers 10a and 10b execute device search. This is the same process as the status S3 (see FIG. 3) in the first embodiment, but here, not only the AV device on the bus to which the device is connected, but also the one shown in FIG.
All AV devices connected to the 394 network are similarly searched. That is, the AV controller 10
The a and 10b first read all the AV device information on the bus to which they are connected, and store this information in the configuration ROM.

Then, the AV controllers 10a and 10b
Exchanges the device information connected to each other's buses by reading the device information stored in each configuration ROM, and as a result, the device information of all AV devices connected on the 1394 bus. It becomes possible to mutually recognize that the other party is the AV controller. AV controller 10a, 1
0b is all A's connected on the bus in this way
When the device information about the V devices is obtained, the function list of these devices is created.

FIG. 15A shows the AV controller 10a.
FIG. 15B shows the device list created by the AV controller 10b. In this embodiment, all A's connected to the 1394 network are
The device information regarding the V device is described in the device list. That is, the AV controller 10a and the AV controller 1
The function list of the devices created by 0b describes the functions of the AV devices 20a to 20d, the 1394 bridge 40, and the AV controller 10b, which are seven devices in total.

Further, regarding the values of 0 to 2 described in the device types in the lists shown in FIGS. 15A and 15B, 2 is an AV device to be controlled, 1 is an AV controller, and 0 is It indicates that the device is other device. In this embodiment, the AV controllers share the connection management information, so that the connection control according to the priority can be performed in consideration of the connection established or reserved by another controller.

The specification for sharing the management information is, concretely, the process of transmitting the information set by itself to the other controller and the process of adding the management information transmitted from the other controller to the own management information. Composed. The above-described process of transmitting the information set by the user to another controller is executed by introducing a timer that periodically decreases the value. That is, for example, if the AV controller 10a is an AV
When transmitting information to the controller 10b, in the status ST4, the above-mentioned timer is set, and when the value of this timer becomes 0, the controller 10a transits to the status ST6, and the controller 10a transmits the management information to another controller, that is, the controller. Send to 10b. Then, when this transmission is completed, the value of the timer is reset and then the status returns to ST4.

Next, FIG. 16 shows a connection management table used in this embodiment. The management table shown in FIG. 10 includes a main table to which an item describing the GUID of the controller that has accepted the reservation of the connection and an item describing the route information are added, and a plurality of buses. To correspond to stream packets transferred via, create a separate sub-table showing route information,
The main management table has a structure in which the pointer of this sub-table is described. The sub-table showing route information is
They are provided in correspondence with the respective management numbers, and further, the packet transfer rate, channel number, and band are described for each bus on the route through which the stream packet is transferred.

Further, in the present embodiment, the connection is managed based on the management specification shown in FIG. 11, as in the second embodiment. However, when releasing or reserving the existing connection accepted by another AV controller, the other A controller does not perform these processes but other A
Request processing from the V controller. By receiving the request, the other AV controller immediately processes the request, so that the connection control can be appropriately performed even when a plurality of controllers coexist.

As described above, the management table shown in FIG. 16 is updated in status ST7 every time connection is established and released in status ST5 of FIG. 14 based on the management specifications of FIG. In addition, as the bus of the present invention, instead of the IEEE1394 bus, a USB
It may be (Universal-Serial-Bus).

[0098]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, when connection-oriented communication via a stream is to be performed, the user wants to preferentially and securely perform other connection-oriented communication. It is possible to reliably carry out the communication considered by. Further, according to the invention of claim 2, when the connection request of the new or existing collection is rejected as a result of the request for establishing the new connection, at least the connection whose establishment is canceled is Since it is presented to the requester of the new connection and the requester decides whether or not to cancel the establishment of the connection, the requester himself / herself makes a delicate judgment when canceling the connection in a connection having the same priority. Therefore, it is possible to carry out a stream transfer which is desired to be prioritized. According to the invention of claim 3, the request for establishing a new connection is:
At least a predetermined time before the start of the transmission of the stream corresponding to the reserved connection is included, including the request for establishing the reserved connection by designating at least the start of the stream transmission. Since it has been established, it will be possible to reliably execute the communication that the user wants to make surely, both at present and in the future, and at the time when the requester reserves the transmission of the stream, the Can be started, and the stream can be surely transferred. Further, according to the invention described in claim 4, the connection resource required for the new connection can be acquired from the time when the connection establishment request is reserved until the connection is established. If it is detected, the connection resource will be acquired immediately.
The chances of establishing a connection increase. Therefore, the probability of establishing a connection also increases, and the stream is transferred more reliably. Further, according to the invention of claim 5, since the priority of the connection is set according to the requester who has made the connection establishment request, the requester can omit the trouble of himself / herself to determine the priority. You can According to the invention of claim 6,
Since the priority of the connection is set according to the combination of the functions of the transmitting device and the receiving device which are associated with each other by the connection, it is possible to omit the labor of the requester to determine the priority by himself. Further, it is possible to determine whether it is real-time transfer or real-time transfer such as dubbing is not necessary, and it is possible to reliably perform stream transfer with higher priority. Further, according to the invention described in claim 7, in a time period after the bus is activated and before the connection establishment request described in claims 1 to 6 is received, the predetermined device on the network is Since a part or all of the bus band is acquired, the bus band originally managed by the IRM can be managed by itself. According to the invention described in claim 8, after the bus is activated,
In the time zone before accepting the connection establishment request described in, the specified device on the network acquires a part or all of the bus band and the channel number resource for broadcasting. All management of the stream transfer that is performed can be done by oneself.

[0099]

[0100]

[0101]

[0102]

[0103]

[0104]

[0105]

[0106]

[0107]

[0108]

[0109]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an internal configuration diagram of an AV controller according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the first embodiment 139 according to the present invention.
It is a figure which shows the structure of four networks.

FIG. 3 is a state transition diagram showing a procedure of connection establishment performed by the AV controller 10a according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining processing executed by the AV controller 10a in status S3 of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a format example of a configuration ROM.

FIG. 6 is a plug stipulated in the IEC61883 standard.
It is a figure which shows the format of a control register.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a device list according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a connection management table according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a process performed by the AV controller 10a in status S5 of FIG.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a connection management table according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing connection management specifications in the second and third embodiments according to the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of an isochronous stream packet format defined in the IEC61883 standard.

FIG. 13 shows a third embodiment of the present invention.
It is a figure which shows the structure of 94 network.

FIG. 14 shows an AV in the third embodiment according to the present invention.
It is a state transition diagram which shows the procedure of the connection establishment performed by the controller 10a and the AV controller 10b.

FIG. 15 shows an AV in the third embodiment according to the present invention.
It is a figure which shows the apparatus list which the controller 10a and the AV controller 10b created.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a connection management table in the third exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 shows the po defined in the IEC61883 standard.
establ of int-to-point connection
It is a figure which shows the ishing procedure.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Main ROM 2 Configuration ROM 3 Bus resource remaining amount storage memory 4 Device information list memory 5 Connection management memory 6 1394LINK 7 1394PHY 8 CPU 10a, 10b: AV controller 20a, 20b, 20c, 20d, 20e, 20f:
AV equipment 30, 30a, 30b: 1394 bus 40: 1394 bridge

Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-63-185252 (JP, A) JP-A-5-268250 (JP, A) JP-A-2-159157 (JP, A) JP-A-9-46367 (JP , A) JP-A-8-16501 (JP, A) JP-A-11-340990 (JP, A) JP-A-62-92639 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB) Name) H04L 12/40

Claims (14)

(57) [Claims] 1. A connection resource which manages connection-type communication via a stream on a network composed of one or a plurality of high-speed serial buses, and which connection resource remains at present when a request for establishing a new connection is made. And a connection management resource further required for establishing the new connection, a priority of the existing connection, and a bus management method for validating or invalidating the establishment of the new connection based on the priority of the new connection. If some or all of the connection establishment time zones of the existing connection and the new connection are overlapped, the priority of the existing connection and the new connection is set in the overlapping time zone. Connection with a high Was used as a valid, in the non-overlapping time periods,
A bus management method characterized by enabling establishment of both connections. 2. A connection resource that manages connection-type communication via a stream on a network composed of one or a plurality of high-speed serial buses and, at the time of request for establishment of a new connection, remaining connection resources at the present time. And bus management for determining whether to establish or invalidate the establishment of the new connection based on the connection resources further required for establishing the new connection, the priority of the existing connection, and the priority of the new connection. In the method, when a new connection establishment request results in invalidating the connection establishment of either a new collection or an existing collection, the connection determined to be invalid is set to the new connection. Present it to the requester and ask whether to cancel the connection establishment. Bus management method, characterized in that to determine the requester. 3. A connection resource that manages connection-type communication via a stream on a network composed of one or a plurality of high-speed serial buses and, at the time of requesting establishment of a new connection, remaining connection resources at the present time. And a connection management resource further required for establishing the new connection, a priority of the existing connection, and a bus management method for validating or invalidating the establishment of the new connection based on the priority of the new connection. , The new connection establishment request includes a reserved connection establishment request by designating a time point when the transmission of the stream is started, while the existing connection point is earlier than the new connection request. Connection established or reserved in It has been in the predetermined time before the time when the transmission is initiated for the corresponding streams to the connection, a bus management method, characterized in that the connection is already established. 4. A connection resource which manages connection-type communication via a stream on a network composed of one or a plurality of high-speed serial buses, and which connection resource remains at the present time when a request for establishing a new connection is made. And a connection management resource further required for establishing the new connection, a priority of the existing connection, and a bus management method for validating or invalidating the establishment of the new connection based on the priority of the new connection. The new connection establishment request also includes a connection establishment request reserved by designating a time point at which the stream transmission is started, and the connection is established from the time the connection establishment request is reserved. The connection required for the new connection. If it Deployment resources can be acquired is detected, the bus management method characterized in that immediately acquire the connection resource. 5. A connection resource which manages connection-type communication via a stream on a network composed of one or a plurality of high-speed serial buses, and when a request for establishing a new connection is made, the remaining connection resources at the present time. And a connection management resource further required for establishing the new connection, a priority of the existing connection, and a bus management method for validating or invalidating the establishment of the new connection based on the priority of the new connection. The bus management method, wherein the priority of the connection is set according to the requester who has issued the connection establishment request. 6. A connection resource that manages connection-type communication via a stream on a network composed of one or a plurality of high-speed serial buses and, at the time of requesting establishment of a new connection, remaining connection resources at the present time. And a connection management resource further required for establishing the new connection, a priority of the existing connection, and a bus management method for validating or invalidating the establishment of the new connection based on the priority of the new connection. The bus management method is characterized in that the priority of the connection is set according to a combination of functions of the transmitting device and the receiving device which are associated with each other by the connection. 7. A predetermined device on the network is part or all of the bus band after the bus is activated and before the connection establishment request according to any one of claims 1 to 6 is received. A bus management method, characterized in that 8. A predetermined device on the network is part or all of the bus band after the bus is activated and before the connection establishment request according to any one of claims 1 to 6 is received. And a channel number resource for broadcast, and a bus management method. 9. The bus management method according to claim 8, wherein the channel number resource for broadcasting is channel number 63. 10. The high-speed serial bus is IEEE13
The bus management method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the bus management method is a serial bus conforming to the 94 standard. 11. A recording medium having a bus control program recorded thereon, which causes a computer to execute each procedure of the bus management method according to any one of claims 1 to 10. 12. A bus management device for managing connection-type communication via a stream on a network composed of one or a plurality of high-speed serial buses, and a judgment unit for judging a request to establish a new connection, and a connection resource. Recording means for recording the usage status and priority of the new connection, and referring to the recording means at the time when the presence of the new connection establishment request is judged by the judgment part, the remaining connection resources at the time and the new connection A bus management device comprising: a connection resource further required for establishment; a priority of an existing connection; and a control unit for enabling or disabling the establishment of the new connection based on the priority of the new connection. . 13. The bus according to claim 12, wherein the priority of the connection is set according to a combination of functions provided in the transmitting device and the receiving device which are associated with each other by the connection. Management equipment. 14. The high-speed serial bus is IEEE13
The bus management device according to claim 12 or 13, wherein the bus management device is a serial bus conforming to the 94 standard.