JP4237437B2 - Monitoring device and monitoring method - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a digital broadcast signal transmission system having a duplex structure, for example, and more particularly to a monitoring apparatus and a monitoring method for monitoring TS (Transport Stream) transmitted from each of a first system and a second system.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in broadcasting transmission facilities, it is common to have a first system / second system duplex configuration for equipment failure countermeasures and maintenance.
[0003]
In recent years, digital broadcasting has been started, and even in this digital broadcast broadcasting transmission facility, a dual system configuration of the first system and the second system is adopted for countermeasures against equipment failure and maintenance.
[0004]
Here, in the broadcast transmission facility for digital broadcasting, since it is necessary to monitor the transmission status of TS of each system, a monitoring device is provided for each system.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, in the monitoring device, in order to monitor the TS transmission status, the TS detailed data necessary for monitoring the schedule indicating the TS transmission content, the bit rate corresponding to the number of packets, the transmission PID (Packet ID), etc. It is necessary to set. For this reason, the supervisor must perform the monitoring after setting the detailed data of the TS necessary for the monitoring, which is troublesome for the monitoring and easily causes an operation error. In addition, when the schedule is changed, it is necessary to reset the data every time and the operation is difficult.
[0006]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a monitoring apparatus and a monitoring method capable of monitoring a digital broadcast signal transmitted by each system without requiring manual operation and at a low cost.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, a monitoring apparatus according to the present invention is configured as follows.
(1) A monitoring device that monitors digital signals assigned to transmission blocks in the first system and the second system,
Digital signal acquisition means for acquiring each digital signal of the first system and second system, and comparison means for comparing the first digital signal acquired by the digital signal acquisition means with the second digital signal; Information storage means for storing predetermined monitoring information including a comparison result by the comparison means. Note that the same configuration is used when monitoring TS (Transport Stream) defined by MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group).
[0008]
According to the configuration of (1), the TS actually transmitted from each system is taken in, and the TS of each system is compared, so that the same TS, that is, the TS to be transmitted is transmitted between the systems. The monitoring information including the determination result and indicating the transmission status of the TS of each system is accumulated.
[0009]
Therefore, it is not necessary to set detailed data of TS necessary for monitoring for each system, and based on the accumulated monitoring information, it is possible to manage the abnormality occurrence status of TS for each system with one device common to each system. This makes it possible to greatly reduce the labor and cost in operation.
[0010]
(2) Furthermore, when the comparison result by the said comparison means shows mismatching, it is provided with the alarm output means which alert | reports to the exterior that this mismatching as an alarm.
[0011]
According to (2), it is possible to notify the outside that an abnormality has occurred in the TS to be transmitted, and thus it is possible to quickly take a countermeasure such as a recovery operation.
[0012]
(3) Further, when the comparison result by the comparison means indicates a mismatch, an alarm output means for notifying the outside of this mismatch as an alarm, and the comparison result by the comparison means in the alarm output state by the alarm output means. And an alarm output control means for controlling execution / stop of alarm output to the alarm output means.
[0013]
According to (3), when the abnormality of the TS of each system is recovered, the alarm output is automatically stopped. For this reason, for example, when the abnormality of TS is temporary and then returns to normal, it can be quickly recovered without waiting for the recovery operation of the supervisor.
[0014]
(4) Further, it is characterized by comprising a display and display control means for displaying predetermined monitoring information stored in the information storage means on the display.
[0015]
According to (4), the supervisor can always monitor the transmission status of TS of each system by looking at the monitoring information displayed on the display.
[0016]
(5) The comparison means includes a first and second packet holding function for holding the first and second TS packets, a packet held by the first packet holding function, A first filtering processing function for executing digital filtering processing using a first-system TS packet inputted to the first packet, a packet held by the first packet holding function, and a first newly inputted first A first filtering processing function for performing digital filtering processing using a TS packet of the system, a packet held by the second packet holding function, and a newly input second TS packet A comparison that compares the outputs of the second filtering processing function that performs digital filtering processing using the first filtering processing function and the first filtering processing function Characterized in that it comprises a capability.
[0017]
According to (5), when distortion occurs in TS packets of each system, the distortion component can be removed by performing digital filtering using the already held TS packets. Thus, more stable TS can be monitored.
[0018]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
[0019]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an in-station system in which a TS monitoring apparatus according to the present invention is used.
[0020]
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a TS monitoring device, which includes TS interface units (TSI / F) 11 and 12, counters 13 and 14, a comparator 15, a timer 16, memories 17 and 18, and a display controller 19. And a display device 20, a buzzer drive unit 21, a buzzer 22, and a buzzer controller 23.
[0021]
The TS interface unit 11 takes in TS packets sent from the TS packet sending device 2 provided in the first system. Further, the TS interface unit 12 takes in TS packets sent from the TS packet sending device 3 provided in the second system.
[0022]
The counter 13 counts the number of TS packets taken in by the TS interface unit 11 and outputs predetermined output information including the counter value to the comparator 15. The counter 14 counts the number of TS packets taken in by the TS interface unit 12 and outputs predetermined output information including the counter value to the comparator 15.
[0023]
The comparator 15 compares the outputs of the counters 13 and 14 at the time interval set in the timer 16, reads information corresponding to the comparison result from the memory 17, the memory 18, the buzzer driving unit 21, and the buzzer control. Output to the device 23. Here, an example of the contents stored in the memory 17 is shown in FIG.
[0024]
The memory 18 stores predetermined monitoring information including the comparison result by the comparator 15. The predetermined monitoring information stored in the memory 18 is read by the display controller 19 and displayed on the display 20. Here, an example of the display content of the display 20 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, # 1 indicates the first system and # 2 indicates the second system.
[0025]
When the output of the comparator 15 indicates “abnormal”, the buzzer driving unit 21 drives the buzzer 22 and issues an alarm to the outside.
[0026]
The buzzer controller 23 controls the buzzer driving unit 21 to stop the buzzer 22 when the comparator 15 is notified that the alarm is normal while the buzzer 22 is issuing an alarm.
[0027]
Next, the processing operation in the above configuration will be described.
First, the TS packet transmission devices 2 and 3 generate the same TS packet independently of each other. These TS packets are standardized by the MPEG2 encoding method.
[0028]
Here, in the TS monitoring device 1, the TS packet from the TS packet sending device 2 is inputted to the TS interface unit 11, the TS packet from the TS packet sending device 3 is inputted to the TS interface unit 12, and each TS interface is inputted. The outputs of the units 11 and 12 are counted by a predetermined number of bytes by the counters 13 and 14, respectively.
[0029]
The results counted by the counters 13 and 14 are compared by the comparator 15, and information indicating the comparison results, that is, information stored in the memory 17 corresponding to the comparison results is stored in the memory 18 and the buzzer driving unit 21. And the buzzer controller 23 is notified. The monitoring information stored in the memory 18 is displayed on the display 20 by the display controller 19.
[0030]
The buzzer driving unit 21 determines that an abnormality has occurred and drives the buzzer 22 to generate an alarm outside when a prescribed difference from the information from the comparator 15 exceeds, for example, 100 packets or more.
[0031]
On the other hand, the buzzer controller 23 monitors the state of the buzzer drive unit 21 and stops the buzzer drive unit 21 when the comparator 15 notifies the normal state while an alarm is generated. Take control.
[0032]
As described above, according to the above embodiment, TS packets sent from the TS packet sending devices 2 and 3 are taken into the TS interface units 11 and 12, respectively, and counted by the counters 13 and 14 in units of one packet. After that, the counter value of each system is compared by the comparator 15 to determine whether or not the same TS, that is, the TS to be transmitted, is transmitted between the systems. Monitoring information indicating the transmission status of the system TS is stored in the memory 18.
[0033]
Accordingly, it is not necessary to set detailed data of TS necessary for monitoring for each system, and one TS monitoring device 1 for each system uses a TS abnormality for each system based on the monitoring information accumulated in the memory 18. It is possible to manage the occurrence status, thereby greatly reducing the labor and cost in operation, and further providing the TS monitoring device 1 with improved reliability by eliminating human intervention. In addition, the TS interface units 11 and 12 can be replaced, and connection addition to an existing system can be easily performed only by cable wiring.
[0034]
Further, according to the above embodiment, when the comparison result by the comparator 15 indicates an abnormality, the buzzer 22 issues an alarm to the outside, so that it is possible to notify the outside that an abnormality has occurred in the TS to be transmitted. As a result, it is possible to quickly take a countermeasure such as a recovery operation.
[0035]
Further, according to the above-described embodiment, when the buzzer controller 23 is notified that the alarm has been generated from the comparator 15 while the alarm is generated from the buzzer 22, the alarm output from the buzzer 22 is output. Since it is stopped, for example, when the abnormality of the TS is temporary and then returns to normal, it is possible to quickly recover without waiting for the recovery operation of the supervisor.
[0036]
In the above-described embodiment, the example in which the number of TS packets is compared in the comparator 15 has been described. However, for example, by extracting the PID of the TS packet, comparing each PID, and making an alarm determination, the details are finer. Monitoring is possible. Also, the TS packets themselves may be compared.
[0037]
Also, the comparator 15 newly inputs the first and second packet holding functions for holding the first and second system TS packets, and the packets held by the first packet holding function, respectively. A first filtering processing function for executing a digital filtering process using the first system TS packet, a packet held by the first packet holding function, and a newly inputted first system TS Using a first filtering processing function for performing digital filtering processing using a TS packet, a packet held by the second packet holding function, and a newly input second-system TS packet A second filtering processing function for executing digital filtering processing and a comparison function for comparing outputs of the first and second filtering processing functions It may be further provided.
[0038]
Thus, it is possible to monitor stable TS in further. Alternatively, the digital filtering process may be performed while holding the count results of the counters 13 and 14.
[0039]
In the above-described embodiment, an example in which TS packets are monitored has been described. However, a digital control signal or the like may be monitored.
[0040]
In the above embodiment, the example in which the predetermined monitoring information stored in the memory 18 is displayed on the display device 20 has been described. For example, the predetermined monitoring information stored in the memory 18 is output to a book by a printer, It may be transmitted to the center via a communication line, and the transmission status of TS packets of each system may be monitored centrally at the center.
[0041]
In the above-described embodiment, the hardware configuration has been described. However, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the hardware configuration may be realized.
[0042]
That is, reference numeral 100 denotes a TS monitoring device, which connects the display device 20 and the buzzer 22. The TS interface units 11 and 12, counters 13 and 14, comparator 15, timer 16, memory 17 and 18, display controller 19, buzzer drive unit 21 and buzzer controller 23 are processed by the TS monitoring device 100. Realized by software processing.
[0043]
First, when the control processing shown in FIG. 5 is started, the TS monitoring apparatus 100 acquires TS packets of the first system and the second system (step ST5a), and counts the number of TS packets of each system (step ST5b). .
[0044]
Subsequently, the TS monitoring apparatus 100 compares the counter values of the respective systems and determines whether or not they match (step ST5c). Here, if the counter values match, the TS monitoring apparatus 100 stores predetermined monitoring information including normality in the memory (step ST5d).
[0045]
On the other hand, if the counter values do not match, TS monitoring apparatus 100 determines whether or not the difference in counter values between the systems exceeds a predetermined value (step ST5e). If the predetermined value is not exceeded, the process proceeds to step ST5d.
[0046]
On the other hand, if it exceeds the predetermined value, the TS monitoring apparatus 100 drives the buzzer 22 to output an alarm (step ST5f), and then stores predetermined monitoring information including an abnormality in the memory. (Step ST5g).
[0047]
As described above, the present invention can also be implemented by the other embodiments described above. In particular, since each process can be realized by software, the configuration is simplified, which can contribute to downsizing.
[0048]
In addition, the configuration of the TS monitoring device, the type of signal to be handled, the control procedure for determining the alarm, and the contents thereof can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the gist of the present invention.
[0049]
【The invention's effect】
As described above in detail, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a monitoring apparatus and a monitoring method that can monitor a digital broadcast signal transmitted in each system without human labor and at a low cost. .
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a TS monitoring apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of abnormality determination content stored in a memory shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a view showing an example of display contents of the display shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a TS monitoring apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining a processing operation in the other embodiment;
[Explanation of symbols]
1,100 ... TS monitoring device,
2, 3... TS packet sending device 11, 12... TS interface unit (TSI / F),
13, 14 ... counter,
15 ... comparator,
16 ... Timer,
17, 18 ... Memory,
19 ... display controller,
20 ... Display,
21 ... Buzzer drive unit,
22 ... Buzzer,
23 ... Buzzer controller.

Claims (5)

A monitoring device for monitoring TS (Transport Stream) defined by MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) between the first system and the second system,
TS packet acquisition means for acquiring the TS packets of the first system and the second system, respectively.
Comparison means for comparing the first-system TS packet acquired by the TS acquisition means with the second- system TS packet;
Comprising information storage means for storing predetermined monitoring information including a comparison result by the comparison means,
The comparison unit compares the number of TS packets of the first system and the second system . Further, when the comparison result by the comparison means indicates a mismatch, the monitoring device according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises an alarm output means for notifying the fact of this discrepancy to the outside as an alarm. Furthermore, when the comparison result by the comparison means indicates a mismatch, an alarm output means for notifying the outside of this mismatch as an alarm;
Alarm output state by the alarm output means, based on a comparison result by the comparison means, according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises an alarm output control means for controlling the execution and stop of the alarm output to the alarm output means Monitoring device. Further, display and monitoring device according to claim 1, further comprising a display control means for displaying a predetermined monitoring information stored in the information storage unit on the display unit. A monitoring method for monitoring TS (Transport Stream) defined by MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) between the first system and the second system,
A first process of acquiring each of the first and second TS packets;
A second step of comparing the first-system TS packet and the second- system TS packet acquired in the first process;
A third process for storing predetermined monitoring information including the comparison result of the second process,
The monitoring method according to claim 2, wherein the second process compares the number of TS packets of the first system and the second system .

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