JP5363373B2 - Communication device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication network operation management technique and a technique contributing to power saving of a transmission apparatus in the field of communication networks.

  In the current communication network, the interface of the communication device is always operated with a constant processing capacity regardless of the amount of traffic flowing. For this reason, when the traffic volume is small, the processing capacity is excessive with respect to the traffic volume in many interfaces when the entire communication network is viewed, and wasteful power is consumed. From such a background, when the amount of traffic is small, a technique has been proposed in which the interface is suspended and wasteful power consumption is suppressed (Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2).

IEEE802.1az, “Energy Effective Ethernet” Draft 2.1 (Currently under consideration of standardization, no formal document has been released. From Draft 2.1 to Draft 2.2 in January 2010) Will be updated. M.M. Gupta and S.M. Singh, “Greening of the Internet,” Proc. ACM SIGCOMM '03, August 2003.

  When an interface is put into a dormant state according to the amount of traffic, link communication using that interface is interrupted. For this reason, it is determined that the bandwidth of the link cannot be used by the link alive monitoring by the routing protocol, and recalculation of the routing route occurs. When traffic volume changes frequently, interface pause / recovery also occurs frequently, so routing route calculation also occurs frequently according to interface pause / restore, and in some cases, route calculation converges. There is a problem that there is a possibility that it will not be performed.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a communication apparatus that can suspend / restore an interface in accordance with the traffic amount for power saving without affecting the path calculation of the communication network.

  In order to achieve the above object, a communication device according to the present invention provides a communication device that controls pause / restoration of an interface of a device in cooperation with the traffic volume. Detecting a non-existent interface, stopping the link alive monitoring function of the routing protocol related to the interface, suspending the interface after stopping the link alive monitoring function, and monitoring the connectivity of the link using the interface And a means for performing link alive monitoring.

  Moreover, it is preferable to further comprise means for setting an alarm mask for the corresponding interface before the interface is suspended.

  Means for monitoring the traffic amount of the dormant interface; means for recovering the dormant interface for which traffic has been detected by the monitoring means; and means for resuming the link alive monitoring function of the routing protocol related to the interface after the dormant interface is restored. It is also preferable to further include

  It is also preferable to further comprise means for releasing the alarm mask of the corresponding interface after the link alive monitoring function of the dormant interface is resumed.

  It is also preferable that the link connectivity monitoring be performed using continuous light transmitted from the interface that has been suspended and has stopped data modulation.

  As described above, the present invention stops link alive monitoring of the routing protocol and reduces the link connectivity using the dormant interface when the interface is deactivated in cooperation with the traffic amount for power saving of the device. By checking, the link is monitored for life. When the interface is restored, link alive monitoring of the routing protocol is activated to return to normal operation. As a result, in the network to which the interface suspension / restoration technology for power saving is applied, it is possible to suppress the influence on the routing protocol given by the interface suspension / restoration operation.

The block diagram of the communication apparatus of this invention is shown. The basic structure of the router part of the communication apparatus of this invention is shown. The operation | movement flowchart of the communication apparatus of this invention is shown. Example 1 using the communication apparatus of the present invention is shown. Example 2 using the communication apparatus of the present invention will be described.

  FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a communication apparatus of the present invention. The communication apparatus includes a control unit 1, a router unit 2, a client signal transmission / reception unit 3, an optical transceiver 4, and a monitoring light unit 5.

  The control unit 1 controls the router unit 2, the client signal transmission / reception unit 3, the optical transceiver 4, and the monitoring light unit 5. The control unit 1 stops link alive monitoring of the routing protocol of the router unit 2 when suspending the interface of the optical transceiver 4 in cooperation with the traffic amount of the line signal for power saving of the apparatus. At that time, link alive monitoring is performed by confirming link connectivity using the dormant interface. When the interface of the optical transceiver 4 is restored, link alive monitoring of the routing protocol of the router unit 2 is activated to return to normal operation.

  The router unit 2 operates as an IP (Internet Protocol) router. That is, it has a function of distributing client signals to appropriate ports according to the routing table. Also, it has a function of distributing the received line side signal to an appropriate client port. FIG. 2 shows a basic configuration of the router unit 2. The router unit 2 includes a packet input unit 21, a forwarding unit 22, a routing table (not shown), a switch unit 23, an output scheduling unit 24, and a packet output unit 25.

  The packet input unit 21 detects the input packet and confirms normality, and transfers the packet to the forwarding unit 22.

  The forwarding unit 22 refers to the routing table based on the destination address of the packet header and determines which output interface to output the packet to. The packet is given destination information of the output interface and transferred to the switch unit 23.

  The routing table has information regarding the packet transfer destination. Static routing that sets a fixed route or dynamic routing that updates routing information using routing information received from another communication device is used.

  The switch unit 23 distributes the packet to each output interface based on the destination information of the output interface of the packet. The output interface has a buffer for storing packets because a plurality of packets may be transferred simultaneously from a plurality of input interfaces.

  The output scheduling unit 24 determines the order in which packets are output to the output interface in consideration of the priority of each packet.

  The packet output unit 25 outputs a packet according to the determination of the output scheduling unit 24.

  The client signal transmitting / receiving unit 3 has a function of receiving a signal from the client device and transmitting it to the router unit, and a function of transmitting a client signal received from the optical transceiver 4 via the router unit to the client device.

  The optical transceiver 4 has a function of converting a client signal into a line signal, transmitting it to a transmission line, receiving a line signal, and converting it into a client signal. Further, it has a function of adaptively controlling the speed of the line side interface according to the traffic volume (reference: Non-Patent Document 1). The reception port has a function of measuring the power of received light.

  The monitoring light unit 5 transmits and receives control information with the opposing device using the monitoring light. The monitoring light uses a signal different from the line signal that accommodates the client signal.

  FIG. 3 shows an operation flowchart of the apparatus of the present invention. In this flowchart, steps 2 to 5 and steps 7 to 9 operate independently.

  Step 1: Start the operation of the device of the present invention.

  Step 2: Monitor the amount of transmitted and received traffic. The interface buffer is monitored, or the traffic volume is monitored by MIB (Management Information Base). If there is no change, the process returns to the traffic volume monitoring in step 2. If it is idle (no traffic flows), go to step 3.

  Step 3: The interface to be suspended is determined, and the suspension of the interface connected to the opposite apparatus is notified via the monitoring light. Go to step 4.

  Step 4: Set the alarm mask for the corresponding interface. Proceed to step 5.

  Step 5: Stop the link protocol alive monitoring function of the routing protocol. Thereby, the link alive monitoring by the packet exchange between the opposing devices is stopped. However, stoppage of life and death monitoring here is not an obstacle. Proceed to step 6.

  Step 6: Stop data modulation from the corresponding interface and output only continuous light. Proceed to step 10.

  Step 7: It is confirmed whether there is an interface setting request notified from the opposite device through the monitoring light from the monitoring light unit. If not, return to Step 7. If yes, go to Step 8.

  Step 8: Set the alarm mask for the corresponding interface in both directions. If the alarm mask of the corresponding interface has already been set, the state is maintained as it is. Proceed to step 9.

  Step 9: Confirm the request from the opposite device as to whether to suspend or restore the interface. In the case of recovery, go to Step 11. If it is paused, go to step 5.

  Step 10: Confirm whether or not to restore the interface that has suspended data transmission based on the monitoring traffic volume. If traffic is occurring, restore it. On the other hand, in an idle state where no traffic is generated, no recovery is performed. In the case of recovery, go to Step 11. If there is no recovery, the process proceeds to step 14.

  Step 11: The interface that has paused data transmission is restored. Further, when coming from step 10, the recovery of the interface connected to the opposite device is notified through the monitoring light. Proceed to step 12.

  Step 12: When coming from Step 10, the link alive monitoring function of the routing protocol stopped in Step 5 is resumed. Proceed to step 13.

  Step 13: Release the alarm mask of the interface set in Step 4 or Step 8. Return to Step 2 or Step 7.

  Step 14: Confirm link connectivity by monitoring the power of the received continuous light. If there is no failure, return to Step 10. If there is a failure, go to Step 15.

  Step 15: Stop transmitting continuous light. Proceed to step 16.

  Step 16: The link alive monitoring function of the routing protocol that was stopped in Step 5 is resumed. Proceed to step 17.

  Step 17: Release the alarm mask of the interface set in Step 4 or Step 8. Proceed to step 18.

Step 18: End.
With the operation as described above, in the network to which the interface suspension / restoration technology for power saving is applied, the influence of the interface suspension / restoration operation on the routing protocol is suppressed.

  FIG. 4 shows Example 1 using the apparatus of the present invention. The first embodiment shows the behavior when the link is changed from a normal state to a disconnected state.

  The device 1 and the device 2 are connected to face each other. The signal on the line side and the monitoring light are multiplexed by the optical multiplexer / demultiplexer, and the received light is demultiplexed. The link is in a normal state.

  First, each device monitors the traffic volume. Here, the device 1 detects an interface in which the bi-directional traffic has become idle, and makes a decision to suspend the interface.

  After the suspension interface is determined, the device 1 notifies the suspension of the interface to which the opposite device (device 2) is connected via the monitoring light. After notifying the above, the device 1 masks the sleep interface alarm and stops the link protocol alive monitoring function of the routing protocol. As a result, the link alive monitoring by the packet exchange between the opposite devices is stopped, but the alive monitoring stop here does not become a failure. Next, data modulation of the dormant interface is stopped and only continuous light is output.

On the other hand, the apparatus 2 that has received the notification of the dormant interface also masks the dormant interface alarm and stops the link alive monitoring function of the routing protocol. Next, data modulation of the dormant interface is stopped and only continuous light is output.
Both devices move on to check link connectivity using received optical power.

  Here, it is assumed that a link break has occurred. At this time, each device detects a failure due to a decrease in received optical power. Each device that detects the failure stops the transmission light, and releases the link alive monitoring function stop of the routing protocol. As a result, the link alive monitoring by the packet exchange between the opposite devices does not operate normally, so that the failure can be detected also in the routing layer. Thereafter, the alarm mask of the corresponding interface is canceled, and a failure on the line side is detected.

  FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment using the apparatus of the present invention. The second embodiment shows the behavior when the interface is changed from the hibernation state to the recovery state.

  The operation up to the link connectivity check is the same as in the first embodiment. In this example, it is assumed that traffic flows through an interface that has been in an idle state after the link connectivity confirmation.

  Since the traffic is detected in the device 1 that has been monitoring the traffic volume, the interface recovery operation is started. First, the corresponding interface is restored, and the restoration of the connected interface is notified to the opposite device 2 via the monitoring light. After canceling the link alive monitoring function stop, the device 1 cancels the alarm mask of the restored interface and starts monitoring the traffic volume.

  The device 2 confirms the recovery interface notification from the device 1 and restores the corresponding interface. Furthermore, after canceling the link alive monitoring function stop, the alarm mask of the restored interface is canceled and the traffic volume monitoring is started.

  Moreover, all the embodiments described above are illustrative of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention, and the present invention can be implemented in other various modifications and changes. Therefore, the scope of the present invention is defined only by the claims and their equivalents.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Control part 2 Router part 3 Client signal transmission / reception part 4 Optical transmitter / receiver 5 Monitoring light part 21 Packet input part 22 Forwarding part 23 Switch part 24 Output scheduling part 25 Packet output part

Claims (5)

In communication devices that suspend / restore control of device interfaces in conjunction with traffic volume,
A means of monitoring traffic on the interface;
Means for detecting an interface having no traffic volume by the monitoring means and stopping a link alive monitoring function of a routing protocol related to the interface;
Means for suspending the interface after stopping the link alive monitoring function;
Means for performing link alive monitoring by monitoring link connectivity using the interface;
A communication apparatus comprising:   2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for setting an alarm mask for the corresponding interface before suspending the interface. Means for monitoring the traffic volume of the dormant interface;
Means for recovering a dormant interface in which traffic is detected by the monitoring means;
Means for restarting the link alive monitoring function of the routing protocol related to the interface after restoration of the dormant interface;
The communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: The communication apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising means for canceling an alarm mask of the corresponding interface after resuming the link alive monitoring function of the dormant interface.   The communication apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the link connectivity monitoring is performed using continuous light transmitted from the interface that has been stopped and data modulation has been stopped.

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