Wiring management system and wiring management method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11362894-B2
Application number	US-201917041570-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 19, 2019
Priority date	Mar 29, 2018
Publication date	Jun 14, 2022
Grant date	Jun 14, 2022

Abstract

When separate service apparatuses that provide various communication services to users are connected by a wiring with communication functional units interposed, if there is a wiring abnormality, the location of the abnormality is easily identified. When a wiring connection is completed between separated service apparatuses X and Y that provide various communication services to user terminals 31 and 32 with communication functional units A1 and B2 interposed, a wiring management system 10A includes a transmission network management apparatus 14A that identifies a wiring abnormality. The transmission network management apparatus 14A associates endpoint names of the service apparatuses X and Y and of the functional units A1 and B2 with opposite endpoint names on the opposite sides, defines opposite endpoint IDs of the endpoints of the functional units A1 and B2 as expected values, and saves the end points in association with the opposite endpoint IDs in a DB 14b. Upon completing the wiring connection between the service apparatuses X and Y, an opposite endpoint ID of each of the functional units A1 and B2 and the service apparatuses X and Y opposite to predetermined functional units A1 and B2 is received as a received value via a wiring, and if the received value does not match the expected value, it is determined that the wiring is abnormal.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A wiring management system comprising:
separate service apparatuses configured to provide various communication services to user terminals via a service network;
a transmission apparatus configured to connect the service apparatuses through a transmission network with a plurality of communication functional units interposed in the transmission network; and
a transmission network management apparatus configured to identify a wiring abnormality of the connected transmission network,
wherein the transmission network management apparatus includes:
a database (DB) configured to store information related to the plurality of communication functional units,
an endpoint name definition unit configured to (i) define endpoint names which are unique names of endpoints as transmitting/receiving ends of the service apparatuses, and endpoint names which are unique names of endpoints as transmitting/receiving ends of the plurality of functional units and (ii) save each of the defined endpoint names in association with an opposite endpoint name which is an endpoint name on an opposite side of the endpoint in the DB,
an ID definition unit configured to define a unique endpoint identification (ID) for each of the endpoints of the service apparatuses and each of the endpoints of the plurality of communication functional units,
an expected value management unit configured to define opposite endpoint IDs on the opposite sides of the endpoints as expected values to associate the endpoint names of the endpoints of the plurality of communication functional units with the opposite endpoint IDs and save the associated endpoint names in pairs with the expected values in the DB,
a received value management unit configured to, upon completing a wiring connection between the service apparatuses, receive an opposite endpoint ID on an opposite side of an endpoint in the plurality of communication functional units via a wiring as a received value, receive an opposite endpoint ID of the service apparatus opposite to a predetermined functional unit among the plurality of communication functional units via a wiring as a received value, and save the received values in pairs with the expected value of the same opposite endpoint ID in the DB, and
a wiring determination unit configured to determine that there is a wiring abnormality based on the received values and the expected value of the same opposite endpoint ID saved in the DB not matching.

2. The wiring management system according to claim 1 , wherein:
based on the service network being an Internet protocol (IP) network, the functional unit is configured to receive a signal of an Ethernet frame including a sender address from the service apparatus, and
in a case where the functional unit is configured to perform, based on the received signal being transferred to an optical channel data unit (ODU)/optical channel transport unit (OTU) frame, synchronization processing for extracting the sender address:
the service apparatus is configured to store a media access control (MAC) address of an endpoint of the service apparatus as an endpoint ID in a slot of the sender address of the Ethernet frame,
the functional unit is configured to receive the Ethernet frame in which the MAC address is stored, and
the functional unit is configured to extract the MAC address stored in the received Ethernet frame as a received value of the opposite endpoint ID and send the value to the transmission network management apparatus.

3. The wiring management system according to claim 1 , wherein:
based on the service network being an Ethernet network, the functional unit is configured to receive a signal of a link layer discovery protocol (LLDP) frame or an operations administration maintenance (OAM) frame as an Ethernet frame including a sender address from the service apparatus, and
in a case where the functional unit is configured to perform, based on the received signal being transferred to an ODU/OTU frame, synchronization processing for extracting the sender address:
the service apparatus is configured to store a MAC address of an endpoint of the service apparatus as an endpoint ID in a slot of a sender address of the LLDP frame or the OAM frame,
the functional unit is configured to receive the LLDP frame or the OAM frame in which the MAC address is stored, and
the functional unit is configured to extract the MAC address stored in the received LLDP frame or OAM frame as a received value of the opposite endpoint ID and send the received value to the transmission network management apparatus.

4. The wiring management system according to claim 1 , wherein among the plurality of communication functional units, a functional unit without a light emitting element is configured to receive an endpoint ID from a functional unit with a light emitting element via an optical wiring and send the endpoint ID to the transmission network management apparatus.

5. The wiring management system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the plurality of communication functional units are connected by a two-core integrated two-core optical fiber,
among the plurality of communication functional units, a non-equipped functional unit without a light emitting element includes a return unit configured to return and respond an endpoint ID of an equipped functional unit received from the equipped functional unit with a light emitting element to the equipped functional unit,
the transmission network management apparatus includes a second DB configured to save each of the endpoint names in association with the defined endpoint ID for each endpoint corresponding to each of the endpoint names,
the wiring determination unit is configured to determine that there is no incorrect connection based on the endpoint IDs before and after returning at the return unit being the same, and
in accordance with a determination that there is no incorrect connection, the received value management unit is configured to save the endpoint ID received by the non-equipped functional unit as a received value of an opposite endpoint ID in pairs with an expected value of the same opposite endpoint ID stored in the DB, search for an endpoint ID of the non-equipped functional unit associated with the saved received value from the second DB, and save the searched endpoint ID as a received value of an opposite endpoint ID of the endpoint of the equipped functional unit in pairs with the expected value in the DB.

6. The wiring management system according to claim 1 , wherein the wiring determination unit is configured to detect a route location where a new route set between the functional units between the service apparatuses and an existing route between the functional units do not overlap with each other and only the new route is set, and identify the detected route location as a suspected location where an incorrect connection is suspected.

7. A wiring management system comprising:
separate service apparatuses configured to provide various communication services to user terminals via a service network;
a transmission apparatus configured to connect between the service apparatuses through a transmission network with a plurality of communication functional units interposed in the transmission network; and
a transmission network management apparatus configured to identify a wiring abnormality of the connected transmission network, wherein the transmission network management apparatus includes:
a first database (DB) configured to save endpoint names which are unique names of endpoints as transmitting/receiving ends of the plurality of functional units, opposite endpoint names of the functional units and the service apparatuses on the opposite side of endpoint names, and an opposite endpoint identificat

Assignees

• Nippon Telegraph & Telephone

Inventors

• Uematsu Yoshihiko
• Yamamoto Hiroshi
• Kawahara Hiroki
• Araya Katsuhiro
• Oka Toshiyuki

Classifications

• Y02D30/00

  Reducing energy consumption in communication networks · CPC title

• H04Q11/04

  for time-division multiplexing {(H04Q11/0001 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• H04L41/0853

  by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information · CPC title

• H04Q11/0478

  Provisions for broadband connections · CPC title

• H04L67/51

  Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services · CPC title