Communication cable fault estimation device, method, and program

Abstract

A communication cable failure inference device, according to one embodiment of the present invention, has: an extraction unit that extracts, as near cables, communication cables placed near an inference-target cable on which failure inference is performed for each section; a setting unit that sets a plurality of sections in the inference-target cable for each branching point between the inference-target cable and the near cables extracted by the extraction unit; a calculation unit that, for each section set by the setting unit, calculates the failure rate, which is the value obtained by dividing the number of near cables at which a failure is occurring in the section by the number of all near cables in the section; and an identification unit for identifying a candidate for a section at which a failure has occurred in the inference-target cable, on the basis of the failure rate calculated for each section by the calculation unit.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] An embodiment of the present invention relates to a communication cable fault estimation device, method, and program. [Background technology]

[0002] Telecommunications carriers monitor their communication services. When a disaster or failure affects communication services, the failure is detected by an alarm from a monitoring device, and the service is restored. Therefore, it is necessary to shorten the time from failure detection to restoration.

[0003] A monitoring system is generally used as a technology for detecting failures in a communication network (NW (network)). There are efforts to identify the location of a failure based on an alarm detected by the monitoring system, and a technology for estimating the location of the failure by selecting important alarms when a large number of alarms are generated (see, for example, Patent Document 1). When the location of the failure is a network device, the cause and location of the failure can be identified by using the alarm or a log from the system.

[0004] On the other hand, if the location of the fault is a section of a communication cable (hereinafter, sometimes simply referred to as a cable), an investigation such as an on-site inspection is required to identify the location of the fault. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2018-028778 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] When a fault occurs in a section of a cable, the area where a possible break is suspected is generally somewhere on a wide route, such as between a building that houses communications equipment and another building, so it takes time to identify the location of the fault.

[0007] Typically, an optical pulse test using optical line testing equipment is used to measure the distance from the containment building to the point where the optical fiber is broken, and an investigation is then carried out toward that point. In the optical fiber path test described above, the actual length (real length) from the containment building to the break is measured, but since there may be a difference between this measured length and the path length specified in the system management, a wide-area investigation on-site may be necessary.

[0008] The present invention has been made in light of the above-mentioned circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a communication cable fault estimation device, method, and program that are capable of appropriately estimating a fault in a communication cable. [Means for solving the problem]

[0009] The communication cable fault estimation device according to one aspect of the present invention includes an extraction unit that extracts, as a neighboring cable, a communication cable that is laid near an estimation target cable that is a fault estimation target for each section, and a branch point between the estimation target cable and the neighboring cable extracted by the extraction unit. By dividing the section of the cable to be estimated into a plurality of sections, The cable is equipped with a setting unit that sets multiple sections of the cable to be estimated, a calculation unit that calculates, for each section set by the setting unit, a fault rate that is a value obtained by dividing the number of nearby cables in which a fault has occurred in that section by the number of all nearby cables in that section, and an identification unit that identifies candidate sections in which a fault has occurred in the cable to be estimated based on the fault rates calculated by the calculation unit for each section.

[0010] A method for estimating a fault in a communication cable according to one aspect of the present invention includes the steps of: A method performed by a communication cable fault estimation device, comprising:A communication cable laid near a cable to be estimated as a fault target for each section is extracted as a nearby cable, and a branch point between the cable to be estimated and the extracted nearby cable is extracted. By dividing the section of the cable to be estimated into a plurality of sections, The method comprises: setting a plurality of sections of the cable to be estimated; calculating, for each of the set sections, a fault rate which is a value obtained by dividing the number of the nearby cables in which a fault has occurred in that section by the number of all nearby cables in that section; and identifying candidate sections in which a fault has occurred in the cable to be estimated based on the calculated fault rates for each section. Effect of the Invention

[0011] According to the present invention, a fault in a communication cable can be appropriately estimated. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an application example of a communication cable fault estimation device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an example of a procedure of processing operations of the communication cable fault estimation device according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 3] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of acquired key information. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of acquired key information. [Diagram 5] FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an example of extraction of nearby cables. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an example of extraction of nearby cables. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining an example of extraction of nearby cables. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of division of a cable section. [Figure 9] FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of division of a cable section. [Figure 10]FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining an example of determining whether or not there is an overlap between sections. [Figure 11] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of cable information in a table format. [Figure 12] FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of cable information in a table format. [Figure 13] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of cable fault information in a table format. [Figure 14] FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of cable fault information in a table format. [Figure 15] FIG. 15 is a diagram for explaining an example of a general estimation of a fault in a relay cable. [Figure 16] FIG. 16 is a diagram for explaining an example of detection of a fault in a cable. [Figure 17] FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining an example of extraction of nearby cables. [Figure 18] FIG. 18 is a diagram for explaining an example of counting the number of nearby faulty cables and the number of nearby non-faulty cables. [Figure 19] FIG. 19 is a diagram showing, in a table format, an example of the number of nearby cables of a faulty cable, the number of nearby faulty cables, and the number of nearby non-faulty cables. [Figure 20] FIG. 20 is a diagram showing, in a table format, an example of the number of cables adjacent to a faulty cable, the number of nearby faulty cables, the number of nearby non-faulty cables, and the fault rate. [Figure 21] FIG. 21 is a diagram for explaining an example of identifying a broken section in a faulty cable. [Figure 22] FIG. 22 is a diagram showing, in a table format, an example of the number of cables adjacent to a faulty cable, the number of nearby faulty cables, and the number of nearby non-faulty cables. [Figure 23] FIG. 23 is a diagram for explaining an example of identifying a broken section in a faulty cable. [Figure 24] FIG. 24 is a diagram showing, in a table format, an example of the number of cables adjacent to a faulty cable, the number of adjacent faulty cables, the number of adjacent non-faulty cables, and the fault rate. [Diagram 25]FIG. 25 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of a communication cable fault estimation device according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0013] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, an overview of one embodiment of the present invention will be described. For example, when an estimated target cable (hereinafter sometimes referred to as a target cable) that is an estimated cable in a section where a fault occurs is broken, if there is a nearby cable that is a cable installed near the target cable, in this embodiment, the broken section of the nearby cable is used to estimate the broken part of the target cable. This nearby cable is, for example, another cable laid in the same conduit or MH (manhole), or an adjacent cable that is geographically close.

[0014] For example, a subscriber connection cable, which is a connection cable from a housing building to a user end point, is a communication network that is spread throughout a city, compared to a relay cable, so it is possible to narrow down the location of a break in the target cable due to physical influences in a certain section of the target cable.

[0015] Conventionally, the location of a fault in a target cable was identified using only information about the target cable, whereas in this embodiment, information about nearby cables is used to identify the location of a break in the target cable.

[0016] In this embodiment, the fault information of multiple cables in the vicinity of the target cable is superimposed and used to narrow down the multiple broken sections of the target cable, thereby reducing the time required for on-site inspections.

[0017] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an application example of a communication cable fault inference device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1, a communication cable fault estimation device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an estimation target cable acquisition unit 11, a cable information management database (DB (database)) 12, a nearby cable extraction unit 13, a cable fault information DB 14, a monitoring information processing unit 15, a broken section identification unit 16, and a broken section display unit 17. The estimation target cable acquisition unit 11 can acquire information related to the estimation target cable from a user and the system. The other units will be described later.

[0018] FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of a procedure of processing operations of the communication cable fault estimating device according to one embodiment of the present invention. First, when a fault occurs, the estimated target cable acquisition unit 11 acquires key information for identifying a target cable that is a specific target of a faulty section where the fault occurs, for example, the name of the target cable, from outside (S1). This cable information may be information obtained by an input operation by an operator, or may be information obtained from an external device via a network.

[0019] 3 and 4 are diagrams for explaining an example of the acquired key information. The key information acquired in S1 is a keyword that can uniquely identify any cable, such as the name of the cable.

[0020] In the example shown in FIG. 3, a "cable AB-01" is installed between "housing building A" and "housing building B." "Cable AB-01" refers to the name of the first cable installed between "housing building A" and "housing building B." When the cable shown in FIG. 3 is the target cable, the above "cable AB-01" can be acquired as key information. Furthermore, the key information acquired in S1 may include information corresponding to the cable name, and information for limiting the section may be added to the information.

[0021] For example, as shown in FIG. 4, among the sections of the "Cable AB-01" between "Housing Building A" and "Housing Building B," "Cable AB-01 (a1-a2)" indicating the section between "Point a1" closer to Housing Building A and "Point a2" closer to Housing Building B may be obtained as key information.

[0022] 5, 6, and 7 are diagrams for explaining an example of extraction of nearby cables. As shown in FIGS. 5, 6, and 7, the cable information management DB 12 stores cable information for each of various cables including the above-mentioned cable.

[0023] The cable information includes key information such as the cable name and route information. The route information indicates the equipment and connection order that the cable passes through from the start point (one end) to the end point (the other end). The route information includes the name and location information of the equipment.

[0024] For example, the cable information shown in Fig. 5 indicates that a cable named "Cable AB-01" starts from "Building A" with location information (x, y), passes through each facility in the order of "Conduit a01" with location information (x1-x2, y1-y2), "MHa01" with location information (x2, y2), "Conduit a02" with location information (x2-x3, y2-y3), and "MHa02" with location information (x3, y3), and ends at "Building B" with location information (xn, yn). The above location information (x1-x2, y1-y2) means the section from (x1, y1) to (x2, y2).

[0025] The cable information shown in FIG. 6 indicates that the cable starts at "Building A," passes through each facility, and ends at "Building B." Also, the cable information shown in Fig. 7 indicates that the cable starts at "Building B", passes through each facility, and ends at "Building C." Location information is omitted in Figs. 6 and 7.

[0026] Next, based on the cable information stored in the cable information management DB 12, the nearby cable extraction unit 13 extracts nearby cables that are close to the target cable, and groups these nearby cables with the target cable (S12).

[0027] Specifically, for example, the nearby cable extraction unit 13 acquires cable information of various cables including the target cable from the cable information management DB 12. The nearby cable extraction unit 13 can compare the route information of the cable information of the various cables acquired above, and extract other cables laid in the same conduit and MH as the MH and in the conduit in which the target cable is laid as nearby cables.

[0028] For example, the nearby cable extraction unit 13 compares the cable information of the target cable "Cable AB-01" shown in Fig. 5 with the cable information of another cable "Cable AC-01" shown in Fig. 6. As a result of this comparison, the equipment and location information of the route information indicated by "Route Information 1" to "Route Information 3" for both cables are identical.

[0029] At this time, the nearby cable extraction unit 13 determines that portions of both cables are laid along the same route, and extracts "Cable AC-01" shown in Figure 6 as a nearby cable of the target cable "Cable AB-01" shown in Figure 5.

[0030] On the other hand, when the nearby cable extraction unit 13 compares the cable information of the target cable "cable AB-01" shown in Figure 5 with the cable information of another cable "cable BC-01" shown in Figure 7, there is no matching route information for the two cables. Therefore, both cables are laid along different routes from the starting point to the end point, and the other cable shown in Figure 6, "Cable BC-01", is not a neighboring cable of the target cable, "Cable AB-01", shown in Figure 5, and is not extracted as described above.

[0031] The nearby cable extraction unit 13 can also compare the route information of the cable information of the various cables acquired above, and extract adjacent cables that are geographically close to the target cable, for example, cables laid within a predetermined distance, as nearby cables. The geographically close cables can be specified based on location information such as longitude and latitude.

[0032] Next, the monitoring information processing unit 15 divides the section of the target cable into a plurality of sections at the branch point between the target cable and the nearby cables extracted in S12 (S13). For example, if the target cable is "Cable AB-01" and the nearby cable is "Cable AC-01", the monitoring information processing unit 15 obtains from the cable information management DB 12 the route information of the cable information of the target cable "Cable AB-01" and the route information of the cable information of the nearby cable "Cable AC-01".

[0033] The monitoring information processing unit 15 determines whether or not the route information between the target cable and nearby cables matches in each of the "route information 1" to "route information N" of the target cable, and sets nearby cable presence / absence information indicating the presence or absence of a nearby cable for the target cable for each route information based on the determination result.

[0034] 8 and 9 are diagrams for explaining an example of division of a cable section. In the example shown in Figures 8 and 9, since "Route Information 1" to "Route Information 3" match for both cables, the nearby cable presence / absence information is set to "Yes," and since "Route Information 4" to "Route Information N" do not match for both cables, the nearby cable presence / absence information is set to "No."

[0035] The monitoring information processing unit 15 checks the nearby cable presence / absence information for route information i (i=1 to N) from i=1 to N, and if the presence / absence of a nearby cable differs between route information i and route information i+1, it determines that a branch point between the target cable and the nearby cable exists between route information i and route information i+1.

[0036] When there are a plurality of adjacent cables for the target cable, the monitoring information processing unit 15 determines the branch point for each of the adjacent cables. 8, the monitoring information processing unit 15 sets section information indicating that the section of the target cable from "route information 1" to "route information 3" is "section 1," and the section from "route information 4" to "route information N" is "section 2." If the target cable has multiple branch points, the monitoring information processing unit 15 can determine the section for each branch point.

[0037] FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining an example of determining whether or not there is an overlap between sections. 10, cable fault information of nearby cables is stored in the cable fault information DB 14. This cable fault information includes the name of the cable, route information from the start point to the end point of the cable similar to the cable information described above, and fault presence / absence information indicating the presence or absence of a fault in the cable.

[0038] A loop is started over the extracted nearby cables i=1 to N, then a loop is started over the section j=1 to M divided by the target cable, and the cable information of the target cable in which the above section information is set is compared with the cable information of the nearby cable to determine whether section j overlaps with part of the nearby cable.

[0039] If there is an overlap (Yes in S14), the monitoring information processing unit 15 judges whether or not this section j overlaps with a faulty section in nearby cable i (S15). The faulty section in nearby cable i is all or part of the section from the start point to the end point of nearby cable i.

[0040] When section j overlaps with a fault section in nearby cable i (Yes in S15), the monitoring information processing unit 15 sets a value obtained by adding 1 to the number of nearby cables in section j and a value obtained by adding 1 to the number of nearby fault cables in section j when the initial values ​​of the number of nearby cables and the number of nearby fault cables in section j are set to 0 (S16). The number of nearby fault cables is the number of cables in which a fault has occurred among the cables nearby the target cable, and is set for each section of the target cable.

[0041] If section j does not overlap with the faulty section of nearby cable i (No in S15), the monitoring information processing unit 15 sets the initial values ​​of the number of nearby cables and the number of nearby non-fault cables in section j to 0, and then adds 1 to the number of nearby cables and nearby non-fault cables in section j (S17). The number of nearby non-fault cables is the number of cables in the vicinity of the target cable that are not faulty, and is set for each section of the target cable.

[0042] For example, as shown in FIG. 10, when the target cable is "Cable AB-01" and the nearby cable is "Cable AC-01," "Route Information 1" to "Route Information 3" in "Section 1" of the target cable overlap with "Route Information 1" to "Route Information 3" of the nearby cable, and the fault presence information for this overlapping section is "Fault Present," therefore, "Section 1" of the target cable is considered to overlap with the faulty section of the nearby cable, and 1 is added to the number of nearby cables and the number of nearby faulty cables for "Section 1" of the target cable. 11 and 12 are diagrams showing an example of cable information in a table format. In the example shown in FIG. 11, the identifier of the cable information is the cable name, but any key information combining multiple columns may be used as long as it is a keyword that can uniquely identify any cable. In the example shown in Figure 12, a key combining "Building A," which is the facility at the starting point of the target cable, "Building B," which is the facility at the end point of the target cable, "optical," which indicates that the type of cable is an optical cable, and the cable number "1" is displayed as key information in place of the above cable name. Furthermore, the route information of the cable information may include facility attributes, such as shape or material, in addition to the facility type and location information described above.

[0043] 13 and 14 are diagrams showing an example of cable fault information in a table format. The cable fault information shown in Figure 13 is information that indicates that a fault has occurred in "Cable AB-01" and that no fault has occurred in "Cable AB-02" without specifying a specific section.

[0044] In addition, the cable fault information shown in Figure 14 indicates that a fault has occurred only in sections of "Cable AB-01" related to "Building A," "Conduit a01," etc., and that no fault has occurred in "Cable AB-02."

[0045] Next, a general estimation of a fault in a trunk cable will be described. FIG. 15 is a diagram for explaining an example of a general estimation of a fault in a relay cable. 15, when the monitoring system detects a fault in the relay cable between accommodation building A and accommodation building B and issues alarm information to the monitoring station, the fault in the relay cable is estimated according to the following (1) to (6). Here, the length of the relay cable is between several kilometers and several tens of kilometers.

[0046] (1) Workers will be dispatched from the monitoring post to "Containment Buildings A and B." (2) In "Housing Buildings A and B," optical fiber line tests will be conducted using optical fiber line testing equipment. (3) Based on the optical fiber test results and the facility information for “Housing Buildings A and B,” the section corresponding to the break in the relay cable is estimated. (4) Workers are dispatched to the section estimated in (3). (5) An investigation of the broken wire will be carried out at the relevant section by a dispatched team. (6) If, as a result of the inspection, no breaks in the relay cable are found and the actual location of the break is different from the location to which the dispatched personnel was dispatched, a check will be made of the surrounding equipment at the inspection location or an optical line test will be conducted from the connection point at the inspection location.

[0047] Next, the estimation of a fault in a relay cable in this embodiment will be described below. Fig. 16 is a diagram for explaining an example of detection of a fault in a cable. In this case, the target cable is assumed to be a relay cable installed between "accommodation building A" and "accommodation building B" as shown in Fig. 16. The length of this cable is assumed to be several kilometers.

[0048] In the example shown in Figure 16, a fault in the target cable, which is a relay cable between accommodation building A and accommodation building B, is detected from alarm information in the monitoring system, and alarm information is sent to the monitoring station. When cable information of this target cable is acquired by estimated target cable acquisition unit 11, an estimation of a fault in the relay cable is made.

[0049] FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining an example of extraction of nearby cables. Next, the nearby cable extraction unit 13 extracts nearby cables adjacent to the target cable, in this case, the cable names "Cable A1" and "Cable B1" shown in Figure 17, and groups the target cable and "Cable A1" into group G1 shown in Figure 17, and groups the target cable and "Cable B1" into group G2 shown in Figure 17. Here, the target cable and the nearby cable are laid along the same route.

[0050] The monitoring information processing unit 15 divides the section of the target cable at the branch point between the target cable and the extracted nearby cables. In the example shown in Fig. 17, the section of the target cable is divided into four sections, "Section 1", "Section 2", "Section 3", and "Section 4", which run from "Housing Building A" to "Housing Building B".

[0051] The monitoring information processing unit 15 checks, for each extracted cable and for each section, whether the target cable overlaps with a faulty section of a nearby cable, and if the target cable overlaps with a nearby cable, sets a value obtained by adding 1 to the number of nearby cables in the corresponding section. The number of nearby cables is the number of cables nearby the target cable, and is set for each section of the target cable.

[0052] If the target cable overlaps with the faulty section of a nearby cable, the monitoring information processing unit 15 sets a value that is one more than the number of nearby faulty cables in the relevant section, and if the target cable does not overlap with the faulty section of a nearby cable, the monitoring information processing unit 15 sets a value that is one more than the number of nearby non-faulty cables in the relevant section.

[0053] FIG. 18 is a diagram for explaining an example of counting the number of nearby faulty cables and the number of nearby non-faulty cables. In the example shown in Figure 18, since "Section 1" of the target cable does not overlap with the faulty section of the neighboring cable "Cable A1" of the target cable, the number of neighboring cables is set to "1," the number of neighboring non-faulty cables is set to "1," and the number of neighboring faulty cables is set to "0" for this "Section 1."

[0054] In addition, in the example shown in Figure 18, since "Section 2" of the target cable overlaps with the faulty section of the neighboring cable "Cable A1" of the target cable, the number of neighboring cables is set to "1", the number of neighboring non-faulty cables is set to "0", and the number of neighboring faulty cables is set to "1" for this "Section 2".

[0055] In the example shown in Figure 18, since there are no nearby cables in "Section 3" of the target cable, the number of nearby cables is set to "0", the number of nearby non-fault cables is set to "0", and the number of nearby fault cables is set to "0" for this "Section 3".

[0056] In addition, in the example shown in Figure 18, since "Section 4" of the target cable does not overlap with the faulty section of the neighboring cable "Cable B1" of the target cable, the number of neighboring cables is set to "1", the number of neighboring non-faulty cables is set to "1", and the number of neighboring faulty cables is set to "0" for this "Section 4".

[0057] FIG. 19 is a diagram showing, in a table format, an example of the number of nearby cables of a faulty cable, the number of nearby faulty cables, and the number of nearby non-faulty cables. FIG. 19 is a diagram showing, in a table format, the number of nearby cables, the number of nearby non-faulty cables, and the number of nearby faulty cables set for each section shown in FIG.

[0058] Next, a first example of identifying candidates for a broken section in a trunk cable will be described. When there is a section in which the number of nearby fault cables is one or more (Yes in S18), the monitoring information processing unit 15 calculates the fault rate=(number of nearby fault cables) / (number of nearby cables) for each section (S19).

[0059] The disconnection section identification unit 16 identifies the section with the highest failure rate among the sections as a candidate for the disconnection location. If there are multiple sections with the highest failure rate, these multiple sections are output as candidates for the disconnection location in descending order of the number of nearby faulty cables set in the section. The disconnection section identifying unit 16 identifies sections other than the extracted nearby non-faulty cable section as candidates for the disconnection location (S20).

[0060] Furthermore, when there is no section where the number of nearby fault cables is 1 or more (No in S18), the broken section identification unit 16 identifies sections other than the section where the set number of nearby non-fault cables is 1 as candidates for the broken location (S21). Information on the candidate identified in S20 or S21 is displayed by the disconnection section display unit 17 on a display device (not shown).

[0061] When the number of nearby cables, the number of nearby non-faulty cables, and the number of nearby faulty cables in each section in the network configuration shown in Figure 18 correspond to the example shown in Figure 19, the section in which the number of nearby faulty cables is 1 or more is "Section 2."

[0062] FIG. 20 is a diagram showing, in a table format, an example of the number of cables adjacent to a faulty cable, the number of nearby faulty cables, the number of nearby non-faulty cables, and the fault rate. Then, as shown in FIG. 20, the disconnection section identification unit 16 calculates that the fault rate in this "section 2" is "1.0", which is the number of nearby faulty cables "1" divided by the number of nearby cables "1", and identifies this "section 2" as a candidate for the disconnection section.

[0063] Next, a second example of identifying candidates for a broken section in a relay cable will be described. FIG. 21 is a diagram for explaining an example of identifying a broken section in a faulty cable. In the network configuration shown in FIG. 21, the faulty section of the neighboring cable of the target cable does not overlap with the target cable.

[0064] In detail, in the example shown in FIG. 21, since "Section 1" and "Section 2" of the target cable do not overlap with the faulty section of the neighboring cable "Cable A1" of the target cable, the number of neighboring cables is set to "1", the number of neighboring non-faulty cables is set to "1", and the number of neighboring faulty cables is set to "0" for "Section 1" and "Section 2".

[0065] In the example shown in Figure 21, since there are no nearby cables in "Section 3" of the target cable, the number of nearby cables is set to "0", the number of nearby non-fault cables is set to "0", and the number of nearby fault cables is set to "0" for this "Section 3".

[0066] In addition, in the example shown in Figure 21, since "Section 4" of the target cable does not overlap with the faulty section of the neighboring cable "Cable B1" of the target cable, the number of neighboring cables is set to "1", the number of neighboring non-faulty cables is set to "1", and the number of neighboring faulty cables is set to "0" for this "Section 4".

[0067] FIG. 22 is a diagram showing, in a table format, an example of the number of cables adjacent to a faulty cable, the number of nearby faulty cables, and the number of nearby non-faulty cables. FIG. 22 is a diagram showing, in a table format, the number of nearby cables, the number of nearby non-faulty cables, and the number of nearby faulty cables set for each section shown in FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 22, since there is no section where the number of nearby fault cables is 1 or more, the disconnected section identification unit 16 identifies “Section 3” other than the section where the number of nearby non-fault cables is 1 as a candidate for the disconnected location. In this way, even if the target cable does not overlap with the faulty section of the nearby cable, it is possible to identify the faulty location by using information about the non-faulty cables in the nearby cables.

[0068] Next, a third example of identifying candidates for a broken section in a relay cable will be described. FIG. 23 is a diagram for explaining an example of identifying a broken section in a faulty cable. In the network configuration shown in FIG. 23, “Section 2” of the target cable overlaps with the faulty section of the neighboring cable “Cable A1” of the target cable, and “Section 4” of the target cable overlaps with the faulty section of the neighboring cable “Cable B1” of the target cable.

[0069] In detail, in the example shown in FIG. 23, since “Section 1” of the target cable does not overlap with the faulty section of the neighboring cable “Cable A1” of the target cable, the number of neighboring cables is set to “1”, the number of neighboring non-faulty cables is set to “1”, and the number of neighboring faulty cables is set to “0” for this “Section 1”.

[0070] In the example shown in Figure 23, since "Section 2" of the target cable overlaps with the faulty section of the neighboring cable "Cable A1" of the target cable, the number of neighboring cables is set to "1", the number of neighboring non-faulty cables is set to "0", and the number of neighboring faulty cables is set to "1" for this "Section 2".

[0071] In the example shown in Figure 23, since there are no nearby cables in "Section 3" of the target cable, the number of nearby cables is set to "0", the number of nearby non-fault cables is set to "0", and the number of nearby fault cables is set to "0" for this "Section 3".

[0072] In addition, in the example shown in Figure 23, since "Section 4" of the target cable overlaps with the faulty section of the neighboring cable "Cable B1" of the target cable, the number of neighboring cables is set to "1", the number of neighboring non-faulty cables is set to "0", and the number of neighboring faulty cables is set to "1" for this "Section 4". In the network configuration shown in FIG. 23, the sections in which the number of nearby faulty cables is one or more are "Section 2" and "Section 4."

[0073] FIG. 24 is a diagram showing, in a table format, an example of the number of cables adjacent to a faulty cable, the number of adjacent faulty cables, the number of adjacent non-faulty cables, and the fault rate. Then, as shown in FIG. 24, the disconnection section identification unit 16 calculates that the fault rate in "Section 2" is 1.0, obtained by dividing the number of nearby faulty cables "1" by the number of nearby cables "1", and calculates that the fault rate in "Section 4" is 1.0, obtained by dividing the number of nearby faulty cables "1" by the number of nearby cables "1".

[0074] In this way, when there are multiple sections with the highest failure rate among the sections and the number of nearby fault cables set for these sections is the same, the broken section identification unit 16 arranges these sections in order of the number of nearby cables, and identifies each section as a candidate for a broken section, with the section with the largest number of nearby cables being the section where a failure is most likely to have occurred and the section with the smallest number of nearby cables being the section where a failure is least likely to have occurred. In the example shown in FIG. 24, since the number of adjacent cables in "Section 2" and "Section 4" is the same, each section is identified as a candidate for the disconnected section. In this way, when there are multiple failure locations, it is possible to detect the possibility of the failure.

[0075] As described above, the communication cable fault estimation device of one embodiment of the present invention extracts, for each section, communication cables laid near the estimation target cable that is the subject of fault estimation as nearby cables, sets multiple sections of the estimation target cable at each branch point between the estimation target cable and the nearby cables, calculates a fault rate for each section, which is the number of nearby cables in which a fault has occurred in that section divided by the number of all nearby cables in that section, and identifies candidate sections in which a fault has occurred in the estimation target cable based on the fault rate. Therefore, a fault in the communication cable can be appropriately estimated.

[0076] FIG. 25 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of a communication cable fault estimation device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 25, the communication cable fault estimation device 100 according to the above embodiment is configured, for example, by a server computer or a personal computer, and has a hardware processor 111A such as a CPU. A program memory 111B, a data memory 112, an input / output interface 113, and a communication interface 114 are connected to the hardware processor 111A via a bus 120.

[0077] The communication interface 114 includes, for example, one or more wireless communication interface units, and enables transmission and reception of information to and from the communication network NW. As the wireless interface, for example, an interface that adopts a low-power wireless data communication standard such as a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) is used.

[0078] An input device 200 and an output device 300 for an operator, which are attached to the communication cable fault estimation apparatus 100, are connected to the input / output interface 113. The input / output interface 113 takes in operation data input by an operator through an input device 200 such as a keyboard, a touch panel, a touchpad, or a mouse, and outputs output data to an output device 300 including a display device using liquid crystal or organic EL (Electro Luminescence), etc., for display. The input device 200 and the output device 300 may be devices built into the communication cable fault estimation device 100, or may be input devices and output devices of other information terminals that can communicate with the communication cable fault estimation device 100 via a network NW.

[0079] The program memory 111B is a non-transient tangible storage medium that is a combination of a non-volatile memory that can be written to and read from at any time, such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD), and a non-volatile memory such as a read only memory (ROM), and stores programs necessary for executing various control processes according to one embodiment.

[0080] The data memory 112 is a tangible storage medium, for example, a combination of the above-mentioned nonvolatile memory and a volatile memory such as RAM (Random Access Memory), and is used to store various data acquired and created in the course of various processes.

[0081] A communication cable fault estimation device 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention can be configured as a data processing device having, as processing function units based on software, an estimation target cable acquisition unit 11, a cable information management DB 12, a nearby cable extraction unit 13, a cable fault information DB 14, a monitoring information processing unit 15, a broken section identification unit 16, and a broken section display unit 17 shown in FIG. 1.

[0082] The cable information management DB 12 and the cable fault information DB 14 can be configured by using the data memory 112 shown in Fig. 25. However, these areas are not essential components within the communication cable fault estimation device 100, and may be areas provided in, for example, an external storage medium such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) memory, or a storage device such as a database server located in the cloud.

[0083] The processing function units in each of the above-mentioned estimation target cable acquisition unit 11, nearby cable extraction unit 13, monitoring information processing unit 15, disconnection section identification unit 16, and disconnection section display unit 17 can all be realized by having the above-mentioned hardware processor 111A read and execute a program stored in the program memory 111B. Note that some or all of these processing function units may be realized in various other forms, including integrated circuits such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit)) or an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array).

[0084] The methods described in each embodiment may be stored as a program (software means) that can be executed by a computer on a recording medium such as a magnetic disk (floppy disk, hard disk, etc.), an optical disc (CD-ROM, DVD, MO, etc.), or a semiconductor memory (ROM, RAM, flash memory, etc.), and may be distributed by transmitting the program via a communication medium. The programs stored on the medium include a setting program that configures the software means (including not only execution programs but also tables and data structures) that the computer executes. The computer that realizes the present device reads the program recorded on the recording medium, and in some cases, configures the software means by the setting program, and executes the above-mentioned processing by controlling the operation of the software means. The recording medium in this specification is not limited to a recording medium for distribution, but also includes a storage medium such as a magnetic disk or semiconductor memory provided inside the computer or in a device connected via a network.

[0085] The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and can be modified in various ways without departing from the gist of the present invention. The embodiments may be combined as appropriate, and in that case, the combined effect can be obtained. Furthermore, the above-mentioned embodiment includes various inventions, and various inventions can be extracted by combinations selected from the multiple components disclosed. For example, if the problem can be solved and the effect can be obtained even if some components are deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment, the configuration from which the components are deleted can be extracted as an invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0086] 100...Communication cable fault estimation device 11…Estimated cable acquisition section 12…Cable information management database (DB) 13…Nearby cable extraction section 14…Cable fault information database 15...Surveillance information processing section 16...Disconnection section identification part 17…Disconnection section display section

Claims

1. an extraction unit that extracts, for each section, a communication cable that is laid near a cable that is a target cable for which a fault is to be estimated, as a nearby cable; a setting unit that sets a plurality of sections of the cable to be estimated by dividing the section of the cable to be estimated into a plurality of sections at a branch point between the cable to be estimated and a nearby cable extracted by the extraction unit; a calculation unit that calculates, for each section set by the setting unit, a fault rate that is a value obtained by dividing the number of the neighboring cables in which a fault has occurred in the section by the number of all neighboring cables in the section; an identification unit that identifies a candidate for a section in which a fault has occurred in the estimation target cable based on the fault rate calculated by the calculation unit for each section; A communication cable fault estimation device comprising:

2. The calculation unit is determining, for each section set by the setting unit, the number of the nearby cables in which a fault has occurred in that section and the number of all nearby cables in that section; calculate the fault rate, which is a value obtained by dividing the number of the nearby cables in which a fault has occurred in the section set by the setting unit, by the number of all the nearby cables in the section; The identification unit is identifying a section having the highest failure rate calculated by the calculation unit among the sections as a candidate for the section in which the failure has occurred; The communication cable fault inferring device according to claim 1 .

3. The calculation unit is determining, for each section set by the setting unit, the number of the nearby cables in which a fault has occurred in that section, the number of the nearby cables in which a fault has not occurred in that section, and the number of all the nearby cables in that section; The identification unit is when there is no section in which the number of the nearby cables in which the fault occurs is one or more among the sections set by the setting unit, the section excluding the section in which the number of the nearby cables in which the fault does not occur is one or more is specified as a candidate for the section in which the fault occurs. The communication cable fault inferring device according to claim 1 .

4. The identification unit is when a plurality of sections among the sections are identified as sections having the highest failure rate calculated by the calculation unit, a section among these sections having a large number of the nearby cables in which the failure has occurred is identified as a candidate section in which the failure is likely to have occurred. The communication cable fault inferring device according to claim 1 .

5. A method performed by a communication cable fault estimation device, comprising: extracting, for each section, a communication cable laid near a cable that is a subject of fault estimation, as a nearby cable; setting a plurality of sections of the cable to be estimated by dividing the section of the cable to be estimated into a plurality of sections at a branch point between the cable to be estimated and the extracted nearby cable; calculating a fault rate for each of the set sections, the fault rate being a value obtained by dividing the number of the neighboring cables in the section where a fault has occurred by the number of all neighboring cables in the section; identifying a candidate section in which a fault has occurred in the estimation target cable based on the calculated fault rate for each section; A communication cable fault estimation method comprising:

6. The calculating step comprises: calculating, for each of the set sections, the number of the neighboring cables in which a fault has occurred in that section and the number of all neighboring cables in that section; calculating the fault rate, which is a value obtained by dividing the number of the nearby cables in which a fault has occurred in the section among the set sections, by the number of all the nearby cables in the section, for the section in which the fault has occurred, by one or more; The identifying step includes: identifying a section having the highest calculated failure rate among the sections as a candidate section in which the failure has occurred; The communication cable fault estimation method according to claim 5 .

7. The calculating step comprises: determining, for each of the set sections, the number of the neighboring cables in which a fault has occurred in that section, the number of the neighboring cables in which a fault has not occurred in that section, and the number of all the neighboring cables in that section; The identifying step includes: and when there is no section among the set sections in which the number of the nearby cables in which the fault occurs is one or more, identifying sections excluding sections in which the number of the nearby cables in which the fault does not occur is one or more as candidates for the section in which the fault occurs. The communication cable fault estimation method according to claim 5 .

8. A communication cable fault inference processing program that causes a processor to function as each unit of the communication cable fault inference device according to any one of claims 1 to 4.

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