Network management device, method, and program

Abstract

A network management device according to one embodiment of the present invention includes: an extraction unit that, on the basis of prediction information for an area in which a disaster occurs, extracts a building in an area in which a failure is predicted to occur in communication by the disaster reaching a communication facility, from among buildings which constitute a network configuration of a plurality of areas and which have communication facilities accommodated therein; a resource calculation unit that, under the condition of assuming that the failure indicated by the prediction information has occurred, calculates a resource to be used for a restoration work, of the failure, on the building extracted by the extraction unit; and a plan processing unit that, when a communication failure has actually occurred in the building extracted by the extraction unit, plans the restoration work, of the occurred failure, on the building extracted by the extraction unit, by using the resource calculated by the resource calculation unit.

Description

Network management device, method and program

[0001] FIELD Embodiments of the present invention relate to a network management device, method, and program.

[0002] In a building (sometimes called a communications building) that houses communications equipment and provides communications to the outside world, if communications within the building are cut off due to a disaster such as an earthquake or typhoon cutting off the power supply from a power plant, communications can be resumed by restoring power by operating a fuel-powered emergency generator installed within the building.

[0003] If the emergency generators operate for a long period of time and the fuel stored in the building runs out, the operation of the emergency generators will stop, and the power supply will be cut off again, cutting off communications. Therefore, telecommunications carriers deliver and supply fuel to the telecommunications buildings by vehicles or other means.

[0004] Telecommunications operators need to quickly resume providing communications services by delivering fuel to telecommunications buildings before they run out of fuel, or by using fuel delivery vehicles to quickly deliver fuel to telecommunications buildings that have run out of fuel.

[0005] In order to minimize the impact of communication outages under conditions of limited fuel resources, telecommunications operators need to quickly select relief buildings to which fuel will be delivered from among the many telecommunications buildings that have lost power and are running out of fuel.

[0006] The buildings to be rescued must be selected based on various factors, such as the damaged building, the impact on communication network services from the building, its location, fuel situation, and traffic situation, and manual review requires a great deal of time and advanced skills.

[0007] When a disaster-induced failure or power outage occurs, by managing the relationships between resources in the communication network, the ripple effect from the failure point to related resources can be understood, and human resources and equipment such as fuel delivery vehicles that can be used to deliver fuel to the buildings to be rescued can be utilized, and buildings to be rescued can be automatically and quickly selected in order of relatively high priority for rescue.

[0008] In addition, the ripple effect on buildings that experience failures during a disaster can be calculated, and based on information about buildings that have experienced outages or social information, an assessment of the impact on services and a deployment plan can be calculated using policies that weight each impact item.

[0009] Japanese Patent No. 6655524 Japanese Patent No. 7107158 Japanese Patent No. 6837022 International Publication No. 2022 / 130475 International Publication No. 2022 / 259298

[0010] After a widespread power outage occurs due to a disaster, simultaneous response to multiple communications buildings is required, and when formulating an optimal recovery plan that takes into account recovery priority, first, even if initial deployment of human resources or equipment such as fuel delivery vehicles was made based on know-how before the widespread power outage occurred, there is a problem that triage may be required due to a shortage of the human resources or equipment such as fuel delivery vehicles, meaning that recovery work may have to be abandoned for buildings that are to be rescued and have a relatively low recovery priority.

[0011] Secondly, there is the problem that it would cost a huge amount of money to prepare the above-mentioned human resources or equipment such as fuel delivery vehicles that can constantly respond to widespread power outages in all communication buildings.

[0012] This invention was made with the above-mentioned circumstances in mind, and its purpose is to provide a network management device, method, and program that can appropriately identify the target of recovery work when communication in a building is disrupted.

[0013] A network management device according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises an extraction unit that extracts buildings in areas where communication equipment is expected to be disrupted due to a disaster that affects the communication equipment from among buildings that form a network configuration of multiple areas and that house communication equipment based on prediction information about areas where a disaster will occur; a resource calculation unit that calculates resources to be used in work to restore the failure in the building extracted by the extraction unit under conditions that assume that a failure indicated in the prediction information has occurred; and a planning processing unit that, when a communication failure actually occurs in the building extracted by the extraction unit, plans work to restore the failure using the resources calculated by the resource calculation unit in the building extracted by the extraction unit.

[0014] A network management method according to one aspect of the present invention is a method performed by a network management device, and includes: an extraction unit of the network management device extracts, based on prediction information for areas where a disaster will occur, buildings in areas where communication failure is predicted to occur when the disaster affects the communication equipment, from among buildings that form a network configuration of multiple areas and that house communication equipment; a resource calculation unit of the network management device calculates resources to be used in work to restore the failure in the building extracted by the extraction unit under conditions assuming that the failure indicated in the prediction information has occurred; and a planning processing unit of the network management device plans work to restore the failure in the building extracted by the extraction unit using the resources calculated by the resource calculation unit when a communication failure actually occurs in the building extracted by the extraction unit.

[0015] According to the present invention, it is possible to appropriately identify the target of restoration work when a communication failure occurs in a building.

[0016] Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a procedure for outputting a deployment plan and a routing plan by a network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a diagram showing an application example of a network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 3 is a flow chart showing an example of a processing procedure by a network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0017] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Figure 1 is a diagram showing an example of the procedure for outputting a deployment plan and a routing plan by a network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention performs the following processes (A-1) to (A-4) and (B-1) to (B-5).

[0018] (A-1) Weather information and power outage forecasts are acquired from outside, and based on the acquired results, the power outage forecast area of ​​the communication building and the power outage occurrence rate for that area are predicted. The power outage forecast is prediction information on the power outage occurrence rate based on, for example, a wind speed forecast.

[0019] (A-2) Based on the predicted power outage area and power outage occurrence rate, for example, using location integration technology such as GIS (geographic information system), among the communication buildings in each area, for example, multiple communication buildings located within the predicted power outage area where the power outage occurrence rate is equal to or greater than a predetermined value are extracted as communication buildings predicted to be power outages. Then, after searching for communication network configuration information, the power outage ripple effect, which is the communication buildings affected by the power outage in this predicted power outage communication building, is calculated, and the result of this calculation and the power outage occurrence rate are taken into account to calculate the priority of each of the predicted power outage communication buildings as a target for restoration work.

[0020] Furthermore, when the power outage occurrence rate is not predicted, a plurality of communication buildings located within the power outage predicted area may be extracted as communication buildings for which power outages are predicted, and these buildings may be subjected to subsequent processing. Note that the above buildings may also be in other forms as long as they are facilities that provide communications.

[0021] (A-3) Based on the restoration priority and the number of personnel and restoration vehicles available within the area from which the power outage prediction communication building was extracted, an initial deployment plan for personnel and restoration vehicles, which are resources for restoration work for the communication failure predicted to occur at the power outage prediction communication building, and a patrol plan for personnel and restoration vehicles to the power outage prediction communication building are calculated. Here, for example, an initial deployment plan and patrol plan may be calculated for some of the extracted power outage prediction communication buildings with relatively high priorities. The number of buildings that can be targeted for restoration work according to this plan is limited by the number of personnel and restoration vehicles available within the area from which the power outage prediction communication building was extracted. In other words, among the extracted power outage prediction communication buildings, buildings that are not targeted for restoration work according to the calculated plan are subject to exclusion by so-called triage, and restoration work will be postponed.

[0022] The initial deployment and patrol may also include equipment necessary for recovery work, repair materials, and beverages and food to be provided to residents of the power outage prediction communication building. The initial deployment plan may include a plan based on the depletion of power supplied to the buildings by emergency power sources installed in each building and the depletion of the materials over time after the power outage. The patrol plan may also include a plan for replenishing the depleted power and materials.

[0023] Examples of the communication failure include a communication interruption caused by a power cutoff to communication equipment in a building, or a communication interruption caused by a failure of communication equipment such as a server or damage to a communication cable. In the following description of this embodiment, a communication interruption caused by a power cutoff to communication equipment in a building will be described as an example.

[0024] The types of emergency power sources installed in each building include emergency generators that run on fuel and emergency power supply devices that run on rechargeable batteries. The emergency generators are, for example, diesel engines. The restoration work vehicles are vehicles used to restore communications to buildings that have experienced communications disruptions, and include, for example, fuel delivery vehicles and power supply vehicles. The fuel delivery vehicle is a vehicle that carries fuel for the emergency generator when the emergency power source in the building is the emergency generator and has equipment for filling the emergency generator with this fuel. The power supply vehicle is a vehicle that has equipment for charging the battery when the emergency power source in the building is the emergency power supply device, or a vehicle that carries a replacement battery, i.e., a new, charged battery, when the battery is replaceable.

[0025] Then, the initial deployment plan and patrol plan are recalculated under conditions where the initial deployment resources, i.e., personnel and recovery work vehicles, are increased so that the number of triage targets when patrols according to the calculated plan are reduced. This calculation is repeated until there are no more triage targets.

[0026] (A-4) When triage is no longer required, the predicted required number of resources for initial deployment is calculated taking into account the power outage occurrence rate, and is stored as a revised initial deployment plan.

[0027] (B-1) After the above storage, when a power outage actually occurs, the fault information and power outage information of the communication building are acquired as fault information. (B-2) Using the acquired results, the ripple effect on the communication network service is calculated. This calculation can be performed using a known method, such as the fault impact calculation function disclosed in Patent Document 2.

[0028] (B-3) Utilizing the network topology, the restoration priority for the communication building where the failure occurred is calculated based on the calculated ripple effect. This calculation can be performed using a known method such as that disclosed in Patent Document 4.

[0029] (B-4) The parameters of the communication building where the failure occurred and the revised initial deployment plan stored in (A-4) above are acquired. The parameters are parameters related to the recovery work, such as the remaining amount of fuel for the emergency generator when the emergency power source installed in the communication building is an emergency generator, or the remaining amount of power to be charged in the storage battery when the emergency power source installed in the communication building is an emergency power supply device.

[0030] (B-5) Based on the calculation results in (B-3) above and the initial deployment plan obtained, a deployment plan and patrol plan for personnel and recovery work vehicles are calculated using, for example, a known genetic algorithm and branch and bound method.

[0031] In this embodiment, by performing the above processing, the resources necessary for recovery work in the building to be rescued are secured in advance, and an initial deployment plan is obtained, making it possible to formulate an optimal recovery plan.

[0032] In addition, by initially deploying the necessary human resources and equipment, such as recovery vehicles, to areas with a high probability of disasters, it becomes possible to formulate an optimal recovery plan and ensure rapid recovery, thereby preventing the need for triage.

[0033] In this embodiment, by using weather information and the like to create a recovery plan that takes into account the probability of disaster occurrence, it is possible to reduce costs by securing human resources capable of responding to breakdowns and equipment such as power restoration work vehicles for only the necessary period.

[0034] 2 is a diagram showing an application example of a network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the network management device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an impact assessment function unit 10, a power outage impact prediction function unit 20, a resource management function unit 30, a deployment plan calculation function unit 40, and a display function unit 50.

[0035] The impact assessment function unit 10 has a data receiving function unit 11, an impact calculation processing unit 12, and a calculation result storage unit 13. The power outage impact prediction function unit 20 has a power outage area calculation processing unit 21 and a required resource calculation unit 22. The resource management function unit 30 has a data format conversion processing function unit 31 and a network configuration holding unit 32. The deployment plan calculation function unit 40 has an initial deployment plan storage unit 41, a deployment plan calculation processing unit 42, and a deployment plan storage unit 43.

[0036] The display function unit 50 has a function to display information stored in the calculation result storage unit 13 by the processing by the influence calculation processing unit 12, and a function to display the processing contents by the deployment plan calculation processing unit 42.

[0037] 3 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure performed by a network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention. First, the power outage area calculation processing unit 21 of the power outage impact prediction function unit 20 acquires weather information and a power outage forecast from outside (S11). In this embodiment, network design information indicating (1) the locations of communication buildings installed in each area and (2) the hierarchical relationships of each communication building in the network topology is pre-stored in the network configuration storage unit 32 after necessary conversion by the data format conversion processing function unit 31 of the resource management function unit 30. In this embodiment, information indicating the number of personnel and recovery work vehicles available in each area is pre-stored in the network configuration storage unit 32.

[0038] Then, the power outage area calculation processing unit 21 acquires the locations of the communication buildings installed in each area from the network configuration storage unit 32 of the resource management function unit 30, and based on the results of this acquisition and the results acquired in S11, predicts the predicted power outage area of ​​the communication building and the power outage occurrence rate in the relevant area.

[0039] Next, the required resource calculation unit 22 sends information on the results of this prediction to the impact calculation processing unit 12 of the impact assessment function unit 10, calculates the number of personnel and recovery work vehicles required for recovery work in communication buildings located in the power outage predicted area indicated by the prediction result, and stores the calculation results in the initial deployment plan storage unit 41 of the deployment plan calculation function unit 40. The impact calculation processing unit 12 acquires the hierarchical relationship of each communication building from the network configuration holding unit 32, calculates the power outage ripple effect based on the acquisition result and the information sent from the required resource calculation unit 22, and stores the calculation results in the calculation result storage unit 13. The impact calculation processing unit 12 calculates the priority of rescue and restoration for each of the power outage predicted communication buildings, taking into account the calculated power outage ripple effect and the power outage occurrence rate, and stores the calculation results in the network configuration holding unit 32 (S12).

[0040] The deployment plan calculation processing unit 42 acquires the numbers of personnel and recovery work vehicles required for restoration work at communication buildings located in the predicted power outage area, which are stored in the initial deployment plan storage unit 41, and the priority of rescue and restoration, which is stored in the network configuration holding unit 32. Based on the acquired results, the deployment plan calculation processing unit 42 calculates deployment routes for restoration work for each communication building located in the predicted power outage area, in this case, an initial deployment plan for personnel and recovery work vehicles, and a patrol plan for personnel and recovery work vehicles to the communication buildings predicted to experience a power outage based on the initial deployment plan, and stores the results of this calculation in the deployment plan storage unit 43 (S13).

[0041] The deployment plan calculation processing unit 42 then determines whether there are any triage targets when patrols are carried out according to the calculated plan (S14). If there are any triage targets, the deployment plan calculation processing unit 42 reads out the initial deployment plan and patrol plans stored in the deployment plan storage unit 43. The deployment plan calculation processing unit 42 calculates new initial deployment plans and patrol plans when the number of personnel and recovery work vehicles involved in recovery work for each communication building located in the predicted power outage area, as indicated by the read results, is increased, and stores the results of this calculation in the initial deployment plan storage unit 41 (S15). After this storage, the process returns to S13.

[0042] When there are no more triage targets, the deployment plan calculation processing unit 42 stores the initial deployment plan and the routing plan calculated at this point in the initial deployment plan storage unit 41 (S16).

[0043] After the processes from S11 to S16, when a power outage actually occurs, the data receiving function unit 11 of the influence grasping function unit 10 acquires the failure information and power outage information of the communication building as fault information (S21).

[0044] The impact calculation processing unit 12 of the impact assessment function unit 10 acquires the hierarchical relationship of each communication building from the network configuration storage unit 32, and uses the results of this acquisition and the results acquired in S21 to calculate the ripple impact on communication network services, and stores the results of this calculation in the calculation result storage unit 13 (S22).

[0045] The impact calculation processing unit 12 calculates the priority of recovery taking into account the calculated ripple effect for each of the communication buildings where a power outage has occurred, as indicated by the failure information, and stores the results of this calculation in the network configuration storage unit 32 (S23).

[0046] In this embodiment, parameters related to the recovery work of a communications building where a failure has occurred, such as the remaining amount of fuel for an emergency generator when the emergency power source installed in the communications building is an emergency generator, or the remaining amount of electricity to be charged in the storage battery when the emergency power source installed in the communications building is an emergency power supply device, are stored in the network configuration storage unit 32.

[0047] The deployment plan calculation processing unit 42 acquires the above parameters stored in the network configuration holding unit 32 and the initial deployment plan and the routing plan stored in the initial deployment plan storage unit 41 in S16 as available resources (S24).

[0048] The deployment plan calculation processing unit 42 acquires the restoration priority stored in the network configuration holding unit 32 in S23. Based on the acquired priority and the available resources acquired in S24, the deployment plan calculation processing unit 42 calculates an initial deployment plan for personnel and recovery work vehicles involved in restoration work for each communication building located in the area where the power outage occurred, as well as a patrol plan for personnel and recovery work vehicles to the communication building where the power outage occurred, based on the initial deployment plan, and stores the results of this calculation in the deployment plan storage unit 43 (S25).

[0049] 4 is a block diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of a network management device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the example shown in FIG. 4, the network management device 100 according to the embodiment is configured, for example, as 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 this hardware processor 111A via a bus 115.

[0050] The communication interface 114 includes, for example, one or more wireless communication interface units, and enables transmission and reception of information to and from a 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.

[0051] An input device 300 and an output device 400 attached to the network management device 100 and used by a user or the like are connected to the input / output interface 113. The input / output interface 113 receives operation data input by a user or the like via the input device 300, such as a keyboard, touch panel, touchpad, or mouse, and outputs output data to an output device 400, which may include a display device using a liquid crystal or organic electroluminescence (EL) display, for display. The input device 300 and the output device 400 may be devices built into the network management device 100, or may be input devices and output devices of other information terminals that can communicate with the network management device 100 via the network NW.

[0052] The program memory 111B is a non-transitory 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 to execute various control processes, etc., according to one embodiment.

[0053] The data memory 112 is a tangible storage medium that is, 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 during various processing steps.

[0054] The network management device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention may be configured as a data processing system or information processing device having a software-based processing function unit. The storage system used as a work memory or the like by the network management device 100 may be configured using the data memory 112 shown in FIG. 4. However, these configured storage areas are not essential components within the network management device 100 and may be areas provided in a storage system such as an external storage medium such as a USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory, or a database server located in the cloud.

[0055] The processing function unit can be realized by having the hardware processor 111A read and execute a program stored in the program memory 111B, but the processing function unit may also be realized in various other forms, including an integrated circuit such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or a field-programmable gate array (FPGA).

[0056] 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 (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, etc.), an optical disk (e.g., a CD-ROM, a DVD, an MO, etc.), or a semiconductor memory (e.g., a ROM, a RAM, a flash memory, etc.), or may be transmitted and distributed via a communication medium. The program stored on the medium also includes a configuration program that configures the software means (including not only executable programs but also tables and data structures) that the computer executes. The computer that realizes this device reads the program stored on the recording medium and, in some cases, configures the software means using the configuration program, and executes the above-described processing by having the operation controlled by this software means. The term "recording medium" as used herein is not limited to a storage medium for distribution, but also includes a storage medium such as a magnetic disk or semiconductor memory installed inside the computer or in a device connected via a network.

[0057] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made in the implementation stage without departing from the spirit of the invention. Furthermore, the embodiments may be implemented in appropriate combinations, in which case the combined effects can be obtained. Furthermore, the above-described embodiments include various inventions, and various inventions can be extracted by combining selected elements from the disclosed elements. For example, if the problem can be solved and the desired effect can be obtained even if some elements are deleted from all elements shown in the embodiments, the configuration from which these elements are deleted can be extracted as an invention.

[0058] DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100... Network management device 10... Impact assessment function unit 11... Data reception function unit 12... Impact calculation processing unit 13... Calculation result storage unit 20... Power outage impact prediction function unit 21... Power outage area calculation processing unit 22... Required resource calculation unit 30... Resource management function unit 31... Data format conversion processing function unit 32... Network configuration holding unit 40... Deployment plan calculation function unit 41... Initial deployment plan storage unit 42... Deployment plan calculation processing unit 43... Deployment plan storage unit

Claims

1. A network management device comprising: an extraction unit that extracts buildings in areas where communications are predicted to be disrupted when a disaster reaches the communications equipment, from among buildings that form a network configuration of multiple areas and that house communications equipment, based on prediction information about areas where a disaster will occur; a resource calculation unit that calculates resources to be used in operations to restore the failure indicated in the prediction information to the building extracted by the extraction unit, under conditions assuming that the failure has occurred; and a planning processing unit that, when a communication failure actually occurs in the building extracted by the extraction unit, plans operations to restore the failure using the resources calculated by the resource calculation unit to the building extracted by the extraction unit.

2. A network management device as described in claim 1, wherein the predictive information includes the occurrence rate of the disaster in the area, and the extraction unit extracts buildings in areas where the failure is predicted to occur, narrowed down from the buildings in the multiple areas based on the predictive information of areas with a relatively high occurrence rate of the disaster.

3. A network management device as described in claim 1, wherein the predictive information is predictive information for an area in which a power outage will occur, and the extraction unit extracts buildings from among the buildings in the multiple areas in an area in which the power outage is predicted to affect the communication equipment, causing a communication disruption.

4. A network management device as described in claim 1, wherein the resource calculation unit calculates the resources to be used in the restoration work under conditions of the scale of resources that can be used for the restoration work to the extracted building, and the planning processing unit re-plans the restoration work for the occurred failure under conditions in which the scale of resources calculated by the resource calculation unit has been increased.

5. A method performed by a network management device, comprising: an extraction unit of the network management device extracting buildings in an area where a communication failure is predicted to occur when a disaster reaches the communication equipment from among buildings that form a network configuration of multiple areas and that house communication equipment based on prediction information on an area where a disaster will occur, a resource calculation unit of the network management device calculating resources to be used in the work of restoring the failure indicated in the prediction information to the building extracted by the extraction unit under conditions assuming that the failure has occurred; and a planning processing unit of the network management device planning the work of restoring the failure that has occurred to the building extracted by the extraction unit using the resources calculated by the resource calculation unit when a communication failure actually occurs in the building extracted by the extraction unit.

6. A network management method as described in claim 5, wherein the predictive information includes an occurrence rate of the disaster in the area, and the extraction unit extracts buildings in areas where the failure is predicted to occur, narrowed down from the buildings in the multiple areas based on the predictive information of areas with a relatively high occurrence rate of the disaster.

7. A network management method as described in claim 5, wherein the predictive information is predictive information for an area in which a power outage will occur, and the extraction unit extracts buildings from among the buildings in the multiple areas in an area in which the power outage is predicted to affect the communication equipment, causing a disruption in communications.

8. A network management processing program that causes a processor to function as each unit of the network management device according to any one of claims 1 to 4.