Network management device, method and program

Abstract

A network management device according to one embodiment includes: a detection unit that detects a communication path of a network configuration, the communication path being used in providing a service by means of the network configuration; and an extraction unit that, when a failure occurs in the communication path and switching from a communication path that is used in providing the service and includes a section where the failure has occurred to a communication path that bypasses the section where the failure has occurred is performed in association with the occurrence of the failure, extracts a communication path to be used in common in providing a greater number of services than before the switching is performed.

Description

Network management device, method and program

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

[0002] When a failure occurs in a large-scale system related to a communication network (sometimes simply referred to as a network), it is necessary to quickly identify the location of the failure and quickly understand the impact on services (see, for example, Patent Documents 1, 2, and 3).

[0003] Japanese Patent No. 6655524 Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2020-065202 Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2019-149774

[0004] With existing technology, network resources are managed by layer, and it is possible to grasp the impact of a physical failure such as a disconnection on one or both systems. However, when a failure occurs in the network configuration and the communication path (sometimes simply referred to as a path) used to provide a service is switched, it is not possible to properly grasp the areas where communication is unstable due to factors such as increased traffic concentration on the communication path compared to before the failure, and to properly grasp the possibility of, for example, "difficulty connecting" to the service.

[0005] This invention was made in light of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to provide a network management device, method, and program that enable appropriate understanding of the impact caused by communication failures.

[0006] A network management device according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises a detection unit that detects communication paths of a network configuration that are used to provide a service through the network configuration, and an extraction unit that, when a failure occurs in the communication path and a switch is made from a communication path used to provide the service that includes the point where the failure occurred to a communication path that bypasses the point where the failure occurred, extracts communication paths that are commonly used to provide a greater number of services compared to before the switch was made.

[0007] A network management method according to one embodiment of the present invention is a method performed by a network management device, comprising: detecting, by a detection unit of the network management device, communication paths of the network configuration used to provide services through the network configuration; and extracting, by an extraction unit of the network management device, a communication path that is commonly used to provide a greater number of services compared to before the switchover, when a switchover is made from a communication path used to provide the service that includes the point at which the failure occurred to a communication path that bypasses the point at which the failure occurred, following the occurrence of a failure in the communication path.

[0008] According to the present invention, it is possible to appropriately grasp the influence caused by the occurrence of a communication failure.

[0009] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an application example of a network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a network configuration. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of layers used to provide services before a failure occurs in the network configuration. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of layers used to provide services after a failure occurs in the network configuration. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing operations related to calculation of overlapping sections of communication by a network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing operations related to estimation of an unstable state by a network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the state of provision of each service in a table format. FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the hardware configuration of a network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0010] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an application example of a network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a network management device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a network resource information DB (database) 10, a network DB 20, an instability information DB 30, an extractor 40, an instability estimation unit 50, a controller 60, and an external I / F (interface) 70. The network resource DB 10 stores information related to each resource in the network configuration. The network DB 20 stores information on the status of the network configuration, such as traffic on each route. The controller 60 controls the processing of each unit and communication with various DBs. Details of the processing by each unit will be described later.

[0011] Fig. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a network configuration. The network configuration shown in Fig. 2 includes an "upper router 1," an "upper router 2," a "relay router 1," a "relay router 2," a "relay router 3," an "ER (edge ​​router) 1," an "ER 2," an "ER 3," and an "ER 4."

[0012] "Upstream router 1" and "upstream router 2" are provided upstream of the network, "relay router 1", "relay router 2" and "relay router 3" are provided between the upstream and downstream of the network, and "ER1", "ER2", "ER3" and "ER4" are provided downstream of the network.

[0013] In the above configuration, before a failure occurs, communication service "Service 1" is provided using a communication path from "Upstream Router 1" to "ER1" via "Relay Router 1", and communication service "Service 2" is provided using a communication path from "Upstream Router 1" to "ER3" via "Relay Router 1".

[0014] Furthermore, before the above-mentioned failure occurred, communication service "Service 3" was provided using a communication path from "Upstream Router 2" to "ER2" via "Relay Router 3", and communication service "Service 4" was provided using a communication path from "Upstream Router 2" to "ER4" via "Relay Router 3".

[0015] When a failure occurs in "relay router 1", the communication path for providing "service 1" is switched to a communication path from "upper router 1" to "ER1" via "upper router 2", "relay router 3" and "relay router 2". When the above failure occurs, the communication path for providing "service 2" is switched to a communication path from "upper router 1" to "ER3" via "upper router 2", "relay router 3" and "ER4".

[0016] Fig. 3 is a diagram showing an example of layers used to provide services before a failure occurs in a network configuration. Fig. 4 is a diagram showing an example of layers used to provide services after a failure occurs in a network configuration. As shown in Fig. 3, before the failure occurs, a route on "Layer 2," which is a logical layer corresponding to the physical layer between "upper router 2" and "relay router 3," is used to provide "Service 3" and "Service 4."

[0017] 4, after the failure occurs, the route on "Layer N," which is a logical layer at a higher level than "Layer 2" and corresponds to the physical layer between "upper router 2" and "relay router 3," is used to provide "Service 1" and "Service 2." As a result, the route on a logical layer at any level, which corresponds to the route on the physical layer between "upper router 2" and "relay router 3," becomes a section used by any of "Service 1," "Service 2," "Service 3," and "Service 4," i.e., an overlapping section that is used in an overlapping manner, and the network management device 100 according to this embodiment has a function to detect the occurrence of this overlapping section.

[0018] Compared to before the failure occurred, traffic on the path between "upstream router 2" and "relay router 3" increases. The network management device 100 according to this embodiment has a function of estimating that the provision of "service 1" and "service 4" in the overlapping section is unstable when information indicating a problem with the provision of services that use the overlapping section is provided from outside, for example, information that a user receiving "service 1" is having difficulty connecting when using service 1 and information that a user receiving "service 4" is having difficulty connecting when using service 4.

[0019] 5 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing operation for calculating an overlapping section of communication by a network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The extraction unit 40 of the network management device 100 starts extracting a communication path to be switched to when a communication path related to the provision of a service is switched to a path that bypasses the location of the failure due to the occurrence of a failure in the network configuration (S11).

[0020] If the location where the failure occurred and the communication path to be switched to can be extracted from the layer information of the network configuration (Yes in S12), the extraction unit 40 checks, for one of the logical layers of each layer, whether it is used for a service and, if so, the direction of transmission and reception of data related to the provision of the service (S13).If the location where the failure occurred and the communication path to be switched to cannot be extracted from the layer information of the network configuration (No in S12), the extraction unit 40 checks the communication path to be switched to from another OpS (Operating System) (S18).

[0021] After S13, the extraction unit 40 registers information about the layer used for the service in the network DB 20 (S14). After S14, if there is a layer among the other layers that has not yet been confirmed as being used for the service (Yes in S15), the process returns to S13.

[0022] After S14, when confirmation of whether each logical layer is used for the service is completed (No in S15), the extraction unit 40 confirms that the multiple logical layers corresponding to the extracted destination communication path are used for the service, i.e., that they are overlapping sections of multiple services (S16).

[0023] After S16 or S18, the extraction unit 40 outputs the relevant overlapping section as an overlapping location to a display device (not shown) via the external I / F 70, and stores information about the relevant overlapping section in the network DB 20 (S19).

[0024] FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing operation related to the estimation of an unstable state by a network management device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the provision status of each service in table format. Through the processing of S11 to S19 above, the network DB 20 stores, in association with each other, information indicating the service name, which is the name of each provided service, the service provision area to which the service is provided, the overlapping section, the transmission and reception direction of data related to the provision of the service, and the quality of the service provision status, as shown in FIG. 7. Also, in the initial state, the information indicating the quality of the service provision status in each row of the table shown in FIG. 7 is set to "no problem."

[0025] The instability estimation unit 50 extracts (S21) the stored information on the overlapping section from the network DB 20. The instability estimation unit 50 extracts from the network DB 20 one of various patterns formed by a combination of the service name, service area, overlapping section, and transmission / reception direction related to the overlapping section extracted in S21, for example, one of various patterns in which the various information in one row of the table shown in Fig. 7 is one pattern (S22).

[0026] In this embodiment, information indicating whether the service provision status is stable from users receiving the service, for example, messages on a social networking service, is sequentially input via the external I / F 70 and stored in the instability information DB 30. When the stored information indicating whether the service provision status related to the pattern extracted in S22 is stable, for example, the latest information, includes a message indicating that the service provision status is unstable, such as "difficult to connect" (Yes in S23), the instability estimation unit 50 estimates that the service provision status is "difficult to connect (unstable)." In response to this estimation, the instability estimation unit 50 changes the information indicating whether the service provision status related to the pattern extracted in S22 is stable to "difficult to connect (unstable)" as shown in FIG. 7 (S24).

[0027] If the answer is "No" in S23, the instability estimation unit 50 estimates that the provision state of the corresponding service is stable. In accordance with this estimation, the instability estimation unit 50 sets the information indicating whether the provision state of the service related to the pattern extracted in S22 is stable to "No problem" as shown in FIG. 7 (S25).

[0028] After S24 or S25, if there is any pattern that has not been extracted in S22 among the patterns shown in Fig. 7 related to the overlapping section extracted in S21 (Yes in S26), the process returns to S22, and one of the various patterns is extracted from the network DB 20. On the other hand, after S24 or S25, if all of the patterns shown in Fig. 7 related to the overlapping section extracted in S21 have been extracted (No in S26), the process ends.

[0029] In the embodiment described above, network resources are managed at multiple layers, including the communication path switched due to the occurrence of a failure, and when a section used as a communication path for providing another service is also used as the switched communication path, traffic on this section increases, and it is possible to estimate that the section is "difficult to connect" to the service. This makes it possible to grasp the impact of the occurrence of a failure on E2E (end to end) services.

[0030] 8 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. 8, 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.

[0031] 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.

[0032] An input device 300 and an output device 400 attached to the network management device 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 through 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.

[0033] 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.

[0034] 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.

[0035] A 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 various DBs and work memory by the network management device 100 may be configured using the data memory 112 shown in FIG. 8 . 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.

[0036] 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).

[0037] 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.

[0038] 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.

[0039] REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100: Network management device 10: Network resource DB 20: Network DB 30: Instability information DB 40: Extraction unit 50: Instability estimation unit 60: Control unit 70: External I / F

Claims

1. A network management device comprising: a detection unit that detects communication paths of a network configuration that are used to provide a service through the network configuration; and an extraction unit that, when a failure occurs in the communication path and a switch is made from a communication path used to provide the service that includes a point at which the failure occurred to a communication path that bypasses the point at which the failure occurred, extracts a communication path that is commonly used to provide a greater number of services compared to a communication path before the switch.

2. A network management device as described in claim 1, further comprising: an acquisition unit that acquires information indicating a problem with the provision of the service from a user receiving the service; and an estimation unit that, when the service related to the information acquired by the acquisition unit is a service that uses the communication path extracted by the extraction unit, estimates that the provision of the service using the communication path is unstable.

3. A method performed by a network management device, comprising: detecting, by a detection unit of the network management device, communication paths of the network configuration used to provide a service through the network configuration; and extracting, by an extraction unit of the network management device, when a failure occurs in the communication path and a switch is made from a communication path used to provide the service that includes a point at which the failure occurred to a communication path that bypasses the point at which the failure occurred, a communication path that is commonly used to provide a greater number of services compared to a communication path used before the switch.

4. The network management method according to claim 3, further comprising: acquiring, by an acquisition unit of the network management device, information indicating a problem with the provision of the service from a user receiving the service; and estimating, by an estimation unit of the network management device, when the service related to the information acquired by the acquisition unit is a service using the communication path extracted by the extraction unit, that the provision of the service using the communication path is unstable.

5. A network management processing program that causes a processor to function as each unit of the network management device according to claim 1 or 2.

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