Error detection/correction and fault detection/recovery – Pulse or data error handling – Digital data error correction
Patent
1997-05-07
2000-08-22
De Cady, Albert
Error detection/correction and fault detection/recovery
Pulse or data error handling
Digital data error correction
H04L 118
Patent
active
061088099
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention is based on the object of using an existing redundant physical path structure for sending (fault) messages from a lower-level controller to a higher-level controller, without unnecessarily having to load the processing capacity of the higher-level controller by redundant fault messages in the process.
If, for example, port faults occur on the peripheral in a switching system, then these events must be reported as quickly as possible to a higher-level controller in order to allow call attempts to such defective subscriber ports to be rejected as early as possible.
For reliability reasons, in an existing redundant physical path structure, peripheral devices always transmit such fault messages in parallel, that is to say a fault message is reported to the higher-level controller simultaneously via at least two different physical paths.
Such a procedure is disclosed, for example, in the document EP-A-0 033 228.
However, as a result of said procedure, the processing capacity of the higher-level controller is used more than once for one and the same item of information, namely one fault message.
The invention is based on the object of using an existing redundant physical path structure for sending (fault) messages from a lower-level controller to a higher-level controller, without unnecessarily having to load the processing capacity of the higher-level controller by redundant fault messages in the process.
This object is achieved by the features of claim 1. An exemplary embodiment of the invention will be explained in more detail, with reference to the drawing, in the following text.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In general terms the present invention is a method for sending messages from a lower-level controller to a higher-level controller, there being a plurality of physical transmission paths for sending the messages. A message is first of all transmitted, fro initialization, via each transmission path, these being different messages in each case. Each message which is received by the higher-level controller is acknowledged to the lower-level controller, the acknowledgment being sent back via that transmission path via which the message was received. A further message is always sent as soon as an acknowledgment of a previous message is received, the further message in each case being sent via that transmission path via which the acknowledgment was received.
In a further embodiment, the messages are sent via intermediate controllers in the transmission paths to the higher-level controller, each of which intermediate controllers like-wise requires all the messages for processing. Each message which is received by an intermediate controller is acknowledged to the lower-level controller. The acknowledgments are stored in a message-specific and transmission-path-specific manner in the lower-level controller. After they have been sent for the first time, all the messages are sent at least one further time in the direction of the higher-level controller, the intermediate controllers no longer passing these messages on to the higher-level controller. The lower-level controller uses the stored acknowledgments to ensure that a message which has already been acknowledged by an intermediate controller is not sent again to said intermediate controller.
For each transmitted message, receipt of a corresponding acknowledgment is monitored by a timer. A message for which no acknowledgment has been received by the time the associated timer times out is transmitted once again on another transmission path.
The present invention is also a transmitting device for sending messages from a lower-level controller to a higher-level controller. A data structure buffer-stores the messages in the lower-level controller. The messages are intended to be sent to a higher-level controller via a plurality of transmission paths. One pointer per transmission path in each case points to the next message to be sent within the data structure. For this purpose, after a message has been sent, the pointer is i
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Cady Albert De
Chase Shelly A
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
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