COMMUNICATION CONTROL DEVICE, COMMUNICATION CONTROL SYSTEM, COMMUNICATION CONTROL METHOD, AND COMMUNICATION CONTROL PROGRAM

• US 20160241465A1
• Filed: 04/25/2014
• Published: 08/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: HASEGAWA, Yohei, IWATA, Atsushi
• Granted Patent: US 10,171,348 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/557 Error correction, e.g. fault recovery or fault tolerance

Abstract

A communications control device that, if a communications failure occurs at location in a first path for communications that extends across a plurality of communications layers, selects any second path from a candidate group including at least one second path for continuing communications without going via the location where the communications failure has occurred, on the basis of the time required for each second path to switch from the first path to the second path, and sends, to a communications device for performing the switching, an instruction for switching the first path to the selected second path and continuing communications.

Claims

1. A communication control device that, when a communication failure occurs at a place in a first path for the communication that extends across a plurality of communication layers, selects a second path from a candidate group including one or more second paths for continuing communication without going via the place where the communication failure has occurred, based on required time with respect to each of the second paths for switching from the first path to the second path, and sends an instruction for switching from the first path to the selected second path and continuing communication to a communication device for performing the switching.

2. The communication control device according to claim 1,

wherein the switching of the path is switching in some communication layers of the plurality of communication layers across which the first path extends, the first path going via the place where the communication failure has occurred,

the candidate group includes a maximum number of paths among communication devices, which are positioned at both ends of the first path going via the place where the communication failure has occurred, as the second path, and

a path of a layer below any layer is changed by switching in a communication device of any communication layer from an uppermost communication layer to a lowermost communication layer of the plurality of communication layers across which the first path extends.

3. The communication control device according to claim 1,

wherein the required time for switching the first path to the second path is estimated for each of candidates of the second path for continuing communication without going via the place where the communication failure has occurred, and one of the candidates of the second path is selected as a switched second path based on the estimated required time.

4. The communication control device according to claim 3,

wherein the second path, in which the estimated required time is smaller than a time at which data retransmission caused by the communication failure occurs, is selected as a changed second path from the candidate group.

5. The communication control device according to claim 3,

wherein the estimation is performed based on both a time required for transferring the instruction to a communication device receiving the instruction from the communication control device and a time required until the communication device having received the instruction ends the switching from the first path to the second path after receiving the instruction.

6. The communication control device according to claim 5,

wherein the time required until the communication device having received the instruction ends the switching from the first path to the second path after receiving the instruction is estimated based on a layer to which the communication device having received the instruction belongs.

7. A communication control system including a communication device that performs communication in at least a part of a plurality of communication layers and the communication control device according to claim 1, wherein

the communication device is configured to continue communication by performing switching to a path selected by the communication control device, in response to the instruction from the communication control device.

8. A communication control method performed by a communication control device, comprising:

when a communication failure occurs at a place in a first path for communication that extends across a plurality of communication layers, selecting a second path from a candidate group including one or more second paths for continuing communication without going via the place where the communication failure has occurred, based on time required with respect to each of the second paths for switching from the first path to the second path; and

sending an instruction for switching from the first path to the selected second path and continuing communication to a communication device for performing the switching.

9. The communication control method according to claim 8,

wherein the switching of the path is switching in some communication layers of the plurality of communication layers across which the first path extends, the first path going via the place where the communication failure has occurred,

the candidate group includes a maximum number of paths among communication devices, which are positioned at both ends of the first path going via the place where the communication failure has occurred, as the second path, and

a path of a layer below any layer is changed by switching in a communication device of any communication layer from an uppermost communication layer to a lowermost communication layer of the plurality of communication layers across which the first path extends.

10. The communication control method according to claim 8,

wherein the required time for switching the first path to the second path is estimated for each of candidates of the second path for continuing communication without going via the place where the communication failure has occurred, and one of the candidates of the second path is selected as a switched second path based on the estimated required time.

11. The communication control method according to claim 10, wherein the second path, in which the estimated required time is smaller than a time at which data retransmission caused by the communication failure occurs, is selected as a changed second path from the candidate group.

12. The communication control method according to claim 10, wherein the estimation is performed based on both a time required for transferring the instruction to a communication device receiving the instruction from the communication control device and a time required until the communication device having received the instruction ends the switching from the first path to the second path after receiving the instruction.

13. The communication control method according to claim 12,

wherein the time required until the communication device having received the instruction ends the switching from the first path to the second path after receiving the instruction is estimated based on a layer to which the communication device having received the instruction belongs.

14. A communication control method performed by a communication control system including a communication device that performs communication in at least a part of a plurality of communication layers and a communication control device,

wherein the communication control device performs the method according to claim 8, and

wherein the communication device having received an instruction from the communication control device continues communication by performing switching to a path selected by the communication control device, in response to the instruction.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a communication control program causing a computer to serve as a communication control device that, when a communication failure occurs at a place in a first path for communication that extends across a plurality of communication layers, selects a second path from a candidate group including one or more second paths for continuing communication without going via the place where the communication failure has occurred, based on time required with respect to each of the second paths for switching from the first path to the second path, and sends an instruction for switching the first path to the selected second path and continuing communication to a communication device for performing the switching.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 15,

wherein the switching of the path is switching in some communication layers of the plurality of communication layers across which the first path extends, the first path going via the place where the communication failure has occurred,

wherein the candidate group includes a maximum number of paths among communication devices, which are positioned at both ends of the first path going via the place where the communication failure has occurred, as the second path, and

wherein a path of a layer below any layer is changed by switching in a communication device of any communication layer from an uppermost communication layer to a lowermost communication layer of the plurality of communication layers across which the first path extends.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 15,

wherein the required time for switching the first path to the second path is estimated for each of candidates of the second path for continuing communication without going via the place where the communication failure has occurred, and one of the candidates of the second path is selected as a switched second path based on the estimated required time.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 17,

wherein the second path, in which the estimated required time is smaller than a time at which data retransmission caused by the communication failure occurs, is selected as a changed second path from the candidate group.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 17,

wherein the estimation is performed based on both a time required for transferring the instruction to a communication device receiving the instruction from the communication control device and a time required until the communication device having received the instruction ends the switching from the first path to the second path after receiving the instruction.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 19, wherein the time required until the communication device having received the instruction ends the switching from the first path to the second path after receiving the instruction is estimated based on a layer to which the communication device having received the instruction belongs.