System for establishing new path in ring network and dividing ring shaped path into plurality of ring shaped paths by being rid of faulty path
First Claim
1. A method of controlling a ring-shaped logical communication path formed in a network which connects a plurality of node means through respective inter-node communication paths, each of said node means operating to relay a message to a predetermined adjacent node means on a respective inter-node communication path so that said ring-shaped logical communication path is formed, said method comprising the steps of:
- generating, by one of said plurality of node means that has detected a fault on its message receiving communication path, a control message indicative of a fault recovery request including a node identifier assigned to the node means that has detected the fault and sending the control message to an adjacent node means on a respective inter-node communication path of said ring-shaped logical communication path;
transferring, by each node means that has received the control message, the received control message to the adjacent node means on the respective inter-node communication path of said ring-shaped logical communication path; and
establishing, by a node means that has failed to transfer the received control message to the adjacent node means on the respective inter-node communication path, a new inter-node communication path for message transmission directly to the node means on the respective inter-node communication path of the downstream side thereof indicated by the node identifier included in the received control message, the new inter-node communication path not including any node means which has transferred the received control message to the adjacent node means.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A conference system is formed by multiple workstations which have individual conference control programs and are connected to a network, with each workstation having a destination workstation determined in advance so that a ring-shaped logical communication path is formed on the network. A conference control program which detects a fault on its receiving path during a conference sends a fault recovery request message including an identifier of the conference control program itself and the address of the workstation to the neighboring workstation, and the conference control program of the neighboring workstation relays the received fault recovery request message to the next workstation on the ring-shaped logical communication path so that the fault recovery request message is propagated on the ring-shaped logical communication path. The conference control program of a workstation which is located immediately upstream of the fault and is therefore unable to send the received fault recovery request message to the neighboring workstation carries out a procedure of establishing a new communication path to the conference control program of the workstation which issued the fault recovery request message.
-
Citations
10 Claims
-
1. A method of controlling a ring-shaped logical communication path formed in a network which connects a plurality of node means through respective inter-node communication paths, each of said node means operating to relay a message to a predetermined adjacent node means on a respective inter-node communication path so that said ring-shaped logical communication path is formed, said method comprising the steps of:
-
generating, by one of said plurality of node means that has detected a fault on its message receiving communication path, a control message indicative of a fault recovery request including a node identifier assigned to the node means that has detected the fault and sending the control message to an adjacent node means on a respective inter-node communication path of said ring-shaped logical communication path; transferring, by each node means that has received the control message, the received control message to the adjacent node means on the respective inter-node communication path of said ring-shaped logical communication path; and establishing, by a node means that has failed to transfer the received control message to the adjacent node means on the respective inter-node communication path, a new inter-node communication path for message transmission directly to the node means on the respective inter-node communication path of the downstream side thereof indicated by the node identifier included in the received control message, the new inter-node communication path not including any node means which has transferred the received control message to the adjacent node means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
-
-
5. A method of controlling a ring-shaped logical communication path formed in a network which connects a plurality of node means, each of said node means operating to relay a message to a predetermined adjacent node thereof so that said ring-shaped logical communication path is formed, said method comprising:
-
generating, by one of node means that has detected a fault on its message receiving communication path, a control message indicative of a fault recovery request including a node identifier assigned to the node means that has detected the fault and sending the control message to the adjacent node on said ring-shaped logical communication path; transferring, by each node means that has received the control message, the received control message to the adjacent node means on said ring-shaped logical communication path; and establishing by a node means that has failed to transfer the control message to the adjacent node, a new communication path for message transmission to the node means indicated by the node identifier included in the received control message, so that said ring-shaped logical communication path is divided into a plurality of ring-shaped logical communication paths by being rid of a faulty path.
-
-
6. A conference system including a plurality of workstations connected in a network, each of said workstations comprising:
-
display means having a multi-window display function; input means for entering data and/or a command to an arbitrary window created on the display screen of said display means; data processing means for processing the data and/or command entered through said input means in accordance with a program which corresponds to the window where the data and/or command has been entered, and displaying the result of process in said window of said display screen; and interface means for transacting data with said network, said data processing means including conference control means which correlates one of said workstations to an input logical communication path and another workstation to an output logical communication path, sends a message which includes data and/or command entered from said input means and said interface means to the workstation corresponding to the output logical communication path through said interface means, and operates on a program to process said entered data and/or command, said conference control means including first means for generating, on detecting abnormality of data reception of said interface means from said network, a control message including a control command for fault recovery which includes an identifier assigned to said conference control means, and sending the message to the workstation corresponding to the output logical communication path, and second means for establishing, if said first means fails to send a fault recovery control message generated by any workstation and received by said interface means to the workstation corresponding to the output logical communication path, a new communication path to the workstation having the conference control means indicated by the identifier included in the control message, and correlating, to the output logical communication path, the workstation having the conference control means indicated by the identifier included in the control message. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A method of controlling a ring-shaped logical communication path formed in a network which connects a plurality of node means through respective inter-node communication paths, each of said node means operating to relay a message to a predetermined adjacent node means on a respective inter-node communication path so that said ring-shaped logical communication path is formed, said method comprising:
-
generating, by each of at least two of said plurality of node means that have detected respective faults on their respective message receiving communication paths, a control message indicative of a fault recovery request including a node identifier assigned to the node means that has detected the fault and sending the control message to an adjacent node means on a respective inter-node communication path of said ring-shaped logical communication path; transferring, by each node means that has received the control message, the received control message to the adjacent node means on the respective inter-node communication path of said ring-shaped logical communication path; and establishing, by each of at least two node means that have failed to transfer the control message to the adjacent node means on the respective inter-node communication path, a new inter-node communication path for message transmission directly to the node means on the respective inter-node communication path of the downstream side thereof indicated by the node identifier included in the received control message, each new inter-node communication path not including any node means which has transferred the received control message to the adjacent node means, so that said ring-shaped logical communication path is divided into a plurality of ring-shaped logical communication paths by being rid of at least two faults.
-
Specification