Apparatus for self-diagnosis of substantially sporadic faults in serial transmission systems

• US 6,324,658 B1
• Filed: 11/29/1998
• Issued: 11/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Phoenix Contact GmbH & Company KG
• Original Assignee: Phoenix Contact GmbH & Company KG
• Inventors: Kuschke, Detlev, Schmidt, Joachim, Schnönherr, Dietmar, Jasperneite, Jürgen
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoleil, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Baderman, Scott T.
• Application Number:
  US09/201,310
• Time in Patent Office: 1,094 Days
• Field of Search: 714/43, 714/57, 714/25
• US Class Current: 714/43
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements

Abstract

An apparatus for self-diagnosis of substantially sporadic faults in a serial network which connects a number of subscribers together to a central diagnosis apparatus is characterised in that arranged decentrally at each subscriber (Tln1, . . . Tlnn; FIG. 5) at given fault-relevant locations in its protocol stack are fault detectors (FD) which transmit their test results to a diagnosis and report manager (DRM) which from the individual test results of all fault detectors produces a fault picture which it preaddresses for transmission thereof insofar as, for each fault picture to be transmitted to a central diagnosis apparatus (DE) for the purposes of evaluation there, it generates an address (ID-ADR) by means of which it actuates an ID-transmitting-receiving buffer memory (FDSEP) in which it provides for intermediate storage of the fault pictures associated with the addresses and reads them out again in time-displaced relationship for their transmission to the central diagnosis apparatus by way of the transmission network (UN).

Claims

1. Apparatus for self-diagnosis of substantially sporadic faults in a serial network which connects a number of subscribers together to a central diagnosis apparatus, characterised in that arranged decentrally at each subscriber (Tln1, . . . Tlnn;

FIG.

     5) at given, fault-relevant locations in its protocol stack, are fault detectors (FD) which transmit their test results to a diagnosis and report manager (DRM) which from the individual test results of all fault detectors produces a fault picture which it pre-addresses for transmission thereof insofar as, for each fault picture to be transmitted to a central diagnosis apparatus (DE) for the purposes of evaluation there, it generates an address (ID-ADA) by means of which it actuates an ID-transmitting-receiving buffer memory (FDSEP) in which it provides for intermediate storage of the fault pictures associated with the addresses and reads them out again in time-displaced relationship for their transmission to the central diagnosis apparatus by way of a transmission network (UN).

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 characterised in that to ensure a useful data transmission of maximum size allocated to each subscriber (Tln1, . . . , Tlnn) is its own time slot in which it transmits its fault pictures to the central diagnosis apparatus (DE).

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 characterised in that transmitted between the subscribers (Tln1, . . . , Tlnn) and the central diagnosis apparatus (DE) is information which includes both fault pictures and also status information for the implementation of system management functions, wherein the fault picture information is allocated a higher priority for the transmission thereof to the central diagnosis apparatus (DE), than the status information for the transmission thereof from the diagnosis and report manager (DRM).

4. Apparatus according to claim 1 characterised in that low priority is always allocated to various items of status information (El, . . . , En;

FIG. 6), wherein the items of status information pending for transmission are transmitted successively in a cyclic succession (for example E1, E2, E3, . . . , En).

5. Apparatus according to claim 1 characterised in that there is provided an apparatus in the transmission system, which allows asynchronously occurring items of status information of the various subscribers (Tln1, . . . , Tlnn) in a given pattern of n-valid useful data transmissions, so that all items of status information of all subscribers are synchronised to a fixed transmission pattern.

6. Apparatus according to claim 1 characterised in that the fault detectors (FD) are preferably provided in the physical layer (PL) and the link layer (DLL) of an ISO/OSI-reference model for standardised transmission on distributed networks (UN).