Patent Description:
A management control continuum (Management Control Continuum, MCC) system integrates a management function and a control function, which are essentially the same, so as to realize unified management and control of transport resources and provide upper-level users with integrated management and control services.

The MCC system is connected with a forwarding plane network element, and when a forwarding plane resource is faulty and affects a Connection, the MCC system needs to start connection recovery. In a traditional network element, a fault generally needs to be confirmed before it is reported to a management plane or network management system of the MCC system, it is confirmed that the generation time of the fault is <NUM>±<NUM> seconds, and it is confirmed that the disappearance time of the fault is <NUM>±<NUM> seconds. By means of such a delayed confirmation mechanism, it is possible to reduce messages reported to the management plane when forwarding plane faults frequently occur or disappear, so as to avoid adverse effects on the management plane. However, this delayed confirmation mechanism prolongs the fault recovery time, and has a greater quality impact on some key services that need to recover the connection in time.

Patent document <CIT> provides related technical solutions; however, the above-mentioned problem still remains unsolved.

In view of the problem in the prior art that the quality of key services is greatly affected by the delayed reporting of fault events, no effective solution has yet been proposed.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a filtering information configuration method, apparatus and system, so as to at least solve the problem in related art that the quality of key services is greatly affected by the delayed reporting of fault events.

The filtering information configuration methods, apparatuses and systems are implemented as disclosed in the claims of the present invention.

By means of the filtering information configuration method, apparatus and system provided by the embodiments of the present invention, the acquired first fault event filtering information is converted into the second fault event filtering information in combination with the corresponding relationship between the subnetwork point and the forwarding point, and the second fault event filtering information including the forwarding point identifier and the fault fast reporting enable state is configured to the forwarding plane network element, so that the forwarding plane network element can determine whether to report a fault event rapidly according to the second fault event filtering information. The purpose of directly reporting the fault events of key services to a management system according to configuration without waiting for delayed confirmation is realized, the problem in the prior art that the quality of the key services is greatly affected by the delayed reporting of the fault events is solved, the fault events in the MCC system may be reported rapidly and selectively or reported after waiting for fault confirmation, and the processing quality of the key services is improved.

The drawings described herein are used for provide a further understanding of the present invention and constitute a part of the present application. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention and descriptions thereof are used for explaining the present invention, but do not constitute improper limitations of the present invention. In the drawings:.

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings and in conjunction with the embodiments. It should be noted that, if there is no conflict, the embodiments in the present application and the features in the embodiments may be combined with each other.

It should be noted that, the terms "first" and "second" and the like used in the specification, claims and the above drawings of the present invention are used for distinguishing similar objects, and are not necessarily used for describing a specific sequence or precedence order.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a filtering information configuration method. <FIG> is a flow diagram of an optional filtering information configuration method in the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in <FIG>, the method includes:.

By means of the above method, the acquired first fault event filtering information is converted into the second fault event filtering information in combination with the corresponding relationship between the subnetwork point and the forwarding point, and the second fault event filtering information including the forwarding point identifier and the fault fast reporting enable state is configured to the forwarding plane network element, so that the forwarding plane network element may determine whether to report a fault event rapidly according to the second fault event filtering information. The purpose of directly reporting the fault events of key services to a management system according to configuration without waiting for delayed confirmation is realized, the problem in the prior art that the quality of the key services is greatly affected by the delayed reporting of all the fault events is solved, the fault events in the MCC system may be reported rapidly and selectively or reported after waiting for fault confirmation, and the processing quality of the key services is improved.

It should be noted that, the forwarding point (Forwarding Point, referred to as FP) involved in the embodiment of the present invention represents a resource in the forwarding plane network element or the forwarding node, which may include a forwarding end point (Forwarding end Point, referred to as FwEP), wherein FwEP represents a forwarding point related to a source or sink of path termination. The MCC system may include a software defined network (Software Defined Network, referred to as SDN) controller, a network element management system (Network Element Management System, referred to as EMS), a network management system (Network Management System, referred to as NMS), and a control plane. A functional module in the MCC system provides functional services through an interface.

<FIG> is a schematic diagram of a hardware environment of a filtering information configuration method according to an embodiment of the present invention. Optionally, in the present embodiment, the filtering information configuration method may be applied to the hardware environment formed by a server <NUM> and a forwarding plane network element <NUM> as shown in <FIG>. An executive body of various steps shown in <FIG> may be, but is not limited to, the server <NUM>. As shown in <FIG>, the server <NUM> converts the acquired first fault event filtering information into the second fault event filtering information, and then configures the second fault event filtering information to the forwarding plane network element <NUM>. The above server <NUM> and the forwarding plane network element <NUM> may, but are not limited to, implement data interaction through a network, and the above network may include, but is not limited to, a wireless network or a wired network, wherein the wireless network includes: Bluetooth, WIFI and other networks that realize wireless communication. The above wired network may include, but is not limited to: a wide area network, a metropolitan area network, and a local area network. The above description is only an example, and this is not limited in any way in the present embodiment.

The processing steps in the server <NUM> include:.

<FIG> is a schematic structural diagram of an optional MCC system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in <FIG> shows the relationship among a link resources manager (Link Resources Manager, referred to as LRM) module, a termination and adaptation performer (Termination and Adaptation Performer, referred to as TAP) module, a resource notification (Resource Notification, referred to as RN) module and the forwarding plane network element.

In order to accelerate the connection recovery based on the MCC system, a specific fault type can be filtered by setting the fault event filtering information, and is rapidly reported to the MCC system without fault confirmation, thereby accelerating the connection recovery.

The resource (such as a time slot and a bandwidth) of the forwarding plane needs to be converted into a resource that may can be managed and controlled in the MCC system. The resource of the forwarding plane is represented by the forwarding point FP or the forwarding end point FwEP, and the resource used by the MCC system is represented by a subnetwork point (Subnetwork Point, referred to as SNP). The relationship between FP/FwEP and SNP is managed by the TAP module, one SNP may be bound to one FP/FwEP, and multiple SNPs may also be bound to one FP/FwEP, so as to indicate that the multiple SNPs share the FP/FwEP resource. A connection maintained by the MCC system uses a series of SNPs from the management perspective; and from the perspective of the forwarding plane, it uses the FP/FwEP resource in the forwarding plane network element.

A fault reporting management (Fault Reporting Management, referred to as FRM) module is an important function in the forwarding plane network element specified in ITU-T G. <NUM>, and it mainly registers faults generated in the network element and rapidly reports faults that need to be reported to a specific MCC system according to the fault event filtering information, such as an SDN controller or a control plane.

Optionally, the above step S202 may be implemented by the LRM module, and the above steps S204 to S208 may be implemented by the TAP module. The first fault event filtering information acquired in step S202 may be generated by the LRM module, and may also be received from other external network systems, for example, from the network management system EMS/NMS.

Optionally, the above step S206 may be implemented by the following steps:.

It should be noted that, the identifier/position of the forwarding point is intended to uniquely locate the forwarding point in the network layer, the fault causes corresponding to the same forwarding point may be different, when the same forwarding point corresponds to different subnetwork points, the fault fast reporting enable states of the forwarding point may also be different, and the fault fast reporting enable state of the forwarding point is determined according to the fault fast reporting enable state of the corresponding subnetwork point. The position of the forwarding point may be an input side of the forwarding plane network element, or an output side of the forwarding plane network element, or other positions in the network layer, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present invention. The fault cause corresponding to the forwarding point may be signal failure, or signal degradation, or possible fault causes of any other forwarding points or forwarding end points.

The first fault event filtering information contains the subnetwork point identifier and the fault fast reporting enable state corresponding to the subnetwork point, in combination with the corresponding relationship (which may be a mapping relationship table) between the subnetwork point and the forwarding point, the forwarding point corresponding to the subnetwork point is determined, then the identifier/position and the fault cause of the forwarding point are determined according to the forwarding feature parameters of the forwarding point, the fault fast reporting enable state of the corresponding forwarding point is then determined according to the fault fast reporting enable state of the subnetwork point, in this way, the identifier/position, the fault cause and the fault fast reporting enable state of the forwarding point are all set correspondingly, the second fault event filtering information is generated and is configured to the forwarding plane network element, after receiving the fault event, the forwarding plane network element firstly determines a port where the fault occurs, that is, determines the identifier/position of the forwarding point, then finds the fault cause, and then judges whether to allow or prohibit fast reporting according to the corresponding fault fast reporting enable state. If the fault fast reporting enable state actually allows fast reporting, the forwarding plane network element directly reports the fault event to the MCC system or other management systems without waiting for fault confirmation, so as to request for connection recovery, and if the fault fast reporting enable state shows that fast reporting is prohibited, the forwarding plane network element waits for fault confirmation, and then reports the fault event to the MCC system or other management systems.

Optionally, the second fault event filtering information may further include: a state of the fault, wherein the state of the fault includes one of the following: a generation state and a disappearance state. For example, when the fault fast reporting enable state of a certain forwarding point corresponds to allowing fast reporting, and the corresponding state of the fault is the "generation state", when the forwarding plane acquires a fault in the "generation state", it will directly report the fault without waiting for fault confirmation, and the state of the fault is the "generation state"; when the fault fast reporting enable state of a certain forwarding point corresponds to allowing fast reporting, and the corresponding state of the fault is the "disappearance state", when the forwarding plane acquires a fault in the "disappearance state", it will directly report the fault without waiting for fault confirmation, and the state of the fault is the "disappearance state".

Optionally, the fault fast reporting enable state of the forwarding point may be determined by the following steps:.

Optionally, the converting the first fault event filtering information into the second fault event filtering information according to the corresponding relationship between the subnetwork point and the forwarding point includes:.

<FIG> is a flow diagram of another optional filtering information configuration method in an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in <FIG>, the method includes:.

Optionally, in the MCC system, the first fault event filtering information is generated or received by the LRM module, before being converted into the second fault event filtering information, the third fault event filtering information may be generated by the RN module according to the first fault event filtering information, the main function of the RN module is to integrate and manage various signaling messages or configuration messages, it may integrate the subnetwork point identifier and the fault fast reporting enable state contained in the first fault event filtering information into the third fault event filtering information, and then send the same to the TAP module, and the TAP module converts the third fault event filtering information into the second fault event filtering information.

Optionally, converting the third fault event filtering information into the second fault event filtering information according to the corresponding relationship between the subnetwork point and the forwarding point includes: acquiring forwarding feature parameters of the forwarding point, wherein the forwarding feature parameters at least include: the forwarding point identifier, the position of the forwarding point in a network layer, and a fault cause corresponding to the forwarding point; and converting the third fault event filtering information into the second fault event filtering information according to the forwarding feature parameters of the forwarding point and the corresponding relationship between the subnetwork point and the forwarding point, wherein the second fault event filtering information at least further includes: the position of the forwarding point in the network layer, the fault cause corresponding to the forwarding point, and a state of the fault.

Optionally, converting the third fault event filtering information into the second fault event filtering information according to the corresponding relationship between the subnetwork point and the forwarding point includes: determining, according to the corresponding relationship between the subnetwork point and the forwarding point, the forwarding point corresponding to a first subnetwork point as a first forwarding point; when the fault fast reporting enable state corresponding to the first subnetwork point is allowing fast reporting, determining the fault fast reporting enable state corresponding to the first forwarding point as allowing fast reporting; and when the fault fast reporting enable state corresponding to the first subnetwork point is prohibiting fast reporting, determining, according to a type of the corresponding relationship between the first subnetwork point and the first forwarding point, the fault fast reporting enable state corresponding to the first forwarding point, wherein the type of the corresponding relationship includes: a one-to-one type or a many-to-one type.

Optionally, when the fault fast reporting enable state corresponding to the first subnetwork point is prohibiting fast reporting, determining, according to the type of the corresponding relationship between the first subnetwork point and the first forwarding point, the fault fast reporting enable state corresponding to the first forwarding point includes: when the type of the corresponding relationship between the first subnetwork point and the first forwarding point is the one-to-one type, determining the fault fast reporting enable state corresponding to the first forwarding point as prohibiting fast reporting; and when the type of the corresponding relationship between the first subnetwork point and the first forwarding point is the many-to-one type, judging the fault fast reporting enable states corresponding to other subnetwork points that have a corresponding relationship with the first forwarding point, when the fault fast reporting enable states corresponding to the other subnetwork points are all prohibiting fast reporting, determining the fault fast reporting enable state corresponding to the first forwarding point as prohibiting fast reporting, and when the fault fast reporting enable state corresponding to any subnetwork point among the other subnetwork points is allowing fast reporting, determining the fault fast reporting enable state corresponding to the first forwarding point as allowing fast reporting.

Optionally, the first fault event filtering information generated or received by the LRM module represents the fault fast reporting enable state configured to one or more subnetwork points, and the enable state of each subnetwork point includes allowing or prohibiting. The first fault event filtering information may include one or more records, and each record at least includes: the subnetwork point identifier and the fault fast reporting enable state.

Optionally, the third fault event filtering information represents the fault fast reporting enable state configured to one or more subnetwork points, and the enable state configured to each subnetwork point includes allowing or prohibiting. The third fault event filtering information may include one or more records, and each record at least includes: a subnetwork point configuration identifier and the fault fast reporting enable state.

The subnetwork point configuration identifier in the first fault event filtering information is equivalently converted into the subnetwork point configuration identifier in the third fault event filtering information, and the fault fast reporting enable state in the first fault event filtering information is equivalently converted into the fault fast reporting enable state in the third fault event filtering information.

Optionally, the second fault event filtering information represents the fault fast reporting enable state configured to one or more forwarding points, and the enable state of each forwarding point includes allowing or prohibiting. The second fault event filtering information may include one or more records, and each record at least includes: the identifier/position of the forwarding point, the fault cause and the fault fast reporting enable state. Optionally, the record may further include a generation state or disappearance state of the fault.

The subnetwork point identifier in the third fault event filtering information is converted into the identifier/position of the forwarding point in the second fault event filtering information through a binding relationship;.

Optionally, the identifier/position of the forwarding point may further include information about the forwarding point being located on an input side or an output side of the network element.

The embodiments of the present invention further provide a filtering information configuration apparatus, which is used for implementing the embodiments and preferred implementations of the above filtering information configuration method, and those that have been described will not be repeated. As used below, the term "module" may implement a combination of software and/or hardware with predetermined functions. Although the apparatus described in the following embodiments is preferably implemented by software, the implementation by hardware or the combination of software and hardware is also possible and conceived.

It should be noted that, for the various forgoing method embodiments, for the sake of simple description, they are all expressed as a series of action combinations, but those skilled in the art should know that the present invention is not limited by the described sequence of actions, because according to the present invention, some steps may be performed in other sequences or at the same time. Secondly, those skilled in the art should also know that the embodiments described in the specification are all preferred embodiments, and the actions and modules involved are not necessarily required by the present invention.

By means of the description of the above implementations, those skilled in the art may clearly understand that the method according to the above embodiments may be implemented by software plus a necessary general hardware platform, of course, it may also be implemented by hardware, but the former is a better implementation in many cases. Based on this understanding, the technical solutions of the present invention substantially, or a part contributing to the prior art may be implemented in the form of a software product, the computer software product is stored in a storage medium (such as an ROM/RAM, a magnetic disk, and an optical disk), and includes a plurality of instructions for enabling a terminal device (which may be a mobile phone, a computer, a server, or a network device or the like) to execute the method described in various embodiments of the present invention.

<FIG> is a structural block diagram of an optional filtering information configuration apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in <FIG>, the apparatus includes:.

<FIG> is a structural block diagram of another optional filtering information configuration apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in <FIG>, the apparatus includes:.

The embodiments of the present invention further provide a filtering information configuration system, the apparatus is used for implementing the embodiments and preferred implementations of the above filtering information configuration method, and those that have been described will not be repeated. As used below, the term "module" may implement a combination of software and/or hardware with predetermined functions. Although the apparatus described in the following embodiments is preferably implemented by software, the implementation by hardware or the combination of software and hardware is also possible and conceived.

<FIG> is a structural block diagram of an optional filtering information configuration system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in <FIG>, the system includes:.

<FIG> is a structural block diagram of another optional filtering information configuration system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in <FIG>, the system includes:.

In order to better understand the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present invention, a description will be given below via specific examples.

<FIG> is a topological structure diagram of an optional forwarding plane network element according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in <FIG>, in a topology composed of four forwarding plane network elements ABCZ, the forwarding plane network elements are interconnected by optical transport unit OTU2 links. On this network, an optical data unit ODU <NUM> connection between a <NUM># port of a point A point and the <NUM># port of a point Z may be established through an MCC system, such as an SDN controller or a control plane. No tandem connection monitor (Tandem Connection Monitor, referred to as TCM) related fault monitoring is configured in the topological structure shown in <FIG>. Table <NUM> shows a binding relationship between a forwarding plane resource, that is, a subnetwork point (Subnetwork Point, referred to as SNP), used by the connection and FP/FwEP.

In order to accelerate the fault recovery of the ODU1 connection, the MCC system may configure a specific SNP to allow fault reporting or prohibit fault reporting. In present embodiment, the fault fast reporting enable states of all the SNPs used by the connection are set to allow, that is, the fault of the forwarding plane resource used by the connection may be rapidly reported to the MCC system through FRM.

The filtering information configuration method provided by the embodiment of the present invention may include the following steps:
Step A: an LRM generates or receives first fault event filtering information.

In the present embodiment, the first fault event filtering information generated by the LRM includes <NUM> fault event filtering information records, and each record at least includes: an SNP identifier and a fault fast reporting enable state. All records are as follows:.

The first fault event filtering information may also come from other configurations, such as a network management system EMS/NMS, and other components in the MCC system, such as a CC.

Step B: the LRM transmits the first fault event filtering information to a TAP.

Step C: the TAP module converts the first fault event filtering information into second fault event filtering information according to a binding relationship between a subnetwork point and a forwarding point, and forwarding technical features of the forwarding point or a forwarding end point.

In the present example, each FP is only bound to one SNP, and correspondingly, <NUM> SNPs correspond to <NUM> FPs.

When the second fault event filtering information is generated, the second fault event filtering information may include multiple records, and each record at least includes: FP identifier and position, a fault cause, and a fault fast reporting enable state.

In the present embodiment, according to a network hierarchical structure corresponding to each FP, the FP identifier and position, and one or more fault causes that may trigger connection recovery will be learned.

For example, FP (<NUM>#ODU1 of <NUM>#OTU2 port of network element B) is located in the <NUM>#ODU1 of the <NUM>#OTU2 port of the network element B. It can be further seen that, the FP is located on an input side of the network element. On the FP resource, the fault causes that may trigger connection recovery include: ODU-AIS, ODU-OCI, ODU-LCK, ODU-LOF, and so on. Other FPs are processed similarly.

In the second fault event filtering information, each record at least includes: the FP identifier and position, the fault cause, and the fault fast reporting enable state. It may further include a fault generation or disappearance state. Therefore, the format of the second fault event filtering information format is as follows:.

The first fault event filtering information is converted into the second fault event filtering information, and the conversion process of the fault fast reporting enable state includes:.

In the present embodiment, since the fault fast reporting enable states of the SNP are all "Allow", the fault fast reporting enable states in the generated second fault event filtering information are all "Allow". That is, the converted second fault event filtering information is as follows:.

Step D: the TAP configures the second fault event filtering information to forwarding plane network elements A, B and Z. In the present embodiment, each network element only needs to receive the record of the second fault event filtering information of the own network element.

On the basis of Example <NUM>, after the ODU <NUM> connection is deleted, the configured fault event filtering information is canceled, that is, the fault fast reporting enable state in the first fault event filtering information is set to "Prohibit".

Step A: an LRM generates or receives first fault event filtering information.

Step C: the TAP converts the first fault event filtering information into second fault event filtering information according to a binding relationship between an SNP and an FP, and forwarding technical features of the FP. In the present embodiment, the binding relationship is shown in Table <NUM>, each FP is only bound to one SNP, and correspondingly, <NUM> SNPs correspond to <NUM> FPs.

In the present embodiment, according to a network hierarchical structure corresponding to each FP, the FP identifier and position, and one or more fault causes that may trigger connection recovery will be learned. For example, FP (<NUM>#ODU1 of <NUM>#OTU2 port of network element B) is located in the <NUM>#ODU1 of the <NUM>#OTU2 port of the network element B. It can be further seen that, the FP is located on an input side of the network element. On the FP resource, the fault causes that may trigger connection recovery include: ODU-AIS, ODU-OCI, ODU-LCK, ODU-LOF, and so on. Other FPs are processed similarly.

each record in the first fault event filtering information is judged and processed as follows:
if the fault fast reporting enable state of the SNP in the record of the first fault event filtering information is Prohibit, when being converted into the second fault event filtering information, in the record of the second fault event filtering information:.

if the SNP and the FP are bound in a one-to-one manner, all the fault fast reporting enable states of the FP bound to the SNP are set as "Prohibit";
if the SNP and the FP are not bound in the one-to-one manner, it means that the FP bound to the SNP is also bound to other SNPs, at this time, the fault fast reporting enable states of these "other SNPs" need to be checked, and the fault fast reporting enable state of the FP is determined accordingly:.

if the fault fast reporting enable state in the first fault event filtering information corresponding to at least one SNP among these "other SNPs" is "Allow", then all the fault fast reporting enable states related to the FP are set to "Allow";
otherwise, all the fault fast reporting enable states related to the FP are set to "Prohibit"; and in the present embodiment, since the fault fast reporting enable states of the SNP are all "Prohibit", the fault fast reporting enable states in the generated second fault event filtering information are all "Prohibit". That is, the converted second fault event filtering information is as follows:.

In a topology composed of four network elements ABCZ, the network elements are interconnected by OTU2 links. On this network, an ODU <NUM> connection between a <NUM># port of a point A point and the <NUM># port of a point Z may be established through an MCC system, such as an SDN controller or a control plane. No TCM related fault monitoring is configured. Table <NUM> shows a binding relationship between a forwarding plane resource, that is, an SNP, used by the connection and an FP.

Step B: the LRM transmits the first fault event filtering information to an RN module.

Step C: the RN module converts the first fault event filtering information into third fault event filtering information; a subnetwork point configuration identifier in the first fault event filtering information is equivalently converted into the subnetwork point configuration identifier in the third fault event filtering information, and the fault fast reporting enable state in the first fault event filtering information is equivalently converted into the fault fast reporting enable state in the third fault event filtering information.

Step D: the RN module transmits the third fault event filtering information to a TAP module. The RN module may store the first fault event filtering information and the third fault event filtering information.

Step E: the TAP converts the third fault event filtering information into second fault event filtering information according to the binding relationship between the SNP and the FP and forwarding technical features of the FP.

In the present embodiment, the binding relationship is show in Table, each FP is only bound to one SNP, and correspondingly, <NUM> SNPs correspond to <NUM> FPs.

Step F: the TAP configures the second fault event filtering information to forwarding plane network elements A, B and Z. In the present embodiment, each network element only needs to receive the record of the second fault event filtering information of the own network element.

Claim 1:
A method for configuring filtering information, comprising:
acquiring (S102) first fault event filtering information, wherein the first fault event filtering information comprises: a subnetwork point identifier and a fault fast reporting enable state corresponding to a subnetwork point, the subnetwork point identifier is used for uniquely identifying the subnetwork point, and the fault fast reporting refers to reporting a fault directly without waiting for fault confirmation, the fault fast reporting enable state comprises: allowing fast reporting or prohibiting fast reporting;
converting (S104) the first fault event filtering information into second fault event filtering information according to a corresponding relationship between the subnetwork point and a forwarding point, wherein the second fault event filtering information comprises: a forwarding point identifier and a fault fast reporting enable state corresponding to the forwarding point, and the forwarding point identifier is used for uniquely identifying the forwarding point; and
configuring (S106) the second fault event filtering information to a forwarding plane network element, wherein the second fault event filtering information is used for indicating the forwarding plane network element to report a fault according to the forwarding point identifier in the second fault event filtering information and the fault fast reporting enable state corresponding to the forwarding point.