JPH0576821B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a communication system including a communication control device connected to a computer and transmitting and receiving data to and from a plurality of communication lines in response to instructions from the computer. In particular, the present invention relates to a method for testing the maximum load of a communication control program, which tests whether the transmission control program of a communication line executed by the communication control device is being operated at its maximum load capacity.

Communication systems are used to exchange information with remote locations. This communication system is configured as shown in FIG. The computer 1 is connected to a communication control device or a communication control processing device 2 (hereinafter referred to as a communication control device), and the communication control device 2 is connected to modulation/demodulation devices 3-1, 3-2 and communication lines 4-1, 4-2.
and the terminal device 5 via the modem devices 3-3 and 3-4.
-1 and 5-2, respectively. Also, as shown at the bottom of the figure, the modem 3-5 and the network control circuit 6
-1 and a communication line 4-3, an exchange 7, a communication line 4-4, a network control circuit 6-2, a modem 3-6, and a terminal device 5-3.

With the above configuration, the communication control device 2 functions to send data to the communication lines 4-1 to 4-4 in response to instructions from the computer 1, and to receive data from the terminal devices 5-1 to 5-3. do.

Therefore, in order to know what kind of load a communication control device can withstand when operating a communication system, it is necessary to test whether the transmission control program of a certain communication line is being operated with maximum load capacity. A method of testing the maximum load of the communication control program is required.

[Conventional technology]

A conventional communication control device is configured as shown in FIG. The communication control device 2 includes a basic unit 21 and line adapters 22-0 to 22-3. The basic unit 21 includes a data memory 211 for temporarily storing messages, a processor 212 for controlling the communication control device 2, a control memory 213 for storing a control program, and a timer 214 for managing time.

The line adapters 22-0 to 22-3 have the same configuration, and will be explained below based on the line adapter 22-0. Serial/parallel converter 221 and interrupt controller 22 for sending and receiving data of line adapter 22-0
2 and a modem controller 223.

The transmission data is stored in the transmission register 221-1, which has a data capacity of 1 byte corresponding to one character, and when all the previous data is sent to the communication line from the parallel/serial conversion register 221-2, the transmission data is stored in the transmission register 221-1. The data in 221-1 is stored in the parallel/serial conversion register 22.
Moved to 1-2. Parallel/serial conversion register 221
-2, according to the preset line speed,
The data is sent to the communication line while being shifted bit by bit.

The data received from the communication line is stored in the serial/parallel conversion register 221-3 while being shifted one bit at a time. When the storage of one byte is completed, it is transferred in parallel to the reception register 221-4.

The interrupt control unit 222 controls the reception register 221-
When data for one character is transferred to the processor 212, the data is transferred to the processor 212 or sent to the transmission register 2.
21-1 to the parallel/serial conversion register 221-2, the processor 2
It functions to interrupt 12. Signal A is an interrupt signal,
Signal B is the interrupt factor signal, signal C is the processor 2
12 interrupt response signals.

The interrupt relationship between the line adapter 22 and the processor 212 will be explained with reference to FIG. Two communication lines, D and E, will be explained. STX,
ETX indicates the start and end of the message, respectively. The computer 1 determines the priority order of line processing based on the degree of urgency of the processing. Furthermore, interrupts from communication lines are given higher priority than general processing. Therefore, when the first data STX of the D line is transferred from the serial/parallel conversion register 221-3 to the reception register 221-4, an interrupt signal A is used to request the processor 212 to take over the data. The processor 212 cancels general processing, takes over the data in the receiving register 221-4 with a high priority, and stores it in the data memory 221 or the computer 1.
Perform processing to transfer to. When the processing of one character is completed, the processing interrupted by the interrupt is continued. Next, when data STX of the E line is received, similar processing is performed. However, since the transmission control procedures may be different between the D line and the E line, the communication control device 2 needs to have separate control information and recognize each procedure.

In a communication control device, the time it takes to process data for one character affects the ability of the device. For example, if the line speed is 9600 bits/second, an interrupt for each character will occur approximately once every 833 μs, as shown in Figure 6.
When this one character interrupt occurs, the communication control device
Processing of that one character must be completed before the next interrupt occurs. If the number of lines that can be processed simultaneously by the communication control device is 4, each line is
One character must be processed within approximately 200 μs, which is 833 μs ÷ 4, or 208 μs.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the above-mentioned conventional configuration, the communication control device has a
Because there are multiple transmission control procedure programs, and the processing for each character differs depending on each transmission control procedure, character content, and status, calculation of the communication control device's capacity requires the time it takes to process one character. The processing part that takes the maximum amount of time was found out on paper, and the processing time for this processing part was used. In the actual test, when the line speed is 9600 bits/second,
A method used is to simultaneously start up a line with a test program for data communication and run it for a long time. However, even if you run a program for a long time that has a processing part that takes the longest time, it is just a coincidence that the processing part that takes the longest time will collide with four lines at the same time. Therefore, the method of calculating the maximum load capacity of a transmission control program of a certain communication line in a conventional communication control device has been disadvantageous in that it is not appropriate.

[Means for solving problems]

An object of the present invention is to provide a transmission control program for a communication line in which a processing part that takes the longest processing time is the same as a process that takes the maximum processing time for another communication line in a plurality of communication lines that are collectively controlled by a processor of a communication control device. To provide a method for testing the maximum load of a communication control program, which can test whether or not the transmission control program of the communication line is operated at its maximum load capacity by always colliding with a portion of the communication line. The means is
In a method for testing the maximum load of a control program for a certain communication line, which is carried out by a processor-controlled communication control device 2 connected to a computer 1 and transmitting and receiving data to and from a plurality of communication lines based on instructions from the computer 1, The communication control device 2 includes interrupt generation units 11-0 to 11-3 that generate an interrupt A to the processor 212 at a required time interval for each communication line, and an interrupt generating unit 11-0 to 11-3 that generates an interrupt A to the processor 212 at a required time interval for each communication line. processor 2
By providing a storage section 215 for storing a pseudo-driving program with a maximum load of 12, and activating the pseudo-driving program by interrupt A at each required time for each communication line and causing it to run for a required time, The configuration is configured to test whether the communication line control program is being operated at maximum load.

[Effect]

The communication control device 2 includes each communication line 4-1 to 4-4.
Interrupt generators 11-0 to 11-3 generate interrupt A at each required time, and a storage unit 215 stores a pseudo-running program that runs for a required time by the interrupt A and becomes the maximum load on the processor. By starting the pseudo running program for each communication line and running it for the required time, it is tested whether the control program of a certain communication line is being operated with maximum load capacity. .

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment for explaining a method of testing the maximum load of a transmission control program for a communication line according to the present invention. The same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals throughout the figures, and their explanations are omitted.
The communication control device consists of a basic unit 21 and line adapters 22-0 to 22-3 corresponding to each line. Interrupt generation units 11-0 to 11-3 (however, four lines are used) which generate interrupt A every time are provided, and the basic unit 2
1 is provided with a storage unit 215 that stores a simulated driving program that runs for a specified time by an interrupt.

The interrupt generating units 11-0 to 11-3 are timers, and generate an interrupt every 833 μs in the case of the line speed of 9600 bits/sec mentioned above, for example. this
The timer value of 833 μs can be set using a command code word from the computer.

The pseudo running program storage unit 215 does not store a character processing program, but stores a program that runs for a certain period of time and specifies character processing that requires the maximum processing time. This constant time is
In the case of 9600 bits/second, the calculated value is 208 μs, which is about 200 μs.

To run the simulated running program in the storage section 215, a command is activated from the host computer 1. This command consists of a commonly used command code, data address, and byte length. One of the features of the present invention is that the above-mentioned interrupt cycle is added to the data at the data address.
The purpose is to describe the travel time as 833μs and 200μs.

The operation of the simulated driving program will be explained with reference to FIG. From the host computer 1 to the communication control device 2
When the basic unit 21 is instructed to start the pseudo-driving program in the storage unit 215, one of the line adapters 22-0 corresponding to each communication line receives the command. This is the state 1 in FIG. 2a. From now on, the description in Figure 2 a will be omitted and the numbers in parentheses (1), (2)...
It is written in only. From the command received from the computer 1 in (1), the line adapter 22-0 transmits the value of the interrupt period of 833 μs in the command to the interrupt generation unit 11 in (2).
Set the timer to -0. Also, in (3), the running time of 200 μs in the command is set and stored in the control information area of the control memory 213 of the basic unit 21. (Four)
The processing address for timer interrupt is
Notify interrupt processing program. In this state, it enters a state of waiting for an interrupt. In this state of waiting for an interrupt, when the next timer interrupt occurs as shown in FIG. 2B, the simulated running program runs until the running time of 200 μs ends. This is the state (5) in FIG. 2b. When the running time in (5) ends, the interrupt timer value is set in (6) and the next interrupt is waited for. When there is an interrupt from the electronic computer to end the simulated run, the interrupt timer is stopped and final processing is performed. The above is the operation of the simulated driving program.

A test method for testing the maximum load of a control program for one communication line using a communication control device that controls four lines will be described below. Generally, a priority order is defined for communication lines handled by a communication control device. This one line with the highest priority is operated with the current program whose maximum load capacity is to be tested, and the remaining three lines are run with a pseudo running program for a time corresponding to the maximum load character processing of the current program. Then, a test is performed to see whether the current program on that single line with the highest priority is being operated with maximum load capacity. Therefore,
The remaining three lines are always operated with the maximum processing time, so the processing part of the current program on the highest priority line that takes the longest time will always collide with the processing part of the remaining three lines that takes the longest time. If there is no abnormality in the data transmission by the current program on the single line with the highest priority at that time, it is verified that the current program is being operated satisfying the maximum load condition.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, a pseudo running program that performs character processing that takes the maximum processing time for the required time is freely generated in accordance with the current communication control program, and the maximum load of the current program is tested. Therefore, the maximum load capacity of the current program in the communication control device can be tested efficiently and with high accuracy, which has many advantages in testing the maximum load of the communication control program.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment for explaining the maximum load test method of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the simulated running program, and Fig. 3 is a diagram of the communication system. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a conventional communication control device, FIG. 5 is an interrupt time chart, and FIG. 6 is a line processing time diagram. In the figure, 1 is a computer, 2 is a communication control device, 4-1 to 4-4 are communication lines, 11-0 to 11-3 are interrupt generation units, and 215 is a storage unit that stores a simulated driving program. .

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A processor-controlled communication control device 2 that is connected to the computer 1 and transmits and receives data to and from a plurality of communication lines 4-1 to 4-4 in accordance with instructions from the computer 1.
In a method for testing the maximum load of a transmission control program on a certain communication line, the communication control device 2
In addition, an interrupt generating section 11- generates an interrupt A to the processor 212 at a required time interval for each communication line.
0 to 11-3, and a storage section 215 that stores a pseudo running program that runs for a required time according to the interrupt A and becomes the maximum load on the processor 212. A communication control program characterized in that the pseudo running program is activated by an interrupt A and run for a required time to test whether or not a transmission control program of a certain communication line is being operated at maximum load capacity. Maximum load test method.