1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a network interface card controller and method of controlling thereof. Particularly, the present invention relates to a network interface card controller and method of controlling thereof, capable of supporting several types of protocols by providing an interface which is standardized with an upper application layer in a main process card(hereinafter, referring to MPC).
2. Background
The conventional network interface system has a trunk interface unit and a protocol process unit, physically. Therefore, interface cards comprising the system are different according to each protocol. These interface cards are 4 types according to functions. There are a digital highway switching card, a channel association signaling(CAS) protocol process card, a common channel signaling(CCS) protocol process card, a trunk interface card, and etc. In addition, the system for providing an actual service by using the network interface needs a voice process card of providing voice services(for example, voice message service, Internet phone service, and etc.), and a main process card having an application program for controlling the cards and providing the connection and release of the call. Particularly, the main process card controls each card through a system bus, respectively. And each card is connected to each other through a PCM(pulse code modulation) digital highway. And the trunk interface card may connect at least one trunk lines, which is E1 type, or T1 type.
The conventional network system comprises several cards(30, 30xe2x80x2, 40, 40xe2x80x2, 60, 60xe2x80x2) for charging the network interface, in which the several cards are divided respectively. The application program of a central processing unit(CPU)(a main process card 10 in FIG. 1) controls each card directly in order to provide service by connecting to the network. In other words, each application program connects the call in case that the system uses the CAS protocol process type and the CCS protocol process type by controlling the respective network interface cards(NICs) for connecting single call. Now it will be briefly explained a procedure for generating the call by commanding to the respective NIC in each application program.
First, it is assumed that the system uses the CAS protocol process type. The application program commands a line occupation to trunk interface cards 60, 60xe2x80x2 through a system bus 80. And the application program connects a digital highway 70 between the seized line and the CAS protocol process cards 40, 40xe2x80x2 by controlling the digital highway switching card 50. And then the application program commands a call number transmission to the CAS protocol process cards 40, 40xe2x80x2. After completing the call number transmission, the CAS protocol process cards 40, 40xe2x80x2 reports to the application program that each call is answered from a relative network 90, in case the each call is answered from the relative network 90. The application program connects the digital highway 70 between the voice process cards 20, 20xe2x80x2 which are providing the answered line and services by commanding to the digital highway switching card 50. The voice service is finally accomplished by connecting the relative network 90 and the voice process cards 20, 20xe2x80x2 through the digital highway 70.
Next, it is assumed that the system uses the CCS protocol process type. First of all, the application program of the main process card 10 connects the digital highway 70 between the trunk signal channel and the CCS protocol process cards 30, 30xe2x80x2 by controlling the digital highway switching card 50. And the application program transmits a setup message to the CCS protocol process cards 30, 30xe2x80x2. And then the CCS protocol process cards 30, 30xe2x80x2 transmits the answering signal of the network to the application program in the main process card 10.
In case of answering about the call in the network, the CCS protocol process cards 30, 30xe2x80x2 transmits whether the cards 30, 30xe2x80x2 answers or not, to the application program and the application program connects the digital highway 70 between the voice process cards 20, 20xe2x80x2 which provides the answered line and the services by commanding to the digital highway switching card 50.
FIG. 2 is an exemplary signal flow chart of a call setting procedure which is carried out about R2 signal in case of the CAS protocol process type and about the ISDN protocol in case of the CCS protocol process type in a conventional NIC. Referring to FIG. 2, a forward tone indicates an information which is generated from a calling party to a received party and a backward tone indicates an information which is generated from the received party to the calling party. And additional I-X, II-X are a Group I and a second Group II of transmitting each subscriber address. And AX, BX . . . indicates an Group A and Group B for transmitting an exchange information(for example, a subscriber grade or a charging format required from the exchange). Accordingly, the forward tones(1-x) indicate the subscriber address which is generated from the calling party to the received party. And a backward tone(A1) indicates the Acknowledge of the received party.
The conventional network system comprises other call process procedures according to each protocol, respectively and the application program in the main process card, cares for an overall call connection procedure.
Accordingly, in case that the application program directly controls various types of protocol, the application program should support functions of each protocol. Therefore, the application program structure becomes complicated, and an internal register is frequently changed according to the function of each protocol whenever the application program carries out the network connection function. As a result, the system extension is more difficult when large numbers of the cards related to the network interface exist.
Accordingly, in order to solve the problems in the prior art it is an object of the present invention to provide an integrated hardware card which supports an interface of several protocols. Thereby, the structure becomes simple and the cost may be reduced.
To accomplish the object of one embodiment in accordance with the present invention provides a network interface card(hereinafter, referring to NIC) controller, which is controlled by a central processing unit(CPU) in which a network interface function and a protocol process function are connected to a network, comprising plurality of protocol process means of respectively providing a several types of protocol for offering any service required from the CPU through a system bus, plurality of network interface means of performing a desired network interface by switching a digital highway according to service types required from the CPU through the system bus, and of performing a digital relay which occupies an empty trunk line, in which the plurality of network interface means are connected to several trunk lines of a physical layer, and call control means of controlling the plurality of protocol means and the plurality of network interface means regardless of protocol types, by exchanging information with an upper application layer, by using a standard interface indicating whether the process succeeds or not about a protocol process request and the requested protocol process result.
To accomplish the object of one embodiment, the present invention further comprises system interface means of interfacing a NIC initialization command interface which is from the upper application layer in a main process card(MPC) and a command which is from the upper application layer of the MPC to the NIC according to a NIC preparing state between the upper application layer and the call control means, and system initialization means of initiating the plurality of the protocol process means, the network interface means and the call control means with the NIC initialization command from the upper application layer through the system interface means according to the NIC preparing state at the same time.
To accomplish the object of one embodiment in accordance with the present invention, the call control means manages a call process state about a line management of each NIC and a wanted protocol(channel association signaling(CAS) or common channel signaling(CCS) protocol).
To accomplish the object of another embodiment in accordance with the present invention provides a method of controlling a network interface card(NIC), comprising the processes of initializing each network interface means and protocol process means by checking an initialization message which is commanded from an upper application layer in a main process card according to a NIC preparing state, requesting a call process to a corresponding protocol process means after determining a request call process type when the upper application layer requests the call process of a standard interface, and performing the call process according that an answer of the corresponding protocol process means exists or not, and reporting a call process result to the upper application layer by using the standard interface and changing/writing a call process state on a self database.
An each embodiment of the invention is characterized in that the standard interface comprises a setup indication interface of requesting that the upper application layer requests a call to the NIC, in other words, a setup request, and of reporting from the NIC to the upper application layer of the MPC that a new call is requested from the network, a connecting indication interface of requesting that the upper application layer requests a call connection to the NIC, in other words, a connection request, and of reporting that the call is answered in the network from the NIC to the upper application layer, a release indication interface of requesting that the upper application layer requests a call release to the NIC, in other words, a release request, and of reporting that the call is released from the NIC, to the upper application layer, a reset indication interface of requesting that the upper application layer requests a call initialization to the NIC, in other words, a reset request, and of reporting that the call is initialized from the NIC to the upper application layer, and a block indication interface of requesting that the upper application layer requests a channel block to the NIC, in other words, a block request, and of reporting the channel block from the NIC to the upper application layer.
Particularly, in that the standard interface is the CCS protocol, the standard interface further comprises an alert indication interface of requesting that the upper application layer reports a current calling state to the NIC to the network, in other words, an alert request, and of reporting that the current calling state signal is received from the network, from the NIC to the upper application layer.