Media converter and failure detection technique

A control method for a media converter comprising:

• a first physical-layer interface to a first transmission medium;
• a second physical-layer interface to a second transmission medium;
• and
• a memory connected between the first and second physical-layer interfaces, for temporarily storing data to be transferred between the first and second physical-layer interfaces,
• the control method comprising the steps of:
• a) determining whether a signal received at one of the first and second physical-layer interfaces is a trigger signal;
• b) when the trigger signal has been received at one of the first and second physical-layer interfaces, generating a response signal to the trigger signal;
• and
• c) transmitting the response signal from a corresponding physical-layer interface that has received the trigger signal back to a source that transmitted the trigger signal.

A method for detecting a failure on a link through a plurality of media converters, each of which connects different types of media, comprising the steps of:

• a) transmitting a special data block to each of the plurality of media converters, the special data block having a block length that is against prescribed standards;
• b) determining whether a response data block corresponding to the special data block is received from each of the plurality of media converters within a predetermined time period;
• and
• c) detecting a location of a failure based on a determination result of the step (b).

A failure detection system comprises:

• a link through a plurality of media converters connecting different types of media;
• a test manager connected to one of the media converters;
• wherein each of the media converters comprises:
• a first physical-layer interface to a first transmission medium;
• a second physical-layer interface to a second transmission medium;
• a memory connected between the first and second physical-layer interfaces, for temporarily storing data to be transferred between the first and second physical-layer interfaces;
• and
• a media converter controller
• a) determining whether a signal received at one of the first and second physical-layer interfaces is a trigger signal;
• b) when the trigger signal has been received at one of the first and second physical-layer interfaces, generating a response signal to the trigger signal;
• and
• c) transmitting the response signal from a corresponding physical-layer interface that has received the trigger signal back to a source that transmitted the trigger signal, and
• the test manager comprises:
• a test manager controller transmitting the special data block to the link through the media converter connected to the test manager;
• determining whether the response data block is received from each of the media converters within a predetermined time period;
• and detecting a location of a failure based on whether the response data block is received from each of the media converters within the predetermined time period.

A method for detecting a failure that occurs at a desired one of a plurality of media converters included in a network, comprising the steps of:

• a) transmitting a trigger data block having an address of a desired media converter stored in a destination address field thereof and an address of a predetermined management device stored in a source address field thereof;
• b) determining whether a response data block corresponding to the trigger data block is received or not from the desired media converter within a predetermined time period;
• and
• c) detecting a failure at the desired media converter based on a determination result of the step (b).

A failure detection system in a network including a plurality of media converters and a management device, wherein each of the media converters comprises:

• a first physical-layer interface to a first transmission medium;
• a second physical-layer interface to a second transmission medium;
• a memory connected between the first and second physical-layer interfaces, for temporarily storing data to be transferred between the first and second physical-layer interfaces;
• and
• a media converter controller for determining whether a received data block stored in the memory is a trigger data block having an address of an arbitrary media converter stored in a destination address field thereof and an address of the management device stored in a source address field thereof;
• when it is determined that the received data block is the trigger data block, generating the response data block corresponding to the trigger data block;
• and transmitting the response data block from a corresponding one of the first and second physical-layer interfaces back to a source that has transmitted the trigger data block, and
• the management device determines whether a response data block to the trigger data block is received from the arbitrary media converter within a predetermined time period;
• and detecting a location of a failure based on whether the response data block is received from the arbitrary media converter within the predetermined time period.