Relay device, relay system, relaying method, and computer program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12463845-B2
Application number	US-202218571571-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 14, 2022
Priority date	Jun 30, 2021
Publication date	Nov 4, 2025
Grant date	Nov 4, 2025

Abstract

A vehicle-mounted relay device for relaying Ethernet frames includes a plurality of PHY units corresponding to a plurality of vehicle-mounted devices, a switch unit to which the plurality of PHY units are connected, and a control unit configured to monitor operating states of the plurality of PHY units. The plurality of PHY units include a predetermined PHY unit whose operating state switches between a sleep state and an active state in response to reception of a predetermined control signal that differs from the Ethernet frames. When an Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit has been detected during a period where the predetermined PHY unit is in the sleep state, the control unit executes switching control to switch the predetermined PHY unit to the active state.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A vehicle-mounted relay device for relaying Ethernet frames comprising:
a plurality of PHY units corresponding to a plurality of vehicle-mounted devices; a switch unit to which the plurality of PHY units are connected; and a control unit configured to monitor operating states of the plurality of PHY units, wherein the plurality of PHY units include a predetermined PHY unit whose operating state switches between a sleep state and an active state in response to reception of a predetermined control signal that differs from the Ethernet frames, and when an Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit has been detected during a period where the predetermined PHY unit is in the sleep state, the control unit executes switching control to switch the predetermined PHY unit to the active state, and wherein the control unit includes a frame storage unit configured to store the Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit, and after executing the switching control, the control unit executes transfer control for outputting the Ethernet frame stored in the frame storage unit to the predetermined PHY unit.

2 . The relay device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the switching control and the transfer control are executed on a condition that the Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit satisfies a first predetermined condition.

3 . The relay device according to claim 2 , wherein the first predetermined condition includes a condition that a priority, which relates to driving safety of a vehicle, of the data included in the Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit is a predetermined level or higher.

4 . The relay device according to claim 1 , wherein when the Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit satisfies a second predetermined condition, the control unit executes retransmission request control to request a transmitter of the Ethernet frame to retransmit the Ethernet frame without executing the transfer control.

5 . The relay device according to claim 4 , wherein the second predetermined condition includes:
the type of data included in the Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit being a predetermined type; an amount of data in the Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit exceeding a predetermined amount; or the Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit being one of a plurality of divided frames.

6 . The relay device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the switch unit includes a rule storage unit configured to store a rule for deciding whether the Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit is to be outputted from the switch unit to the control unit, and when the predetermined PHY unit is in the sleep state, the control unit changes the rule so that the Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit is outputted to the control unit.

7 . The relay device according to claim 6 ,
wherein the Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit is a frame whose transmitter is a vehicle-mounted device belonging to the same VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) as a vehicle-mounted device corresponding to the predetermined PHY unit out of the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices.

8 . The relay device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit is a frame whose transmitter is a vehicle-mounted device belonging to a VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) that differs from the vehicle-mounted device corresponding to the predetermined PHY unit out of the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices.

9 . The relay device according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined PHY unit is compliant with OPEN Alliance TC10 (Technical Committees 10).

10 . A relay system comprising;
a relay device according to claim 1 ; and the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices.

11 . A relaying method in which a vehicle-mounted relay device relays Ethernet frames,
wherein the relay device includes: a plurality of PHY units that correspond to a plurality of vehicle-mounted devices and include a predetermined PHY unit whose operating state is switched between a sleep state and an active state in response to reception of a predetermined control signal that differs from the Ethernet frames; and a switch unit to which the plurality of PHY units are connected, the relaying method comprising steps of: detecting an Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit during a period in which the predetermined PHY unit is in the sleep state; and switching the predetermined PHY unit to the active state when the Ethernet frame has been detected, and a frame storage unit configured to store the Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit, and after switching the predetermined PHY unit to the active state, transferring control for outputting the Ethernet frame stored in the frame storage unit to the predetermined PHY unit.

12 . A computer program product for enabling a vehicle-mounted relay device to relay Ethernet frames, wherein the relay device includes: a plurality of PHY units that correspond to a plurality of vehicle-mounted devices and include a predetermined PHY unit whose operating state is switched between a sleep state and an active state in response to reception of a predetermined control signal that differs from the Ethernet frames; and a switch unit to which the plurality of PHY units are connected; the computer program product comprising a non-transitory, machine-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by at least one programmable processor, causes at least one programmable processor to perform operations comprising:
detecting an Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit during a period in which the predetermined PHY unit is in the sleep state; and switching the predetermined PHY unit to the active state when the Ethernet frame has been detected, and after the predetermined PHY unit to the active state when the Ethernet frame has been detected, the transferring control for outputting the Ethernet frame stored in the frame storage unit to the predetermined PHY unit.

13 . A vehicle-mounted relay device for relaying Ethernet frames comprising:
a plurality of PHY units corresponding to a plurality of vehicle-mounted devices; a switch unit to which the plurality of PHY units are connected; and a control unit configured to monitor operating states of the plurality of PHY units, wherein the plurality of PHY units include a predetermined PHY unit whose operating state switches between a sleep state and an active state in response to reception of a predetermined control signal that differs from the Ethernet frames, and when an Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit has been detected during a period where the predetermined PHY unit is in the sleep state, the control unit executes switching control to switch the predetermined PHY unit to the active state, and wherein after executing the switching control, the control unit executes retransmission request control to request a transmitter of the Ethernet frame to retransmit the Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit.

14 . The relay device according to claim 13 ,
wherein the switch unit includes a rule storage unit configured to store a rule for deciding whether the Ethernet frame to be transmitted from the predetermined PHY unit is to be outputted from the switch un

Assignees

• Autonetworks Technologies Ltd
• Sumitomo Wiring Systems
• Sumitomo Electric Industries

Inventors

• Go Darmawan
• Otsu Tomohiro
• Kikuchi Yoshitaka
• Hagihara Takeshi
• Urayama Hirofumi
• Maeda Hideki

Classifications

• H04L63/1466

  Active attacks involving interception, injection, modification, spoofing of data unit addresses, e.g. hijacking, packet injection or TCP sequence number attacks · CPC title

• H04L12/40006 Primary

  Architecture of a communication node (current supply arrangements H04L12/10; intermediate storage or scheduling H04L49/90) · CPC title

• H04L12/4641

  Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] (LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272) · CPC title

• H04L12/4625

  Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge · CPC title

• H04L2012/40273

  the transportation system being a vehicle · CPC title