Vehicle-mounted relay device, vehicle-mounted communication system, and communication control method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12526348-B2
Application number	US-202218551623-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 17, 2022
Priority date	Mar 31, 2021
Publication date	Jan 13, 2026
Grant date	Jan 13, 2026

Abstract

The vehicle-mounted relay device in a vehicle-mounted communication system provided with a plurality of vehicle-mounted devices, the vehicle-mounted relay device includes: a relay unit configured to relay communication data between the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices; and a processing unit configured to, before communication is started between the vehicle-mounted devices, notify the vehicle-mounted devices of a common protocol that is a common communication protocol to be used.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A vehicle-mounted relay device in a vehicle-mounted communication system provided with a plurality of vehicle-mounted devices, the vehicle-mounted relay device comprising:
a relay unit configured to relay communication data between the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices, each of the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices communicating use at least one communication protocol selected from a list of communication protocols consisting of: (1) a SOME/IP (Scalable service-Oriented MiddlewarE over/Internet Protocol); (2) an MQTT (Message Queueing Telemetry Transport); (3) an OPC UA (OPC Unified Architecture); and (4) a CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol); and a processing unit configured to, before any communication is relayed between the vehicle-mounted devices by the relay unit, process each of the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices to determine a common protocol that is a communication protocol among the at least one communication protocol used by each of the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices, and wherein the processing unit notifies each of the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices of the common protocol to be used for communication.

2 . The vehicle-mounted relay device according to claim 1 , wherein, if the processing unit receives, from all of the vehicle-mounted devices notified of the common protocol, notifications that the vehicle-mounted devices have determined not to use the common protocol, the processing unit determines whether or not to perform conversion processing of a communication protocol for communication data to be transmitted and received between the vehicle-mounted devices.

3 . The vehicle-mounted relay device according to claim 2 , wherein the processing unit determines whether or not to perform the conversion processing, based on a driving state of a vehicle in which the vehicle-mounted communication system is mounted.

4 . The vehicle-mounted relay device according to claim 2 , wherein the processing unit determines whether or not to perform the conversion processing, based on a communication state of the vehicle-mounted communication system.

5 . The vehicle-mounted relay device according to claim 2 , wherein the processing unit determines whether or not to perform the conversion processing on a regular basis or on an irregular basis.

6 . The vehicle-mounted relay device according to claim 2 , wherein, when the conversion processing has been performed by the processing unit, the relay unit adds, to communication data for which the conversion processing has been performed, information indicating that the communication protocol has been converted, and relays the communication data.

7 . The vehicle-mounted relay device according to claim 2 , wherein, when the conversion processing has been performed by the processing unit, the relay unit adds, to communication data for which the conversion processing has been performed, information indicating a communication protocol used prior to the conversion processing, and relays the communication data.

8 . The vehicle-mounted relay device according to claim 2 , wherein, when the conversion processing has been performed by the processing unit, the relay unit adds, to communication data for which the conversion processing has been performed, information indicating a condition for stopping the conversion processing, and relays the communication data.

9 . The vehicle-mounted relay device according to claim 2 , wherein, if the processing unit determines not to perform the conversion processing, the processing unit performs processing for displaying a notification that the conversion processing is not to be performed, and a condition for performing the conversion processing on a screen.

10 . The vehicle-mounted relay device according to claim 1 , further including,
a storage unit storing relay permission information relating to relaying of communication data in a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) layer, wherein the processing unit performs protocol determination of determining whether or not there is a difference in communication protocol between the vehicle-mounted devices, the relay permission information indicates that the relaying of the communication data between the vehicle-mounted devices in the TCP/IP layer is prohibited before a determination result of the protocol determination performed by the processing unit is obtained, and if, in the protocol determination, it is determined that the communication protocols of the vehicle-mounted devices match each other, the processing unit changes content of the relay permission information to content that the relaying of the communication data between the vehicle-mounted devices in the TCP/IP layer is to be permitted, and if it is determined that the communication protocols of the vehicle-mounted devices are different from each other, the processing unit notifies the vehicle-mounted devices of the common protocol.

11 . The vehicle-mounted relay device according to claim 1 , further including a storage unit storing conversion information that indicates a list of types of convertible communication protocols for use in a service provided by the vehicle-mounted communication system.

12 . The vehicle-mounted relay device according to claim 11 , wherein the conversion information indicates a list of types of communication protocols associated with each service.

13 . The vehicle-mounted relay device according to claim 12 , wherein a plurality of services provided by the vehicle-mounted communication system include at least one of a service realized between the vehicle-mounted devices belonging to different networks, and a service realized between the vehicle-mounted devices belonging to the same network.

14 . A vehicle-mounted communication system comprising:
a plurality of vehicle-mounted devices including a vehicle-mounted relay device, each of the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices communicating using at least one communication protocol, the at least one communication protocol selected from a list of communication protocols consisting of: (1) a SOME/IP (Scalable service-Oriented MiddlewarE over/Internet Protocol); (2) an MQTT (Message Queueing Telemetry Transport); (3) an OPC UA (OPC Unified Architecture); and (4) a CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol), wherein the vehicle-mounted relay device is configured to relay communication data between the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices, the vehicle-mounted relay device is configured to, before any communication is relayed between the vehicle-mounted devices by the vehicle-mounted relay device, process each of the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices to determine a common protocol that is a common communication protocol among the at least one communication protocol used by each of the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices, and wherein the processing unit notifies each of the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices of the common protocol to be used, and upon receiving a notification of the common protocol, each of the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices determine whether or not to switch to communication using the common protocol.

15 . A communication control method that is performed by a vehicle-mounted relay device included in a vehicle-mounted communication system provided with a plurality of vehicle-mounted devices, each of the plurality of vehicle-mounted devices communicating using at least one communication protocol, the at least one communication protocol selected from a list of communication protocols consisting of: (1) a SOME/IP (Scalable service-Oriented MiddlewarE over/Internet Proto

Assignees

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

Inventors

• Go Darmawan
• Urayama Hirofumi
• Otsu Tomohiro
• Kikuchi Yoshitaka
• Izumi Tatsuya
• Tanaka Hideyuki
• Yamamoto Yusuke

Classifications

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• H04L69/18

  Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols · CPC title

• B60R16/023

  for transmission of signals between vehicle parts or subsystems · CPC title

• H04L12/28

  characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks] (wireless communication networks H04W {; arrangements for dividing the transmission path H04W40/00}) · CPC title

• H04L69/08 Primary

  Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion · CPC title