Relay apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016278017-A1
Application number	US-201615067805-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 11, 2016
Priority date	Mar 20, 2015
Publication date	Sep 22, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A relay apparatus for data relay between multiple communication lines includes a sleep relay unit, a start-up determination unit and a communication block unit. The sleep relay unit relays a sleep instruction that instructs a designated apparatus to transition to a sleep mode. The start-up determination unit determines whether or not a start-up apparatus, which is an apparatus other than the designated apparatus and is in a normal mode, exists in a designated communication line, which is a communication line connected to the designated apparatus. Communication that uses the designated communication line is blocked by the communication block unit when it is determined that the start-up apparatus does not exist in the designated communication line.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A relay apparatus connected to a plurality of communication lines to perform data relay between the plurality of communication lines,
the relay apparatus comprising: a sleep relay unit that, upon receipt of a sleep instruction that instructs a designated communication apparatus to transition to a sleep mode, relays the sleep instruction to the designated communication apparatus; a start-up determination unit that determines whether or not a start-up communication apparatus, which is an communication apparatus other than the designated communication apparatus and is in a normal mode different from the sleep mode, exists in a designated communication line, which is a communication line connected to the designated communication apparatus; and a communication block unit that blocks communication that uses the designated communication line when the start-up determination unit determines that the start-up communication apparatus does not exist in the designated communication line.

2 . The relay apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a sleep transition unit that changes the relay apparatus into the sleep mode when communications using all of the communication lines connected to the relay apparatus except an instruction receipt communication line, which is the communication line from which the sleep instruction is received, are blocked, wherein in the sleep mode, the relay apparatus does not send data via any communication lines.

3 . The relay apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a start-up transition unit that, upon satisfaction of a preset wakeup condition, changes the relay apparatus from the sleep mode in which the relay apparatus does not send data via any of the communication lines, into a start-up mode in which the relay apparatus performs data sending.

4 . The relay apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein:
upon receipt of a wakeup instruction from any of the communication lines, the start-up transition unit changes the relay apparatus from the sleep mode to the start-up mode, wherein the receipt of the wakeup instruction from any of the communication lines is included in the satisfaction of the preset wakeup condition.

5 . The relay apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a block release unit that, upon receipt of a wakeup instruction that designates a target communication apparatus which is a communication apparatus to be changed into a startup mode for data sending, releases the blocking of a communication line that is connected to the target communication apparatus.

6 . The relay apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein
the block release unit changes an electric potential of the communication line connected to the target communication apparatus, for starting up the target communication apparatus.

7 . A relay apparatus comprising:
a MAC table generation unit that
(a) upon receipt of an APR frame that includes an IP address of a specific communication apparatus and requests of the specific communication apparatus for an MAC address, sends the APR frame by broadcast, and
(b) upon receipt of a reply to the APR frame, generates a MAC table associating the MAC address and the IP address of the specific communication apparatus each other based on the MAC address included in b the reply; and
a reply relay unit that relays the reply to the APR frame to a source of the APR frame, wherein the relay apparatus performs relay using the MAC table generated by the MAC table generation unit.

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Koike Tomoyuki

Classifications

• H04L61/103

  across network layers, e.g. resolution of network layer into physical layer addresses or address resolution protocol [ARP] · CPC title

• H04W76/27

  Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states · CPC title

• H04W52/0235 Primary

  where the received signal is a power saving command · CPC title

• H04L61/2007

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W40/22

  using selective relaying for reaching a BTS [Base Transceiver Station] or an access point · CPC title