JP2014165883A - Communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To distribute a telegraphic message capable of being processed by respective nodes.SOLUTION: A communication device comprises: a reception unit; a determination unit; a division unit; and a transmission unit. The reception unit receives a telegraphic message transmitted to a node by a predetermined device. The determination unit determines whether or not the number of instructions for the node included in the telegraphic message received by the reception unit is equal to or larger than a predetermined number. The division unit divides the telegraphic message received by the reception unit into a plurality of telegraphic messages including instructions whose number is equal to or smaller than the number of instructions the node can process, when the determination unit determines that the number of instructions for the node included in the telegraphic message is equal to or larger than the predetermined number. The transmission unit transmits the plurality of telegraphic messages obtained by the division by the division unit to the node.

Description

  Embodiments described herein relate generally to a communication device.

  In recent years, energy management systems for controlling electrical appliances and the like are becoming widespread. As a kind of such energy management system, a system called HEMS (Home Energy Management System) is known. ECHONET and ECHONET Lite are applied to such HEMS as standard protocols.

  In ECHONET and ECHONET Lite, such a node can be remotely controlled by transmitting a frame called a message to a node such as an electric appliance. In such a message, a write command for controlling a node by writing a value called a property, a read command for acquiring a node state by reading a property value, and the like are set. In ECHONET and ECHONET Lite, a plurality of commands may be set for one message. For example, one message may include a plurality of write commands, a plurality of read commands, or both a write command and a read command.

  However, depending on the node, there are cases where the number of instructions that can be processed by one electronic message is determined for reasons such as specifications and processing capability. For example, even a node that can process five instructions with a single message may not be able to process a message that includes six instructions.

“Echonet standard (open to the public)”, [online], [searched on November 26, 2012], Internet <http://www.echonet.gr.jp/spec/spec_v101_lite.htm>

  The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a communication device capable of distributing a message that can be processed by each node.

  The communication apparatus according to the embodiment includes a reception unit, a determination unit, a division unit, and a transmission unit. The receiving unit receives a message transmitted to a node by a predetermined device. The determination unit determines whether or not a predetermined number or more of instructions for the node are included in the message received by the reception unit. The division unit divides a message received by the reception unit into a message including instructions less than the number that can be processed by the node when the determination unit determines that the message includes a predetermined number or more. To do. The transmitting unit transmits a plurality of messages divided by the dividing unit to the node.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of an energy management system according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the communication device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a partner information table according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a TID correspondence table according to the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a message transmission / reception process performed by the communication apparatus according to the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram illustrating a processing procedure performed by the energy management system according to the first embodiment. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating another example of the partner information table according to the first embodiment. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a SetGet message transmission / reception process by the communication apparatus according to the first embodiment. FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure performed by the communication apparatus according to the first embodiment. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a communication device according to the second embodiment. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a partner information table according to the second embodiment.

  The communication device 100 (or communication device 200) according to the embodiment described below includes a reception unit 131 (or reception unit 231), a determination unit 132 (or determination unit 232), and a division unit 133 (or A dividing unit 233) and a transmitting unit 134 (or transmitting unit 234). The receiving unit 131 (or the receiving unit 231) receives a message transmitted to the node 10 by the management device 40 (corresponding to an example of a predetermined device). The determination unit 132 (or determination unit 232) determines whether or not a predetermined number or more of instructions for the node 10 are included in the message received by the reception unit 131 (or reception unit 231). The dividing unit 133 (or the dividing unit 233) receives the receiving unit 131 (or the receiving unit 231) when the determining unit 132 (or the determining unit 232) determines that a predetermined number or more instructions are included in the message. The message received by is divided into messages containing instructions less than the number that the node 10 can process. The transmission unit 134 (or the transmission unit 234) transmits the plurality of messages divided by the division unit 133 (or the division unit 233) to the node 10.

  In addition, the communication device 200 according to the embodiment described below includes a counterpart information table 221 and an update unit 236. The counterpart information table 221 stores, for each node 10, the number of instructions that can be processed by the node 10. In addition, the update unit 236 determines the number of commands stored in the partner information table 221 based on the number of commands included in the message transmitted to the node 10 by the transmission unit 234 and the response from the node to the message. Update the number.

  In the embodiment described below, the reception unit 131 (or the reception unit 231) receives a message transmitted to the node 10 by the management device 40. In addition, the determination unit 132 (or the determination unit 232) writes a property (corresponding to an example of attribute information) of the node 10 to a message received by the reception unit 131 (or the reception unit 231). And whether or not a read command for reading the property of the node 10 is included. Further, the dividing unit 133 (or the dividing unit 233), when the determining unit 132 (or the determining unit 232) determines that the message includes both the write command and the read command, the receiving unit 131 ( Alternatively, the message received by the receiving unit 231) is divided into a message including a write command and a message including a read command. In addition, the transmission unit 134 (or the transmission unit 234) transmits the message divided by the division unit 133 (or the division unit 233) to the node 10.

  In addition, the communication device 100 (or the communication device 200) according to the embodiment described below includes a coupling unit 135. The combination unit 135 combines the received responses when receiving the response of the electronic message transmitted by the transmission unit 134 (or the transmission unit 234) from the node 10. In addition, the transmission unit 134 (or the transmission unit 234) transmits the response combined by the combining unit 135 to the management device 40.

  Hereinafter, a communication device according to an embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. In the embodiment, the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.

(First embodiment)
[Configuration of energy management system]
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of an energy management system 1 according to the first embodiment. The energy management system 1 shown in FIG. 1 is a system that realizes control and monitoring of home appliances installed in a home, for example, and is called HEMS or the like. In the energy management system 1 according to the first embodiment, it is assumed that ECHONET Lite of the HEMS standard protocol is applied.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the energy management system 1 includes a home network system 2, a user terminal 3, and a management server 4. The home network system 2, the user terminal 3, and the management server 4 are connected to be communicable via wire or wireless via the network 5. Such a network 5 corresponds to, for example, the Internet or an intranet. The energy management system 1 may include a plurality of home network systems 2, a plurality of user terminals 3, and a plurality of management servers 4.

The home network system 2 is constructed in, for example, a user's home or a store, and has a distribution board 10 ₁ , home appliance 10 ₂ , home appliance 10 ₃ , gateway device 20, user terminal 30, management device 40, and communication devices 100 _{1 to} 100 _3. Etc.

The distribution board 10 ₁ is provided, for example, such as user's home wall, it has various breaker supplying power to the home appliance 10 ₂ and home appliance 10 _3. Home appliance 10 ₂ and home ₁₀₃ is a appliances installed in the user premises. For example, consumer electronics 10 ₂ and consumer electronics 10 _3, refrigerator, TV, air conditioning, cooking heater, heating equipment, water heaters, electric lock, intercom (intercom), lighting equipment, corresponding to such as washing machines.

In the ECHONET Lite, such a distribution board 10 ₁ , home appliances 10 ₂ and 10 ₃ are called “ECHONET objects” or the like. In each ECHONET object, attributes such as setting values and states are defined as “ECHONET properties”. Such an ECHONET object performs a process of writing and reading an ECHONET property by receiving an “ECHONET Lite message (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as“ message ”)” from the management apparatus 40 described later.

  For example, the ECHONET object writes a predetermined property value in the ECHONET property when it receives a message in which a writing command for writing the predetermined property value in the ECHONET property is set. As a result, the ECHONET object is subjected to various controls such as “power on / off” and “operation mode switching” by the management device 40.

  Further, for example, when the ECHONET object receives a message in which a read command for reading the property value set in the ECHONET property is received, the ECHONET object transmits the property value set in the ECHONET property to the management apparatus 40. To do. As a result, the operation status of the ECHONET object is monitored by the management device 40.

In the following, when it is not necessary to distinguish ECHONET objects such as the distribution board 10 ₁ and the home appliances 10 ₂ and 10 ₃ , they are simply expressed as “node 10” and the ECHONET property is simply expressed as “property”. In addition, a message transmitted to the node 10 may be referred to as a “request message”, and a response message to the request message transmitted from the node 10 may be referred to as a “response message”.

  The gateway device 20 is a communication device that is connected to the management device 40 and connects the home network system 2 to the external network 5. In the example of FIG. 1, the gateway device 20 connects the management device 40 in the home network system 2 to the user terminal 3 and the management server 4 outside the home network system 2 via the network 5.

  The user terminal 30 is, for example, a tablet terminal, a PC (Personal Computer), a mobile phone, a PDA (Personal Data Assistance), and the like, and is connected to the management device 40 via a wireless LAN (Local Area Network), a wired LAN, or the like. . The user terminal 30 transmits a control command for the node 10 to the management device 40 according to a user operation, and displays various information regarding the node 10 received from the management device 40.

The management device 40 plays a role as an access point, and communicates with the gateway device 20, the user terminal 30, and the communication devices 100 _{1 to} 100 ₃ using a short-range wireless technology such as Bluetooth (registered trademark) or a home LAN. . Based on various control commands input from the user terminal 30, the management device 40 transmits a request message in which commands such as “write property value” and “read property value” are set to the node 10, Various information obtained from the response message received from the node 10 is transmitted to the user terminal 30. The management device 40 may be formed integrally with the gateway device 20.

The communication devices 100 _{1 to} 100 ₃ relay messages transmitted and received between the node 10 and the management device 40. For example in FIG. 1, the communication device 100 ₁ is disposed between the distribution board 10 ₁ and the management apparatus 40, the communication device 100 ₂ is disposed between the home appliance 10 ₂ and the management apparatus 40, the communication The device 100 ₃ is installed between the home appliance 10 ₃ and the management device 40. Although details will be described later, when the communication devices 100 _{1 to} 100 ₃ receive the request message from the management device 40, the communication devices 100 _{1 to} 100 ₃ divide the request message including a number of instructions that can be processed in the node 10, and A request message is transmitted to the node 10. Then, the communication devices 100 _{1 to} 100 ₃ combine the response messages received from the node 10 and transmit them to the management device 40. Hereinafter, when it is not necessary to distinguish the communication devices 100 _{1 to} 100 ₃ , they may be simply referred to as “communication device 100”.

  As described above, a user who uses the home network system 2 can control the node 10 via the management device 40 by using the user terminal 30. For example, when the user terminal 30 is a mobile phone, the user can control the operation of the node 10 or monitor the operation status of the node 10 simply by operating the mobile phone at home.

  In FIG. 1, the user terminal 3 shown outside the home network system 2 is, for example, a mobile phone, a PDA, a tablet terminal, a PC, and the like, and is connected to the network 5 via a wireless LAN, a wired LAN, or the like. . Similar to the user terminal 30, the user terminal 3 transmits a control command for the node 10 to the management server 4 according to a user operation, and displays various information regarding the node 10 received from the management server 4.

  The management server 4 transmits various control commands received from the user terminal 3 via the network 5 to the management device 40. Thereby, the management apparatus 40 controls the node 10 based on the control command transmitted from the user terminal 3 located outside the home network system 2. In addition, the management server 4 transmits various information regarding the node 10 received from the management device 40 via the network 5 to the user terminal 3. Thereby, the user terminal 3 displays various information related to the node 10 installed in the home network system 2. As described above, even when the user of the user terminal 3 is not located in the home network system 2, the user 10 can control the node 10 and monitor the operation status of the node 10.

  In such an energy management system 1, it is possible to distribute a message that can be processed by each node 10 through processing by the communication device 100. Hereinafter, the communication apparatus 100 will be described in detail.

[Configuration of communication device]
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the communication device 100 according to the first embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the communication device 100 according to the first embodiment includes a communication unit 110, a storage unit 120, and a control unit 130.

  The communication unit 110 performs wireless communication processing and wired communication processing. For example, the communication unit 110 transmits and receives various types of information such as telegrams with the node 10 and the management device 40 illustrated in FIG. 1 by wireless communication or wired communication.

  The storage unit 120 is realized by a storage device such as a semiconductor memory element such as a RAM (Random Access Memory) and a flash memory (Flash Memory), for example. As shown in FIG. 2, the storage unit 120 includes a counterpart information table 121 and a TID (Transaction ID) correspondence table 122.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of the counterpart information table 121 according to the first embodiment. In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, the destination information table 121 stores “transmission destination address” and “number of processable properties” in association with each other.

  “Destination address” indicates destination information of the node 10, and corresponds to an IP address in the example of FIG. Note that the “destination address” is not limited to an IP address, and may be any information that can identify the node 10, and may be a MAC (Media Access Control) address such as an Ethernet (registered trademark) address, for example. The “number of processable properties” indicates the number of instructions to the property that the node 10 can process in one request message. The “command to the property” here corresponds to “property value write command”, “property value read command”, and the like. In addition, the request message may include a write command and a read command for the same property, but here, even if the properties to be processed are the same, a “property value write command” is one command. It is assumed that “property value read command” corresponds to one command.

  That is, in FIG. 3, the node 10 whose destination address is “192.168.0.100” can process a request message including one command, but two or more commands are received. An example in which the included request message cannot be processed is shown.

  When one communication device 100 is installed in one node 10 as in the example illustrated in FIG. 1, only one record is stored in the counterpart information table 121. In the first embodiment, it is assumed that the number of properties that can be processed is stored in advance in the counterpart information table 121 by an administrator or the like.

  The TID correspondence table 122 corresponds to the request message received from the management device 40 and the request message after the request message is divided (hereinafter, the divided request message may be referred to as “divided message”). Remember the relationship. Here, FIG. 4 shows an example of the TID correspondence table 122 according to the first embodiment. In the example illustrated in FIG. 4, the TID correspondence table 122 associates “source address”, “original message TID”, “number of divisions”, “division message TID”, and “response received / not received”. And remember.

  The “transmission source address” indicates destination information of a transmission source (such as the management device 40) of the request message, and corresponds to an IP address in the example of FIG. The “source address” may be a MAC address such as an Ethernet (registered trademark) address. “Original message TID” indicates the TID set in the request message received from the management apparatus 40. “Number of divisions” indicates the number of divisions of the request message identified by the original message TID. “Divided message TID” indicates a TID set in the divided message. “Respondence received / not received” indicates whether a response message for the divided message has been received from the node 10 or not. In the example of FIG. 4, when “yes” is stored in “response received / not received”, it indicates that a response message has been received from the node 10, and “no” is stored in “response received / not received”. In this case, the response message is not received from the node 10.

  That is, in FIG. 4, a request message in which TID “1” is set is received from a device (such as the management device 40) whose transmission source address is “192.168.1.1”. An example in which the message is divided into a number of divided messages is shown. In FIG. 4, TIDs “100”, “101”, and “102” are set for these three divided messages, respectively, and a divided message whose TID is “100” and the TID is “101”. In this example, the response message corresponding to the divided message is received from the node 10 and the response message corresponding to the divided message whose TID is “102” is not received from the node 10.

  1, when the communication device 100 receives a request message from only the management device 40, only the transmission source address of the management device 40 is stored in the TID correspondence table 122. It becomes.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 2, the control unit 130 is realized by an integrated circuit such as an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) or an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). In addition, the control unit 130 executes a program stored in an internal storage device (for example, the storage unit 120) by using a RAM as a work area, for example, by a CPU (Central Processing Unit), an MPU (Micro Processing Unit), or the like. It is realized by doing. The control unit 130 includes a reception unit 131, a determination unit 132, a division unit 133, a transmission unit 134, and a combination unit 135.

  The receiving unit 131 receives a request message addressed to the node 10 from the management device 40. That is, in the first embodiment, a request message is not directly transmitted from the management device 40 to the node 10, but the request message transmitted from the management device 40 is intercepted by the communication device 100.

  In addition, the reception unit 131 receives a response message for the request message from the node 10 that has received the request message transmitted by the transmission unit 134 described later. In this case, the receiving unit 131 outputs the response message received from the node 10 to the combining unit 135.

  The determination unit 132 determines whether or not the request message received by the reception unit 131 includes an instruction equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold. Specifically, the determination unit 132 acquires the number of processable properties corresponding to the transmission destination address of the request message from the counterpart information table 121. Then, the determination unit 132 compares the number of instructions included in the request message (the number of processing target properties) with the number of processable properties acquired from the counterpart information table 121.

  For example, it is assumed that the counterpart information table 121 stores various types of information shown in FIG. Then, it is assumed that the reception unit 131 has received a request message whose transmission destination address is “192.168.0.101”. In this case, the determination unit 132 compares the number of instructions included in the request message with the number of processable properties “3” stored in the counterpart information table 121.

  When the determination unit 132 determines that the number of instructions included in the request message is larger than a predetermined threshold (that is, the number of processable properties), the dividing unit 133 determines that the request message is equal to or less than the number of processable properties. Divide into multiple split messages including instructions.

  For example, as in the above example, it is assumed that the partner information table 121 stores various types of information shown in FIG. Further, it is assumed that the receiving unit 131 has received a request message having a transmission destination address “192.168.0.101” and including six commands. In this case, the dividing unit 133 generates, for example, two divided telegrams including the same three instructions as the number of processable properties. Further, the present invention is not limited to this example, and the dividing unit 133 may generate three divided messages including two instructions or six divided messages including one instruction. .

  The transmission unit 134 transmits the request message received by the reception unit 131 to the node 10. Specifically, the transmission unit 134 transmits each of the divided telegrams to the node 10 when the dividing process is performed by the dividing unit 133. The transmission unit 134 transmits the request message received by the reception unit 131 to the node 10 when the division processing is not performed by the division unit 133.

  When the response message is received by the receiving unit 131, the combining unit 135 generates a single response message by combining the response messages. Then, the combining unit 135 outputs the generated response message to the transmission unit 134, thereby transmitting the response message to the management device 40.

[Processing example of communication device]
Next, a message transmission / reception process performed by the communication apparatus 100 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a message transmission / reception process performed by the communication device 100 according to the first embodiment. The upper part of FIG. 5 shows the request message D10 received from the management device 40, and the lower part of FIG. 5 shows the divided messages D10 _{1 to} D10 _k after the request message D10 is divided.

  As shown in the upper part of FIG. 5, the request message D10 includes “EHD1”, “EHD2”, “TID”, “SEOJ”, “DEOJ”, “ESV”, “OPC”, “EPC1”, “PDC1”. , “EDT1”,..., “EPCm”, “PDCm”, “EDTm”.

  “EHD1” and “EHD2” indicate the header of the ECHONET Lite message, and the protocol type and the like are set. “TID” indicates an identifier for identifying a message. The “TID” is used when the transmission side (for example, the management device 40) links the request message and the response message in ECHONET Lite communication. “SEOJ” indicates an identifier for identifying the transmission source ECHONET object. “DEOJ” indicates an identifier for identifying the destination ECHONET object.

  “ESV” indicates an ECHONET Lite service. For example, when the instruction included in the request message D10 is “write property value”, “0x61” is set in “ESV”, and when the instruction included in the request message D10 is “read property value”, “0x62” is set in “ESV”.

  “OPC” indicates a processing target property counter and corresponds to the number of instructions included in the request message D10. Specifically, “OPC” includes “EPC”, “PDC”, and “EDT” in the subsequent stages as “number of properties to be written with property values” and “number of properties to be read with property values”. The number of combinations is set. If the request message D10 includes both a “property value write command” and a “property value read command”, the “number of properties to which the property value is to be written” is set to “OPCSet”. “The number of properties from which property values are to be read” is set to “OPCGet”. In the example of FIG. 5, either “property value write command” or “property value read command” is displayed in the request message D10. Only one is assumed to be included.

  “EPC”, “PDC”, and “EDT” correspond to one instruction. Among these, “EPC” indicates an ECHONET Lite property. “PDC” indicates the number of bytes of “EDT” in the subsequent stage. “EDT” indicates the value of the ECHONET Lite property.

That is, since there are m combinations of “EPC”, “PDC”, and “EDT” in the request message D10 shown in FIG. 5, m instructions to the property are included. When such a request message D10 is received by the reception unit 131, the determination unit 132 receives the OPC “m” set in the request message D10 and the number of processable properties stored in the counterpart information table 121. And compare. In this example, it is assumed that OPC “m” is larger than the number of processable properties. Then, the dividing unit 133 of the communication device 100 divides the request message D10 into divided messages D10 _{1 to} D10 _k including n (<m) instructions as illustrated in the lower part of FIG.

An example of the dividing process will be described. The dividing unit 133 uses the predetermined counter “k” and a TID counter value that is a TID managed in the communication apparatus 100 to increment the counter “k”. sequentially generates a telegram D10 _k. Specifically, the dividing unit 133 stores the IP address of the transmission source of the request message D10 and the “TID” of the request message D10 in the “transmission source address” and “original message TID” of the TID correspondence table 122. At this time, the dividing unit 133 stores “0” in the “number of divisions” of the TID correspondence table 122.

Subsequently, the dividing unit 133 sets the counter “k” to “1”, and “EHD1”, “EHD2”, “SEOJ”, “DEOJ”, and “ESV” of the divided message D10 _k (that is, the divided message D10 ₁ ). Then, “EHD1”, “EHD2”, “SEOJ”, “DEOJ”, and “ESV” of the request message D10 are copied. Further, dividing unit 133, it included in the request message D10 "EPC1", "PDC1" and "EDT1" - "EPCn" copies "PDCn" and "EDTn" split telegram D10 _1. Further, dividing unit 133 sets "n" to "OPC" divided telegram D10 _1.

Subsequently, the dividing unit 133 reads the TID counter value, sets the read TID counter value to "TID" divided telegram D10 _1. Here, it is assumed TID counter value is "s", the division unit 133 sets "s" to "TID" divided telegram D10 _1. Further, the division unit 133 stores the TID counter value “s” in “division message TID” of the TID correspondence table 122 and information indicating “not received” in the TID correspondence table 122 (example in FIG. 4). Stores “no”). At this time, the dividing unit 133 stores the TID counter value “s” and the information indicating that it has not been received in the record of the TID correspondence table 122 in which “TID” of the request message D10 is stored. Then, the dividing unit 133 adds “1” to “number of divisions” in the TID correspondence table 122. When the counter “k” is “1”, the dividing unit 133 stores “1” in the “number of divisions”. Further, the dividing unit 133 adds “1” to the TID counter value “s” and records it as a new TID counter value “s + 1”.

In this way, the dividing unit 133 generates the divided telegrams D10 _{1 to} D10 _k by performing the above processing until “k × n ≧ m” while adding “1” to the counter “k”. At this time, when generating the divided message D10 _k , the dividing unit 133 generates “EPC ((k−1) n + 1)”, “PDC ((k−1) n + 1)”, and “ EDT ((k−1) n + 1) ”to“ EPC (k × n) ”,“ PDC (k × n) ”, and“ EDT (k × n) ”are copied. When “k × n> m” (that is, when “m” is not divisible by “k”), the dividing unit 133 sets “EPC” included in the request message D10 for the last divided message D10 _k. ((K-1) n + 1) "," PDC ((k-1) n + 1) "and" EDT ((k-1) n + 1) "to" EPCm "," PDCm "and" EDTm "are copied.

Then, the transmitting unit 134 transmits the divided messages D10 _{1 to} D10 _k divided by the dividing unit 133 to the node 10. As a result, the receiving unit 131 receives response messages corresponding to the divided messages D10 _{1 to} D10 _k from the node 10 and outputs the received response messages to the combining unit 135. In the response message transmitted from the node 10, the same TID as the TID set in the divided messages D10 _{1 to} D10 _k is set. Thereby, the combination unit 135 determines which divided message corresponds to the response message based on the TID set in the response message. Then, the combining unit 135 stores information (“yes” in the example of FIG. 4) indicating reception in the “response reception presence / absence” of the TID correspondence table 122 corresponding to “TID” set in the response message.

The coupling unit 135, if all the response message corresponding to the divided message D10 ₁ to D10 _k becomes received, by combining the respective response message, generates a response message to the request message D10. Specifically, in the response message of ECHONET Lite, the response contents (“EPC”) corresponding to the command (combination of “EPC”, “PDC”, and “EDT”) in the order set in the request message. , A combination of “PDC” and “EDT”). Therefore, the combining unit 135 extracts response contents from each response message received from the node 10, and arranges the extracted response contents in the order of the instructions set in the request message D10, so that a response message for the request message D10 is obtained. Generate.

  In addition, when information that is a normal response (for example, “0x71” or “0x72”) is set in “ESV” of all response messages received from the node 10, the combining unit 135 responds to the request message D10. Information that is a normal response (for example, “0x71” or “0x72”) is set in the “ESV” of the message. On the other hand, when there is a response message in which information that is a non-response (for example, “0x51” or “0x52”) is set in “ESV”, the combining unit 135 indicates “ESV” of the response message for the request message D10. "Is set to information that is an unacceptable response (for example," 0x51 "or" 0x52 "). Then, the transmitting unit 134 transmits the response message generated by the combining unit 135 to the management device 40.

  If a part of the response message for the split message is not received even after a predetermined time has elapsed after the split message is sent, the combining unit 135 responds to the request message D10 only from the received response message. Can also be generated. In this case, the combining unit 135 generates a response message for the request message D10 by skipping the response content corresponding to the command that has not been responded and by prepending the response content corresponding to the subsequent command. Further, in this case, the combining unit 135 sets information (for example, “0x51” or “0x52”) that is an unacceptable response to “ESV” of the response message.

[Energy management system processing procedures]
Next, a processing procedure by the energy management system 1 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram illustrating a processing procedure performed by the energy management system 1 according to the first embodiment.

  In the example shown in FIG. 6, the management device 40 transmits a request message to the communication device 100 (step S101). The determination unit 132 of the communication device 100 determines whether or not the node 10 can process the request message based on the number of instructions included in the request message received from the management device 40 (that is, the OPC value) (step S102). ). Here, it is assumed that the determination unit 132 determines that the node 10 cannot process the request message. In this case, the dividing unit 133 generates a divided message by dividing the request message received from the management device 40 as in the example illustrated in FIG. 5 (step S103).

  Then, the transmission unit 134 individually transmits the divided telegrams generated by the division unit 133 to the node 10 (Step S104). Thereby, the node 10 transmits a response message for the divided message received from the communication device 100 to the communication device 100 (step S105).

  Further, the combining unit 135 determines whether or not all response messages for each divided message transmitted by the transmission unit 134 have been received between steps S104 and S105 (step S106). When all the response messages have been received, the combining unit 135 combines the received response messages (step S107). Then, the transmission unit 134 transmits the response message combined by the combining unit 135 to the management apparatus 40 as a response message for the request message received in step S101 (step S108).

[Other division examples (1)]
In the embodiment described above, an example in which a request message is divided based on the number of instructions (number of processable properties) that can be processed by the node 10 has been shown, as in the example illustrated in FIG. This is because the number of instructions (number of properties) that can be processed in one request message varies depending on the node 10. However, depending on the node 10, a request message including both a “property value write command” and a “property value read command” may not be processed regardless of the number of commands. Therefore, when the request message includes both the “property value write command” and the “property value read command”, the communication device 100 includes a split message including only the “property value write command”; You may divide | segment into the division | segmentation message | telegram only including "the read command of property value". This point will be specifically described with reference to FIGS. In the following, a request message including both a “property value write command” and a “property value read command” may be referred to as a “SetGet message”.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating another example of the partner information table 121 according to the first embodiment. In the example illustrated in FIG. 7, the destination information table 121 stores “transmission destination address” and “SetGet message correspondence” in association with each other. The “destination address” is the same as the destination address shown in FIG. “SetGet message correspondence” indicates whether or not the node 10 can process the SetGet message. In the example of FIG. 7, when “yes” is stored in “SetGet message compatible”, it indicates that the node 10 can process the SetGet message, and “no” is stored in “SetGet message compatible”. Indicates that the node 10 cannot process the SetGet message.

Next, a process for transmitting and receiving a SetGet message by the communication apparatus 100 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a SetGet message transmission / reception process performed by the communication apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment. In the upper part of FIG. 8 shows a SetGet message D20 received from the management apparatus 40, the lower part of FIG. 8 shows the two divided message D20 ₁ and D20 ₂ after SetGet message D20 is divided.

  As shown in the upper part of FIG. 8, the SetGet message D20 includes “OPCSet” and “OPCGet” instead of “OPC” as compared to the request message D10 shown in FIG. “OPCSet” indicates the number of properties for which property values are to be written. Specifically, the number “i” of “EPC1”, “PDC1” and “EDT1” to “EPCi”, “PDCi”, and “EDTi” in the subsequent stage is set in “OPCSet”. “OPCGet” indicates the number of properties from which property values are to be read. Specifically, the number “ji” of “EPCi + 1”, “PDCi + 1” and “EDTi + 1” to “EDCj”, “PDCj” and “EDTj” in the subsequent stage is set in “OPCGet”. That is, the SetGet message D20 illustrated in FIG. 8 includes i write commands and (ji) read commands. For example, “0x6E” indicating that both a “property value write command” and a “property value read command” are included in the “ESV” of the SetGet message D20.

  When the reception unit 131 receives the SetGet message D20 illustrated in FIG. 8, the determination unit 132 of the communication device 100 reads “ESV” of the SetGet message D20. Then, when “0x6E” is set in “ESV”, the determination unit 132 refers to “SetGet message correspondence” in the partner information table 121 illustrated in FIG. 7 and determines the transmission destination of the SetGet message D20. It is determined whether or not the node 10 to be able to process the SetGet message D20. When the node 10 can process the SetGet message D20 as a result of the determination process by the determination unit 132, the dividing unit 133 outputs the SetGet message D20 to the transmission unit 134, thereby causing the transmission unit 134 to setSetGet. The electronic message D20 is transmitted to the node 10. On the other hand, when the node 10 cannot process the SetGet message D20, the dividing unit 133 divides the SetGet message D20 as in the example illustrated in the lower part of FIG.

  An example of such division processing will be described. The dividing unit 133 determines the IP address of the transmission source of the SetGet message D20 and the “TID” of the SetGet message D20 as the “transmission source address” and “original message TID” of the TID correspondence table 122. To store. At this time, the dividing unit 133 stores “0” in the “number of divisions” of the TID correspondence table 122.

Subsequently, the dividing unit 133 sets the counter “k” to “1”, sets the SetGet message to “EHD1”, “EHD2”, “SEOJ”, and “DEOJ” of the divided message D20 _k (that is, the divided message D20 ₁ ). “EHD1”, “EHD2”, “SEOJ”, and “DEOJ” of D20 are copied. Further, when the counter “k” is “1”, the dividing unit 133 displays “EPC1”, “PDC1”, and “EDT1” to “EPCi”, “PDCi”, and “EDTi” included in the SetGet message D20. a copy to the division telegram D20 _1. Further, dividing unit 133, the "OPC" divided telegram D20 _1, to copy the "i" set to "OPCSet" in SetGet telegram D20. Further, dividing unit 133, the "ESV" divided telegram D20 _1, showing the writing property value set to "0x61".

Subsequently, the dividing unit 133 reads the TID counter value, sets the read TID counter value to "TID" divided telegram D20 _1. Here, dividing section 133 shall be set to "s" to "TID" divided telegram D20 _1. Further, the division unit 133 stores the TID counter value “s” in “division message TID” of the TID correspondence table 122 and information indicating “not received” in the TID correspondence table 122 (example in FIG. 4). Stores “no”). Then, the dividing unit 133 adds “1” to “number of divisions” in the TID correspondence table 122. Further, the dividing unit 133 adds “1” to the TID counter value “s” and records it as a new TID counter value “s + 1”.

Subsequently, the dividing unit 133 adds “1” to the counter “k” to obtain “2”, and “EHD1”, “EHD2”, “SEOJ” and “EHD1” of the divided message D20 _k (that is, the divided message D20 ₂ ) and “EHD1”, “EHD2”, “SEOJ”, and “DEOJ” of the SetGet message D20 are copied to “DEOJ”. Further, when the counter “k” is “2”, the dividing unit 133 performs “EPCi + 1”, “PDCi + 1”, and “EDTi + 1” to “EPCj”, “PDCj”, and “EDTj” included in the SetGet message D20. a copy to the divided message D20 _2. Further, dividing unit 133, the "OPC" divided telegram D20 _2, copy the "j-i" set to "OPCGet" in SetGet telegram D20. Further, dividing unit 133, the "ESV" divided telegram D20 _2, showing a reading of the property value set to "0x62".

Subsequently, the dividing unit 133 reads the TID counter value "s + 1", the read TID counter value to "s + 1" is set to "TID" divided telegram D20 _2. Furthermore, the dividing unit 133 stores the TID counter value “s + 1” in “divided telegram TID” of the TID correspondence table 122 and also stores information indicating non-reception in the “response reception presence / absence” of the TID correspondence table 122. Then, the dividing unit 133 adds “1” to “number of divisions” in the TID correspondence table 122. Further, the dividing unit 133 adds “1” to the TID counter value “s + 1” and records it as a new TID counter value “s + 2”.

In this way, the dividing unit 133 performs the above processing until “k> 2”. That is, dividing section 133, if a counter "k" = "1" generates the divided message D20 ₁ that contains only write instruction property value, when a counter "k" = "2" generates a divided message D20 ₂ which contains only read command property values.

The transmitting unit 134 transmits the divided message D20 ₁ and D20 ₂ divided by the dividing unit 133 to the node 10. Accordingly, the receiving unit 131, for each of the divided message D20 ₁ and D20 _2, receives a response message from the node 10, and outputs the response message received in the coupling section 135. The combining unit 135 stores information indicating reception in the “response reception presence / absence” of the TID correspondence table 122 corresponding to “TID” set in the response message. The coupling unit 135, if the divided message D20 ₁ and D20 ₂ of both response message becomes received, by combining the respective response message, generates a response message to the request message D20. Then, the transmitting unit 134 transmits the response message generated by the combining unit 135 to the management device 40.

Incidentally, the coupling portion 135, if "ESV" divided telegram D20 ₁ and D20 ₂ of both response message is an information representative of the either normal response is normally the "ESV" in response message to the request message D20 “0x7E” representing the response is set. The coupling unit 135, if either one of the divided message D20 ₁ and D20 ₂ nor "ESV" was the information indicating the improper response represents a No response to "ESV" in response message to the request message D20 Set “0x5E”.

[Other division examples (2)]
In the above embodiment, the communication apparatus 100 may perform both the division process illustrated in FIG. 5 and the division process illustrated in FIG. This point will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure performed by the communication device 100 according to the first embodiment. In the example of FIG. 9, the counterpart information table 121 of the communication apparatus 100 stores both “number of processable properties” shown in FIG. 3 and “SetGet message correspondence” shown in FIG.

  As illustrated in FIG. 9, the reception unit 131 determines whether a request message has been received from the management device 40 (step S201). If the request message has not been received (No at Step S201), the reception unit 131 waits until the request message is received.

  On the other hand, when the request message is received by the receiving unit 131 (Yes at Step S201), the determination unit 132 determines whether the request message is a SetGet message (Step S202). For example, the determination unit 132 determines whether “0x6E” is set in “ESV” of the request message. Then, when the received request message is a SetGet message (Yes at Step S202), the determination unit 132 determines whether the node 10 can process the SetGet message based on “SetGet message correspondence” in the counterpart information table 121. Is determined (step S203).

  When the node 10 cannot process the SetGet message (No at Step S203), the dividing unit 133 performs the dividing process illustrated in FIG. 8 (Step S204). Subsequently, for each divided message generated in step S204, the determination unit 132 calculates the number of instructions included in the divided message (that is, the value of OPC) and the “number of processable properties” in the partner information table 121. Compare (step S205).

  When the number of instructions included in the divided message is larger than the number of processable properties (Yes at Step S205), the dividing unit 133 further performs the dividing process illustrated in FIG. 5 on the divided message. Then, the transmission unit 134 transmits the divided message generated in step S206 to the node 10 (step S207).

  On the other hand, when the number of instructions included in the divided message is equal to or less than the number of processable properties (No in step S205), the dividing unit 133 does not perform the dividing process illustrated in FIG. In this case, the transmission unit 134 transmits the split message generated in step S204 to the node 10 (step S207).

  In addition, when the received request message is not a SetGet message (No at Step S202), or when the node 10 can process the SetGet message (Yes at Step S203), the dividing unit 133 performs the division at Step S204 illustrated in FIG. Do not process. In this case, the determination unit 132 compares the number of instructions (that is, the value of OPC) included in the request message received in step S201 with the “number of processable properties” in the counterpart information table 121 (step S205).

  When the number of instructions included in the request message is larger than the number of processable properties (Yes at Step S205), the dividing unit 133 performs the dividing process illustrated in FIG. 5 on the request message. Then, the transmission unit 134 transmits the divided message generated in step S206 to the node 10 (step S207).

  On the other hand, when the number of instructions included in the request message is equal to or less than the number of processable properties (No in step S205), the dividing unit 133 does not perform the dividing process in step S206 illustrated in FIG. In this case, the transmission unit 134 transmits the request message received in step S201 to the node 10 (step S207).

[Effect of the first embodiment]
As described above, according to the communication device 100 according to the first embodiment, since the message is divided into divided messages including a predetermined number of instructions or less, a message that can be processed by each node can be distributed.

(Second Embodiment)
In the first embodiment described above, the number of processable properties in the counterpart information table 121 illustrated in FIG. 3 has been described as being stored in advance by an administrator or the like. However, this processable property number may be detected by the communication device. Therefore, in the second embodiment, an example will be described in which the communication device detects the number of processable properties. In addition, since the structure of the energy management system 1 which concerns on 2nd Embodiment is the same as that of the example shown in FIG. 1, description is abbreviate | omitted below. In the following, an example in which the division process illustrated in FIG. 5 is performed will be described.

[Configuration of management device]
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the communication apparatus 200 according to the second embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 10, the communication device 200 includes a storage unit 220 and a control unit 230. The storage unit 220 includes a counterpart information table 221. The control unit 230 includes a reception unit 231, a determination unit 232, a division unit 233, a transmission unit 234, and an update unit 236.

  FIG. 11 shows an example of the partner information table 221 according to the second embodiment. In the example illustrated in FIG. 11, the destination information table 221 stores “transmission destination address”, “number of processable properties”, and “number of unprocessable properties” in association with each other. The “destination address” is the same as the destination address shown in FIG. The “number of processable properties” is the same as the number of processable properties shown in FIG. 3 and indicates the maximum number of instructions that the node 10 could process in the past. The “number of unprocessable properties” indicates the number of instructions to the property that the node 10 cannot process in one request message, and indicates the minimum number of instructions that the node 10 has not been able to process in the past. . Such “number of processable properties” and “number of unprocessable properties” are updated by the communication apparatus 200.

  That is, in FIG. 11, the node 10 whose destination address is “192.168.0.100” has processed a request message including three commands in the past, and six commands are An example in which the included request message cannot be processed in the past is shown. In this example, it is unclear whether or not the node 10 having the transmission destination address “192.168.0.100” can process a request message including four or five instructions.

  In the example of FIG. 11, the “number of processable properties” and the “number of unprocessable properties” corresponding to the node 10 whose destination address is “192.168.0.105” are the transmission / reception of messages with the communication apparatus 200. The initial value set in the node 10 that has not been performed is shown. Specifically, since it is unclear how many instructions can be processed for the node 10 that has not communicated with the communication apparatus 200, “0” is set in the “number of processable properties”. . Further, in ECHONET Lite, the number of commands to properties that can be set in one message is determined to be “255”. Therefore, the “number of unprocessable properties” of the node 10 that has not communicated with the communication device 200. "Becomes" 256 ". Note that the initial value of “number of processable properties” is not “0”, but may be the number of instructions “1” that can be reliably processed by any node 10. That is, it is unknown whether the node 10 having the transmission destination address “192.168.0.105” can process the request message including the number of instructions.

  In the example of FIG. 11, “4” is displayed for both “number of processable properties” and “number of unprocessable properties” corresponding to the node 10 whose destination address is “192.168.0.102”. Is set. This example will be described later.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 10, processing by the control unit 230 will be described. When receiving a response message from the node 10, the reception unit 231 outputs the received response message to the update unit 236. Further, the transmission unit 234 outputs the request message (request message received from the management device 40 or the divided message generated by the dividing unit 233) transmitted to the node 10 to the updating unit 236.

  The update unit 236 updates the number of processable properties and the number of unprocessable properties in the counterpart information table 221 based on the request message transmitted by the transmission unit 234 and the response message received by the reception unit 231. Specifically, the update unit 236 updates the number of unprocessable properties to a response message indicating that only a part of the instructions has been processed based on the response message. Further, when the receiving unit 231 receives a response message indicating that one command could not be processed, the updating unit 236 updates the number of unprocessable properties based on the request message corresponding to the response message. In addition, when the reception unit 231 receives a response message indicating that all commands have been processed normally, the update unit 236 updates the number of processable properties based on the request message corresponding to the response message. Below, the process by the update part 236 is demonstrated for every pattern of the response message transmitted from the node 10. FIG.

  First, depending on the node 10, when only a part of instructions can be processed because the number of instructions included in the request message is large, the instructions may be processed in order from the head instruction. In this case, the node 10 sets the number of instructions that can be processed to “OPC” and transmits a response message in which the responses of the processed instructions are set to “EPC”, “PDC”, and “EDT” to the communication apparatus 200. . At this time, the node 10 sets “0x51”, “0x52”, and the like in “ESV” of the response message. When such a response message is received by the receiving unit 231, the update unit 236 compares the value obtained by adding “1” to “OPC” of the response message with the number of unprocessable properties in the destination information table 221. To do. Then, when “OPC + 1” is smaller than the number of unprocessable properties, the update unit 236 updates the counterpart information table 221 with the value of “OPC + 1” as the new unprocessable property number.

  Also, depending on the node 10, when the number of instructions included in the request message is large, no processing is performed on any command, and a response message indicating that no processing is performed may be transmitted to the communication apparatus 200. . Depending on the node 10, a response message that cannot determine the number of instructions that can be processed may be transmitted to the communication apparatus 200. When such a response message is received by the reception unit 231, the update unit 236 performs a new process on “OPC” set in the request message (or divided message) transmitted to the node 10 by the transmission unit 234. The partner information table 221 is updated as the number of impossible properties. At this time, when the “OPC” of the request message is smaller than the number of unprocessable properties, the update unit 236 updates the counterpart information table 221 with the value of “OPC” as the new unprocessable property number. Also good.

  Further, when all the instructions included in the request message can be processed, the node 10 sets the number of processed instructions to “OPC” and sets the response of the processed instructions to “EPC” and “PDC”. ”And“ EDT ”are transmitted to the communication apparatus 200. At this time, the node 10 sets “0x71”, “0x72” or the like in “ESV” of the response message. When such a response message is received by the reception unit 231, the update unit 236 displays “OPC” set in the request message (or divided message) transmitted to the node 10 and the destination information table 221. Compare the number of processable properties. Then, if “OPC” is larger than the number of processable properties, the update unit 236 updates the destination information table 221 with the value of “OPC” as the new number of processable properties.

  In this way, the update unit 236 updates the counterpart information table 221 based on the message actually transmitted / received to / from the node 10. For example, it is assumed that the communication device 200 transmits a request message including three commands to the node 10 and receives a response message indicating that all commands have been processed. Further, it is assumed that the communication apparatus 200 transmits a request message including 10 commands to the same node 10 and receives a response message indicating that 5 commands have been processed. In this case, the update unit 236 updates the number of processable properties to “3” and the number of unprocessable properties to “6” as in the first record in FIG.

  For example, it is assumed that the communication apparatus 200 transmits a request message including four commands to the node 10 and receives a response message indicating that all commands have been processed. Thereafter, it is assumed that the communication device 200 transmits a request message including four commands to the same node 10 and receives a response message indicating that the three commands have been processed. This shows an example in which the node 10 may or may not be able to process a request message including four instructions. Specifically, the node 10 may determine the size (number of bytes) of a request message that can be processed. For this reason, even if the number of instructions is four, whether or not the node 10 can be processed varies depending on the size of the request message. In such a case, the update unit 236 updates the number of processable properties to “4” and updates the number of unprocessable properties to “4” as in the third record of FIG.

  In addition, although illustration is omitted in FIG. 11, when the node 10 can process the command depending on the size of the request message, the number of processable properties in the destination information table 221 cannot be processed. A value larger than the number of properties may be set. For example, “5” may be set as the number of processable properties and “4” may be set as the number of unprocessable properties.

  Next, the determination unit 232 and the dividing unit 233 of the communication device 200 will be described. The determination unit 232 acquires the number of processable properties and the number of unprocessable properties corresponding to the transmission destination of the request message received by the reception unit 231 from the management apparatus 40 from the counterpart information table 221. Then, the determination unit 232 compares the number of instructions included in the request message with the number of processable properties, and compares the number of instructions included in the request message with the number of unprocessable properties.

  The dividing unit 233 determines whether to divide the request message based on the result of the determination process by the determining unit 232. For example, the dividing unit 233 divides when the number of instructions included in the request message is equal to or less than the number of processable properties and the number of instructions included in the request message is smaller than the number of unprocessable properties. Do not process. This example corresponds to a case where the request message for the node 10 having the destination address “192.168.0.100” in FIG. 11 includes three or less instructions. In this case, the transmission unit 234 transmits the request message received from the management device 40 to the node 10.

  Further, the dividing unit 233 does not perform the dividing process when the number of instructions included in the request message is larger than the number of processable properties and the number of instructions included in the request message is smaller than the number of unprocessable properties. This example corresponds to a case where four or five commands are included in the request message for the node 10 having the destination address “192.168.0.100” in FIG. In this case, the transmission unit 234 transmits the request message received from the management device 40 to the node 10. In this example, since a request message including four instructions has not been transmitted to the node 10, it is unknown whether the node 10 can process all four instructions. For this reason, the update unit 236 described above updates the number of processable properties or the number of unprocessable properties according to the response message transmitted from the node 10.

  Further, the dividing unit 233 determines that one divided message is included when the number of instructions included in the request message is larger than the number of processable properties and the number of instructions included in the request message is equal to or greater than the number of unprocessable properties. The division processing as in the example shown in FIG. 5 is performed so that the number of included instructions is smaller than the number of unprocessable properties. This example corresponds to a case where six or more commands are included in the request message for the node 10 having the destination address “192.168.0.100” in FIG. In this case, the transmitting unit 234 transmits the request message divided by the dividing unit 233 to the node 10.

  In addition, the dividing unit 233 may perform the dividing process when the number of instructions included in the request message is equal to or less than the number of processable properties and the number of instructions included in the request message is equal to or greater than the number of unprocessable properties. It is not necessary to perform the dividing process. This example corresponds to a case in which four commands are included in the request message for the node 10 having the destination address “192.168.0.102” in FIG.

  Here, as described above, whether or not the node 10 can process an instruction may vary depending on the size of the request message. Accordingly, when the number of instructions included in the request message is equal to or less than the number of processable properties and the number of instructions included in the request message is equal to or greater than the number of unprocessable properties, the dividing unit 233 determines the number of instructions included in the request message based on the size of the request message. Thus, it may be determined whether or not to perform the division process. For example, when the average size (average number of bytes) of each instruction (“EPC”, “PDC”, and “EDT”) included in the request message is smaller than a predetermined value, the dividing unit 233 does not perform the dividing process, When the average size (average number of bytes) of each instruction included in the request message is larger than the predetermined value, the division processing is performed so that the number of instructions included in one divided message is smaller than the number of unprocessable properties. Thereby, the dividing unit 233 can transmit a message that is highly likely to be processed by the node 10.

[Modification of Second Embodiment]
In the second embodiment, the division process illustrated in FIG. 5 has been described as an example. However, the communication apparatus 200 may perform the division process in the second embodiment described above after performing the division process on the SetGet message illustrated in FIG. Further, the communication apparatus 200 may dynamically update “SetGet message compatible” in the partner information table 121 illustrated in FIG. 7. Specifically, “yes” is stored as an initial value in “SetGet message correspondence” of the counterpart information table 121, and the communication apparatus 200 transmits a SetGet message to the node 10, and sends an impossible response from the node 10. When the response message is received, “no” is stored in the “SetGet message correspondence”, and when the response message indicating the normal response is received, “yes” is stored in the “SetGet message correspondence”.

  In the second embodiment, since the communication device 200 sequentially updates the counterpart information table 221, an unacknowledged response is received from the node 10 at an initial stage where the transmission and reception of messages with the node 10 is not performed many times. There is a case where a response message indicating is received. For this reason, the communication apparatus 200 according to the second embodiment may retransmit an instruction that has not been processed by the node 10 when an unacceptable response is received from the node 10.

  For example, the communication apparatus 200 receives a request message addressed to the node 10 having the transmission destination address “192.168.0.105” illustrated in FIG. 11 from the management apparatus 40, and 10 commands are included in the request message. It shall be included. In this case, the communication apparatus 200 first generates two divided messages in which five instructions are included in one message, and transmits the generated two divided messages to the node 10. Then, for example, when the communication apparatus 200 receives a response message indicating that only four commands have been processed for each of the two divided messages, the divided message includes a total of two commands that have not been processed by the node 10. Is retransmitted to the node 10. At this time, the communication apparatus 200 updates the number of unprocessable properties in the partner information table 221 to “5”.

  In the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 11, the “number of processable properties” and the “number of unprocessable properties” are stored in the counterpart information table 221. However, only one of “number of processable properties” and “number of unprocessable properties” may be stored in the partner information table 221. In this case, the determination unit 232 and the division unit 233 perform determination processing and division processing using either one of “number of processable properties” and “number of unprocessable properties”.

[Effects of Second Embodiment]
As described above, according to the communication apparatus 200 according to the second embodiment, the communication apparatus 200 itself dynamically detects the number of instructions to be included in the divided telegram. Update work can be reduced.

(Other embodiments)
In the said 1st and 2nd embodiment, when all the response messages with respect to a division | segmentation message were received, the example which couple | bonds a response message was shown. However, if the communication devices 100 and 200 do not receive all response messages even after a predetermined time has elapsed, the communication devices 100 and 200 may retransmit a request message that has not received a response message to the node 10 or a received response A response message combining only the messages may be transmitted to the management apparatus 40 as an unacceptable response.

  In the said 1st and 2nd embodiment, the example which produces | generates the division | segmentation message | telegram containing the command below a predetermined value (for example, the number of processable properties) was shown. However, the communication devices 100 and 200 may always be divided into divided telegrams that include only one command. Since any node 10 can process a single command, the communication devices 100 and 200 can distribute a message that each node can reliably process.

  In the first and second embodiments, ECHONET Lite has been described as an example. However, each of the above-described embodiments can be similarly applied to ECHONET.

  Moreover, the structure of the energy management system 1 in the said embodiment is not restricted to the example of FIG. For example, in a system in which a request message is transmitted from the management server 4 to the home network system 2, the management device 40 and the communication device 100 (or the communication device 200) may be configured integrally. In this case, the plurality of communication devices 100 are not installed in the home network system 2 as in the example of FIG. 1, but the management device 40 has a function equivalent to the communication device 100 or 200 described above. . Moreover, it is not restricted to this example, The gateway apparatus 20 and the communication apparatus 100 (or communication apparatus 200) may be comprised integrally.

  Further, for example, the energy management system 1 may not include the user terminal 3 and the management server 4. For example, the home network system 2 may not include the user terminal 30. In this case, the management device 40 displays a control screen or the like for controlling the node 10. Then, the user controls and monitors the node 10 by operating the control screen.

  As described above, according to the above embodiment, a message that can be processed by each node can be distributed.

  Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented by way of example and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. These embodiments and their modifications are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are also included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalents thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Energy management system 10 Node 40 Management apparatus 100 Communication apparatus 121 Counterpart information table 122 TID correspondence table 131 Receiving part 132 Judgment part 133 Division part 134 Transmission part 135 Combining part 236 Update part

Claims (4)

A receiving unit for receiving a message transmitted to a node by a predetermined device;
A determination unit for determining whether or not a predetermined number or more of instructions for the node are included in the message received by the reception unit;
A division unit that divides a message received by the reception unit into a message including a number of instructions that can be processed by the node when the determination unit determines that the message includes a predetermined number or more; ;
A transmitting unit that transmits a plurality of messages divided by the dividing unit to the node;
A communication apparatus comprising: For each node, a storage unit that stores the number of instructions that can be processed by the node;
An update unit that updates the number of instructions stored in the storage unit based on the number of instructions included in the message transmitted to the node by the transmission unit and a response from the node to the message;
The communication device according to claim 1, further comprising: A receiving unit for receiving a message transmitted to a node by a predetermined device;
A determination unit that determines whether or not the message received by the reception unit includes a write command for writing the attribute information of the node and a read command for reading the attribute information of the node;
When the determination unit determines that both the write command and the read command are included in the message, the message received by the reception unit is changed to a message including the write command and a message including the read command. A division part to be divided into
A transmitting unit that transmits a plurality of messages divided by the dividing unit to the node;
A communication apparatus comprising: And further comprising a combining unit that combines the received responses when receiving responses to the plurality of messages transmitted from the transmitting unit from the node,
The transmitting unit transmits the response combined by the combining unit to the predetermined device;
The communication apparatus as described in any one of Claims 1-3.

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