JP6528901B2 - Communication device, control method of communication device, and recording medium - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication device including a wired communication unit and a wireless communication unit, and more particularly to activation of a driver and an application in the communication device.

  A plurality of ECUs (Electoric Control Units) for controlling the operation of various devices including the engine are mounted on the vehicle, and connected via a CAN (Control Area Network) bus so that the devices can cooperate with each other. . The CAN bus is a communication system that transmits signals by voltage differential using two communication lines and is characterized by being resistant to noise. Because of its features, it can be used in processing machines and transport machines as well as vehicles.

  There is a demand for remotely monitoring the state of the ECU of a vehicle in real time, and a technique for connecting a CAN bus to a remote computer by wireless communication is known. In Patent Document 1, a CAN node device 130 is provided on a CAN bus 101 as shown in FIG. The CAN node device 130 includes a CAN / TCP gateway 133, a modem 134, and a cellular phone 135, and is connected to a remote computer 211 via a cellular phone communication network, and can be connected to the CAN nodes 110, 120,. The computer 211 can access the.

JP, 2002-176427, A

Problems to be solved by the invention

  Although Patent Document 1 describes the CAN node device 130 in operation, it does not disclose how it behaves when the CAN node device 130 is activated. It is considered that the CAN node device connected to the mobile phone network is not supplied with power when the ignition key of the vehicle is turned off. In that case, the ignition key is turned on and the CAN node device 130 is activated. If the CAN node device 130 can not communicate with the CAN node unless all of the CAN / TCP gateway 133, the modem 134, and the cellular phone 135 have been activated, a response is returned to the previously activated CAN node. There was a problem that time became late.

  This invention is made in view of the above, and aims at offer of the communication apparatus which constituted starting processing so that the response to the node of wired communication might become early at the time of starting.

  In order to solve the above problems, a communication device according to the first aspect of the present invention includes a wired communication unit that communicates by wire, a wireless communication unit that communicates by wireless, a control unit that controls the wired communication unit and the wireless communication unit. In the communication device, the control unit activates a wired communication driver corresponding to the wired communication unit, and after activating the wired communication driver, the control unit performs wired communication by the wired communication unit via the wired communication driver. A first activation process for activating a communication application and a wireless communication driver corresponding to the wireless communication unit are started, and after the wireless communication driver is started, wireless communication is performed by the wireless communication unit via the wireless communication driver. The second activation process for activating the wireless communication application to be performed is executed, and the end of the first activation process is prioritized temporally over the end of the second activation process. It is characterized in that cormorants control.

In this communication device, since the termination of the first activation process related to wired communication is temporally prioritized over the termination of the second activation process, wired communication can be performed early after the completion of the first activation process. It has an effect. In general, since activation of the wireless communication driver takes time, the communication device according to claim 1 gives priority to the termination of the first activation processing over the second activation processing in time, so that it can be early for wired communication. It has a configuration that can be handled.
The control unit may determine the start timing of the first activation process such that the end of the first activation process comes before the end of the second activation process.

  The communication device may be configured to be able to respond early to wired communication by starting execution of the second activation process after completing the first activation process.

  The communication device may perform the first activation process and the second activation process in parallel. Since the time for the first activation process is shorter, the first activation process is finished first, and wire communication can be dealt with early. At this time, the activation process of the wireless communication driver or the activation process of the wireless communication application is performed in parallel with the wired communication process.

The wired communication unit may be connected to, for example, a CAN bus to perform wired communication. The wireless communication unit may be configured to perform wireless communication using, for example, a wireless LAN.
A control method of a communication device according to another aspect of the present invention is a control method of a communication device including a wired communication unit that communicates by wire and a wireless communication unit that communicates by wireless. The method comprises the following steps:
First activation process of activating a wired communication driver corresponding to the wired communication unit and activating a wired communication application for performing communication by the wired communication unit via the wired communication driver after activating the wired communication driver A corresponding wireless communication driver is activated, and after activation of the wireless communication driver, a second activation process of activating a wireless communication application for performing wireless communication by the wireless communication unit via the wireless communication driver is executed;
And controlling the end of the first activation process to be prioritized over the end of the second activation process in time.
A recording medium according to still another aspect of the present invention is a storage medium storing a program that causes a computer to execute the control method of the communication device described above.

It is a block diagram explaining the composition of the communication equipment for vehicles loading concerning one embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure explaining the starting process of a communication apparatus. FIG. 7 is a flow diagram for explaining a process of activating a communication device. It is a figure explaining the modification of the starting process of a communication apparatus.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In this embodiment, a vehicle-mounted communication device will be described as an example. The CAN is applied as the wired communication, and a wireless LAN conforming to the standard of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 is applied as the wireless communication.

  The communication device 1 includes a wireless LAN communication unit 2 and a control unit 3. The wireless LAN communication unit 2 is connected to the control unit 3 via a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus 12 and operates as an infrastructure mode access point under the control of the control unit 3. For example, a notebook personal computer PC is connected to the wireless LAN communication unit 2 as a station, but it is also possible to communicate with a smartphone or a doublet instead of the notebook personal computer PC. Reference numeral 2a denotes an antenna for the wireless LAN communication unit.

  The control unit 3 is composed of SOC (Sytem On Chip), and various I / Fs such as the CPU core 3a, PCI interface (I / F) 3b, CAN (Control Area Network) I / F 3c, etc. are on one chip. It is formed. The CAN I / F 3c is connected to an ECU (not shown) in the vehicle and the like via the CAN bus 11, receives data on the CAN bus 11 and transmits it to an external PC, and commands and data from an external PC to the CAN 11 bus Can be sent.

  The control unit 3 is connected with a double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDRSDRAM) 4, a flash memory 5, and an eMMC (embeded multi media card) 6 as storage devices. The DDRSDRAM 4 is used as a work area of the control unit 3 and stores the expanded operating system (OS), drivers, applications, and data being processed.

  The flash memory 5 stores data to be held even in the power-off state. The eMMC 6 stores an OS, a boot program, a driver, and a program for an application, and when booted, the control unit 3 reads these programs and develops them in the DDR SDRAM 4.

  The LED display unit 7 and the switch 8 are connected to the control unit 3. The LED display unit 7 includes a plurality of multicolor LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) 7a, 7b, 7c, and 7d, and can notify the user of the power state and the wireless communication state. The switch 8 is a waterproof switch and is used to activate the automatic setting of the wireless LAN.

  An image processing unit 9 is connected to the control unit 3. The image processing unit 9 combines the images taken by the four video cameras 10-1, 10-2, 10-3, and 10-4 attached to the appropriate place of the vehicle into one screen and controls them. Output to 3. The combined image is compressed by the control unit 3 and transmitted from the wireless LAN communication unit 2 to the PC, and the display unit of the PC can display the image captured by each video camera.

  The wireless LAN communication device 1 is housed in the waterproof case 1a, and only the terminal of the antenna 2a, the LED display 7, the button of the switch 8, the terminal of the CAN bus 11, the camera connection terminal and the power supply terminal are external Exposed to The power is supplied from a battery (not shown) of the vehicle, and the power is supplied only while the ignition key of the vehicle is on. In other words, when the ignition key is off, the communication device 1 is completely stopped.

  Next, the process of activating the communication device 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. When the ignition key of the vehicle is turned on, the communication device 1 is supplied with power and starts up. The OS is first booted. After that, the boot program is executed, and the drivers and applications are booted in the order determined by the boot program. In the following description, the CAN driver D1 corresponds to a wired communication driver corresponding to the CANI / F 3c, and the wireless driver D2 corresponds to a wireless communication driver corresponding to the wireless LAN communication unit 2. The CAN application A1 corresponds to a wired communication application, and the wireless application A2 corresponds to a wireless communication application.

  FIG. 2A shows the startup order of the driver and the application by the startup program. In the order of activation, first, a first activation process P1 is performed. Specifically, the control unit 3 starts activation of the CAN driver D1 (time T1), and when activation of the CAN driver D1 ends, starts activation of the CAN application A1 (time T2). When the activation of the CAN application A1 is completed, the first activation process is completed (time T3). When the first activation process P1 ends, the control unit executes a second activation process P2. Specifically, the control unit 3 starts activation of the wireless driver D2 (time T3), and when activation of the wireless driver D2 ends, starts activation of the wireless application A2 (time T4). When the activation of the wireless application A2 ends, the second activation process P2 ends (time T5). After this, communication by the wireless LAN communication unit 2 becomes possible. In this example, communication at the CAN bus 11 becomes possible at time T3 when the first activation process P1 ends. In FIG. 2A, the activation of the wireless driver D2 is started after the activation of the CAN application A1 is completed, but other drivers and applications may be activated during this time.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the activation process. After activation of the OS (step S1), activation of the CAN driver D1 (step S2) and activation of the CAN application A1 (step S3), which are the first activation processing, are executed by the activation program. Furthermore, the control unit 3 executes activation of the wireless driver D2 (step S4) and activation of the wireless application A2 (step S5), which are the second activation processing. In addition, after the activation of the wireless application A2, activation of other drivers and applications is performed.

  FIG. 2B shows the case where the second activation process P2 is performed first as a comparative example. In FIG. 2B, the control unit 3 starts activation of the wireless driver D2 (time T11), and starts activation of the wireless application A2 after completion of activation of the wireless driver D2 (time T12). After the end of activation of the wireless application, that is, after the end of the second activation process P2, the control unit 3 executes the first activation process P1. The control unit 3 starts the activation of the CAN driver D1 (time T13), and when the activation of the CAN driver D1 ends, starts the activation of the CAN application A1 (time T14). In the comparative example, communication on the CAN bus 11 becomes possible after time T15 after the start of the CAN application is completed, that is, when the first start process P1 is completed. However, since activation of the wireless driver D2 often takes time, communication can not be performed with the communication device 1 even if an ECU (not shown) on the CAN bus 11 can communicate during that time. . The communication device 1 can communicate on the CAN bus 11 after time T15 when the start of the CAN application A2 ends, and a state may occur in which a response to communication from the ECU or the like can not be made until then.

  Next, a modification of the communication device 1 will be described with reference to FIG. In this example, the control unit 3 performs parallel processing, and executes the first activation process P1 and the second activation process P2 in parallel. The control unit 3 starts activation of the CAN driver D1 and the wireless driver D2 in parallel in accordance with the activation program (time T21). After the activation of the CAN driver D1 is completed, activation of the CAN application A1 is started (time T22). When the activation of the CAN application A1 ends, the first activation process P1 ends (time T23), and communication on the CAN bus 11 becomes possible. In the meantime, the second activation process P2 continues, and in the example shown in FIG. 4 the activation of the wireless driver D2 ends after the CAN communication becomes possible (time T24), and then the activation of the wireless application A2 Is done. When the activation of the wireless application A2 is completed, the second activation process P2 is completed (at time T25), and thereafter communication by the wireless LAN communication unit 2 becomes possible.

  In the above, the example using CAN as wired communication and a wireless LAN as wireless communication has been described. As wired communication, RS232C, USB (Universal Serial Bus), power line communication, etc. are applicable. Further, as the wireless communication, specific low power wireless communication, Bluetooth (registered trademark) or the like can be applied.

  Further, the communication device of the present invention is not limited to being mounted on a vehicle, and may be mounted on, for example, a processing machine or transport machine, and connected to the CAN bus of these devices.

  The present invention is widely applicable to a communication device that includes a wired communication unit and a wireless communication unit, and enables data exchange between wired communication and wireless communication.

1: Communication device 2: Wireless LAN communication unit 2a: Antenna 3: Control unit 3a: CPU core 3b: PCI I / F
3c: CAN I / F
4: DDR SDRAM
5: Flash memory 6: eMMC
7: LED display part 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d: LED
8: Switch 9: Image processing units 10-1, 10-2, 10-3, 10-4: Video camera 11: CAN bus 12: PCI bus P1: first activation process P2: second activation process D1: CAN driver D2: Wireless driver A1: CAN application A2: Wireless application

Claims (11)

A wired communication unit that communicates by wire,
A wireless communication unit that communicates wirelessly;
In a communication device including a control unit that controls the wired communication unit and the wireless communication unit,
The control unit
A first activation process of activating a wired communication driver corresponding to the wired communication unit and activating a wired communication application in which communication is performed by the wired communication unit via the wired communication driver after activating the wired communication driver; ,
A second activation process of activating a wireless communication driver corresponding to the wireless communication unit, and activating a wireless communication application for performing wireless communication by the wireless communication unit via the wireless communication driver after activating the wireless communication driver;
Run
A communication device characterized in that control is performed such that the end of the first activation process is given priority over the end of the second activation process in time. In the communication device according to claim 1,
The communication device, wherein the control unit determines the start timing of the first activation process such that the end of the first activation process comes before the end of the second activation process. In the communication device according to claim 2,
The communication device, wherein the control unit starts execution of the second activation process after the first activation process is completed. In the communication device according to claim 2,
The communication device, wherein the control unit executes the first activation process and the second activation process in parallel. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 4.
The wired communication unit is connected to a CAN bus to perform communication. The communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the wireless communication unit performs communication by a wireless LAN. A control method of a communication device, comprising: a wired communication unit communicating by wired communication; and a wireless communication unit communicating by wireless,
A first activation process of activating a wired communication driver corresponding to the wired communication unit and activating a wired communication application in which communication is performed by the wired communication unit via the wired communication driver after activating the wired communication driver; ,
A second activation process of activating a wireless communication driver corresponding to the wireless communication unit, and activating a wireless communication application for performing wireless communication by the wireless communication unit via the wireless communication driver after activating the wireless communication driver; Run
And controlling the end of the first activation process to be prioritized over the end of the second activation process in time. In the control method of the communication device according to claim 7,
A control method of a communication device, wherein the first activation process is started such that the end of the first activation process is prioritized temporally over the end of the second activation process. In the control method of the communication device according to claim 8,
A method of controlling a communication device, wherein execution of the second activation process is started after the first activation process is completed. In the control method of the communication device according to claim 8,
A control method of a communication device, wherein the first activation process and the second activation process are executed in parallel. A recording medium storing a program that causes a computer to execute the method of controlling a communication device according to any one of claims 7 to 10.

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