JP7119883B2 - COMMUNICATION DEVICE, COMMUNICATION METHOD, AND COMMUNICATION PROGRAM - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a communication device , a communication method, and a communication program for relaying data communication between on-vehicle devices, which are used in an on-vehicle network system in which a plurality of on-vehicle devices are network-connected.

Patent Document 1 discloses a network system in which a plurality of relay devices (communication devices) for relaying data communicated between a plurality of terminal devices are connected by wireless transmission paths. In this patent document 1, a plurality of relay devices are configured in a ring shape that allows transmission in both directions to improve the reliability of data relay.

JP 2001-244864 A

It is conceivable to add new in-vehicle devices to the in-vehicle network system afterward in order to enhance the functionality of the vehicle. However, it is not suitable for an in-vehicle network system where the scale and cost of the system are limited to prepare spare connection ports and wiring in advance for new in-vehicle devices that may or may not be added. For this reason, it is assumed that the communication device is made compatible with both wired communication and wireless communication, and when a new on-vehicle device needs to be added, the new on-vehicle device and the communication device are wirelessly connected. When adding a new vehicle-mounted device to the vehicle-mounted network system, it is necessary to add the new vehicle-mounted device to routing information that defines communication rules for relaying between communication devices. However, depending on the method of addition, even if there is a margin in the communication bandwidth of the entire communication apparatus, there is a risk that communication frames will be biased toward either wired communication or wireless communication, and the band will be tight, resulting in a decrease in communication performance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems . and to provide a communication program .

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a communication device for relaying data communication between on-vehicle devices, which is used in an on-vehicle network system in which a plurality of on-vehicle devices are network-connected, and which is capable of wireless data communication. A wireless transmission/reception unit, a wired transmission/reception unit capable of wired data communication, and a communication device that determines whether to perform data communication by wire or wireless, based on the priority included in the data frame output by the vehicle-mounted device. a management unit that manages routing information specified for a data frame to be relayed, and a transfer unit that transfers the data frame via the wireless transmission/reception unit or the wired transmission/reception unit according to the route specified by the routing information; is based on the priority included in the data frame output by the new on-board device and the priority included in the data frame output by the already connected on-board device each time a new on-board device is connected to the communication device. , to update routing information.

According to the communication device of the present invention, every time a new vehicle-mounted device is connected to the communication device and a new vehicle-mounted device is added to the vehicle-mounted network system, the routing information is updated. Performance can be well controlled.

1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an in-vehicle network system using a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. Diagram showing an example of routing information Flowchart of routing information update processing executed by a communication device FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of control executed by a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of control executed by a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of control executed by a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of control executed by a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[Embodiment]
When a new vehicle-mounted device is added to the vehicle-mounted network system, the communication device for relaying data communication between the vehicle-mounted devices according to the present invention sets the priority of the data frame for the vehicle-mounted devices in the entire network including the new vehicle-mounted device. Review the wireless or wired route used for data communication based on Thereby, the communication performance of the entire network system can be preferably controlled.

Hereinafter, a case in which a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention is incorporated in an in-vehicle network system will be described as an example with reference to the drawings.

<Configuration>
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an in-vehicle network system using a communication device according to one embodiment of the present invention. An in-vehicle network system 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 includes communication devices 10 and 20 according to the present embodiment, and in-vehicle devices A and B such as sensors and electronic control units (ECUs), which are examples of in-vehicle devices. contains.

The communication devices 10 and 20 are switch devices capable of relaying data frames transmitted and received by the in-vehicle devices A and B, respectively. This communication device 10 includes a plurality of transmission/reception units 11 , 12 and 13 , a transfer unit 14 and a priority management unit 15 . The communication device 20 includes a plurality of transmission/reception units 21 , 22 and 23 , a transfer unit 24 and a priority management unit 25 . In order to distinguish the transmission destination and the reception destination, the transmission/reception unit, the transfer unit, and the priority management unit of the communication device 10 and the transmission/reception unit, the transfer unit, and the priority management unit of the communication device 20 are given different reference numerals. However, in this embodiment, each configuration is the same. Therefore, the configuration of the communication device 10 will be described below as a representative.

Note that the number of communication devices that constitute the in-vehicle network system 1, the number of transmission/reception units provided in each communication device, the number of in-vehicle devices and other communication devices connected to each communication device, etc. are limited to the example in FIG. It can be freely set. Moreover, each communication device needs to establish at least one wired route and one wireless route with another communication device, and the number of wired routes and wireless routes can be freely set.

Transceivers 11, 12, and 13 are interfaces for transmitting and receiving data frames. The transmitting/receiving unit 11 is connected to the vehicle-mounted device A, and can perform wired frame communication with the vehicle-mounted device A according to a predetermined communication protocol. The transmitting/receiving unit 12 is connected to a communication device 20, which is another communication device, and can perform wired frame communication with the communication device 20 according to a predetermined communication protocol. In the example of FIG. 1, the transmitting/receiving unit 12 is connected to the transmitting/receiving unit 22 of the communication device 20 by wire (solid line path X), and performs wired communication with the transmitting/receiving unit 22 (wired transmission/reception in the claims). part). The transmitting/receiving unit 13 is connected to a communication device 20, which is another communication device, and can perform wireless frame communication with the communication device 20 according to a predetermined communication protocol. In the example of FIG. 1, the transmitting/receiving unit 13 is wirelessly connected to the transmitting/receiving unit 23 of the communication device 20 (broken line path Y), and performs wireless communication with the transmitting/receiving unit 23 (wireless transmission/reception in the claims). part).

The forwarding unit 14 is connected to the transmitting/receiving units 11, 12, and 13, receives data frames received by the transmitting/receiving units 11, 12, and 13, and forwards the data frames to the transmitting/receiving unit 11 based on predetermined routing information RT. , 12, and 13 for executing so-called frame transfer processing. The routing information RT is information that specifies, for each data frame, a communication route connected to a communication device or vehicle-mounted device that is the destination (transfer destination) of the data frame, and is given from the priority management unit 15, which will be described later. This routing information RT can be in a table format as shown in FIG. 2, for example. In the example of FIG. 2, at least a data frame, a priority, a destination IP address, and a communication path are associated and stored.

The priority management unit 15 manages the priority of the data frames communicated by the communication device 10 among all the data frames communicated in the in-vehicle network system 1, and transfers the data frames based on the priority. A data frame communication route can be set and assigned in the routing information RT stored by the unit 14 . This priority is stored in a data frame together with data and transmitted from each vehicle-mounted device. For example, when the data frame is an Ethernet frame, priority information of 0 to 7 can be added by a PCP (Priority Code Point) indicating the priority of the data frame provided in the VLAN tag. In setting the communication path, a wired communication path is set for a data frame with a high priority, and a wireless communication path is set for a data frame with a low priority. In general, wired communication is capable of high-speed, stable, and highly reliable communication compared to wireless communication, so data frames with high priority are preferentially allocated. It should be noted that the reliability may be included in the data frame as information in place of the priority.

Whether the priority is high or low may be determined based on the reliability required for the data frame represented by the reliability information included in the data frame. For example, it is possible to determine that the 1st to 10th data frames in order of reliability in the entire network have high priority, and that the 11th and subsequent data frames have low priority. Alternatively, whether the priority is high or low may be determined by comparing the priority information with a predetermined threshold. For example, it is possible to determine that a data frame with priority information of "6" or more has a high priority, and a data frame with a priority information of less than "6" has a low priority.

The priority management unit 15 updates the content of the routing information RT stored in the transfer unit 14 each time a new vehicle-mounted device is connected to the communication device 10 and a new data frame is distributed to the vehicle-mounted network system 1. Review and update. The processing for updating the routing information RT will be described later.

Some or all of the communication devices 10 and 20 described above are typically configured as an electronic control unit (ECU) including a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a memory, an input/output interface, and the like. obtain. In this electronic control device, the above functions are realized by the CPU reading out and executing the program stored in the memory.

<Control>
Next, with further reference to FIG. 3, control executed by the communication device according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the procedure of updating processing of the routing information RT executed by the communication devices 10 and 20 respectively. In the following description, a case is described in which a new vehicle-mounted device (hereinafter referred to as "new vehicle-mounted device") is connected to the communication device 10 (for example, the transmission/reception unit 13).

The process of updating the routing information RT shown in FIG. 3 is started when the new vehicle-mounted device is connected to the communication device 10 . The new on-vehicle equipment can be connected to the communication device 10 either by wire or wirelessly. Also, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to prepare an extra transmitting/receiving unit in the communication apparatus 10 in advance.

Step S301: The transfer unit 14 receives a data frame containing data and priority information from the new vehicle-mounted device via the transmission/reception unit 13, which is the connection destination. The data frame received from this new vehicle-mounted device is the first data frame that flows to the vehicle-mounted network system 1 and is not registered in the routing information RT. Therefore, the transfer unit 14 notifies the priority management unit 15 of the information of this data frame.

Step S<b>302 : The priority management unit 15 acquires the priority of the data frame of the new vehicle-mounted device notified from the transfer unit 14 . For example, the priority of the data frame can be obtained by referring to the priority information contained in the data frame.

Step S303: The priority management unit 15 determines whether the priority of the data frame of the new vehicle-mounted device acquired in step S302 is high or low in the vehicle-mounted network system 1 . Whether the priority is high or low is determined by comparing with the priority of the data frame of the vehicle-mounted device already connected to the communication device 10 (hereinafter referred to as "existing vehicle-mounted device"). The judgment may be made based on the overall ranking of reliability in the frame, or may be judged by comparison with a predetermined threshold value. If it is determined that the priority of the data frame of the new vehicle-mounted device is high (step S303, high), the process proceeds to step S304. low), and the process proceeds to step S305.

Step S304: The priority management unit 15 sets the communication path of the data frame of the new in-vehicle device to wired. This setting content is notified to the transfer unit 14 . After that, the process proceeds to step S306.

Step S305: The priority management unit 15 sets the communication path of the data frame of the new in-vehicle device to wireless. This setting content is notified to the transfer unit 14 . After that, the process proceeds to step S308.

Step S306: The priority management unit 15 determines whether or not there is an existing vehicle-mounted device whose communication path should be changed from wired to wireless because the communication path of the data frame of the new vehicle-mounted device has been set to wired in step S304. to decide. For example, even if the data frame communication path of a new in-vehicle device is set to be wired, if there is still a margin in the bandwidth and allowance of wired communication, existing in-vehicle devices that perform frame communication by wire No need to change the communication path. However, as a result of setting the data frame communication path of the new in-vehicle equipment to wire, if there is no room for wired communication bandwidth or capacity, the communication path of the existing in-vehicle equipment that has been performing frame communication by wire so far will be lost. Modified based on priority. If there is an existing vehicle-mounted device whose communication path should be changed from wired to wireless (Yes in step S306), the process proceeds to step S307, and if there is no existing vehicle-mounted device whose communication path should be changed from wired to wireless (step S306, no), the process proceeds to step S308.

Step S307: The priority management unit 15 changes the communication path of the data frame of the target existing vehicle-mounted device from wired to wireless and sets it. This setting content is notified to the transfer unit 14 . After that, the process proceeds to step S308.

Step S308: The transfer unit 14 updates the routing information RT based on the new setting content linking the data frame and the communication path notified from the priority management unit 15, and stores the updated routing information RT. Through the above processing, the routing information RT regarding the new vehicle-mounted device is registered in the communication device 10 .

<Specific example>
Next, specific examples of control executed by the communication devices 10 and 20 according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described with further reference to FIGS. 4 to 7. FIG. In the examples of FIGS. 4 to 7, a scene in which an in-vehicle device C as a new in-vehicle device is wirelessly connected to the transmission/reception unit 13 of the communication device 10 is described.

FIG. 4 shows a state in which a data frame (frame A) is being transmitted from the existing vehicle-mounted device A to the existing vehicle-mounted device B. As shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, the transfer unit 14 of the communication device 10 transfers the frame A received from the existing vehicle-mounted device A via the transmission/reception unit 11 to the transmission/reception unit 22 of the communication device 20 from the transmission/reception unit 12 based on the routing information RT. It is forwarding using wired path X. The communication device 20 that has received the frame A via the transmitter/receiver 22 transmits the frame A to the existing vehicle-mounted device B via the transmitter/receiver 21 .

FIG. 5 shows a state in which the vehicle-mounted device C is newly wirelessly connected to the transmission/reception unit 13 of the communication device 10 in the state shown in FIG. In FIG. 5 , the transfer unit 14 of the communication device 10 receives a data frame (frame C) from the new vehicle-mounted device C via the transmission/reception unit 13 . The information of this frame C is notified from the transfer unit 14 to the priority management unit 15 .

FIG. 6 shows a state in which the priority of each frame is determined by the priority management unit 15 of the communication device 10 in the state of FIG. In FIG. 6, the priority management unit 15 of the communication device 10 determines that the priority of frame C is higher than that of frame A, and the communication path of frame C is wired (X path). The communication path is set (updated) to wireless (Y path). This setting content is notified to the transfer unit 14 and reflected in the routing information RT.

FIG. 7 shows that, in the state of FIG. 6, frame A is transmitted from existing vehicle-mounted device A to existing vehicle-mounted device B based on updated routing information RT, and frame A is transmitted from new vehicle-mounted device C to existing vehicle-mounted device B. , a state in which a frame C is being transmitted to . In FIG. 7, the transfer unit 14 of the communication device 10 wirelessly transmits the frame A received from the existing vehicle-mounted device A via the transmission/reception unit 11 to the transmission/reception unit 23 of the communication device 20 from the transmission/reception unit 13 based on the routing information RT. Frame C, which is transferred using path Y and is received from new on-vehicle equipment C via transmission/reception section 13, is transferred from transmission/reception section 12 to transmission/reception section 22 of communication device 20 using wired path X. FIG. The communication device 20 that has received the frame A via the transmitter/receiver 23 and the frame C via the transmitter/receiver 22 transmits the frames A and C to the existing vehicle-mounted device B via the transmitter/receiver 21 .

[Action/effect]
According to the communication apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention described above, every time a new vehicle-mounted device is added to the vehicle-mounted network system, the priority management unit determines the priority and updates the routing information optimally. As a result, even if a new vehicle-mounted device is added, the communication performance of the vehicle-mounted network system as a whole can be preferably controlled.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The communication device of the present invention can be used for an in-vehicle network system in which a plurality of in-vehicle devices are network-connected.

1 in-vehicle network systems 10, 20 communication devices 11, 12, 13, 21, 22, 23 transmission/reception units 14, 24 transfer units 15, 25 priority management units A, B, C in-vehicle equipment RT routing information

Claims (7)

A communication device that relays data communication between a plurality of in-vehicle devices ,
a wireless communication unit capable of wireless data communication;
a wired communication unit capable of wired data communication;
a management unit that manages routing information that specifies , based on the priority of the data frame output from the in-vehicle device, whether data communication of the data frame is to be performed through a wired route or a wireless route;
a transfer unit that transfers the data frame via the wireless communication unit or the wired communication unit according to the route specified by the routing information;
When a new vehicle-mounted device is connected to the communication device, the management unit determines the priority of the data frame output by the new vehicle-mounted device and the priority of the data frame output by the already-connected vehicle-mounted device. updating the routing information based on
Communication device. When the priority of the data frame output by the new vehicle-mounted device is higher than the priority of the data frame output by the already-connected vehicle-mounted device, the management unit outputs the data frame by the new vehicle-mounted device. updating the routing information to a setting for performing data communication of the data frame through a wired route;
A communication device according to claim 1 . The management unit sets the data communication of the data frame output by the new vehicle-mounted device to a wired route, and if the bandwidth or allowable amount of wired communication becomes a predetermined value or less, the already-connected vehicle-mounted device updating the routing information to a setting in which data communication of the data frame to be output is performed through a wireless route;
3. A communication device according to claim 1 or 2. The management unit determines, based on the priority of the data frame, the already-connected vehicle-mounted device to be changed to perform data communication of the data frame via a wireless path.
4. A communication device according to claim 3. When the priority of the data frame output by the new vehicle-mounted device is lower than the priority of the data frame output by the already-connected vehicle-mounted device, the management unit outputs the data frame by the new vehicle-mounted device. updating the routing information to a setting in which data communication of the data frame to be performed is performed by a wireless route;
5. A communication device according to any one of claims 1-4. A communication method performed by a communication device that relays data communication between a plurality of in-vehicle devices,
The data frame is transferred through either a wired or wireless route according to routing information specifying a data communication route of the data frame relayed by the communication device based on the priority of the data frame output from the vehicle-mounted device. a step;
When a new vehicle-mounted device is connected to the communication device, the routing is performed based on the priority of the data frame output by the new vehicle-mounted device and the priority of the data frame output by the already-connected vehicle-mounted device. updating the information;
Communication method. A communication program executed by a computer of a communication device that includes a processor and a memory and relays data communication between a plurality of in-vehicle devices,
The data frame is transferred through either a wired or wireless route according to routing information specifying a data communication route of the data frame relayed by the communication device based on the priority of the data frame output from the vehicle-mounted device. a step;
When a new vehicle-mounted device is connected to the communication device, the routing is performed based on the priority of the data frame output by the new vehicle-mounted device and the priority of the data frame output by the already-connected vehicle-mounted device. updating the information;
communication program.

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