Wireless relay device, wireless communication system, and wireless communication method

• US 10,111,153 B2
• Filed: 08/24/2016
• Issued: 10/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yokogawa Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Yokogawa Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Takeda, Kenichi, Fujimoto, Naoyuki, Yamaji, Masato, Yamada, Haruka
• Primary Examiner(s): Agosta, Stephen M D
• Application Number:
  US15/245,252
• Publication Number:
  US 20170064607A1
• Time in Patent Office: 790 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4063 Monitoring general control system G05B19/4062 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4185 characterised by the network communication
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31093 Communication between sensors, actuators and gateway
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0016 involving special memory structures, e.g. look-up tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/245 by using the properties of transmission codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/29 using a combination of thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0464 using hop-by-hop encryption, i.e. wherein an intermediate entity decrypts the information and re-encrypts it before forwarding it
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/14 for detecting or protecting against malicious traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/22 using selective relaying for reaching a BTS [Base Transceiver Station] or an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/12 Access point controller devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A wireless relay device that performs relay of encrypted data over a wireless network, the wireless relay device, includes: a determiner that determines whether or not there is an abnormality using first data which is transmitted to its own device from wireless devices belonging to a preset section among wireless devices joining the wireless network; a transmission controller that transmits second data indicating a result of the determination of the determiner to a preset transmission destination; and an encryption processor that decrypts the first data and encrypts the second data transmitted by the transmission controller.

Claims

1. A wireless relay device that performs relay of encrypted data over a wireless network, the wireless relay device comprising:

a determiner that determines whether or not there is an abnormality using first data which is transmitted to its own device from wireless devices belonging to a preset section among wireless devices joining the wireless network;

a transmission controller that transmits second data indicating a result of the determination of the determiner to a preset transmission destination;

an encryption processor that decrypts the first data and encrypts the second data transmitted by the transmission controller, and

a storage that stores a first determination table in which a first determination criterion for determining whether or not there is an abnormality in each of the wireless devices belonging to the section is set, and a second determination table in which a combination of results of the determination as to whether or not there is an abnormality in each of the wireless devices belonging to the section and a second determination criterion for determining whether or not there is an abnormality in a diagnosis target are associated with each other for each diagnosis target in the section, and

wherein the determiner individually determines whether or not there is an abnormality in each of the wireless devices belonging to the section using the first data and the first determination table, and determines whether or not there is an abnormality in the section using a combination of results of the determination as to whether or not there is an abnormality in each of the wireless devices belonging to the section and the second determination table.

2. The wireless relay device according to claim 1,

wherein the storage further stores at least one of the first data decrypted by the encryption processor and the second data.

3. The wireless relay device according to claim 2, further comprising:

an interface to which an external device is able to be connected; and

a controller that reads at least one of the first data and the second data stored in the storage and outputs the read data to the interface on the basis of a request from the external device connected to the interface.

4. A wireless communication system capable of wireless communication over a wireless network, the wireless communication system comprising:

a wireless relay device that performs relay of encrypted data over the wireless network, the wireless relay device comprising;

a determiner that determines whether or not there is an abnormality using first data which is transmitted to its own device from wireless devices belonging to a preset section among wireless devices joining the wireless network;

a transmission controller that transmits second data indicating a result of the determination of the determiner to a preset transmission destination;

an encryption processor that decrypts the first data and encrypts the second data transmitted by the transmission controller; and

a storage that stores a first determination table in which a first determination criterion for determining whether or not there is an abnormality in each of the wireless devices belonging to the section is set, and a second determination table in which a combination of results of the determination as to whether or not there is an abnormality in each of the wireless devices belonging to the section and a second determination criterion for determining whether or not there is an abnormality in a diagnosis target are associated with each other for each diagnosis target in the section, and

a high-level device that collects the second data transmitted from the wireless relay device, and

wherein the determiner individually determines whether or not there is an abnormality in each of the wireless devices belonging to the section using the first data and the first determination table, and determines whether or not there is an abnormality in the section using a combination of results of the determination as to whether or not there is an abnormality in each of the wireless devices belonging to the section and the second determination table.

5. The wireless communication system according to claim 4, further comprising:

a gateway that is set as a transmission destination of the second data, decrypts the second data transmitted from the wireless relay device, and outputs the decrypted data to the high-level device.

6. The wireless communication system according to claim 5, further comprising:

a management device that performs a setting of the section and performs a setting of a transmission destination of the second data for the wireless relay device.

7. The wireless communication system according to claim 6,

wherein the management device sets a first encryption key for use in a process of encrypting the first data for the wireless device and the wireless relay device belonging to the section, and sets a second encryption key for use in a process of encrypting the second data for the wireless relay device and the gateway.

8. The wireless communication system according to claim 4,

wherein the high-level device sets, for the wireless relay device, the first determination table and the second determination table for use in the determination as to whether or not there is an abnormality in the determiner.

9. A wireless communication method of performing wireless communication over a wireless network, the wireless communication method comprising:

a first step of receiving first data which is transmitted to its own device from wireless devices belonging to a preset section among wireless devices joining the wireless network;

a second step of decrypting the first data received in the first step;

a third step of determining whether or not there is an abnormality using the first data decrypted in the second step;

a fourth step of encrypting a result of the determination of the third step, as second data; and

a fifth step of transmitting the second data to the wireless network, and

wherein the third step includes individually determining whether or not there is an abnormality in each of the wireless devices belonging to the section using the first data and a first determination table in which a first determination criterion for determining whether or not there is an abnormality in each of the wireless devices belonging to the section is set, and includes determining whether or not there is an abnormality in a diagnosis target using a combination of results of the determination as to whether or not there is an abnormality in each of the wireless devices belonging to the section and a second determination table in which a combination of results of the determination as to whether or not there is an abnormality in each of the wireless devices belonging to the section and a second determination criterion for determining whether or not there is an abnormality in the section are associated with each other for each diagnosis target in the section.