Communication message conversion device, communication method and communication system

• US 7,826,479 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2005
• Issued: 11/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Renesas Electronics Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Electronics Corporation (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Inventors: Fujimori, Takashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Jain; Raj
• Application Number:
  US11/125,136
• Publication Number:
  US 20050254518A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,002 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/466
• 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: H04L 67/2871 Implementation details of single intermediate entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion

Abstract

A communication message conversion device according to the present invention comprises a first receiving unit receiving a first message according to a first communication protocol, a first message storage unit storing the first message received by the first receiving unit in one of a plurality of buffer areas according to a first message identifier contained in the first message, a first identifier conversion unit converting the first message identifier contained in the first message stored in the first message storage unit into a second message identifier, a first message conversion unit packing a plurality of first messages converted with the first identifier conversion unit into a second message and a first transmission unit transmitting the second message converted with the first message conversion unit according to a second communication protocol.

Claims

1. A communication message conversion device, comprising:

a first receiving unit receiving a plurality of first messages according to a first communication protocol;

a first message storage unit storing each of the plurality of first messages received by the first receiving unit in one of a plurality of buffer areas according to a first message identifier contained in each of the plurality of first messages;

a plurality of first identifier conversion tables, each of the plurality of first identifier conversion tables including identification translation information and each of the plurality of first identifier conversion tables being provided to each of the plurality of buffer areas;

a first identifier conversion unit converting the first message identifier in each of the plurality of first messages into a second message identifier based on one of the plurality of first conversion tables associated with one of the plurality of buffer areas storing the first message;

a first message conversion table for associating a second message with a plurality of first message identifiers;

a first message conversion unit packing the plurality of first messages including the second message identifier associated with the first message conversion table into the second message; and

a first transmission unit transmitting the second message converted with the first message conversion unit according to a second communication protocol,

wherein each of the plurality of first messages are received with the first message identifier included therein, and

wherein the first message storage unit stores the received first message in one of a plurality of buffer areas when the first message identifier is of a predetermined value, and the first identifier conversion table contains the second message identifier of a number corresponding to the predetermined value.

2. A communication message conversion device according to claim 1, wherein the space of the second message identifier is smaller than the space of the first message identifier.

3. A communication message conversion device according to claim 1, wherein the first communication protocol is an event-driven protocol, and the second communication protocol is a time-trigger communication protocol.

4. A communication message conversion device according to claim 1, wherein the first communication protocol is Controller Area Network (CAN), and the second communication protocol is FlexRay.

5. A communication message conversion device according to claim 1, wherein the first receiving unit receives the first message from a first communication device communicating in accordance with the first communication protocol.

6. A communication message conversion device according to claim 5 which communicates with the first communication device one on one.

7. A communication message conversion device, comprising:

a second receiving unit receiving a second message containing a plurality of first messages, according to a second communication protocol;

a second message conversion unit unpacking the second message received by the second receiving unit and converting the unpacked second message into a plurality of first messages;

a second identifier conversion unit converting a second message identifier contained in and received with each first message converted with the second message conversion unit into a first message identifier;

a second message conversion table including correspondence information between the second message identifier and one of a plurality of buffer areas and correspondence information between a different second message identifier and another one of the plurality of buffer areas;

a second message storage unit storing the first message converted with the second message conversion unit in one of a plurality of buffer areas according to the second message identifier contained in the received first message based on the second message conversion table; and

a second transmission unit transmitting the first message stored in the second message storage unit according to a first communication protocol,

wherein the second message storage unit stores the converted first message in the one of the plurality of buffer areas when the second message identifier is of a predetermined value, and the second message conversion table contains the second message identifier of a number corresponding to the predetermined value.

8. A communication message conversion device according to claim 7, further comprising a second identifier conversion table in which first message identifiers corresponding to the second message identifier are aligned in the order of the second message identifier, wherein the second identifier conversion unit converts the second message identifier into an associated first identifier by directly referring to the second identifier conversion table with the second identifier.

9. A communication message conversion device according to claim 7, wherein an area of the second message identifier is smaller than an area of the first message identifier.

10. A communication message conversion device according to claim 7, wherein the first communication protocol is an event-driven protocol, and the second communication protocol is a time-trigger communication protocol.

11. A communication message conversion device according to claim 7, wherein the first communication protocol is Controller Area Network (CAN), and the second communication protocol is FlexRay.

12. A communication message conversion device according to claim 7, wherein the second transmission unit transmits the first message to a first communication device communicating in accordance with the first communication protocol.

13. A communication message conversion device according to claim 12 which communicates with the first communication device one on one.

14. A communication system comprising first and second communication message conversion devices that mutually communicate according to a second communication protocol,

wherein the first communication message conversion device comprises:

a first receiving unit receiving a plurality of first messages according to a first communication protocol;

a first message storage unit storing each of the plurality of first messages received by the first receiving unit in one of a plurality of buffer areas according to a first message identifier contained in each of the plurality of first messages;

a plurality of first identifier conversion tables, each of the plurality of first identifier conversion tables including identification translation information and each of the plurality of first identifier conversion tables being provided to each of the plurality of buffer areas;

a first identifier conversion unit converting the first message identifier in each of the plurality of first messages into a second message identifier using one of the plurality of first conversion tables associated with one of the plurality of buffer areas storing the first message identifier;

a first message conversion table for associating a second message with a plurality of first message identifiers;

a first message conversion unit packing the plurality of first messages including the second message identifier associated with the first message conversion table into the second message; and

a first transmission unit transmitting the second message converted with the first message conversion unit according to a second communication protocol; and

wherein the second communication message conversion device comprises;

a second receiving unit receiving a second message transmitted by the first communication message conversion device according to the second communication protocol;

a second message conversion unit unpacking the second message received by the second receiving unit and converting the unpacked second message into a plurality of first messages;

a second identifier conversion unit converting the second message identifier contained in the first message converted with the second message conversion unit into a first message identifier;

a second message storage unit storing the first message converted with the second message conversion unit in one of a plurality of buffer areas according to the second message identifier contained in the received first message; and

a second transmission unit transmitting the first message stored in the second message storage unit according to a first communication protocol,

wherein the first receiving unit receives each of the plurality of first messages with the first message identifier included therein, and

wherein the first message storage unit stores the received first message in one of a plurality of buffer areas when the first message identifier is of a predetermined value, and the first identifier conversion table contains the second message identifier of a number corresponding to the predetermined value.