On-vehicle gateway device, method for controlling an on-vehicle gateway device, connection device and connection control method

• US 8,693,346 B2
• Filed: 01/19/2012
• Issued: 04/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Astemo Ltd. (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Kato, Hiromitsu, Shimura, Akitoshi, Ando, Eriko, Aizono, Takeiki
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Andrew
• Application Number:
  US13/354,059
• Publication Number:
  US 20120116633A1
• Time in Patent Office: 810 Days
• Field of Search: 370/241, 370/401, 709/224, 709/225
• US Class Current: 370/241
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40006 Architecture of a communication node current supply arrangements H04L12/10; intermediate storage or scheduling H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/40215 Controller Area Network CAN
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/40273 the transportation system being a vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• 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 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/00 Wireless channel access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements

Abstract

An on-vehicle gateway device connected to an information system network and a control system network of a vehicle executes monitoring the status of an information system via an information system access circuit taking charge of message transmission and reception to and from the information system network, and an information system management step to manage information acquired by the information system monitoring, monitoring the status of a control system via a control system access circuit taking charge of message transmission and reception to and from the control system network, and a control system management step to manage information acquired by the control system monitoring, managing policies for access control by the access control circuit controlling data flows between the information system access circuit and the control system access circuit, and determining whether or not to update the policies managed by policy management and to update the policies.

Claims

1. A connection device for connecting to a network of a control system and an external device of the network, comprising:

a memory circuit to store data transmitted from the external device to the control system and a control circuit,

wherein the control circuit is configured to;

determine whether or not the control system is stable,

when the control system is determined to be stable, determine whether or not to transmit the data based on a number of transmissions of the data or a validity duration of the data or a priority level of the data stored in the memory circuit, and

when the control system is determined to be stable and the data is determined to be transmitted, transmit the data stored in the memory circuit to the control system.

2. The connection device according to claim 1, wherein the control circuit determines that the control system is stable if the network load factor of the network is within a prescribed range.

3. The connection device according to claim 1, wherein the control circuit determines that the control system is stable if the voltage supplied to the control system is within a prescribed range.

4. The connection device according to claim 1, wherein the control circuit judges whether or not the control system is stable in a predetermined period and, when a quantity of data flowing over the network in one period exceeds a prescribed threshold, the control circuit determines that the control system will be stable in a period immediately following the current one period.

5. The connection device according to claim 1, wherein:

the data transmitted from the external device to the control system and the number of the transmissions of the data are stored in the memory circuit, and

the control circuit determines whether or not the control system is stable in a predetermined period and subtracts from the number of transmissions every time it performs transmission processing of the result of the determination.

6. The connection device according to claim 5, wherein the control circuit, when the number of transmissions has become 0, deletes, from the memory circuit, data of 0 as the number of transmissions.

7. The connection device according to claim 1, wherein:

the memory circuit stores the data transmitted from the external device to the control system and information that specifies the validity duration of the data, and

the control circuit determines whether or not the control system is stable in a predetermined period and subtracts the length of the predetermined period from the validity duration.

8. The connection device according to claim 7, wherein the control circuit, when the validity duration has expired, deletes, from the memory circuit, the data of which the validity duration has expired.

9. The connection device according to claim 1, wherein:

the data transmitted from the external device to the control system and information that specifies the priority level of the data are stored in the memory circuit, and

the control circuit, if it is determined that the control system is stable, transmits data stored in the memory circuit in a descending order of the priority level to the control system.

10. The connection device according to claim 9, wherein the priority level is set in an ascending order of a quotient of division of the validity duration of the data transmitted from the external device to the control system by the number of transmissions.