Multiplex communications – Network configuration determination – In a bus system
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-05
2001-03-20
Kizou, Hassan (Department: 2662)
Multiplex communications
Network configuration determination
In a bus system
C370S489000, C340S870030
Reexamination Certificate
active
06205123
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a state information managing method which is able to manage easily state information of respective communication units and also reduce a communication traffic volume required for management of state information in a communication system wherein a plurality of communication units for exchanging data communication mutually are connected to a bus, and a system embodying the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a communication system in which a plurality of communication units are connected to a bus, respective communication units can exchange data communication mutually. At this time, since internal states of respective communication units are changed with the lapse of time, state information indicating the internal states have been managed by the communication units respectively.
As the state information management method, there has been such a method that, when the data management portion issues a state request to respective communication units, such respective communication units transmits a state response to the data management portion in response to the state request from the data management portion. However, according to this method, since the state request and the state response must be issued from respective communication units, an extensive communication traffic volume has been needed.
Therefore, there has been known the first method to reduce the communication traffic volume of the state request. In the first method, once the state request has been issued after a state information collecting destination has been identified clearly, the communication units which receive such state request have transmitted automatically state reports to the state information collecting destination subsequently every time when their states are changed. According to the first method, the communication traffic volume of the state request can be reduced.
However, according to the above first method, since information as for the state information collecting destination must be transmitted to respective communication units, communication for informing respective communication units of such information as for the state information collecting destination have not been able to be omitted.
In addition, as the second method to reduce the communication traffic volume of the state request, there has been a method set forth in Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) Hei 6-68000, for example. According to this method set forth in Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) Hei 6-68000, temporary addresses which are different from individual addresses are temporarily set, then such temporary addresses are distributed to any objective terminal devices on a transmission line, and then only the objective terminal devices can be controlled every temporary address by virtue of communication frames.
However, in the second method, the temporary addresses has had to be transmitted to respective terminal devices which need the state information. Therefore, according to the second method, it has been difficult to reduce the communication traffic volume smaller than that in the first method.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in light of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a state information managing method which is able to manage easily state information of respective communication units and also reduce a communication traffic volume required for management of the state information, and a system embodying the same.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a state information managing method wherein a collecting communication unit is able to collect state information indicating respective states from one or more report communication units except the collecting communication unit to manage their state information in a communication system in which a plurality of communication units are connected to a bus to exchange mutual communication, the method comprising: an identification information setting step of setting information indicating that own unit is a unit for collecting the state information as identification information in the collecting communication unit and also setting information indicating that own unit is not the unit for collecting the state information as the identification information in respective report communication units; a report command setting step of setting a report command including a destination address having the identification information and the state information in respective report communication units; and a transmitting step of transmitting the report command from respective report communication units to the collecting communication unit based on the destination address in the report command which is set in the report command setting step.
According to the present invention, information indicating that own unit is the unit for collecting the state information are set as identification information in the collecting communication unit, and the report command including the destination address having the identification information and the state information are set in respective report communication units, and the report commands are transmitted from respective report communication units to the collecting communication unit based on the destination address in the report command which is set in the report command setting step.
In other words, respective report communication units can exchange communication of the state information only by informing the collecting communication unit identified by the identification information of the state information, so that the flow for informing respective report communication units of the collecting destinations can be omitted. As a result, the communication traffic volume can be reduced still more.
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the state information managing method further comprises the receiving step of receiving the state information including the report command in the collecting communication unit when identification information included in the report command from respective report communication units coincides with identification information which has been set to the collecting communication unit by the identification information setting step.
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the identification information is a state receiving address, and according to the identification information setting step, the collecting communication unit can set a particular state receiving address as the identification information and also each of respective report communication units can set a state receiving address identical to own address as the identification information.
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the identification information is an identifier, and according to the identification information setting step, the collecting communication unit can set an identifier of “1” or “0” as the identification information and also each of respective report communication units can set the identifier of “0” or “1” as the identification information.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a state information managing system wherein a collecting communication unit is able to collect state information indicating respective states from one or more report communication units except the collecting communication unit to manage their state information in a communication system in which a plurality of communication units are connected to a bus to exchange mutual communication, the collecting communication unit comprising: a first identification information setting portion for setting information indicating that own unit is a unit for collecting state information as identification information; and each of the report communication units comprising: a second identification information setting portion for setting information indicating that the own unit is not a unit
Ho Duc
Kizou Hassan
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Yazaki -Corporation
LandOfFree
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