In-Vehicle Relay Wake-Up Control for Selective Sleep Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing in-vehicle systems face challenges in improving power saving functions, as wake-up requests often lead to unnecessary power consumption in devices that are not directly involved in communication, as they cannot determine the appropriate devices to wake up.
Innovation Solution
A relay device that includes a state transition unit to transition to a wake-up state upon receiving a request and a sleep control unit to selectively wake up a second in-vehicle device based on network correspondence information, such as VLAN or PNC, to maintain other devices in a sleep state.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a wake-up request is transmitted to all in-vehicle devices to ensure communication reliability, then communication reliability is improved, but power consumption increases because devices not directly involved in communication are unnecessarily woken up
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the in-vehicle network into multiple PNCs (Partial Network Clusters) and divides devices into different groups based on their communication relationships. When a wake-up request is needed, only devices within the relevant PNC are woken up rather than all devices in the network, thus maintaining communication reliability while reducing unnecessary power consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by making different devices have different wake-up states based on their local communication needs. Devices that are communication partners or related to the current communication task are woken up, while other devices remain in sleep state, optimizing power consumption without compromising communication reliability.
2Speed
If all in-vehicle devices are kept in wake-up state to ensure immediate communication response, then communication response speed is improved, but power saving function deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing PNC relationships and storing communication partner information in a network management table. When communication is needed, the system can quickly determine which devices to wake up based on pre-stored relationships, ensuring fast response without keeping all devices in wake-up state continuously.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes the wake-up state dynamic rather than static. Devices transition between sleep and wake-up states based on real-time communication needs determined by PNC relationships. This dynamic state management allows the system to optimize power consumption while maintaining fast response capability when communication is actually needed.
3Loss of information
If the relay device wakes up all other devices upon receiving a wake-up request, then network-wide awareness is improved, but power consumption increases due to unnecessary wake-ups
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and utilizes PNC relationship information from the network management table to determine which specific devices should be woken up. Instead of waking up all devices, the system extracts only the necessary devices based on their PNC relationships with the requesting device, reducing power consumption while maintaining necessary network awareness.
Solution Approach 2:
The relay device acts as an intermediary that uses PNC relationship information as a mediator to intelligently determine which devices should be woken up. The network management table serves as an intermediary data structure that stores communication partner relationships, enabling the relay device to make informed decisions about wake-up requests without waking up unnecessary devices.
Data Source
AI summary
A relay device to be used in an in-vehicle system that includes three or more in-vehicle devices, the relay device includes: a state transition unit configured to cause the relay device in a sleep state to transition to a wake-up state when receiving a first wake-up request from a first in-vehicle device of the three or more in-vehicle devices; and a sleep control unit configured to select a second in-vehicle device from among the in-vehicle devices other than the first in-vehicle device and transmit a second wake-up request to the second in-vehicle device to cause the second in-vehicle device to transition to the wake-up state.