Patent ID: 11870777
Assignee: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC G  H

Claim 8:
9. A relay device, comprising:
a plurality of input/output ports each of which is connected to each of a plurality of devices including a plurality of relay devices;
a memory to store authentication information used for performing authentication of a target relay device which is a relay device to be authenticated in the plurality of relay devices; and
processing circuitry
to acquire a target authentication packet via a target input/output port, the target authentication packet being an authentication packet used for performing the authentication of the target relay device, the target input/output port being an input/output port connected to the target relay device in the plurality of input/output ports,
to perform the authentication of the target relay device by referring to the authentication information,
to cause a transfer input/output port to output a transfer packet acquired via the target input/output port when the authentication of the target relay device is succeeded, the transfer input/output port being an input/output port to which a transfer destination of the transfer packet is connected in the plurality of input/output ports, and
to discard the transfer packet when the authentication of the target relay device is failed,
wherein the target authentication packet includes authentication data to be used for the authentication of the target relay device,
wherein the authentication information includes comparison authentication data for comparison with the authentication data in association with the target relay device, and
wherein the processing circuitry compares the authentication data with the comparison authentication data to perform the authentication of the target relay device,
wherein the target authentication packet further includes a packet length of a next authentication packet which is an authentication packet to be transmitted next to the target authentication packet,
wherein the authentication information further includes a next packet length in association with the target relay device,
wherein the processing circuitry determines that the authentication of the target relay device is succeeded when the authentication data matches the comparison authentication data and the packet length of the target authentication packet matches the next packet length, and that the authentication of the target relay device is failed when the authentication data does not match the comparison authentication data or the packet length of the target authentication packet does not match the next packet length, and
wherein the processing circuitry updates the next packet length so as to indicate the packet length of the next authentication packet.