Patent ID: 11962433
Assignee: AUTONETWORKS TECHNOLOGIES, LTD.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  B | IPC B  H

Claim 11:
12. A communication method for a switch device used in a vehicle in which a plurality of function units and a diagnosis device are installed,
the switch device including a plurality of communication ports,
the switch device relaying a frame, which has been transmitted from a function unit and to which information including an ID of a VLAN is added, to another function unit via a communication port,
the method comprising:
when the diagnosis device is connected to another switch device,
determining that the frame is to be duplicated based at least in part on a source address and a destination address included in the frame,
duplicating the frame to be relayed via a designated communication port among the plurality of communication ports, and
generating a duplicate frame for diagnosis that is a frame obtained by adding, to a duplicate frame obtained through the duplication, specific information indicating that the duplicate frame for diagnosis should be transmitted to the diagnosis device;

when the specific information has been added to the frame received from the other switch device, determining that the received frame is the duplicate frame for diagnosis, and setting, to ON, a diagnosis flag of the frame that has been determined as the duplicate frame for diagnosis; and
when the diagnosis flag is ON, outputting the duplicate frame for diagnosis from a communication port corresponding to the diagnosis device among the plurality of communication ports.