Patent ID: 7197037

Claim:
A message processing device in an inter-vehicle network of a plurality of message processing devices located in respective vehicles for transferring messages among the vehicles, each message processing device comprising: a message receiving unit for receiving a message having a body including data to be transmitted and a header including a valid time duration, a valid geographical zone, and a flag, the flag being set when the message reaches the valid geographical zone; a duration determination unit for determining whether or not the message is within the valid time duration when the message receiving unit receives the message; a zone determination unit for determining whether or not the message processing device is located within the valid geographical zone when the message receiving unit receives the message; a message transferring unit for transferring the message to at least one other message processing device when the duration determination unit and the zone determination unit give positive results, or when the duration determination unit gives a positive result, the zone determination unit gives a negative result, and the flag is not set; and an application processing unit for reading out data included in the body to execute predetermined processing based on the data when the duration determination unit and zone determination unit gives positive results, wherein the predetermined processing is other than transferring the message.