Signal transfer device, signal transfer method, signal transfer control device, signal transfer control method and signal transfer program

A signal transfer method for forwarding high priority traffic frames and low priority traffic frames, comprising:

• control processing of periodically switching between a period that allows high priority traffic frames to be transmitted and a period that allows low priority traffic frames to be transmitted and, when the control processing detects that no high priority traffic frame arrives for a preset frame interval threshold or longer in the period that allows high priority traffic frames to be transmitted, releasing the period that allows high priority traffic frames to be transmitted and allocating the released period to the period that allows low priority traffic frames to be transmitted;
• frame arrival time information acquisition processing of obtaining information of frame arrival times of the high priority traffic frames;
• frame interval calculation processing of calculating, in accordance with the information of frame arrival times obtained by the frame arrival time information acquisition processing, frame intervals between frames of the high priority traffic frames input in chronological order;
• frame interval threshold calculation processing of calculating a new value for the preset frame interval threshold in accordance with the frame intervals excluding a frame interval including the period that allows low priority traffic to be transmitted;
• and
• frame interval threshold configuration processing of changing the frame interval threshold to the new value for the preset frame interval threshold.

A signal transfer control device for controlling a plurality of signal transfer devices, each signal transfer device configured to, when the signal transfer device periodically switches between a period that allows high priority traffic frames to be transmitted and a period that allows low priority traffic frames to be transmitted so as to forward high priority traffic frames and low priority traffic frames, in a case in which the signal transfer device detects that no high priority traffic frame arrives for a preset frame interval threshold or longer in the period that allows high priority traffic frames to be transmitted, release the period that allows high priority traffic frames to be transmitted and allocate the released period to the period that allows low priority traffic frames to be transmitted, the signal transfer control device comprising:

• a frame interval calculation circuitry configured to obtain from the plurality of signal transfer devices, information of arrival times of high priority traffic frames and calculate, for the respective signal transfer devices, frame intervals between frames of the high priority traffic frames input in chronological order;
• a frame interval threshold calculation circuitry configured to calculate, for the respective signal transfer devices, new values for the preset frame interval thresholds in accordance with the frame intervals excluding a frame interval including the period that allows low priority traffic to be transmitted;
• and
• a frame interval threshold configuration circuitry configured to send notifications to the plurality of signal transfer devices to change the frame interval threshold to a corresponding one of the new values for the preset frame interval thresholds.