Automotive

Today’s automobile is extremely sophisticated with increasing demand for advanced features. Increased usage of cameras plus advanced sensor networks for assisted driving are placing a growing demand on the internal networks resulting in three main needs: increased bandwidth, cross-domain communication, and security. The industry has a long history of networking with CAN, LIN, FlexRay and MOST. While these systems served their purposes, each of these technologies is hampered by low speeds, lack of security, and lack of scalability and in some cases limited supplier or even sole-sourced. By aligning the automotive networks with the larger networking industry we can leverage the work of the IEEE to modernize the vehicle with flexible, scalable and secure networking technology.

As we move towards autonomous driving, there is an increased need for highly reliable cross-domain communication in the vehicle. Precisely timed sensors are fused together to develop sophisticated applications. GPS coordinates and road profiles can be communicated to engine control to improve fuel savings and headlights to illuminate around corners increasing safety. Surround view and other camera applications are pushing the data bandwidth needs higher and higher. Point-to-point solutions using LVDS are costly to implement and inflexible. Avnu Alliance is meeting these needs by bringing the technology of Ethernet with AVB and TSN to the automotive industry. The AVB/TSN core technologies of prioritization, reservation, traffic shaping, and universal timing allow the construction of networks with the demanding predictability and reliability requirements of the automotive industry.

Avnu Alliance members regularly meet to discuss automotive topics on Thursdays. For information on how to join the Avnu Alliance and participate in the Automotive Segment meetings, please visit https://avnu.org/becomeamember/.

A simpler, more capable foundation

While data networks in vehicle are common, current solutions have limitations that are limiting new applications and scaling to meet market needs:

Limited bandwidth
No ability to mix and match speeds to optimize costs/bandwidth needs
Lack of precise timing
Limited vendor base
Many technologies lack standardized redundancy
Lack of security

The AVB/TSN Advantage

By utilizing AVB/TSN into the network, solutions can take advantage of

An open, interoperable standard with independent testing available.
Precise timing to support low-jitter media clocks and accurate synchronization of multiple audio/video or sensor streams.
Independent traffic classes allow the optimization of network resources
Bounded latency delivers assurance of timely packet deliveries
Extreme reliability including redundant clock master and data traffic
Industry best practices for secure access and transactions

USE CASES

The figure shows an example with two RSE displays showing the video playback of a DVD whilst the audio is transmitted on a totally separate path to the amplifier. Ethernet AVB allows all three to be precisely synchronized. The Head Unit can also transmit 8kHz alerts or voice to the amplifier on the same network without sample rate conversion.

The figure shows the scalability and flexibility that can be realized with a networked system. All camera and sensor data acquisition can be precisely synchronized to minimize stitching efforts. The ADAS units and HU can equally access the camera and sensor data.

A fully networked car allows access to all sensors and cross-domain communication. Control messages can flow with minimal latency. Network Redundancy used for critical vehicle backbone.

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