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/.