Vehicle network node module

• US 10,021,041 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2015
• Issued: 07/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Avago Technologies Wireless IP Pte Limited
• Inventors: Yousefi, Nariman, Kim, Yongbum, Walley, John, Chen, Sherman (Xuemin), Diab, Wael W., Ilyadis, Nicholas
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Chi H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rivas, Raul
• Application Number:
  US14/983,266
• Publication Number:
  US 20160134562A1
• Time in Patent Office: 924 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/00 Electric propulsion with power supplied within the vehicle with power supply from force of nature, e.g. sun or wind, B60L8/00; for monorail vehicles, suspension vehicles or rack railways B60L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/023 for transmission of signals between vehicle parts or subsystems
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/03 for supply of electrical power to vehicle subsystems or for circuit arrangements for charging batteries H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0315 using multiplexing techniques multiplexing for transmission of signals G08C15/00; multiplexing for electrical communication in general H04J
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 19/03 characterised by material, e.g. composite B60R19/18 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4022 using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network G06F13/4009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/76 Arrangements for rearranging, permuting or selecting data according to predetermined rules, independently of the content of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0866 the electronic data carrier being a digital video recorder in combination with video camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/16 Anti-collision systems road vehicle drive control systems for predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision otherwise than by control of a particular sub-unit B60W30/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3822 specially adapted for use in vehicles H04B1/3827 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/10 Current supply arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/46 Interconnection of networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/56 Packet switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/6275 : based on priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/76 : using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation requested by the user or requested by the network in response to changing network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/821 : Prioritising resource allocation or reservation requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/25 : Routing or path finding in a switch fabric
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 : Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 : Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/102 : characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 : for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 : for receiving images from a single remote source
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 : Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/08 : Load balancing or load distribution transferring a connection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 : for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/46 : for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 : Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 : using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/56 : based on priority criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 : Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A vehicle network node module includes device buffers, a network buffer, a switch circuit, and a processing module. The device buffers temporarily store outgoing device packets from, and temporarily store incoming device packets for, vehicle devices in accordance with a locally managed prioritization scheme. The network buffer receives incoming network packets from, and outputs the outgoing network packets to, a vehicle network fabric in accordance with a global vehicle network protocol. The network buffer also temporarily stores the incoming network packets and the outgoing network packets in accordance with the locally managed prioritization scheme. The switching circuit selectively couples the network buffer to individual ones of the device buffers in accordance with the locally managed prioritization scheme. The processing module interprets the outgoing device packets and the incoming network packets to determine types of packets and determines the locally managed prioritization scheme based on the types of packets.

Claims

1. A vehicular communication device, comprising:

a vehicular network interface configured to support communications with a plurality of vehicle devices via a vehicular communication network in a vehicle; and

processing circuitry, wherein the vehicular network interface and/or the processing circuitry are configured to;

receive a plurality of device packets from the plurality of vehicle devices, at least some device packets of the plurality of device packets comprising vehicle safety packets having a first priority and at least some device packets of the plurality of device packets comprising entertainment packets having a second priority, at least some of the vehicle safety packets for controlling operation of the vehicle and at least some of the entertainment packets for use by an entertainment device of the vehicle;

determine priority of received device packets based upon contents of the device packets;

for device packets having the first priority, queue the device packets for output with a first priority; and

for device packets having the second priority, queue the device packets having the second priority for output with a second priority that is lesser than the first priority.

2. The vehicular communication device of claim 1, wherein:

the vehicular network interface comprises;

at least one input buffer configured to receive the plurality of device packets; and

at least one first priority output buffer configured to queue for output device packets with the first priority; and

at least one second priority output buffer configured to queue for output device packets with the second priority; and

the processing circuitry configured to;

determine priority of a received device packet based upon packet content;

when the received device packet has the first priority, write the received device packet to the at least one first priority output buffer; and

when the received device packet has the second priority, write the received device packet to the at least one second priority output buffer.

3. The vehicular communication device of claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine priority of the received device packet based upon packet contents by extracting at least one priority bit from the received device packet.

4. The vehicular communication device of claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine priority of the received device packet based upon packet contents by:

extracting a source ID from a received device packet; and

determining the prioritization based upon the extracted source ID.

5. The vehicular communication device of claim 1, wherein the vehicular network interface comprises a multi-port Ethernet switch.

6. The vehicular communication device of claim 1, wherein the vehicular network interface comprises an Ethernet Physical Interface.

7. The vehicular communication device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of vehicle devices are indirectly coupled to one another via the vehicular network interface.

8. The vehicular communication device of claim 1, wherein the vehicular network interface supports wireless inter-vehicular communications.

9. The vehicular communication device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry and vehicular network interface are further configured to translate communications between an Ethernet format and a differing vehicle communication format.

10. The vehicular communication device of claim 9, wherein the differing vehicle communication format comprises one of:

J1850 format;

OBDII format;

Intellibus format;

Controller Area Network (CAN) format;

FlexRay format;

Bosch-Siemens-Temic format;

Motorola®

interconnect (MI) format;

Mobile Media Link (MML) format;

Domestic Digital Data (D2B) format;

smartwireX format;

inter-equipment bus (IEBus) format;

or

media oriented systems transport (MOST) format.

11. The vehicular communication device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to control a powered state of at least one of the vehicle devices.

12. The vehicular communication device of claim 11, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to control the powered state of the at least one of the vehicle devices by individually controlling powered states of a plurality of the vehicle devices.

13. The vehicular communication device of claim 11, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to control the powered state of the at least one of the vehicle devices by controlling a powered state of a group of the plurality of the vehicle devices.

14. The vehicular communication device of claim 11, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to control the powered state of the at least one of the vehicle devices by controlling a power to a network interface servicing the at least one of the vehicle devices.

15. A vehicular communication device, comprising:

a vehicular Ethernet interface configured to support Ethernet communications with a plurality of vehicle devices via an Ethernet vehicular communication network in a vehicle; and

processing circuitry, wherein the vehicular Ethernet interface and/or the processing circuitry are configured to;

receive a plurality of device packets from the plurality of vehicle devices, at least some device packets of the plurality of device packets having a first priority and at least some device packets of the plurality of device packets having a second priority, wherein at least some of the device packets having the first priority carry data for controlling operation of the vehicle and at least some of the device packets having the second priority carry data for use by a non-safety related device of the vehicle;

determine priority of received device packets based upon contents of the device packets;

for device packets having the first priority, queue the device packets for output with a first priority; and

for device packets having the second priority, queue the device packets having the second priority for output with a second priority that is lesser than the first priority.

16. The vehicular communication device of claim 15, wherein the device packets having the first priority carry safety related data and the device packets having the second priority carry non-safety related data.

17. The vehicular communication device of claim 16, wherein the non-safety related data comprises entertainment data.

18. The vehicular communication device of claim 16, wherein the safety related data comprises camera data or radar data.

19. The vehicular communication device of claim 15, wherein:

the vehicular Ethernet interface comprises;

at least one input buffer configured to receive the plurality of device packets; and

at least one first priority output buffer configured to queue for output device packets with the first priority; and

at least one second priority output buffer configured to queue for output device packets with the second priority; and

the processing circuitry configured to;

determine priority of a received device packet based upon packet content;

when the received device packet has the first priority, write the received device packet to the at least one first priority output buffer; and

when the received device packet has the second priority, write the received device packet to the at least one second priority output buffer.

20. The vehicular communication device of claim 19, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine priority of the received device packet based upon packet contents by extracting at least one priority bit from the received device packet.

21. The vehicular communication device of claim 19, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine priority of the received device packet based upon packet contents by:

extracting a source ID from a received device packet; and

determining the prioritization based upon the extracted source ID.

22. The vehicular communication device of claim 15, wherein the vehicular Ethernet interface comprises a multi-port Ethernet switch.

23. The vehicular communication device of claim 15, wherein the vehicular Ethernet interface comprises an Ethernet Physical Interface.

24. The vehicular communication device of claim 15, wherein the plurality of vehicle devices are indirectly coupled to one another via the vehicular Ethernet interface.

25. The vehicular communication device of claim 15, wherein the vehicular Ethernet interface supports wireless inter-vehicular communications.

26. The vehicular communication device of claim 15, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to translate communications between an Ethernet format and a differing vehicle communication format.

27. The vehicular communication device of claim 26, wherein the differing vehicle communication format comprises one of:

J1850 format;

OBDII format;

Intellibus format;

Controller Area Network (CAN) format;

FlexRay format;

Bosch-Siemens-Temic format;

Motorola®

interconnect (MI) format;

Mobile Media Link (MML) format;

Domestic Digital Data (D2B) format;

smartwireX format;

inter-equipment bus (IEBus) format;

or

media oriented systems transport (MOST) format.

28. The vehicular communication device of claim 15, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to control a powered state of at least one of the vehicle devices.

29. The vehicular communication device of claim 28, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to control the powered state of the at least one of the vehicle devices by individually controlling powered states of a plurality of the vehicle devices.

30. The vehicular communication device of claim 28, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to control the powered state of the at least one of the vehicle devices by controlling a powered state of a group of the plurality of the vehicle devices.

31. The vehicular communication device of claim 28, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to control the powered state of the at least one of the vehicle devices by controlling a power to a network interface servicing the at least one of the vehicle devices.