UNIFIED VEHICLE NETWORK FRAME PROTOCOL

• US 20120109406A1
• Filed: 06/29/2011
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: YOUSEFI, NARIMAN, KIM, YONGBUM, WALLEY, JOHN, CHEN, SHERMAN (XUEMIN), DIAB, WAEL W., ILYADIS, NICHOLAS
• Granted Patent: US 9,215,124 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/1
• 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 communication network includes a network fabric, a plurality of vehicle control modules, memory, one or more multimedia processing modules, and a network manager. The network manager is operable to coordinate communication of packets, via the network fabric, among the vehicle control modules, the memory, and the multimedia processing modules based on individual content of the packets and in accordance with a global vehicle network communication protocol. The network manager is further operable to facilitate network resource management to support the communication of packets via the network fabric in accordance with the global vehicle network communication protocol.

Claims

1. A vehicle communication network comprises:

a network fabric;

a plurality of vehicle control modules operably coupled to the network fabric;

memory operably coupled to the network fabric;

one or more multimedia processing modules operably coupled to the network fabric; and

a network manager operably coupled to the network fabric, wherein the network manager is operable to;

coordinate communication of packets, via the network fabric, among the plurality of vehicle control modules, the memory, and the one or more multimedia processing modules based on individual content of the packets and in accordance with a global vehicle network communication protocol; and

facilitate network resource management to support the communication of packets via the network fabric in accordance with the global vehicle network communication protocol.

2. The vehicle communication network of claim 1, wherein the global vehicle network communication protocol comprises at least one of:

information regarding a network fabric formatting of the packets;

information regarding packet transmission prioritization schemes;

information regarding network management processing; and

information regarding vehicle network operation parameters.

3. The vehicle communication network of claim 1, wherein the network resource management comprises one or more of:

access prioritization management;

bandwidth allocation management;

packet redundancy management;

link redundancy management;

data transmission latency management;

link diagnostics;

network security;

virtual local area network setup;

legacy packet/frame management; and

adding or deleting components from access to the network fabric.

4. The vehicle communication network of claim 1, wherein the network fabric comprises:

a plurality of bridge-routing modules, wherein a bridge-routing module of the plurality of bridge-routing modules is redundantly coupled to one or more adjacent bridge-routing modules of the plurality of bridge-routing modules; and

a plurality of switch modules, wherein a switch module of the plurality of switch modules is redundantly coupled to one or more bridge-routing modules of the plurality of bridge-routing modules.

5. The vehicle communication network of claim 1, wherein the network fabric comprises:

a first sub-network fabric operably coupled to first sub-set of the plurality of vehicle control modules;

a second sub-network fabric operably coupled to second sub-set of the plurality of vehicle control modules; and

a data bridge operably coupled to facilitate communication of a sub-set of the packets between the first and second sub-network fabrics.

6. The vehicle communication network of claim 1, wherein a vehicle control module of the plurality of vehicle control modules comprises one or more of:

one or more processing modules;

a network node module;

an electronic control unit; and

a vehicle assembly.

7. The vehicle communication network of claim 6, wherein the vehicle assembly comprises:

a switching circuit module;

a plurality of network interfaces operably coupled to the switch circuit module; and

a plurality of devices operably coupled to the plurality of network interfaces.

8. The vehicle communication network of claim 1, wherein the memory is further operable to store one or more of:

multi-media files;

electronic control unit applications;

multimedia applications;

diagnostic data;

performance data; and

data associated with at least one of use and performance of the vehicle communication network.

9. The vehicle communication network of claim 1 further comprises one or more of:

one or more communication links operable to support connectivity with one or more of a cellular device, a Bluetooth device, an infrared device, and a computer peripheral device;

a gateway operable to support communication with at least one of a highway network, a home network, an automobile service provider, and an automobile manufacturer; and

a power manager operable to optimize power consumption of the vehicle communication network.

10. A vehicle communication network comprises:

a network fabric;

a network manager operably coupled to the network fabric, wherein the network manager is operable to establish a global vehicle network communication protocol;

a plurality of vehicle control modules operably coupled to the network fabric, wherein a vehicle control module of the plurality of vehicle control modules is operable to;

generate a first packet in accordance with the global vehicle network communication protocol;

transmit the first packet via the network fabric in accordance with the global vehicle network communication protocol; and

a multimedia processing module operably coupled to the network fabric and operable to;

generate a second packet in accordance with the global vehicle network communication protocol;

transmit the second packet via the network fabric in accordance with the global vehicle network communication protocol.

11. The vehicle communication network of claim 10, wherein the global vehicle network communication protocol comprises at least one of:

information regarding a network fabric formatting of the packets;

information regarding packet transmission prioritization schemes;

information regarding network management processing; and

information regarding vehicle network operation parameters.

12. The vehicle communication network of claim 10 further comprises:

a second vehicle control module of the plurality of vehicle control modules is operable to;

receive, when addressed, the first packet via the network fabric in accordance with the global vehicle network communication protocol; and

receive, when addressed, the second packet via the network fabric in accordance with the global vehicle network communication protocol.

13. The vehicle communication network of claim 10, wherein the multimedia processing module is further operable to:

receive, when addressed, the first packet via the network fabric in accordance with the global vehicle network communication protocol; and

receive, when addressed, the second packet via the network fabric in accordance with the global vehicle network communication protocol.

14. The vehicle communication network of claim 10, wherein the network fabric is operable to:

route the first packet based on content type of the first packet; and

route the second packet based on content type of the second packet.

15. The vehicle communication network of claim 10, wherein the network manager further functions to:

facilitate network resource management to support the communication of the first and second packets via the network fabric in accordance with the global vehicle network communication protocol.

16. The vehicle communication network of claim 10, wherein the network fabric comprises:

a plurality of bridge-routing modules, wherein a bridge-routing module of the plurality of bridge-routing modules is redundantly coupled to one or more adjacent bridge-routing modules of the plurality of bridge-routing modules; and

a plurality of switch modules, wherein a switch module of the plurality of switch modules is redundantly coupled to one or more bridge-routing modules of the plurality of bridge-routing modules.

17. The vehicle communication network of claim 10, wherein the network fabric comprises:

a first sub-network fabric operably coupled to vehicle operation control modules of the plurality of vehicle control modules;

a second sub-network fabric operably coupled to multimedia processing module and to infotainment network node modules of the plurality of vehicle control modules; and

a data bridge operably operable to couple the first sub-network fabric to the second sub-network fabric.

18. The vehicle communication network of claim 10, wherein a vehicle control module of the plurality of vehicle control modules comprises one or more of:

one or more processing modules;

a network node module;

an electronic control unit; and

a vehicle assembly.

19. The vehicle communication network of claim 18, wherein the vehicle assembly comprises:

a switching circuit module;

a plurality of network interfaces operably coupled to the switch circuit module; and

a plurality of devices operably coupled to the plurality of network interfaces.

20. The vehicle communication network of claim 10 further comprises one or more of:

one or more communication links operable to support connectivity with one or more of a cellular device, a Bluetooth device, an infrared device, and a computer peripheral device;

a gateway operable to support communication with at least one of a highway network, a home network, an automobile service provider, and an automobile manufacturer; and

a power manager operable to optimize power consumption of the vehicle communication network.