Rapid vehicle bus network activity

• US 7,209,490 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2004
• Issued: 04/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive Systems, Inc. (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Temic Automotive of North America, Incorporated (Continental AG)
• Inventors: D'Avello, Robert F., Van Goethem, Tim R., Ayoub, Ramy P., Isaac, Emad
• Primary Examiner(s): To; Doris H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Phuongchau Ba
• Application Number:
  US10/883,163
• Publication Number:
  US 20060050735A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,027 Days
• Field of Search: 370/452, 370/457, 702/182
• US Class Current: 370/457
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13103 Memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13109 Initializing, personal profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13299 Bus
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/54516 Initialization, software or data downloading G06F9/445 takes precedence

Abstract

An apparatus and method for rapidly providing activity on a vehicle network bus includes a node having a bus connection to the vehicle network bus. The node includes a Rapid Response Stack loaded with the predetermined message to respond to any network bus request before the application is up and running. A true stack is loaded with real messages from the application once it is booted up and running on the node, whereupon the application subsequently responds to network bus requests using the true stack instead of the Rapid Response Stack.

Claims

1. A method for a node on a vehicle network bus to rapidly provide activity thereon, the method comprising the steps of:

defining and storing at least one predetermined message in a memory of the node;

powering up the node of the vehicle network bus;

filling a rapid response stack of the node with the predetermined message from the memory; and

transmitting the predetermined message from the rapid response stack of node on the vehicle network bus for other nodes to read.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

booting up the node such that an application begins running thereon;

providing a true stack of messages from the application running on the node; and

switching the node to the true stack from the Rapid Response Stack such that true messages are available to the network bus.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of reading the boot up message history of the Rapid Response Stack.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of adjusting messaging on the vehicle bus based on the historical messaging of the Rapid Response Stack.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of adjusting at least one of the messaging parameters and the predetermined messages, based on the history of the received and sent messages, to improve the response of the Rapid Response Stack on the system during the next boot procedure.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of monitoring the bus for for queries.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting step includes broadcasting broadcasting the predetermined message from the Rapid Response Stack of the node on the vehicle network bus.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting step includes placing the predetermined message from the Rapid Response Stack of the node on the vehicle network bus in response to a query from another node.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting step includes placing the predetermined message from the Rapid Response Stack of the node on the vehicle network bus in accordance with boot up messaging parameters.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of determining a network configuration of the vehicle and using the network configuration to adjust at least one of messaging parameters and the predetermined messages.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of storing transmitted messages of the Rapid Response Stack into a history buffer.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of entering a low power mode wherein the Rapid Response Stack is enabled and the true stack is disabled.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the defining step includes defining low power specific predetermined messages to communicate on the vehicle bus, and wherein the filling step includes retrieving and filling the low power specific predetermined message parameters in the Rapid Response Stack to communicate on the vehicle bus while the node is in the low power state, and wherein the transmitting step includes transmitting the low power specific predetermined messages while the node is in the low power state.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising a step of waking up the node from the low power state upon receiving a specific message from the vehicle bus, wherein the Rapid Response Stack is disabled and the true stack is enabled.

15. A system that rapidly provides activity on a vehicle network bus, the systemcomprising:

a first device coupled to the vehicle network bus;

a second device with a node coupled to the vehicle network bus through a bus connection;

an operating system and application that are operable on the node;

a memory of the node, the memory with at least one predetermined message stored thereon;

a Rapid Response Stack of the node that is loaded with the predetermined messages from the memory before the node is completely initialized, wherein the Rapid Response Stack is used to respond to any network bus request from the first device by having the Rapid Response Stack transmit a predetermined message from the Rapid Response Stack of the node on the network bus; and

a true stack of the node that is loaded with real messages from the application once it is running on the node, whereupon the application subsequently responds to network bus requests using the true stack instead of the Rapid Response Stack.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the application enters a low power mode wherein the Rapid Response Stack is enabled and a true stack is disabled.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising the step of storing transmitted messages of the Rapid Response Stack for later retrieval by the application.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the node determines a network configuration of the vehicle.

19. A node that rapidly provides activity on a vehicle network bus, the node comprising:

a bus connection to the vehicle network bus;

an operating system and application operable to run thereon;

a memory with a predetermined message stored thereon;

a Rapid Response Stack that is loaded with the predetermined message from the memory upon powering of the node, wherein the Rapid Response Stack is used to respond to any network bus request by the node transmitting the predetermined message from the Rapid Response Stack on the network bus; and

a true stack that is loaded with real messages from the application once it is running on the node, whereupon the application subsequently responds to network bus requests using the true stack instead of the Rapid Response Stack.

20. The node of claim 19, wherein the node stores a history of messages sent by the Rapid Response Stack into the memory, and wherein the application loads the history for use in adjusting at least one of messaging parameters and predetermined messages.

21. The node of claim 19, wherein the node determines a network configuration of the vehicle and adjusts at least one of the group of the messaging parameters and the predetermined messages.

22. The node of claim 19, wherein the node enters a low power mode wherein the Rapid Response Stack is enabled and the true stack is disabled.

23. The node of claim 22, wherein the Rapid Response Stack is filled with a low power specific predetermined messages and a low power specific predetermined parameters corresponding to the low power state of the node, which are transmitted while the node is in the low power mode.

24. The node of claim 22, wherein the node wakes from the low power mode upon receiving a specific message from the vehicle bus, wherein the Rapid Response Stack is disabled and the true stack is enabled.