Power management within a vehicular communication network

• US 8,731,773 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2011
• Issued: 05/20/2014
• 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
• Primary Examiner(s): Algahaim, Helal A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hilgendorf, Dale W
• Application Number:
  US13/171,635
• Publication Number:
  US 20120109407A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,056 Days
• Field of Search: 701/36, 701/49, 701/32.7, 701/45, 701/123
• US Class Current: 701/36
• 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

Power management within a vehicle is achieved by maintaining individual and/or power island power saving options for each of a plurality of devices coupled to a vehicular communication network of the vehicle. Upon determining that power savings should be enabled for a device, at least one of the power saving options for the device is selected and applied.

Claims

1. A power management module within a vehicle, comprising:

a vehicle network interface operable to couple to an Ethernet link of an Ethernet vehicular communication network within the vehicle to provide power over the Ethernet link to a plurality of devices within the vehicle via the vehicular communication network;

a memory storing respective device power saving options for each of the plurality of devices coupled to the vehicular communication network of the vehicle, the memory further storing respective power island power saving options for each of a plurality of power islands, each of the power islands including two or more devices of the plurality of devices, each of the power island power savings options indicating a same power savings option to be applied to each of the two or more devices within the respective power island; and

a processing module for;

determining whether to enable power savings for a device of the plurality of devices based on operation of the vehicle and function of the device;

if power savings is enabled for the device, selecting and applying at least one of the device power saving options for the device via the vehicle network interface;

determining whether to enable power savings for a power island of the plurality of power islands based on operation of the vehicle and function of at least one device within the power island; and

if power savings is enabled for the power island, selecting and applying at least one of the power island power savings options to each of the two or more devices within the power island via the vehicle network interface.

2. The power management module of claim 1, wherein the device power saving options for the device include one or more of:

reducing a supply voltage to the device and limiting a current to the device.

3. The power management module of claim 1, wherein the processing module determines whether to enable power savings based on a current state of the device.

4. The power management module of claim 3, wherein the processing module further selects the device power saving options for the device based on the current state.

5. The power management module of claim 4, wherein the current state is an idle state or an active state.

6. The power management module of claim 5, wherein the active state further indicates one or more of a present operation of the device or a future operation of the device.

7. The power management module of claim 3, wherein the device power saving options are preselected for the device based on one or more of a type of the device, one or more operations performed by the device and a location of the device within the vehicular communication network.

8. The power management module of claim 1, wherein the vehicle network interface provides a wired connection to the vehicular communication network.

9. The power management module of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of power islands includes related devices, the related devices being related by one or more of device type, device function and device location within the vehicular communication network.

10. The power management module of claim 1, wherein the device power saving options for the device include one or more of:

reducing a clock rate of the device and using a lower power physical layer communication link for the device.

11. The power management module of claim 1, wherein the device power saving options for the device include one or more of:

placing the device in a sleep mode and disabling power to the device.

12. A method for managing power within a vehicle, using a power management module within the vehicle, comprising:

providing power over Ethernet to a plurality of devices within the vehicle via a vehicular communication network of the vehicle;

maintaining respective device power saving options for each of the plurality of devices coupled to the vehicular communication network of the vehicle;

maintaining respective power island power saving options for each of a plurality of power islands, each of the power islands including two or more devices of the plurality of devices, each of the power island power savings options indicating a same power savings option to be applied to each of the two or more devices within the respective power island;

determining whether to enable power savings for a device of the plurality of devices based on operation of the vehicle and function of the device;

if power savings is enabled for the device, selecting and applying at least one of the device power saving options for the device,

determining whether to enable power savings for a power island of the plurality of power islands based on operation of the vehicle and function of at least one device within the power island; and

if power savings is enabled for the power island, selecting and applying at least one of the power island power savings options to each of the two or more devices within the power island via the vehicle network interface.

13. A power management module within a vehicle, comprising:

a vehicle network interface operable to couple to an Ethernet link of an Ethernet vehicular communication network within the vehicle to provide power over the Ethernet link to a plurality of devices within the vehicle via the vehicular communication network;

a memory storing respective device power saving options for each of a plurality of devices coupled to the vehicular communication network of the vehicle and respective power island power saving options for each of a plurality of power islands, each of the power islands including two or more devices of the plurality of devices, each of the power island power savings options indicating a same power savings option to be applied to each of the two or more devices within the respective power island and each of the power island power saving options collectively controlling the power provided to each of the two or more devices within the respective power island; and

a processing module for;

determining whether to enable power savings for a device of the plurality of devices based on operation of the vehicle and function of the device; and

if power savings is enabled for the device, selecting and applying at least one of the device power saving options or at least one of the power island power saving options for the device via the vehicle network interface.

14. The power management module of claim 13, wherein the processing module further:

determines whether the device belongs to a power island of the plurality of power islands;

if the device does belong to a power island, determines whether to enable power savings for the power island;

if power savings is enabled for the power island, selects and applies one of the power island power saving options for the power island; and

if power savings is not enabled for the power island, selects and applies one of the device power saving options for the device.

15. The power management module of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of power islands includes related devices, the related devices being related by one or more of device type, device function and device location within the vehicular communication network.

16. The power management module of claim 13, wherein the device power saving options for the device include one or more of:

placing the device in a sleep mode, reducing a supply voltage to the device, reducing a clock rate of the device, disabling power to the device, limiting a current to the device and using a lower power physical layer communication link for the device.

17. The power management module of claim 13, wherein the power island power saving options for the power island include one or more of:

placing each of the devices in the power island in a sleep mode, reducing a supply voltage to each of the devices in the power island, reducing a clock rate of each of the devices in the power island, disabling power to each of the devices in the power island, limiting a current to each of the devices of the power island and using a lower power physical layer communication link for each of the devices in the power island.

18. The power management module of claim 13, wherein the processing module determines whether to enable power savings based on a current state of the device.

19. The power management module of claim 18, wherein the processing module further selects one of the device power saving options or one of the power island power saving options based on the current state of one or more of the device and the power island, the current state indicating one or more of a present operation or a future operation thereof.

20. The power management module of claim 13, wherein the power island power saving options are preselected for the power island based on one or more of device types of the devices within the power island, one or more operations performed by the devices within the power island and a location of the power island within the vehicular communication network.