Automotive neural network

• US 8,953,436 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2012
• Issued: 02/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Diab, Wael William, Tazebay, Mehmet V.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, ANH NGOC M
• Application Number:
  US13/623,252
• Publication Number:
  US 20140078889A1
• Time in Patent Office: 873 Days
• Field of Search: 370/216, 370/217, 370/221, 370/229, 370/230, 370/235, 370/241, 370/242, 370/252
• US Class Current: 370/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1423 by reconfiguration of paths
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1476 in neural networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2033 switching over of hardware resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2035 without idle spare hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2038 with a single idle spare processing component
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/805 Real-time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/85 Active fault masking without idle spares active fault masking without idle spare hardware where processing functionality is redundant G06F11/2035
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0668 by dynamic selection of recovery network elements, e.g. replacement by the most appropriate element after failure
• 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 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

Network node modules within a vehicle are arranged to form a reconfigurable automotive neural network. Each network node module includes one or more subsystems for performing one or more operations and a local processing module for communicating with the one or more subsystems. A switch coupled between the one or more subsystems and the processing module re-routes traffic from the one or more subsystems to an external processing module upon failure of the local processing module.

Claims

1. A network node module within a vehicle, comprising:

one or more subsystems for performing one or more operations;

a processing module for communicating with the one or more subsystems;

a switch coupled between the one or more subsystems and the processing module;

a first vehicle network interface for coupling the processing module to a vehicular communication network; and

a second vehicular network interface for coupling the switch to an external processing module within the vehicular communication network;

wherein the switch re-routes traffic from the one or more subsystems to the external processing module upon failure of the processing module.

2. The network node module of claim 1, wherein the external processing module is directly coupled to the network node module via the switch.

3. The network node module of claim 1, wherein the external processing module is selected from a group of external processing modules.

4. The network node module of claim 3, wherein the external processing module is selected based on the one or more operations performed by the one or more subsystems.

5. The network node module of claim 3, wherein the external processing module is selected based on respective locations of the network node module and the external processing module within the vehicular communication network.

6. The network node module of claim 1, wherein the external processing module is within an additional network node module including one or more additional subsystems.

7. The network node module of claim 6, wherein the network node module, the additional network node module and other network node modules within the vehicular communication network are coupled together in one or more hierarchical configurations.

8. The network node module of claim 1, wherein the vehicular communication network is an Ethernet network.

9. The network node module of claim 8, wherein the switch operates to switch Ethernet packets from the one or more subsystems onto an audio video bridging stream to the external processor via the second vehicular network interface.

10. The network node module of claim 8, wherein the processing module is configured to communicate Ethernet packets with the one or more subsystems via the switch.

11. The network node module of claim 10, further comprising:

a third vehicular network interface for coupling the processing module to an additional switch of an additional network node module including one or more additional subsystems.

12. The network node module of claim 11, wherein the processing module is configured to communicate Ethernet packets with the one or more additional subsystems via the third vehicular network interface and the additional switch.

13. The network node module of claim 11, wherein the processing module is further configured to assign a respective priority to each of the Ethernet packets received from the one or more subsystems and the one or more additional subsystems and to process each of the Ethernet packets based on the respective priority.

14. The network node module of claim 12, wherein the processing module is further configured to utilize a security mechanism to communicate with the one or more additional subsystems.

15. The network node module of claim 1, wherein the switch is a three-port switch with a first port coupled to the processing module, a second port coupled to the second vehicular communication interface and a third port coupled to an Ethernet bus coupling the one or more subsystems to the switch.

16. The network node module of claim 1, wherein the switch includes a central switch coupling the processing module to the one or more subsystems and a selector switch coupling the one or more subsystems to a plurality of external processing module, the selector switch selecting at least one of the plurality of external processing modules upon failure of the processing module.

17. The network node module of claim 1, wherein the one or more subsystems includes at least one of a sensor, an actuator, an electronic control unit and an info-tainment device.

18. The network node module of claim 1, further comprising:

a redundant switch coupled between the one or more subsystems and the processing module and coupled to the second vehicular communication interface.

19. An automotive neural network, comprising:

a plurality of Ethernet links forming a vehicular communication network; and

a plurality of network node modules coupled via the plurality of Ethernet links, wherein each network node module of the plurality of network node modules includes;

one or more subsystems for performing one or more operations;

a processing module for communicating with the one or more subsystems;

a switch coupled between the one or more subsystems and the processing module;

a first vehicle network interface for coupling the processing module to the vehicular communication network; and

a second vehicular network interface for coupling the switch to an external processing module within another network node module of the vehicular communication network;

wherein the switch re-routes traffic from the one or more subsystems to the external processing module upon failure of the processing module.

20. A network node module within a vehicle, comprising:

one or more subsystems for performing one or more operations;

a local processing module for communicating with the one or more subsystems;

a first vehicle network interface for coupling the local processing module to a vehicular communication network; and

a second vehicular network interface for coupling the local processing module to a switch of an additional network node module including one or more additional subsystems via the vehicular communication network;

wherein the local processing module is configured to communicate with the one or more additional subsystems via the second vehicular network interface upon failure of an additional processing module associated with the additional network node module.