Unified vehicle network frame protocol

• US 9,215,124 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2011
• Issued: 12/15/2015
• 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): Sefcheck, Gregory
• Assistant Examiner(s): Van, Jenkey
• Application Number:
  US13/171,607
• Publication Number:
  US 20120109406A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,630 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 plurality of vehicle control modules;

a network fabric, wherein the network fabric comprises;

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

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

a data bridge operably coupled to facilitate communication between the first and second sub-network fabrics, wherein the first subset of the plurality of vehicle control modules are coupled to the second sub-network fabric through the data bridge and wherein the second subset of the plurality of vehicle control modules is coupled to the first sub-network fabric through the data bridge;

memory 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, based on individual content of the packets and in accordance with a global vehicle network communication protocol that regulates communications via the data bridge between the first sub-network fabric and the second sub-network fabric in accordance with a higher priority for packets with a destination in the first sub-network fabric and a lower priority for packets with a destination in the second sub-network fabric;

wherein the data bridge is operable to;

receive a packet with a destination in the first sub-network fabric or second sub-network fabric, and determine the packet priority;

transfer the packet to the destination using a to priority path if the packet is determined to be a top priority packet;

transfer the packet to the destination by bypassing ingress and egress queues of the data bridge if the packet is determined to be a high priority packet; and

add the packet to an ingress or egress queue of the data bridge based on priority if the packet is determined to be a lower priority packet.

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;

or information regarding vehicle network operation parameters.

3. The vehicle communication network of claim 1, wherein a 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;

or adding or deleting components from access to the network fabric.

4. The vehicle communication network of claim 1, wherein the first subset of the plurality of vehicle control modules includes mission-critical devices and wherein the second subset of the plurality of vehicle control modules includes non-mission critical devices.

5. The vehicle communication network of claim 1, wherein the first subset of the plurality of vehicle control modules includes vehicle operation devices and the second subset of the plurality of vehicle control modules includes information and entertainment devices.

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;

or 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;

or 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 network comprises:

a plurality of vehicle control modules;

a network fabric, wherein the network fabric comprises;

a first network fabric including first network interfaces operably coupled to a first type of the plurality of vehicle control modules;

a second network fabric including second network interfaces operably coupled to a second type of the plurality of vehicle control modules; and

a data bridge operably coupled to facilitate communication between the first and second network fabrics, wherein the data bridge assigns a higher priority for packets with a destination in the first network fabric and a lower priority for packets with a destination in the second network fabric;

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, based on individual content of the packets and in accordance with a global vehicle network communication protocol that regulates communications via the data bridge between the first network fabric and the second network fabric in accordance with a higher priority for packets with a destination in the first network fabric and a lower priority for packets with a destination in the second network fabric;

wherein the data bridge is operable to;

receive a packet with a destination in the first network fabric or second network fabric, and determine the packet priority;

transfer the packet to the destination using a top priority path if the packet is determined to be a top priority packet;

transfer the packet to the destination by bypassing ingress and egress queues of the data bridge if the packet is determined to be a high priority packet; and

add the packet to an ingress or egress queue of the data bridge based on priority if the packet is determined to be a lower priority packet.

11. The vehicle network of claim 10, wherein the first type of the plurality of vehicle control modules includes mission-critical devices and wherein the second type of the plurality of vehicle control modules includes non-mission critical devices.

12. The vehicle network of claim 11, wherein the mission-critical devices includes at least one of:

a safety-related device, an engine control device and a braking device and wherein the non-mission critical devices includes at least one of;

a navigation device, a window operation device, a seat operation device, an audio/video device, and climate control device.

13. The vehicle network of claim 10, wherein the first type of the plurality of vehicle control modules includes vehicle operation devices and wherein the second type of the plurality of vehicle control modules includes information and entertainment devices.

14. The vehicle network of claim 13, wherein the vehicle operation devices includes at least one of:

an engine control unit, a safety critical control unit, a transmission control unit, a braking system control unit, a window control unit and a climate control unit and wherein information and entertainment devices includes at least one of;

a DVD player, a cellular telephone interface, a Bluetooth interface, a radio, a CD player, and a navigation system.

15. The vehicle network of claim 10, wherein the data bridge is operably coupled to facilitate communication between the first and second network fabrics by:

receiving a packet from the first network fabric;

determining that the packet is to be transmitted to the second network fabric; and

transmitting the packet to the second network fabric.

16. The vehicle network of claim 10, wherein the data bridge is operably coupled to facilitate communication between the first and second network fabrics by:

receiving a packet from the second network fabric;

determining that the packet is to be provided to the first network fabric; and

transmitting the packet to the first network fabric.

17. A vehicle network comprises:

a plurality of vehicle control modules;

a network fabric, wherein the network fabric comprises;

a first network fabric including first network interfaces operably coupled to a first set of the plurality of vehicle control modules including a first function;

a second network fabric including second network interfaces operably coupled to a second set of the plurality of vehicle control modules including a second function; and

a network manager that stores a global vehicle network communication protocol, and coordinates communication of packets, via the network fabric, among the plurality of vehicle control modules, based on individual content of the packets and in accordance with the global vehicle network communication protocol, wherein the global vehicle network communication protocol indicates a higher priority for packets with a destination in the first network fabric and a lower priority for packets with a destination in the second network fabric;

a data bridge operably coupled to facilitate communication between the first and second network fabrics, wherein the first set of the plurality of vehicle control modules are coupled to the second network fabric through the data bridge and wherein the second set of the plurality of vehicle control modules is coupled to the first network fabric through the data bridge;

wherein the data bridge is operable to;

receive a packet with a destination in the first network fabric or second network fabric, and determine the packet priority;

transfer the packet to the destination using a top priority path if the packet is determined to be a top priority packet;

transfer the packet to the destination by bypassing ingress and egress queues of the data bridge if the packet is determined to be a high priority packet; and

add the packet to an ingress or egress queue of the data bridge based on priority if the packet is determined to be a lower priority packet.

18. The vehicle network of claim 17, wherein the first function includes a mission-critical function and wherein the second function includes a non-mission critical function.

19. The vehicle network of claim 18, wherein the mission critical function includes at least one of:

a safety-related function, an engine control function and a braking function and wherein the non-mission function includes at least one of;

a navigation function, a window operation function, a seat operation function, an audio/video function, and a climate control function.

20. The vehicle network of claim 17, wherein the first function includes a vehicle operation function and wherein the second function includes an information and entertainment function.