Hybrid wireless-wired architecture based on power lines for intra-vehicular communication
First Claim
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1. An electrical architecture (EA) comprising:
- powerlines;
a plurality of electronic control units (ECUs), wherein at least some of the ECU'"'"'s are equipped with wireless technology (WECUs); and
a plurality of both wired and wireless peripherals employing wireless or wired communications or both, wherein the ECUs and the peripherals are interconnected by and communicate over the powerlines (PLC), and wherein communications between the ECUs and the peripherals is bidirectional, and where wireless signals received by the WECUs from the wireless peripherals have a reception quality, and the WECUs encode the reception quality into messages which they send to other ECUs.
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Abstract
A hybrid vehicle communications network including a combination of wired and wireless ECUs and wired and wireless peripherals. A communications backbone, either a CAN bus or a powerline, is electrically coupled to each of the ECUs. The wireless peripherals provide wireless signals to all of the wireless ECUs and each wireless ECU provides data messages on the backbone based on the signals received from the wireless peripherals to be received by a target ECU. Also, one or more of the ECUs puts messages on the backbone to be transmitted wirelessly by all of the wireless ECUs to be received by a wireless peripheral.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. An electrical architecture (EA) comprising:
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powerlines; a plurality of electronic control units (ECUs), wherein at least some of the ECU'"'"'s are equipped with wireless technology (WECUs); and a plurality of both wired and wireless peripherals employing wireless or wired communications or both, wherein the ECUs and the peripherals are interconnected by and communicate over the powerlines (PLC), and wherein communications between the ECUs and the peripherals is bidirectional, and where wireless signals received by the WECUs from the wireless peripherals have a reception quality, and the WECUs encode the reception quality into messages which they send to other ECUs. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. An electrical architecture (EA) on a vehicle, said EA comprising:
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powerlines; at least one CAN bus; a plurality of electronic control units (ECUs) interconnected by and in communications with the CAN bus, wherein some of the ECU'"'"'s are equipped with wireless technology (WECUs); and a plurality of wired and wireless peripherals, where the peripherals are coupled to the CAN bus using either wireless or wired communications or both, wherein the ECUs and the peripherals are interconnected by and communicate over the powerlines, and wherein the communications between the ECUs and the peripherals is bidirectional, said peripherals being selected from the group consisting of switches, sensors and actuators, and where wireless signals received by the WECUs from the wireless peripherals have a reception quality, and the WECUs encode the reception quality into messages which they place on the CAN bus.
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Specification