Vehicle communication network including wireless communications

• US 9,258,173 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2015
• Issued: 02/09/2016
• 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): Nguyen, Steven H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rivas, Raul
• Application Number:
  US14/627,193
• Publication Number:
  US 20150163819A1
• Time in Patent Office: 354 Days
• 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 wired and wireless vehicle communication network includes network node modules, switch modules, bridge-routing modules, and a network manager. The network manager is operable to determine a wired packet communication mode and/or a wireless packet communication mode. When the network is in the wireless packet communication mode, the network manager coordinates wireless communication of packets among the network node modules, the switch modules, and the bridge-routing modules based on individual content of the packets and wireless channel mapping. When the network is in the wired packet communication mode, the network manager coordinates wired communication of packets among the network node modules, the switch modules, and the bridge-routing modules based on the individual content of the packets and in accordance with a global vehicle network communication protocol.

Claims

1. A wireless communication network operable in an automotive vehicle comprises:

a plurality of wireless network node modules in the automotive vehicle; and

a network manager in the automotive vehicle operable to coordinate wireless communication of a plurality of packets among the plurality of wireless network node modules based on a wireless channel mapping, wherein the wireless channel mapping includes;

a permanent allocation of at least one channel of a set of channels for one or more of the plurality of packets when a source or a destination of the one or more of the plurality of packets is a safety critical automotive vehicle device;

a non-permanent allocation of at least one channel of the set of channels for the one or more of the plurality of packets when the source or the destination of the one or more of the plurality of packets is a non-safety critical automotive vehicle device; and

an allocation of the set of channels in a cellular pattern among a plurality of regions within the wireless communication network of the automotive vehicle to reduce channel interference from overlapping channel use in different ones of the plurality of regions within the wireless communication network of the automotive vehicle.

2. The wireless communication network of claim 1, wherein the wireless channel mapping further includes:

a permanent allocation of at least one channel of the set of channels when the one or more of the plurality of packets is of a first content type, wherein the first content type includes at least vehicle safety critical content.

3. The wireless communication network of claim 2, wherein the wireless channel mapping further includes:

a semi-permanent allocation of at least one channel of the set of channels when the one or more of the plurality of packets is of a second content type, wherein the second content type includes network data content.

4. The wireless communication network of claim 2, wherein the wireless channel mapping further includes:

a semi-permanent allocation of at least one channel of the set of channels when the one or more of the plurality of packets is of a second content type, wherein the second content type includes non-critical vehicle operation content.

5. The wireless communication network of claim 2, wherein the wireless channel mapping further includes:

a dynamic allocation of at least one channel of the set of channels when the one or more of the plurality of packets is of a third content type, wherein the third content type includes multimedia content.

6. The wireless communication network of claim 1, wherein the non-permanent allocation of at least one channel of the set of channels for the one or more of the plurality of packets when the source or the destination of the one or more of the plurality of packets is the non-safety critical automotive vehicle device comprises:

a semi-permanent allocation of at least one channel of the set of channels when the source or the destination of the one or more of the plurality of packets is at least one of;

a non-critical automotive vehicle operation device or the network manager; and

a dynamic allocation of at least one channel of the set of channels when the source or the destination of the one or more of the plurality of packets includes at least one of;

a multimedia automotive processing device or a non-critical sensor automotive device.

7. The wireless communication network of claim 1, further comprising a wireless network interface configured to bridge communications to a wireless data network external to the automotive vehicle.

8. An automotive vehicle, comprises:

a plurality of wireless network node modules in the automotive vehicle operable to transmit and receive a plurality of packets using wireless channel mapping, wherein the wireless channel mapping includes;

a permanent allocation of a channel when at least a source or a destination of a packet is a safety critical device in the automotive vehicle;

a non-permanent allocation of the channel when at least the source or the destination of the packet is a non-safety critical device in the automotive vehicle; and

an allocation of channels within a frequency band in a cellular pattern among a plurality of regions within the automotive vehicle to reduce channel interference from overlapping channel use in different ones of the plurality of regions within the automotive vehicle.

9. The automotive vehicle of claim 8, wherein the non-permanent allocation of the channel when at least the source or the destination of the packet is a non-safety critical device in the automotive vehicle comprises:

a dynamic allocation of the channel when the source or the destination is at least one of;

a multimedia processing device or a non-critical sensor device.

10. The automotive vehicle of claim 8, further comprising a wireless network interface configured to bridge communications to a wireless data network external to the automotive vehicle.

11. The automotive vehicle of claim 8, wherein the wireless channel mapping comprises:

allocating the channel from a set of channels within a frequency band for at least a portion of conveyance of the packet.

12. The automotive vehicle of claim 11, wherein the wireless channel mapping comprises:

allocating a second channel of the set of channels within the frequency band for a second portion of conveyance of the packet from the source to the destination.

13. The automotive vehicle of claim 8, further comprising:

a network manager, wherein the network manager is operable to coordinate wireless communication of the plurality of packets among the plurality of wireless network node modules in accordance with a global vehicle network communication protocol.

14. The automotive vehicle of claim 13, wherein the global vehicle network communication protocol comprises at least one of:

information relating to a network fabric formatting of the packets;

information relating to packet transmission prioritization schemes;

information relating to network management processing;

or information relating to vehicle network operation parameters.

15. The automotive vehicle of claim 8, wherein the wireless channel mapping further comprises at least one of:

a permanent allocation of the channel when the packet is of a first content type, wherein the first content type includes at least a vehicle safety critical content;

a semi-permanent allocation of the channel when the packet is of a second content type, wherein the second content type includes at least one of;

network data content or non-critical vehicle operation content;

or

a dynamic allocation of the channel when the packet is of a third content type, wherein the third content type includes at least one of;

non-critical vehicle operation content or multimedia content.

16. A vehicle network module comprises:

a wireless network interface in an automotive vehicle; and

a network manager in the automotive vehicle operable to;

authorize the wireless network interface to wirelessly communicate a packet with one or more other wireless network interfaces in the automotive vehicle using wireless channel mapping, wherein the wireless channel mapping comprises;

a permanent allocation of a channel when a source or a destination of the packet is a safety critical automotive vehicle device;

a non-permanent allocation of the channel when the source or the destination of the packet is a non-safety critical automotive vehicle device; and

an allocation of a channel from a set of channels within a frequency band to reduce channel interference from overlapping channel use by the one or more other wireless network interfaces in the automotive vehicle.

17. The vehicle network module of claim 16, wherein the non-permanent allocation of the channel when the source or the destination of the packets is the non-safety critical automotive vehicle device comprises at least one of:

a semi-permanent allocation of the channel when the source or the destination of the packet is a second type of device including at least one of;

a non-critical automotive vehicle operation device or an automotive vehicle network manager;

or

a dynamic allocation of the channel when the source or the destination of the packet is a third type of device including at least one of;

a multimedia automotive processing device or a non-critical sensor automotive device.

18. The vehicle network module of claim 16, wherein the wireless channel mapping comprises:

allocating the channel from a set of channels within a frequency band for the permanent allocation of the channel.

19. The vehicle network module of claim 16, further comprising a wireless network interface configured to bridge communications to a wireless data network external to the automotive vehicle.

20. The vehicle network module of claim 16, wherein the network manager is further operable to:

utilize the wireless network interface to wirelessly communicate packets including network configuration and system level data.