Switch module

• US 9,276,801 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2013
• Issued: 03/01/2016
• 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): Pham, Brenda H
• Application Number:
  US13/925,537
• Publication Number:
  US 20130279500A1
• Time in Patent Office: 981 Days
• Field of Search: 370/349, 370/389, 370/360, 370/368, 370/374, 370/378, 370/381, 370/395.5, 370/395.41, 370/395.31, 370/395.43, 370/400
• 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 switching module can route packets between a network fabric and a local network, both of which form a closed network such as a vehicular network. The switching module provides local network management functions, and handles packet transfers between the local network and the network fabric. The switching module uses network information, which can include information about packet content type and network topology, to determine a packet'"'"'s priority, and an appropriate switching protocol to use for processing and routing packets.

Claims

1. A switching module comprising:

an intra-vehicular network fabric interface for interface to an intra-vehicular network fabric contained within a vehicle;

a switching circuit communicatively coupled to a plurality of local intra-vehicular network ports;

memory configured to store intra-vehicular network information, the intra-vehicular network information including packet content type information and intra-vehicular network topology information;

a first bypass module configured to receive and transmit packets via the intra-vehicular network fabric interface;

a second bypass module configured to receive and transmit packets via one of the plurality of intra-vehicular network ports;

a processing module coupled to the memory, the intra-vehicular network fabric interface and the switching circuit, the processing module to;

determine a priority of a received packet based, at least in part, on the packet content type information;

determine a selected switching protocol based, at least in part, on the intra-vehicular network topology information; and

process the received packet based on the priority of the received packet and the selected switching protocol, including;

identifying top-priority packets based on packet content; and

controlling delivery of top-priority packets between the first bypass module and the second bypass module.

2. The switching module of claim 1, further comprising:

a packet buffer coupled to the processing module and at least one of a local intra-vehicular network port and the intra-vehicular network fabric interface; and

the processing module configured to manage the packet buffer based, at least in part, on the intra-vehicular network information.

3. The switching module of claim 2, further comprising:

a plurality of packet queues; and

the processing module configured to place packets in the plurality of packet queues based, at least in part, on a priority of the packets.

4. The switching module of claim 3, further comprising the processing module configured to:

timestamp packets prior to placing the packets in the plurality of packet queues;

determine, based on the timestamp, if a selected packet has expired;

in response to determining that the selected packet is unexpired, retrieve the selected packet from the plurality of packet queues; and

in response to determining that the selected packet is expired, discard the selected packet.

5. The switching module of claim 1, wherein the processing module is further configured to interrupt transmission of another packet being currently transmitted.

6. The switching module of claim 1, wherein the processing module is further configured to route non top-priority packets based on the intra-vehicular network information.

7. The switching module of claim 1, the processing module further configured to provide intra-vehicular network management services to a local intra-vehicular network, the local intra-vehicular network comprising a plurality of modules coupled to the plurality of local intra-vehicular network ports.

8. The switching module of claim 1, wherein the selected switching protocol is selected from the group consisting of:

a layer 2 switching protocol, a layer 3 switching protocol, a layer 4 switching protocol, and a multi-layer switching protocol.

9. The switching module of claim 1, wherein the intra-vehicular network fabric comprises at least one Ethernet network.

10. A switching module to be incorporated into a closed intra-vehicular network fabric, the switching module comprising:

a plurality of intra-vehicular network fabric interfaces configured to be coupled to other elements of the closed intra-vehicular network fabric;

selection circuitry configured to select among the plurality of intra-vehicular network fabric interfaces;

a switching circuit coupled to a plurality of local intra-vehicular network ports;

a first bypass module configured to receive and transmit packets via at least some of the plurality of intra-vehicular network fabric interfaces;

a second bypass module configured to receive and transmit packets via at least one of the plurality of local intra-vehicular network ports;

memory configured to store intra-vehicular network information, the intra-vehicular network information including packet content type information and intra-vehicular network topology information;

a processing module coupled to the memory, selection circuitry, the plurality of intra-vehicular network fabric interfaces and the switching circuit, the processing module configured to;

determine a priority of a received packet based, at least in part, on the packet content type information;

determine a selected switching protocol based, at least in part, on the intra-vehicular network topology information; and

process the received packet based on the priority of the received packet and the selected switching protocol, including;

identifying top-priority packets based on packet content; and

controlling delivery of top-priority packets between the first bypass module and the second bypass module.

11. The switching module of claim 10, further comprising the plurality of intra-vehicular network fabric interfaces having a wired intra-vehicular network fabric interface and a wireless intra-vehicular network fabric interface.

12. The switching module of claim 11, the selection circuitry further configured to:

select between multiple different modes of operation under control of the processing module, the multiple different modes of operation selected from the group consisting of;

a mode in which the switching module receives packets exclusively from the wireless intra-vehicular network fabric interface;

a mode in which the switching module receives packets exclusively from the wired intra-vehicular network fabric interface;

a mode in which the switching module receives redundant packets from both the wired and wireless intra-vehicular network fabric interfaces; and

a mode in which the switching module receives non-redundant packets from both the wired and wireless intra-vehicular network fabric interfaces.

13. The switching module of claim 10, further comprising:

a packet buffer coupled to the processing module and the plurality of local intra-vehicular network ports; and

the processing module further configured to manage the packet buffer based, at least in part, on the intra-vehicular network information.

14. The switching module of claim 10, further comprising the processing module configured to provide intra-vehicular network management services to a local intra-vehicular network comprising a plurality of modules coupled to the plurality of local intra-vehicular network ports.

15. A method comprising:

receiving a packet from a intra-vehicular network;

determining a priority of the packet based, at least in part, on packet content type information;

determining a selected switching protocol based, at least in part, on intra-vehicular network topology information; and

processing the packet based on the priority of the packet and the selected switching protocol, including;

determining if the priority of the packet satisfies a top-priority threshold;

in response to determining that the priority of the packet satisfies a top-priority threshold;

bypassing non-priority processing of the packet;

transmitting the packet substantially immediately to one of the intra-vehicular network fabric and a local intra-vehicular network node; and

in response to determining that the priority of the packet fails to satisfy a top-priority threshold;

time stamping the packet to establish a packet time-to-live;

adding the packet to a queue; and

processing the packet in priority order, subject to the packet time-to-live.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the transmitting the packet substantially immediately comprises:

comparing a priority of an in-process packet currently being transmitted with the priority of the packet; and

interrupting transmission of the in-process packet in response to the priority of the packet exceeding the priority of the in-process packet.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the transmitting the packet substantially immediately comprises in response to the priority of the packet failing to exceed the priority of the in-process packet, delaying transmission of the packet until the in-process packet has been transmitted.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

comparing contents of the packet to intra-vehicular network information, the intra-vehicular network information including packet content type information and intra-vehicular network topology information; and

routing the packet based on the intra-vehicular network information.

19. The method claim 15, further comprising:

providing intra-vehicular network management services to a local intra-vehicular network coupled to a plurality of local intra-vehicular network ports of a switch module incorporated into the vehicular intra-vehicular network.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein intra-vehicular network fabric communications are serviced consistent with at least one Ethernet protocol.