Network management module for a vehicle communication network

• US 9,332,261 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2014
• Issued: 05/03/2016
• 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): Ton, Dang
• Assistant Examiner(s): Aung, Sai
• Application Number:
  US14/253,296
• Publication Number:
  US 20140226589A1
• Time in Patent Office: 749 Days
• Field of Search: 370/254, 370/400, 370/230
• 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 network management module includes a network interface module, memory, and a processing module. The network interface module is operable for coupling the network management module to a vehicle communication network. The processing module is operable to manage a global vehicle network communication protocol that includes instituting a content-based network packet processing protocol and managing the vehicle communication network to support the network packet processing protocol. The content-based network packet processing protocol includes determining content type of a packet, determining a processing requirement of the packet, and prioritizing execution of the processing requirement based on the content type.

Claims

1. A network management module comprises:

a network interface module operable for providing data packet communication with a vehicle communication network;

a memory operable to store a processing requirement database that includes vehicle operation processing requirement information and infotainment processing requirement information; and

a processing module operably coupled to the network interface module, wherein the processing module executes a set of instructions stored in memory to manage a vehicle communication network by;

determining content type of a first packet as corresponding to infotainment content;

determining a processing requirement of the first packet based on the infotainment processing requirement information;

determining content type of a second packet as corresponding to vehicle operation content;

determining a processing requirement of the second packet based on the vehicle operation processing requirement information;

prioritizing execution of the processing requirement of the second packet above the processing requirement of the first packet;

determining the content type of a third packet to correspond to mission critical content; and

determining a mission critical task of the third packet based on content of the third about.

2. The network management module of claim 1, the managing the vehicle communication network comprises one or more of:

managing resources of a network fabric of the vehicle communication network;

managing devices coupled to the network fabric;

or

managing configuration of the network fabric.

3. The network management module of claim 1, wherein the memory is further operable to store a network fabric configuration database that includes at least one of:

predetermined network topologies;

resource allocation information;

load balancing information;

or

traffic information.

4. The network management module of claim 1, wherein the processing requirement database further includes security information associated with the second packet.

5. The network management module of claim 1, wherein the content type of a fourth packet comprises network data content.

6. The network management module of claim 1, wherein the memory is further operable to store a content-based network packet processing database that includes one or more of:

packet forwarding information;

packet routing information;

packet filtering information;

or

packet prioritization information.

7. The network management module of claim 1, wherein the memory is further operable to store a resource database that includes at least one of:

link status information;

or

link performance information.

8. The network management module of claim 1 wherein the processing requirement database further includes mission critical processing requirement information for association with the third packet.

9. The network management module of claim 1 wherein managing the vehicle communication network further includes:

determining a processing requirement of the third packet based on determining whether a mission critical output will be generated in response to a mission critical input.

10. The network management module of claim 9 wherein managing the vehicle communication network to support the content-based network packet processing protocol further includes:

when the mission critical output will be generated, pre-queuing the mission critical output.

11. A network management module comprises:

a network interface module operable for providing data packet communication with a vehicle communication network;

a memory operable to store a processing requirement database that includes vehicle operation processing requirement information and infotainment processing requirement information; and

a processing module operably coupled to the network interface module, wherein the processing module executes a set of instructions stored in memory to manage a vehicle communication network that communicates a plurality of packets by;

determining content type of a first packet of the plurality of packets as corresponding to infotainment content;

determining a processing requirement of the first packet of the plurality of packets based on the infotainment processing requirement information;

determining content type of a second packet of the plurality of packets as corresponding to vehicle operation content;

determining a processing requirement of the second packet based on the vehicle operation processing requirement information;

prioritizing execution of the processing requirement of the second packet above the processing requirement of the first packet;

determining the content type of a third packet of the plurality of packets to correspond to mission critical content; and

determining a mission critical task of the third packet based on content of the third packet.

12. The network management module of claim 11, the managing the vehicle communication network comprises one or more of:

managing resources of a network fabric of the vehicle communication network;

managing devices coupled to the network fabric;

or

managing configuration of the network fabric.

13. The network management module of claim 11, wherein the memory is further operable to store a network fabric configuration database that includes at least one of:

predetermined network topologies;

resource allocation information;

load balancing information;

or

traffic information.

14. The network management module of claim 11, wherein the processing requirement database further includes security information associated with the second packet.

15. The network management module of claim 11, wherein the content type of a fourth packet of the plurality of packets comprises network data content.

16. The network management module of claim 11, wherein the memory is further operable to store a content-based network packet processing database that includes one or more of:

packet forwarding information;

packet routing information;

packet filtering information;

or

packet prioritization information.

17. The network management module of claim 11, wherein the memory is further operable to store a resource database that includes at least one of:

link status information;

or

link performance information.

18. The network management module of claim 11 wherein managing the vehicle communication network further includes:

determining a processing requirement of the third packet based on determining whether a mission critical output will be generated in response to a mission critical input.

19. The network management module of claim 18 wherein managing the vehicle communication network further includes:

when the mission critical output will be generated, pre-queuing the mission critical output.

20. A network management system comprises:

a network interface module operable for providing data packet communication with a vehicle communication network of a vehicle;

a memory operable to store a processing requirement database that includes vehicle operation processing requirement information and infotainment processing requirement information; and

a processing module operably coupled to the network interface module, wherein the processing module executes a set of instructions stored in memory to manage a vehicle communication network that communicates a plurality of packets by;

determining content type of a first packet of the plurality of packets as corresponding to infotainment content;

determining a processing requirement of the first packet of the plurality of packets based on the infotainment processing requirement information;

determining content type of a second packet of the plurality of packets as corresponding to vehicle operation content;

determining a processing requirement of the second packet based on the vehicle operation processing requirement information;

prioritizing execution of the processing requirement of the second packet above the processing requirement of the first packet;

determining the content type of a third packet of the plurality of packets to correspond to mission critical content; and

determining a mission critical task of the third packet based on content of the third packet.