Vehicle network node module

• US 9,479,453 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2015
• Issued: 10/25/2016
• 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, Chi H
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rivas, Raul
• Application Number:
  US14/803,942
• Publication Number:
  US 20150326488A1
• Time in Patent Office: 463 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 network node module includes device buffers, a network buffer, a switch circuit, and a processing module. The device buffers temporarily store outgoing device packets from, and temporarily store incoming device packets for, vehicle devices in accordance with a locally managed prioritization scheme. The network buffer receives incoming network packets from, and outputs the outgoing network packets to, a vehicle network fabric in accordance with a global vehicle network protocol. The network buffer also temporarily stores the incoming network packets and the outgoing network packets in accordance with the locally managed prioritization scheme. The switching circuit selectively couples the network buffer to individual ones of the device buffers in accordance with the locally managed prioritization scheme. The processing module interprets the outgoing device packets and the incoming network packets to determine types of packets and determines the locally managed prioritization scheme based on the types of packets.

Claims

1. A vehicle network node configured to support intra-vehicular operations comprising:

a plurality of device buffers configured to receive device packets from a plurality of vehicle devices in a vehicle in accordance with a prioritization scheme, at least some of the device packets corresponding to control of the vehicle;

a network buffer configured to receive at least some of the device packets from the plurality of device buffers and output at least some of the device packets to a vehicle network fabric in accordance with the prioritization scheme; and

processing circuitry configured to determine the prioritization scheme based on types of the device packets, wherein the types of the device packets includes at least a vehicle operation packet and a vehicle safety-related mission critical packet, both the vehicle operation packet and the vehicle safety-related mission critical packet for controlling operation of the vehicle and the vehicle safety-related mission critical packet assigned a higher priority of transmission from the network buffer to the vehicle network fabric than the priority of transmission assigned to the vehicle operation packet.

2. The vehicle network node of claim 1, wherein at least one of the device packets includes a vehicle network field that indicates the type of the device packets as one of the vehicle operation packet or the vehicle safety-related mission critical packet.

3. The vehicle network node of claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

select a first prioritization scheme for the device packet when the device packet is a vehicle operation packet; and

select a second prioritization scheme for the device packet when the device packet is a vehicle safety-related mission critical packet.

4. The vehicle network node of claim 1, wherein the plurality of vehicle devices comprises at least two of:

a mission critical vehicle operation device;

a non-mission critical vehicle operation device;

a mission critical vehicle safety device;

a non-mission critical vehicle safety device;

a mission critical electronic vehicle driving device;

or

a non-mission critical electronic vehicle driving device.

5. The vehicle network node of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

enable a wired mode wherein the network buffer is enabled and a wireless communication interface is disabled;

enable a wireless mode wherein the wireless communication interface is enabled and the network buffer is disabled;

or

enable a concurrent mode wherein both the wireless communication interface and the network buffer are enabled.

6. The vehicle network node of claim 5, further comprising a wired-wireless interface including a plurality of logical switches for selectively coupling device packets to at least one of the network buffer and the wireless communication interface.

7. The vehicle network node of claim 5, wherein the wireless communication interface comprises:

a wireless buffer;

a medium access control layer (MAC) interface;

a physical layer (PHY) interface; and

an RF transceiver.

8. The vehicle network node of claim 5, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:

establish a wireless mode to communicate a device packet having a lower priority, wherein lower priority device packets include vehicle operation packets and information-entertainment packets; and

establish a wired mode to communicate a device packet having a higher priority, wherein higher priority device packets include vehicle mission critical packets.

9. A vehicle network node comprises:

a plurality of device ports configured to be coupled to a plurality of vehicle devices in a vehicle;

a network port configured to be coupled to a vehicle network fabric in the vehicle; and

a device packet interface coupled to the plurality of device ports and to the network port, wherein the device packet interface is configured to determine that a device packet received via one of the plurality of device ports is vehicle safety-related mission critical packet based on a source of the device packet being a vehicle safety device and to transmit the device packet via the network port with top priority device packet designation, the vehicle safety-related mission critical packet for controlling operation of the vehicle.

10. The vehicle network node of claim 9, wherein the device packet interface is further configured to:

forward top priority packets from the plurality of device ports to the network port via top priority bypass circuitry; and

buffer non-top priority packets for later transmission to the network port via at least one device buffer and a network buffer.

11. The vehicle network node of claim 9, wherein the device packet interface further categorizes the device packet as having top priority based on at least one of:

interpreting a vehicle network field of the device packet; and

identifying a destination of the device packet.

12. The vehicle network node of claim 9, wherein the device packet interface is further configured to categorize the device packet as being as having top priority based on a type of the device packet.

13. A vehicle network node configured to support intra-vehicular operations comprising:

a plurality of device buffers configured to receive device packets from a plurality of vehicle devices in a vehicle;

a network buffer configured to transmit the device packets to a vehicle fabric network port in a vehicle;

device packet switching circuitry coupled between the plurality of device buffers and the network buffer and configured to route the device packets between the plurality of device buffers and the network buffer;

top priority packet bypass circuitry coupled between the plurality of vehicle devices and the vehicle fabric network port; and

processing circuitry configured to route vehicle operation packets via the device packet switching circuitry and to route vehicle safety-related mission critical packets via the top priority packet bypass circuitry, both the vehicle operation packet and the vehicle safety-related mission critical packet for controlling operation of the vehicle.

14. The vehicle network node of claim 13, wherein at least one of the device packets includes a vehicle network field that indicates a type of the device packets as one of a vehicle operation packet or a vehicle safety-related mission critical packet.

15. The vehicle network node of claim 14, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

select a first prioritization scheme for the device packet when the device packet is a vehicle operation packet; and

select a second prioritization scheme for the device packet when the device packet is a vehicle safety-related mission critical packet.

16. The vehicle network node of claim 13, wherein the plurality of vehicle devices comprises one of:

a mission critical vehicle operation device;

a non-mission critical vehicle operation device;

a mission critical vehicle safety device;

a non-mission critical vehicle safety device;

a mission critical electronic vehicle driving device;

or

a non-mission critical electronic vehicle driving device.

17. The vehicle network node of claim 13, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

enable a wired mode wherein the network buffer is enabled and a wireless communication interface is disabled;

enable a wireless mode wherein the wireless communication interface is enabled and the network buffer is disabled;

or

enable a concurrent mode wherein both the wireless communication interface and the network buffer are enabled.

18. The vehicle network node of claim 17, further comprising a wired-wireless interface including a plurality of logical switches for selectively coupling a plurality of incoming network packets and a plurality of outgoing network packets to at least one of the network buffer and the wireless communication interface.

19. The vehicle network node of claim 17, wherein the wireless communication interface comprises a wireless buffer, a medium access control layer (MAC) interface, and a physical layer (PHY) interface, and an RF transceiver coupled to the wireless communication interface.

20. The vehicle network node of claim 17, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:

establish a wireless mode to communicate one or more of the device packets having a lower priority, wherein the lower priority packets include vehicle operation packets and information-entertainment packets; and

establish a wired mode to communicate one or more of the device packets having a higher priority, wherein the higher priority packets include vehicle mission critical packets.