Network management module for a vehicle communication network

• US 9,813,354 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2016
• Issued: 11/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Avago Technologies General IP PTE Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yousefi, Nariman, Kim, Yongbum, Walley, John, Chen, Sherman (Xuemin), Diab, Wael W., Ilyadis, Nicholas
• Primary Examiner(s): Aung, Sai
• Application Number:
  US15/070,356
• Publication Number:
  US 20160198485A1
• Time in Patent Office: 602 Days
• Field of Search: 370329
• 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 mission critical 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 the 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 mission critical operation content;

determining a processing requirement of the second packet based on the mission critical processing requirement information, wherein determining the processing requirement of the second packet includes determining whether mission critical output will be generated in response to mission critical input;

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

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

wherein the second packet is processed in accordance with the mission critical processing requirement information and queued for transmission transmitted via the vehicle communication network with a higher priority relative to a lower priority of the first packet, and wherein the vehicle communication network transmits the second packet with the higher priority before the first packet with the lower priority.

2. The network management module of claim 1, wherein 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 third packet comprises network data content.

6. The network management module of claim 5 wherein the processing requirement database further includes network data processing requirement information for association with the third packet.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. A method comprises:

storing mission critical processing requirement information and infotainment processing requirement information in a processing requirement database; and

managing 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 mission critical operation content;

determining a processing requirement of the second packet based on the mission critical processing requirement information, wherein determining the processing requirement of the second packet includes determining whether mission critical output will be generated in response to mission critical input;

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

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

wherein the second packet is processed in accordance with the mission critical processing requirement information queued for transmission transmitted via the vehicle communication network with a higher priority relative to a lower priority of the first packet, and wherein the vehicle communication network transmits the second packet with the higher priority before the first packet with the lower priority.

17. The method of claim 9, further comprising one or more of:

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

managing devices coupled to the network fabric;

or

managing a configuration of the network fabric.

18. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

storing a network fabric configuration database that includes at least one of;

predetermined network topologies;

resource allocation information;

load balancing information;

or

traffic information.

19. The method of claim 9, wherein the processing requirement database further includes security information associated with the second packet.

20. The method of claim 9, wherein the content type of a third packet comprises network data content and wherein the processing requirement database further includes network data processing requirement information for association with the third packet.

10. 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 mission critical 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 the memory to manage a network fabric of 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 mission critical operation content;

determining a processing requirement of the second packet based on the mission critical processing requirement information, wherein determining the processing requirement of the second packet includes determining whether mission critical output will be generated in response to mission critical input;

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

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

managing devices coupled to the network fabric to process the second packet in accordance with the mission critical processing requirement information and to transmit queue the second packet for transmission via the vehicle communication network with a higher priority relative to a lower priority of the first packet, and wherein the vehicle communication network transmits the second packet with the higher priority before the first packet with the lower priority.

11. The network management module of claim 10, 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.

12. The network management module of claim 10, wherein the processing requirement database further includes security information associated with the second packet.

13. The network management module of claim 10, wherein the content type of a third packet comprises network data content.

14. The network management module of claim 13 wherein the processing requirement database further includes network data processing requirement information for association with the third packet.

15. The network management module of claim 10, 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.

16. The network management module of claim 10, wherein the memory is further operable to store a resource database that includes at least one of:

link status information;

or

link performance information.