Managing devices within a vehicular communication network

• US 9,985,907 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2013
• Issued: 05/29/2018
• 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 William, Ilyadis, Nicholas
• Primary Examiner(s): Wei, Siren
• Application Number:
  US13/896,177
• Publication Number:
  US 20130250933A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,839 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 node module within a vehicle operates to manage devices coupled to a vehicular communication network of the vehicle based on a use mode defining rights and privileges for operating in the vehicular communication network. Upon being configured in accordance with a particular use mode of a set of use modes, the network node module can identify a device coupled to the vehicular communication network and enable the device to operate within the vehicular communication network in accordance with the use mode. The network node module is securely reconfigurable to any use mode in the set of use modes.

Claims

1. A network node module within a vehicle, comprising:

a vehicle network interface configured to couple to a vehicular communication network including at least one network fabric to support communication between devices within the vehicle; and

a processing module configured to;

detect connection of a new device to the vehicular communication network, the new device configured to perform at least one task;

assign a restricted use network address to the new device that enables the new device to communicate setup information via the vehicular communication network for setup of the new device;

authenticate the new device;

upon successful authentication of the new device, replace the restricted use network address with a new network address upon authentication of the new device, wherein the new network address differs from the restricted use network address, and wherein the new network address enables the new device to communicate over the at least one network fabric of the vehicular communication network for purposes of performing the at least one task;

determine expected consumption information relating to the new device;

monitor, via the at least one network fabric, actual consumption of the new device, the actual consumption including at least one of data consumption or power consumption;

compare the actual consumption to the expected consumption information; and

when an actual consumption level deviates from the expected consumption information by more than a standard deviation, generate a service indication regarding the new device.

2. The network node module of claim 1, wherein prior to the successful authentication of the new device, the processing module is further configured to discard any packets received from the new device unrelated to setup of the new device.

3. The network node module of claim 1, wherein the processing module is further configured to obtain authentication information from the new device using the restricted use network address.

4. The network node module of claim 3, wherein the processing module is further configured to retrieve contact information of a remote source for authenticating the new device, and provide the authentication information to the remote source to authenticate the new device.

5. The network node module of claim 4, wherein the processing module is further configured to receive verification information from the remote source indicating whether the new device is authenticated.

6. The network node module of claim 5, wherein, when the verification information indicates that the new device is authenticated, the processing module replaces the restricted use network address with the new network address and updates the vehicular communication network with the new network address of the new device.

7. The network node module of claim 5, wherein, when the verification information indicates that the new device is not authenticated, the processing module denies the new device access to the vehicular communication network.

8. The network node module of claim 5, wherein, when the verification information indicates that the new device is not authenticated, or when the comparison of the actual consumption to the expected consumption information indicates that an actual consumption level deviates from the expected consumption information by more than a standard deviation, the processing module disables power to the new device.

9. The network node module of claim 7, wherein the processing module disables a switch coupling power to the new device via a power line or a power over Ethernet (POE) connection when the new device is not authenticated.

10. The network node module of claim 4, wherein the processing module communicates with the remote source via a wireless connection.

11. The network node module of claim 4, further comprising:

a memory coupled to the processing module, wherein the memory maintains the contact information for the remote source and the expected consumption information.

12. The network node module of claim 11, wherein the memory further maintains a set of use modes, each defining rights and privileges for operating in the vehicular communication network, and the processing module further operates in accordance with a use mode of the set of use modes to authenticate the new device.

13. The network node module of claim 12, wherein the processing module is reconfigurable to any use mode in the set of use modes.

14. The network node module of claim 1, wherein the new device is within the network node module.

15. A network node module within a vehicle, comprising:

a vehicle network interface configured to couple to a vehicular communication network including at least one network fabric to support communication between devices within the vehicle;

a memory maintaining device authentication information; and

a processing module configured to;

detect connection of a new device to the vehicular communication network, wherein the new device is configured to perform at least one task;

assign a restricted use network address to the new device that enables the new device to communicate setup information via the vehicular communication network for setup of the new device;

authenticate the new device based on the device authentication information;

replace the restricted use network address with a new network address upon authentication of the new device, wherein the new network address differs from the restricted use network address, and wherein the new network address enables the new device to communicate over the at least one network fabric of the vehicular communication network for purposes of performing the at least one task;

determine expected consumption information relating to the new device;

monitor, via the at least one network fabric, actual consumption of the new device, the actual consumption including at least one of data consumption or power consumption;

compare an actual consumption level to the expected consumption information to determine whether the new device is damaged; and

when determining that the new device is damaged, generate a service indication;

and when an actual consumption level deviates from the expected consumption information by more than a standard deviation, generate a service indication regarding the new device.

16. The network node module of claim 15, wherein the device authentication information includes rules for authenticating the new device.

17. The network node module of claim 15, wherein the device authentication information includes contact information of a remote source for authenticating the new device.

18. The network node module of claim 15, wherein:

the device authentication information is stored in the memory as an access control matrix; and

the memory further maintains respective access control matrices for each use mode of a set of use modes, each of the use modes defining rights and privileges for operating in the vehicular communication network.

19. The network node module of claim 18, wherein the processing module is reconfigurable, through a wired connection to the vehicle network interface, to any use mode in the set of use modes.

20. A method for authenticating a new device within a vehicle, comprising:

detecting connection of the new device to a vehicular communication network including at least one network fabric, the new device configurable to perform at least one task;

assigning a restricted use network address to the new device that enables the new device to communicate setup information via the vehicular communication network for setup of the new device;

obtaining authentication information from the new device;

authenticating the new device via an external network based on the authentication information;

replacing the restricted use network address with a new network address upon authentication of the new device, wherein the new network address differs from the restricted use network address, and wherein the new network address enables the new device to communicate over the at least one network fabric of the vehicular communication network for purposes of performing the at least one task;

determining expected consumption information relating to the new device;

monitoring, via the at least one network fabric, actual consumption of the new device including at least one of data consumption or power consumption;

comparing the actual consumption to the expected consumption information to determine whether an actual consumption level deviates from the expected consumption information by more than a standard deviation; and

when the actual consumption level deviates from the expected consumption information by more than the standard deviation, generating a service indication regarding the new device.