PROVIDING POWER OVER ETHERNET WITHIN A VEHICULAR COMMUNICATION NETWORK

• US 20120110356A1
• Filed: 06/29/2011
• Published: 05/03/2012
• 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 William, Ilyadis, Nicholas
• Granted Patent: US 8,806,242 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/320
• 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 power distribution system within a vehicle operates to provide power over Ethernet to a plurality of network node modules coupled to a vehicular communication network of the vehicle.

Claims

1. Power sourcing equipment within a vehicle, comprising:

a plurality of ports, each coupled to a respective one of a plurality of Ethernet links of a vehicular communication network; and

a power management module for providing a power supply voltage over the plurality of Ethernet links to a plurality of network node modules of the vehicular communication network via the plurality of ports.

2. The power sourcing equipment of claim 1, wherein the power management module further monitors a current draw of a select network node module of the plurality of network node modules.

3. The power sourcing equipment of claim 2, wherein the power management module further:

determines whether the current draw of the select network node module exceeds a current limit; and

if so, disables the power supply voltage to the select network node module.

4. The power sourcing equipment of claim 3, wherein the power management module further:

determines whether to resume power to the select network node module; and

if so, provides the power supply voltage to the select network node module.

5. The power sourcing equipment of claim 4, wherein the power management module further:

determines whether the current draw of the select network node module has exceeded the current limit more than a predetermined number of times; and

if so, flags the select network node module as damaged and discontinues resuming power to the select network node module.

6. The power sourcing equipment of claim 2, wherein the power management module further:

determines whether the select network node module should be reset; and

if so, disables the power supply voltage to the select network node module.

7. The power sourcing equipment of claim 2, wherein the power management module further:

determines whether an Ethernet link of the plurality of Ethernet links to the select network node module should be reset; and

if so, disables the power supply voltage to the select network node module.

8. The power sourcing equipment of claim 2, wherein the power management module further:

determines whether the select network node module includes more than one device;

if so;

determines whether the current draw of the select network node module exceeds an expected current limit level; and

if so, sends a message to the select network node module.

9. The power sourcing equipment of claim 8, wherein the message instructs the select network node module to do at least one of the following:

shut down, remove power from one or more devices within the select network node module, provide information back to the power management module or wait for further instructions.

10. The power sourcing equipment of claim 8, wherein the power management module further:

receives a response to the message from the select network node module; and

selectively disables the power supply voltage to the select network node module based on the response.

11. The power sourcing equipment of claim 1, wherein the power sourcing equipment is a switch module or bridge-routing module of the vehicular communication network.

12. The power sourcing equipment of claim 1, wherein the power supply voltage is a 48 volt DC supply voltage.

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

at least one device;

a port coupled to an Ethernet link of a vehicular communication network to receive a power over Ethernet (POE) supply voltage; and

a power converter for receiving the POE supply voltage via the port and generating a device supply voltage for the at least one device based on the POE supply voltage.

14. The network node module of claim 13, wherein the device supply voltage is different from the POE supply voltage.

15. The network node module of claim 13, further comprising:

a plurality of devices; and

a power distribution module coupled to the power converter for selectively providing the device supply voltage individually to each of the plurality of devices based on a control signal.

16. The network node module of claim 15, wherein the power converter generates a plurality of device supply voltages based on the POE supply voltage and provides the plurality of device supply voltages to the power distribution module, the power distribution module selectively providing the plurality of device supply voltages individually to respective ones of the plurality of devices based on the control signal.

17. The network node module of claim 16, wherein the power distribution module further:

monitors a current draw of a select device of the plurality of devices; and

if the current draw exceeds a current limit, disables the device supply voltage to the select device.

18. The network node module of claim 17, wherein the power distribution module further:

determines whether to resume power to the select device; and

if so, provides the device supply voltage to the select device.

19. The network node module of claim 17, wherein the power distribution module further:

determines whether the select device should be reset or powered down; and

if so, disables the device supply voltage to the select device.

20. A power distribution system within a vehicle, comprising:

a plurality of network node modules coupled to a vehicular communication network; and

power sourcing equipment coupled to the vehicular communication network for providing power over Ethernet to the plurality of network node modules.