The engineers of BMW Group Research and Technology call it a “vision” of in-vehicle network technology what they are currently working on. They have this creative freedom to think about the onboard network of cars as if there were no status quo and they could start anew without
established specifications. What they came up with is a revolution in automotive electronics.
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The in-vehicle network - yesterday and today
One needn’t go back more than a few decades to find electrics in passenger cars decidedly thin on the ground and car electronics to be something of a rarity. In the engine compartment there was the battery, alternator, control unit, starter motor and ignition; on the dashboard the controls, warning lights, indicator controls and locks. But between the dashboard and the rear of the vehicle there were only a small number of lights and the requisite cables. The radio was about as good as it got in terms of in-car electronics up to the mid-1970s.
Today up to 90 % of a vehicle’s innovations involve the use of electronics and software, and the number of control units (e.g. for engine control or Dynamic Stability Control) has increased significantly over recent years as a result. Up to 70 control units are fitted in premium-class cars nowadays. Indeed, the latest models boast several hundred electric and electronic functions, and up to 115 MByte of program code and data on board. Up to five different bus systems, such as CAN, LIN, MOST and FlexRay, work side-by-side to transport electronic data around today’s vehicles. All are perfectly equipped to meet the demands of their individual areas of application, but all speak their own automotive languages, which - to continue the metaphor - have to be translated every time information needs to be used by various different systems.
The revolution: Internet Protocol
It is the privilege and the working manner of researchers to disengage from given facts and to “think ahead”. In quest for a standard language for the “networked car” they came up
with Internet Protocol (IP) - the language of the World Wide Web as well as of many consumer electronic tools such as MP3-players or laptops.
In short, digital data communication - in wired and wireless form - is now an integral element of our everyday lives. Indeed, modern life has long been shaped by the fast and uncomplicated exchange of information regardless of location. E-mails can now be sent to anywhere you care to mention and at any time of any day - using a mobile phone, notebook computer or smartphone. The data, in the form of speech or e-mail, for example, is digitalised and transmitted in Internet Protocol packages - the language of the global Internet. This standard has provided the key to limitless freedom and independence, making data such as music, pictures, e-mails, documents, addresses and so on accessible and thus available anytime, anywhere.
The challenge for the engineers was to prove that IP is applicable in a vehicle and to show which opportunities this technology offers.
The prototype: one command fits all
In test set-ups and integrated in a series-production vehicle BMW Group Research and Technology demonstrates what is prototypically possible by using Internet Protocol in a car’s on-board network.
The setup of the prototype uses standard components from PC and embedded areas where possible. Also current vehicle ECUs (electronic control units) such as engine control (DME) and the chassis control system DSC (Dynamic Stability Control), as well as the so-called Head-Unit, the ECU that controls for example the radio, are integrated in the IP-network. Gateways built by the research engineers connect the vehicle’s bus communication with the vehicle-IP-network in real-time. A multimedia server and a camera can be connected to the efficient IP-net. With this setup it could be proved that an Internet Protocol based network can manage safety-relevant chassis control systems in real-time along with high data volume multimedia applications.
The opportunities: practical examples
The innovative, IP-based on-board network makes the infrastructure inside the vehicle more flexible. In the future, it will be easier for workshops to integrate control units including new functions into vehicles or for customers to use and operate their new electronic devices in the car thanks to Plug&Play. Not all applications will have to be fitted “permanently” in the vehicle, since the IP-based on-board network will link it up to the Internet.
The engineers are also looking into a range of other possibilities which come into view if a vehicle’s electronics all speak a single language. As a prototype has already shown, this makes it simple to listen to entire MP3 collections online or to download videos from the Internet on board and watch them from the back row. The on-board network of the future means vehicles will no longer be tied to the entertainment industry’s short development cycles, as the latest developments (Blue Ray, HDTV, IPTV, IP Radio etc.) can be used simply via Plug&Play and no longer need plug connectors with special infrastructure requirements.
It is also much easier for passengers and service engineers alike to see into the vehicle’s on-board network and control units. A service engineer can even contact the driver via visual telephone and give “visible” advice to solve for example a operation problem. As far as driver assistance systems are concerned, this innovative on-board network technology opens up totally new opportunities, in particular for complex systems which access various types of information from sensors, cameras etc. All these systems and information providers will then speak the same language.
[Source: BMW]
http://bmw.com/
