EnI
Piston Pioneer
BMW brings Internet Protocol under the hood
MUNICH, Germany — A BMW research group has tested the Internet Protocol to network automotive controllers. The engineers found that IP could well suit the real-time requirements even of safety-critical applications. But the most prominent benefits are in another area: With IP networking, costs for automotive electronics probably could be lowered. The research group, working at BMW Research and Technology GmbH, an R&D think tank for the Bavarian luxury car maker, had the enviable task to develop a vision of tomorrow's car networking technology. Their experiments included the usage of standard Ethernet for certain aspects of in-car networking.
The most recent concept addressed the fact that in today's cars up to 70 embedded computers are networked by a host of different networking systems including CAN, LIN, MOST and Flexray. While these different types of networking are optimized each for specific purposes, the variety creates complexity and costs.
In order to enable a radical simplification of the network jungle, the BMW engineers tested the aptitude of the Internet Protocol for applications in engine compartment and dashboard. For their experimental in-car network, they used standard PC and embedded electronic parts and included, among other ECUs, engine control (DME), Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) and dashboard head unit. In addition, a multimedia server and a camera were part of the network; gateways connected conventional non-standard automotive applications.
The results were very positive towards potential future IP in-car networks. "One of our research goals was to verify the real-time capabilities of IP for safety-critical applications," said project manager Richard Bogenberger. "In order to guarantee the short response times required, we used features such as QoS and traffic shaping. Our experiments with prototypes demonstrated, that the real-time behavior far exceeded the requirements — even when we ran multimedia applications across the same network."
Bogenberger and his team used the current IP version 4. They even evaluated the future version IPv6. "We found great potentials for IPv6 applications," Bogenberger said. "But the research goals could all be met by just using IPv4."
The motivation to test IP in car networking was twofold, Bogenberger said. "We expect rising requirements as to automotive electronics with respect to consumer electronics integration and the interconnectivity of cars with other vehicles and with the infrastructure. Also, we were interested in exploring the chances and possibilities created by making a vehicle an integral part of the global internet."
By using IP components and software routines, automotive OEMs could use standard components. "This would facilitate coordinating and matching processes with external partner since they would have access to hardware and software building blocks," Bogenberger said.
Since the study was not part of the serial car development, there is no schedule in place as to when the first "internet cars" could hit the roads. But, Bogenberger pointed out, talks with other automotive OEMs and tier ones will follow soon.
