Abstract
This paper discusses novel communication network topologies and components and describes an evolutionary path of bringing Ethernet into automotive applications with focus on electric mobility. For next generation in-vehicle networking, the automotive industry identified Ethernet as a promising candidate besides CAN and FlexRay. Ethernet is an IEEE standard and is broadly used in consumer and industry domains. It will bring a number of changes for the design and management of in-vehicle networks and provides significant re-use of components, software, and tools. Ethernet is intended to connect inside the vehicle high-speed communication requiring sub-systems like Advanced Driver Assistant Systems (ADAS), navigation and positioning, multimedia, and connectivity systems. For hybrid (HEVs) or electric vehicles (EVs), Ethernet will be a powerful part of the communication architecture layer that enables the link between the vehicle electronics and the Internet where the vehicle is a part of a typical Internet of Things (IoT) application. Using Ethernet for vehicle connectivity will effectively manage the huge amount of data to be transferred between the outside world and the vehicle through vehicle-to-x (V2V and V2I or V2I+I) communication systems and cloud-based services for advanced energy management solutions. Ethernet is an enabling technology for introducing advanced features into the automotive domain and needs further optimizations in terms of scalability, cost, power, and electrical robustness in order to be adopted and widely used by the industry.
