A Network Solution for Intelligent Vehicles using Network Attached Hardware Block Framework

With the advent of smart cars, there is a rising need for the integration of several electronic sub-systems in automobiles. The increase in critical electronics brings new challenges to the existing in-vehicle network protocols as they were not designed to take these loads. Conventional network protocols like Controller Area Network (CAN), Local Interconnect Network (LIN), Media Oriented Systems Transport (MOST), and FlexRay all have diverse functionality for specific needs within an automobile. A smart car in-vehicle network needs to be multi-functional and provide network access with minimum overheads. The Network Attached Hardware Block Protocol (NAHB) is a framework that connects configurable hardware blocks using a standardized protocol in the physical layer. This system also offers the ability to connect the hardware blocks to other devices on the Ethernet through the NAHB-UDP protocol. Using these features as a basis, this thesis introduces the Lightweight Network Attached Hardware Block Protocol (LW-NAHB) which is designed to have features specific to a smart car system. This protocol offers a lightweight and low-cost solution to the in-vehicle network problem of smart cars. All data transfers are handled through LW-NAHB packets with priorities for time-critical data. Systems within the smart car can send interrupts and events through the network allowing critical sub-systems to have a system-wide reach. The LW-NAHB protocol fills the need for having a standardized in-vehicle network for smart cars. The low overhead of this protocol and the smart car-specific features it offers, make the LW-NAHB an attractive solution for smart car in-vehicle networks.