Novel trends in automotive networks: Performance evaluations based on Network queuing theory

摘要

The Ethernet becomes the fastest growing segment of industrial networking. Due to its high economic interest, at high speeds it will replace conventional fieldbus systems. Indeed, Industrial automation, Aircraft, Railway, Automotive and others domains, are increasingly being controlled via the Ethernet network. Its interest to be used in automotive field, in the powertrain and chassis domains, is growing day by day. Next-generation vehicles will be also controlled based on their interactions with the infrastructure as well as the environment. The cloud computing will be used to exchange real-time sensing and control information through vehicular wireless networks based on WiFi, WiGig and 5G networks. However, these networks are not developed for real-time vehicular control compliance. The use of Ethernet and wireless networks as a real-time control network for critical systems like powertrain and chassis vehicle domains is frequently questioned. Different solutions to modify them to meet real-time requirements have been proposed. This paper is interested to give more details concerning exactly this point. We will demonstrate that Ethernet and WiGig, when adducting the QoS priority policy and the duplication of the controllers in the end-points, can satisfy the real-time requirements when the throughput exceeds one Gbits/s that is, the modifications in each endpoint is quite simple to do. As many may think, the FlexRay network is mandatory for the powertrain and chassis modules and the Ethernet, the Wi-Fi, or its next generation, the WiGiG, can only support the body and multimedia domains. Its comparison with the Ethernet or the WiGiG proves that these latter networks are better when exceeding few gigabits per second for the four domains, with a minimum latency budget. We used the Network queuing theory to do these evaluations. We completed the classical four domains by two new domains, which are the advance driver assistance system and the V2X communications. These new domains are also connected via the full duplex Ethernet backbone, known as AFDX and μAFDX switching elements.