Is Ethernet Ready for the Automotive Market?

Consumer demand for advanced driver assistance and infotainment features are on the rise, opening up a new market for advanced Automotive systems. Automotive Ethernet allows to support more complex computing needs with the use of an Ethernet-based network for connections between in-vehicle electronic systems.

The number of vehicles with automotive Ethernet began picking up over the last years, at which time BMW, Jaguar and Volkswagen had vehicles on the road with automotive Ethernet.

From the PHY side, one-twisted-pair automotive Ethernet technology provides a single, centralized network backbone that simplifies the deployment of advanced features. The One-Pair Ether-Net Alliance, which supports the advancement of automotive Ethernet, reached more than 300 members earlier this year. Broadcom, for one, has observed that the use of Ethernet cabling versus the traditional vehicle harness wiring can make a major difference in the weight of the vehicle. Since the harness can comprise 50% of the labor costs of a vehicle, the ability to simplify that system while also supporting more advanced features is an attractive proposition. So automotive Ethernet is becoming the new communications backbone within the vehicle.

The IEEE standards association is also working to add Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) features to the existing standards for 802.1 and 802.3 Ethernet to provide deterministic performance.  Once completed, it will become practical to deploy standard Ethernet (with the TSN extensions) in real-time, mission critical applications.  A major driving force behind the development of these new TSN standards is the emerging Automotive Ethernet market. The TSN new features include time synchronization and ingress policing which are essential requirements for almost all new automotive applications.  Another new feature, scheduled traffic, will be required for the most critical ECU applications such as braking, etc.  

With the availability of the Cadence Verification IP for 1GbaseT and TSN, adopters can start working with these specifications immediately, ensuring compliance with the standard and achieving the fastest path to IP and SoC verification closure. The 1GBaseT and TSN provides a full-stack solution, including support to the PHY, MAC and TSN layers with comprehensive coverage model and protocol checkers. More details are available in Ethernet Verification IP portfolio.

Thierry