Potential for Intra-Vehicle Wireless Automotive Sensor Networks

We propose using a wireless network to facilitate communications between sensors/switches and control units located within a vehicle. In a typical modern vehicle, the most demanding sensor will require a latency of approximately less than 1 msec with throughput of 12 kbps. Further, the network will need to support about 15 sensors with this requirement. The least demanding sensor will require a latency of approximately 50 msec with data throughput rate of 5 bps and will need to support about 20 of these types of devices. Initial part of this paper gives an overview of the issues spanning several layers of the protocol stack. Then, we focus on the Medium access control (MAC) layer and derive necessary design parameters based on given network requirements. We evaluate the IEEE 802.15.4 standard with respect to its suitability for use in a prospective intra-vehicle wireless sensor network.