Real-time Ethernet for automotive applications: A solution for future in-car networks

Data networks of today´s automobiles form a complex conglomerate of heterogeneously interconnected components. At the same time, high additional demands for future in-car communication systems are emerging from chassis control, camera based driver assistance and infotainment that cannot be accommodated by established technologies. A new approach towards a flexible highly scalable in-car network is real-time Ethernet. In this paper we discuss the upcoming requirements and argue why current in-car network designs are not suitable for future tasks. By demonstrating how a camera based time-critical driver assistance application can be integrated into a real-time Ethernet based in-car network, we present a typical use case for automotive broadband real-time communication and show application related design and configuration decisions.