Performance analysis of different network topologies for in-vehicle audio and video communication

In-vehicle audio and video communication has recently received considerable attention in the automotive industry. First, because of the increasing number of audio and video consumer electronic devices and the requirement to integrate them in the car. Second, because of the rapid growing of realtime audio and video based driver assistance systems. So far, the interconnection of in-vehicle stream oriented devices has been performed by different and automotive specific network systems with limited transmission capacities. IP over Ethernet provides good conditions for audio and video streaming by offering high transmission capacities. In order to design an appropriate IP/Ethernet network for audio and video communication in the car, the selection of the right network topology is essential. In this work, several network topologies are compared by their Quality of Service (QoS) performance and production cost. Appropriate topologies are proposed.