Evolution of Automotive Data Communication

Evolution of Automotive Data Communication  

From CAN to Automotive Ethernet and standard Automotive SerDes

Today’s car has the computing power of 20 personal computers, features more than 100 million lines of programming code, and processes up to 25 gigabytes of data an hour. Though automotive digital technology has traditionally focused on optimizing the vehicle’s internal functions, attention is now turning to developing the car’s ability to connect with the outside world and enhance the in-car experience. Thus, there is an increasing need for different computers and domains in the car to communicate with one another more effectively. Today, multiple different proprietary standards for communication are used, with each component typically using a dedicated wire/cable. Automotive Ethernet and the newly established standardized automotive SerDes enables a standard for all the communications from the different components to coexist and interoperate with one another using the same standard interfaces.

These recent developments do not mean that automotive Ethernet will replace all other technologies in the vehicle, nor that others will not be added. There is still a solid use for CAN, CAN-FD, LIN and even the newly added CAN-XL standard. These slower speed buses are excellent for local control and use in antilock brakes, fuel injection and power seat control to name a few of the subsystems of the car. What automotive Ethernet does is replace the routing of these wires back to the mainframe CPU. Other subsystems that will rely on automotive Ethernet will be ADAS radar-based signals, battery management, cellular connections, and infotainment system connections. The new standardized automotive SerDes will be able to carry the data of cameras, even that of 4K cameras, very quickly back to the central CPU.

First introduced by Broadcom and now adopted and regulated by the OPEN Alliance. IEEE and the OPEN Alliance have created and maintained the physical layer standards for 10 Mbps all the way through 10 Gbps. The OPEN Alliance will continue to evolve the standard with 25, 50 and even 100 Gbps planned for release in the coming months and years. 

Automotive Ethernet is a technology that that can connect it all together. Wideband enough to carry the larger amounts of data required and fast and smart enough to be viable for mass production. This technology will continue to evolve to accommodate faster data rates and meet the increasing demand for bandwidth.