Electrical transmission or interconnection systems – Vehicle mounted systems
Reexamination Certificate
2001-08-31
2004-06-08
Toatley, Jr., Gregory J. (Department: 2836)
Electrical transmission or interconnection systems
Vehicle mounted systems
C370S401000, C370S466000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06747365
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of communication systems for vehicles such as automobiles and trucks, and more particularly, to communicatively coupling devices within the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Microprocessor technology has greatly improved the efficiency, reliability and safety of the automobile. Microprocessor devices have enabled airbags, anti-lock brakes, traction control, adaptive suspension and power train control just to name a few of the areas where processing technology has literally transformed the automobile. These systems, first provided by manufacturers only on the most expensive luxury and performance automobiles, are now common and even standard equipment on the most affordable economy models. Soon, control-by-wire applications will become equally commonplace. For example, throttle-by-wire has been successfully implemented on a number of vehicle platforms. Steer-by-wire and brake-by-wire applications are not far behind. Alternative fuel vehicles, including fuel cell vehicles, electric and hybrid vehicles will require still more sophisticated control applications, and hence still more processing capability.
The automobile is simultaneously being enhanced by information technology. Satellite navigation systems, voice and data communications, and vehicle telemetry systems inform the driver, entertain the passengers and monitor vehicle performance. These systems can provide driving directions, identify points of interest along the driver's route, remotely diagnose and/or predict vehicle problems, unlock the doors, disable the vehicle if stolen or summon emergency personnel in the event of an accident.
The growing amount and level of sophistication of vehicle oriented information technology presents the challenge to the automotive engineer to implement and integrate these technologies with existing and emerging vehicle systems in an efficient manner. Current design philosophy centers on the incorporation of one or more vehicle communication bus structures for interconnecting the various control elements, sensors, actuators and the like within the vehicle. The design of these bus structures is often driven by compliance with governmental regulations such as second-generation on-board diagnostics (OBD-II) and federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS). These structures offer limited ability to adapt new technology to the vehicle. Moreover, given the typical four-year design cycle and ten-year life cycle of an automobile, the technology within a vehicle may become significantly obsolete even before the vehicle is brought to market, and the bus architecture leaves the owner little ability to adapt new technology to the vehicle. Notwithstanding these limitations, the bus architecture offers a generally reliable, relatively fast platform for linking electronic devices and systems within the vehicle.
To link vehicle system technologies with vehicle information technologies, there has been proposed to incorporate a network architecture within the vehicle. For example, published Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application number WO 00/77620 A2 describes an architecture based on the Ethernet wherein devices within the vehicle are coupled to the network. This publication describes a network including a cable backbone to which the devices are coupled and a network utility for controlling communications between the devices over the network. Important to note is that the proposed network does not integrate the vehicle systems, but instead is adapted to provide a platform for adding information technologies, such as pagers, personal digital assistants, navigations, etc. technologies to the vehicle. The power train, suspension, braking and airbag systems, as examples, utilize a vehicle bus for data communications, and these systems operate autonomously of the network described in the publication. A bridge or gateway is provide to couple the vehicle bus to the network as a device or client allowing data sharing between the bus and the network, but the data communication needs of the vehicle systems are not serviced by the network. A reason that these systems are designed to operate autonomously of the described network is that they have time critical, system critical data requirements that cannot be met by the network structure described. Additionally, the network described in the publication suffers from numerous single points of failure, such as if the cable backbone is disrupted or the network utility fails.
Thus there is a need for an architecture for automotive electronic systems that facilitates the efficient, reliable integration of in-vehicle electronic technologies and plug-and-play upgradeability.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5442553 (1995-08-01), Parrillo
patent: 5694318 (1997-12-01), Miller et al.
patent: 5732074 (1998-03-01), Spaur et al.
patent: 5848227 (1998-12-01), Sheu
patent: 6005884 (1999-12-01), Cook et al.
patent: 6134589 (2000-10-01), Hultgren
patent: 6157624 (2000-12-01), Zancho
patent: 6185491 (2001-02-01), Gray et al.
patent: 6188948 (2001-02-01), Shivler, Jr.
patent: 6219839 (2001-04-01), Sampsell
patent: 6246688 (2001-06-01), Angwin et al.
patent: 6370449 (2002-04-01), Razavi et al.
patent: 6393474 (2002-05-01), Eichert et al.
patent: 6420797 (2002-07-01), Steele et al.
patent: 6434459 (2002-08-01), Wong et al.
patent: 6496704 (2002-12-01), Yuan
patent: 6498835 (2002-12-01), Skladman et al.
patent: 6505100 (2003-01-01), Stuempfle et al.
patent: 6519263 (2003-02-01), Huth
patent: 6571136 (2003-05-01), Staiger
patent: 0884873 (1998-12-01), None
patent: WO 00/77620 (2000-12-01), None
patent: WO 01/19038 (2001-03-01), None
patent: WO 01/39435 (2001-05-01), None
US patent application Pub. US 2002/0103881 A1, Granade et al., Method and System for Integrating Applications and Mobile Networks, Published Aug. 1, 2002.*
FlexRay Advanced Automotive Communication System, Copyright 2000 by BMW AG, DaimlerChrysler AG, 12 pages.*
The Hansen Report on Automotive Electronics, vol. 13, No. 10, Dec. 2000/Jan. 2001, BMW and Mercedes Choose FlexRay, pp. 1-2.*
The Hansen Report on Automotive Electronics, vol. 14, No. 4, May 2001, X-by-Wire Communications Portocol: Possible FlexRay and TTP Merger, pp. 1-2.*
Tschudin, Active and Ad-hoc Experiences with Audio Streaming in a Wireless Active Network, Oct. 1999, 26 pages.*
Gallis et al., A Flexible IP Active Networks Architecture, No Date, 14 pages.*
Wakikawa et al., Multiple Network Interfaces Support by Policy-Based Routing on Mobile IPv6, No Date, 9 pages.*
Tennenhouse et al., Towards an Active Network Architecture, No Date, 21 pages.*
Unknown author, The ARRCANE Project, Active Routing and Resources Control in Ad hoc NEtwork, The ARRCANE Project Home Page, Jan 29, 1999, 2 pages.*
Galis et al., A Flexible IP Active Network Architecture, No date, 14 pages.*
FlexRay Advanced Automotive Communication System, Copyright 2000 by BMW AG, DaimlerChrysler AG, 12 pages.*
Dillon H: “Tutorial Compression? Yes, but for Low or High Frequencies, for Low or High Intensities, and with What Response Times?”, Ear and Hearing, Williams and Wilkins, US, vol. 17, No. 4, 1996, pp. 287-307, XP000645919.
Knight S. et al.: “Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol”, RFC 2338, Apr. 1998, XP002135272.
Corwin Light-Williams, Joshua Drake: “Linux PPP Howtos”, Linux Howtos, Online!, Oct. 19, 2000, pp. 83-84, XP002223075. Retrieved from the Internet: URL:http://www.ibilblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/other-formats/pdf/PPP-HOWTO.pdf> retrieved on Nov. 29, 2002.
Lemahieu P. et al.: “Fault-Tolerant Switched Local Area Networks”, Parallel Processing Symposium, 1998, IPPS/SPDP 1998, Proceedings of the First Merged IEEE Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing 1998, Orlando, FL, USA, Mar. 30-Apr. 3, 1998, Los Alamitos, CA, USA, IEEE Comput. Soc., US, Mar. 30, 1998, pp. 747-751, XP010276731.
Walton Fehr et al., “Graphical Modeling and Code Generation for Distributed Automotive Control Systems”, SEA Technical Paper Series, Aug. 21-23, 2000, vol. 2000-01-3061, pp
Reinold Juergen
Remboski Donald J.
Motorola Inc.
Pickens S. Kevin
Polk Sharon A.
Wills Kevin D.
LandOfFree
Vehicle active network adapted to legacy architecture does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Vehicle active network adapted to legacy architecture, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Vehicle active network adapted to legacy architecture will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3341125