Automobile In-Vehicle Networks–Ethernet, SERDES, or Both?

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eetasia.com, Jun. 29, 2021 – 

Cars in the 1960s such as the Hillman Hunter (Figure 1), built by the Hillman Motor Car Company based in Coventry, England, had only about 50 wires totaling about 100 feet in length in their harness. Compare that to today's cars that have more than 1500 wires that can total close to 1.5 miles in length and weigh more than 100 pounds. The harness may be getting heavier; automotive manufacturers state that the weight has jumped by about 30% in just one model evolution, with the integration of autonomous technologies. So, there should to be a strong focus on having just one network inside the auto, right?

Well, the answer is complicated.

Bandwidth Requirements for the Future IVN

The requirements for the in-vehicle network (IVN) include high bandwidth, low latency, and high reliability to operate in the harsh operating environment of the automobile. Over the years, there has been multiple technologies such as analog, controller area network (CAN), FlexRay, local interconnect network (LIN), low voltage differential signaling (LVDS), and media oriented systems transport (MOST) that have been used for the IVN.

When we look at next-generation applications, these legacy technologies cannot support the bandwidth requirements; moreover, some are proprietary and high in cost.

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