Introduction
Automotive in-vehicle networking is evolving to support new features in software-defined vehicles (SDVs). As software consolidates into fewer electronic control units (ECUs) to increase scalability across vehicle platforms and streamline over-the-air (OTA) updates, a new remotecontrolled edge concept optimizes wiring while enabling scalable edge-node software.
Edge nodes are specialized ECUs that handle the realtime control of specific functions, such as headlight modules for exterior lighting or control modules for door locks, windows and side mirrors. These nodes receive commands from a commander ECU (the zone controller, domain controller or central computing) throughout the in-vehicle network. Edge nodes manage local hardware control by monitoring temperature, pressure or position sensors for control-loop feedback while directly controlling mechanical actuators such as motors and solenoids through load drivers, including half bridges and high- and low-side switches.
Remote-controlled edge architectures shift the real-time control and hardware abstraction layer (HAL) upstream to the commander ECU, which then generates low-level hardware commands for sensors and load drivers to the edge nodes. The remote-controlled edge solution bridges the higher-level network data-link layers between ECUs such as Ethernet or Controller Area Network (CAN) with low-level communication interfaces such as Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C), universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART) and general-purpose input/output (GPIO). This approach eliminates the microcontroller (MCU) as well as any software from the edge node entirely.
The remote-controlled edge scheme supports major, overarching trends around SDVs and reduces the amount of wire harnesses by centralizing software in the commander ECU, while keeping loaddependent hardware in the edge nodes close to the electromechanical actuators.
To learn more about SDVs, read the white paper, Software-Defined Vehicles Shift the Future of Automotive Electronics Into Gear.
