Patent Application
20240330226
This disclosure relates to the field of vehicles, and particularly to a system and method for configuring a plurality of gateway controllers of a vehicle.
Vehicles are well known in the art and typically comprise a vehicle chassis, passenger compartment, engine and/or propulsion motor, transmission, and traction members such amongst other common components. Vehicles as tires, further comprise a plurality of controllers which can communicate with one another via various bus systems. For this purpose, the controllers are communicatively connected to one another via a central gateway controller. The central gateway controller has a number of communication interfaces defined for a specific vehicle. An extension of the communication interfaces and flexible utilization of the communication interfaces of the central gateway controller are often not possible.
In view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to efficiently couple a plurality of controllers in a vehicle to one another. In particular, it would be advantageous to efficiently couple a plurality of gateway controllers in a vehicle to one another. More particularly, it would be advantageous to efficiently configure a plurality of gateway controllers.
In accordance with a first embodiment of the disclosure, a method is disclosed for configuring a plurality of gateway controllers of a vehicle. The method can be a computer-implemented method and/or a controller-implemented method. The vehicle can be a motor vehicle. The plurality of gateway controllers comprises at least two gateway controllers. A gateway controller is preferably connected to at least two bus systems. With further preference, a bus system of the at least two bus systems of a gateway controller is an Ethernet bus system. Further bus systems of a gateway controller can be one or more CAN bus systems, one or more LIN bus systems, one or more FlexRay bus systems, and/or one or more further Ethernet bus systems.
The method comprises receiving a reception request from a client interface of a first gateway controller by means of a server interface of a second gateway controller. The reception request can comprise one or more reception requests from one or more controllers which are connected to the first gateway controller via the further bus systems. The reception request preferably comprises all reception requests of all controllers which are connected to the first gateway controller. The reception request is preferably received by the second gateway controller via the Ethernet bus system of the first gateway controller. Each gateway controller preferably comprises a client interface and a server interface, which use the Ethernet bus system between the controllers a gateway as communication channel.
The method comprises furthermore communicating a transmission offer from the server interface of the second gateway controller to the client interface of the first gateway controller. The transmission offer can comprise one or more transmission offers from one or more controllers which are connected to the second gateway controller via the further bus systems. Preferably, the transmission offer comprises all transmission offers of all controllers which are connected to the second gateway controller. Furthermore, the method comprises receiving a confirmation message from the client interface of the first gateway controller by means of the server interface of the second controller, gateway wherein the confirmation message comprises a confirmation or a rejection of the communicated transmission offer by the first gateway controller. Preferably, the confirmation message comprises a confirmation or a rejection for the signal of the communicated transmission offer by the first way controller. A signal element of the communicated transmission offer is intended to be a reception offer of a controller connected to the second gateway controller.
Finally, the method comprises configuring a routing table of the respective gateway controllers depending on the transmitted and received confirmation message by means of between the gateway controllers.
Advantageously, a plurality of gateway controllers can be efficiently configured automatically. The method can flexibly configure static communication relationships of all controllers connected to a gateway controller. In detail, the method can efficiently configure routing tables for static communication relationships of the gateway controllers. Furthermore, the method can be carried out in parallel and automatically for all gateway controllers. Preferably, the method is carried out during a coding of the controllers of the vehicle. This makes it possible to ensure that the communication between the controllers and the gateway controllers is always kept up-to-date in an automated manner, without a manual configuration of the gateway controllers needing to be carried out. The gateway controllers can be configured flexibly, thereby simplifying an adaptation to different vehicle derivatives and/or controller configurations of the vehicles.
In accordance with one advantageous embodiment of the disclosure, each gateway controller can be connected to one or more controllers via a first bus system (such as CAN, for example), and/or each gateway controller can be connected to one or more gateway controllers via a second bus system (such as Ethernet, for example). By this means, central networking of the gateway controllers is avoided and flexible and dynamic networking of controllers and gateway controllers is implemented.
In accordance with a further, advantageous embodiment of the disclosure, the method can furthermore comprise adapting the reception request depending on the confirmation message by s of the first gateway controller. This enables already fulfilled reception requests of the controllers to be removed from the reception request of the first gateway controller. If the reception request of the first gateway controller comprises no more reception requests from controllers, all reception requests of the first gateway controller have been fulfilled and the configuration of the first gateway controller has been successfully concluded.
In accordance with a further, advantageous embodiment of the disclosure, the method can furthermore comprise determining a transmission/reception specification of a controller by means of the first gateway controller, wherein the controller is connected to the first gateway controller via a first bus system, and/or can comprise creating the reception request depending on a reception specification of the determined transmission/reception specification of the controller by means of the first gateway controller, and/or can comprise creating the transmission offer depending on a transmission specification of the determined transmission/reception specification of the controller by means of the first gateway controller. This enables a reception request of a gateway controller to be created efficiently.
In accordance with a further, advantageous embodiment of the disclosure, the method can furthermore comprise determining a transmission/reception specification of a controller by means of the second gateway controller, wherein the controller is connected to the second gateway controller via a first bus system, and/or creating the transmission offer on depending a transmission specification of the determined transmission/reception specification of the controller by means of the second gateway controller. This enables a transmission offer of a gateway controller to be created efficiently.
In accordance with a further, advantageous embodiment of the disclosure, the method can comprise setting up a communication connection between the client interface of the first gateway controller and the server interface of the second gateway controller via the second bus system, wherein the communication preferably takes place dynamically using a service discovery communication protocol of the second bus system. This enables an exchange of the reception request and the transmission offer between two gateway controllers to be started efficiently.
In accordance with a further, advantageous embodiment of the disclosure, the method can furthermore comprise receiving a reception request from a client interface of a third gateway controller by means of a server interface of a first gateway controller, communicating the transmission request from the server interface of the first gateway controller to the client interface of the third gateway controller, receiving a confirmation message from the client interface of the third gateway controller by means of the server interface of the first gateway controller, wherein the confirmation message comprises a confirmation rejection the or a of communicated transmission offer by the first gateway controller, and configuring a routing table of the first gateway controller depending on the received confirmation message by means of the third gateway controller. This enables the routing table of the first gateway controller to be configured efficiently.
In accordance with a further, advantageous embodiment of the disclosure, the method can comprise disconnecting the communication connection between the client interface of the first gateway controller and the server interface of the second gateway controller via the second bus system when the client interface of the first controller has communicated a confirmation message for all reception requests to the server interface of the second gateway controller. This enables the exchange of the reception request and the transmission offer between two gateway controllers to be ended efficiently. The configuration is ended with the disconnection of the communication connection between the two gateway controllers.
In accordance with a further embodiment, a computer-readable medium for configuring a plurality of gateway controllers of a vehicle is disclosed, wherein the computer-readable medium comprises instructions which, when executed on a computer and/or a controller, carry out the method described above.
In accordance with a further aspect, the disclosure is distinguished by a system for configuring a plurality of gateway controllers of a vehicle, wherein the system is designed to carry out the method described above.
In accordance with a further aspect, the disclosure is distinguished by a vehicle comprising the above-described system for configuring a plurality of gateway controllers of the vehicle.
It will be recognized that controllers are commonly used in vehicles or in association with vehicle testing. Controllers (which may also be referred to as “control units,” “processors” or “microprocessors”) include circuits (e.g., integrated circuits) that contain typical functionality of central processing units (CPU) and are configured to perform various calculations and analysis based on manufacturer programming and/or circuit components. Examples of controllers used in vehicles include gateway controllers and/or any of various Engine Control Units (ECNs) commonly used by different manufacturers in modern automobiles.
Further features of the disclosure are evident from the claims, the figures and the description of the figures. All features and feature combinations mentioned above in the description and the features and feature combinations mentioned below in the description of the figures and/or shown solely on the figures are usable not only in the combination indicated in each case, but also in other combinations or else by themselves.
At least one exemplary embodiment of the disclosure is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Further details, preferred embodiments and developments of the disclosure are evident therefrom. Specifically, in the figures schematically:
With reference now to
The method 100 can receive 106 a reception request from a client interface of a first gateway controller by means of a server interface of a second gateway controller. As shown in
The method 100 can communicate/transmit 108 a transmission offer TxOffer from the server interface 104 of the second gateway controller to the client interface of the first gateway controller. The exemplary transmission offer TxOffer[2] indicates that a list of two transmission offers is communicated in a message from the server interface 104 of the second gateway controller to the client interface 102 of the first gateway controller. Alternatively, each reception request can be communicated in an individual message. Alternatively, each transmission can offer be communicated in an individual message.
Furthermore, the method 100 can receive 110 a confirmation message from the client interface 102 of the first gateway controller by means of the server interface 104 of the second gateway controller. As shown in
In detail,
Advantageously, the method and the system, in an automated manner, can configure reception requests from controllers and gateway controllers in an automated manner by negotiation of the reception request and the transmission offer between in each case two gateway controllers, for example a client interface of the first controller and a server interface of the second gateway controller. The communication requests between the gateway controllers can thus be configured efficiently and flexibly.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2021 123 326.7 | Sep 2021 | DE | national |
The present application is the U.S. national phase of PCT Application PCT/EP2022/064611 filed on May 30, 2022, which claims priority of German patent application No. 102021123326.7 filed on Sep. 9, 2021, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2022/064611 | 5/30/2022 | WO |
