BMW explores high-bandwidth communication architecture for vehicles

With the widespread use of cameras, radars and other sensors in autonomous driving technology, the communication needs within the vehicle have increased dramatically. The large amount of data generated by these sensors requires high-speed and reliable transmission methods to ensure the safety and intelligent decision-making capabilities of the vehicle.

BMW is actively exploring the next-generation communication architecture, especially in the integration of SerDes (serializer/deserializer) and Ethernet technology.

Part 1

Automotive high-bandwidth communications are primarily focused on “asymmetric video and raw sensor data transmission.”

These data transmissions rely primarily on proprietary SerDes technology, a solution optimized for high-bandwidth video and sensor data.

As cars gradually evolve towards a zonal architecture, the challenge is how to better integrate SerDes and Ethernet technologies.

The data transmission of devices such as cameras and radars is asymmetric, that is, the data rate requirements for uplink and downlink are different. This architecture meets the current needs, but with the in-depth development of autonomous driving technology in the future, the automotive communication system needs to handle more symmetrical data transmission scenarios. For example, in the vehicle backbone network, the communication between various control units often requires higher bandwidth and symmetrical data rates.

BMW plans to introduce a unified "SerDes and Ethernet communication architecture" to support higher data rates and flexible communication requirements. This architecture is called ASA-ML (Automotive SerDes and Ethernet Multi-Layer), which is a key step in the transition of future automotive communication systems from proprietary protocols to standardized protocols.

In planning its communication architecture, BMW aims to achieve a seamless transition between SerDes and Ethernet. Current SerDes technology has been widely used in automobiles, especially in processing camera and radar data. However, its limitation is that it cannot cope well with the needs of future smart cars for diversified data streams.

BMW's ASA-ML solution plans to introduce the architecture starting in 2027 and achieve full integration with six cameras in 2033.

The core goal of ASA-ML is to provide an efficient and scalable communication platform for future cars through standardized SerDes and Ethernet technologies.

This platform can not only support existing camera and radar data transmission, but also cope with the complex data exchange requirements in future distributed architectures.

In addition, by unifying different data transmission technologies into the same architecture, BMW hopes to simplify hardware design, reduce costs and improve system reliability.

Part 2

ASA-ML points out the direction for the evolution of future automotive communication systems, but it still faces a series of challenges in practical applications. The introduction of distributed architecture will significantly increase hardware costs, requiring each area to have its own processing unit and communication module. Each module requires additional hardware support, which increases the manufacturing cost of the car and also puts higher requirements on the system's power consumption.

Ethernet technology has been maturely applied in many fields, but in automobiles, especially in high-bandwidth application scenarios, the application of Ethernet technology still faces technical bottlenecks (100Mbps to 1Gbps). When processing high-speed camera data, it may not be able to meet the future demand for bandwidths of up to 10Gbps or even higher.

BMW uses an incremental hardware integration plan to gradually integrate SerDes and Ethernet technologies onto the same communication platform over the next 10 years, introducing higher bandwidth and more efficient communication solutions in stages, which helps control costs and ensures that the system is steadily upgraded as the technology matures.

BMW also attaches great importance to the security of future automotive communications. As the digitalization and networking of vehicle communications increase, the security protection of the data link layer will become the key to ensuring vehicle safety. Especially in the scenarios of autonomous driving and V2X (vehicle-to-everything), any tampering or attack on communication data may lead to serious consequences.

BMW's ASA-ML architecture introduces multi-level security protection measures, from data encryption at the physical layer to firewall protection at the application layer, to ensure the security and privacy of vehicle communications.

summary

BMW's future automotive communication architecture planning demonstrates the company's forward-looking thinking in responding to the rapid development of automotive technology. It integrates existing SerDes technology with Ethernet technology to lay the foundation for the communication needs of future autonomous driving and intelligent vehicles.