Modern vehicles are taking on more and more functions that bring new challenges. Although functional safety is not a new topic in the automotive industry, it has been gaining increased attention over time. As a design principle, its primary focus is reducing the risk of physical injury or damage to the health of people when using electrical/electronic (E/E) equipment. This principle addresses random hardware failures and systematic failures – both of which are very relevant for in-vehicle network (IVN) products.
Recent trends in the automotive industry are putting more demand on functional safety. One example of this is in autonomous driving, where the vehicle takes over the task of driving and makes critical decisions. Autonomous driving represents a unique opportunity for both OEMs and end-users, but it needs new solutions to fulfill the required high safety level.
IVN is evolving to match the increased amount of data that autonomous vehicles will bring. Data has to be readily available and secure for real-time processing and decision-making. There is also a need to reduce cable harness costs and weight.
These changes are transforming IVN architectures and creating a push towards the zonalization of architecture, in which vehicle functions are spread over the complete network and rely much more on communication capabilities. Compared to former domain-based sub-networks, functional safety becomes a more relevant part of the communication network.
IVN’s role in ensuring system safety and availability is growing as vehicle functions become more decentralized. Modern vehicles require a highly reliable and high-speed data communication backbone, which is realized through automotive Ethernet. Ethernet components such as switches and PHYs need to integrate advanced monitoring and diagnostic features to achieve system safety and availability goals.
Advanced monitoring and diagnostic features on the PHY level improve failure reaction on system level. They minimize the time it takes to detect failures and shorten the system's response time. They also enhance failure localization on system level since the PHY flags any issues that may prevent it from operating correctly. These two combined help by reacting on system level to occurring failures in the shortest time possible.
Networking IC features can contribute significantly to functional safety by preventing, predicting and reacting to failure scenarios. Standards such as ISO26262 provide the needed guidance in functional safety assessment. ISO26262 defines the methods for functional safety system development; there are no concrete system requirements except for some general guidelines with examples of serial communication.
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More emphasis will be on the quality and reliability of network components as IVN continues to play a vital role in the functional safety of next-generation vehicles. As such, it is essential that network components are developed according to ISO26262 to reduce the risk of hazards from malfunctioning E/E systems.
NXP's broad history in the automotive industry provides the expertise to develop products, according to ISO26262, that support system safety and availability. The TJA1103 is the first device of an upcoming ASIL B-compliant scalable PHY family.
TJA1103’s development according to the ISO26262 standard helps prevent systematic faults and ensures all relevant safety documentation is available. Its self-diagnostic during startup is implemented in hardware to prevent latent faults and support random fault detection. If used in a functional safety context, the error notification of TJA1103 allows the host controller to react accordingly and restore the system. If restoring is not possible, the affected part can be set to a safe state to ensure safe communication in the remaining network. With this, improved quality and reliable networks for safe communication can be maintained.
Jakob Smonig is Product Marketing Manager within Product Line In-Vehicle Networking (IVN), where he has global responsibility for the 100BASE-T1 automotive Ethernet portfolio. He previously worked in the IVN operations department as project manager optimizing production. Jakob holds a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Business from the Technical University of Graz in Austria.
