Automotive communication system with ethernet ring topology

Abstract

A vehicle communication system comprises: Ethernet gateways, wherein each of the Ethernet gateways (i) is designated to serve as the Ethernet gateway in addition to performing other automotive functions in a vehicle; (ii) is coupled to multiple buses for respective subsystems having electronic control units (ECUs) communicating using respective automotive bus protocols; and (iii) is configured to encapsulate within Ethernet packets received communications of the respective automotive bus protocols; Automotive Ethernet cables connecting the Ethernet gateways in a ring topology, each of the Ethernet gateways connected to two others of the Ethernet gateways that are adjacent to the Ethernet gateway; and a communication matrix in each of the Ethernet gateways, wherein each of the ECUs is specified as belonging to at least one of multiple virtual local area networks (VLANs), wherein a VLAN tag is included in each of the Ethernet packets.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.