Architectures and methods for management of in-vehicle networked controllers and devices

A motor vehicle comprising:

• a vehicle body;
• a communication interface;
• a plurality of electronic control units (ECU) attached to the vehicle body, a group of the ECUs being connected via the communication interface and operable to transition between an awake state and an asleep state, each of the ECUs in the group being programmed to:
• determine, via a locally stored Status Table, respective status vectors for the ECUs in the group, each of the status vectors indicating whether the corresponding ECU is in the awake state or in the asleep state;
• determine, via the locally stored Status Table, respective device roles for the ECUs in the group, each of the device roles designating the corresponding ECU as a slave device or a master device;
• determine, via a locally stored Master Selection Table, an assigned hierarchy for the ECUs in the group, the assigned hierarchy including respective priority labels for selecting the ECUs as the master device;
• and
• receive or transmit a mode change signal indicating the ECU or one of the other ECUs in the group intends to transition from the awake state to the asleep state or the asleep state to the awake state,
• wherein, responsive to receiving or transmitting the mode change signal, the respective device role for a first of the ECUs in the group is changed from master device to slave device and the respective device role for a second of the ECUs in the group is changed from slave device to master device based on the assigned hierarchy and the status vectors.

A non-transitory, computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions for execution by at least one of one or more processors of an onboard network of electronic control units (ECU) of a motor vehicle, a group of the ECUs being connected via a communication interface and each being operable to transition between an awake state and an asleep state, the instructions causing the network of ECUs to perform steps comprising:

• determining respective status vectors for the ECUs in the group, each of the status vectors indicating whether the corresponding ECU is in the awake state or in the asleep state;
• determining respective device roles for the ECUs in the group, each of the device roles designating the corresponding ECU as a slave device or a master device;
• determining an assigned hierarchy for the ECUs in the group, the assigned hierarchy including respective priority labels for selecting the ECUs as the master device;
• transmitting a mode change signal indicating one of the ECUs intends to transition from the awake state to the asleep state or the asleep state to the awake state;
• and
• responsive to transmitting the mode change signal, modifying the respective device role for a first of the ECUs in the group from master device to slave device and modifying the respective device role for a second of the ECUs in the group from slave device to master device based on the assigned hierarchy and the status vectors for the ECUs in the group.