Control unit for translating between different bus interfaces

A vehicle, comprising:

• a first sensor or controller, the first sensor or controller having a controller area network (CAN) interface;
• a pair of copper wires having a first end and a second end, the first end of the pair of copper wires coupled to the CAN interface of the first sensor or controller;
• a second sensor or controller, the second sensor or controller having an Ethernet interface;
• an Ethernet cable having a first end and a second end, the first end of the Ethernet cable coupled to the Ethernet interface of the second sensor or controller;
• and
• a control unit confined in a housing and including a CAN port and an Ethernet port in the housing, the CAN port of the control unit coupled to the second end of the copper wire, and the Ethernet port of the control unit coupled to the second end of the Ethernet cable;
• wherein the control unit comprises:
• a CAN acceptance filter coupled to the CAN port;
• a CAN-to-Stream-ID logic circuit having an input coupled to an output of the CAN acceptance filter;
• and
• a Stream-ID-frame-to-Ethernet-frame-generation logic having a first input coupled to an output of the CAN-to-Stream-ID logic circuit and having an output coupled to the Ethernet interface.

A method, comprising

• receiving a first frame having a first network protocol format over a first serial port of a network device;
• using a first hardware circuit of the network device to convert the first frame having the first network protocol format to a first frame having a Stream identifier (ID) format;
• receiving a second frame having a second network protocol format over a second serial port of the network device, the second network protocol format being different from the first network protocol format;
• using a second hardware circuit of the network device to convert the second frame having the second network protocol format to a second frame having the Stream ID format;
• and
• using a third hardware circuit to convert the first frame having the Stream ID format and the second frame having the Stream ID format to Ethernet frames.