Approach for an Optical Network Design for Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous vehicles are sophisticated self-sufficient systems which employ hundreds of sensors. To improve road safety, the number of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) steadily increases. Consequently, the applied systems are growing in complexity and connectivity. The network architecture within vehicles, however, is only adapted and extended to support emerging high-bandwidth applications while redesigning the whole network would yield many benefits. As a result, modern wiring harnesses are too complex, heavy and prone to errors. In this paper, existing bus systems are analysed for their capabilities to handle sophisticated network traffic which will emerge in autonomous vehicles. Furthermore, problems are identified and discussed, and a potential solution based on optical technologies is presented. This solution combines existing optical technologies in a novel way to cope with the upcoming bandwidth requirements of autonomous vehicles, while keeping the costs to a minimum.