Power Line Communication standards for in-vehicule networks

This paper deals with the in-vehicle networks. We propose to study a network which do not need new wires called Power Line Communication (PLC). Indeed, the automotive communication networks has evolved and the electronic devices in-vehicle are widespread. For example, drive-by-wire systems have actuators, engine, sensor and microprocessor to replace mechanical or hydraulic systems in vehicles. Moreover, electronic control unit (ECU) communicates and exchanges data. These needs of data sharing between ECU or between new services like multimedia involve to research new buses of communication with high throughputs. The CAN, LIN and FlexRay are wire protocols of communication usually used in the same vehicles and FlexRay has the highest throughput (10 Mbps). It appears that with the increase of electronic devices there is a wire harness bottleneck. To reduce wires and to have high throughputs (> 10 Mbps), we propose to study the feasibility of PLC indoor standards in-vehicles. PLC are usually used in indoor networks. In this paper, a comparison of two PLC standards with throughput measurements thanks to commercial PLC modem in-vehicle is carried out: HomePlug Av (HPAV) and High Definition Power Line Communication (HD-PLC).