Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - January 2022 - 17

Emerging Technologies
Figure 3. Rear view through vehicle backup camera demonstrating gaps in the transmission.
many different data rates in the backplane is illustrated
in Figure 1. It is an oversimplification, but it helps us
imagine how some of these technologies and standards
work together.
A zonal architecture will pull together multiple
inputs and ultimately lower the complexity, cost and
weight of the wiring harness, transitioning from
a " many to one " architecture to a daisy-chained,
one-to-one architecture. This is an example of a
zone-based architecture, while others are considering
a domain-based architecture. Both will aggregate
camera and sensor data, where Ethernet acts as an
interconnect between each zone or domain. Because
a central computing complex is linked to the sensors
and devices through networked zonal gateways, a
zonal approach can provide better scalability as well
as improved reliability and functionality.
In today's infotainment systems, it is common for
in-vehicle cameras and displays to be connected to the
image-processing electronic control unit (ECU) via
a SerDes (serializer/deserializer) connection. Today,
they are delivered by individual vendors using closed,
proprietary standards. Extending the reach of featurerich
SerDes links can require operating at lower Baud
rates and higher order modulations (e.g. PAM-4). In
addition, it will require higher bandwidth Ethernet
links as primary interconnects between zones perhaps
with 802.3ch supports up to 10 Gbps throughput.
Emerging SerDes standards like mobile industry
processor interface (MIPI) A-PHY (MIPI A-PHY is a
physical layer specification targeted for ADAS/ADS
surround sensor applications and infotainment display
applications in automotive), and Automotive SerDes
Alliance (ASA) will be implemented by multiple silicon
vendors. This will create a competitive market that
acts to drive down the cost while delivering application-specific
features.
There is also a desire to have standardized test
methods throughout the ecosystem that establish
interoperability requirements. For implementers and
test vendors, this would unify requirements for silicon,
tier ones and OEMs. Unified test requirements allow
the suppliers and OEMs to accelerate their development
cycle, lower costs and improve interoperability
with other commercial devices.
Some of the features of next-gen SerDes support the
Service Oriented Architecture of the future with protocol
tunneling and adaptation, which will enable emerging
SerDes standards to forward legacy automotive protocols
along daisy-chained links to the appropriate ECU
or bridge device. Stream duplication provides a means
for safety-critical systems to duplicate themselves if the
primary link fails. Daisy-chaining will allow multiple
SerDes ports to be connected back-to-back, aggregating
data on the link, before it arrives at the ECU. Finally, functional
safety is being addressed by providing end-to-end
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
January 2022 17
Keysight Technologies
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - January 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - January 2022
