By Telecom Lead Team: With the
ever increasing amount of electronics in vehicles, and the demanding nature of
high-end and emerging applications, there is a great need for high-speed
communications protocols. Emerging as front-runners for more wide-spread use
are: FlexRay, MOST and Ethernet.
The Strategy
Analytics Automotive Electronics Service (AES) report, Automotive High Speed
Networks,” predicts that Ethernet will see both the fastest growth and the
largest volume by 2020.
The key
breakthrough has been the BroadR-Reach physical layer, from Broadcom, now
licensed to other semiconductor vendors, such as NXP. This allows Ethernet at
100 Mbit/s to be transmitted over low-cost, unshielded twisted pair cables.
Ethernet
has gained significant momentum because it meets the requirement for
higher-bandwidth bus networks which many feel cannot be met by existing
protocols, such as CAN,” said Ian Riches, director, Global Automotive Practice,
Strategy Analytics.
FlexRay
will continue to find its niche and see volumes grow, but MOST node volumes are
likely to start to tail off as we head toward 2020,” said Mark Fitzgerald,
associate director in the Strategy Analytics Global Automotive Practice.
