In-vehicle communication system and vehicle

By concentrating the optical transmitting and receiving units around the central computing platform, sharing a cooling system, and adopting an optical fiber and ring network design, the problems of optical power attenuation and electromagnetic interference in high-temperature environments in vehicle communication are solved, achieving high-bandwidth and stable vehicle network communication.

WO2026031528A1PCT designated stage Publication Date: 2026-02-12BYD CO LTD
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Patent Information

Application Number
PCT/CN2025/078854
Authority / Receiving Office
WO · WO
Patent Type
Applications
Current Assignee / Owner
Priority Date
2024-08-09
Filing Date
2025-02-24
Publication Date
2026-02-12

AI Technical Summary

Technical Problem

Existing technologies are difficult to apply effectively in vehicle environments, especially due to the attenuation of optical power and reliability issues of optical transmitters at high temperatures, which cannot meet the high bandwidth requirements and electromagnetic interference challenges of future vehicle networks.

Method used

The optical transmitting and receiving units are concentrated around the central computing platform, sharing the vehicle's cooling system. Optical fiber is used as the transmission medium, and a ring optical network design is used to realize network communication between the central computing platform and the vehicle-mounted optical communication devices. Silicon photonics chips are used for signal conversion and modulation.

Benefits of technology

Stable application of optical communication in high-temperature vehicle environments has been achieved, improving network communication quality, meeting the high bandwidth requirements of vehicle networks, and reducing the impact of electromagnetic interference.

✦ Generated by Eureka AI based on patent content.

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Abstract

An in-vehicle communication system and a vehicle. The system comprises a central computing platform, in-vehicle optical communication devices, and at least one optical communication network; the central computing platform communicates with the in-vehicle optical communication devices by means of the optical communication network; the optical communication network comprises optical transmitting units, optical receiving units, at least one optical fiber, and at least one in-vehicle optical communication connector; the optical transmitting units and the optical receiving units are respectively connected to the in-vehicle optical communication connector by means of the optical fiber; the central computing platform is separately communicatively connected to the optical transmitting units and the optical receiving units; the in-vehicle optical communication devices are communicatively connected to the in-vehicle optical communication connector; the optical transmitting units are located around the central computing platform, so that the optical transmitting units and the central computing platform share a cooling system of a vehicle.
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Description

Vehicle-mounted communication system and vehicle

[0001] This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202411099003.5, filed on August 9, 2024, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present disclosure relates to the technical field of vehicle-mounted communication, and in particular to a vehicle-mounted communication system and a vehicle. BACKGROUND

[0003] With the development of automobile electrification, intelligentization and networking, and the improvement of the level of assisted driving, the demand for vehicle-mounted communication network bandwidth is gradually increasing, which is expected to break through 50 Gbps, or even reach higher 100 Gbps, and to be close to the network bandwidth demand of consumer electronics products. SUMMARY

[0004] The present disclosure provides a vehicle-mounted communication system and a vehicle.

[0005] In a first aspect, a vehicle-mounted communication system is provided, comprising: a central computing platform, a vehicle-mounted optical communication device, and at least one optical communication network, the central computing platform and the vehicle-mounted optical communication device being in communication through the optical communication network; the optical communication network comprising an optical transmitting unit, an optical receiving unit, at least one optical fiber, and at least one vehicle-mounted optical communication connector; the optical transmitting unit and the optical receiving unit being connected to the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector through the optical fiber, the central computing platform being in communication connection with the optical transmitting unit and the optical receiving unit, and the vehicle-mounted optical communication device being in communication connection with the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector; the optical transmitting unit being located around the central computing platform to realize sharing of a cooling system of a vehicle by the optical transmitting unit and the central computing platform.

[0006] In some embodiments, the distance between the optical transmitting unit and the central computing platform is less than a set distance.

[0007] In some embodiments, the set distance is determined according to at least one of the type of the cooling system or the heat exchange mode between the cooling system and the central computing platform.

[0008] In some embodiments, the cooling system comprises one or more of a cold plate, an evaporator, a fan, a plate exchanger, a heat pipe, and a semiconductor cooler.

[0009] In some embodiments, the heat exchange mode comprises one or more of convection heat exchange, radiation heat exchange, and conduction heat exchange.

[0010] In some embodiments, the cooling system is part of a thermal management system of the vehicle.

[0011] In some embodiments, the optical transmitting unit is configured to send a first optical signal to the optical fiber, and the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector is configured to receive the first optical signal and convert the first optical signal into a first electrical signal before sending to the vehicle-mounted optical communication device.

[0012] In some embodiments, the optical transmitting unit is further configured to receive a first electrical signal from the central computing platform, and modulate a first optical carrier emitted by the optical transmitting unit based on the first electrical signal to obtain the first optical signal.

[0013] In some embodiments, the optical transmitting unit is further configured to send a second optical carrier to the optical fiber, the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector is configured to receive the second optical carrier from the optical fiber, and transmit a second optical signal modulated based on the second optical carrier to the optical fiber, and the optical receiving unit is configured to receive the second optical signal.

[0014] In some embodiments, the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector is further configured to receive a second electrical signal from the vehicle-mounted optical communication device, and modulate the second optical carrier based on the second electrical signal to obtain the second optical signal.

[0015] In some embodiments, the optical receiving unit is further configured to convert the second optical signal into a second electrical signal before sending to the central computing platform.

[0016] In some embodiments, the optical transmitting unit and the optical receiving unit are located around the central computing platform, so that the optical transmitting unit and the optical receiving unit share a cooling system of the vehicle with the central computing platform.

[0017] In some embodiments, the at least one vehicle-mounted optical communication connector includes N vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors, each adjacent two of the N vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors are connected by the optical fiber; N is an integer greater than 1.

[0018] In some embodiments, the central computing platform and the vehicle-mounted optical communication device communicate through the optical communication network, the optical communication network includes an optical transmitting unit, an optical receiving unit, an optical fiber and a vehicle-mounted optical communication connector, and the at least one optical communication network includes a first optical communication network and a second optical communication network. The vehicle-mounted communication system further includes at least one first vehicle-mounted optical communication device in communication connection with a first vehicle-mounted optical communication connector in the first optical communication network, and at least one second vehicle-mounted optical communication device in communication connection with a second vehicle-mounted optical communication connector in the second optical communication network.

[0019] In some embodiments, the vehicle-mounted communication system further comprises a splitter, the at least one optical fiber comprises M optical fibers, and the M optical fibers are connected to the optical transmitting unit through the splitter. The splitter satisfies at least one of the following conditions: the splitter is configured to split the optical carrier emitted by the optical transmitting unit into M optical carriers of different wavelengths and transmit them to the M optical fibers, and a vehicle-mounted optical communication connector m in communication with an optical fiber m of the M optical fibers is configured to obtain a second optical signal m by modulating the optical carrier m received from the optical fiber m and transmit the second optical signal m to the optical fiber m; or the splitter is configured to split the optical signal emitted by the optical transmitting unit into M optical signals of different wavelengths and transmit them to the M optical fibers, and a vehicle-mounted optical communication connector m in communication with an optical fiber m of the M optical fibers is configured to receive an optical signal m from the optical fiber m and convert the optical signal m into a first electrical signal m before transmitting the first electrical signal m to a vehicle-mounted optical communication device m connected to the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector m; m is an integer from 1 to M, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0020] In some embodiments, the at least one vehicle-mounted optical communication connector comprises N vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors, an nth vehicle-mounted optical communication connector of the N vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors corresponds to an nth vehicle-mounted optical communication area, and a time period used by the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication connector for optical communication is determined according to a bandwidth of the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication area.

[0021] In some embodiments, the time period used by the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication connector for optical communication at least comprises a first time period corresponding to a first optical signal transmitted by the optical transmitting unit to the optical fiber, and the first time period is determined according to a downlink bandwidth of the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication area.

[0022] In some embodiments, the time period used by the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication connector for optical communication at least comprises a second time period corresponding to a second optical signal received by the optical receiving unit, and the second time period is determined according to an uplink bandwidth of the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication area.

[0023] In some embodiments, the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector is a silicon optical chip.

[0024] In some embodiments, the vehicle-mounted optical communication device and the silicon optical chip are integrated in the same printed circuit board (PCB), and the vehicle-mounted optical communication device comprises at least one of a vehicle-mounted sensor or a vehicle-mounted actuator.

[0025] In some embodiments, the silicon optical chip comprises an optical receiver, an optical switch, and an optical modulator.

[0026] The silicon optical chip is configured to switch among a first signal transmission mode based on the optical receiver, a second signal transmission mode based on the optical modulator, and a third signal transmission mode in which the received signal is not processed, by controlling the optical switch according to the type of the received signal.

[0027] In some embodiments, the silicon optical chip is configured to, in a case where it is detected that the received signal is a first optical signal sent by the optical transmitter to the optical fiber, guide the first optical signal to the optical receiver by controlling the optical switch, the optical receiver being configured to perform photoelectric conversion on the optical signal and send the obtained electrical signal to an on-board sensor or an on-board actuator connected with the silicon optical chip.

[0028] In some embodiments, the silicon optical chip is configured to, in a case where it is detected that the received signal is a second electrical signal received from the on-board optical communication device, guide the second electrical signal to the optical modulator by controlling the optical switch, the optical modulator being configured to modulate the second electrical signal to obtain a second optical signal and send the obtained second optical signal to a next on-board optical communication connector adjacent to the on-board optical communication connector to which the silicon optical chip belongs or the optical receiving unit.

[0029] In some embodiments, the silicon optical chip is configured to, in a case where it is detected that the received signal is an optical signal from an adjacent previous on-board optical communication connector, guide the received optical signal to an adjacent next on-board optical communication connector or the optical receiving unit.

[0030] In a second aspect, a vehicle is provided, the vehicle comprising the on-board communication system of the first aspect.

[0031] In some embodiments, the vehicle further comprises a cooling system in heat exchange with the central computing platform, the optical transmitter, and the optical receiving unit, to achieve cooling of the central computing platform, the optical transmitter, and the optical receiving unit.

[0032] The on-board communication system and the vehicle provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure have the following beneficial effects:

[0033] In one aspect, the optical communication technology is applied to the vehicle environment. To solve the problem of the light power attenuation of the light emitting unit and the reduced service life caused by the high temperature (generally about 105°C) of the vehicle environment, the vehicle optical communication devices distributed in various areas are connected by the optical communication network, the network communication between the central computing platform and the vehicle optical communication devices is realized, and thus the light emitting unit in the optical communication network can be integrated around the central computing platform (avoiding the distribution of the light emitting unit in various areas of the vehicle), the light emitting unit and the central computing platform share the cooling system of the vehicle, the centralized cooling treatment of the light emitting unit is realized, and the optical communication technology is successfully applied to the vehicle environment with a relatively high temperature.

[0034] In another aspect, the network communication between the central computing platform and the vehicle optical communication devices in the vehicle environment is realized by the optical communication network to improve the network communication quality of the vehicle. The optical communication network uses optical fibers as the transmission medium, can improve the network bandwidth of the communication system by using the high-speed data stream formed by the optical carrier, meet the increasing demand for the network bandwidth of the vehicle, and can realize more stable network communication because the optical fiber medium is silicon dioxide and is not affected by the electromagnetic environment radiation. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0035] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be briefly introduced. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present disclosure, and other drawings can be obtained by those skilled in the art without creative labor.

[0036] FIG. 1 is a structural schematic diagram of a vehicle communication system according to some embodiments;

[0037] FIG. 2 is a structural schematic diagram of an optical communication network according to some embodiments;

[0038] FIG. 3 is a structural schematic diagram of a system composed of multiple optical communication networks according to some embodiments;

[0039] FIG. 4 is a structural schematic diagram of a silicon optical chip according to some embodiments;

[0040] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a working signal processing flow of a silicon optical chip according to some embodiments;

[0041] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a vehicle according to some embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0042] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in greater detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings so as to be understood more clearly. While some embodiments of the present disclosure are shown in the drawings, it is understood that the present disclosure can be implemented in various forms and should not be limited by the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so as to enable a more thorough understanding of the present disclosure and to convey the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art.

[0043] With the development of automobile electrification, intelligentization and networking, and the improvement of the level of assisted driving, the demand for vehicle communication network bandwidth is gradually increasing, mainly in two aspects:

[0044] First, the improvement of the level of assisted driving requires the fusion of multiple sensors, such as data fusion between cameras, ultrasonic radar, laser radar, and millimeter wave radar. In particular, there are two aspects to the development of vehicle-mounted cameras. First, the number of cameras has broken through 10. Second, the cameras have become high-definition, and 8 million pixels have been mass-produced. Without compression, the transmission bandwidth for data is close to 10 Gbps.

[0045] Second, the development of intelligent cockpits, including the increase in screens and other interactive and entertainment devices, has raised higher requirements for the bandwidth of vehicle communication.

[0046] In summary, the bandwidth demand of future vehicle communication is expected to exceed 50 Gbps, or even higher, 100 Gbps, which is close to the network bandwidth demand of consumer electronics products.

[0047] However, the transmission bandwidth of current traditional vehicle buses, such as Controller Area Network (CAN), Local Interconnect Network (LIN), Media Oriented Systems Transport (MOST), and FlexRay, is within 150 Mbps, while high-speed vehicle communication is mainly based on Ethernet, which can currently support a transmission rate of up to 10 Gbps. The transmission medium is twisted pair, which cannot meet the bandwidth demand of future vehicle networks.

[0048] Moreover, the electromagnetic environment in the vehicle field is more complex, especially in electric vehicles, which integrate high-voltage battery packs and low-voltage electronic components, which can easily cause serious electromagnetic interference to communication transmission.

[0049] Optical communication technology can often achieve higher network bandwidth. To meet the future demand for vehicle high bandwidth of 50 Gbps+, referring to the current communication industry, when the bandwidth is above 40 Gbps, optical fiber is used as the transmission medium.

[0050] Therefore, it is a better choice to replace the cable and twisted pair with optical fiber as the transmission medium. Replacing the twisted pair with optical fiber as the transmission medium can not only meet the bandwidth demand of future vehicle development transmission, but also better solve the interference of the electromagnetic environment.

[0051] However, there are still some difficulties in applying optical communication technology to the vehicle environment. One of the biggest difficulties is that the optical transmitting module (i.e., the optical transmitting unit) in optical communication is difficult to meet the vehicle temperature (105°C) specification, mainly in two aspects:

[0052] First, the optical transmitting module is a semiconductor laser, and the optical power of the optical transmitting laser attenuates at high temperature. Second, the reliability of the optical transmitting laser at high temperature makes it difficult to achieve a service life of more than 15 years. These are all bottleneck problems that affect the application of optical communication in vehicles and need to be solved urgently.

[0053] In view of the above problems, some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a vehicle-mounted communication system and a vehicle to solve the problem of the difficulty of applying the above-mentioned optical communication technology in the vehicle environment. The vehicle-mounted communication system in some embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below in combination with the drawings and some embodiments and their application scenarios.

[0054] Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a vehicle-mounted communication system. FIG. 1 is a structural schematic diagram of a vehicle-mounted communication system according to some embodiments. As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle-mounted communication system includes a central computing platform 1, vehicle-mounted optical communication devices (such as 5-1 …… 5-n and 5'-1 …… 5'-n shown in FIG. 1), and at least one optical communication network. The optical communication network includes an optical transmitting unit (such as 2 and 2' shown in FIG. 1), an optical receiving unit (such as 3 and 3' shown in FIG. 1), at least one optical fiber, and at least one vehicle-mounted optical communication connector (such as 4-1 …… 4-n and 4'-1 …… 4'-n shown in FIG. 1).

[0055] The optical transmitting unit (such as 2 and 2' shown in FIG. 1) and the optical receiving unit (such as 3 and 3' shown in FIG. 1) are connected to the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector (such as 4-1 …… 4-n and 4'-1 …… 4'-n shown in FIG. 1) through the optical fiber. The central computing platform 1 is in communication connection with the optical transmitting unit (such as 2 and 2' shown in FIG. 1) and the optical receiving unit (such as 3 and 3' shown in FIG. 1). The vehicle-mounted optical communication device (such as 5-1 …… 5-n and 5'-1 …… 5'-n shown in FIG. 1) is in communication connection with the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector (such as 4-1 …… 4-n and 4'-1 …… 4'-n shown in FIG. 1).

[0056] The optical transmitting unit (such as 2 and 2' shown in FIG. 1) is located around the central computing platform 1 to realize that the optical transmitting unit 2 shares the cooling system of the vehicle with the central computing platform 1.

[0057] The vehicle-mounted communication system provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure can be used in a vehicle architecture that integrates multiple control systems (for example, vehicle control, intelligent cockpit, ADAS, etc.) with a central computing platform. The central computing platform domain executor and sensor communication eliminates the domain controller, and at least the executor has a certain computing processing function. The central computing platform can also become a central controller.

[0058] The vehicle-mounted optical communication device is connected to the vehicle-mounted communication system through a vehicle-mounted optical communication connector. The vehicle-mounted optical communication device may, for example, include but is not limited to a vehicle-mounted sensor, a vehicle-mounted actuator, etc. For example, the vehicle-mounted sensor can be a camera, a millimeter wave radar, a laser radar, an ultrasonic radar, etc. The vehicle-mounted actuator can be an electric motor, a clutch valve, a valve mechanism, an electromagnetic valve, etc.

[0059] The central computing platform is configured to receive uplink signals (for example, images collected by a camera) of vehicle-mounted optical communication devices in each vehicle-mounted optical communication area, and send downlink signals (for example, image collection instructions for the camera) to the vehicle-mounted optical communication devices in each vehicle-mounted optical communication area.

[0060] In some embodiments, the light emitting unit is located around the central computing platform 1, which can be understood as the distance between the light emitting unit and the central computing platform is less than a set distance. The light emitting unit located around the central computing platform 1 means that the light emitting unit is located at any position above, below and around the central computing platform.

[0061] In some embodiments, the set distance is determined according to at least one of the type of the cooling system, or the heat exchange mode between the cooling system and the central computing platform.

[0062] In some embodiments, the cooling system includes one or more of a cold plate, an evaporator, a fan, a plate exchanger, a heat pipe, and a semiconductor cooler.

[0063] In some embodiments, the heat exchange mode includes one or more of convection heat exchange, radiation heat exchange, and conduction heat exchange.

[0064] In some embodiments, the cooling system is part of a thermal management system of a vehicle. In this way, the central computing platform, the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit can be cooled without adding an additional heat exchange system.

[0065] In some embodiments of the present disclosure, optical communication is used as the backbone communication network (i.e., optical communication network) to support network communication between the central computing platform and each vehicle-mounted optical communication device.

[0066] For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the central computing platform is communicatively connected with a light emitting unit LD (Laser Diode, i.e., the LD module shown in FIG. 1) and a light receiving unit PD (Photodiode, i.e., the PD module shown in FIG. 1), whereby the central computing platform transmits a downstream signal through the light emitting unit and receives an upstream signal through the light receiving unit.

[0067] For example, the signal transmission rate of the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit is greater than or equal to 1 Gbps (may be 5 / 10 / 25 / 50 / 100 Gbps, etc., or an intermediate area bandwidth, etc.). The light emitting unit and the light receiving unit are connected with a vehicle-mounted optical communication connector (such as the M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6 modules shown in FIG. 1) through an optical fiber, and the vehicle-mounted optical communication device is communicatively connected with the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector, whereby the vehicle-mounted optical communication device receives the downstream signal transmitted by the light emitting unit through the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector and transmits the upstream signal to the light receiving unit through the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector.

[0068] In this system, the transmission process of the downstream signal is in sequence: the central computing platform → the light emitting unit → the optical fiber → the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector → the vehicle-mounted optical communication device; and the transmission process of the upstream signal is in sequence: the vehicle-mounted optical communication device → the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector → the optical fiber → the light receiving unit → the central computing platform. The light source of the upstream signal is provided by the light emitting unit disposed near the central computing platform. That is, the upstream signal and the downstream signal share the light source.

[0069] In some embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, the light emitting units (such as 2 and 2' shown in FIG. 1) are located around the central computing platform 1, so as to enable the light emitting units (such as 2 and 2' shown in FIG. 1) and the central computing platform 1 to share the cooling system of the vehicle.

[0070] For example, some embodiments of the present disclosure can employ a semiconductor laser as the light emitting unit, which is configured to provide an optical carrier for the optical communication network. Since the maximum temperature of the vehicle-mounted environment can reach 125°C, and the optical power and reliability of the light emitting unit are susceptible to high temperature, which in turn affects the communication quality of the optical network (i.e., the optical communication network).

[0071] To solve this problem, some embodiments of the present disclosure concentrate the light emitting units around the central computing platform (avoid distributing the light emitting units in various regions of the vehicle), so as to enable the light emitting units to be cooled by a semiconductor refrigerator TEC or a water cooling system based on the central integrated architecture adopted by the vehicle, realize centralized cooling processing of the light emitting units, and realize the application of optical communication technology in a vehicle-mounted environment with relatively high temperature.

[0072] In some embodiments, the light emitting units (2 and 2' shown in FIG. 1) and the light receiving units (3 and 3' shown in FIG. 1) are both located around the central computing platform 1, so that the light emitting units (2 and 2' shown in FIG. 1) and the light receiving units (3 and 3' shown in FIG. 1) share the cooling system of the vehicle with the central computing platform 1.

[0073] In some embodiments, considering that the light receiving units are also affected by the high temperature in the vehicle environment to a certain extent, the light emitting units and the light receiving units in each optical communication network are concentrated around the central computing platform, thereby further reducing the influence of temperature on the optical communication network and improving the overall communication quality of the vehicle communication system.

[0074] In some embodiments, the at least one vehicle-mounted optical communication connector includes N vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors, each adjacent two vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors are connected by an optical fiber, and N is an integer greater than 1.

[0075] For example, referring to FIG. 2, which is a structural schematic diagram of an optical communication network according to some embodiments, each optical communication network includes one or more vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors (4-1, 4-2, …, 4-n shown in FIG. 2), and each vehicle-mounted optical communication connector is connected with a corresponding vehicle-mounted optical communication device, so as to realize the communication connection between the vehicle-mounted optical communication device and the optical communication network.

[0076] Each two adjacent vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors are connected by an optical fiber (as shown by the wide arrow in FIG. 2), so that the light emitting unit, the plurality of vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors, and the light receiving unit are sequentially connected in series by the optical fiber to form a ring optical network (i.e., an optical communication network). As shown in FIG. 2, in the ring optical network, the transmission direction of the optical carrier is: starting from the light emitting unit 2, sequentially passing through one or more vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors (i.e., sequentially passing through 4-1, 4-2, …, 4-n) through the optical fiber, and finally being received by the light receiving unit 3.

[0077] In order to concentrate the light emitting units in the optical communication network around the central computing platform, some embodiments of the present disclosure adopt a ring optical network design, taking the ring optical network (i.e., the optical communication network) as the backbone communication network to support the network communication between the central computing platform and each vehicle-mounted optical communication device. The signal transmission in the optical communication network mainly includes two types: one is the transmission of downlink signals, i.e., the central computing platform sends downlink signals to the vehicle-mounted optical communication device through the optical communication network; the other is the transmission of uplink signals, i.e., the vehicle-mounted optical communication device sends uplink signals to the central computing platform through the optical communication network.

[0078] In order to facilitate the understanding of the technical solutions provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, the optical communication network (i.e., the ring optical network) in the vehicle communication system is described below through multiple examples.

[0079] The following illustrates the transmission process of a downlink signal in an optical communication network.

[0080] In some embodiments, the optical transmitting unit is configured to send a first optical signal to the optical fiber, and the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector is configured to receive the first optical signal and convert the first optical signal into a first electrical signal before sending to the vehicle-mounted optical communication device.

[0081] In some embodiments, the optical transmitting unit is further configured to receive the first electrical signal from the central computing platform, and modulate a first optical carrier emitted by the optical transmitting unit based on the first electrical signal to obtain the first optical signal.

[0082] In some embodiments, the optical transmitting unit is configured to provide an optical carrier and modulate an electrical signal into an optical signal. As shown in FIG. 2, in the case that the central computing platform sends a downlink signal to a certain vehicle-mounted optical communication device (for example, sends an image acquisition signal to a camera), the central computing platform sends a first electrical signal to the optical transmitting unit, and the optical transmitting unit modulates the first electrical signal into a first optical signal based on a first optical carrier, completing the electro-optical signal conversion.

[0083] Then, the obtained first optical signal is sent by the optical transmitting unit to the optical fiber, and the first optical signal is transmitted by the optical fiber to the corresponding vehicle-mounted optical communication connector (for example, to the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector 4-3 in FIG. 2).

[0084] Further, the received first optical signal is converted into a first electrical signal by the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector (for example, the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector 4-3 in FIG. 2), completing the photoelectric signal conversion.

[0085] Finally, the modulated first electrical signal is sent to the corresponding vehicle-mounted optical communication device (as shown in FIG. 1, each vehicle-mounted optical communication connector has and only connects to a corresponding vehicle-mounted optical communication device). Thus, the downlink signal transmission from the central computing platform to the vehicle-mounted optical communication device is completed, and the downlink signal is transmitted in the form of a first electrical signal and a first optical signal respectively during the transmission process.

[0086] The following illustrates the transmission process of an uplink signal in an optical communication network.

[0087] In some embodiments, the optical transmitting unit is further configured to send a second optical carrier to the optical fiber, the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector is configured to receive the second optical carrier from the optical fiber and transmit a second optical signal modulated based on the second optical carrier to the optical fiber, and the optical receiving unit is configured to receive the second optical signal.

[0088] In some embodiments, the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector is further configured to receive a second electrical signal from the vehicle-mounted optical communication device and modulate a second optical carrier based on the second electrical signal to obtain the second optical signal.

[0089] In some embodiments, the light receiving unit is further configured to transmit the second electrical signal to the central computing platform after converting the second optical signal into the second electrical signal.

[0090] In some embodiments, as shown in FIG. 2, in the case that a certain vehicle-mounted optical communication device transmits an uplink signal to the central computing platform (for example, a camera transmits the collected image to the central computing platform), the second electrical signal is transmitted by the certain vehicle-mounted signal to the connected vehicle-mounted optical communication connector (for example, vehicle-mounted optical communication connector 4-2 in FIG. 2), and the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector modulates the second electrical signal into a second optical signal based on the second optical carrier.

[0091] In this optical communication network, the uplink signal and the downlink signal share the light source. The light emitting unit transmits the second optical carrier to the optical fiber, and the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector can complete the electro-optical signal conversion based on the real-time second optical carrier received from the optical fiber when transmission of the uplink signal is required when transmitting the uplink signal.

[0092] The modulated second optical signal is then transmitted by the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector to the light receiving unit through the optical fiber, and the light receiving unit modulates the second optical signal to obtain a second electrical signal, thereby completing the photoelectric conversion.

[0093] Finally, the modulated second electrical signal is transmitted to the central computing platform. In this way, the uplink signal transmission from the vehicle-mounted optical communication device to the central computing platform is completed, and the uplink signal is transmitted in the form of a second electrical signal and a second optical signal during transmission.

[0094] In some embodiments, the vehicle-mounted communication system includes multiple optical communication networks, and the multiple optical communication networks are independent of each other.

[0095] In some embodiments, the central computing platform and the vehicle-mounted optical communication device communicate through an optical communication network, and the optical communication network includes a light emitting unit, a light receiving unit, an optical fiber, and a vehicle-mounted optical communication connector. The vehicle-mounted communication system includes a first optical communication network and a second optical communication network, and further includes at least one first vehicle-mounted optical communication device in communication connection with a first vehicle-mounted optical communication connector in the first optical communication network, and at least one second vehicle-mounted optical communication device in communication connection with a second vehicle-mounted optical communication connector in the second optical communication network.

[0096] For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle-mounted communication system includes multiple optical communication networks (a first optical communication network and a second optical communication network), and the central computing platform and the vehicle-mounted optical communication device communicate through the optical communication network. Each optical communication network has an independent light emitting unit, a light receiving unit, an optical path, and one or more vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors connected in series through the optical path.

[0097] As shown in FIG. 1, each first vehicle-mounted optical communication connector (4-1…4-n as shown in FIG. 1) of the first optical communication network is correspondingly connected with a first vehicle-mounted optical communication device, and each second vehicle-mounted optical communication connector (4’-1…4’-n as shown in FIG. 1) of the second optical communication network is correspondingly connected with a second vehicle-mounted optical communication device. Each optical communication network (the first optical communication network or the second optical communication network) in the system can independently perform the transmission of the downlink signal and the uplink signal between the central computing platform and the vehicle-mounted optical communication device by using the signal transmission method in the above example.

[0098] In some embodiments, the vehicle-mounted communication system includes a plurality of optical communication networks, and the plurality of optical communication networks share the optical transmitting unit by using an optical splitter.

[0099] In some embodiments, the vehicle-mounted communication system further includes an optical splitter, and the at least one optical fiber includes M optical fibers, and the M optical fibers are connected with the optical transmitting unit through the optical splitter.

[0100] The optical splitter satisfies at least one of the following conditions: the optical splitter is configured to divide the optical carrier emitted by the optical transmitting unit into M optical carriers of different wavelengths and transmit them to the M optical fibers, and the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector m in communication with the optical fiber m in the M optical fibers is configured to modulate the second optical signal m based on the optical carrier m received from the optical fiber m and transmit it to the optical fiber m; or the optical splitter is configured to divide the optical signal emitted by the optical transmitting unit into M optical signals of different wavelengths and transmit them to the M optical fibers, and the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector m in communication with the optical fiber m in the M optical fibers is configured to receive the optical signal m from the optical fiber m and convert the optical signal m into the first electrical signal m before sending it to the vehicle-mounted optical communication device m connected with the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector m.

[0101] For example, the value of m is from 1 to M, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0102] For example, FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a system structure of a plurality of optical communication networks according to some embodiments. As shown in FIG. 3, the vehicle-mounted communication system includes M optical communication networks, the M optical communication networks share the optical transmitting unit, and each optical communication network has an independent optical receiving unit (3-1, 3-2 and 3’-1, 3’-2 as shown in FIG. 3), an optical path, and one or more vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors (4-1, 4-2 and 4-3 as shown in FIG. 3) connected in series through the optical path. The optical transmitting unit is in communication with an optical splitter (6 and 6’ as shown in FIG. 1), and the at least one optical fiber includes M optical fibers, and the M optical fibers are connected with the optical transmitting unit through the optical splitter.

[0103] In one aspect, the light carrier emitted by the light emitting unit can be divided into M light carriers with different wavelengths by the optical splitter, and the wavelength distribution is λ1 to λM nm, for example, the wavelengths of λ1 to λM are different from each other, and the gap between each two wavelengths is ≥0.2 nm. The M light carriers are transmitted to M optical fibers respectively, so that each optical communication network corresponds to a light carrier (the mth optical communication network is based on the mth light carrier in the M light carriers for optical communication).

[0104] For example, for the first optical communication network, the light communication is carried out by using the light carrier with wavelength λ1, and for the mth optical communication network, the light communication is carried out by using the light carrier with wavelength λm.

[0105] For example, the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector m of the optical fiber m communication connection can receive the light carrier m (equivalent to the second light carrier in the above example) from the optical fiber m (when transmitting the uplink signal), modulate the light carrier m to obtain the second optical signal m, and transmit the second optical signal m to the optical fiber m.

[0106] On the other hand, the light signal emitted by the light emitting unit can be divided into M light signals with different wavelengths by the optical splitter, and the wavelength distribution is λ1 to λM nm, for example, the wavelengths of λ1 to λM are different from each other, and the gap between each two wavelengths is ≥0.2 nm. The M light signals are transmitted to M optical fibers respectively, so that each optical communication network corresponds to a light signal.

[0107] For example, the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector m of the optical fiber m communication connection can receive the light signal m (equivalent to the first light signal in the above example) from the optical fiber m (when transmitting the downlink signal), and convert the light signal m into the first electrical signal m and then send it to the vehicle-mounted optical communication device m connected to the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector m.

[0108] For example, each optical communication network (the mth optical communication network) can use the signal transmission method in the above example to independently transmit the downlink signal and the uplink signal between the central computing platform and the vehicle-mounted optical communication device.

[0109] In some embodiments, in each optical communication network in the vehicle-mounted communication system, time-division communication is used between the plurality of vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors.

[0110] In some embodiments, the at least one vehicle-mounted optical communication connector includes N vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors, the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication connector in the N vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors corresponds to the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication area, and the time period used by the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication connector for optical communication is determined according to the bandwidth of the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication area.

[0111] For example, the optical communication network includes N vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors (also referred to as regional connectors), each of which corresponds to a vehicle-mounted optical communication region, which can be a whole vehicle control domain, an intelligent cockpit domain, an auxiliary driving (ADAS) domain, etc. Each vehicle-mounted optical communication connector is assigned a time for optical communication.

[0112] For example, in the optical communication network shown in FIG. 2, the n vehicle-mounted optical communication regions (i.e., n vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors) correspond to times t1 to tn, respectively. For example, the time for optical communication in the vehicle-mounted optical communication region 1 (i.e., the first vehicle-mounted optical communication connector 4-1) is t1, and the time for optical communication in the vehicle-mounted optical communication region n (i.e., the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication connector 4-n) is tn.

[0113] In some embodiments, for a plurality of vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors in the optical communication network, the signal transmission method in the above example can be performed according to the assigned time to achieve the transmission of downlink signals and uplink signals between the central computing platform and the vehicle-mounted optical communication device.

[0114] For example, the time for optical communication of each vehicle-mounted optical communication connector can be assigned according to the bandwidth data of the corresponding vehicle-mounted optical communication region, and the time length can be the same or different.

[0115] For example, the bandwidth demand of the auxiliary driving domain is high, and accordingly, the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector corresponding to the auxiliary driving domain is assigned a longer optical communication time.

[0116] In some embodiments, the time period used by the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication connector for optical communication at least includes a first time period corresponding to the first optical signal sent by the optical transmitter to the optical fiber, and the first time period is determined according to the downlink bandwidth of the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication region.

[0117] In some embodiments, the time period used by the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication connector for optical communication at least includes a second time period corresponding to the second optical signal received by the optical receiver, and the second time period is determined according to the uplink bandwidth of the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication region.

[0118] For example, for each vehicle-mounted optical communication connector, both the transmission of uplink signals (receiving a second electrical signal from the vehicle-mounted optical communication device, modulating a second optical carrier emitted by the optical transmitter based on the second electrical signal to obtain a second optical signal, and transmitting the second optical signal to the optical fiber) and the transmission of downlink signals (the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector is configured to receive and convert the first optical signal into a first electrical signal and then send it to the vehicle-mounted optical communication device) need to be performed.

[0119] In some embodiments, the time for optical communication is divided into two parts according to the bandwidth requirement of the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector for performing uplink signal transmission and downlink signal transmission, one part is the time allocated for transmitting downlink signals, and the other part is the time allocated for transmitting uplink signals.

[0120] For example, for the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector 4-1, the time allocated for optical communication is t1, and in the t1 time, the time allocated for performing downlink signal transmission is t1-1, and the time allocated for performing uplink signal transmission is t1-2, so that the sum of the two times is t1.

[0121] In addition, when there are multiple optical communication networks in the vehicle-mounted communication system, each optical communication network can allocate time for multiple vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors in the optical communication network according to the method in the above example. The network structure in the above example (independent between multiple optical communication networks, or sharing a light emitting unit between multiple optical communication networks using a splitter) can be used in the multiple optical communication networks in the system.

[0122] In some embodiments, a parallel communication scheme is used between multiple optical communication networks in the vehicle-mounted communication system.

[0123] In some embodiments, the vehicle-mounted communication system includes M optical communication networks, and the M optical communication networks perform optical communication in parallel, where M is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0124] For example, when the vehicle-mounted communication system includes M optical communication networks, each optical communication network performs optical communication independently according to the method in the above example.

[0125] For example, each optical communication network can allocate time for optical communication for multiple vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors in the optical communication network according to the method in the above example. The network structure in the above example (independent between multiple optical communication networks, or sharing a light emitting unit between multiple optical communication networks using a splitter) can be used in the M optical communication networks.

[0126] In some embodiments, the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector is a silicon optical chip.

[0127] In some embodiments, silicon optical technology is used, and a silicon optical chip is used as a vehicle-mounted optical communication connector. Compared with a semiconductor laser, the silicon optical chip has stronger high-temperature resistance, and has less impact on the communication of the optical communication network in a high-temperature environment, thereby further improving the reliability of the optical communication network.

[0128] In some embodiments, the vehicle-mounted optical communication device and the silicon optical chip are integrated in the same printed circuit board (PCB), and the vehicle-mounted optical communication device includes at least one of a vehicle-mounted sensor or a vehicle-mounted actuator.

[0129] In some embodiments, the silicon optical chip and at least one of the vehicle-mounted sensor or the vehicle-mounted actuator can be integrated on the same PCB to form a highly integrated and distributed system, due to the communication connection between the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector (silicon optical chip) and the corresponding vehicle-mounted optical communication device (at least one of the vehicle-mounted sensor or the vehicle-mounted actuator).

[0130] In some embodiments, the silicon optical chip includes an optical receiver, an optical switch, and an optical modulator. The silicon optical chip is configured to switch between a first signal transmission mode based on the optical receiver, a second signal transmission mode based on the optical modulator, and a third signal transmission mode in which the received signal is not processed, by controlling the optical switch according to the type of the received signal.

[0131] For example, FIG. 4 is a structural diagram of a silicon optical chip according to some embodiments. As shown in FIG. 4, the silicon optical chip 400 includes an optical receiver 401, an optical switch 402, and an optical modulator 403, which can be in a separate or integrated mode.

[0132] For example, the optical receiver 401 can be a silicon germanium process-based optical receiver or a III-V compound semiconductor-based optical receiver; the optical modulator 403 can be a silicon-based modulator or a lithium niobate-based modulator; and the optical switch 402 can be a thermal modulation switch or an electric modulation optical switch.

[0133] For example, the optical receiver 401 is mainly configured to receive the downlink signal sent from the central computing platform, perform photoelectric conversion (convert the optical signal to the electrical signal), and transmit to the vehicle-mounted optical communication device (at least one of the vehicle-mounted sensor or the vehicle-mounted actuator) connected by communication.

[0134] The optical modulator 403 is mainly configured to receive the uplink signal sent by the vehicle-mounted optical communication device (at least one of the vehicle-mounted sensor or the vehicle-mounted actuator) connected by communication, perform electro-optical conversion (convert the electrical signal to the optical signal), and transmit to the optical receiving unit through the optical fiber to realize uplink signal transmission; the optical switch 402 is configured to distinguish and switch the uplink signal and the downlink signal (direct the received uplink signal to the optical modulator and direct the received downlink signal to the optical receiver).

[0135] As a vehicle-mounted optical communication connector, the silicon optical chip transmits the uplink signal and the downlink signal in the optical communication network according to the methods described in Scheme One and Scheme Two, and the following content describes the signal transmission process of the silicon optical chip.

[0136] In some embodiments, the silicon optical chip is configured to, in a case where it is detected that the received signal is a first optical signal sent by the optical transmitter to the optical fiber, guide the first optical signal to the optical receiver by controlling the optical switch, the optical receiver being configured to perform photoelectric conversion on the optical signal and send the obtained electrical signal to the vehicle-mounted sensor or vehicle-mounted actuator connected with the silicon optical chip.

[0137] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the working signal processing flow of a silicon optical chip according to some embodiments. As shown in (A) of Figure 5, when the silicon optical chip is used to transmit a downlink signal (i.e. in a case where it is detected that the received signal is a first optical signal sent by the optical transmitter to the optical fiber), the silicon optical chip performs the steps of the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector in scheme one: converting the received first optical signal into a first electrical signal, completing photoelectric signal conversion, and then sending the obtained first electrical signal to the corresponding vehicle-mounted optical communication device.

[0138] For example, the central computing platform sends a first electrical signal to the optical transmitter, the optical transmitter modulates a first optical carrier based on the first electrical signal to obtain a first optical signal, and then transmits the first optical signal to the corresponding silicon optical chip through the optical fiber. The silicon optical chip guides the first optical signal to the optical receiver (e.g. the PD module shown in (A) of Figure 5) by controlling the optical switch (determining that it is a downlink signal and switching), the optical receiver completes photoelectric conversion (converts the first optical signal into a first electrical signal), and transmits the first electrical signal to the vehicle-mounted optical communication device (vehicle-mounted sensor or vehicle-mounted actuator) connected by communication.

[0139] In some embodiments, the silicon optical chip is configured to, in a case where it is detected that the received signal is a second electrical signal received from the vehicle-mounted optical communication device, guide the second electrical signal to the optical modulator by controlling the optical switch, the optical modulator being configured to modulate the second electrical signal to obtain a second optical signal, and send the obtained second optical signal to the next vehicle-mounted optical communication connector or optical receiving unit adjacent to the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector to which the silicon optical chip belongs.

[0140] As shown in (B) of Figure 5, when the silicon optical chip is configured to transmit an uplink signal (i.e. in a case where it is detected that the received signal is a second electrical signal received from the vehicle-mounted optical communication device), the silicon optical chip performs the steps of the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector in scheme two: receiving the second electrical signal from the vehicle-mounted optical communication device, modulating a second optical carrier emitted by the optical transmitter based on the second electrical signal to obtain a second optical signal, and transmitting the second optical signal to the optical fiber.

[0141] For example, the second electrical signal transmitted by the vehicle-mounted optical communication device (vehicle-mounted sensor or vehicle-mounted actuator) is transmitted to the corresponding silicon optical chip, the silicon optical chip guides the second electrical signal to the optical modulator of the silicon optical chip by controlling the optical switch (determining as the uplink signal and switching), the optical modulator realizes the conversion from the electrical signal to the optical signal (based on the second optical carrier transmitted by the optical transmitting unit, the second electrical signal is converted into the second optical signal), and is transmitted to the adjacent next vehicle-mounted optical communication connector (silicon optical chip) or optical receiving unit through the optical fiber, completing the transmission of the uplink signal.

[0142] In some embodiments, the silicon optical chip is configured to guide the received optical signal to the adjacent next vehicle-mounted optical communication connector or optical receiving unit in the case of detecting that the received signal is an optical signal from the adjacent previous vehicle-mounted optical communication connector.

[0143] Since in the optical communication network, a plurality of vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors are connected in series through optical fibers, and two adjacent vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors (silicon optical chips) are connected through optical fibers, the transmission of the optical signal between the optical fibers needs to be relayed by one or more silicon optical chips.

[0144] For the i-th silicon optical chip, a total of three signals will be received: one is the downlink signal transmitted by the central computing platform to the vehicle-mounted optical communication device to which the i-th silicon optical chip is communicatively connected, one is the uplink signal transmitted by the vehicle-mounted optical communication device to which the i-th silicon optical chip is communicatively connected to the central computing platform, and the other is the through signal. The through signal is the downlink signal transmitted by the central computing platform to a certain silicon optical chip connected in series after the i-th silicon optical chip (transmitted by the i-1-th silicon optical chip to the i-th silicon optical chip through the optical fiber), or the uplink signal transmitted by a certain silicon optical chip connected in series before the i-th silicon optical chip to the optical receiving unit (transmitted by the i-1-th silicon optical chip to the i-th silicon optical chip through the optical fiber).

[0145] As shown in (C) of FIG. 5, for any silicon optical chip in the optical communication network, in the case of receiving the through signal (the received signal is an optical signal from the adjacent previous vehicle-mounted optical communication connector), the received through signal is guided to the next adjacent vehicle-mounted optical communication connector, and if the silicon optical chip is the last silicon optical chip connected in series in the optical communication network, the through signal is directly transmitted to the optical receiving unit through the optical fiber, without any processing of the through signal.

[0146] The vehicle-mounted network architecture in the related art adopts a domain controller electronic and electrical architecture, and uses a 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps Ethernet as the communication of the backbone network between domain controllers in different areas, and uses a twisted pair for transmission communication. The twisted pair can meet the current bandwidth demand of 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps. However, when the transmission bandwidth demand exceeds 50G+, the currently used twisted pair or other cables are difficult to meet the communication demand. Mainly based on the fact that when the cable needs to transmit high-bandwidth data, it needs to use a higher baud rate coding mode (PAM16). If the optical communication technology is applied to the vehicle-mounted environment to meet the bandwidth demand, the high temperature of the vehicle-mounted environment will cause the optical power of the optical transmitting unit to attenuate and the service life to decrease.

[0147] To solve the above problems, some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a vehicle-mounted communication system, which uses an optical communication network to realize network communication between a central computing platform and various vehicle-mounted optical communication devices. The optical communication network uses an optical fiber as a transmission medium. Not only can the high-speed data stream formed by the optical carrier improve the network bandwidth of the communication system (which can generally reach more than 40 Gbps), thereby meeting the increasing demand for vehicle-mounted network bandwidth, but also the optical fiber medium is silicon dioxide, which is not affected by electromagnetic environmental radiation interference, and can realize more stable network communication.

[0148] In addition, some embodiments of the present disclosure adopt a ring optical network design (i.e., an optical communication network), and concentrate the optical transmitting unit (which can also include an optical receiving unit) in the area around the central computing platform, and use a semiconductor refrigerator TEC or a water cooling system based on the central integrated architecture to cool the vehicle, so as to reduce the influence of high temperature on the optical module.

[0149] In addition, some embodiments of the present disclosure combine silicon optical technology, and integrate a silicon optical chip based on silicon optical technology (i.e., a vehicle-mounted optical communication connector) in the vehicle-mounted optical communication device. The silicon optical chip includes an optical receiver, an optical switch, and an optical modulator. Thus, by using the co-packaging scheme of silicon optical technology and the vehicle-mounted optical communication device, the optical transmitting unit is concentrated in the area around the central computing platform (avoiding the distribution of the optical transmitting unit in each area of the vehicle), which is conducive to centralized cooling processing, and further reduces the influence of temperature on the optical power and reliability of the optical transmitting unit.

[0150] For example, the transmission rate of the optical transmitter and the optical receiver is greater than or equal to 1 Gbps (which can be 5 / 10 / 25 / 50 / 100 Gbps, etc., and can also be an intermediate area bandwidth, etc.).

[0151] Some embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a vehicle 1000, as shown in FIG. 6, which includes the vehicle-mounted communication system 1001 described above.

[0152] In some embodiments, the vehicle 1000 further comprises a cooling system 1002 which exchanges heat with the central computing platform, the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit to achieve cooling for the central computing platform, the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit.

[0153] Each of the embodiments in the present specification is described in a progressive manner, and each embodiment focuses on the differences from other embodiments. The same or similar parts between each embodiment can be understood by referring to each other.

[0154] Some embodiments of the present disclosure are described with reference to flowcharts and / or block diagrams of methods, apparatuses, electronic devices and computer program products according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be understood that each flow and / or block in the flowcharts and / or block diagrams, and the combination of the flows and / or blocks in the flowcharts and / or block diagrams can be implemented by computer program instructions.

[0155] These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, an embedded processor, or other programmable data processing terminals to produce a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing terminal produce a device for implementing the functions specified in one or more flows of the flowcharts and / or one or more blocks of the block diagrams.

[0156] Although some embodiments of the present disclosure have been described, those skilled in the art can make further changes and modifications to these embodiments once they know the basic inventive concept. Therefore, the appended claims are intended to cover all such changes and modifications falling within the scope of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0157] Finally, it should be noted that, in this document, the relationship terms such as first and second are only used to distinguish one entity or operation from another entity or operation, and do not necessarily require or imply any such actual relationship or order between the entities or operations.

[0158] Moreover, the term "include", "contain" or any other variant thereof is intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, so that the process, method, article or terminal device including a series of elements not only includes those elements, but also includes other elements not explicitly listed or inherent to such process, method, article or terminal device. Without more limitations, the element defined by the statement "including a" does not exclude the presence of another identical element in the process, method, article or terminal device including the element.

[0159] The above describes in detail the vehicle-mounted communication system and the vehicle provided by the present disclosure. Some embodiments are applied to the principles and implementation manners of the present disclosure. The above embodiment description is only used to help understand the method of the present disclosure and its core idea. Meanwhile, for those skilled in the art, according to the idea of the present disclosure, the specific implementation manners and application ranges can be changed. In summary, the content of the present disclosure should not be understood as a limitation.

Claims

1. A vehicle-mounted communication system (1001), comprising: A central computing platform (1), a vehicle-mounted optical communication device, and at least one optical communication network, the central computing platform (1) and the vehicle-mounted optical communication device communicate through the optical communication network; The optical communication network comprises an optical transmitting unit (2), an optical receiving unit (3), at least one optical fiber, and at least one vehicle-mounted optical communication connector, the optical transmitting unit (2) and the optical receiving unit (3) are connected with the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector through the optical fiber; the central computing platform (1) is in communication connection with the optical transmitting unit (2) and the optical receiving unit (3), and the vehicle-mounted optical communication device is in communication connection with the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector; The optical transmitting unit (2) is located around the central computing platform (1) to share the cooling system (1002) of the vehicle (1000) with the central computing platform (1).

2. The in-vehicle communication system (1001) according to claim 1, wherein The distance between the optical transmitting unit (2) and the central computing platform (1) is less than a set distance.

3. The in-vehicle communication system (1001) according to claim 2, wherein The set distance is determined according to at least one of the type of the cooling system (1002) or the heat exchange mode between the cooling system (1002) and the central computing platform (1).

4. The vehicle-mounted communication system (1001) of claim 3, at least one of the following is satisfied: The cooling system (1002) comprises one or more of a cold plate, an evaporator, a fan, a plate exchanger, a heat pipe, and a semiconductor cooler; or The heat exchange mode comprises one or more of convection heat exchange, radiation heat exchange, and conduction heat exchange.

5. The vehicle-mounted communication system (1001 ) according to any one of claims 1 - 4, wherein, The cooling system (1002) is part of a thermal management system of the vehicle (1000).

6. The vehicle-mounted communication system (1001 ) according to any one of claims 1 - 5, wherein, The optical transmitting unit (2) is configured to send a first optical signal to the optical fiber; the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector is configured to receive the first optical signal and convert the first optical signal into a first electrical signal before sending it to the vehicle-mounted optical communication device.

7. The in-vehicle communication system (1001) according to claim 6, wherein The optical transmitting unit (2) is further configured to receive the first electrical signal from the central computing platform (1) and modulate a first optical carrier emitted by the optical transmitting unit (2) based on the first electrical signal to obtain the first optical signal.

8. The vehicle-mounted communication system (1001 ) according to any one of claims 1 - 7, wherein, The optical transmitting unit (2) is configured to send a second optical carrier to the optical fiber; the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector is configured to receive the second optical carrier from the optical fiber and transmit a second optical signal modulated based on the second optical carrier to the optical fiber; and the optical receiving unit (3) is configured to receive the second optical signal.

9. The in-vehicle communication system (1001) according to claim 8, wherein The vehicle-mounted optical communication connector is further configured to receive a second electrical signal from the vehicle-mounted optical communication device and modulate the second optical carrier based on the second electrical signal to obtain the second optical signal.

10. The in-vehicle communication system (1001) according to claim 8, wherein The optical receiving unit (3) is further configured to convert the second optical signal into a second electrical signal before sending it to the central computing platform (1).

11. The vehicle-mounted communication system (1001 ) according to any one of claims 1 - 10, wherein, The light emitting unit (2) and the light receiving unit (3) are located around the central computing platform (1) to realize that the light emitting unit (2) and the light receiving unit (3) share the cooling system (1002) of the vehicle (1000) with the central computing platform (1).

12. The vehicle-mounted communication system (1001 ) according to any one of claims 1 - 11, wherein, The at least one vehicle-mounted optical communication connector includes N vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors, and each adjacent two of the N vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors are connected by the optical fiber; wherein N is an integer greater than 1.

13. The vehicle-mounted communication system (1001 ) according to any one of claims 1 - 12, wherein, The at least one optical communication network includes a first optical communication network and a second optical communication network. The vehicle-mounted communication system (1001) further comprises: at least one first vehicle-mounted optical communication device in communication connection with a first vehicle-mounted optical communication connector in the first optical communication network; and, at least one second vehicle-mounted optical communication device in communication connection with a second vehicle-mounted optical communication connector in the second optical communication network.

14. The vehicle-mounted communication system (1001) according to any one of claims 1-10, further comprising an optical splitter; the at least one optical fiber comprises M optical fibers, and the M optical fibers are connected to the light emitting unit (2) through the optical splitter; The optical splitter satisfies at least one of the following conditions: The optical splitter is configured to divide the optical carrier emitted by the light emitting unit (2) into M optical carriers of different wavelengths and transmit them to the M optical fibers respectively; a vehicle-mounted optical communication connector m in communication connection with an optical fiber m in the M optical fibers is configured to modulate a second optical signal m based on the optical carrier m received from the optical fiber m and transmit it to the optical fiber m; or, The optical splitter is configured to divide the optical signal emitted by the light emitting unit (2) into M first optical signals of different wavelengths and transmit them to the M optical fibers respectively; the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector m in communication connection with the optical fiber m in the M optical fibers is configured to receive the first optical signal m from the optical fiber m and convert the first optical signal m into a first electrical signal m before sending it to a vehicle-mounted optical communication device m connected to the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector m; wherein, The value of m is from 1 to M, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

15. The vehicle-mounted communication system (1001 ) according to any one of claims 1 - 14, wherein, The at least one vehicle-mounted optical communication connector includes N vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors, and the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication connector in the N vehicle-mounted optical communication connectors corresponds to the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication area, and the time period used by the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication connector for optical communication is determined according to the bandwidth of the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication area.

16. The in-vehicle communication system (1001) according to claim 15, wherein The time period used by the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication connector for optical communication at least includes a first time period corresponding to a first optical signal transmitted by the light emitting unit (2) to the optical fiber; wherein the first time period is determined according to the downlink bandwidth of the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication area.

17. The in-vehicle communication system (1001) according to claim 15 or 16, wherein The time period used by the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication connector for optical communication at least includes a second time period corresponding to a second optical signal received by the optical receiving unit (3); wherein the second time period is determined according to the uplink bandwidth of the nth vehicle-mounted optical communication area.

18. The vehicle-mounted communication system (1001 ) according to any one of claims 1 - 17, wherein, The vehicle-mounted optical communication connector is a silicon optical chip (400).

19. The vehicle-mounted communication system (1001) according to claim 18, wherein The vehicle-mounted optical communication device and the silicon optical chip (400) are integrated in the same printed circuit board (PCB). The vehicle-mounted optical communication device includes at least one of a vehicle-mounted sensor or a vehicle-mounted actuator.

20. The in-vehicle communication system (1001) according to claim 18, wherein The silicon optical chip (400) includes an optical receiver (401), an optical switch (402), and an optical modulator (403). The silicon optical chip (400) is configured to switch between a first signal transmission mode based on the optical receiver (401), a second signal transmission mode based on the optical modulator (403), and a third signal transmission mode in which the received signal is not processed, by controlling the optical switch (402), according to the type of the received signal.

21. The in-vehicle communication system (1001) according to claim 20, wherein The silicon optical chip (400) is further configured to, in a case where it is detected that the received signal is a first optical signal sent by the optical transmitting unit (2) to the optical fiber, guide the first optical signal to the optical receiver (401) by controlling the optical switch (402). The optical receiver (401) is configured to perform photoelectric conversion on the optical signal and send the obtained electrical signal to at least one of a vehicle-mounted sensor or a vehicle-mounted actuator connected to the silicon optical chip (400).

22. The in-vehicle communication system (1001) according to claim 20, wherein The silicon optical chip (400) is further configured to, in a case where it is detected that the received signal is a second electrical signal received from the vehicle-mounted optical communication device, guide the second electrical signal to the optical modulator (403) by controlling the optical switch (402). The optical modulator (403) is configured to modulate the second electrical signal to obtain a second optical signal, and send the modulated second optical signal to a next vehicle-mounted optical communication connector adjacent to the vehicle-mounted optical communication connector to which the silicon optical chip (400) belongs or to the optical receiving unit (3).

23. The in-vehicle communication system (1001) according to claim 20, wherein The silicon optical chip (400) is further configured to, in a case where it is detected that the received signal is an optical signal from an adjacent previous vehicle-mounted optical communication connector, guide the received optical signal to an adjacent next vehicle-mounted optical communication connector or the optical receiving unit (3).

24. A vehicle (1000) comprising the vehicle-mounted communication system (1001) according to any one of claims 1-23.

25. The vehicle (1000) according to claim 24, further comprising a cooling system (1002) in heat exchange with the central computing platform (1), the optical transmitting unit (2), and the optical receiving unit (3) to achieve cooling of the central computing platform (1), the optical transmitting unit (2), and the optical receiving unit (3).

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