Vehicle ECU Data Communication via Shadow System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern vehicles, especially automobiles, face challenges in collecting data from electronic control units (ECUs) that are not connected to a network at the time of data query, making it difficult to gather real-time data from all vehicles, including those not currently online.
Innovation Solution
Each ECU includes a communications protocol stack that can publish data in real time to a broker, which stores data from all connected ECUs, allowing a backend system to subscribe to specific data feeds and communicate with ECUs regardless of their connection status, using a shadow system to queue data for delivery when vehicles or ECUs are not online.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a backend system queries for data from vehicles, then data can be collected from connected vehicles, but data cannot be collected from vehicles that are not connected to the network at the time of query
Solution Approach 1:
The shadow system pre-queues data for delivery to vehicles before they are actually connected. When a backend system queries for data, the shadow system has already prepared and queued the data in advance, so it can be immediately delivered when the vehicle connects, eliminating the need for the vehicle to be online at the exact moment of querying.
Solution Approach 2:
The shadow system acts as an intermediary between the backend system and vehicles. It receives data from ECUs, stores it locally, and manages the queueing and delivery process. This intermediary layer allows data to be collected from vehicles regardless of their connection status, as the shadow system buffers data when vehicles are offline and delivers it when they come online.
2Ease of operation
If real-time data publishing is implemented for all ECUs, then data accessibility improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides data publishing responsibilities by ECU type and backend subscriber requirements. Each ECU publishes its own data through its gateway, and the shadow system segments data management by ECU identifier and data type. This segmentation allows real-time publishing without requiring a monolithic complex system, as each component handles only its specific data stream.
Solution Approach 2:
The shadow system creates and maintains shadow copies of ECU data locally in the vehicle. These shadow copies mirror the data that would be published in real-time to the cloud, allowing the system to provide data accessibility through multiple pathways (direct real-time publish and shadow copy retrieval) without duplicating the entire data infrastructure across all components.
3Reliability
If data is queued for delivery to offline vehicles, then data delivery reliability improves, but data delivery time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The shadow system performs preliminary queuing of data as soon as it becomes available from ECUs, even before the vehicle is offline. By preparing and queueing data in advance during the vehicle's online periods, the system minimizes the actual delivery delay when the vehicle goes offline, as the data is already ready to be delivered immediately upon reconnection rather than waiting from scratch.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the shadow system monitors vehicle connection status and adjusts data delivery timing accordingly. When vehicles are connected, data is delivered immediately; when vehicles go offline, the system provides feedback by queuing the data and automatically rescheduling delivery for when the vehicle reconnects, optimizing delivery time based on real-time connection feedback.
Data Source
AI summary
A system within an environment of a vehicle in which one or more electronic control unit(s) (ECU) having its own communications protocol stack (e.g., a TCP/IP stack) can communicate with an ECU gateway that functions as a component of an infotainment system. Each ECU can thereby publish its own data in real time, through an Internet (or similar) connection in the infotainment system, to a broker that can store the data from all connected ECUs of a plurality of vehicles. A backend system can subscribe to certain published data feeds (e.g., all ECU-2 and ECU-3 data from every 2010 model vehicle, or all ECU-2 data from every vehicle) via the broker to pull a specific subset of available data for analysis and/or visualization. The present invention enables users of a backend system to query for data from vehicles that are not connected to the Internet in real time.