Wireless BMS Safety Channel Authentication for Battery Modules
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Solution Overview
Problem
Large battery packs in vehicles require complex wiring harnesses for monitoring battery cells, which negatively impact cost, weight, and reliability, and there is a need for a wireless network to replace physical connections while ensuring safety integrity.
Innovation Solution
A wireless battery management system (wBMS) with a safety communication channel protocol that authenticates battery modules using safety integrity compliant hardware IDs, establishing secure communication channels through a wireless network, even when components along the path may not be safety compliant.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a large wiring harness is used to monitor all individual battery cells, then measurement precision and reliability are improved, but weight, cost, and device complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical wiring harness system with a wireless communication system. Battery modules communicate their status data wirelessly to the network manager, eliminating the need for extensive physical wiring while maintaining monitoring capabilities. This substitution directly reduces weight and complexity while preserving measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses wireless signal transmission as a virtual copy of the physical wiring function. Instead of actual electrical connections through wires, the system creates a virtual equivalent through wireless communication protocols, achieving the same monitoring function without the physical infrastructure.
2Weight of stationary object
If a wireless network is used to replace physical wiring, then weight and device complexity are reduced, but safety integrity and communication reliability may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary authentication and channel establishment procedures before data transmission. The security layer pre-configures encrypted communication channels and validates device identities in advance, ensuring that only authenticated devices can communicate. This preliminary action guarantees safety integrity is maintained from the outset of wireless operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent incorporates error detection, correction, and redundancy mechanisms in the communication protocol to cushion against potential transmission failures. Checksum verification, retransmission protocols, and redundant data paths are built into the system beforehand to prevent safety compromises from wireless interference or errors.
3Reliability
If authentication protocols are implemented in the safety channel, then security and safety integrity are improved, but communication overhead and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs authentication and security channel establishment during the initial connection phase, before actual safety data transmission begins. Once authenticated, the security context is cached and reused for subsequent communications, avoiding repeated authentication overhead while maintaining continuous safety integrity verification.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, devices, and methods related to wireless battery management system (wBMS) are provided. For example, a wBMS network manager comprises a memory to store a list of hardware identifiers (IDs), wherein each hardware ID in the list is associated with a respective one of a plurality of battery modules; and mapped, based on a predetermined mapping, to a different one of a plurality of source IDs; an interface to receive, from a remote battery module, a packet including a source ID and a hardware ID associated with the remote battery module; and one or more processing units to search, using the source ID in the received packet and the predetermined mapping, for a first hardware ID from the list of hardware IDs; and authenticating the remote battery module based on a comparison of the hardware ID in the received packet to the first hardware ID from the list.