Intra-vehicle network

Lighter and more efficient cars through integrated networks

Shedding pounds in automotive wiring

Intra-vehicle network describes as the exchange of data within the electronic control units (ECUs) of the vehicle, which is involved in vehicular applications. Increasing vehicle complexity, including all the sensors associated with autonomy, is felt directly in the wiring harness, resulting in the wiring harness becoming the 3rd highest cost and 3rd heaviest component in a car. Corinex's Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) solution can reduce weight and cost in vehicles by using the same wires for power and data, especially for EVs and autonomous driving.

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What is an Intra-vehicle Network?

A wall of smart meters

Image of a typical car wiring harness

New automotive trends create new challenges for
intra-vehicle networks

As the complexity of vehicular distributed systems increases rapidly in modern vehicles, several hundreds of devices (sensors, actuators, etc.) are being installed with wiring cables connecting these devices. In addition, with the development of electric vehicles and autonomous driving, extra electrical wiring and a multitude of hardware redundancies are all contributing to the significant weight increase of a modern vehicle. According to Cowen Research, the wiring harness is in fact the third-heaviest component (behind the chassis and engine) in most luxury automobiles. Any technology that reduces this weight directly contributes to fuel economy, which is one of the most important factors in bringing a competitive and successful vehicle to the market.

Image of a typical car wiring harness

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"The wiring harness is one of [the] three heaviest subsystems in many vehicles - as much as 150 Ibs. Today's cars contain some 1,500-2,000 copper wires, totaling over 1 mile in length."

- Doug Burcicki, Director of Integrated Electrical Systems at Mentor, a Siemens Business

Lighter, cheaper, and simply better

The never-ending development of new technologies and their addition to modern vehicles leads to conflicts between the technical content that vehicle manufacturers try to integrate into their vehicles, and the weight, cost, and packaging space required for wiring harnesses. How can today's automotive manufacturers solve these conflicts? One solution could be using ultra-small diameter wiring. Unfortunately, the industry is still struggling to develop sufficient terminal substations for large-scale migration. Therefore, finding alternatives to specialty cables becomes crucial.

Corinex's Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) technology offers a new possibility for car manufacturers to reimage the automotive wiring. As more cameras, displays, and other electronic components are integrated into the modern car, the amount of data will only increase in the future. Corinex's BPL solution can enable transmitting data and signals via existing and standardized wiring, and multiplexing these signals onto one shared cable to where multiple devices are connected. With the benefits that Corinex's BPL technology provides, engineers can perform tradeoff studies to optimize wiring materials, component placement, and routing for minimal harness weight, cost, and bundle diameter.

- Doug Burcicki, Director of Integrated Electrical Systems at Mentor, a Siemens Business

Reimagining automotive wiring within intra-vehicle networks

The traditional intra-vehicle wire harnessing takes up a lot of space and weight even in compact cars. Corinex's Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) solution can enable a revolutionary intra-vehicle network routing algorithm to simultaneously minimize the wiring weight and the transmit power for fast and secured communication.

Corinex’s Broadband over Power Lines solution can reduce weight and cost in vehicles by using the same wires for power and data, especially for EVs and autonomous driving

A rendering of vehicle electric wiring

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Up to 250 nodes--car sensors--operating on an internal energy network

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Gbps data transmission speeds over existing wiring

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Secure connectivity ensured by latest encryption standards

Get in touch to discover more about intra-vehicle network

Corinex’s complete solutions for digitalizing electric grids enable high-speed communication over power lines, computing at the edge of the grid, and high levels of security. Discover how Corinex’s other grid modernization solutions help reshape the energy landscape by bringing energy intelligence to the electric grid.

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