Vehicle wireless local area networks
In some examples, a vehicle includes a plurality of network controllers, a WI-FI wireless local area network (WLAN) over which at least a first network controller and a second network controller of the plurality of network controllers are to communicate, wherein a link between the first network controller and the second network controller through the WI-FI WLAN is a synchronized link.
1. A vehicle comprising:
a plurality of network controllers comprising a first network controller and a second network controller, wherein the first network controller comprises a first clock to produce a first oscillating signal, and the second network controller comprises a second clock to produce a second oscillating signal; and
a wireless local area network (WLAN) over which at least the first network controller and the second network controller are to communicate,
wherein a link between the first network controller and the second network controller through the WLAN is a synchronized link based on transition edges of the second oscillating signal being aligned in time with timing information of a field bus packet from a field bus, the timing information transmitted from the first network controller to the second network controller.
2. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the first clock is synchronized with respect to the second clock based on the transition edges of the second oscillating signal being aligned in time with the timing information of the field bus packet to within a specified tolerance.
3. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein each of the first network controller and the second network controller comprises a respective queue to store data according to a real-time access class that is to be communicated between the first network controller and the second network controller over the synchronized link.
4. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein each of the first network controller and the second network controller comprises media access parameters to transmit data according to a real-time access class that is to be communicated between the first network controller and the second network controller over the synchronized link.
5. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the synchronized link is to communicate data using a carrier having a frequency of greater than or equal to 10 gigahertz.
6. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the synchronized link is to communicate data using light signals.
7. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the first network controller and the second network controller are to communicate data over the synchronized link protected by a wireless security scheme.
8. The vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising a device to send a trigger message to the first network controller to awaken the first network controller from a lower power state to a higher power state.
9. The vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising an authentication server to authenticate network controllers of the plurality of network controllers.
10. The vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising a provisioning server to provision a given network controller of the plurality of network controllers using a profile of the given network controller, in response to the given network controller joining the WLAN.
11. The vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising a sensor to measure motion data associated with motion of the vehicle, and wherein the WLAN is to send the motion data or an indication based on the motion data to at least some of the plurality of network controllers to cause the at least some of the plurality of network controllers to enter a lower power state for power saving.
12. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein a given network controller of the plurality of network controllers is to save session information that is available across a power cycle of the given network controller, the given network controller to use the saved session information when powering up to establish a session represented by the saved session information.
13. The vehicle of claim 12 , wherein the saved session information comprises a security key and a network address.
14. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the first network controller maintains synchronized links with multiple network controllers of the plurality of network controllers, the first clock is a master clock, and the multiple network controllers comprise respective clocks synchronized to the master clock.
15. The vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising:
a legacy device incapable of directly communicating over the WLAN; and
an intermediary device to encapsulate data of the legacy device in a data frame carried over the WLAN.
16. The vehicle of claim 15 , further comprising the field bus to which the legacy device is connected, wherein the intermediary device comprises a gateway to connect the field bus to a network node of the WLAN, the gateway to encapsulate data of the field bus in the data frame carried over the WLAN.
17. The vehicle of claim 15 , wherein the intermediary device comprises a dongle directly connected to the legacy device.
18. A vehicle comprising:
a plurality of network controllers;
a wireless local area network (WLAN) over which at least a first network controller and a second network controller of the plurality of network controllers are to communicate, the second network controller to store device profiles and credentials, wherein a link between the first network controller and the second network controller through the WLAN is a synchronized link, wherein the synchronized link is based on transition edges of a clock of the second network controller being aligned in time with timing information of a field bus packet from a field bus, the first network controller to transmit the timing information to the second network controller, and
wherein the first network controller is to be powered off when the vehicle is powered off, and the second network controller to store the device profiles and the credentials remains operational when the vehicle is powered off.
19. A method comprising:
communicating, by a plurality of network controllers in a vehicle, over one or more synchronized links of a wireless local area network (WLAN), wherein the plurality of network controllers comprise a first network controller and a second network controller, and wherein the first network controller comprises a first clock producing a first oscillating signal, and the second network controller comprises a second clock producing a second oscillating signal having transition edges that are aligned in time with transition edges of the first oscillating signal based on timing information of a field bus packet from a field bus, the timing information transmitted by the first network controller to the second network controller.
20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising:
powering off the first network controller when the vehicle is powered off; and
maintaining the second network controller powered on and operational when the vehicle is powered off.
21. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions that upon execution cause a first network controller in a vehicle to:
communicate with a second network controller over a synchronized link of a wireless local area network (WLAN) in the vehicle,
wherein the communicating comprises exchanging data between the first and second network controllers that have clocks synchronized relative to one another, and wherein the first network controller comprises a first clock to produce a first oscillating signal, and the second network controller comprises a second clock to produce a second oscillating signal having transition edges that are aligned in time with transition edges of the first oscillating signal based on timing information of a field bus packet from a field bus, the timing information transmitted by the first network controller to the second network controller.