Power saving using Partial Networking in automotive system

Abstract

During recent years, the number of electronic control units (ECUs) on the market has gradually increased following the growth of cutting edge, comfortable devices in automotive systems. This means that the power demand has increased and the fuel efficiency has decreased in vehicles. Thus, we recognize the need for power saving in automotive systems. As a result, the automotive industry has released a new method called ‘Partial Networking’ through ‘Selective wake-up’. When a node of the existing vehicle receives the message of operation via the controller area network (CAN) bus, it receives all the messages, including those not related to itself. Thus, the node of the CAN bus is not able to actively distinguish between relevant messages. This means that the entire node is activated via the CAN bus. In contrast with existing vehicles, partial networking receives only relevant messages through a predefined message. Therefore, it is possible to activate each node individually. This is a method of power saving that maintains an inactive status in unnecessary nodes. In this paper, we measure the effect of power saving using a partial networking technique. To accomplish this, we designed a scenario for the operation of a running vehicle. We analyzed power consumption through a comparison between an existing vehicle network and a partial network based on the designed scenario. Finally, we show the possible power saving using partial networking in an automotive system.