OPEN Alliance SIG

Last updated
OPEN Alliance SIG
FormationNov. 9, 2011
TypeNon-profit
Headquarters California
Region served
International
Members
300+
Website Official website

The OPEN Alliance is a non-profit, special interest group (SIG) of mainly automotive industry and technology providers collaborating to encourage wide scale adoption of Ethernet-based communication as the standard in automotive networking applications.

Contents

The member companies of the OPEN Alliance take advantage of the scalability and flexibility of Ethernet to allow for cost-effective communication networks in vehicles with reduced complexity. An Ethernet-based communication network is also a key infrastructure element for future customer functions like autonomous driving and the connected car.

History

Traditional automotive networks such as CAN, LIN, FlexRay, MOST were unable to meet the higher data rate requirements of emerging automotive applications such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), Infotainment or fast update of various ECUs in vehicles. This led BMW to investigate new standard based networking technologies such as Ethernet in 2004. Standard 100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet met automotive requirements for higher bandwidth and also provided flexibility in networking topology but it had limitations in meeting the automotive EMC requirements.

In collaboration with Broadcom, BMW customized the BroadR-Reach Ethernet technology to meet automotive EMC requirements over a single unshielded twisted pair cable. In comparison to 100BASE-TX, which requires two twisted pair cables, this had the additional advantage of reducing the cable weight and system costs further.

OPEN Alliance was born as a result of this collaboration to create an ecosystem of vendors and partners to promote and adopt BroadR-Reach Ethernet technology for automotive in-vehicle networks and to encourage the development of new, automotive suitable Ethernet PHY solutions. In 2016, BroadR-Reach technology was standardized and published as IEEE802.3bw–2015 100BASE-T1 specification.

The name “OPEN” originally stood for One Pair EtherNet, and indeed both the 100BASE-T1 and the 1000BASE-T1 technologies deploy one twisted pair cables only. However, today, the OPEN Alliance supports and enables the deployment of automotive Ethernet-based communication independent of the cabling used.

Goals and objectives

The objective of the OPEN Alliance SIG is to facilitate the adoption of Ethernet-based communication for in-vehicle networks: [1]

Members

Founding members of the OPEN Alliance SIG are BMW, Broadcom and NXP Semiconductors. In November 2011 the companies C&S, UNH-IOL, Harman, Hyundai, Freescale and Jaguar Landrover joined the OPEN Alliance SIG. [2] Continental, TÜV Nord, Valeo and JAE Europe joined in December.

Since that time membership has surged to more than 300 members (as of March 22, 2016). [3]

Membership allows companies to influence the specifications and early access to the standard specifications.

There are two types of members, Promoters and Adopters:

A complete list of members can be found at http://www.opensig.org

Structure of OPEN Alliance

Steering Committee

This committee defines the overall strategy and roadmap, manages day-to-day non-technical operations and admission of members, public relations and contractual issues. It includes BMW, Broadcom Limited, Continental, Daimler AG, General Motors Co, HARMAN, Hyundai Motor Company, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), NXP, Realtek Semiconductor Corp, Renault SA, Renesas, Robert Bosch GmbH, Toyota, Volkswagen Group, Volvo Cars.

The key roles which are rotated are Chair, Secretary, Communications Manager, and Webstorage Administrator.

Technical committees [TCs]

Technical committees are responsible for the technical work within the OPEN Alliance. Their output is generally in form of specifications available to members and often also to non-members on the OPEN website. [4]

TC1

Interoperability & Compliance Tests for 100BASE-T1 PHYs

Only with an optimal specification, along with interoperability & compliance tests, are suppliers able to develop and support the fast-growing automotive Ethernet market.

To facilitate the development of compatible 100BASE-T1 products by semiconductor manufacturers, TC1 is responsible for creating, reviewing and clarifying the specification for all members.

In addition, TC1 coordinates the effort to define interoperability, compliance, and EMC requirements and test methods.

TC2

100BASE-T1 Ethernet Channel & Components

100BASE-T1 offers a way to introduce modern signal processing in automotive, which allows optimal usage of the available channel characteristics.

TC2 goals are as follows:

  • Define deterministic and robust transmission channels between the Ethernet enabled electronic control units.
  • Specify requirements for Common Mode Choke (CMC), cables, connectors and harness manufacturing.
  • The solution needs to be reproducible in high volumes, at high quality and meet cost targets of today’s global automotive logistics.

TC1 and TC2 in combination provide for the complete 100BASE-T1 application.

TC3

1000BASE-T1 CMC Requirements

The potential scalability of Ethernet is an important motivation for car manufacturers to introduce Ethernet as an in-car networking technology. It is therefore essential that higher data rate Ethernet technologies are developed for automotive use. The OPEN Alliance is supporting the standardization of an Automotive Gigabit Ethernet standard through the work of TC3.

TC3 collected requirements and validated the technical proposals made available from the IEEE 802.3 bp task force, leading to the release of the 1000BASE-T1 standard.

TC3 also defines 1000BASE-T1 magnetics characteristics and CMC limit lines for differential and mixed mode parameters, resulting in CMC performance and test specifications.

TC4

Automotive Ethernet Tooling

TC4 was established to investigate tools and concluded its work in September 2013. The focus of TC4 was:

  • Identify what tools are necessary to develop products that use Automotive Ethernet as a networking technology
  • Develop and maintain a list of existing applicable tools from multiple vendors

TC5

Gap Identification

To make Ethernet-based communication in automotive attractive, an overview on how to manage the entire protocol implementation is needed.

OPEN Members can identify potential issues and/or gaps when implementing Ethernet-based communication in an automotive application and submit to the OPEN Alliance which will review and decide how to address this issues.

TC6

Common xMII Interface Definition

The focus of TC6 is to improve the applicability of existing xMII standards for Ethernet-based automotive networks with data rates of 100 Mbit/s and 1 Gbit/s. Moving towards standardized xMII specifications for the automotive industry is an important factor for the successful introduction of Ethernet into automotive networks. It will ensure product reliability and interoperability as well as reduce development time and costs.

The objective is to capture relevant automotive requirements covering technical interface topics related to physical signaling, interface logic, timing, interface speed, EMC, temperature, robustness, interoperability, energy saving and costs. Within the work packages the group analyzes existing xMII standards to identify gaps and incompatibilities in regards to automotive networks.

TC6 creates a recommendation for preferred automotive xMII standards. The document specifies relevant interface enhancements covering automotive requirements.

TC7

1000BASE-RH Gigabit Ethernet over Plastic-Optical-Fiber (GEPOF)

TC7 summarizes automotive requirements and influences the IEEE802.3 GEPOF standardization activity. It creates supplement documents and specifications like connector interface, footprint, test suits, etc.

TC8

Automotive Ethernet ECU Test Specification

TC8 shares requirements on Automotive Ethernet ECU testing. It defines specifications applicable to all ECUs in an Automotive Ethernet network based on these shared requirements.

It defines test process and supports the establishment of test houses that can perform the ECU tests and establishes regular audits of the test specification and the partner requirements to increase the communication quality of the Ethernet ECUs in an automotive system.

TC9

1000BASE-T1 Ethernet Channel & Components

The physical layer for 1000BASE-T1 is a complementary technology to 100BASE-T1, enabling flexible and scalable automotive data networks. The goal of TC9 is the specification of channel and components to ensure conformance to 1000BASE-T1 link segment requirements. The Scope includes:

  • 1000BASE-T1 communication channel
  • Electrical requirements on connectors, cables and harness manufacturing
  • Related measurement setups and test procedures
  • EMC environment

The scope has been extended to include definitions and requirements on shielded twisted pair (STP) link segments for 1000BASE-T1 link segment type A in addition to the initial focus on unshielded twisted pair (UTP). Work on defining a similar specification for 10BASE-T1S has been started in TC9 as well.

TC10

Automotive Ethernet Sleep/Wake-Up

Automotive networks rely heavily on partial networking in which some segments are hibernated and woken up on demand. TC10 will focus on establishing support for sleep modes and a wake up mechanisms tailored for automotive use cases.

Goals:

TC10 specifies the functionality and needs of an Ethernet Sleep and Wake-up concept which includes:

  • Support fast wake-up and wake-up request forwarding to support a global wake-up on layer 1
  • Support controlled link shutdown to hibernate selected parts of network
  • Specify a requirement for global network wake-up time to link-training start
  • Comply with standard MAC interfaces
  • Comply with AUTOSAR network management
  • No unintended wakeup in presence of interference noise
  • Applicable to 100BASE-T1 and 1000BASE-T1 (if possible also to future twisted pair PHY specifications)

TC11

Ethernet switch requirements and qualification

Goals:

Create specification and qualification requirements for Ethernet switches:

  • Definition of functional features for switch semiconductors (stand-alone or built-in)
  • Generic, Interfacing, Configuration
  • Switching, Addressing, VLAN
  • Diagnostics, Monitoring
  • QoS, Queueing, Timestamping, Policing, AVB, TSN
  • Filtering, Security

TC12

Test specifications for the compliance testing of future IEEE 1000BASE-T1 (IEEE802.3bp) Physical Interface (PHY) devices

In March 2016 the SIG introduced its twelfth technical committee (TC12), aimed to create test specifications for the compliance testing of future IEEE 1000BASE-T1 (IEEE802.3bp) Physical Interface (PHY) devices. The planned specifications will cover the following areas:

  • Physical Interface device Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC)
  • PCS, PMA and PHY Control compliance to 1000BASE-T1 specification
  • Interoperability of 1000BASE-T1 compliant PHY implementations

TC13

New Test House Qualification Requirements

The goal of the committee is to standardize PHY testing for multiple speed grades in order for the results from various test houses to be reliable and equivalent. TC13 is expected to produce methodology and specifications for qualification of test houses.

TC14

Interoperability & Compliance Tests for 10BASE-T1S PHYs

The goal of TC14 is to define the test requirements and methods for 10BASE-T1S PHY, covering interoperability, standard compliance, and electromagnetic compatibility.

TC15

TC 15 Committee is working on multi-gigabit automotive ethernet interoperability and compliance tests.

TC16

TC16 Committee is working on interoperability and standard compliance for use of Energy-Efficient Ethernet in the automotive environment.

TC17

MACsec Automotive Profile

The goal of TC17 is adapting the IEEE 802.1AE (MACsec) standard to the automotive applications, including the shared-media PHY 10BASE-T1S.

As of 2023 it is co-chaired by BMW - Oliver Creighton and Ford - John Moore

Licensing

Companies/Members wanting to implement the non-OPEN Alliance specifications 100BASE-T1, 1000BASE-T1 or 1000BASE-RH, have to obtain the respective licenses based on the IEEE IPR Policy.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethernet over twisted pair</span> Ethernet physical layers using twisted-pair cables

Ethernet over twisted-pair technologies use twisted-pair cables for the physical layer of an Ethernet computer network. They are a subset of all Ethernet physical layers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fast Ethernet</span> Ethernet standards that carry data at the nominal rate of 100 Mbit/s

In computer networking, Fast Ethernet physical layers carry traffic at the nominal rate of 100 Mbit/s. The prior Ethernet speed was 10 Mbit/s. Of the Fast Ethernet physical layers, 100BASE-TX is by far the most common.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gigabit Ethernet</span> Standard for Ethernet networking at a data rate of 1 gigabit per second

In computer networking, Gigabit Ethernet is the term applied to transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second. The most popular variant, 1000BASE-T, is defined by the IEEE 802.3ab standard. It came into use in 1999, and has replaced Fast Ethernet in wired local networks due to its considerable speed improvement over Fast Ethernet, as well as its use of cables and equipment that are widely available, economical, and similar to previous standards. The first standard for faster 10 Gigabit Ethernet was approved in 2002.

In the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking, the physical layer or layer 1 is the first and lowest layer: the layer most closely associated with the physical connection between devices. The physical layer provides an electrical, mechanical, and procedural interface to the transmission medium. The shapes and properties of the electrical connectors, the frequencies to broadcast on, the line code to use and similar low-level parameters, are specified by the physical layer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IEEE 802.16</span> Series of wireless broadband standards

IEEE 802.16 is a series of wireless broadband standards written by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The IEEE Standards Board established a working group in 1999 to develop standards for broadband for wireless metropolitan area networks. The Workgroup is a unit of the IEEE 802 local area network and metropolitan area network standards committee.

HomePlug is the family name for various power line communications specifications under the HomePlug designation, each with unique capabilities and compatibility with other HomePlug specifications.

The media-independent interface (MII) was originally defined as a standard interface to connect a Fast Ethernet media access control (MAC) block to a PHY chip. The MII is standardized by IEEE 802.3u and connects different types of PHYs to MACs. Being media independent means that different types of PHY devices for connecting to different media can be used without redesigning or replacing the MAC hardware. Thus any MAC may be used with any PHY, independent of the network signal transmission media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medium Attachment Unit</span>

A Medium Attachment Unit (MAU) is a transceiver which converts signals on an Ethernet cable to and from Attachment Unit Interface (AUI) signals.

AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture (AUTOSAR) is a development partnership of automotive interested parties founded in 2003. It pursues the objective to create and establish an open and standardized software architecture for automotive electronic control units (ECUs). Goals include the scalability to different vehicle and platform variants, transferability of software, the consideration of availability and safety requirements, a collaboration between various partners, sustainable use of natural resources, and maintainability during the product lifecycle.

The IEEE Std 1901-2010 is a standard for high speed communication devices via electric power lines, often called broadband over power lines (BPL). The standard uses transmission frequencies below 100 MHz. This standard is usable by all classes of BPL devices, including BPL devices used for the connection to Internet access services as well as BPL devices used within buildings for local area networks, smart energy applications, transportation platforms (vehicle), and other data distribution applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory</span> Independent test facility

The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) is an independent test facility that provides interoperability and standards conformance testing for networking, telecommunications, data storage, and consumer technology products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethernet physical layer</span> Electrical or optical properties between network devices

The physical-layer specifications of the Ethernet family of computer network standards are published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which defines the electrical or optical properties and the transfer speed of the physical connection between a device and the network or between network devices. It is complemented by the MAC layer and the logical link layer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WiMedia Alliance</span>

The WiMedia Alliance was a non-profit industry trade group that promoted the adoption, regulation, standardization and multi-vendor interoperability of ultra-wideband (UWB) technologies. It existed from about 2002 through 2009.

40 Gigabit Ethernet (40GbE) and 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE) are groups of computer networking technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at rates of 40 and 100 gigabits per second (Gbit/s), respectively. These technologies offer significantly higher speeds than 10 Gigabit Ethernet. The technology was first defined by the IEEE 802.3ba-2010 standard and later by the 802.3bg-2011, 802.3bj-2014, 802.3bm-2015, and 802.3cd-2018 standards. The first succeeding Terabit Ethernet specifications were approved in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">10 Gigabit Ethernet</span> Standards for Ethernet at ten times the speed of Gigabit Ethernet

10 Gigabit Ethernet is a group of computer networking technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of 10 gigabits per second. It was first defined by the IEEE 802.3ae-2002 standard. Unlike previous Ethernet standards, 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) defines only full-duplex point-to-point links which are generally connected by network switches; shared-medium CSMA/CD operation has not been carried over from the previous generations of Ethernet standards so half-duplex operation and repeater hubs do not exist in 10GbE. The first standard for faster 100 Gigabit Ethernet links was approved in 2010.

Terabit Ethernet or TbE is Ethernet with speeds above 100 Gigabit Ethernet. 400 Gigabit Ethernet and 200 Gigabit Ethernet standards developed by the IEEE P802.3bs Task Force using broadly similar technology to 100 Gigabit Ethernet were approved on December 6, 2017. In 2016, several networking equipment suppliers were already offering proprietary solutions for 200G and 400G.

BroadR-Reach technology is an Ethernet physical layer standard designed for automotive connectivity applications. BroadR-Reach allows multiple in-vehicle systems to simultaneously access information over unshielded single twisted pair cable. BroadR-Reach was invented and is promoted by Broadcom Corporation, now Broadcom Limited.

Avnu Alliance is a consortium of member companies working together to create an interoperable ecosystem of low-latency, time-synchronized, highly reliable networking devices using the IEEE open standard, Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) and its Pro AV networking protocol, Milan. Avnu Alliance creates comprehensive certification programs to ensure interoperability of network devices. In the Professional Audio Video (AV) industry, Alliance member companies worked together to develop Milan: a standards-based, user-driven deterministic network protocol for professional media, that through certification, assures devices will work together at new levels of convenience, reliability, and functionality. Milan™ is a standards-based deterministic network protocol for real time media. Avnu Members may use the Avnu-certified or Milan-certified logo on devices that pass the conformance tests from Avnu. Not every device based on AVB or TSN is submitted for certification to the Avnu Alliance. The lack of the Avnu logo does not necessarily imply a device is incompatible with other Avnu-certified devices. The Alliance, in conjunction with other complimentary standards bodies and alliances, provides a united network foundation for use in professional AV, automotive, industrial control and consumer segments.

IEEE 802.3bz, NBASE-T and MGBASE-T are standards for Ethernet over twisted pair at speeds of 2.5 and 5 Gbit/s. These use the same cabling as the ubiquitous Gigabit Ethernet, yet offer higher speeds. The resulting standards are named 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyphal</span>

Cyphal is a lightweight protocol designed for reliable intra-vehicle communications using various communications transports, originally destined for CAN bus, but targeting various network types in subsequent revisions. OpenCyphal is an open-source project that aims to provide MIT-licensed implementations of the Cyphal protocol. The project was known as UAVCAN prior to rebranding in March 2022.

References

  1. ↑ OPEN Alliance. "Open Alliance". opensig.org. Retrieved 2017-07-31.
  2. ↑ Kirsten, Matheus (2015). Automotive Ethernet. Königseder, Thomas. Cambridge. ISBN   978-1-107-05728-9. OCLC   908649595.
  3. ↑ OPEN Alliance. "Press Releases". opensig.org. Retrieved 2017-07-31.
  4. ↑ OPEN Alliance. "Automotive Ethernet Specifications". opensig.org. Retrieved 2017-07-31.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.