Time-Sensitive Network (TSN) Experiment in Sensor-Based Integrated Environment for Autonomous Driving

Recently, large amounts of data traffic from various sensors and image and navigation systems within vehicles are generated for autonomous driving. Broadband communication networks within vehicles have become necessary. New autonomous Ethernet networks are being considered as alternatives. The Ethernet-based in-vehicle network has been standardized in the IEEE 802.1 time-sensitive network (TSN) group since 2006. The Ethernet TSN will be revised and integrated into a subsequent version of IEEE 802.1Q-2018 published in 2018 when various new TSN-related standards are being newly revised and published. A TSN integrated environment simulator is developed in this paper to implement the main functions of the TSN standards that are being developed. This effort would minimize the performance gaps that can occur when the functions of these standards operate in an integrated environment. As part of this purpose, we analyzed the simulator to verify that the traffic for autonomous driving satisfies the TSN transmission requirements in the in-vehicle network (IVN) and the preemption (which is one of the main TSN functions) and reduces the overall End-to-End delay. An optimal guard band size for the preemption was also found for autonomous vehicles in our work. Finally, an IVN model for autonomous vehicles was designed and the performance test was conducted by configuring the traffic to be used for various sensors and electronic control units (ECUs).