Technology Survey of Wireless Communication for In-vehicle Applications

Abstract: Currently, wireless communication technologies are expected to be widely employed for in-vehicle communication where in-vehicle communication is built upon the interactions of different parts inside the vehicle. This communication is to enable a variety of applications for driver and passenger needs.  To have improved driving assistance, development of in-vehicle applications is very much needed. At present, intelligent systems inside the vehicle are mostly dominated by the wired technologies. The possibilities of wireless communication have inspired us and made an opportunity to analyse replacements for wired communication within a vehicle. In this connection, the scope of our thesis is to define the in-vehicle applications which are preferred by the wireless technologies, to define the applications using wired technologies which could be replaced by the wireless technologies and to identify those applications which are difficult to implement by the wireless technologies.   In-vehicle wired networks; and problems of these wired networks, along with several existing applications, have been discussed at the initial stage of this thesis for the purpose of having a clear understanding. After that, existing In-vehicle wireless applications and several challenging applications have also been studied. Studies have been done on the most important wireless technologies with their respective specifications. The requirement of establishing wireless communication has also been explained. Finally, an analysis has been done according to the requirements of the applications and verification of their possible reliance on the wireless technologies.   In a brief, comparable studies have been done among the wireless technologies to assess their current and future fitness for In-vehicle applications. The thesis concludes with some recommendations regarding when wireless technologies might be suitable for some in-vehicle applications to replace the wired technologies.