An Argument for NDN Bridges in Hierarchical In-Vehicle Networks

Automotive architectures are becoming very complex due to added functionality such as autonomous driving, advanced safety, and advanced infotainment systems. To address the requirements of these applications and the resulting complexity, automakers are moving towards a hybrid architecture that uses Automotive Ethernet for high-bandwidth, low-latency applications and CAN (or other legacy protocols) for regular communication requirements. Supporting and integrating diverse applications and link-layer network technologies will require the support of higher-layer protocols such as TCP/IP or middleware like SOME/IP. In this paper, we take the position that a data-centric approach supports such integration better. A network or application stack built on top of a point-to-point TCP/IP paradigm is likely to complicate future automotive networks and will not support the security requirements well since security has always been an afterthought in TCP/IP. Instead, we propose using Named Data Networking (NDN) with Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS) as the substrates that integrate future applications with diverse lower-layer technologies. NDN transport for named VSS signals brings naming standardization, data provenance, security, and interoperability to automotive networks. We developed a bench-top testbed to demonstrate these properties using Raspberry PIs and CAN HATs. We replay VSS signals from a real CAN log and demonstrate that NDN provides security and named transport and interoperability between various technologies (CAN, FlexRay) that will be useful for future vehicles.