Patent ID: 7602739

Claim:
A communication arrangement in a motor vehicle for bidirectionally transmitting data in the motor vehicle, the communication arrangement comprising: a first communication unit, the first communication unit comprising at least a data source configured to transmit data from the date source to one or more devices in the motor vehicle other than the data source, the data comprising at least video data; a second communication unit, the second communication unit comprising at least a data sink, the data sink being configured to receive data transmitted by the data source and to generate one or both of control and signaling data for controlling operations of the data source of the first communication unit a fiber-optic link coupled between the first communication unit and the second communication unit, the fiber-optic link having a high bandwidth capacity, and wherein the data transmitted from the data source of the first communication unit to the data sink of the second communication unit is transmitted over the fiber-optic link using the high bandwidth capacity of the fiber-optic link; and a nonoptical link coupled between the first communication unit and the second communication unit, the nonoptical link having a lower bandwidth capacity than the bandwidth capacity of the fiber-optic link, and wherein said one or both of control and signaling data generated by the data sink of the second communication unit is transmitted over the nonoptical link from the data sink to the data source using the lower bandwidth capacity of the nonoptical link.