Patent ID: 7272496

Claim:
A vehicle communication network, comprising: a plurality of network elements disposed within a vehicle; a plurality of point-to-point communication links joining the network elements in a point-to-point configuration, the plurality of point-to-point communication links being arranged to communicate data packets between the network elements, and at least a portion of the plurality of point-to-point communication links being specified in accordance with at least two different shared-access bus protocols; wherein the plurality of network elements include at least one network element linked to two or mow other network elements through corresponding point-to-point communication links that are each distinct from each other, two or more of the corresponding point-to-point communication links being specified in accordance with the at least two different shared-access bus protocols; and wherein the at least one network element operates (i) to receive a data packet and (ii) to route the data packet over a given one of the corresponding point-to-point communication links.