Automotive Ethernet is a range of new Ethernet versions that have been standardized to meet the specific requirements of automotive communication. These new Automotive Ethernet versions feature technologies for higher robustness in the automotive environment while allowing significant cost reductions.
A large amount of development effort has gone into ECUs with legacy technologies. Therefore, the automotive industry is not switching to an Ethernet-only scenario without intermediate steps. Instead, some established non-Ethernet ECUs will continue to be used, creating mixed Ethernet legacy deployments. Therefore, for some time there will be a need to support both legacy protocols as well as legacy technologies.
Complementing the transition to Automotive Ethernet, E/E Architecture is transitioning to a Zonal based Architecture. This transition increases the need for low latency routing decisions (to accommodate multi-hop routing) while still supporting the increasing multi-gigabit traffic through the ring backbone. Current vehicle mechanisms, like Zonal Gateways, are becoming communication bottlenecks. Therefore HW based routers are essential to provide ultra-low latency, cost-effective design with an ever-increasing amount of interfaces and traffic requirements.