Noise mitigation in an automotive ethernet network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11411604-B2
Application number	US-202117194351-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 8, 2021
Priority date	Mar 9, 2020
Publication date	Aug 9, 2022
Grant date	Aug 9, 2022

Abstract

An automotive Ethernet physical-layer (PHY) transceiver includes an analog Front End (FE) and a digital processor. The FE is configured to receive an analog Ethernet signal over a physical Ethernet link while the Ethernet PHY transceiver is operating in a vehicle, and to convert the received analog Ethernet signal into a digital signal. The digital processor is configured to hold one or more noise profiles that characterize respective predefined noise types of noise signals that are expected to corrupt the received analog Ethernet signal, to classify an actual noise signal present in the digital signal into one of the noise types, using the noise profiles, and in response to deciding that the actual noise signal matches a given noise type among the predefined noise types, to apply a noise mitigation operation selected responsively to the given noise type.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An automotive Ethernet physical-layer (PHY) transceiver, comprising:
an analog Front End (FE), configured to receive an analog Ethernet signal over a physical Ethernet link while the Ethernet PHY transceiver is operating in a vehicle, and to convert the received analog Ethernet signal into a received digital signal; and
a digital processor, configured to:
hold one or more noise profiles that characterize respective predefined noise types of noise signals that are expected to corrupt the received analog Ethernet signal, wherein each of the noise profiles comprises a two-dimensional (2D) representation of a time-domain noise signal, the 2D representation comprising multiple frequency-domain vectors;
generate from the received digital signal a sequence of 2D data structures, each comprising multiple frequency-domain vectors;
classify an actual noise signal component present in the received digital signal into one of the noise types, using the noise profiles, by attempting to match the 2D data structures generated from the received digital signal to the 2D data structures of the noise profiles; and
in response to deciding that the received digital signal includes the actual noise signal component that matches a given noise type among the predefined noise types, select a noise mitigation operation responsively to the given noise type, and apply the selected noise mitigation operation.

2. The automotive Ethernet PHY transceiver according to claim 1 , wherein the actual noise signal component in the received digital signal comprises a transient noise signal, and wherein the digital processor is configured to detect an onset event of the transient noise signal, and to classify the transient noise signal in the received digital signal starting from the onset event.

3. The automotive Ethernet PHY transceiver according to claim 1 , wherein, in response to deciding that the actual noise signal component matches the given noise type, the digital processor is configured to adjust the noise profile associated with the given noise type based on the actual noise signal component.

4. The automotive Ethernet PHY transceiver according to claim 1 , wherein the digital processor is configured to measure a quality of the received digital signal, and to apply the noise mitigation operation by reconfiguring operation of one or both of the analog FE and the digital processor, based on the given noise type and on the measured quality.

5. The automotive Ethernet PHY transceiver according to claim 4 , wherein the digital processor is configured to apply the noise mitigation operation by reconfiguring one or more of a frequency response of a filter, a gain parameter, and a clock rate, in one or both of the analog FE and the digital processor.

6. The automotive Ethernet PHY transceiver according to claim 1 , wherein the digital processor is configured to classify the actual noise signal component by applying a machine-learning model to the sequence of the 2D data structures.

7. The automotive Ethernet PHY transceiver according to claim 1 , wherein the digital processor is configured to specify, in the noise profiles, one or more characteristics selected from a list comprising: a source of the noise signal, a frequency pattern of the noise signal, time progression characteristics of the noise signal, and a signal strength of the noise signal.

8. The automotive Ethernet PHY transceiver according to claim 1 , wherein the digital processor is configured to obtain one or more of the noise profiles directly from another vehicle, or by accessing a cloud storage that shares noise profiles of noise types among multiple vehicles.

9. The automotive Ethernet PHY transceiver according to claim 1 , wherein the automotive Ethernet PHY transceiver belongs to a plurality of interconnected automotive Ethernet PHY transceivers in the vehicle, and wherein the digital processor is configured to hold a noise profile that is not used by at least another Ethernet PHY transceiver in the plurality of the automotive Ethernet PHY transceivers.

10. The automotive Ethernet PHY transceiver according to claim 1 , wherein the analog FE is configured to receive, in the actual noise signal component, Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) caused by one or more of an electronic component of the vehicle, a mechanical component of the vehicle, an electro-mechanical component of the vehicle, and an electromagnetic radiation source external to the vehicle.

11. The automotive Ethernet PHY transceiver according to claim 1 , wherein the digital processor is configured to, based at least on an expected decay attribute of the actual noise signal component determined from the noise type classification: i) apply the noise mitigation operation for a predetermined period of time, and ii) modify the noise mitigation operation during the predetermined period of time.

12. A method for communication, comprising:
in an automotive Ethernet physical-layer (PHY) transceiver,
receiving an analog Ethernet signal over a physical Ethernet link while the Ethernet PHY transceiver is operating in a vehicle, and converting the received analog Ethernet signal into a received digital signal;
holding one or more noise profiles that characterize respective predefined noise types of noise signals that are expected to corrupt the received analog Ethernet signal, wherein each of the noise profiles comprises a two-dimensional (2D) representation of a time-domain noise signal, the 2D representation comprising multiple frequency-domain vectors;
generating from the received digital signal a sequence of 2D data structures, each comprising multiple frequency-domain vectors;
classifying an actual noise signal present in the received digital signal into one of the noise types, using the noise profiles, by attempting to match the 2D data structures generated from the received digital signal to the 2D data structures of the noise profiles; and
in response to deciding that the received digital signal includes the actual noise signal component that matches a given noise type among the predefined noise types, selecting a noise mitigation operation responsively to the given noise type, and applying the selected noise mitigation operation.

13. The method for communication according to claim 12 , wherein the actual noise signal component in the received digital signal comprises a transient noise signal, and wherein classifying the actual noise signal comprises detecting an onset event of the transient noise signal, and classifying the transient noise signal in the received digital signal starting from the onset event.

14. The method for communication according to claim 12 , and comprising, in response to deciding that the actual noise signal component matches the given noise type, adjusting the noise profile associated with the given noise type based on the actual noise signal component.

15. The method for communication according to claim 12 , wherein applying the noise mitigation operation comprises measuring a quality of the received digital signal, and applying the noise mitigation operation by reconfiguring operation of one or both of the analog FE and the digital processor, based on the given noise type and on the measured quality.

16. The method for communication according to claim 15 , wherein applying the noise mitigation operation comprises reconfiguring one or more of a frequency response of a filter, a gain parameter, and a clock rate, in one or both of the analog FE and the digital processor.

17. The method for communication according to claim 12 , wherein cla

Assignees

• Marvell Asia Pte Ltd

Inventors

• Fung Hon Wai
• Wu Dance
• Mash Christopher

Classifications

• H04L27/156

  with demodulation using temporal properties of the received signal, e.g. detecting pulse width · CPC title

• H04B3/32 Primary

  Reducing cross-talk, e.g. by compensating · CPC title

• H04L12/40045

  Details regarding the feeding of energy to the node from the bus · CPC title

• H04L12/10

  Current supply arrangements · CPC title

• H04L12/40032

  Details regarding a bus interface enhancer · CPC title