Network Structure: Notes

By having the workshop configured to allow the various devices used on a daily basis to be interconnected/networked with each other, as indicated in the illustration, additional components can easily be added and online updates can automatically be installed on all connected devices, as long as they have an approved IP address.

Example: The network that exist in the workshop is not much different than the network structure that is used in our vehicles. In order for control modules to communicate with each other they must be correctly identified. The identification process can be considered to occur as part of the coding procedure which is done at the end of the assembly process or at anytime a new component/module/system is added to the vehicle. By not recoding the vehicle after adding or removing a module/system, the communication on a particular bus can be hampered especially if a response form a module that is no longer installed is expected or a new module transmits data that is not expected by anyone else on the bus because it is not correctly identified. The VO for a vehicle can be considered to contain the IP addresses of the modules installed in the vehicle. 

If the devices on the workshop network do not have a rigidly assigned IP address, online updates to specific devices can not occur. The operation/performance of a network can be greatly hampered if multiple devices share an address, since the transmitted data is not able to reach the correct device, it can result in jamming up the operation of the network.

Fig 1: Identifying Network Structure

Courtesy of BMW OF NORTH AMERICA, INC.