Streamlining Your Journey to Ethernet Adoption

The industrial and commercial transportation market is a diverse one, ranging from the commercial trucks and buses and last-mile delivery vans that populate urban and suburban landscapes to heavy equipment used in agriculture, construction and mining. Automation and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are poised to unlock the potential of this industry by bringing greater reliability and accuracy to mission-critical work. Sophisticated core networks capture data from devices and systems and transmit it at high speeds with latency throughout the vehicle for processing in one or more onboard electronic control units (ECUs). Cameras and LiDAR/RADAR provide 360-degree situational awareness that enhances safety and productivity, while displays provide vehicle dashboards that help drivers optimize operations. Market participants, including designers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), are encountering the following requirements as they seek to enable the next level of automation and safety in ICT vehicles:

• A need for greater bandwidth and faster speeds
• The ability to maintain signal integrity in harsh environments, channel lengths and temperatures specific to the commercial transportation and heavy equipment markets
• A desire to simplify adoption by providing flexible, serviceable and future-proofed product designs

CAN bus architectures can handle speeds up to 500 Kbps. However, these speeds are not fast enough for the types of data-intensive applications that are emerging.

Single-pair Ethernet protocols are a clear choice moving forward.  Industries and designers are moving towards single-pair Ethernet protocols, which are compliant with IEEE 802.3bp and can transmit at speeds of 100 Mbps (100BASE-T1) or 1 Gbps (1000BASE-T1).  These protocols provide greater bandwidth, enable more connected devices and transmit data at faster speeds. In addition, single-pair conductors reduce copper use and will help drive system costs lower over the long term. 

Business demand for greater bandwidth and higher speeds will grow. However, speed is not enough. ICT vehicles are used in rugged conditions, including:

• Harsh environments, where dust, heat, humidity and moisture reign and componentry experiences constant vibrations
• Around industrial chemicals, requiring that componentry provide reliable chemical resistance
• A long service life, with extended hours of operations across months and years

Channel lengths longer than 15 meters and temperatures that regularly exceed 105°C and go up to 125°C negatively impact insertion losses. Designers and OEMs will need to carefully select cables, terminals and products to minimize the impact on signal integrity throughout the life of the product. Enhanced SPE protocols are being developed to support higher speeds and longer length channels such as the IEEE 802.3bp 1000Base-T1, type B protocol. Long-term application use will likely require speeds up to 2.5/5Gb, IEEE 802.3ch multi-Gb protocols, meaning that designers and manufacturers should begin future-proofing architectures now to accommodate higher speeds. They can leverage their familiarity with common tools, components and designs to help drive adoption with their existing market base. As an example, many designers and OEMs already use DEUTSCH tooling to crimp wires and can use the same tools for longer channel lengths. 

Our engineers have developed a new high-speed connector for demanding data connectivity applications. Our products help industry participants ensure seamless connectivity for applications that require additional cameras, sensors such as LiDAR and RADAR, enhanced network architectures, increased information and displays, and large-bandwidth backbones. One such product has been developed to overcome the unique challenges found in the commercial vehicle and heavy equipment space: DT highspeed Connector.

This connector provides a terminal system that enables high-speed channels, meeting the length, temperature and reliability requirements of the commercial vehicles and heavy equipment used in the industry’s harshest environments. The connector also ensures longevity by allowing design flexibility today, while meeting the demands of tomorrow’s applications.

• Speed: Providing 1Gb speeds for 40m channel lengths with four inline connections.
• Future-proofing: Enabling the potential for the multi-Gig (2.5/5 Gb) speeds your customers will want in the future. 
• Compliance: Meeting industry-standard protocol IEEE802.3bp, 1000base-T1 type B (40-meter), and type A (15-meter).
• Market reputation: DEUTSCH products and the DT/DTM interface have been the market standard for more than 30 years. Their longevity speaks to their proven reliability and performance.
• Proven technology: Leveraging existing DEUTSCH size 20 common contact terminals, an existing terminal with existing tools with stamped and formed terminal or solid terminal options.
• Easy crimping: Using the DEUTSCH tooling you’re already familiar with to crimp wires. Leveraging simplistic designs to terminate the cable shield.
• Proven performance: Ensuring performance in the harshest commercial vehicle and equipment environments, with a -40°C to +125°C temperature range (1Gb max) so you can use the same interface in most of your environmental needs.
• Product flexibility: Offering a core terminal platform that will enable multiple housing variants in time-sensitive and cost-effective ways.
• Versatility: Currently supporting 20 AWG STP cables with options up to 18 AWG conductor sizes (not yet released for 18 AWG).
• Simplified assembly: Unique product design and simplified termination designs allow the existing harness makers to terminate to cable without overly complex process parameters, so you can tap your existing harnessing supply infrastructure.

Our DT Highspeed contact systems can help you design next-generation vehicle architectures. 

• Evaluate your next-generation architectures with DT Highspeed contact systems. Test with a product which you can feel comfortable will support your unique harsh and long-term environmental requirements. 
• Work with our field application engineers to help ensure you can overcome your connector and cable physical layer design challenges. If you want to jump straight to testing, ask your TE's rep for samples of the components and cable assemblies.
• Get support to address the challenges of implementing and launching high-speed channels into your next-generation vehicles.