Design alternatives for IP in vehicles

For most network technologies, researchers and engineers already have developed mechanisms to run IP on top of the natively supported protocols. Such network technologies include for example IEEE 802, IEEE 1394 networks, or Bluetooth. In the automotive domain other network technologies like CAN and MOST are in use and new ad hoc networks for car-to-car communication are currently being developed. This paper presents and discusses generic approaches for implementing IP in intra-vehicular networks. The discussion includes the criteria whether standard software can be used or customized software has to be developed, the resulting efficiency regarding the message overhead, the fault tolerance of an approach and finally their efficient support for mobile nodes.