Ethernet in motion

If it moves, it will probably soon run Ethernet. This week saw the formation of an industry group to drive Ethernet into automotive applications, as well as an effort to put Gigabit Ethernet into an Abrams tank.

The mission of the AVnu Alliance is actually broader than just automotive applications – the group’s goal is to promote the emerging IEEE 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB) standards effort, which of course affects consumer electronics and professional audio and video applications. Founders include Cisco, Broadcom, Intel, Samsung, Harman International Industries and Xilinx. Avid Technology, Marvell and Meyer Sound Laboratories have also joined the alliance.

The group says there’s currently no standard way to keep audio and video in sync over an Ethernet network, so delays can occur unless a proprietary technology is used. The IEEE is working on standards for media stream synchronization, buffering and reservation.

The group plans to create tests for standards compliance and promote interoperability among vendors’ products.

Meanwhile, Network World’s Michael Cooney reports that the U.S. Army is looking to put IPv6-capable Gigabit Ethernet switches – complete with dual-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet cards – into its M1A2 Abrams tanks.

Details of what kind of data and applications would be running over such switches were not available, but you can imagine.

Hey, maybe the tank’s network would benefit from the AVnu Alliance’s work, as there has to be some kind of audio and video going on in there. But something tells me the U.S. Army is probably okay with a proprietary approach.

Jeff Caruso is site editor at Network World.