Active Network TAPs

Many automotive architectures are moving toward Ethernet-based vehicle networks to increase bandwidth and provide the latest features customers demand, such as infotainment, safety, connectivity, and autonomous functions. 

However, many in the automotive industry are accustomed to other vehicle networks which can simply be monitored with a single connection such as an OBD port. Of course, this is not possible with Ethernet-based networks due to its complex signaling, switched architecture, and topology.

For some it is possible to simply use port mirroring — program the switch to copy all traffic to a single port for monitoring. However, this approach results in several problems that interfere with testing and validation:

• Dropped data due to a bottleneck at the monitored port
• Cannot provide captures of malformed or unrecognized frames
• Does not provide exact timing (when the frame “hits the wire.”)

Intrepid Control Systems Active Network Taps made for automotive networking.  It solves these problems by:

• Port Forwarding — passes all the all traffic in both directions
• Port Copying — sends a copy of all the traffic out a diagnostic port
• Frame Encapsulation —  “Wraps” good and even bad frames and adds a hardware timestamp, which captures bad frames and provides when each frame “hits the wire.”

Intrepid Control Systems Automotive Network Taps are the first active taps on the market to support Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) Frame Preemption (IEEE 802.1Qbu), Interspersing Express Traffic Task Force (IEEE 802.3br). Intrepid hardware has 100/1000/10GBASE-T1 or 10BASE-T1S (PHYs), allowing it to tap a single link between ECUs and/or switch ports at the rate of 100 Mbps. The Intrepid device allows Ethernet transmit on either port while tapping a link.

The Intrepid Control Systems Network Taps can also be configured to act as a stand-alone media converter, allowing a PC to interact with two Automotive Ethernet ECUs. This allows one to simulate nodes, or perform direct diagnostics or ECU flashing. Also, the “Pure” Media Converter Mode disables encapsulation of messages and even allows connections between media of different bit rates, buffering as needed.

ECU / Gateway Testing

Intrepid Hardware has the ability to test between two ECUs (hosts) or between an ECU and a 100BASE-T1, 1000BASE-T1, 10GBASE-T1 switch, plus CAN FD networks, with 10 ns time accuracy.  This makes it ideal for ECU testing applications, as well as port-to-port and Ethernet-to-CAN FD latency testing.

Compare Intrepid’s Active Network Taps