Control system for motor vehicles

DETAILED DESCRIPTION This application claims the priority of German patent application 102 19 439.
4, filed May 2, 2002, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a control system for a motor vehicle having a plurality of functional subsystems, such as a passenger compartment controller, a telematics system, a drive controller and a chassis controller, each functional subsystem having a plurality of control devices, and a central databus.
Modern motor vehicles have numerous electronic components or control devices which are assigned, for example, to a functional subsystem—a chassis controller, drive controller, passenger compartment controller or telematics system.
The control devices of a subsystem are generally distributed over the entire vehicle; for example control devices for the chassis controller may be situated at a front axle and rear axle, or telematics control devices, such as telephone, may be in the passenger compartment and a CD changer in the luggage compartment.
A databus is used to interconnect the individual electronic control devices within a functional subsystem, with different bus systems being used in different functional subsystems, depending on the requirements.
The bus lines of a subsystem therefore generally extend through large parts of the vehicle.
In order to ensure communication between functional subsystems (for example in order to transmit information from the chassis controller to the drive controller), all the subsystems are connected to a central gateway, which also serves as a diagnostics access point.
Power is distributed in the motor vehicle separately from the transmission of data, using what are referred to as power points or distributors.
The publication R.
Beck, C.
Bracklo, G.
Faulhaber, V.
Seefried, "Backbone-Architektur: Vom zentralen Gateway zur systemintegrierenden Kommunikationsplattform" [Backbone Architecture: From the Central Gateway to the System-integrating Communications Platform], VDI Conference Elektronik im Kraftfahrzeug [Electronics in Motor Vehicles], September 2001, VDI Report 1646, page 277, discloses a network topology for motor vehicles in which superordinate communication between the individual functional subsystems such as chassis controller, drive controller, passenger compartment controller and telematics system, takes place on a central bus