US Patent 7999408 Power and communication architecture for a vehicle

A power, ground and communication architecture (100) utilizes hubs (105, 110, 115). Each hub (105, 110, 115) contains computing, communication and power management elements (135, 140). Hubs (105, 110, 115) may be connected to multiple other hubs (105, 110, 115) to distribute communication and power in a freeform web-type arrangement, specific tree, bus or star arrangements are not required. Standardized wiring harness segments (120) are used to join the hubs (105, 110, 115) and control elements. Each of the strands in the web may be an independent point-to-point bus and isolated power line.