Circuit Description

There are many components in a vehicle that rely on information from other sources, transmit information to other sources, or both. Serial data communication networks provide a reliable, cost effective, way for various components of the vehicle to "talk" to one another and share information.

GM uses a number of different communication buses to insure the timely and efficient exchange of information between devices. When compared to each other, some of these buses are different in nature as far as speed, signal characteristics, and behavior. An example of this is the High Speed GMLAN and Low Speed GMLAN buses.

On the other hand, when other buses are compared to each other they have similar characteristics and simply operate in parallel. In this case they are used to group together components which have high interaction. Examples are the High Speed GMLAN, Powertrain Expansion, and Chassis Expansion buses. This allows them to communicate with each other on a bus with reduced message congestion insuring faster and the more timely exchange of information than if all vehicle devices were on a single bus.

The majority of information that exists within a given network generally stays local; however some information will have to be shared on other networks. Control modules designated as Gateway's perform the function of transferring information between the various buses. A Gateway module is connected to at least 2 buses and will interact with each network according to its message strategy and transmission models.

GMLAN provides the capability for a receiving device to monitor message transmissions from other devices in order to determine if messages of interest are not being received. The primary purpose is to allow reasonable default values to be substituted for the information no longer being received. Additionally, a device may set a Diagnostic Trouble Code to indicate that the device it is expecting information from is no longer communicating.