HARMAN (NYSE: HAR), the premier connected technologies company for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets, today announced it made an open source software contribution to the Open AVB project to help drive the adoption of Ethernet AVB/TSN (Audio Video Bridging/Time Sensitive Networking) in automotive, consumer, pro audio/video and industrial markets. The contributed technology includes major enhancements to the AVTP (Audio Video Transport Protocol) data pipeline and aims to modernize and prepare the connected car with flexible, scalable and secure in-vehicle networking technology while addressing an increased need for highly reliable communication in the vehicle.

As the auto industry continues to move towards making autonomous driving a reality, there is an increased need for highly dependable, cross-domain communication in the vehicle. Ethernet AVB represents a reliable solution. By replacing both the physical complexity of analog cables and the network complexity of earlier proprietary solutions, AVB brings an open, standards-based approach that enables interoperable platforms to offer more affordable and better market solutions.

Backed by the AVnu Alliance®, a community creating an interoperable ecosystem of low-latency, time-synchronized, highly reliable networked devices using open standards through certification, the Open AVB project provides essential network building blocks, drivers, libraries and example application best practices for building AVB/TSN systems.

“The Open AVB Project, with contributions from AVnu Alliance members, will provide components needed for manufacturers to confidently integrate AVB/TSN into products and ultimately successfully pass AVnu Certification tests. These contributions help accelerate a broader ecosystem of AVB/TSN devices across various markets. Our mission is to help facilitate that ecosystem and certify devices for interoperability,” says Gary Stuebing, AVnu Alliance Board of Directors President.

A pioneer in open source software and a founding member of the AVnu Alliance, HARMAN has been actively contributing to its working groups and projects since the Alliance’s formation. This most recent contribution aims to enable and provide for a fully functioning, viable open source software stack, essential for the development and testing of Ethernet AVB products.

“At HARMAN we believe that open source software is the foundation of developing innovative technologies,” said Dean Miles, Senior Vice President, HARMAN Connected Services. “We are proud to contribute to the Open AVB project with our advanced open source software. In doing so, we hope to bring the global auto industry more closely with the larger networking community and to make modern vehicle networking technology more quickly available to the connected car.”