Automotive Ethernet and 100BASE-T1: State of the Art of Communication Protocols and Experimental Evaluation of Time Synchronization using gPTP

The increasing complexity of modern vehicles, driven by the integration of ADAS, infotainment, and connected services, demands communication networks with higher bandwidth and precise time synchronization capabilities compared to traditional CAN-based systems. In this context, Automotive Ethernet, and particularly the 100BASE-T1 (BroadR-Reach) standard, enables full-duplex communication over a single twisted pair, combining high data throughput with reduced wiring complexity. This thesis investigates the physical layer and the main Automotive Ethernet communication protocols — including TSN, SOME/IP, DoIP, and gPTP (IEEE 802.1AS) — focusing on their role in time-sensitive and service-oriented automotive architectures. An experimental setup was developed using two NXP S32K344-based boards, configured to communicate over a 100BASE-T1 point-to-point link. The gPTP synchronization stack provided by NXP was adapted to a bare-metal environment without AUTOSAR dependencies, enabling both hardware and software timestamping for network synchronization analysis. The work provides a complete experimental characterization of the implemented system, offering insights into the accuracy, stability, and practical limitations of gPTP synchronization in Automotive Ethernet networks and its suitability for future zonal architectures.