MIPI CSE Adds Functional Safety to Automotive Image Sensor Interface

MIPI Alliance has recently released the Camera Service Extensions (MIPI CSESM) v1.0 specification, which enhances the MIPI Camera Serial Interface 2 (MIPI CSI-2) image sensor interface with end-to-end functional safety and other features for automotive applications:

• A cyclic redundancy check (CRC-32) to detect data transmission errors, ensuring the image data captured by the sensor is accurate when received at the ECU
• A frame counter to detect frame loss or duplication, with its accuracy verified by the CRC, ensuring the continuity of video streams from cameras to ECU
• A message counter that can be used as a timeout checker to detect any loss of data caused by a stopped or stuck transmission between an image sensor and ECU
• Service Extension Packet (SEP) functionality is implemented over the entire PHY link, which provides packetization and uniform delivery of image data.

While the initial release of CSE provides the functional safety enabling features described above, the next version is already under development. CSE v2.0 will add security features to CSE_i and CSE_c, and will work with the upcoming MIPI Security specification to bring end-to-end security to the MASS framework. Version 2.0 is expected to be completed in mid-2022.