Virtual ECU Based Video Streaming over SOME/IP: A Case Study

The integration of the Scalable Service-Oriented Middleware over IP (SOME/IP) within Automotive Ethernet enables efficient, service-oriented communication in vehicles. This study presents a video stream transmission library using SOME/IP to transfer pre-recorded video data between virtual Electronic Control Units (ECUs). Implemented with vsomeip, OpenCV, and Protocol Buffers, the system handles video serialization, Ethernet transmission, and reconstruction at the receiver side. Experimental evaluation with front and rear dashboard cameras (2560 × 1440 and 1920 × 1080 px) demonstrated that video resolution and file size directly affect processing duration. Optimized 1920 × 1080 videos achieved total processing times of about 400 ms, confirming the feasibility of near-real-time video transmission. A GUI application was also developed to simulate event-based communication by sending object detection updates after video transfer. The proposed framework provides a scalable and modular architecture that can be adapted to real ECU systems, establishing a foundation for future real-time video communication in automotive networks.