The MOST Standard
The Media Oriented Systems Transport standard (MOST) has been called the "killer application" for POF since its inception in the 1990s, and has grown to fill that role in the past decade. It is the current standard for in-car infotainment networks, working in conjunction with other standards such as ByteFlight, FlexRay, and CAN Bus that are responsible for powertrain control and body electronics.
MOST was first implemented in the BMW 7-series in 2001, and others soon followed. It was originally designed with the features of high-end vehicles like these in mind, but major automakers worldwide have updated their vehicle designs to incorporate it.
The physical layer of MOST was designed with mass production in mind: Ferrules could be crimped or laser welded by machines, and 980μm POF cables could be cut, terminated, and stripped through automated processes. It improved upon the exiting, proprietary D2B standard, bringing new cables and connectors while keeping a ring network topology.
The governing partnership for MOST, MOST Cooperation, was founded by German automakers DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche. It provides detailed, royalty-free standards for POF networking that have been tested and proven in the automotive industry. These are designed to meet the demands of infotainment needs of the modern car, which focus on audio and video for entertainment and rear-view cameras, as well as GPS navigation and telemetrics. The advent of self-driving technologies, currently taking the form of advanced cruise control with lane-keeping capabilities, has also created a demand for high-performance networks.