A system-level test for automotive communication subsystems

Abstract

Typical cars are nowadays controlled by multiple electronic control units that are grouped into hierarchical, functional segments like power train, chassis and safety, body electronics, infotainment or comfort. All these control units are interconnected by various different bus systems and allow for the exchange of data in order to enable new features and increased functionality. In particular, automotive OEMs strive to improve safety, reliability, environmental efficiency and comfort in order to meet the market demands. Recently, the automotive industry has adapted FlexRay as a new bus protocol and standardized software interfaces in order to handle the involved complexity. Despite all these efforts, however, rare fault scenarios may go unnoticed and eventually cause undesired effects. This article describes a test-setup that will allow to test an automotive communication subsystem at the system level -a feat that is otherwise hard to setup. The applicability of this approach is shown by way of a dedicated demonstrator system and an experiment that evaluates the life expectancy of cliques. Ein Test auf Systemebene f€ ur die verschiedenen Bussysteme in modernen Autos.Die moderne Elektronik, gepaart mit entsprechender Software, bildet die Basis f€ ur die meisten Innovationen in modernen Autos. Die zahlreich verbauten Steuerger€ ate sind mit verschiedenen Bussystemen wie LIN, CAN oder FlexRay vernetzt und bieten so gemeinsam das n€ otige "Mehr" an Funktionalit€ at, Sicherheit, Zuverl€ assigkeit, Komfort und Energieeffizienz. Ein von der Automobilindustrie neu entwickeltes Bussystem und standardisierte Software versprechen zuverl€ assigere L€ osungen. Nichtsdestotrotz gibt es -gerade zumal der gesteigerten Komplexit€ at -immer wieder auch seltene F€ alle, dass Fehler im System verborgen bleiben. Dieser Artikel beschreibt einen Ansatz auf Systemebene, der ein holistisches Testen komplexer Fehlerf€ alle des Kommunikationssubsystems erm€ oglicht. Der Einsatz dieses Testwerkzeugs wird kurz anhand eines Demonstrator-Systems sowie anhand eines Experiments dargestellt, in dem die Lebensdauer von Cliquen f€ ur eine gegebene Konfiguration untersucht wird.

Untitled

“…Vehicles could be linked to more communication devices in the future to provide a more comprehensive, autonomous, and intelligent driving experience (Kannappan et.al 2022). Horauer, Zauner, and Schuster (2021) the automotive industry introduces new cars with ever more functionalities and features trying to improve aspects like environmental efficiency, safety, reliability, and comfort. Electronics paired with the respective software is the prevalent innovator in modern cars.…”

Trends in Automotive Communication

“…Vehicles could be linked to more communication devices in the future to provide a more comprehensive, autonomous, and intelligent driving experience (Kannappan et.al 2022). Horauer, Zauner, and Schuster (2021) the automotive industry introduces new cars with ever more functionalities and features trying to improve aspects like environmental efficiency, safety, reliability, and comfort. Electronics paired with the respective software is the prevalent innovator in modern cars.…”