The Communication System for Advanced Automotive Control Systems

Advanced Automotive Communication System

Outline:
• Scalable static and dynamic message transmission (deterministic and flexible)
• High net data rate of 5 Mbit/sec; gross data rate approximately 10Mbit/sec
• Scalable fault-tolerance (single and dual channel)
• Error containment on the physical layer through an independent Bus Guardian
• Fault tolerant clock synchronisation (global time base)

Copyright © 2000 by BMW AG, DaimlerChrysler AG

 The Communication System for Advanced Automotive Control Systems

Motivation

• Demand for a bus system with high data rate

• Deterministic and fault tolerant bus system for advanced automotive control
applications

• Support from the bus system for distributed control systems

• Limited number of different communication systems within vehicles

FlexRay
requirements

MOST
CAN

LIN

control systems telematics

Copyright © 2000 by BMW AG, DaimlerChrysler AG

 The Communication System for Advanced Automotive Control Systems

Goals

• Develop an advanced communication technology for high-speed

control applications in vehicles

• Make the technology available in the market place for everyone

• Drive the technology as a defacto standard

Copyright © 2000 by BMW AG, DaimlerChrysler AG

 The Communication System for Advanced Automotive Control Systems

Basic Features

• Synchronous and asynchronous data transmission (scalable)

• High net data rate of 5 Mbit/sec; gross data rate approximately 10Mbit/sec
• Deterministic data transmission, guaranteed message latency and message jitter
• Support of redundant transmission channels
• Fault tolerant and time triggered services implemented in hardware
• Fast error detection and signalling
• Support of a fault tolerant synchronised global time base
• Error containment on the physical layer through an independent “Bus Guardian”
• Arbitration free transmission
• Support of optical and electrical physical layer
• Support for bus, star and multiple star topologies

Copyright © 2000 by BMW AG, DaimlerChrysler AG

 The Communication System for Advanced Automotive Control Systems

Hardware Features and Topology of a Distributed

FlexRay System - Active Star
• Optional redundant
Communication communication channels
Controller and µC Bus Driver
• 1 to 1 communication
connections in combination
Physical 1 to 1 with active stars
Communication • Support of “wake-up” via bus
Connection
• Support of net data rates up to
Active Star 5 Mbit/sec
• Support of power management

Redundancy

ECU

Copyright © 2000 by BMW AG, DaimlerChrysler AG

 The Communication System for Advanced Automotive Control Systems

Hardware Features and Topology of a Distributed

FlexRay System - Passive Bus
communication Solution with restrictions
controller
(and host) (reuse of available
Bus Driver
Physical Layer):
• Optional redundant
passive communication channels
bus
• Support of “wake-up” via
bus, depends on the
Physical Layer
• low gross data rate
(similar to CAN)
• Support of power
management, depends on
the Physical Layer
Redundancy
• Bus Guardian, depends
on the Physical Layer

Node

Copyright © 2000 by BMW AG, DaimlerChrysler AG

 The Communication System for Advanced Automotive Control Systems

Features and Block Diagram of a FlexRay ECU

Permanent
Power • 1 or 2 bus drivers connected to one
communication controller
ECU • Connection to “permanent power”

Microcontroller • “Wake-up” via bus

(Host)
Power Supply

• “Shut-down” by the ECU

Communication Controller
Guardian

Guardian

Bus Bus Power modes Communication Power supply

Bus

Bus

Driver Driver of nodes (internal)

Level 1 available available
Level 2 unavailable available
Bus Bus
Level 3 unavailable unavailable

Copyright © 2000 by BMW AG, DaimlerChrysler AG

 The Communication System for Advanced Automotive Control Systems

Features and Block Diagram of a FlexRay Active Star

• More than 1 bus driver required

Permanent
Power
• Communication controller and micro controller
are not required
• Connection to “permanent power”
Active Star
• “Wake-up” via bus
Supply
Power

Bus Bus • “Shut-down” via bus

Driver Driver

Power modes of Communication Power supply

Bus Bus an active star (internal)
Level 1 available available
Level 2 unavailable available
Level 3 unavailable unavailable

Copyright © 2000 by BMW AG, DaimlerChrysler AG

 The Communication System for Advanced Automotive Control Systems

Data Transmission
node A node B node C node D node E node F node G

channel 1

sync symbol channel 2

messages channel 1
slot 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 12 1314 15

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 11 12 14 15 frame
... (static part)
da db dc dd de df dg dk dl dm do dq
ID
A B C B D E F C A A F E
datatype
messages channel 2
slot 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 12 13 1415
node

1 2 3 4 5 8 9 11 12 13 frame
...
(dynamic part)
d´a dh di d´d d´e dj d´k d´l dn dp
ID
A B C B D G C A A G
static part dynamic part
datatype
node
communication cycle

Copyright © 2000 by BMW AG, DaimlerChrysler AG

 The Communication System for Advanced Automotive Control Systems

FlexRay Protocol Frame Format (I)

ID MUX SYNC LEN DATA CRC

10 bit 1 bit 1 bit 4 bit 0...12 byte 16 bit

ID: Identifier, 10 bit, range: (110 ... 102310), defines the slot number in the static
part or the priority in the dynamic part

MUX: Multiplex Field, 1 bit, enables a node to transmit different messages with the
same ID

SYNC: Synchronisation Field, 1 bit, tags the frames which will be used for the clock
synchronisation

LEN: Length field, 4 bit, LEN = number of used data bytes (010 ... 1210)

D0 ... D11:Data bytes, 0-12 bytes

CRC: Cyclic Redundancy Check Field, 16 bit

Copyright © 2000 by BMW AG, DaimlerChrysler AG

 The Communication System for Advanced Automotive Control Systems

FlexRay Protocol Frame Format (II)

ID MUX SYNC LEN CYCLE DATA CRC

10 bit 1 bit 1 bit 4 bit 8 bit 0...11 byte 16 bit

The cycle counter will be used to synchronise application processes which

are longer as the communication cycle.

CYCLE: Cycle Counter, 8 bit, range: (010 ... 25510). The CYCLE-field will be used as
cycle counter or as a data byte. The cycle counter will be incremented
consistently in all communication controllers at the beginning of each
communication cycle

SYNC: Synchronisation field, 1 bit, tags the frames which contain the cycle counter

D0 ... D10: Data bytes, 0-11 bytes

Copyright © 2000 by BMW AG, DaimlerChrysler AG

 The Communication System for Advanced Automotive Control Systems

FlexRay Protocol Clock Synchronisation

• Synchronisation of the local clocks to a global time base

• Up to two asymmetric faults can be tolerated if there are a sufficient number of

nodes

• Fault tolerant clock synchronisation is available in a pure static configuration

and in a mixed configuration (static and dynamic part in the communication
cycle)

• No fault tolerant clock synchronisation is available in a pure dynamic

configuration

• Support of all topologies (single channel, dual channel, mixed single and dual
channel)

• Only nodes in the static part can participate in the clock synchronisation
(with frames which are tagged with the SYNC bit)

• All nodes can use the global time

Copyright © 2000 by BMW AG, DaimlerChrysler AG