Lecture 8 - FlexRay - Event-Driven and Time-Driven Communication
Uploaded by
김건정Lecture 8 - FlexRay - Event-Driven and Time-Driven Communication
Uploaded by
김건정Motivation for developing FlexRay
• Stringent safety, reliability and real-time requirements of the communication
system for safety-critical driver assistance applications
• Although already established in the automotive field, CAN is unable to fulfil
these requirements since it is focused on event-driven communication
• Lack of redundant mechanism to assure fault tolerance
• Communication speed limited to 500kbit/s in series production
• Time-Triggered CAN did not get the expected interest
2
History
• The FlexRay Consortium was founded in 2000 by Daimler Crysler and BMW which
joined with Motorola and Philips to develop a new deterministic and fault tolerant
communication standard
• Version 3.0.1 of the FlexRay specification was published in 2010 and work on the ISO
standardization began
• ISO 17458 (published in 2013) currently provides the FlexRay specification
3
Communication characteristics
• FlexRay communication can be achieved using different topologies:
line topology, passive/active star topology
• Each FlexRay node has two communication channels to enable
redundancy
• When redundancy is not required channels may be used to increase
data rate to 20Mbit/s
• Based on a time-triggered communication principle
• Optional support for dynamic message transmission
• All communication is performed based on a communication schedule
4
Passive network topologies
• Point-to-point connection Node 1 Node 2
Node 2 Node 3
• Line topology
Node 1 Node 4
Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 Node 4
• Passive star topology
5
Active network topologies
Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 Node 4
• Active star topology
Active star
coupler
• Derived topologies Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 Node 4
• Active star with redundant bus
Active star Active star
Coupler Ch A Coupler Ch B
Node 1 Node 2 Node 3 Node 4
• Cascaded active star topology
Active star Active star
Coupler Ch A Coupler Ch B
6
FlexRay OSI layers
• The FlexRay specification covers the Data link and physical layers of the OSI model
• A FlexRay node is consists of an ECU that is connected to the communication line
through a FlexRay controller and two FlexRay transceivers (channel redundancy)
• The controller handles the Data link layer of the FlexRay protocol
• The transceivers is responsible with the physical signalling on the bus
7
FlexRay bus
• FlexRay uses differential signal transmission and NRZ encoding
• Two communication lines: Bus Plus (BP) and Bus Minus (BM)
• Termination registers with values between 80 and 110 ohm must be
used
• The physical layer defines four bus levels
• Dominant – differential voltage not equal to 0 V (Data_1, Data_0)
• Recessive – differential voltage of 0V (Idle & low power)
8
Bus access principle
• FlexRay uses two methods for granting bus access to nodes
• TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access)
• FTDMA (Flexible Time Division Multiple Access)
• The TDMA method uses a communication schedule which is split into
time slots
• Each FlexRay node has one or more slots assigned in which it is
granted access to the bus
• The communication schedule is repeated periodically by all nodes
• The FTDMA method is used to implement a dynamic segment which
reserves a specific slot in the communication cycle that can be used
by any node to transmit messages in a non-deterministic manner
9
Communication cycle
• A communication cycle must consist of at least two time segments:
static segment and network idle time (NIT)
• Optional segments: dynamic segment and symbol window
(After FlexRay specification 3.0.1)
10
Timing hierarchy
• Macroticks
• A communication cycle consists of an integer number of macroticks
• Established as a result of the cluster-wider clock synchronization
• Always consist of an integer number of microticks
• Microticks
• Derived from the internal node oscillator
• Node’s internal time granularity
(After FlexRay specification 3.0.1)
11
Static segment
• Assures equidistant data transmission
• Organized in slots of equal length
• Nodes transmit messages in the static slots assigned to them
• A maximum of 1023 static slots can be defined on each channel
• Local counters are used to monitor static slot precedence
(FlexRay specification 3.0.1)
12
Static slot
• The length of a static slot is determined by
• The longest FlexRay message
• Largest transmission delay (up to 2,5 µs)
• Clock skew between nodes
• A static slot consists of four segments: Action Point Offset, FlexRay
Frame, Channel Idle Delimiter (11 recessive bits) & Channel Idle
13
(FlexRay specification 3.0.1)
Dynamic segment
• Used to transmit on-event messages
• Always has the same length and follows the static segment
• Also based on a schedule but transmission is done only if the
corresponding events occur
• Split in minislots which are occupied by Dynamic slots used to send
messages until no space is left to send other dynamic messages
14
(FlexRay specification 3.0.1)
Dynamic slot
• Similar to static slots
• Messages can have different payload sizes
• An additional field – Dynamic Trailing Sequence (DTS) – is added to
assure alignment to minislot timings
(FlexRay specification 3.0.1) 15
Symbol window
• Used to transmit special bit patterns called symbols
• Symbols are used for establishing communication and network
maintenance
• Flexray Symbols:
• Collision avoidance symbol – used by coldstart nodes to start
communication
• Media test symbol – used to test the bus guardian
• Wake-up symbol – used to initiate the wake-up process
(FlexRay specification 3.0.1) 16
FlexRay frame
• Consists of three parts: header, payload and trailer
17
(FlexRay specification 3.0.1)
FlexRay frame - Header
• Indicator bits – specify the message type
• Startup frame indicator – sent in the static segment as a startup frame
• Sync frame indicator – sent in the static segment for synchronization
• Null frame indicator – specifies if payload is valid or not
• Payload Preamble Indicator – specifies if a network management vector is sent in the
payload
• ID – Frame identifier
• Payload length – in words up to 127 → up to 254 bytes
• CRC – Computed over the ID, payload length and some indicator bits
• Cycle count – the current communication cycle count (counts up to 63)
(FlexRay specification 3.0.1)
18
FlexRay frame – Payload and Trailer
• All messages in the static segment have the same payload size
• A message sent in the static segment can use the first 12 bytes in the
payload to send the Network Management Vector
• The trailer CRC sequence is computed over the header and payload
(FlexRay specification 3.0.1)
19
FlexRay frame encoding
• TSS = Transmit Start Sequence (5-15 low bits)
• FSS = Frame Start Sequence (one high bit)
• BSS = Byte Start Sequence (one high bit followed by one low bit)
• FES = Frame End Sequence (one low bit followed by one high bit)
Static frame
Dynamic frame
20
(FlexRay specification 3.0.1)
FlexRay synchronization
• Synchronization required to assure reliable FlexRay communication
• Communication cycles and slots must begin at the designated time
and should always have the same length
• FlexRay nodes regularly correct their local clocks :
• Phase or offset correction
• Frequency or rate correction
21
(FlexRay specification 3.0.1)
