World Symposiumon Computer Applications Research
World Symposiumon Computer Applications Research
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Abstract— In the last few years, electronic control systems in as automotive applications. In fact, thanks to its important
modern vehicles made great strides and they become so efficient, features making it able to address interoperability, new
but also so complex. Specific requirements on each part of new technologies, tools and stringent requirements for today’s and
vehicles have led to the development of different automotive tomorrow’s vehicles, it could offer an alternative for in vehicle
networks. Thus, today’s cars communication system is usually network infrastructure and provide a relevant solution for
based on various technologies. In such architecture, many ECU’s automotive safety critical applications, when supporting a
might be connected to several buses and the rising number of network protocol (IP) that prevents direct communication
subsystems increases the overall complexity and affect across different serial data systems and provides high-
analyzability, scalability and maintainability. On the other hand,
performance bandwidth of 100 Mbps.
the bandwidth requirements of control applications in future
Electric Connected Vehicles cannot be met by CAN or FlexRay Moreover, the adoption of this technology in this relatively
networks. Ethernet presents a relevant alternative possessing the new market space reduce connectivity costs and cabling weight
potential to meet future bandwidth requirements and a great and enables then introducing advanced features into the
competitiveness from a cost perspective. In this paper, we will automotive domain such as analyzability, scalability and
propose a new generation vehicle communication benchmark and a maintainability without need for expensive or complexity and
vision to adopt Ethernet topology in automotive domain. cumbersome shielded cabling. Therefore this technology would
be a welcome addition if designed for the rigorous environment
Keywords-; Car Benchmark, Future generation vehicle,
and when supported by a robust supplier infrastructure.
Automotive applications, Ethernet&IP
However, today's topologies are typically based on various
I. INTRODUCTION technologies such as CAN, FlexRay, MOST and Ethernet. In
these architectures, some ECU's could be connected to more
Market demands and regulations are leading the automotive than one communication system (e.g. CAN and FlexRay or
industry to face increasing design and business challenges due different CAN domains). This rising number of subsystems
to the fast adoption rates of sophisticated infotainment, increases the overall complexity tremendously. Hence,
advanced safety features, semi-autonomous driving/control, traditional Ethernet as a "puristic" logically flat network is not
and remote diagnostics. Specifically, requirements for efficient, a realistic topology for heterogeneous automotive networks.
fast, and reliable communications among modules within a Therefore, several researches are actually aiming to find
vehicle and between vehicles in a fleet are testing the limits of optimum package of solutions to conform this technology to
current network protocols. the automotive environment.
Existing networking technologies for intra-vehicle This paper is recognized in 6 sections. After the
communication (e.g., CAN, FlexRay), and RADAR/LIDAR, introduction and in a second section, we present some previous
camera-based, inter-vehicle sensing may not be able to tackle works dealing with the same issues. The third section is
all the challenges on bandwidth, cost, and reliability. Hence, dedicated to an introduction to Embedded Systems world and
new protocols for intra-vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle, and vehicle- the Model Based Design methodology. In section four, we give
to-infrastructure communications must be defined and the vehicle prototype adopted in this work and we present in
developed to facilitate the adoption of new features for the following section a response time computing method.
enhanced safety, driver comfort, and commercial use cases.
Ethernet technology is widely used in our daily lives, but it
presents also a great potential for utilization in other fields such
II. RELATED WORKS equipment manufacturers) and automotive electronics, and
plans to expand yet its membership roster in the future to
A. Vehicle Benchmark Development Studies additional automotive suppliers and manufacturers |[6].
Modeling and performance evaluation works for This non-profit, open industry alliance is built to encourage
automotive applications has begun in 1993 with a document [1] wide scale adoption of Ethernet-based networks as a standard
published by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). The in automotive applications. Founding members focused
document that describes the signaling requirements for a initially on establishing interoperability requirements, third
prototype electric car with point-to-point communication party testing, certification procedures, and higher data rate
network, has been used as basis for building an intra-vehicle specification requirements. Then, in order to meet automotive
communication benchmark [2][3]. application needs, the OPEN Alliance SIG has adopted a
In the resulting model, signals were not designed for any solution enabling to move towards more regular Ethernet based
specific protocol; rather, they represent the data that needs to topologies that avoid ad-hoc connections such as the Broadcom
be exchanged between the different benchmark modules. BroadR-Reach.
Furthermore, the SAE has not specified a signal average period The automotive-qualified new technology engineered to
for sporadic tasks. This problem has been solved after that by meet the stringent in-vehicle requirements of the automotive
Kopetz [3] who decided to respect the condition that the industry, was optimized to allow multiple in-car applications
latency of periodic signals should be less than or equal to their (such as infotainment, automated driver assistance and on
period and then modeled sporadic tasks as periodic tasks with a board-diagnostics) to simultaneously access information over
period of 20 ms. Kopetz’s messages were especially designed an unshielded single twisted pair cable delivering high-
to best serve the TTP protocol. However, Tindell and Burns performance bandwidth of 100Mbps. According to Broadcom
organized their messages to best fit the CAN protocol and Corporation, this technology allows automotive manufacturers
decided to adopt a more relaxed assumption for sporadic tasks to eliminate cumbersome and shielded cabling reducing then
considering a latency of 20 ms and a period of 50 ms. Their connectivity costs up to 80 percent and cabling weight as much
resulting message structure containing 17 periodic messages as 30 percent.
[2], was exploded by Utayba M and Al-Holou N in [4] where
they developed an extended benchmark based on the SAE In June 2012, at the University of New Hampshire
Benchmark and taking into account some modern sub-systems InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), semiconductor
that have been adopted recently in the automotive industry. companies completed the first round of conformance testing,
Utayba. M and Al-Holou. N used the Controller Area Network demonstrating adherence to the BroadR-Reach standard. In
(CAN) protocol to validate its adequacy for representing the fact, the UNH-IOL has been conducting Ethernet testing for
modern intra-vehicle network requirements. nearly 25 years and remains at the forefront of evolving
Ethernet technologies for the automotive industry and beyond.
Since then, electronics and embedded applications have By operating one of the world’s most comprehensive Ethernet
been constantly more and more present in vehicles. Therefore, test beds, the UNH-IOL is the de facto standard for knowledge
it was very important to expand old works in order to move and experience in Ethernet testing.
closer to modern vehicle model. In this context, we have
proposed in a previous work [5] an advanced model based on As a provider of broad-based testing and standards
the SAE Benchmark and its extension by Utayba and Al- conformance services for the networking industry and aside
Holou. In this work, we applied a timing analysis on an from conformance testing, the UNH-IOL is actively developing
extended vehicle model presenting a total of 15 modules interoperability specifications and defining future testing
connected by the FlexRay network, to further prove that all procedures insuring higher data rate specification requirements
tasks are schedulable and deadlines are insured. for the BroadR-Reach standard, in-conjunction with the OPEN
Alliance. In this context, the lab, announced on August 2012
As consumer demand for in-vehicle connectivity continues the launch of the first Automotive Ethernet Consortium, paving
to grow, automotive manufacturers are under constant pressure the way for semiconductor companies to address stringent
to deliver competitive, innovative features while minimizing requirements of the automotive industry for next generation in-
cost. That leaded to a higher demand for high speed vehicle networking. The OPEN Alliance SIG endorses then the
communication protocols. Ethernet standards is nowadays UNH-IOL as the first laboratory to test BroadR-Reach®.
presenting a relevant alternative to fit all this requirements
since it would allow car manufacturers to enhance features and This migration from multiple closed applications to a single
increase customer satisfaction and quality by reducing costs open, scalable Ethernet-based network within the automobile
and increasing bandwidth through cost-effective components also allows manufacturers to incorporate more electronic
and fewer cables. systems and devices, creating a superior connected experience
behind the wheel. For consumers, this means availability of
B. Automotive Ethernet technology emergence new, innovative features for safety (i.e. 360-degree surround
view parking assistance, rear-view cameras and collision
The OPEN (One-Pair Ether-Net)) Alliance SIG (Special avoidance systems and eventually automated driving); comfort
Interest Group) was founded in November 2011 by BMW, and infotainment (access to social media applications via
Bosch, Broadcom, Continental, Freescale, Harman, Hyundai, dashboard); as well as improved fuel efficiency and
Jaguar Land Rover, NXP and Renesas. The alliance counts performance, and greater affordability.
now 140 members of manufacturers, OEMs (Original
In the same context, several Ethernet & IP @ Automotive The resulting model is optimized in order to meet the
Technology Days were organized. The first was hosted by specifications.
BMW AG and the second was hosted by Continental AG.
Topics covered at these technology days include IEEE802.3bp; The application is automatically created for testing in
IEEE802.1 AVB, TSN; AUTOSAR, GENIVI; Automotive real time.
Applications; OPEN Alliance BroadR-Reach; Wake Up Within this framework our work is integrated in this new
Concepts; EMC; Connectors; Cables; ISO26262; etc. These approach of the embedded development. It aims to provide a
events were open to anyone interested in the next generation relatively realistic model for the different modules of the
automotive communication technology. vehicle prototype and to generate later the C code relative to
On January 2013, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic these modules, then to modify this code by integrating the
Engineers (IEEE) announced the formation of an IEEE µC/OS-II kernel and finally downloading this code on an
802.3™ Ethernet Standard study group to explore the Ethernet network of LPC cards.
requirements for network latency and real-time control in In the present work we will focus our studies on the two
industries such as industrial automation and automotive, and to first steps to present a model of a vehicle prototype and then
look at additional opportunities to expand the overall Ethernet evaluate its performances applying a particular scheduling
market and their associated technology requirements [7]. algorithm and its simulation using Matlab.
Finally, a last Ethernet & IP @ Automotive Technology
Day was organized by the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE- IV. THE VEHICLE PROTOTYPE
SA) on June 2013 and focused on addressing automotive In this part, we will propose a vehicle model based on the
industry needs by continuing, restructuring and expanding SAE benchmark and its extensions by Utayba and Al-Holou as
previous efforts in this field. well as our previous work. In fact, in this paper, we aim to
present our latest effort in order to develop a vehicle prototype
III. EMBEDDED SYSTEMS AND MODEL BASED DESIGN able to represent modern connected cars complexity and to
As embedded systems are obtaining an increasingly serve as a test platform to validate our studies in many fields
complex architecture marked by the presence of several including innovation in intra and inter vehicle communication
Electronic Control Units ensuring each one a single function systems, Real Time Operating Systems integration in
and communicating with a central calculator via a real time embedded word, task management and scheduling algorithms,
network, traditional methods for design and control systems Data Distribution Service integration in the automotive domain
implementation are becoming irrelevant for modern embedded and Quality of Service insurance… Therefore we will start by
devices. In fact, old methods allow the designer to detect the introducing the SAE and the PSA Benchmark as basis for our
design errors only after the prototyping and integration phases, study, then we will present our contribution and the resulting
what causes the delay of the software validation. Then, these Benchmark and we will apply the Rate Monotonic scheduling
traditional methods take more time for the embedded software algorithm to make sure that all the system tasks are schedulable
and material development. and that all deadlines are met.
In the last few years, the embedded system design knew a A. The SAE Benchmark Evolution
remarkable evolution and changes concerning especially the
methodology. The first objective of these changes is to reduce The reference prototype consists of six modules in a vehicle
the time to market of the product after its design. In this network Class C: The controller of the vehicle (VC), the motor
controller / inverter (I/MC) Transmission (Trans), Battery
context, we find a new approach adopted by the companies
allowing the reduction of the development time which is the (Battery), the Brakes (Brakes), and the interface Driver control
[1]. These modules exchange a total of 53 sporadic and
Model Based Design (MBD). This approach became a
development standard in several fields such as automotive field periodic signals.
and aeronautic. It is based on the Matlab and Simulink for the Although the original Benchmark was designed without
design. Indeed, it allows the design of flexible models then to considering any communication system, derived works have
generate an optimized code which will be charged in the target. targeted special network protocols. While Tindell and Burns
Thus, the Model Based Design has emerged as a way to [2] designed their messages to meet the Controller Area
address the difficulties related to the design of control systems. Network protocol requirements, Kopetz [3] organized his
In fact, the use of a model library allows dividing the messages to better fit the Time Triggered Protocol (TTP).
challenges and optimizing the resulting code which saves
enormous time of system design since a large part of the work In a subsequent work [4], the author translated the names of
has been reduced by the design of the library. The Model the modules SAE into their equivalents in today's terminology.
Based design can be summarized in the following steps: The Driver and the Battery modules are combined in the Body
Control Module (BCM), which usually acts as a bridge
The model of the entire system is made from blocks between the low data rate and very high data rate network in
and parameters to describe the implementation details. the vehicle. Similarly, the Vehicle Controller and the Inverter /
Motor controller were combined into a single node called the
The design options of the system and the model's Engine Control Module (ECM), while the Transmission
performance can be evaluated from the simulation. Controller was denoted as the transmission control module
(TCM). The Brake Controller was divided into Hydraulic Consequently, the resulting Model contains 24 Modules
Brake Control Unit (HBCU) and an Electronic Brake Control connected by the Ethernet protocol as shown in Fig 2. The
Unit (EBCM). The rest of the modules representing the vehicle modules are assimilated to network nodes responsible
Front/Rear Left/Right wheel Module (FLWM, FRWM, for exchanging messages and signals through the Ethernet
RLWM and RRWM) were kept unchanged in the terminology. network.
In this work, new control systems were also studied and These messages are created thanks to a number of tasks
integrated to the prototype such as the suspension system processing within each node and scheduled by an embedded
insured by the Active Suspension Unit (ASU), the power assist Real-Time Operating System μCOSIII (see Fig 3). In fact, the
steering module denoted Active Frame Steering (AFS), the main goal of the proposed architecture is to insure better
anti-lock braking system called Electronic Brake Control performance of the vehicular network and to guarantee the
Module (EBCM), the Traction Control Unit (TCU), the arrival of the right data on the right time by meeting the tasks
Electronic Stability Control/Program and Roll Over Mitigation deadline. This goal might be reached using a relevant
(ESP/ROM) and finally the Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC). scheduling algorithm and integrating a publish/subscribe
middleware as the Data Distribution Service (DDS) studied in
previous works [10]. In this scheme, these nodes play the role
of Publishers and Subscribers, and the different tasks are
assimilated to DataReader and DataWriter in the middleware
architecture.
Real Time Application
(Vehicle Model)
Publish-Subscribe
Figure 1. The extended SAE Benchmark model
Middleware (DDS)
Since the PSA does not provide enough information about A. Response Time Approximation
their models, exchanged messages and generating nodes, we
decided to build our new model on the SAE Benchmark and In a general communication process, response time can be
add a number of options and nodes considering the PSA divided in four pieces, as shown in Fig.4; frame generation
models to enrich the resulting prototype. In fact, we decided in delay, data queuing delay, transmission delay and reception
the present work to consider the model in Fig 1 and integrate, delay [11]. The generation delay is started when the
as shown in Fig 2, nine new modules representing the transmitting node received the request of sending from a frame
Automatic Refrigeration System (ARS), the Control Panel and till the data is written into the buffer and ready for being sent.
Multifunction Screen module (CP/MFS), the Radio, the Queuing delay is started when generation delay ended till the
Compact Disc Changer (CDch), the Locking/Unlocking frame acquires the occupation of the bus and begins to be sent.
System (LUS), the Navigation System (Navig), the Visibility Transmission delay is the time during which the frame is being
Control Unit (VCU), the Signaling System Control Unit transmitted on the bus. Reception delay is started when the
(SSCU) and the lighting System Control Unit (LSCU). frame gets off the bus and goes into the receiving node till the
frame accomplishes its task.
Generation
delay DW
Queuing
delay
Transmission delay
Reception
delay
DR
Figure 2. The developed new Benchmark
Figure 4. Communication Model between DataReader and DataWriter
Note that the generation delay and reception delay are not Ri Ci Ii (4)
related to the network characteristics but related to the
Where “I” is caused by the interference from higher priority
processors performance in each node. Therefore, these two
parts of delay should not be taken into account. In Ethernet tasks and consists in a sum of the number of each higher
protocol, the average response time Rm of a given frame priority task releases during Ri. In other word, the number of
(message) is the sum of queuing delay average (tm) and times where each higher priority task can execute during Ri.
transmission delay average (Cm): The interference caused by a task ’j’ is given by:
Ri
R m tm Cm (1) T CJ (5)
J
Since in automotive Ethernet protocol version, a Time
Triggered Ethernet (TTE) or a Flexible Time Triggered
Ethernet (FTTE) access technology is always adopted, Where the ceiling function gives the smallest integer
messages are usually transmitted at fixed time points without greater than the fractional number on which it acts.
any queuing delays; the response time can be approximated by Ri
Cm. Ri Ci C j
jhp ( i ) T j
(6)
R m Cm (2)
Where hp(i) is the set of tasks with priority higher than task
Transmission delay Cm refers to the time interval between “i”.
being on the bus and completion of sending process. It depends Since we are conceiving a model for a safety critical real
on the frame itself as well as bus parameters. time application, the temporal overheads of implementation
and RTOS delays must be taken into account such as:
Cm PRE SOF DA SA Context switches (one per job)
(3)
Length / Type Data FCS * bit Interrupts (one per sporadic task release)
The Preamble (PRE) consists of 7 bytes and the Start-of- Real-time clock overheads
frame delimiter (SOF) length is 1 byte. DA is the Destination In this case the Response time formula becomes as follows:
address which consists of 6 bytes and identifies which
Ri
station(s) should receive the frame. The Source addresses (SA)
consists of 6 bytes identifying the sending station. The
Ri CS 1 Ci Bi (CS CS C j )
T
jhp ( i ) j
1 2
(7)
Length/Type counts 2 bytes and indicates either the number of
client data bytes that are contained in the data field of the Where the new terms CS 1 and CS 2 are the cost of
frame, or the frame type ID if the frame is assembled using an switching to the task, and the cost of switching away from it.
optional format. The Data field is a sequence of n bytes of any And the term Bi is the cost of the task worst case blocking
value, where n is less than or equal to 1500. The Frame Check
Sequence (FCS) consists of 4 bytes and contains a 32-bit cyclic time.
redundancy check (CRC) value (see Fig 5). Since Ri appears in both two parts of the equation, we have
to solve by forming a recurrence relationship: So, the response
Finally, bit refers to the one bit transmission delay which time could then be computed by the following algorithm.
is equal to (0.01µs) in the case of a bit rate of 100MBps.
Worst Case Response Time Computing Algorithm
for i in 1..N loop
calculate Ci
Figure 5. The Basic IEEE 802.3 MAC Data Frame Format n := 0
loop