K. S. Gurumurthy

An Insight into the Hardware and Software Complexity of ECUs in Vehicles

Modern automotives integrate large amount of electronic devices to improve the driving safety and comfort. This growing number of Electronic Control Units (ECUs) with sophisticated software escalates the vehicle system design complexity. In this paper we explain the complexity of ECUs in terms of hardware and software and also we explore the possibility of Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) architecture for the integration of add-on software in ECUs. This reduces the complexity of the embedded system in vehicles and eases the ECU integration by reducing the total number of ECUs in the vehicles.

The Impact of Network Topologies on the Performance of the In-Vehicle Network

Todays vehicles contain hundreds of circuits, sensors and around 80-120 Electronic Control Units(ECUs). The communication is needed among many circuits and functions of a vehicle. In earlier vehicle systems, this type of communication was handled via a dedicated wire through point-to-point connections. If all possible combinations of switches, sensors, ECUs and other electronic devices in fully featured vehicles are accumulated, the resulting number of connections and dedicated wiring is enormous. Hence networking of these components is necessary to reduce the complexity of electronics inside a vehicle. In-vehicle networking provides a more efficient method for todays complex in-vehicle communications. This paper focuses on the comparison of the performance of ring and star network topologies on the basis of bus load.

Load Balancing across ECUs in Automotives

Modern automotive subsystems are no longer a heap of electro-mechanics but instead involve a number of Electronic Control Units (ECUs). Electronic Control Unit (ECU) has become the fundamental building block of any automotive subsystem and is interfaced with electro mechanics counterpart. To meet the system wide requirements, these ECUs are interconnected using the communication infrastructure. Although the communication infrastructure in terms of, predominantly, the CAN based vehicle network took its birth to enable ECUs to work in a coordinated manner in order to support system wide requirements, during the past decade, this infrastructure was also viewed as a potential means to incorporate extensibility in terms of addition of newer ECUs which are built for implementing additional requirements. With this paradigm, the number of ECUs started growing in a steep manner, uncontrolled and as a result, today, it is not hard to see a high segment automotive housing ECUs as large as 75-80. Hence, load balancing mechanisms are needed to ease ECU integration and for efficient utilization of CPU power in ECUs. In this paper, we explain the concept of load balancing on the basis of CPU utilization across ECUs.

A Paradigm Shift from Legacy to AUTOSAR Architecture in Future Automotives

The modern automotive Electrical/Electronics (E/E) systems have reached a high level of complexity today, leading to a corresponding increase in the complexity of the deployed software. The increasing complexity of automotive embedded software increases the need for software reusability and shorter design cycle. These issues are addressed by AUTOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture), an emerging technology in automotive software engineering that contributes to reuse and increased flexibility while preserving interfaces and system-level integrity. The AUTOSAR approach has much to offer software engineers working on embedded systems or model-driven development. In this paper, we explain the paradigm shift from a legacy architecture to the AUTOSAR architecture of ECU design, which eases the integration of ECUs supplied by different Tier1 suppliers.

Load Balancing in Multi ECU Configuration

Electronic Control Units (ECUs) are widely used to improve the comfort and reliability of vehicles. It has become the fundamental building block of any automotive subsystem and is interfaced with electro mechanics counterpart. To meet the system wide requirements, these ECUs are interconnected using the communication infrastructure. Although the communication infrastructure in terms of, predominantly, the CAN based vehicle network took its birth to enable ECUs to work in a coordinated manner in order to support system wide requirements, during the past decade, this infrastructure was also viewed as a potential means to incorporate extensibility in terms of addition of newer ECUs which are built for implementing additional requirements. With this paradigm, the number of ECUs started growing in a steep manner, uncontrolled and as a result, today, it is not hard to see a high segment automotive housing ECUs as large as 75-80. Hence, load balancing mechanisms are needed to ease ECU integration and for efficient utilization of CPU power in ECUs. In this paper, we explain the mathematical approach for load balancing across ECUs on the basis of CPU utilization.

DEPLOYING HEALTH MONITORING ECU TOWARDS ENHANCING THE PERFORMANCE OF IN-VEHICLE NETWORK

Electronic Control Units (ECUs) are the fundamental electronic building blocks of any automotive system. They are multi-purpose, multi-chip and multicore computer systems where more functionality is delivered in software rather than hardware. ECUs are valuable assets for the vehicles as critical time bounded messages are communicated through. Looking into the safety criticality, already developed mission critical systems such as ABS, ESP etc, rely fully on electronic components leading to increasing requirements of more reliable and dependable electronic systems in vehicles. Hence it is inevitable to maintain and monitor the health of an ECU which will enable the ECUs to be followed, assessed and improved throughout their lifecycle starting from their inception into the vehicle. In this paper, we propose a Health monitoring ECU that enables the early trouble shooting and servicing of the vehicle prior to any catastrophic failure.

Load balancing issues in automotives

Electronic Control Units (ECUs) are widely used to improve the comfort and reliability of vehicles. It has become the fundamental building block of any automotive subsystem and is interfaced with electro mechanics counterpart. To meet the system wide requirements, these ECUs are interconnected using the communication infrastructure. Although the communication infrastructure in terms of, predominantly, the CAN based vehicle network took its birth to enable ECUs to work in a coordinated manner in order to support system wide requirements, during the past decade, this infrastructure was also viewed as a potential means to incorporate extensibility in terms of addition of newer ECUs which are built for implementing additional requirements. With this paradigm, the number of ECUs started growing in a steep manner, uncontrolled and as a result, today, it is not hard to see a high segment automotive housing ECUs as large as 75–80. Hence, load balancing mechanisms are needed to ease ECU integration and for efficient utilization of CPU power in ECUs. In this paper, we explain the concept of load balancing on the basis of CPU utilization across ECUs.

Load Balancing towards ECU Integration

There has been an exponential increase in the number of electronic components embedded in vehicles. Development processes, techniques and tools have changed to accommodate that evaluation. A wide range of electronic functions such as navigation, adaptive control, infotainment, traffic information, safety system etc are implemented in today’s vehicles. Many of the new functions are not stand alone and hence they need to exchange information, sometimes with stringent time constraints for time critical functions such as engine management, collision warning systems etc. The complexity of the embedded architecture in a vehicle is continually increasing. Today up to 2500 signals are exchanged through up to 70 Electronic Control Units (ECUs) using 5 different buses. This paper introduces the load balancing approach across ECUs supplied by various Tier1 suppliers.