Formal timing analysis of CAN-to-Ethernet gateway strategies in automotive networks

Due to increased bandwidth and scalability demands, Ethernet technology is finding its way into recent in-vehicle networks. Tomorrow's heterogeneous networks will feature legacy buses [e.g. controller area network (CAN) or FlexRay] as well as high-speed Ethernet devices, connected by switches and gateways. As Ethernet offers significantly larger frame sizes than CAN, the efficient transmission of CAN data over an Ethernet backbone depends heavily on the way this data is multiplexed into Ethernet frames. This article focuses on the timing impact introduced by various CAN/Ethernet multiplexing strategies at the gateways. We present a formal analysis method to derive upper bounds on end-to-end latencies for complex multiplexing strategies, which is key for the design of safety-critical real-time systems. We capture complex inter-domain signal paths spanning multiple buses, gateways, and switches and show the applicability in a realistic automotive setup.