Automotive Software Architecture: Migration Challenges from an Event-Triggered to a Time-Triggered Communication Scheme

Freitag, 12.02.2010, 15:15 c.t., Raum B 017

Referent: Eric Armengaud

Gastgeber: Prof. Dr. Dieter Zöbel

Summary:

An event-triggered architecture is characterized by the fact that all system activities are initiated by an event and consequently reacts to its environment - (an operation is started as soon as the event is received, regardless the current processing status). On the contrary, in the time-triggered architecture, every action is derived solely from the progression of real-time and thus follows the progression of its environment - (an operation is started at a pre-defined starting point and processes the information that has occurred since the last computation).

Networks play a central role as communication enabler between the Electronic Control Units (ECUs). In the context of time-triggered architectures, communication is organized as periodical system update – in contrary to event-triggered communication occurring once when a significant event has occurred. This new communication paradigm has strong implications for the software architecture and for the tasks coordination within the distributed system.

It is the aim of this presentation to present the concepts behind the time-triggered architecture and discuss the migration challenges from an event-triggered to a time-triggered communication architecture.

Eric Armengaud received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from ESIEE Paris, France, in 2002 and the Ph.D. degree in computer engineering from the Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria, in 2008. He is now responsible for the embedded system group in the research center “The Virtual Vehicle.” His research interests include design, evaluation and testing of automotive communication architectures as well as computer architecture design.