A Simulation Framework for Virtual Integration of Integrated Systems

The simulation of distributed applications on virtual integration platforms has the benefit of shortening the time-to-market by reducing the required number of physical prototype setups. This paper presents a simulation framework for a novel type of platforms for large distributed real-time systems, namely integrated architectures based on time-triggered control (e.g., DECOS architecture). The simulation framework captures the specific temporal properties of the execution platform in an integrated architecture, where the communication resources (e.g., network bandwidth) and the computational resources (e.g., CPU time of node computers) are shared between multiple application subsystems. The simulation framework combines a simulation of the communication system, a simulation of the operating system, an environmental simulation, and application code created from MATLAB/Simulink models of the application behavior. We show an implementation of the introduced framework for the DECOS architecture and describe an example based on an automotive headlamp system.