Investigating Connector Faults in the Time-Triggered Architecture

In the context of distributed real-time systems as deployed in the avionic and the automotive domain a substantial number of system malfunctions result from connector faults. For instance, a middle class car has more than 40 electronic control units (ECUs) interconnected by a heterogenous network infrastructure consisting of hundreds of wires and connections. Connector faults such as loose contacts impose a challenging task for the technician at the service station. This paper investigates to what extent the use of time-triggered communication protocols, in particular the TTP C2 communication controller, helps in identifying connector faults. We perform fault injection campaigns to judge whether the status information provided by the TTP C2 controller is sufficient for the detection of connector faults. The derived results constitute an important input for online analysis mechanisms