Assessing the CAN communication startup behavior of automotive ECUs by prototype measurements

Applications of modern automotive electronics often rely on data from various electronic control units (ECUs). A widespread communication system to enable the data exchange is the Controller Areas Network (CAN), implementing a priority-based media access scheme. Assessing important aspects of data transmission is done in both the early phase of system design by means of simulation or analytical evaluation of the in-car communication system, and in terms of measurements in real test cars by logging and analyzing communication data in prototype installations. For the latter alternative, we want to show a methodology in this paper, how to obtain meaningful communication data samples and how to analyze this data thoroughly in order to derive the important measurement of durations of controller startup phases. We use commonly applied data logging and evaluation tools from CONDALO™ and Vector™ and we present results for networked applications in current upper class series vehicles from the German car manufacturer Audi. The outcomes allow for a sophisticated analysis of CAN communication at an early stage of prototype hardware installations.