Stochastic and deterministic performance evaluation of automotive CAN communication

The performance of communication systems can be evaluated using various distinct techniques and paradigms, e.g. queuing theory, simulation or worst case analysis. Mean values for performance measures like transmission delay, queue length or system utilization are valuable information for network dimensioning. However, in many cases, quantile-based approaches or deterministic upper bounds are indispensable, especially for systems that need real-time guarantees. A typical application area are safety-critical functions in automotive environments, where hard real-time transmission deadlines have to be met to assure safe operation of the vehicle. In this paper, we investigate a contemporary automotive in-car communication system, the Controller Area Network (CAN). A simulation study of the system yields stochastic quantile-related use case performance measures for Net-time-critical communication. It is complemented by a deterministic evaluation using Network Calculus, which allows to determine worst case transmission times and provides closed and easily applicable formulas for delay bounds of messages on all priority levels. Comprising the outcomes from this dual evaluation approach supports the design, dimensioning and parameterization of the overall CAN bus system with respect to both hard real-time demands and performance characteristics in typical use case scenarios. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.