Automotive Test Software for Simulation

The enormous growth in connectivity, assistants, comfort functions, infotainment features and many other functions, such as semi-autonomous/autonomous driving or software updates over-the-air, which has been taking place for some time, is clearly visible within vehicle electronics. Not only is the degree of networking of the control units in the vehicle increasing, but the vehicle itself is increasingly networking with its environment, often referred to as V2X communication (vehicle-to-X - communication). The prerequisites for this are high-performance E/E vehicle architectures (electric/electronic). These are largely based on heterogeneous networking concepts.

Depending on the domain (powertrain, comfort, infotainment, backbone...) or sub-segment (sensors, actuators...), different bus systems and transmission protocols are used. This places enormous demands on the test equipment for individual ECUs or for an ECU network. Operating an ECU or a network outside the vehicle is not possible without a residual bus simulation. All signals, information and protocols necessary for the fault-free operation of the DUT must be made available on the different bus systems.

Serie 62 & Net2Run - Test tools for the residual bus simulation as well as the test of control units

Current vehicles have more than 100 ECUs connected to different bus systems such as LIN, CAN/CAN FD/CAN XL, FlexRay or Automotive Ethernet. On the one hand, complex ECUs require several thousand signals whose sources are located on different bus systems. On the other hand, higher protocols such as transport protocols for diagnostics, network management, SecOC (Secure Onboard Communication), SOME/IP (Scalable Service-Oriented Middleware over IP) are required.

This complexity quickly reaches its limits. The AUTOSAR ARXML file format has established itself for describing the entirety of communication relationships. As can be seen from the name, this is an XML file. Although the format and structure are standardised by the AUTOSAR consortium, there is still a lot of OEM-specific freedom and scope for interpretation.

Under these conditions, the purely manual creation of a residual bus simulation for more sophisticated ECUs is not possible within a reasonable time frame. Furthermore, especially in the development phase of new vehicles or electronic platforms, changes within the data definition are the order of the day, which would require an enormous amount of time to update the remaining bus simulation manually. The creation and maintenance of residual bus simulations for current ECUs can therefore only be carried out with tool support.

Net2Run 3.x meets the new challenges of AUTOSAR-based restbus simulations. It processes the various ARXML versions (3.x, 4.x...) as well as the established formats dbc, ldf and FIBEX. As an additional communication interface, Net2Run 3.x offers support for the new communication paradigms along with AUTOSAR:

I-PDU Container
Secured Onboard Communication
Ethernet Socked Adaptor
SOME/IP
Automotive Ethernet

OEM-specific settings selectable when reading in ARXML data definitions
GUI-based selection of ECUs from a cluster
selection of a real ECU or an ECU to be simulated
automatic recognition and configuration of checksums and counters

► Information Series 61 and Series 62

If parameters or values are changed/overwritten via Net2Run 3.x, the original data definition remains unchanged - an important fact. The changes are stored in so-called properties, which are applied to the original data definition. Thus, when the data definitions are updated, the remaining bus simulations can be updated quickly as long as there are no changes to signal names or identifiers in general.

create and manage signal and PDU routings from one bus to another
also available as GUI-less version for automated test systems with test bench software
possibility to create the remaining bus simulation via command line