MPS-CAN analyzer: Integrated implementation of response-time analyses for Controller Area Network

We present a new response-time analyzer for Controller Area Network (CAN) that integrates and implements a number of response-time analyses which address various transmission modes and practical limitations in the CAN controllers. The existing tools for the response-time analysis of CAN support only periodic and sporadic messages. They do not analyze mixed messages which are partly periodic and partly sporadic. These messages are implemented by several higher-level protocols based on CAN that are used in the automotive industry. The new analyzer supports periodic, sporadic as well as mixed messages. It can analyze the systems where periodic and mixed messages are scheduled with offsets. It also supports the analysis of all types of messages while taking into account several queueing policies and buffer limitations in the CAN controllers such as abortable or non-abortable transmit buffers. Moreover, the tool supports the analysis of mixed, periodic and sporadic messages in the heterogeneous systems where Electronic Control Units (ECUs) implement different types of queueing policies and have different types of buffer limitations in the CAN controllers. We conduct a case study of a heterogeneous application from the automotive domain to show the usability of the tool. Moreover, we perform a detailed evaluation of the implemented analyses.