Modelling, Simulation, and Performance Analysis of Intra-Vehicular Heterogeneous Networks

Vehicles today use a variety of network segments operated by different technologies and protocols within the car (CAN, LIN, Automotive Ethernet, MOST, FlexRay, etc.) to exchange data between different control modules, sensors, and actuators. The exchange of information between other network domains (heterogeneous networks) is enabled through various interconnection points called gateways/bridges. The resulting performance depends on its interconnection structure, network segment traffic aggregation scheme, and medium access technique. Although protocols such as CAN, LIN, FlexRay, and Ethernet have been used in network design for some time, performance modeling and analysis are still needed given the variety of traffic types and sources, new application limitations, and especially the lack of formal verification of network performance for different network scenarios and configurations. This paper presents an end-to-end throughput and delay performance analysis for a reference intra-vehicular network scenario. These models have been validated through simulations in which high correlation values were obtained from 98.7400 to 99.9999, with a low mean square error. The validation cases show that for different LIN, CAN, and Ethernet network configurations, the performance threshold values defined for most current vehicle applications are preserved. However, if the network configuration is modified, the proposed analytical models can be used to formally verify the corresponding performance and delay changes and thus validate whether or not the application requirements are met.