CAN-Ethernet Architectures for Real-Time Applications

Embedded systems have specific real-time requirements that led to the development of dedicated communication protocols. Such systems must face increasing communication needs and the evolution of switched Ethernet architecture. But moving from existing dedicated field-busses architectures to new Ethernet based architectures is not always feasible, due to industrial constraints. In this paper; we compare different solutions for integrating existing data busses (such as CAN, which is an important standard in automotive context) on a global architecture that respects increasing bandwidth requirements. In a first step, we study classical CAN/CAN bridging strategies. In a second step, we propose CAN/Ethernet bridging strategies that respect the real time behavior of CAN End System when communicating through an Ethernet network that can be shared by (non CAN) applications.