Experimental Activities on TTCAN Protocol

The automotive market is more and more interested in all-electric systems for the execution of the driving commands, i.e. in the so-called Drive-by-Wire (DbW) systems. The communication network of a DbW system is a critical component and, being the traditional field buses used in the cars not suited to highly dependable applications, new communication networks have been devised, built up around protocols that accommodate powerful techniques to assure the real-time exchange of information and some degree of redundancy. This paper illustrates the characteristics of the TTCAN protocol, one of the communication networks developed for DbW systems. It reports the results of a number of test carried out on a prototypal network with the aim of investigate the behavior of the protocol when it operates in nominal condition and when it is forced beyond the specification limit. Moreover, a technique for the synchronization of two or more TTCAN network has been experimented.