Automated Testing of FlexRay Clusters for System Inconsistencies in Automotive Networks

Most innovations in the automotive domain are nowadays enabled by networked embedded systems. In this context a new communication subsystem termed FlexRay was recently introduced. Relying on the time-triggered paradigm it promises to provide the bandwidth and reliability required for future applications. For building reliable systems with FlexRay, verification and testing are of utmost importance. In this paper a new system test approach that focuses on the communication subsystem is presented. With the help of a dedicated FPGA-based star-coupler we show that inconsistent system states (slightly-off- specification failures) can occur in real life systems, how they can be found using our solution and how one can avoid them.