Achieving a Scalable E/E-Architecture Using AUTOSAR and Virtualization 2013-01-1399

Today's automotive software integration is a static process. Hardware and software form a fixed package and thus hinder the integration of new electric and electronic features once the specification has been completed. Usually software components assigned to an ECU cannot be easily transferred to other devices after they have been deployed. The main reasons are high system configuration and integration complexity, although shifting functions from one to another ECU is a feature which is generally supported by AUTOSAR. The concept of a Virtual Functional Bus allows a strict separation between applications and infrastructure and avoids source code modifications. But still further tooling is needed to reconfigure the AUTOSAR Basic Software (BSW). Other challenges for AUTOSAR are mixed integrity, versioning and multi-core support.

The upcoming BMW E/E-domain oriented architecture will require all these features to be scalable across all vehicle model ranges. Entire vehicle E/E clusters, with heterogeneous software environments, must be encapsulated and shifted from one ECU to another while still meeting all postulated requirements. Virtualization technology could be a reasonable compromise between freedom from interference among integrated systems, scalable system architecture and efficient runtime environment.

This work gives a brief vision of domain oriented architecture within the automotive domain by means of AUTOSAR technology and discusses the requirements for such a scalable system. It is discussed, whether the requirements can be met with AUTOSAR or if additional abstraction or separation layers are needed. Finally we outline the possible usage of a hypervisor in combination within the AUTOSAR Basic Software using multicore technology and propose a mixed system architecture supporting the domain oriented architecture.