Analysis and Diagnostics of Time Triggered CAN (TTCAN) Systems

The Controller Area Network (CAN) has seen enormous success in automotive body and powertrain control systems, as well as industrial automation systems using higher layer protocols such as CANopen and DeviceNet. Now, the CAN standard ISO11898 is being extended to Time Triggered CAN (TTCAN) to address the safety critical needs of first generation drive-by-wire systems. However, their successful development depends upon the availability of silicon and software support, and appropriate development & analysis tools. Warwick Control Technologies and the University of Warwick are tasked with prototyping a TTCAN analyser within the European Union Media+ project Silicon Systems for Automotive Electronics (SSAE) consortium, and with funding from the British Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). This paper briefly outlines the current status of both CAN & TTCAN technology and describes the requirements of a TTCAN analyser over that of a traditional CAN analyser.