OEMs and Suppliers Must Cooperate on Timing Analysis when Integrating FlexRay-Based Chassis Systems

The introduction of FlexRay is often motivated with high bandwidth, fail-safety, and deterministic timing. To no surprise, FlexRay is currently being introduced broadly in the chassis domain with its safety-critical, distributed control functions. However, also FlexRay system exhibit unwanted timing effects such as over- and under-sampling and ECU signal jitter. To fully exploit FlexRay’s potential, these effects must be understood, controlled, and reasonably considered in the supply-chain communication. In this paper, we illustrate the key timing pitfalls that exist with FlexRay. We further demonstrate how timing analysis increases confidence and allows thorough optimizations of FlexRay designs. This helps OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers to protect against timing problems early. Parts of the technology are available, however, new methodological steps are needed.