Simulation of LIN Clusters for Reducing In-Vehicle Network Development and Validation Costs

LIN is a low-cost, low-speed vehicle communication sub-bus becoming increasingly pervasive in automotive subsystems. It is a simple, UART-based master-slave protocol designed as a low-speed supplement to a CAN or FlexRay bus. Its primary application is cabin comfort and human interface hardware such as dashboard controls, power seat harnesses, and power door/window systems. As automotive network designers attempt to reduce wiring complexity and lower system cost, modular, inexpensive sub-buses like LIN become an attractive option. This paper presents an overview of the LIN standard and its applications, and then proposes an architecture for rapid development of LIN networks via hardware simulations of LIN nodes. Using inexpensive, off-the-shelf hardware, LIN sensor and actuator applications can be tested in-place without microcode development, speeding overall network development time. This paper will present flexible methods for the modeling of slave nodes and validation techniques for optimizing master schedules. Further, this paper extends the modeling concept to CAN/FlexRay to LIN gateways and suggests an architecture for in-place, hardware-software simulation of entire LIN networks. Models of a complete LIN network can be encapsulated in software for easy integration into higher level network simulations.