AUTOSAR-based communication coprocessor for automotive ECUs

In this paper, we present a novel approach to enhance the performance of the AUTOSAR-based Electronic Control Units. The operations done by the AUTOSAR communication module are the most Electronic Control Unit time-consuming operations so our approach modifies the design model of the AUTOSAR Layered Software Architecture by adding the communication coprocessor component. This model-based hardware/software codesign expedites the AUTOSAR communication operations while keeping the interfaces with the upper and lower layers unchanged. The coprocessor covers two communication-based operations. It consists of six building blocks. It communicates with the original Electronic Control Unit through the External Peripheral Interface module, which is a high speed parallel bus for external peripherals. The implemented coprocessor achieves up to 140× speedup over the software communication module solution. This gives a room to extend the automotive applications and increase the amount of the exchanged information by these applications without affecting the performance.