On-line analysis and perturbation of CAN networks

The controller area network (CAN) is a well-known standard, and it is widely used in many safety-critical applications, spanning from automotive electronics to aircraft and aerospace electronics. Due to its widespread adoption in critical applications, the capability of accurately evaluating the dependability properties of CAN-based networks is becoming a major concern. In this paper we present a new environment that can be fruitfully exploited to assess the effects of faults in CAN-based networks, which is particularly suited for being exploited when a prototype of the network under analysis is available. The core of our new environment is a special-purpose board that plugs into an existing CAN network, and that is able to monitor and, when asked, to modify the information traveling over the bus. Observation and modification of CAN frames are done concurrently with normal CAN-bus operations without introducing any performance degradation. The obtained environment is thus suitable for being deployed in complex CAN-based networks to validate their dependability.