Applicability of IEEE 802.11s for automotive wireless software updates

Due to the rising number of electronic control units (ECU) in a vehicle and the growing complexity of the related software installed, a fast and efficient system for updating software is needed. Wireless software updates similar to firmware over the air updates for smartphones can be a suitable solution to solve this issue. In this paper we propose a wireless update system based on an IEEE 802.11s mesh network and describe related high-level requirements for such a system. Additionally the prototype of a wireless vehicle interface (WVI) is described. This interface is needed to maintain the wireless link as well as to forward the received data to the in-vehicle communication system and finally to the ECU. Existing diagnostic standards are applied to transfer and install the new software on the ECU. Furthermore, IEEE 802.11s-based network nodes and the WVI prototype are used to evaluate the applicability of IEEE 802.11s for a wireless update system used in the vehicle development phase. We performed indoor measurements as well as measurements inside two different vehicles to evaluate the influence of the shielding properties of a vehicle. The results of these measurements show that the used setup consisting of the WVI prototype and other IEEE 802.11s based nodes can be used to realize a wireless update system and is able to fulfil the defined system requirements.

[1]  Muhammad Sabir Idrees,et al.  Secure Automotive On-Board Protocols: A Case of Over-the-Air Firmware Updates , 2011, Nets4Cars/Nets4Trains.

[2]  Ramesh Govindan,et al.  CarMA: towards personalized automotive tuning , 2011, SenSys.

[3]  Josef Noll,et al.  Measurable Security, Privacy and Dependability in Smart Grids , 2014, J. Cyber Secur. Mobil..

[4]  D.K. Nilsson,et al.  Secure Firmware Updates over the Air in Intelligent Vehicles , 2008, ICC Workshops - 2008 IEEE International Conference on Communications Workshops.

[5]  Ieee Standards Board.  Information technology : local and metropolitan area networks , 1992 .

[6]  Francisco Vasques,et al.  Evaluating the impact of uncontrolled traffic sources upon real-time communication in IEEE 802.11s mesh networks , 2014, 2014 12th IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics (INDIN).

[7]  Fabien Mieyeville,et al.  Wireless Sensor Networks for active control noise reduction in automotive domain , 2011, 2011 The 14th International Symposium on Wireless Personal Multimedia Communications (WPMC).

[8]  Giovanni Pau,et al.  C-VeT the UCLA campus vehicular testbed: Integration of VANET and Mesh networks , 2010, 2010 European Wireless Conference (EW).

[9]  Josef Noll,et al.  Multi-Metrics Approach for Security, Privacy and Dependability in Embedded Systems , 2015, Wirel. Pers. Commun..

[10]  Joy Kuri,et al.  Design & implementation of IEEE 802.11s mesh nodes with enhanced features , 2009, 2009 IEEE 6th International Conference on Mobile Adhoc and Sensor Systems.

[11]  Bernhard Walke,et al.  IEEE 802.11s: The WLAN Mesh Standard , 2010, IEEE Wireless Communications.

[12]  Martin Krammer,et al.  From Natural Language to Semi-Formal Notation Requirements for Automotive Safety , 2015 .

[13]  Cormac J. Sreenan,et al.  Software Updating in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey and Lacunae , 2013, J. Sens. Actuator Networks.

[14]  Carles Gomez,et al.  Overview and Evaluation of Bluetooth Low Energy: An Emerging Low-Power Wireless Technology , 2012, Sensors.

[15]  Kok-Lim Alvin Yau,et al.  An energy-efficient Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol (HWMP) for IEEE 802.11s mesh networks , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Control System, Computing and Engineering.

[16]  Thomas O. Olwal,et al.  Energy optimization based path selection algorithm for IEEE 802.11s Wireless Mesh Networks , 2011, IEEE Africon '11.

[17]  Gabriel-Miro Muntean,et al.  E-Mesh: An energy-efficient cross-layer solution for video delivery in wireless mesh networks , 2012, IEEE international Symposium on Broadband Multimedia Systems and Broadcasting.

[18]  Phu H. Phung,et al.  Vehicle ECU classification based on safety-security characteristics , 2008 .

[19]  Michael Karner,et al.  System Level Modeling, Simulation and Verification Workflow for Safety-Critical Automotive Embedded Systems , 2014 .

[20]  Lei Sun,et al.  A Framework for Self-Verification of Firmware Updates over the Air in Vehicle ECUs , 2008, 2008 IEEE Globecom Workshops.

[21]  Sandip Chakraborty,et al.  IEEE 802.11s Mesh Backbone for Vehicular Communication: Fairness and Throughput , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology.

[22]  Janne Riihijärvi,et al.  Performance study of IEEE 802.15.4 using measurements and simulations , 2006, IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference, 2006. WCNC 2006..

[23]  Martin Krammer,et al.  Model-based engineering workflow for automotive safety concepts , 2015 .

[24]  Nobuyoshi Komuro,et al.  Priority and admission control for assuring quality of I2V emergency services in VANETs integrated with Wireless LAN Mesh Networks , 2012, 2012 Fourth International Conference on Communications and Electronics (ICCE).