Building a hierarchical CAN-simulator using an object-oriented environment

Abstract

As today's systems are becoming more and more complex, simulation is often the only viable way to verify the functionality of a system, or to estimate its performance. In this paper, we will present a flexible general purpose framework for the simulation of complex hierarchical systems. The framework is implemented in C++ and uses high-level abstractions that are closely related to the problem domain. This eases the mapping from a simulation model to an actual simulation program. The framework supports hierarchical decomposition of simulation models into submodels and model components. Model components are strictly encapsulated and communicate with each other using a handshake protocol. This offers the ability to highly reuse standardized model components and quickly create or modify a simulation model using a ‘plug-and-play’ approach. As an application we used this framework for the simulation of CAN (controller area network) systems. We will show that the hierarchical modelling and the strict encapsulation forced by the framework were real benefits. Different CAN components could be developed seperately and are now available as a CAN part library. Complete systems can now be simulated and evaluated by taking parts from the library and connecting them using the standardized interface from the simulation framework.

The author is now with Rational, Pullach im Isartal, Germany