Seamless CAN: A Novel Fault-Tolerant Algorithm and Its Modeling

Because there is always a demand for robust fault-tolerant automotive networks, recent works have focused particularly on replacing controller area networks (CANs) with more reliable protocols for time-critical bandwidth-demanding in-vehicle network (IVN) systems. However, as the automobile industry normally relies on proven technologies, an interim solution to fault-tolerance capability for CAN systems is still essential during the transition phase to other protocols. In this paper, we propose a novel fault-tolerant algorithm for the CAN protocol that we refer to as seamless CAN. Its operating concept is based on a high-availability seamless redundancy (HSR) implementation inside the vehicle network’s ring structure, and the fault tolerance is achieved by encapsulating the CAN frame inside the HSR frames and sending them in the ring topology. The simulation results showed that seamless CAN provided better performance regarding no frame loss in the case of link failures and up to ten times lower number of error occurrences.