Efficient Utilization of Bandwidth in Static Segment of FlexRay Protocol

FlexRay is a high bandwidth hybrid protocol supporting time-triggered and event-triggered communication between embedded controllers in automobiles. Static segment of FlexRay is used for transmission of time critical periodic data and dynamic segment of the same is used for transmitting event triggered sporadic and aperiodic messages. Slot multiplexing scheme in FlexRay requires strict synchronization between message arrivals and slots in a FlexRay cycle. In this paper, we describe a method to achieve bandwidth minimization in static segment using response time analysis technique. In this method, we consider the packing of signals to messages while simultaneously considering the schedulability issue so as to ensure guaranteed delivery of these messages before deadline. We have observed that the proposed algorithm provides better bandwidth utilization than existing algorithms and is computationally efficient.