Process for the Identification of Vehicle Functions for Cloud Offloading

The modern vehicle is increasingly becoming a part of the Internet of Things (IoT). Video or audio streaming from cloud resources are already state-of-the-art. However, vehicle connectivity opens up even more possibilities by extending the vehicle’s electrical/electronic architecture (E/E architecture) to the cloud. That said, vehicle functions that are currently deployed and calculated on onboard electronic control units (ECUs) can be offloaded to the cloud. Not every function is implementable in the cloud. The implementation of motor control in the cloud seems unrealistic without a doubt. It is therefore necessary to identify the relevant requirements for a function to decide on the technical feasibility and suitability for offloading a function to the cloud. This paper proposes a stepwise process that classifies the technical feasibility and then calculates the degree of suitability based on defined quantitative and qualitative evaluation grades. The suitability is assessed with a weighted scoring system. The process is finally applied using the vehicle functions that we have found within the E/E architecture of a modern premium vehicle, and the most suitable functions for offloading are identified.