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Secure system manages software updates in complex automotive installations

Secure system manages software updates in complex automotive installations

Market news |
By eeNews Europe



 

The eSync Alliance consists of automotive suppliers working cooperatively to provide eSync Compliant components. Designed to support full vehicle OTA solutions as well as vehicle diagnostics and telematics data-management with end-to-end security, the eSync Alliance aims to reduce the time and risks of developing and deploying fully connected cars.

 

Modern cars, Excelfore notes, now incorporate dozens if not hundreds of software-driven sensors and controllers. The ever-increasing need for car makers to be able to update software over-the-air for feature improvements, recall avoidance, and security patches is well established.

 

eSync is a system for cloud-to-vehicle networking; more than cloud-to-car, it extends to the in-vehicle network, and provides the server side of the transaction with direct access to the individual ECU. It employs a server-client-agent structure, where an “agent” resides in each ECU.

 

eSync provides communication to the end device; it is bidirectional, allowing data flow both to and from the ECU; it has full network security (using established encryption techniques) both from cloud to car and within the car; it supports compression to minimise message sizes; and it supports formalised interfaces (APIs). This last point provides the basis for the creation of the Alliance.

 

A car will have a client device acting as a gateway between cloud and in-vehicle systems, that will maintain an inventory of all the individual ECUs, each of which “checks in” at power-up. This is reported in turn to the server, which has a list of all devices and software versions, no more than one start-up old, for every connected vehicle.

 

An OTA update is passed, via a validated exchange, from sever to client, and from client to the agent in the relevant ECU. The agent then performs the actual update; multiple updates can take place simultaneously, avoiding the long “flashing” sequences that can result when a single head-unit is responsible for programming multiple systems.

 

The latest introduction from Excelfore adds a “delta” feature to the OTA file transfer. An update is sent as a “difference” file between the current installation and the revision, cutting bandwidth requirements. Once again, the individual agent carries out the reconstruction of the latest-version code, before proceeding to the installation.

 

The creation of an Alliance is intended to build an ecosystem in which devices from multiple manufacturers, installed in different car brands, can all be addressed by a unified system for maintaining and updating software. Several automotive suppliers, Excelfore says, have already joined the eSync Alliance, with more expressing interest in becoming members.

 

Excelfore; www.excelfore.com

 

 

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