Computation of the Precise Worst-Case Response Time of FlexRay Dynamic Messages

FlexRay is a communication bus (and associated protocol) that supports transmission of time-triggered and event-triggered frames. A method for determining the worst-case response-time of FlexRay frames is proposed by Pop in 2008, and is formulated as iterative sequence of Integer Linear Programming (ILP) problems. As we show, the method of Pop is conservative (overestimates the response time). We propose a new ILP formulation that computes a precise value of the worst-case response time of FlexRay frames transmitted in the dynamic segment. Furthermore, our approach is non-iterative as it requires the solving of a single ILP for computing, respectively, the delay of full bus cycles and the delay of a partial (last) bus cycle. The proposed solution is also validated by applying it to a SAE benchmark and can be used for formally guaranteeing that no message will miss its deadline during system operation.