A Middleware Approach to Dynamically Configurable Automotive Embedded Systems

This paper presents an advanced dynamically configurable middleware for automotive embedded systems. The layered architecture of the middleware, and the way in which core and optional services provide transparency and flexible platform independent support for portability, is described. The design of the middleware is positioned with respect to the way it overcomes the specific technical, environmental, performance and safety challenges of the automotive domain. The use of policies to achieve flexible run-time configuration is explained with reference to the core policy technology which has been extended and adapted specifically for this project. The component model is described, focussing on how the configuration logic is distributed throughout the middleware and application components, by inserting ‘decision points’ wherever deferred logic or run-time context-sensitive configuration is required. Included in this discussion are the way in which context information is automatically provided to policies to inform context-aware behaviour; the dynamic wrapper mechanism which isolates policies, provides transparency to software developers and silently handles run-time errors arising during dynamic configuration operations.