CAN Connector

The CAN Connector enables the communication between the simulation and a device under test (DuT) over CAN/CANFD. It supports one-time sending of frames as well as a cyclic sending of frames. It can be configured which frames should be received on the CAN/CANFD interface and it can also filter for content changes in the frames. The CAN Connector is not responsible for the configuration of the used CAN/CANFD interface (Bitrate, Sample point etc.) as this is dependent on the used hardware. The user must therefore ensure that the interface is configured correctly for the communication with the DuT. The CAN Connector builds upon the Broadcast Manager (BCM) socket of the Linux Kernel Module SocketCAN and the Boost.Asio network library as well as the INFM_HIL_Interface.

Dependencies

• SocketCAN
• Boost.Asio

Configuration

The CAN Connector is configured through a XML configuration file which contains the following options. It is also recommended to the read the BCM socket documentation to fully understand the details of the options SocketCAN documentation.

Parameter	Description
interfaceName	The name of the interface that should be used.
operations	See the Base Connector documentation.
codecName	The name of the codec that should be used by the connector. See the Codec section down below.
frameToOperation	The configurations for the receive operations defined in the XML.
operationToFrame	The configurations for the send operations defined in the XML.
periodicOperations	Since the CAN Connector is handling the cyclic sending of frames itself this should always be empty.
periodicTimerEnabled	Since the CAN Connector is handling the cyclic sending of frames itself this should always be false.

• The structure of the CAN Connector Config is described here CANConnectorConfig
• The structure of a send operation is described here CANConnectorSendOperation
• The structure of a receive operation is described here CANConnectorReceiveOperation
• When deserializing the configuration the mask of the CANConnectorReceiveOperation should be passed as hex value where trailing zeros can be omitted. The mask represent the bit mask for maskData.

Codec

Since the translation of simulation messages (SimEvents) and CAN/CANFD frames is complex and is also dependend on the DuT, this cannot be practical specified in the XML configuration file. The user must therfore implement a concret Codec class that handles this translation task and add it as an option in the Codec factory.

• The Codec interface is described here CANConnectorCodec
• The Codec factory is described here CANConnectorCodecFactory

Testing

To test the CAN Connector you can use a virtual CAN interface. Ensure that you have the needed SocketCAN Kernel modules.

// Install the can-utils. 
sudo apt-get install can-utils
 
// Modprobe is needed in the case the vcan module is not loaded.
modprobe vcan
 
// Create a virtual CAN interface.
ip link add dev vcan0 type vcan
 
// Set the interface up and running.
ip link set vcan0 up
 
// To see the CAN/CANFD messages that are send by the CAN Connector on 
// the virtual CAN interface open a terminal and use the candump tool.
candump vcan0
 
// Compile and start the project
 
// If you want to send CAN/CANFD messages to the CAN Connector over the 
// virtual CAN interface open a terminal and use the cansend tool.
cansend vcan0 123#DEADBEEF

Helpful links:

• Base Connector
• SocketCAN documentation
• Boost.Asio documentation
• SocketCAN userspace utilities and tools