Network of ECUs Software Update in Future vehicles

Nowadays, the modern vehicles use numerous Electric Control Units (ECUs) which have a complex software architecture. Updating the software in a given ECU is a major challenge since these connected vehicles are prone to security vulnerabilities and cyber-attacks. Another problem is that updating an ECU is a time consuming process and the owners of these vehicles cannot use important features of their cars during this update process. Different software architectures for the ECUs are proposed but none of the existing techniques allow the vehicle driver to use the car during the update. In this paper, we propose an enhanced architecture for the ECUs. The proposed architecture makes use of a delta file which is the actual update in the software. This delta file is placed in the extended RAM and the modules of the software which needs to be updated are run from the delta file. After successful executing of the module from the delta file, the module is updated in the existing software. The proposed ECU architecture allows the owners to use important features of the vehicles during the update process. We run simulation to check the reliability in terms of MTTF due to our non-repairable application of our proposed architecture.