1. Introduction

1.1. What is the Integration Toolkit for AUTOSAR Classic?

The RTI Connext® Integration Toolkit for AUTOSAR Classic is an addon for RTI Connext Micro and RTI Connext Cert that allows you to convert data type definitions across standard formats (OMG IDL, OMG DDS-XML and AUTOSAR ARXML). It also generates supporting C code for data conversion and marshaling between the runtime environment (RTE) and DDS communication frameworks.

This document is aimed at AUTOSAR Electronic Control Unit (ECU) designers, implementers, and integrators already familiar with the vocabulary and concepts of the AUTOSAR Classic Platform, as well as basic DDS middleware concepts. Basic DDS concepts are covered in the RTI Connext Getting Started Guide.

1.1.1. The AUTOSAR Classic Platform and RTI Connext

The AUTOSAR Classic Platform provides processes, metamodels, and tooling for the development of ECU software in the automotive industry. A key element of ECU modeling in AUTOSAR Classic is the Software Component (SW-C), whose intra- and inter-ECU interfaces (with other software components) are modeled in great detail before the actual functional behavior is implemented. See the AUTOSAR Classic Platform webpage for more details.

RTI Connext Micro and RTI Connext Cert are RTI’s DDS middleware implementations that target constrained, real-time, and safety platforms. These include AUTOSAR Classic OS-based platforms with UDP/IP support, generally provided by the Socket Adapter (SoAd) and/or TCP/IP (TcpIp) Basic Software Modules. More information on Connext Micro and Connext Cert can be found on the RTI website.

1.1.2. The Integration Toolkit

This Integration Toolkit extends (but does not replace or change) the AUTOSAR Classic design methodology. It extends common ECU design practices (item 1 below) with several DDS-compatible features (items 2-5):

  1. ECU design: ECU Software Components (SW-C’s) are modeled with already existing AUTOSAR Classic design methodologies and techniques, along with their communications ports and connectors. Data flows to and from DDS topics are to be represented by Send/Receive Port Prototypes in one or more purpose-specific or “gateway” Complex Device Driver (CDD) Software Components.

  2. ARXML export: these “gateway” Software Component definitions are exported to ARXML-formatted file(s).

  3. Generation: rtiarcgen, this Integration Toolkit’s command-line code generation tool, processes these files to produce:

    1. DDS-compatible representations of the data types used by the “gateway” SW-C interfaces in DDS-IDL or DDS-XML format, which can later be fed to rtiddsgen for generation of C-language type support code;

    2. Bidirectional C-language conversion routines between RTE and DDS frameworks;

    3. Bidirectional C-language marshaling routines between RTE and DDS frameworks;

    4. Interfaces for integration between RTE and DDS frameworks.

    Note

    rtiarcgen is independent from rtiddsgen, RTI’s code generation tool for Connext Micro and Connext Professional. rtiarcgen is used to derive DDS-related artifacts from AUTOSAR ARXML model exports, while rtiddsgen is used to produce type support code for DDS-IDL and DDS-XML type definitions. See the Usage section for more details.

  4. Integration: in this step, the interfaces described in item (d) of the previous step are implemented, providing:

    1. Project and ECU-specific DDS middleware initialization;

    2. A project-specific DDS Entity model, defining DomainParticipants, Topics, Publishers, Subscribers, DataWriters, and DataReaders that will be instantiated at run-time;

    3. Project-specific mappings between RTE Port Prototype Interface Elements and DDS Endpoint Entities (DataReaders, DataWriters) defined in (b) above;

  5. Building, testing, iterating: as the ECU design evolves in successive repetitions of step (1), the rest of the steps shall be incrementally executed again whenever DDS communication needs to change.

Figure 1 below shows an AUTOSAR Classic ECU where Application and Complex Device Driver Software Components interact with each other through the RTE in normal AUTOSAR Classic fashion. Some of these Complex Device Driver Software Components may actually encapsulate data marshaling and interactions with Connext Micro or Connext Cert, which in turn leverage the Communication Services to exercise DDS communication with other system components.

Figure 1: Example AUTOSAR Classic ECU architecture featuring DDS integration.

Figure 1: Example AUTOSAR Classic ECU architecture featuring DDS integration

1.2. Installing the Integration Toolkit

The RTI Connext Integration Toolkit for AUTOSAR Classic comes installed as part of Connext Drive. For more information, see https://www.rti.com/drive.