Methods for Verification & Validation of time-triggered embedded systems

This report gives an overview of safety considerations relating to distributed embedded systems. Some principles of safety-related distributed systems are shown, and the design process is described. The design process is related to the safety lifecycle introduced in IEC 61508. The most important phases in the process are risk assessment, design and safety validation. The report describes the difference in validation of systems built on time triggered systems compared to traditional communication such as CAN, Fieldbus etc and also gives examples of validation methods to handle the requirements on dependability and redundancy. The validation methods cover aspects from the bus level up to the system level. It presents the influence of the changing to time triggered paradigm and the partitioning of processors and communication mean. It also includes a check lists as an aid to decide about which communication concept to choose.