FAQ 559: Ethernet – Ethernet Inspection in the Ethernet Configuration Tool

Question

How do I set up inspection in the Ethernet Configuration Tool (ETHCT)? 

Solution

The Ethernet Configuration Tool (ETHCT) lets you inspect an existing Ethernet communication. This means that you can inspect the traffic on a connected LAN. This is independent of the sender of the messages.

To inspect Ethernet communication, you must assign the elements of the communication cluster file that you want to inspect to the inspection configuration. You can drag several events (serialized by SOME/IP or COM), methods, and PDUs without service mapping to the Inspection Data pane for inspection purposes, as shown in the image below. The tool filters all traffic for the specific element under inspection.

Note: It is possible to inspect the Ethernet communication regardless of the ECU development stage, i.e., you can inspect communication on simulated ECUs and real ECUs. Inspection does not transmit, so no ACK is sent from any of the elements in the Inspection Data pane. It is possible to set up the inspection only for existing communication.

Inspection controller: To make all communication data available for inspection in a dSPACE system without influencing the network simulation, the Ethernet Configuration Tool requires an individual physical Ethernet port for inspection. For this, an inspection controller must be established in the configuration file or specified manually. 
 

Note: Inspecting Ethernet communication is only possible for received communication. You cannot drag TX communication elements to the inspection configuration. If you select an ECU, event, or method, only their receive signals are used for inspection. Each receiving element can be dragged to the Inspection Data pane only once. For uniqueness, it might be useful to specify an alias for an ECU selected for inspection purposes. For further information, refer to the ETHCT application note, section ‘Limitations for the Ethernet Configuration Package’.

Creating Configurations for Service Discovery Inspection:

SOME/IP Service Discovery inspection lets you check whether Service Discovery has been implemented correctly and helps you identify potential issues in the SOME/IP-SD process. To configure Ethernet communication for SOME/IP-SD inspection purposes, you must assign suitable elements of the imported communication cluster file to the Service Discovery Inspection Data pane.

With the Ethernet Configuration Tool, inspecting SOME/IP-SD data is possible for providing and consuming service instances (PSIs and CSIs) and the contained event groups. Event groups are the smallest unit that can be configured for Service Discovery inspection. If you select an ECU or a service instance, only its associated event groups using the SOME/IP-SD protocol, and the contained events, are added to the Service Discovery Inspection Data pane. The other child elements are ignored.

Tip: If the Service Discovery Inspection Data pane is not shown in the Ethernet Configuration Tool, select Show Service Discovery Inspection View from the Tools menu.

Once the inspection is set up according to the information mentioned above, it should be possible to sniff data at the inspection port using software for Ethernet traffic monitoring, e.g., by setting up bus monitoring for Ethernet in ControlDesk. Detailed information about this can be found in FAQ 147.