Tachograph Virtualizer for Software Isolation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing tachograph systems for commercial vehicles face challenges in flexible and reaction-free adaptation of program parts, particularly in separating safety-critical and safety-uncritical components to meet data protection and operational security requirements, which complicates software updates and increases hardware and maintenance costs.
Innovation Solution
A tachograph with a hardware platform featuring memory management and a virtualizer that assigns protected virtual memory areas and provides independent virtual machines, allowing safety-critical and safety-uncritical program parts to be executed without interference, enabling flexible adaptation and reduced costs through isolation and secure resource allocation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If software changes are made to tachograph systems, then adaptability and versatility are improved, but reliability deteriorates due to the need to prove safety-critical requirements are maintained
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the tachograph software into separate virtual machines: safety-critical functions (tachograph, event data recorder) and non-safety-critical functions (fleet management, route optimization). This segmentation allows independent development and updating of non-critical software without affecting safety-critical components, thereby improving adaptability while maintaining reliability through isolation boundaries.
2Device complexity
If safety-critical and safety-uncritical program parts are executed in the same environment, then device complexity is reduced, but reliability deteriorates due to potential interference between program parts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a virtualizer as an intermediary layer between the hardware platform and the program parts. This virtualizer creates virtual machines that provide isolation between safety-critical and non-safety-critical programs while sharing the same physical hardware, thus maintaining simple device architecture while ensuring program independence and reliability.
3Ease of manufacture
If multiple program parts with different security requirements are executed on the same hardware platform, then ease of manufacture is improved, but difficulty of detecting and measuring increases due to security verification complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the software execution environment into isolated virtual machines with defined security boundaries. This allows standardized hardware platforms to run multiple programs with different security requirements, while security verification is simplified through the clear separation of safety-critical and non-safety-critical functions and their respective access controls.
Data Source
Figure 1
AI summary
A tachograph (1) or an on-board unit for toll collection and/or for providing telematics services is configured to execute safety-critical and safety-non-critical program components. The tachograph (1) or the on-board unit comprises a hardware platform (10) with a processing unit and a memory unit. Furthermore, the tachograph (1) or the on-board unit includes a memory management system for managing the memory unit, which is executable within the processing unit and is configured to allocate a protected virtual memory area to the respective program components and to prevent other program components from accessing this respective memory area for reading or writing.Furthermore, the tachograph (1) or the on-board unit includes a virtualizer (25) which is executable in the computing unit and which is designed to provide independent virtual machines (30) on which one of the program parts can be executed in such a way that the other program parts are not affected or are only affected via predefined interfaces.