BlackBerry has launched QNX Black Channel Communications Technology, a new software solution that OEMs and embedded software developers can use to ensure safe data communication exchanges within their safety-critical systems.
There is an ever-growing demand for functionally safe data communication, especially in safety-critical embedded systems for automotive, robotics, industrial controls, and medical device industries.
QNX Black Channel CommunicationsTechnology is certified to ISO 26262 ASIL D, the automotive industry’s functional safety standard, is based on the safe data communication requirements identified in IEC 61508 and mitigation measures defined in AUTOSAR End-to-End communications protection profiles.
QNX Black Channel CommunicationsTechnology makes the countless nodes of data communication in embedded systems functionally safe. By safely encapsulating the data being exchanged and validating it with essential safety checks, it protects data communication from systematic software faults, random hardware faults and transient faults while helping in the automatic prevention of damages from these failures, all with minimal impact on system performance.
“We are seeing an increase in functional safety requirements for automotive systems as the electronic architecture of the car undergoes a shift to fewer and more powerful electronic control units (ECUs). As a result, our technology is increasingly being selected as the foundation for things like chassis control and battery management ECUs in addition to the traditional QNX-based systems in the vehicle,” said Grant Courville, VP, Product Management and Strategy, BlackBerry QNX.
“Our new QNX Black Channel CommunicationsTechnology product not only ensures that the communication exchanges with safety-critical systems are safe, but also that the data being exchanged is not altered or impacted in any way during its transmission. This provides peace of mind to automakers as well as many other embedded manufacturers in Industrial, Oil & Gas, Medical, and other markets who continue to face the task of delivering ‘safety-first’ systems.”
QNX Black Channel CommunicationsTechnology provides a safety layer to protect data being passed from point to point while being agnostic of the underlying communication software and hardware. With the functional safety standard development and certification already done, the solution enables automakers and other embedded software developers to accelerate their development timelines and reduce the cost in moving projects from research to production.
QNX Black Channel Communications Technology provides a ‘safety bag’ for data that detects faults including:
| Incorrect message addressing | Data insertion |
| Data corruption | Data masquerade |
| Data repetition | Asymmetric data |
| Invalid message sequencing | Reception only by subset |
| Data loss |
Select OEMs and Tier 1’s are currently utilizing QNX Black Channel CommunicationsTechnology in their development of next generation automotive technology. The solution is scheduled for general availability in April 2020.
Specification and Profile Support
| Specification | Profile | CRC/ HMAC |
|---|---|---|
| AUTOSAR SW-C E2E | 1 | CRC8 |
| 4 | CRC32 | |
| 6 | CRC16 | |
| 7 | CRC64 | |
| Custom | 17 | HMAC (SHA 256) |
| 17 | HMAC (SHA 512) |
QNX Black Channel Communications Technology can run on QNX OS (SDP 7.0 or QOS 2.1), Linux or SafeRTOS. However, with QNX OS for Safety (QOS 2.1), you can deploy out of the box with no configuration required.
