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Today’s road-vehicles (passenger cars, LDV, MDV and HD commercial vehicles), as well as non-road mobile machinery (NRMM), are equipped with E/E systems that consist of electronic control units, in-vehicle networks, sensors, actors, wiring, connectors, and some electrical and electrohydraulic components. Coping with the increasing complexity of these systems requires a new approach for external test equipment being deployed in the entire process chain: development with verification & validation for SOP, manufacturing/production, and after-sales service. Numerous papers are dealing with the technology of external test equipment, (remote) diagnostics, troubleshooting, guided fault finding, predictive maintenance and the standardized components, such as UDS, MVCI, ODX, and OTX. Diagnostic sequences are described in OTX and processed by an OTX runtime module. The OTX runtime module uses the MVCI D-Server API, and the D-Server processes diagnostic data which is described in ODX.

Remote diagnostic systems support diagnostic communication by having the capability of sending diagnostic request services to a vehicle and receiving diagnostic response services from a vehicle. These diagnostic services are specified in diagnostic protocols, such as SAE J1979, SAE J1939 or ISO 14229 (UDS). For the purpose of diagnostic communication, the tester needs access to the electronic control units as communication partners. Physically, the diagnostic tester gets access to the entire vehicle´s E/E system, which consists of connectors, wiring, the in-vehicle network (e.g. CAN), the electronic control units, sensors, and actuators. Any connection of external test equipment and the E/E system of a vehicle poses a security vulnerability. The combination can be used for malicious intrusion and manipulation.

Remote diagnostic systems support diagnostic communication by having the capability of sending diagnostic request services to a vehicle and receiving diagnostic response services from a vehicle. These diagnostic services are specified in diagnostic protocols, such as SAE J1979, SAE J1939 or ISO 14229 (UDS). For the purpose of diagnostic communication, the tester needs access to the electronic control units as communication partners. Physically, the diagnostic tester gets access to the entire vehicle´s E/E system, which consists of connectors, wiring, the in-vehicle network (e.g. CAN), the electronic control units, sensors, and actuators. Any connection of external test equipment and the E/E system of a vehicle poses a security vulnerability. The combination can be used for malicious intrusion and manipulation.

In the past, the automotive industry has learned the lesson that competition on the level of bits and bytes, proprietary bus systems, data communication and diagnostic protocols is unrewarding. Too much time and money has been spent on the development of proprietary diagnostic tools. Vehicle manufacturers and suppliers realized that standardization would be the best way to overcome this situation. Furthermore, regulatory requirements in the US and the EU for such standardization have strengthened this lesson. As a result, the automotive industry has standardized the technology for the communication of external test equipment with electronic control units (ECUs) in road vehicles. Standardization serves the price, the quality and the maintainability via scale and training curve effects.