Enhancing Automotive Embedded Applications: A Comprehensive Evaluation of Control Flow Checking Methods

Mitigating the risks posed by Random Hardware Failures (RHFs) is crucial to prevent data corruption and Control Flow Errors (CFEs) in embedded systems. This paper addresses these concerns through the application of Software-Implemented Hardware Fault Tolerance (SIHFT) methods, emphasizing compatibility with high-level programming languages such as C. Current SIHFT methods, often implemented in low-level Assembly, present challenges in terms of overhead to code size and real-time execution. Our proposed approach focuses on pre-compilation application of SIHFT methods, specifically Control Flow Checking (CFC), to identify CFEs within C-language-based code. We conducted a comparative analysis of two established software-based CFE detection methods in C, seamlessly integrating CFC methods into the application behavioral model. Our methodology ensures ISO26262 compliance, crucial for the automotive sector, offering a software-only strategy that aligns with safety and cost considerations.