Students@TTTech Program

TTTech is technology leader in various fields of technology. To maintain its leading position, TTTech
offers to supervise internships, master theses, as well as of PhD theses. A selection of topics is listed
below. All topics can be individualized to specific students requirements. As such they can also be
shaped towards an internship, master, or PhD level. Both, individuals as well as groups of students
are welcome to work on the topics. These projects are also an ideal opportunity to become familiar
with TTTech and after successful completion of their projects students working with TTTech typically
receive a job offer to continue their engagement with TTTech.

The following types of Engineering/Scientific Method are recommended per topic (but are also
matter of discussion and agreement with the student):
Simulation: simulation of the technology in a simulator as mutually agreed by the student
and TTTech
Prototyping: prototyping of the technology; can be HW, SW, or both.
Demo-Kit : the work will largely build on TTTechs available components, improve and
configure these components towards a demonstrator

Topics
Communication Networks with Real-Time and Safety-Criticality Aspects
Time-Triggered Ethernet at 10Gbit/sec
o Content: Today Time-Triggered Ethernet (SAE AS6802) components support
100Mbit/sec and 1Gbit/sec data rates. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the
possibilities to improve the data rate of Time-Triggered Ethernet to 10Gbit/sec and
give an outlook of the possibilities for even higher data rates.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Prototyping
Comparison of Modeling Techniques for Time-Triggered Ethernet Networks with
SysML/AADL/OPNET/Simics/etc
o Content: In order to evaluate the suitability of Time-Triggered Ethernet for given use
cases, simulation can be used. The topic of this thesis to evaluate different
simulation options. Some simulation modules of the Time-Triggered Ethernet
technology exist today and can be used as starting point of the thesis.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Simulation
Evaluation of Different Network Traffic Shaping Mechanism in Automotive Ethernet
o Content: Ethernet is becoming the next major standard for in-vehicle
communication. Automotive Ethernet will be based on a collection of standards, e.g.,
IEEE 802.1 (AVB/TSN, TSN++), IEEE 802.3, and SAE AS6802. The objective of this
thesis is to evaluate different network shaping concepts (e.g., credit-based shaping,
urgency-based shaping, time-based shaping, preemption) in isolation as well as in
combination with each other.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Simulation, Prototyping, Demo-Kit
Evaluation Platform for Automotive Ethernet
o Content: Ethernet is becoming the next major standard for in-vehicle
communication. TTTech has developed and continues to develop standard products
for the automotive communication market. This thesis will develop an evaluation
 platform that incorporates these standard products and demonstrates automotive
Ethernet on selected use cases from the automotive industry.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Demo-Kit
Deterministic Wireless Communication
o Content: Wireless communication is an attractive alternative to wired
communication because auf various reasons, e.g., flexibility and mobility. However,
wireless links are inherently magnitudes of orders less reliable than wired
connections. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to investigate novel approaches to
improve various real-time and dependability properties of wireless communication.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Prototype, Demo-Kit

Virtualization
Evaluation of Virtualization Techniques and Hypervisors for Critical Cyber-Physical Systems
o Content: With the growing functionality in critical cyber-physical systems new
paradigms for software integration need to be developed. Virtualization is a
technique that is well understood and used on a daily basis in the IT. The objective of
this thesis is to research the adoption of the virtualization principle in cyber-physical
systems.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Prototyping, Demo-Kit

Embedded Software
Dynamic Real-Time Scheduling In Cyber-Physical Systems with Hierarchical Structures
o Content: Modern cyber-physical systems implement a hierarchical structure of
dependencies such that various scheduling entities need to be aligned to each other.
For example, a typical structure will encompass task scheduling, virtual machine
scheduling, and communication scheduling. The objective of this thesis is to
investigate dynamic real-time scheduling solutions and find optimal scheduling
strategies in such a systems context.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Simulation, Prototyping
RT-Wrappers:
o Content: Re-use of existing SW code becomes a more and more relevant topic also
for cyber-physical systems. Such SW that needs to be adapted could be either legacy
code or code developed for other industries, e.g., the IT. The objective of this thesis
is to develop a strategy and prototype to seamlessly integrate existing SW code into
a cyber-physical systems context.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Prototyping, Demo-Kit
Real-Time Operating Systems for Next Generation Cyber-Physical Systems
o Content: TTTech develops HW/SW platforms for cyber-physical systems, such as for
example the aerospace, space, automotive, off-highway, or industrial automation
markets. Selection of a specific Real-Time Operating System and adapting the RTOS
for use in the platform requires significant engineering skill. The objective of this
thesis is, therefore, to evaluate various RTOS for TTTechs platforms.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Prototyping, Demo-Kit
 Integrated Flight Controls with Time-Triggered Ethernet for Distributed Integrated Modular
Avionics
o Content: Time-Triggered Ethernet is a communication network for safety-critical
systems. For example, Time-Triggered Ethernet is the network in NASAs Orion space
vehicle. The objective of this thesis is the development of prototypical flight-controls
system based on Time-Triggered Ethernet.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Prototyping, Demo-Kit

Configuration and Management

Static Scheduling for Time-Triggered Systems
o Content: Time-triggered systems make use of a static schedule that defines the
access patterns of processes to shared communication/computation resources. The
production of such schedules is a non-trivial activity and an active field of research.
The objective of this thesis is in the area of evaluation of new scheduling paradigms
and, potentially, in the development of novel scheduling approaches.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Prototyping
Integrated Dynamic and Static Real-Time Scheduling
o Content: More and more cyber-physical systems integrate static and dynamic
scheduling approaches. For example, Automotive Ethernet provides both, dynamic
and unsynchronized traffic to be communicated over the same physical network as
time-triggered traffic. Similarly, combined scheduling problems arise in processor
scheduling. The objective of this thesis is to analyze existing integrated scheduling
paradigms and, potentially, to further develop the scientific field of scheduling in this
direction.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Prototyping
Network Configuration Interface Standardization in the Avionics Domain
o Content: The communication network is a core element in the overall electronics
system on board an aircraft. Different communication networks have different
characteristics and it is important to provide an abstract description of these
characteristics. This abstract description can then be used by system architects and
decision makers in the selection process of which network to select for a given
purpose. The objective of this thesis is to develop an interface description for
communication networks in the aerospace domain following aerospace-specific
standards and development guidelines.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Prototyping
Network Configuration Interface Standardization in the Automotive Domain
o Content: The communication network is a core element in the overall electronics
system of an automobile. Different communication networks have different
characteristics and it is important to provide an abstract description of these
characteristics. This abstract description can then be used by system architects and
decision makers in the selection process of which network to select for a given
purpose. The objective of this thesis is to develop an interface description for
communication networks in the aerospace domain following automotive-specific
standards and development guidelines.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Prototyping
 Software-defined networking for Cyber-Physical Systems
o Content: Software-defined networking (SDN) is a well-known concept from the IT
industry and used for example in large data-centers. With the ascent of cyber-
physical systems and their magnificent growth in their number of nodes, novel
configuration and management structures are needed there too. SDN is a candidate
solution for this and it is the objective of this thesis to research the feasibility of SDN
for cyber-physical systems.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Simulation, Prototyping

Cyber-Security
Evaluation and Further Development of Automotive Security Concepts
o Content: With the increase of connectivity of the automobiles to each other and to
the infrastructure, security becomes more and more relevant also in the automotive
area. The objective of this thesis is therefore to evaluate existing security concepts in
the automotive domain and to, potentially, further develop such concepts.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Simulation, Prototyping
Possibilities of Security Adaption from the IT to Cyber-Physical Systems
o Content: In the IT, security measures are daily business. However, cyber-physical
systems still need to develop a similar level of rigor of security methods and means.
The objective of this thesis is to investigate existing IT security for their suitability as
security solution for cyber-physical systems and, potentially, to develop adaption
strategies.
o Engineering/Scientific Method: Simulation, Prototyping