Virtualization Technology for Dependable Embedded Systems: A Survey for Transportation and Industrial Domains

Next-generation transportation and industrial systems are characterized by a continuously increasing number of integrated software functionalities and computational performance requirements. Nevertheless, there is also a need to reduce the cost, number, size, power consumption, volume and weight of integrated dependable embedded systems. In this context, virtualization technology enables the reconciliation of these challenges supporting the integration of multiple software functionalities of mixed-criticality (real-time and non-real-time, safety and non-safety-related) on a single computing device. This survey provides an overview of virtualization solutions (hypervisors, microkernels, and separation kernels) and categorizes research contributions addressing virtualization, real-time, dependability, and domain-specific technological challenges.