Automotive Middleware Performance: Comparison of FastDDS, Zenoh and vSomeIP

Abstract: In this study, we evaluate the performance of current automotive communication middlewares under various operating conditions. Specifically, we examine FastDDS, a widely used open-source middleware, the newly developed Zenoh middleware, and vSomeIP, COVESAs open-source implementation of SOME/IP. Our objective is to identify the best performing middleware for specific operating conditions. To ensure accessibility, we first provide a concise overview of middleware technologies and their fundamental principles. We then introduce our testing methodology designed to systematically assess middleware performance metrics such as scaling performance, end-to-end latency, and discovery times across multiple message types, network topologies, and configurations. Finally, we compare the resulting performance data and present our results in nine findings. Our evaluation code and the resulting data will be made publicly available upon acceptance.