Constraint-based design and allocation of shared avionics resources

Abstract

We have studied tools and techniques to assist integrated modular avionics (IMA) platform design. We propose an approach that helps to decide whether a set of systems can be implemented on an IMA architecture while enforcing safety requirements. To support the dialogue between teams in charge of defining system architectures and the avionics architecture designers the approach is based on the exchange of allocations constraints. The approach is made of three main steps: system designers describe formally how failures propagate in the system under study and derive segregation constraints, IMA designers collect the constraints and use a constraint solver to generate safe allocations, system designers use this allocation to combine the system failure propagation model with an avionics platform model in order to check quantitative safety requirements. The approach is supported by a set of tools including fault-tree analysers and constraint solvers.