Modeling and simulation of integrated modular avionics

Abstract

Mastering increasing complexity of civil airborne equipment systems needs new architectural concepts mainly based on modular design, generic resources and multiplexed communication buses. These new architectures, such as Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) architecture, rely on the definition of standardized hardware and software. However, the development of an IMA architecture requires new tools enabling platform designer, applications developer and system integrator to describe and evaluate different implementation choices. This paper, identifies and characterizes different levels of needed models in order to catch essential information for performance evaluation of avionics applications integrated in IMA. Four model levels are proposed: application model, architectural model, execution model and allocation model. These different modeling levels allow the generation of a simulation model of avionics systems allocated on an IMA platform.