Hardware-software allocation specification of IMA systems for early simulation

Model-driven engineering (MDE) is becoming a key approach in systems engineering, including Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) design. It relies on systematic use of models from an early phase of the design process to provide source code generation, validation and analysis support. However, due to the complexity of IMA systems – that may incorporate hundreds of avionics functions and dozens of execution nodes – even early stage model-based analysis of their design can become cumbersome. This is especially true for safety related non-functional requirements like communication channel redundancy or error propagation and contamination.

In this paper, we present a model-driven framework to support the iterative design and analysis of IMA systems using an integrated Simulink model for analyzing the complete HW-SW architecture of the system.