Integrated Modular Avionics standardises hardware and software platforms of Line Replaceable Modules (LRMs) and other system components in order to reduce the overall cost of system development. operation and maintenance. Several identical processing units within a cabinet. and fast communication media in the form of a backplane bus introduces further possibility of reconfiguring the system in terms of changing the applications performed by particular core LRMs. In this thesis a study into Reconfigurable Integrated Modular Avionics is presented. The main objectives of the project were to investigate the benefits, and feasibility of, employing autonomous dynamic in-tlight reconfiguration of the system as a means for providing fault-tolerance. In this approach, allowing processing modules to change their function permits the system to share the redundant modules as well as sacrificing less important avionics functions to sustain the more critical applications. Various architecture examples are reviewed in order to establish a system design that would support reconfiguration at a minimal cost. Two modified ARINC 651 architecture examples are proposed for implementation of dynamic in-flight reconfiguration. The benefits of reconfiguration are identified with the use of Markov state space analysis, and are found to be substantial with respect to the reduced number of redundant processing modules required to implement the system functions within the safety requirements. Suitable reconfiguration schemes are identified, and the most promising one is formally specified with the use of the Vienna Development Method. The safety properties of the scheme are shown based on the specification. In order to study the feasibility of autonomous dynamic reconfiguration, the scheme is implemented into two distinct systems, and the results of the practical observation of the system behaviour are presented and discussed. As the project was sponsored by the UK Civil Aviation Authority, a number of certification issues related to reconfigurable avionics systems are identified and discussed based on the practical implementation and previous theoretical analysis. It is concluded that dynamic in-flight reconfiguration of avionics systems can lead to substantial savings in terms of the reduced number of required core LRMs, and greater fault-tolerance than traditional non-reconfigurable systems
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:297842 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Omiecinski, Tomasz Adam |
| Publisher | University of Bristol |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1983/e9e10bd7-72c6-4aff-9027-f297dded5e41 |
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