Replacement strategy for aging avionics computers

With decreasing defense dollars available to purchase new military aircraft, the inventory of existing aircraft will have to last many more years than originally anticipated. As the avionics computers on these aging aircraft get older, they become more expensive to maintain due to parts obsolescence. In addition, expanding missions and changing requirements lead to growth in the embedded software which, in turn, requires additional processing and memory capacity. Both factors, parts obsolescence and new processing capacity, result in the need to replace the old computer hardware with newer, more capable microprocessor technology. New microprocessors, however, are not compatible with the older computer instruction set architectures. This generally requires the embedded software in these computers to be rewritten. A significant savings-estimated in the billions of dollars-could be achieved in these upgrades if the new computers could execute the old embedded code along with any new code to be added. This paper describes a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)-based form, fit, function, and interface (F³I) replacement strategy for legacy avionics computers that can reuse existing avionics code “as is” while providing a flexible framework for incremental upgrades and managed change. It is based on a real-time embedded software technology that executes legacy binary code on the latest generation COTS microprocessors. This technology promises performance improvements of 5-10 times that of the legacy avionics computer that it replaces. It also promises a 4× decrease in cost and schedule over rewriting the code and provides a “known good” starting point for incremental upgrades of the embedded flight software. Code revalidation cost and risk are minimized since the structure of the embedded code is not changed, allowing the replacement computer to be retested at the “blackbox” level using existing qualification tests     

Next generation space avionics: layered system implementation

Advances in electronics over the past decade have produced major improvements in the power and flexibility of computer systems. Unfortunately current avionics systems for space applications typically have not leveraged these COTS advantages. A decade ago, the state-of-the-art for avionics systems made a step change to the Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) used in the Boeing 777. This next generation avionics architecture is not based upon traditional Byzantine redundancy structures, but on a truth-based scheme where each element knows when an internal failure occurs and removes itself from the system. IMA utilizes a lock-step microprocessor design that communicates to a COTS Backplane for input/output, and to a Virtual Backplane/spl trade/ (a reliable high-speed serial bus) for intra-system communication. The system functions are implemented using a time and space partitioned operating system. The entire system provides the simplicity of a simplex system, implements the highest level of reliability providing complete flexibility to reconfigure both software applications and hardware interfaces, allows for rapid prototyping using low-cost COTS hardware, and is easily expandable beyond the initial point implementation. As the only 5/sup th/ generation avionics architecture, the concepts incorporated into Honeywell's IMA are ideally suited to be the backbone of the next generation Space Exploration Program avionics architectures.     

综合模块化航空电子系统节能分层调度的设计(英文)

近年来,综合模块化航空电子(Integrated Modular Avionics,IMA)构架逐渐流行,并通过引入资源分区的概念取代了传统的联合式系统构架。研究了IMA构架下分层调度的设计问题。调度模型通过强时间分区,使多个强实时应用方便地集成在一个单处理器平台。推导出分区周期、分区系数以及可调度性在实时条件下的数学关系,并提出了分区参数的优化算法。考虑具有任意时限的实时任务模型,提高了算法的通用性。在分层调度的基础上,通过有效利用松弛时间,提出一种能量优化方法,进一步减少了飞行器上嵌入式系统的能耗。实验结果表明,本文提出的系统设计方法在保证硬实时需求的基础上,有效的降低能耗达 14%。     

Open systems architecture solutions for military avionics testing

Raytheon makes extensive use of open systems architecture methods in developing special test equipment (STE) for testing military avionics equipment. Such use has resulted in significant cost and schedule savings in the development of production test equipment for radar and infrared systems. With open systems architectures, a test system can be assembled using COTS products. This brings economies of scale to test equipment, which is normally built in very low quantities. Therefore, the potential cost savings due to COTS usage is proportionately greater in STE than in the higher volume avionics systems that are tested. A second major benefit of using COTS products is that test system development schedule cycle time is greatly reduced. This paper describes the application of Open Systems Architectures (OSA) to avionics testing. The following major architectures are surveyed: VME bus, VXI bus, IEEE GPIB, IEEE 1149.1 JTAG test bus, 1553 Military Bus, Fibre Channel, and COTS Test Applications Software. We describe how the benefits of OSA have been extended at Raytheon into achieving vertical test commonalities. The flexibility of OSA can be exploited to provide an overall optimum test solution, taking all levels of test into account. For example, test systems can be tailored with COTS products to provide integrated methods for avionics tests at the module, unit, and system levels. Test systems can be configured to maximize the reuse of COTS hardware over all test levels. Test software can also be programmed to optimize such reuse over levels of test. Additional test verticality synergies derived from such OSA usage are described, including: test false alarm avoidance; test cones of tolerance optimization; and efficient test of field returns     

NH90航空电子系统演进

NH90是一种法、德、意、荷、葡联合研制的先进中型多用途直升机,未来将成为法、德、意等国的主力作战运输、突击、反潜、搜救机型。介绍了 NH90的航空电子系统,其中包括核心航空电子,任务航空电子及飞控系统。跟踪了 NH90航空电子软件开发团队使用软件产品线（SPL）技术对航空电子架构进一步升级的方向。     

ROSA Rotorcraft Open Systems Avionics

Commercial standards adopted from the volume-driven electronics markets provide improved processing capacities over those widely used military standards and at reduced cost. Desired future capabilities and advanced functions, such as RPA, require the throughput, bandwidth, and memory provided by commercial processors and data buses. The primary issues needing resolution prior to implementation are related to operations in military rotorcraft environment, reliability, redundancy management, and fault and battle damage tolerance. In addition, some required network components presently do not exist in the preferred form factors. The ROSA project is providing effective laboratory demonstrations of COTS products and open systems specifications and standards to rotorcraft avionics. Preliminary cost estimates forecast large potential savings and create a compelling business case for follow-on research and transition to production systems. In addition, the project is developing a Rotorcraft Technical Architecture with the participation of many industry partners and will promote the resulting documentation as background materials for the JTA-A     

航空电子设备研制的测试性设计考虑

测试性是航空电子设备基本设计特性,测试性设计的好坏直接决定了航空电子设备感知自身状态(正常、故障和降级)并自动隔离内部故障的能力。从全寿命周期费用探讨了民用飞机航空电子设备开展测试性设计的必要性,给出了民用飞机研制过程中航空电子设备通用测试性设计、机内测试设计和电路及元器件的测试性设计考虑。实践证明航空电子设备开展测试性设计能有效提高民用飞机的功能安全性和维修经济性。     

Aviation electronics/avionics

International regulations prohibit aircraft from entering high-density airspace and heavily trafficked over-ocean airways without suitable avionics. The widespread use of GPS navigation and increasing complexity of passenger entertainment systems have become the latest electronics trends on large commercial aircraft. The cost of avionics plus software is approaching 50% of the total. New aircraft have multiple computers and millions of lines of software. The following sections present the most important avionics subsystems and highlight some differences between military and commercial aircraft     

A cost effective critical space systems design approach

NASA-ISC requires avionics platforms capable of serving a wide range of applications in a cost-effective manner. In part, making the avionics platform cost effective means adhering to open standards and supporting the integration of COTS products with custom products. Inherently, operation in space requires low power, mass, and volume while retaining high performance, reconfigurability, scalability, and upgradability. The Universal Mini-Controller (UMC) project is based on a modified PC/104-Plus architecture while maintaining full compatibility with standard COTS PC/104 products. The architecture consists of a library of stackable building block modules, which can be mixed and matched to meet a specific application. A set of NASA developed core building blocks, (e.g. processor card, analog input/output card, high level analog card, and a Mil-Std-1553 card) were constructed to meet critical functions and unique interfaces     

高速发展的新一代综合模块化航空电子系统

着重探讨和分析了国外最新一代军、民用飞机上使用的航空电子系统体系结构——综合模块化航空电子系统(IMA)。在讨论IMA概念和特征的基础上,重点分析了IMA体系结构实现过程中的关键技术。最后,分析和总结了未来军、民用航空电子系统的发展趋势。     

Aging avionics and net-centric operations

The transformation to net-centric operations necessitates evaluation of existing avionics capabilities, identification of deficiencies of these avionics for net-centric operations, and evaluation of alternative avionics that can provide the needed capabilities. The Global Information Grid (GIG) enables net-centric operations. The purpose of the GIG is to provide end users real-time or near-real-time access to multiple information sources ranging from airborne/satellite/ground sensors (video imagery and processed visual information/data) to databases. The end users in an aircraft view and interact with this information through the human system interface (HSI) or "smart" displays. The information is transmitted across a Gigabit Ethernet on-board the aircraft that interfaces with multiple channels of a software programmable radio that acts as a hub in the GIG network, or on-board sensors and processors. This paper presents the mandated capabilities, and the processes involved in determination of upgrades needed to achieve net-centric operations.     

Integrating Avionics in the Conceptual Design Phase

The avionics components of modern military aircraft significantly impact the cost and effectiveness of the total aeronautical system. In the early conceptual phase, aeronautical system designers give scant attention to designing the avionics components. The design team generally provides weight, volume and power considerations for the desired avionics functions and assumes that an avionics suite can be assembled. Less than comprehensive attention is given to the interacting effect avionics have with the other system components. In contrast, the designers expend a very large effort on finding the best balanced combination of airframe and propulsion components which satisfy the design objectives. This paper shows why avionics must be a co-equal member of the aeronautical system along with airframe, propulsion, and armament. To become a co-equal partner, avionics must be an element of the system design iterations and analysis commencing with the early conceptual design phase of a new aeronautical system.     

COTS software design minimizes ATS lifecycle cost

This paper identifies the design features of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software that impact the lifecycle cost of automatic test system (ATS) solutions and provides a set of design guidelines. It demonstrates that the architecture of COTS software must be modular, based on correct functional allocation, should possess distribution capabilities, and contain open interfaces that remain backwards compatible. In the case of COTS development tools, the programmatic interface should be simple, extensible, and enforced in the development environment.     

Avionics cost of ownership

The cost of ownership of avionics includes not only the development and acquisition cost, but also the yearly operating and support (O and S) (maintenance) cost of hardware, software, and support equipment. This paper presents an avionics cost of ownership methodology developed for USAF, its data sources, and business metrics computed for USAF decision makers as we move toward operating avionics as a business. The business model is used to determine which existing avionics are candidates for replacement with new technology and to prioritize the replacements. These avionics are often used on multiple aircraft types which necessitates analysis of the causes of the high cost of ownership on each type. Databases are used to document the processing functions, data flow, and constraints of the item being analyzed. These constraints include physical, environmental, electrical, and data interfaces. Databases containing alternatives are evaluated against standard mission scenarios for aircraft utilizing these high cost avionics to determine their impact on performance, O and S costs, and mission effectiveness. The results of the foregoing analyses steps are then used in life cycle cost analyses which consider different retrofit scenarios for each alternative for each aircraft type against the avionics being analyzed for replacement. The alternatives are prioritized and a risk analysis performed considering technical, schedule, and cost growth risks. The avionics cost of ownership methodology described in this paper processes data from USAF maintenance organizations. This has revealed the very large expenditures being made to support highly unreliable avionics. These methods can be applied to all military and commercial aircraft systems to determine not only the cost of ownership of existing systems, but also the cost of ownership of new systems when they are retrofit     

民用飞机综合模块化航电系统资源状态监控技术研究

随着处理器和机载嵌入式实时分区操作系统等相关技术的不断升级换代,IMA系统功能的集成度也越来越高,高集成度增加了系统资源分配的难度,需要通过对系统资源状态进行实时监控和分析进而不断优化系统配置。首先对IMA系统的分区特性进行了深入研究,基于探针插桩监控数据采集技术,提出了一种系统行为和时间资源状态监控的策略。研究了数据监控采集系统的软件架构,在此基础上设计和实现了系统行为监视器和时间资源监视器,并在某民机重点预研课题中进行了应用验证。结果表明,能够有效帮助应用开发者和系统综合者直观分析系统时间性能瓶颈,优化资源配置方案,实现计算资源的负载均衡。对IMA系统资源状态监控及资源配置优化具有一定的指导意义和实用价值。     

某民用飞机显示系统仿真器的设计与实现

航电系统仿真平台以其灵活方便和低成本特点,支持综合航电系统的预先研究、方案设计、详细设计、系统综合,成为综合航电系统研制过程中不可或缺的设计手段。给出了IMA系统仿真平台显示系统仿真器的详细的设计和实现方案,首先介绍了IMA系统仿真平台的组成,接着介绍了显示系统仿真器的组成架构,并对显示系统仿真器的硬件配置、航电网络配置、人机交互界面和逻辑处理进行了详细的介绍。最后经过IMA系统仿真试验样件验收测试程序的测试,验证了显示系统仿真器满足验收测试程序的各项功能和性能要求,满足了该型号显示系统仿真器的试验要求。     

Firewire in modern integrated military avionics

High performance communications, navigation, and identification (CNI) functions on modern military aircraft are increasingly required for mission readiness. The operation of simultaneous waveforms through an integrated avionics rack of shared resources becomes a test in moving data rapidly from one signal processing stage to the next. The IEEE 1394, or Firewire, is a commercial high bandwidth bus whose 64-bit addressing and maximum 400 Mbits/second throughput satisfies this demanding military avionics interconnect need. The challenge in applying this commercial product to integrated avionics is the requirement to seamlessly add message priority encoding. By having message priorities, the slower strategic communications links will not impair the performance of higher data rate tactical communications, thereby avoiding potentially life-threatening bottlenecks. The flight environment imposes additional challenges to ruggedize the cabling between integrated avionics racks and to utilize the full capabilities of the Firewire bus. A discussion of the physical, data link, network, and transport layers, as used in avionics applications will be done. Additionally, the versatility of 1394 in military avionics with its variable channel sizes, bandwidth on demand, hierarchical addressing, and upgrade to 800 and 1600 Mbps with a 64-bit wide data path, is emphasized. Finally, system maintenance advantages of 1394's hot pluggable features are discussed, with an eye toward cost reduction on the flight line and total operational time of the aircraft avionics systems     

A methodology for addressing support equipment obsolescence

The rapid growth of technology over the last twenty years is providing vastly improved capabilities for both avionics and avionics test systems. Unfortunately, an environment of rapid technological growth breeds a corresponding environment of rapid technological obsolescence. Test systems developed fifteen years ago are becoming increasingly more difficult to support due to obsolescence issues and, additionally, such a test system does not reflect the current state-of-the-art for automatic test equipment. The ability of a test system to evolve is essential to providing cost-effective support systems for electronic systems. The F-15 Tactical Electronic Warfare System (TEWS) Intermediate Support System (TISS) was developed under the Modular Automatic Test Equipment (MATE) guidelines to support the suite of F-15 electronic warfare LRUs. MATE imposed hardware architecture constraints, which were factors that contributed to its abandonment. However, the modular aspect of MATE has provided a system that can easily evolve with technological advancements. Modularity is the cornerstone of modern software systems and this is the aspect that has been exploited in the evolution of the TISS     

基于COTS的航空电子软件开发

介绍了商用货架产品(COTS)在航空电子软件开发中应用的优点和缺点,和基于COTS的航电软件构架;并给出了一个开发过程和部分开发工具。最后通过一个实例说明基于COTS的航电软件开发是实际可行的。     

航空电子设备直接维修成本预计方法

直接维修成本(DMC)是衡量飞机维修经济性的关键指标。整架机的DMC可以分解为各部件的DMC。介绍了航空电子设备DMC分析和控制系统,阐述了国内航电设备供应商DMC预计方面的问题,针对经验数据匮乏的问题,根据产品可靠性、维修性参数,结合航电设备的特点,提出了一种航电设备DMC预计方法。实验证明,方法不依赖于经验数据,可以较准确的预测实际DMC,适用于DMC系统运行的早期阶段。