Robust Approach for Supporting Inter-Application Communication and Device Handling in Integrated Modular Avionics

Integration of multiple real-time control modules has gained increased acceptance as a new trend in the industry during the past few years. For example, the avionics industry is embracing a new design approach referred to as Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) that encourages resource sharing to minimize development and maintenance costs of avionics. However, the IMA approach also brings new challenges that do not exist in a federated implementation of avionics. Avoiding unwanted dependencies among applications and managing the reuse of legacy applications tops the list of challenges. This paper describes techniques for interapplication communication and handling of I/O devices that enable the integration of multiple applications while maintaining strong spatial and temporal partitioning between application software modules. The presented approach is lock-free requiring the least support from the operating system and minimizes the dependency of the integrated environment on application characteristics.