US 8,818,767 B2Granted

Method for assistance with the construction and validation of an avionics platform

AssigneeAirbus Operations GmbH

InventorFrédéric Minot

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Abstract

A method for assisting the construction and validation of an avionics platform uses, on the one hand, a functional description of the platform using avionics functions, software modules suitable for executing these functions, and functional link occurrences between these modules and, on the other hand, a material description of this platform using calculation or communication items of equipment and physical links between these equipment. The method according to the invention enables to generate paths between the various items of equipment by using direct physical links and/or physical links belonging to one or more network(s), and subsequently to associate at least one such path to be each functional link occurrence. It also enables to associate to each software module an item of equipment adapted to host it.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A method for assisting the construction of an avionics platform, using a tool including:

a first functional database in which is stored a functional description of the platform,
a second material database in which is stored a material description of the platform, and
a workstation, linked to the first and second databases,
wherein said method is to implement a set of avionics functions, where each avionics function comprises one or more software modules, and where any two software modules can exchange messages based on a link, known as a functional link occurrence, and
wherein said avionics platform includes:
items of equipment linked together by unidirectional or bidirectional physical links belonging to different types of networks, and
paths enabling linking of said equipment, where each path consists of one of the following:
a single direct physical link between a source item of equipment and a destination item of equipment,
a first physical link between said source item of equipment and a first network node,
a second physical link between said destination item of equipment and a second network node, and
at least a third physical link between said first and second nodes,
the method comprising:
associating each software module with an item of equipment onto which said software module is intended to be hosted;
for each functional link occurrence, providing to the workstation a list of all possible topological paths enabling a first item of equipment and a second item of equipment respectively hosting corresponding software modules to be linked;
receiving from the workstation a selection of one of the topological paths from the list;
associating each functional link occurrence with a corresponding selected topological path to let pass through each functional link occurrence the messages of the functional link occurrence;
checking each item of equipment as to whether each item of equipment has sufficient material resources to allow execution of the software module or modules associated therewith;
and
generating an implementation file listing all of the items of equipment and providing:
for each software module, the item of equipment associated therewith, if each equipment has sufficient material resources as determined by the checking, and
for each functional link occurrence over which two software modules exchange messages, the at least one path associated therewith.

18 more elements

A method for assisting the construction of an avionics platform, using a tool including:

a first functional database in which is stored a functional description of the said platform,
a second material database in which is stored a material description of the said platform, and
a workstation, linked to the first and second databases,
wherein said method is to implement a set of avionics functions, where each avionics function comprises one or more software modules, and where any two software modules can exchange messages based on a link, known as a functional link occurrence, and
wherein said avionics platform includes:
items of equipment linked together by unidirectional or bidirectional physical links belonging to different types of networks, and
paths enabling linking of said equipment, where each path consists of one of the following:
a single direct physical link between a source item of equipment and a destination item of equipment,
a first physical link between said source item of equipment and a first network node,
a second physical link between said destination item of equipment and a second network node, and
at least a third physical link between said first and second nodes, the method comprising:
associating each software module with an item of equipment onto which said software module is intended to be hosted;
for each functional link occurrence, providing to the workstation a list of all possible topological paths enabling a first item of equipment and a second item of equipment respectively hosting corresponding software modules to be linked;
receiving from the workstation a selection of one of the topological paths from the list;
associating each functional link occurrence with a corresponding selected topological path to let pass through each functional link occurrence the messages of the functional link occurrence;
checking each equipment as to whether each item of equipment has sufficient material resources to allow execution of the software module or modules which is/are associated with each item of equipment;
listing in a source list for each source item of equipment the types of physical links associated with the connection resources of the connectors of each source item of equipment,
selecting a type of link from among the types of links listed in each source list;
listing in a receiving list the items of equipment having connection resources capable of receiving the type of link thus selected;
and
selecting a destination item of equipment from among the items of equipment listed in each receiving list.

18 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.