Communication scheduling data generation for pre-configured IMA network

Abstract

Purpose In modern integrated modular avionics (IMA), it plays an important role to guarantee safety and reliability of the system. The safety and reliability of communication scheduling plays a crucial role in this IMA platforms-based network system. To verify the safety and reliability of the communication scheduling in this network, sufficient and typical test data must be generated to input into the network, obtain and evaluate the corresponding output. Design/methodology/approach To generate communication scheduling data, this paper presents an iterative communication scheduling data generation algorithm for a configured network of IMA platforms. First, the algorithm generates all possible communication schedules for the first timestamp. Then, constraint is introduced to decrease the quantity of communication schedules to improve the efficiency. The communication schedules are gradually extended to the second timestamp until the final timestamp, i.e. length of communication scheduling sequence. Findings To verify the efficiency and feasibility of the algorithm, a model is built based on the architecture analysis and design language (AADL) by mapping the correlation time of generated communication scheduling data into task properties. Schedulability is analyzed by loading this model into AADL Inspector. The simulation result illustrates that the proposed algorithm is efficient and feasible. Practical implications The proposed method can provide data support for communication scheduling test for the network of IMA platforms. Originality/value A constraint-based iterative communication scheduling data generation algorithm is proposed for the network of IMA platforms automatically.