Automated Design Tool Set for Reliability and Performance Evaluation of Fault-Tolerant Avionics Systems

Reliability and performance are critical characteristics of the Army's avionics systems. These systems must meet stringent requirements in the areas of: (1) dispatchability, or operational readiness to support missions; (2) dependability, or the ability to perform critical functions correctly during the duration of the mission; and (3) responsiveness, or the ability to deliver computing services at rates sufficient to meet time-critical processing deadlines. Automated tools are needed to evaluate the implications of complex design alternatives in these areas of system effectiveness. Phase I research will determine the feasibility of an automated tool set for integrated evaluation of fault-tolerant avionics system reliability and performance. The tool set will consist of separate design capture, design translation, and design evaluation capabilities. Quantitative measures of effectiveness that will be produced by the tool set include system maintainability and availability, probability of avionics system failure during missions of given duration, and critical function response times and resource utilizations. Capabilities provided by existing automated tools, including the START tool for integrated reliability and performance analysis, as well as other reliability prediction tools such as HARP, SHARPE, and ARAM, will provide a starting point for the tool set specification to be developed in Phase I.