METHODOLOGY DEVELOPMENT FOR VERIFICATION OF FLIGHT CRITICAL SYSTEMS SOFTWARE

THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED INNOVATION IS TO DEVELOP AN ENVIRONMENT WHICH SPECIFICALLY ADDRESSES THE TECHNOLOGY NEEDS OF HIGHLY INTEGRATED, FLIGHT CRITICAL SYSTEMS, LIKE THE VEHICLE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (VMS), INCLUDING ARCHITECTURE DESIGN AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS AND DESIGN. THE ENVIRONMENT INCLUDES SEVERAL PROMISING AND INNOVATIVE METHODS FOR: A) QUANTITATIVELY ASSESSING THE QUALITY OF THE SYSTEM ARCHIETECTURE BY TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE COMPLEXITY OF THE EMBEDDED SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS AND DESIGN; B) ASSESSING THE SYSTEM REAL TIME PERFORMANCE BY MEASURING THE COMPUTATIONAL LOADS OF THE DISTRIBUTED PROCESSORS, THE EXECUTION AND TRANSMISSION TIMES, THE LENGTH OF TASKS QUEUE AND OTHER DYNAMIC AND STATISTICAL PARAMETERS; C) EVALUATING THE ADEQUACY OF THE TIME DISTRIBUTION OF COMPUTATIONAL AND TRANSPORT DELAYS AND VERIFYING THAT MAXIMUM DELAYS WHICH CAN DEVELOP DO NOT EXCEED VALUES BEYOND WHICH PERFORMANCE DEGRADATION MAY OCCUR; AND D) DEMONSTRATING THAT PARTITIONING IS ACHIEVED AMONG FUNCTIONS WITH DIFFERENT LEVELS OF CRITICALITY.