Avionics clouds: A generic scheme for future avionics systems

Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) systems had been promoting computation resource sharing mainly in the form of central processing modules. Distributed IMA provides virtual backplanes for embedded processing modules, which are distributed physically into an aircraft. Beyond the concept of virtual resource sharing inside a platform, cloud computing paradigm is introduced to avionics systems in order to develop a kind of cross-platform resource integration. A three-layered architecture of cloud computing in avionics domain is presented to propose a generic scheme for future avionics systems, called 'Avionics Clouds'. The lowest layer comprises computing elements, storage elements, communication components and sensors, those of which are to be virtualized and delivered as infrastructural services. The middle layer provides logical functions by allocating virtual resources and making highly abstractions of specific avionics functional modules. In the highest layer, applications are supported by logical systems, each of which acts as an integrated whole and can interact with the others autonomously. The implementation of an Avionics Cloud should require following key properties such as resource self-organization, service persistence, reliability, availability, security, fault tolerance and precise global time etc. The technologies to enable these properties might involve resource virtualization and allocation, service detection and migration, as well as clock synchronization. Under the Avionics Cloud environments, system reconfiguration without functional degradation and collaborated situation awareness are to be achieved more flexibly and smoothly.