Provably dependable software architectures for adaptable avionics

Abstract

Dependable architectures demonstrably possess properties such as safety, security and fault tolerance. We are interested in developing methods allowing formal demonstrations through proof that an architecture does indeed possess the desired dependability properties. We focus on architecture hierarchies as a means of enabling such demonstrations. Integrated avionics offer unprecedented generality and on-board computing utilization which are adaptability enabling technologies. We pose integrated avionics as a challenge problem for dependable software architectures and we propose a research agenda for solving it.