27–29 Oct 2014
European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC)
Europe/Amsterdam timezone

Scope & Topics

ADCSS 2014 will address a set of key topics related to the design and implementation of present and future avionics systems. The 3-day program is divided in different sessions as follows:
 
Monday 27 October 2014 – SAVOIR

A significant effort is being deployed by Agencies and Industry to streamline the development, validation and operation phases of spacecraft, with particular focus on the Avionics. This effort is being coordinated by ESA in the form of the "Spacecraft Avionics Open Interface Architecture" (SAVOIR) initiative. SAVOIR brings together ESA and industry experts in an open forum and is gaining significant momentum. Based on establishment of reference architectures, it provides the ground for the identification of building blocks interacting through standardised interfaces, service access points and protocols across hardware and software boundaries. The topic will be introduced by a first session focusing on the status of current developments complemented by a second session reporting on Working Group activities. The afternoon will be dedicated to Software Reference Architecture issues.

Session 1: SAVOIR Status/Reference Architecture
This session will report on the functional specification documents status and the intended dissemination schemes. In addition more specific aspects related to Sensor Interfaces will be addressed.

Session 2: Working Groups Reporting
The most recent developments performed in the frame of the SAVOIR Working Groups including the new MASAIS Working Group on Mass Memory will be highlighted in this session.

Session 3: SW Reference Architecture
The definition of a reference On Board Software Architecture (OSRA) has been initiated by the SAVOIR-FAIRE working group, with later contributions from the SAVOIR-IMA group. The definition has been supported by numerous R&D activities, out of which the COrDeTx line was the backbone. The architecture, component based, is made of an execution platform (i.e. basic software, or middleware) providing services to the application software structured in components. The session will present the OSRA specification, and will then focus on the execution platform.
The OSRA specification part will describe its context and related history, the underlying logic and the structure of the deliverables, before being presented in details. The component model supporting the architecture will be presented by means of a meta-model reference implementation description, together with the proof of concept demonstrators.
In view of proposing elements of standardization around the execution platform, a survey (called SIFSUP) has been performed in industry for ESA, whose context and results will be presented in the second part of the session. Potential interface specifications will be introduced. As the CCSDS SOIS standard addresses similar topic, and offers possible solutions, it has been assessed by the industrial Large System Integrators, and the results of their investigation will be presented.

 
Tuesday 28 October 2014 – Software Perspectives

Session 1: Systems Software Co-Engineering Methods & Tools beyond SW Factories
Last year, the session on Software Factory evidenced the mapping between the needs expressed by Savoir-Faire and proposed solutions. It highlighted the role of the Model Driven approach to automate the instantiation of software from Reference Architecture by outlining the links between system and software (requirements, system architecture trade-off, and system data repository).
This year’s session intends to explore further these links, with the objective to describe the landscape of System Software co-engineering, to raise awareness of method and tools supporting it, to investigate how to use them and potential missing gaps, to create the links through model driven between the system and the software discipline (so at avionics level), and finally to prepare the future Avionics Harmonisation and Technical Dossier.

The session will address specifically:        
  • Requirement engineering: the software requirements are derived and traced to system requirements, and the software Requirement Baseline (RB or SSS) is in principle derived from a system process.
  • System/software trade-offs: the system architecture and in particular the avionics is subject to several trade-off impacting the allocation of requirements to software or hardware (or operation) as well as the avionics architecture. This includes in particular:
    • Avionics modelling, definition of the CPU throughput, the memory size, the selection of the avionics busses and their bandwidth allocation,
    • Hardware-software co-engineering and co-design, decision of implementation of functions in software with CPU or in microelectronics FPGA,
    • More generally, verification of the system FDIR concept as a response to the system dependability requirements; modelling of the avionics and software, of the fault models and fault propagation, of the FDIR design; verification that the FDIR is able to mask the system feared events according to system dependability requirements.
  • System data repository, out of which the system data relevant to the functional aspects implemented in software are picked up to configure the software.
  • Software validation and system verification, where the need is to reuse some software validation tests (e.g. at software component level) for system verification through the system simulators and EGSE.
The session will host the following presentation:
  • A presentation of Melody Advanced, a system modelling tool (a future system factory?). Based on EMF and GMF, Melody Advance allows other Thales entities to create their own modeling tools. These modeling tools are declared with a dedicated DSL which is interpreted to dynamically provide the corresponding GMF modeling editors coming with ergonomic facilities and supporting large models.
  • A summary of the activities related to model based AOCS software engineering and autocode, as the control subsystem is one of the more advanced in model based system-software co-engineering,
  • A presentation of the compiler situation for space applications, in particular gcc and llvm, addressing the long term support of ESA flight computers and embedded CPUs.
Session 2: SW Licensing and governance
The size of software produced for space application increases. Software packages are assembled from various elements, either commercially available, or reused from open source repositories, or internally reused, or newly created. Their IPR situation is more and more complex. ESA has the obligation to re-distribute its assets to member states and to control their exportation outside member states, which for software can create substantial legal issues. Amongst the problematic aspects are:  the identification of IPR owners, the verification of the IPR situation when delivered, the exportation control, the sub-licensing to member state, the presence of open source software with inherited licenses, etc.
The session will be introduced by an overall tentative synthesis of the ESA view of the problem and envisaged solutions, with a description of the future ESA open source repository. Extending on open source, non-ESA experience will be presented, in particular from the DLR, the CNES, Airbus (aircrafts), and the Polarsys organisation. Finally, the ESA Summer Of Code initiative will be presented after its third year of operation.

 
Wednesday 29 October 2014 – Payload and Platform Interface

Session 1: Current Payload and Platform Interface and Architectures
The objective of this session is to survey current mission solutions for interfaces between the platform and the payload. The whole mission cycle will be addressed, providing examples from System Requirements Definition up to Lessons Learned. Application scenarios from earth observation, science and the Telecom area, the corresponding architectures, interfaces and challenges will be presented.

Session 2: Harmonization of Payload and Platform Interfaces and Architectures
The objective of this session is to present a SAVOIR Reference Payload/ Platform Architecture and to show how the different functions of payload, platform and mass memory are interlinked. The various  functions and how they can be distributed between functional blocks will be discussed and evaluated. Hosted payloads and reusable platforms will be addressed with a view to standardizing the functions, associated links and SW building blocks to reduce the overall complexity.

Session 3: Payload/Platform Interface and Architecture Evolution and Round Table Discussion
The objective of this session is to prepare the floor for an open discussion on how to tackle the presented challenges and to find ways to reduce the mission budgets (mass/ power/ volume/ harness/ costs) through payload/ platform architecture and interface harmonization. Open questions and ideas will be presented for selection and further discussion in the subsequent round table.