Design for ARINC 653 conformance: Architecting independent validation of a safety-critical RTOS

The ARINC 653 specification not only provides a standard application programming interface for an RTOS, but also specifies how to validate an ARINC 653 based RTOS. ARINC 653 Part 3 Conformity Test Specification specifies test procedures for validation of ARINC 653 Part 1 (Required Services Specification). Existing ARINC 653 verification suites and packs do not provide platform-independency, maintainability gained by an open source framework, a reliable communication protocol, and automated testing principles at the same time. This paper introduces a brand new validation suite, GVT-A653 which is platform-independent and ensures conformance to ARINC 653 specification. The suite is based on TETware (trademark of OpenGroup) and builds upon Continuous Integration (CI) principles. It also brings flexibility by providing various protocols including Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX) Network that provides deterministic communication required in avionics applications.