Modular avionic architectures

The author presents an analysis revealing some of the salient features of modular avionics. A decomposition of the modular avionics concept is performed, highlighting some of the key features of such architectures. Several layers of architecture can be found in such concepts, including those relating to software structure, communication, and supportability. Particular emphasis is placed on the layer relating to partitioning, which gives rise to those features of integration, modularity, and commonality. Where integration is the sharing of common tasks or items to gain efficiency and flexibility, modularity is the partitioning of a system into reconfigurable and maintainable items, and commonality is partitioning to maximize the use of identical items across the range of applications. Two architectures, MASA (Modular Avionics System Architecture) and Pave Pillar, are considered in particular