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A Comparison of Avionics Open System Architectures

Published:10 May 2017Publication History
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Abstract

Building high-integrity, safety-critical systems is one of the primary activities of the projects within the United States (US) Department of Defense (DoD). Recognizing the need for affordable and effective solutions, the DoD calls for the use of Open System Architecture (OSA) solutions in Better Buying Power (BBP) 3.0 [1], Department of Defense Instruction 5000.02 [2], and the Defense Acquisition Guidebook section 4.3.18.15 [3]. The objectives of these documents are to avoid vendor lock, enable affordable capability evolution, and promote innovation. There are several activities underway to define standards that support the development of these systems.

In the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), the Unmanned Aerospace Systems (UAS) Command and Control (C2) Standard Initiative (UCI) standard has been defined to address the needs of providing an open architecture specification for unmanned aerial vehicles [4].

The Open Mission Systems (OMS) standard [5] developed by the US Air Force utilizes commercially developed Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) concepts and middleware in its definition along with the UCI standard. The Air Force is looking to extend the capabilities of the OMS standard to facilitate the rapid evolution of avionics systems.

The Open Group has constructed a consortium of government, industry, and academia experts to develop the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE™) [6]. FACE is an open architecture effort that is intended to standardize the development of aviation components.

The paper will present the basic definition of open systems architecture followed by a description of three of the OSA standard activities that are being conducted to address the direction from the DoD. The paper will then examine the similarities and differences between each of these initiatives. Finally, the paper will discuss the usability of OSA.

References

  1. Under Secretary of Defense, Implementation Directive for Better Buying Power 3.0 -- Achieving Dominant Capabilities through Technical Excellence and Innovation, 9 Apr 2015.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  2. Department of Defense, Instruction Number 5000.02, 7 Jan 2015.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  3. Defense Acquisition Guidebook, 2015.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  4. Unmanned Aerospace Systems C2 Standards Initiative (UCI) http://ucistandard.org/about-uci.html.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  5. Open Mission Systems (OMS) Initiative, http://ucistandard.org/oms.html.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  6. Technical Standard for Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE™), Edition 2.1, 2014, https://www2.opengroup.org/ogsys/catalog/G162.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  7. STANAG 4856, Standard Interfaces of UAV Control Systems (UCS) for NATO UAV Interoperability, NATO Standardization Agency, 2012, nso.nato.int/nso/zPublic/stanags/current/4586eed03.pdf.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  8. Marques, Mário Monteiro, "STANAG 4586 -- Standard Interfaces of UAV Control System (UCS) for NATO UAV Interoperability," 2012.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  9. POSIX IEEE StandardsGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
  10. Barrett, Donald A, Luke A Borntrager, David M Green, "Blue Guardian: on open architecture for rapid ISR demonstration," Proceedings of SPIE 9849, Open Architecture/Open Business Model Net-Centric Systems and Defense Transformation 2016, May 2016.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  11. Fisherkeller, Kerry, "Emerging Interoperability Standards for Unmanned Aerial Systems," 19th Annual INCOSE Region II Fall Mini-Conference, Nov 2014.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar

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  1. A Comparison of Avionics Open System Architectures

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