Use of a Reusable Verification Component to Ensure Compatibility of Portable Avionics Software for Multiple Operating Environments

The Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACETM) Technical Standard has set the stage for avionics software reuse by establishing a computing environment for the deployment of portable software components. This reduces the rework necessary to integrate an avionics software component into multiple aviation platforms with varying operating environments. Since the evaluation and demonstration of airworthiness of software components and the systems they comprise can add significant cost and schedule impact, areas most affected by the portability of the software need to be considered in order to maximize the benefits of reuse. Existing guidance for the acquisition of airworthy software often does not specifically address the reuse of components across multiple platforms, although work is being done in this area. Within United States (U.S.) Army Aviation, airworthiness evaluators concerned with the qualification of software conceived a Reusable Verification Component (RVC) that would be portable alongside the reusable software component. This RVC could ensure proper integration and correct functionality of the component for future systems. Existing developmental processes could be leveraged when using the RVC to verify the software implementation, resulting in efficient regression testing over the software lifecycle. The U.S. Army's Joint Common Architecture Demonstration (JCA Demo) project procured a FACE software component and an RVC from two vendors that were then integrated into multiple undisclosed operating environments. This paper captures the effort, results, conclusions, and recommendations for an RVC as an outcome of the experiment.