Mission level design of avionics

Aerospace systems are characterized by architectural complexity, dynamic interaction between subsystems, and complex functionality, understood only by teams from different disciplines. 20 years ago, the major challenge was the multidisciplinary design of avionics. Over the past 20 years, design methods and tools have been developed to cope with these challenges. Today, the complexity of networked electronics in aircraft and the interaction of hardware and software impose similar complexity and design challenges. According to Moore's law, closely followed by industry, the complexity of electronics increases by a factor of 100 every 10 years, requiring to increase abstraction in the design methodology, in order to cope with this increase of complexity. This paper shows the move towards performance and mission level design and its advantages over functional level design approaches.