European Component Oriented Architecture (ECOA®)

Collaboration Programme:
Architecture Specification
Part 5: High Level Platform Requirements

BAE Ref No: IAWG-ECOA-TR-008

Dassault Ref No: DGT 144483-F

Issue: 6

Prepared by
BAE Systems (Operations) Limited and Dassault Aviation
This specification is developed by BAE SYSTEMS, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes
Aéroportés, GE Aviation Systems Limited, General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW
Ltd and the copyright is owned by BAE SYSTEMS, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes
Aéroportés, GE Aviation Systems Limited, General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW
Ltd. The information set out in this document is provided solely on an ‘as is’ basis and co-developers of this
specification make no warranties expressed or implied, including no warranties as to completeness,
accuracy or fitness for purpose, with respect to any of the information.

Note: This specification represents the output of a research programme. Compliance with this specification shall not in
itself relieve any person from any legal obligations imposed upon them. Product development should rely on the
DefStan or BNAE publications of the ECOA standard.

This specification is developed by BAE Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE
Aviation Systems Limited, General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd and the copyright is owned by BAE
Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE Aviation Systems Limited, General
Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd. The information set out in this document is provided solely on an ‘as is’
basis and co-developers of this specification make no warranties expressed or implied, including no warranties as to completeness,
accuracy or fitness for purpose, with respect to any of the information.

DGT 144483-F/IAWG-ECOA-TR-008 Issue 6 i

Contents

0 Introduction iii
1 Scope 1
2 Warning 1
3 Normative References 1
4 Definitions 2
5 Abbreviations 2
6 High Level Requirements for an ECOA Platform 4

Tables

Table 1 High level requirements for an ECPF 6

This specification is developed by BAE Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE
Aviation Systems Limited, General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd and the copyright is owned by BAE
Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE Aviation Systems Limited, General
Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd. The information set out in this document is provided solely on an ‘as is’
basis and co-developers of this specification make no warranties expressed or implied, including no warranties as to completeness,
accuracy or fitness for purpose, with respect to any of the information.

DGT 144483-F/IAWG-ECOA-TR-008 Issue 6 ii

0 Introduction
®
This Architecture Specification provides the specification for creating ECOA -based systems. It describes
®
the standardised programming interfaces and data-model that allow a developer to construct an ECOA -
based system. It uses terms defined in the Definitions (Architecture Specification Part 2). The details of the
other documents comprising the rest of this Architecture Specification can be found in Section 3.

This document is Part 5 of the Architecture Specification, and describes the high level requirements for the
®
conformity of platform to ECOA .
® ®
The purpose of this document is providing sets of requirements to help ECOA Platform or ECOA
Reference Platform providers to build the right product and to help system integrators to check the
conformance of their procurements.
®
The document relies on other Reference Manuals of the ECOA Architecture Specification and refers to
®
them. The assumption is made that any ECOA Platform is delivered at least with a Toolset, a Version
Description and a User’s Manual.
®
Section 6 describes the generic high level requirements for any ECOA Platform.

This specification is developed by BAE Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE
Aviation Systems Limited, General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd and the copyright is owned by BAE
Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE Aviation Systems Limited, General
Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd. The information set out in this document is provided solely on an ‘as is’
basis and co-developers of this specification make no warranties expressed or implied, including no warranties as to completeness,
accuracy or fitness for purpose, with respect to any of the information.

DGT 144483-F/IAWG-ECOA-TR-008 Issue 6 iii

1 Scope

This Architecture Specification specifies a uniform method for design, development and integration of
software systems using a component oriented approach.

2 Warning

This specification represents the output of a research programme. Compliance with this specification shall
not in itself relieve any person from any legal obligations imposed upon them. Product development should
rely on the DefStan or BNAE publications of the ECOA standard.

3 Normative References

Architecture Specification IAWG-ECOA-TR-001 / DGT 144474

Part 1 Issue 6
Architecture Specification Part 1 – Concepts
Architecture Specification IAWG-ECOA-TR-012 / DGT 144487
Part 2 Issue 6
Architecture Specification Part 2 – Definitions
Architecture Specification IAWG-ECOA-TR-007 / DGT 144482
Part 3 Issue 6
Architecture Specification Part 3 – Mechanisms
Architecture Specification IAWG-ECOA-TR-010 / DGT 144485
Part 4 Issue 6
Architecture Specification Part 4 – Software Interface
Architecture Specification IAWG-ECOA-TR-008 / DGT 144483
Part 5 Issue 6
Architecture Specification Part 5 – High Level Platform
Requirements
Architecture Specification IAWG-ECOA-TR-006 / DGT 144481
Part 6 Issue 6
®
Architecture Specification Part 6 – ECOA Logical Interface
Architecture Specification IAWG-ECOA-TR-011 / DGT 144486
Part 7 Issue 6
Architecture Specification Part 7 – Metamodel
Architecture Specification IAWG-ECOA-TR-004 / DGT 144477
Part 8 Issue 6
Architecture Specification Part 8 – C Language Binding
Architecture Specification IAWG-ECOA-TR-005 / DGT 144478
Part 9 Issue 6
Architecture Specification Part 9 – C++ Language Binding
Architecture Specification IAWG-ECOA-TR-003 / DGT 144476
Part 10 Issue 6
Architecture Specification Part 10 – Ada Language Binding

This specification is developed by BAE Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE
Aviation Systems Limited, General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd and the copyright is owned by BAE
Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE Aviation Systems Limited, General
Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd. The information set out in this document is provided solely on an ‘as is’
basis and co-developers of this specification make no warranties expressed or implied, including no warranties as to completeness,
accuracy or fitness for purpose, with respect to any of the information.

DGT 144483-F/IAWG-ECOA-TR-008 Issue 6 1

Architecture Specification IAWG-ECOA-TR-031 / DGT 154934
Part 11 Issue 6
Architecture Specification Part 11 – High Integrity Ada Language
Binding

ISO/IEC 8652:1995(E) Ada95 Reference Manual

with COR.1:2000 Issue 1
ISO/IEC 9899:1999(E) Programming Languages – C
ISO/IEC 14882:2003(E) Programming Languages C++
SPARK_LRM The SPADE Ada Kernel (including RavenSPARK) Issue 7.3

4 Definitions

For the purpose of this standard, the definitions given in Architecture Specification Part 2 and those shown
below apply.

NOTE The following definitions are taken from RFC 2119

4.1

May
Means that an item is truly optional. One vendor may choose to include the item because a particular
marketplace requires it or because the vendor feels that it enhances the product while another vendor may
omit the same item.

4.2

Shall
Means that the definition is an absolute requirement of the specification.

4.3

Should
Means that there may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to ignore a particular item, but the full
implications must be understood and carefully weighed before choosing a different course.

5 Abbreviations

API Application Programming Interface

ASC Application Software Component
®
ECOA European Component Oriented Architecture. ECOA is a registered trademark.
ECPF ECOA Compliant Platform
®
ELI ECOA Logical Interface
FIFO First In, First Out

This specification is developed by BAE Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE
Aviation Systems Limited, General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd and the copyright is owned by BAE
Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE Aviation Systems Limited, General
Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd. The information set out in this document is provided solely on an ‘as is’
basis and co-developers of this specification make no warranties expressed or implied, including no warranties as to completeness,
accuracy or fitness for purpose, with respect to any of the information.

DGT 144483-F/IAWG-ECOA-TR-008 Issue 6 2

ID Identifier
IP Internet Protocol
OS Operating System
PC Personal Computer
PINFO Persistent Information
POSIX Portable Operating System Interface
RFC Request For Comments
RTOS Real-Time Operating System
XML eXtensible Markup Language

This specification is developed by BAE Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE
Aviation Systems Limited, General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd and the copyright is owned by BAE
Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE Aviation Systems Limited, General
Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd. The information set out in this document is provided solely on an ‘as is’
basis and co-developers of this specification make no warranties expressed or implied, including no warranties as to completeness,
accuracy or fitness for purpose, with respect to any of the information.

DGT 144483-F/IAWG-ECOA-TR-008 Issue 6 3

6 High Level Requirements for an ECOA Platform

This section provides generic high level requirements that a platform shall satisfy to claim a conformance to
the ECOA Architecture Specification and then be identified as an ECOA Platform.

Figure 1 highlights the optional mechanisms in the ECOA Architecture Specification. In other words, a
platform may claim conformance to the ECOA Architecture Specification without implementing these
mechanisms.

Additional safety and security requirements (e.g. data integrity checks, authentication functions,
determinism, level of assurance) may be specified as additional platform procurement requirements
depending on the needs of each programme that uses ECOA. Such requirements are not defined by
ECOA.

Figure 1 Overview of optional mechanisms in ECOA

Id. Requirement

This specification is developed by BAE Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE
Aviation Systems Limited, General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd and the copyright is owned by BAE
Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE Aviation Systems Limited, General
Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd. The information set out in this document is provided solely on an ‘as is’
basis and co-developers of this specification make no warranties expressed or implied, including no warranties as to completeness,
accuracy or fitness for purpose, with respect to any of the information.

DGT 144483-F/IAWG-ECOA-TR-008 Issue 6 4

 Id. Requirement
Implementation
HLR.1 The ECOA Platform shall conform to this version of the Architecture
Specification.
HLR.2 The ECOA Platform shall support at least one language binding.
HLR.3 Any supported language binding (of the bindings identified in this Architecture
Specification) shall be implemented in its entirety by the ECOA Platform.
HLR.4 The ECOA Platform shall be delivered with its logical system description
(conformant with the logical-system.xml in [Architecture Specification Part 2,
Architecture Specification Part 7]).
HLR.5 The ECOA Platform shall schedule ECOA Module/Trigger Instances, using a
scheduling policy which complies with the requirement to respect the module
priorities set by the System Integrator.
HLR.6 The ECOA Platform shall map Protection Domains onto segregated memory
spaces.
HLR.7 The ECOA Platform may support the ELI. When it does, it shall implement the
ELI in its entirety.
HLR.8 When the ECOA Platform supports the ELI, it shall implement at least one ELI
transport binding.
HLR.9 All ELI transport bindings supported by the ECOA Platform shall be
implemented in their entirety.
HLR.10 The ECOA Platform may support ECOA Fault Handling at infrastructure level.
HLR.11 When the ECOA Platform supports ECOA Fault Handling at infrastructure
level, it shall support implementation of the ECOA Fault Handler either as an
ASC or within the ECOA Infrastructure.
HLR.12 When the ECOA Platform supports ECOA Fault Handling at infrastructure
level, it may support implementation of more than one ECOA Fault Handler
entity.
HLR.13 When the ECOA Platform supports ECOA Fault Handling at infrastructure
level, it shall support the detection of at least one application error or
Infrastructure error.
HLR.14 When the ECOA Platform supports ECOA Fault Handling at infrastructure
level, it shall support at least one recovery action.
HLR.15 The ECOA Platform may be able to maintain the warm start context of Module
Instances, depending on the recovery actions supported by the ECOA
Platform.
HLR.16 When the ECOA Platform supports a warm restart recovery action, it shall
maintain the warm start context of Module Instances upon that recovery action.
HLR.17 The ECOA Platform may support the deployment of Module Instances of the
same ASC Instance into multiple Protection Domains.
HLR.18 The ECOA Platform may support graceful shutdown capability.
HLR.19 The ECOA Platform may perform container level checks of operations at
runtime, based on specific (non-ECOA) requirements.

This specification is developed by BAE Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE
Aviation Systems Limited, General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd and the copyright is owned by BAE
Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE Aviation Systems Limited, General
Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd. The information set out in this document is provided solely on an ‘as is’
basis and co-developers of this specification make no warranties expressed or implied, including no warranties as to completeness,
accuracy or fitness for purpose, with respect to any of the information.

DGT 144483-F/IAWG-ECOA-TR-008 Issue 6 5

 Id. Requirement
HLR.20 When the ECOA Platform supports the ELI, it may perform checks of ELI
messages integrity at runtime, based on specific (non-ECOA) requirements.
Hardware
HLR.21 Each computing element in an ECOA Platform shall be synchronized to a
single version of a time reference common across the whole ECOA Platform.
HLR.22 The ECOA Platform may provide its components access to a UTC time
reference.
HLR.23 The characteristics of the ECOA Platform (including which optional features
are supported) shall be indicated by the Platform Supplier1.

Tooling
HLR.24 The ECOA Platform toolset should check the validity of ECOA XML files
against the ECOA Metamodel.

HLR.25 The ECOA Platform toolset should check values declared in ECOA XML files
relative to the type of attribute the value is associated with.

Table 1 High level requirements for an ECPF

1 For example: the maximum number of modules that can be deployed into a single protection domain

This specification is developed by BAE Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE
Aviation Systems Limited, General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd and the copyright is owned by BAE
Systems (Operations) Limited, Dassault Aviation, Bull SAS, Thales Systèmes Aéroportés, GE Aviation Systems Limited, General
Dynamics United Kingdom Limited and Leonardo MW Ltd. The information set out in this document is provided solely on an ‘as is’
basis and co-developers of this specification make no warranties expressed or implied, including no warranties as to completeness,
accuracy or fitness for purpose, with respect to any of the information.

DGT 144483-F/IAWG-ECOA-TR-008 Issue 6 6