Architecture-based Design: A Satellite On-board Software Case Study

In this case study, we apply the architecture-based design approach to the control software of the CubETH satellite. Architectures are a means for ensuring global coordination properties and thus, achieving correctness of complex systems by construction. The design approach comprises three main steps: 1) definition of a domain-specific taxonomy of architecture styles; 2) design of the software model by applying architectures to enforce the required properties; 3) deadlock-freedom analysis of the resulting model. We provide a taxonomy of architecture styles for satellite on-board software, formally defined by architecture diagrams in the BIP component-based framework. We show how architectures are instantiated from the diagrams and applied to a set of atomic components. Deadlock-freedom of the resulting model is verified using the DFinder tool from the BIP tool-set. Finally, we provide additional validation of our approach by using the nuXmv model checker to verify that the properties enforced by the architectures are, indeed, satisfied in the resulting software model.