Enhancing Safety and Security Assessment Process in IMA Platforms: A Model-Based Approach Aligned with ARP-4754B

This study addresses the challenges of safety and security assessments in the design and development of complex Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) platforms, focusing on hierarchical and modular system architectures. The application of ARP-4754B, which primarily focuses on safety, presents limitations when applied to the multi-layered, resource-sharing nature of IMA systems. Effective assurance requires addressing not only functional hazards but also architectural-level risks such as failure propagation, resource contention, and partition interference, while maintaining traceability and integration across multiple assurance levels. To manage these complexities, we introduce the IMA Platform Development Ecosystem, a model-driven framework that integrates safety and security processes in compliance with ARP-4754B, DO-297, and DO-326B guidance documents. Leveraging Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), the proposed approach ensures early identification of critical risks, systematic requirement allocation, and concurrent assurance activities across IMA Module Levels, i.e., Platform, Line Replaceable Unit (LRU), and Line Replaceable Module (LRM). Furthermore, the study presents the Requirement Injected Safety/Security Engineering (RISE) methodology, which formalizes architectural safety and security objectives directly into system requirements, enabling traceable, verifiable, and certifiable assurance throughout the development lifecycle. This integrated framework promotes collaboration between safety and security domains, addresses both airworthiness and cybersecurity objectives, and provides a scalable and certifiable approach for managing the complexity of next-generation IMA platforms.