Serverless Avionics: A new Architectural Approach

This paper presents Integrated Serverless Avionics (ISLA), a novel avionics architecture inspired by serverless computing principles, designed to address the growing technology demands of modern aircraft systems. ISLA introduces a modular, data-driven architecture composed of stateless, granular Tasks that are dynamically scheduled with adaptive resource management for flexible and autonomous system operation. Central to the platform are abstractions for safe, high-performance scheduling and I/O operations, as well as a platform-independent WebAssembly (Wasm) runtime to ensure portability across diverse embedded hardware platforms. The design leverages Model-Based Engineering techniques, including SysML v2 modeling, standardized libraries, and automated transformation tools. This methodology facilitates comprehensive system modeling, configuration, and streamlined code generation, thus reducing development effort and certification costs. The process supports verification workflows that accommodate rapid system updates, fault tolerance, and safety certification efforts such as DO-178C compliance. Overall, ISLA aims to enable next-generation avionics systems to adapt swiftly to evolving operational and technological requirements, supporting future proofing of aircraft software architectures. Ongoing validation work is aimed at future realization in operational environments.