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A contribution to the evaluation of the reliability of iterative‐execution software †
Author(s) -
Bondavalli Andrea,
Chiaradonna Silvano,
Di Giandomenico Felicita,
Strigini Lorenzo
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
software testing, verification and reliability
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1099-1689
pISSN - 0960-0833
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1689(199909)9:3<145::aid-stvr179>3.0.co;2-b
Subject(s) - computer science , reliability engineering , reliability (semiconductor) , software quality , software engineering , software , programming language , software development , engineering , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics
This paper deals with the reliability of software executed iteratively, as for example in process control applications. The probability of mission survival is evaluated taking account of two characteristics of iterative software: (a) system failure, defined in terms of the behaviour of the software over successive iterations, because the controlled system can usually tolerate short bursts of errors; (b) the probabilistic correlation between successive executions of the software, which is to be expected for various reasons. The paper presents models accounting for these characteristics and evaluates their effects. The interesting case of fault‐tolerant software is considered as well. Using the example of a ‘pair‐and‐spare’ type fault‐tolerant scheme, the relationships between different aspects of failure behaviour that are covered by the models developed here, and those used elsewhere for fault‐tolerant software, are shown. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.