Error Propagation in the Reliability Analysis of Component Based Systems

Abstract

Component based development is gaining popularity in the software engineering community. The reliability of components affects the reliability of the system. Different models and theories have been developed to estimate system reliability given the information about system architecture and the quality of the components. Almost always in these models a key attribute of component-based systems, the error propagation between the components, is overlooked and not taken into account in the reliability prediction.We extend our previous work on Bayesian reliability prediction of component based systems by introducing the error propagation probability into the model. We demonstrate the impact of the error propagation in a case study of an automated Personnel Access Control System. We conclude that error propagation may have a significant impact on the system reliability prediction and, therefore, future architecture-based models should not ignore it.

Architecture-Based Software Reliability Analysis: Overview and Limitations

“…Dependence among components may be a result of data exchanges occurring through parameter or message passing [46]. Popic et al [76] consider error propagation among the software components using the path-based approach because their technique suffers from the drawbacks of path-based approaches described in Section 2. Dependent component failures may also occur if a set of components share a resource or rely on the same services [39].…”

Predicting Faults before Testing Phase using Halstead's Metrics

“…They conclude that error propagation may have a significant impact on the system reliability prediction and, therefore, future architecture-based models should not ignore it. [3].Vittorio Cortellessa, Vincenzo Grassi has done the analysis of reliability of a component based system based on error propagation probability. This is the probability that an error arising somewhere in the system propagates to other components possibly up to the system output [4] Ralf H. Reussner, Heinz W. Schmidt purposes a method based on rich architecture definition language (RADL) to predict the reliability of component based software system.…”

The KlaperSuite framework for model-driven reliability analysis of component-based systems

“…Therefore, several approaches (e.g., [16,27,76,62,58]) have proposed the use of a high-level modeling notation (e.g., UML sequence and deployment diagrams), annotated with the necessary reliability data (e.g., component transition probabilities and internal failure probabilities). Transformation tools map these high-level models into Markov chains, so that standard solvers can execute reliability predictions with the transformation output.…”

“…This class of approaches can be further divided into scenario-based approaches (e.g., [62,76,58]) and UML-based approaches [16,27].…”