Abstract
The topic of the present work is the specification of system Fault Tolerance (FT). FT is considered a valid technique for increasing the dependability of critical automation systems by adding them the ability to operate in presence of faults. Two basic considerations stimulated the development of the present work. Firstly although a considerable amount of concepts and theory have been published around FT, a full-organized method supporting their application to the FT needs of a specific system is still missing. Furthermore, the availability of a methodology oriented to the specification of system FT is especially useful in view of integrating available FT software layers according to specific system needs. Goal of the present work is therefore to develop a methodology for the FT specification, to be used as a tool supporting the configuration of the tailorable FT software layer, which is currently under development within the TIRAN Project1. The presented approach to the FT specification is based on a combined use of two general-purpose specification methods: the UML (Unified Modeling Language) graphical method and the TRIO (Tempo Reale ImplicitO) temporal logic. The main novelty of the proposed method consists in the identification and organization of a sequence of specification steps, which drive the industrial user in collecting and analyzing system dependability requirements and then in designing FT solutions, possibly tailoring already existing and configurable FT mechanisms.
The TIRAN (TaIlorable fault toleRANce frameworks for embedded applications) Esprit Project is partially funded by the IT Programme of the Commission of the European Communities as project no 28620. The partners of the TIRAN Project are ENEL-R&D (Italy), SIEMENS (Germany), TXT Informatica (Italy), EONIC Systems (Belgium), Katholic University of Leuven (Belgium) and University of Turin (Italy).
Chapter PDF
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
O. Botti, V. De Florio, G. Deconinck, F. Cassinari, S. Donatelli, A. Bobbio, A. Klein, H. Kufner, R. Lauwereins, E. Thurner, E. Verhulst, TIRAN: flexible and portable fault tolerance solutions for cost effective dependable applications, in: Proc. of 5th Int. Conf. Europar’99-Parallel Processing, Toulouse, F, Aug. 1999, LNCS, No.1685, Springer-Verlag.
E. Ciapessoni, A. Coen-Porosini, E. Crivelli, D. Mandrioli, P. Mirandola, A. Morzenti, From formal models to formally-based methods: an industrial experience, submitted to Transaction on Software Engineering and Methodologies, 1997.
F. Cristian, Understanding fault-tolerant distributed systems, in Communications of the ACM, 34(2): 56–78, February 1991.
G. Deconinck, T. Varvarigou, O. Botti, V. De Florio, A. Kontizas, M. Truyens, W. Rosseel, R. Lauwereins, F. Cassinari, S. Graeber, and U. Knaak. (Reusable software solutions for more fault-tolerant) Industrial embedded HPC applications. Supercomputer, XIII(69):23–44, 1997.
G. Deconinck, O. Botti, F. Cassinari, V. De Florio, R. Lauwereins, Stable Memory in Substation Automation: a Case Study, in: IEEE Digest of Papers of the 28th Annual Int. Symp. on Fault-Tolerant Computing (FTCS-28), Munich, Germany, Jun. 1998.
G. Dondossola, A Scheme for Formal Methods Assessment in the context of developing Certifiable Control Systems, paper to be published.
J.-C. Laprie, “Dependability — Its Attributes, Impairments and Means”, Section II.A from B. Randell, J.-C. Laprie, H. Kopetz, B. Littlewood (Eds.), “ESPRIT Basic Research Series: Predictably Dependable Computing Systems” Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 1995, pp. 3–18.
J.-C. Laprie, “Dependability of computer systems: from concepts to limits”, in Proc. of IFIP International Workshop on Dependable Computing and Its Applications (DCIA98), Johannesburg (South Africa), Jan. 12–14 1998.
UK Ministry of Defence: Interim Defence Standard 00-55: The procurement of safety critical software in defence equipment, Part 1, Issue 1: Requirements; Part 2, Issue 1: Guidance, April 1991.
Formal Methods Specification and Verification Guidebook for Software and Computer Systems, Volume I: Planning and Technology Insertion, NASA-GB-002-95.
“Rational Rose 98i Using Rose”, Rev. 6.0, December 1998, (Software Release 98i).
J. Rushby, Formal Methods and their Role in the Certification of Critical Systems, SRI Technical Report CSL-95-1, March 1995 (300 pages). This is a shorter (50 pages) and less technical treatment of the material in [Rushby 93]. It will become a chapter in the FAA Digital Systems Validation Handbook (a guide to assist FAA Certification Specialists with advanced technology issues).
D1-1: Requirements specification — Version V2, TIRAN Project deliverable, Oct. 1999, (confidential).
“UML Notation Guide”, version 1.1 September 1997.
“UML Semantics”, version 1.1 September 1997.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Dondossola, G., Botti, O. (2000). System Fault Tolerance Specification: Proposal of a Method Combining Semi-formal and Formal Approaches. In: Maibaum, T. (eds) Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering. FASE 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1783. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46428-X_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46428-X_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-67261-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46428-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive