An experimental evaluation of software redundancy as a strategy for improving reliability

Author

Eckhardt, Dave E. ; Caglayan, Alper K. ; Knight, John C. ; Lee, Larry D. ; McAllister, David F. ; Vouk, Mladen A. ; Kelly, John P J

Author_Institution

NASA Langley Res. Center, Hampton, VA, USA

Volume

17

Issue

7

fYear

1991

fDate

7/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

692

Lastpage

702

Abstract

The strategy of using multiple versions of independently developed software as a means to tolerate residual software design faults is discussed. The effectiveness of multiversion software is studied by comparing estimates of the failure probabilities of these systems with the failure probabilities of single versions. The estimates are obtained under a model of dependent failures and compared with estimates obtained when failures are assumed to be independent. The experimental results are based on 20 versions of an aerospace application developed and independently validated by 60 programmers from 4 universities. Descriptions of the application and development process are given, together with an analysis of the 20 versions

Keywords

fault tolerant computing; program testing; redundancy; software reliability; aerospace application; dependent failures; development process; experimental evaluation; experimental results; failure probabilities; independently developed software; multiple versions; multiversion software; programmers; residual software design faults; software redundancy; Application software; Design engineering; Educational institutions; Fault tolerance; Hardware; Redundancy; Reliability engineering; Software design; Software measurement; Software reliability;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0098-5589

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/32.83905

Filename

83905