Automated communication network software fault isolation

An algorithm is presented for the detection and isolation of faults in software providing network services. The algorithm combines the results of software static analysis with an event-driven monitoring algorithm. Static analysis is used to generate a structure describing all possible execution sequences of the network services software. The monitoring algorithm uses this structure to track the progress of the processes providing the network service, and upon fault detection uses the structure to identify the process states at which the fault occurred. The algorithm assumes that the channels over which messages are exchanged are reliable first in, first out (FIFO) channels