Fault modelling for systems of systems

Zoe Andrews, John Fitzgerald, Richard Payne, Alexander Romanovsky
2013 2013 IEEE Eleventh International Symposium on Autonomous Decentralized Systems (ISADS)  
This paper proposes a systematic model-based approach to the architectural description of faults and fault tolerance mechanisms in systems of systems (SoSs). The challenges of engineering dependable SoSs motivate a proposal for the view elements that would be needed to support a fault tolerance profile for SoSs using the Systems Modelling Language (SysML). The effectiveness of the approach is evaluated on a case study based on a real emergency response SoS. Results suggest that this is a
more » ... ng approach, and that a comprehensive solution to the engineering of dependable SoSs requires that such a profile is linked to methods and tools for requirements elicitation, safety analysis, architectural design and formal verification. Abstract This paper proposes a systematic model-based approach to the architectural description of faults and fault tolerance mechanisms in systems of systems (SoSs). The challenges of engineering dependable SoSs motivate a proposal for the view elements that would be needed to support a fault tolerance profile for SoSs using the Systems Modelling Language (SysML). The effectiveness of the approach is evaluated on a case study based on a real emergency response SoS. Results suggest that this is a promising approach, and that a comprehensive solution to the engineering of dependable SoSs requires that such a profile is linked to methods and tools for requirements elicitation, safety analysis, architectural design and formal verification. About the authors Zoe Andrews is a Research Associate in the field of dependability and formal methods in the School of Computing Science at Newcastle University. Zoe spent two years working on the ReSIST network of excellence where she was responsible for work on developing metadata-based descriptions of resilience mechanisms and providing formal support for decision making over such mechanisms. Zoe completed her PhD (supervised by Prof. John Fitzgerald) on "Continuous Probability Distributions in Model-Based Specification Languages" in 2012. This investigated ways in which stochastic reasoning could be combined with logical reasoning for the specification and analysis of fault-tolerant systems. Zoe is now working on the COMPASS project. In particular, she is exploring ways of modelling and analysing faults in systems of systems. John Fitzgerald is Professor of Formal Methods in Computing Science, and Director of the Centre for Software Reliability at Newcastle. He is a specialist in the engineering of resilient systems, particularly in rigorous analysis and design tools. He leads the international COMPASS project, which is developing technology for engineering complex "Systems of Systems" and heads Newcastle's research into co-modelling and co-simulation in the design of fault-tolerant cyber-physical systems in several EU and UK-funded projects. He studied formal proof (PhD, Manchester Univ.), before joining Newcastle, where he worked with British Aerospace on the design of avionic systems in the 1990s. He went on to study the industrial application of formal modelling (specifically the Vienna Development method -VDM) as a SERC Fellow and later as a Lecturer at Newcastle. He returned to the University in 2003, having established the design and validation team in a successful SME in the embedded processor market. John is Chairman of FME, the main European body bringing together researchers and practitioners in formal methods of systems development. He is a Fellow of the BCS, and a member of the EPSRC College, the ACM and IEEE. Richard Payne obtained his PhD in 2012 at Newcastle University under the supervision of Prof. John Fitzgerald, titled Verifiable Resilience in Architectural Reconfiguration. As part of his PhD, Richard provided a basis for the formal verification of policies defined using a reconfiguration policy language (RPL) for the governance of resilient component-based systems. Richard worked as an RA on the Ministry of Defence funded SSEI project and was involved in the 'Interface Contracts for Architectural Specification and Assessment' sub task, investigating the use of contract-based interface specification in system of systems architectural models. Richard is now working on the COMPASS project, on the use of model-based techniques for developing and maintaining systems of systems, involved with work in architectural modelling, fault modelling and tool development. Alexander (Sascha) Romanovsky is a Professor in the Centre for Software and Reliability, Newcastle University. His main research interests are system dependability, fault tolerance, software architectures, exception handling, error recovery, system structuring and verification of fault tolerance. Abstract This paper proposes a systematic model-based approach to the architectural description of faults and fault tolerance mechanisms in systems of systems (SoSs). The challenges of engineering dependable SoSs motivate a proposal for the view elements that would be needed to support a fault tolerance profile for SoSs using the Systems Modelling Language (SysML). The effectiveness of the approach is evaluated on a case study based on a real emergency response SoS. Results suggest that this is a promising approach, and that a comprehensive solution to the engineering of dependable SoSs requires that such a profile is linked to methods and tools for requirements elicitation, safety analysis, architectural design and formal verification.
doi:10.1109/isads.2013.6513445 dblp:conf/isads/AndrewsFPR13 fatcat:6mwg36d6nzhfphzktc7nv26hyi