Performability Analysis for Software-Intensive System Considering Variety of Tasks and Operation-Oriented Restoration

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss software performability evaluation considering the real-time property. The time-dependent behavior of the system alternating between up and down state is described by the Markov process. Then we incorporate the operation-oriented restoration scenario into the model, i.e., we consider the following two types of restoration: one is the restoration with debugging and the other is without debugging. Assuming that the software system can process the multiple tasks simultaneously, we also consider the variety of tasks in terms of the task arrival process and the processing time limit. We describe the arrival process of the tasks follows a nonhomogeneous Poisson process and treat the processing time limit as a random variable. We analyze the distribution of the number of tasks whose processes can be completed within the processing time limit with the infinite server queueing model. From the model, we derive several software performability measures considering the real-time property. Finally, we illustrate several numerical examples of the measures to investigate the impact of the variety of tasks and the operational restoration on the system performability evaluation.

Key Words:

• Infinite-server queueing model
• operation-oriented restoration
• performability
• real-time property
• software reliability growth
• variety of tasks

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tokuno Koichi

Koichi Tokuno received the B.S.E. and M.S. degrees from Hiroshima University, Japan in 1990 and 1992, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from Tottori University, Japan in 1999. From 1992 to 1994, he worked at the Japan Steel Works Ltd., Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. From 1994 to 2001, he was an Assistant Professor at Tottori University, Japan. Since 2001, he has been working as an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, Tottori University, Tottori-shi, Japan. His research area includes software reliability engineering, stochastic modeling, and system dependability measurement and assessment. He is a regular member of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, the Information Processing Society of Japan, the Operations Research Society of Japan, the Reliability Engineering Association of Japan and the Japan Society for Software Science and Technology. Dr. Tokuno is serving as a Regional Editor of the International Journal of Reliability and Applications.

Yamada Shigeru

Shigeru Yamada received the B.S.E., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Hiroshima University in 1975, 1977, and 1985, respectively. Since 1993, he has been working as a Professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, Tottori University, Tottori-shi, Japan. He has published numerous technical papers in the area of software reliability models, project management, reliability engineering, and quality control. He has authored several books entitled Introduction to Software Management Model (Kyoritsu Shuppan, 1993), Software Reliability Models: Fundamentals and Applications (JUSE, Tokyo, 1994), Statistical (Quality Control for TQM (Corona Publishing, Tokyo, 1998), Software Reliability: Model, Tools, Management (The Society of Project Management, 2004), and Quality-Oriented Software Management (Morikita Shuppan, 2007). Dr. Yamada received the Best Author Award from the Information Processing Society of Japan in 1992, the TELECOM System Technology Award from the Telecommunications Advancement Foundation in 1993, the Paper Award from the Reliability Engineering Association of Japan in 1999, the International Leadership Award in Reliability Engineering Research from the ICQRIT/SREQOM in 2003, the Best Paper Award from the Society of Project Management in 2006, the Leadership Award from the ISSAT in 2007, and the Outstanding Paper Award at the IEEE-IEEM2008. He is a regular member of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, the Information Processing Society of Japan, the Operations Research Society of Japan, the Japan SIAM, the Reliability Engineering Association of Japan, Japan Industrial Management Association, the Japanese Society for Quality Control, the Society of Project Management of Japan, and the IEEE.