A synthesis of logic and biology in the design of dependable systems

The technologies of model-based design and dependability analysis in the design of dependable systems, including software intensive systems, have advanced in recent years. Much of this development can be attributed to the application of advances in formal logic and its application to fault forecasting and verification of systems. In parallel, work on bio-inspired technologies has shown potential for the evolutionary design of engineering systems via automated exploration of potentially large design spaces. We have not yet seen the emergence of a design paradigm that combines effectively and throughout the design lifecycle these two techniques which are schematically founded on the two pillars of formal logic and biology. Such a design paradigm would apply these techniques synergistically and systematically from the early stages of design to enable optimal refinement of new designs which can be driven effectively by dependability requirements. The paper sketches such a model-centric paradigm for the design of dependable systems that brings these technologies together to realise their combined potential benefits

A synthesis of logic and bio-inspired techniques in the design of dependable systems

Much of the development of model-based design and dependability analysis in the design of dependable systems, including software intensive systems, can be attributed to the application of advances in formal logic and its application to fault forecasting and verification of systems. In parallel, work on bio-inspired technologies has shown potential for the evolutionary design of engineering systems via automated exploration of potentially large design spaces. We have not yet seen the emergence of a design paradigm that effectively combines these two techniques, schematically founded on the two pillars of formal logic and biology, from the early stages of, and throughout, the design lifecycle. Such a design paradigm would apply these techniques synergistically and systematically to enable optimal refinement of new designs which can be driven effectively by dependability requirements. The paper sketches such a model-centric paradigm for the design of dependable systems, presented in the scope of the HiP-HOPS tool and technique, that brings these technologies together to realise their combined potential benefits. The paper begins by identifying current challenges in model-based safety assessment and then overviews the use of meta-heuristics at various stages of the design lifecycle covering topics that span from allocation of dependability requirements, through dependability analysis, to multi-objective optimisation of system architectures and maintenance schedules

Introducing Interactions in Multi-Objective Optimization of Software Architectures

Software architecture optimization aims to enhance non-functional attributes like performance and reliability while meeting functional requirements. Multi-objective optimization employs metaheuristic search techniques, such as genetic algorithms, to explore feasible architectural changes and propose alternatives to designers. However, the resource-intensive process may not always align with practical constraints. This study investigates the impact of designer interactions on multi-objective software architecture optimization. Designers can intervene at intermediate points in the fully automated optimization process, making choices that guide exploration towards more desirable solutions. We compare this interactive approach with the fully automated optimization process, which serves as the baseline. The findings demonstrate that designer interactions lead to a more focused solution space, resulting in improved architectural quality. By directing the search towards regions of interest, the interaction uncovers architectures that remain unexplored in the fully automated process

Computational intelligence based complex adaptive system-of-systems architecture evolution strategy

The dynamic planning for a system-of-systems (SoS) is a challenging endeavor. Large scale organizations and operations constantly face challenges to incorporate new systems and upgrade existing systems over a period of time under threats, constrained budget and uncertainty. It is therefore necessary for the program managers to be able to look at the future scenarios and critically assess the impact of technology and stakeholder changes. Managers and engineers are always looking for options that signify affordable acquisition selections and lessen the cycle time for early acquisition and new technology addition. This research helps in analyzing sequential decisions in an evolving SoS architecture based on the wave model through three key features namely; meta-architecture generation, architecture assessment and architecture implementation. Meta-architectures are generated using evolutionary algorithms and assessed using type II fuzzy nets. The approach can accommodate diverse stakeholder views and convert them to key performance parameters (KPP) and use them for architecture assessment. On the other hand, it is not possible to implement such architecture without persuading the systems to participate into the meta-architecture. To address this issue a negotiation model is proposed which helps the SoS manger to adapt his strategy based on system owners behavior. This work helps in capturing the varied differences in the resources required by systems to prepare for participation. The viewpoints of multiple stakeholders are aggregated to assess the overall mission effectiveness of the overarching objective. An SAR SoS example problem illustrates application of the method. Also a dynamic programing approach can be used for generating meta-architectures based on the wave model. --Abstract, page iii

Autonomous Recovery Of Reconfigurable Logic Devices Using Priority Escalation Of Slack

Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices offer a suitable platform for survivable hardware architectures in mission-critical systems. In this dissertation, active dynamic redundancy-based fault-handling techniques are proposed which exploit the dynamic partial reconfiguration capability of SRAM-based FPGAs. Self-adaptation is realized by employing reconfiguration in detection, diagnosis, and recovery phases. To extend these concepts to semiconductor aging and process variation in the deep submicron era, resilient adaptable processing systems are sought to maintain quality and throughput requirements despite the vulnerabilities of the underlying computational devices. A new approach to autonomous fault-handling which addresses these goals is developed using only a uniplex hardware arrangement. It operates by observing a health metric to achieve Fault Demotion using Recon- figurable Slack (FaDReS). Here an autonomous fault isolation scheme is employed which neither requires test vectors nor suspends the computational throughput, but instead observes the value of a health metric based on runtime input. The deterministic flow of the fault isolation scheme guarantees success in a bounded number of reconfigurations of the FPGA fabric. FaDReS is then extended to the Priority Using Resource Escalation (PURE) online redundancy scheme which considers fault-isolation latency and throughput trade-offs under a dynamic spare arrangement. While deep-submicron designs introduce new challenges, use of adaptive techniques are seen to provide several promising avenues for improving resilience. The scheme developed is demonstrated by hardware design of various signal processing circuits and their implementation on a Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA device. These include a Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) core, Motion Estimation (ME) engine, Finite Impulse Response (FIR) Filter, Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) blocks in addition to MCNC benchmark circuits. A iii significant reduction in power consumption is achieved ranging from 83% for low motion-activity scenes to 12.5% for high motion activity video scenes in a novel ME engine configuration. For a typical benchmark video sequence, PURE is shown to maintain a PSNR baseline near 32dB. The diagnosability, reconfiguration latency, and resource overhead of each approach is analyzed. Compared to previous alternatives, PURE maintains a PSNR within a difference of 4.02dB to 6.67dB from the fault-free baseline by escalating healthy resources to higher-priority signal processing functions. The results indicate the benefits of priority-aware resiliency over conventional redundancy approaches in terms of fault-recovery, power consumption, and resource-area requirements. Together, these provide a broad range of strategies to achieve autonomous recovery of reconfigurable logic devices under a variety of constraints, operating conditions, and optimization criteria

Screening robust water infrastructure investments and their trade-offs under global change: A London example

We propose an approach for screening future infrastructure and demand management investments for large water supply systems subject to uncertain future conditions. The approach is demonstrated using the London water supply system. Promising portfolios of interventions (e.g., new supplies, water conservation schemes, etc.) that meet London’s estimated water supply demands in 2035 are shown to face significant trade-offs between financial, engineering and environmental measures of performance. Robust portfolios are identified by contrasting the multi-objective results attained for (1) historically observed baseline conditions versus (2) future global change scenarios. An ensemble of global change scenarios is computed using climate change impacted hydrological flows, plausible water demands, environmentally motivated abstraction reductions, and future energy prices. The proposed multi-scenario trade-off analysis screens for robust investments that provide benefits over a wide range of futures, including those with little change. Our results suggest that 60 percent of intervention portfolios identified as Pareto optimal under historical conditions would fail under future scenarios considered relevant by stakeholders. Those that are able to maintain good performance under historical conditions can no longer be considered to perform optimally under future scenarios. The individual investment options differ significantly in their ability to cope with varying conditions. Visualizing the individual infrastructure and demand management interventions implemented in the Pareto optimal portfolios in multi-dimensional space aids the exploration of how the interventions affect the robustness and performance of the system

Increased confidence in concept design through trade space exploration and multiobjective optimization

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 134-143).The growing size, complexity and demands of engineering systems requires paying greater attention to the initial design of the system concept. To improve the process by which concept design is carried out, this thesis develops an Engineering Framework for Concept Development. The Engineering Framework is applicable to a diverse range of concept design problems. It helps guide the otherwise haphazard process of the early stages of design to provide confidence that the chosen concept is superior to a large set of alternatives. Accompanying the Engineering Framework is a collection of tools which aid the designer in analyzing different options. Two tools in particular are demonstrated for their mutually beneficial characteristics: 1) Object-Process Network is used to explore the full space of options, revealing the relationships among design decisions and system performance, and 2) a particle.swarm optimization algorithm is implemented to efficiently search through the design space. The use of such an optimization algorithm becomes especially advantageous when higher fidelity models are included in the analysis because it is able to quickly identify the most favorable families of designs. The complementary approaches of exploring the entire trade space and then efficiently searching for the best groups of designs are shown to provide valuable insights in concept design problems. Two case study examples are presented as applications of the Engineering Framework and design tools. The first is an air-launched sounding rocket propulsion system design. The second is the design of a responsive disaster monitoring system. In each case, the use of the Engineering Framework and concept design tools give the designer increased confidence that quality concept designs have been identified.by Ryan Glenn Odegard.S.M

Automatically generating adaptive logic to balance non-functional tradeoffs during reconfiguration

Increasingly, high-assurance software systems apply selfreconfiguration in order to satisfy changing functional and non-functional requirements. Most self-reconfiguration approaches identify a target system configuration to provide the desired system behavior, then apply a series of reconfiguration instructions to reach the desired target configuration. Collectively, these reconfiguration instructions define an adaptation path. Although multiple satisfying adaptation paths may exist, most self-reconfiguration approaches select adaptation paths based on a single criterion, such as minimizing reconfiguration cost. However, different adaptation paths may represent tradeoffs between reconfiguration costs and other criteria, such as performance and reliability. This paper introduces an evolutionary computationbased approach to automatically evolve adaptation paths that safely transition an executing system from its current configuration to its desired target configuration, while balancing tradeoffs between functional and non-functional requirements. The proposed approach can be applied both at design time to generate suites of adaptation paths, as well as at run time to evolve safe adaptation paths to handle changing system and environmental conditions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach by applying it to the dynamic reconfiguration of a collection of remote data mirrors, with the goal of minimizing reconfiguration costs while maximizing reconfiguration performance and reliability

A synthesis of logic and bio-inspired techniques in the design of dependable systems

YesMuch of the development of model-based design and dependability analysis in the design of dependable systems, including software intensive systems, can be attributed to the application of advances in formal logic and its application to fault forecasting and verification of systems. In parallel, work on bio-inspired technologies has shown potential for the evolutionary design of engineering systems via automated exploration of potentially large design spaces. We have not yet seen the emergence of a design paradigm that effectively combines these two techniques, schematically founded on the two pillars of formal logic and biology, from the early stages of, and throughout, the design lifecycle. Such a design paradigm would apply these techniques synergistically and systematically to enable optimal refinement of new designs which can be driven effectively by dependability requirements. The paper sketches such a model-centric paradigm for the design of dependable systems, presented in the scope of the HiP-HOPS tool and technique, that brings these technologies together to realise their combined potential benefits. The paper begins by identifying current challenges in model-based safety assessment and then overviews the use of meta-heuristics at various stages of the design lifecycle covering topics that span from allocation of dependability requirements, through dependability analysis, to multi-objective optimisation of system architectures and maintenance schedules