Integrating dependability analysis into the real-time system design process

In this research, we are developing a design framework for integrating dependability analysis into the distributed, heterogeneous, fault-tolerant real-time system design process. We focus on two dependability attributes: reliability and availability. We are implementing this framework on top of existing systems for the design of distributed, real-time systems such as TimeWiz (Ref. 4). This will allow system designers to evaluate system dependability, while other system evaluation concerns, such as system performance and design cost, are analyzed during every step in the system design process. Our system dependability analysis provides choices of system design based on the dependability results. In addition, we perform system dependability evaluation, or optimization, early in the system design process, without needing complete design information. In other words, with incomplete design information, we are able to predict the behavior of system dependability. This will significantly reduce the time and costs of real-time system design.