Abstract
MAFALDA is a generic experimental environment that is intended to support, for several microkernel candidates, both objectives of characterization of the failure modes in the presence of injected faults (internal or external) and of the incorporation of wrappers to improve these failure modes. After a short classification of current microkernel architectures and of their interactions between the application layer and the microkernel functional components, the paper presents the main features of MAFALDA with a focus on the fault injection and wrapping modules. The implementation of these modules is then described distinguishing the two main modes of interactions identified (library-based or trap-based). Some experimental results are presented that show the usefulness of the tool. The paper concludes by a summary of the main characteristics of MAFALDA and a brief discussion of our future work.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
P. Koopman, J. Sung, C. Dingman, D. Siewiorek and T. Marz, “Comparing Operating Systems using Robustness Benchmarks”, in Proc. 16th IEEE Symp. on Reliable Distributed Systems, Durham, NC, USA, 1997, pp. 72–79.
J. Voas, “Certifying Off-The-Shelf Software Components”, Computer, vol. 31, pp. 53–59, June 1998.
W. Kao, R. K. Iyer and D. Tang, “FINE: A Fault Injection and Monitoring Environment for Tracing the UNIX System Behavior under Faults”, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 19, pp. 1105–1118, 1993.
P. Koopman and J. DeVale, “Comparing the Robustness of POSIX Operating Systems”, in 29th IEEE Int. Symp. on Fault-Tolerant Computing, Madison, WI, USA, 1999, pp. 30–37.
J.-C. Fabre, F. Salles, M. Rodríguez and J. Arlat, “Assessment of COTS Microkernels by Fault Injection”, in Proc. 7th Dependable Computing for Critical Applications, San Jose, CA, USA, 1999, pp. 19–38.
F. Salles, M. Rodríguez, J.-C. Fabre and J. Arlat, “MetaKernel anf Fault Containment Wrappers”, in 29th IEEE Int. Symp. on Fault-Tolerant Computing, Madison, WI, USA, 1999, pp. 22–29.
Chorus, “Chorus/ClassiX r3-Technical Overview”, no. Technical Report CS/TR-96-119.8, Chorus systems, 1996.
Chorus, “Chorus/ClassiX r3.1b for ix86-Product Description”, no. Technical Report CS/TR-96-221.1, Chorus systems, 1996.
VxWorks, “VxWorks Realtime Kernel”, WindRiver Systems, (see http://www.wrs.com/products/html/vxwks52.html), 1998.
D. Hildebrand, “An Architectural overview of QNX”, in 1st Work. on Micro-Kernels and Other Kernel Architectures, Seattle, WA, USA, 1992, pp. 113–126.
A. Mahmood, D. M. Andrews and E. J. McCluskey, “Executable Assertions and Flight Software”, in Proc. 6th Digital Avionics Systems Conf., Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 1984, pp. 346–351.
C. Rabéjac, J.-P. Blanquart and J.-P. Queille, “Executable Assertions and Timed Traces for On-Line Software Error Detection”, in Proc. 26th Int. Symp. on Fault-Tolerant Computing, Sendai, Japan, 1996, pp. 138–147.
G. A. Kanawati, N. A. Kanawati and J. A. Abraham, “EMAX: An automatic Extractor of High-Level Error Models”, in Computing Aerospace Conff., San Diego, CA, USA, 1993, pp. 1297–1306.
E. Czeck, “Estimates of the Abilities of Software-Implemented Fault Injection to Represent Gate-Level Faults”, in Int. Work. on Fault and Error Injection for Dependability Validation of Computer Systems, Gothemburg, Sweden, 1993.
M. Rimén, I. Ohlsson and J. Torin, “On Microprocessor Error Behavior Modeling”, in 24th Int. Symp. on Fault Tolerant Computing, Austin, Texas, USA, 1994, pp. 76–85.
E. Fuchs, “Validating the Fail-Silent Assumption of the MARS Architecture”, in proc. 6th Dependable Computing for Critical Applications, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, 1998, pp. 225–247.
J. Carreira, H. Madeira and J. G. Silva, “Xception: A Technique for the Experimental Evaluation of Dependability in Modern Computers”, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 24, pp. 125–136, February 1998.
F. Salles, J. Arlat and J. C. Fabre, “Can We Rely on COTS Microkernels for Building Fault-Tolerant Systems?”, in Proc. 6th Future Trends of Distributing Computing Systems, Tunis, Tunisia, 1997, pp. 189–194.
ARINC-653, “Avionics Application Software Standard Interface (ARINC 653)”, ARINC Working Group, (see http://www.arinc.com/home.html).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Rodríguez, M., Salles, F., Fabre, JC., Arlat, J. (1999). MAFALDA: Microkernel Assessment by Fault Injection and Design Aid. In: Hlavička, J., Maehle, E., Pataricza, A. (eds) Dependable Computing — EDCC-3. EDCC 1999. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1667. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48254-7_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48254-7_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-66483-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48254-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive