Software dependability modeling using an industry-standard architecture description language

TL;DR

This paper provides guidelines and reusable patterns for modeling software dependability at the architectural level using AADL, aiding in tradeoff analysis and dependability prediction.

Contribution

It introduces architectural dependability modeling patterns with AADL and demonstrates their application in a real-world subsystem.

Findings

Reusable fault-tolerant modeling patterns presented

Guidelines facilitate dependability analysis at architectural level

Application example validates the modeling approach

Abstract

Performing dependability evaluation along with other analyses at architectural level allows both making architectural tradeoffs and predicting the effects of architectural decisions on the dependability of an application. This paper gives guidelines for building architectural dependability models for software systems using the AADL (Architecture Analysis and Design Language). It presents reusable modeling patterns for fault-tolerant applications and shows how the presented patterns can be used in the context of a subsystem of a real-life application.