Title
Fractionated software for networked cyber-physical systems: research directions and long-term vision
Abstract
An emerging generation of mission-critical systems employs distributed, dynamically reconfigurable open architectures. These systems may include a variety of devices that sense and affect their environment and the configuration of the system itself. We call such systems Networked Cyber-Physical Systems (NCPS). NCPS can provide complex, situation-aware, and often critical services in applications such as distributed sensing and surveillance, crisis response, self-assembling structures or systems, networked satellite and unmanned vehicle missions, or distributed critical infrastructure monitoring and control. In this paper we lay out research directions centered around a new paradigm for the design of NCPS based on a notion of software fractionation that we are currently exploring which can serve as the basis for a new generation of runtime assurance techniques. The idea of software fractionation is inspired by and complementary to hardware fractionation -- the basis for the fractionated satellites of DARPA's F6 program. Fractionated software has the potential of leading to software that is more robust, leveraging both diversity and redundancy. It raises the level of abstraction at which assurance techniques are applied. We specifically propose research in just-in-time verification and validation techniques, which are agile -- adapting to changing situations and requirements, and efficient -- focusing on properties of immediate concern in the context of locally reachable states, thus largely avoiding the state space explosion problem. We propose an underlying reflective architecture that maintains models of itself, the environment, and the mission that is key for adaptation, verification, and validation.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1007/978-3-642-24933-4_7
Formal Modeling: Actors, Open Systems, Biological Systems
Keywords
Field
DocType
critical infrastructure monitoring,fractionated software,research direction,new paradigm,long-term vision,new generation,just-in-time verification,hardware fractionation,software fractionation,critical service,networked cyber-physical system,assurance technique
Verification and validation,Systems engineering,Critical infrastructure,Agile software development,Cyber-physical system,Redundancy (engineering),Software,Engineering,Wireless sensor network,State space
Conference
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
7000
0302-9743
12
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.70
57
7
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Mark-oliver Stehr137729.62
Carolyn Talcott21922168.73
John Rushby32459235.69
Pat Lincoln4120.70
Minyoung Kim520214.56
Steven Cheung6181.70
Andy Poggio7322.14