Fault injection for dependability validation of fault-tolerant computing systems

The authors address the dependability validation of fault-tolerant computing systems and more specifically the validation of the fault-tolerance mechanisms. Their approach is based on the use of fault injection at the physical level on a hardware/software prototype of the system considered. The place of this approach in a validation-directed design process as well as its place with respect to related works on fault injection are identified. The major requirements and problems related to the development and application of a validation methodology based on fault injection are presented and discussed. The proposed methodology has been implemented through the realization of a general physical-fault injection tool (MESSALINE) whose usefulness is demonstrated by its application to the experimental validation of a subsystem of a computerized interlocking system for railway control applications.<<ETX>>