N version programming with majority voting decision: Dependability modeling and evaluation

Abstract The paper presents dependability model of the N version programming subject to coincident failures on a particular input during a period of execution. The study is based on two dimensional continuous time Markov model and unlike previous works, we carry the analysis in the time domain. The degree to which faults are manifested as coincident and similar failures is an important parameter of the model. In order to produce dependability model for complete fault tolerant system we consider the interactions between the faults in the versions and the faults in the majority voter. Based on the theoretical analysis the impact of the version and majority voter failures to the reliability and safety are discussed.

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