The work of the team focuses on the dependability of computing systems, i.e., the ability to deliver a service that can be justifiably trusted. It encompasses the properties of availability, reliability, integrity, confidentiality, maintainability, safety, as well as security.
The computing systems of interest to us are the large, networked, evolving systems of the future, interconnecting servers, mobile computers, and embedded devices to form complex information infrastructures. The major issue is how to maintain the dependability of such ubiquitous systems, i.e., their ability to deliver service that can justifiably be trusted, in spite of continuous change. The changes can be functional, technological, or environmental, and may include or induce new threats.
In this context, our research is best situated in the context of resilience, i.e., the persistence of dependability in the face of change.
Our current research addresses four major challenges: mobility, evolvability and autonomy, openness, and reactivity, considering two complementary, and closely related, viewpoints:
- Architecture: design approaches, policies, algorithms, and mechanisms, for fault prevention and fault tolerance.
- Analysis: test and evaluation techniques for fault removal and fault forecasting.
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Challenges |
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Architecture (Fault prevention and Fault tolerance) |
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Analysis (Fault removal and Fault forecasting) |
Risk analysis for autonomously-adapting systems Testing of autonomous system software |
Multi-level fault injection for embedded systems Testing and formal verification of behavioral models |
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The table above presents our research topics, structured according to the four identified challenges (Mobility, Evolvability and autonomy, Openness, Reactivity), and to the architecture and analysis viewpoints.
These topics cover one of the following means for achieving dependability and resilience:
- Fault prevention: how to prevent the occurrence or introduction of faults,
- Fault tolerance: how to provide service delivery in spite of faults,
- Fault removal: how to reduce the number or the severity of faults,
- Fault forecasting: how to estimate the creation, presence and consequences of faults.
A strong characteristic of our research relates to the scope of the faults taken into account: hardware physical faults, software faults and malicious interaction faults, i.e., intrusions. Moreover, for many years the group has conducted both conceptual and experimental work. As a consequence, the group benefits from a prominent position within the dependable computing community.
The major achievements for each of these topics are detailed via the links in the table.