Error Detection Framework for Complex Software Systems

Software systems employed in critical scenarios are increasingly large and complex. The usage of many heterogeneous components causes complex interdependences, and introduces sources of non-determinism, that often lead to the activation of subtle faults. Such behaviors, due to their complex triggering patterns, typically escape the testing phase. Effective on-line monitoring is the only way to detect them and to promptly react in order to avoid more serious consequences. In this paper, we propose an error detection framework to cope with software failures, which combines multiple sources of data gathered both at application-level and OS-level. The framework is evaluated through a fault injection campaign on a complex system from the Air Traffic Management (ATM) domain. Results show that the combination of several monitors is effective to detect errors in terms of false alarms, precision and recall.