Chapter 4 - Model-Driven Engineering of Reliable Fault-Tolerant Systems—A State-of-the-Art Survey

Abstract

To improve the reliability of a system, we can add fault-tolerance mechanisms. This, however, leads to a rise of complexity that increases the probability of software faults being introduced. Hence, unless the process is handled carefully, adding fault tolerance may even lead to a less reliable system. As a way to deal with the inherently high level of complexity of fault-tolerant systems, some research groups have turned to the paradigm of model-driven engineering. This results in a research field that crosscuts the established fields of software engineering, system verification, fault-tolerant systems and distributed systems. Many works are presented in the context of one of these traditional fields, making it difficult to get a good overview of what is presently offered. We survey 10 approaches for model-driven engineering of reliable fault-tolerant systems and present 13 characteristics classifying the approaches in a manner useful for both users and developers of such approaches. We further discuss the state of the field and what the future may bring.