Using a software reliability model to design a telecommunications software architecture

The author proposes a software reliability model for a large real-time telecommunications software architecture. Some simple examples of the critical components of the software architecture and their dependencies are described. The component dependencies permit the propagation of faults from the component in which the fault originates to the other components. This propagation can cause failures in the chain (or in the tree) of components. Detection and failures depends on the tests executed or on the number and type of customer requests. An error can occur in any component. This error can be caused by a fault that propagated from another component or it can be a fault that originates in that component. The error can be traced through the component-dependency chain (or tree) to repair all the faults that are associated with that error. The software reliability model guides the design of the software architecture.