Dynamic testing strategy for distributed systems

Fault diagnosis is treated as two distinct processes: fault discovery and dissemination of diagnostic information. Previous research determined what level of self-diagnosability a given set of test in a homogeneous system achieves, using a model in which only node failures occur and test coverage is complete. Adopting the same model, a new methodology is presented that minimizes the overhead associated with periodic testing, thus lowering testing overhead. The method diagnoses up to c-.1 faults (c is the connectivity of the system topology). The savings in testing is valid when processor failure rates are low. Environments are also examined with high processor failure rates. It is shown that adopting the proposed methodology for such systems results in greater reliability, while maintaining the same effective processing power