Implementation of threshold-based diagnostic mechanisms for COTS-based applications

Romano L, Bondavalli A, Chiaradonna S, Cotroneo D

Threshold mechanisms  Distributed architectures  COTS  Legacy systems  Diagnosis 

This work investigates feasibility issues that must be addressed when threshold-based mechanism are to be used for diagnostic purposes in COTS-based distributed systems. Threshold based mechanism have typically been used for such purposes in embedded systems. A variety of solutions exist, with different characteristics of completeness, accuracy, and induced overhead. We first discuss the challenges related to applying such mechanisms to COTS-based distributed applications. We then identify alternative strategies for diagnosis, which use run-time data on COTS component service failures to trigger alarms to reconfiguration and fault treatment mechanisms. We implement those strategies in a system prototype, which is based on a substantial application, i.e. a real world