Roux-type constructions for covering arrays of strengths three and four

A covering array CA(N;t,k,v) is an N × k array such that every N × t sub-array contains all t-tuples from v symbols at least once, where t is the strength of the array. Covering arrays are used to generate software test suites to cover all t-sets of component interactions. Recursive constructions for covering arrays of strengths 3 and 4 are developed, generalizing many “Roux-type” constructions. A numerical comparison with current construction techniques is given through existence tables for covering arrays.      

Products of mixed covering arrays of strength two

A covering array CA(N;t,k, v is an N × k array such that every N × t subarray contains all t‐tuples from v symbols at least once, where t is the strength of the array. Covering arrays are used to generate software test suites to cover all t‐sets of component interactions. The particular case when t = 2 (pairwise coverage) has been extensively studied, both to develop combinatorial constructions and to provide effective algorithmic search techniques. In this paper, a simple “cut‐and‐paste” construction is extended to covering arrays in which different columns (factors) admit different numbers of symbols (values); in the process an improved recursive construction for covering arrays with t = 2 is derived. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 14: 124–138, 2006     

Mixed covering arrays on graphs

Covering arrays have applications in software, network and circuit testing. In this article, we consider a generalization of covering arrays that allows mixed alphabet sizes as well as a graph structure that specifies the pairwise interactions that need to be tested. Let k and n be positive integers, and let G be a graph with k vertices v₁,v₂,…, v_k with respective vertex weights g₁ ≤ g₂ ≤ … ≤ g_k. A mixed covering array on G, denoted by , is an n × k array such that column i corresponds to v_i, cells in column i are filled with elements from ?_gi and every pair of columns i,j corresponding to an edge v_i,v_j in G has every possible pair from ?_gi × ?_gj appearing in some row. The number of rows in such array is called its size. Given a weighted graph G, a mixed covering array on G with minimum size is called optimal. In this article, we give upper and lower bounds on the size of mixed covering arrays on graphs based on graph homomorphisms. We provide constructions for covering arrays on graphs based on basic graph operations. In particular, we construct optimal mixed covering arrays on trees, cycles and bipartite graphs; the constructed optimal objects have the additional property of being nearly point balanced. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 15: 393–404, 2007     

On the state of strength‐three covering arrays

A covering array of size N, strength t, degree k, and order υ is a k × N array on υ symbols in which every t × N subarray contains every possible t × 1 column at least once. We present explicit constructions, constructive upper bounds on the size of various covering arrays, and compare our results with those of a commercial product. Applications of covering arrays include software testing, drug screening, and data compression. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 10: 217–238, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/jcd.10002     

Covering arrays of higher strength from permutation vectors

A covering array CA(N;t,k,v) is an N × k array such that every N × t sub‐array contains all t‐tuples from v symbols at least once, where t is the strength of the array. Covering arrays are used to generate software test suites to cover all t‐sets of component interactions. We introduce a combinatorial technique for their construction, focussing on covering arrays of strength 3 and 4. With a computer search, covering arrays with improved parameters have been found. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 14: 202–213, 2006     

Covering Arrays of Strength Three

A covering array of size N, degree k, order v and strength t is a k × N array with entries from a set of v symbols such that in any t × N subarray every t × 1 column occurs at least once. Covering arrays have been studied for their applications to drug screening and software testing. We present explicit constructions and give constructive upper bounds for the size of a covering array of strength three.     

Covering arrays with mixed alphabet sizes

Covering arrays with mixed alphabet sizes, or simply mixed covering arrays, are natural generalizations of covering arrays that are motivated by applications in software and network testing. A (mixed) covering array A of type is a k × N array with the cells of row i filled with elements from ? and having the property that for every two rows i and j and every ordered pair of elements (e,f) ∈ ? × ?, there exists at least one column c, 1 ≤ c ≤ N, such that A_i,c = e and A_j,c = f. The (mixed) covering array number, denoted by , is the minimum N for which a covering array of type with N columns exists. In this paper, several constructions for mixed covering arrays are presented, and the mixed covering array numbers are determined for nearly all cases with k = 4 and for a number of cases with k = 5. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 11: 413–432, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/jcd.10059     

Constructing strength three covering arrays with augmented annealing

A covering arrayCA(N;t,k,v) is an N×k array such that every N×t sub-array contains all t-tuples from v symbols at least once, where t is the strength of the array. One application of these objects is to generate software test suites to cover all t-sets of component interactions. Methods for construction of covering arrays for software testing have focused on two main areas. The first is finding new algebraic and combinatorial constructions that produce smaller covering arrays. The second is refining computational search algorithms to find smaller covering arrays more quickly. In this paper, we examine some new cut-and-paste techniques for strength three covering arrays that combine recursive combinatorial constructions with computational search; when simulated annealing is the base method, this is augmented annealing. This method leverages the computational efficiency and optimality of size obtained through combinatorial constructions while benefiting from the generality of a heuristic search. We present a few examples of specific constructions and provide new bounds for some strength three covering arrays.     

Constructions of covering arrays of strength five

A covering array of size N, strength t, degree k and order v, or a CA(N; t, k, v) in short, is an N × k array on v symbols. In every N × t subarray, each t-tuple occurs in at least one row. Covering arrays have been studied for their significant applications to generating software test suites to cover all t-sets of component interactions. In this paper, we present two constructive methods to obtain covering arrays of strength 5 by using difference covering arrays and holey difference matrices with a prescribed property. As a consequence, some new upper bounds on the covering numbers are derived.     

Incomplete perfect mendelsohn designs with block size 4 and holes of size 2 and 3

Let v, k, and n be positive integers. An incomplete perfect Mendelsohn design, denoted by k-IPMD(v, n), is a triple (X, Y, ??) where X is a v-set (of points), Y is an n-subset of X, and ?? is a collection of cyclically ordered k-subsets of X (called blocks) such that every ordered pair (a, b) ∈ (X × X)\(Y × Y) appears t-apart in exactly one block of ?? and no ordered pair (a,b) ∈ Y × Y appears in any block of ?? for any t, where 1 ≤ t ≤ k ? 1. In this article, the necessary conditions for the existence of a 4-IPMD(v, n), namely (v ? n) (v ? 3n ? 1) ≡ 0 (mod 4) and v ≥ 3n + 1, are shown to be sufficient for the case n = 3. For the case n = 2, these conditions are sufficient except for v = 7 and with the possible exception of v = 14,15,18,19,22,23,26,27,30. The latter result provides a useful application to the problem relating to the packing of perfect Mendelsohn designs with block size 4. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Direct construction methods for incomplete perfect Mendelsohn designs with block size four

Let v, k, λ, and n be positive integers. An incomplete perfect Mendelsohn design, denoted by (v,n,k,λ)-IPMD, is a triple (X,Y,B) where X is a v-set (of points), Y is an n-subset of X, and B is a collection of cyclically ordered k-subsets of X (called blocks) such that every ordered pair (a,b) E (X × X)\(Y × Y) appears t-apart in exactly λ blocks of B and no ordered pair (a,b) E Y × Y appears in any block of B for any t, where 1 ≤ t ≤ k − 1. In this article, we introduce an effective and easy way to construct IPMDs for k = 4 and even v − n, and use it to construct some small examples for λ = 1 and 2. Obviously, these results will play an important role to completely solve the existence of (v,n,4,λ)-IPMDs. Furthermore, we also use this method to construct some small examples for HPMDs. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Packing Arrays and Packing Designs

A packing array is a b × k array, A with entriesa _i,j from a g-ary alphabet such that given any two columns,i and j, and for all ordered pairs of elements from a g-ary alphabet,(g ₁, g ₂), there is at most one row, r, such thata _r,i = g ₁ anda _r,j = g ₂. Further, there is a set of at leastn rows that pairwise differ in each column: they are disjoint. A central question is to determine, forgiven g, k and n, the maximum possible b. We examine the implications whenn is close to g. We give a brief analysis of the case n = g and showthat 2g rows is always achievable whenever more than g exist. We give an upper bound derivedfrom design packing numbers when n = g – 1. When g + 1 k then this bound is always at least as good as the modified Plotkin bound of [12]. When theassociated packing has as many points as blocks and has reasonably uniform replication numbers, we show thatthis bound is tight. In particular, finite geometries imply the existence of a family of optimal or near optimalpacking arrays. When no projective plane exists we present similarly strong results. This article completelydetermines the packing numbers, D(v, k, 1), when .     

Incomplete perfect mendelsohn designs with block size 4 and one hole of size 7

Let v,k, and n be positive integers. An incomplete perfect Mendelsohn design, denoted by k-IPMD(v,n), is a triple (X, Y, ??) where X is a v-set (of points), Y is an n-subset of X, and ?? is a collection of cyclically ordered k-subsets of X (called blocks) such that every ordered pair (a, b) ∈ (X × X)?(Y × Y) appears t-apart in exactly one block of ?? and no ordered pair (a,b) ∈ Y × Y appears in any block of ?? for any t, where 1 ≤ t ≤ k ? 1. In this article, we obtain conclusive results regarding the existence of 4-IPMD(v,7) where the necessary conditions are v = 2 or 3(mod 4) and v ≥ 22. We also provide an application to the problem relating to coverings of PMDs with block size 4. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Covering arrays of strength 3 and 4 from holey difference matrices

A covering array CA(N; t, k, v) is an N × k array with entries from a set X of v symbols such that every N × t sub-array contains all t-tuples over X at least once, where t is the strength of the array. The minimum size N for which a CA(N; t, k, v) exists is called the covering array number and denoted by CAN(t, k, v). Covering arrays are used in experiments to screen for interactions among t-subsets of k components. One of the main problems on covering arrays is to construct a CA(N; t, k, v) for given parameters (t, k, v) so that N is as small as possible. In this paper, we present some constructions of covering arrays of strengths 3 and 4 via holey difference matrices with prescribed properties. As a consequence, some of known bounds on covering array number are improved. In particular, it is proved that (1) CAN(3, 5, 2v) ≤ 2v ²(4v + 1) for any odd positive integer v with gcd(v, 9) ≠ 3; (2) CAN(3, 6, 6p) ≤ 216p ³ + 42p ² for any prime p > 5; and (3) CAN(4, 6, 2p) ≤ 16p ⁴ + 5p ³ for any prime p ≡ 1 (mod 4) greater than 5.     

CO‐irredundant Ramsey numbers for graphs

The study of the CO‐irredundant Ramsey numbers t(n₁, ···, n_k) is initiated. It is shown that several values and bounds for these numbers may be obtained from the well‐studied generalized graph Ramsey numbers and the values of t(4, 5), t(4, 6) and t(3, 3, m) are calculated. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 34: 258–268, 2000     

The spectrum of additive BIB designs

In this article, the existence of additive BIB designs is discussed with direct and recursive constructions, together with investigation of a property of resolvability. Such designs can be used to construct infinite families of BIB designs. In particular, we obtain a series of B(sⁿ, ts^m, λt (ts^m ? 1) (s^n‐m ? 1)/[2(s^m ? 1)]) for any positive integer λ, such that sⁿ (sⁿ ? 1) λ ≡ 0 (mod s^m (s^m ? 1) and for any positive integer t with 2 ≤ t ≤ s^n‐m, where s is an odd prime power. Connections between additive BIB designs and other combinatorial objects such as multiply nested designs and perpendicular arrays are discussed. A construction of resolvable BIB designs with v = 4k is also proposed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 15: 235–254, 2007     

Constructions of new orthogonal arrays and covering arrays of strength three

A covering array of size N, strength t, degree k, and order v, or a CA(N;t,k,v) in short, is a k×N array on v symbols. In every t×N subarray, each t-tuple column vector occurs at least once. When ‘at least’ is replaced by ‘exactly’, this defines an orthogonal array, OA(t,k,v). A difference covering array, or a DCA(k,n;v), over an abelian group G of order v is a k×n array (aij) (1?i?k, 1?j?n) with entries from G, such that, for any two distinct rows l and h of D (1?l<h?k), the difference list Δlh={dh1−dl1,dh2−dl2,…,dhn−dln} contains every element of G at least once.Covering arrays have important applications in statistics and computer science, as well as in drug screening. In this paper, we present two constructive methods to obtain orthogonal arrays and covering arrays of strength 3 by using DCAs. As a consequence, it is proved that there are an OA(3,5,v) for any integer v?4 and v?2 (mod 4), and an OA(3,6,v) for any positive integer v satisfying gcd(v,4)≠2 and gcd(v,18)≠3. It is also proved that the size CAN(3,k,v) of a CA(N;3,k,v) cannot exceed v³+v² when k=5 and v≡2 (mod 4), or k=6, v≡2 (mod 4) and gcd(v,18)≠3.     

Monotonicity of permanents of direct sums of doubly stochastic matrices

Let Ωn be the set of all n × n doubly stochastic matrices, let J_n be the n × n matrix all of whose entries are 1/n and let σ _k (A) denote the sum of the permanent of all k × k submatrices of A. It has been conjectured that if A ε Ω _n and A ≠ J_J then g_A,k (θ) ? σ _k ((1 θ)J_n 1 θA) is strictly increasing on [0,1] for k = 2,3,…,n. We show that if A = A ₁ ⊕ ⊕A_t (t ≥ 2) is an n × n matrix where A_i for i = 1,2, …,t, and if for each i g_Ai,ki (θ) is non-decreasing on [0.1] for k_t = 2,3,…,n_i , then g_A,k (θ) is strictly increasing on [0,1] for k = 2,3,…,n.     

New upper bounds on the minimum size of covering designs

Let D = {B₁, B₂,…, B_b} be a finite family of k-subsets (called blocks ) of a v-set X(v) = {1, 2,…, v} (with elements called points ). Then D is a (v, k, t) covering design or covering if every t-subset of X(v) is contained in at least one block of D. The number of blocks, b, is the size of the covering, and the minimum size of the covering is called the covering number , denoted C(v, k, t). This article is concerned with new constructions of coverings. The constructions improve many upper bounds on the covering number C(v, k, t) © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 6:21–41, 1998     

A note on a conjecture about cycles with many incident chords

Given positive integers n and k, let g_k(n) denote the maximum number of edges of a graph on n vertices that does not contain a cycle with k chords incident to a vertex on the cycle. Bollobás conjectured as an exercise in [2, p. 398, Problem 13] that there exists a function n(k) such that g_k(n) = (k + 1)n ? (k + 1)² for all n ≥ n(k). Using an old result of Bondy [ 3 ], we prove the conjecture, showing that n(k) ≤ 3 k + 3. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 46: 180–182, 2004