Enhancing software reliability modeling and prediction through the introduction of time-variable fault reduction factor

Over the past three decades, many software reliability models with different parameters, reflecting various testing characteristics, have been proposed for estimating the reliability growth of software products. We have noticed that one of the most important parameters controlling software reliability growth is the fault reduction factor (FRF) proposed by Musa. FRF is generally defined as the ratio of net fault reduction to failures experienced. During the software testing process, FRF could be influenced by many environmental factors, such as imperfect debugging, debugging time lag, etc. Thus, in this paper, we first analyze some real data to observe the trends of FRF, and consider FRF to be a time-variable function. We further study how to integrate time-variable FRF into software reliability growth modeling. Some experimental results show that the proposed models can improve the accuracy of software reliability estimation. Finally, sensitivity analyses of various optimal release times based on cost and reliability requirements are discussed. The analytic results indicate that adjusting the value of FRF may affect the release time as well as the development cost.     

Flexible software reliability growth model with testing effort dependent learning process

A lot of importance has been attached to the testing phase of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). It is during this phase it is checked whether the software product meets user requirements or not. Any discrepancies that are identified are removed. But testing needs to be monitored to increase its effectiveness. Software Reliability Growth Models (SRGMs) that specify mathematical relationships between the failure phenomenon and time have proved useful. SRGMs that include factors that affect failure process are more realistic and useful. Software fault detection and removal during the testing phase of SDLC depend on how testing resources (test cases, manpower and time) are used and also on previously identified faults. With this motivation a Non-Homogeneous Poisson Process (NHPP) based SRGM is proposed in this paper which is flexible enough to describe various software failure/reliability curves. Both testing efforts and time dependent fault detection rate (FDR) are considered for software reliability modeling. The time lag between fault identification and removal has also been depicted. The applicability of our model is shown by validating it on software failure data sets obtained from different real software development projects. The comparisons with established models in terms of goodness of fit, the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), Mean of Squared Errors (MSE), etc. have been presented.     

Sensitivity analysis of release time of software reliability models incorporating testing effort with multiple change-points

To accurately model software failure process with software reliability growth models, incorporating testing effort has shown to be important. In fact, testing effort allocation is also a difficult issue, and it directly affects the software release time when a reliability criteria has to be met. However, with an increasing number of parameters involved in these models, the uncertainty of parameters estimated from the failure data could greatly affect the decision. Hence, it is of importance to study the impact of these model parameters. In this paper, sensitivity of the software release time is investigated through various methods, including one-factor-at-a-time approach, design of experiments and global sensitivity analysis. It is shown that the results from the first two methods may not be accurate enough for the case of complex nonlinear model. Global sensitivity analysis performs better due to the consideration of the global parameter space. The limitations of different approaches are also discussed. Finally, to avoid further excessive adjustment of software release time, interval estimation is recommended for use and it can be obtained based on the results from global sensitivity analysis.     

Modelling and well-posed analysis for software system with rejuvenation

Software rejuvenation, as an effective policy to enhance the performance of software system, has been discussed broadly with the hypothesis that the software system being well posed. A system being well posed means that the dynamical solution not only exists and is unique but also is stable, which means the dynamical solution converges to steady solution as time tends to infinity. To enrich the theory basis of the software system, and to simulate the dynamical solution which is also an instantaneous availability of the software system with rejuvenation, this article models the behaviour of software system by a group of ordinary and partial equations. With the theory of strong continuous semigroup, this article proves that the system is well posed. As a result, the expression and simulation of instantaneous availability of the system is presented.     

Modelling and analysis of maintenance service contracts

When maintenance of an unreliable system is carried out by an external service agent, under a service contract, both the user and the service agent need to choose their decisions optimally to maximize their expected profits. The paper develops a game-theoretic framework for both parties to determine their optimal strategies.     

A periodic testing model for a preparedness system with a defective state

This paper considers the periodic testing of a preparednesssystem where in addition to working and failed state recognition,a working but defective state also exists. Based upon the delaytime model, an expected availability model is derived and evaluatedas a function of the constant inspection period. The model enablesthe range of inspection periods which satisfy a pre-set availabilitycriterion to be established, and the optimal availability inspectionperiod to be identified. Variants of the basic model are considered including: wherea delay time period exists, but the technology to detect a defectis not available; where the delay time is zero, so that onlyfailures are detected; and where the system is replaced on aregular basis without any state testing. These variants enablethe value and effectiveness of the ability to detect defectsand to detect failures to be identified and quantified. The models are demonstrated in the context of a missile buffersystem, where the numerical example clarifies the value of modellingand the insight into the potential effectiveness of defect andfailure detection.     

Modelling and analysis of haemoglobin catalytic reaction kinetic system

ABSTRACT

In order to study whether haemoglobin (Hb) can replace peroxidase and has good catalytic properties. The key to exploring the characteristics of Hb peroxidase is to establish a suitable kinetic model, which is studied in this paper. First, according to the Hb catalytic reaction, a nonlinear system is established and improved. It is proved that the established system is in line with the practical significance. The stability of the original system is judged by analysing the stability of the simplified system. Then, considering the effect of time delay on Hb catalytic reaction, a nonlinear time-delay catalytic reaction system is obtained. For convenient application, the system is linearized using Taylor’s formula, and the dynamic characteristics of Hopf bifurcation are analysed. The response diagrams of three system are plotted by setting perturbation parameters, and their variations are observed to analyse the differences among them. The results show that the nonlinear time-delay system can better describe the characteristics of the catalytic reaction.     

Modelling and optimization of reservoirs for long-term regulation with variable head using functional analysis

In this paper, functional analysis and minimum norm formulation are applied to maximize the total benefits from two hydro reservoirs. The hydroelectric power generation is treated as a nonlinear function; water head variation and stochasticity of the river flows are included. The resulting problem has a nonlinear objective function and linear constraints. The proposed method is computationally efficient, compared to previous techniques. Numerical results are presented for widely different water conditions for an actual system in operation.This work was supported by the National Research Council of Canada, Grant No. A4146. The authors wish to thank B. C. Hydro for providing the reservoir data.     

Long-term optimal operation of a parallel multireservoir power system

Long-term optimal operation of a multireservoir system is complex because it is a dynamic problem (present decisions for one reservoir depend on future decisions for all reservoirs); the optimal operating policy for one reservoir depends not only on its own energy content, but also on the corresponding content of each one of the other reservoirs; it is a highly stochastic problem with respect to the reservoir inflows and it is a nonlinear problem. This paper presents a new method for determining the optimal monthly operating policy of a power system consisting of multireservoirs on a multiriver system taking into account the stochasticity of the river flows. Functional optimization techniques and minimum norm formulation have been used. Results for a numerical example composed of three rivers with four reservoirs, three reservoirs, and two reservoirs on each river, respectively, are presented.This work was supported by the National Research Council of Canada, Grant. No. A4146.     

On the optimal control of a single-server queueing system: Reply

This comment replies to a criticism due to Klein and Gruver (Ref. 1) of our earlier paper (Ref. 2) on the application of control theory to a queueing system. The criticism concerns the state-space diagram and the table which we inadvertently gave for the terminal-reward problem, albeit incorrectly labeled, rather than for the free-endpoint problem considered in our paper. We show that the solution given by Klein and Gruver is itself incorrect and nonoptimal.     

On the optimal control of a single-server queueing system: Further remarks

This comment is in response to a reply by Scott and Jefferson (Ref. 3) concerning the application of control theory to a queueing problem.     

Modelling and bifurcation analysis of internal cantilever beam system on a steadily rotating ring

Using Hamilton variation principle, a nonlinear dynamic model of the system with a finite deforming Rayleigh beam clamped radially to the interior of a rotating rigid ring, under the assumption that the constitutive relation of the beam is linearly elastic, is discussed. The bifurcation behavior of the simple system with the Euler-Bernoulli beam is also discussed. It is revealed that these two models have no influence on the critical bifurcation value and buckling solution in the steady state. Then we use the assumption model method to analyse the bifurcation behavior of the steadily rotating Euler-Bernoulli beam and get two different types of bifurcation behavior which physically exist. Finite element method and shooting method are used to verify the analytical results. The numerical results confirm our research conclusion. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 19332022) and Space High Technology Foundation of China.     

Optimal control of a production-inventory system with customer impatience

We consider the control of a production-inventory system with impatient customers. We show that the optimal policy can be described using two thresholds: a production base-stock level that determines when production takes place and an admission threshold that determines when orders should be accepted. We describe an algorithm for computing the performance of the system for any choice of base-stock level and admission threshold. In a numerical study, we compare the performance of the optimal policy against several other policies.     

Integration of the grey relational analysis with genetic algorithm for software effort estimation

Accurate estimates of efforts in software development are necessary in project management practices. Project managers or domain experts usually conduct software effort estimation using their experience; hence, subjective or implicit estimates occur frequently. As most software projects have incomplete information and uncertain relations between effort drivers and the required development effort, the grey relational analysis (GRA) method has been applied in building a formal software effort estimation model for this study. The GRA in the grey system theory is a problem-solving method that is used when dealing with similarity measures of complex relations. This paper examines the potentials of the software effort estimation model by integrating a genetic algorithm (GA) to the GRA. The GA method is adopted to find the best fit of weights for each software effort driver in the similarity measures. Experimental results show that the software effort estimation using an integration of the GRA with GA method presents more precise estimates over the results using the case-based reasoning (CBR), classification and regression trees (CART), and artificial neural networks (ANN) methods.     

The reliability analysis of probabilistic and interval hybrid structural system

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the reliability of probabilistic and interval hybrid structural system. The hybrid structural system includes two kinds of uncertain parameters—probabilistic parameters and interval parameters. Based on the interval reliability model and probabilistic operation, a new probabilistic and interval hybrid reliability model is proposed. Firstly, we use the interval reliability model to analyze the performance function, and then sum up reliability of all regions divided by the failure plane. Based on the presented optimal criterion enumerating the main failure modes of hybrid structural system and the relationship of failure modes, the reliability of structure system can be obtained. By means of the numerical examples, the hybrid reliability model and the traditional probabilistic reliability model are critically contrasted. The results indicate the presented reliability model is more suitable for analysis and design of these structural systems and it can ensure the security of system well, and it only needs less uncertain information.     

Modelling of a deteriorating system with repair satisfying general distribution

In this paper, we model a deteriorating system that cannot be repaired “as good as new” after failures, the model comes from [19, Applied Mathematics and Computation, 217(2011), 4980-4989]. Suppose that the system has one repairman who can have multiple vacations, and if the system fails when the repairman is on vacation, it will wait for repair until the repairman is available. Herein the repair time is taken into account and supposes that the repair satisfies the general distribution. Under these assumptions, by means of the geometric process and the supplementary variable techniques, we derive a complete model of the partial differential equations, which will correct an error of mathematical model in [19]. Moreover, we deduce some important reliability indices of the system such as the availability of system, the probability of the repairman working and the rate of occurrence of failures. In particular, we prove that the rate of occurrence of failures m_f is not equal to zero.     

Modelling and analysis of a prey–predator system with stage-structure and harvesting

In this paper, we have considered a prey–predator-type fishery model with Beddington–DeAngelis functional response and selective harvesting of predator species. We have established that when the time delay is zero, the interior equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable provided it is locally asymptotically stable. It is also shown that the time delay can cause a stable equilibrium to become unstable and even a switching of stabilities. Lastly, some numerical simulations are carried out.     

Sojourn time analysis of a two-phase queueing system with exhaustive batch-service and its vacation model

We consider an M/G/1-type, two-phase queueing system, in which the two phases in series are attended alternatively and exhaustively by a moving single-server according to a batch-service in the first phase and an individual service in the second phase. We show that the two-phase queueing system reduces to a new type of single-vacation model with non-exhaustive service. Using a double transform for the joint distribution of the queue length in each phase and the remaining service time, we derive Laplace-Stieltjes transforms for the sojourn time in each phase and the total sojourn time in the system. Furthermore, we provide the moment formula of sojourn times and numerical examples of an approximate density function of the total sojourn time.     

Hamiltonian modelling and buckling analysis of a nonlinear flexible beam with actuation at the bottom

ABSTRACT

The use of beams and similar structural elements is finding increasing application in many areas including micro and nanotechnology devices. For the purpose of buckling analysis and control, it is essential to account for nonlinear terms in the strains while modelling these flexible structures. Further, the Poisson’s effect can be accounted in modelling by the use of a two-dimensional stress–strain relationship. This paper studies the buckling effect for a slender, vertical beam (in the clamped-free configuration) with horizontal actuation at the fixed end and a tip-mass at the free end. Including also the inextensibility constraint of the beam, the equations of motion are derived. A preliminary modal analysis of the system has been carried out to describe candidate post-buckling configurations and study the stability properties of these equilibria. The vertical configuration of the beam under the action of gravity is without loss of generality, since the objective is to model a potential field that determines the equilibria. Neglecting the inextensibility constraint, the equations of motion are then casted in port-Hamiltonian form with appropriately defined flows and efforts as a basis for structure-preserving discretization and simulation. Finally, the finite-dimensional model is simulated to obtain the time response of the tip-mass for different loading conditions.     

Computer-assisted Modelling and Analysis of Linear Programming Problems: Towards a Unified Framework

A framework for model formulation and analysis to support operationsand management of large-scale linear programs is developed fromthe combined capabilities of CAMPS and ANALYZE. Both the systemsare reviewed briefly and the interface which integrates thetwo systems is then described. The model formulation, matrixgeneration, and model management capability of CAMPS and thecomplementary model and solution analysis capability of ANALYZEare presented within a unified framework. Relevant generic functionsare highlighted, and an example is presented in detail to illustratethe level of integration achieved in the current prototype system.Some new results on discourse models and model management supportare given in a framework designed to move toward an ‘intelligent’system for linear programming modelling and analysis.