Dependability Benchmarking & Prediction: A Grand Challenge Technology Problem

Ab stract We pro pose the grand chal lenge prob lem of de pend abil ity benchmarking and pre dic tion for real-time mis sion-crit i cal sys tems (RTMCSs). Eval u ating de pend abil ity would quan tify the de gree of re li ance that could jus ti fi ably be placed on a crit i cal sys tem, even in the face of par tial fail ures or ex cep tional con di tions. A com pre hen sive re sult would re quire an inter-dis ci plin ary ap proach em brac ing the en tire prod uct lifecycle. While there are sig nif i cant tech ni cal hur dles to both as sess ing the de pend abil ity of in di vid ual el e ments and com bin ing re sul tant mea sures, a vi a ble ap proach must be found to en sure that the com put ing sys tems our so ci ety is com ing to de pend upon will be re li able, avail able, safe, and se cure. The par tic i pa tion of sev eral com mu ni ties, in clud ing the Real Time Com puting com mu nity, is vi tal to suc cess fully ad dress this chal lenge.