SGER: Stability of Real Time Software Systems

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal Number: 0649885 PI: Lui Sha Institution: University of Illinois Title: Stability of Software Systems Abstract: Software systems for major acquisition projects have a high failure rate. Software systems are exceedingly fragile. Sadly, history is replete with cases where a small software error caused a major system failure. There needs to be a notion of software stability to match system stability used, for example, in civil and mechanical engineering. Of course, software stability would differ from stability in those disciplines because software is discrete, highly nonlinear, and exceedingly complex but stability requires active measurement and active control. Stable software systems would have capabilities for runtime monitoring, fault containment, and dependency management; however, new concepts and principles are needed to design and reason about the forms of stable software, its control and its composition. This research proposal would provide the foundations for a theory of stability for software systems.