IAF0530 / IAF9530 - Dependability and fault tolerance

Welcome to the cource IAF0530 / IAF9530 - Dependability and Fault Tolerance homepage.

Here you will find all the information about the course, including reading materials, lecture notes, etc. Till then you can visit the 2016's version of the same course.

Lectures will be held on Mondays, 10:00-11:30. Location: ICT-315 (Akadeemia tee 15a). Special sessions will be held on weeks 12-16, on Mondays 8:30-11:30.

In all e-mails please mention either IAF0530 or IAF9530 in the Subject. Otherwize your e-mail might remain un-noticed.

Important dates (preliminary):

• No lectures on March 27 and April 24.
• March 6: Case study topic selection (title) + preliminary list of literature. Send by e-mail. Wait for approval.
• March 27 (23:59):
  • Draft of the report (by e-mail)
    • Abstract, outline, main references, ca. 1 page
• April 7: Registration for presentations
• April 10, 17, May 8 and 15: Student presentations (08:30-11:30, April 10: 10:00-11:30).
• May 22 (23:59): Deadline for final written reports.
• Oral exam & discussions: May 29 - June 5. Registration for discussions

Text-books:

• Reliability engineering: theory and practice, Alessandro Birolini, Springer, 2010, 2014
• Safety-critical Computer Systems, Neil Storey, Addison Wesley, 1996.
• Fault-Tolerant Systems, Israel Koren and C. Mani Krishna, Morgan-Kaufman Publishers, 2007
• Fault-Tolerant Design, Elena Dubrova, Springer, 2013.

Case Studies

• Case Studies (read this PDF!). For MSc students: 15 min presentation + 6 pages of text. For PhD students: 20 min presentation + 10 pages of text. The presentations should be made in English but the report can be written either in Estonian or in English.
• Template: DOC/PDF.
• Some examples of possible topics.
• More examples.
• The Risks Digest Also an excellent source of topics.
• More references (from UMass).
• More references (from CMU).
• Topics chosen in 2016
  
• Important! - What Constitutes Plagiarism?
  NB! Procedure for processing contemptible behavior
  
  
• Selected topics in 2017
• Registration for presentations

Lecture notes

• Lecture 1 (pdf) - Introduction, historical perspective
  
  Additional reading for the next lecture:
  • George Candea, "The Basics of Dependability"
  • Robert N. Charette, Why Software Fails, IEEE Spectrum
  • 5 of the worst IT system failures

• Lecture 2 (pdf) - Basics
  
  Additional reading for the next lecture:
  • Algirdas Avizienis, Jean-Claude Laprie, Brian Randell "Fundamental Concepts of Dependability"
  • William R. Dunn, "Designing Safety-Critical Computer Systems," IEEE Computer, Volume 36, Issue 11, Nov. 2003. Page(s):40 - 46.

• Lecture 3 (pdf) - Basics
  
  Additional reading for the next lecture:
  • Bianca Schroeder and Garth A. Gibson, Carnegie Mellon University, Disk Failures in the Real World: What Does an MTTF of 1,000,000 Hours Mean to You?, 5th USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies, 2007.
  • DRAM’s Damning Defects—and How They Cripple Computers
  
  
• Lectures 4 & 5 & 6 (pdf) - Safety, Hazards, Risks
  
  Additional reading:
  • Therac-25
  • Therac-25 investigations
  • IEC 61508 - Functional Safety.
    • To read: "FAQ - Part E: Key Concepts".
  • Methods of Determining Safety Integrity Level
  Get acquainted:
  • Incident Reporting and Analysis for Electrical, Electronic and Programmable Electronic Systems (E/E/PES) under IEC61508

• Lectures 7 and 8: (pdf) - Redundancy
  
  Additional reading:
  • E. Dubrova, "Fault-Tolerant Design: An Introduction".

Contact:

Gert Jervan
Department of Computer Systems
Akadeemia tee 15a, room ICT-527