Context-Aware Adaptive Applications: Fault Patterns and Their Automated Identification

Michele Sama; David S. Rosenblum; Zhimin Wang; Sebastian Elbaum; Franco Raimondi

doi:10.1109/TSE.2010.35

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2010
Issue No. 5 - September/October
Abstract - Context-Aware Adaptive Applications: Fault Patterns and Their Automated Identification

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Context-Aware Adaptive Applications: Fault Patterns and Their Automated Identification

September/October 2010 (vol. 36 no. 5)

pp. 644-661

	ASCII Text	x
	Michele Sama, Sebastian Elbaum, Franco Raimondi, David S. Rosenblum, Zhimin Wang, "Context-Aware Adaptive Applications: Fault Patterns and Their Automated Identification," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 36, no. 5, pp. 644-661, September/October, 2010.

	BibTex	x
	@article{ 10.1109/TSE.2010.35, author = {Michele Sama and Sebastian Elbaum and Franco Raimondi and David S. Rosenblum and Zhimin Wang}, title = {Context-Aware Adaptive Applications: Fault Patterns and Their Automated Identification}, journal ={IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering}, volume = {36}, number = {5}, issn = {0098-5589}, year = {2010}, pages = {644-661}, doi = {http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/TSE.2010.35}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society}, address = {Los Alamitos, CA, USA}, }

	RefWorks Procite/RefMan/Endnote	x
	TY - JOUR JO - IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering TI - Context-Aware Adaptive Applications: Fault Patterns and Their Automated Identification IS - 5 SN - 0098-5589 SP644 EP661 EPD - 644-661 A1 - Michele Sama, A1 - Sebastian Elbaum, A1 - Franco Raimondi, A1 - David S. Rosenblum, A1 - Zhimin Wang, PY - 2010 KW - Adaptation KW - context-awareness KW - fault detection KW - mobile computing KW - model-based analysis KW - model checking KW - ordered binary decision diagrams KW - symbolic verification KW - ubiquitous computing. VL - 36 JA - IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering ER -

Michele Sama, University College London, UK

Sebastian Elbaum, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE

Franco Raimondi, University College London, UK

David S. Rosenblum, University College, London, UK

Zhimin Wang, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE

DOI Bookmark: http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/TSE.2010.35

Applications running on mobile devices are intensely context-aware and adaptive. Streams of context values continuously drive these applications, making them very powerful but, at the same time, susceptible to undesired configurations. Such configurations are not easily exposed by existing validation techniques, thereby leading to new analysis and testing challenges. In this paper, we address some of these challenges by defining and applying a new model of adaptive behavior called an Adaptation Finite-State Machine (A-FSM) to enable the detection of faults caused by both erroneous adaptation logic and asynchronous updating of context information, with the latter leading to inconsistencies between the external physical context and its internal representation within an application. We identify a number of adaptation fault patterns, each describing a class of faulty behaviors. Finally, we describe three classes of algorithms to detect such faults automatically via analysis of the A-FSM. We evaluate our approach and the trade-offs between the classes of algorithms on a set of synthetically generated Context-Aware Adaptive Applications (CAAAs) and on a simple but realistic application in which a cell phone's configuration profile changes automatically as a result of changes to the user's location, speed, and surrounding environment. Our evaluation describes the faults our algorithms are able to detect and compares the algorithms in terms of their performance and storage requirements.

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Index Terms:

Adaptation, context-awareness, fault detection, mobile computing, model-based analysis, model checking, ordered binary decision diagrams, symbolic verification, ubiquitous computing.

Citation:

Michele Sama, Sebastian Elbaum, Franco Raimondi, David S. Rosenblum, Zhimin Wang, "Context-Aware Adaptive Applications: Fault Patterns and Their Automated Identification," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 36, no. 5, pp. 644-661, Sept.-Oct. 2010, doi:10.1109/TSE.2010.35

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