Change history:
2011-10-21: Solutions to exam is now available under the Old exams folder.
2011-10-13: Extra exercise added Friday Oct 14, 15.15 - 17.00.
2011-10-05: Wrong time for the lectures on Thursdays Oct 6 and Oct 13 corrected. The lectures are given the 10.00 - 11.45.
2011-09-25: New topics for lecture 10, 13 and 16.
2011-09-20: The topics for lecture 9 and 10 have been swapped.
2011-09-18: Lecture halls changed to HB1 Monday 3 Oct and HB4 Monday 10 Oct. (Note: there is no lecture Monday 10 Oct, 13-15.)
2011-09-10: Exercise plan changed. Lecture halls updated.
2011-09-07: Lecture plan updated. Lecture halls changed.
Created: 2011-08-24
Note: there is no lecture Monday 13-15, Oct 10 (week 7).
The course gives an introduction to fault-tolerant and safety-critical computer systems. Fault-tolerance is used in a wide range of critical embedded, enterprise and server applications. The course covers four major areas: 1) Design principles for centralized and distributed fault-tolerant computer systems, 2) Dependability analysis of fault-tolerant systems, 3) Techniques and processes for assessment of safety critical systems, and 4) Standards and terminology. The design principles are illustrated through system examples from areas such as space, aviation, road vehicles and transaction processing.
The course book is available at Cremona. All other course literature will be made available on the course homepage.
| Lecture no. | Course Week | Date | Time | Room | Content |
| 1 | 1 | Thursday, Sept 1 | 10.00-11.45 | HC3 | Introduction: Basic principles in fault-tolerant computing, hardware redundancy, voting redundancy, basic terminology. |
| 2 | 1 | Friday, Sept 2 | 13.15-15.00 | HB3 | Reliability modeling: Basic concepts in probability theory, reliability block diagrams. |
| 3 | 2 | Monday, Sept 5 | 13.15-15.00 | HB4 | Hardware redundancy: Voting redundancy, Standby redundancy, Active redundancy |
| 4 | 2 | Thursday, Sept 8 | 10.00-11.45 | HB4 | Reliability modeling: Markov chain models |
| 5 | 3 | Monday, Sept 12 | 13.15-15.00 | HC3 | Availability modeling: Markov chains, Birth-death processes. Safety modeling |
| 6 | 3 | Friday, Sept 16 | 13.15-15.00 | HB4 | System examples: HP Non-stop
Architecture. Software redundancy: Design diversity, N-version programming, Recovery blocks. Case study: Ariane 501 disaster. |
| 7 | 4 | Monday, Sept 19 | 13.15-15.00 | HB4 | Generalized Stochastic Petri
Net Models Design diversity in the flight control system for Airbus A330/A340 |
| 8 | 4 | Thursday, Sept 22 | 10.00-11.45 | HB4 | Guest lecture: FT in space applications, Torbjörn Hult, Ruag Space AB |
| 9 | 5 | Monday, Sept 26 | 13.15-15.00 | HB4 | Safety assessment: Hazard and Risk Analysis, FMEA, FTA. Technical Management: Life-cycle models, IEC 61508 |
| 10 | 5 | Thursday, Sept 29 | 10.00-11.45 | HB4 | Safety assessment: Hazard analysis, Risk Analysis, Allocation of safety integrity levels, Hardware reliability prediction, Safety case. Technical Management: Life-cycle models, ISO 26262 |
| 11 | 5 | Friday, Sept 30 | 13.15-15.00 | HB4 | Guest lecture: Functional safety, certification and standards, Jan Jacobson, SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden |
| 12 | 6 | Monday, Oct 3 | 13.15-15.00 | HB1 | Guest lecture: Fault-tolerance in JAS-Gripen, Lars Holmlund, Saab Aerosystems |
| 13 | 6 | Thursday, Oct 6 | 10.00-11.45 | HB4 | Software redundancy: More on N-version programming and Recovery blocks |
| 14 | 6 | Friday, Oct 7 | 13.15-15.00 | HB4 | FT in distributed systems: Consensus, Byzantine failures. |
| 15 | 7 | Thursday, Oct 13 | 10.00-11.45 | HB4 | FT in distributed systems: The Time-Triggered Architecture |
| 16 | 7 | Friday, Oct 14 | 13.15-15.00 | HB4 | Error detection and recovery techniques |
| Exercise no. | Course Week |
Date | Time | Room | Content | Problems |
| 1 | 2 | Monday, Sept 5 | 15.15-17.00 | HC3 | Reliability modeling: Reliability block diagrams, fault trees. | 2.2, 2.3, 2.6, 2.7 |
| 2 | 2 | Friday, Sept 9 |
13.15-15.00 | HB4 | Reliability modeling: Markov chains | 3.1, 3.2, Variant of 5.6 |
| 3 | 3 | Monday, Sept 12 | 15.15-17.00 | HC3 |
Availability modeling. |
3.12, 3.11, 5.2 |
| 4 | 3 | Thursday, Sept 15 | 10.00-11.45 | HB4 | Introduction to laboratory class 1 | Lab-PM |
| 5 | 4 | Monday, Sept 19 | 15.15-17.00 | HB4 | Probabilistic safety analysis. | 3.8, 3.9 |
| 6 | 4 | Friday, Sept 23 | 13.15-15.00 | HB4 | Generalized Stochastic Petri
Net Models Introduction to laboratory class 2 |
Lab-PM |
| 7 | 5 | Monday, Sept 26 | 15.15-17.00 | HB4 | Dependability modeling | 5.9, 5.10, Exam problems |
| 8 | 6 | Monday, Oct 3 | 15.15-17.00 | HB1 | Failure rate function, FMEA. | 1.1, Exam problems |
| 9 | 7 | Monday, Oct 10 | 15.15-17.00 | HB4 | Exam problems | To be decided |
| 10 | 7 | Friday, Oct 14 | 15.15-17.00 | HB4 | Exam problems | To be decided |
Note! Read the lab report requirements carefully and make sure all of them are fulfilled before you send in your report!
The lab reports shall be sent in electronically via the Student Portal. .
Expect that it will take at least two days for us to grade your report.
You will be notified via email of the result of the grading.
Hand in your reports as soon as possible, but no later than Monday, October 31, 2011.
Participation in the laboratory classes and approved laboratory reports.
Written exam. Grades: failed, 3, 4, 5.
First exam: Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 14.00 - 18.00, V-building
Second exam: Monday, January 9, 2012, 14.00 - 18.00, V-building
Third exam: Tuesday, August 21, 2012, 14.00 - 18.00, V-building