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Abstract:
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Software systems are progressively being deployed in many facets
of human life. The implication of the failure of such systems, has an
assorted impact on its customers. The fundamental aspect that supports a
software system, is focus on quality. Reliability describes the ability of
the system to function under specified environment for a specified
period of time and is used to objectively measure the quality. Evaluation
of reliability of a computing system involves computation of hardware
and software reliability. Most of the earlier works were given focus on
software reliability with no consideration for hardware parts or vice
versa. However, a complete estimation of reliability of a computing
system requires these two elements to be considered together, and thus
demands a combined approach. The present work focuses on this and
presents a model for evaluating the reliability of a computing system.
The method involves identifying the failure data for hardware
components, software components and building a model based on it, to
predict the reliability. To develop such a model, focus is given to the
systems based on Open Source Software, since there is an increasing
trend towards its use and only a few studies were reported on the
modeling and measurement of the reliability of such products. The
present work includes a thorough study on the role of Free and Open
Source Software, evaluation of reliability growth models, and is trying
to present an integrated model for the prediction of reliability of a
computational system. The developed model has been compared with
existing models and its usefulness of is being discussed. |