Component-oriented voter model for dependable control applications
In many industrial applications arbitration between redundant subsystems using voting algorithms is popular. Many voting strategies, implemented in hardware or software, have been proposed of which majority and median voters have been widely used in real applications. Component-oriented design and modeling is receiving increasing amounts of interest in the software engineering community. Detailed analysis of voters shows that they can also be considered as a combination of independent components, each performing a specific function. This article proposes a component-oriented model for voters. The model offers benefits such as reusability, flexibility, and extensibility to the system designer. Components and their families are introduced, categorised and simulated. The model is simulated and a library of simulated components is provided. The generality of the model not only supports the analysis of a large number of voter permutations but also facilitates system design and implementation phases. The article presents the experimental results of selected component-oriented voters including majority, median, and linear predictor voters within a Triple Modular Redundant, TMR, system for a wide range of error scenarios. The correctness of the voter model is also proved by comparing the experimental results of selected component-oriented voters with those of the corresponding directly implemented voters.
voting algorithms component-orientated software fault-tolerance