Sarbu, C: Operational Profiling of OS Drivers

Operating Systems (OSs) constitute the operational core for computing devices, and consequently, the OS‘s ability to sustain operations determines the dependability level of the provided system services. In order to facilitate their applicability to a variety of hardware platforms, OSs have evolved into complex, componentized software entities whose key function is to provide applications access to the system‘s hardware resources. Within the OS, the components dominating the cause of failures are the device drivers (DDs), precisely the OS parts ed to enhance the OS‘s support for hardware. Unfortunately, despite intensive efforts to elevate DD‘s robustness levels by employing varied test paradigms, the existing DDs still exhibit very high failure rates. Obviously, testing the complete state space of a DD is neither technically or economically viable. Based on extensive empirical DD evaluations, the central premise behind this book involves the characterization of a DD‘s operational profile, and using it for focusing subsequent testing to the functional areas likely to be exercised over the DD deployment.