TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Information Systems, Materials/Processes

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMS450 - VA CLASS Submarine Program; ACAT !

OBJECTIVE: Develop a distributed monitoring system to automatically detect, identify and repair system problems (S/W & H/W).

DESCRIPTION: Verifying and maintaining the integrity of today’s Submarine combat system has become time consuming and can not guarantee full coverage of all potential Software and Hardware (including power supplies, servers, raids etc) failed states. This situation leads to the possibility of system failure during mission critical operations. Therefore a new generation of system integrity verification tools and testing methods is required. Additionally developing a system to continually monitor the integrity of a system would facilitate and provide metrics, which could be used to determine trends for future systems.

PHASE I: Architect a reusable test automation system that provides an environment for a non subject matter expert for validating a distributed system (S/W & H/W) can be developed, maintained and function as expected.

PHASE II: Develop a prototype distributed monitoring system which will verifies the integrity of the system as well as provide real time solutions to the non subject matter expert for resolutions of mission critical functions. Additionally, generate a report on the number and types of errors found, the potential severity of those errors if they had not been detected and expected conditions under which those errors would have been generated during mission critical system operations.

PHASE III: Prepare commercially viable package that will support the requirements of phase II.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: This product would have applicability to all complex, large-scale systems. Key areas of interest include transportation, shipping and medical industries.

REFERENCES:
1. Jain, Navendue, et al, INSIGHT: A Distributed Monitoring System for Tracking Continuous Queries, Department of Computer Sciences, University of Texas at Austin.

2. Rana, Abhishek, A Globally Distributed Grid Monitoring System to Facilitate High-Performance Computing at D?/SAM-GRID.

3. Frankowiak, Marcos R, et al, A Petri-Net Based Distributed Monitoring System Using PIC Microcontrollers School of Engineering, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK, February 2004.

KEYWORDS: Software, testing, repair, automation, tools, metrics.

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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