Survivable Embedded Systems

Abstract

Technology trends in recent years have resulted in the rapid and wide-scale deployment of embedded systems as critical components of larger systems such as home appliances, airplanes, ships, and motor-vehicles. Furthermore , traditional desktops and workstations themselves are becoming a federation of embedded systems such as external storage devices connected with USB and FireWire buses. Such ubiquity of embedded systems increases the impact of random and maliciously-induced failures and the need for unforeseen improvements. We propose the OASES architecture for ensuring the functional survivability of a system composed of embedded devices. Given a policy that defines possibly evolving goals of system performance and functionality, we aim to satisfy it despite random or maliciously-induced failures. Our hypothesis is that functional survivability can be achieved with embedded devices open to dynamic reconfiguration and a combination of language techniques, component-based programming, traditional dynamic reconfiguration mechanisms, and the use of an area controller that coordinates reconfigurations. This controlle r detects failures and determines an appropriate fix based on survivability policies. This position paper provides an overview of OASES and discusses its components.