SELF-TUNED PASSIVE TESTERS FOR GREY-BOX DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS WITH INDEFINITE COMMUNICATION DELAYS

摘要

Passive testing is a technique suitable for continuous, non-intrusive, autonomous testing of qualitative behavioural properties (correctness) of a deployed distributed system. A real passive tester has to face observational uncertainty, which may lead to false verdicts. We submit the novel idea of a self-tuned passive tester, which is able to adapt to a priori unknown, and possibly changing delays in communication channels. We propose the structure and algorithms of a passive tester that "tunes itself" basing solely on its own, locally issued verdicts. This seemingly counter-intuitive principle is shown by simulation to be viable and effective.