An evolutionary and adaptive approach for n-version programming

Abstract

In this paper a concept is described to further improve the dependability characteristics of n-version systems. As one part of this strategy, we introduce an adaptive version management scheme. It is based on the use of dynamically changeable weight factors associated to the different versions of the system. Additionally, we propose to use a specific evolutionary scheme of design diversity combining n-version programming with genetic algorithms. Moreover, an additionally introduced segmentation scheme allows the combination of this strategy with recovery approaches.