A Systematic Review of Fault Tolerance Techniques for Adaptive and Context-Aware Systems

Abstract

Adaptive systems (ASs) and context-aware systems (CASs) are able to automatically modify themselves in response to changes in their environment. Fault tolerance techniques are used to allow a system to deliver a correct service even in the presence of faults. With respect to ASs and CASs, all environmental conditions may never be tested during the development phase, which can increase the risk of failures. Thus, it is important to apply fault tolerance techniques to recover these systems from error states and continue the delivery of service. This paper reports on results of a systematic literature review that characterises the state-of-the-art of fault tolerance techniques that have been proposed for, or applied to, ASs and CASs. Based on 41 selected studies we: grouped the studies among 7 types of techniques; identified 14 faults; and classified these faults in 4 generic fault types. We found different types of fault tolerance techniques, such as error recovery and diversity. Moreover, we identified faults, such as faults in sensors and actuators. Our results may provide a guidance for developers and researchers for the application of fault tolerance techniques in ASs and CASs.