Online Periodic Self-Test Scheduling for Real-Time Processor-Based Systems Dependability Enhancement

Online periodic self-testing is a cost-effective technique to ensure correct operation of microprocessor-based systems in the field and improve their dependability in the presence of failures caused by components aging/wearout. Effective online self-test tasks in embedded systems should have limited resource requirements: memory, execution time, and power consumption, while at the same time, they should guarantee the highest possible self-test quality levels. These requirements are not always easy to satisfy in real-time embedded systems with hard task deadlines. In this paper, we investigate the maximization of the effective self-test utilization and present solutions for the scheduling of online self-test tasks in hard real-time systems. The primary goal is to guarantee high self-test quality without affecting the deadline requirements of normal hard real-time tasks. We show that with appropriate selection of the periodicity of the self-test tasks, these goals can be met.