Integrating an Ensemble Surrogate Model’s Estimation into Test Data Generation

For the path coverage testing of a Message-Passing Interface (MPI) program, test data generation based on an evolutionary optimization algorithm (EOA) has been widely known. However, during the use of the above technique, it is necessary to evaluate the fitness of each evolutionary individual by executing the program, which is generally computationally expensive. In order to reduce the computational cost, this article proposes a method of integrating an ensemble surrogate model’s estimation into the process of generating test data. The proposed method first produces a number of test inputs using an EOA, and forms a training set together with their real fitness. Then, this article trains an ensemble surrogate model (ESM) based on the training set, which is employed to estimate the fitness of each individual. Finally, a small number of individuals with good estimations are selected to further execute the program, so as to have their real fitness for the subsequent evolution. This article applies the proposed method to seven benchmark MPI programs, which is compared with several state-of-the-art approaches. The experimental results show that the proposed method can generate test data with significantly low computational cost.