A new bitwise voting strategy for safety-critical systems with binary decisions

Authors

MUSTAFA SEÇKİN DURMUŞ
OYTUN ERİŞ
UĞUR YILDIRIM
MEHMET TURAN SÖYLEMEZ

DOI

10.3906/elk-1306-228

Abstract

The main issue in controlling safety-critical systems such as nuclear power reactors or railway interlocking systems is to provide high safety and reliability where the risk ratio is at the highest level because small errors might result in hazardous accidents (e.g., death or injury of many people). The N-version programming technique, where N-different modules run in parallel, can be used to improve the reliability and safety of such systems at the desired safety level. Decisions of N-different modules are then evaluated by another component, usually known as the voter, using different voting strategies. In the current study a bitwise voting strategy to evaluate module decisions that are based on safe-states of variables is proposed and possible synchronization problems between the modules are determined. Sequence diagrams and solutions for synchronization problems are also explained.

Keywords

Bitwise-voting, N-version programming, programmable logic controllers, railway interlocking systems, safety-critical software

First Page

1507

Last Page

1521

Recommended Citation

DURMUŞ, MUSTAFA SEÇKİN; ERİŞ, OYTUN; YILDIRIM, UĞUR; and SÖYLEMEZ, MEHMET TURAN (2015) "A new bitwise voting strategy for safety-critical systems with binary decisions," Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences: Vol. 23: No. 5, Article 24. https://doi.org/10.3906/elk-1306-228
Available at: https://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/elektrik/vol23/iss5/24