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Explanation of Error Handling on Application Level
AUTOSAR CP Release 4.3.1
13 of 78 Document ID 378: AUTOSAR_EXP_ApplicationLevelErrorHandling
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5 Terms and definitions
5.1 Basic dependability terms
The fundamental concepts and terms of dependability used in this document are
adopted directly from [21]. This section contains a short overview of the main terms
and definitions used for dependable systems. It should be noted here that the word
“system” is used in a very wide sense in this context. A system can denote anything
from a single SW-C to a complete vehicle with multiple networks and ECUs.
However, as the document is aimed at application level error handling, a system in
the rest of the document should denote a software application, potentially consisting
of multiple SW-Cs, possibly mapped over a set of (distributed) ECUs.
The term dependability is defined as “the trustworthiness of a system such that
reliance can justifiably be placed on the service it provides”. This means that a
dependable system is one upon which the user (either human or non-human) can
place its trust in that the services provided by the system are correct. The
dependability of a system is characterized by a set of attributes, compromised by a
set of impairments, and achieved and analyzed by a set of means.
The dependability attributes characterize, and profile, the dependability of a given
system. Some examples of attributes are availability, reliability, safety, confidentiality,
integrity, and maintainability.
During the construction and the operation of a system (here used in a wide sense – a
system can be any bounded entity, such as an entire ECU or a single SW-C), events
may occur which reduce the trustworthiness of the system by introducing faults into
the system. A fault is a transient or permanent change of the system such that its
integrity deviates from the expected correct integrity. During system operation, faults
may prevent the system from providing its intended service. These faults may be
from an internal source (such as software defects) or an external source (such as
external disturbances or aging of components). The events that may reduce the
dependability of a system are referred to as the impairments of dependability.
The mere presence of faults is, however, not sufficient to reduce the dependability of
a system. A fault must be activated, i.e., the part of the system in which the fault is
located must be exercised in some way during system operation (e.g., faulty code
must be executed, defective memory locations must be read, etc.). If this happens,
the result may be an error. If a fault is viewed as a disease, an error can be said to
be a symptom of that disease. An error is defined as an erroneous (soft) state in the
system, i.e., the state is different from the state the system would have had if the fault
had not been present. An error which is activated may cause other errors to occur in
the system. This process is called error propagation.
If errors propagate beyond the system barrier, i.e., if they are visible to the
environment of the system, the error transforms into a failure, which means that the
system no longer provides its specified functionality.
The causality chain, fault error failure, is also recursive in nature. Thus, a failure
of one system is perceived as a fault by the enclosing system (i.e. the former is a