Analyzing Survivability Properties of Specifications of Networks

Author: Somesh Jha, Jeannette Wing, Richard Linger, and Tom Longstaff

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Abstract

Survivability is the ability of a system to maintain a set of essential services despite the presence of abnormal events such as faulty and intrusions. Ensuring system survivability has increased in importance as critical infrastructures have become heavily dependent on computers. In this paper we present a systematic method for performing survivability analysis of networks. A system architect injects fault and intrusion evnets into a given specification of a network and then visualizes the effects of the injected events in the form of scenario graphs. In our method, we automatically generate scenario graphs using model checking. Our method enables further global analysis, such as reliability analysis, where mathematical techniques used in different domains are combined in a systematic manner. We illustrate our ideas on an abstract model of the United States Payment System.