Optimum detecting arrays for independent interaction faults

The use of detecting arrays (DTAs) is motivated by the need to locate and detect interaction faults arising between the factors in a component-based system in software testing. The optimality and construction of DTAs have been investigated in depth for the case in which all the interaction faults are assumed to have the same strength; however, as a practical concern, the strengths of these faults are not always identical. For real world applications, it would be desirable for a DTA to be able to identify and detect faulty interactions of a strength equal to or less than a specified value under the assumption that the faulty interactions are independent from one another. To the best of our knowledge, the optimality and construction of DTAs for independent interaction faults have not been studied systematically before. In this paper, we establish a general lower bound on the size of DTAs for independent interaction faults and explore the combinatorial feature that enable these DTAs to meet the lower bound. Taking advantage of this combinatorial characterization, several classes of optimum DTAs meeting the lower bound are presented.