Context

Combinatorial interaction testing is known to be an efficient testing strategy for computing and information systems. Locating arrays are mathematical objects that are useful for this testing strategy, as they can be used as a test suite that permits fault localization as well as fault detection. In this application, each row of an array is used as an individual test.

Objective

This paper proposes an algorithm for constructing locating arrays with a small number of rows. Testing cost increases as the number of tests increases; thus the problem of finding locating arrays of small sizes is of practical importance.

Method

The proposed algorithm uses simulated annealing, a meta-heuristic algorithm, to find locating array of a given size. The whole algorithm repeatedly executes the simulated annealing algorithm with the input array size being dynamically varied.

Results

Experimental results show (1) that the proposed algorithm is able to construct locating arrays for problem instances of large sizes and (2) that, for problem instances for which nontrivial locating arrays are known, the algorithm is often able to generate locating arrays that are smaller than or at least equal to the known arrays.

Conclusion

Based on the results, we conclude that the proposed algorithm can produce small locating arrays and scale to practical problems.

中文翻译：

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使用模拟退火定位阵列结构

语境

众所周知，组合交互测试是用于计算和信息系统的有效测试策略。定位数组是可用于此测试策略的数学对象，因为它们可以用作允许故障定位和故障检测的测试套件。在此应用程序中，数组的每一行都用作单独的测试。

目的

本文提出了一种用于构造行数少的定位数组的算法。测试成本随着测试数量的增加而增加；因此，寻找小尺寸的定位阵列的问题具有实际的重要性。

方法

所提出的算法使用模拟退火（一种元启发式算法）来查找给定大小的定位数组。整个算法在输入数组大小动态变化的情况下重复执行模拟退火算法。

结果

实验结果表明：（1）提出的算法能够为大尺寸的问题实例构造定位数组；（2）对于已知非平凡定位数组的问题实例，该算法通常能够生成定位数组。小于或至少等于已知数组。

结论

根据结果​​，我们得出的结论是，该算法可以产生较小的定位数组，并可以解决实际问题。