Using Parameter Mapping to Avoid Forbidden Tuples in a Covering Array

Published

April 22, 2019

Author(s)

Raghu N. Kacker, David R. Kuhn, Yu Lei

Abstract

This paper addresses an optimization problem that occurs when we try to remove from a covering array (CA) the rows that do not satisfy a given set of constraints. That is, how to minimize the number of rows to be removed? The key observation is that the columns of a CA can be swapped without affecting coverage. This makes it possible to explore different ways to map the parameters involved in the constraints to the columns in the CA, which further allows us to reduce the number of rows that must be removed. In order to find an optimal mapping, our approach maps one parameter at a time and employs a greedy algorithm that tries to minimize the number of rows to be removed at each step. We report several experiments in which we compared our approach to two other approaches,i.e., the identity- based approach, and the random approach. The results show that our approach can remove fewer rows than the other two approaches.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation
ICST 2019 Workshops

Conference Dates

April 22-27, 2019

Conference Location

Xian

Conference Title

IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation
ICST 2019

Pub Type

Conferences

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DOI Link

Keywords

Combinatorial Testing, Constraints, Covering Array, Parameter Mapping, Removing Invalid Rows

Citation

Kacker, R. , Kuhn, D. and Lei, Y. (2019), Using Parameter Mapping to Avoid Forbidden Tuples in a Covering Array, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation ICST 2019 Workshops, Xian, -1, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSTW.2019.00060 (Accessed May 1, 2025)