Covering arrays of higher strength from permutation vectors

Abstract

Abstract A covering array CA(N;t,k,v) is an N × k array such that every N × t sub‐array contains all t ‐tuples from v symbols at least once, where t is the strength of the array. Covering arrays are used to generate software test suites to cover all t ‐sets of component interactions. We introduce a combinatorial technique for their construction, focussing on covering arrays of strength 3 and 4. With a computer search, covering arrays with improved parameters have been found. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 14: 202–213, 2006