Constructions of covering arrays of strength five (Q663479)

A covering array \(\text{CA}(N;t,k,v)\) is an \(N \times k\) array with entries from a set \(X\) of \(v\) symbols such that every \(N \times t\) sub-array contains all \(t\)-tuples over \(X\) at least in one row. Then \(t\) is the strength of coverage of interactions, \(k\) is the number of components (degree) and \(v\) is the number of symbols for each component (order). When ``at least'' is replaced by ``exactly'' this defines an orthogonal array denoted by \(\text{OA}(N;t,k,v)\) or \(\text{OA}(t,k,v)\). The minimum size \(N\) for which a \(\text{CA}(N;t,k,v)\) exists is called the covering array number and written as \(\text{CAN}(t,k,n)\). Covering arrays and especially orthogonal arrays are of interest in their own right and also as ingredients in the construction of other useful combinatorial objects. They have significant applications to generating software test suits which cover all sets of component interactions. But the problems faced in software interaction testing are not unique and hence they have attracted considerable attention. It is well known that the difference covering arrays and difference matrices are instrumental in the construction of certain types of covering arrays. A difference covering array or a \(\text{DCA} (k,n:v)\) is a \(k \times n\) array \((a_{ij})\) (\(1\leq j\leq k\), \(i\leq j\leq n\)) with entries from a certain additive graph \(G\) of order \(v\), such that from any two distinct rows \(l\) and \(h\) of \(D\) (\(1\leq l<h\leq k\)) the difference list \(\Delta_{lh} = (d_{h1}-d_{l1}, d_{h2}-d_{l2}, \dots, d_{hn}-d_{ln})\), contains every element of \(G\) at least once. When ``at least'' is replaced by ``exactly'', this defines a difference matrix (\((v,k,1)\)-DM). It was shown in [\textit{C. J. Colbourn}, ``Combinatorial aspects of covering arrays,'' Matematiche 59, No. 1--2, 125--172 (2004; Zbl 1195.05017)] that \(\text{DCA}(k,n;v)\) can be used to construct a \(\text{CA}(vn; 2,k,v)\) and in [\textit{L. Ji} and \textit{J. Yin}, ``Constructions of new orthogonal arrays and covering arrays of strength three,'' J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 117, No. 3, 236--247 (2010; Zbl 1228.05087)], a \(\text{DCA}(4,n;v)\) can be used to construct a \(\text{CA} (nv2; 3,5,v)\) and \(\text{DCA}(4,n;v)\) associated with an adder can be used to construct a \(\text{CA}(nv2; 3,6,v)\). In the present paper, the authors extend these earlier results by establishing two new constructive methods to obtain covering arrays of strength 5 by using difference covering arrays and holey difference matrices with a prescribed property. As a consequence some new upper bounds on covering array numbers are also obtained.