GPS week number rollover bug
Some older GPS receivers and GPS-dependent systems across aviation, telecom, and consumer devices worldwide briefly showed incorrect dates or lost synchronization around the rollover date.
The damage was public. The root cause was preventable.
Some older GPS receivers and GPS-dependent systems across aviation, telecom, and consumer devices worldwide briefly showed incorrect dates or lost synchronization around the rollover date.
What the software actually got wrong
GPS satellites broadcast the week number using a 10-bit field that rolls over (resets to zero) roughly every 19.7 years, and receivers or downstream software that had not been updated to handle the rollover miscalculated the current date.
GPS satellites broadcast the week number using a 10-bit...
GPS satellites broadcast the week number using a 10-bit field that rolls over (resets to zero) roughly every 19.7 years
Requs AI Edge Case flags this exact pattern at the requirements and architecture stage — before a single line of code implementing it exists — so the assumption behind it gets challenged while it is still cheap to fix.
Receivers or downstream software that had not been updated...
receivers or downstream software that had not been updated to handle the rollover miscalculated the current date
Requs AI Software FMEA traces this failure mode back to the system-level hazard it feeds, tagging it against the Common Defect Enumeration so it surfaces in review instead of in the field.
Beyond code coverage and "shall" testing
Root causes like this one rarely show up in code coverage or requirements-compliance testing, because nobody wrote a requirement anticipating the specific edge case that broke. Requs AI Edge Case and Requs AI Software FMEA are built to surface exactly this class of overlooked failure mode — before the software is written.
Surfaces this before code exists
Identifies edge cases like this one at requirements and architecture time, using the Common Defect Enumeration to catalog failure patterns seen across hundreds of real-world software failures — including this one.
Connects the failure mode to the hazard
Traces this class of root cause directly to the system-level hazard it can produce, so a defect pattern like this one gets flagged during design review instead of after it ships.
Find the overlooked root causes before they ship.
Schedule a demonstration, or explore how Requs AI Edge Case and Software FMEA use the Common Defect Enumeration.