Fault Tolerant Approaches for Distributed Real-Time and Embedded Systems
Citation:
Paul Rubel, Matthew Gillen, Joseph Loyall, Aniruddha Gokhale, Jaiganesh Balasubramanian, Priya Narasimhan, and Aaron Paulos . Fault Tolerant Approaches for Distributed Real-Time and Embedded Systems . Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), Orlando, Florida, October 29-31, 2007.
Formats:
PDF
Abstract
Fault tolerance (FT) is a crucial design
consideration for mission-critical distributed real-time and embedded
(DRE) systems, which combine the real-time characteristics of embedded
platforms with the dynamic characteristics of distributed
platforms. Traditional FT approaches do not address features that are
common in DRE systems, such as scale, heterogeneity, real-time
requirements, and other characteristics. Most previous R&D efforts in
FT have focused on client-server object systems, whereas DRE systems
are increasingly based on component-oriented architectures, which
support more complex interaction patterns, such as peer-to-peer. This
paper describes our current applied R&D efforts to develop FT
technology for DRE systems. First, we describe three enhanced FT
techniques that support the needs of DRE systems: a transparent
approach to mixed-mode communication, auto-configuration of dynamic
systems, and duplicate management for peer-to-peer
interactions. Second, we describe an integrated FT capability for a
real-world component-based DRE system that uses off-the-shelf FT
middleware integrated with our enhanced FT techniques. We present
experimental results that show that our integrated FT capability meets
the DRE system's real-time performance requirements for both the
responsiveness of failure recovery and the minimal amount of overhead
introduced into the fault-free case.
