A Spatial-Temporal Model for Software Fault Tolerance in Safety-Critical Applications

Abstract

Software Fault Tolerance (SFT) techniques are most frequently used in various safety-critical applications, such as aerospace, vehicles and electric power systems, where software often play as central controllers. One of such SFT techniques is Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR), which is the most commonly adopted scheme for its simplicity and efficiency. Traditional TMR method mainly focuses on replication in structure, while transient faults caused by events of Single Event Transient are not tackled efficiently and economically. In this paper, we propose a novel model for SFT, aiming to improve the performance in both spatial and temporal aspects. A complete workflow of the proposed model, including phases of plan, design and verification, is also introduced. We use this proposed model in practice of aerospace projects. Experimental result reveals the model can achieve high efficiency, and is suitable for complicated software running on resources limited embedded chips.