Designing adaptable real-time fault-tolerant parallel systems

Abstract

There are two fundamental aspects in the design of the real-time systems: meeting real-time constraints and reliability. These two aspects are in conflict and are usually researched separately. To provide for fault-tolerance, there is the need for a greater execution time; but on the other hand, real-time systems require tasks to be completed by their deadlines. There is a clear and urgent need for mechanisms that are able to integrate the real-time and the reliability requirements. So, it is necessary to address the real-time and fault-tolerance requirements together during the design of the system. This would make the development of reliable real-time systems simple and efficient. Our approach is based on the idea that if the system is adaptable then reliability is easier to achieve. We have developed a mechanism, known as real-time recoverable action (RTR-action), which integrates the real-time and the reliability requirements.