Improving maintenance of FT4FTT: Extending it to monitor and log its available redundancy via internet
Manuel Barranco, Adel Zendouh, Alberto Ballesteros, Julián Proenza · 2016
The FT4FTT project aims at proposing a complete Fault-Tolerant (FT) architecture for Real-Time (RT) critical adaptative Distributed Embedded Control Systems (DECSs) based on Ethernet. FT4FTT tolerates permanent faults in the channel and nodes by using a duplicated Flexible Time-Triggered (FTT) Switched Ethernet star and active replication of the nodes. It also includes mechanisms for node replicas to diagnose and reintegrate after temporary faults affecting the channel or their internal circuitry. However, FT4FTT has no mechanism to deal with channel and node redundancy attrition provoked by permanent faults. This paper presents our ongoing work to extend FT4FTT to both monitor/log its available redundancy, and to remotely access this information via Internet. This will allow to carry out proper maintenance actions, for instance, to timely restore the adequate redundancy level, forecast repairs, and assess the flexibility of the FT mechanisms of adaptative systems.