Fault Tolerance for Multiprocessor Systems Via Time Redundant Task Scheduling

Fault tolerance is often considered as a good additional feature for multiprocessor systems but nowadays it is becoming an essential attribute. Fault tolerance can be achieved by the use of dedicated customized hardware that may have the disadvantage of large cost. Another approach to fault tolerance is to exploit existing redundancy in multiprocessor systems via a task scheduling software strategy based on time redundancy. Time redundancy reduces the expense of additional hardware needed to achieve fault tolerance at the expense of additional computation time, which is more affordable. In this paper we present a general-purpose time redundant task-scheduling scheme for real time multiprocessor systems that is capable of tolerating various hardware and software faults. Our experimental simulation results show that our technique is highly effective, feasible, and promising.