Energy-aware deterministic fault tolerance in distributed real-time embedded systems

Abstract

We investigate a unified approach for fault tolerance and dynamic power management in distributed real-time embedded systems. Coordinated checkpointing is used to achieve fault tolerance, and power management is carried out using dynamic voltage scaling. We present feasibility-of-scheduling tests for coordinated checkpointing schemes for a constant processor speed as well as for DVS-enabled processors that can operate at variable speeds. Simulation results based on the CORDS hardware/software co-synthesis system show that, compared to fault-oblivious methods, the proposed approach significantly reduces power consumption while guaranteeing timely task completion in the presence of faults.