Advanced Primary-Backup Platform with Container-Based Automatic Deployment for Fault-Tolerant Systems

Abstract

Within mission-critical systems, the primary-backup scheme is a desirable approach for improving reliability and fault tolerance. It can be used to ensure a high mission success rate despite unexpected errors. However, it must cope with the need to maintain consistency between a primary and a backup whenever the primary encounters unexpected errors. We overcome this issue by introducing a platform that uses container-based light virtualization and an automatic build system to isolate an application so that it may then be deployed on different devices without manual intervention. We believe an advanced deployment procedure can retain the consistency of the primary-backup systems with low implementation complexity. Integrated with a cloud application, it can also manage mission-critical systems effectively, communicate with the redundant systems, and detect unexpected errors by using sophisticated fault-detection technologies. We demonstrate that the platform can improve the reliability of mission-critical systems through realistic experiment using a model electronic vehicle and can reduce hardware dependencies.