Wireless reconfigurability of fault-tolerant processing systems

Abstract

This thesis examines the use of wireless data buses for communication in a real-time computer system designed for applications with high reliability requirements. This work is based on the Draper Laboratory Software Based Redundancy Management System (SBRMS), which is a fault-tolerant system architecture that uses data exchange and voting via Ethernet connections between redundant hardware components to detect and recover from faults. For this thesis, a triplex redundant system was developed that utilized the key features from the SBRMS design, including commercial-off-the-shelf hardware components and robust software partitioning, while replacing the standard Ethernet connection with a wireless Ethernet connection. The implementation of this system is presented and the benefits and potential applications of such a system are discussed.