Fault-Tolerant Transmission Lane Control for High Availability
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing fault-tolerant apparatuses face challenges in identifying and resolving faults in transmission lanes, leading to inability to achieve a duplicated state when a fault occurs, resulting in low availability.
Innovation Solution
A controlling device that functionally activates and embeds transmission lanes using a lock-step method, determining the success of embedding operations across multiple transmission lanes and switching to alternative lanes to maintain system availability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a subsystem is functionally separated from the fault tolerant apparatus when a fault occurs in transmission lanes, then the subsystem is replaced, but the fault cannot be solved and duplicated state cannot be realized
Solution Approach 1:
The transmission lanes are segmented into multiple independent lanes (first transmission lane and second transmission lane) connecting the same subsystems. When a fault occurs in one lane, only that specific lane is deactivated while other lanes remain operational, allowing the system to maintain functionality without requiring complete subsystem replacement.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically switches between different transmission lanes based on fault detection. The controller can activate or deactivate specific transmission lanes in real-time, transitioning from a static configuration to a dynamic one that adapts to fault conditions, thereby maintaining system reliability without complex reconfiguration.
2Reliability
If all transmission lanes are deactivated when embedding operation fails, then fault isolation is achieved, but system availability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of deactivating all transmission lanes when a fault is detected, the system segments the transmission lanes and deactivates only the faulty one. This allows fault isolation while maintaining system availability through the operation of remaining healthy lanes.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the operational parameters of transmission lanes dynamically - switching from a state where all lanes are active to a state where only specific lanes are active based on fault conditions. This parameter change enables fault isolation while preserving system productivity through partial operation.
3Reliability
If module replacement is performed to solve transmission lane faults, then the fault is resolved, but the fault tolerant apparatus must be stopped
Solution Approach 1:
The system prepares multiple transmission lanes in advance as backup paths. When a fault occurs, the switch to an alternative pre-configured lane can be performed without stopping the system, eliminating the need for shutdowns that would occur with module replacement approaches.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates redundant copies of transmission functionality through multiple parallel transmission lanes. When one lane fails, the system can copy the operational role to another lane, maintaining system operation without requiring physical module replacement or system shutdown.
Data Source
AI summary
A controlling device includes a controller that executes control to functionally activate of, at least, a part of transmission lanes in multiple transmission lanes connecting a plurality of subsystems which run based on a lock-step method and an embedder that executes an embedding operation to realize a multiplexing state using the part of transmission lanes controlled to functionally activate by the controller and the plurality of the subsystems, wherein, the controller determines whether or not the embedding operation succeeds, determines, when the embedding operation fails, whether or not an embedding operation using another part of transmission lanes, of the multiple transmission lanes, different from the part of transmission lanes used in the failure embedding operation, and executes, when the corporation processing succeeds, control to functionally activate the another part of transmission lanes.