Timing Failure Detection with a Timely Computing Base

António Casimiro and Paulo Veríssimo

Proceedings of the Third European Research Seminar on Advances in Distributed Systems (ERSADS'99), Madeira Island, Portugal, April 23-28, 1999.

Abstract

In a recent report we proposed an architectural construct to address the problem of dealing with timeliness specifications in a generic way. We called it the Timely Computing Base, TCB. The TCB defines a set of services available to applications, including timely execution, duration measurement and timing failure detection. We showed how these services could be used to build dependable and timely applications. In this paper we further extend the description of the TCB, namely by presenting a protocol for its Timing Failure Detection (TFD) service. We discuss the essential aspects of providing such a service under the TCB framework and make some considerations relative to the service interface.

Get extended report (gzip postscript).

Also available as DI/FCUL TR-99-8