Performance evaluation of a realtime fault tolerant distributed system

A validated fault-tolerant distributed computer system architecture for real-time aerospace applications, the advanced information processing system (AIPS), is discussed. AIPS consists of fault-tolerant data processors, fault-tolerant networks which interconnect processors to each other and to sensors, actuators, displays and subsystems, and a set of system services embodied in the system software. A performability database is one part of the total knowledgebase that will aid in the validation of the building blocks. A performability knowledgebase will also enable the system designer to configure the building blocks to meet specific mission requirements with a high degree of confidence. The performability knowledgebase consists of analytical and empirical relationships between major domains: performance, reliability, and architectural parameters. A set of performance and reliability metrics that characterize real-time distributed fault-tolerant architectures is described. The performability data obtained empirically from an engineering model of AIPS are also presented