Headings denoted with an asterisk ( * ) is retrieved from the course syllabus version Spring 2019
Content and learning outcomes
Course contents
Fault tolerance is the ability of a system to continue performing its intended function despite of faults. In a broad sense, fault tolerance is associated with reliability, with successful operation, and with the absence of breakdowns.
The ultimate goal of fault tolerance is the development of a dependable system. As computer systems become relied upon by society more and more, dependability of these systems becomes a critical issue. In airplanes, chemical plants, heart pace-makers or other safety critical applications, a system failure can cost people's lives or environmental disaster.
There are various approaches to achieve fault-tolerance. Common to all these approaches is a certain amount of redundancy. This can a replicated hardware component, an additional check bit attached to a string of digital data, or a few lines of program code verifying the correctness of the program's results. In this course, we are going to study hardware as well and software fault tolerance. The rapid development of real-time computing applications that started around the mid-1990s, especially the demand for software-embedded intelligent devices, made software fault tolerance a pressing issue.
The following is a tentative list of topics to be covered:
Introduction
Definition of fault tolerance
Redundancy
Applications of fault-tolerance
Fundamentals of dependability
Attributes: reliability, availability, safety
Impairments: faults, errors and failures
Means: fault prevention, removal and forecasting
Dependability evaluation
Common measures: failures rate, mean time to failure, mean time to repair, etc.
Reliability block diagrams
Markov processes
Hardware redundancy
Redundancy schemes
Evaluation and comparison
Applications
Information redundancy
Codes: linear, Hamming, cyclic, unordered, arithmetic, etc.
ANN1 - Assignment, 1.5 credits, Grading scale: A, B, C, D, E, FX, F
TEN1 - Examination, 1.5 credits, Grading scale: A, B, C, D, E, FX, F
TEN2 - Examination, 4.5 credits, Grading scale: A, B, C, D, E, FX, F
Based on recommendation from KTH’s coordinator for disabilities, the examiner will decide how to adapt an examination for students with documented disability.
The examiner may apply another examination format when re-examining individual students.
The section below is not retrieved from the course syllabus:
Assignment ( ANN1 )
Examination ( TEN1 )
Examination ( TEN2 )
Other requirements for final grade
The final grade is based on five homework assignments (20%), a midterm exam (20%) and a final exam (60%). For PhD students, an additional task will be to read and present a paper approved by the instructor (20 min talk).
Ethical approach
All members of a group are responsible for the group's work.
In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used.
In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.