A novel approach to fault tolerant information and control system design

Design and construction of information and control systems (ICSs) for objects where failure would be critical is an important scientific problem. Such ICSs require both fault tolerance and survivability. Common methods and facilities for addressing fault tolerance do not use the capabilities of modern telecommunications equipment. In this paper, we present an integrated approach that allows to level up the fault-tolerance of an ICS, and requires new methods and algorithms for the reconfiguring procedure. The problem of defining the configuration is formalised, and results of an experimental study of the effectiveness of asynchronous parallel simulated annealing are presented and discussed.