Agressive transmissions over redundant paths

Abstract

Fault-tolerant computer systems have redundant paths connecting their components. Given these paths, it is possible to use aggressive techniques to reduce the average value and variability of the response time for critical messages. One technique is to send a copy of a packet over an alternate path before it is known if the first copy failed or was delayed. A second technique is to split a single stream of packets over multiple paths. The authors analyze both approaches and show that these techniques can provide significant improvements over conventional, conservative mechanisms.