Fault Tolerance

Learning Objective:

For fault-tolerant systems, like the Internet:

a. Describe the benefits of fault tolerance. 

b. Explain how a given system is fault-tolerant. 

c. Identify vulnerabilities to failure in a system. 

The Internet has been engineered to be faulttolerant, with abstractions for routing and

transmitting data.

CSN-1.E.2

Redundancy is the inclusion of extra

components that can be used to mitigate

failure of a system if other components fail.

CSN-1.E.3

One way to accomplish network redundancy is

by having more than one path between any two

connected devices.

CSN-1.E.4

If a particular device or connection on the

Internet fails, subsequent data will be sent via a

different route, if possible.

CSN-1.E.5

When a system can support failures and still

continue to function, it is called fault-tolerant.

This is important because elements of complex

systems fail at unexpected times, often in

groups, and fault tolerance allows users to

continue to use the network.

CSN-1.E.6

Redundancy within a system often requires

additional resources but can provide the

benefit of fault tolerance.

CSN-1.E.7

The redundancy of routing options between

two points increases the reliability of the

Internet and helps it scale to more devices and

more people