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http://dx.doi.org/10.9717/kmms.2015.18.6.723

Long-Tail Watchdog Timer for High Availability on STM32F4-Based Real-Time Embedded Systems  

Choi, Hayeon (Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, Ewha Womans University)
Yun, Jiwan (Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, Ewha Womans University)
Park, Seoyeon (Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, Ewha Womans University)
Kim, Yesol (Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, Ewha Womans University)
Park, Sangsoo (Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, Ewha Womans University)
Publication Information
Journal of Korea Multimedia Society / v.18, no.6, 2015 , pp. 723-733 More about this Journal
Abstract
High availability is of utmost importance in real-time embedded systems. Temporary failures due to software or hardware faults should not result in a system crash. To achieve high availability, embedded systems typically use a combination of hardware and software techniques. A watchdog timer is a hardware component in embedded microprocessors that can be used to automatically reset the processor if software anomalies are detected. The embedded system relies on a single watchdog timer, however, can be permanently disabled if the timer is not properly configured, e.g. falling into an indefinite loop. STM32F4 provides two different types of watchdog timer in terms of timing accuracy and robustness. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach, called long-tail watchdog timer, to utilize both timers to achieve self-reliance in embedded systems even though one of timers fails. Experimental results confirm that the proposed approach successfully handles various failure scenarios and present performance comparisons between single watchdog timer and hybrid approach in terms of configuration parameters of watchdog timers in STM32F4, counter value and window size.
Keywords
Watchdog Timer; STM32F4; High Availability; System Failure; Hard Reset;
Citations & Related Records
Times Cited By KSCI : 2  (Citation Analysis)
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