Toward Fault-Tolerant Deadlock-Free Routing in HyperSurface-Embedded Controller Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a fault-tolerant, deadlock-free routing protocol for controller networks in HyperSurfaces, capable of handling numerous faults in irregular network topologies, ensuring reliable electromagnetic property reconfiguration.

Contribution

It presents a novel deterministic routing protocol that tolerates multiple faults within disjoint faulty blocks in irregular controller networks embedded in HyperSurfaces.

Findings

Protocol supports unbounded faulty nodes outside faulty blocks

Simulation confirms robustness under various fault distributions

Ensures deadlock- and livelock-free routing in irregular topologies

Abstract

HyperSurfaces (HSFs) consist of structurally reconfigurable metasurfaces whose electromagnetic properties can be changed via a software interface, using an embedded miniaturized network of controllers. With the HSF controllers, interconnected in an irregular, near-Manhattan geometry, we propose a robust, deterministic Fault-Tolerant (FT), deadlock- and livelock-free routing protocol where faults are contained in a set of disjointed rectangular regions called faulty blocks. The proposed FT protocol can support an unbounded number of faulty nodes as long as nodes outside the faulty blocks are connected. Simulation results show the efficacy of the proposed FT protocol under various faulty node distribution scenarios.