Progressive Retry for Software Error Recovery in Distributed Systems

In this paper, we describe a method of execution retry for bypassing software faults based on check pointing, rollback, message reordering and replaying. We demonstrate how rollback techniques, previously developed for transient hardware failure recovery, can also be used to recover from software errors by exploiting message reordering to bypass software faults. Our approach intentionally increases the degree of nondeterminism and the scope of rollback when a previous retry fails. Examples from our experience with telecommunications software systems illustrate the benefits of the scheme. ; Prepared in cooperation with AT&T Bell Lab., Murray Hill, NJ.