DISTRIBUTED PROCESS REDUNDANCY

A distributed software redundancy design is disclosed to minimize network outages and other problems associated with component/process failures by spreading software backup (in the so-called “hot state”) across multiple elements. The distributed redundancy architecture of the present invention also permits the location of the hardware backup element to float, that is, if a primary element fails, the functions can be transferred over to the backup element. When the failed primary element is replaced, the replacement hardware can serve as the hardware backup. If one or more of the primary processes on a particular element experiences a software fault, the processor on the line card may terminate and restart the failing process or processes. Once the process or processes are restarted, a copy of the last known dynamic state (i.e., the backup state) can be retrieved a from corresponding backup processes executing on a second line card and initiate an audit process to synchronize retrieved state with the dynamic state of associated other processes.