heartbeat

Heartbeats are control signals that monitor the functionality of components and transmission links. They originate from the time of classic Ethernet, but are also used in failover clusters and in automotive technology.

1. In Ethernet, a heartbeat is a control signal that the controller sends to the transceiver tocheck its functionality. The heartbeat signal is also transmitted between computer nodes. Based on such a signal, the deputy node determines the operability of the corresponding nodes.
2. In datareplication and backup, heartbeats check the functionality of servers. In failover clusters, the replication servers send a regular heartbeat to the main server to check its functionality. If the heartbeat is not answered accordingly, the replication server switches on and takes over data storage.
3. In the operating and display protocol( BAP), which is used in automotive technology for driver assistance, there is a heartbeat function for monitoring the ECUs.