What it does
Admission mode applies timing stabilisation at entry and admission points to keep critical services usable during stress.
It targets tail latency amplification, jitter and drift that commonly lead to cascading failure, especially when retries and dependency chains begin to dominate behaviour.
It is designed to preserve baseline performance characteristics while reducing the probability of timing driven collapse under severe but plausible conditions.
How it is deployed
Delivered as a lightweight API or sidecar service that sits alongside your stack.
Does not modify payloads, business logic or authoritative timestamps.
Designed to be straightforward to trial with clear rollback behaviour and minimal operational risk.
How it works in practice
Admission mode is typically applied at points where systems decide what to accept next and how to recover when the tail dominates.
That often includes request admission, worker scheduling, retry coordination, queue behaviour and dependency call patterns.
We work with your engineering team to identify the highest impact start and end points and define a safe evaluation plan.
Operational resilience context
Regulatory guidance on operational resilience emphasises maintaining access to critical services during incidents and severe but plausible scenarios.
In the UK and EU, regulators such as the FCA and PRA increasingly focus on whether firms can sustain access to critical services under stress, rather than on the presence of specific technical controls.
These approaches prioritise outcomes such as availability, graceful degradation and predictable behaviour during disruption.
Admission mode is designed to address timing driven failure modes that commonly cause loss of access during incidents. It is intended to operate alongside existing security controls, governance and incident response processes.
Common causes of access loss during incidents
Short patterns seen in real distributed systems under stress.
Retry amplification Bursty traffic and self reinforcing load
- Retries drift out of sync
- Backoffs stop behaving predictably
- Tail stalls spread across services
Auth and session cascades Critical access paths fail first
- Login and token flows become unstable
- Dependency chains amplify latency tails
- Temporary loss of access becomes likely
Queue and dependency collapse Long tail stalls become systemic
- Queues stop behaving predictably
- Stalls spread through dependent services
- Recovery takes longer than expected
Graceful degradation Stable execution rather than hard failure
- Reduce tail amplification under stress
- Preserve baseline performance characteristics
- Keep critical paths usable during adverse conditions
Admission mode focuses on behavioural stability under stress, preserving access without trading away baseline performance.
FAQ
Is Admission mode a separate product? No, it is an operating mode
No. Admission mode is an operating mode of the FoundScript Timing Layer, applied at entry and admission points to keep behaviour predictable during stress.
Does Admission mode block attacks or replace security controls? Security is still required
No. It does not filter traffic, inspect payloads or enforce policy. It operates alongside existing security controls to help maintain predictable behaviour during stress.
Does Admission mode change application logic, data or authoritative timestamps? No payload or logic changes
No. It does not modify payloads, business logic or authoritative timestamps.
How is Admission mode deployed and how reversible is it? Designed for low risk evaluation
It is delivered as a lightweight API or sidecar service with clear rollback behaviour designed to minimise operational risk during evaluation.
What should be measured in an evaluation? Metrics that matter for access
Measure access success rates for critical paths, tail latency under stress, retry amplification behaviour, queue stability and time to recovery after burst events.
For evaluations, pilots or operational support, email:
info@foundscript.com
Typical response time is one to two business days.