Once upon a time, before Wi-Fi, computers would all talk to each other via a network cable called Ethernet. It was a big yellow cable and you had to drill into it in order to install a "vampire tap" in order to attach a computer to it.
That vampire tap was a huge vulnerability, for if even a single strand of stray copper wire or dirt got in there, it would short everything out and the entire network would go down. And it was nearly impossible to troubleshoot without highly specialized equipment. Since our network had to be reliable in order not to lose any spacecraft data, a solution to this vulnerability was needed.
Me and a NASA co-worker came up with a solution. Have TWO yellow Ethernet cables and two network connections per computer. If one network cable failed, the backup would automatically be selected. Even better, if there was too much activity for one cable to handle, the system would go into "Load Balancing" mode and route some traffic to one cable and some to the other. We received a NASA patent for this invention in 1989.