Flexible Scheduling in Middleware for Distributed rate-based real-time applications - Doctoral Dissertation, May 2002

Distributed rate-based real-time systems, such as process control and avionics mission computing systems, have traditionally been scheduled statically. Static scheduling provides assurance of schedulability prior to run-time overhead. However, static scheduling is brittle in the face of unanticipated overload, and treats invocation-to-invocation variations in resource requirements inflexibly. As a consequence, processing resources are often under-utilized in the average case, and the resulting systems are hard to adapt to meet new real-time processing requirements. Dynamic scheduling offers relief from the limitations of static scheduling. However, dynamic scheduling offers relief from the limitations of static scheduling. However, dynamic scheduling often has a high run-time cost because certain decisions are enforced on-line. Furthermore, under conditions of overload tasks can be scheduled dynamically that may never be dispatched, or that upon dispatch would miss their deadlines. We review the implications of these factors on rate-based distributed systems, and posits the necessity to combine static and dynamic approaches to exploit the strengths and compensate for the weakness of either approach in isolation. We present a general hybrid approach to real-time scheduling and dispatching in middleware, that can employ both static and dynamic components. This approach provides (1) feasibility assurance for the most critical tasks, (2) the ability to extend this assurance incrementally to operations in successively lower criticality equivalence classes, (3) the ability to trade off bounds on feasible utilization and dispatching over-head in cases where, for example, execution jitter is a factor or rates are not harmonically related, and (4) overall flexibility to make more optimal use of scarce computing resources and to enforce a wider range of application-specified execution requirements. This approach also meets additional constraints of an increasingly important class of rate-based systems, those with requirements for robust management of real-time performance in the face of rapidly and widely changing operating conditions. To support these requirements, we present a middleware framework that implements the hybrid scheduling and dispatching approach described above, and also provides support for (1) adaptive re-scheduling of operations at run-time and (2) reflective alternation among several scheduling strategies to improve real-time performance in the face of changing operating conditions. Adaptive re-scheduling must be performed whenever operating conditions exceed the ability of the scheduling and dispatching infrastructure to meet the critical real-time requirements of the system under the currently specified rates and execution times of operations. Adaptive re-scheduling relies on the ability to change the rates of execution of at least some operations, and may occur under the control of a higher-level middleware resource manager. Different rates of execution may be specified under different operating conditions, and the number of such possible combinations may be arbitrarily large. Furthermore, adaptive rescheduling may in turn require notification of rate-sensitive application components. It is therefore desirable to handle variations in operating conditions entirely within the scheduling and dispatching infrastructure when possible. A rate-based distributed real-time application, or a higher-level resource manager, could thus fall back on adaptive re-scheduling only when it cannot achieve acceptable real-time performance through self-adaptation. Reflective alternation among scheduling heuristics offers a way to tune real-time performance internally, and we offer foundational support for this approach. In particular, run-time observable information such as that provided by our metrics-feedback framework makes it possible to detect that a given current scheduling heuristic is underperforming the level of service another could provide. Furthermore we present empirical results for our framework in a realistic avionics mission computing environment. This forms the basis for guided adaption. This dissertation makes five contributions in support of flexible and adaptive scheduling and dispatching in middleware. First, we provide a middle scheduling framework that supports arbitrary and fine-grained composition of static/dynamic scheduling, to assure critical timeliness constraints while improving noncritical performance under a range of conditions. Second, we provide a flexible dispatching infrastructure framework composed of fine-grained primitives, and describe how appropriate configurations can be generated automatically based on the output of the scheduling framework. Third, we describe algorithms to reduce the overhead and duration of adaptive rescheduling, based on sorting for rate selection and priority assignment. Fourth, we provide timely and efficient performance information through an optimized metrics-feedback framework, to support higher-level reflection and adaptation decisions. Fifth, we present the results of empirical studies to quantify and evaluate the performance of alternative canonical scheduling heuristics, across a range of load and load jitter conditions. These studies were conducted within an avionics mission computing applications framework running on realistic middleware and embedded hardware. The results obtained from these studies (1) demonstrate the potential benefits of reflective alternation among distinct scheduling heuristics at run-time, and (2) suggest performance factors of interest for future work on adaptive control policies and mechanisms using this framework

Explorando descartes de ativações periódicas para provimento de qualidade de serviço em redes IEEE 802.15.4

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Automação e SistemasAtualmente, tem se considerado cada vez mais o uso de redes sem fios em sistemas de automação industrial e controle de processos. Sistemas de Controle via Rede são exemplos de aplicações em que busca-se implantar em ambientes industriais. Para estes tipos de aplicações, o suporte à serviços de comunicação tempo real é uma das maiores necessidades. Tradicionalmente, aplicações de tempo real industriais assumem que nenhuma amostra será perdida durante os ciclos de controle. Contudo, alguns estudos realizados nos últimos anos indicam que os efeitos dos descartes de mensagens frente ao desempenho dos sistemas de controle podem ser compensados com emprego de outras técnicas. O padrão IEEE 802.15.4 têm se mostrado uma solução atrativa para uma vasta gama de aplicações no campo das Redes de Sensores sem Fios e mais recentemente no campo da instrumentação sem fios. Sendo assim, esta tese tem por objetivo principal propor abordagens de provimento de Qualidade de Serviço (QoS) em redes IEEE 802.15.4 para aplicações de tempo real que tolerem perdas de deadline. Primeiramente, um mecanismo de priorização de tráfego para dispositivos de tempo real, durante períodos de acesso com contenção (CAP) foi proposto. Este mecanismo, denominado DDBP, oferece de forma descentralizada aos dispositivos que desejam realizar suas transmissões durante o CAP, priorização de acesso ao meio de comunicação de acordo com a distância para falha dos dispositivos. Posteriormente, duas abordagens de escalonamento durante períodos de acesso sem contenção (CFP) foram propostas: abordagem SDBP, a qual oferece garantias de atendimento de deadline às aplicações, através de um teste de escalonabilidade determinístico e uma heurística on-line de priorização de mensagens; e abordagem (m,k)-spin, a qual apresenta uma análise de escalonabilidade baseada no conceito de período de nível de ocupação. As abordagens propostas voltadas para o escalonamento durante o CFP oferecem garantias temporais para as aplicações com restrições de QoS, modeladas de acordo com o modelo de tarefas (m,k)-firm. Dispositivos que não conseguem realizar suas transmissões durante períodos livres de contenção, poderão realizar suas transmissões utilizando a abordagem de priorização de tráfego tempo real desenvolvida para o CAP.In the last few years, the use of wireless networks has been increasingly seen in industrial automation and process control. Network Control Systems are examples of driving applications in industrial environments. For these types of applications, support for real-time communications services is one of the major requirements. In traditional approaches, many of these real-time applications assume no data losses during the control cycle. However some more recent studies indicate that the effect of control messages discards upon the performance of the control systems may be significantly encompassed with the adoption of other techniques. The IEEE 802.15.4 protocol is an attractive solution for a wide range of applications in the field of Wireless Sensors Networks and more recently in the field of wireless instrumentation. Thus, this thesis aims to propose approaches to providing Quality of Service (QoS) in IEEE 802.15.4 for real-time applications that tolerate deadline misses. First, a mechanism for prioritizing traffic for real time devices during Contention Access Periods (CAP) was proposed. This mechanism, called DDBP offers in a decentralized way, priority access in accordance to the distance to device failure. Subsequently, two approaches to scheduling during Contention Free Periods (CFP) were proposed: SDBP approach which provides deadlines guarantees by the adoption of a deterministic scheduling test and an on-line prioritization heuristic; and (m,k)-spin approach, which presents a schedulability analysis based on the busy period concept. The proposed approaches applied to the CFP scheduling provide temporal guarantees for applications with QoS constraints, modelled according to the (m,k)-firm task model. Devices that cannot perform their transmissions during contention free periods, can try to perform their transmissions using the real-time traffic prioritization approach developed for the CAP