Optimized Distributed Implementation of Multiparty Interactions with Observation

International audienceUsing high level coordination primitives allows enhanced expressiveness of component-based frameworks to cope with the inherent complexity of present-day systems designs. Nonetheless, their distributed implementation raises multiple issues, regarding both the correctness and the runtime performance of the final implementation. We propose a novel approach for distributed implementation of multiparty interactions subject to scheduling constraints expressed by priorities. We rely on new composition operators and semantics that combine multiparty interactions with observation. We show that this model provides a natural encoding for priorities and moreover, can be used as an intermediate step towards provably correct and optimized distributed implementations

Augmenting High-Level Petri Nets to Support GALS Distributed Embedded Systems Specification

Part 9: Embedded Systems and Petri NetsInternational audienceHigh-level Petri net classes are suited to specify concurrent processes with emphasis both in control and data processing, making them appropriate to specify distributed embedded systems (DES). Embedded systems components are usually synchronous, which means that DES can be seen as Globally-Asynchronous Locally-Synchronous (GALS) systems. This paper proposes to include in high-level Petri nets a set of concepts already introduced for low-level Petri nets allowing the specification of GALS systems, namely time domains, test arcs and priorities. Additionally, this paper proposes external messages and three types of (high-level) asynchronous communication channels, to specify the interaction between distributed components based on message exchange. With these extensions, GALS-DES can be specified using high-level Petri nets. The resulting models include the specification of each component with well-defined boundaries and interface, and also the explicit specification of the asynchronous interaction between components. These models will be used not only to specify the system behavior, but also to be the input for model-checking tools (supporting its verification) and automatic code generation tools (supporting its implementation in software and hardware platforms), giving a contribution to the model-based development approach and hardware-software co-design of DES based on high-level Petri nets

Real-time and fault tolerance in distributed control software

Closed loop control systems typically contain multitude of spatially distributed sensors and actuators operated simultaneously. So those systems are parallel and distributed in their essence. But mapping this parallelism onto the given distributed hardware architecture, brings in some additional requirements: safe multithreading, optimal process allocation, real-time scheduling of bus and network resources. Nowadays, fault tolerance methods and fast even online reconfiguration are becoming increasingly important. All those often conflicting requirements, make design and implementation of real-time distributed control systems an extremely difficult task, that requires substantial knowledge in several areas of control and computer science. Although many design methods have been proposed so far, none of them had succeeded to cover all important aspects of the problem at hand. [1] Continuous increase of production in embedded market, makes a simple and natural design methodology for real-time systems needed more then ever

Implementing Distributed Controllers for Systems with Priorities

Implementing a component-based system in a distributed way so that it ensures some global constraints is a challenging problem. We consider here abstract specifications consisting of a composition of components and a controller given in the form of a set of interactions and a priority order amongst them. In the context of distributed systems, such a controller must be executed in a distributed fashion while still respecting the global constraints imposed by interactions and priorities. We present in this paper an implementation of an algorithm that allows a distributed execution of systems with (binary) interactions and priorities. We also present a comprehensive simulation analysis that shows how sensitive to changes our algorithm is, in particular changes related to the degree of conflict in the system.Comment: In Proceedings FOCLASA 2010, arXiv:1007.499

Flexible Scheduling Methods and Tools for Real-Time Control Systems

This thesis deals with flexibility in the design of real-time control systems. By dynamic resource scheduling it is possible to achieve on-line adaptability and increased control performance under resource constraints. The approach requires simulation tools for control and real-time systems co-design. One approach to achieve flexibility in the run-time scheduling of control tasks is feedback scheduling, where resources are scheduled dynamically based on measurements of actual timing variations and control performance. An overview of feedback scheduling techniques for control systems is presented.A flexible strategy for implementation of model predictive control (MPC) is described. In MPC, the control signal in each sample is obtained by the solution of a constrained quadratic optimization problem. A termination criterion is derived that, unlike traditional MPC, takes the effects of computational delay into account in the optimization. A scheduling scheme is also described, where the MPC cost functions being minimized are used as dynamic task priorities for a set of MPC tasks. The MATLAB/Simulink-based simulator TrueTime is presented. TrueTime is a co-design tool that facilitates simulation of distributed real-time control systems, where the execution of controller tasks in a real-time kernel is simulated in parallel with network transmissions and the continuous-time plant dynamics. Using TrueTime it is possible to study the effects of CPU and network scheduling on control performance and to experiment with flexible scheduling techniques and compensation schemes. A general overview of the simulator is given and the event-based kernel implementation is described.TrueTime is used in two simulation case studies. The first emulates TCP on top of standard Ethernet to simulate networked control of a robot system. The second case study uses TrueTime to simulate a web server application. A feedback scheduling strategy for QoS control in the web server is described

A Multi-Core Solver for Parity Games

We describe a parallel algorithm for solving parity games,\ud with applications in, e.g., modal mu-calculus model\ud checking with arbitrary alternations, and (branching) bisimulation\ud checking. The algorithm is based on Jurdzinski's Small Progress\ud Measures. Actually, this is a class of algorithms, depending on\ud a selection heuristics.\ud \ud Our algorithm operates lock-free, and mostly wait-free (except for\ud infrequent termination detection), and thus allows maximum\ud parallelism. Additionally, we conserve memory by avoiding storage\ud of predecessor edges for the parity graph through strictly\ud forward-looking heuristics.\ud \ud We evaluate our multi-core implementation's behaviour on parity games\ud obtained from mu-calculus model checking problems for a set of\ud communication protocols, randomly generated problem instances, and\ud parametric problem instances from the literature.\ud \u

CAN Fieldbus Communication in the CSP-based CT Library

In closed-loop control systems several realworld entities are simultaneously communicated to through a multitude of spatially distributed sensors and actuators. This intrinsic parallelism and complexity motivates implementing control software in the form of concurrent processes deployed on distributed hardware architectures. A CSP based occam-like architecture seems to be the most convenient for such a purpose. Many, often conflicting, requirements make design and implementation of distributed real-time control systems an extremely difficult task. The scope of this paper is limited to achieving safe and real-time communication over a CAN fieldbus for an\ud existing CSP-based framework

A distributed Real-Time Java system based on CSP

CSP is a fundamental concept for developing software for distributed real time systems. The CSP paradigm constitutes a natural addition to object orientation and offers higher order multithreading constructs. The CSP channel concept that has been implemented in Java deals with single- and multi-processor environments and also takes care of the real time priority scheduling requirements. For this, the notion of priority and scheduling has been carefully examined and as a result it was reasoned that priority scheduling should be attached to the communicating channels rather than to the processes. In association with channels, a priority based parallel construct is developed for composing processes: hiding threads and priority indexing from the user. This approach simplifies the use of priorities for the object oriented paradigm. Moreover, in the proposed system, the notion of scheduling is no longer connected to the operating system but has become part of the application instead