Analysis and Optimization of Message Acceptance Filter Configurations for Controller Area Network (CAN)

Many of the processors used in automotive Electronic Control Units (ECUs) are resource constrained due to the cost pressures of volume production; they have relatively low clock speeds and limited memory. Controller Area Network (CAN) is used to connect the various ECUs; however, the broadcast nature of CAN means that every message transmitted on the network can potentially cause additional processing load on the receiving nodes, whether the message is relevant to that ECU or not. Hardware filters can reduce or even eliminate this unnecessary load by filtering out messages that are not needed by the ECU. Filtering is done on the message IDs which are primarily used to identify the contents of the message and its priority. In this paper, we consider the problem of selecting filter configurations to minimize the load due to undesired messages. We show that the general problem is NP-complete. We therefore propose and evaluate an approach based on Simulated Annealing. We show that this approach nds near-optimal filter configurations for the interesting case where there are more desired messages than available filters

Convex optimization framework for intermediate deadline assignment in soft and hard real-time distributed systems

It is generally challenging to determine end-to-end delays of applications for maximizing the aggregate system utility subject to timing constraints. Many practical approaches suggest the use of intermediate deadline of tasks in order to control and upper-bound their end-to-end delays. This paper proposes a unified framework for different time-sensitive, global optimization problems, and solves them in a distributed manner using Lagrangian duality. The framework uses global viewpoints to assign intermediate deadlines, taking resource contention among tasks into consideration. For soft real-time tasks, the proposed framework effectively addresses the deadline assignment problem while maximizing the aggregate quality of service. For hard real-time tasks, we show that existing heuristic solutions to the deadline assignment problem can be incorporated into the proposed framework, enriching their mathematical interpretation

Quantifying the Flexibility of Real-Time Systems

International audienceIn this paper we define the flexibility of a system as its capability to schedule a new task. We present an approach to quantify the flexibility of a system. More importantly, we show that it is possible under certain conditions to identify the task that will directly induce the limitations on a possible software update. If performed at design time, such a result can be used to adjust the system design by giving more slack to the limiting task. We illustrate how these results apply to a simple system

A review on optimization techniques for the deployment and scheduling of distributed real-time systems

RESUMEN: En las ultimas tres décadas, se ha realizado un gran número de propuestas sobre la optimización del despliegue y planificación de sistemas de tiempo real distribuidos bajo diferentes enfoques algorítmicos que aportan soluciones aceptables a este problema catalogado como NP-difícil. En la actualidad, la mayor parte de los sistemas utilizados en el sector industrial son sistemas de criticidad mixta en los que se puede usar la planificación cíclica, las prioridades fijas y el particionado, que proporciona aislamiento temporal y espacial a las aplicaciones. Así, en este artículo se realiza una revisión de los trabajos publicados sobre este tema y se presenta un análisis de las diferentes soluciones aportadas para sistemas de tiempo real distribuidos basados en las políticas de planificación que se están usando en la práctica. Como resultado de la comparación, se presenta una tabla a modo de guía en la que se relacionan los trabajos revisados y se caracterizan sus soluciones.ABSTRACT: In the last three decades, a large number of proposals has been carried out for the optimization of the deployment and scheduling of distributed real-time systems under different algorithmic approaches that provide acceptable solutions for this NP-hard problem. Nowadays, most of the systems used in industry are mixed-criticallity systems which use cyclic scheduling, fixed-priority scheduling and partitioning, which provides both temporal and spatial isolation in the execution of applications. Thus, in this work a review of the works published on this topic is performed, as well as an analysis of the different proposed solutions for distributed real-time systems based on the scheduling policies that are used in practice. As a result of the comparison, a table intended as a guide is elaborated in which all the reviewed works are reported and their solutions are characterized.Este trabajo ha sido financiado en parte por el Gobierno de España y los fondos FEDER (AEI /FEDER, UE) en el proyecto TIN2017-86520-C3-3-R (PRECON-I4)

Real-Time and Energy-Efficient Routing for Industrial Wireless Sensor-Actuator Networks

With the emergence of industrial standards such as WirelessHART, process industries are adopting Wireless Sensor-Actuator Networks (WSANs) that enable sensors and actuators to communicate through low-power wireless mesh networks. Industrial monitoring and control applications require real-time communication among sensors, controllers and actuators within end-to-end deadlines. Deadline misses may lead to production inefficiency, equipment destruction to irreparable financial and environmental impacts. Moreover, due to the large geographic area and harsh conditions of many industrial plants, it is labor-intensive or dan- gerous to change batteries of field devices. It is therefore important to achieve long network lifetime with battery-powered devices. This dissertation tackles these challenges and make a series of contributions. (1) We present a new end-to-end delay analysis for feedback control loops whose transmissions are scheduled based on the Earliest Deadline First policy. (2) We propose a new real-time routing algorithm that increases the real-time capacity of WSANs by exploiting the insights of the delay analysis. (3) We develop an energy-efficient routing algorithm to improve the network lifetime while maintaining path diversity for reliable communication. (4) Finally, we design a distributed game-theoretic algorithm to allocate sensing applications with near-optimal quality of sensing

A Review of Priority Assignment in Real-Time Systems

It is over 40 years since the first seminal work on priority assignment for real-time systems using fixed priority scheduling. Since then, huge progress has been made in the field of real-time scheduling with more complex models and schedulability analysis techniques developed to better represent and analyse real systems. This tutorial style review provides an in-depth assessment of priority assignment techniques for hard real-time systems scheduled using fixed priorities. It examines the role and importance of priority in fixed priority scheduling in all of its guises, including: preemptive and non-pre-emptive scheduling; covering single- and multi-processor systems, and networks. A categorisation of optimal priority assignment techniques is given, along with the conditions on their applicability. We examine the extension of these techniques via sensitivity analysis to form robust priority assignment policies that can be used even when there is only partial information available about the system. The review covers priority assignment in a wide variety of settings including: mixed-criticality systems, systems with deferred pre-emption, and probabilistic real-time systems with worstcase execution times described by random variables. It concludes with a discussion of open problems in the area of priority assignment

Schedulability analysis and optimization of time-partitioned distributed real-time systems

RESUMEN: La creciente complejidad de los sistemas de control modernos lleva a muchas empresas a tener que re-dimensionar o re-diseñar sus soluciones para adecuarlas a nuevas funcionalidades y requisitos. Un caso paradigmático de esta situación se ha dado en el sector ferroviario, donde la implementación de las aplicaciones de señalización se ha llevado a cabo empleando técnicas tradicionales que, si bien ahora mismo cumplen con los requisitos básicos, su rendimiento temporal y escalabilidad funcional son sustancialmente mejorables. A partir de las soluciones propuestas en esta tesis, además de contribuir a la validación de sistemas que requieren certificación de seguridad funcional, también se creará la tecnología base de análisis de planificabilidad y optimización de sistemas de tiempo real distribuidos generales y también basados en particionado temporal, que podrá ser aplicada en distintos entornos en los que los sistemas ciberfísicos juegan un rol clave, por ejemplo en aplicaciones de Industria 4.0, en los que pueden presentarse problemas similares en el futuro.ABSTRACT:he increasing complexity of modern control systems leads many companies to have to resize or redesign their solutions to adapt them to new functionalities and requirements. A paradigmatic case of this situation has occurred in the railway sector, where the implementation of signaling applications has been carried out using traditional techniques that, although they currently meet the basic requirements, their time performance and functional scalability can be substantially improved. From the solutions proposed in this thesis, besides contributing to the assessment of systems that require functional safety certification, the base technology for schedulability analysis and optimization of general as well as time-partitioned distributed real-time systems will be derived, which can be applied in different environments where cyber-physical systems play a key role, for example in Industry 4.0 applications, where similar problems may arise in the future

Techniques d'analyse et d'optimisation pour la synthèse architecturale de systèmes temps réel embarqués distribués : problèmes de placement, de partitionnement et d'ordonnancement

Modern development methodologies from the industry and the academia exploit more and more the ”model” concept to address the complexity of critical real-time systems. These methodologies define a key stage in which the functional model, designed as a network of function blocks communicating through exchanged data signals, is deployed onto a hardware execution platform model and implemented in a software model consisting of a set of tasks and messages. This stage so-called deployment stage allows establishment of an operational architecture of the system, thus it requires evaluation and validation of the temporal properties of the system. In the context of event-driven real-time systems, the verification of temporal properties is performed using the schedulability analysis based on the response time analysis. Each deployment choice has an essential impact on the validity and the quality of the system. However, the existing methodologies do not provide supportto guide the designer of applications in the exploration of the operational architectures space. The objective of this thesis is to develop techniques for analysis and automatic synthesis of a valid operational architecture optimized with respect to the system performances. Our proposition is dedicated to the exploration of architectures space considering at the same time the four degrees of freedom determined during the deployment phase, (i) the placement of functional elements on the computing and communication resources of the execution platform, (ii) the partitioning of function elements into real time tasks and data signals into messages, (iii) the priority assignment to system tasks and messages and (iv) the assignment of shared data protection mechanism for periodic real-time systems. We are mainly interested in meeting temporal constraints and memory capacity of the target platform. In addition, we are focusing on the optimization of end-to-end latency and memory consumption. The design space exploration approaches presented in this thesis are based on the MILP (Mixed Integer Linear programming) optimization technique and concern at the same time time-driven and data-driven applications. Unlike many earlier approaches providing a partial solution to the deployment problem, our methods consider the whole deployment problem. The proposed approaches in this thesis are evaluated using both synthetic and industrial applications.Dans le cadre industriel et académique, les méthodologies de développement logiciel exploitent de plus en plus le concept de “modèle” afin d’appréhender la complexité des systèmes temps réel critiques. En particulier, celles-ci définissent une étape dans laquelle un modèle fonctionnel, conçu comme un graphe de blocs fonctionnels communiquant via des échanges de signaux de données, est déployé sur un modèle de plateforme d’exécution matérielle et un modèle de plateforme d’exécution logicielle composé de tâches et de messages. Cette étape appelée étape de déploiement, permet d’établir une architecture opérationnelle du système nécessitant une validation des propriétés temporelles du système. Dans le contexte des systèmes temps réel dirigés par les évènements, la vérification des propriétés temporelles est réalisée à l’aide de l’analyse d’ordonnançabilité basée sur l’analyse des temps de réponse. Chaque choix de déploiement effectué a un impact essentiel sur la validité et la qualité du système. Néanmoins, les méthodologies existantes n’offrent pas de support permettant de guider le concepteur d’applications durant l’exploration de l’espace des architectures possibles. L’objectif de ces travaux de thèse consiste à mettre en place des techniques d’analyse et de synthèse automatiques permettant de guider le concepteur vers une architecture opérationnelle valide et optimisée par rapport aux performances du système. Notre proposition est dédiée à l’exploration de l’espace des architectures en tenant compte à la fois des quatre degrés de liberté déterminés durant la phase de déploiement, à savoir (j) le placement des éléments fonctionnels sur les éléments de calcul et de communication de la plateforme d’exécution, (ii) le partitionnement des éléments fonctionnels en tâches temps réel et des signaux de données en messages, (iii) l’affectation de priorités d’exécution aux tâches et aux messages du système et (iv) l’attribution du mécanisme de protection des données partagées pour les systèmes temps réel périodiques. Nous nous intéressons principalement à la satisfaction des contraintes temporelles et celles liées aux capacités des ressources de la plateforme cible. De plus, nous considérons l’optimisation des latences de bout-en-bout et la consommation mémoire. Les approches d’exploration architecturale présentées dans cette thèse sont basées sur la technique d’optimisation PLNE (programmation linéaire en nombres entiers) et concernent à la fois les applications activées périodiquement et celles dont l’activation est pilotée par les données. Contrairement à de nombreuses approches antérieures fournissant une solution partielle au problème de déploiement, les méthodes proposées considèrent l’ensemble du problème de déploiement. Les approches proposées dans cette thèse sont évaluées à l’aide d’applications génériques et industrielles