7 research outputs found
Pinwheel Scheduling for Fault-tolerant Broadcast Disks in Real-time Database Systems
The design of programs for broadcast disks which incorporate real-time and fault-tolerance requirements is considered. A generalized model for real-time fault-tolerant broadcast disks is defined. It is shown that designing programs for broadcast disks specified in this model is closely related to the scheduling of pinwheel task systems. Some new results in pinwheel scheduling theory are derived, which facilitate the efficient generation of real-time fault-tolerant broadcast disk programs.National Science Foundation (CCR-9308344, CCR-9596282
A General Buffer Scheme for the Windows Scheduling Problem
Broadcasting is an efficient alternative to unicast for delivering popular on-demand media requests. Broadcasting schemes that are based on windows scheduling algorithms provide a way to satisfy all requests with both low bandwidth and low latency. Consider a system of n pages that need to be scheduled (transmitted) on identical channels an infinite number of times. Time is slotted, and it takes one time slot to transmit each page. In the windows scheduling problem (WS) each page i, 1 ≤ i ≤ n, is associated with a request window wi. In a feasible schedule for WS, page i must be scheduled at least once in any window of wi time slots. The objective function is to minimize the number of channels required to schedule all the pages. The main contribution of this paper is the design of a general buffer scheme for the windows scheduling problem such that any algorithm for WS follows this scheme. As a result, this scheme can serve as a tool to analyze and/or exhaust all possible WS-algorithms. The buffer scheme is based on modelling the system as a nondeterministic finite state machine in which any directed cycle corresponds to a legal schedule and vice-versa. Since WS is NP-hard, w
Quasi-regular sequences and optimal schedules for security games
We study security games in which a defender commits to a mixed strategy for
protecting a finite set of targets of different values. An attacker, knowing
the defender's strategy, chooses which target to attack and for how long. If
the attacker spends time at a target of value , and if he
leaves before the defender visits the target, his utility is ; if the defender visits before he leaves, his utility is 0. The defender's
goal is to minimize the attacker's utility. The defender's strategy consists of
a schedule for visiting the targets; it takes her unit time to switch between
targets. Such games are a simplified model of a number of real-world scenarios
such as protecting computer networks from intruders, crops from thieves, etc.
We show that optimal defender play for this continuous time security games
reduces to the solution of a combinatorial question regarding the existence of
infinite sequences over a finite alphabet, with the following properties for
each symbol : (1) constitutes a prescribed fraction of the
sequence. (2) The occurrences of are spread apart close to evenly, in that
the ratio of the longest to shortest interval between consecutive occurrences
is bounded by a parameter . We call such sequences -quasi-regular.
We show that, surprisingly, -quasi-regular sequences suffice for optimal
defender play. What is more, even randomized -quasi-regular sequences
suffice for optimality. We show that such sequences always exist, and can be
calculated efficiently.
The question of the least for which deterministic -quasi-regular
sequences exist is fascinating. Using an ergodic theoretical approach, we show
that deterministic -quasi-regular sequences always exist. For
we do not know whether deterministic -quasi-regular sequences always exist.Comment: to appear in Proc. of SODA 201
Patrolling a path connecting a set of points with unbalanced frequencies of visits
Patrolling consists of scheduling perpetual movements of a collection of mobile robots, so that each point of the environment is regularly revisited by any robot in the collection. In previous research, it was assumed that all points of the environment needed to be revisited with the same minimal frequency. In this paper we study efficient patrolling protocols for points located on a path, where each point may have a different constraint on frequency of visits. The problem of visiting such divergent points was recently posed by GÄ…sieniec et al. in [14], where the authors study protocols using a single robot patrolling a set of n points located in nodes of a complete graph and in Euclidean spaces. The focus in this paper is on patrolling with two robots. We adopt a scenario in which all points to be patrolled are located on a line. We provide several approximation algorithms concluding with the best currently known 3 -approximation