Cloud-scale VM Deflation for Running Interactive Applications On Transient Servers

Transient computing has become popular in public cloud environments for running delay-insensitive batch and data processing applications at low cost. Since transient cloud servers can be revoked at any time by the cloud provider, they are considered unsuitable for running interactive application such as web services. In this paper, we present VM deflation as an alternative mechanism to server preemption for reclaiming resources from transient cloud servers under resource pressure. Using real traces from top-tier cloud providers, we show the feasibility of using VM deflation as a resource reclamation mechanism for interactive applications in public clouds. We show how current hypervisor mechanisms can be used to implement VM deflation and present cluster deflation policies for resource management of transient and on-demand cloud VMs. Experimental evaluation of our deflation system on a Linux cluster shows that microservice-based applications can be deflated by up to 50\% with negligible performance overhead. Our cluster-level deflation policies allow overcommitment levels as high as 50\%, with less than a 1\% decrease in application throughput, and can enable cloud platforms to increase revenue by 30\%.Comment: To appear at ACM HPDC 202

Gang FTP scheduling of periodic and parallel rigid real-time tasks

In this paper we consider the scheduling of periodic and parallel rigid tasks. We provide (and prove correct) an exact schedulability test for Fixed Task Priority (FTP) Gang scheduler sub-classes: Parallelism Monotonic, Idling, Limited Gang, and Limited Slack Reclaiming. Additionally, we study the predictability of our schedulers: we show that Gang FJP schedulers are not predictable and we identify several sub-classes which are actually predictable. Moreover, we extend the definition of rigid, moldable and malleable jobs to recurrent tasks

A IEEE 802.11e HCCA Scheduler with a Reclaiming Mechanism for Multimedia Applications

The QoS offered by the IEEE 802.11e reference scheduler is satisfactory in the case of Constant Bit Rate traffic streams, but not yet in the case of Variable Bit Rate traffic streams, whose variations stress its scheduling behavior. Despite the numerous proposed alternative schedulers with QoS, multimedia applications are looking for refined methods suitable to ensure service differentiation and dynamic update of protocol parameters. In this paper a scheduling algorithm,Unused Time Shifting Scheduler(UTSS), is deeply analyzed. It is designed to cooperate with a HCCA centralized real-time scheduler through the integration of a bandwidth reclaiming scheme, suitable to recover nonexhausted transmission time and assign that to the next polled stations. UTSS dynamically computes with anO(1)complexity transmission time providing an instantaneous resource overprovisioning. The theoretical analysis and the simulation results highlight that this injection of resources does not affect the admission control nor the centralized scheduler but is suitable to improve the performance of the centralized scheduler in terms of mean access delay, transmission queues length, bursts of traffic management, and packets drop rate. These positive effects are more relevant for highly variable bit rate traffic

Reclaiming Labour Law and Beyond

This introductory chapter tries to brief new developments in labour laws in Asia particularly in regard to increasing informal forms of labour across Asia. The first part of this introduction deals with the intrinsic contradiction of labour law in which labour appeared to be a commodity to be protected from market despotism, but nonetheless as a commodity. The second part discusses the relations between formal/informal labour and labour laws by tracing the historical trajectory of modern labour law and formal forms of labour as a reference point of all the discussion about the informalisation of labour. The third part addresses the uneven development of the informalisation of labour in Asia, with particular focus on its impact on women workers. The last part of the introduction tries to draw some strategic implications of the informalisation of labour on the future of the labour movement in Asia

Reclaiming Brownfields: A Primer for Municipalities

This resource provides information about brownfields redevelopment targeted to municipal planners and decision-makers. The primer defines brownfields, identifies benefits and barriers involved in brownfield redevelopment, discusses related issues such as green building and equitable development, and describes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and federal brownfields funding and technical assistance resources. The primer is organized within a folder. The folder also contains case studies of brownfield redevelopment projects from the region, as well as two previously-published DVRPC resources on brownfields: the Brownfields Resource Guide: Funding and Technical Assistance for Remediation and Reuse (publication number 07052) and Municipal Implementation Tool #10: Reclaiming Brownfields

On Verifying Resource Contracts using Code Contracts

In this paper we present an approach to check resource consumption contracts using an off-the-shelf static analyzer. We propose a set of annotations to support resource usage specifications, in particular, dynamic memory consumption constraints. Since dynamic memory may be recycled by a memory manager, the consumption of this resource is not monotone. The specification language can express both memory consumption and lifetime properties in a modular fashion. We develop a proof-of-concept implementation by extending Code Contracts' specification language. To verify the correctness of these annotations we rely on the Code Contracts static verifier and a points-to analysis. We also briefly discuss possible extensions of our approach to deal with non-linear expressions.Comment: In Proceedings LAFM 2013, arXiv:1401.056