On the Convergence of the Holistic Analysis for EDF Distributed Systems

Dynamic scheduling techniques, and EDF (Earliest Deadline First) in particular, have demonstrated their ability to increase the schedulability of real time systems compared to fixed-priority scheduling. In distributed systems, the scheduling policies of the processing nodes tend to be the same as in stand-alone systems and, although few EDF networks exist, it is foreseen that dynamic scheduling will gradually develop into real-time networks. There are some response time analysis techniques for EDF scheduled distributed systems, mostly derived from the holistic analysis developed by Spuri. The convergence of the holistic analysis in context of EDF distributed systems with shared resources had not been studied until now. There is a circular dependency between tasks’ release jitter values, response times and preemption level ceilings of shared resources. In this paper we present an extension of Spuri’s algorithm and we demonstrate that its iterative formulas are non-decreasing, even in the presence of shared resources. This result enables us to assert that the new algorithm converges towards a solution for the response times of the tasks and messages in a distributed system

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

Performance analysis of a Master/Slave switched Ethernet for military embedded applications

Current military communication network is a generation old and is no longer effective in meeting the emerging requirements imposed by the next generation military embedded applications. A new communication network based upon Full Duplex Switched Ethernet is proposed in this paper to overcome these limitations. To allow existing military subsystems to be easily supported by a Switched Ethernet network, our proposal consists in keeping their current centralized communication scheme by using an optimized master/slave transmission control on Switched Ethernet thanks to the Flexible Time Triggered (FTT) paradigm. Our main objective is to assess the performance of such a proposal and estimate the quality of service we can expect in terms of latency. Using the Network Calculus formalism, schedulability analysis are determined. These analysis are illustrated in the case of a realistic military embedded application extracted from a real military aircraft network, to highlight the proposal's ability to support the required time constrained communications

Exploring Alternatives to use Master/Slave Full Duplex Switched Ethernet for Avionics Embedded Applications

The complexity of distributed real-time systems, including military embedded applications, is increasing due to an increasing number of nodes, their functionality and higher amounts of exchanged data. This higher complexity imposes major development challenges when nonfunctional properties must be enforced. On the other hand, the current military communication networks are a generation old and are no longer effective in facing such increasingly complex requirements. A new communication network, based on Full Duplex Switched Ethernet and Master/slave approach, has been proposed previously. However, this initial approach is not efficient in terms of network bandwidth utilization. In this paper we propose two new alternative approaches that can use the network bandwidth more efficiently. In addition we provide a preliminary qualitative assessment of the three approaches concerning different factors such as performance, scalability, complexity and flexibility

Real-time characteristics of switched ethernet for "1553B" -embedded applications : simulation and analysis

In our previous work , Full Duplex Switched Ethernet was put forward as an attractive candidate to replace the MIL-STD 1553B data bus, in next generation "1553B"-embedded applications. An analytic study was conducted, using the Network Calculus formalism, to evaluate the deterministic guarantees offered by our proposal. Obtained results showed the effectiveness of traffic shaping techniques, combined with priority handling mechanisms on Full Duplex Switched Ethernet in order to satisfy 1553B-like real-time constraints. In this paper, we extend this work by the use of simulation. This gives the possibility to capture additional characteristics of the proposed architecture with respect to the analytical study, which was basically used to evaluate worst cases and deterministic guarantees. Hence, to assess the real-time characteristics of our proposed interconnection technology, the results yielded by simulation are discussed and average latencies distributions are considered

Decentralised Coordination in RoboCup Rescue

Emergency responders are faced with a number of significant challenges when managing major disasters. First, the number of rescue tasks posed is usually larger than the number of responders (or agents) and the resources available to them. Second, each task is likely to require a different level of effort in order to be completed by its deadline. Third, new tasks may continually appear or disappear from the environment, thus requiring the responders to quickly recompute their allocation of resources. Fourth, forming teams or coalitions of multiple agents from different agencies is vital since no single agency will have all the resources needed to save victims, unblock roads, and extinguish the ?res which might erupt in the disaster space. Given this, coalitions have to be efficiently selected and scheduled to work across the disaster space so as to maximise the number of lives and the portion of the infrastructure saved. In particular, it is important that the selection of such coalitions should be performed in a decentralised fashion in order to avoid a single point of failure in the system. Moreover, it is critical that responders communicate only locally given they are likely to have limited battery power or minimal access to long range communication devices. Against this background, we provide a novel decentralised solution to the coalition formation process that pervades disaster management. More specifically, we model the emergency management scenario defined in the RoboCup Rescue disaster simulation platform as a Coalition Formation with Spatial and Temporal constraints (CFST) problem where agents form coalitions in order to complete tasks, each with different demands. In order to design a decentralised algorithm for CFST we formulate it as a Distributed Constraint Optimisation problem and show how to solve it using the state-of-the-art Max-Sum algorithm that provides a completely decentralised message-passing solution. We then provide a novel algorithm (F-Max-Sum) that avoids sending redundant messages and efficiently adapts to changes in the environment. In empirical evaluations, our algorithm is shown to generate better solutions than other decentralised algorithms used for this problem

CSP channels for CAN-bus connected embedded control systems

Closed loop control system typically contains multitude of sensors and actuators operated simultaneously. So they are parallel and distributed in its essence. But when mapping this parallelism to software, lot of obstacles concerning multithreading communication and synchronization issues arise. To overcome this problem, the CT kernel/library based on CSP algebra has been developed. This project (TES.5410) is about developing communication extension to the CT library to make it applicable in distributed systems. Since the library is tailored for control systems, properties and requirements of control systems are taken into special consideration. Applicability of existing middleware solutions is examined. A comparison of applicable fieldbus protocols is done in order to determine most suitable ones and CAN fieldbus is chosen to be first fieldbus used. Brief overview of CSP and existing CSP based libraries is given. Middleware architecture is proposed along with few novel ideas