A Rapid Heuristic for Scheduling Non-Preemptive Dependent Periodic Tasks onto Multiprocessor

International audienceWe address distributed real-time applications represented by systems of non-preemptive dependent periodic tasks. This system is described by an acyclic directed graph. Because the distribution and the scheduling of these tasks onto a multiprocessor is an NP-hard problem we propose a greedy heuristic to solve it. Our heuristic sequences three algorithms: assignment, unrolling, and scheduling. The tasks of the same, or multiple, periods are assigned to the same processor according to a mixed sort. Then, the initial graph of tasks is unrolled, i.e. each task is repeated according to the ratio between its period and the least common multiple of all periods of tasks. Finally, the tasks of the unrolled graph are distributed and scheduled onto the processors where they have been assigned. Then, we give the complexity of this heuristic, and we illustrate it with an example. A performance analysis comparing our heuristic with an optimal Branch and Cut algorithm concludes that our heuristic is effective in terms of scheduling success ratio and speed

Load Balancing and Efficient Memory Usage for Homogeneous Distributed Real-Time Embedded Systems

International audienceThis paper deals with load balancing and efficient memory usage for homogeneous distributed real-time embedded applications with dependence and strict periodicity constraints. Most of load balancing heuristics tend to minimize the total execution time of distributed applications by equalizing the workloads of processors. In addition, our heuristic satisfies dependence and strict periodicity constraints which are of great importance in embedded systems. However, since resources are limited some tasks distributed onto a processor may require more data memory than available. Thus, we propose a fast heuristic achieving both load balancing and efficient memory usage under dependence and strict periodicity constraints. Complexity and theoretical performance studies have showed that the proposed heuristic is respectively efficient and fast. Thus, an efficient memory usage is also necessary, especially in embedded systems where memory is limited. Although the total execution time of tasks is minimized some tasks could not be executed because the processors where they were distributed do not own enough memory to store the data used by these tasks. However, memory usage plays a significant role in determining the applications performances

A methodology to implement real-time applications on reconfigurable circuits

Special Issue Engineering of Configurable SystemsInternational audienceThis paper presents an extension of our AAA rapid prototyping methodology for the optimized implementation ofreal-time applications onto reconfigurable circuits. This extension is based on an unified model of factorized datadependence graphs as well to specify the application algorihtm, as to deduce the possible implementations ontoreconfigurable hardware, in terms of graphs transformations. This transformation flow has been implemented inSynDEx, a system level CAD software tool

Ordonnancement temps réel préemptif multiprocesseur avec prise en compte du coût du système d'exploitation

Dans cette thèse nous étudions le problème d'ordonnancement temps réel multiprocesseur préemptif avec prise en compte du coût exact du système d'exploitation. Ce coût est formé de deux parties : une partie facile à déterminer, correspondant au coût de l'ordonnanceur et une partie difficile à déterminer, correspondant au coût de la préemption. Cette difficulté est due au fait qu'une préemption peut en engendrer une autre, pouvant ainsi créer un phénomène d'avalanche. Dans un premier temps, nous avons étudié l'ordonnancement hors ligne multiprocesseur de tâches indépendantes avec prise en compte du coût exact de la préemption et proposé une analyse d'ordonnançabilité fondée sur une heuristique d'ordonnancement multiprocesseur. Cette heuristique utilise la stratégie d'ordonnancement multiprocesseur par partitionnement. Pour prendre en compte le coût exact de la préemption sur chaque processeur nous avons utilisé la condition d'ordonnançabilité proposée par Meumeu et Sorel. Cette condition d'ordonnançabilité pour des tâches à priorités fixes, est basée sur une opération binaire d'ordonnancement qui permet de compter le nombre exact de préemption et d'ajouter leur coût dans l'analyse d'ordonnançabilité des tâches. L'heuristique proposée permet de maximiser le facteur d'utilisation restant afin de répartir équitablement les tâches sur les processeurs et de réduire leur temps de réponse. Elle produit une table d'ordonnancement hors ligne. Dans un second temps, nous avons étudié l'ordonnancement hors ligne multiprocesseur de tâches dépendantes avec prise en compte du coût exact de la préemption. Puisque la condition d'ordonnançabilité utilisée pour ordonnancer les tâches indépendantes ne s'applique qu'à des tâches à priorités fixes, elle ne permet pas de gérer les inversions de priorités que peuvent entraîner les tâches dépendantes. Nous avons donc proposé une nouvelle condition d'ordonnançabilité pour des tâches à priorités dynamiques. Elle prend en compte le coût exact de la préemption et les dépendances sans aucune perte de données. Ensuite en utilisant toujours la stratégie d'ordonnancement par partitionnement, nous avons proposé pour des tâches dépendantes une heuristique d'ordonnancement multiprocesseur qui réutilise cette nouvelle condition d'ordonnançabilité au niveau de chaque processeur. Cette heuristique d'ordonnancement prend en compte les coûts de communication inter-processeurs. Elle permet aussi de minimiser sur chaque processeur le makespan (temps total d'exécution) des tâches. Cette heuristique produit pour chaque processeur une table d'ordonnancement hors ligne contenant les dates de début et de fin de chaque tâches et de chaque commmunication inter-processeur. En supposant que nous avons une architecture multiprocesseur de type dirigée par le temps (Time-Triggered) pour laquelle tous les processeurs ont une référence de temps unique, nous avons proposé pour chacun des processeurs un ordonnanceur en ligne qui utilise la table d'ordonnancement produite lors de l'ordonnancement hors ligne. Cet ordonnanceur en ligne a l'avantage d'avoir un coût constant qui de plus est facile à déterminer de manière exacte. En effet il correspond uniquement au temps de lecture dans la table d'ordonnancement pour obtenir la tâche sélectionnée lors de l'analyse d'ordonnançabilité hors ligne, alors que dans les ordonnanceurs classiques en ligne ce coût correspond à mettre à jour la liste des tâches qui sont dans l'état prêt à l'exécution puis à sélectionner une tâche selon un algorithme, par exemple RM, DM, EDF, etc. Il varie donc avec le nombre de tâches prêtes à s'exécuter qui change d'une invocation à l'autre de l'ordonnanceur. C'est ce coût qui est utilisé dans les analyses d'ordonnançabilités évoquées ci-dessus. Un autre avantage est qu'il n'est pas nécessaire de synchroniser l'accès aux mémoires de données partagées par plusieurs tâches, car cette synchronisation a été déjà effectuée lors de l'analyse d'ordonnançabilité hors ligne.In this thesis we studied the problem of multiprocessor preemptive real-time scheduling taking into account the exact cost of the operating system (OS). This cost is composed of two parts: a part easy to determine, corresponding to the scheduler cost and another part difficult to determine, corresponding to the preemption cost. This difficulty is due to the fact that a preemption can involve another one, being able to so create an avalanche phenomenon. First, we studied the off-line multiprocessor real-time scheduling of independent tasks taking into account the exact preemption cost. We proposed a schedulability analysis based on a multiprocessor scheduling heuristic. This heuristic uses the partitioned multiprocessor scheduling approach. In order to take into account the exact preemption cost on every processor we use the schedulability condition proposed by Meumeu and Sorel. This schedulability condition for fixed priorities tasks, is based on a binary scheduling operation which counts the exact number of preemptions and add their cost in the schedulability analysis. The proposed heuristic maximizes the remaining utilization factor to fairly distribute the tasks on processors and to reduce their response time. It produces an off-line scheduling table. Secondly, we studied the off-line multiprocessor real-time scheduling of dependent tasks taking into account the exact preemption cost. Because the schedulability condition used for scheduling independent tasks can be applied only to fixed priorities tasks, it does not allow to manage priorities inversions that are involved by dependent tasks. We proposed a new schedulability condition for dependent tasks which enables fixed and dynamic priorities. This schedulability condition takes into account the exact preemption cost and dependences between tasks without any loss of data. Always with the partitioned scheduling approach, we proposed for dependent tasks a multiprocessor scheduling heuristic which reuses, on every processor, the schedulability condition proposed previously. In addition, this scheduling heuristic takes into account the interprocessors communication costs. It also minimizes on every processor the makespan (total execution time of the tasks on all the processors). This heuristic produces for every processor an off-line scheduling table. Supposing that we have a time-triggered multiprocessor architecture such that all the processors have a unique time reference, we proposed for every processor an on-line scheduler which uses the scheduling table produced during the off-line schedulability analysis. This on-line scheduler has the advantage to have a constant cost that is easy to determine exactly.Indeed, this cost corresponds only to the time necessary to read in the scheduling table the task selected for execution. In the on-line classical scheduler, this cost corresponds to the time necessary to update the list of ready tasks in order to select a task, according to a given scheduling algorithm, for example RM, DM, EDF, etc. In this case, the cost for selecting a task varies with the number of ready tasks which changes from an invocation of the scheduler to another one. Another advantage of the proposed on-line scheduler is that it is not necessary to synchronize the access to the data shared by several tasks, because this synchronization was already done during the off-line schedulability analysis.PARIS11-SCD-Bib. électronique (914719901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Monoprocessor Real-Time Scheduling of Data Dependent Tasks with Exact Preemption Cost for Embedded Systems

International audienceMost safety critical embedded systems, i.e. systems for which constraints must necessarily be satisfied in order to avoid catastrophic consequences, consist of a set of data dependent tasks which exchange data. Although non-preemptive realtime scheduling is safer than preemptive real-time scheduling in a safety critical context, preemptive real-time scheduling provides a better success ratio, but the preemption has a cost. In this paper we propose a schedulability analysis for data dependent periodic tasks which takes into account the exact preemption cost, data dependence constraints without loss of data and mutual exclusion constraints

Non-preemptive scheduling algorithms and schedulability conditions for real-time systems with precedence and latency constraints

First we justify our concern in latency constraints for real-time systems with precedence constraints. We evoke the model based on graph theory used to state and solve the problem of non-preemptive scheduling systems with precedence and latency constraints. Because latency constraints involve pairs of operations related to the graph which models the precedence constraints, we define three relations between pairs of operations, relations which determine the way of scheduling the operations. We give a necessary and sufficient condition of schedulability for the particular case of systems with precedence and latency constraints, where all pairs, on which latency constraints are imposed, are in one of these relations. Finally, we give a general schedulability condition for real-time systems with precedence and latency contraints and we propose a scheduling algorithm which is proved optimal

Schedulability conditions for non-preemptive hard real-time tasks with strict period

International audiencePartial answers have been provided in the real-time literature to the question whether preemptive systems are better than non-preemptive systems. This question has been investigated by many authors according to several points of view and it still remains open. Compared to preemptive real-time scheduling, non-preemptive real-time scheduling and the corresponding schedulability analyses have received considerable less attention in the research community. However, non-preemptive scheduling is widely used in industry, and it may be preferable to preemptive scheduling for numerous reasons. This approach is specially well suited in the case of hard real-time systems on the one hand where missing deadlines leads to catastrophic situations, and on the other hand where resources must not be wasted. In this paper, we firstly present the non-preemptive model of task with strict period, then we propose a schedulability condition for a set of such tasks, and finally we give a scheduling heuristic based on this condition

From Dataflow Specification to Multiprocessor Partitioned Time-triggered Real-time Implementation *

International audienceOur objective is to facilitate the development of complex time-triggered systems by automating the allocation and scheduling steps. We show that full automation is possible while taking into account the elements of complexity needed by a complex embedded control system. More precisely, we consider deterministic functional specifications provided (as often in an industrial setting) by means of synchronous data-flow models with multiple modes and multiple relative periods. We first extend this functional model with an original real-time characterization that takes advantage of our time-triggered framework to provide a simpler representation of complex end-to-end flow requirements. We also extend our specifications with additional non-functional properties specifying partitioning, allocation , and preemptability constraints. Then, weprovide novel algorithms for the off-line scheduling of these extended specifications onto partitioned time-triggered architectures à la ARINC 653. The main originality of our work is that it takes into account at the same time multiple complexity elements: various types of non-functional properties (real-time, partitioning, allocation, preemptability) and functional specifications with conditional execution and multiple modes. Allocation of time slots/windows to partitions can be fullyor partially provided, or synthesized by our tool. Our algorithms allow the automatic allocation and scheduling onto multi-processor (distributed) sys-tems with a global time base, taking into account communication costs. We demonstrate our technique on a model of space flight software systemwith strong real-time determinism requirements

Transformations de spécifications incluant du contrôle en spécification flot de données pour implantation distribuée

International audienceParce qu'un systèmes temps réel combine fonctionnalités de contrôle et traitement de données, il est souvent spécifié à l'aide de plusieurs langages adaptés à ces deux aspects. La plupart de ces systèmes étant aujourd'hui distribués le problème est ensuite d'obtenir une implantation de ces spécifications distinctes. En effet une distribution de ces spécifications par production séparée de code ne permet pas d'obtenir une implantation cohérente. Nous proposons donc d'unifier toutes les spécifications en une seule. Cette unification conduit à un graphe flot de données conditionné qui explicite le parallélisme potentiel nécessaire à une exploitation efficace des ressources distribuées. Enfin on utilise le logiciel SynDEx pour obtenir automatiquement une implantation distribuée et cohérente à partir de la spécification obtenue. ABSTRACT. Because a real-time system combines control and data processing designers specify it using different languages. Such systems are often distributed and the problem is to obtain a distributed implementation from these distinct specifications. Indeed, the method based on separated code generation and manual distribution leads to incoherent implementation. We propose to unify all these specifications into a unique one. The resulting specification is a conditioned data flow graph which exhibits the potential parallelism necessary to an efficient use of distributed resources. Finally, we use the SynDEx software in order to automatically produce a distributed and coherent implementation from the resulting specification

Scheduling non-preemptive hard real-time tasks with strict periods

International audienceNon-preemptive real-time scheduling and the corresponding schedulability analyses have received considerable less attention in the research community, compared to preemptive real-time scheduling. However, non-preemptive scheduling is widely used in industry, especially in the case of hard real-time systems where missing deadlines leads to catastrophic situations and where resources must not be wasted. In many industries such as avionics tasks may have strict periods, i.e. the start times of their executions must be separated by a fixed period. Indeed, this strict periodicity is generally required by sensors and actuators which may have accurate periods. In this paper we consider separately the case where tasks have harmonic periods and the case where tasks have non-harmonic periods. Thus, the general case becomes a combination of both cases. In the harmonic case we give schedulability conditions to verify that a set of tasks is schedulable. In the non-harmonic case, in order to prove that a set of tasks is schedulable we propose local schedulability conditions that we apply iteratively to each task of the set in order to verify that this current task, added to a sub-set of tasks already scheduled, leads to a schedulable set of tasks