This paper focuses on the problem of providing efficient run-time support to multimedia applications in a real-time system, where two types of tasks can coexist simultaneously: multimedia soft real-time tasks and hard real-time tasks. Hard tasks are guaranteed based on worst case execution times and minimum interarrival times, whereas multimedia and soft tasks are served based on mean parameters. The paper describes a server-based mechanism for scheduling soft and multimedia tasks without jeopardizing the a priori guarantee of hard real-time activities. The performance of the proposed method is compared with that of similar service mechanisms through extensive simulation experiments and several multimedia applications have been implemented on the HARTIK kernel.

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Integrating multimedia applications in hard real-time systems

In this 25th year anniversary paper for the IEEE Real Time Systems Symposium, we review the key results in real-time scheduling theory and the historical events that led to the establishment of the current real-time computing infrastructure. We conclude this paper by looking at the challenges ahead of us.

/pdf/real-time-scheduling-theory-a-historical-perspective-4eag5x764v.pdf

Real Time Scheduling Theory: A Historical Perspective

Giotto provides an abstract programmer's model for the implementation of embedded control systems with hard real-time constraints. A typical control application consists of periodic software tasks together with a mode switching logic for enabling and disabling tasks. Giotto specifies time-triggered sensor readings, task invocations, and mode switches independent of any implementation platform. Giotto can be annotated with platform constraints such as task-to-host mappings, and task and communication schedules. The annotations are directives for the Giotto compiler, but they do not alter the functionality and timing of a Giotto program. By separating the platform-independent from the platform-dependent concerns, Giotto enables a great deal of flexibility in choosing control platforms as well as a great deal of automation in the validation and synthesis of control software. The time-triggered nature of Giotto achieves timing predictability, which makes Giotto particularly suitable for safety-critical applications.

Giotto: A Time-Triggered Language for Embedded Programming

In a hard real-time system, it is assumed that no deadline is missed, whereas, in a soft or firm real-time system, deadlines can be missed, although this usually happens in a nonpredictable way. However, most hard real-time systems could miss some deadlines provided that it happens in a known and predictable way. Also, adding predictability on the pattern of missed deadlines for soft and firm real-time systems is desirable, for instance, to guarantee levels of quality of service. We introduce the concept of weakly hard real-time systems to model real-time systems that can tolerate a clearly specified degree of missed deadlines. For this purpose, we define four temporal constraints based on determining a maximum number of deadlines that can be missed during a window of time (a given number of invocations). This paper provides the theoretical analysis of the properties and relationships of these constraints. It also shows the exact conditions under which a constraint is harder to satisfy than another constraint. Finally, results on fixed priority scheduling and response-time schedulability tests for a wide range of process models are presented.

Weakly hard real-time systems

Giotto provides an abstract programmer's model for the implementation of embedded control systems with hard real-time constraints. A typical control application consists of periodic software tasks together with a mode-switching logic for enabling and disabling tasks. Giotto specifies time-triggered sensor readings, task invocations, actuator updates, and mode switches independent of any implementation platform. Giotto can be annotated with platform constraints such as task-to-host mappings, and task and communication schedules. The annotations are directives for the Giotto compiler, but they do not alter the functionality and timing of a Giotto program. By separating the platform-independent from the platform-dependent concerns, Giotto enables a great deal of flexibility in choosing control platforms as well as a great deal of automation in the validation and synthesis of control software. The time-triggered nature of Giotto achieves timing predictability, which makes Giotto particularly suitable for safety-critical applications.

/pdf/giotto-a-time-triggered-language-for-embedded-programming-s9vn33652b.pdf

Giotto: a time-triggered language for embedded programming

We present a comparative study among scheduling algorithms which use different priority assignments and different guarantee mechanisms to improve the performance of a real-time system during overload conditions. In order to enhance the quality of service, we assume that tasks are characterized not only by a deadline, but also by an importance value. The performance of the scheduling algorithm is then evaluated by computing the cumulative value gained on a task set, i.e. the sum of the values of those tasks that completed by their deadline. The purpose of this simulation study was twofold. Firstly, we wanted to discover which priority assignment is able to achieve the best performance in overload conditions. Secondly, we were interested in understanding how the pessimistic assumptions made in the guarantee test affect the performance of the scheduling algorithms, and how much a reclaiming mechanism can compensate this degradation. Simulation results show that, without any admission control, value-density scheduling performs best. Simple admission control based on worst case estimates of the load worsen the performance of all value based algorithms. EDF scheduling performs best if admission control is used along with a reclaiming mechanism that takes advantage of early completions. Finally, scheduling by deadline before overload and by value during overload works best in most practical conditions.

/pdf/value-vs-deadline-scheduling-in-overload-conditions-5eqoqhg86h.pdf

Value vs. deadline scheduling in overload conditions

When hard periodic and firm aperiodic tasks are jointly scheduled in the same system, the processor workload can vary according to the arrival times of aperiodic requests. In order to guarantee the schedulability of the periodic task set, in overload conditions some aperiodic tasks must be rejected. In this paper we propose a technique that, in overload conditions, adds robustness to the joint scheduling of periodic and aperiodic tasks in systems with dynamic priorities. Our technique is based on an aperiodic server, called total bandwidth server, already proven effective in a previous work. Here the algorithm is first extended to efficiently handle firm aperiodic tasks and then integrated with a robust guarantee mechanism that allows to achieve graceful degradation in case of transient overloads. Extensive simulations show that the proposed new algorithm is effective in all workload conditions.

/pdf/robust-aperiodic-scheduling-under-dynamic-priority-systems-4h3raxncwa.pdf

Robust aperiodic scheduling under dynamic priority systems

We present a novel scheduling approach for servicing soft aperiodic requests in a hard real time environment, where a set of hard periodic tasks is scheduled using the Earliest Deadline First algorithm. The main characteristic of the proposed algorithm is that it achieves full processor utilization and optimal aperiodic responsiveness, still guaranteeing the execution of the periodic tasks. Another interesting feature of the proposed algorithm is that it can easily be tuned to balance performance versus complexity for adapting it to different application requirements. Schedulability issues, performance results, and implementation complexity of the algorithm are discussed and compared with other methods, such as Background, the Total Bandwidth Server, and the Slack Stealer. Resource reclaiming and extensions to more general cases are also considered. Extensive simulations show that a substantial improvement can be achieved with a little increase of complexity, ranging from the performance of the Total Bandwidth Server up to the optimal behavior.

Optimal deadline assignment for scheduling soft aperiodic tasks in hard real-time environments

In this paper we present a new scheduling approach for servicing soft aperiodic requests in a hard real-time environment, where a set of hard periodic tasks is scheduled using the Earliest Deadline First algorithm. The main characteristic of the proposed algorithm is that it achieves full processor utilization and optimal aperiodic responsiveness, still guaranteeing the execution of the periodic tasks. Another interesting feature of the algorithm is that it can easily be tuned to change its performance and complexity according to the application requirements. Schedulability issues, performance results, and implementation complexity of the algorithm are discussed and compared with other classical methods, such as Background, the Total Bandwidth Sewer (TBS), and the optimal EDL server. Extensive simulations show that a substantial improvement can be achieved with a little increase of complexity, ranging from the TBS performance up to the optimal behavior.

F. Sensini

Papers

Value vs. deadline scheduling in overload conditions

Robust aperiodic scheduling under dynamic priority systems

Optimal deadline assignment for scheduling soft aperiodic tasks in hard real-time environments

Optimal deadline assignment for scheduling soft aperiodic tasks in hard real-time environments

A tool for simulation and analysis of real-time scheduling algorithms"