This document provides updates to IEEE Std 802.16's MIB for the MAC, PHY and asso- ciated management procedures in order to accommodate recent extensions to the standard.

IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks Part 16: Air Interface for Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems Draft Amendment: Management Information Base Extensions

This survey covers hard real-time scheduling algorithms and schedulability analysis techniques for homogeneous multiprocessor systems. It reviews the key results in this field from its origins in the late 1960s to the latest research published in late 2009. The survey outlines fundamental results about multiprocessor real-time scheduling that hold independent of the scheduling algorithms employed. It provides a taxonomy of the different scheduling methods, and considers the various performance metrics that can be used for comparison purposes. A detailed review is provided covering partitioned, global, and hybrid scheduling algorithms, approaches to resource sharing, and the latest results from empirical investigations. The survey identifies open issues, key research challenges, and likely productive research directions.

/pdf/a-survey-of-hard-real-time-scheduling-for-multiprocessor-313o35g6ho.pdf

A survey of hard real-time scheduling for multiprocessor systems

A systematic literature review of machine learning methods applied to predictive maintenance

We present a real-time, Linux-based testbed called LITMUS^RT, which we have developed for empirically evaluating multiprocessor real-time scheduling algorithms. We also present the results from such an evaluation, in which partitioned earliest-deadline-first (EDF) scheduling, preemptive and nonpreemptive global EDF scheduling, and two variants of the global PD^2 Pfair algorithm were considered. The tested algorithms were compared based on both raw performance and schedulability (with real overheads considered) assuming either hard- or soft-real-time constraints. To our knowledge, this paper is the first attempt by anyone to compare partitioned and global real-time scheduling approaches using empirical data.

/pdf/litmus-rt-a-testbed-for-empirically-comparing-real-time-1fzgf01lae.pdf

LITMUS^RT : A Testbed for Empirically Comparing Real-Time Multiprocessor Schedulers

We present an optimal real-time scheduling algorithm for multiprocessors -- one that satisfies all task deadlines, when the total utilization demand does not exceed the utilization capacity of the processors. The algorithm called LLREF, is designed based on a novel abstraction for reasoning about task execution behavior on multiprocessors: the Time and Local Execution Time Domain Plane (or TL plane). LLREF is based on the fluid scheduling model and the fairness notion, and uses the T-L plane to describe fluid schedules without using time quanta, unlike the optimal Pfair algorithm (which uses time quanta). We show that scheduling for multiprocessors can be viewed as repeatedly occurring T-L planes, and feasibly scheduling on a single T-L plane results in the optimal schedule. We analytically establish the optimality of LLREF. Further, we establish that the algorithm has bounded overhead, and this bound is independent of time quanta (unlike Pfair). Our simulation results validate our analysis on the algorithm overhead.

/pdf/an-optimal-real-time-scheduling-algorithm-for-m202kiwmxx.pdf

An Optimal Real-Time Scheduling Algorithm for Multiprocessors

In hard real-time systems, a significant disparity in schedulability exists between EDF-based scheduling algorithms and Pfair scheduling, which is the only known way of optimally scheduling recurrent real-time tasks on multiprocessors. This is unfortunate because EDF-based algorithms entail lower scheduling and task-migration overheads. In work on hard real-time systems, it has been shown that the disparity in schedulability can be lessened by placing caps on per-task utilizations. In this paper, we show that it can also be lessened by easing the requirement that all deadlines be met. Our main contribution is a new EDF-based scheme that ensures bounded deadline tardiness. In this scheme, per-task utilizations must be capped, but overall utilization need not be restricted. The required cap is quite liberal. Hence, our scheme should enable a wide range of soft real-time applications to be scheduled with no constraints on total utilization. We also propose techniques and heuristics that can be used to reduce tardiness.

/pdf/an-edf-based-scheduling-algorithm-for-multiprocessor-soft-3hwczk1jtc.pdf

An EDF-based scheduling algorithm for multiprocessor soft real-time systems

Multicore architectures, which have multiple processing units on a single chip, are widely viewed as a way to achieve higher processor performance, given that thermal and power problems impose limits on the performance of single-core designs. Accordingly, several chip manufacturers have already released, or will soon release, chips with dual cores, and it is predicted that chips with up to 32 cores will be available within a decade. To effectively use the available processing resources on multicore platforms, software designs should avoid co-executing applications or threads that can worsen the performance of shared caches, if not thrash them. While cache-aware scheduling techniques for such platforms have been proposed for throughput-oriented applications, to the best of our knowledge, no such work has targeted real-time applications. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a cache-aware Pfair-based scheduling scheme for real-time tasks on multicore platforms

/pdf/real-time-scheduling-on-multicore-platforms-3o4lsf0i5f.pdf

Real-Time Scheduling on Multicore Platforms

We consider the scheduling of a sporadic real-time task system on an identical multiprocessor. Though Pfair algorithms are theoretically optimal for such task systems, in practice, their runtime overheads can significantly reduce the amount of useful work that is accomplished. On the other hand, if all deadlines need to be met, then every known non-Pfair algorithm requires restrictions on total system utilization that can approach approximately 50% of the available processing capacity. This may be overkill for soft real-time systems, which can tolerate occasional or bounded deadline misses (i.e. bounded tardiness). In this paper we derive tardiness bounds under preemptive and non-preemptive global $\mathsf{EDF}$ when the total system utilization is not restricted, except that it not exceed the available processing capacity. Hence, processor utilization can be improved for soft real-time systems on multiprocessors. Our tardiness bounds depend on the total system utilization and per-task utilizations and execution costs--the lower these values, the lower the tardiness bounds. As a final remark, we note that global $\mathsf{EDF}$ may be superior to partitioned $\mathsf{EDF}$ for multiprocessor-based soft real-time systems in that the latter does not offer any scope to improve system utilization even if bounded tardiness can be tolerated.

/pdf/tardiness-bounds-under-global-edf-scheduling-on-a-2fzoat6k2p.pdf

Tardiness bounds under global EDF scheduling on a multiprocessor

This paper considers the scheduling of soft real-time sporadic task systems under global EDF on an identical multiprocessor. Prior research on global EDF has focused mostly on hard real-time systems, where, to ensure that all deadlines are met, approximately 50% of the available processing capacity will have to be sacrificed in the worst case. This may be overkill for soft real-time systems that can tolerate bounded tardiness. In this paper, we derive tardiness bounds under preemptive and non-preemptive global EDF on multiprocessors when the total utilization of a task system is not restricted and may equal the number of processors. Our tardiness bounds depend on per-task utilizations and execution costs - the lower these values, the lower the tardiness bounds. As a final remark, we note that global EDF may be superior to partitioned EDF for multiprocessor-based soft real-time systems in that the latter does not offer any scope to improve system utilization even if bounded tardiness can be tolerated

/pdf/tardiness-bounds-under-global-edf-scheduling-on-a-4zfk57nl7u.pdf

Umamaheswari C. Devi

Papers

LITMUS^RT : A Testbed for Empirically Comparing Real-Time Multiprocessor Schedulers

An EDF-based scheduling algorithm for multiprocessor soft real-time systems

Real-Time Scheduling on Multicore Platforms

Tardiness bounds under global EDF scheduling on a multiprocessor

Tardiness bounds under global EDF scheduling on a multiprocessor