Moris Behnam

SIRAP: a synchronization protocol for hierarchical resource sharingin real-time open systems

This paper presents a protocol for resource sharing in a hierarchical real-time scheduling framework. Targeting real-time open systems, the protocol and the scheduling framework significantly reduce the efforts and errors associated with integrating multiple semi-independent subsystems on a single processor. Thus, our proposed techniques facilitate modern software development processes, where subsystems are developed by independent teams (or subcontractors) and at a later stage integrated into a single product. Using our solution, a subsystem need not know, and is not dependent on, the timing behaviour of other subsystems; even though they share mutually exclusive resources. In this paper we also prove the correctness of our approach and evaluate its efficiency.

Independently-Developed Real-Time Systems on Multi-cores with Shared Resources

In this paper we propose a synchronization protocol for resource sharing among independently-developed real-time systems on multi-core platforms. The systems may use different scheduling policies and they may have their own local priority settings. Each system is allocated on a dedicated processor (core). In the proposed synchronization protocol, each system is abstracted by an interface which abstracts the information needed for supporting global resources. The protocol facilitates the composability of various real-time systems with different scheduling and priority settings on a multi-core platform. We have performed experimental evaluations and compared the performance of our proposed protocol (MSOS) against the two existing synchronization protocols MPCP and FMLP. The results show that the new synchronization protocol enables composability without any significant loss of performance. In fact, in most cases the new protocol performs better than at least one of the other two synchronization protocols. Hence, we believe that the proposed protocol is a viable solution for synchronization among independently-developed real-time systems executing on a multi-core platform.

Overrun Methods and Resource Holding Times for Hierarchical Scheduling of Semi-Independent Real-Time Systems

The hierarchical scheduling framework (HSF) has been introduced as a design-time framework to enable compositional schedulability analysis of embedded software systems with real-time properties. In this paper, a software system consists of a number of semi-independent components called subsystems. Subsystems are developed independently and later integrated to form a system. To support this design process, in the paper, the proposed methods allow non-intrusive configuration and tuning of subsystem timing-behavior via subsystem interfaces for selecting scheduling parameters. This paper considers three methods to handle overruns due to resource sharing between subsystems in the HSF. For each one of these three overrun methods corresponding scheduling algorithms and associated schedulability analysis are presented together with analysis that shows under what circumstances one or the other is preferred. The analysis is generalized to allow for both fixed priority scheduling (FPS) and earliest deadline first (EDF) scheduling. Also, a further contribution of the paper is the technique of calculating resource-holding times within the framework under different scheduling algorithms; the resource holding times being an important parameter in the global schedulability analysis.

Synthesis of Optimal Interfaces for Hierarchical Scheduling with Resources

This paper presents algorithms that (1) facilitate system-independent synthesis of timing-interfaces for subsystems and (2) system-level selection of interfaces to minimize CPU load. The results presented are developed for hierarchical fixed-priority scheduling of subsystems that may share logical recourses (i.e. semaphores). We show that the use of shared resources results in a tradeoff problem, where resource locking times can be traded for CPU allocation, complicating the problem of finding the optimal interface configuration subject to schedulability. This paper presents a methodology where such a tradeoff can be effectively explored. It first synthesizes a bounded set of interface-candidates for each subsystem, independently of the final system, such that the set contains the interface that minimizes system load for any given system. Then, integrating subsystems into a system, it finds the optimal selection of interfaces. Our algorithms have linear complexity to the number of tasks involved. Thus, our approach is also suitable for adaptable and reconfigurable systems.

A Synchronization Protocol for Temporal Isolation of Software Components in Vehicular Systems

We present a method that allows for integration of individually developed functions of software components into a predictable real-time system. The method has been designed to provide a lightweight mechanism that gives temporal firewalls between functions, preventing unpredictable side effects during function integration. The method maps well to the AUTOSAR (automotive open system architecture) software component model and can thus be used to facilitate seamless and predictable integration and isolation of AUTOSAR components that have been developed by different manufacturers. Specifically, this paper presents a protocol for synchronization in a hierarchical real-time scheduling framework. Using our protocol, a software component does not need to know, and is not dependent on, the timing behavior of software components belonging to other functions; even though they share mutually exclusive resources. In this paper, we also prove the correctness of our approach and evaluate its efficiency and cost in terms of system load in a vehicular context.

Multi-level hierarchical scheduling in ethernet switches

The complexity of Networked Embedded Systems (NES) has been growing steeply, due to increases both in size and functionality, and is becoming a major development concern. This situation is pushing for paradigm changes in NES design methodologies towards higher composability and flexibility. Component-oriented design technologies, in particular supported by server-based scheduling, seem to be good candidates to provide the needed properties. As a response we developed a multi-level hierarchical server-based architecture for Ethernet switches that provides composability and supports online adaptation and reconfiguration. This paper extends our work, presenting the associated response-time based schedulability analysis, necessary for the admission control procedure. Additionally, we have derived the temporal complexity of the analysis, which is shown to be O(n2), where n is the number of higher priority components associated with a given server. Finally, we present a proof-of-concept implementation and a set of experimental results that validates the analysis.

Towards hierarchical scheduling in AUTOSAR

AUTOSAR is a partnership between automotive manufactures and suppliers. It aims at standardizing the automotive software architecture and separating software and hardware. This approach makes software more independent, maintainable, reuseable, etc. Still there is much work to do in order for this standard to be usable. This paper focus on automotive software integration in AUTOSAR, with the use of hierarchical scheduling as an enabling technology. At this point, AUTOSAR components do not have any timing relation with its tasks. This causes an unpredictive runtime behavior which can only be analyzed and verified after integration phase. We discuss how integration can be done in AUTOSAR, with runtime temporal isolation of components. This enable schedulability analysis at the level of components rather than at the level of tasks.

Partitioning real-time systems on multiprocessors with shared resources

In this paper we propose a blocking-aware partitioning algorithm which allocates a task set on a multiprocessor (multi-core) platform in a way that the overall amount of blocking times of tasks are decreased. The algorithm reduces the total utilization which, in turn, has the potential to decrease the total number of required processors (cores). In this paper we evaluate our algorithm and compare it with an existing similar algorithm. The comparison criteria includes both number of schedulable systems as well as processor reduction performance.

Overrun and Skipping in Hierarchically Scheduled Real-Time Systems

Recently, two SRP-based synchronization protocols for hierarchically scheduled real-time systems based on Fixed- Priority Preemptive Scheduling (FPPS) have been presented, i.e., HSRP [9] and SIRAP [4]. Preventing depletion of budget during global resource access, the former implements an overrun mechanism, while the later exploits a skipping mechanism. A theoretical comparison of the performance of these mechanisms revealed that none of them was superior to the other, as their performance is heavily dependent on the system’s parameters. To better understand the relative strengths and weaknesses of these mechanisms, this paper presents a comparative evaluation of the depletion prevention mechanisms overrun (with or without payback) and skipping. These mechanisms are investigated in detail and the corresponding system load imposed by these mechanisms is explored in a simulation study. The mechanisms are evaluated assuming FPPS and a periodic resource model [23]. The periodic resource model is selected as it supports locality of schedulability analysis, allowing for a truthful comparison of the mechanisms. Given system characteristics, guiding the design of hierarchically scheduled real-time systems, the results of this paper indicate when one mechanism is better than the other and how a system should be configured in order to operate efficiently.

Multiprocessor Synchronization and Hierarchical Scheduling

Multi-core architectures have received significant interest as thermal and power consumption problems limit further increase of speed in single-cores. In the multi-core research community a considerable amount of work has been done on real-time multi-core scheduling algorithms where it is assumed tasks are independent. However, synchronization of dependent tasks executing on multi-cores has not received as much attention, even though typical real-time systems in practice include tasks that share resources. In this paper we propose a synchronization protocol for hierarchically scheduled multi-core systems, and we present a comparison between the presented protocol and existing multi-core synchronization protocols. The presented protocol groups dependent tasks that directly or indirectly share mutually exclusive resources into independent components. Within a component dependent tasks use classical uniprocessor synchronization protocols, such as the Stack-based Resource allocation Protocol. The components are then scheduled on the cores by a global scheduler. There are two major approaches for scheduling multicore: partitioned and global scheduling. While most existing multi-core synchronization protocols support only one category, the protocol presented in this paper is developed to handle both scheduling approaches. The presented approach is developed to allow for co-execution of existing legacy real-time applications along with new applications, i.e., a legacy application is put into one or more components preserving its own (original) scheduling and synchronization protocols.