Real Time Operating Systems

1. Real Time Operating Systems Asynchronous Events Course originally developed by Maj Ron Smith

2. Outline • Aperiodic versus Sporadic Tasks • Approaches to Scheduling Asynchronous Tasks • Background Scheduling • Interrupt Driven • Slack Stealing • Polling • Bandwidth Servers • Deferrable Servers • Sporadic Servers Dr. Alain Beaulieu

3. Asynchronous Events • Recall that aperiodic and sporadic tasks model events which arrive (release) unpredictably; ie, asynchronously • Aperiodic tasks have jobs with soft or no deadlines • In scheduling these jobs we attempt to minimize their response time, without jeopardizing any “hard” deadlines • Sporadic tasks have jobs with hard deadlines • In scheduling these jobs we only accept them if their deadlines are guaranteed to be met, otherwise we reject the job. • This implies a requirement for handling “rejected” jobs In this course we will not be covering specific techniques for accepting / rejecting sporadic jobs Dr. Alain Beaulieu

4. Approaches to Scheduling Asynchronous • In a system based on preemptive, fixed-priority scheduling, the scheduler’s role is to ensure that the highest priority “ready” task is always “running” How is the system made aware of the asynchronous events? … and how are they scheduled? Dr. Alain Beaulieu

5. T1 1 1 1 T2 1 1 1 Ax 0 2 4 6 8 Simple Approaches – Background Execution • Asynchronous tasks are scheduled and executed only during processor idle times • Simple & does not affect periodic schedulability • However, asynchronous response times are poor Dr. Alain Beaulieu

6. T1 1 1 1 T2 1/2 x 1 1 Ax 0 2 4 6 8 Simple Approaches – Interrupt Driven Execution • Scheduling and execution of asynchronous jobs is interrupt driven (with priority) • Simple & yields best asynchronous response times • However, periodic tasks may no longer be schedulable Dr. Alain Beaulieu

7. T1 1 1 1 T2 1 1 Ax 0 2 4 6 8 Simple Approaches – Slack Stealing • Each periodic task is postponed such that it is still schedulable but they free up slack time • Provides good asynchronous response times and maintains periodic task schedulability • But this requires high overhead and is complex Dr. Alain Beaulieu

8. Polling Servers • Another simple approach is to employ a poller or polling server to handle asynchronoustasks • At predefined periods, ps, polls the system to determine if the asynchronousjob queue is non-empty • essentially a periodic server: (ps, es) • Thebudget of the server is es which is replenished at the beginning of each period, ps • The server is backlogged when the asynchronousqueue is nonempty and idle otherwise Dr. Alain Beaulieu

9. Tpoller 1/2 1/4 T1 1 1 1 T2 1 1 1 0 2 4 6 8 Polling Servers • For the system below we see the main disadvantage of this approach • if an asynchronous job arrives after the polling, it must wait until the next period to be scheduled and the budget is lost (wasted) Tpoller = (2, 0.5), A1 = (0.1, 0.75) Dr. Alain Beaulieu

10. Bandwidth Preserving Servers (BPS) • Algorithms which preserve the budget of the polling server, thus allowing it to be consumed later in the period if an asynchronous job arrives, are known as bandwidth preserving servers • Bandwidth preserving servers are defined by: • consumption rules – the conditions under which execution budgets are preserved and consumed, • replenishment rules – the time in which a budget is replenished and by what amount Dr. Alain Beaulieu

11. Deferrable Servers • Adeferrable server is a bandwidth preserving server with period ps and execution budget es which • preserves its budget if idle, and • replenishes its budget fully every period • Budgets are not allowed to accumulate from period to period • Since the deferrable server is purely periodic, it can be assigned priority along with all other periodic tasks • However, for reasons that will be explained later, we must ensure that the priority of the deferrable server is higher than all other periodic tasks Dr. Alain Beaulieu

12. Deferrable Servers - Example • Draw the schedule for the system below: T= {(2, 3.5, 1.5, 3), (6, 0.5) } TDS = (3,1) A1 = (2.5, 2) Note: Ti = (i, pi, ei, Di) - standard 4-tuple periodic task Ti = (pi, ei) - standard 2-tuple periodic task Ai = (ri, ei) - standard 2-tuple aperiodic task Si = (ri, ei, di) - standard 3-tuple sporadic task Dr. Alain Beaulieu

13. TDS 1/2 1 1/2 T1 1/2 1 1/2 1 T2 1/2 1/2 2.5 5.5 0 2 4 6 8 Deferrable Servers –Solution • The schedule for this system is given below: T= {(2, 3.5, 1.5, 3.5), (6, 0.5) } TDS = (3,1) A1 = (2.5, 2) Note:  = {TDS, T1, T2} Dr. Alain Beaulieu

14. Sporadic Servers • Sporadic servers are a class of bandwidth preserving servers that are designed to deal with the disadvantage just seen with deferrable servers • As with a deferrable server, a sporadic sever preserves its budget, only consuming it when an actual aperiodic event occurs • However the replenishment period shifts so as to be in phase with the start of each actual asynchronous sequence or to align with a new busy interval • ps can shift forward when the asynchronous queue is empty • and shift backward when the system periodic tasks are idle The specifics of these consumption and replenishment rules define the variants of sporadic servers Dr. Alain Beaulieu

15. Sporadic Server – Illustrative Example 1 • Note 1: the tasks and the server in this system are RM scheduled and  TSS has a priority of 2 • Note 2: the replenishment period, ps , phase shifts forward at time 0.5 when A1 releases (!book) T = {(3,1), (5,1.5)}, TSS = (4,1), A = {(0.5,1.5), (3,1)} T1 1 1 1 A1 A2 A1 A2 TSS 0.5 0.5 1 0.5 T2 1 0.5 0.5 1 0 2 4 6 8 ps1 ps2 ps0 Dr. Alain Beaulieu

16. Sporadic Server – Illustrative Example 2 • Note 1: periodic task T2 has been modified such that its period is now 7 instead of 5 • Note 2: the period ps phase shifts backward at time 5.5 when the periodic system is idle T = {(3,1), (7,1.5)}, TSS = (4,1), A = {(0.5,1.5), (3,1)} T1 1 1 1 A2 A1 A1 A2 TSS 0.5 0.5 0.5 1 T2 1 0.5 1.5 0 2 4 6 8 ps1 ps2 Dr. Alain Beaulieu

17. Schedulability & Sporadic Servers • When assigning priorities (as we saw in the previous example), we treat the sporadic server as any other periodic task • and because the sporadic server can never delay a lower priority task any more than a normal periodic task with similar parameters, we can determine system schedulability in the exact same manner as if the system were just a set of periodic tasks • Note that the deadline of the sporadic server is only relevant in the context that the server gets a full budget each cycle if needed (as if someone were leaning on the keyboard) Dr. Alain Beaulieu

18. Exercise • Draw the RM schedule for the system below • (go out far enough in time to include as a minimum the completion of the first job in each periodic task and all aperiodic jobs) • Use the rules used in class not the ones in the book. • Determine the response time of A1 and A2 • Is the system schedulable? • T={ (4, 1), (7, 2) } • TSS = ( 5, 1) , A = {(0.5, 2.5), (2.5, 0.25)} How does the answer change if e2 = 1.9? Dr. Alain Beaulieu

19. References [1] Liu, J.W.S., “Real-Time Systems”, Prentice-Hall, 2000. [2] Labrosse, J.J., “MicroC/OS-II” 1st and 2nd Editions (1999, 2002) Dr. Alain Beaulieu