Supervisory control for fault-tolerant scheduling of real-time multiprocessor systems with aperiodic tasks

Supervisory control theory is a well-established theoretical framework for feedback control of discrete event systems whose behaviours are described by automata and formal languages. In this article, we propose a formal constructive method for optimal fault-tolerant scheduling of real-time multiprocessor systems based on supervisory control theory. In particular, we consider a fault-tolerant and schedulable language which is an achievable set of event sequences meeting given deadlines of accepted aperiodic tasks in the presence of processor faults. Such a language eventually provides information on whether a scheduler (i.e., supervisor) should accept or reject a newly arrived aperiodic task. Moreover, we present a systematic way of computing a largest fault-tolerant and schedulable language which is optimal in that it contains all achievable deadline-meeting sequences.     

基于多处理机的混合实时任务容错调度

提出了一种混合实时任务容错调度算法．该算法采用Rate Monotonic(RM)算法完成周期任务的静态调度；采用预订处理机时间方法和Earlier Deadline First(EDF)算法动态调度非周期任务；采用主／副版本备份技术确保系统的容错能力．通过充分利用周期任务的剩余处理机时间调度非周期任务和主动备份与被动备份相结合的方法有效地减少了处理机数．仿真结果证明了算法的有效性．     

云环境下周期和非周期混合实时任务双容错调度算法

云环境中的处理机故障已成为云计算不可忽视的问题,容错成为设计和发展云计算系统的关键需求。针对一些容错调度算法在任务调度过程中调度效率低下以及任务类型单一的问题,提出一种处理机和任务主副版本分组的容错调度方法;并给出了副版本可重叠执行的判定方法,以及任务最坏响应时间的计算公式。通过实验和分析表明,和以前算法相比,将处理机分成两组分别执行任务主版本和任务副版本,减少了任务调度所需进行可调度测试的时间,增加了副版本重叠执行的机会,减少了所需的处理机个数,对提高系统处理机的利用率和容错调度的效率具有重要的意义。     

容错实时任务调度的DSPN建模与分析

复杂系统的形式化描述对新系统的设计以及现有系统的改进与评价都具有十分重要的作用;针对处理机系统容错实时混合任务调度,提出采用确定与随机Petri网进行建模与性能分析;首先,根据任务执行的优先级、周期性、容错性和实时性,将任务分为四类;然后,采用DSPN对任务调度执行过程,不同优先级任务抢占式调度,处理机故障及故障恢复过程进行建模,由此构成处理机系统容错实时任务调度过程的DSPN模型;最后,仿真实验结果表明,在负载相同情况下,处理机利用率基本相同,且具有容错的实时任务调度算法可以有效地降低任务错失率;容错实时任务调度DSPN模型可以为复杂任务调度系统的Petri网建模与分析奠定了基础,并为实际工程应用提供了理论指导。     

单机实时系统中的一种混合型实时容错调度算法

目前研究单机实时系统的调度算法文章大多只能调度单一类型的任务。本文在PKSA算法的基础上，建立了一种混合型实时容错模型，提出一种调度算法不仅可以调度有容错需求的周期任务，同时也能够调度无容错需求的周期任务和非周期非实时任务，实现了调度混合型任务的目的。     

单机实时系统中的一种混合型实时容错调度算法

目前研究单机实时系统的调度算法文章大多只能调度单一类型的任务。本文在PKSA算法的基础上,建立了一种混合型实时容错模型,提出一种调度算法不仅可以调度有容错需求的周期任务,同时也能够调度无容错需求的周期任务和非周期非实时任务,实现了调度混合型任务的目的。     

实时异构系统中的积极复制容错调度算法

在设计实时异构系统中的容错调度算法时,既要考虑到实时性的约束,又要最大化系统的可靠性.此外,异构系统中的并行应用调度问题已经被证明了是NP完全问题.现有的容错调度算法大多采用复制技术来提升系统的可靠性,但是任务的多次执行会导致应用执行时间变长,系统实时性下降.为此,提出了一个基于积极复制技术的容错调度算法,该算法连续的复制任务集中对当前系统实时性影响最小的任务,然后将任务集中的所有任务调度至最早完成的处理器,用以在满足实时性约束的同时,提升系统的可靠性.实验表明,相比于同样着眼于实时异构系统的DB-FTSA算法,该算法在实时性约束严格的情况下,可靠性有较大提升.     

Task allocation model for distributed systems

The problem of distributing tasks to processors in a distributed computing system is addressed. A task should be assigned to a processor whose capabilities are most appropriate for the execution of that task and excessive interprocessor communication is avoided. A simple algorithm for task allocation is presented. The execution costs and communication costs of the tasks are represented by arrays. A task is either assigned to a processor or fused with another task using a simple criterion. The execution and communication costs are then modified suitably. The process continues until all the tasks are assigned to processors. This algorithm also facilitates incorporation of various system constraints. It is applicable to random program structures and to a system containing any number of processors.     

Extended impossibility results for asynchronous complete networks

It is proved that a large class of distributed tasks cannot be solved in the presence of faulty processors. This class contains tasks whose unsolvability in the presence of faults is known (the consensus task and its variants. cf. Fischer et al. (1985)) as well as some new tasks (e.g., constructing a spanning tree). In particular, we introduce the notion of the decision graph of a task, and show that every problem whose decision graph is disconnected cannot be solved in the presence of one faulty processor, by reducing the unsolvability of this problem to the unsolvability of the consensus problem. The notion of unsolvability used here is very weak: We say that a protocol solves a given problem in spite of one faulty processor if in any execution it satisfies (i) all nonfaulty processors eventually halt, and (ii) if no processor is faulty, it solves the problem. Hence, the unsolvability of a problem in this model implies its unsolvability in other models appearing in the literature.     

分布式控制系统中多种混合任务的容错调度

分布式控制系统中存在有强实时、软实时和非实时等多种实时性的任务,其中强实时任务必须在其时限前完成,否则会出现灾难性后果,因此必须为分布式控制系统提供一定的容错能力。首先给出了用于调度多种实时性任务的单处理器调度算法——双优先级队列调度算法,并分析算法的可调度性条件。针对分布式控制系统,考虑基版本与副版本的执行时间不同时,结合版本复制技术和单处理器调度算法提出了一种新的容错调度算法。分析了算法的可调度行,给出了可任务集的可调度条件判断方法和基版本任务时限的设置方法。在此基础上,采用启发式静态任务分配算法,保证各处理器的负载均衡。本算法在保证任务容错可调度的条件下,可提高系统中各处理器的利用率,仿真结果表明该算法是有效的。     

提高软非周期任务响应性能的调度算法

实时环境中常常既包含硬周期任务,又包含软非周期任务,引入一种改进软非周期实时任务响应时间的算法.已有的解决混合任务调度问题的方法都是基于速率单调（Rate Monotonic）策略的,其中从周期任务“挪用时间”的算法被证明优于其他所有算法.但是,速率单调算法限制了处理器的使用率,从而使周期任务的可“挪用”时间受到限制.最后期限驱动（Deadline Driven）策略DD可使潜在的处理器利用率达到100%.新算法正是在周期任务的调度中适当加入了DD策略,从而使非周期任务的响应时间得以缩短.仿真实验的结果表明,这种算法的性能优于已有的所有算法,而由它所带来的额外开销却不算很高.     

Fault-Tolerant Dynamic Rescheduling for Heterogeneous Computing Systems

As the scale and complexity of heterogeneous computing systems grow, failures occur frequently and have an adverse effect on solving large-scale applications. Hence, fault-tolerant scheduling is an imperative step for large-scale computing systems. The existing fault-tolerant scheduling algorithms belong to static scheduling, and they allocate multiple copies of each task to several processors no matter whether processor failures affect the execution of tasks. Such active replication strategies not only waste resource but also sacrifice the makespan. What is more, they cannot guarantee the successful execution of applications. In this paper, we propose a fault-tolerant dynamic rescheduling algorithm named FTDR, which can overcome above drawbacks. FTDR keeps listening to the processor failure, and reschedules the suspended tasks once failures occur. Because FTDR reschedules the tasks that are suspended because of failures, it can tolerate an arbitrary number of failures. Randomly generated DAGs are tested in our experiments. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm achieves good performance in terms of makespan and resource consumption compared with its direct competitors.     

A Negotiation Protocol for Dynamic Load Distribution Using Batch Task Assignments

Adynamic load distribution(LD) algorithm improves the performance of a distributed system by using current system load information to relocate application tasks among processing nodes, so that workload imbalance in the system can be smoothed out. In this paper, we propose aguarantee and reservation protocol(GR protocol) which can be used by dynamic LD algorithms. In contrast to the commonly usedsingle task assignments, GR protocol usesbatch task assignments, meaning that multiple tasks can be selected for remote execution during each single sender–receiver negotiation session. GR protocol is used to obtain a mutual agreement between a task sender and a receiver on an appropriate task batch size. GR protocol is based on avirtual workload modelwhich ensures coordinated even dispersements of tasks in the system. This model also avoidsprocessor thrashing, a situation when a receiver node is flooded with excessive remotely assigned tasks and thus becomes overloaded inadvertently.     

Case study on distributed and fault tolerant system modeling based on timed automata

This article presents the modeling of a distributed fault-tolerant real-time application by timed automata. The application under consideration consists of several processors communicating via a Controller Area Network (CAN); each processor executes an application that consists of fault-tolerant tasks running on top of an operating system (e.g. OSEK/VDX compliant) and using inter-task synchronization primitives. For such a system, a model checking tool (e.g. UPPAAL) can be used to verify the complex time and logical properties formalized as safety or bounded liveness properties (e.g. end-to-end response time considering an occurrence of a fault). The proposed model reduces the size of the state-space by sharing clocks measuring the execution time of the tasks.     

MINIMIZING SERVICE DELAY OF APERIODIC TASKS IN DYNAMIC‐PRIORITY NON‐PREEMPTIVE HARD REAL‐TIME SYSTEMS

A scheduling technique is presented to minimize service delay of aperiodic tasks in hard real‐time systems that employ dynamic‐priority scheduling and do not allow task preemption. In a real‐time scheduling process, the execution of periodic tasks can be deferred as long as this does not cause other tasks to violate their time constraints. However, aperiodic tasks that usually have urgent missions should complete execution as early as possible. In this paper, it is assumed that aperiodic tasks also have time constraints. Thus, the problem of deciding whether an aperiodic task with an unpredictable arrival time can be scheduled successfully or not is difficult to solve because delaying periodic tasks may cause them to fail to meet their time constraints. We present a dynamic scheduling technique to solve this problem which makes use of the symmetric property of a schedule. The maximum possible idle slot is always reserved at every scheduling point so that aperiodic tasks can be serviced immediately if the reserved idle slot is big enough to service them. The proposed technique also maximizes utilization of idle slots by reserving them for the longest possible time span.     

异构分布式实时仿真系统的容错调度算法

异构分布式实时仿真系统是一类特殊的实时系统,基于改进的SP(spare processor)容错模型(checkpoint-based spare processor,简称CSP)对其容错问题进行了研究.首先,根据仿真系统的特点提出了两个命题,这是后续工作的基础;而后,基于Markov链对仿真任务的最坏反应时间进行了分析,并提出了仿真任务的可调度性分析规则;最后,基于CSP容错模型和上述可调度分析规则提出了异构分布式实时仿真系统的容错调度算法CSP-RTFT.算法的仿真结果表明:该算法较之基于SP模型的算法SP-RTFT可获得更好的稳定性、更高的任务接收率;缺点是资源利用率比PB模型下的算法要低.     

面向同构多核处理器的节能任务调度方法

对于运行在同构多核处理器上的周期性硬实时任务,设计了一个基于动态电压调节的节能调度方法。该方法首先将计算任务按照周期数降序排序并基于计算任务调度长度最短的原则安排任务映射。然后将各个处理核上具有最小通讯时间的计算任务设置为最后执行的计算任务而其它计算任务顺序保持不变。在初始映射中所有计算任务都被分配最高频率的情况下,每个处理核上的计算任务在执行时间扩展过程中确定最佳的计算任务顺序。基于 Intel PXA270的功耗模型,以几个随机任务集作实验。结果表明提出的方法能够有效地降低多核处理器的能量。     

端到端时间约束的实时任务动态调度算法

在单处理机系统中,由于计算高优先级任务抢占的时间相对比较简单,所以单处理机调度理论取得了长足的进步.提出一个端到端时间约束的实时任务调度算法,当实时任务到达系统时,算法为任务的每个子任务在相应的处理机上预约一定的计算资源,把端到端的多处理机调度问题转换成单处理机调度问题,从而可以利用单处理机调度理论判定实时任务的可调度性.实验表明,该算法明显地提高了CPU利用率和任务接收率.     

Using task migration to improve non-contiguous processor allocation in NoC-based CMPs

In this paper, a processor allocation mechanism for NoC-based chip multiprocessors is presented. Processor allocation is a well-known problem in parallel computer systems and aims to allocate the processing nodes of a multiprocessor to different tasks of an input application at run time. The proposed mechanism targets optimizing the on-chip communication power/latency and relies on two procedures: processor allocation and task migration. Allocation is done by a fast heuristic algorithm to allocate the free processors to the tasks of an incoming application when a new application begins execution. The task-migration algorithm is activated when some application completes execution and frees up the allocated resources. Task migration uses the recently deallocated processors and tries to rearrange the current tasks in order to find a better mapping for them. The proposed method can also capture the dynamic traffic pattern of the network and perform task migration based on the current communication demands of the tasks. Consequently, task migration adapts the task mapping to the current network status. We adopt a non-contiguous processor allocation strategy in which the tasks of the input application are allowed to be mapped onto disjoint regions (groups of processors) of the network. We then use virtual point-to-point circuits, a state-of-the-art fast on-chip connection designed for network-on-chips, to virtually connect the disjoint regions and make the communication latency/power closer to the values offered by contiguous allocation schemes. The experimental results show considerable improvement over existing allocation mechanisms.     

面向物联网终端的任务相关性调度策略

对于具有相关性的任务,调度顺序不合理将影响任务的执行时间和实时性。结合物联网终端任务间依赖关系复杂的特点提出了一种利用任务相关性的调度策略。该策略设计了以作业轮询组为主体的任务模型,根据任务时限建立了优先级因子矩阵作为任务调度的凭据,对于周期任务,在每个任务执行完毕后生成,以任务相关性为参数的增量矩阵用以动态修改任务优先级,使前驱任务能优先执行;对于非周期任务采用了构建临时作业轮询组的方式进行抢占调度。测试结果表明,该策略能够有效减少具有相关性的周期任务集执行时间和调度失败次数,缩短非周期任务响应时间。