Priority ceiling protocol

Last updated

In real-time computing, the priority ceiling protocol is a synchronization protocol for shared resources to avoid unbounded priority inversion and mutual deadlock due to wrong nesting of critical sections. In this protocol each resource is assigned a priority ceiling, which is a priority equal to the highest priority of any task which may lock the resource. The protocol works by temporarily raising the priorities of tasks in certain situations, thus it requires a scheduler that supports dynamic priority scheduling. [1]

Contents

ICPP versus OCPP

There are two variants of the protocol: Original Ceiling Priority Protocol (OCPP) and Immediate Ceiling Priority Protocol (ICPP). The worst-case behaviour of the two ceiling schemes is identical from a scheduling view point. Both variants work by temporarily raising the priorities of tasks. [2]

In OCPP, a task X's priority is raised when a higher-priority task Y tries to acquire a resource that X has locked. The task's priority is then raised to the highest priority had been blocked by itself, ensuring that task X quickly finishes its critical section, unlocking the resource. A task is only allowed to lock a resource if its dynamic priority is higher than the priority ceilings of all resources locked by other tasks. Otherwise the task becomes blocked, waiting for the resource. [2]

In ICPP, a task's priority is immediately raised when it locks a resource. The task's priority is set to the priority ceiling of the resource, thus no task that may lock the resource is able to get scheduled. This ensures the OCPP property that "A task can only lock a resource if its dynamic priority is higher than the priority ceilings of all resources locked by other tasks". [2]

ICPP is called "Ceiling Locking" in Ada, "Priority Protect Protocol" in POSIX and "Priority Ceiling Emulation" in RTSJ. [3] It is also known as "Highest Locker's Priority Protocol" (HLP). [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) for real-time computing applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. An RTOS is distinct from a time-sharing operating system, such as Unix, which manages the sharing of system resources with a scheduler, data buffers, or fixed task prioritization in multitasking or multiprogramming environments. Processing time requirements need to be fully understood and bound rather than just kept as a minimum. All processing must occur within the defined constraints. Real-time operating systems are event-driven and preemptive, meaning the OS can monitor the relevant priority of competing tasks, and make changes to the task priority. Event-driven systems switch between tasks based on their priorities, while time-sharing systems switch the task based on clock interrupts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mutual exclusion</span> In computing, restricting data to be accessible by one thread at a time

In computer science, mutual exclusion is a property of concurrency control, which is instituted for the purpose of preventing race conditions. It is the requirement that one thread of execution never enters a critical section while a concurrent thread of execution is already accessing said critical section, which refers to an interval of time during which a thread of execution accesses a shared resource or shared memory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thread (computing)</span> Smallest sequence of programmed instructions that can be managed independently by a scheduler

In computer science, a thread of execution is the smallest sequence of programmed instructions that can be managed independently by a scheduler, which is typically a part of the operating system. In many cases, a thread is a component of a process.

In computer science, a semaphore is a variable or abstract data type used to control access to a common resource by multiple threads and avoid critical section problems in a concurrent system such as a multitasking operating system. Semaphores are a type of synchronization primitive. A trivial semaphore is a plain variable that is changed depending on programmer-defined conditions.

In computing, scheduling is the action of assigning resources to perform tasks. The resources may be processors, network links or expansion cards. The tasks may be threads, processes or data flows.

In computer science, rate-monotonic scheduling (RMS) is a priority assignment algorithm used in real-time operating systems (RTOS) with a static-priority scheduling class. The static priorities are assigned according to the cycle duration of the job, so a shorter cycle duration results in a higher job priority.

In computer science, a lock or mutex is a synchronization primitive that prevents state from being modified or accessed by multiple threads of execution at once. Locks enforce mutual exclusion concurrency control policies, and with a variety of possible methods there exist multiple unique implementations for different applications.

RTLinux is a hard realtime real-time operating system (RTOS) microkernel that runs the entire Linux operating system as a fully preemptive process. The hard real-time property makes it possible to control robots, data acquisition systems, manufacturing plants, and other time-sensitive instruments and machines from RTLinux applications. The design was patented. Despite the similar name, it is not related to the Real-Time Linux project of the Linux Foundation.

OSEK is a standards body that has produced specifications for an embedded operating system, a communications stack, and a network management protocol for automotive embedded systems. It has produced related specifications, namely AUTOSAR. OSEK was designed to provide a reliable standard software architecture for the various electronic control units (ECUs) throughout a car.

In computer science, priority inversion is a scenario in scheduling in which a high-priority task is indirectly superseded by a lower-priority task effectively inverting the assigned priorities of the tasks. This violates the priority model that high-priority tasks can only be prevented from running by higher-priority tasks. Inversion occurs when there is a resource contention with a low-priority task that is then preempted by a medium-priority task.

In real-time computing, priority inheritance is a method for eliminating unbounded priority inversion. Using this programming method, a process scheduling algorithm increases the priority of a process (A) to the maximum priority of any other process waiting for any resource on which A has a resource lock.

Micro-Controller Operating Systems is a real-time operating system (RTOS) designed by Jean J. Labrosse in 1991. It is a priority-based preemptive real-time kernel for microprocessors, written mostly in the programming language C. It is intended for use in embedded systems.

The Ravenscar profile is a subset of the Ada tasking features designed for safety-critical hard real-time computing. It was defined by a separate technical report in Ada 95; it is now part of the Ada 2012 Standard. It has been named after the English village of Ravenscar, the location of the 8th International Real-Time Ada Workshop.

In computer science, gang scheduling is a scheduling algorithm for parallel systems that schedules related threads or processes to run simultaneously on different processors. Usually these will be threads all belonging to the same process, but they may also be from different processes, where the processes could have a producer-consumer relationship or come from the same MPI program.

In computer science, synchronization is the task of coordinating multiple processes to join up or handshake at a certain point, in order to reach an agreement or commit to a certain sequence of action.

The Stack Resource Policy (SRP) is a resource allocation policy used in real-time computing, used for accessing shared resources when using earliest deadline first scheduling. It was defined by T. P. Baker. SRP is not the same as the Priority ceiling protocol which is for fixed priority tasks (FP).

Nano-RK is a wireless sensor networking real-time operating system (RTOS) from Carnegie Mellon University, designed to run on microcontrollers for use in sensor networks. Nano-RK supports a fixed-priority fully preemptive scheduler with fine-grained timing primitives to support real-time task sets. "Nano" implies that the RTOS is small, using 2 KB of random-access memory (RAM) and using 18 KB of flash memory, while RK is short for resource kernel. A resource kernel provides reservations on how often system resources can be used. For example, a task might only be allowed to execute 10 ms every 150 ms, or a node might only be allowed to transmit 10 network packets per minute. These reservations form a virtual energy budget to ensure a node meets its designed battery lifetime and to prevent a failed node from generating excessive network traffic. Nano-RK is open-source software, is written in C and runs on the Atmel-based FireFly sensor networking platform, the MicaZ motes, and the MSP430 processor.

SCHED_DEADLINE EDF-based task scheduler in the Linux kernel

SCHED_DEADLINE is a CPU scheduler available in the Linux kernel since version 3.14, based on the earliest deadline first (EDF) and constant bandwidth server (CBS) algorithms, supporting resource reservations: each task scheduled under such policy is associated with a budget Q, and a period P, corresponding to a declaration to the kernel that Q time units are required by that task every P time units, on any processor. This makes SCHED_DEADLINE particularly suitable for real-time applications, like multimedia or industrial control, where P corresponds to the minimum time elapsing between subsequent activations of the task, and Q corresponds to the worst-case execution time needed by each activation of the task.

Earliest deadline first (EDF) or least time to go is a dynamic priority scheduling algorithm used in real-time operating systems to place processes in a priority queue. Whenever a scheduling event occurs the queue will be searched for the process closest to its deadline. This process is the next to be scheduled for execution.

Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) is a set of standards under development by the Time-Sensitive Networking task group of the IEEE 802.1 working group. The TSN task group was formed in November 2012 by renaming the existing Audio Video Bridging Task Group and continuing its work. The name changed as a result of the extension of the working area of the standardization group. The standards define mechanisms for the time-sensitive transmission of data over deterministic Ethernet networks.

References

  1. Renwick, Kyle; Renwick, Bill (May 18, 2004). "How to use priority inheritance". embedded.com. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-11-13. Retrieved 2014-11-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. Alan Burns; Andy Wellings (March 2001). Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages Ada 95, Real-Time Java and Real-Time POSIX (3rd ed.). Addison Wesley Longmain. ISBN   0-201-72988-1.
  4. http://user.it.uu.se/~yi/courses/rts/dvp-rts-08/notes/synchronization-resource-sharing.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]