System Software

In order to cope with the complexity of applications of embedded systems, reuse of components is a key technique. As pointed out by Sangiovanni-Vincentelli (The context for platform-based design. IEEE Design and Test of Computers, 2002), software and hardware components must be reused in the platform-based design methosdology (see p. 296). These components comprise knowledge from earlier design efforts and constitute intellectual property (IP). Standard software components that can be reused include system software components such as embedded operating systems (OSs) and middleware. The last term denotes software that provides an intermediate layer between the OS and application software. This chapter starts with a description of general requirements for embedded operating systems. This includes real-time capabilities as well as adaptation techniques to provide just the required functionality. Mutually exclusive access to resources can result in priority inversion, which is a serious problem for real-time systems. Priority inversion can be circumvented with resource access protocols. We will present three such protocols: the priority inheritance, priority ceiling, and stack resource protocols. A separate section covers the ERIKA real-time system kernel. Furthermore, we will explain how Linux can be adapted to systems with tight resource constraints. Finally, we will provide pointers for additional reusable software components, like hardware abstraction layers (HALs), communication software, and real-time data bases. Our description of embedded operating systems and of middleware in this chapter is consistent with the overall design flow.

Synchronization-Aware Task Allocation Techniques for Preemption Control to Reduce Blocking Time in Multiprocessor Real-Time System

Multiprocessor real-time systems receive a great deal of attention. For better utilization of multiprocessors in a real-time context, an optimal approach for scheduling, allocation, and synchronization is required. In this research, a novel heuristic synchronization-aware scheduling has been proposed to reduce the blocking delays in a critical section and also bound to minimize multiple priority inversion. The key idea of this technique is to assign the task set in the same processor that accesses a common shared resource and also access them for the longest period of time; thereby, the global sharing of resource transforms into local sharing. From simulation results, it was concluded that the duration of blocking overheads should be minimized up to 25% to 30% and context switching between processors also reduced up to 10% to 15%. On the basis of result analysis, schedulability, minimization of context switching, and reduced blocking time indicate that the proposed method outperforms the existing methods and does not affect the task completion time.

Causes, Effects, and Consequences of Priority Inversion in Transaction Processing

The problem of priority inversion occurs when a high priority task is required to wait for completion of some other task with low priority as a result of conflict in accessing the shared system resource(s). This problem is discussed by many researchers covering a wide range of research areas. Some of the key research areas are real-time operating systems, real-time systems, real-time databases, and distributed real-time databases. Irrespective of the application area, however, the problem lies with the fact that priority inversion can only be controlled with no method available to eliminate it entirely. In this chapter, the priority inversion-related scheduling issues and research efforts in this direction are discussed. Different approaches and their effectiveness to resolve this problem are analytically compared. Finally, major research accomplishments to date have been summarized and several unanswered research questions have also been listed.

Priority Inheritance with Backtracking for Iterative Multi-agent Path Finding

The Multi-agent Path Finding (MAPF) problem consists in all agents having to move to their own destinations while avoiding collisions. In practical applications to the problem, such as for navigation in an automated warehouse, MAPF must be solved iteratively. We present here a novel approach to iterative MAPF, that we call Priority Inheritance with Backtracking (PIBT). PIBT gives a unique priority to each agent every timestep, so that all movements are prioritized. Priority inheritance, which aims at dealing effectively with priority inversion in path adjustment within a small time window, can be applied iteratively and a backtracking protocol prevents agents from being stuck. We prove that, regardless of their number, all agents are guaranteed to reach their destination within finite time, when the environment is a graph such that all pairs of adjacent nodes belong to a simple cycle of length 3 or more (e.g., biconnected). Our implementation of PIBT can be fully decentralized without global communication. Experimental results over various scenarios confirm that PIBT is adequate both for finding paths in large environments with many agents, as well as for conveying packages in an automated warehouse.