Abstract
In this paper, we present a resource conscious approach to designing distributed real-time systems as an extension of our original approach [8][9] which was limited to single processor systems. Starting from a given task graph and a set of end-to-end constraints, we automatically generate task attributes (e.g., periods and deadlines) such that (i) the task set is schedulable, and (ii) the end-to-end timing constraints are satisfied. The method works by first transforming the end-to-end timing constraints into a set of intermediate constraints on task attributes, and then solving the intermediate constraints. The complexity of constraint solving is tackled by reducing the problem into relatively tractable parts, and then solving each sub-problem using heuristics to enhance schedulability. In this paper, we build on our single processor solution and show how it can be extended for distributed systems. The extension to distributed systems reveals many interesting sub-problems, solutions to which are presented in this paper. The main challenges arise from end-to-end propagation delay constraints, and therefore this paper focuses on our solutions for such constraints. We begin with extending our communication scheme to provide tight delay bounds across a network, while hiding the low-level details of network communication. We also develop an algorithm to decompose end-to-end bounds into local bounds on each processor of making extensive use of relative load on each processor. This results in significant decoupling of constraints on each processor, without losing its capability to find a schedulable solution. Finally, we show, how each of these parts fit into our overall methodology, using our previous results for single processor systems.
