An Introduction to Real-Time Scheduling

Until now, real-time processing techniques were only used in more exotic computer applications such as process automation. With the advent of computer systems capable of handling time-critical data such as digital audio and video, they become important for general-purpose computing as well. Real-time scheduling, i.e., assigning resources to processes in a way that takes the timing requirements of these processes into account, is the single most important technique in the construction of real-time systems. This tutorial introduces the most widely used system models for real-time scheduling, describing resource characteristics, process parameters, and scheduling objectives. It summarizes, illustrates, and verifies essential findings about basic real-time scheduling algorithms such as earliest-deadline-first, least-laxity-first, and rate-monotonic scheduling for both sporadic and periodic processes.

ICSI Technical Report TR-90-035

Technical Report