Introduction to Real-Time Systems

Real-Time and Embedded Systems (M)

Lecture 1
 Lecture Outline

• Administrivia
– Aims and objectives
– Intended learning outcomes
– Prerequisites
– Module outline and timetable
– Reading list
– Assessment
• Introduction to real-time systems
– Examples
– Types of real-time system
– Implementation considerations
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 Lecturer Contact Details

Dr. Colin Perkins Willing to discuss the module

Lilybank Gardens, room S154 and answer questions – make
Email: csp@dcs.gla.ac.uk appointments by email

http://csperkins.org/teaching/rtes/
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 Aims of This Module

• To introduce and explore the programming language and

operating systems facilities essential to the implementation
of real-time, reactive, embedded and networked systems.
• To provide the participants with an understanding of the practical
engineering issues raised by the design and programming of real-
time, reactive, embedded and networked systems.
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 Intended Learning Outcomes

• By the end of this module participants should be able to:

– Clearly differentiate the different issues that arise in designing soft and hard
real-time, concurrent, reactive, safety-critical and embedded systems.
– Explain the various concepts of time that arise in real-time systems.
– Analyse and apply a variety of static and dynamic scheduling mechanisms
suitable for soft and hard real-time systems. Conduct simple performance
and schedulability analysis to demonstrate that a system can successfully
meet real-time constraints.
– Explain the additional problems that arise in developing distributed and
networked real-time systems.
– Describe the design and implementation of systems that support real-time
applications. Justify and critique facilities provided by real-time operating
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systems and networks.

– Design, construct and analyse a small, concurrent, reactive, real-time
system. Select and use appropriate engineering techniques, and explain the
effect of your design decisions on the behaviour of the system.
 Prerequisites

• Students are expected to have done degree-level studies in, and be

familiar with, operating systems design and implementation,
concurrency and threaded programming, and software analysis
and design.
– This corresponds to some of the material covered in the OS3, AP3, NSA3
and PSD3 modules of a Glasgow Computing Science degree.

• Some basic familiarity with formal process modelling techniques

for concurrent systems would complement the engineering issues
addressed in this module.
– The MRS4 module covers that subject, but is not a formal co-requisite.
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 Module Outline

• Introduction to Real-Time and Embedded Systems

– Reference Model
– Hard versus soft real-time
• Job Scheduling
– Clock driven scheduling algorithms
– Priority driven scheduling algorithms
– Schedulers in commodity and real-time operating systems
• Resource access control
– Algorithms
– Implementation
• Real-time communication
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– On best-effort networks
– Enhanced quality of service
• Other implementation considerations
 Timetable

Week starting: Tue 14:00-15:00 Wed 10:00-11:00 Thu 10:00-11:00

9 Jan Lecture 1 Lecture 2 Lecture 3

16 Jan Tutorial 1 Lecture 4 Lecture 5

23 Jan Lecture 6 Tutorial 2 Lecture 7

30 Jan Lecture 8 Tutorial 3 Lecture 9

6 Feb Lecture 10 Lecture 11 Lecture 12

13 Feb Tutorial 4 Lecture 13 Lecture 14

20 Feb Tutorial 5 Lecture 15 Lecture 16

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27 Feb Individual work on programming assignment

6 Mar Lecture 17 Tutorial 6 Lecture 18

13 Mar Lecture 19 Tutorial 7 Lecture 20

 Timetable

Week 1 Lecture 1 Introduction to Real-Time Systems

Lecture 2 A Reference Model for Real-Time Systems
Lecture 3 Overview of Real-Time Scheduling
Week 2 Tutorial 1 The Basics of Real-Time Systems
Lecture 4 Clock-Driven Scheduling
Lecture 5 Priority-driven Scheduling of Periodic Tasks (1)
Week 3 Lecture 6 Priority-driven Scheduling of Periodic Tasks (2)
Tutorial 2 Scheduling Algorithms (1)
Lecture 7 Priority-driven Scheduling of Aperiodic and Sporadic Tasks (1)
Week 4 Lecture 8 Priority-driven Scheduling of Aperiodic and Sporadic Tasks (2)
Tutorial 3 Scheduling Algorithms (2)
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Lecture 9 Implementing Scheduling Algorithms

Week 5 Lecture 10 Real-Time Operating Systems and Languages (1)
Lecture 11 Real-Time Operating Systems and Languages (2)
Lecture 12 Real-Time on General Purpose Systems
 Timetable

Week 6 Tutorial 4 Real-Time Operating Systems and Languages

Lecture 13 Resource Access Control (1)
Lecture 14 Resource Access Control (2)
Week 7 Tutorial 5 Resource Access Control
Lecture 15 Introduction to Real-Time Communications
Lecture 16 Real-Time Communication on IP Networks
Week 8
Individual Work on Programming Assignment

Week 9 Lecture 17 Quality of Service for Packet Networks

Tutorial 6 Real-Time Communications/Q&A on Programming Assignment
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Lecture 18 Low-Level and Embedded Programming (1)

Week 10 Lecture 19 Low-Level and Embedded Programming (2)
Tutorial 7 Low-Level and Embedded Programming
Lecture 20 Review of Major Concepts
 Lectures and Tutorials

• Lectures:
– Highlight relevant material from the book

• Tutorials:
– Practice problem solving, review material covered in lectures
– Expect to do worked examples and answer questions!
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 Assessment

• Level M module, worth 10 credits

• 3 Problem sets (each worth 5% of total mark)
– Problem set 1: available in lecture 3, due 20th January
– Problem set 2: available in lecture 6, due 30th January
– Problem set 3: available in lecture 8, due 6th February
– All problem sets to be handed in by 5pm on the due date
• Hard deadlines: late submissions will receive zero marks unless valid special
circumstances form submitted
• Programming assignment (15% of total mark)
– Available in lecture 15, due at 5pm on 17th March
– Will involve real-time network programming in C
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• Written examination (70% of total mark)

– All material in the lectures, tutorials and background reading is examinable
– Aim is to test your understanding of the material, not to test your memory
of all the details; explain why – don’t recite what
 Reading

• Jane W. S. Liu, “Real-Time Systems”, Prentice-

Hall, 2000, ISBN 0130996513
– This book comprises the lecture notes for the module and
is required reading for all students
– All material in this book is examinable

• Bill Gallmeister, “POSIX.4: Programming for the

Real-World”, O’Reilly and Associates, 1995,
ISBN 1565920740
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– Optional, but provides further detail on the practical

aspects of the module
 Real-Time and Embedded Systems

• A real-time system must deliver services in a timely manner

– Not necessarily fast, but must meet some timing deadline
• An embedded system is hidden from view within a larger system
• Many real-time and embedded systems exist, often without the
awareness of their users
– Washing machine, photocopier, mobile phone, car, aircraft, industrial plant,
microwave oven, CD player, medical devices, etc.

• Must be able to validate real-time systems for correctness

– Some embedded real-time systems are safety critical – i.e. if they do not
complete on a timely basis, serious consequences result
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– Bugs in embedded real-time systems are often difficult or expensive to fix

 Real-Time and Embedded Systems

• This module will discuss several representative classes of real-

time and embedded system:
– Digital process control
– Higher-level command and control
– Tracking and signal processing
– Real-time databases
– Telephony and multimedia
• Algorithms for scheduling tasks such that those systems complete
in a reliable and timely fashion
• Implementation techniques, operating systems and languages for
building such systems
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 Digital Process Control

• Controlling some device (the “plant”) using an actuator, based on

sampled sensor data
– y(t) is the measured state of the plant
– r(t) is the desired state of the plant
– Calculate control output u(t) as a function of y(t), r(t)

controller

reference control-law
input: r(t) A/D D/A
rk computation uk
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A/D y
k

y(t) u(t)

Sensor Plant Actuator

 Digital Process Control

• Pseudo-code for the controller:

set timer to interrupt periodically with period T;
at each timer interrupt, do
do analogue-to-digital conversion of y(t) to get yk;
compute control output uk based on reference rk and yk;
do digital-to-analogue conversion of uk to get u(t);
end do;

• Effective control of the plant depends on:

• The correct control law computation and reference input
• The accuracy of the sensor measurements:
• Resolution of the sampled data (i.e. bits per sample)
• Timing of the clock interrupts (i.e. samples per second, 1/T)
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 Digital Process Control

• The time T between any two consecutive measurement of y(t), r(t)

is the sampling period
– Small T better approximates the analogue behaviour
– Large T means less processor-time demands
– Must achieve a compromise
• If T is too large, oscillation will result as the system tries to adapt

Desired
Large T

y(t) umax
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0 u(t)

-umax
Measured State Control Output
 Digital Process Control

• How to choose sampling period?

– Rise time – the amount of time that the plant takes to reach some small
neighbourhood around the final state in response to a step change in the
reference input
– If R is the rise time, and T is the period, a good rule of thumb is that the
ratio 10 ≤ R/T ≤ 20
• Must be chosen correctly, and accurately implemented to ensure
stability

• Multi-rate systems – system is composed of multiple sensors and

actuators, each of which require different sampling periods
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– Need to run multiple control loops at once, accurately

– Usually best to have the sampling periods for the different degrees of
freedom related in a harmonic way
 Example: Helicopter Flight Control

Do the following in each 1/180-second cycle:

• Validate sensor data and select data source; on failure reconfigure the system
• Do the following 30-Hz avionics tasks, each once every 6 cycles:
– Keyboard input and mode selection
– Data normalization and coordinate transformation
– Tracking reference update
• Do the following 30-Hz computations, each once every 6 cycles
– Control laws of the outer pitch-control loop
– Control laws of the outer roll-control loop
– Control laws of the outer yaw- and collective-control loop
• Do each of the following 90-Hz computations once every 2 cycles, using
outputs produced by the 30-Hz computations
– Control laws of the inner pitch-control loop
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– Control laws of the inner roll- and collective-control loop

• Compute the control laws of the inner yaw-control loop, using outputs from the
90-Hz computations
• Output commands to control surfaces
• Carry out built-in-test
 Digital Process Control

• Digital controllers make three assumptions:

– Sensor data give accurate estimates of the state-variables being monitored
and controlled - noiseless
– The sensor data gives the state of the plant – usually must compute plant
state from measured values
– All parameters representing the dynamics of the plant are known
• If any of these assumptions are not valid, a digital controller must
include a model of the correct system behaviour
– Estimate actual state based on noisy measurement each iteration of the
control loop
– Use estimated plant state instead of measured state to derive control output
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– Often requires complex calculation, modelling

• We’ll cover scheduling dynamics; the system model is domain-

specific
 Higher-Level Control

• Controllers often organized in a hierarchy

– Multiple control loops, higher level controllers monitoring the behaviour of
low-level controllers
– Time-scale, complexity of decision making, increases as go up hierarchy;
Move from control to planning

– Higher level planning must State Air traffic

Estimator control
still be done in real-time,
although deadlines are less Navigation
tight State Flight
Estimator Management
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State Flight
Estimator control

Air data
 Real-Time Communications

• Real-time systems are increasingly distributed, including

communication networks
– Control loop may include a communication step
– System may depend on network stimuli

• Not only does a system need to run a control law with time
constraints, it must also schedule communications, sending
and receiving messages according to deadlines
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 Example: Drive by Wire
Steering Brake Accelerator Gears

Brake
actuator Controller Engine
area network controls

Wheel Engine
sensors sensors
Control
system

• All data must be delivered reliably

– Is bad if you turn the steering wheel, and nothing happens
• Commands from control system have highest priority, then sensors and actuators, then
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control inputs
– Anti-lock brakes have a faster response time than the driver, so prioritise to ensure the car
doesn’t skid
• Network must schedule and prioritise communications
 Example: Packet Voice

Packet switched
voice network

• Voice is digitised and sent as a sequence of packets

– Constant spacing, every 10-30ms depending on codec
• Strict timeliness requirement
– Mouth to ear delay needs to be less than approximately 150ms
– Packets must be played out with equal spacing
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• Relaxed reliability requirement

– Some small fraction of packets can be lost, and just sound like crackles on
the wire; most need to arrive
• Emergency calls may have priority
 Types of Real-Time Application

• Can divide real-time applications into four types:

– Purely cyclic
• Every task executes periodically
• Demands in (computing, communication, and storage) resources do not vary
significantly from period to period
• Example: most digital controllers and real-time monitors

– Mostly cyclic
• Most tasks execute periodically
• The system must also respond to some external events (fault recovery and
external commands) asynchronously
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• Example: modern avionics and process control systems

 Types of Real-Time Application

• Can divide real-time applications into four types:

– Asynchronous and somewhat predictable

• Most tasks are not periodic
• The time between consecutive executions of a task may vary considerably, or
the variations in resource utilization in different periods may be large
• These variations have either bounded ranges or known statistics

– Asynchronous and unpredictable

• Applications that react to asynchronous events and have tasks with high run-
time complexity
• Example: intelligent real-time control systems
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 Types of Real-Time Application

• As we will see later, the type of application affects how we

schedule tasks, prove correctness
• It is easier to reason about applications that are more cyclic,
synchronous and predictable
– Many real-time systems designed in this manner
– Safe, conservative, design approach, if it works for your application
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 Implementation Considerations

• Some real-time embedded systems are complex, implemented on

high-performance hardware
– Industrial plant control
– Civilian flight control
• Many must be implemented on hardware chosen to be low cost,
low power, light-weight and robust; with performance a distant
concern
– Military flight control, space craft control
– Consumer goods

• Often-times implemented in C or assembler, fitting within a few

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kilobytes of memory
– Correctness a primary concern, efficiency a close second
 Summary

• Outline of the module structure, assessment, etc.

• Introduction to real-time and embedded systems
– Examples of digital control, higher-level control, communication
• Types of real-time system
– Cyclic synchronous vs. asynchronous and unpredictable
• Implementation considerations

Corresponds to the material in chapter 1 of Liu’s book…

…tomorrow we will discuss the material in chapters 2 and 3
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