Uniprocessor Scheduling

Chapter 9

CPU Scheduling

We concentrate on the problem of scheduling the usage of a single processor among all the existing processes in the system The goal is to achieve
High

processor utilization High throughput

of processes completed per unit time

Low

response time

time

elapse from the submission of a request to the beginning of the response

Classification of Scheduling Activity

Long-term: which process to admit Medium-term: which process to swap in or out Short-term: which ready process to execute next

Queuing Diagram for Scheduling

Long-Term Scheduling

Determines which programs are admitted to the system for processing Controls the degree of multiprogramming If more processes are admitted
less

likely that all processes will be blocked

better

each

process has less fraction of the CPU

The long term scheduler may attempt to keep a mix of processor-bound and I/Obound processes

Medium-Term Scheduling

Swapping decisions based on the need to manage multiprogramming Done by memory management software and discussed intensively in chapter 8
see

resident set allocation and load control

Short-Term Scheduling

Determines which process is going to execute next (also called CPU scheduling) Is the subject of this chapter The short term scheduler is known as the dispatcher Is invoked on a event that may lead to choose another process for execution: clock interrupts I/O interrupts operating system calls and traps signals

Short-Tem Scheduling Criteria

User-oriented
Response

Time: Elapsed time from the submission of a request to the beginning of response Turnaround Time: Elapsed time from the submission of a process to its completion

System-oriented
processor

utilization number of process completed per

fairness
throughput:

unit time
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Priorities

Implemented by having multiple ready queues to represent each level of priority Scheduler will always choose a process of higher priority over one of lower priority Lower-priority may suffer starvation Then allow a process to change its priority based on its age or execution history Our first scheduling algorithms will not make use of priorities We will then present other algorithms that use dynamic priority mechanisms

Characterization of Scheduling Policies

The selection function: determines which process in the ready queue is selected next for execution The decision mode: specifies the instants in time at which the selection function is exercised Nonpreemptive Once a process is in the running state, it will continue until it terminates or blocks itself for I/O Preemptive Currently running process may be interrupted and moved to the Ready state by the OS Allows for better service since any one process cannot monopolize the processor for very long

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The CPU-I/O Cycle

We observe that processes require alternate use of processor and I/O in a repetitive fashion Each cycle consist of a CPU burst (typically of 5 ms) followed by a (usually longer) I/O burst A process terminates on a CPU burst CPU-bound processes have longer CPU bursts than I/O-bound processes

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Our running example to discuss various scheduling policies

Service time = total processor time needed in one (CPU-I/O) cycle Jobs with long service time are CPU-bound jobs and are referred to as long jobs
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First Come First Served (FCFS)

Selection function: the process that has been waiting the longest in the ready queue (hence, FCFS) Decision mode: nonpreemptive
a

process run until it blocks itself

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FCFS drawbacks

A process that does not perform any I/O will monopolize the processor Favors CPU-bound processes I/O-bound processes have to wait until CPU-bound process completes They may have to wait even when their I/O are completed (poor device utilization) we could have kept the I/O devices busy by giving a bit more priority to I/O bound processes

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Round-Robin

Selection function: same as FCFS Decision mode: preemptive

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Time Quantum for Round Robin

must be substantially larger than the time required to handle the clock interrupt and dispatching should be larger then the typical interaction (but not much more to avoid penalizing I/O bound processes)

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Round Robin: critique

Still favors CPU-bound processes A I/O bound process uses the CPU for a time less than the time quantum and then is blocked waiting for I/O A CPU-bound process run for all its time slice and is put back into the ready queue (thus getting in front of blocked processes) A solution: virtual round robin When a I/O has completed, the blocked process is moved to an auxiliary queue which gets preference over the main ready queue A process dispatched from the auxiliary queue runs no longer than the basic time quantum minus the time spent running since it was selected from the ready queue

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Queuing for Virtual Round Robin

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Shortest Process Next (SPN)

Selection function: the process with the shortest expected CPU burst time Decision mode: nonpreemptive I/O bound processes will be picked first We need to estimate the required processing time (CPU burst time) for each process

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Shortest Process Next: critique

Possibility of starvation for longer processes as long as there is a steady supply of shorter processes Lack of preemption is not suited in a time sharing environment CPU bound process gets lower priority (as it should) but a process doing no I/O could still monopolize the CPU if he is the first one to enter the system

SPN implicitly incorporates priorities: shortest jobs are given preferences The next (preemptive) algorithm penalizes directly longer jobs

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Multilevel Feedback Scheduling

Preemptive scheduling with dynamic priorities Several ready to execute queues with decreasing priorities: P(RQ0) > P(RQ1) > ... > P(RQn) New process are placed in RQ0 When they reach the time quantum, they are placed in RQ1. If they reach it again, they are place in RQ2... until they reach RQn I/O-bound processes will stay in higher priority queues. CPU-bound jobs will drift downward. Dispatcher chooses a process for execution in RQi only if RQi-1 to RQ0 are empty Hence long jobs may starve

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Multiple Feedback Queues

FCFS is used in each queue except for lowest priority queue where Round Robin is used

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Time Quantum for feedback Scheduling

With a fixed quantum time, the turnaround time of longer processes can stretch out alarmingly To compensate we can increase the time quantum according to the depth of the queue Ex: time quantum of RQi = 2^{i-1} Longer processes may still suffer starvation. Possible fix: promote a process to higher priority after some time

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Algorithm Comparison

Which one is best? The answer depends on:

the system workload (extremely variable) hardware support for the dispatcher relative weighting of performance criteria (response time, CPU utilization, throughput...) The evaluation method used (each has its limitations...)

Hence the answer depends on too many factors to give any...

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