An efficient dynamic scheduling algorithm for multiprocessor real-time systems

Many time-critical applications require predictable performance and tasks in these applications have deadlines to be met. In this paper, we propose an efficient algorithm for nonpreemptive scheduling of dynamically arriving real-time tasks (aperiodic tasks) in multiprocessor systems. A real-time task is characterized by its deadline, resource requirements, and worst case computation time on p processors, where p is the degree of parallelization of the task. We use this parallelism in tasks to meet their deadlines and, thus, obtain better schedulability compared to nonparallelizable task scheduling algorithms. To study the effectiveness of the proposed scheduling algorithm, we have conducted extensive simulation studies and compared its performance with the myopic scheduling algorithm. The simulation studies show that the schedulability of the proposed algorithm is always higher than that of the myopic algorithm for a wide variety of task parameters.