Precisely Timed Task Execution

The Internet of Things (IoT) requires that all components operate on “fresh” data. However, ensuring a low Age of Information (AoI) is challenging, in particular when communicating across the Internet. Achieving a low AoI requires cooperation of networking strategies as well as node-local strategies so that the entire system performs the right operation at the right moment in time. However, most modern operating systems are not designed to provide accurate timing—various low-level overheads cause delays and jitter that affect communication significantly.This paper presents CLOCKFIX, a run-time system for the Linux user-space that executes jobs accurately and precisely at their intended execution times. The evaluation shows that CLOCKFIX reduces undesired delays by more than 95%, and it improves the AoI in a real-world network protocol by over 16%.