Report Number: CS-TN-94-8
Institution: Stanford University, Department of Computer Science
Title: Emulating Soft Real-Time Scheduling Using Traditional Operating System Schedulers
Author: Adelberg, Brad
Author: Garcia-Molina, Hector
Author: Kao, Ben
Date: May 1994
Abstract: Real-time scheduling algorithms are usually only available in the kernels of real-time operating systems, and not in more general purpose operating systems, like Unix. For some soft real-time problems, a traditional operating system may be the development platform of choice. This paper addresses methods of emulating real-time scheduling algorithms on top of standard time-share schedulers. We examine (through simulations) three strategies for priority assignment within a traditional multi-tasking environment. The results show that the emulation algorithms are comparable in performance to the real-time algorithms and in some instances outperform them.
http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tn/94/8/CS-TN-94-8.pdf