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Operating System - Process Scheduling

Definition
The process scheduling is the activity of the process manager that handles the removal of
the running process from the CPU and the selection of another process on the basis of a
particular strategy.

Process scheduling is an essential part of a Multiprogramming operating systems. Such

operating systems allow more than one process to be loaded into the executable memory
at a time and the loaded process shares the CPU using time multiplexing.

Categories of Scheduling
There are two categories of scheduling:

Non-preemptive: Here the resource can’t be taken from a process until the process
completes execution. The switching of resources occurs when the running process
terminates and moves to a waiting state.
Preemptive: Here the OS allocates the resources to a process for a fixed amount of
time. During resource allocation, the process switches from running state to ready
state or from waiting state to ready state. This switching occurs as the CPU may give
priority to other processes and replace the process with higher priority with the running
process.

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Process Scheduling Queues

The OS maintains all Process Control Blocks (PCBs) in Process Scheduling Queues. The OS
maintains a separate queue for each of the process states and PCBs of all processes in the
same execution state are placed in the same queue. When the state of a process is
changed, its PCB is unlinked from its current queue and moved to its new state queue.

The Operating System maintains the following important process scheduling queues −

Job queue − This queue keeps all the processes in the system.

Ready queue − This queue keeps a set of all processes residing in main memory,
ready and waiting to execute. A new process is always put in this queue.

Device queues − The processes which are blocked due to unavailability of an I/O
device constitute this queue.

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The OS can use different policies to manage each queue (FIFO, Round Robin, Priority,
etc.). The OS scheduler determines how to move processes between the ready and run
queues which can only have one entry per processor core on the system; in the above
diagram, it has been merged with the CPU.

Two-State Process Model

Two-state process model refers to running and non-running states which are described
below −

S.N. State & Description

Running
1
When a new process is created, it enters into the system as in the running state.

Not Running
Processes that are not running are kept in queue, waiting for their turn to
execute. Each entry in the queue is a pointer to a particular process. Queue is
2 implemented by using linked list. Use of dispatcher is as follows. When a process
is interrupted, that process is transferred in the waiting queue. If the process has
completed or aborted, the process is discarded. In either case, the dispatcher
then selects a process from the queue to execute.

Schedulers
Schedulers are special system software which handle process scheduling in various ways.
Their main task is to select the jobs to be submitted into the system and to decide which
process to run. Schedulers are of three types −

Long-Term Scheduler
Short-Term Scheduler

Medium-Term Scheduler

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Long Term Scheduler

It is also called a job scheduler. A long-term scheduler determines which programs are
admitted to the system for processing. It selects processes from the queue and loads
them into memory for execution. Process loads into the memory for CPU scheduling.

The primary objective of the job scheduler is to provide a balanced mix of jobs, such as
I/O bound and processor bound. It also controls the degree of multiprogramming. If the
degree of multiprogramming is stable, then the average rate of process creation must be
equal to the average departure rate of processes leaving the system.

On some systems, the long-term scheduler may not be available or minimal. Time-sharing
operating systems have no long term scheduler. When a process changes the state from
new to ready, then there is use of long-term scheduler.

Short Term Scheduler

It is also called as CPU scheduler. Its main objective is to increase system performance
in accordance with the chosen set of criteria. It is the change of ready state to running
state of the process. CPU scheduler selects a process among the processes that are ready
to execute and allocates CPU to one of them.

Short-term schedulers, also known as dispatchers, make the decision of which process to
execute next. Short-term schedulers are faster than long-term schedulers.

Medium Term Scheduler

Medium-term scheduling is a part of swapping. It removes the processes from the
memory. It reduces the degree of multiprogramming. The medium-term scheduler is in-
charge of handling the swapped out-processes.

A running process may become suspended if it makes an I/O request. A suspended

processes cannot make any progress towards completion. In this condition, to remove the
process from memory and make space for other processes, the suspended process is
moved to the secondary storage. This process is called swapping, and the process is said
to be swapped out or rolled out. Swapping may be necessary to improve the process mix.

Comparison among Scheduler

Short-Term
S.N. Long-Term Scheduler Medium-Term Scheduler
Scheduler

It is a process swapping
1 It is a job scheduler It is a CPU scheduler
scheduler.

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Speed is in between both

Speed is lesser than short Speed is fastest among
2 short and long term
term scheduler other two
scheduler.

It provides lesser
It controls the degree of It reduces the degree of
3 control over degree of
multiprogramming multiprogramming.
multiprogramming

It is almost absent or
It is also minimal in It is a part of Time sharing
4 minimal in time sharing
time sharing system systems.
system

It can re-introduce the

It selects processes from It selects those
process into memory and
5 pool and loads them into processes which are
execution can be
memory for execution ready to execute
continued.

Context Switching
A context switching is the mechanism to store and restore the state or context of a CPU in
Process Control block so that a process execution can be resumed from the same point at
a later time. Using this technique, a context switcher enables multiple processes to share
a single CPU. Context switching is an essential part of a multitasking operating system
features.

When the scheduler switches the CPU from executing one process to execute another, the
state from the current running process is stored into the process control block. After this,
the state for the process to run next is loaded from its own PCB and used to set the PC,
registers, etc. At that point, the second process can start executing.

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Context switches are computationally intensive since register and memory state must be
saved and restored. To avoid the amount of context switching time, some hardware
systems employ two or more sets of processor registers. When the process is switched,
the following information is stored for later use.

Program Counter

Scheduling information

Base and limit register value

Currently used register

Changed State

I/O State information

Accounting information

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