Chapter 2: CPU Scheduling

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 Chapter 2: CPU Scheduling
• Basic Concepts
• Scheduling Criteria
• Scheduling Algorithms
• Thread Scheduling
• Multiple-Processor Scheduling
• Real-Time CPU Scheduling
• Operating Systems Examples
• Algorithm Evaluation

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Objectives

• To introduce CPU scheduling, which is the basis for

multiprogrammed operating systems
• To describe various CPU-scheduling algorithms
• To discuss evaluation criteria for selecting a CPU-scheduling
algorithm for a particular system
• To examine the scheduling algorithms of several operating
systems

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Basic Concepts

• Maximum CPU utilization

obtained with multiprogramming
• CPU–I/O Burst Cycle – Process
execution consists of a cycle of
CPU execution and I/O wait
• CPU burst followed by I/O burst
• CPU burst distribution is of main
concern

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Histogram of CPU-burst Times

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CPU Scheduler
 Short-term scheduler selects from among the processes in
ready queue, and allocates the CPU to one of them
 Queue may be ordered in various ways
 CPU scheduling decisions may take place when a process:
1. Switches from running to waiting state
2. Switches from running to ready state
3. Switches from waiting to ready
4. Terminates
 Scheduling under 1 and 4 is nonpreemptive
 All other scheduling is preemptive
 Consider access to shared data
 Consider preemption while in kernel mode
 Consider interrupts occurring during crucial OS activities

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Dispatcher

• Dispatcher module gives control of the CPU to the process

selected by the short-term scheduler; this involves:
• switching context
• switching to user mode
• jumping to the proper location in the user program to restart
that program
• Dispatch latency – time it takes for the dispatcher to stop
one process and start another running

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Scheduling Criteria

• CPU utilization – keep the CPU as busy as possible

• Throughput – # of processes that complete their execution
per time unit
• Turnaround time – amount of time to execute a particular
process
• Waiting time – amount of time a process has been waiting in
the ready queue
• Response time – amount of time it takes from when a request
was submitted until the first response is produced, not output
(for time-sharing environment)

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 Scheduling Algorithm Optimization
Criteria
• Max CPU utilization
• Max throughput
• Min turnaround time
• Min waiting time
• Min response time

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 First- Come, First-Served (FCFS) Scheduling

Process Burst Time

P1 24
P2 3
P3 3
• Suppose that the processes arrive in the order: P1 , P2 , P3
The Gantt Chart for the schedule is:
P1 P2 P3
0 24 27 30

• Waiting time for P1 = 0; P2 = 24; P3 = 27

• Average waiting time: (0 + 24 + 27)/3 = 17
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FCFS Scheduling (Cont.)
Suppose that the processes arrive in the order:
P2 , P3 , P1
• The Gantt chart for the schedule is:

P2 P3 P1
0 3 6 30

• Waiting time for P1 = 6; P2 = 0; P3 = 3

• Average waiting time: (6 + 0 + 3)/3 = 3
• Much better than previous case
• Convoy effect - short process behind long process
• Consider one CPU-bound and many I/O-bound processes
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 Shortest-Job-First (SJF) Scheduling

• Associate with each process the length of its next CPU burst
• Use these lengths to schedule the process with the shortest time
• SJF is optimal – gives minimum average waiting time for a
given set of processes
• The difficulty is knowing the length of the next CPU request
• Could ask the user

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 Example of SJF

ProcessArriva l Time Burst Time

P1 0.0 6
P2 2.0 8
P3 4.0 7
P4 5.0 3

• SJF scheduling chart

P4 P1 P3 P2
0 3 9 16 24

• Average waiting time = (3 + 16 + 9 + 0) / 4 = 7

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 Determining Length of Next CPU
Burst
• Can only estimate the length – should be similar to the previous
one
• Then pick process with shortest predicted next CPU burst

• Can be done by using the length of previous CPU bursts, using

exponential averaging th
1. t n actual length of n CPU burst
2.  n 1 predicted value for the next CPU burst
3.  , 0  1
4. Define :  n 1  t n  1    n .

• Commonly, α set to ½
• Preemptive version called shortest-remaining-time-first

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Prediction of the Length of the Next CPU Burs

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 Examples of Exponential
•  =0
Averaging
• n+1 = n
• Recent history does not count
•  =1
• n+1 =  tn
• Only the actual last CPU burst counts
• If we expand the formula, we get:
n+1 =  tn+(1 - ) tn -1 + …
+(1 -  )j  tn -j + …
+(1 -  )n +1 0

• Since both  and (1 - ) are less than or equal to 1, each

successive term has less weight than its predecessor

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 Example of Shortest-remaining-time-
• Now we add the concepts of varying arrival times and preemption
to the analysis
ProcessAarri Arrival TimeT Burst Time
P1 0 8
P2 1 4
P3 2 9
P4 3 5
• Preemptive SJF Gantt Chart

P1 P2 P4 P1 P3
0 1 5 10 17 26

• Average waiting time = [(10-1)+(1-1)+(17-2)+5-3)]/4 = 26/4 = 6.5

msec

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 Priority Scheduling
• A priority number (integer) is associated with each process

• The CPU is allocated to the process with the highest priority

(smallest integer  highest priority)
• Preemptive
• Nonpreemptive

• SJF is priority scheduling where priority is the inverse of

predicted next CPU burst time

• Problem  Starvation – low priority processes may never

execute

• Solution  Aging – as time progresses increase the priority of

the process

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 Example of Priority Sched

ProcessAarri Burst TimeT Priority

P1 10 3
P2 1 1
P3 2 4
P4 1 5
P5 5 2

• Priority scheduling Gantt Chart

• Average waiting time = 8.2 msec

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Round Robin (RR)
• Each process gets a small unit of CPU time (time quantum q),
usually 10-100 milliseconds. After this time has elapsed, the
process is preempted and added to the end of the ready
queue.
• If there are n processes in the ready queue and the time
quantum is q, then each process gets 1/n of the CPU time in
chunks of at most q time units at once. No process waits
more than (n-1)q time units.
• Timer interrupts every quantum to schedule next process
• Performance
• q large  FIFO
• q small  q must be large with respect to context switch, otherwise
overhead is too high

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 Example of RR with Time Quantum
=4
Process Burst Time
P1 24
P2 3
P3 3
• The Gantt chart is:

P1 P2 P3 P1 P1 P1 P1 P1
0 4 7 10 14 18 22 26 30

• Typically, higher average turnaround than SJF, but better response

• q should be large compared to context switch time
• q usually 10ms to 100ms, context switch < 10 usec

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Time Quantum and Context Switch Time

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Turnaround Time Varies With The Time Quantum

80% of CPU bursts should

be shorter than q

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 Multilevel Queue
• Ready queue is partitioned into separate queues, eg:
• foreground (interactive)
• background (batch)
• Process permanently in a given queue
• Each queue has its own scheduling algorithm:
• foreground – RR
• background – FCFS
• Scheduling must be done between the queues:
• Fixed priority scheduling; (i.e., serve all from foreground then from
background). Possibility of starvation.
• Time slice – each queue gets a certain amount of CPU time which it can
schedule amongst its processes; i.e., 80% to foreground in RR
• 20% to background in FCFS

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 Multilevel Queue Scheduling

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Multilevel Feedback Queue
• A process can move between the various queues; aging can be
implemented this way
• Multilevel-feedback-queue scheduler defined by the following
parameters:
• number of queues
• scheduling algorithms for each queue
• method used to determine when to upgrade a process
• method used to determine when to demote a process
• method used to determine which queue a process will enter when that
process needs service

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 Example of Multilevel Feedback
Queue
• Three queues:
• Q0 – RR with time quantum 8 milliseconds
• Q1 – RR time quantum 16 milliseconds
• Q2 – FCFS

• Scheduling
• A new job enters queue Q0 which is served
FCFS
• When it gains CPU, job receives 8
milliseconds
• If it does not finish in 8 milliseconds, job
is moved to queue Q1
• At Q1 job is again served FCFS and receives 16
additional milliseconds
• If it still does not complete, it is
preempted and moved to queue Q2

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Thread Scheduling

• Distinction between user-level and kernel-level threads

• When threads supported, threads scheduled, not processes
• Many-to-one and many-to-many models, thread library schedules
user-level threads to run on LWP
• Known as process-contention scope (PCS) since scheduling competition is
within the process
• Typically done via priority set by programmer
• Kernel thread scheduled onto available CPU is system-contention
scope (SCS) – competition among all threads in system

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Pthread Scheduling

• API allows specifying either PCS or SCS during thread

creation
• PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS schedules threads using PCS scheduling
• PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM schedules threads using SCS scheduling
• Can be limited by OS – Linux and Mac OS X only allow
PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM

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 Pthread Scheduling A
#include <pthread.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#define NUM_THREADS 5
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
int i, scope;
pthread_t tid[NUM THREADS];
pthread_attr_t attr;
/* get the default attributes */
pthread_attr_init(&attr);
/* first inquire on the current scope */
if (pthread_attr_getscope(&attr, &scope) != 0)
fprintf(stderr, "Unable to get scheduling scope\n");
else {
if (scope == PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS)
printf("PTHREAD_SCOPE_PROCESS");
else if (scope == PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM)
printf("PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM");
else
fprintf(stderr, "Illegal scope value.\n");
}

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 Pthread Scheduling API

/* set the scheduling algorithm to PCS or SCS */

pthread_attr_setscope(&attr, PTHREAD_SCOPE_SYSTEM);
/* create the threads */
for (i = 0; i < NUM_THREADS; i++)
pthread_create(&tid[i],&attr,runner,NULL);
/* now join on each thread */
for (i = 0; i < NUM_THREADS; i++)
pthread_join(tid[i], NULL);
}
/* Each thread will begin control in this function */
void *runner(void *param)
{
/* do some work ... */
pthread_exit(0);
}

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 Multiple-Processor Sched

• CPU scheduling more complex when multiple CPUs are

available
• Homogeneous processors within a multiprocessor
• Asymmetric multiprocessing – only one processor accesses
the system data structures, alleviating the need for data
sharing
• Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) – each processor is self-
scheduling, all processes in common ready queue, or each
has its own private queue of ready processes
• Currently, most common
• Processor affinity – process has affinity for processor on
which it is currently running
• soft affinity
• hard affinity
• Variations including processor sets

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 NUMA and CPU Schedu

Note that memory-placement algorithms can also consider affinity

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Multiple-Processor Scheduling – Load Balancing

• If SMP, need to keep all CPUs loaded for efficiency

• Load balancing attempts to keep workload evenly
distributed
• Push migration – periodic task checks load on each
processor, and if found pushes task from overloaded CPU to
other CPUs
• Pull migration – idle processors pulls waiting task from busy
processor

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Multicore Processors

• Recent trend to place multiple processor cores on same

physical chip
• Faster and consumes less power
• Multiple threads per core also growing
• Takes advantage of memory stall to make progress on another
thread while memory retrieve happens

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Multithreaded Multicore System

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 Real-Time CPU Scheduling
• Can present obvious challenges
• Soft real-time systems – no
guarantee as to when critical
real-time process will be
scheduled
• Hard real-time systems – task
must be serviced by its deadline
• Two types of latencies affect
performance
1. Interrupt latency – time from arrival of
interrupt to start of routine that services
interrupt
2. Dispatch latency – time for schedule to
take current process off CPU and switch to
another

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Real-Time CPU Scheduling (Cont.)
• Conflict phase of
dispatch latency:
1.Preemption of any
process running in
kernel mode
2.Release by low-
priority process of
resources needed by
high-priority
processes

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 Priority-based Scheduling
• For real-time scheduling, scheduler must support preemptive,
priority-based scheduling
• But only guarantees soft real-time

• For hard real-time must also provide ability to meet deadlines

• Processes have new characteristics: periodic ones require CPU at
constant intervals
• Has processing time t, deadline d, period p
• 0≤t≤d≤p
• Rate of periodic task is 1/p

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Virtualization and Scheduling
• Virtualization software schedules multiple guests onto
CPU(s)
• Each guest doing its own scheduling
• Not knowing it doesn’t own the CPUs
• Can result in poor response time
• Can effect time-of-day clocks in guests
• Can undo good scheduling algorithm efforts of guests

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 Rate Montonic Scheduling
• A priority is assigned based on the inverse of its period

• Shorter periods = higher priority;

• Longer periods = lower priority

• P1 is assigned a higher priority than P2.

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Missed Deadlines with Rate Monotonic Scheduling

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 Earliest Deadline First Scheduling (EDF)

• Priorities are assigned according to deadlines:

the earlier the deadline, the higher the priority;

the later the deadline, the lower the priority

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Proportional Share Scheduling
• T shares are allocated among all processes in the system

• An application receives N shares where N < T

• This ensures each application will receive N / T of the total

processor time

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POSIX Real-Time Scheduling
 The POSIX.1b standard
 API provides functions for managing real-time threads
 Defines two scheduling classes for real-time threads:
1. SCHED_FIFO - threads are scheduled using a FCFS strategy with
a FIFO queue. There is no time-slicing for threads of equal
priority
2. SCHED_RR - similar to SCHED_FIFO except time-slicing occurs
for threads of equal priority
 Defines two functions for getting and setting scheduling policy:
1.pthread_attr_getsched_policy(pthread_attr_t
*attr, int *policy)
2.pthread_attr_setsched_policy(pthread_attr_t
*attr, int policy)

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 POSIX Real-Time Scheduling API
#include <pthread.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#define NUM_THREADS 5
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int i, policy;
pthread_t_tid[NUM_THREADS];
pthread_attr_t attr;
/* get the default attributes */
pthread_attr_init(&attr);
/* get the current scheduling policy */
if (pthread_attr_getschedpolicy(&attr, &policy) != 0)
fprintf(stderr, "Unable to get policy.\n");
else {
if (policy == SCHED_OTHER) printf("SCHED_OTHER\n");
else if (policy == SCHED_RR) printf("SCHED_RR\n");
else if (policy == SCHED_FIFO) printf("SCHED_FIFO\n");
}

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 POSIX Real-Time Scheduling API (Cont.)

/* set the scheduling policy - FIFO, RR, or OTHER */

if (pthread_attr_setschedpolicy(&attr, SCHED_FIFO) != 0)
fprintf(stderr, "Unable to set policy.\n");
/* create the threads */
for (i = 0; i < NUM_THREADS; i++)
pthread_create(&tid[i],&attr,runner,NULL);
/* now join on each thread */
for (i = 0; i < NUM_THREADS; i++)
pthread_join(tid[i], NULL);
}

/* Each thread will begin control in this function */

void *runner(void *param)
{
/* do some work ... */
pthread_exit(0);
}

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 Operating System Examples

• Linux scheduling

• Windows scheduling

• Solaris scheduling

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 Linux Scheduling Through Version 2.5

• Prior to kernel version 2.5, ran variation of standard UNIX

scheduling algorithm
• Version 2.5 moved to constant order O(1) scheduling time
• Preemptive, priority based
• Two priority ranges: time-sharing and real-time
• Real-time range from 0 to 99 and nice value from 100 to 140
• Map into global priority with numerically lower values indicating higher priority
• Higher priority gets larger q
• Task run-able as long as time left in time slice (active)
• If no time left (expired), not run-able until all other tasks use their slices
• All run-able tasks tracked in per-CPU runqueue data structure
• Two priority arrays (active, expired)
• Tasks indexed by priority
• When no more active, arrays are exchanged
• Worked well, but poor response times for interactive processes

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 Linux Scheduling in Version 2.6.23 +
• Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS)
• Scheduling classes
• Each has specific priority
• Scheduler picks highest priority task in highest scheduling class
• Rather than quantum based on fixed time allotments, based on proportion of CPU time
• 2 scheduling classes included, others can be added
1. default
2. real-time
• Quantum calculated based on nice value from -20 to +19
• Lower value is higher priority
• Calculates target latency – interval of time during which task should run at least once
• Target latency can increase if say number of active tasks increases
• CFS scheduler maintains per task virtual run time in variable vruntime
• Associated with decay factor based on priority of task – lower priority is higher decay rate
• Normal default priority yields virtual run time = actual run time
• To decide next task to run, scheduler picks task with lowest virtual run time

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 CFS
Performance

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 Linux Scheduling (Cont.)
• Real-time scheduling according to POSIX.1b
• Real-time tasks have static priorities
• Real-time plus normal map into global priority scheme
• Nice value of -20 maps to global priority 100
• Nice value of +19 maps to priority 139

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 Windows
Scheduling
• Windows uses priority-based preemptive scheduling
• Highest-priority thread runs next
• Dispatcher is scheduler
• Thread runs until (1) blocks, (2) uses time slice, (3)
preempted by higher-priority thread
• Real-time threads can preempt non-real-time
• 32-level priority scheme
• Variable class is 1-15, real-time class is 16-31
• Priority 0 is memory-management thread
• Queue for each priority
• If no run-able thread, runs idle thread

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 Windows Priority
Classes
• Win32 API identifies several priority classes to which a process can belong
• REALTIME_PRIORITY_CLASS, HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS,
ABOVE_NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS,NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS,
BELOW_NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, IDLE_PRIORITY_CLASS
• All are variable except REALTIME
• A thread within a given priority class has a relative priority
• TIME_CRITICAL, HIGHEST, ABOVE_NORMAL, NORMAL, BELOW_NORMAL, LOWEST, IDLE
• Priority class and relative priority combine to give numeric priority
• Base priority is NORMAL within the class
• If quantum expires, priority lowered, but never below base

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 Windows Priority Classes
(Cont.)

• If wait occurs, priority boosted depending on what was waited for

• Foreground window given 3x priority boost
• Windows 7 added user-mode scheduling (UMS)
• Applications create and manage threads independent of kernel
• For large number of threads, much more efficient
• UMS schedulers come from programming language libraries like
C++ Concurrent Runtime (ConcRT) framework

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 Windows
Priorities

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 Solaris
• Priority-based scheduling
• Six classes available
• Time sharing (default) (TS)
• Interactive (IA)
• Real time (RT)
• System (SYS)
• Fair Share (FSS)
• Fixed priority (FP)
• Given thread can be in one class at a time
• Each class has its own scheduling algorithm
• Time sharing is multi-level feedback queue
• Loadable table configurable by sysadmin

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 Solaris Dispatch
Table

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 Solaris Scheduling

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Solaris Scheduling (Cont.)

• Scheduler converts class-specific priorities into a per-thread

global priority
• Thread with highest priority runs next
• Runs until (1) blocks, (2) uses time slice, (3) preempted by higher-
priority thread
• Multiple threads at same priority selected via RR

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 Algorithm
Evaluation

• How to select CPU-scheduling algorithm for an OS?

• Determine criteria, then evaluate algorithms
• Deterministic modeling
• Type of analytic evaluation
• Takes a particular predetermined workload and defines the performance
of each algorithm for that workload
• Consider 5 processes arriving at time 0:

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 Deterministic
Evaluation
 For each algorithm, calculate minimum average waiting time
 Simple and fast, but requires exact numbers for input, applies
only to those inputs
 FCS is 28ms:

 Non-preemptive SFJ is 13ms:

 RR is 23ms:

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Queueing Models
• Describes the arrival of processes, and CPU and I/O bursts
probabilistically
• Commonly exponential, and described by mean
• Computes average throughput, utilization, waiting time, etc
• Computer system described as network of servers, each with
queue of waiting processes
• Knowing arrival rates and service rates
• Computes utilization, average queue length, average wait time, etc

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Little’s Formula
• n = average queue length
• W = average waiting time in queue
• λ = average arrival rate into queue
• Little’s law – in steady state, processes leaving queue must
equal processes arriving, thus:
n=λxW
• Valid for any scheduling algorithm and arrival distribution
• For example, if on average 7 processes arrive per second, and
normally 14 processes in queue, then average wait time per
process = 2 seconds

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Simulations
• Queueing models limited
• Simulations more accurate
• Programmed model of computer system
• Clock is a variable
• Gather statistics indicating algorithm performance
• Data to drive simulation gathered via
• Random number generator according to probabilities
• Distributions defined mathematically or empirically
• Trace tapes record sequences of real events in real systems

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Evaluation of CPU Schedulers by Simulation

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 Implementation

 Even simulations have limited accuracy

 Just implement new scheduler and test in real systems
 High cost, high risk
 Environments vary
 Most flexible schedulers can be modified per-site or per-system
 Or APIs to modify priorities
 But again environments vary

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End of Chapter 6