System Resource Management for Distributed Real-Time Systems.

Abstract : The overall goal of the SRM effort is to develop techniques for coordinated but decentralized control of system resources in distributed systems. These techniques will provide integrated management of: (1) multiple system resources, including the processing, communication, and data storage components of the system; (2) multiple system objectives (i.e., level-of-service preferences), such as timeliness, precision, and correctness; (3) multiple activities (e.g., applications or tasks) competing for resources; (4) multiple nodes in a distributed system; and (5) multiple techniques and mechanisms for meeting objectives. The resource management system will allocate distributed system resources to multiple competing activities in such a way that objectives as a whole can be satisfied to the highest degree possible. The goals of the research for this effort were to: (1) develop abstractions that model common system objectives such as performance, functionality, availability, precision, and security; (2) develop abstractions that model system components (e.g., processing, communication, and storage subsystems) and higher level services that are based on these components (e.g., distributed database systems or distributed file systems); (3) develop abstractions and mechanisms that provide integrated control across the objectives and components of a distributed system; and (4) show the validity of the abstractions by applying them to one or more sample scenarios and implementing a proof-of-concept demonstration application.