CHAPTER 5

CPU SCHEDULING
CPU SCHEDULING
Basic Concepts
Scheduling Criteria
Scheduling Algorithms
Thread Scheduling
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
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
HISTOGRAM OF CPU-BURST
TIMES
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
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
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)
 SCHEDULING ALGORITHM OPTIMIZATION
CRITERIA

Max CPU utilization

Max throughput
Min turnaround time
Min waiting time
Min response time
 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:

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

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

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
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
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

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

DETERMINING LENGTH OF
NEXT CPU BURST
PREDICTION OF THE LENGTH OF THE NEXT CPU BURST
EXAMPLE OF
SHORTEST-REMAINING-TIME-FIRST
Now we add the concepts of varying arrival times and preemption to the
analysis
ProcessA arri Arrival TimeTBurst Time
P1 0 8
P2 1 4
P3 2 9
P4 3 5
Preemptive SJF Gantt Chart

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

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
 EXAMPLE OF PRIORITY
SCHEDULING
ProcessA arri 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

HOME ASSIGNMENT
ProcessA arri Burst TimeT Arrival Time Priority
P1 10 0 3
P2 5 3 1
P3 3 4 4
P4 5 6 5
P5 7 8 2

Find out the average waiting time when priority scheduling is

implemented. Also draw the Gantt chart.
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
 EXAMPLE OF RR WITH TIME
QUANTUM = 4
Process Burst Time
P1 24
P2 3
P3 3
The Gantt chart is:

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
TIME QUANTUM AND CONTEXT SWITCH
TIME
TURNAROUND TIME VARIES WITH THE TIME QUANTUM

80% of CPU bursts

should be shorter than q
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
MULTILEVEL QUEUE
SCHEDULING
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
 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
THREAD SCHEDULING (TO BE
CONTINUED AFTER DISCUSSION
OF THREADS)
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
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
PTHREAD SCHEDULING API
#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");

}
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);
}
MULTIPLE-PROCESSOR
SCHEDULING
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
NUMA AND CPU SCHEDULING

Note that memory-placement algorithms can also consider affinity

 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
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
MULTITHREADED
MULTICORE SYSTEM
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
 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
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
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

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.

MISSED DEADLINES WITH RATE MONOTONIC
SCHEDULING
 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
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
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:
pthread_attr_getsched_policy(pthread_attr_t
*attr, int *policy)
pthread_attr_setsched_policy(pthread_attr_t
*attr, int policy)
 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");

}
 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);

}
 OPERATING SYSTEM
EXAMPLES
Linux scheduling

Windows scheduling

Solaris scheduling
 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
 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
CFS PERFORMANCE
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
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
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
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
WINDOWS PRIORITIES
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
SOLARIS DISPATCH TABLE
SOLARIS SCHEDULING
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
 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:

 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:
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
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
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
EVALUATION OF CPU SCHEDULERS BY
SIMULATION
 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
END OF CHAPTER 6