Real-Time Operating Systems (in English)

• 26 hrs lectures
• 10 hrs pc labs
• 16 hrs projects

• 55 pts final exam (50 pts written part, 5 pts test part)
• 15 pts mid-term test (10 pts written part, 5 pts test part)
• 12 pts labs
• 18 pts projects

Theoretical background (specification/verification) and practical knowledge of real-time operating systems. After completing the course students will appreciate the use of multitasking techniques in real-time systems, understand the fundamental concepts of real-time operating systems, understand the features and structures of practical implementations, appreciate how application areas (e.g. safety-critical, desktop, etc.) impact on real-time operating system facilities.
Theoretical and practical orientation in the area of design cycle of real-time applications, competence to design applications based on real-time operating systems.

The primary goal of this course is to meet the participant with basics of real-time systems and to give the participant knowledge and skills necessary to design and develop embedded applications by means of real-time operating systems.

Knowledge of operating system (OS) basics: overview of OS architectures, OS classification, UNIX kernel knowledge, OS service call principles, shell. Context switching, multitasking. File systems, processes, virtual memory. Basic skills of programming in C.

• Cheng, A. M. K.: Real-Time Systems: Scheduling, Analysis, and Verification. Wiley, 2002, 552 p., ISBN 0-471-18406-3.
• Joseph, M.: Real-Time Systems Specification, Verification and Analysis. Prentice Hall, 1996, p. 278, ISBN 0-13-455297-0.
• Krishna, C. M., Shin, K. G.: Real-Time Systems. McGraw-Hill, 1997, 448 s., ISBN 0-07-114243-6.
• Laplante, P. A.: Real-Time Systems Design and Analysis. Wiley-IEEE Press, 2004, 528 p., ISBN 0-471-22855-9.
• Levi, S. T., Agrawala, A. K.: Real-Time System Design. McGraw-Hill, 1990, 299 s., ISBN 0-07037-491-0.
• Li, Q., Yao, C.: Real-Time Concepts for Embedded Systems. CMP Books, 1st Edition, 2003, 294 s., ISBN 1-57820-124-1.
• Butazzo, G.: Hard Real-Time Computing Systems, Predictable Scheduling Algorithms and Applications. Springer, 2011, 524 p., ISBN 978-1-4614-0675-4.
• Cottet, F., Delacroix, J., Kaiser, C., Mammeri, Z.: Scheduling in Real-Time Systems. John Wiley & Sons, 2002, 266 p., ISBN 0-470-84766-2.
• Kopetz, H.: Real-Time Systems, Design Principles for Distributed Embedded Applications. Springer, 2011, 378 p., ISBN 978-1-4419-8236-0.
• Labrosse, J. J.: MicroC OS II: The Real Time Kernel. Newnes, 2nd ed., 2002, 648 p., ISBN 978-1578201037.

1. Definition of basic terms related to real-time (RT) systems. Motivation.
2. Introduction to RT specification and verification area.
3. RT kernel architectures - typical attributes, problems and benchmarking principles.
4. Timing analysis of RT kernels, principles of response-time analysis of particular RT kernel types.
5. Overview and properties of common interfaces and scheduling policies in (RT)OS, priority-driven schedulers, POSIX 1003.1b.
6. Case Studies: uC/OS-II, uC/OS-III, FreeRTOS.
7. Case Studies: MQX, Autosar-OSEK/VDX, QNX.
8. RT task model and introduction to RT task scheduling. RT task schedulability problem.
9. Scheduling of independent, static- and dynamic-priority periodic RT tasks running in 1-CPU environment: RM, DM, EDF, LL.
10. Joint scheduling of periodic, sporadic and aperiodic RT tasks using task servers.
11. Scheduling of dependent, dynamic-priority RT tasks running in 1-CPU environment, priority inversion, blocking and deadlock prevention using resource access protocols: PIP, HLP, PCP, SRP, TBS, CBS.
12. Mechanisms of scheduling RT tasks for architecture overload: Dover, LBESA, DASA.
13. RT task scheduling for n-CPU environment (anomalies, RMNF, RMFF, RMBF, RMST, RMGT), fault-tolerance and low power (DVS, DPM).

1. Specification and verification of a simple RT system by means of UPPAAL tool.
2. Design and implementation of a simple RT application by means of the API from uC/OS-II, FreeRTOS, MQX and/or QNX/Neutrino, POSIX 1003.1b.
3. Comparing properties of given RTOS kernels (uC/OS-II, FreeRTOS, MQX).
4. Introduction to Timestool and Cheddar tools for basic modeling and analysis of RT applications being described by a set of RT tasks with parameters.
5. Utilization of TimesTool, Cheddar tools and uC/OS-II, FreeRTOS, MQX kernels for advanced analysis (e.g. examining properties of resource access protocols and scheduling policies designed for overload, multiprocessor or low-power conditions).

• Individual or group project.

• 4 laboratory reports with defense and due-date submission to IS (12 points max, out of that: 6 points for solution functionality, 3 points for solution quality, 3 points for solution defense quality)
• Written mid-term test (15 points max)
• Project with defense and due-date submission to IS (18 points max, out of that: 9 points for solution functionality, 5 points for solution quality, 4 points for solution defense quality)
• All works have to be submitted by their deadlines; late submissions will be evaluated by 0 points

Exam prerequisites:
No conditions are applied.

• Following activities are monitored: attendance and activity during lectures, computer labs and progress of project-related works.
• A prospective reimbursement of absences caused by an obstacle in the study is going to be realized according to the nature of the obstacle and teaching involved, e.g. by setting a substitute term or assigning a separate (homework) task. A solution to other kind of absence is not arranged herein, i.e., it is neither excluded nor guaranteed.

No conditions are applied.