Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Operational Verification Of A Relativistic Program, Robert T. Bauer

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Engineering eorts to achieve scalable multiprocessor perfor- mance for concurrent reader-writer programs have resulted in a family of algorithms that are non-blocking and that tolerate interprocessor in- terference. Because these algorithms accept a unique frame of reference for each processor's accesses to memory, they typify a concurrent pro- gramming technique for shared memory multicore architectures called relativistic programmming.

Rigorous verification of these algorithms is not possible with existing semantic based approaches because the semantics under approximates multiprocessor behavior and the algorithms rely on abstruse interactions with the operating system that aren't reconciled with language seman- tics.

The Read-Copy Update (RCU) …

What Is Rcu, Fundamentally?, Paul E. Mckenney, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Read-copy update (RCU) is a synchronization mechanism that was added to the Linux kernel in October of 2002. RCU achieves scalability improvements by allowing reads to occur concurrently with updates. In contrast with conventional locking primitives that ensure mutual exclusion among concurrent threads regardless of whether they be readers or updaters, or with reader-writer locks that allow concurrent reads but not in the presence of updates, RCU supports concurrency between a single updater and multiple readers. RCU ensures that reads are coherent by maintaining multiple versions of objects and ensuring that they are not freed up until all pre-existing read-side …

Rcu Semantics: A First Attempt, Paul E. Mckenney, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is not yet a formal statement of RCU (read-copy update) semantics. While this lack has thus far not been an impediment to adoption and use of RCU, it is quite possible that formal semantics would point the way towards tools that automatically validate uses of RCU or that permit RCU algorithms to be automatically generated by a parallel compiler. This paper is a first attempt to supply a formal definition of RCU. Or at least a semi-formal definition: although RCU does not yet wear a tux (though it does run in Linux), at least it might yet wear some …

Locality, Network Control And Anomaly Detection, Jim Binkley

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ourmon is a near real-time network monitoring and anomaly detection system that captures packets using port-mirroring on Ethernet switches. It primarily displays data via web graphics using either RRDTOOL stripcharts or via histograms for top talker style graphs. We have developed a theory that network scanning launched primarily by worm programs including TCP and UDP scanners may be caught by monitoring network control data including TCP control packets (SYNS, FINS, RESETS) and ICMP errors, or by monitoring certain carefully chosen metadata such as the flow count itself. In this paper we concentrate on TCP and present a ”flow tuple” focused …

Using Dynamic Optimization For Control Of Real Rate Cpu Resource Management Applications, Varin Vahia, Ashvin Goel, David Steere, Jonathan Walpole, Molly H. Shor

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper we design a proportional-period optimal controller for allocating CPU to real rate multimedia applications on a general-purpose computer system. We model this computer system problem in to state space form. We design a controller based on dynamic optimization LQR tracking techniques to minimize short term and long term time deviation from the current time stamp and also CPU usage. Preliminary results on an experimental set up are encouraging.

Adaptive Live Video Streaming By Priority Drop, Jie Huang, Charles Krasic, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper we explore the use of Priority-progress streaming (PPS) for video surveillance applications. PPS is an adaptive streaming technique for the delivery of continuous media over variable bit-rate channels. It is based on the simple idea of reordering media components within a time window into priority order before transmission. The main concern when using PPS for live video streaming is the time delay introduced by reordering. In this paper we describe how PPS can be extended to support live streaming and show that the delay inherent in the approach can be tuned to satisfy a wide range of …

Under The Plastic: A Quantitative Look At Dvd Video Encoding And Its Impact On Video Modeling, Wu-Chi Feng, Jin Choi, Wu-Chang Feng, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, we examine the DVD encoding process and the implications this process has video modeling and network traffic analysis. We have assembled a system that allows us to extract the video data from the DVDs as they were encoded for distribution. Analyzing the resulting video trace data, we describe how DVD encodings have evolved over time. In addition, our findings show that the underlying video content is fundamentally different than those produced by basic consumer video capture boards. We demonstrate how this affects current video modeling proposals and their affect on network traffic characterization. This research is based …

Provisioning On-Line Games: A Traffic Analysis Of A Busy Counter-Strike Server, Wu-Chang Feng, Francis Chang, Wu-Chi Feng, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper describes the results of a 500 million packet trace of a popular on-line, multi-player, game server. The results show that the traffic behavior of this heavily loaded game server is highly predictable and can be attributed to the fact that current game designs target the saturation of the narrowest, last-mile link. Specifically, in order to maximize the interactivity of the game itself and to provide relatively uniform experiences between players playing over different network speeds, on-line games typically fix their usage requirements in such a way as to saturate the network link of their lowest speed players. While …

Supporting Low-Latency Tcp-Based Media Streams, Ashvin Goel, Charles Krasic, Kang Li, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The dominance of the TCP protocol on the Internet and its success in maintaining Internet stability has led to several TCP-based stored media-streaming approaches. The success of these approaches raises the question whether TCP can be used for low-latency streaming. Low latency streaming allows responsive control operations for media streaming and can make interactive applications feasible. We examined adapting the TCP send buffer size based on TCP's congestion window to reduce application perceived network latency. Our results show that this simple idea significantly improves the number of packets that can be delivered within 200 ms and 500 ms thresholds.

Reifying Communication At The Application Level, Andrew P. Black, Jie Huang, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Middleware, from the earliest RPC systems to recent Object-Oriented Remote Message Sending (RMS) systems such as Java RMI and CORBA, claims transparency as one of its main attributes. Coulouris et al. define transparency as “the concealment from the … application programmer of the separation of components in a distributed system.” They go on to identify eight different kinds of transparency.

We considered titling this paper “Transparency Considered Harmful”, but that title is misleading because it implies that all kinds of transparency are bad. This is not our view. Rather, we believe that the choice of which transparencies should be offered …

Modeling The Transient Rate Behavior Of Bandwidth Sharing As A Hybrid Control System, Kang Li, Molly H. Shor, Jonathan Walpole, Calton Pu

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper uses hybrid control to model a problem of computer network systems, the dynamic behavior of bandwidth sharing among competing TCP traffic. It has been well known in the computer network community that well-behaved (TCP-friendly) congestion control mechanisms are crucial to the robustness of the Internet. Congestion control determines the transmission rate for each flow. Right now, most TCP-friendly research focuses only on the average throughput behavior without considering how the data is sent out in the short-term (e.g. bursty or smooth). However, recent experimental results show that short-term rate adjustments can change the bandwidth sharing result. Therefore, it …

Moving Towards Massively Scalable Video-Based Sensor Networks, Wu-Chi Feng, Jonathan Walpole, Calton Pu, Wu-Chang Feng

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Networking and computing technologies are becoming advanced enough to enable a wealth of diverse applications that will drastically change our everyday lives. Some past examples of these developments include the World Wide Web and wireless data networking infrastructures. As is quite obvious, the World Wide Web has enabled a fundamental change in the way many people deal with day-to-day tasks. Through the web, one can now make on-line reservations for travel, pay bills through on-line banking services, and view personalized on-line newscasts. More recently, developments in wireless technologies have enabled anywhere, anytime access to information over wireless medium. As wireless …

Rate-Matching Packet Scheduler For Real-Rate Applications, Kang Li, Jonathan Walpole, Dylan Mcnamee, Calton Pu, David Steere

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

A packet scheduler is an operating system component that controls the allocation of network interface bandwidth to outgoing network flows. By deciding which packet to send next, packet schedulers not only determine how bandwidth is shared among flows, but also play a key role in determining the rate and timing behavior of individual flows. The recent explosion of rate and timing-sensitive flows, particularly in the context of multimedia applications, has focused new interest on packet schedulers. Next generation packet schedulers must not only ensure separation among flows and meet real-time performance constraints, they must also support dynamic fine-grain reallocation of …

Control Challenges In Multi-Level Adaptive Video Streaming, Dylan Mcnamee, Charles Krasic, Kang Li, Ashvin Goel, Erik Walthinsen, David Steere, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Streaming video is one of the fastest-growing applications of the Internet. The Internet’s diversity and dynamism demands that video streams adapt to ensure maximum quality at all times. This paper describes the control challenges we have encountered in the Quasar project’s “multi-level” adaptive streaming video player. We first describe the framework and environment of the player. This framework uses software feedback to control resource allocation as well as the quality of media delivery. We present the control challenges raised by our framework, which include horizontal and vertical feedback composition, difficult to model systems, and unpredictable, non-linear actuators. We describe some …

Aspects Of Information Flow, Andrew P. Black, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Along with our colleagues at the Oregon Graduate Institute and Georgia Institute of Technology, we have recently been experimenting with real-rate systems, that is, systems that are required to move data from one place to another at defined rates, such as 30 items per second. Audio conferencing or streaming video systems are typical: they are required to deliver video or audio frames from a source (a server or file system) in one place to a sink (a display or a sound generator) in another; the frames must arrive periodically, with constrained latency and jitter. We have successfully built such systems …

Fine-Grain Period Adaptation In Soft Real-Time Environments, David Steere, Joshua Gruenberg, Dylan Mcnamee, Calton Pu, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reservation-based scheduling delivers a proportion of the CPU to jobs over a period of time. In this paper we argue that automatically determining and assigning this period is both possible and useful in general purpose soft real-time environments such as personal computers and information appliances. The goal of period adaptation is to select the period over which a job is guaranteed to receive its portion of the CPU dynamically and automatically. The choice of period represents a trade-off between the amount of jitter observed by the job and the overall efficiency of the system. Secondary effects of period include quantization …

Qos Scalability For Streamed Media Delivery, Charles Krasic, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Applications with real-rate progress requirements, such as mediastreaming systems, are difficult to deploy in shared heterogenous environments such as the Internet. On the Internet, mediastreaming systems must be capable of trading off resource requirements against the quality of the media streams they deliver, in order to match wide-ranging dynamic variations in bandwidth between servers and clients. Since quality requirements tend to be user- and task-specific, mechanisms for capturing quality of service requirements and mapping them to appropriate resource-level adaptation policies are required. In this paper, we describe a general approach for automatically mapping user-level quality of service specifications onto resource …

Adaptive Resource Management Via Modular Feedback Control, Ashvin Goel, David Steere, Calton Pu, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

A key feature of tomorrow’s operating systems and runtime environments is their ability to adapt. Current state of the art uses an ad-hoc approach to building adaptive software, resulting in systems that can be complex, unpredictable and brittle. We advocate a modular and methodical approach for building adaptive system software based on feedback control. The use of feedback allows a system to automatically adapt to dynamically varying environments and loads, and allows the system designer to utilize the substantial body of knowledge in other engineering disciplines for building adaptive systems. We have developed a toolkit called SWiFT that embodies this …

A Feedback-Driven Proportion Allocator For Real-Rate Scheduling, David Steere, Ashvin Goel, Joshua Gruenberg, Dylan Mcnamee, Calton Pu, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper we propose changing the decades-old practice of allocating CPU to threads based on priority to a scheme based on proportion and period. Our scheme allocates to each thread a percentage of CPU cycles over a period of time, and uses a feedback-based adaptive scheduler to assign automatically both proportion and period. Applications with known requirements, such as isochronous software devices, can bypass the adaptive scheduler by specifying their desired proportion and/or period. As a result, our scheme provides reservations to applications that need them, and the benefits of proportion and period to those that do not. Adaptive …

Quality Of Service Semantics For Multimedia Database Systems, Jonathan Walpole, Charles Krasic, Ling Liu, David Maier, Calton Pu, Dylan Mcnamee, David Steere

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Quality of service (QoS) support has been a hot research topic in multimedia databases, and multimedia systems in general, for the past several years. However, there remains little consensus on how QoS support should be provided. At the resource-management level, systems designers are still debating the suitability of reservation- based versus adaptive QoS management. The design of higher system layers is less clearly understood, and the specification of QoS requirements in domain-specific terms is still an open research topic. To address these issues, we propose a QoS model for multimedia databases. The model covers the specification of user-level QoS preferences …

Cheetahs Are Fast, But Nearly Irrelevant, Calton Pu, Jonathan Walpole, Charles Consel

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

A brief paper submitted to the NSF Workshop on New Challenges and Directions for Systems Research, held in St. Louis, Mo., July 31-August 1, 1997. Outlines the case for more cooperation among software system architects, and a less reductionistic approach to software development.

A Toolkit For Specializing Production Operating System Code, Crispin Cowan, Dylan Mcnamee, Andrew P. Black, Calton Pu, Jonathan Walpole, Charles Krasic, Perry Wagle, Qian Zhang

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Specialization has been recognized as a powerful technique for optimizing operating systems. However, specialization has not been broadly applied beyond the research community because the current techniques, based on manual specialization, are time-consuming and error-prone. This paper describes a specialization toolkit that should help broaden the applicability of specializing operating systems by assisting in the automatic generation of specialized code, and {\em guarding} the specialized code to ensure the specialized system continues to be correct. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the toolkit by describing experiences we have had applying it in real, production environments. We report on our experiences with …

Physical Media Independence: System Support For Dynamically Available Network Interfaces, Jon Inouye, Jim Binkley, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Advances in hardware technology has fueled the proliferation of dynamically configurable network interface cards. This empowers mobile laptop users to select the most appropriate interface for their current environment. Unfortunately, the majority of system software remains "customized" for a particular network configuration, and assumes many network characteristics remain invariant over the runtime of the software. Physical Media Independence (PMI) is the concept of making assumptions about a particular device explicit, detecting events which invalidate these assumptions, and recovering once events are detected. This paper presents a model supporting PMI. Based on device availablilty, the model identifies implicit device-related assumptions made …

A Migratable User-Level Process Package For Pvm, Ravi Kunuru, Steve Otto, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Shared, multi-user, workstation networks are characterized by unpredictable variability in system load. Further, the concept of workstation ownership is typically present. For efficient and unobtrusive computing in such environments, applications must not only overlap their computation with communication but also redistribute their computations adaptively based on changes in workstation availability and load. Managing these issues at application level leads to programs that are difficult to write and debug. In this paper, we present a system that manages this dynamic multi-processor environment while exporting a simple message-based programming model of a dedicated, distributed memory multiprocessor to applications. Programmers are thus insulated …

Multimedia Applications Require Adaptive Cpu Scheduling, Veronica Baiceanu, Crispin Cowan, Dylan Mcnamee, Calton Pu, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

CPU scheduling and admission testing for multimedia applications have been extensively studied, and various solutions have been proposed using assorted simplifying assumptions. However, we believe that the complexity and dynamic behavior of multimedia applications and systems make static solutions hard to apply in real-world situations. We are analyzing the difficulties that arise when applying the rate-monotonic (RM) scheduling algorithm and the corresponding admission tests for CPU management, in the context of real multimedia applications running on real systems. RM requires statically predictable, periodic workloads, and while multimedia applications appear to be periodic, in practice they exhibit numerous variabilities in workload. …

Customizable Operating Systems, Jonathan Walpole, Crispin Cowan, Andrew P. Black, Jon Inouye, Calton Pu, Shanwei Cen

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

A customizable operating system is one that can adapt to improve its functionality or performance. The need for customizable and application-specific operating systems has been recognized for many years, but they have yet to appear in the commercial market. This paper explores the notion of operating system customizability and examines the limits of existing approaches. The paper begins by surveying system structuring approaches for the safe and efficient execution of customizable operating systems. Then it discusses the burden that existing approaches impose on application software, and explores techniques for reducing this burden. Finally, support for customizability in the Synthetix project …

Device And Physical Data Independence For Multimedia Presentations, Richard Staehli, Jonathan Walpole, David Maier

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Multimedia computing promises access to any type of visual or aural medium on the desktop. But in this networked future, will every type of media be accessible from every terminal device? Current multimedia standards do not allow content that is authored for high-bandwidth workstations to scale down for low-bandwidth applications. The problem is that application requests are commonly interpreted as requests for the highest possible quality and resource overloads are handled by ad hoc methods. We can begin to solve this problem by specifying Quality of Service (QOS) requirements based on functionality rather than on content encoding and device capabilities.

Device And Physical Data Independence For Multimedia Presentations, Richard Staehli, Jonathan Walpole, David Maier

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Multimedia computing promises access to any type of visual or aural medium on the desktop. But in this networked future, will every type of media be accessible from every terminal device? Current multimedia standards do not allow content that is authored for high-bandwidth workstations to scale down for low-bandwidth applications. The problem is that application requests are commonly interpreted as requests for the highest possible quality and resource overloads are handled by ad hoc methods. We can begin to solve this problem by specifying Quality of Service (QOS) requirements based on functionality rather than on content encoding and device capabilities.

Fast Byte Copying: A Re-Evaluation Of The Opportunities For Optimization, Jon Inouye, Jonathan Walpole, Ke Zhang

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

High-performance byte copying is important for many operating systems because it is the principle method used for transferring data between kernel and user protection domains. For example, byte copying is commonly used for transferring data from kernel buffers to user buffers during file system read and IPC recv calls and to kernel buffers from user buffers during 'Write and-send calls. Because of its impact on overall system performance, commercial operating systems tend to employ many specialized byte copy routines, each one optimized for a different circumstance.

This paper revisits the opportunities for optimizing byte copy performance by discussing a series …

Mist: Pvm With Transparent Migration And Checkpointing, Jeremy Casas, Dan Clark, Phil Galbiati, Ravi Konuru, Steve Otto, Robert Prouty, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

We are currently involved in research to enable PVM to take advantage of shared networks of workstations (NOWs) more effectively. In such a computing environment, it is important to utilize workstations unobtrusively and recover from machine failures. Towards this goal, we have enhanced PVM with transparent task migration, checkpointing, and global scheduling. These enhancements are part of the MIST project which takes an open systems approach in developing a cohesive, distributed parallel computing environment. This open systems approach promotes plug-and-play integration of independently developed modules, such as Condor, DQS, A VS, Prospero, XPVM, PIOUS, Ptools, etc. Transparent task migration, in …