Evaluation of interrupt handling timeliness in real-time Linux operating systems

Several real-time Linux extensions are available nowadays. Two of those extensions that have received special attention recently are Preempt-RT and Xenomai. This paper evaluates to what extent they provide deterministic guarantees when reacting to external events, an essential characteristic when it comes to real-time systems. For this, we define two simple experimental approaches. Our results indicate that Preempt-RT is more prone to temporal variations than Xenomai when the system is subject to overload scenarios. Categories and Subject Descriptors D.4.8 [Operating Systems]: Performance--Measurements General Terms Measurement, Performance Keywords Real Time, Interrupt Handling, Operating System, Linux

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: SIGOPS
• Authors: Paul Regnier, George Lima, Luciano Barreto
• Keywords: Operating System, Several Real-time Linux, SIGOPS 2008, Xenomai