Rolling-horizon scheduling for energy constrained distributed real-time embedded systems

Energy-efficient scheduling approaches are critical to battery driven real-time embedded systems. Traditional energy-aware scheduling schemes are mainly based on the individual task scheduling. Consequently, the scheduling space for each task is small, and the schedulability and energy saving are very limited, especially when the system is heavily loaded. To remedy this problem, we propose a novel rolling-horizon (RH) strategy that can be applied to any scheduling algorithm to improve schedulability. In addition, we develop a new energy-efficient adaptive scheduling algorithm (EASA) that can adaptively adjust supply voltages according to the system workload for energy efficiency. Both the RH strategy and EASA algorithm are combined to form our scheduling approach, RH-EASA. Experimental results show that in comparison with some typical traditional scheduling schemes, RH-EASA can achieve significant energy savings while meeting most task deadlines (namely, high schedulability) for distributed real-time embedded systems with dynamic workloads.

► The idea of rolling-horizon (RH) scheduling was proposed for energy constrained distributed real-time embedded systems.
► An energy-efficient adaptive scheduling algorithm EASA was developed.
► The RH was combined with EASA as RH-EASA to further improve the schedulability and energy saving.
► The RH-EASA can adjust voltages according to the system workload.