A real-time virtio-based framework for predictable inter-VM communication
Files
Accepted manuscript
Date
2021-12
Authors
Schwaricke, Gero
Tabish, Rohan
Pellizzoni, Rodolfo
Mancuso, Renato
Bastoni, Andrea
Zuepke, Alexander
Caccamo, Marco
Version
Accepted manuscript
OA Version
Citation
G. Schwaricke, R. Tabish, R. Pellizzoni, R. Mancuso, A. Bastoni, A. Zuepke, M. Caccamo. 2021. "A Real-Time Virtio-Based Framework for Predictable Inter-VM Communication." 2021 IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium (RTSS). 2021 IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium (RTSS). 2021-12-07 - 2021-12-10. https://doi.org/10.1109/rtss52674.2021.00015
Abstract
Ensuring real-time properties on current heterogeneous multiprocessor systems on a chip is a challenging task. Furthermore, online artificial intelligent applications –which are routinely deployed on such chips– pose increasing pressure on the memory subsystem that becomes a source of unpredictability. Although techniques have been proposed to restore independent access to memory for concurrently executing virtual machines (VM), providing predictable inter-VM communication remains challenging. In this work, we tackle the problem of predictably transferring data between virtual machines and virtualized hardware resources on multiprocessor systems on chips under consideration of memory interference. We design a "broker-based" real-time communication framework for otherwise isolated virtual machines, provide a virtio-based reference implementation on top of the Jailhouse hypervisor, assess its overheads for FreeRTOS virtual machines, and formally analyze its communication flow schedulability under consideration of the implementation overheads. Furthermore, we define a methodology to assess the maximum DRAM memory saturation empirically, evaluate the framework's performance and compare it with the theoretical schedulability.