Mode of Examination: Online

M.Tech. Semester-II Examination, 2021

2021
Subject: Computer Science & Engineering
Paper Code & Name: CSEL1016 (REAL-TIME SYSTEM)
Full Marks: 70
Date: 16.08.21 Time: 3:00 Hours Duration:12:00 PM to 3:00 PM

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Answer Question No. 1, 2, and any Four from the rest

1. Answer any 5 questions : (Critically comment on the following statements) [2 X 5 = 10]

i. Cyclic schedulers are more proficient than the table-driven scheduler.

ii. Finding an optimal schedule for a set of independent periodic hard real-time systems without any resource
sharing constraints under a static-priority scheme is an NP-complete problem.
iii. The worst-case response time of a task occurs when it is out of phase with other higher priority tasks.
iv. RMA should be preferred over the time-sliced round-robin algorithm for scheduling a set of soft real-time
tasks on a uni-processor system.
v. When periodic real-time tasks are scheduled using RMA, specific critical resources share priority inheritance
protocol, and some might suffer unbounded priority inversion.
vi. Priority ceiling protocol is free from deadlock and unbounded priority inversions.
vii. The presence of non-real-time tasks might disrupt the operation of real-time tasks running on the same
system.
viii. The traditional 2PL protocol is not suitable for real-time databases.
 2. Answer the following questions: (any five) [5x4=20]

i. Critically Comment on the desirable characteristics of a real-time system.

ii. What do you mean by the scheduling point of a task scheduling algorithm? How are scheduling points
determined in clock-driven, event-driven, and hybrid schedulers?
iii. Critically comment on necessary and sufficient schedulability test for fixed priority system. What are the
practical factors whose effect needs to be considered for such a schedulability test?
iv. Explain how a real-time database differs from a conventional database.
v. Explain how clock synchronization can be achieved in a distributed real-time system.
vi. What do you mean by fault tolerance? Compare and contrast hardware and software fault tolerance.
vii. What are the drawbacks of using Unix kernel for developing real-time applications?

3. The periodic tasks (3,1), (4,2, and (6,1) are scheduled according to the rate monotonic algorithm
i. Draw the time-demand functions of the tasks
ii. Are the tasks schedulable? Why or why not?
iii. Can this graph be used to determine whether the tasks are schedulable according to an arbitrary
priority-driven algorithm? Explain your answer.
[3+3+4]
4. a. Justify the requirement of an acceptance test to schedule sporadic jobs along with periodic and aperiodic
jobs.
b. What is a deferrable server and how is it different from a polled server? Explain the operation of a
deferrable server with a suitable example.
.c. How the sporadic server is different from the deferrable server. What are the consumption and
replenishment rules of sporadic servers? Explain with an example.
[2+4+4]
5. a. What do you mean by optimality of RM and DM algorithms
b. Using a cyclic real-time scheduler, suggest a suitable frame size that can be used to schedule three
periodic tasks T1, T2, and T3, with the following characteristics:

Task Execution Relative Period(ms)

Time Deadline(ms)
(ms)
T1 20 100 100
T2 20 80 80
T3 30 150 150
[4+6]
6. a. For the following set of jobs with associated parameters, find the job schedule using
priority ceiling protocol.

Job Release Execution Priority Critical Section

time time
J1 7 3 1 [Shaded;1]
J2 5 3 2 [black;1]
J3 4 2 3
J4 2 6 4 [Shaded;4[Black;1.5]]
J5 0 6 5 [Black;4]

b. Explain how PCP is able to avoid deadlock, unbounded priority inversions and chain blocking.
[7+3]
7. a. What do you mean by the “fail-safe” state of the system? What is the implication of the statement:
“Safety-critical real-time systems do not have a fail-safe state.”
b. Show with an example that if the tasks are scheduled dynamically on the processors according to the ‘Least
Slack Time’ algorithm, some jobs cannot meet their deadlines.
c. What do you mean by ‘priority inversion’ in the context of real-time task scheduling? when several tasks
share a set of critical resources, is it possible to avoid priority inversion altogether by using a suitable task
scheduling algorithm? Explain.
[3+3+4]