Adaptive Time-Critical Resource
Management Using Time/Utility Functions
April 2004
Binoy Ravindran, ECE Dept., Virginia Tech
Peng Li, ECE Dept., Virginia Tech
Haisang Wu, ECE Dept., Virginia Tech
E. Douglas Jensen, The MITRE Corporation
ABSTRACT
This position paper makes the case that time/utility functions (or
TUFs) and utility accrual optimization criteria constitutes, arguably,
the most effective and broadest approach for adaptive, time-critical
resource management. A TUF, which is a generalization of the classical
deadline constraint, specifies the utility of completing an application
activity as an application/ situation-specific function of that activity's
completion time. With TUF time constraints, timeliness optimization
criteria can be specified in terms of accrued activity utilities. Such
utility accrual (or UA) criteria facilitate design of resource management
algorithms that are adaptive in the sense that they allocate resources
in a mission-oriented way i.e., in the best interests of the application's
mission. Further, they gracefully degrade timeliness performance during
overloads and gracefully improve performance otherwise. Such timeliness
adaptivity is not possible with traditional real-time resource management
techniques. We overview past and recent UA algorithms that illustrate
this. We also identify emerging challenges.
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