Predictable packet latency in Xen-ARM

Seehwan Yoo, Kuenhwan Kwak, Jaehyun Jo, Chuck Yoo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In this paper, we address latency issue in Xen-ARM virtual machines. Despite the advantages of virtualization in mobile systems, the current Xen-ARM is difficult to apply to mobile devices because it has unpredictable I/O latency. This paper analyzes the latency of incoming packet handling in Xen-ARM, and presents how virtualization affects the latency in detail. To make the latency predictable, firstly, we modify Xen- ARM scheduler so that the driver domain can be promptly scheduled by the hypervisor. Secondly, we introduce additional paravirtualization of guest OS that minimizes non-preemptible code path. With our enhancements, 99% of incoming packets are predictably handled within one millisecond at the destined guest OS, which is a feasible time bound for most soft realtime applications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2613-2623
Number of pages11
JournalIEICE Transactions on Information and Systems
VolumeE95-D
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012 Nov

Keywords

  • I/O latency
  • Virtual machine

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Artificial Intelligence

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