Operating

Systems

Process Scheduling
and Switching
 Introduction

• An important aspect of
multiprogramming is scheduling.
The resources that are scheduled are
IO and processors.
• The goal is to achieve
– High processor utilization
– High throughput
• number of processes completed per unit
time
– Low response time
• time elapse from the submission of a
request to the beginning of the response
 Processor Scheduling

• Maximize CPU use, quickly switch processes onto CPU for

time sharing.
• Process scheduler selects among available processes for
next execution on CPU.
• Maintains scheduling queues of processes:
– Job queue – set of all processes in the system.
– Ready queue – set of all processes residing in main memory,
ready and waiting to execute.
– Device queues – set of processes waiting for an I/O device.
• Processes migrate among the various queues.
 Scheduling Criteria

• CPU utilisation: During heavy loads, the CPU is busy

almost 90% and in the lighter loads it is only active
around 40%
• Throughput: the total number of processes that gets
completed in unit of time is called throughput.
• Turnaround time: the time span from submission of a
process to the system until is completed
• Waiting Time: the time spent by a process in a different
queues
• Response Time: the time taken by a process in producing
its first response after submission.
 Requirements of
scheduling

• An ideal scheduling discipline

– is easy to implement
– is fair and protective
– provides performance bounds
• Each scheduling discipline makes a different trade-off
among these requirements
 Ease of
implementation

• Scheduling discipline has to make a

decision once every few microseconds!
• Should be implementable in a few
instructions or hardware
– for hardware: critical constraint is
VLSI space
– Complexity of enqueue + dequeue
processes
• Work per packet should scale less than
linearly with number of active
connections
Types of Scheduling
• Preemptive
• Non-Preemptive
 Preemptive Scheduling

• When the CPU switches from one process to another

before its completion, then is called preemptive
scheduling
• Reasons why CPU leaves one process:
– Some higher priority process arrives in the system
– An interrupt occurs in a process
– A child process comes into a parent process
 Non-preemptive
Scheduling

• The CPU executes the process until it is terminated or

until any input/output need arise.
 Self-Quiz

– Define CPU Scheduling

– Define turnarounds time
 Types of Schedulers

1. Long-term scheduler (jobs scheduler) – selects

which programs/processes should be brought into
the ready queue.
2. Medium-term scheduler (emergency scheduler) –
selects which job/process should be swapped out if
system is loaded.
3. Short-term scheduler (CPU scheduler) – selects
which process should be executed next and
allocates CPU.
 Long-Term
Scheduling

• Determines which programs are admitted to the

system for processing.
• Controls the degree of multiprogramming.
• If more processes are admitted:
– less likely that all processes will be blocked –
better CPU usage.
– each process has less fraction of the CPU.
• Long-term scheduler strives for good process mix.
 Short-Term Scheduling

• Determines which process is going to execute next

(also called CPU scheduling).
• The short term scheduler is also known as the
dispatcher (which is part of it).
• Is invoked on a event that may lead to choose
another process for execution:
– clock interrupts
– I/O interrupts
– operating system calls and traps
– signals
 Long/Short-Term
Scheduling

Short-
term

Long-
term
 Dispatcher (short-term
scheduler)

• Is an OS program that moves the processor from one

process to another.
• It prevents a single process from monopolizing
processor time.
• It decides who goes next according to a scheduling
algorithm.
• The CPU will always execute instructions from the
dispatcher while switching from process A to process B.
 Dispatcher

• Is a module of a OS that provides control of the CPU to

the process which is selected by the short time scheduler.
• The dispatcher should be as fast as possible.
• The time consumed by the dispatcher is known as
dispatch latency
 Degree of
multiprogramming.

• The degree of multiprogramming describes the

maximum number of processes that a single-
processor system can accommodate efficiently.
• The primary factor affecting the degree of
multiprogramming is the amount of memory
available to be allocated to executing processes.
 Aspects of Schedulers

• Long-term scheduler is invoked very infrequently

(seconds, minutes) ⇒ (may be slow).
• The long-term scheduler controls the degree of
multiprogramming.
• Short-term scheduler is invoked very frequently
(milliseconds) ⇒ (must be fast).
• Processes can be described as either:
– I/O-bound process – spends more time doing I/O than
computations, many short CPU bursts.
– CPU-bound process – spends more time doing
computations; few very long CPU bursts.
 Medium-Term Scheduling

• So far, all processes have to be (at least partly) in

main memory.
• Even with virtual memory, keeping too many
processes in main memory will deteriorate the
system’s performance.
• The OS may need to swap out some processes to
disk, and then later swap them back in.
• Swapping decisions based on the need to manage
multiprogramming.
 Addition of Medium Term
Scheduling

Medium-
term

Short-
term
Long-
term
SWAPPING
Schematic View of
Swapping
 Dynamics of Swapping

• A process can be swapped temporarily out of memory to a backing store,

and then brought back into memory for
continued execution
• Backing store – fast disk large enough to accommodate copies of all
memory images for all users; must provide direct access to these memory
images.
• Roll out, roll in – swapping variant used for priority-based scheduling
algorithms; lower-priority process is swapped out so higher-priority
process can be loaded and executed.
• Major part of swap time is transfer time; total transfer time is directly
proportional to the amount of memory swapped.
• Modified versions of swapping are found on many systems (i.e., UNIX,
Linux, and Windows).
• System maintains a ready queue of ready-to-run processes which have
memory images on disk
Swapping Example
 Support for Swapping

• The OS may need to suspend some processes, i.e., to

swap them out to disk and then swap them back in.
• We add 2 new states:
– Blocked Suspend: blocked processes which have
been swapped out to disk.
– Ready Suspend: ready processes which have been
swapped out to disk.
STATE TRANSITIONS
 New state transitions

• Blocked –> Blocked Suspend

– When all processes are blocked, the OS will make room to
bring a ready process in memory.
• Blocked Suspend –> Ready Suspend
– When the event for which it has been waiting occurs
(state info is available to OS).
• Ready Suspend –> Ready
– when no more ready processes in main memory.
• Ready –> Ready Suspend (unlikely)
– When there are no blocked processes and must free
memory for adequate performance.
Another view of the 3
levels of scheduling
 Classification of
Scheduling Activity
A Seven-state Process
Model
QUEUING
Queuing Diagram for
Scheduling
 Process Scheduling
Queues

• Process queue – set of all processes in the system.

• Ready queue – set of processes residing in main
memory, ready and waiting to execute.
• Device queues – set of processes waiting for
an I/O device.
• Processes migrate among the various queues.
 A Queuing Discipline

• When event n occurs, the corresponding process is

moved into the ready queue
PROCESS CONTROL BLOCK
 Ready Queue and various
I/O Device Queues

Process state. The state may be new, ready,

running, waiting, halted, and so on.
Program counter. The counter indicates the
address of the next instruction to be executed for this process
CPU registers. They include accumulators,
index registers,stack pointers, and general-purpose registers,
plus any condition-code information.
CPU-scheduling information. This information includes a
process priority, pointers to scheduling queues, and any other
scheduling parameters.
Memory-management information. This
information may include such information as the value of the
base and registers, the page tables, or the segment tables,
depending on the memory system used by the operating
system.
Accounting information. This information
includes the amount of CPU and real time used, time limits,
account numbers, job or process numbers,
I/O status information. This information includes the list of
I/O devices allocated to the process, a list of open files, and so
on.
SWITCHING
 The CPU-I/O Cycle

• We observe that processes require alternate use of

processor and I/O in a repetitive fashion
• Each cycle consist of a CPU burst (typically of 5 ms)
followed by a (usually longer) I/O burst
• A process terminates on a CPU burst
• CPU-bound processes have longer CPU bursts than
I/O-bound processes
The CPU-I/O Cycle

• CPU bursts vary

from process to
process, and
from program
to program,
but an
extensive study
shows
frequency
patterns similar
to that
 The CPU-I/O Cycle

• Almost all processes

alternate between two states
in a continuing cycle :
– A CPU burst of performing
calculations, and
– An I/O burst, waiting for
data transfer in or out of
the system.
 CPU/IO Bursts

• Bursts of CPU usage alternate with periods of I/O wait

– a CPU-bound process
– an I/O bound process
 When to Switch a Process?

• A process switch may occur whenever the OS has

gained control of CPU. i.e., when:
– Supervisor Call
• explicit request by the program (example: file open) –
the process will probably be blocked.
– Trap
• an error resulted from the last instruction –
it may cause the process to be moved to terminated
state.
– Interrupt
• the cause is external to the execution of the current
instruction – control is transferred to Interrupt Handler.
Reasons for Process Switch
 Context Switch

• When CPU switches to another process, the system

must save the state of the old process and load the
saved state for the new process.
• This is called context switch.
• Context of a process represented in the PCB.
• The time it takes is dependent on hardware support.
• Context-switch time is overhead; the system does no
useful work while switching.
Process Switch
 Context switch
between processes (1)

A. Frank - P. Weisberg
Context switch between
processes (2)
 Steps in Context Switch

• Save context of processor including program counter

and other registers.
• Update the PCB of the running process with its new
state and other associate information.
• Move PCB to appropriate queue – ready, blocked,
• Select another process for execution.
• Update PCB of the selected process.
• Restore CPU context from that of the selected
process.
 Example of Context Switch
p1 p2 p3 kernel I/O
}
scheduler
I/O request

device driver {
} scheduler

Time slice exceeded

} schedulerInterrupt
{
device driver
} scheduler
 Mode Switch

• It may happen that an interrupt does not produce a

context switch.
• The control can just return to the interrupted program.
• Then only the processor state information needs to be
saved on stack.
• This is called mode switch (user to kernel mode when
going into Interrupt Handler).
• Less overhead: no need to update the PCB like for context
switch.
Scheduling
Algorithms
 Topics for discussion

• Various algorithms
– First-come, first-served
– Priority queues
– Round-robin
 Scheduling in Linux

Three classes of threads for scheduling purposes:

Real-time FIFO 
Real-time round robin 
Timesharing (for all non real-time processes) 
 Optimization Criteria

• Max CPU utilization

• Max throughput
• Min turnaround time
• Min waiting time
• Min response time
FIFO
 FIFO Queuing

• Simplest Algorithm, widely used.

• Scheduling is done using first-in first-out (FIFO)
discipline
• All flows are fed into the same queue
 FIFO Queuing (cont’d)

• First-In First-Out (FIFO) queuing

– First Arrival, First Transmission
– Completely dependent on arrival time
– No notion of priority or allocated buffers
– No space in queue, packet discarded
– Flows can interfere with each other; No isolation;
malicious monopolization;
 FCFS drawbacks

• Favors CPU-bound processes

– A CPU-bound process monopolizes the processor
– I/O-bound processes have to wait until completion of
CPU-bound process
• I/O-bound processes may have to wait even after their
I/Os are completed (poor device utilization)
– Better I/O device utilization could be achieved if I/O
bound processes had higher priority
 First Come First Served
(FCFS)

• Selection function: the process that has been

waiting the longest in the ready queue (hence,
FCFS)
• Decision mode: non-preemptive
– a process runs until it blocks for an I/O
 First-Come, First-Served
(FCFS) Scheduling

Process Burst Time

P1 24
P2 3
P3 3
• Suppose that the processes arrive in the order: P1 , P2
, P3
•
The Gantt Chart for the schedule is:
P1 P2 P3

0 24 27 30
Waiting time for P1 = 0; P2 = 24; P3 = 27
• Average waiting time: (0 + 24 + 27)/3 = 17
 FCFS Scheduling (Cont.)

Suppose that the processes arrive in the order

P2 , P3 , P1 .
• The Gantt chart for the schedule is:

P2 P3 P1

0 3 6 30
• Waiting time for P1 = 6; P2 = 0; P3 = 3
• Average waiting time: (6 + 0 + 3)/3 = 3
• Much better than previous case.
• Convoy effect short process behind long process
SHORTEST JOB FIRST
 Shortest Job First
(Shortest Process Next)

• Selection function: the process with the shortest expected

CPU burst time
– I/O-bound processes will be selected first
• Decision mode: non-preemptive
• The required processing time, i.e., the CPU burst time,
must be estimated for each process
 Is SJF/SPN optimal?

• If the metric is turnaround time (response time), is SJF or FCFS better?

• For FCFS, resp_time=(3+9+13+18+20)/5 = ?
– Note that Rfcfs = 3+(3+6)+(3+6+4)+…. = ?
• For SJF, resp_time=(3+9+11+15+20)/5 = ?
– Note that Rfcfs = 3+(3+6)+(3+6+4)+…. = ?
• Which one is smaller? Is this always the case?
 Is SJF/SPN optimal?

• Take each scheduling discipline, they both choose the same

subset of jobs (first k jobs).
• At some point, each discipline chooses a different job (FCFS
chooses k1 SJF chooses k2)
• Rfcfs=nR1+(n-1)R2+…+(n-k1)Rk1+….+(n-k2) Rk2+….+Rn
• Rsjf=nR1+(n-1)R2+…+(n-k2)Rk2+….+(n-k1) Rk1+….+Rn
• Which one is smaller? Rfcfs or Rsjf?
 Example of Non-
Preemptive SJF

Process Arrival Time Burst Time

P1 0.0 7
P2 2.0 4
P3 4.0 1
P4 5.0 4
P1 P3 P2 P4

0 3 7 8 12 16
• Average waiting time = (0 + 6 + 3 + 7)/4 = 4
 Example of Preemptive
SJF

Process Arrival Time Burst Time

P1 0.0 7
P2 2.0 4
P3 4.0 1
P4 5.0 4

P1 P2 P3 P2 P4 P1

0 2 4 5 7 11 16
• Average waiting time = (9 + 1 + 0 +2)/4 = 3
 SJF / SPN Critique

• Possibility of starvation for longer processes

• Lack of preemption is not suitable in a time sharing
environment
• SJF/SPN implicitly incorporates priorities
– Shortest jobs are given preferences
– CPU bound process have lower priority, but a process
doing no I/O could still monopolize the CPU if it is the
first to enter the system
 Shortest job first: critique

• Possibility of starvation for longer processes as

long as there is a steady supply of shorter
processes
• Lack of preemption is not suited in a time sharing
environment
– CPU bound process gets lower priority (as it should)
but a process doing no I/O could still monopolize
the CPU if he is the first one to enter the system
• SJF implicitly incorporates priorities: shortest
jobs are given preferences
• The next (preemptive) algorithm penalizes
directly longer jobs
PRIORITIES
 Priority Scheduling

• A priority number (integer) is associated with each process

• The CPU is allocated to the process with the highest priority
(smallest integer ≡ highest priority).
– Preemptive
– nonpreemptive
• SJF is a priority scheduling where priority is the predicted next
CPU burst time.
• Problem ≡ Starvation – low priority processes may never
execute.
• Solution ≡ Aging – as time progresses increase the priority of
the process.
 Priorities

• Implemented by having multiple ready queues to

represent each level of priority
• Scheduler the process of a higher priority over one
of lower priority
• Lower-priority may suffer starvation
• To alleviate starvation allow dynamic priorities
– The priority of a process changes based on its
age or execution history
 Priority Queuing

• A priority index is assigned to each packet upon arrival

• Packets transmitted in ascending order of priority index.
– Priority 0 through n-1
– Priority 0 is always serviced first
• Priority i is serviced only if 0 through i-1 are empty
• Highest priority has the
– lowest delay,
– highest throughput,
– lowest loss
• Lower priority classes may be starved by higher priority
• Preemptive and non-preemptive versions.
 Priority Queuing
Packet discard
when full
High-priority Transmission
packets link
Low-priority When
packets high-
Packet discard priority
when full queue
empty

# 74
ROUND-ROBIN
 Round Robin:
Architecture
Round Robin: scan class queues serving one from 
each class that has a non-empty queue

Flow 1 Transmission
link
Flow 2
Round robin

Flow 3

Hardware requirement:
Jump to next non-empty queue
 Round Robin
Scheduling

• Round Robin: scan class queues serving one from each

class that has a non-empty queue
 Round Robin (cont’d)

• Characteristics:
– Classify incoming traffic into flows (source-
destination pairs)
– Round-robin among flows
• Problems:
– Ignores packet length (GPS, Fair queuing)
– Inflexible allocation of weights (WRR,WFQ)
• Benefits:
– protection against heavy users (why?)
 Round-Robin

 Selection function: same as FCFS

 Decision mode: preemptive
 a process is allowed to run until the time slice period
(quantum, typically from 10 to 100 ms) has expired
 a clock interrupt occurs and the running process is put
on the ready queue
 R-R Time Quantum
• Quantum must be substantially larger than the
time required to handle the clock interrupt and
dispatching
• Quantum should be larger then the typical
interaction
– but not much larger, to avoid penalizing I/O
bound processes
 Round Robin (RR)

• Each process gets a small unit of CPU time (time

quantum), usually 10-100 milliseconds.
After this time has elapsed, the process is preempted
and added to the end of the ready queue.
• If there are n processes in the ready queue and the
time quantum is q, then each process gets 1/n of the
CPU time in chunks of at most q time units at once.
No process waits more than (n-1)q time units.
• Performance
– q large ⇒ FIFO
– q small ⇒ q must be large with respect to context
switch, otherwise overhead is too high.
RR Time Quantum
 Example of RR with Time
Quantum = 20

Process Burst Time

P1 53
P2 17
P3 68
P4 24
• The Gantt chart is:
P1 P2 P3 P4 P1 P3 P4 P1 P3 P3
0 20 37 57 77 97 117 121134 154162
• Typically, higher average turnaround than SJF,
but better response.
 Example of RR with
Time Quantum = 4
Process Burst Time
P1 24
P2 3
P3 3

• The Gantt chart is:

P1 P2 P3 P1 P1 P1 P1 P1
0 4 7 10 14 18 22 26 30
 Example of RR with
Time Quantum = 4
Process Burst Time
P1 24
P2 3
P3 3

• Waiting Time: P1 P2 P3 P1 P1 P1 P1 P1
– P1: (10-4) = 6 0 4 7 10 14 18 22 26 30
– P2: (4-0) = 4
– P3: (7-0) = 7
• Completion Time:
– P1: 30
– P2: 7
– P3: 10
• Average Waiting Time: (6 + 4 + 7)/3= 5.67
• Average Completion Time: (30+7+10)/3=15.67
Turnaround Time Varies
With The Time Quantum
 Quantum = 20

A process can finish before the time quantum expires, and release the CPU.
• Waiting Time:
– P1: (68-20)+(112-88) = 72
– P2: (20-0) = 20
– P3: (28-0)+(88-48)+(125-108) = 85
– P4: (48-0)+(108-68) = 88
• Completion Time:
– P1: 125
– P2: 28
– P3: 153
– P4: 112
• Average Waiting Time: (72+20+85+88)/4 = 66.25
• Average Completion Time: (125+28+153+112)/4 = 104.5
 Weighted Round-Robin

• Weighted round-robin
– Different weight wi (per flow)
– Flow j can sends wj packets in a period.
– Period of length Σ wj
• Disadvantage
– Variable packet size.
– Fair only over time scales longer than a period time.
• If a connection has a small weight, or the number of connections
is large, this may lead to long periods of unfairness.
 DRR (Deficit RR)
algorithm

• Choose a quantum of bits to serve from each connection in

order.
• For each HoL (Head of Line) packet,
– credit := credit + quantum
– if the packet size is ≤ credit; send and save excess,
– otherwise save entire credit.
– If no packet to send, reset counter (to remain fair)
• Each connection has a deficit counter (to store credits)
with initial value zero.
• Easier implementation than other fair policies
– WFQ
 Deficit Round-Robin

• DRR can handle variable packet size

Quantum size : 1000 byte 1st Round 
A’s count : 1000 
2000 1000 0
B’s count : 200 (served twice) 
1500 A C’s count : 1000 

2nd Round 
500 300 B A’s count : 500 (served) 
B’s count : 0 
1200 C
C’s count : 800 (served) 

Second First Head of

Round Round Queue
 DRR: performance

• Handles variable length packets fairly

• Backlogged sources share bandwidth equally
• Preferably, packet size < Quantum
• Simple to implement
– Similar to round robin
 Determining Length of
Next CPU Burst

• Can only estimate the length.

• Can be done by using the length of previous CPU
bursts, using exponential averaging.

1. tn = actual lenght of nthCPU burst

2. τ n +1 = predicted value for the next CPU burst
3. α , 0 ≤ α ≤ 1
4. Define :

τ n +1 = α t n + (1 − α )τ n .
 Examples of
Exponential Averaging

• α =0
– τn+1 = τn
– Recent history does not count.
• α =1
– τn+1 = tn
– Only the actual last CPU burst counts.
• If we expand the formula, we get:
τn+1 = α tn+(1 - α) α t n -1 + …
+(1 - α ) j α t n -j + …
+(1 - α )n+1 τ1
• Since both α and (1 - α) are less than or equal to 1, each
successive term has less weight than its predecessor.
 More on Exponential
Averaging

1. S[n+1] next burst, S[n] current burst (predicted), T[n]

actual,
– S[n+1] = α T[n] + (1-α) S[n] ; 0 < α < 1
– more weight is put on recent instances whenever α >
1/n
2. By expanding this eqn, we see that weights of past
instances are decreasing exponentially
– S[n+1] = αT[n] + (1-α)αT[n-1] + ... (1-α)iαT[n-i] +
... + (1-α)nS[1]
– predicted value of 1st instance S[1] is not calculated;
usually set to 0 to give priority to new processes
Exponentially Decreasing
Coefficients
 Example

• Assume the following burst-time pattern for a

process: 6, 4, 6, 4, 13,13, 13 and assume the initial
guess is 10. Predict the next burst-time, α=0.8.

Sn 10 6.8 4.56 5.71 4.34 11.27 12.49

Tn 6 4 6 4 13 13 13
Sn+1 6.8 4.56 5.71 4.34 11.27 12.49 12.89
 Example

• Assume the following burst-time pattern for a

process: 6, 4, 6, 4, 13,13, 13 and assume the
initial guess is 10. Predict the next burst-time,
α=0.2 and compare with ɑ=0.8; try it for ɑ=0.5,
1.0

Sn 10 6.8 4.56 5.71 4.34 11.27 12.49

Tn 6 4 6 4 13 13 13
Sn+1 ɑ=0.8 6.8 4.56 5.71 4.34 11.27 12.49 12.89
Sn+1 ɑ=0.2 8.96 7.808 7.206 6.405 7.204 7.843 8.354