ASTEROID and the Replica-Aware Co-scheduling for Mixed-Criticality

The ASTEROID project developed a cross-layer fault-tolerance solution to provide reliable software execution on unreliable hardware under soft errors. The approach is based on replicated software execution with hardware support for error detection that exploits future many-core platforms to increase reliability without resorting to redundancy in hardware. This chapter gives an overview of ASTEROID and then focuses on the performance of replicated execution and the proposed replica-aware co-scheduling for mixed-criticality. The performance of systems with replicated execution strongly depends on the scheduling. Standard schedulers, such as Partitioned Strict Priority Preemptive (SPP) and Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM)-based ones, although widely employed, provide poor performance in face of replicated execution. By exploiting co-scheduling, the replica-aware co-scheduling is able to achieve superior performance.

A Compact Representation of Preferences in Multiple Criteria Optimization Problems

A critical step in multiple criteria optimization is setting the preferences for all the criteria under consideration. Several methodologies have been proposed to compute the relative priority of criteria when preference relations can be expressed either by ordinal or by cardinal information. The analytic hierarchy process introduces relative priority levels and cardinal preferences. Lexicographical orders combine both ordinal and cardinal preferences and present the additional difficulty of establishing strict priority levels. To enhance the process of setting preferences, we propose a compact representation that subsumes the most common preference schemes in a single algebraic object. We use this representation to discuss the main properties of preferences within the context of multiple criteria optimization.

Performance Research of Wimax Networks with Frame Periods in Strict Priority

WiMAX Networks is widely using today since the use of data and internet is increasing day by day. Availability of network all the time is a bigger challenge today. Performance of network depends on a number of factors and these parameters could play a wide role in the enhancement of coverage in the network. In this paper one important factor frame period is analyzed in WiMAX networks. Increasing the frame period in WiMAX network is analyzed in this paper and its performance is evaluated. A comparative study of Strict Priority is done in this paper with two different frame periods and it is observed that increasing frame period degrades the performance of WiMAX networks. This Analysis could be helpful for researches and Industrialist for real implementations.

A Method for Determining the Capacity of an Exclusive Left Lane with a Permitted Phase under Nonstrict Priority

A new method has been developed for estimating the capacity of an exclusive left lane with a permitted phase under nonstrict priority. Different from maneuvers under strict priority, these left-turning vehicles were released in the form of a left-turn group. A field survey was first conducted to explore the maximum number of vehicles in a left-turn group, and the releasing process of the permitted left turns. The observations revealed that (1) the maximum number is related to the intersection geometry and (2) the releasing process includes two stages: the first left-turn group crossing at the beginning of a permitted phase and the following left-turn groups crossing using gaps provided by opposing right turns. Next, a method based on probability theory and these observation results were applied to estimate the capacity of an exclusive left lane. The procedure contains two stages and eight steps. Finally, the estimation of the left-turn capacity using the proposed model was validated by comparing the capacity from the strict priority and actual maximum volumes.

Autonomy and the Value of Life as Elements of Human Dignity

Within the debate on assisted suicide and euthanasia, the arguments from autonomy and from the special value of life are often linked to human dignity in order to make the normative principles they defend more resistant against competing considerations. However, the resulting conceptions of dignity are usually presented as competing with each other; that is, either one spells out human dignity in terms of autonomy, or one explicates it in terms of the value of human life. As an alternative, this chapter offers a “combined approach”: It seeks to explicate dignity in terms of specific interpretations of both autonomy and life’s value in a way that ascribes a unique normative role to both. This can help explain the complex attitudes toward various cases that are discussed in the debate on assisted suicide and euthanasia. The upshot will be that the arguments from autonomy and from the value of life can be recognized as valid without having strict priority with respect to one another. Still, each one might be employed for turning the tide in favour or against assisted suicide and euthanasia within specific cases.