Scheduling of early quantum tasks

An Early Quantum Task (EQT) is a Quantum EDF task that has shrunk its first period into one quantum time slot. Its purpose is to be executed as soon as possible, without causing deadline overflow of other tasks. We derive the conditions under which an EQT can be admitted and can have an immediate start. The advantage of scheduling EQTs is shown by its use in a buffered multimedia server. The EQT is associated with a multimedia stream and it will use its first invocation to fill the buffer, such that a client can start receiving data immediately.