Comparison of periodic and aperiodic task models for cyber-physical-systems

Aperiodic communication and task execution based on events reflect real world behavior. The successfully applied globally asynchronous locally synchronous approach for distributed on-chip level designs gives reason to discuss such an approach on the software level. Problems of periodic design methodologies for timing critical cyber-physical-systems are pessimistic designs and inflexible execution behavior at run-time. These drawbacks are normally accepted to reach the high-level goals of dependability and predictability. In this paper the periodic communication/task model is contrasted to potential benefits and problems when switching to an aperiodic communication and task model for cyber-physical-systems.