Scalable, Distributed, Dynamic Resource Management for the ARMS Distributed Real-Time Embedded System

We present a scalable, hierarchical control system for the dynamic resource management of a distributed real-time embedded (DRE) system. This DRE is inspired by the DARPA adaptive and reflective middleware systems (ARMS) program. The goal of the control system is to simultaneously manage multiple resources and QoS concerns using a utility-driven approach for decision making and performance evaluation. At each level of the control hierarchy there are multiple local controllers which autonomously make decisions to optimize their local utility. The controllers in the hierarchy can use different, localized resource control algorithms and the system´s user can tune the operations of the local controllers. We discuss how the selections of local control algorithms affect the behavior of the overall system. The control system is designed to be easily adaptable to other multi-tiered DRE systems.