An efficient Associative Processor solution to an Air Traffic Control problem (original) (raw)
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2012 IEEE 26th International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium Workshops & PhD Forum, 2012
This paper proposes a solution to air traffic control (ATC) using an enhanced SIMD machine model called an Associative Processor (AP). Our solution differs from previous ATC systems that are designed for MIMD computers and have a great deal of difficulty meeting the predictability requirements for ATC, which are critical for meeting the strict certification standards required for safety critical software components. The proposed AP solution supports accurate predictions of worst case execution times and guarantees all deadlines are met. Furthermore, the software developed based on the AP model is much simpler and smaller in size than the current corresponding ATC software. As the associative processor is built from SIMD hardware, it is considerably cheaper and simpler than the MIMD hardware currently used to support ATC. We have designed a prototype for eight ATC real-time tasks on ClearSpeed CSX600 accelerator that is used to emulate AP. Performance is evaluated in terms of execution time and predictability and is compared to the fastest host-only version implemented using OpenMP on an 8core multiprocessor (MIMD). Our extensive experiments show that the AP implementation meets all deadlines that can be statically scheduled. To the contrary, some tasks miss their deadlines when implemented on MIMD. It is shown that the proposed AP solution will support accurate and meaningful predictions of worst case execution times and will guarantee that all deadlines are met.
2012
This dissertation has two complementary focuses. First, it provides a solution to large scale real-time system air traffic Control (ATC) using an enhanced SIMD machine model called an associative processor (AP). The second is the comparison of this implementation with a multiprocessor implementation and the implications of these comparisons. This paper demonstrates how one application, ATC, can more easily, more simply, and more efficiently be implemented on an AP than is generally possible on other types of traditional hardware. The AP implementation of ATC will take advantage of its deterministic hardware to use static scheduling. Our solution differs from previous ATC systems that are designed for MIMD computers and have a great deal of difficulty meeting the predictability requirements for ATC, which are critical for meeting the strict certification standards required for safety critical software components. The proposed AP solution supports accurate predictions of worst case ex...
Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, 2013
This paper has two complementary focuses. The first is the system design and algorithmic development for air traffic control (ATC) using an associative SIMD processor (AP). The second is the comparison of this implementation with a multiprocessor implementation and the implications of these comparisons. This paper demonstrates how one application, ATC, can more easily, more simply, and more efficiently be implemented on an AP than is generally possible on other types of traditional hardware. The AP implementation of ATC will take advantage of its deterministic hardware to use static scheduling. The software will be dramatically smaller and cheaper to create and maintain. Likewise, a large AP system will be considerably simpler and cheaper than the MIMD hardware currently used. While APs were used for ATC-type applications earlier, these are no longer available. We use a Clear-Speed CSX600 accelerator to emulate the AP solutions of ATC on an ATC prototype consisting of eight data-intensive ATC real-time tasks. Its performance is compared with an 8-core multiprocessor (MP) using OpenMP. Our extensive experiments show that the AP implementation meets all deadlines while the MP will regularly miss a large number of deadlines. The AP code will be similar in size to sequential code for the same tasks and will avoid all of the additional support software needed with an MP to handle dynamic scheduling, load balancing, shared resource management, race conditions,
Air Traffic Control and the Challenges Generated for the Future Computational Systems
This paper presents some research works on air traffic control conducted by the Safety Analysis Group (GAS) of the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil, related to the CNS/ATM (Communication, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management) context. These research works aim to highlight the new challenges that will be adopted by computational systems that will automate the air traffic control process, or support collaborative decisions. These new challenges make sense due to the growing demand on air traffic and aim to maintain the safety levels compatible to those used nowadays, or even to increase them. The new air traffic control systems will depend more and more on computational systems, for control, decision support and risk assessment. These researches have as new focus to certify that the risk levels are equal to or even smaller than the current ones, in an environment of increasing demand. Interdisciplinary concerns will have a very important role ...
Tractable Real-time Air Traffic Control Automation
Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems, 2002
A different paradigm is needed for real-time command and control (C&C) problems. Past approaches, using multiprocessors (MP), for real-time computing have had great difficulty in meeting real problem requirements. We review some reasons why C&C problems that require a solution on a MP architecture may be intractable, and then show an architecture where these reasons for intractability are non- existent.
Importance of SIMD computation reconsidered
Proceedings International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium
In this paper, SIMD and MIMD solutions for the realtime database management problem of air traffic control are compared. A real-time database system is highly constrained in a multiprocessor and access to the common database must be made to a limited number of data elements at a time. This MIMD database access is contrasted with the comparable SIMD common database access, which can be several hundred times greater. This is true because the SIMD can simultaneously access thousands of pertinent records instead of the limited number in the MIMD. A relatively simple example is given of a problem that has a polynomial time solution using a SIMD but for which a polynomial time solution using a MIMD is normally impossible. The fact that SIMDs can support a polynomial time solution for the Air Traffic Control problem but this problem is normally considered to be intractable for multiprocessors argues against the common belief that MIMDs have greater power than SIMDs. SIMDs are more efficient and powerful for some critically important application areas.
A Prototype Multithreaded Associative SIMD Processor
The performance of SIMD processors is often limited by the time it takes to transfer data between the centralized control unit and the parallel processor array. This is especially true of hybrid SIMD models, such as associative computing, that make extensive use of global search operations. Pipelining instruction broadcast can help, but is not enough to solve the problem, especially for massively parallel processors with thousands of processing elements. In this paper, we describe a SIMD processor architecture that combines a fully pipelined broadcast/reduction network with hardware multithreading to reduce performance degradation as the number of processors is scaled up.
Design of Air Traffic Control Operation System
INCAS BULLETIN
This paper presents a numerical simulation for a different aircraft, based on the specific aircraft data that can be incorporated in the model and the equations of motions which can be consequently solved. The aircraft flight design involves various technical steps and requires the use of sophisticated software having modeling and simulation capabilities. Within the flight simulation model, the aerodynamic model can be regarded as the most complex and most important. With appropriate aerodynamic modeling the aerodynamic forces and moments acting on the aircraft's center of gravity can be numerically solved with accuracy. These forces and moments are further used to solve the equations of motion. The development of control and computing technology makes it possible for advanced flight control strategy. The advanced control techniques tend to make the control design and their implementation much more complicated with more control loops or channels; in this line, the autopilot of modern aircrafts includes a variety of automatic control systems that aid and support the flight navigation, flight management, and perform the enhancing and/or augmenting of the stability characteristics of the airplane. Therefore in this context it is very important to choose the dynamic that will satisfy the performance and robustness specifications.