ELSC: Scalable Linux Scheduling on a Symmetric Multi-Processor Machine

Overview

Concerns about the scalability of multithreaded network servers running on Linux have prompted to investigate possible improvements to the Linux scheduler. The purpose of the research discussed in this paper is to improve the scalability of the Linux scheduler in order to prepare it for industrial-strength computational chores. The problem focuses on determining why time spent in the Linux scheduler increases with the number of threads executing in the system. It is determined that this problem's cause is a direct result of the scheduler's task selection process. This paper proposes a scheduler design alternative based on the static and dynamic portions of "Goodness", implement that design, and compare the implementation with the current Linux scheduler.