Real-time queueing theory

This paper presents a new approach to real-time system scheduling. The approach, called real-time queueing theory, includes customer timing requirements into queueing models. With real-time queueing models, one is able to explicitly characterize the dynamic behavior of the customer lead-time profile process where lead-time = deadline minus current time. In spite of the infinite dimensionality of these processes, in the heavy traffic case, a simple description of lead-time profile process is presented, and this description is shown to be very accurate when compared against simulations. Real-time queueing theory offers the promise of providing real-time system predictability for systems characterized by substantial stochastic behavior (such as ATM networks and multimedia systems). Possible generalizations are discussed.(1) (2).