PART 1: Discussion about Cyclic and Priority-based Scheduling Policies

Over the years, considerations about the kind of scheduling policy that should be used for Real-Time systems has generated a heated debate between the experts. It seems like priority scheduling has received a major interest and has been the choice for the design and implementation of many systems, such as the well know and already discussed VxWorks and eCos. However, there exist still those who affirm that cyclic scheduling algorithms offer considerable advantages and insist in proposing those approaches as the best choice for Real-Time applications. In this report we’ll try to draw a general picture of each approach to lately list some aspects which might influence in their advantages and disadvantages and will insist in those aspects that we consider bear a special interest. While performing our analysis, moreover, we’ll try give our opinion on which considerations we consider more suitable and correct.