Lab 8: Weighted Fair Queueing

Lab 8: Weighted Fair Queueing

Introduction
One of the main tool to provide resource isolation, either for performance guarantee or infrastructure
virtualization, is fair queueing (FQ), otherwise known as generalized processing sharing (GPS). In this
lab, we implement a simplified weighted fair queueing (WFQ) scheduler. The main simplification we
make is to assume that once a flow (or job) has started, the flow never goes idle. If a flow can go idle,
when it resumes service, we would need to compute the scheduling round at which service is resumed.
This computation is complicated by the arrival and departure of other flows during this flow's idle time.
Everytime a flow arrives or departs, it stretches or shrinks the duration of a scheduling round by
changing the total allocated resources. Hence to compute the round at which a flow resumes service we
would have to keep track of the changes in scheduling round during its idle time. This is known as
"round catchup" in the literature. By assuming that a flow doesn't go idle, we avoid doing "round
catchup" in our implementation.
Another assumption we make is that once a packet starts transmission we do not pre­empt it to serve
another newly arriving packet with a smaller finish time. This assumption implies that we account for
flow arrivals and departures only between packet transmissions.
We continue to build on our UDP­based client­server code. This code base does not implement flow
control, reliable delivery, nor rate control. As usual, you're provided with a skeleton code and a reference
Linux binary executable of the server called refwfqdb. The client is the same one used in Lab7. The
implementation of WFQ requires you to modify only the server code. The provided Makefile builds
netimg and imgdb. You can download the support code from the Course Folder and copy the files to your
working folder for Lab7 (you may want to save a copy of your Lab7 Makefile, imgdb.h, and imgdb.cpp
before overwriting them with the ones for this lab). As usual, you can search for the string "YOUR
CODE HERE" in the code to find places where your code must go. You may also want to consult the
lecture notes on WFQ and PA4 walk­through. Your implementation of the server must interoperate with
the provided client.
Recall that the client's ‐r command­line option is used to specify the flow's rate, in Kbps. The server in
this lab takes two command­line options ‐l and ‐g. The ‐l option allows you to specify the server's link
rate, in Mbps, ranging from 1 to 10. The ‐g option allows you to specify the minimum number of flows
that must be initiated before transmission begins. Transmission will not start unless either this many
number of flows have been initiated or if total reserved rate has reached link capacity. We call this "gated
start". Without gated start, a flow could easily finish transmission before we could start a second one.
The default values of the command line options can be found in netimg.h
Weighted Fair Queueing (WFQ)
Your first task is to complete the code in imgdb::handleqry() to add a new flow. When a new flow is to
be added, first look for an empty slot in the flow table to hold the flow. Also check that the link still have
enough capacity to serve the flow's reserved rate. If the new flow cannot be accommodated, send back to
the client an imsg_t packet with im_type set to NETIMG_EFULL. Otherwise, increment the flow count and
total reserved rate of the scheduler and call Flow::init() to initialize the flow. This task should take
about 7 lines of code.
To send a packet, you first compute the finish time of each flow's next segment. Complete the 2­line
computation for next finish time in Flow::nextFi() (Task 2). [To avoid unnecessary arithmetic, we can
assume that the finish times computed are multiplied by 128 (1024/8), i.e., the segment size can be in
bytes instead of Kbits.] Then determine, in imgdb::sendpkt(), the flow with the smallest next finish time
and call Flow::sendpkt() on the flow to send the next packet (Task 3). This task should take about 10
lines of code.
Your last task (Task 4) is to call Flow::done() when the flow has finished sending, as indicated by the
return value of Flow::sendpkt(). When a flow has finished sending, decrement the scheduler's flow count
and deduct the flow's reserved rate from the scheduler's total reserved rate. This is a 2­line task for a total
of about 20 lines of code for this whole lab.
Testing Your Code
Unfortunately you may not always be able to see the effect of the scheduling order on the displayed
images. You would have to rely on the transmission log instead. The code for logging packet
transmission is part of the support code that is provided to you. Do not modify this code.
Run imgdb without any command line argument, which starts it with the default link rate of 10 Mbps and
minimum flow of 2. Then run two instances of netimg on two different shells/windows:
% netimg ‐s localhost:<port ‐q ShipatSea.tga ‐r 256
% netimg ‐s localhost:<port ‐q BlueMarble2004‐08.tga ‐m 8192 ‐r 1024
The two transmissions should complete about the same time (a few hundred microseconds apart) with the
BlueMarble flow (flow 1) completing before the ShipatSea flow (flow 0). Observing the transmission
log, you'll see that multiple BlueMarble flow's packets are sent for each ShipatSea flow's. (The display of
the two instances of netimg may be on top of each other; drag the top image display window aside to
view the other display window.)
After quitting the two instances of netimg (you can leave the imgdb running), start two new instances of
netimg:
% netimg ‐s localhost:<port ‐q ShipatSea.tga ‐r 128
% netimg ‐s localhost:<port ‐q BlueMarble2004‐08.tga ‐m 8192 ‐r 128
You should see the BlueMarble flow completing much later (well, by a millisecond or so) than the
ShipatSea flow and that multiple ShipatSea flow's packets are sent for each BlueMarble flow's.
Submission Instructions
Do NOT use any libraries or compiler options not already used in the provided Makefile, to ensure that
we will be able to build your code for grading. If we can't compile your code, you will be heavily
penalized.
Test your compilation on CAEN eecs489 hosts! Your submission must compile and run without errors
on CAEN eecs489 hosts using the provided Makefile, unmodified. Your server must interoperate with
the provided client code.
Your "Lab8 files" should comprise only your imgdb.cpp.
To turn in your Lab8:
1. Submit the SHA1's of your Lab8 files on the CTools Assignments page. (If the URL doesn't work
for you, just click the "Assignments" item on the left menu of the CTools page for EECS 489.)
Once you've submitted your SHA1's, don't make any more changes to the files, or your SHA1's
will become invalid.
2. Upload your Lab7 files by pointing your web browser to Course folder and navigate to your lab8
folder under your uniqname. Or you can scp the files to your lab8 folder on IFS:
/afs/umich.edu/class/eecs487/w15/FOLDERS/<uniqname/lab8/.
This path is accessible from any machine you've logged into using your ITCS (umich.edu)
password. Please report any problems to ITCS.
3. Keep your own backup copy! Don't make any more changes to the files once you've submitted
your final SHA1's.
The timestamp on your SHA1 submission on CTools' Assignments page will be your time of submission.
If this is past the deadline, your submission will be considered late. You are allowed multiple
"submissions" without late­policy implications as long as you respect the deadline.
Do NOT turn in an archival (.zip or .tgz) file, instead please turn in your solution files individually.
Turn in ONLY the files you have modified. Do not turn in support code we provided that you haven't
modified. Do not turn in any binary files (object files, executables, or images) with your assignment.
Do remove all printf()'s or cout's and cerr's and any other logging statements you've added for
debugging purposes. You should debug using a debugger, not with printf()'s. If we can't understand the
output of your code, you will get zero point.