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A Review of the Scopes and Challenges of the Modern Real-Time

Operating Systems

Article  in  International Journal of Embedded and Real-Time Communication Systems · January 2018

DOI: 10.4018/IJERTCS.2018010104

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International Journal of Embedded and Real-Time Communication Systems
Volume 9 • Issue 1 • January-June 2018

A Review of the Scopes and Challenges of

the Modern Real-Time Operating Systems
Amit K. Shukla, Department of Computer Science, South Asian University, New Delhi, India
Rachit Sharma, Department of Computer Science, South Asian University, New Delhi, India
Pranab K. Muhuri, Department of Computer Science, South Asian University, New Delhi, India

ABSTRACT

A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an integral part of a real-time embedded system (RTES).
Most of the RTESs work on dynamic environments, and hence, the computational cost of tasks cannot
be calculated in advance. Thus, RTOSs play a significant role in the smooth operations of the RTES
through efficient task scheduling schemes and resource managements. This article investigates the
existing design challenges and scope of the modern RTOSs. A wide variety of latest RTOSs are
discussed and elaborated in detail. A comparative study with their prospects has been explained so
that interested readers can use the article as a readily available starting point for their further studies
on this topic.

Keywords
License, Programming Language, Real-Time Operating Systems, Real-Time Systems, Scheduling

1. INTRODUCTION

Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOSs) are a special class of operating systems (OS), used to serve
Real-Time Embedded Systems (RTESs) or a Real-Time Systems (RTSs). RTOSs help RTESs to operate
in the presence of numerous constraints such as expended power, response time, and maintaining an
efficient usage of memory. RTOSs are used in embedded computing systems for resource allocation
and planning to carry out multiple tasks within worst case execution times pertaining to a particular
architecture. The major concern with RTESs is that they should produce an accurate output within
a deadline or an allotted time frame. The RTOSs are crafted scalable enough for various sets of
applications for different RTESs.
RTESs are categorized into three classes, viz., hard, soft, and firm RTES. Graphical representation
of hard, soft and firm RTES are presented in Figure 1.
A hard RTES is prone to less jitter than its soft counterpart (Mall, 2009). A RTES is classified
as a soft RTES, if the output of task remains useful even if it´s execution requires violation of the
deadline up to a certain extent. However, if in a system, the violation of a task deadline is associated
with the possibility of huge damage or catastrophe, then it is termed as a hard RTES. When, output
of task loses its utility beyond the task deadline, then then system is called a farm RTS.

DOI: 10.4018/IJERTCS.2018010104

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66
 International Journal of Embedded and Real-Time Communication Systems
Volume 9 • Issue 1 • January-June 2018

Figure 1. Graphical representation of RTOS

Systems employed in avionics controllers find extensive application of RTOS. Therein, a single
computer is used to control several aircraft subsystems mandating an OS with temporal and spatial
partitioning systems. Spatial partitioning is a concept that refers to the function of isolating tasks in
the computer memory, and temporal partitioning is concerned with efficient utilization of processor
time. These partitioning schemes allow a single processor to run several tasks in parallel at a particular
instant of time. Therefore, we see that the role of RTOSs is immensely significant for the purposeful
and secure operations of the RTESs.
There are various requirements in a RTOS such as predictability of task, strictness towards
deadline violations, configurability of system, size, functionality, efficiency of system components
i.e. time granularity, threads, and resource management etc. (Joe & Kim, 2017; Alimi et al., 2017;
Dietrich et al., 2017; Guan et al., 2016). However, the primary objectives of RTOSs to utilize efficient
scheduling techniques with good resource management policies, and predictable performance of
tasks. Scheduling, weather hardware or software, is one the crucial factor for real-time tasks (Lin et
al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2011; Gracioli, G., & Fröhlich, 2017). Moreover, an important part of the OS
kernel is the scheduler which is driven by periodic clock interrupts, except during the occurrences
of voluntary context switches. As shown in Figure 2, architecture of RTOS for complex embedded
systems can be a combination of various modules including kernel, stacks, networking protocol,
device drivers, and file system.

Figure 2. Architecture of RTOS

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