A Measurement Based Dynamic Policy for Switched Processing Systems

Switched processing systems (SPS) represent a canonical model for many areas of applications of communication, computer and manufacturing systems. They are characterized by flexible, interdependent service capabilities and multiple classes of job traffic flows. Recently, increased attention has been paid to the issue of improving quality of service (QoS) performance in terms of delays and backlogs of the associated scheduling policies, rather than simply maximizing the system´s throughput. In this study, we investigate a measurement based dynamic service allocation policy that significantly improves performance with respect to delay metrics. The proposed policy solves a linear program at selected points in time that are in turn determined by a monitoring strategy that detects ´significant´ changes in the intensities of the input processes. The proposed strategy is illustrated on a small SPS subject to different types of input traffic.