When thermal control meets sensor noise: analysis of noise-induced temperature error

Thermal control is critical for real-time systems as overheated processors can result in serious performance degradation or even system breakdown due to hardware throttling. The major challenges in thermal control for real-time systems are (i) the need to enforce both real-time and thermal constraints; (ii) uncertain system dynamics; and (iii) thermal sensor noise. Previous studies have resolved the first two, but the practical issue of sensor noise has not been properly addressed yet. In this paper, we introduce a novel thermal control algorithm that can appropriately handle thermal sensor noise. Our key observation is that even a small zero-mean sensor noise can induce a significant steady-state error between the target and the actual temperature of a processor. This steady-state error is contrary to our intuition that zero-mean sensor noise induces zero-mean fluctuations. We show that an intuitive attempt to resolve this unusual situation is not effective at all. By a rigorous approach, we analyze the underlying mechanism and quantify the noised-induced error in a closed form in terms of noise statistics and system parameters. Based on our analysis, we propose a simple and effective solution for eliminating the error and maintaining the desired processor temperature. Through extensive simulations, we show the advantages of our proposed algorithm, referred to as Thermal Control under Utilization Bound with Virtual Saturation (TCUB-VS).