Detecting and Mitigating Network Packet Overloads on Real-Time Devices in IoT Systems

Abstract: Manufacturing, automotive, and aerospace environments use embedded systems for control and automation and need to fulfill strict real-time guarantees. To facilitate more efficient business processes and remote control, such devices are being connected to IP networks. Due to the difficulty in predicting network packets and the interrelated workloads of interrupt handlers and drivers, devices controlling time critical processes stand under the risk of missing process deadlines when under high network loads. Additionally, devices at the edge of large networks and the internet are subject to a high risk of load spikes and network packet overloads. In this paper, we investigate strategies to detect network packet overloads in real-time and present four approaches to adaptively mitigate local deadline misses. In addition to two strategies mitigating network bursts with and without hysteresis, we present and discuss two novel mitigation algorithms, called Budget and Queue Mitigation. In an experimental evaluation, all algorithms showed mitigating effects, with the Queue Mitigation strategy enabling most packet processing while preventing lateness of critical tasks.