Performance comparison between the SRP and DFP synchronization protocols in MaRTE OS

Abstract

The Deadline Floor Protocol (DFP) is a mutual exclusion synchronization protocol designed as an alternative to the Baker's Stack Resource Protocol (SRP) to access shared resources in a system scheduled under the Earliest Deadline First (EDF) policy. We have implemented both protocols in the real-time operating system MaRTE OS and we have compared their performance. Overall, DFP is easier to implement and performs better than SRP for the same data structure, a doubly-linked list (DLL). More significantly, there is a more efficient data structure (the binary heap) that cannot be used with SRP and outperforms the DLL with both protocols.