Enhancing Security of Real-Time Applications on Grids Through Dynamic Scheduling

Real-time applications with security requirements are emerging in various areas including government, education, and business. However, conventional real-time scheduling algorithms failed to fulfill the security requirements of real-time applications. In this paper we propose a dynamic real-time scheduling algorithm, or SAREG, which is capable of enhancing quality of security for real-time applications running on Grids. In addition, we present a mathematical model to formally describe a scheduling framework, security-sensitive real-time applications, and security overheads. We leverage the model to measure security overheads incurred by security services, including encryption, authentication, integrity check, etc. The SAREG algorithm seamlessly integrates security requirements into real-time scheduling by employing the security overhead model. To evaluate the effectiveness of SAREG, we conducted extensive simulations using a real world trace from a supercomputing center. Experimental results show that SAREG significantly improves system performance in terms of quality of security and schedulability over three existing scheduling algorithms.