How realistic is the mixed-criticality real-time system model?

Abstract

With the rapid evolution of commercial hardware platforms, in most application domains, the industry has shown a growing interest in integrating and running independently-developed applications of different "criticalities" in the same multi-core platform. Such integrated systems are commonly referred to as mixed-criticality systems (MCS). Most of the MCS-related research published in the state-of-the-art cite the safety-related standards associated to each application domain (e.g. aeronautics, space, railway, automotive) to justify their methods and results. However, those standards are not, in most cases, freely available, and do not always clearly and explicitly specify the requirements for mixed-criticality systems. This paper addresses the important challenge of unveiling the relevant information available in some of the safety-related standards, such that the mixed-criticality concept is understood from an industrialist's perspective. Moreover, the paper evaluates the state-of-the-art mixed-criticality real-time scheduling models and algorithms against the safety-related standards and clarifies some misconceptions that are commonly encountered.