University, Diss., 2007--Frankfurt (Main). / Zsfassung in engl. und dt. Sprache.

The constantly growing capacity of reconfigurable devices allows simultaneous execution of complex applications on those devices. The mere diversity of applications deems it impossible to design an interconnection network matching the requirements of every possible application perfectly, leading to suboptimal performance in many cases. However, the architecture of the interconnection network is not the only aspect affecting performance of communication. The resource manager places applications on the device and therefore influences latency between communicating partners and overall network load. Communication protocols affect performance by introducing data and processing overhead putting higher load on the network and increasing resource demand. Approaching communication holistically not only considers the architecture of the interconnect, but communication-aware resource management, communication protocols and resource usage just as well. Incorporation of different parts of a reconfigurable system during design- and runtime and optimizing them with respect to communication demand results in more resource efficient communication. Extensive evaluation shows enhanced performance and flexibility, if communication on reconfigurable devices is regarded in a holistic fashion. / Die Leistungsfähigkeit rekonfigurierbarer Rechensysteme steigt kontinuierlich und ermöglicht damit die parallele Ausführung von immer mehr und immer größeren Anwendungen. Die Vielfalt an Anwendungen macht es allerdings unmöglich ein optimales Kommunikationsnetzwerk zu entwickeln, welches die Anforderung jeder denkbaren Anwendung berücksichtigt. Die Performanz des rekonfigurierbaren Rechensystems sinkt. Das Kommunikationsnetzwerk ist jedoch nicht der einzige Teil des Systems, der Einfluss auf die Kommunikation- sperformanz nimmt. Die Ressourcenverwaltung des Systems beeinflusst durch die Platzierung der Anwendungen die Latenz zwischen Kommunikationspartnern und die Kommunikationslast im Netzwerk. Kommunikationsprotokolle beeinträchtigen die Performanz der Kommunikation durch Daten und Rechen- overhead, die ebenso zu erhöhter Netzwerklast sowie Ressourcenanforderungen führen. In einem ganzheitlichen Kommunikationsansatz wird nicht nur das Kommunikationsnetzwerk berücksichtigt, sondern außerdem Ressourcenverwaltung, Kommunikationsprotokolle und die anderweitige Verwendung vorhandener, temporär ungenutzter Kommunikationsressourcen. Durch Einbeziehung dieser Aspekte während Entwurfs- und Laufzeit und durch Optimierung unter Berücksichtigung der Kommunikationsanforderungen, wird eine ressourceneneffizien tere Kommunikation erreicht. Ausführliche Evaluationen zeigen, dass eine ganzheitliche Betrachtung von Kommunikationsfaktoren, Verbesserungen von Performanz und Flexibilität erzielt.

Darmstadt, Techn. University, Diss., 2006.

Der achte Band der wissenschaftlichen Schriftenreihe EINGEBETTETE, SELBSTORGANISIERENDE SYSTEME widmet sich der Synthese von partiell dynamisch rekonfigurierbaren, eingebetteten Systemen. Mit der Möglichkeit Hardwareblöcke zur Laufzeit auf programmierbaren Bausteinen neu zu konfigurieren, lässt sich eine höhere Flexibilität im Vergleich zu einer Hardwarerealisierung in eingebettete Systeme integrieren. Gleichzeitig sind diese Systeme durch eine gesteigerte Performance gegenüber Software gekennzeichnet. Die Flexibilität kann ausgenutzt werden, um kleinere Schaltkreise bei gleichem Funktionsumfang einzusetzen. Für die Integration von Rekonfigurierung sind zusätzliche Entwurfschritte im Design Flow notwendig. Herr Meisel stellt hierfür in seiner Arbeit eine Entwurfsmethodik vor und geht im Besonderen auf die Partitionierung, Platzierung und Steuerung in dynamisch rekonfigurierbaren, eingebetteten Systemen ein. Um eine vergleichsweise effizient zu realisierende Partitionierung des Systems zu erhalten, wurde das Overlaying Verfahren aus dem Bereich der Speicherverwaltung für dynamische Rekonfigurierung adaptiert. Für das Platzierungsverfahren wurden Rekonfigurierungen als Markov Kette modelliert, um so zu einer Minimierung der durchschnittlichen Rekonfigurierungsdauer zu gelangen. Die vorgestellte Rekonfigurierungssteuerung fokussiert auf einer ressourcensparenden Hardware Implementierung. Mit einem Entwurfsbeispiel werden die Vorteile und Ergebnisse des Ansatzes anschaulich illustriert. So kann der Leser die Mächtigkeit des entwickelten Ansatzes nachvollziehen und wird motiviert, die entwickelte Methodik auf weitere Anwendungsfälle zu übertragen. / Volume 8 of scientific series EINGEBETTETE, SELBSTORGANISIERENDE SYSTEME (Embedded Self-Organized Systems) addresses the synthesis of partially dynamically reconfigurable embedded systems. With the ability to configure hardware blocks during run-time, more flexibility can be integrated in embedded systems. At the same time, these systems have better performance than functions implemented in software. Through this flexibility it is possible to use smaller circuits without limiting the functionality. For the integration of reconfiguration into embedded systems, additional design steps are required. Mr. Meisel presents a design methodology for the design flow and primarily concerns the problem of partitioning, placement, and reconfiguration control in dynamically reconfigurable embedded systems. The implemented partitioning of the system is based on the adapted memory management concept of Overlaying. For the placement method the configurations are modeled as Markov chain, in order to minimize the average reconfiguration time. The presented reconfiguration control unit focuses on a resource-saving hardware implementation. The benefits and results of the approach are clearly illustrated with a design sample. The reader can understand the power of developed approach and is motivated to transfer the developed methodology to more use cases.

Several applications have been proposed for wireless sensor networks, including habitat monitoring, structural health monitoring, pipeline monitoring, and precision agriculture. Among the desirable features of wireless sensor networks, one is the ease of deployment. Since the nodes are capable of self-organization, they can be placed easily in areas that are otherwise inaccessible to or impractical for other types of sensing systems. In fact, some have proposed the deployment of wireless sensor networks by dropping nodes from a plane, delivering them in an artillery shell, or launching them via a catapult from onboard a ship. There are also reports of actual aerial deployments, for example the one carried out using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at a Marine Corps combat centre in California -- the nodes were able to establish a time-synchronized, multi-hop communication network for tracking vehicles that passed along a dirt road. While this has a practical relevance for some civil applications (such as rescue operations), a more realistic deployment involves the careful planning and placement of sensors. Even then, nodes may not be placed optimally to ensure that the network is fully connected and high-quality data pertaining to the phenomena being monitored can be extracted from the network. This work aims to address the problem of random deployment through two complementary approaches: The first approach aims to address the problem of random deployment from a communication perspective. It begins by establishing a comprehensive mathematical model to quantify the energy cost of various concerns of a fully operational wireless sensor network. Based on the analytic model, an energy-efficient topology control protocol is developed. The protocol sets eligibility metric to establish and maintain a multi-hop communication path and to ensure that all nodes exhaust their energy in a uniform manner. The second approach focuses on addressing the problem of imperfect sensing from a signal processing perspective. It investigates the impact of deployment errors (calibration, placement, and orientation errors) on the quality of the sensed data and attempts to identify robust and error-agnostic features. If random placement is unavoidable and dense deployment cannot be supported, robust and error-agnostic features enable one to recognize interesting events from erroneous or imperfect data.

Several applications have been proposed for wireless sensor networks, including habitat monitoring, structural health monitoring, pipeline monitoring, and precision agriculture. Among the desirable features of wireless sensor networks, one is the ease of deployment. Since the nodes are capable of self-organization, they can be placed easily in areas that are otherwise inaccessible to or impractical for other types of sensing systems. In fact, some have proposed the deployment of wireless sensor networks by dropping nodes from a plane, delivering them in an artillery shell, or launching them via a catapult from onboard a ship. There are also reports of actual aerial deployments, for example the one carried out using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at a Marine Corps combat centre in California -- the nodes were able to establish a time-synchronized, multi-hop communication network for tracking vehicles that passed along a dirt road. While this has a practical relevance for some civil applications (such as rescue operations), a more realistic deployment involves the careful planning and placement of sensors. Even then, nodes may not be placed optimally to ensure that the network is fully connected and high-quality data pertaining to the phenomena being monitored can be extracted from the network. This work aims to address the problem of random deployment through two complementary approaches: The first approach aims to address the problem of random deployment from a communication perspective. It begins by establishing a comprehensive mathematical model to quantify the energy cost of various concerns of a fully operational wireless sensor network. Based on the analytic model, an energy-efficient topology control protocol is developed. The protocol sets eligibility metric to establish and maintain a multi-hop communication path and to ensure that all nodes exhaust their energy in a uniform manner. The second approach focuses on addressing the problem of imperfect sensing from a signal processing perspective. It investigates the impact of deployment errors (calibration, placement, and orientation errors) on the quality of the sensed data and attempts to identify robust and error-agnostic features. If random placement is unavoidable and dense deployment cannot be supported, robust and error-agnostic features enable one to recognize interesting events from erroneous or imperfect data.

Der achte Band der wissenschaftlichen Schriftenreihe EINGEBETTETE, SELBSTORGANISIERENDE SYSTEME widmet sich der Synthese von partiell dynamisch rekonfigurierbaren, eingebetteten Systemen. Mit der Möglichkeit Hardwareblöcke zur Laufzeit auf programmierbaren Bausteinen neu zu konfigurieren, lässt sich eine höhere Flexibilität im Vergleich zu einer Hardwarerealisierung in eingebettete Systeme integrieren. Gleichzeitig sind diese Systeme durch eine gesteigerte Performance gegenüber Software gekennzeichnet. Die Flexibilität kann ausgenutzt werden, um kleinere Schaltkreise bei gleichem Funktionsumfang einzusetzen. Für die Integration von Rekonfigurierung sind zusätzliche Entwurfschritte im Design Flow notwendig. Herr Meisel stellt hierfür in seiner Arbeit eine Entwurfsmethodik vor und geht im Besonderen auf die Partitionierung, Platzierung und Steuerung in dynamisch rekonfigurierbaren, eingebetteten Systemen ein. Um eine vergleichsweise effizient zu realisierende Partitionierung des Systems zu erhalten, wurde das Overlaying Verfahren aus dem Bereich der Speicherverwaltung für dynamische Rekonfigurierung adaptiert. Für das Platzierungsverfahren wurden Rekonfigurierungen als Markov Kette modelliert, um so zu einer Minimierung der durchschnittlichen Rekonfigurierungsdauer zu gelangen. Die vorgestellte Rekonfigurierungssteuerung fokussiert auf einer ressourcensparenden Hardware Implementierung. Mit einem Entwurfsbeispiel werden die Vorteile und Ergebnisse des Ansatzes anschaulich illustriert. So kann der Leser die Mächtigkeit des entwickelten Ansatzes nachvollziehen und wird motiviert, die entwickelte Methodik auf weitere Anwendungsfälle zu übertragen. / Volume 8 of scientific series EINGEBETTETE, SELBSTORGANISIERENDE SYSTEME (Embedded Self-Organized Systems) addresses the synthesis of partially dynamically reconfigurable embedded systems. With the ability to configure hardware blocks during run-time, more flexibility can be integrated in embedded systems. At the same time, these systems have better performance than functions implemented in software. Through this flexibility it is possible to use smaller circuits without limiting the functionality. For the integration of reconfiguration into embedded systems, additional design steps are required. Mr. Meisel presents a design methodology for the design flow and primarily concerns the problem of partitioning, placement, and reconfiguration control in dynamically reconfigurable embedded systems. The implemented partitioning of the system is based on the adapted memory management concept of Overlaying. For the placement method the configurations are modeled as Markov chain, in order to minimize the average reconfiguration time. The presented reconfiguration control unit focuses on a resource-saving hardware implementation. The benefits and results of the approach are clearly illustrated with a design sample. The reader can understand the power of developed approach and is motivated to transfer the developed methodology to more use cases.

The increasing heterogeneity in hardware systems gives developers many opportunities to add more functionality and computational power to the system. As a consequence, modern database systems will need to be able to adapt to a wide variety of heterogeneous architectures. While porting single operators to accelerator architectures is well-understood, a more generic approach is needed for the whole database system. In prior work, we presented a generic hardware-oblivious database system, where the operators can be executed on the main processor as well as on a large number of accelerator architectures. However, to achieve fully heterogeneous query processing, placement decisions are needed for the database operators. We enhance the presented system with heterogeneity-aware operator placement (HOP) to take a major step towards designing a database system that can efficiently exploit highly heterogeneous hardware environments. In this demonstration, we are focusing on the placement-integration aspect as well as presenting the resulting database system.

Energy conservation is a major concern in todays data centers, which are the 21st century data processing factories, and where large and complex software systems such as distributed data management stores run and serve billions of users. The two main drivers of this major concern are the pollution impact data centers have on the environment due to their waste heat, and the expensive cost data centers incur due to their enormous energy demand. Among the many subsystems of data centers, the storage system is one of the main sources of energy consumption. Among the many types of storage systems, key/value stores happen to be the widely used in the data centers. In this work, I investigate energy saving techniques that enable a consistent hash based key/value store save energy during low activity times, and whenever there is an opportunity to reuse the waste heat of data centers.

Energy conservation is a major concern in todays data centers, which are the 21st century data processing factories, and where large and complex software systems such as distributed data management stores run and serve billions of users. The two main drivers of this major concern are the pollution impact data centers have on the environment due to their waste heat, and the expensive cost data centers incur due to their enormous energy demand. Among the many subsystems of data centers, the storage system is one of the main sources of energy consumption. Among the many types of storage systems, key/value stores happen to be the widely used in the data centers. In this work, I investigate energy saving techniques that enable a consistent hash based key/value store save energy during low activity times, and whenever there is an opportunity to reuse the waste heat of data centers.