A Scheduling Scheme for Network Saturated NT Multiprocessors

The use of high performance networking technologies, e.g., ATM networks, demands much from both operating systems and processors. During high network loads, user threads may be starved because the processor spends all its time handling interrupts.

To alleviate this problem, we propose using a two level network interface servicing scheme that uses interrupts during low network loads to provide low latency, and polling threads during high network loads to avoid thread starvation.

In this paper, we examine the use of such a scheme on dual-processor workstations running Windows NT connected by an ATM network. Performance evaluation of our multiprocessor prototype implementation shows that using our two level scheme can improve performance when used carefully.