ARA in the wild: Systematic Application and Evaluation of ARA as a Whole-System Optimizer on Real-World Applications

ARA is a whole-system analyzer and operating-system generator for real-time applications. With ARA, we are able to statically detect otherwise dynamically determined characteristics of real-time applications running in embedded systems. By using this static knowledge, ARAs goal is to improve the nonfunctional properties of the system by statically preparing and optimizing operating system functionality highly specialized towards a given application.

For further development and improvement of ARA's capabilities, a broad knowledge of operating-system usage patterns of real world applications is of great interest. Therefore, we need various applications from the field of embedded (real-time) systems which are to inspect and systematically evaluate them.

This thesis consists of multiple goals: - systematically collect real-world applications for examination - inspect their operating-system usage patterns - apply ARA's currently implemented optimizations and evaluate benefits - investigate possible points of improvement and extension potential in ARA

Topics covered by this thesis:
whole system compiler, static analysis, LLVM, C/C++, Python

Further Reading

RTAS Conference A
ARA: Static Initialization of Dynamically-Created System Objects
Björn Fiedler, Gerion Entrup, Christian Dietrich, Daniel LohmannProceedings of the 27th IEEE Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium (RTAS'21)2021.
PDF Details Video Teaser Video 10.1109/RTAS52030.2021.00039 [BibTex]
OSPERT Workshop B
ARA: Automatic Instance-Level Analysis in Real-Time Systems
Gerion Entrup, Benedikt Steinmeier, Christian DietrichProceedings of the 15th Annual Workshop on Operating Systems Platforms for Embedded Real-Time Applications (OSPERT '19)2019.
PDF [BibTex]
OSPERT Workshop B Best Paper Award
Levels of Specialization in Real-Time Operating Systems
Björn Fiedler, Gerion Entrup, Christian Dietrich, Daniel LohmannProceedings of the 14th Annual Workshop on Operating Systems Platforms for Embedded Real-Time Applications (OSPERT '18)2018Best Paper Award.
PDF [BibTex]