scx/scheds/rust/README.md
Andrea Righi 5a44329d45 scheds: introduce scx_bpfland
Overview
========

This scheduler is derived from scx_rustland, but it is fully implemented
in BFP with minimal user-space Rust part to process command line
options, collect metrics and logs out scheduling statistics.

Unlike scx_rustland, all scheduling decisions are made by the BPF
component.

Motivation
==========

The primary goal of this scheduler is to act as a performance baseline
for comparison with scx_rustland, allowing for a better assessment of
the overhead caused by kernel/user-space interactions.

It can also be used to deploy prototypes initially tested in the
scx_rustland scheduler. In fact, this scheduler is expected to
outperform scx_rustland, due to the elimitation of the kernel/user-space
overhead.

Scheduling policy
=================

scx_bpfland is a vruntime-based sched_ext scheduler that prioritizes
interactive workloads. Its scheduling policy closely mirrors
scx_rustland, but it has been re-implemented in BPF with some small
adjustments.

Tasks are categorized as either interactive or regular based on their
average rate of voluntary context switches per second: tasks that exceed
a specific voluntary context switch threshold are classified as
interactive.

Interactive tasks are prioritized in a higher-priority DSQ, while
regular tasks are placed in a lower-priority DSQ. Within each queue,
tasks are sorted based on their weighted runtime, using the built-in scx
vtime ordering capabilities (scx_bpf_dispatch_vtime()).

Moreover, each task gets a time slice budget. When a task is dispatched,
it receives a time slice equivalent to the remaining unused portion of
its previously allocated time slice (with a minimum threshold applied).

This gives latency-sensitive workloads more chances to exceed their time
slice when needed to perform short bursts of CPU activity without being
interrupted (i.e., real-time audio encoding / decoding workloads).

Results
=======

According to the initial test results, using the same benchmark "playing
a videogame while recompiling the kernel", this scheduler seems to
provide a +5% improvement in the frames-per-second (fps) compared to
scx_rustland, with video games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Counter-Strike 2
and Baldur's Gate 3.

Initial test results indicate that this scheduler offers around a +5%
improvement in frames-per-second (fps) compared to scx_rustland when
using the benchmark "playing a video game while recompiling the kernel".

This improvement was observed in games such as Cyberpunk 2077,
Counter-Strike 2, and Baldur's Gate 3.

Signed-off-by: Andrea Righi <andrea.righi@canonical.com>
2024-06-27 17:28:42 +02:00

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RUST SCHEDULERS

Introduction

This directory contains schedulers with user space rust components.

The README in each scheduler directory provides some background and describes the types of workloads or scenarios they're designed to accommodate. For more details on any of these schedulers, please see the header comment in their main.rs or *.bpf.c files.

Schedulers