Introduction to Control Theory And Its （介绍控制理论及其）.pdf

Introduction to Control Theory And Its Application to Computing Systems 1 2 3 Tarek Abdelzaher , Yixin Diao , Joseph L. Hellerstein , 4 5 Chenyang Lu , and Xiaoyun Zhu Abstract Feedback control is central to managing computing systems and data networks. Unfortunately, computing practitioners typically approach the design of feedback control in an ad hoc manner. Control theory provides a systematic ap- proach to designing feedback loops that are stable in that they avoid wild oscil- lations, accurate in that they achieve objectives such as target response times for service level management, and settle quickly to their steady state values. This pa- per provides an introduction to control theory for computing practitioners with an emphasis on applications in the areas of database systems, real-time systems, virtu- alized servers, and power management. 1 Introduction Feedback control is central to managing computing systems and networks. For ex- ample, feedback (or closed loop systems) is employed to achieve response time ob- jectives by taking resource actions such as adjusting scheduling priorities, memory allocations, and network bandwidth allocations. Unfortunately, computing practi- tioners typically employ an ad hoc approach to the design of feedback control, often with undesirable results such as large oscillations or slow adaptation to changes in workloads. In other mechanical, electrical, aeronautical and other engineering disciplines, control theory is used to analyze and design feedback loops. Control theory provides a systematic approach to designing closed loop systems that are stable in that they avoid wild oscillations, are accurate in that they achieve the desired outputs (e.g., 1. Dept. of Comp. Sci., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, zaher@. 2. IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Hawthorne, N