Title: L4eRTL: a robust and secure real-time architecture with L4 microkernel and para-virtualised PSE51 partitions

Authors: Qingguo Zhou; Rui Zhou; Binbin Yong; Xiaoqiang Wang; Gaofeng Zhang; Hai Jiang; Kuan-Ching Li

Addresses: School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000 Gansu, China ' School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000 Gansu, China ' School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000 Gansu, China ' School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000 Gansu, China ' School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000 Gansu, China ' Department of Computer Science, Arkansas State University, Arkansas, USA ' Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering (CSIE), Providence University, Taichung, Taiwan

Abstract: Different classes of applications exhibit different demands on today's heterogeneous computing systems whose complexity will incur further challenges in ensuring system safety and application security for certain required functionality of these systems. This paper proposes a component-based robust and secure real-time architecture, L4eRTL, which decomposes complex systems into sub-modules and distributes them to POSIX-enabled partitions through para-virtualisation. L4eRTL is designed and implemented based on low-level L4 microkernel and several essential para-virtualised components by IRQ virtualisation, time virtualisation, clock virtualisation, and memory virtualisation. Micro-benchmark programs and sample applications have been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of L4eRTL in supporting multiple isolated PSE51 environments for system safety and application security.

Keywords: para-virtualisation; microkernel; L4; partition; isolation; protection.

DOI: 10.1504/IJES.2017.088040

International Journal of Embedded Systems, 2017 Vol.9 No.6, pp.583 - 594

Received: 20 Apr 2016
Accepted: 22 May 2016
Published online: 20 Nov 2017 *

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