Event Based Control of Server Systems

Abstract: This thesis was performed and supervised as a collaboration between the Department of Automatic Control and the Department of Electrical and Information Technology at Lund University. The thesis investigates the possibility of utilizing event-based control on a server system, modelling a cloud computing system. The model consists of an extended M/M/1 system with time-varying arrival and processing rates. Two estimation methods were developed and used in a prediction algorithm which in turn was used in the derived control law. The system was implemented and simulated in both MATLAB and in Java including the developed algorithms. From simulations suitable parameter settings were produced for the different algorithms. The derived control design was compared to an uncontrolled system and the results state that the developed controller improved the performance of the system, concluding that it is possible to use event-based control on a server system.