Kernel data – first class citizens of the system

Authors

Dhammika Elkaduwe, Philip Derrin and Kevin Elphinstone

    School of Computer Science and Engineering
    University of New South Wales
    Sydney 2052 Australia
    
    NICTA, Sydney, Australia

Abstract

Kernel memory is a resource that must be managed carefully in order to ensure the efficiency and availability of the system. The use of an inappropriate policy would lead to suboptimal performance and even make the system susceptible to denial-of-service attacks. In this paper, we argue that user-level managers, with their domain specific knowledge, can better manage the kernel memory consumption of their clients than a static in-kernel policy; and we present the kernel memory management scheme of seL4, where kernel memory is represented as named, first class objects which are created and managed by user-level managers according to a suitable policy. The scheme is flexible enough to express a wide range of policies, and allows multiple policies to coexist.

BibTeX Entry

  @inproceedings{Elkaduwe_Derrin_06,
    title            = {Kernel Data -- First Class Citizens of the System},
    booktitle        = {2nd Int. WS Obj. Syst. \& Softw. Arch. },
    author           = {Dhammika Elkaduwe and Philip Derrin and Kevin Elphinstone},
    year             = {2006},
    month            = {Jan},
    address          = {Victor Harbor, South Australia, Australia},
    pages            = {39--43}
  }

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