Performance Evaluation of Para-virtualization on Modern Mobile Phone Platform
Emergence of smartphones brings to live the concept
of converged devices with the availability of web amenities. Such
trend also challenges the mobile devices manufactures and service
providers in many aspects, such as security on mobile phones,
complex and long time design flow, as well as higher development
cost. Among these aspects, security on mobile phones is getting more
and more attention. Microkernel based virtualization technology will
play a critical role in addressing these challenges and meeting mobile
market needs and preferences, since virtualization provides essential
isolation for security reasons and it allows multiple operating systems
to run on one processor accelerating development and cutting development
cost. However, virtualization benefits do not come for free.
As an additional software layer, it adds some inevitable virtualization
overhead to the system, which may decrease the system performance.
In this paper we evaluate and analyze the virtualization performance
cost of L4 microkernel based virtualization on a competitive mobile
phone by comparing the L4Linux, a para-virtualized Linux on top of
L4 microkernel, with the native Linux performance using lmbench
and a set of typical mobile phone applications.
[1] J. Brakensiek, A. Dr¨oge, M. Botteck, H. H¨artig, and A. Lackorzynski,
"Virtualization as an enabler for security in mobile devices," in IIES
-08: Proceedings of the 1st workshop on Isolation and integration in
embedded systems, 2008.
[2] R. Goldberg, "Survey of virtual machine research," IEEE Computer,
vol. 7, no. 6, pp. 34-45, 1974.
[3] P. Gum, "System/370 extended architecture: facilities for virtual machines,"
IBM Journal of Research and Development, vol. 27, no. 6, pp.
530-544, 1983.
[4] L. Seawright and R. MacKinnon, "Vm/370 - a study of multiplicity and
usefulness," IBM Systems Journal, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 4-17, 1979.
[5] M. Rosenblum and T. Garfinkel, "Virtual machine monitors: Current
technology and future trends," Computer, pp. 39-47, 2005.
[6] K. Adams and O. Agesen, "A comparison of software and hardware
techniques for x86 virtualization," in ASPLOS-XII: Proceedings of the
12th international conference on Architectural support for programming
languages and operating systems, 2006.
[7] C. Waldspurger, "Memory resource management in vmware esx server,"
ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review, vol. 36, pp. 181-194, 2002.
[8] I. Pratt, K. Fraser, S. Hand, C. Limpach, A. Warfield, D. Magenheimer,
J. Nakajima, and A. Mallick, "Xen 3.0 and the art of virtualization," in
Linux Symposium, 2005.
[9] "http://www.vmware.com/technology/mobile/."
[10] V. Inc, "Virtuallogix vlx," Online at http://www. virtuallogix. com.
[11] M. E. Gonzalez, A. Bilgic, A. Lackorzynski, D. Tudor, E. Matus, and
I. Badr, "Ict - emuco: An innovative solution for future smart phones."
in IEEE ICME Workshop on Multimedia Signal Processing and Novel
Parallel Computing., 2009.
[12] H. H¨artig, M. Hohmuth, J. Liedtke, J. Wolter, and S. Sch¨onberg, "The
performance of ╬╝-kernel-based systems," in Proceedings of the sixteenth
ACM symposium on Operating systems principles, 1997, pp. 66-77.
[13] H. H¨artig and M. Roitzsch, "Ten years of research on l4-based real-time
systems," in Proceedings of the 8th Real-Time Linux Workshop, 2006.
[14] J. Liedtke, "On micro-kernel construction," ACM SIGOPS Operating
Systems Review, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 237-250, 1995.
[15] J. Hwang, S. Suh, S. Heo, C. Park, J. Ryu, S. Park, and C. Kim,
"Xen on arm: System virtualization using xen hypervisor for arm-based
secure mobile phones," in 5th IEEE Consumer Communications and
Networking Conference, 2008. CCNC 2008, 2008, pp. 257-261.
[16] C. van Schaik and G. Heiser, "High-performance microkernel and virtualization
on arm segmented architectures data objects," In Proceedings of
the 1st International Workshop on Microkernels for Embedded Systems,
2007.
[17] M. Hohmuth, "Linux-emulation auf einem mikrokern," Master-s thesis,
TU-Dresden, 1996.
[18] R. Bhargava, B. Serebrin, F. Spadini, and S. Manne, "Accelerating twodimensional
page walks for virtualized systems," in ASPLOS XIII: Proceedings
of the 13th international conference on Architectural support
for programming languages and operating systems, 2008.
[19] X-GOLD 61X Production Specification, Version3.0 ed.
[20] L. McVoy and C. Staelin, "lmbench: Portable tools for performance
analysis," in Proceedings of the 1996 annual conference on USENIX
Annual Technical Conference. Usenix Association, 1996, p. 23.
[21] M. Guthaus, J. Ringenberg, D. Ernst, T. Austin, T. Mudge, and
R. Brown, "Mibench: A free, commercially representative embedded
benchmark suite," in IEEE 4th annual Workshop on Workload Characterization,
vol. 131, 2001, pp. 184-193.
[1] J. Brakensiek, A. Dr¨oge, M. Botteck, H. H¨artig, and A. Lackorzynski,
"Virtualization as an enabler for security in mobile devices," in IIES
-08: Proceedings of the 1st workshop on Isolation and integration in
embedded systems, 2008.
[2] R. Goldberg, "Survey of virtual machine research," IEEE Computer,
vol. 7, no. 6, pp. 34-45, 1974.
[3] P. Gum, "System/370 extended architecture: facilities for virtual machines,"
IBM Journal of Research and Development, vol. 27, no. 6, pp.
530-544, 1983.
[4] L. Seawright and R. MacKinnon, "Vm/370 - a study of multiplicity and
usefulness," IBM Systems Journal, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 4-17, 1979.
[5] M. Rosenblum and T. Garfinkel, "Virtual machine monitors: Current
technology and future trends," Computer, pp. 39-47, 2005.
[6] K. Adams and O. Agesen, "A comparison of software and hardware
techniques for x86 virtualization," in ASPLOS-XII: Proceedings of the
12th international conference on Architectural support for programming
languages and operating systems, 2006.
[7] C. Waldspurger, "Memory resource management in vmware esx server,"
ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review, vol. 36, pp. 181-194, 2002.
[8] I. Pratt, K. Fraser, S. Hand, C. Limpach, A. Warfield, D. Magenheimer,
J. Nakajima, and A. Mallick, "Xen 3.0 and the art of virtualization," in
Linux Symposium, 2005.
[9] "http://www.vmware.com/technology/mobile/."
[10] V. Inc, "Virtuallogix vlx," Online at http://www. virtuallogix. com.
[11] M. E. Gonzalez, A. Bilgic, A. Lackorzynski, D. Tudor, E. Matus, and
I. Badr, "Ict - emuco: An innovative solution for future smart phones."
in IEEE ICME Workshop on Multimedia Signal Processing and Novel
Parallel Computing., 2009.
[12] H. H¨artig, M. Hohmuth, J. Liedtke, J. Wolter, and S. Sch¨onberg, "The
performance of ╬╝-kernel-based systems," in Proceedings of the sixteenth
ACM symposium on Operating systems principles, 1997, pp. 66-77.
[13] H. H¨artig and M. Roitzsch, "Ten years of research on l4-based real-time
systems," in Proceedings of the 8th Real-Time Linux Workshop, 2006.
[14] J. Liedtke, "On micro-kernel construction," ACM SIGOPS Operating
Systems Review, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 237-250, 1995.
[15] J. Hwang, S. Suh, S. Heo, C. Park, J. Ryu, S. Park, and C. Kim,
"Xen on arm: System virtualization using xen hypervisor for arm-based
secure mobile phones," in 5th IEEE Consumer Communications and
Networking Conference, 2008. CCNC 2008, 2008, pp. 257-261.
[16] C. van Schaik and G. Heiser, "High-performance microkernel and virtualization
on arm segmented architectures data objects," In Proceedings of
the 1st International Workshop on Microkernels for Embedded Systems,
2007.
[17] M. Hohmuth, "Linux-emulation auf einem mikrokern," Master-s thesis,
TU-Dresden, 1996.
[18] R. Bhargava, B. Serebrin, F. Spadini, and S. Manne, "Accelerating twodimensional
page walks for virtualized systems," in ASPLOS XIII: Proceedings
of the 13th international conference on Architectural support
for programming languages and operating systems, 2008.
[19] X-GOLD 61X Production Specification, Version3.0 ed.
[20] L. McVoy and C. Staelin, "lmbench: Portable tools for performance
analysis," in Proceedings of the 1996 annual conference on USENIX
Annual Technical Conference. Usenix Association, 1996, p. 23.
[21] M. Guthaus, J. Ringenberg, D. Ernst, T. Austin, T. Mudge, and
R. Brown, "Mibench: A free, commercially representative embedded
benchmark suite," in IEEE 4th annual Workshop on Workload Characterization,
vol. 131, 2001, pp. 184-193.
@article{"International Journal of Information, Control and Computer Sciences:52701", author = "Yang Xu and Felix Bruns and Elizabeth Gonzalez and Shadi Traboulsi and Klaus Mott and Attila Bilgic", title = "Performance Evaluation of Para-virtualization on Modern Mobile Phone Platform", abstract = "Emergence of smartphones brings to live the concept
of converged devices with the availability of web amenities. Such
trend also challenges the mobile devices manufactures and service
providers in many aspects, such as security on mobile phones,
complex and long time design flow, as well as higher development
cost. Among these aspects, security on mobile phones is getting more
and more attention. Microkernel based virtualization technology will
play a critical role in addressing these challenges and meeting mobile
market needs and preferences, since virtualization provides essential
isolation for security reasons and it allows multiple operating systems
to run on one processor accelerating development and cutting development
cost. However, virtualization benefits do not come for free.
As an additional software layer, it adds some inevitable virtualization
overhead to the system, which may decrease the system performance.
In this paper we evaluate and analyze the virtualization performance
cost of L4 microkernel based virtualization on a competitive mobile
phone by comparing the L4Linux, a para-virtualized Linux on top of
L4 microkernel, with the native Linux performance using lmbench
and a set of typical mobile phone applications.", keywords = "L4 microkernel, virtualization overhead, mobilephone.", volume = "4", number = "2", pages = "219-8", }