Feedback Control for Computer Systems: Introducing Control Theory to Enterprise Programmers

by Philipp K. Janert

Overview

How can you take advantage of feedback control for enterprise programming? With this book, author Philipp K. Janert demonstrates how the same principles that govern cruise control in your car also apply to data center management and other enterprise systems. Through case studies and hands-on simulations, you’ll learn methods to solve several control issues, including mechanisms to spin up more servers automatically when web traffic spikes.

Feedback is ideal for controlling large, complex systems, but its use in software engineering raises unique issues. This book provides basic theory and lots of practical advice for programmers with no previous background in feedback control.

• Learn feedback concepts and controller design
• Get practical techniques for implementing and tuning controllers
• Use feedback “design patterns” for common control scenarios
• Maintain a cache’s “hit rate” by automatically adjusting its size
• Respond to web traffic by scaling server instances automatically
• Explore ways to use feedback principles with queueing systems
• Learn how to control memory consumption in a game engine
• Take a deep dive into feedback control theory

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449362652
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/19/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	863,277
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Philipp K. Janert was born and raised in Germany. He obtained aPh.D. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Washington in 1997and has been working in the tech industry since, including four yearsat Amazon.com, where he initiated and led several projects to improveAmazon's order fulfillment process. He is the author of two books ondata analysis, including the best-selling "Data Analysis with OpenSource Tools" (O'Reilly, 2010), and his writings have appeared onPerl.com, IBM developerWorks, IEEE Software, and in the LinuxMagazine. He has contributed to CPAN and other open-sourceprojects. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Table of Contents

Preface


Foundations


Chapter 1: Why Feedback? An Invitation


Chapter 2: Feedback Systems


Chapter 3: System Dynamics


Chapter 4: Controllers


Chapter 5: Identifying Input and Output Signals


Chapter 6: Review and Outlook




Practice


Chapter 7: Theory Preview


Chapter 8: Measuring the Transfer Function


Chapter 9: PID Tuning


Chapter 10: Implementation Issues


Chapter 11: Common Feedback Architectures




Case Studies


Chapter 12: Exploring Control Systems Through Simulation


Chapter 13: Case Study: Cache Hit Rate


Chapter 14: Case Study: Ad Delivery


Chapter 15: Case Study: Scaling Server Instances


Chapter 16: Case Study: Waiting-Queue Control


Chapter 17: Case Study: Cooling Fan Speed


Chapter 18: Case Study: Controlling Memory Consumption in a Game Engine


Chapter 19: Case Study Wrap-Up




Theory


Chapter 20: The Transfer Function


Chapter 21: Block-Diagram Algebra and the Feedback Equation


Chapter 22: PID Controllers


Chapter 23: Poles and Zeros


Chapter 24: Root Locus Techniques


Chapter 25: Frequency Response and the Bode Plot


Chapter 26: Topics Beyond This Book




Appendices


Glossary


Creating Graphs with Gnuplot


Complex Numbers


Further Reading




Colophon