In earlier work, we have described the Real-Time Execution Performance
Agent (RT EPA) which accommodates mixed hard and soft real-time
processing with measurable reliability by providing a confidence-based
scheduling and execution fault handling framework. Based on experience
with the RT EPA with a space telescope application, a theory was
formed for determining scheduling feasibility for a set of services
partitioned into multiple scheduling epochs, which are simultaneously
active, yet mutually exclusive. This paper explains the multi-epoch
theory whose utility has been demonstrated, but for which a formal
implementation within the RT EPA framework remains to be completed.
