Round Robin Scheduling,First-Come-First-Served (FCFS) Scheduling

Round Robin Scheduling

One of the oldest, simplest, fairest and most widely used algorithm is round robin (RR). In the round robin scheduling, processes are dispatched in a FIFO manner but are given a limited amount of CPU time called a time-slice or a quantum. If a process does not complete before its CPU-time expires, the CPU is preempted and given to the next process waiting in a queue. The preempted process is then placed at the back of the ready list. Round Robin Scheduling is preemptive (at the end of time-slice) therefore it is effective in time-sharing environments in which the system needs to guarantee reasonable response times for interactive users. The only interesting issue with round robin scheme is the length of the quantum. Setting the quantum too short causes too many context switches and lower the CPU efficiency. On the other hand, setting the quantum too long may cause poor response time and appoximates FCFS. In any event, the average waiting time under round robin scheduling is often quite long.

First-Come-First-Served (FCFS) Scheduling

Other names of this algorithm are: First-In-First-Out (FIFO) Run-to-Completion Run-Until-Done Perhaps,  First-Come-First-Served algorithm is the simplest scheduling algorithm is the simplest scheduling algorithm. Processes are dispatched according to their arrival time on the ready queue. Being a nonpreemptive discipline, once a process has a CPU, it runs to completion. The FCFS scheduling is fair in the formal sense or human sense of fairness but it is unfair in the sense that long jobs make short jobs wait and unimportant jobs make important jobs wait. FCFS is more predictable than most of other schemes since it offers time. FCFS scheme is not useful in scheduling interactive users because it cannot guarantee good response time. The code for FCFS scheduling  is simple to write and understand. One of the major drawback of this scheme is that the average time is often quite long. The First-Come-First-Served algorithm is rarely used as a master scheme in modern operating systems but it is often embedded within other schemes.