Two Generational Garbage Collection Models with Major Collection Time

Abstract

It is an important problem to determine major collection times to meet the pause time goal for a generational garbage collector. From such a viewpoint, this paper proposes two stochastic models based on working schemes of a generational garbage collector: Garbage collections occur in a nonhomogeneous Poisson process, tenuring collection is made at a threshold level K, and major collection is made at time T or at Nth collection including minor and tenuring collections for the first model and at time T or at Nth collection including tenuring collections for the second model. Using the techniques of cumulative processes and reliability theory, expected cost rates are obtained, and optimal policies of major collection times which minimize them are discussed analytically and computed numerically.