COMP2432-Group Project Room Booking Manager Solved

In this project, you will be given an opportunity to apply the theory of process scheduling you have learnt from COMP2432 to a daily-life scenario and produce the Room Booking Manager (RBM).  The project consists of the following parts: 

Part 1. Develop a program that allows users to add details of a booking (date, time, duration, and/or callees etc.) to the schedule.  Besides the standard line by line input approach, RBM should be able to read in batch files which containing the

booking requests, i.e. one or more than one booking requests are stored in such batch files.

 
Note that the one who initiates for the booking is called the “user” or the “caller” and those others involved in the booking are called “callees”.  This part of the program module is referred to as the Input Module.  
Part 2.
Extend the program developed in Part 1 with a scheduler to generate timetables for all bookings (e.g. meeting room booking schedule and tenant booking records).  The scheduler will implement several scheduling algorithms similar to those covered in lectures.  This is the called the Scheduling Kernel, within the Scheduling Module. 
Part 3.
Augment the program with the facilities to print booking schedule for meeting rooms and related devices in Part 2.  Those rejected bookings should all be included.  This constitutes the Output Module. 
Part 4.
Provide the program with the ability to generate a summary report to analyze the results produced in Part 3.  Compare the different schedules (generated from different algorithms) and find out which one would make the best use of the three meeting rooms.  Your program should preferably be able to process N meeting rooms (N = 3 in the existing case) to cope with the expansion of PolySME in the near future.  It should also be preferably able to handle more resource types in future. By the way, an outstanding (rejected) list may also be included in this report for those requests that cannot be scheduled.  This final module is the Analyzer Module.   
Part 5.
Augment the program RBM to check whether or not the required facilities are available.  If so, it assigns a priority on each booking.  For example, if a room is booked for a presentation and should be equipped with projector and screen, the projector and screen will be reserved for that booking with a higher priority.  Even though the projector and screen have been reserved for another booking but without using a meeting room, i.e. someone reserves only the two pieces of equipment by that moment, the booking would be then rejected.  Of course, you may have other assumptions on how the conflicting bookings are being scheduled/rescheduled, and the associated priority.  
You must form a group of 4 persons (at most) for the project.  The project must be implemented using the C programming language and it must be successfully executed on ANY ONE of the Linux Servers (apollo or apollo2) in the Department of Computing.  You may specify to us on which Linux server your project has been executed successfully.

 

***** 
Note that we use only the “gcc” compiler to compile your program.  In other words, if your program cannot be compiled by the “gcc” of department’s servers, apollo or apollo2, we simply treat this as a failed program. 
Implementation 
User Interface 
First of all, your program should provide an interface to allow the user to input the details of bookings and/or commands for the application.  There are several input methods to be accepted by the system, and the system should be able to store all requests (valid and invalid).  

Below is an example of some inputs and outputs on a screen for reference. 

 

Command Syntax and Usage 

To execute the program 
Syntax 
./RBM 
Use
Simply to enter [./RBM] to start the program.
 

Command 
addMeeting 
Syntax 
addMeeting -aaa YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm n.n p bbb ccc; 

e.g. addMeeting –tenant_A 2021-05-16 10:00 3.0 9 projector_2K screen_100; 
Use
It is to add a booking for a meeting room with certain devices together.  As in the example, [tenant_A] is to make a booking on [May 16, 2021] at [10:00], and the duration is [3.0] hours.  In addition, it also requires a projector (projector_2K) and a screen (screen_100).  [-aaa] – Tenant who makes the request.

[YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm] – Date and time of the event, YYYY:Year (4 digits), MM:Month (2 digits), DD:Day (2 digits), hh:Hour (2 digits) and mm:Minute (2 digits).

[n.n] – Duration of the appointment in hours (one decimal place)

[p] – Number of persons to participate (integer)

[bbb] and [ccc] – Additional devices to be required.  (Optional, but should be in pair when request, [projector]+[screen] or [webcam]+[monitor]) ; – End of current input.

Note: RBM would assign a room which fits the requirements.  For instance, RBM would assign either [room_A] or [room_B] since both are big enough to hold the 9 participants.  Of course, RBM would also check the availability of the required devices (projector and screen).  If all these are available, the request would be accepted.

          For [addMeeting], it is an optional choice to book any add-on facilities.  Tenants may simply book a meeting room only. 
 

Command
addPresentation 
Syntax
addPresentation -aaa YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm n.n p bbb ccc; 

e.g. addPresentation –tenant_B 2021-05-14 08:00 3.0 12 projector_4K screen_150; 
Use
Similar to [addMeeting], it is to make a booking for a presentation.  As in the example, it is to add a request made by [tenant_B] who would conduct a presentation on [May 14, 2021] at [08:00] for [3.0] hours long.  And, there would be 12 persons to take part in the presentation.  In addition, the room should be equipped with [project_4K] and [screen_150].

[bbb] and [ccc] – Additional devices are required (mandatorily include).

 

The use of parameters is same as the previous one. 
 

Command 
addConference 
Syntax 
addConference -aaa YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm n.n bbb ccc ddd; e.g. addConference –tenant_E 2021-05-16 14:00 2.0 15 webcam_UHD monitor_75; 

 
Use
It is same as [addPresentation] but it would have a higher priority if you are to use the algorithm “priority”.  As in the example, [tenant_E] is to add a booking for a conference on [May 16, 2021] at [14:00] for [2.0] hours long.  The room should be equipped with [webcab_UHD] and

[monitor_75].

 

The use of parameters is same as the previous one.

 
 

 

Command 
bookDevice 
Syntax 
bookDevice -aaa YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm n.n bbb 

e.g. bookDevice –tenant_C 2021-05-011 13:00 4.0 projector_4K; 

 
Use
It is simply to reserve a specific device only.  As in the example, it is to reserve for [projector_4K] on [May 11, 2021] at [13:00] for [4.0] hours long.  That request is made by [tenant_C].

 
 

Command 
addBatch 
Syntax 
addBatch -xxxxx 

e.g. addBatch –batch001.dat 

 
Use
It is to read in a batch file, batch001.dat which is a plain text document and records one or more booking requests.

 
 

Command 
printBookings 
Syntax 
printBookings –xxx –[fcfs/prio/opti/ALL] 

e.g. printBookings –fcfs 

 
Use
It is to print the schedule (Accepted and Rejected) for users.  In addition, a

“Performance Report” is needed if [ALL] is used.  The Performance Report is a summary of how many bookings are received and allocated, and how many are rejected in total that based on the algorithm used.

 

Where 

–[fcfs/prio/opti/ALL] – Algorithms that would be used (just a reference).  

[fcfs] – First Come First Served  

[prio] – Priority  

[opti] – Optimized   

[ALL] – All algorithms being used in the application and the performance
 
summary report.

 

In the example, the “First Come First Served” is used.  That is the first booking would be allocated to a time slot that other late requests which request the same time slot would just be rejected.

For “Priority”, where the one has a higher priority rank can take over the time slot (see assumptions below).  That is, for example, a “conference” can replace an occupied time slot which has been assigned to a “Meeting”.

 

For “Optimized”, actually there are different methods to produce an optimized result.  Here, in a simple word, it is to reschedule those rejected appointments.  

Then, there would be a better performance to utilize the facilities in PolySME.  In the other word, this part would be considered as the “bonus”.

 
 

Command 
endProgram 
Syntax 
endProgram; 

 
Use
This simply ends the program completely, upon collecting all the child processes and closing all the files.

 
 

 

To ease your work, we make the following assumptions:

1.     Input formats follow the examples and make no difference and we simply assume all the input formats are correct.

2.     Components in RBM are limited to the following:

Ø  five tenants – tenant_A, tenant_B, tenant_C, tenant_D and tenant_E;  

Ø  three meeting rooms – room_A, room_B and room_C (room_A and room_B are of the small meeting rooms (<=10) while room_C (<=20) is the largest one);

Ø  three webcams – webcam_FHD × 2 and webcam_UHD × 1;

Ø  three monitors – monitor_50 × 2 and monitor_75 × 1;

Ø  three projectors – projector_2K × 2 and projector_4K × 1; Ø three projection screens – screen_100 × 2 and screen_150 × 1.   

All these could be represented by [child] processes.  The parent process represents the PolySME to host all the bookings and can use different algorithms to schedule/reschedule bookings.

3.     If a “priority” algorithm is applied in the booking system, you may consider that a “Conference” has the highest priority because it contributes the most profit.  Then, it is “Presentation”.  The third one is “Meeting”.  Lastly, it is “Device”.  In other words, a “Presentation” may “displace” an already scheduled “Meeting” so that the caller/callee(s) involved would attend the “Presentation” but the “Meeting” would be canceled.  That could turn a previous “Accepted” status (as the Meeting is successfully scheduled early on) to a “Rejected” one (overtaken by this more important “Presentation” event).

4.     There are many implementation methods for the modules.  The scheduler module may be implemented as a separate process, in the form of a child process created by the parent via fork() system call.  The output module can also be a separate process.  The scheduler may also be implemented as a separate program.  If the parent is passing appointment details to a child scheduler, one should use the pipe() and associated write()/read() system calls.  If the parent is passing information to a separate scheduler program, one could use the Unix shell “pipe” (denoted by “|”).

5.     If pipe() and fork() system calls are both used properly in the program and also the re-scheduling method/algorithm, the maximum possible mark is 100% plus up to 10% of bonus points.  On the other hand, if both system calls are not used in the program, only a passing mark would be awarded.  Intermediate scoring will be given if only one type of system call is used, depending on the extent of usage. 

6.     We test the schedule for a period, from 10 to 16 May, 2021.  One time slot is an hour of time.  That means each room should have 24 time slots a day and there are 7 days to be filled in.  You are recommended to overflow the time slots in the tests. 


 

Output Format 
The “appointment schedule” – “ACCEPTED” and “REJECTED” may look like the following. 

 

*** Room Booking – ACCEPTED / FCFS *** 

 

Tenant_A has the following bookings: 

 

Date         Start   End     Type          Room       Device 

=========================================================================== 

2021-05-10   09:00   15:00   Meeting       room_A     * 

2021-05-12   12:00   16:00   Presentation  room_B     projector_2K                                                       screen_100 2021-05-15   09:00   12:00   Conference    room_C     webcam_UHD                                                       monitor_75 

… 

… 

Tenant_B has the following bookings: 

 

Date         Start   End     Type          Room       Device 

=========================================================================== 

2021-05-14   08:00   11:00   Presentation  room_B     projector_4K                                                       screen_150 2021-05-15   12:00   16:00   Presentation  room_A     projector_2K                                                       screen_100 2021-05-15   13:00   15:00   *             *          projector_2K 2021-05-16   10:00   15:00   Conference    room_C     webcam_UHD                                                       monitor_75 

… 

… 

- End -  

=========================================================================== 

 
 

 

*** Room Booking – REJECTED / FCFS *** 

 

Tenant_A (there are 999 bookings rejected): 

 

Date         Start   End     Type          Device 

=========================================================================== 

2021-05-16   09:00   12:00   Meeting       - 

2021-05-17   18:00   21:00   Presentation  projector_4K                                            screen_150 

… 

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 

… 

Tenant_B (there are 999 bookings rejected): 

 

Date         Start   End     Type          Device 

=========================================================================== 

2021-05-13   13:00   15:00   Conference    webcab_UHD                                            monitor_75 

… 

… 

 

- End – 

 

 

 
The “Summary” may have the format as shown below. 

 

*** Room Booking Manager – Summary Report *** 

 

Performance: 

 

  For FCFS: 

          Total Number of Bookings Received: 999 (99.9%) 

                Number of Bookings Assigned: 999 (99.9%)                 Number of Bookings Rejected: 999 (99.9%)  

          Utilization of Time Slot:            room_A        – 99.9%            room_B        – 99.9% 

… 

           webcam_FHD    – 99.9% 

… 

           projector_4K  – 99.9% 

… 

… 

 

          Invalid request(s) made: 999 

 

  For PRIO: 

          Total Number of Bookings Received: 999 (99.9%) 

                Number of Bookings Assigned: 999 (99.9%)                 Number of Bookings Rejected: 999 (99.9%)  

          Utilization of Time Slot:            room_A        – 99.9%            room_B        – 99.9% 

… 

           webcam_FHD    – 99.9% 

… 

           projector_4K  – 99.9% 

… 

… 

 

          Invalid request(s) made: 999 

 

 
 

Error handling 
Although the program does not need to check for the correctness of the format and values that are input by user, some other error handling features are required in the application.  For example, if there are incorrect names of device, RBM should return an error message to indicate that and simply ignore that request.