This document tries to explain how the PipeWire graph is scheduled.

Graph are constructed from linked nodes together with their ports. This results in a dependency graph between nodes. Special care is taken for loopback links so that the graph remains a directed graph.

Processing threads

The server (and clients) have two processing threads:

A main thread that will do all IPC with clients and server and configures the nodes in the graph for processing.
A (or more) data processing thread that only does the data processing.

The data processing threads are given realtime priority and are designed to run with as little overhead as possible. All of the node resources such as buffers, io areas and metadata will be set up in shared memory before the node is scheduled to run.

This document describes the processing that happens in the data processing thread after the main-thread has configured it.

Nodes

Nodes are objects with 0 or more input and output ports.

Each node also has:

an eventfd to signal the node that it can start processing
an activation record that lives in shared memory with memfd.

  eventfd
 +-^---------+
 |           |
in          out
 |           |
 +-v---------+
   activation {
     status:OK,        // bitmask of NEED_DATA, HAVE_DATA or OK
     pending:0,        // number of unsatisfied dependencies to be able to run
     required:0        // number of dependencies with other nodes
   }

The activation record has the following information:

processing state and pending dependencies. As long as there are pending dependencies the node can not be processed. This is the only relevant information for actually scheduling the graph and is shown in the above illustration.
Current status of the node and profiling info (TRIGGERED, AWAKE, FINISHED, timestamps when the node changed state).
Timing information, mostly for drivers when the processing started, the time, duration and rate (quantum) etc..
Information about repositions (seek) and timebase owners.

Links

When two nodes are linked together, the output node becomes a dependency for the input node. This means the input node can only start processing when the output node is finished.

This dependency is reflected in the required counter in the activation record. In below illustration, B's required field is incremented with 1. The pending field is set to the required field when the graph is started. Node A will keep a list of all targets (B) that it is a dependency of.

This dependency update is only performed when the link is ready (negotiated) and the nodes are ready to schedule (runnable).

  eventfd                                eventfd
 +-^---------+                          +-^---------+
 |           |        link              |           |
in     A    out ---------------------> in     B    out
 |           |                          |           |
 +-v---------+                          +-v---------+
   activation {       target              activation {
     status:OK,  -------------------->      status:OK,
     pending:0,                             pending:1,
     required:0                             required:1
   }                                      }

Multiple links between A and B will only result in 1 target link between A and B.

Drivers

The graph can only run if there is a driver node that is in some way linked to an active node.

The driver is special because it will have to initiate the processing in the graph. It will use a timer or some sort of interrupt from hardware to start the cycle.

Any node can also be a candidate for a driver (when the node.driver property is true). PipeWire will select the node with the highest priority.driver property as the driver.

Nodes will be assigned to the driver node they will be scheduled with. Each node holds a reference to the driver and increments the required field of the driver.

When a node is ready to be scheduled, the driver adds the node to its list of targets and increments the required field.

  eventfd                                eventfd
 +-^---------+                          +-^---------+
 |           |        link              |           |
in     A    out ---------------------> in     B    out
 |           |                          |           |
 +-v---------+                          +-v---------+
   activation {       target              activation {
     status:OK,  -------------------->      status:OK,
     pending:0,                             pending:0,
     required:1                             required:2
   }                                      }
     |    ^                         ^
     |    |                        /   /
     |    |                       /   /
     |    |                      /   /
     |    |                     /   /
     |    |                    /   /
     v    |     /-------------/   /
   activation {                  /
     status:OK, V---------------/
     pending:0,
     required:2
   }
 +-^---------+
 |           |
 |   driver  |
 |           |
 +-v---------+
  eventfd

As seen in the illustration above, the driver holds a link to each node it needs to schedule and each node holds a link to the driver. Some nodes hold a link to other nodes.

It is possible that the driver is the same as a node in the graph (for example node A) but conceptually, the links above are still valid.

The driver will then start processing the graph by emitting the ready signal. PipeWire will then:

Check the previous cycle. Did it complete? Mark xrun on unfinished nodes.
Perform reposition requests if any, timebase changes, etc..
The pending counter of each follower node is set to the required field.
It then loops over all targets of the driver and atomically decrements the required field of the activation record. When the required field is 0, the eventfd is signaled and the node can be scheduled.

In our example above, Node A and B will have their pending state decremented. Node A will be 0 and will be triggered first (node B has 2 pending dependencies to start with and will not be triggered yet). The driver itself also has 2 dependencies left and will not be triggered (complete) yet.

Scheduling node A

When the eventfd is signaled on a node, we say the node is triggered and it will be able to process data. It consumes the input on the input ports and produces more data on the output ports.

After processing, node A goes through the list of targets and decrements each pending field (node A has a reference to B and the driver).

In our above example, the driver is decremented (from 2 to 1) but is not yet triggered. node B is decremented (from 1 to 0) and is triggered by writing to the eventfd.

Scheduling node B

Node B is scheduled and processes the input from node A. It then goes through the list of targets and decrements the pending fields. It decrements the pending field of the driver (from 1 to 0) and triggers the driver.

Scheduling the driver

The graph always completes after the driver is triggered and scheduled. All required fields from all the nodes in the target list of the driver are now 0.

The driver calculates some stats about cpu time etc.

Remote nodes.

For remote nodes, the eventfd and the activation is transfered from the server to the client.

This means that writing to the remote client eventfd will wake the client directly without going to the server first.

All remote clients also get the activation and eventfd of the peer and driver they are linked to and can directly trigger peers and drivers without going to the server first.

Remote driver nodes.

Remote drivers start the graph cycle directly without going to the server first.

After they complete (and only when the profiler is active), they will trigger an extra eventfd to signal the server that the graph completed. This is used by the server to generate the profiler info.