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Workshop on Algorithms and Data Structures

WADS 1993: Algorithms and Data Structures pp 119–130Cite as

Online load balancing of temporary tasks

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 709))

Abstract

We consider non-preemptive online load balancing problem under the assumption that tasks have limited duration in time. Each task has to be assigned immediately upon arrival to one of the machines, increasing the load on this machine for the duration of the task. The goal is to minimize the maximum load.

Azar, Broder and Karlin studied the unknown duration case where for each task there is a subset of machines capable of executing it; the increase in load due to assignment of the task to one of these machines depends only on the task and not on the machine. For this case, they showed an O(n 2/3)-competitive algorithm and an Ω(√n) lower bound, where n is the number of the machines. We close the gap by showing an O(√n)-competitive algorithm.

We also consider the related machines case with unknown task duration. Here, a task can be executed by any machine and the increase in load depends on the speed of the machine and the weight of the task. For this case we show a 20-competitive algorithm and a lower bound of 3−o(1).

Trying to overcome the Ω(√n) lower bound for the case of unknown task duration, we study a variant of the load balancing problem for tasks with known duration. For this case we show an O(log nT)-competitive algorithm, where T is the ratio of the maximum to minimum duration.

Supported in part by NSF under grants CCR-9009318 and CCR-9202158.

Research supported by U.S. Army Research Office Grant DAAL-03-91-G-0102, and by a grant from Mitsubishi Electric Laboratories.

Supported in part by NSF under grant CCR-9209283.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. DEC Systems Research Center, USA

    Yossi Azar

  2. Dept. of Computer Science, University of Pittsburgh, USA

    Bala Kalyanasundaram

  3. Dept. of Computer Science, Stanford University, USA

    Serge Plotkin

  4. Dept. of Computer Science, University of Pittsburgh, USA

    Kirk R. Pruhs

  5. IBM Almaden Research Center, USA

    Orli Waarts

Authors
  1. Yossi Azar
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  2. Bala Kalyanasundaram
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  3. Serge Plotkin
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  4. Kirk R. Pruhs
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  5. Orli Waarts
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Editor information

Frank Dehne Jörg-Rüdiger Sack Nicola Santoro Sue Whitesides

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© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Azar, Y., Kalyanasundaram, B., Plotkin, S., Pruhs, K.R., Waarts, O. (1993). Online load balancing of temporary tasks. In: Dehne, F., Sack, JR., Santoro, N., Whitesides, S. (eds) Algorithms and Data Structures. WADS 1993. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 709. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57155-8_241

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57155-8_241

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-57155-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47918-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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