Abstract
In this paper, we study the problem of scheduling a large number of time-consuming tasks (of different sizes) on a heterogeneous distributed system. The heterogeneity is expressed in terms of the inter-resources communication and of the resource latency. In such systems, balancing the load of the tasks among the resources is very critical, since the time spent by a task in the system is considered as the main issue that needs to be minimised. We propose a task scheduling technique, which consists of two heuristic algorithms, namely Recursive Neighbour Search (RNS) and Augmented Tabu-Search (ATS). Our techniques do not address directly the load-balancing problem since it may be unrealistic in such large environments, but we will show that even a non-perfectly load-balanced system can behave reasonably well by taking into account the tasks’ time demands. These algorithms are compared to well-known scheduling algorithms (Eager’s Random and Threshold policy algorithms) in order to study their performance.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cassavant T.L. and Kuhl J.G. (1988). A taxonomy of scheduling in general-purpose distributed computing systems.IEEE Trans. Software Engineering, 14(2): 141–154.
Eager D.L., Lazowska E.D., and Zahorjan J. (1986). Adaptive load sharing in homogeneous distributed systems.IEEE Trans. On Software Eng., SE-12(5): 662–675.
Grueger P. and Livny M. (1987). The diverse objectives of distributed scheduling policies. In IEEE CS Press, Proc.IEEE 7 th Int’l Conf. On Distributed Computing Systems, pp. 242–249.
Harrington H.J. and Tumay K. (2000).Simulating Modelling Methods. McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Lee S.Y. and Cho C.H. (2000). Load balancing for minimizing execution time of a target job on a network of heterogeneous workstations. InJSSPP’00, pp 174–186.
Lo V.M. (1988). Heuristic algorithms for tasks assignment in distributed systems.IEEE Trans. Computers, C-37(11): 1384–1397.
Reany P. (1991). Heuristics, the art of problem solving.Arizona Journal of Natural Science, 3: 2–3.
Reeves C.R. (1995).Modern Heuristic Techniques for Combinatorial Problems. McGraw-Hill.
Reeves M.R. and Johnson D.S. (1979).Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness. W. H. Freeman and Company.
Sarangi A., Shriram A., and Shankar A. (2001). A scheduling model for grid computing systems. InGRID 2001, volume LNCS 2242, pages 111–123, Springer-Verlag.
Savvas I., and Kechadi T. (2002). Some results on the load distribution of heterogeneous distributed systems. InSCI-02, volume IV, pp. 389–394, USA.
Savvas I., and Kechadi T. (2003). Performance study of scheduling mechanisms for peer-to-peer computer environments. InPPAM-03, Springer-Verlag, LNCS 3019, pp. 954–962.
Stone H. (1996). Multiprocessor scheduling with the aid of network flow algorithms.J. of Proc Parallel and Distributed Computing, 36(13): 69–77.
Tanenbaum A.S. and M. van Stehen (2002).Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms. Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Thulasiraman K., and Swamy M.N.S. (1992).Graphs: Theory and Algorithms. John Wiley and Sons, INC.
Ullman J. (1975). NP-Complete Scheduling Problems.Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 10: 384–393.
Wilf H.S. (1986).Algorithms and Complexity. Prentice-Hall International, Inc., 1986
YarKhan A., and Dongarra J.J. (2002). Experiments with scheduling using simulating annealing in a grid environment. In GRID 2002, volume LNCS 2536, pp. 232–242, Springer-Verlag.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Savvas, I.K., Kechadi, MT. Performance study of a dynamic task scheduling for heterogeneous distributed systems. Oper Res Int J 4, 291–303 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02944147
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02944147