24,028 research outputs found
A new analytical method for parallel, diffusion-type load balancing
We propose a new proof technique which can be used to analyze many parallel load balancing algorithms. The technique is designed to handle concurrent load balancing actions, which are often the main obstacle in the analysis. We demonstrate the usefulness of the approach by analyzing various natural diffusion-type protocols. Our results are similar to, or better than, previously existing ones, while our proofs are much easier. The key idea is to first sequentialize the original, concurrent load transfers, analyze this new, sequential system, and then to bound the gap between both.
Accurate Reaction-Diffusion Operator Splitting on Tetrahedral Meshes for Parallel Stochastic Molecular Simulations
Spatial stochastic molecular simulations in biology are limited by the
intense computation required to track molecules in space either in a discrete
time or discrete space framework, meaning that the serial limit has already
been reached in sub-cellular models. This calls for parallel simulations that
can take advantage of the power of modern supercomputers; however exact methods
are known to be inherently serial. We introduce an operator splitting
implementation for irregular grids with a novel method to improve accuracy, and
demonstrate potential for scalable parallel simulations in an initial MPI
version. We foresee that this groundwork will enable larger scale, whole-cell
stochastic simulations in the near future.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figure
Parallel and Distributed Simulation from Many Cores to the Public Cloud (Extended Version)
In this tutorial paper, we will firstly review some basic simulation concepts
and then introduce the parallel and distributed simulation techniques in view
of some new challenges of today and tomorrow. More in particular, in the last
years there has been a wide diffusion of many cores architectures and we can
expect this trend to continue. On the other hand, the success of cloud
computing is strongly promoting the everything as a service paradigm. Is
parallel and distributed simulation ready for these new challenges? The current
approaches present many limitations in terms of usability and adaptivity: there
is a strong need for new evaluation metrics and for revising the currently
implemented mechanisms. In the last part of the paper, we propose a new
approach based on multi-agent systems for the simulation of complex systems. It
is possible to implement advanced techniques such as the migration of simulated
entities in order to build mechanisms that are both adaptive and very easy to
use. Adaptive mechanisms are able to significantly reduce the communication
cost in the parallel/distributed architectures, to implement load-balance
techniques and to cope with execution environments that are both variable and
dynamic. Finally, such mechanisms will be used to build simulations on top of
unreliable cloud services.Comment: Tutorial paper published in the Proceedings of the International
Conference on High Performance Computing and Simulation (HPCS 2011). Istanbul
(Turkey), IEEE, July 2011. ISBN 978-1-61284-382-
DisPar Methods and Their Implementation on a Heterogeneous PC Cluster
Esta dissertação avalia duas áreas cruciais da simulação de advecção-
difusão.
A primeira parte é dedicada a estudos numéricos. Foi comprovado que
existe uma relação directa entre os momentos de deslocamento de uma partícula
de poluente e os erros de truncatura. Esta relação criou os fundamentos teóricos
para criar uma nova família de métodos numéricos, DisPar.
Foram introduzidos e avaliados três métodos. O primeiro é um método
semi-Lagrangeano 2D baseado nos momentos de deslocamento de uma partícula
para malhas regulares, DisPar-k. Com este método é possível controlar
explicitamente o erro de truncatura desejado. O segundo método também se
baseia nos momentos de deslocamento de uma partícula, sendo, contudo,
desenvolvido para malhas uniformes não regulares, DisParV. Este método
também apresentou uma forte robustez numérica. Ao contrário dos métodos
DisPar-K e DisParV, o terceiro segue uma aproximação Eulereana com três
regiões de destino da partícula. O método foi desenvolvido de forma a manter um
perfil de concentração inicial homogéneo independentemente dos parâmetros
usados. A comparação com o método DisPar-k em situações não lineares realçou
as fortes limitações associadas aos métodos de advecção-difusão em cenários
reais.
A segunda parte da tese é dedicada à implementação destes métodos num
Cluster de PCs heterogéneo. Para o fazer, foi desenvolvido um novo esquema de
partição, AORDA. A aplicação, Scalable DisPar, foi implementada com a
plataforma da Microsoft .Net, tendo sido totalmente escrita em C#. A aplicação foi
testada no estuário do Tejo que se localiza perto de Lisboa, Portugal.
Para superar os problemas de balanceamento de cargas provocados pelas
marés, foram implementados diversos esquemas de partição: “Scatter
Partitioning”, balanceamento dinâmico de cargas e uma mistura de ambos. Pelos
testes elaborados, foi possível verificar que o número de máquinas vizinhas se
apresentou como o mais limitativo em termos de escalabilidade, mesmo utilizando
comunicações assíncronas. As ferramentas utilizadas para as comunicações
foram a principal causa deste fenómeno. Aparentemente, o Microsoft .Net remoting 1.0 não funciona de forma apropriada nos ambientes de concorrência
criados pelas comunicações assíncronas. Este facto não permitiu a obtenção de
conclusões acerca dos níveis relativos de escalabilidade das diferentes
estratégias de partição utilizadas. No entanto, é fortemente sugerido que a melhor
estratégia irá ser “Scatter Partitioning” associada a balanceamento dinâmico de
cargas e a comunicações assíncronas. A técnica de “Scatter Partitioning” mitiga
os problemas de desbalanceamentos de cargas provocados pelas marés. Por
outro lado, o balanceamento dinâmico será essencialmente activado no inicio da
simulação para corrigir possíveis problemas nas previsões dos poderes de cada
processador.This thesis assesses two main areas of the advection-diffusion simulation.
The first part is dedicated to the numerical studies. It has been proved that
there is a direct relation between pollutant particle displacement moments and
truncation errors. This relation raised the theoretical foundations to create a new
family of numerical methods, DisPar.
Three methods have been introduced and appraised. The first is a 2D semi-
Lagrangian method based on particle displacement moments for regular grids,
DisPar-k. With this method one can explicitly control the desired truncation error.
The second method is also based on particle displacement moments but it is
targeted to regular/non-uniform grids, DisParV. The method has also shown a
strong numerical capacity. Unlike DisPar-k and DisParV, the third method is a
Eulerian approximation for three particle destination units. The method was
developed so that an initial concentration profile will be kept homogeneous
independently of the used parameters. The comparison with DisPar-k in non-linear
situations has emphasized the strong shortcomings associated with numerical
methods for advection-diffusion in real scenarios.
The second part of the dissertation is dedicated to the implementation of
these methods in a heterogeneous PC Cluster. To do so, a new partitioning
method has been developed, AORDA. The application, Scalable DisPar, was
implemented with the Microsoft .Net framework and was totally written in C#. The
application was tested on the Tagus Estuary, near Lisbon (Portugal).
To overcome the load imbalances caused by tides scatter partitioning was
implemented, dynamic load balancing and a mix of both. By the tests made, it was
possible to verify that the number of neighboring machines was the main factor
affecting the application scalability, even with asynchronous communications. The
tools used for communications mainly caused this. Microsoft .Net remoting 1.0
does not seem to properly work in environments with concurrency associated with
the asynchronous communications. This did not allow taking conclusions about the
relative efficiency between the partitioning strategies used. However, it is strongly
suggested that the best approach will be to scatter partitioning with dynamic load
balancing and with asynchronous communications. Scatter partitioning mitigates
load imbalances caused by tides and dynamic load balancing is basically trigged
at the begging of the simulation to correct possible problems in processor power
predictions
Designing a scalable dynamic load -balancing algorithm for pipelined single program multiple data applications on a non-dedicated heterogeneous network of workstations
Dynamic load balancing strategies have been shown to be the most critical part of an efficient implementation of various applications on large distributed computing systems. The need for dynamic load balancing strategies increases when the underlying hardware is a non-dedicated heterogeneous network of workstations (HNOW). This research focuses on the single program multiple data (SPMD) programming model as it has been extensively used in parallel programming for its simplicity and scalability in terms of computational power and memory size.;This dissertation formally defines and addresses the problem of designing a scalable dynamic load-balancing algorithm for pipelined SPMD applications on non-dedicated HNOW. During this process, the HNOW parameters, SPMD application characteristics, and load-balancing performance parameters are identified.;The dissertation presents a taxonomy that categorizes general load balancing algorithms and a methodology that facilitates creating new algorithms that can harness the HNOW computing power and still preserve the scalability of the SPMD application.;The dissertation devises a new algorithm, DLAH (Dynamic Load-balancing Algorithm for HNOW). DLAH is based on a modified diffusion technique, which incorporates the HNOW parameters. Analytical performance bound for the worst-case scenario of the diffusion technique has been derived.;The dissertation develops and utilizes an HNOW simulation model to conduct extensive simulations. These simulations were used to validate DLAH and compare its performance to related dynamic algorithms. The simulations results show that DLAH algorithm is scalable and performs well for both homogeneous and heterogeneous networks. Detailed sensitivity analysis was conducted to study the effects of key parameters on performance
A method for molecular dynamics on curved surfaces
Dynamics simulations of constrained particles can greatly aid in
understanding the temporal and spatial evolution of biological processes such
as lateral transport along membranes and self-assembly of viruses. Most
theoretical efforts in the field of diffusive transport have focussed on
solving the diffusion equation on curved surfaces, for which it is not
tractable to incorporate particle interactions even though these play a crucial
role in crowded systems. We show here that it is possible to combine standard
constraint algorithms with the classical velocity Verlet scheme to perform
molecular dynamics simulations of particles constrained to an arbitrarily
curved surface, in which such interactions can be taken into account.
Furthermore, unlike Brownian dynamics schemes in local coordinates, our method
is based on Cartesian coordinates allowing for the reuse of many other standard
tools without modifications, including parallelisation through domain
decomposition. We show that by applying the schemes to the Langevin equation
for various surfaces, confined Brownian motion is obtained, which has direct
applications to many biological and physical problems. Finally we present two
practical examples that highlight the applicability of the method: (i) the
influence of crowding and shape on the lateral diffusion of proteins in curved
membranes and (ii) the self-assembly of a coarse-grained virus capsid protein
model.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figure
- …