6 research outputs found
Improved Analysis of Deterministic Load-Balancing Schemes
We consider the problem of deterministic load balancing of tokens in the
discrete model. A set of processors is connected into a -regular
undirected network. In every time step, each processor exchanges some of its
tokens with each of its neighbors in the network. The goal is to minimize the
discrepancy between the number of tokens on the most-loaded and the
least-loaded processor as quickly as possible.
Rabani et al. (1998) present a general technique for the analysis of a wide
class of discrete load balancing algorithms. Their approach is to characterize
the deviation between the actual loads of a discrete balancing algorithm with
the distribution generated by a related Markov chain. The Markov chain can also
be regarded as the underlying model of a continuous diffusion algorithm. Rabani
et al. showed that after time , any algorithm of their
class achieves a discrepancy of , where is the spectral
gap of the transition matrix of the graph, and is the initial load
discrepancy in the system.
In this work we identify some natural additional conditions on deterministic
balancing algorithms, resulting in a class of algorithms reaching a smaller
discrepancy. This class contains well-known algorithms, eg., the Rotor-Router.
Specifically, we introduce the notion of cumulatively fair load-balancing
algorithms where in any interval of consecutive time steps, the total number of
tokens sent out over an edge by a node is the same (up to constants) for all
adjacent edges. We prove that algorithms which are cumulatively fair and where
every node retains a sufficient part of its load in each step, achieve a
discrepancy of in time . We
also show that in general neither of these assumptions may be omitted without
increasing discrepancy. We then show by a combinatorial potential reduction
argument that any cumulatively fair scheme satisfying some additional
assumptions achieves a discrepancy of almost as quickly as the
continuous diffusion process. This positive result applies to some of the
simplest and most natural discrete load balancing schemes.Comment: minor corrections; updated literature overvie