230 research outputs found
Service provisioning problem in cloud and multi-cloud systems
Cloud computing is a new emerging paradigm that aims to streamline the on-demand provisioning of resources as services, providing end users with flexible and scalable services accessible through the Internet on a pay-per-use basis. Because modern cloud systems operate in an open and dynamic world characterized by continuous changes, the development of efficient resource provisioning policies for cloud-based services becomes increasingly challenging. This paper aims to study the hourly basis service provisioning problem through a generalized Nash game model. We take the perspective of Software as a Service (SaaS) providers that want to minimize the costs associated with the virtual machine instances allocated in a multiple Infrastructures as a Service (IaaS) scenario while avoiding incurring penalties for execution failures and providing quality of service guarantees. SaaS providers compete and bid for the use of infrastructural resources, whereas the IaaSs want to maximize their revenues obtained providing virtualized resources. We propose a solution algorithm based on the best-reply dynamics, which is suitable for a distributed implementation. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by performing numerical tests, considering multiple workloads and system configurations. Results show that our algorithm is scalable and provides significant cost savings with respect to alternative methods (5% on average but up to 260% for individual SaaS providers). Furthermore, varying the number of IaaS providers means an 8%-15% cost savings can be achieved from the workload distribution on multiple IaaSs
Generalized Nash equilibria for SaaS/PaaS Clouds
Cloud computing is an emerging technology that allows to access computing resources on a pay-per-use basis. The main challenges in this area are the efficient performance management and the energy costs minimization. In this paper we model the service provisioning problem of Cloud Platform-as-a-Service systems as a Generalized Nash Equilibrium Problem and show that a potential function for the game exists. Moreover, we prove that the social optimum problem is convex and we derive some properties of social optima from the corresponding Karush-Kuhn-Tucker system. Next, we propose a distributed solution algorithm based on the best response dynamics and we prove its convergence to generalized Nash equilibria. Finally, we numerically evaluate equilibria in terms of their efficiency with respect to the social optimum of the Cloud by varying our algorithm initial solution. Numerical results show that our algorithm is scalable and very efficient and thus can be adopted for the run-time management of very large scale systems
A Game-Theoretic Approach for Runtime Capacity Allocation in MapReduce
Nowadays many companies have available large amounts of raw, unstructured
data. Among Big Data enabling technologies, a central place is held by the
MapReduce framework and, in particular, by its open source implementation,
Apache Hadoop. For cost effectiveness considerations, a common approach entails
sharing server clusters among multiple users. The underlying infrastructure
should provide every user with a fair share of computational resources,
ensuring that Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are met and avoiding wastes. In
this paper we consider two mathematical programming problems that model the
optimal allocation of computational resources in a Hadoop 2.x cluster with the
aim to develop new capacity allocation techniques that guarantee better
performance in shared data centers. Our goal is to get a substantial reduction
of power consumption while respecting the deadlines stated in the SLAs and
avoiding penalties associated with job rejections. The core of this approach is
a distributed algorithm for runtime capacity allocation, based on Game Theory
models and techniques, that mimics the MapReduce dynamics by means of
interacting players, namely the central Resource Manager and Class Managers
Supply chain network capacity competition with outsourcing: a variational equilibrium framework
This paper develops a supply chain network game theory framework with multiple manufacturers/producers, with multiple manufacturing plants, who own distribution centers and distribute their products, which are distinguished by brands, to demand markets, while maximizing profits and competing noncooperatively. The manufacturers also may avail themselves of external distribution centers for storing their products and freight service provision. The manufacturers have capacities associated with their supply chain network links and the external distribution centers also have capacitated storage and distribution capacities for their links, which are shared among the manufacturers and competed for. We utilize a special case of the Generalized Nash Equilibrium problem, known as a variational equilibrium, in order to formulate and solve the problem. A case study on apple farmers in Massachusetts is provided with various scenarios, including a supply chain disruption, to illustrate the modeling and methodological framework as well as the potential benefits of outsourcing in this sector
Dynamic Pricing of Applications in Cloud Marketplaces using Game Theory
The competitive nature of Cloud marketplaces as new concerns in delivery of
services makes the pricing policies a crucial task for firms. so that, pricing
strategies has recently attracted many researchers. Since game theory can
handle such competing well this concern is addressed by designing a normal form
game between providers in current research. A committee is considered in which
providers register for improving their competition based pricing policies. The
functionality of game theory is applied to design dynamic pricing policies. The
usage of the committee makes the game a complete information one, in which each
player is aware of every others payoff functions. The players enhance their
pricing policies to maximize their profits. The contribution of this paper is
the quantitative modeling of Cloud marketplaces in form of a game to provide
novel dynamic pricing strategies; the model is validated by proving the
existence and the uniqueness of Nash equilibrium of the game
A Competition-based Pricing Strategy in Cloud Markets using Regret Minimization Techniques
Cloud computing as a fairly new commercial paradigm, widely investigated by
different researchers, already has a great range of challenges. Pricing is a
major problem in Cloud computing marketplace; as providers are competing to
attract more customers without knowing the pricing policies of each other. To
overcome this lack of knowledge, we model their competition by an
incomplete-information game. Considering the issue, this work proposes a
pricing policy related to the regret minimization algorithm and applies it to
the considered incomplete-information game. Based on the competition based
marketplace of the Cloud, providers update the distribution of their strategies
using the experienced regret. The idea of iteratively applying the algorithm
for updating probabilities of strategies causes the regret get minimized
faster. The experimental results show much more increase in profits of the
providers in comparison with other pricing policies. Besides, the efficiency of
a variety of regret minimization techniques in a simulated marketplace of Cloud
are discussed which have not been observed in the studied literature. Moreover,
return on investment of providers in considered organizations is studied and
promising results appeared
Distributed Learning for Stochastic Generalized Nash Equilibrium Problems
This work examines a stochastic formulation of the generalized Nash
equilibrium problem (GNEP) where agents are subject to randomness in the
environment of unknown statistical distribution. We focus on fully-distributed
online learning by agents and employ penalized individual cost functions to
deal with coupled constraints. Three stochastic gradient strategies are
developed with constant step-sizes. We allow the agents to use heterogeneous
step-sizes and show that the penalty solution is able to approach the Nash
equilibrium in a stable manner within , for small step-size
value and sufficiently large penalty parameters. The operation
of the algorithm is illustrated by considering the network Cournot competition
problem
Truthful Mechanisms For Resource Allocation And Pricing In Clouds
A major challenging problem for cloud providers is designing efficient mechanisms for
Virtual Machine (VM) provisioning and allocation. Such mechanisms enable the cloud
providers to effectively utilize their available resources and obtain higher profits. Recently,
cloud providers have introduced auction-based models for VM provisioning and allocation
which allow users to submit bids for their requested VMs. We formulate the dynamic
VM provisioning and allocation problem for the auction-based model as an integer program
considering multiple types of resources. We then design truthful greedy and optimal
mechanisms for the problem such that the cloud provider provisions VMs based on the
requests of the winning users and determines their payments. We show that the proposed
mechanisms are truthful, that is, the users do not have incentives to manipulate the system
by lying about their requested bundles of VM instances and their valuations. We perform
extensive experiments using real workload traces in order to investigate the performance
of the proposed mechanisms. Our proposed mechanisms achieve promising results in terms
of revenue for the cloud provider
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