Efficient algorithms for a class of partitioning problems

The problem of optimally partitioning the modules of chain- or tree-like tasks over chain-structured or host-satellite multiple computer systems is addressed. This important class of problems includes many signal processing and industrial control applications. Prior research has resulted in a succession of faster exact and approximate algorithms for these problems. Polynomial exact and approximate algorithms are described for this class that are better than any of the previously reported algorithms. The approach is based on a preprocessing step that condenses the given chain or tree structured task into a monotonic chain or tree. The partitioning of this monotonic take can then be carried out using fast search techniques

Online) An Open Access

ABSTRACT A simulated annealing approach to the assignment of program tasks to processors in a distributed computer system is presented. Tasks of a program require certain capacitated computer resources. They also communicate at a given rate. Processors are interconnected by a communication network constituted of various types of links: local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN) and specialised links. The communication resources are also capacitated. The purpose is to find the assignment of tasks to processors such that a measure of performance is optimised, the requirements of each task are met and the capacities of the resources are not violated. Various versions of the problem are identified and formulated. The design of the simulated annealing algorithm to solve the most general version is then described. The results of computational experience are reported

Task allocation in distributed multimedia systems based on the host-satellite model

Multimedia applications require intermediate processing between media sources and sinks. In addition to end-user machines intermediate computers can be used for performing media processing. This possibility leads to the problem of allocating processing components on various computers. In this paper, we study this problem in the context of star-shaped application graphs which have to be allocated between given end-user machines (satellites) and a central computer (host). The problem is formulated in terms of best achievable bottleneck resource usage. Several approaches are considered including anapproximate scheme and two fast-heuristics. Performance measurements show the efficiency of the considered approaches. A discussion of our approach shows important differences to solutions provided for related problems of graph partitioning and mapping

Run-time and compile-time support for adaptive irregular problems

In adaptive irregular problems the data arrays are accessed via indirection arrays, and data access patterns change during computation. Implementing such problems on distributed memory machines requires support for dynamic data partitioning, efficient preprocessing and fast data migration. This research presents efficient runtime primitives for such problems. This new set of primitives is part of the CHAOS library. It subsumes the previous PARTI library which targeted only static irregular problems. To demonstrate the efficacy of the runtime support, two real adaptive irregular applications have been parallelized using CHAOS primitives: a molecular dynamics code (CHARMM) and a particle-in-cell code (DSMC). The paper also proposes extensions to Fortran D which can allow compilers to generate more efficient code for adaptive problems. These language extensions have been implemented in the Syracuse Fortran 90D/HPF prototype compiler. The performance of the compiler parallelized codes is compared with the hand parallelized versions

The assignment problem in distributed computing

This dissertation focuses on the problem of assigning the modules of a program to the processors in a distributed system with the goal of minimizing the overall cost of running the program. The cost depends on the execution times of the modules on the processors and on the cost of communication between modules. This module allocation problem arises in a variety of situations where one is interested in making optimum use of available computer resources. The general module allocation problem is intractable; however it becomes polynomially-solvable when the communication graph is restricted. In this dissertation, we restrict our attention to k-trees;As the first problem, we study parametric module allocation on partial k-trees. We allow the costs, both execution and communication, to vary linearly as functions of a real parameter t. We show that if the number of processors is fixed, the sequence of optimum assignments that are obtained, as t varies from zero to infinity, can be constructed in polynomial time. As an auxiliary result, we develop a linear-time algorithm to find a separator in a k-tree. We discuss the implications of our results for parametric versions of the weighted vertex cover, independent set, and 0-1 quadratic programming problems on partial k-trees;Next, we consider two variants of the assignment problem. The first problem is to find a minimum-cost assignment when one of the processors has a limited memory. The second is to find an assignment that minimizes the maximum processor load. We present exact dynamic programming algorithms for both problems, which lead to approximation schemes for the case where the communication graph is a partial k-tree. Faster algorithms are presented for trees with uniform costs. In contrast to these results, we show that, for arbitrary graphs, no fully polynomial time approximation schemes exist unless P = NP. Both dynamic programming algorithms have been implemented. The implementation details and our experimental results are presented

Image-space decomposition algorithms for sort-first parallel volume rendering of unstructured grids

Ankara : Department of Computer Engineering and Information Science and the Institute of Engineering and Science of Bilkent University, 1997.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 1997.Includes bibliographical references leaves 96-100.Kutluca, HüseyinM.S

Dynamic load balancing of parallel road traffic simulation

The objective of this research was to investigate, develop and evaluate dynamic load-balancing strategies for parallel execution of microscopic road traffic simulations. Urban road traffic simulation presents irregular, and dynamically varying distributed computational load for a parallel processor system. The dynamic nature of road traffic simulation systems lead to uneven load distribution during simulation, even for a system that starts off with even load distributions. Load balancing is a potential way of achieving improved performance by reallocating work from highly loaded processors to lightly loaded processors leading to a reduction in the overall computational time. In dynamic load balancing, workloads are adjusted continually or periodically throughout the computation. In this thesis load balancing strategies were evaluated and some load balancing policies developed. A load index and a profitability determination algorithms were developed. These were used to enhance two load balancing algorithms. One of the algorithms exhibits local communications and distributed load evaluation between the neighbour partitions (diffusion algorithm) and the other algorithm exhibits both local and global communications while the decision making is centralized (MaS algorithm). The enhanced algorithms were implemented and synthesized with a research parallel traffic simulation. The performance of the research parallel traffic simulator, optimized with the two modified dynamic load balancing strategies were studied.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Procesamiento paralelo : Balance de carga dinámico en algoritmo de sorting

Algunas técnicas de sorting intentan balancear la carga mediante un muestreo inicial de los datos a ordenar y una distribución de los mismos de acuerdo a pivots. Otras redistribuyen listas parcialmente ordenadas de modo que cada procesador almacene un número aproximadamente igual de claves, y todos tomen parte del proceso de merge durante la ejecución. Esta Tesis presenta un nuevo método que balancea dinámicamente la carga basado en un enfoque diferente, buscando realizar una distribución del trabajo utilizando un estimador que permita predecir la carga de trabajo pendiente. El método propuesto es una variante de Sorting by Merging Paralelo, esto es, una técnica basada en comparación. Las ordenaciones en los bloques se realizan mediante el método de Burbuja o Bubble Sort con centinela. En este caso, el trabajo a realizar -en términos de comparaciones e intercambios- se encuentra afectada por el grado de desorden de los datos. Se estudió la evolución de la cantidad de trabajo en cada iteración del algoritmo para diferentes tipos de secuencias de entrada, n datos con valores de a n sin repetición, datos al azar con distribución normal, observándose que el trabajo disminuye en cada iteración. Esto se utilizó para obtener una estimación del trabajo restante esperado a partir de una iteración determinada, y basarse en el mismo para corregir la distribución de la carga. Con esta idea, el métoEs revisado por: http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/9500Facultad de Ciencias Exacta