324,986 research outputs found
Online Scheduling on Identical Machines using SRPT
Due to its optimality on a single machine for the problem of minimizing
average flow time, Shortest-Remaining-Processing-Time (\srpt) appears to be the
most natural algorithm to consider for the problem of minimizing average flow
time on multiple identical machines. It is known that \srpt achieves the best
possible competitive ratio on multiple machines up to a constant factor. Using
resource augmentation, \srpt is known to achieve total flow time at most that
of the optimal solution when given machines of speed . Further,
it is known that \srpt's competitive ratio improves as the speed increases;
\srpt is -speed -competitive when .
However, a gap has persisted in our understanding of \srpt. Before this
work, the performance of \srpt was not known when \srpt is given
(1+\eps)-speed when 0 < \eps < 1-\frac{1}{m}, even though it has been
thought that \srpt is (1+\eps)-speed -competitive for over a decade.
Resolving this question was suggested in Open Problem 2.9 from the survey
"Online Scheduling" by Pruhs, Sgall, and Torng \cite{PruhsST}, and we answer
the question in this paper. We show that \srpt is \emph{scalable} on
identical machines. That is, we show \srpt is (1+\eps)-speed
O(\frac{1}{\eps})-competitive for \eps >0. We complement this by showing
that \srpt is (1+\eps)-speed O(\frac{1}{\eps^2})-competitive for the
objective of minimizing the -norms of flow time on identical
machines. Both of our results rely on new potential functions that capture the
structure of \srpt. Our results, combined with previous work, show that \srpt
is the best possible online algorithm in essentially every aspect when
migration is permissible.Comment: Accepted for publication at SODA. This version fixes an error in a
preliminary versio
Online Scheduling on Identical Machines Using SRPT
Due to its optimality on a single machine for the problem of minimizing average flow time, Shortest-Remaining-Processing-Time (SRPT) appears to be the most natural algorithm to consider for the problem of minimizing average flow time on multiple identical machines. It is known that SRPT achieves the best possible competitive ratio on multiple machines up to a constant factor. Using resource augmentation, SRPT is known to achieve total flow time at most that of the optimal solution when given machines of speed . Further, it is known that SRPT's competitive ratio improves as the speed increases; SRPT is -speed -competitive when . However, a gap has persisted in our understanding of SRPT. Before this work, we did not know the performance of SRPT when given machines of speed 1+\eps for any 0 < \eps < 1 - 1/m.
We answer the question in this thesis. We show that SRPT is scalable on identical machines. That is, we show SRPT is (1+\eps)-speed O(1/\eps)-competitive for any \eps > 0. We also show that SRPT is (1+\eps)-speed O(1/\eps^2)-competitive for the objective of minimizing the norms of flow time on identical machines. Both of our results rely on new potential functions that capture the structure of SRPT. Our results, combined with previous work, show that SRPT is the best possible online algorithm in essentially every aspect when migration is permissible
Existence Theorems for Scheduling to Meet Two Objectives
We will look at the existence of schedules which are simultaneously near-optimal for two criteria. First,we will present some techniques for proving existence theorems,in a very general setting,for bicriterion scheduling problems. We will then use these techniques to prove existence theorems for a large class of problems. We will consider the relationship between objective functions based on completion time,flow time,lateness and the number of on-time jobs. We will also present negative results first for the problem of simultaneously minimizing the maximum flow time and average weighted flow time and second for minimizing the maximum flow time and simultaneously maximizing the number of on-time jobs. In some cases we will also present lower bounds and algorithms that approach our bicriterion existence theorems. Finally we will improve upon our general existence results in one more specific environment
Balancing SRPT and FCFS via Starvation Mitigation
In this paper, we balance two fundamental yet seemingly contradicting job
scheduling objectives, namely the average flow time and the maximum flow time.
Specifically, Shortest Remaining Processing Time (SRPT) minimizes the average
flow time but may lead to job starvation. In contrast, First-Come-First-Served
(FCFS) minimizes the maximum flow time but may result in poor average flow
time. A natural way to balance these two objectives is to minimize the
norm of flow time. For this problem, no online algorithm is known to achieve a
better competitive ratio than SRPT and FCFS.
It can be argued that SRPT and FCFS complement each other. To exploit this
complementary relationship, we mitigate the starvation caused by SRPT with the
help of FCFS. Specifically, when there are starving jobs, we process the job
that becomes starving first. The main question is: when should a job be viewed
as starving? If the timing is too early or too late, then the algorithm still
behaves like FCFS or SRPT, respectively. In this paper, we answer the above
question by estimating the number of jobs. Our algorithm significantly improves
upon SRPT and FCFS in terms of the competitive ratio for minimizing the
norm of flow time, even if the estimate is loose.Comment: 1. Introduction is rewritten. 2. Add Theorem 1.4 and numerical study.
3. The proposed algorithm and the proof of Theorem 1.5 are simplifie
Asymptotically Optimal Approximation Algorithms for Coflow Scheduling
Many modern datacenter applications involve large-scale computations composed
of multiple data flows that need to be completed over a shared set of
distributed resources. Such a computation completes when all of its flows
complete. A useful abstraction for modeling such scenarios is a {\em coflow},
which is a collection of flows (e.g., tasks, packets, data transmissions) that
all share the same performance goal.
In this paper, we present the first approximation algorithms for scheduling
coflows over general network topologies with the objective of minimizing total
weighted completion time. We consider two different models for coflows based on
the nature of individual flows: circuits, and packets. We design
constant-factor polynomial-time approximation algorithms for scheduling
packet-based coflows with or without given flow paths, and circuit-based
coflows with given flow paths. Furthermore, we give an -approximation polynomial time algorithm for scheduling circuit-based
coflows where flow paths are not given (here is the number of network
edges).
We obtain our results by developing a general framework for coflow schedules,
based on interval-indexed linear programs, which may extend to other coflow
models and objective functions and may also yield improved approximation bounds
for specific network scenarios. We also present an experimental evaluation of
our approach for circuit-based coflows that show a performance improvement of
at least 22% on average over competing heuristics.Comment: Fixed minor typo
Separable Concave Optimization Approximately Equals Piecewise-Linear Optimization
We study the problem of minimizing a nonnegative separable concave function
over a compact feasible set. We approximate this problem to within a factor of
1+epsilon by a piecewise-linear minimization problem over the same feasible
set. Our main result is that when the feasible set is a polyhedron, the number
of resulting pieces is polynomial in the input size of the polyhedron and
linear in 1/epsilon. For many practical concave cost problems, the resulting
piecewise-linear cost problem can be formulated as a well-studied discrete
optimization problem. As a result, a variety of polynomial-time exact
algorithms, approximation algorithms, and polynomial-time heuristics for
discrete optimization problems immediately yield fully polynomial-time
approximation schemes, approximation algorithms, and polynomial-time heuristics
for the corresponding concave cost problems.
We illustrate our approach on two problems. For the concave cost
multicommodity flow problem, we devise a new heuristic and study its
performance using computational experiments. We are able to approximately solve
significantly larger test instances than previously possible, and obtain
solutions on average within 4.27% of optimality. For the concave cost facility
location problem, we obtain a new 1.4991+epsilon approximation algorithm.Comment: Full pape
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