Ant colony optimization algorithm for dynamic scheduling of jobs in computational grid

Computational grid is gaining more importance due to the needs for large-scale computing capacity. In computational grid, job scheduling is one of the main factors affecting grid computing performance. Job scheduling problem is classified as an NP-hard problem.Such a problem can be solved only by using approximate algorithms such as heuristic and meta-heuristic algorithms.Among different optimization algorithms for job scheduling, ant colony system algorithm is a popular meta-heuristic algorithm which has the ability to solve different types of NP-hard problems.However, ant colony system algorithm has a deficiency in its heuristic function which affects the algorithm behavior in terms of finding the shortest connection between edges.This research focuses on a new heuristic function where information about recent ants’ discoveries has been considered.The new heuristic function has been integrated into the classical ant colony system algorithm.Furthermore, the enhanced algorithm has been implemented to solve the travelling salesman problem as well as in scheduling of jobs in computational grid.A simulator with dynamic environment feature to mimic real life application has been development to validate the proposed enhanced ant colony system algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed enhanced algorithm produced better output in term of utilization and makespan in both domains

Computational intelligence approaches to robotics, automation, and control [Volume guest editors]

No abstract available

An enhanced ant colony system algorithm for dynamic fault tolerance in grid computing

Fault tolerance in grid computing allows the system to continue operate despite occurrence of failure. Most fault tolerance algorithms focus on fault handling techniques such as task reprocessing, checkpointing, task replication, penalty, and task migration. Ant colony system (ACS), a variant of ant colony optimization (ACO), is one of the promising algorithms for fault tolerance due to its ability to adapt to both static and dynamic combinatorial optimization problems. However, ACS algorithm does not consider the resource fitness during task scheduling which leads to poor load balancing and lower execution success rate. This research proposes dynamic ACS fault tolerance with suspension (DAFTS) in grid computing that focuses on providing effective fault tolerance techniques to improve the execution success rate and load balancing. The proposed algorithm consists of dynamic evaporation rate, resource fitness-based scheduling process, enhanced pheromone update with trust factor and suspension, and checkpoint-based task reprocessing. The research framework consists of four phases which are identifying fault tolerance techniques, enhancing resource assignment and job scheduling, improving fault tolerance algorithm and, evaluating the performance of the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm was developed in a simulated grid environment called GridSim and evaluated against other fault tolerance algorithms such as trust-based ACO, fault tolerance ACO, ACO without fault tolerance and ACO with fault tolerance in terms of total execution time, average latency, average makespan, throughput, execution success rate and load balancing. Experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm achieved the best performance in most aspects, and second best in terms of load balancing. The DAFTS achieved the smallest increase on execution time, average makespan and average latency by 7%, 11% and 5% respectively, and smallest decrease on throughput and execution success rate by 6.49% and 9% respectively as the failure rate increases. The DAFTS also achieved the smallest increment on execution time, average makespan and average latency by 5.8, 8.5 and 8.7 times respectively, and highest increase on throughput and highest execution success rate by 72.9% and 93.7% respectively as the number of jobs increases. The proposed algorithm can effectively overcome load balancing problems and increase execution success rates in distributed systems that are prone to faults

New Swarm-Based Metaheuristics for Resource Allocation and Schwduling Problems

Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Departamento de Ingeniería Informática. Fecha de lectura : 10-07-2017Esta tesis tiene embargado el acceso al texto completo hasta el 10-01-201

Data-Intensive Computing in Smart Microgrids

Microgrids have recently emerged as the building block of a smart grid, combining distributed renewable energy sources, energy storage devices, and load management in order to improve power system reliability, enhance sustainable development, and reduce carbon emissions. At the same time, rapid advancements in sensor and metering technologies, wireless and network communication, as well as cloud and fog computing are leading to the collection and accumulation of large amounts of data (e.g., device status data, energy generation data, consumption data). The application of big data analysis techniques (e.g., forecasting, classification, clustering) on such data can optimize the power generation and operation in real time by accurately predicting electricity demands, discovering electricity consumption patterns, and developing dynamic pricing mechanisms. An efficient and intelligent analysis of the data will enable smart microgrids to detect and recover from failures quickly, respond to electricity demand swiftly, supply more reliable and economical energy, and enable customers to have more control over their energy use. Overall, data-intensive analytics can provide effective and efficient decision support for all of the producers, operators, customers, and regulators in smart microgrids, in order to achieve holistic smart energy management, including energy generation, transmission, distribution, and demand-side management. This book contains an assortment of relevant novel research contributions that provide real-world applications of data-intensive analytics in smart grids and contribute to the dissemination of new ideas in this area

From metaheuristics to learnheuristics: Applications to logistics, finance, and computing

Un gran nombre de processos de presa de decisions en sectors estratègics com el transport i la producció representen problemes NP-difícils. Sovint, aquests processos es caracteritzen per alts nivells d'incertesa i dinamisme. Les metaheurístiques són mètodes populars per a resoldre problemes d'optimització difícils en temps de càlcul raonables. No obstant això, sovint assumeixen que els inputs, les funcions objectiu, i les restriccions són deterministes i conegudes. Aquests constitueixen supòsits forts que obliguen a treballar amb problemes simplificats. Com a conseqüència, les solucions poden conduir a resultats pobres. Les simheurístiques integren la simulació a les metaheurístiques per resoldre problemes estocàstics d'una manera natural. Anàlogament, les learnheurístiques combinen l'estadística amb les metaheurístiques per fer front a problemes en entorns dinàmics, en què els inputs poden dependre de l'estructura de la solució. En aquest context, les principals contribucions d'aquesta tesi són: el disseny de les learnheurístiques, una classificació dels treballs que combinen l'estadística / l'aprenentatge automàtic i les metaheurístiques, i diverses aplicacions en transport, producció, finances i computació.Un gran número de procesos de toma de decisiones en sectores estratégicos como el transporte y la producción representan problemas NP-difíciles. Frecuentemente, estos problemas se caracterizan por altos niveles de incertidumbre y dinamismo. Las metaheurísticas son métodos populares para resolver problemas difíciles de optimización de manera rápida. Sin embargo, suelen asumir que los inputs, las funciones objetivo y las restricciones son deterministas y se conocen de antemano. Estas fuertes suposiciones conducen a trabajar con problemas simplificados. Como consecuencia, las soluciones obtenidas pueden tener un pobre rendimiento. Las simheurísticas integran simulación en metaheurísticas para resolver problemas estocásticos de una manera natural. De manera similar, las learnheurísticas combinan aprendizaje estadístico y metaheurísticas para abordar problemas en entornos dinámicos, donde los inputs pueden depender de la estructura de la solución. En este contexto, las principales aportaciones de esta tesis son: el diseño de las learnheurísticas, una clasificación de trabajos que combinan estadística / aprendizaje automático y metaheurísticas, y varias aplicaciones en transporte, producción, finanzas y computación.A large number of decision-making processes in strategic sectors such as transport and production involve NP-hard problems, which are frequently characterized by high levels of uncertainty and dynamism. Metaheuristics have become the predominant method for solving challenging optimization problems in reasonable computing times. However, they frequently assume that inputs, objective functions and constraints are deterministic and known in advance. These strong assumptions lead to work on oversimplified problems, and the solutions may demonstrate poor performance when implemented. Simheuristics, in turn, integrate simulation into metaheuristics as a way to naturally solve stochastic problems, and, in a similar fashion, learnheuristics combine statistical learning and metaheuristics to tackle problems in dynamic environments, where inputs may depend on the structure of the solution. The main contributions of this thesis include (i) a design for learnheuristics; (ii) a classification of works that hybridize statistical and machine learning and metaheuristics; and (iii) several applications for the fields of transport, production, finance and computing

A Unified Framework for Solving Multiagent Task Assignment Problems

Multiagent task assignment problem descriptors do not fully represent the complex interactions in a multiagent domain, and algorithmic solutions vary widely depending on how the domain is represented. This issue is compounded as related research fields contain descriptors that similarly describe multiagent task assignment problems, including complex domain interactions, but generally do not provide the mechanisms needed to solve the multiagent aspect of task assignment. This research presents a unified approach to representing and solving the multiagent task assignment problem for complex problem domains. Ideas central to multiagent task allocation, project scheduling, constraint satisfaction, and coalition formation are combined to form the basis of the constrained multiagent task scheduling (CMTS) problem. Basic analysis reveals the exponential size of the solution space for a CMTS problem, approximated by O(2n(m+n)) based on the number of agents and tasks involved in a problem. The shape of the solution space is shown to contain numerous discontinuous regions due to the complexities involved in relational constraints defined between agents and tasks. The CMTS descriptor represents a wide range of classical and modern problems, such as job shop scheduling, the traveling salesman problem, vehicle routing, and cooperative multi-object tracking. Problems using the CMTS representation are solvable by a suite of algorithms, with varying degrees of suitability. Solution generating methods range from simple random scheduling to state-of-the-art biologically inspired approaches. Techniques from classical task assignment solvers are extended to handle multiagent task problems where agents can also multitask. Additional ideas are incorporated from constraint satisfaction, project scheduling, evolutionary algorithms, dynamic coalition formation, auctioning, and behavior-based robotics to highlight how different solution generation strategies apply to the complex problem space

Scheduling Stochastic Multi-Stage Jobs to Elastic Hybrid Cloud Resources

[EN] We consider a special workflow scheduling problem in a hybrid-cloud-based workflow management system in which tasks are linearly dependent, compute-intensive, stochastic, deadline-constrained and executed on elastic and distributed cloud resources. This kind of problems closely resemble many real-time and workflow-based applications. Three optimization objectives are explored: number, usage time and utilization of rented VMs. An iterated heuristic framework is presented to schedule jobs event by event which mainly consists of job collecting and event scheduling. Two job collecting strategies are proposed and two timetabling methods are developed. The proposed methods are calibrated through detailed designs of experiments and sound statistical techniques. With the calibrated components and parameters, the proposed algorithm is compared to existing methods for related problems. Experimental results show that the proposal is robust and effective for the problems under study.This work is sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundations of China (Nos. 71401079, 61572127, 61472192), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2017YFB1400801) and the Collaborative Innovation Center of Wireless Communications Technology. Ruben Ruiz is partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, under the project "SCHEYARD-Optimization of Scheduling Problems in Container Yards" (No. DPI2015-65895-R) financed by FEDER funds.Zhu, J.; Li, X.; Ruiz García, R.; Xu, X. (2018). Scheduling Stochastic Multi-Stage Jobs to Elastic Hybrid Cloud Resources. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems. 29(6):1401-1415. https://doi.org/10.1109/TPDS.2018.2793254S1401141529