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Scheduling reentrant jobs on parallel machines with a remote server
This paper explores a specific combinatorial problem relating to re-entrant jobs on parallel primary machines, with a remote server machine. A middle operation is required by each job on the server before it returns to its primary processing machine. The problem is inspired by the logistics of a semi-automated micro-biology laboratory. The testing programme in the laboratory corresponds roughly to a hybrid flowshop, whose bottleneck stage is the subject of study. We demonstrate the NP-hard nature of the problem, and provide various structural features. A heuristic is developed and tested on randomly generated benchmark data. Results indicate solutions reliably within 1.5% of optimum. We also provide a greedy 2-approximation algorithm. Test on real-life data from the microbiology laboratory indicate a 20% saving relative to current practice, which is more than can be achieved currently with 3 instead of 2 people staffing the primary machines
A survey of scheduling problems with setup times or costs
Author name used in this publication: C. T. NgAuthor name used in this publication: T. C. E. Cheng2007-2008 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAccepted ManuscriptPublishe
DCCast: Efficient Point to Multipoint Transfers Across Datacenters
Using multiple datacenters allows for higher availability, load balancing and
reduced latency to customers of cloud services. To distribute multiple copies
of data, cloud providers depend on inter-datacenter WANs that ought to be used
efficiently considering their limited capacity and the ever-increasing data
demands. In this paper, we focus on applications that transfer objects from one
datacenter to several datacenters over dedicated inter-datacenter networks. We
present DCCast, a centralized Point to Multi-Point (P2MP) algorithm that uses
forwarding trees to efficiently deliver an object from a source datacenter to
required destination datacenters. With low computational overhead, DCCast
selects forwarding trees that minimize bandwidth usage and balance load across
all links. With simulation experiments on Google's GScale network, we show that
DCCast can reduce total bandwidth usage and tail Transfer Completion Times
(TCT) by up to compared to delivering the same objects via independent
point-to-point (P2P) transfers.Comment: 9th USENIX Workshop on Hot Topics in Cloud Computing,
https://www.usenix.org/conference/hotcloud17/program/presentation/noormohammadpou
Split Scheduling with Uniform Setup Times
We study a scheduling problem in which jobs may be split into parts, where
the parts of a split job may be processed simultaneously on more than one
machine. Each part of a job requires a setup time, however, on the machine
where the job part is processed. During setup a machine cannot process or set
up any other job. We concentrate on the basic case in which setup times are
job-, machine-, and sequence-independent. Problems of this kind were
encountered when modelling practical problems in planning disaster relief
operations. Our main algorithmic result is a polynomial-time algorithm for
minimising total completion time on two parallel identical machines. We argue
why the same problem with three machines is not an easy extension of the
two-machine case, leaving the complexity of this case as a tantalising open
problem. We give a constant-factor approximation algorithm for the general case
with any number of machines and a polynomial-time approximation scheme for a
fixed number of machines. For the version with objective minimising weighted
total completion time we prove NP-hardness. Finally, we conclude with an
overview of the state of the art for other split scheduling problems with job-,
machine-, and sequence-independent setup times
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