Task Scheduling Using Hamming Particle Swarm Optimization in Distributed Systems

An efficient allocation of tasks to the processors is a crucial problem in heterogeneous computing systems. Finding an optimal schedule for such an environment is an NP-complete problem. Near optimal solutions are obtained within a finite duration using heuristics/meta-heuristics are used instead of exact optimization methods. Heuristics and meta-heuristics are the efficient technologies for scheduling tasks in distributed environment because of their ability to deliver high quality solutions in a reasonable time. Discrete Particle Swarm Optimization (DPSO) is a newly developed meta-heuristic computation technique. To enhance the final accuracy and improve the convergence speed of DPSO, this paper presents a modified DPSO algorithm by adjusting its inertia weight based on Hamming distance and also makes a dependency between the two random parameters r_1 and r_2 to control the balance of individual's and collective information in the velocity updating equation. Three criteria such as make span, mean flow time and reliability cost are used to assess the efficiency of the proposed DPSO algorithm for scheduling independent tasks on heterogeneous computing systems. Computational simulations are performed based on a set of benchmark instances to evaluate the performance of the proposed DPSO algorithm compared to existing methods

Feedback and time are essential for the optimal control of computing systems

The performance, reliability, cost, size and energy usage of computing systems can be improved by one or more orders of magnitude by the systematic use of modern control and optimization methods. Computing systems rely on the use of feedback algorithms to schedule tasks, data and resources, but the models that are used to design these algorithms are validated using open-loop metrics. By using closed-loop metrics instead, such as the gap metric developed in the control community, it should be possible to develop improved scheduling algorithms and computing systems that have not been over-engineered. Furthermore, scheduling problems are most naturally formulated as constraint satisfaction or mathematical optimization problems, but these are seldom implemented using state of the art numerical methods, nor do they explicitly take into account the fact that the scheduling problem itself takes time to solve. This paper makes the case that recent results in real-time model predictive control, where optimization problems are solved in order to control a process that evolves in time, are likely to form the basis of scheduling algorithms of the future. We therefore outline some of the research problems and opportunities that could arise by explicitly considering feedback and time when designing optimal scheduling algorithms for computing systems

Cloud computing resource scheduling and a survey of its evolutionary approaches

A disruptive technology fundamentally transforming the way that computing services are delivered, cloud computing offers information and communication technology users a new dimension of convenience of resources, as services via the Internet. Because cloud provides a finite pool of virtualized on-demand resources, optimally scheduling them has become an essential and rewarding topic, where a trend of using Evolutionary Computation (EC) algorithms is emerging rapidly. Through analyzing the cloud computing architecture, this survey first presents taxonomy at two levels of scheduling cloud resources. It then paints a landscape of the scheduling problem and solutions. According to the taxonomy, a comprehensive survey of state-of-the-art approaches is presented systematically. Looking forward, challenges and potential future research directions are investigated and invited, including real-time scheduling, adaptive dynamic scheduling, large-scale scheduling, multiobjective scheduling, and distributed and parallel scheduling. At the dawn of Industry 4.0, cloud computing scheduling for cyber-physical integration with the presence of big data is also discussed. Research in this area is only in its infancy, but with the rapid fusion of information and data technology, more exciting and agenda-setting topics are likely to emerge on the horizon