30,840 research outputs found
Overcommitment in Cloud Services -- Bin packing with Chance Constraints
This paper considers a traditional problem of resource allocation, scheduling
jobs on machines. One such recent application is cloud computing, where jobs
arrive in an online fashion with capacity requirements and need to be
immediately scheduled on physical machines in data centers. It is often
observed that the requested capacities are not fully utilized, hence offering
an opportunity to employ an overcommitment policy, i.e., selling resources
beyond capacity. Setting the right overcommitment level can induce a
significant cost reduction for the cloud provider, while only inducing a very
low risk of violating capacity constraints. We introduce and study a model that
quantifies the value of overcommitment by modeling the problem as a bin packing
with chance constraints. We then propose an alternative formulation that
transforms each chance constraint into a submodular function. We show that our
model captures the risk pooling effect and can guide scheduling and
overcommitment decisions. We also develop a family of online algorithms that
are intuitive, easy to implement and provide a constant factor guarantee from
optimal. Finally, we calibrate our model using realistic workload data, and
test our approach in a practical setting. Our analysis and experiments
illustrate the benefit of overcommitment in cloud services, and suggest a cost
reduction of 1.5% to 17% depending on the provider's risk tolerance
Heuristic Solutions for Loading in Flexible Manufacturing Systems
Production planning in flexible manufacturing system deals with the efficient organization of the production resources in order to meet a given production schedule. It is a complex problem and typically leads to several hierarchical subproblems that need to be solved sequentially or simultaneously. Loading is one of the planning subproblems that has to addressed. It involves assigning the necessary operations and tools among the various machines in some optimal fashion to achieve the production of all selected part types. In this paper, we first formulate the loading problem as a 0-1 mixed integer program and then propose heuristic procedures based on Lagrangian relaxation and tabu search to solve the problem. Computational results are presented for all the algorithms and finally, conclusions drawn based on the results are discussed
The Project Scheduling Problem with Non-Deterministic Activities Duration: A Literature Review
Purpose: The goal of this article is to provide an extensive literature review of the models and solution procedures proposed by many researchers interested on the Project Scheduling Problem with nondeterministic activities duration. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents an exhaustive literature review, identifying the existing models where the activities duration were taken as uncertain or random parameters. In order to get published articles since 1996, was employed the Scopus database. The articles were selected on the basis of reviews of abstracts, methodologies, and conclusions. The results were classified according to following characteristics: year of publication, mathematical representation of the activities duration, solution techniques applied, and type of problem solved. Findings: Genetic Algorithms (GA) was pointed out as the main solution technique employed by researchers, and the Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP) as the most studied type of problem. On the other hand, the application of new solution techniques, and the possibility of incorporating traditional methods into new PSP variants was presented as research trends. Originality/value: This literature review contents not only a descriptive analysis of the published articles but also a statistical information section in order to examine the state of the research activity carried out in relation to the Project Scheduling Problem with non-deterministic activities duration.Peer Reviewe
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