HEART: Unrelated parallel machines problem with precedence constraints for task scheduling in cloud computing using heuristic and meta-heuristic algorithms

Cloud computing is becoming a profitable technology because of it offers cost-effective IT solutions globally. A well-designed task scheduling algorithm ensures the optimal utilization of clouds resources and reducing execution time dynamically. This research article deals with the task scheduling of inter-dependent subtasks on unrelated parallel computing machines in a cloud computing environment. This article considers two variants of the problem-based on two different objective function values. The first variant considers the minimization of the total completion time objective function while the second variant considers the minimization of the makespan objective function. Heuristic and meta-heuristic (HEART) based algorithms are proposed to solve the task scheduling problems. These algorithms utilize the property of list scheduling algorithm of unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem. A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulation has been provided for the two variants of the problem. The optimal solution is obtained by solving MILP formulation using A Mathematical Programming Language (AMPL) software. Extensive numerical experiments have been performed to evaluate the performance of proposed algorithms. The solutions obtained by the proposed algorithms are found to out-perform the existing algorithms. The proposed algorithms can be used by cloud computing service providers (CCSPs) for enhancing their resources utilization to reduce their operating cost.     

Hybrid whale optimization algorithm enhanced with Lévy flight and differential evolution for job shop scheduling problems

The job shop scheduling problem (JSSP) has been a hot issue in manufacturing. For the past few decades, scholars have been attracted to research JSSP and proposed many novel meta-heuristic algorithms to solve it. Whale optimization algorithm (WOA) is such a novel meta-heuristic algorithm and has been proven to be efficient in solving real-world optimization problems in the literature. This paper proposes a hybrid WOA enhanced with Lévy flight and differential evolution (WOA-LFDE) to solve JSSP. By changing the expression of Lévy flight and DE search strategy, Lévy flight enhances the abilities of global search and convergence of WOA in iteration, while DE algorithm improves the exploitation and local search capabilities of WOA and keeps the diversity of solutions to escape local optima. It is then applied to solve 88 JSSP benchmark instances and compared with other state-of-art algorithms. The experimental results and statistical analysis show that the proposed algorithm has superior performance over contesting algorithms.     

A parallel membrane inspired harmony search for optimization problems: A case study based on a flexible job shop scheduling problem

Harmony search is an emerging meta-heuristic optimization algorithm that is inspired by musical improvisation processes, and it can solve various optimization problems. Membrane computing is a distributed and parallel model for solving hard optimization problems. First, we employed some previously proposed approaches to improve standard harmony search by allowing its parameters to be adaptive during the processing steps. Information from the best solutions was used to improve the speed of convergence while preventing premature convergence to a local minimum. Second, we introduced a parallel framework based on membrane computing to improve the harmony search. Our approach utilized the parallel membrane computing model to execute parallelized harmony search efficiently on different cores, where the membrane computing communication characteristics were used to exchange information between the solutions on different cores, thereby increasing the diversity of harmony search and improving the performance of harmony search. Our simulation results showed that the application of the proposed approach to different variants of harmony search yielded better performance than previous approaches. Furthermore, we applied the parallel membrane inspired harmony search to the flexible job shop scheduling problem. Experiments using well-known benchmark instances showed the effectiveness of the algorithm.     

Scheduling task graphs optimally with A*

Scheduling tasks onto the processors of a parallel system is a crucial part of program parallelisation. Due to the NP-hard nature of the task scheduling problem, scheduling algorithms are based on heuristics that try to produce good rather than optimal schedules. Nevertheless, in certain situations it is desirable to have optimal schedules, for example for time-critical systems or to evaluate scheduling heuristics. This paper investigates the task scheduling problem using the A* search algorithm which is a best-first state space search. The adaptation of the A* search algorithm for the task scheduling problem is referred to as the A* scheduling algorithm. The A* scheduling algorithm can produce optimal schedules in reasonable time for small to medium sized task graphs with several tens of nodes. In comparison to a previous approach, the here presented A* scheduling algorithm has a significantly reduced search space due to a much improved consistent and admissible cost function f(s) and additional pruning techniques. Experimental results show that the cost function and the various pruning techniques are very effective for the workload. Last but not least, the results show that the proposed A* scheduling algorithm significantly outperforms the previous approach.     

Earliness–tardiness minimization on a single machine to schedule preventive maintenance tasks: metaheuristic and exact methods

In this paper, we consider the problem of scheduling a set of M preventive maintenance tasks to be performed on M machines. The machines are assigned to execute production tasks. We aim to minimize the total preventive maintenance cost such that the maintenance tasks have to continuously be run during the schedule horizon. Such a constraint holds when the maintenance resources are not sufficient. We solve the problem by two exact methods and meta-heuristic algorithms. As exact procedures we used linear programming and branch and bound methods. As meta-heuristics, we propose a local search approach as well as a genetic algorithm. Computational experiments are performed on randomly generated instances to show that the proposed methods produce appropriate solutions for the problem. The computational results show that the deviation of the meta-heuristics solutions to the optimal one is very small, which confirms the effectiveness of meta-heuristics as new approaches for solving hard scheduling problems.     

An ant colony-based algorithm for integrated scheduling on batch machines with non-identical capacities

In this paper, a production–distribution scheduling problem with non-identical batch machines and multiple vehicles is considered. In the production stage, n jobs are grouped into batches, which are processed on m parallel non-identical batch machines. In the distribution stage, there are multiple vehicles with identical capacities to deliver jobs to customers after the jobs are processed. The objective is to minimize the total weighted tardiness of the jobs. Considering the NP-hardness of the studied problem, an algorithm based on ant colony optimization is presented. A new local optimization strategy called LOC is proposed to improve the local exploitation ability of the algorithm and further search the neighborhood solution to improve the quality of the solution. Moreover, two interval candidate lists are proposed to reduce the search for the feasible solution space and improve the search speed. Furthermore, three objective-oriented heuristics are developed to accelerate the convergence of the algorithm. To verify the performance of the proposed algorithm, extensive experiments are carried out. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can provide better solutions than the state-of-the-art algorithms within a reasonable time.

     

求解动态车辆调度问题的混合禁忌搜索算法

对带时间窗的动态车辆调度问题进行分析,引入虚拟点和时间轴概念,建立基于时间轴的动态车辆调度模型,并提出基于C-W节约法和禁忌搜索的混合禁忌搜索算法进行求解.算法中使用动态方法构造候选解和动态禁忌长度的选取策略来提高算法的收敛速度,最后通过测试实例验证了该混合算法解决动态车辆调度问题的有效性和可行性.     

Unrelated parallel machine scheduling with setup times using simulated annealing

This paper presents a scheduling problem for unrelated parallel machines with sequence-dependent setup times, using simulated annealing (SA). The problem accounts for allotting work parts of L jobs into M parallel unrelated machines, where a job refers to a lot composed of N items. Some jobs may have different items while every item within each job has an identical processing time with a common due date. Each machine has its own processing times according to the characteristics of the machine as well as job types. Setup times are machine independent but job sequence dependent. SA, a meta-heuristic, is employed in this study to determine a scheduling policy so as to minimize total tardiness. The suggested SA method utilizes six job or item rearranging techniques to generate neighborhood solutions. The experimental analysis shows that the proposed SA method significantly outperforms a neighborhood search method in terms of total tardiness.     

Markowitz-based portfolio selection with cardinality constraints using improved particle swarm optimization

This work presents particle swarm optimization (PSO), a collaborative population-based meta-heuristic algorithm for solving the Cardinality Constraints Markowitz Portfolio Optimization problem (CCMPO problem). To our knowledge, an efficient algorithmic solution for this nonlinear mixed quadratic programming problem has not been proposed until now. Using heuristic algorithms in this case is imperative. To solve the CCMPO problem, the proposed improved PSO increases exploration in the initial search steps and improves convergence speed in the final search steps. Numerical solutions are obtained for five analyses of weekly price data for the following indices for the period March, 1992 to September, 1997: Hang Seng 31 in Hong Kong, DAX 100 in Germany, FTSE 100 in UK, S&P 100 in USA and Nikkei 225 in Japan. The test results indicate that the proposed PSO is much more robust and effective than existing PSO algorithms, especially for low-risk investment portfolios. In most cases, the PSO outperformed genetic algorithm (GA), simulated annealing (SA), and tabu search (TS).     

基于粒子群优化的异构多处理器任务调度算法

为提高异构多处理器任务调度的执行效率,充分发挥多处理器并行性能,提出一种基于粒子群优化的异构多处理器任务调度算法——FPSOTTS算法。该算法以求得任务最短完成时间为目标,首先通过建立新的编码方式和粒子更新公式实现粒子搜索空间到离散空间的映射,使连续的粒子群优化算法适用于离散的异构多处理器任务调度问题;同时通过引入禁忌算法进行局部搜索,克服粒子群算法的早熟收敛现象,避免陷入局部最优。实验结果表明,FPSOTTS算法的执行效率优于Min-min算法和遗传算法,有效地降低任务的执行时间。FP-SOTTS算法很好地解决了异构多处理器任务调度问题,并且适合于大规模并行任务调度。     

一种基于Levy飞行的改进蝗虫优化算法

蝗虫优化算法是一种元启发式优化算法,能够用于解决任务调度问题。已有的改进蝗虫优化算法缺乏随机性,跳出局部最优的能力较弱,改进效果不够显著。针对这一问题,本文提出一种基于Levy飞行的改进蝗虫优化算法（LBGOA）。该算法引入基于Levy飞行的局部搜索机制增强算法的随机性,并采用基于线性递减参数的随机跳出策略来提高算法跳出局部最优的能力。CEC测试实验结果表明,所提出的算法拥有较强的搜索能力,在30个测试函数结果中能够获得17个最优解和6个次优解。将所提出的改进算法应用于边缘计算中的任务调度问题。任务调度仿真实验结果表明,所提出的算法能够有效提高搜索效果,相比GOA、OBLGOA、WOA、ALO、DA和PSO算法,LBGOA的搜索效果分别提升7.4%、7.5%、4.8%、27.7%、29.9%和20.7%。     

装备精确保障任务规划建模与混沌蝙蝠算法求解

针对装备精确保障任务规划中任务时序逻辑约束和资源占用冲突等问题,建立以时效优先为目标的数学模型,提出基于多维动态列表规划和混沌蝙蝠算法的混合任务规划方法.通过多维动态列表规划选择处理的任务,设计具有自适应搜索策略和变异操作的离散混沌蝙蝠算法,为选定的任务分配资源.全局搜索中自适应调整惯性权重和学习因子以达到探索与开发能力的最佳平衡,局部搜索中采用混沌变异操作以协助种群跳出局部最优.仿真算例表明,所提出算法具有较快的收敛速度和较高的求解精度.     

A hybrid particle swarm optimization for a university course scheduling problem with flexible preferences

The timetabling problem at universities is an NP-hard problem concerned with instructor assignments and class scheduling under multiple constraints and limited resources. A novel meta-heuristic algorithm that is based on the principles of particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed for course scheduling problem. The algorithm includes some features: designing an ‘absolute position value’ representation for the particle; allowing instructors that they are willing to lecture based on flexible preferences, such as their preferred days and time periods, the maximum number of teaching-free time periods and the lecturing format (consecutive time periods or separated into different time periods); and employing a repair process for all infeasible timetables. Furthermore, in the original PSO algorithm, particles search solutions in a continuous solution space. Since the solution space of the course scheduling problem is discrete, a local search mechanism is incorporated into the proposed PSO in order to explore a better solution improvement. The algorithms were tested using the timetabling data from a typical university in Taiwan. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed hybrid algorithm yields an efficient solution with an optimal satisfaction of course scheduling for instructors and class scheduling arrangements. This hybrid algorithm also outperforms the genetic algorithm proposed in the literature.     

Fitness rate-based rider optimization enabled for optimal task scheduling in cloud

ABSTRACT

Not long ago, there has been a dramatic augment in the attractiveness of cloud computing systems that depends computing resources on-demand, bill on a pay-as-you-go basis, and multiplex many users on the same physical infrastructure. It is considered as an essential pool of resources, which are offered to users through Internet. Without troubling the fundamental infrastructure, pay-per-use computing resources are provided to the users by the cloud computing technology. Scheduling is a significant dilemma in cloud computing as a cloud provider has to serve multiple users in cloud environment. This proposal plans to implement an optimal task scheduling model in cloud sector as a challenge over the existing technologies. The proposed model solves the task scheduling problem using an improved meta-heuristic algorithm called Fitness Rate-based Rider Optimization Algorithm (FR-ROA), which is the advanced form of conventional Rider Optimization Algorithm (ROA). The objective constraints considered for optimal task scheduling are the maximum makespan or completion time, and the sum of the completion times of entire tasks. Since the proposed FR-ROA has attained the advantageous part of reaching the convergence in a small duration, the proposed model will outperform the other conventional algorithms for accomplishing the optimal task scheduling in cloud environment.     

基于并行强化学习的云机器人任务调度策略

为了解决机器人完成大规模状态空间强化学习任务时收敛慢的问题，提出一种基于优先级的并行强化学习任务调度策略。首先，证明Q学习在异步并行计算模式下的收敛性；然后，将复杂问题根据状态空间进行分割，调度中心根据所提策略将子问题和计算节点匹配，各计算节点完成子问题的强化学习任务并向调度中心反馈结果，实现在计算机集群中的并行强化学习；最后，以CloudSim为软件基础搭建实验环境，求解最优步长、折扣率和子问题规模等参数，并通过对实际问题求解证明在不同计算节点数的情况下所提策略的性能。在使用64个计算节点的情况下所提策略相比轮询调度和随机调度的效率分别提升了61%和86%。实验结果表明，该策略在并行计算情况下有效提高了收敛速度，并进一步验证了该策略得到百万级状态空间控制问题的最优策略需要约1.6×10⁵ s。     

Enhanced grey wolf optimizer with a model for dynamically estimating the location of the prey

Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) is a new meta-heuristic inspired by the hunting behavior of grey wolves. Our findings reveal that the optimizer has a strong search bias towards the origin of the coordinate system. In this article, a more realistic model is proposed to mimic the leadership hierarchy and group hunting mechanism of grey wolves in nature. In the innovative model, the location of the prey is dynamically estimated by leader wolves and each wolf is directly moving towards the estimated location of the prey. The proposed algorithm is compared with the original grey wolf optimizer and its recent variants on the CEC2017 test suite. The experimental results indicate that the enhanced optimizer significantly outperforms the original version and recent variants in terms of the convergence speed and the quality of solution found. The proposed algorithm also achieves the best solutions in solving two real engineering optimization problems at a lower computation cost.     

Improved butterfly optimisation algorithm based on guiding weight and population restart

ABSTRACT

Butterfly Optimisation Algorithm (BOA) is a kind of meta-heuristic swarm intelligence algorithm based on butterfly foraging strategy, but it still needs to be improved in the aspects of convergence speed and accuracy when solving with high-dimensional optimisation problems. In this paper, an improved butterfly optimisation algorithm is proposed, in which guiding weight and population restart strategy are applied to the original algorithm. By adding guiding weight to the global search equation, the convergence speed and accuracy of the algorithm are improved, and the possibility of jumping out of the local optimal solution is increased by the population restart strategy. In order to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm, 24 benchmark functions commonly used for optimisation algorithm experiments are applied in this paper, including 12 unimodal functions and 12 multimodal functions. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm improves the convergence speed, accuracy and the ability to jump out of the local optimal solution.     

A comparative study of heuristic algorithms on Economic Lot Scheduling Problem

The Economic Lot Scheduling Problem (ELSP) has been well-researched for more than 40 years. As the ELSP has been generally seen as NP-hard, researchers have focused on the development of efficient heuristic approaches. In this paper, we consider the time-varying lot size approach to solve the ELSP. A computational study of the existing solution algorithms, Dobson’s heuristic, Hybrid Genetic algorithm, Neighborhood Search heuristics, Tabu Search and the newly proposed Simulated Annealing algorithm are presented. The reviewed methods are first tested on two well-known problems, those of Bomberger’s [Bomberger, E. E. (1966). A dynamic programming approach to a lot size scheduling problem. Management Science 12, 778–784] and Mallya’s [Mallya, R (1992). Multi-product scheduling on a single machine: A case study. OMEGA: International Journal of Management Science 20, 529–534] problems. We show the Simulated Annealing algorithm finds the best known solution to these problems. A similar comparison study is performed on various problem sets previously suggested in the literature. The results show that the Simulated Annealing algorithm outperforms Dobson’s heuristic, Hybrid Genetic algorithm and Neighborhood search heuristics on these problem sets. The Simulated Annealing algorithm also shows faster convergence than the best known Tabu Search algorithm, yet results in solutions of a similar quality. Finally, we report the results of the design of experiment study which compares the robustness of the mentioned meta-heuristic techniques.     

带固定半径近邻搜索3-opt的离散烟花算法求解旅行商问题

传统烟花算法求解大规模离散问题存在收敛速度慢、求解精度不高等问题.针对旅行商问题的特点,提出一种带固定半径近邻搜索3-opt的离散烟花算法.该算法基于基本烟花算法进行离散化改进,采用整数编码的路径表示方法来表示旅行商问题的解,对爆炸算子、高斯变异算子进行离散化操作策略设计.为了使算法具有较好的局部搜索能力,提出固定半径近邻搜索3-opt策略来提高算法精度和收敛速度,同时采用不检测标志策略提高算法效率.实验结果表明:该算法能有效地求解旅行商问题,其离散烟花算子在全局收敛能力、收敛精度、求解时间和稳定性等方面均优于传统烟花算子;基准测试算例的最优解平均误差率仅为0.002％,优于对比算法.     

求解0/1背包问题的改进人工鱼群算法研究

分析了人工鱼群算法求解组合优化问题的不足,提出一种改进人工鱼群算法。该算法针对背包问题的特点,采用随机键方法对待装载物品进行编码,利用物品的单位价值（价值-质量比）启发式信息进行解码,直接在编码空间上模拟人工鱼行为。使用优质解随机游走寻优、优质解保留劣质解被替换和劣质解随机游走寻优三个更新算子来改善人工鱼群的全局搜索能力。通过实例进行了算法测试和比较。算法测试表明：改进后的人工鱼群算法提高了收敛速度,增强了全局搜索能力。