Optimal scheduling of cooperative tasks in a distributed systemusing an enumerative method

Preemptive (resume) scheduling of cooperative tasks that have been preassigned to a set of processing nodes in a distributed system, when each task is assumed to consist of several modules is discussed. During the course of their execution, the tasks communicate with each other to collectively accomplish a common goal. Such intertask communications lead to precedence constraints between the modules of different tasks. The objective of this scheduling is to minimize the maximum normalized task response time, called the system hazard. Real-time tasks and the precedence constraints among them are expressed in a PERT/CPM form with activity on arc (AOA), called the task graph (TG), in which the dominance relationship between simultaneously schedulable modules is derived and used to reduce the size of the set of active schedules to be searched for an optimal schedule. Lower-bound costs are estimated, and are used to bound the search. An example of the task scheduling problem and some computational experiences are presented     

Combined task and message scheduling in distributed real-timesystems

The paper presents an algorithm for offline scheduling of communicating tasks with precedence and exclusion constraints in distributed hard real time systems. Tasks are assumed to communicate via message passing based on a time bounded communication paradigm, such as the real time channel (D.D. Kandlur et al., 1994). The algorithm uses a branch-and-bound (B & B) technique to search for a task schedule by minimizing maximum task lateness (defined as the difference between task completion time and task deadline), and exploits the interplay between task and message scheduling to improve the quality of solution. It generates a complete schedule at each vertex in the search tree, and can be made to yield a feasible schedule (found before reaching an optimal solution), or proceed until an optimal task schedule is found. We have conducted an extensive simulation study to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The algorithm is shown to scale well with respect to system size and degree of intertask interactions. It also offers good performance for workloads with a wide range of CPU utilizations and application concurrency. For larger systems and higher loads, we introduce a greedy heuristic that is faster but has no optimality properties. We have also extended the algorithm to a more general resource-constraint model, thus widening its application domain     

Task allocation for maximizing reliability of distributed computing systems using honeybee mating optimization

This paper deals with the problem of task allocation (i.e., to which processor should each task of an application be assigned) in heterogeneous distributed computing systems with the goal of maximizing the system reliability. The problem of finding an optimal task allocation is known to be NP-hard in the strong sense. We propose a new swarm intelligence technique based on the honeybee mating optimization (HBMO) algorithm for this problem. The HBMO based approach combines the power of simulated annealing, genetic algorithms with a fast problem specific local search heuristic to find the best possible solution within a reasonable computation time. We study the performance of the algorithm over a wide range of parameters such as the number of tasks, the number of processors, the ratio of average communication time to average computation time, and task interaction density of applications. The effectiveness and efficiency of our algorithm are demonstrated by comparing it with recently proposed task allocation algorithms for maximizing system reliability available in the literature.     

基于改进PSO算法的机动通信保障任务分配方法

针对机动通信保障问题建立任务分配模型,结合梯度下降法提出一种基于改进粒子群算法(TSPSO)的任务分配模型求解方法.在TSPSO算法中增加判断极值陷阱、粒子二次搜索、设定禁忌区域、粒子淘汰与生成4个部分,并将TSPSO算法与其他4种改进PSO算法应用于四种典型测试函数的优化.结果表明,TSPSO算法收敛精度更高、收敛速度更快.在基于TSPSO算法的任务分配模型求解方法中,基于各机动通信保障单元到不同通信地点分配概率的思想对粒子群进行编码和解码,提高模型求解效率.仿真结果表明,TSPSO算法能够快速寻找到机动通信保障任务最优分配方案.     

Allocation and scheduling of precedence-related periodic tasks

This paper discusses a static algorithm for allocating and scheduling components of periodic tasks across sites in distributed systems. Besides dealing with the periodicity constraints, (which have been the sole concern of many previous algorithms), this algorithm handles precedence, communication, as well as replication requirements of subtasks of the tasks. The algorithm determines the allocation of subtasks of periodic tasks to sites, the scheduled start times of subtasks allocated to a site, and the schedule for communication along the communication channel(s). Simulation results show that the heuristics and search techniques incorporated in the algorithm are very effective     

同构型分布式计算机系统的启发式任务分配算法

本文讨论一种启发式任务分配方法，称之为改进的ｌｉｓｔ分配方法，它适用于分配一组具有先后关系和通信延迟的任务集到同构型分布式计算机系统上。文中描述了此分配方法的原理和算法，给出相应的仿真流程图，并对具有不同拓扑结构，任务运行时间和通信时间满足多种概率分布的任务集进行了分析和仿真。结果表明，当处理器个数小于任务集的并行度，任务粒度大于５时，任务分配效率大于８０％。     

自动导引车系统资源分配问题的建模及求解

针对自动导引车系统中由任务分派及路径规划共同构成的资源分配问题,基于自动化出入库系统建立模型,提出了一种以粒子群优化(PSO)迭代为框架,并加入无冲突路径规划的优化算法,弥补了以往只按顺序分配任务造成的不足。首先通过粒子群的迭代原理寻找最优任务分派方案;然后通过无冲突的路径规划得到资源分配的结果,同时在解的评价机制中加入了时间窗、工作量均衡及路径无冲突等约束条件,保证方案的可行性。通过模拟自动入库系统,与传统的自动导引车系统调度算法进行了对比,实验结果表明,所提算法在总行驶里程上平均节约了10%左右,且任务分配的均衡性更好,系统的整体效率得到了有效的提升。     

Task assignment in distributed computing systems

The problem is addressed of assigning a task with a precedence constraint to a distributed computing system. Task turnaround time with regard to communication overhead and idle time is adopted to measure the performance of task assignment. The assignment of the module is determined as is the sequence of message transmission to balance the processor load and reduce communication overhead. The search for the optimal task assignment with a precedence constraint is known to be NP-complete (Garey et al. 1979) in the strong sense. A heuristic algorithm with polynomial time complexity is then proposed in order to solve the task-assignment problem effectively. Experimental results show that the proposed approach produces a near-optimal or even optimal task assignment.     

基于改进蚁群算法的周期多帧任务分配

研究一组多帧任务在异构多核处理平台上的分配,使得所有任务得以完成并耗费更少的时间。建立了带约束条件的异构多核周期多帧任务模型,运用蚁群算法来解决任务分配优化问题。其中结合了遗传算法中的复制、交叉、变异等遗传因子,以提高算法的收敛速度和全局搜索能力;改进了信息素的更新方式,以使算法在执行过程中可以根据收敛及进展情况动态地调整信息素残留程度,加快寻找最优解的能力;此外还引入了一种确定性搜索方法,以加快启发式搜索的收敛速度。实验证明,使用改进后的蚁群算法在解决异构多核平台上的多帧任务分配问题时,可以有效且快速地求得问题的最优解或近似最优解,并且拥有更低的时间复杂度。     

Static scheduling of directed acyclic data flow graphs onto multiprocessors using particle swarm optimization

An efficient method based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) is developed to solve the Multiprocessor Task Scheduling Problem (MPTSP). To efficiently execute parallelized programs on a multiprocessor environment, a scheduling problem must be solved to determine the assignment of tasks to the processors, the execution order of the tasks, and the starting time of each task, such that some optimality criteria are met. The scheduling problem is known as an NP-complete problem even when the target processors are fully connected and no communication delay is considered among the tasks in the task graph. The complexity of the scheduling problem depends on the number of tasks (N), the number of processors (M), the task processing time and the precedence constraints. The Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) was exploited to represent the tasks and their precedence constraints. The proposed algorithm was compared with the Genetic Algorithm (GA) and the Duplication Scheduling Heuristic (DSH). We also provide a systematic investigation on the effect of varying problem settings. The results show that the proposed algorithm could not outperform the DSH while it could outperform the GA in some cases.     

基于可满足性模理论的多处理机通信延迟优化任务调度方法

在一组相同处理器上调度带有通信延迟的任务图以实现其最短的执行时间,这在并行计算的调度理论和实践中具有重要的意义。针对具有通信延迟的任务图调度问题,提出一种基于可满足性模理论（SMT）的改进SMT方法。首先,将处理器映射约束和任务执行顺序等约束条件进行编码,将任务图调度问题转化为SMT问题;然后,调用SMT求解器对可行解空间进行搜索,以确定问题最优解。在约束编码阶段,使用整型变量表示任务和处理器的映射关系,从而降低处理器约束编码的复杂程度;在求解器调用阶段,通过添加独立任务的约束条件减小求解器的搜索空间,进一步提升最优解的查找效率。实验结果表明,与原始SMT方法相比,改进SMT方法在20 s和1 min超时实验中的平均求解时间分别减少了65.9%与53.8%,并且在处理器数量较多时取得了更大的效率优势。改进的SMT方法可以有效求解带通信延迟的任务图调度问题,尤其适用于处理器数量较多的调度场景。     

InSAR双星编队测绘卫星任务规划方法研究

针对双星编队干涉合成孔径雷达(Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, InSAR)测绘任务的特点,考虑双星编队卫星平台的约束条件,采用多目标优化和基于优先级的遗传优化算法,实现了双星编队任务规划的各个关键步骤的设计,并对测绘任务进行了系统仿真,求取了测绘任务规划结果,最终获得了任务规划的最优解。经过与贪婪优化算法仿真结果对比分析,采用的基于优先级的遗传优化任务调度算法在双星编队卫星测绘任务优化问题求解方法方面具备明显的优势,卫星系统资源分配效能达到最优,对卫星资源的合理分配起到了关键作用。     

A genetic algorithm for multiprocessor scheduling

The problem of multiprocessor scheduling can be stated as finding a schedule for a general task graph to be executed on a multiprocessor system so that the schedule length can be minimized. This scheduling problem is known to be NP-hard, and methods based on heuristic search have been proposed to obtain optimal and suboptimal solutions. Genetic algorithms have recently received much attention as a class of robust stochastic search algorithms for various optimization problems. In this paper, an efficient method based on genetic algorithms is developed to solve the multiprocessor scheduling problem. The representation of the search node is based on the order of the tasks being executed in each individual processor. The genetic operator proposed is based on the precedence relations between the tasks in the task graph. Simulation results comparing the proposed genetic algorithm, the list scheduling algorithm, and the optimal schedule using random task graphs, and a robot inverse dynamics computational task graph are presented     

An effective iterated greedy algorithm for reliability-oriented task allocation in distributed computing systems

This paper investigates the problem of allocating parallel application tasks to processors in heterogeneous distributed computing systems with the goal of maximizing the system reliability. The problem of finding an optimal task allocation for more than three processors is known to be NP-hard in the strong sense. To deal with this challenging problem, we propose a simple and effective iterative greedy algorithm to find the best possible solution within a reasonable amount of computation time. The algorithm first uses a constructive heuristic to obtain an initial assignment and iteratively improves it in a greedy way. We study the performance of the proposed algorithm over a wide range of parameters including problem size, the ratio of average communication time to average computation time, and task interaction density. The viability and effectiveness of our algorithm is demonstrated by comparing it with recently proposed task allocation algorithms for maximizing system reliability available in the literature.     

移动群智感知系统中基于离散布谷鸟搜索算法的任务分配

针对移动群智感知系统中工人积极性低以及任务过期的问题,提出了基于初始成本和软时间窗的任务分配算法。对应的任务分配问题为NP-hard问题,不存在计算有效的最优算法,因此,基于离散布谷鸟搜索算法（DCSA）进行求解。首先,根据问题特征,分别设计了对应的全局搜索过程以及局部搜索过程。其次,根据任务与工人起始位置的距离以及时间窗大小,分析其优先级以便得到更好的解。最后,执行可行化操作,使各次任务分配均满足相关约束。仿真结果表明,与遗传算法和贪婪算法相比,基于DCSA的任务分配算法能够提升工人的参与积极性,解决任务过期的问题,并最终降低系统的总成本。     

A hybrid evolutionary approach for heterogeneous multiprocessor scheduling

This article investigates the assignment of tasks with interdependencies in a heterogeneous multiprocessor environment; specific to this problem, task execution time varies depending on the nature of the tasks as well as with the processing element assigned. The solution to this heterogeneous multiprocessor scheduling problem involves the optimization of complete task assignments and processing order between the assigned processors to arrive at a minimum makespan, subject to a precedence constraint. To solve an NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem, as is typified by this problem, this paper presents a hybrid evolutionary algorithm that incorporates two local search heuristics, which exploit the intrinsic structure of the solution, as well as through the use of specialized genetic operators to promote exploration of the search space. The effectiveness and contribution of the proposed features are subsequently validated on a set of benchmark problems characterized by different degrees of communication times, task, and processor heterogeneities. Preliminary results from simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in finding useful schedule sets based on the set of new benchmark problems.     

FF现场总线系统中实时任务的建模与调度

本文研究了单网段 FF现场总线系统中具有时间约束和次序约束的实时任务，即 功能块任务和通信任务的建模与调度．首先，将功能块任务和通信任务等视为相同的任务， 在只考虑任务间次序约束的情况下，提出了基于紧凑模式的任务模型，以保证每个作业被尽 可能早地完成．其次，考虑单网段通信任务共享一个传输介质而引起的通信超时，提出了基 于作业速率单调优先级算法的扩展紧凑模式的任务调度算法，以满足实时任务的时间约束 和次序约束．最后，通过一个应用实例来描述实时任务的调度过程．     

基于顺序扩展一致性包算法的多无人机分布式任务分配

以异构多无人机协同执行复杂的耦合多任务为背景,提出一种求解分布式任务分配问题非死锁的顺序扩展一致性包算法.首先,建立考虑任务载荷资源、任务时序、威胁区等约束条件的时序多任务分配模型;其次,对一致性包算法的任务包构建过程和冲突消解规则进行扩展,并设计一种基于有向图深度优先搜索的方法进行任务方案的死锁检测和修正,以实现无冲突和无死锁的任务分配;然后,将关联任务之间的时序约束转化为软时间窗约束,利用顺序分层的策略进行求解;最后,为了提高任务分配结果的可靠性,采用Dubins曲线路径将航路规划耦合到任务分配中.仿真实验表明,所提出的算法能够快速有效地求解异构多无人机分布式耦合多任务分配问题,具备良好的最优性和时效性.     

Task scheduling with precedence constraints to minimize the total completion time

The authors study the problem of scheduling a set of tasks with known execution times and arbitrary precedence constraints to computing systems. The objective function used to measure the performance of a schedule in this paper is the sum of completion times of all tasks, which is called total completion time. Finding the minimum total completion time of tasks with precedence constraints on the uniprocessor system is known to be NP-complete, let alone on the multiprocessor system (Garey and Johnson 1979) Based on the well-known A? algorithm proposed in the field of artificial intelligence (Nilson 1980) two algorithms are developed to solve efficiently the scheduling problems on the uniprocessor system and multiprocessor system. Some evaluation functions are proposed to accelerate the search of an optimal schedule. A table named the backwards range-limited table is used to assist the computation of the evaluation function. Experimental results show that the proposed approaches can achieve the optimal schedule with greatly reduced search tree size, especially when bounding rules are applied.     

Task allocation model for distributed systems

The problem of distributing tasks to processors in a distributed computing system is addressed. A task should be assigned to a processor whose capabilities are most appropriate for the execution of that task and excessive interprocessor communication is avoided. A simple algorithm for task allocation is presented. The execution costs and communication costs of the tasks are represented by arrays. A task is either assigned to a processor or fused with another task using a simple criterion. The execution and communication costs are then modified suitably. The process continues until all the tasks are assigned to processors. This algorithm also facilitates incorporation of various system constraints. It is applicable to random program structures and to a system containing any number of processors.