Slot selection algorithms in distributed computing with non-dedicated and heterogeneous resources

Abstract

In this work, we introduce slot selection and co-allocation algorithms for parallel jobs in distributed computing with non-dedicated and heterogeneous resources (clusters, CPU nodes equipped with multicore processors, networks etc.). A single slot is a time span that can be assigned to a task, which is a part of a job. The job launch requires a co-allocation of a specified number of slots starting synchronously. The challenge is that slots associated with different resources of distributed computational environments may have arbitrary start and finish points that do not match. Some existing algorithms assign a job to the first set of slots matching the resource request without any optimization (the first fit type), while other algorithms are based on an exhaustive search. In this paper, algorithms for effective slot selection of linear complexity on an available slots number are studied and compared with known approaches. The novelty of the proposed approach consists of allocating alternative sets of slots. It provides possibilities to optimize job scheduling. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.