Dynamic load balancing on non-homogeneous clusters

Abstract

This paper discusses the dynamic and static balancing of nonhomogenous cluster architectures, simultaneously analyzing the theoretical parallel speedup as well as the speedup experimentally obtained. A classical application (Parallel N-Queens) with a parallel solution algorithm, where processing predominates upon communication, has been chosen so as to go deep in the load balancing aspects (dynamic or static) without distortion of results caused by communication overhead. Four interconnected clusters have been used in which the machines within each cluster have homogeneous processors although different among clusters. Thus, the set can be seen as a N-processor heterogeneous cluster or as a multicluster scheme with 4 subsets of homogeneous processors. At the same time, three forms of load distribution in the processors (Direct Static, Predictive Static and Dynamic by Demand) have been studied, analyzing in each case parallel speedup and load unbalancing regarding problem size and the processors used. © Springer-Verlag 2006.