A heterogeneity-aware approach to load balancing of computational tasks: a theoretical and simulation study.

Abstract   One of the distinct characteristics of computing platforms shared by multiple users such as a cluster and a computational grid is heterogeneity on each computer and/or among computers. Temporal heterogeneity refers to variation, along the time dimension, of computing power available for a task on a computer, and spatial heterogeneity represents the variation among computers. In minimizing the average parallel execution time of a target task on a spatially heterogeneous computing system, it is not optimal to distribute the target task linearly proportional to the average computing powers available on computers. In this paper, effects of the temporal and spatial heterogeneity on performance of a target task have been analyzed in terms of the mean and standard deviation of parallel execution time. Based on the analysis results, an approach to load balancing for minimizing the average parallel execution time of a target task is described. The proposed approach whose validity has been verified through simulation considers temporal and spatial heterogeneities in addition to the average computing power on each computer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]