TR-97-3.pdf


X. Du and X. Zhang  
"Coordinating parallel processes on networks of workstations" 

Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, Vol. 46, No. 2, 1997.  
 
Abstract
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The Network of Workstations (NOW) we consider for scheduling is
heterogeneous and non-dedicated, where computing power varies among
the workstations, and local and parallel jobs may interact with each
other in execution.
An effective NOW scheduling scheme needs sufficient
information about system heterogeneity and job interactions.
We use measured power weight of each workstation to quantify the
differences of computing capability in the system.
Without a processing power usage agreement between parallel jobs and
local user jobs in a workstation, job interactions are unpredictable,
and performance of either type of jobs may not be guaranteed.
Using the quantified and deterministic system information,
we design a scheduling scheme, called self-coordinated local
scheduling on a heterogeneous NOW. Based on a power usage agreement
between local and parallel jobs, this scheme
coordinates parallel processes independently
in each workstation based on the co-scheduling principle.
We discuss its implementations on Unix System V Release 4 (SVR4).
Our simulation results on a heterogeneous NOW show
the effectiveness of the self-coordinated local scheduling scheme.