Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Scheduling of Parallel Tasks with Proportionate Priorities

  • Research Article - Computer Engineering and Computer Science
  • Published:
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Parallel computing systems promise higher performance for computationally intensive applications. Since programmes for parallel systems consist of tasks that can be executed simultaneously, task scheduling becomes crucial for the performance of these applications. Given dependence constraints between tasks, their arbitrary sizes, and bounded resources available for execution, optimal task scheduling is considered as an NP-hard problem. Therefore, proposed scheduling algorithms are based on heuristics. This paper presents a novel list scheduling heuristic, called the Noodle heuristic. Noodle is a simple yet effective scheduling heuristic that differs from the existing list scheduling techniques in the way it assigns task priorities. The priority mechanism of Noodle maintains a proportionate fairness among all ready tasks belonging to all paths within a task graph. We conduct an extensive experimental evaluation of Noodle heuristic with task graphs taken from Standard Task Graph. Our experimental study includes results for task graphs comprising of 50, 100, and 300 tasks per graph and execution scenarios with 2-, 4-, 8-, and 16-core systems. We report results for average Schedule Length Ratio (SLR) obtained by producing variations in Communication to Computation cost Ratio. We also analyse results for different degree of parallelism and number of edges in the task graphs. Our results demonstrate that Noodle produces schedules that are within a maximum of 12 % (in worst-case) of the optimal schedule for 2-, 4-, and 8-core systems. We also compare Noodle with existing scheduling heuristics and perform comparative analysis of its performance. Noodle outperforms existing heuristics for average SLR values.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Wolf W., Jerraya A.A., Martin G.: Multiprocessor system-on-chip (mpsoc) technology. IEEE Trans. CAD ICs Syst. 27(10), 1701–1713 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Grama, A.; Gupta, A.; Karypis, G.; Kumar, V.: Introduction to Parallel Computing, vol. 2nd edn. Pearson, A. Wesley, Boston (2003)

  3. Sinnen, O.: Task scheduling for parallel systems. Wiley, New York. ISBN: 978-0-471-73576-2, p. 296, May (2007)

  4. Semar Shahul A., Sinnen O.: Scheduling task graphs optimally with a*. J. Supercomput. 51(3), 310–332 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Sinnen O., Sousa L.: List scheduling: extension for contention awareness and evaluation of node priorities for heterogeneous cluster architectures. Parallel Comput. 30(1), 81–101 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Sinnen O.: Reducing the solution space of optimal task scheduling. Comput. OR. 43, 201–214 (2014)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  7. Sinnen O., Sousa L.A.: Communication contention in task scheduling. IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst. 16(6), 503–515 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Darte, A.; Robert, Y. and Vivien, F.: Scheduling and automatic parallelization. BirkhŠuser, New York. ISBN 0-8176-4149-1, (2002)

  9. Topcuouglu H., Hariri S., you Wu M.: Performance-effective and low-complexity task scheduling for heterogeneous computing. IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst. 13(3), 260–274 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Suter, F.; Desprez, F. and Casanova, H.: From heterogeneous task scheduling to heterogeneous mixed parallel scheduling. In: Euro-Par 2004 Parallel Processing. pp. 230–237, (2004)

  11. Kwok Y.-K., Ahmad I.: Link contention-constrained scheduling and mapping of tasks and messages to a network of heterogeneous processors. Cluster Comput. 3(2), 113–124 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Kasahara H., Narita S.: Practical multiprocessor scheduling algorithms for efficient parallel processing. IEEE Trans. Comput. C 33(11), 1023–1029 (1984)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Khan M.A.: Scheduling for heterogeneous systems using constrained critical paths. Parallel Comput. 38, 175–193 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Ahmad I., Kwok Y.-K.: On exploiting task duplication in parallel program scheduling. IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst. 9(9), 872–892 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Kwok Y.-K., Ahmad I.: Dynamic critical-path scheduling: an effective technique for allocating task graphs to multiprocessors. IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst. 7(5), 506–521 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Wu M.-Y., Gajski D.: Hypertool: a programming aid for message-passing systems. IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst. 1(3), 330–343 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Yang T., Gerasoulis A.: Dsc: scheduling parallel tasks on an unbounded number of processors. IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst 5(9), 951–967 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Iverson, M.A.; Ozguner, F. and Follen, G.J.: Parallelizing existing applications in a distributed heterogeneous environment. In: HCW ’95, pp. 93–100 (1995)

  19. Shahul A.Z., Sinnen O.: Scheduling task graphs optimally with a*. J. Supercomput. 51(3), 310–332 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Arabnejad H., Barbosa J.: List scheduling algorithm for heterogeneous systems by an optimistic cost table. IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst. 25(3), 682–694 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Deelman E., Singh G., Su M.-H., Blythe J., Gil Y., Kesselman C., Mehta G., Vahi K., Berriman G.B., Good J., Laity A., Jacob J.C., Katz D.S.: Pegasus: A framework for mapping complex scientific workflows onto distributed systems. Sci. Prog. 13(3), 219–237 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  22. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/exponential_decay.

  23. Set, S.T.G.: http://www.kasahara.elec.waseda.ac.jp/schedule.

  24. Orsila H., Kangas T., Salminen E., Hamalainen T.D., Hannikainen M.: Automated memory-aware application distribution for multi-processor system-on-chips. JSA 53(11), 795–815 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  25. de Langen P., Juurlink B.: Leakage-aware multiprocessor scheduling. J. Signal Process. Syst. 57(1), 73–88 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Information Technology University, Lahore, Pakistan

    Muhammad Khurram Bhatti

  2. Marmara University, 34722, Istanbul, Turkey

    Isil Oz

  3. SICS ICT, Isafjordsgatan 22, Box 1263, 164 29, Kista, Sweden

    Konstantin Popov

  4. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 100 44, Stockholm, Sweden

    Mats Brorsson

  5. COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Lahore, Pakistan

    Umer Farooq

Authors
  1. Muhammad Khurram Bhatti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Isil Oz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Konstantin Popov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mats Brorsson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Umer Farooq
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Muhammad Khurram Bhatti.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bhatti, M.K., Oz, I., Popov, K. et al. Scheduling of Parallel Tasks with Proportionate Priorities. Arab J Sci Eng 41, 3279–3295 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-016-2180-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-016-2180-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation