List Scheduling Algorithm for Heterogeneous Systems by an Optimistic Cost Table

TLDR

Efficient application scheduling algorithms are crucial for high performance in heterogeneous computing systems. This work introduces the Predict Earliest Finish Time (PEFT) list‑based scheduling algorithm for heterogeneous systems. PEFT ranks tasks and selects processors using an optimistic cost table, achieving O(v²p) time complexity while improving makespan through a look‑ahead feature that ignores processor availability. Experiments on synthetic and real‑world graphs demonstrate that PEFT outperforms existing list‑based algorithms in schedule length ratio, efficiency, and frequency of best results.

Abstract

Efficient application scheduling algorithms are important for obtaining high performance in heterogeneous computing systems. In this paper, we present a novel list-based scheduling algorithm called Predict Earliest Finish Time (PEFT) for heterogeneous computing systems. The algorithm has the same time complexity as the state-of-the-art algorithm for the same purpose, that is, O(v2.p) for v tasks and p processors, but offers significant makespan improvements by introducing a look-ahead feature without increasing the time complexity associated with computation of an optimistic cost table (OCT). The calculated value is an optimistic cost because processor availability is not considered in the computation. Our algorithm is only based on an OCT that is used to rank tasks and for processor selection. The analysis and experiments based on randomly generated graphs with various characteristics and graphs of real-world applications show that the PEFT algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art list-based algorithms for heterogeneous systems in terms of schedule length ratio, efficiency, and frequency of best results.