Scheduling computational tasks on a given set of processors is a key issue for high-performance computing. Future computing systems, such as the computational grid, are likely to be widely distributed and strongly heterogeneous. This three-year US-France cooperative research award between the University of California at San Diego, Ecole Normal Superieure and French National Institute for Research in Informatics and Applied Mathematics (INRIA) in Lyon addresses the impact of heterogeneity on design and analysis of static scheduling techniques on grid-based systems. The project has three major objectives: (1) development of hierarchical, steady state scheduling algorithms for heterogeneous platforms; (2) adaptation of peer-to-peer strategies for client-server applications; and (3) extension of SIMGRID simulation methodologies and tools. SIMGRID is a discrete-event simulation toolkit that can be used for distributed applications and computing environment topologies. The researchers involved in this project are: Jeanne Ferrante, Larry Carter and Henri Casanova of the University of California at San Diego and the San Diego Supercomputing Center, and Eddy Caron, Yves Robert of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Lyon, Frederic Vivien of INRIA.
This award represents the US side of a joint proposal to NSF and INRIA. NSF provides funds for visits to France by US investigators and students. They will participate in joint research and a concluding workshop at the end of the third year. INRIA supports the visits of French researchers to the United States. The joint activities take advantage of combined US-French expertise in models and algorithm techniques for scheduling on large-scale distributed, grid-based systems. The project advances NSF's priority area - cyberinfrastructure research and development - which will enable collaboration among scientists and engineers across disciplines and national boundaries.
