Scheduling parameter sweep applications on global Grids: a deadline and budget constrained cost-time optimization algorithm

Computational Grids and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks enable the sharing, selection, and aggregation of geographically distributed resources for solving large-scale problems in science, engineering, and commerce. The management and composition of resources and services for scheduling applications, however, becomes a complex undertaking. We have proposed a computational economy framework for regulating the supply of and demand for resources and allocating them for applications based on the users' quality-of-service requirements. The framework requires economy-driven deadline- and budget-constrained (DBC) scheduling algorithms for allocating resources to application jobs in such a way that the users' requirements are met. In this paper, we propose a new scheduling algorithm, called the DBC cost-time optimization scheduling algorithm, that aims not only to optimize cost, but also time when possible. The performance of the cost-time optimization scheduling algorithm has been evaluated through extensive simulation and empirical studies for deploying parameter sweep applications on global Grids. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.