Dynamic load balancing strategies for conservative parallel simulations

  • Authors:

  • Azzedine Boukerche;Sajal K. Das

  • Affiliations:

  • Center for Research in Parallel and Distributed Computing, Department of Computer Sciences, University of North of Texas, Denton, TX;Center for Research in Parallel and Distributed Computing, Department of Computer Sciences, University of North of Texas, Denton, TX

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the eleventh workshop on Parallel and distributed simulation
  • Year:
  • 1997

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Abstract

This paper studies the problem of load balancing for conservative parallel simulations for execution on a multicomputer. The synchronization protocol makes use of Chandy-Misra null-messages. We propose a dynamic load balancing algorithm which assumes no compile time knowledge about the workload parameters. It is based upon a process migration mechanism, and the notion of CPU-queue length, which indicates the workload at each processor.We examine two variations for the algorithm which we refer to as centralized and multi-level hierarchical methods, in the context of queueing network simulation of a torus. The torus was chosen because it of its many cycles aid in the formation of deadlock making it a stress test for any conservative synchronization protocols. Our experiments indicate that our dynamic load balancing schemes significantly reduce the run time of an optimized version of Chandy-Misra null message approach, and decreases by 30-40\% the synchronization overhead when compared to the use of a static partitioning algorithm. Significantly, the results obtained also indicate that the multi-level scheme always outperforms both the centralized load balancing approach and the static partitioning algorithm.