An energy‐aware scheduling algorithm for divisible loads in a bus network

Abstract

SUMMARYThe schedule of divisible loads is one of the most typical problems in the research and application of parallel and distributed systems. For these large-scale systems, the energy consumption problem has drawn great attention in recent years because of falling hardware costs and the growing concern of energy costs. In computing-intensive systems, energy is primarily consumed by CPUs, and dynamic voltage-frequency scaling technology is capable of adjusting CPUs' speed as well as saving energy. In this paper, we focus on computing-intensive applications and study the energy-aware scheduling problem for divisible loads in a bus network. The energy-speed model is introduced to characterize the problem based on dynamic voltage scaling, and the energy-aware scheduling problem is analyzed in the application layer above the operating system. The problem can be formulated mathematically as a nonlinear programming problem, and the solution is achieved using the Lagrange multiplier method under Kuhn-Tucker conditions. Based on the analytical results, an energy-aware scheduling scheme called ENERG for divisible loads is presented. Finally, the energy-aware scheme is compared with two other schemes to show the effectiveness and efficiency of the energy savings of our algorithm. Additionally, the experimental results illustrate the influence of network transmission delay on energy consumption.